New Monster:
Giant Saltwater Crocodile




The saltwater crocodile of Papua New Guinea is one of the largest reptiles on the planet, capable of reaching sizes greater than twenty feet long and weights of nearly half a ton. They are extremely long-lived and never stop growing through their entire lives. Though cold-blooded, crocodiles nurture and care for their young and live in communal areas. While they are lone hunters, they live in communities of up to thirty individuals and their young. Crocodiles mate for only one season, but often choose the same mate several years in a row, showing distinct loyalties and preferences.

Crocodiles are feared and, in many cases, reviled. This is unjustly so; crocodiles prefer to avoid humans whenever possible, but have no fear of them and will attack if threatened, if their territory is invaded, or if their young are in danger. Crocodiles are master hunters and trackers, able to follow prey for days before giving up. Because of their relatively slow metabolism, they try to attack from ambush when possible but have no qualms about a face-to-face fight.

The standard crocodile tactic is to latch on to their prey with all four limbs (and the jaws if possible) and roll it underwater. As they can hold their breath for over a quarter of an hour, the prey almost always gives first. Their jaws are powerful in closing--strong enough to sever human or animal limbs--but weak in opening, weak enough to be held shut with one hand by even an average person. Crocodiles have another disadvantage as well: they must close their eyes to close their jaws, allowing a quick target to escape if it takes the chance. However, crocodiles are known for their patience; if they don't get that one, there will always be another.

After the Coming of the Rifts, crocodiles were infused with enormous amounts of magic energy, doubling their already impressive life span and allowing them to grow to unheard of sizes. Their natural hunting prowess was multiplied many times by the increase of their strength to supernatural levels and thickening of their armored plates to mega-damage toughness. Not all crocodiles were so affected, but nearly half of the population of Papua New Guinea was. The Sepic tribespeople were delighted, but the same cannot be said for most other life forms on the island.

There are documented cases of giant crocodiles reaching as long as eighty feet and rumors of crocodiles as large as football fields. With so much unexplored jungle, it might even be true...


Giant Saltwater Crocodile
Monster and Animal Predator


Alignment: Animal predator, effectively Aberrant (loyal to its own kind, including normal crocodiles, but remorseless to the prey)
Attributes: IQ 1D4+2 (high animal intellect); PS 5D6+10 (min. 25); PP 2D6; PE 5D6 (min. 20); PB 2D4; Spd 3D6 on land, 2D4x10 swimming. Strength and endurance are supernatural.

MDC: PEx10, plus 10 per fifteen years of life

Natural Abilities: Nightvision (500 feet); run at double normal speed for 2d6 melees, but must rest for as many minutes as melees run; hold breath for PE minutes; half damage from fire/heat and cold; go without food for up to two months; cannot be mind controlled, summoned, or possessed (but can be trained as a riding animal by Simvan or Psi-Stalkers).

Vulnerabilities: Must have water (at least twenty gallons) every day or will dehydrate and die within one week; when food is required, must eat a lot (at least fifty pounds of meat, but prefers to eat upwards of one hundred pounds of meat at once); sluggish in temperatures lower than 65 degrees F (two attacks per melee, halve combat bonuses and speed, double dodge penalty); jaws can be held shut by a combined strength of 25 or more (or a supernatural strength of 15 or more).

Length: 30 feet, plus 10 foot tail; plus five feet per fifteen years of life
Weight: 1000 lbs., plus fifty pounds per fifteen years of life
Average Life Span: Presumably as long as 500 years; no crocodile that lived before the Time of Rifts and thus transformed has yet died of natural causes.

Combat: 5 attacks per melee
Damage:

Bonuses: +5 to strike; +1 to initiative; +8 vs. poison/magic; +6 vs. psionics; +25% vs. coma/death.
Penalties: -3 to dodge; -6 to dodge area-effect attacks; +3 for human-sized (or smaller) creatures to dodge bite attack.


Notes: Crocodiles mate once a year and lay eggs, but stay with them until hatched. One mate hunts for food while the other tends the eggs. After they hatch, the babies are attended by the parents until they can survive on their own (about three months for giant saltwater crocodiles).

Despite the fact that they are mega-damage beings, giant saltwater crocodile meat is SDC and edible (and tastes like chicken!). The hide of these giants remains mega-damage and can be fashioned into armor that is highly damage resistant but no heavier than thick leather (human sized suit has 35 MDC, AR 16, and -5% to prowl).

Crocodile teeth are very strong (1 MDC each) and remain MDC items if removed from a dead crocodile (but only inflict SDC unless wielded by supernaturally strong beings). If a crocodile has many of its teeth destroyed, it will tear out the shards and wait for new ones to grow in. Like sharks, crocodiles have teeth continually grow in to replace old, damaged, or diseased ones.

If a crocodile cannot hunt for itself, it will die. Their is no place in the ecosystem for a predator that cannot hunt, and crocodiles will not aid a comrade that is unable to help itself.


Back to the OCC/RCC Section.