Destrachans were evil, crafty, and sadistic aberrations that dwelled underground. They typically attacked with a powerful sonic blast emitted from their tubular mouths.[2]
Description[]
Destrachans were bipedal creatures, vaguely reptilian in appearance. The head was largely featureless except for the circular mouth and the large ear structures. From head to tailtip destrachans were about 10 ft (3 m) long, and they weighed approximately 4,000 lb (1,800 kg).[2]
Personality[]
Destrachans resembled simple-minded, if bizarre, beasts, but they were actually crafty and cruel monsters, aberrations that seemed to feed on misery and death and spread both for evil's sake.[2]
Abilities[]
Destrachans were reliant on sound: they had complex, three-part ears that could adjust to be more or less sensitive to different sounds, allowing them both protection from sonic attacks while also letting them navigate by a sense of hearing more precise than many creatures' eyesight. Additionally, destrachans could emit focused, harmonic sonic energy from their mouths, powerful enough to shatter stone walls but precisely controlled enough that a destrachan could choose what material to effect; choosing a solid material to shatter any of it in range, focusing on flesh and bone to harm creatures, or even on just nerves in order to knock creatures out.[2]
The natural blindness of destrachans also afforded some protection; any gaze or other sight-based attacks were useless against them. However, they could still be affected by audible effects and spells, and a destrachan that could not hear was effectively blinded, so to speak.[2]
Combat[]
Destrachans preferred to ambush enemies, using their sonic attack to first destroy metal, then rend flesh. They used their claws only as a last resort.[2]
Society[]
Destrachans lived in complex underground systems, causing only suffering. They were known to capture victims and imprison and torture the prisoners in their lairs.[2] They despised all gods.[3]
Destrachans were believed to understand Common but not to speak it,[2] while some reports claimed that they spoke Deep Speech.[1]
Relationships[]
Few living creature would willingly ally with a destrachan except other aberrant creatures (such as chuuls, gibbering mouthers, gricks, foulspawn, and the plaguechanged), which they seemed to be attracted to; they had been reported as being in the company of drow, grimlocks, hags, medusas, trolls, onis, and troglodytes. Evil undead and outsiders were known to willingly ally with destrachans.[2][1][4]
Homelands[]
On Toril, destrachans were known to live in the Middledark and Lowerdark, most particularly in the Deep Wastes[5] where there was a whole thorp of them in Kuragolomsh.[6] They had also been reported in the Forest of Amtar.[7]
History[]
Destrachans were spawned from the energies of the Far Realm seeping into the Material Plane.[8] Some scholars speculated that they arose from the foul dreams of a sinister deity whose identity and purpose had long been forgotten by the destrachans themselves.[3]
Following the Spellplague, destrachans were sometimes known to work alongside plaguechanged creatures and undead, as well as factions that made use of these creatures such as the Order of Blue Flame.[4]
In the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, destrachans were among the creatures known to work with the Abolethic Sovereignty,[9] and they were also reported to be living in parts of Gauntlgrym.[10]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
- Novels
- Crypt of the Moaning Diamond
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). Monster Manual 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 59. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 49–50. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Richard Baker, James Jacobs, and Steve Winter (April 2005). Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 10. ISBN 0-7869-3657-6.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims (August 2008). Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. Edited by Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 267. ISBN 978-0-7869-4924-3.
- ↑ Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims (August 2008). Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. Edited by Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 220. ISBN 978-0-7869-4924-3.
- ↑ Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 114–115, 121, 158. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.
- ↑ Thomas Reid (October 2004). Shining South. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 84. ISBN 0-7869-3492-1.
- ↑ Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims (August 2008). Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. Edited by Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 64. ISBN 978-0-7869-4924-3.
- ↑ Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 93. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.
- ↑ Matt Sernett, Erik Scott de Bie, Ari Marmell (August 2011). Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Edited by Tanis O'Connor. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 200. ISBN 0-7869-5814-6.