There are anomalies and special creatures born of every race and species. It is what drives some of them to become adventurers and heroes. But this is not strictly the purview of the heroes – there are monsters and other creatures out there that buck the traditions of their kin and rise to become more. Lysandros is just one of these creatures.
Apparently in keeping with the whole “underground/cavern theme” that I started last week with Irrkthul, the goblin cave druid, I got sucked into looking at the ettercap’s stat block. I’ve heard them described as “the spider assassins of the DND world” and decided that actually giving them Rogue levels could only serve to make that more true (and make the ettercap more dangerous). And so Lysandros was born.
No one really knows where the ettercap who goes by Lysandros received their training or indeed, even where they learned to speak common. And if it wasn’t for multiple reports of the creature by reputable sources, the creature might be written off as the over-active imagination of a man stuck too long underground. However, Lysandros is very, very real, and they protect their home turf with a cunning and a ferocity that make it a dangerous opponent to cross. Despite their ability and training, they don’t seem interested in making coin by performing assassinations in the outside world, but would rather spend their time raising broods of spiders in their home caverns. Legends however state that if you can find what Lysandros desires, the ettercap will perform a service for you – name your target and they will find their life ended by the unnatural assassin. However, legends differ on what that price is, ranging from particularly shiny rocks and metallic string to magical items, to rare species of spider and everything in between, so they are best taken with a grain of salt. Still, it had to have learned to speak somewhere, so the right person or group of people might be able to strike a deal with a creature such as Lysandros.
Ben Erickson
