The largest of the pinnipeds, walruses are an important source of meat and blubber (and ivory for more merciless parties). They also make excellent animal companions in coastal campaigns.
The Gargantuan emperor walruses…well they’re on another scale altogether. But something has to eat all those shark-eating crabs, right?
A wikkawak witch doctor takes walrus form to evade capture, courtesy of a magical belt. Her disguise is not perfect however, thanks to a blotch over one eye in both forms. But to male walruses she appears as one of their herd, and they will rise to her defense while she makes her escape.
Adventurers take advantage of a polar ice bridge to lead a beleaguered people to new lands. Once the ice bridge melts, the folk will finally be safe from their enemies. But along a particularly thin patch, they arouse the ire of an emperor walrus herd. The great beasts lumber to attack. Worse yet, their bulk threatens to crack the ice. Adventurers need to calm or subdue the beasts before they destroy a major section of the bridge. Particularly observant adventurers may also discover later that the emperor walruses seem to have focused their rage on a certain family clan long rumored to be tieflings.
In order to get help from a shaman adept in the ways of the Spirit World, adventurers must first bring her “a gift”—emperor walrus ivory. She claims she needs the ivory to construct a magical sledge. In truth, she is constructing a powerful tupilaq she intends for dark purposes…and the doll’s first victims will be the adventurers, so no one can connect her to the difficult-to-obtain ivory.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 4 271
Among the scholars who have weighed in on walruses: one J.R.R. Tolkien.
Something seems off in the Bestiary 4 description of the emperor walrus, given that a 45-foot-long elasmosaurus is only Huge but a 20-foot long male emperor walrus is Gargantuan. Maybe because of its bulk? But that’s the kind of nitpicking I leave to the message boards…the point is, it’s ginormous!
Tumblr readers, you can find the Elysian titan and the emperor cobra and giant anaconda on the original Blogger site.
Walruses are found in Senksen, where hunting for their blubber has made them rare and highly aggressive towards humanoids. Emperor walruses are only seen on one small island off of Senksen, but every hunting expedition has failed. The identity of the creature’s mysterious protector is still unknown.
Shores of Swords 