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Joshua Scheele replied to the topic What is the most bizarre creature you have created for your WIP? in the forum Fantasy Writers 4 years, 1 month ago
That’s an awesome creature you have there. I haven’t gotten around to my aquatic creatures yet but I will definitely have some small to leviathan size predators. I would say most of my creatures are pretty normal-ish for fantasy.
I have a lot of underground wildlife. I would say the most bizarre of them is the “Bludryx.” They are rodent-mole-like creatures the size of small house cats. They live in small packs but given enough time and food, they can become a scourge that spells death for any creature. Thankfully they rarely make it out to the surface from their cavern. They have the durability of a cockroach with plate-like armor carapace on their head and back and with large crushing jaws. They don’t have eyes but have a good sense of smell and terrifyingly good hearing. Plus they can almost see moving objects or creatures with vibrations. They like to make holes in the side of passages to hide and sleep till something tries to pass by.
Even a dragon who decides to live in the same cavern will never set foot on the ground.
A couple of things they don’t like is heat and high-pitched sounds.
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Thank you, Joshua! Do your dragons breathe fire? Seems like your dragons could pretty much clear out a cave of “bludryx”, if so. What would make a dragon fear a “bludryx”? Is there another quality they possess that could bring down a dragon? If a dragon belches smoke, does the smoke overpower their sense of smell? If subtle noises agitate them, how do they sleep? Do their senses shut down or dull like that of a hibernating bear? If so, seems like you could have a suspenseful scene where a character realizes they are in a cavern infested with sleeping “bludryx” and they are desperately trying to avoid rousing them.
What I wonder about is if in creating seemingly “invincible” creatures or characters, we lose the sense of chance that they have a credible foil or weakness. Just wondering.
Yeah, certain dragons do. There are eyeless dragons much like them who live in caves as part of their ecosystem and can use sharp piercing sounds as a weapon to ward off the bludryx when they get bold with their numbers. Bludryx just use their endurance, jaws, and numbers to overwhelm large prey. Smoke and heat is the best way to keep them at bay. I would say their sense dull down when sleeping till they hear the right amount of sound or vibration to know something alive is moving in their vicinity. You can count on that scene happening plus other exciting ones. They will definitely seem hopeless to beat but not impossible to kill once you know their weaknesses. I think the invincibility is just a great way to keep people on the edge and when a character does the impossible it is like a touchdown. At least that is how it always is for me.