[It’s the most spooktacular time of the year, so I’m going to be celebrating the end of October with more monsters based on SF, fantasy and horror movies. First up is a tribute to all of the films that couldn’t afford stop motion, so they glued some crap to a lizard and called it a dinosaur. The Greek root atelo, by the way, means “inadequate, defective”]
Atelosaurus This creature appears to be a
lizard the size of an elephant. Horns grow from its brow, and its body is
decorated with frills and spines.
Atelosauruses
are strange giant lizards native to remote jungles and caves. In these lost
worlds, dinosaurs are often still present, and the atelosaurus is mistaken for
a true dinosaur by inexperienced observers. Despite the fact that it is
“merely” a lizard, however, atelosaurs make for fearsome opponents, and they
are more than a match for many dinosaurs in combat.
An
atelosaurus is an opportunistic omnivore, consuming plant and animal matter
with equal relish. They are capable of surviving for extended periods on
relatively little food, making them capable of surviving even in small,
isolated habitats like caves and plateaus. After a long fast, atelosauruses
prefer meat to increase their metabolisms, making them most dangerous at these
times to smaller creatures.
Although
an atelosaurus spends most of its life in a solitary state, they gather to mate
in the fall. These mating grounds, called scrums, are full of the battling
creatures, as the males thrash each other about for the chance at the
healthiest females. Such fights can prove fatal for smaller or unlucky males,
but mostly end before lethal violence is done.
An
atelosaurus grows to thirty feet long and weighs three or four tons. Much
variation is possible in the species—different individuals may have different
numbers or sizes of horns, frills on the neck or back, or spines growing along
the back and tail.
Atelosaurus as Animal Companions
Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 30 ft, climb 20 ft.; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (1d6), gore (1d6), tail (1d4); Ability
Scores Str 13, Dex 19, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 3; Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft.,low light vision, scent
7th-Level Advancement: Size Large, AC +3 natural armor;Attack bite (1d8), gore (1d8), tail (1d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con
+4; Special Qualities powerful charge, toss, reach +5 ft. (tail only)
Atelosauruses are known to inhabit the jungles of Zinnzar, where they are apex predators among that island’s fauna. They have also been recorded on the mainland, inhabiting similar jungles. Due to the small size of Zinnzar, they are more social there, gathering into groups that consist of an elder female and her daughters and their offspring; males leave these herds upon reaching maturity. On Zinnzar, the koorars sometimes manage to steal their eggs and raise them to become companions. Several such specimens were brought off Zinnzar when the koorars made initial contact with the other cultures of Gladia; a thriving breeding business was begun, and now combat-trained atelosauruses are an increasingly common sight across the Swirling Sea.
Shores of Swords 