BONUS MONSTER 16:
GWARBLE
CLASS: BIOCONSTRUCT
Free, additional supplementary monsters for the Mortasheen Tabletop RPG Core Rulebook, created by Jonathan Wojcik, additional writing and all gameplay stats by Bonnie Saucier. For use with the gameplay system by Morgan Mullins!
Description:
This monster has a vaguely bird-like outline, its round body supported by four spike-tipped legs reminiscent of plucked wings. Its head is supported by a turkeylike neck, the back of its cranium tapering to a lumpy point while the front bears a rubbery beak-like muzzle. Its face, neck and "wattle" are completely encrusted with transparent, pik and yellow bubble-like sacs, with two particularly large ones evoking a pair of bulging "eyes," and a scattering of additional sacs throughout its body. Pulsing within each sac is a coiled, grubworm-like shape.
BIOLOGY:
This scuttling reptiloid is lacking in maneuverability, physical strength or intellectual capacity, but it is well protected by an arsenal of stunted, heavily modified clones cultivated in dozens of blister-like epidermal pseudowombs. Incapable of surviving on its own for more than a few hours, a single "warblegrub" consists of a dense, limbless tube of muscular rings with a minimalistic central nerve cord and five razor-edged retractable jaws, lacking any other organs or vital functions other than a reflex to tunnel through any soft enough foreign material it comes into contact with. When the Gwarble feels threatened, the gelatinous outer membranes of its "warbles" are pressurized by an increase of blood flow and rapid influx of lymph, each ready to rupture at the slightest physical provocation and unleash its occupant in a geyser of steaming pus. Dozens of the bloodthirsty bioweapons wait tightly coiled in its surface warbles at any given time, with dozens of less developed but equally vicious juveniles writhing deeper beneath its skin. A single pair of greatly enlarged grubs occupy what are anatomically a set of repurposed eyes, and possess enough ganglia to function for more extended periods after disconnection from the monster's circulatory system.
A Gwarble eats any material it can slurp into its soft, toothless maw. Bacterial films, algae, annelids and gastropods are common staples of its diet, but it particularly favors the eggs or egg-like structures of various other monsters, which it punctures with a talon before sucking out the contents.
Gwarble reproduce with a mouth-to-mouth exchange of one or more freshly budding warblegrubs. Removed from their original progenitor's messenger proteins, the transferred clones undergo uninhibited development as Gwarble within the recipient's digestive crop until their hardening talons begin to agitate surrounding membranes. Freshly "coughed" juveniles have no warbles of their own for their first year of growth, and feed from specialized "nursing warbles" on their progenitor's undercarriage.
BEHAVIOR:
A Gwarble's warblegrubs are its only line of defense, but the threat alone is enough to discourage most would-be predators, and its airways are structured to emit a continuous "gobbling" call as it breathes; an unmistakable warning to steer clear of even a sleeping specimen. Once its warblegrubs have been deployed, it confidently loses any fear for its own safety, unfortunately oblivious to any further danger even after the last of its grubs have been expended.
Concept Notes:
I shared even older doodles in our overview of Mortasheen's history, but the very first batch of monsters ever recognized as "Necromon," the very first time they were uploaded, were the following eight thumbnail scribbles:
All of these continued on as concepts in one way or another, some more recognizable than others, except for the sad chicken-like thing in the top row. Would it have exactly evolved into "Gwarble" over the last 20 some years if I'd actually kept it around? Almost definitely not, since there's no telling what I might have thought up for it in the interim, and how that might have informed every update from there, but Gwarble is what I extrapolate from it now.
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