Creature
Description:
Like the Offspring of a Moth and a Wallaby
Though none would be familiar with the words “moth” or “wallaby” outside of those who regularly study incredibly ancient records, telleps look a bit like a combination of the two. Standing a little over a meter tall on average, telleps are primarily herbivores, using the grinding pads on the bottoms of their stout tails to strip lichen and moss from the mountainous cliff sides they call home. (These tails are also home to hollow calcareous stylets, essentially organic needles, which are used to extract hemolymph from dead predators. See “Nourish the Body, Poison the Mind” below for more information.)
Telleps are timid, trunked creatures covered in a fuzzy grey material similar to fur or downy feathers, have a pair of heavily muscled legs that end in small cloven hooves, and sport two pairs of lateral frills that almost disappear when folded up. Telleps use these frills as proto-winglike structures to navigate the mountainous territory they call home, for communication and threat displays towards potential predators and rivals, and (in conjunction with the numerous miniature radar emitters at the tip of the tellep’s trunk) as sensory organs to help triangulate the projection of their globules, which essentially act as soft organic bullets.
Quirks:
Edible “Bullets”
If the flaring of their frills or their high-pitched chirping isn’t enough to deter a would-be threat, telleps are able to fire a sport of natural “bullet” at their target with significant velocity. These globules or pellets are densely compacted wads of what is essentially cud, although chemical analysis of a number of specimens has confirmed the globules actually contain far more nutrients (and of greater varieties) than one would expect to be produced by an animal that primarily eats moss and lichen.
While dense, these natural bullets are rather soft and deform on impact, which reduces their effectiveness as a deterrent somewhat when striking armored targets. However, the nutritional value of even a few tellep globules is quite high, and many species thought to have once preyed on the small creatures instead frighten them into providing a free lunch instead, a behavior thought to have evolved over time.
Nourish the Body, Poison the Mind
While the relationship between telleps and their would-be predators is essentially an example of animal extortion, the relationship between hunter and hunted isn’t always quite so straightforward. If sufficiently stressed, telleps are capable of firing globules covered in a coating of sticky mucus. This mucus has psychoactive properties which, while mild if absorbed through the skin, are incredibly potent if consumed. Often, predators that consume these “drug bullets” become so disoriented that they fall to their deaths, and telleps use the calcareous stylets found in their “tails” to feed upon their bodily fluids.
It’s unclear as to whether this strategy is purposeful and telleps are deliberately killing their aggressor in order to consume their hemolymph, or whether their behavior is accidental, as telleps will scavenge other carrion they come upon, not merely animals which they themselves have killed. That being said, the longer a tellep goes without consuming hemolymph, the more likely it is to produce psychoactive mucus, so it’s likely that there is some connection.
Adventure Hooks:
Periodically, Pet Pacification Proceeds Poorly
In the city of Opalmoss, pet telleps have been the rage for over twenty years, ever since Car’Kon the Metallurgist began producing what xe called “pacification studs.” The small coppery spikes, when pierced through a tellep’s upper and lower frills, render it completely docile, no matter its temperament before. Not only will its owner no longer have to worry about the calcareous stylet in its tail or its psychoactive mucus, but once pacified, tellep become extremely affectionate pets. True, the studs need to be replaced every so often as they corrode, but that’s no worry—Car’Kon offers replacements for half-price.
Unfortunately, when the Metallurgist goes missing after their foundry is found melted to slag, there are quite a number of pacified telleps throughout Opalmoss in dire need of new studs, soon...an issue that becomes especially pressing after a few of the creatures lose more than one stud and go feral, attacking all and sundry with psychoactive mucus more potent (and toxic) than normal.
A Heart That Beats on Borrowed Time
The lives of the Amoroni-Saput (the people whose name is shared by the mountains they call home) have depended on the telleps for generations, and the animals are treated as sacred beings, revered for all that they give unto the people. The Amoroni-Saput use tellep hide for their clothing, fur for their fabric, hooves for their glue, radar emitters for communication, and psychoactive mucus for their holy rites, viewing it as a gift from their ancestors for its ability to expand the horizons of the mind and elevate the spirit from this tellurian plane. However, when Saumhoornil (an old Amoroni-Saput friend of theirs) finds them, the PCs learn something has gone terribly wrong with the telleps of the mountains.
For the last season, tellep mucus has somehow changed, becoming more varied in color, intensity, and effect. This has drastically affected Amoroni-Saput shamans’ abilities to perform birth welcomings, marriages, and funerary rites, and worst of all, their most ancient and revered shaman has seemingly been poisoned by the latest batch of altered mucus. Saumhoornil asks for their help in uncovering the cause behind this change and explains that time is running out—for the PCs’ friend and the shaman. It seems that the poisoned shaman is Saumhoornil’s only living family member, and to keep them alive, Saumhoornil has performed imqi’ohqi, a ritual where a healthy member of the tribe gives up some of their blood to one who is in need, replacing it with godtears, to be changed back into regular blood with a tellep mucus-derived compound.
Normally, one only gives up a fifth or a quarter of one’s blood in imqi’ohqi, but Saumhoornil gave up nine-tenths of theirs, and without untainted mucus to change the godtears in their veins back into blood, the PCs’ friend will surely die. Until that point, however, Saumhoornil’s status as imqi (more powerful than any in Amoroni-Saput history) gives them an insight into the realm beyond this one, an insight that tells them the PCs are the key to healing the telleps and saving their life.
Would-Be Shepherds Would Do Well to Remember “Caveat Emptor”
The PCs stay the night at a small farmhouse with a gregarious family of tokasheru (five-legged sophonts with an affection for simple living, hard work, and total pacifism). It seems the tokasheru have decided to take up tellep farming in an effort to add some flavor to their diet that meets with their high philosophical standards. Up until recently, they’d depended on a Wonder capable of creating a nutritious, if exceedingly bland, gruel, but when a traveling merchant passed by a few tendays past, the tokasheru used the last of their savings to purchase a small herd of telleps. The globules harvested from the telleps would not only be a welcome addition to their meals, but they could sell them for extra money as well.
Unfortunately, the PCs’ hosts explain, if the telleps do not regularly feed on hemolymph, their globules become coated with a disgusting mucus. (The tokasheru are immune to its psychoactive properties, but it utterly ruins the organic projectiles as a source of food for them.) Although they hesitate to ask, the tokasheru would greatly appreciate if the PCs could bring back any dead arthropods they find on their travels in the nearby area.
If the PCs accept the quest and slay an arthropod, they’ll soon find themselves traveling alongside the robotic merchant described by their tokasheru friends—a member of the Eukeynes Consolidation, in fact. The telepresence drone remarks on the PCs’ bounty, and inquires as to whether they’d be interested in its latest offering: an exceedingly realistic (albeit, synthetic) arthropod “corpse” that comes complete with a hemolymph dispenser, as well as a month’s supply of hemolymph pellets to fill it—just add water!
Will the PCs react kindly to a merchant who dealt their pacifist friends a bad hand? Are they willing to upset the powerful economic force that is the Eukeynes Consolidation? Can they figure out a way to beg, borrow, or steal the hemolymph? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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