Wednesday 13 April 2011

K is for Kraken: Digging for Gems in the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide

DSG page 88: Within the Lower Lake of Deepearth there is a massive kraken that has somehow adapted itself to live in fresh water.

This seems like a stretch of biological truth (to allow a salt water Kraken to inhabit a deep dark underground lake).

And yes biological truth is important in a fantasy world; but not at the expense of coolness.

And a Kraken inhabiting a deep dark underground lake is cool.

OR

OR

OR
Hey, where did she come from? Google.

Anyway, in the DSG there is a picture.
Here it is.


Now, I love illustrations that speak to the text (or vice versa), and in the Lower Lake of Deepearth, near the center of the ceiling, a constant column of water spills from the drain in the Upper Lake. The water around this column is quite turbulent, but the rest of the lake is rather placid (Lake Placid - no, don't say it!)

Now, I'm not sure in the pic, that isn't some giant stalactite. But what if was that column of water draining from an upper lake? And what if there was a Kraken living in the depths? And what if one could take that ferry across that lake? Wow. And what if Lake Placid had been a good movie?


Gems we should take
1. Deepearth can be a very cool setting, especially with a Kraken that has somehow adapted itself to live in fresh water.

5 comments:

  1. Perhaps the creator was trying to lend an added air of sinister to an already scary creature? I'm stopping by from the A to Z challenge and I look forward to reading more from you.

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  2. I am going to see your fresh water kraken, and raise you a PSIONIC fresh water kraken!

    It only makes sense. How do they keep their slaves in line? Mind control!

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  3. You're right. Krakens are awesome! :-)

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  4. flying, astral, psionic sonic kraken.

    and its scarier cousin, psionic microkraken.

    Love that picture. Is that an electric ferry?

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  5. Thanks Sylvia and Misha, one of the nice things about AtoZ'ing is the comments and views by people other than the select group of nerds of nerdom (come on, we like an obscure branch of nerdom), all of whom I proudly blog with.

    Krakens are indeed cool - where's your psionic Kraken Justin?

    @Richard - electric ferry - who knows but it does make you want your character on that boat going somewhere.

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