Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Chitine

[Music] hey there everyone AJ back again for the mighty glue stick channel I make videos about Dungeons & Dragons law full-time and have a collection of over 700 videos on monster ecology fantasy world history character classes and magic items on my channel if you like what I do please consider becoming a member of the channel by clicking the join button down below or backing me on patreon where you can get access to all the scripts I write for these words if any of you would like to read what I'm saying members of either also have special access to my discord server and of course please do subscribe to me here as I bust out a sweet indie video at least twice a week and have a live stream every weekend and I'm also super interactive in the comments available to answer any questions look up law for you and to chat about your games as I started to research deeper into the Underdark race called the KY teen it became clearer to me that this was a much more complicated ecology that required not just to look at their dark origin and their culture but also the whole ecology of the areas of the Underdark and the surface world that these creatures dominate so in this video I'll be talking about the KY teens the cold roof the drought the dry durs the Duleep the it caps and the servants and minions of loss in two motivations first of all when venturing into the upper Underdark if you see a web in the caves try to set it on fire if it catches run from the blaze if it doesn't run from the KY teens just a good rule to live by and by live by I mean stay alive okay early history where did the KY teens in the cold roof come from the history end reported origins as of fourth edition D&D is a tale a cautionary folklore about the perils of trusting in the demon gaudiya sloth and further reinforcement of how selfish egotistical in fickle her favor is Plus how dire and horrific her punishments are for those whom she deems disloyal to here even in the slightest long ago the unnamed faction of drow first subjected what they call the theory elves or any of the surface elves they captured in their raids and brought down to the deep and dark with him for depraved in horrific rituals that tormented broken then permanently mutated these victims and two creatures which were both humanoid and wreckage crates combined which the cruel and sadistic drow priestesses named the Kai team this dark elven affectioned intended to use these corrupted and hideous creatures as a race of permanent thralls completely dominated by the Dark Elves in a testament to the Dark Elves reverence for the ax demon Spider Queen the goddess love whom they had called on many times during these terrible rituals in order to keep the captives and TIFF subjects alive when by all rights they should have died many times over however calling on blow during these experiments was less an act of proper reverence dedicated to her and more of a means to an end with an assumption that her divine blessings could be called on for any reason that furthered the power of the drow race they were sorely mistaken after combining arcane and divine magic including the somewhat unthinkable step of using the powers of warlocks and their own otherworldly patrons gifts and these rituals that also invited the attention and Exploited the corrupted power of other demons the drow had not only just created a broken form of elven slaves but an entirely new race one which loved saw great potential win so she stepped in and used her divine powers to influence the experiments in ways that the drow we're not at first aware was actually extremely dangerous for them there were regular incidences of extreme mutation and that his subjects where they took on an almost entirely arachnid form and any attempt to the drow maid to replicate this effect while also leaving the victim sterile ended in failure but they reasoned well this was better over the long term as it would save them having to constantly raid the fairy elves on the surface to replenish their stock of slaves and these very involved rituals the mostly humanoid offspring of these erected creatures were what they were trying to create anyway so was still a success by the measure they were inflicting mutations so severe that they were breeding true into the victims offspring as the drought continued to perform the rituals the process usually transformed the subject enters the spindly stunted creature with an extra pair of arms additional joints and the limbs to allow for greater flexibility 'he's hooked skin the hands and feet killed our them free movement along any webs compound eyes and large mandibles distorting an otherwise humanoid face with the mane of lank black hair that extended all the way down the backs of these creatures the drought called the Chi team the more spidery monstrosity z' that occasionally occurred they separated off and named that in cold Ruth's treating them as less desirable and more little more than pack animals and breeding stock because the cold rest's only humanoid features with four legs that had joints and fingers like their own and a more or less humanoid head still much like the Chi teen with those distorted features and long pointed ears what they failed to realize is that this dismissal and bigotry was seen by loaf as a blasphemous insult even more so to the superiority of the arachnid form and in these children she instilled a deep and deceptive cunning that rivaled the abilities of the growl themselves the drow in the arrogance never stopped to consider that the a great success and great outpouring of lost power indicated anything other than their goddesses complete favor for them and her approval for what they were doing they did not stop to consider that they were creating a population of slaves too large for them to control all that leaving the troll drift up to their own devices gathered and enclosures where they could plot and plan their needs attended to by cowered high-teens rules allowed the cold Routh to pass information in orders back and forth across the entire slave population including the nan Chi teen slave racers who were quickly recruited into the plans of revolution and freedom we will basically know what happened next the details are lost in the mass murder that followed but the Chi teen and cold Routh escaped took the other slave races with them found various bolt holes and ruins natural formations and no man dwarven outposts they hunted to extinction while also eating all the non Chi teen and cold relieves as well of course because they where n are absolutely fanatically loyal to love and fully embrace her ideals of deception cunning reverence for her betrayal of others dominance and a seething eternal hatred with an overdeveloped sense of vengeance the troll growths that certainly have all of those qualities in abundance and since they gained their freedom they have been implacable enemies of the drow and the dry ders the surface elves and any other enemies of love ever since they have a few allies in the Underdark they're a lifted find the high teens excellent mercenary hunters who will deliver fresh victims for their brain extractions the only required the corpses afterward and trade for magic items and biotechnology the elicits either don't need or have plenty to spare the Allah thirds will also trade exist slave stocks to the Chi teen in exchange for trained speeder Spyder mounts and peck beasts which benefits them both the highly intelligent arania arcane creations of the Caliphate Wizards may or may not have dealings with the Chi team the two races certainly share a lot of similar history and a great deal of past and present and justice at the hands of the other races but while they have a similar form and culture in many ways the Aranea are for the most part are peaceful species that would rather avoid predating on humanoids however it is a very complex relationship that involves far ranging holdeth agents that deal with a secretive cult within the iranian in their forests amir who are all demon worshippers awaiting the return of their masters there is certainly a rich opportunity for campaign plots there I suppose I should mention the Neo Yi as well yes the Chi teens and cold growth hate the new yogi as well who doesn't the Chi teens won't deal with in species that would seek to return them to a state of slavery the Chi teens have always known that the cold Routh are the handiwork of their goddess and Savior love who freed them from slavery they don't really see the cold wrath as their masters they see them as their mothers their queens as blessed ones favored by love indeed the drow have never managed to create another cold rift with their rituals since the rebellion of the Chi teens even though they still know the ritual methods of creating them and occasionally still do all of the free Chi teams these days are born of the cold Ruth's so it is the will of love and really it's not that bad the cold Ruth display the power of wealth and use it to defend their colonies lead them to new hunting grounds and together the Chi teen and cold earth are a superior species the Chi teen know their purpose and role in their society they feel individual value even if that means laying down their life to protect cauldre and lofts personal power on the prime material plane so what do these creatures look like what's it like to walk into the territory of the KY teen as an adventurer from the surface world we can talk about the coating on the surface later in this video really there's not much to say that they live in similar conditions where that their inner vasts overgrown swamp or a forest generally speaking they prefer shady and share way places they also exist in the shadow fell in quite great numbers but for the majority of them they live closer to the surface then the drought do a terrible threat to any view venture far too deep into the Underdark unaware of its dangers unlike the drow who are elves first and worshipers of the spider goddess second the Chi teen are spider people they cohabitate happily with spider living species such as the etiquette in the Duleep also known as spider shepherds and the living webs itta caps and giant spiders are tolerated on the outskirts of KY teen territory as long as they don't compete to successfully for the same prey the spider webs of giant spiders and inner caps often overlap with the struggles and disruptions that vibrate through the webs on the borders also serving to alert the Chi teen to the trouble as well unless the characters are extremely careful and avoid tangling in any support webs and their encounters with giant spiders inner caps and even in some cases random cave fissures or giant globe worms the Chi teens will know they're coming long before they can get to the actual killing grounds of the spider folk yep you heard that right killing rounds high teens certainly do prefer to catch live prey and suck the fresh fluids from their own mobile bodies but they can eat dead adventurers just as well and they regard the arrival of any humanoids larger than goblins to be a threat first in food second I wouldn't go out on a limb to say the Chi teen of fussy eaters but they do save the best prey for the cold Ruth who are after all the held quite larger than this KY teen and have a heavy nutritional requirement to sustain a lot of mental activity and the burden of producing a lot of offspring for the colony there is little doubt in adventurers mind that they are entering something a lot more tense than a normal spider lair when they start to move through the twisted tunnels or overhanging ruins and chasms that lead into KY teen colonies killing grounds the place is choked with webs as thick as ivy on old castle walls smaller spiders of the vermin are located in every nook and cranny feeding opportunistically on bugs that are attracted to the remains of the Chi teens meals or eating the scraps to Wrigley there are a few uses about the rock is often pockmarked with corrosion from some sort of rock eating acid or another some fungi a rock thrive on old bones and trickles of water running down walls the ground is often uneven what looks like a perfectly natural rock fall of debris and stalagmites grown tend to funnel the adventurers along the easier path through so that they become somewhat a complacent and used to walking along a prescribed pathway this is the second mistake after entering this area at all which is the first mistake walking where it seems easy or logical to walk there is exactly what these ambush hunters want the adventurous to do the third mistake is falling for the obvious threat it might be a large web spun to cover the obvious path ahead it might be a crudely covered pit trap the adventurers easily detect and then concentrate on avoiding the path they choose to avoid the distraction is where the actual crap has located the KY teen our expert trap makers they have an arsenal of techniques that they've used in fashioning mainly from their own webbing they also make use of falling rocks dangerous creatures such as giant trapdoor spiders Roper's toxic spore Laden funghi containers of dangerous vermin such as rock grubs contact poison captured growl hand crossbows magical runes as well as snares spits spikes concealed web blades and so on the KY teen are smart enough to and emulate any trap that they've seen kobolds and goblins construct and have plenty of their own that only their elaborate use of webbing can achieve adventurers will eventually realize that in this gloomy and web shrouded place the most dangerous parts are often those with the least amount of shrouded webbing and they might decide to simply attempt to set fire to all the webbing to clear a safe way caution is suggested in areas the upper underdark where conditions are very dry raging fires and confined tunnels are quite lethal the chi teen are very wary of fire they don't use it they have no need to all of the technology and constructs are made from web bone root and stone they're only used they have four metals as bait to lure victims or something to feed captive trained rust monsters who can prove very handy against surface dwellers at some point the adventurers are now deep enough into the killing ground that they can start to see domes of webbing and web way bridges stretching between rock spires and steel kites up around them they are now so far through the web maze they might not realize that they have put themselves in the position where they cannot easily retreat and escape from particularly because the Chi teen are easily shifting walls of clinging webs and lowering suspended boulders to change the entire pathway behind them and that's when the Chi teen will open up with a volley of spells and throwing daggers in the darkness as well as slicing through support lines and dropping crush and boulders entangling Nets of web on the adventurers often laden with swarming and dangerous spiders it's a silent battle the Chi teens really make a sound unless it's a screech is a spear or blade plunges into them lops off a limb or they're set on fire they fight within strength of numbers and seek to overrun their prey all kite eens ignore a movement restrictions caused by webbing and know the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same webbing they're touching they have a speed of 30 feet appear round on the ground walls or ceiling of webs and since the adventurers are properly counting everything as difficult terrain the Chi teen may as well be moving at twice the speed with their clear maneuverability advantage they may have a distant elven ancestry but aside from having advantage on sailing throws at verse has been charmed and immune to magical sleep effects they're not fond of using bows however they can throw weapons with fear accuracy I do manufacture their own weapons and sometimes armor using little more than they're hardened webbing which they maintain were using their own body fluids chi teen Warriors are slightly larger than Chi teen workers but still count as small monstrosity z' they gang up on individual targets always and leap out of the webbing to gain a surprise attack advantage stabbing with it wicked daggers each high teen gets 3 dagger attacks per round pay special attention to all those incoming strikes per round which can slice an adventure into pieces quite quickly the distracted adventurers will have their attention focused on the storm of dagger strikes from the nimble Chi teen each attack is + forward ahead and does one d 4 + 2 piercing damage luckily they don't have a venomous bite in this latest addition otherwise a paralyzing bite would make this a far more formidable and short fight what they do have though is the backup of the culbreth who will either be with the worry group from the outset or will arrive a few moments after the fighting starts cold Routh hang back literally as far off the ground and away from the adventurers as they can while still being within range of their many clerical spells cold Routh are reduced to a medium-sized creature in 5th edition formerly they were at least 9 feet in diameter they do have a venomous bite but rather than risking their fine mandibles on a dangerous humanoid that will instead coat their dagger with the venom so dagger is strike is +5 to hit does 1 - 4 + 3 piercing damage can be thrown just like the Chi teen daggers and also does 3 D six additional poison damage with no saving throw to avoid it they know that their their webbing will not stick to their own chitin warriors who exude a natural oil from their skin the web will not stick - so they're able to shoot web at one large or smaller creature in order to restrain it the aspera counts as a fourth level divine spell caster with a DC of 12 to save and +4 to hit the spells includes being able to cast guidance mending resistance and thaumaturgy can trips each round and they can cast Bane healing word sanctuary shield of faith as well as hold person and spiritual weapon on the dagger they always use whole-person to massively take out the strongest member of any adventuring party and will provide a shield of faith to give +2 to the armor class of one of their kiting warriors as needed cold ruthandkaye teens work smoothly and efficiently together they have a very well organized society despite being almost universally of chaotic evil alignment heightened regard culbreth to be the queen's although cold Ruth's and Crichton's lack sexual characteristics the cold Ruth's actually need no mate to lay eggs they do so spontaneously the cold Ruth see themselves of the mothers and queens of their children and they also believe that they and teach that both spider form much like that of their own is her truest shape any Idol to love in the Chi teen colony depicts love in this way and they may well choose to fight the adventurers right below one such shrine not just because it pleases love to have victims sacrificed to her at the foot of their own statue but because the added vertical surface and advantage point is a tactical advantage to the Chi teams each Chi teen has a social position that comes with duties related to that rank in all kite eans are expected to willingly sacrifice themselves to protect the cold breaths each Chi teen has spinnerets that slowly produce webbing that they use to build floors walls structures objects and traps that benefit and protect the colony the warrior might be responsible for crafting web armor which is as tough as a hide or lever while a group of workers might be tasked to dig a pit trap and cover it with fragile webbing disguised with loose dirt to appear as a solid surface a colony can support numerous cold wrists which serve as commanders priests and supervisors the cold ruth's continually jockey for position although they really confront one another in a way that puts the colony at risk the colony is ruled by a singular sovereign that determines which colony members perform which tasks including whether or she or any other cold refers permitted to lay eggs if the supreme ruler receives a vision from law she might change her colonies entire course of action immediately as such times Chi teens have emerged from the underdog to settle in remote gloomy places on the surface where they can wage war on other species especially drow and elves having foreknowledge of any potential witness and those populations provided to them by the Spider Queen living whips also known as carnivorous webs or Duleep omnivores that roam subterranean caverns and deserted ruins they gravitate along with other giant spiders and spider things towards Chi teen colonies for the easy concealment in plentiful prey that they provide these small amorphous creatures resemble thick gray sheets strands and filaments of dusty cob webbing they lack visible sensory organs and specialized body parts they appear to consist of colonies of microscopic identical cells these creatures are nomadic omnivores that can be found in many subterranean wilderness areas they prefer locations such as cabins and ruins places full of normal webs that live in webs can hide among they spend their lives an endless search of plant life carrion and live prey and gestured matter is converted into electrical energy they use for movement and attacks the touch of a living web delivers an electrical shock the attack causes a minimum of one to four points of damage though larger specimens can do twice as much damage living webs can fire a miniature bolt up to twenty feet which does 3d for lightning damage up to twice per tune despite a lack of visible sensory organs they live in web can sense vibrations variations in heat and the presence of other living webs and such sensors have a maximum range of 90 feet so they get around fairly well they seem to flow as a surface that's moving like caterpillars on millions of tiny filaments the filaments can fuse together into larger denser masses and move around living webs to climb walls and ceilings of any material and never slip and they grasp a surface so strongly that they can't be removed by any physical or magical attack that fails to slay them they are unaffected by fire water heat and cold attacks blows from edged weapons and flipped full damage upon these creatures such a blow divide them into two smaller wisps each has half the parents remaining head points and will continue to advance on the prey blunt weapons caused only half damage as the living web stretches to absorb the damage without tearing their living webs move and act independently they sense the direction and size of other living webs with a 90 feet if they are smaller the two will merge together living webs attack instinctively they're unaffected by fear repulsion or similar spells another rare a variant of these living webs as a much less welcomed memory whip this creature is a mass of fibres reeling resembling those of a wit like a web spell much like the living webs it has similar but not identical attributes it can hide by compressing itself into a tight ball it attacks by leaping up to 180 feet spreading out into a circular web 20 feet in diameter cut to catch its prey whip does not need an anchor point anyone caught by the memory web has the same chance of breaking free as of escaping from a normal web spell as the web constricts and wrapped creatures suffer 186 points of damage per round until their escape died or the web is destroyed a memory web suffers only half damage from them non-magical weapons are all fire memories of the same victims are absorbed by the memory web which is how they get me name if the web is destroyed it will emit all the memories gained during the previous day in the form of a telepathic shockwave the memories lodged in the minds of all creatures up to 200 feet from the web and take the form of green like recollections some details will be clearer others beyond recall it's quite disturbing consisting of some seven population colonies or thorpes all clustered together Jeff Cole is a village in the middle dark of the northern under dark it's inhabited by CAI teens who have been former slaves of the drow it's located relatively close to the drow city of chitnis ad yeah Cole has a population of 422 with 34 cold Ruth's and the rest being CAI team a colony can support numerous coal growths which serve as commanders priests and supervisors the colder is continually Drakh you for the position as I mentioned they are of course devout servants of love and that's just what they do although they really confront one another in the way that puts a colony at risk and they will go out of their way to make sure they're jockeying for position to eventually become the singular sovereign several of the more choked murky and dangerous forests on the surface world serve as home to Kay teen Thorpe's who have migrated up from the Underdark often this is a test of a Culbreath worthiness to lead please hit the like button if you made it this far subscribe if you like what I do check out my patreon for the full scripts for these videos buy some sweet merchandise from Mighty Springs shop where your geek with pride nears always thanks for listening and I'll be back with more for you very soon you [Music]

Channel: AJ Pickett

Views: 65,123

Keywords: aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, TMG, dungeons and dragons, roleplaying, tabletop, 5E, 5th edition, faerun, toril, forgotten realms, eberron, greyhawk, dark sun, ravnica, AD&D, pen and paper, Dungeons and dragons lore, monsters, magic, magic items, monster ecology, D&D, D&D5E, D&D Lore, choldrith, chitine, lolth, drow, illithid, living web, duleep, Underdark, Middledark, arachnid, horror, spider, monstrous spiders, giant spider, dark elves, D&D 5E, d&d creatures, d&d history, dungeon master

Id: BECtv8s7eg8

Length: 24min 32sec (1472 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020