Trinity Monsters

Groundworm

The groundworm is a subterranean terror which roots around just under the surface of soft soil, its head surfacing suddenly to devour its hapless prey with lightning-quick accuracy. It spans up to 5 grid squares depending on its age and power, one head element (with an underground pose, an attacking animation, and an above-ground pose) and multiple body elements (just a pile of disturbed dirt indicating the presence of the worm underground). Only the head element is attackable, and only when it is above-ground. The worm head wanders around like a normal monster, albeit unnervingly quickly, with its body elements trailing around after it. Whenever a worm somehow traps itself in a corner, it dives underground to resurface randomly somewhere in the room. The groundworm is found in three stages in its lifecycle: the larva, the pupa, and the mature adult. Art-wise, the pupa is the base model. The larva is a half-scale version of the same bitmaps. The mature adult is the same with different textures or just a color-tweak on the bitmaps. The larva is a newbie-monster, neutral or evil and a little tougher than a baby spider. The pupa is a midlevel monster like a spider or a scorpion. The mature adult has a longer trail and is a really tough monster for experienced players. All three monsters appear in sandy, dirt-floored areas like the badlands (pupa and adult) and the outskirts of Tos (larva)

Dark Angel

These ethereal, unearthly humanoid creatures of legend appear on Meridian as guardians of Miriana during her attacks on shrines. Tall and spindly (tall as a yeti) with great feathery wings and dully radiant skin like sunlight through smoky alabaster, their smooth, featureless faces (think stretched pantyhose) reveal little of their purpose for visiting Meridian. They are also occasionally found wandering around the higher-altitude bits of Meridian. They are insanely tough, about 1.5 times a yeti (almost a lupogg king).

From Chris Sellers:

The Dark Angels ... those poor monsters. They were people once. The wings are actually a parasitic demon: a pair of wings with four huge talons in the center. The Wings fly around and attack a person whose own sadness and depression have led him off by himself alone. The Wings then prey on him, grabbing him around the torso with the claws. If the person can't fend off the Wings, he turns irrevocably into a stone statue animated only by the spirit of the Wings. The pole-torch weapon of the Dark Angel is black iron, if I remember right: it is the Angel's bitter strength. I don't know what it's fashioned out of -- probably whatever metal the person was carrying at the time.

The Angel's stone features are erased by the wind, leaving it faceless. Pieces of it break off as it carelessly maneuvers through the land, half-paralyzed. It bothers to animate only the parts of its body that it needs for killing -- like the arms, to wield the pole-torch.

The Angel is a merciless, marauding killer ... if I remember right, it would attack alone; hopefully it still does.

The Wings themselves can't be killed, and the person who the statue used to be is gone forever. But the statue can be destroyed, at which point it crumbles to pieces, leaving behind the pole-torch. The weapon is a souvenir, but using it (it is fueled by bitterness and rage) attracts the Wings. The pole-torch is extremely powerful in the hands of the Dark Angel, and less so in the hands of anyone else. Not that we ever made it into an object, I don't think.

At the time of the statue's destruction, the Wings separate from the rubble and fly off to roost in a lonely spot. The Wings will venture out from there as often as necessary to capture another person. Over time, once in a dread age, the Wings (if unoccupied with an Angel) will find a forsaken spot, make a nest, and lay eggs (I don't know how many, but a lot) in the secluded nest. The cluster of eggs is called a brood.

The only time the Wings are vulnerable is in their own nest, sitting on their eggs. If an adventurer goes to that lonely spot and destroys the brood, without being captured by the Wings, then the Wings will shudder and die from a secret and unspeakable grief.

Xeochicatl

These creatures of Kocatani legend appear on Meridian as guardians of Miriana during her attacks on nodes. Different Kocatanis tell different stories as to their origin, nature, and even appearance. Some equate them with elementals (fire, earth, air, water), to some they are the spirits of exalted ancestors, to some they are the original inhabitants of the Island, even before the avar, and to yet others their appearance is a sign of the end of the world. Stocky and muscular (think the Thing) but translucent and otherworldly (think iceman, but maybe more globby and round - like a big menacing gummy bear). Appearance is still in flux until Chris's concept sketches. There are four different-colored versions of the same monster, with slightly different powers and special abilities. The blue (water) one might have a projectile which looks like a globule of water (blue slimebolt) which slithers along the ground like an orc wizard's slitherbolt. The red (fire) one might have a fireball napalm projectile which generates a couple firewall elements on top of its target. The air one might cast winds and shoot lightning bolts which generate a sheet lightning element on top of its target. The earth one would cast (what else?) earthquake and throw big rocks at its target. These monsters also appear on the island and occasionally on the mainland. They vary in toughness from a troll to a yeti.

Crustacean monster

This spiny, hard-shelled creature is a denizen of the forests of Meridian. It walks upright on its two hind legs, slashing out with its two clawed hands, and perhaps shooting spiny quills out of its shell. It's a medium-tough monster, a little tougher than a spider. More details and a name will follow after Mike's concept sketches.