It is rumored that these creatures are not mutants, but are in fact an ancient race of sea-dwelling beings known as the ‘deep ones’, who are said to be just one of the inspiration behind the numerous writings of H. P. Lovecraft. Of course this is just pure speculation.

That aside, there is no location, nor species on the planet that hasn’t been affected by the toxins and radiation spawned during the final wars of the Ancients.

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook, co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement and contributor to the 'Sword of Kos: Hekaton' Anthology.

No. Enc: 1
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement: 60’ (20’)
                     120' (40') Swim
AC: 3
HD: 10
Attacks: 1 (spit) or 1 (tongue), or 3 (bite, claw, claw)
Damage: Class 10 poison, or 1d4 plus class 10 poison, or 4d6 / 1d10 plus 3d6 / 1d10 plus 3d6
Save: L8
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: Incidental

It is rumored that these creatures are not mutants, but are in fact an ancient race of sea-dwelling beings known as the ‘deep ones’, who are said to be just one of the inspiration behind the numerous writings of H. P. Lovecraft. Of course this is just pure speculation.

That aside, there is no location, nor species on the planet that hasn’t been affected by the toxins and radiation spawned during the final wars of the Ancients.

Sea Anglers are a perfect example of this. These creatures’ ancestors were the strange deep sea creatures known as Deep Anglers by the Ancients. But due to the toxins and mutagenic compounds reaching deep into the depths of the oceans, they, like so many other species, mutated. This creature is the end result of countless generations of mutation causing the spawn of the Deep Sea Anglers to evolve into an entirely new species.

Physically, the creatures are quite large. When standing fully erect, the creature is around nine feet in height, but most of the time it is slightly hunched, making it appear as if it is only about six feet. They are quite heavy, with the males tipping the scale at around 600 pounds, while the females are somewhat smaller, weighing only around 400 pounds. Their flesh is a mottled green but they are able to change the coloration at will, giving them natural camouflage, allowing them to strike with surprise 1-2 times out of 6.

When they engage in combat, they have several natural attacks to use. First, they always spit venom at their target (this requires a successful ranged attack). If the venom hits, it causes no actual damage, but any target that is hit must save against poison or suffer from the effects of class 10 poison.

If the victim proves to be immune or resistant to the poison, then the creature will close and engage it in hand to hand combat. It will bit (subjecting the target to another save against the poison) and use its two powerful claws to rip the victim to shreds.

One odd aspect of the creature is its tongue. It is very long and sticky, like a chameleon lizards tongue and it can use it as a weapon, or use it to grab and either take things away from a target or bring items (usually small animals) to its mouth.

These creatures are intelligent enough to recognize and understand weapons of all manner and will use their attacks to attempt to disarm the creature. It can use the tongue (providing it makes a ranged attack with negatives equalling -4 for very small items such as pistols or grenades, to -2 for swords, melee weapons or rifles) to attempt to grab items from the hands of opponents. If the ranged attack is successful, then it is strength versus strength roll for the target to hold onto the weapon. The creature has a strength equivalent of 21 for this roll.

If the strength contest roll succeeds for the creature, the weapon is pulled free from the owners grasp and the owner is incapable of using it. If the strength roll fails for the creature, then the owner retains the weapon and can use it normally. It can also use the tongue as a weapon, which causes not only damage but carry to toxin as well, forcing the target to save versus poison or become paralyzed.

Being fully amphibian, the creatures are able to function on land as well as in the water, although they need to stay wet in order to survive. They always make their lairs in natural caves or ruins that are located in the water (including sunken vehicles).

Although they understand the nature of artifacts, they have no use for such items and typically just leave the items where they lay. This means that quite often their lairs have technological items lying about in disarray. Typically these items are in less than perfect condition due to exposure to moisture.

These creatures, despite the fact that they have humanoid shapes, are still very much like their ancestors. The females find deep dark locations in which to lay their eggs, the female typically producing 10d100 eggs per spawning season (which is usually once every two years during the spring equinox). The male then comes along and fertilizes the eggs and quickly leaves the clutch alone.

It takes 4 months for the eggs to fully develop into young, which are almost identical to the original species. They swim off in order to find locations to hunt small prey and to survive on their own. Typically only about 1% of the eggs hatched survive to reach fully maturity (which takes 10 years).

These beings are solitary except during the spring spawning season, where they will come together and tolerate one another’s presence for several weeks until the need to procreate has passed.

Although not openly violent towards one another, they don’t like it when members of their own species enter the territory they mark out for themselves. If one creature spends too much time in the territory of another, fights to the death will occur.

Mutations: Aberrant form (natural weapons – claws, prehensile tongue; xenomorphism), chameleon epidermis, epidermal dependency (water), improved physical attributes (strength and dexterity), improved senses (hearing), toxic weapon (paralytic spit, class 10 poison).

Source: Sea Beast