Blue ring octopi were a species of sentient octopus found in the Underdark.[1][2]
Description[]
Blue ring octopi looked like a regular octopi but much larger. Their tentacles could grow to up to 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Their eyes were large and golden-hued and their beaks were a greenish-brown. Their skin was covered in hundreds of small blue circles.[1][2]
Some blue ring octopi were born with rings of deep oxblood red and grew to be even larger than others of their species. They were known as red shamans or shaman blue rings.[1][2]
Personality[]
Despite their size, blue ring octopi were shy creatures. They were highly intelligent and good-natured[1][2] and were committed pacifists..[3][4]
Abilities[]
Like most octopi, the skin of a blue ring octopus was saturated with chromatophores. This gave the blue ring octopus excellent camouflage.[1][2] They could vary the color of their skin from a dirty gray to a dark gray-brown.[2]
In fact, its camouflaged was so effective that it was capable of altering how light was reflected off its skin. This provided a blue ring octopus with camouflage against creatures who used infravision or ultravision to see.[1]
Red shamans lacked this ability but were capable of casting powerful divine spells.[1]
Combat[]
Blue ring octopi avoided combat when possible, preferring to evade a potentially hostile creatures. However, if forced into combat, blue ring octopi were fierce fighters. In melee combat, they used their powerful tentacles, which were poisonous, to grab and then constrict an opponent. Blue ring octopi released a poisonous cloud of ink as a defensive measure. It released enough ink to fill a sphere with a 20‑foot (6.1‑meter) radius. The poison affected any water-breathing creature as well as any creature using magic to breath water.[1]
Society[]
Red shamans were the priests of blue ring octopi society. They were considered wise by other blue ring octopi and provided advice to their tribes.[1] It was not known what, if any, deity they worshiped to acquire their divine powers.[2]
They were known to make intricate carvings out of coral and exchanged these with friendly sea-dwellers.[3][4]
Ecology[]
Blue ring octopi were nomadic and lived together in small tribes within the oceans of the Underdark. Occasionally they found a passage to the bottom of a surface ocean, where they lived in the dark, cold waters of the ocean depths.[1] They made their homes in cracks and crevices in the seabed and tried to avoid detection by the more dangerous creatures of the oceans.[2]
Realms[]
Blue ring octopi maintained an underwater realm called Suswynfa within the waters of the Giant's Chalice, a subterranean lake below the Western Heartlands.[3][4]
Relationships[]
Blue ring octopi had a co-operative relationship with locathah and tako.[1] Those of Suswynfa traded and had allies in the sea elf realm of Naramyr.[3]
Uses[]
Aboleths and kuo-toa were known to capture blue ring octopi to use them as slaves. Enslaved blue ring octopi were usually treated well. Blue ring octopi had the uncanny ability to know when another one of their species were being held as slaves, and used whatever means necessary to free them.[1]
Appendix[]
External Links[]
Blue-ringed octopus article at Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Wolfgang Baur (March 1996). “The Dragon's Bestiary: Monsters of the Underdark”. In Pierce Watters ed. Dragon #227 (TSR, Inc.), p. 30.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Eric L. Boyd (November 1999). Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark. Edited by Jeff Quick. (TSR, Inc.), p. 28. ISBN 0-7869-1509-9.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Eric L. Boyd (November 1999). Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark. Edited by Jeff Quick. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 95–96. ISBN 0-7869-1509-9.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 152. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.