Sea Spawn

D&D 2024 monster: Sea Spawn. Source: Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. challenge rating 1, creature type Monstrosity, Medium size, speed 20... Many of the stories sung as sea chanteys and recounted in dockside taverns tell of people lost to the sea-but not merely drowned and gone. Some unfortunates taken by the ocean live on as sea spawn, haunting the waves like tortured reflections of their former selves. Coral encrusts them. Barnacles cling to their cold skin. Lungs that once filled with air can now breathe in water as well. Tales provide myriad reasons for these strange transformations. Folklore warns against falling in love with a sea elf or merfolk, braving storms in hopes of a bounteous catch, and promising your heart to a sea god. Such cautionary tales disguise the deeper truth: things lurking beneath the waves strive to claim the hearts and minds of land dwellers. Kraken, morkoths, sea hag, marid, storm giant, dragon turtle-all of these and more can mark mortals as their own and claim them as minions. Unlucky folk might become beholden to such a master through a bleak bargain, or they might find themselves cursed by one. Once warped into a fishlike form, a sea spawn can't leave the water for long without courting death. Sea spawn come in a wide variety of forms. An individual might have a tentacle for an arm, the jaws of a shark, a sea urchin's spines, a whale's fin, octopus eyes, seaweed hair, or any combination of such qualities. Some of these piscine body parts provide them with special abilities. The Sea Spawn of Purple Rocks Visitors to a string of islands called the Purple Rocks (in the Forgotten Realms setting) might notice one curious fact about the islands' human inhabitants: no infants or elderly are among them. This is because babies born to the Rocklanders are claimed by a kraken named Slarkrethel. The experience transforms the children into fanatics dedicated to the kraken. They return from the sea as humans, but when they re...