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The bulette (pronounced boo-LET, byoo-LET, boo-LAY, or byoo-LAY[5]), also known as a landshark,[4] was a particularly loathsome creature that lived in the Starwood area of the forest of Cormanthor.[6] Feared and hated by most living creatures, bulettes were extremely dangerous, burrowing unseen beneath the soil before erupting up at an unexpected moment to seize their prey.[7] Dwarves called the bulette a ghohlbrorn.[8]
Description
Bulettes were sometimes supposed to be a bizarre cross between an armadillo and a snapping turtle, though there was little evidence to support this theory. Bulettes were heavily armored, however, like either creature, and had a powerful jaw mechanism for snapping up their unsuspecting prey. In many cases, a bulette will swallow its prey whole, consuming their victims clothing, weapons, and other equipment along with the creature itself, which the bulette can in fact digest successfully through the use of powerful stomach acid.[7]
Bulettes were covered head to toe in armor. Around the head and rear, this armor was a blue-brown color, while in-between the hue might range from gray-blue to blue-green. Areas around the eyes were slightly darkened, with the eyes themselves being a yellow color with blue-green pupils. However, while bulettes can see in perfect darkness with these eyes they were not a bulette's primary method of sensory perception. Instead, bulettes typically hunt through the detection of vibrations in the ground, moving towards the source of the movement when their hunger is aroused.[7]
Ecology
Behavior
A bulette from the game editor of Neverwinter Nights.
The male bulette's mating ritual was fairly complicated, involving the killing of deer and boars, these being placed in a wide circle. He then digs a shallow pit in the middle of the circle, and lines it with the bones of the animals he has killed. Over the course of about a week, the bulette slowly grinds the bones in the pit into a fine powder. He then digs underneath the pit and waits for the female.[citation needed]
The female usually comes along within a month after being attracted by the odor, at which point the bulettes mate. It takes only a day and a half for the female to lay around a dozen eggs, covered in spines, and by the next morning, they have hatched. During hatching, the female bulette makes a noise like an elephant. Once hatched, the newborn bulettes immediately attack the mother, in an attempt to kill her. She fights back, and although she usually kills a few of the young, she succumbs to their attacks more often than not.[citation needed]
For the 48 hours immediately after the hatching of the eggs, the powder in the mating pit was saturated with fluid from the eggs, making it into a very effective fertilizer.[citation needed]
Extra
A bulette was a fearsome magical beast whose originswereunknown but has become a dangerous predator. They burrow through the soft earth, listening for potential prey and then erupting from the ground to consume their living targets. As they have a distinctive fin that cuts through the ground as it approaches, these creatureswereoften referred to as "land-sharks."[citation needed]
A bulette's body was covered in thick, layered plates. Its head was bullet-shaped, similar to that of a shark, with a massive mouth filled with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth.[citation needed]
Gallery
Appendix
Appearances
- Adventures
- Computer Games
- Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
- Neverwinter Nights
- Pools of Darkness
- Treasures of the Savage Frontier
- Novels
Further Reading
- Timothy J. Kask (June 1976). “Creature Features: The Bulette”. In Timothy J. Kask ed. Dragon #1 (TSR, Inc.), p. 19.
- Richard Edwards and Chris Elliot (June 1983). “The Ecology of the Bulette”. In Kim Mohan ed. Dragon #74 (TSR, Inc.), p. 26.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 34. ISBN 978-0786965614.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 30. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.
- ↑ Doug Stewart (June 1993). Monstrous Manual. (TSR, Inc), p. 33. ISBN 1-5607-6619-0.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Timothy J. Kask (June 1976). “Creature Features: The Bulette”. In Timothy J. Kask ed. Dragon #1 (TSR, Inc.), p. 19.
- ↑ Frank Mentzer (January 1985). “Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd”. In Kim Mohan ed. Dragon #93 (TSR, Inc.), p. 25.
- ↑ Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). Monster Manual 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 38. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet and Monte Cook (October 2000). Monster Manual 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 28. ISBN 0-7869-1552-1.
- ↑ Christopher Perkins, Adam Lee, Richard Whitters (September 1, 2015). Out of the Abyss. Edited by Jeremy Crawford. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7869-6581-6.
Notes
- James Butler, Elizabeth T. Danforth, Jean Rabe (September 1994). “Cormanthor”. In Karen S. Boomgarden ed. Elminster's Ecologies (TSR, Inc), p. 18. ISBN 1-5607-6917-3.