Monster Analysis: Cockatrices and Chimera

/

Cutting directly across the Hellcatch Valley once again, the Silver Sun presented Bells Hells a chance to interact with the local wildlife on the way to the Gloomed Jungles and Yios.

Cockatrices

  • Armor Class 11

  • Darkvision 60 ft, Passive 11

  • Speed 20 ft, 40 ft flying

  • Suggested Average, Max HP: 27, 42

Cockatrices are infamous for the petrifying beaks. These “evil chickens” don’t go looking for trouble, but when threatened, one peck can turn an unfortunate victim into a statue for 24 hours. (It’s not as bad as a baskilisk, which lasts indefinitely, but that’s little comfort when a chimera is slashing, biting, and headbutting anything nearby.)

Hardier than the average fauna, these small monstrosities still represented fodder and a warm-up for the party, as well as tapped into Fresh Cut Grass’ fear of birds. Although the cockatrices had no interest in the party, their petrification pecks addend a dangerous element that severely hampered affected party members against the much bigger threat. And speaking of…

Chimera

  • Armor Class 15 (Suggested 14)

  • Darkvision 60 ft, Passive 18

  • Speed 30 ft, 60 ft flying

  • Suggested Average, Max HP: 114, 192

  • 241 damage taken, 19 HDYWTDT by Fearne

Although they are also monstrosities, unlike the bestial mindset of the cockatrices, chimeras are malicious predators that relish in the fear and suffering of their prey. It’s driven by the worst attributes of each of its three heads: the greed of the dragon, the territorial drive of the lion, and the stubbornness of the goat. It prefers to surprise more powerful prey with its fire breath before whittling down its resolve, flying away just long enough for its victims to think they are safe before finishing them off. It’s also too stubborn to quit from a fight, even one it absolutely can’t win.

Although originally chasing after the cockatrices, the chimera landed on the ship just in time to demonstrate that, yes, things can always be worse, solving the cockatrice problem with the new problem of its presence. The dragon head put a healthy fear into the party with its powerful fire breath, but was unable to recover its breath attack before its demise. Each head took the opportunity to lash out at the nearest target without focus, allowing the party to finish cleaning up the threat of the frightened cockatrices while also defending each other from the large monstrosity. With the evil chickens gone, the whole party was then able to focus their attacks, putting the chimera down before it could take a third turn.

The Encounter

As is the case with most random combat encounters, the opponents and the tactics involved are fairly unremarkable. Instead, combat provides the opportunity for characters to play with the toys they’ve been given, and even more significantly, show both their fellow cast mates and the audience the mechanics and their special flavors that otherwise would not come up in the life of an adventurer.

Chetney got to put Eshteross’ Turmoil to work, showing off its 1d8 thunder damage when wielded as a scythe. Imogen showed off a new spell, Summon Crimson Shade, a Ruidus-flavored Summon Abberation (Star Spawn). Even though it was retconned from their paralysis, the minor alternate reality in which FCG used Healing Word on Laudna showed us her new Pâté-tied invocation, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, maximizing any healing she receives while Pâté is within 100 feet of her.

In addition to providing some flavor to an otherwise uneventful journey and breathing life into the world, the encounter also served as a subtle reminder that though the crew will help the party to the best of their ability, their expertise is the ship, not combat. Terana helped load the ballista, but ultimately fled the battlefield for Fearne to finish the job. With the remaining cockatrices extricated from the ship and the chimera put down, the Silver Sun continued onward to the next step in the adventure.