D&D 5E: New Monster – Arallasar

In the warm waters and islands of the tropical seas, few predators are as feared as the mighty arallasor. This lizard-like creature seems abnormally large for its natural environment, leading many scholars to believe the creature may have been created by unnatural means or transported there from somewhere else. Though the creature’s origins may be lost to the ages, their reputation as vicious killers is well known.Arallasars will claim entire islands as their territory, rarely sharing space with other predators except when they pair to mate every ten to twelve years. Only a single parent remains to watch over the eggs and to raise the young, who grow to full size in a few short years, and are driven away to find their own territory to claim.

An arallasar will claim an entire island as its territory, rarely tolerating other predators except when they pair to mate every ten to twelve years. Only a single parent remains to watch over the clutch of eggs or to raise the young, which grow to full size in a few short years. Once a young arallasor has reached full size, it is driven away to find its own territory, unless it is strong enough to kill its parent and claim their territory as its own.

Sailors and the people of the tropical islands fear the arallasor and the destruction they can wreak. For beasts, they are cunning hunters which are as comfortable climbing or swimming as they are lounging on a sandy beach waiting for a meal to stumble by. It is well known if you are the unfortunate soul who does the stumbling, the best you could do is cut your ally’s heel and hope they are enough of a meal to keep the arallasor busy while you flee. If not, may the gods have mercy on your soul.

Design Notes: I created the Arallasar while prepping for a Battle Interactive adaptation of the classic Isle of Dread for Gen Con 2016. Some friends and I ran the event for a rather large crowd of gamers and we had a blast. At my table, I wanted to capture the nostalgia of the iconic image on the cover of the module (pictured above), so I created this nasty beast to greet the PCs when they landed on the beach, along with the natives who the PCs rushed to save.

Feel free to use this critter in your home games. If you want to use the critter for anything more, please drop me a line at leahcim32@gmail.com.