Not All That Glitters Is Gold
Add some glamour to your setting with the Millae, Fish of Fishes. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s also devious and monstrous and gulps down careless adventurers. The art is commissioned from the talented Noube Nox.
Millae – Fish of Fishes
Huge Beast ♦ Unaligned
Last words from Martin, adventurer: “Fortune smiles upon me!”
Camouflage● Two Forms ● Golden ● Magical ● Hungry
Description
The millae is a huge magical fish melded from hundreds of nibbler fish. The nibblers lay in wait on the beds of lakes, rivers, the ocean, luring their prey with their resemblance to gold coins.
When a suitable snack is within range, the nibblers converge into the millae who swallows the victim whole. Their favourite morsel is a pirate who has fallen overboard.
Not All That Glitters Is Gold
Avarice and greed, the downfall of many an adventurer. Perhaps a villager is gathering reeds from a pond, or a fisher is strolling by a tide pool. The glittering coins nestled in silt and sand catches their eye. It would be easy to swim down and pluck the golden bounty. So they slip into the water, shivering a little from the cold. The water froths, and in a blink of an eye those coins rise and dart about, fins quivering faster than the eye can follow, and the little fishy-coins become one huge sparkling fish ready to gulp down the tasty snack that entered its lair.
Background
It began with the pretty, whimsical Piskipasi worshippers, seekers of peace and meditation, enamoured with ornamental ponds and the languid sway of a fish’s tail.
They embarked on a holy pilgrimage picnic in search of the perfect spot for a temple and pond. The wandering picnic was a hard slog, requiring many rests under shady trees and by burbling streams, and the dutiful consumption of herbal tisanes and blessed honeycakes.
They endured despite their trials, and finally they stumbled on a wonder – nuggets of gold infused with wild magic. Then nearby, a clear lake. Their search was over. They were home.
Now came the really hard work – they shaped the walls of the lake into a perfect rectangle and decorated with banners of frolicking golden fish. An ornamental pond fit for worship and meditation.
The magic golden nuggets were sculpted into effigies of fish and released into the lake, where they animated with magic-infused life. Delighted, the Piskipasi named them nibblers.
The worshippers lived their dream, meditating, swimming, rowing, at peace in the company of the little fish.
But wild magic and metals and life are a volatile mix. The Piskipasi were too foolish to notice the fish were multiplying, or that they grew hungry, and that the lake was barren of things to eat, apart from them, the Piskipasi.
One fateful day, the Piskipasi discovered their beloved nibblers were no longer swimming to and fro but lying in the silt on the lake bed. A worshipper jumped in to investigate, and there was a ravenous frothing of the water, and the hundreds of fishies merged into one huge fish, the millae, who swallowed the man whole.
The dream was over. The Piskipasi fled the lake, never to return.
What’s Next for the Millae?
The millae features as part of the two-to-four-session adventure included with the setting guide, where players can choose the fate of the fish, if it doesn’t choose their fate first.
Stats and Abilities for the Millae
Full stats for the nibbler and the millae are included with the setting guide.
What Happens to the Piskipasi?
Foolish sweet things, they soon find themselves in hot water. Can the adventurers save the day in a separate encounter included with the setting guide?