I recently received a very rare and special package that was found on a Thayan trade vessel intercepted by some freebooters on the Shining Sea, the crate arrived at the keep and nobody seemed to pay it much interest aside from me and a Modrone called Kwod who had recently arrived at the keep and was being inducted by the little squad of monodrones who worked on the stacks, sorting one book at a time, as is their way. I just happened to be sitting in the late afternoon light, enjoying a rather bawdy tale from the Sage of Shadowdale when there was a commotion and Kwod broke open a very sturdy wooden crate, with a dinstinctive ear popping pressure change of some protective magic being disrupted and bone vibrating shriek of a magical alarm being set off. Moments later, Kwod was sprinting on its mechanical legs back towards the keep with a large egg in his hands, his large rubbery lipped mouth hooting with excitement as several of the avowed picked up the hems of their robes and gave chase.
Naturally I got involved, as I simply had to know what possessed the Quadrone to do something like that.
Eventually, Kwod skidded to a stop and hammered on the chamber door of Master Sage Kazryn Nyantani, a resident expert in the natural world whom I often spend long evenings discussing the ecologies of creatures.
It turns out, long story short, that the egg was from the tropical and often treacherous island of Chult, and was the offspring of a monstrous species known on Chult as the Kamadan.
Now, I have been asked, recently, if the these are the same creatures as those found within the jungles of the distant continent of Maztika, all the way across the Trackless Sea, and I can confirm, with certainty that they are not, that species is called the Kamatlan and are as distinctly different as a bobcat is from a mountain lion or a wolf is different from a fox and no, neither one of them is related, in any way, to the Displacer Beast, as a matter of fact, they are one of the few predators that actively hunt down and kill displacer beasts they find in their territory.
Master Sage Nyantani did end up incubating and hatching the Kamadan cub and named it Asper, and let me tell you, that fiendish furry bastard was cunning, and lethal, absolutely not suitable as a pet unless one is willing to keep the creature under constant, and cruel magical submission, a practice I do not endorse, but in the case of something like a Kamadan, perhaps is better for the greater concern of keeping innocent bystanders alive.
Oh, how cute it was when it hatched! A baby leapord with these cute little snake nubs, all big eyes, soft fur, little toe beans and that long tail, a beautiful pattern on its coat and strong! Asper grew quickly and soon became a legitimate terror, shredding soft furnishings, spraying urine on the walls and attempting to murder several animal companions and, unfortunately, succeeding in the massacre of a small flock of sheep. In only a few months time, Asper was confined to a chamber where illusions on the walls gave the impression of a jungle vista, and fed a live sheep once per week, paid for by the morbidly curious who paid to watch the process.
DO NOT under any circumstances, attempt to enter the enclosure of the Kamadan, for your own safety, as they are capable of knocking other creatures unconcious with the release of a potent sleep gas they can exhale almost like dragon breath.
Before we delve into the details of these creatures and the variant species with very similar names, lets relax, grab ourselves a tasty beverage, its time to get deeply nerdy. Also, thank you to everyone so far this year who have purchased a Deeply Nerdy mug to help support my work, I very much appreciate it and hope you enjoy the design and quality of the item as much as I do.
The Kamatlan of Maztica is a large predator with the body of a Jaguar and two snakes sprouting from either shoulder, it has a rattle on the end of its long tail, just like a rattlesnake.
The Kamadan of Chult is an equally large predator with the body of a Leopard and three snakes growing from either shoulder, and it does not have a rattle on the end of it's tail.
In most other respects, the creatures are very similar to each other, except I suspect the Kamatlan of Maztica is quite comfortable in the water and a very capable swimmer, and does a lot of its hunting and sleeping in the branches of jungle trees, often striking from above with a deadly snake bite and retreating as the venom does its work. The Kamadan of Chult is far more direct and brutal, springing from the undergrowth with a release of its sleeping gas, before a furious attack with teeth, claws and fangs. They fear no creature aside from something like an adult dragon, though they will retreat from large groups of humans as, particularly in Maztica, they are highly valued by practitioners of Hishna Magic.
Hishna is also known as Talon Magic, it dates back to the days of the empire of Scaley kind and is the divine magic practiced by Maztican priests of the god of war and violence known as Zaltec. Hishna was the magic of claw, fang, and venomous sting. Practitioners are rightly feared for their power to dominate the will of another being hundreds of miles away. Hishna can be used to deliver messages over long distances and can be used to animate objects such as snake skins.
I do wonder if that is why merchants of Thay were going to such lengths to capture such a creature, but who knows?
From what I observed a Kamadan egg takes at least two months to hatch and has a leathery shell, more like a reptile, when hatched they are the size of an adult tressym or flightless cat and they have a pelt that is gray with barely defined spots which suggests they remain in caves and crevices of boulders for protection, they grow to adulthood over two years, I'm not sure if they build a nest, I suspect they will just locate a cave or crevice among boulders and secure their egg there, and given that big cats primary cause of death in the wild is adult males killing offspring in order to bring the female back into heat they have good reason to leave the cubs to fend for themselves. Kamadan breed at any time of the year in their tropical habitat. Average lifespan in the wild ranges from ten to twenty years.
A full grown Kamadan depends mainly on its acute senses of hearing and vision for hunting, they are active at night and also have an acute sense of smell, thanks to their snake heads also tasting the air with their tongues they can zero in on a scent carried on the wind with uncanny accuracy. While their passive perception is high, it should be noted that they can see in all directions at once, so sneaking up on them is a bad idea. As mentioned the Kamadan will either pounce from concealment on their prey, with a 20 foot run up they can leap at a creature and make a claw strike so powerful that the target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is knocked prone, the kamadan can make two attacks — one with its bite and one with its snakes — against it as a bonus action. As they almost always hunt alone and are quite fearless, they will attack groups of humanoids, in which case The kamadan exhales sleep gas in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or fall unconscious for 10 minutes. This effect ends for a creature if it takes damage or someone uses an action to wake it.
The 5th edition Kamadan's attacks per round are much reduced from previous editions and don't do justice to how they can take down a whole team of adventurers in a solo brawl, see, not only do they get a bite and claw attack, they get to attack with each of their snake heads, so, nine attacks per round and they can choose multiple targets to engage on adjacent positions around it. All strikes are +5 to hit and do 1d6+3 damage, the claws do slashing damage, the jaws do piercing damage, as do the snake bites, but the snakes also force the target to make a DC12 Constitution check or inflict 6d6 poison damage, or half that damage if they succeed. They are large in size, something like 3 feet tall at the shoulder, so larger than any Leopard, its more than likely that there are melanistic kamadan, with an all black coloration, in which case I would call it a Kamadan Panther.
They are strong and agile monstrous predators able to leap 20 feet horizontally and 10 feet straight up, quite impressive with a bodyweight of 250 pounds, the males can get even larger and females are almost always smaller. They have a hunting range of around 15 miles and humanoids are attacked by them almost exclusively at dawn or dusk, particularly when making camp in the evening or breaking camp in the morning.
Not a pleasant way to start the day in a sweltering jungle.
I've not seen any Kamadan kept as pets on my travels, but they are sought after by the church of Malar, and to the right buyer, I would say you could earn a couple of thousand gold coins just for an unhatched egg of a Kamadan or Kamatlan, but I do advise you to be very cautious when dealing with that particular faith, as they are always looking for cheap meat to feed their monstrous menageries.
Mind you don't end up on their menu.
My name is AJ Pickett, thanks for joining me and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment