Loqoloth
Leanna broke through the final door, the stone shattering under her Warhammer, shards skittering out into the cavern. The deep red glow of the lava pouring into the room cast her face in hard relief.
“This is it, the bastard worm has to be here”
The noise that filled the cavern was inhuman, a low buzzing and high chittering.
“What the hells is that?” G’pal whispered as they enter the room
“Gods know”
They both headed deeper into the rocky landscape, ducking behind stalagmites and boulders where they could, as they crept toward their foe, the foul despoiler Ratark The Ultraloth.
They both stepped out into the clearing, weapons drawn, magics powered.
“Ratark!” Leanna yelled up at the throne of bones before her, “We come to exact vengeance for the defiling of Fulltown, the corruption of Lady Harmark, and the poisoning of Sunbless Village. You will answer for your abominations with your life!”
The Ultraloth looked down from their throne, a look of puzzlement on their face, and with a wave of their hand, dispassionately ordered, “Deal with them”
At that, the noise grew to overwhelming levels, as from every nook and cranny, small grey insectoid creatures poured, claws glistening and eyes wide….
The Loqoloth is the lowest of the low in the great armies of Gehenna, they spend their days flitting about their masters, usually an Oinoloth or an Ultraloth, tending to their immediate needs. They fetch and carry, open doors, and act as somewhere between slaves and servants.
They have small grey bodies, with leathery grey wings and wide yellow eyes. Their insectoid mouths click and chitter constantly, filling the air with a fetid barrage of noise.
Minion Masterclass continues, this week we’re heading to the lower planes with the Loqoloth, a brand-new Yugoloth.
I’ve always had a love for Yugloths, the idea of the neutral fighters in the Blood War, switching sides as they saw an advantage, masters of contracts but beholden to nothing they have agreed to. The idea that they are working towards some grand goal, with information collecting with the Arcanoloths, but also working as evil mercenaries in their own way. But the lowest CR available is 3, so not much scope for minions, I’ve made this to fill that gap.
The core idea behind these fiends is that they sort of exist around the actual baddie as a sort of haze of attendants, trying to serve every need to fulfill their overall mission. Your players might meet one first, off doing something for their master, but most likely they will be a sea of minions to wade through when they confront the BBEG.
In terms of the design, they have small versions of all the classic traits of a yugoloth, the resistance to non-magical fire (being from Gehenna), Abyssal and Infernal languages, and a simple claw attack. The new bits are the Chittering Madness ability and the Panic! reaction.
The former of these aimed to beef up the effects of these, that the players might hear the Loqoloths first, a distant noise, and also helps to make them something more than just meat to hit in combat.
The latter is aimed to be a fun roleplay ability in combat, either when the players somehow break the line of sight (Wall, Smoke, Darkness, etc) the Loqoloth becomes chaotic, or if they manage to fell the BBEG first, absolute hell will break out on the battlefield, with all the remaining Loqoloths running all over the place and swinging wildly at everyone they can, other Loqoloths included!
And that’s it for another week, see you next week for the thrilling conclusion of Minion Masterclass - The Clockwork Infantry…