When I heard the local people refer to the screamers, I thought they meant harpies or
something, they warned our group not to head into the mountains beyond Veldorn and the
great purple desert, they said there were no trails there, no roads or safe places to
stop with shelter and food.
I told them someone had to blaze the trail and walk the first path, but they just gloomily
packed my supplies onto our animals and muttered a fool was soon forgotten but a good camel
was sorely missed, I laughed at the time, as this was just typical of townsfolk on the
frontier to the distant eastern lands.
Their moto was not, nothing ventured nothing gained, it was more like Damn your fool adventures
and guard my grains.
But it turns out they were quite right and those screamers damned near killed us all,
I would later learn that their ancient name, known well to scaleykind, are the Yrthak (Yeer-Thak),
proof that flying crocodiles are even worse than you can imagine.
Hello everyone, my name is AJ Pickett, your sage of Dungeons & Dragons lore, its time
to grab yourself a tasty beverage as we are about to get deeply nerdy.
Imagine if you will, some mad wizard took a really big river crocodile, the kind that
wait for seasonal migrations of cattle and gorge themselves on the animals when they
try to make a dangerous river crossing?
Those monsters that are over twenty feet long?
Well, on Earth in the year 1990, some archaeologists working in the great Sahara desert found fossil
examples of crocodiles that they called the Imperial Flesh Crocodile, translating from
Latin, and they were 40 feet long.
Now take that monster and give it wings and the ability to not only hunt in the dark of
night, but to also generate and direct very powerful attacks using low-frequency infrasound
blasts, and you have yourself the Yrthak.
These are not some mages experiment gone wrong, well, they may have been created by the likes
of the Serpentine creator race called the Sarruhk, in any case, these things have been
around, as far as anyone knows, for a very, very long time.
Yrthak are not strickly carnivorous, they eat just about anything that can nourish them
and they can go without food for extraordinary lengths of time, saltwater crocodiles have
been known to survive without food for up to three years...
Three years!
Its no wonder they survived the mass extinction that took out the dinosaurs, and they will
survive the mass extinction going on right now, I can guarantee it.
The Yrthak may not seem like much competition for a far more intelligent and capable dragon,
and they aren't, but they can survive in some of the most desolate and formidable mountain
terrain Toril has to offer.
Much like crocodiles, they just go about their business, surviving, but every now and then,
some foolish adventurers head into their territory and get themselves eaten, and the Yrthak,
like crocodiles once they learn how easy it is to hunt down and kill humanoids, become
very dangerous and simply have to be hunted down and killed.
Not an easy task.
Yrthaks grow to an adult size of 20 feet long with a wingspan 40 feet wide, they weigh around
5000 pounds and are fairly clunky flyers, they move at 20 feet per round on the ground
and at 60 feet per round in the air.
They are not as heavily armored as the crocodile, their yellowish-green hide is thick and fleshy
though, more of a deep green on the body and lightening to more yellow hues along the membranes
of the wings and a raised back fin that also contains some unique air sacks it inflates
and vibrates deeply to generate its subsonic attacks, way beyond anything that a crocodile
could produce, which also use infrasound to communicate to each other.
They are completely without visual organs, using sonar to extend their blindsight out
to 120 feet, they must have additional sensory powers that allow them to navigate long distances
through the air, its thought that they navigate using infrasound over many miles, gliding
on air currents.
Ironically, their very sensitive hearing renders them vulnerable to thunder damage and being
deafened has the same effect on them as being blinded, though they do have the benefit of
being totally immune to all gaze attacks and visual illusions.
They have not only have +4 to Wisdom checks involving hearing, they also have advantage
on those rolls and they have a +6 to their Dexterity checks for Stealth.
Yrthak prefer to hunt at night, and they do so from the air, because they hear in all
directions they are difficult to sneak up on and they have a passive perception of 17.
An adult has tough natural hide with an armor class of 16 and they count as size category
Huge with 16d12 + 64 or between 80 and 256 with an average of 168 hit points.
By the way, when I mention that its between 80 and 256 what I am generally implying is
that juveniles would have like, 80 and the big, I don't know, Matriarch of the entire
region would have 256 for some particularly legendary creature that is going to really
challenge your party.
They have a strength of 20, dexterity of 14, constitution of 17, an intelligence of 7 but
they can't talk or understand language, their wisdom is 13 and their charisma is 11.
They typically hunt alone as adults, the juveniles may attack in a group who hatched together,
the clutches will have between two and four siblings who work together to bring down prey.
Yrthak's begin their attack by diving out of the sky and directing a tightly focused
60 foot ray of sound that is itself beneath the frequency of sound a humanoid can hear,
but it is so intense any creature caught in the ray's path must make a DC 17 Wisdom saving
throw, taking 8d10 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful
one, the infrasound will travel right through any living creatures, they don't provide cover
for each other, but it will be stopped by stones, bricks, rock, earth and large tree
trunks.
Luckily, the infrasound won't deafen the victims but the vibrations and damage it causes certainly
makes a lot of noise, also, the range of the infrasound ray is doubled underwater, though
the damage remains the same.
This effort takes a couple of rounds to recharge as the Yrthak inflates its internal air sacks
by its normal breathing process, they do have another mode of attack using this sound, once
per day they can direct the ray deliberately at rock, stone or the ground and simply blast
it with sound, which causes an area of effect explosion of pulverized rock shards along
with a small shockwave, no more than ten feet wide.
Any creature caught within that radius must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or be
knocked prone, taking 6d6 piercing damage and an additional 2d6 thunder damage if they
fail the saving throw, or half as much damage and not being knocked prone if they successfully
make the saving throw.
They are tactical enough to blast a tree trunk or rock face apart and cause heavy objects
to fall in the combat area, bludgeoning other creatures and creating difficult terrain.
They will attack from the air with their claws once per round, they are +9 to hit one target
within 5ft inflicting 1d10+5 slashing damage, and a successful claw strike will see the
victim grappled by the Yrthak which then makes a dash into the sky on the next round and
drops the victim.
At the end of the fall, the creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it
fell, to a maximum of 20d6.
In case it fell into a ravine or off a cliff.
The creature lands prone, unless it somehow avoid taking damage from the fall.
The Yrthak only uses its fearsome bite attack when it is landed on the ground, it has a
reach of 10 ft and is +10 to hit one target, inflicting 2d10+5 piercing damage.
They can grapple a target with their jaws, this in no way inhibits their ability to generate
and release one of their sonic rays out of the horn-like projection that extended well
beyond the tip of their snout.
Yrthak nest in desolate, high alpine areas devoid of snow, they give lay a clutch of
up to four eggs once every couple of years, few of their offspring survive all the way
to adulthood, and of those who do, only one in ten will continue to grow in size until
they reach the gargantuan size category.
This lowers their armor class a little, increases their hit points and damage bonuses, but otherwise,
there is not much change other than their sheer size and a lot more combat experience
with humanoids.
Yrthaks dwell in many of Faerûn's mountain areas, ranging all the way from the Spine
of the World in the far north to the Sunrise Mountains on the far eastern border with the
endless wastes of the Tuigan horse lords, and down south as far as the north wall mountains
bordering the nation of Halruaa.
They can also be found in the wildernesses of the Middledark and Lowerdark, there are
plenty of enormous natural chambers down there which they can freely roam.
Since Yrthak have been around for a long time, they have undoubtedly travelled to other worlds
thanks to portal magic and outside of the Prime Material Plane, fiendish yrthaks were
known to live in the Gaping Maw., the 88th layer of the Abyss and Demogorgons primary
playground.
According to Dragon Magazine number 352 published in 2007, in the article on the ecology of
the Yrthak, there is some mythology concerning their origin story, and I quote
"The ancient myths passed down by the mystery cult of Nyx speak of Brannius of Apollo, a
man who many considered the greatest and kindest bard of his age.
Yet even with this fame and appeal, he knew that his uplifting music could not reach everyone.
This tormented Brannius, who hoped to brighten the lives of all he could.
Although he travelled far and sought magic to spread his song, he knew that even all
the magic he could muster would never allow him to play for the entire world.
Desperate for a way to acquire the power to have his song reach around the world, he offered
a week-long hymn of devotion to any deity who would listen, praying for a way to accomplish
his dearest wish.
As the final note faded, at the precise moment the sun vanished behind the horizon, two powerful
entities answered Brannius's call.
A beautiful, winged trumpet archon with her brilliant instrument held in hand arrived
from the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia.
Soothing the humbled bard with the promise that his legend would last forever, she told
him that his beautiful songs would be played by the great bards throughout the ages, and-
someday far in the future - all the people of countless kingdoms would know his music.
With that, she held out her radiant trumpet to Brannius.
At the same moment, a succubus arrived from the Infinite Layers of the Abyss.
Holding a long, slender horn crafted from bone, the temptress promised Brannius the
power to create music that would change the lives of all who heard it, songs no living
thing could deny and that even the deaf would notice, and do so within his lifetime.
After making her offer, she extended her terrible bone horn to the mortal.
Tormented by the choice, Brannius searched his heart, but his ego intervened.
Finally, he reached for the fiend's gnarled horn.
Before he could touch it, though, the succubus drew him close and, with a wicked grin, slammed
the gnarled horn into the bard's forehead, splitting his skull.
Yet, Brannius did not die.
His flesh warping and bones shattering and realigning, the horn changed the very nature
of his being.
The archon averted her eyes as the screams of Brannius died away and the first Yrthak
was born."
Take such myths as you like, but one thing is true enough, Yrthaks are and have always
been drawn to the rhythmic sounds of music and they always tend to locate their nests
close to sources of soothing natural noise.
There are even legends of Yrthaks kidnapping musicians who are never seen again.
Another interesting bit of information is that the echolocation sounds of bats cause
them to become confused and that near a nest occupied by their eggs, they refrain from
using their sonic attack, due to the risk of shattering their own offspring's eggshells.
Those eggs are about two feet in diameter and weigh 25 pounds, they hatch after four
months in the nest, the female Yrthak chases off the male as soon as her eggs hatch, so
males are always on the lookout for a good spot to build a new nest.
I did say that they don't understand language, well, they do have a rudimentary one of their
own, but its impossible for any other creature to replicate, though some beings with exceptional
hearing can at least listen to it.
Yrthaks have a bulbous organ that looks like a swollen part of their long tongue, this
is called the Aural lobe and it is an additional, incredibly sensitive sound receptor organ,
they can conceal and protect it from picking up dangerous levels of sound by tucking it
away inside a concealed slow within their mouth.
The smallest adult Yrthaks are about 14 feet long, in particularly harsh environments,
while the largest, legendary yrthak is of colossal size, located slumbering beneath
the remote volcano island called Anak Krakau.
Great plumes of strange smoke billow from the island fissures and buried most of the
way beneath many decades of soil and ruins, there is a Yrthak of truly epic proportions,
sleeping deeply, Just the horn jutting above the ground and rising to a height of 30 feet,
the local villagers think that the vibrating green monolith is some sort of god, they call
it He-Who-Hums and play music to it every day.
The Yrthak is a mutant, grown to enormous size and longevity due to the fumes rising
from the volcanic activity in the Underdark beneath the island.
Should the volcano ever erupt again, He-Who-Hums will awaken, laying waste to the island and
unleashing a CR 24 Kaiju level disaster of legendary proportions to anything that gets
in its path.
Oh, I should mention, the sound generated by the air sacks within the dorsal fin of
the Yrthak empties into the lungs, creating internal vibrations that are channelled through
the projecting top of the creature's skull that is called the Sonic Lance, the Yrthak
doesn't need to exhale air in order to generate the subsonic beams.
I hope you enjoyed our exploration of these strange creatures and it inspired some new
ideas for your roleplaying sessions, if you like this sort of content, please subscribe
to the channel and thank you to everyone who keeps my discord server nice and lively, and
supports me with merch purchases from my Spring store, and more directly via Subscribestar
and Patreon, Thanks for listening everyone, wear your geek with pride and I will speak
with you again, very soon.