How To Create Lake Monsters

[@shadomain7918]

I grew up in Massachusetts, so Champy was definitely a thing we heard about. Never seen it though

[@DDHomebrew]

It's one of the more famous, though it turns out if you do a little research there are local lake monster legends all over the US.

[@michaelwest4325]

I really like the magically locked guardian monster where the option exists to free it rather than kill it. Some treasure on island worth it. The villagers worshiping it. A lot of layers rather than just the "go kill baddie" trope!

[@DDHomebrew]

So many angles from which to approach this trope.

[@sw33n3yto00]

Thank you for the shout-out to the Oklahoma Octopus. Most of the population here don't know about the stories.

[@DDHomebrew]

Glad I could inform folks on this legend!

[@timothylamont845]

Every time I watch one of your videos I see something I write down in my "Future Campaign Notes" notebook. This time it is the idea of a community faking the presence of a monster to cover the disappearances of some evil activity. Most of my plots tend to be linear. I love stealing this "plot twist" idea! Cant wait to insert it into the campaign LOL Thank you KR.

[@DDHomebrew]

Glad you like it!

[@ishmiel21]

Really cool video! I totally liked your idea about the villagers that are faking having a lake monster. I think that's a super fun idea! In the upcoming campaign I'm about to run the setting has a very large lake and I am absolutely putting a lake monster in there. There are other lakes scattered around the setting as well, but maybe one of those will now have a fake lake monster industry set up. Awesome stuff!

[@DDHomebrew]

So glad you like my content!

[@brothereduard4541]

Interesting twist with the "Is it real or not?" plot device. Thanks.

[@DDHomebrew]

Thanks!

[@brothereduard4541]

@@DDHomebrew I play a lot of my games as a mishmash of OSR and AD&D. They are mostly set in Greyhawk. This would be amazing in the Nyr Dyv. I once changed the Great Rift to a crater lake too. Brought back fun memories when you described Crater Lake. I might have the monster be from another water world or water dimension, with the portal to our world located at the bottom of the lake, arriving and departing during a specific astrological alignment. Would be really fun as a re-occurring disaster within the PC's domain until they figure out what is going on.

[@DDHomebrew]

@@brothereduard4541 I'm always trying to create system agnostic ideas for this channel. That way viewers and commenters can take and change them for their system!

[@helixxharpell]

It also beckons back to the "Lady of The Lake" legend in La Morte D'Artur..

[@DDHomebrew]

Again, I hadn't thought of that!

[@helixxharpell]

@DDHomebrew I found it so hilarious that on the Ancient Aliens program they theorized the loch Ness monster could be coming thru a portal at the bottom of the lake from some point in the past. 🤣🤣🤣

[@DDHomebrew]

@@helixxharpell It all makes sense in a fantasy RPG. In the real world, not so much! 😁

[@jeremy1860]

Creatures like this have always captured the imagination. And unless we one day get to a point where we drain the entirety of Loch Ness and find nothing, they'll likely continue doing so forever 😊

[@DDHomebrew]

That's why there such a great possibility for the myth fueled world of an RPG setting!

[@krispalermo8133]

Years ago, I seen many pictures of Nessy and other lake monsters posing for pictures. Someone tracking Big Foot and examen the tracks as Big Foot looks over their shoulder. Or Waterdeep from Forgotten Realms, were green dragons drop down and walk up to the stables to get brush and gossip with bronze dragons and give weird, strange looks at the red & copper dragons sharing a joke. .

[@DDHomebrew]

Always worth wondering, in a world of real monsters, just what they're thinking!

[@raff3486]

One of my made up creatures is called the Longbelly Catfish, which are located in the Long Belly Lakes. Its got the head of a catfish & the body of a seal with hands. Although it may not be a "monster", It definitely the strength to squish you or swallow a human whole.

[@DDHomebrew]

I would say that's fairly monstrous! And creepy.

[@ShaneKennedy-gt8nl]

Thank you

[@DDHomebrew]

I hope you find it useful!

[@krispalermo8133]

Movie, " Secondhand Lions." Whole movie is just good, my first gaming shop ran many AD&D games off that movie.

[@DDHomebrew]

I will check it out!

[@vindicari6621]

Hey KR, thanks for the video. Once again, you always do a great job. It's so funny that you posted a video like this because I had a lake monster legend that circled around a large lake and a sandbox campaign I was doing. Long story short, there was a crashed a lifted spelljammer ship at the bottom of the lake and there was a connection to the underdark in a very large flump colony was living there sucking psychic energy off of the ilithid pods and the people would occasionally see this thing as a large amorphous mask with tentacles in the villagers around this lake were terrified.

[@DDHomebrew]

This is such a cool idea! Combining the mechanics of RPG with the folklore we all know?

[@helixxharpell]

Lake fishing down in south central Kentucky as a kid with my papaw & uncle one night we heard some wild ass sound and heard a big splash.. 😮 It chilled us all to the bone.. What was it? To this day, ill never forget that. 😟

[@DDHomebrew]

That's the cool part of lake monsters: they come from family stories like those!

[@helixxharpell]

@@DDHomebrew Yeah! You brought back some great memories of those days. 😃👍🏻 I believe to this day there are still strange things going on in the mtns back home! 😲

[@DDHomebrew]

@@helixxharpell It's cool how you have lake monsters in all regions!

[@Marcus-ki1en]

Magic Experiments gone wrong... Like a Owl Bear-a-cuda? ; P

[@DDHomebrew]

It can be anything you can imagine!

[@EruditeDM]

Great lake creature ideas, KR! BTW I think the word geas is pronounced “gesh”.

[@DDHomebrew]

I had no idea on geas. Turns out it's a gaelic word.

[@neutronjack7399]

Not all water monsters have to come from oceans or large lakes, some can even come from small ponds. I stole the legend of the Knucker and the Knucker Hole from English medieval legend and imported it into my Hibernia campaign. The Knucker was a dragon that lived at the bottom of a pond or small lake and would venture out to the country side to eat sheep, cows and the occasional peasant. When the players are third or fourth level, the adventure starts as the local Lord, (ri Buiden), calls the party to his chambers. A nearby village, which is under his protection, has reported a series of sheep and cattle mutilations. The head of the village, (ri Tuathe), had a couple of the villagers investigate but some were killed and the survivors keep mumbling about the "Knucker". The Knucker is basically a rebranded Young Green Dragon, who is served by a small band Kobolds. The party can fight the knucker, when it comes out to feed. Afterwards, if the party wants to dive into the pond and explore the Knucker's lair, they will find the water to be about 10' deep and comes up into a small cave, where the party finds the dragon's meager treasure and a Green Hag. The Kelpies are originally an Irish legend. There is another Irish legend I found, after Saint Patrick banished all the snakes, (and other dangerous reptiles) from Ireland, a later saint, (I'm not at home so I can't look at my notes) had an encounter with a dragon. Anyways, the saint managed to bind the creature in iron bands and banished it to the bottom of the bay outside Londonderry. This is just a set of notes, for when the party reaches the sandbox stage, but I will probably use an older green dragon for this monster and see how the party plays it. Being an island, the Irish have other denizen's of the deep, including an underwater race, where the females sometimes fall in love with human males and can be kept ashore if the man hides her sealskin cape or hat, (it varies).

[@DDHomebrew]

I really like the idea of a small pond that has a passageway leading to a much larger cave complex. Who would suspect it? I think I'd make the entrance difficult to find: perhaps the pond is unusually deep, and as such no one has realized that at the bottom, under a shelf, is the tunnel leading to this cave.

[@neutronjack7399]

@@DDHomebrew It can't be too deep, this is designed for lower level characters, who might have to hold their breath to make the trip.

[@DDHomebrew]

@@neutronjack7399 That makes it nerve wracking.

[@mistergoats4380]

One second off of being 13:37

[@DDHomebrew]

leet