Written by: James S.
A Kuo-Toa is an aquatic creature often encountered in fantasy tabletop role-playing games. Kuo-Toa are amphibious humanoid creatures resembling a strange blend of fish and humanoid features. They have webbed hands and feet, slimy, scaly skin, and bulbous eyes. These creatures are known for their bizarre religious practices, often worshipping strange and otherworldly deities. Use the eerie "Floating Village - Fish Market Night" Czepeku battlemap, to run a Kuo-Toa encounter. Consider these elements:
- A team of repulsive fishfolk who work together. They come at night looking to subdue and capture.
- They carry nets and poles to snare players rather than kill them outright.
- They push/pull grappled and restrained players into the water to try and drown them.
- They use the water to their advantage, undermining the foundations of the village and crashing sections of it into the water.
Sometimes you eat the fish, and sometimes the fish eats you. A cadre of loathsome aquatic creatures target this village for a slave raid. They come at night with their huge, unblinking eyes and their wet, slapping feet to capture the inhabitants and take them back to their spawning caves. Does it count as slavery if they just want to eat you? Perhaps not, but they like to keep their meat alive and fresh. Describe the stifling smell of rotten fish as these monsters wade through the shallows, as they clamber onto the decking, and begin their grisly work. Silent at first, but the screams soon give them away.
The key to this encounter is ensuring that the Kuo-Toa exploit the environment and work together to give themselves an advantage. Alone, they are weak and craven, and they need to manipulate the battlefield to push the odds in their favour rather than get into direct conflict. Because the Kuo-Toa are cowards, they will never fight one-on-one with a serious combatant. A feeble villager or spellcaster, perhaps, but not an armoured fighter. They team up to grapple, drag, and drown anyone who actually looks like they can handle themselves in a brawl. Together, they wrestle with players to overwhelm them and move them from the relative safety of the village boardwalk to the dangers of the ink-black waters. To ramp up the peril and put the players on edge, you should show the Kuo-Toa using their nets and poles on other people in the village. Show them dragging villagers underwater and holding them there. Describe the thrashing white water as spluttering victims are hauled to their doom. Describe torchlight fracturing on the disturbed waters in shades of red and orange, like blood and sunset. The smell of salt and iron in the air. Make it kind of horrific.
You can make the foe more than just slimy fishfolk by giving them interesting rules based on real fish:
- The Takifugu Kuo-Toa is squat and round and covered in needled spines that cause damage to anyone if it grapples them (or if they grapple it).
- The Voltai Kuo-Toa is tall and sinuous. It deals extra electric damage with its attacks and can stun opponents in melee range (but only when in the water).
- The Paralichthys Kuo-Toa has rough, mottled skin. Both eyes are on one side of its head, and it always moves sideways-facing. Though flat and ungainly on land, in the water, it is near invisible, allowing it to reposition and surprise foes.
- The Exocetus Kuo-Toa is light and delicate with smooth scales and quivering, membraneous fins. If it begins its turn in water, it can leap a great distance onto a land-based target.
As the fight progresses, ensure the Kuo-Toa try to break the party up by demolishing sections of the village from below. They chew through the wooden poles that support the walkways and perhaps even try to collapse some of the houses. However, you should make sure that you telegraph it to the players before collapsing a piece they’re standing on. It should be obvious what the Kuo-Toa are trying to do. Describe the floor juddering beneath them, the creaking and splintering deck as the supports collapse.
Keep track of how many villagers you want the enemy to capture. Make the players’ actions a deciding factor. Do they hang back and assess? More casualties. Do they dive straight in and divert the raiders’ attention? Fewer casualties. End the encounter once the Kuo-Toa have captured or drowned about half their number in victims (including the players if they’re unlucky) or have lost about half their own number. They won’t fight to the death. They’ll jump into the water and swim away to save their own scales.
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