30 Day OD&D Challenge - Sahuagin and Other Creatures -(Part One)- Day Twenty

Today's Topic is "Sahuagin and Other Creatures, Part One" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month! Today we begin delving into the Blackmoor Supplement for OD&D starting just with Sahuagin for today.

Here is the writeup as presented for Sahuagin since it is extensive I will only post parts of it and summarize some of the rest; however, you can download a copy of Blackmoor on the Blackmoor Campaign page of Dave Arneson archived here and you can read the full write up directly:

THE SAHUAGIN (Devil-Men of (The Deep):

A constant threat to man, beast and fish are the voracious SAHUAGIN whose only friends seem to be the equally voracious and predatory Giant Sharks. Although of an intelligence equal to the elves in many respects, the Sahuagin have taken and perverted virtually every aspect of civilization to support their sadistic cannibalistic culture.

There is a bit of history of the past and how the Sahuagin came to be and that they were created to be "the most evil of the evil." 

Much about the Sahuagin is probably myth but even if half of what is said about them is true then they are, indeed, a terrible threat.

This is followed by a full physical description. Their average swimming speed is 18" with a max of 30" once an hour. Also it details that they have hundreds of razor sharp teeth. Their attacks include their bite, the tail can deal club damage times two and the powerful pincers provide crushing damage. Beyond that they can rip and tear with the hind feet if the victim is held with the pincers.

Their disadvantages are that their eyes generally keep them 100' or more below the surface, although at night or during storms they will reach the surface. Their ears are easily damaged by loud noises at close range and they cannot pick out the sound of swimming creatures (of any kind). 10-60 will be found in a single group with a 30% chance they will be in a lair with Class "F" and "A" treasure. The lair will be completely water filled since these creatures cannot breath air or fresh water at all.

When found in a lair there is a 10% chance that it is actually an underwater community of 100-1,000 creatures. There is then a further 20% chance that this community consists of 1,000-10,000 individuals. The under water capital city has nearly 100,000 of these creatures residing within its watery limits. These cities will have great fighters and magic users as well as underwater horrors that live and fight for the Sahuagin. The ratio of these is as follows:

This followed by a long section detailing what is found in the communities and we find out they will have members equal to a 10th level fighter and magic-users up to 12th level. They will also have a large number of sharks that will fight for them.

They are armed with trident and net, with deadly poison on the trident and hundreds of small hooks in the fabric of the net. They bring victims to the nearest habitation usually to eat or to pen and use for entertainment.

They have a King and nine Princes, these positions of leadership are always subject to challenge from any other Sahuagin. The losers and any sickly or unfit are eaten. Females are visually no different from males and fight alongside of them. About 1% are born with 4 arms. Leaders will often have 4 arms and since they never stop growing leaders are usually the older ones. They are hatched from eggs and the birth rate significantly exceeds the death rate.

So you can see from the specs that they are very dangerous and they are a growing menace due to a high net yearly growth in population. The way I use them, they are such a powerful foe that even Tritons will seek alliances when Sahuagin come to call.

Tomorrow we will look at Aquatic Elves and Mermen.