Monster Monday: 10 Remorhaz Lore Hooks

Monster Mondays began as a series of posts inspired by James Jacobs’ 10 goblin facts written for Pathfinder. Now, I’m creating new lore, encounters, unique NPCs and more for creatures in the Monster Manual. The goal is to provide habits, scene-setting tools, encounter hooks, and more variety, especially for monsters that don’t get quite as much love as dragons, beholders, mind flayers, and liches.

It’s May, and it’s time to get back on the blogging horse after a partial break to get my Youtube channel started and rest my keyboard from the Month of the Dragon shenanigans. I’ve got some new formats planned that I’ll be debuting later in the month, but we’re resuming Monster Mondays with a traditional post focusing on 10 new bits of lore to flavor your remorhaz encounters.

The Monster Manual describes remorhazes (Yes, that is the plural. Yes, I double checked.) as big, polar bear eating centipedes with an internal source of heat so hot it allows them to survive arctic climes and scald their foes. Remorhazes burrow beneath the ice and snow, and frost giants value them as guard dogs bugs for their lairs.

10 Remorhaz Lore Hooks

1. Remorhazes aren’t just found alongside frost giants. Steam mephits are attracted to the creatures, often clinging to their backs, basking in the heat they emit. The average remorhaz is only loosely aware of such a creatures presence, but the mephits will fend off attackers to protect the source of warmth and steam in the bitter cold.
2. Remorhazes have big appetites to suit their massive bodies and the energy required to produce their heated ichor. Some develop a special taste for eggs, wyrmlings, and even young white dragons. Battles between the insectoid monsters and their would-be draconic prey are spectacular and destructive.
3. Due to their physiological similarities and shared immunity to both cold and heat, some mages believe that ice devils and remorhazes are related in some fashion. Some argue for a shared monstrous ancestor while others believe ice devils were first spawned from remorhaz eggs hatched in one of the Nine Hells. Still others hypothesize the intermingling of ice devil and frost giant through magic created the bloodline that would one day become remorhazes.
4. In volcanic polar regions, some cultures believe that the world itself is a remorhaz curled into a ball. This same belief is typically paired with a variety of apocalyptic prophecies about the remorhaz dying or unfurling itself.
5. Those that live alongside remorhazes have learned to benefit from the deadly beasts in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most common is the use of old remorhaz tunnels as homes and roads, allowing smaller creatures to live and travel sheltered from the elements.
6. Some cultures have mimicked the frost giants, stealing the eggs from a remorhaz’s nest and, typically through magical modification, domesticating the offspring. There are nomadic cultures that rumble across the arctic tundra on the backs of tamed remorhazes.
7. To the enterprising artisan, engineer, or alchemist, a remorhaz corpse is a gold mine. The heated ichor of a remorhaz can be refined into an oil suitable for heating, lighting, and fueling machines. It can also be brewed into potions. Some polar cultures brew it into a strange, thick drink.
8. The molted shells of a remorhaz are also useful. Skilled artisans can work them into a sort of stiff leather for a chitinous armor that resists both cold and fire.
9. An entire industry of mercenary-trappers has developed in response to the demand for remorhaz ichor, shells, and eggs as well as the threat posed by an outsized population of the beasts. Riding sled-ships across the snowy wastes, these hunters utilize a variety of techniques to lure out and slay the creatures. Most employ large drums to lure the monsters to the surface. To kill them, some bait explosives, some shoot harpoons, and the rarer sort dive into the remorhaz’s maw to slay it from the inside.
10. Remorhazes lay their eggs in the short, polar summers, dragging half-alive prey or carrion into shallow burrows and depositing an egg sack inside the prey to ensure their young will have a bountiful first meal.