Potoo Island's building blocks

I am taking a break from drawing to work a bit on Potoo’s Island.

So this project is partly based on a joke and on a dream, I don’t really know where I want to go with this, I only know that I love potoo birds and that I want to craft something fun and strange based on them.

So I did some researches on the potoos and I took a good quantity of notes. I want to do something with the legend about the potoo being the spirit of a woman who fell from the moon and who call her moon husband at night.

Since I have no clear directions, I will begin by generating encounters to populate the island and then I will try to make sense of what will emerge. I will try to use the monsters building blocks method I posted earlier.

My building blocks will be things related to the potoo and the island.

Building blocks (d8)

1. Potoo bird 
2. Bugs (beetles, moths, grasshoppers and termites) (preys) 
3. Small birds (preys that potoo swallow whole!) 
4. Falcon (predators) 
5. Monkey (predators) 
6. Shipwrecked humans (who probably messed up the balance or ecology of the island) 
7. Rotting wood, tree stumps and mushrooms (thing that potoo camouflage as) 
8. Something fallen from the moon or the sky (reference to the legend) 

I also wrote some monsters archetypes to combine with the building blocks.

Encounter types (d12)

1. Sentient humanoids 
2. Mutated specialist function 
3. Strange chimera and hybrids 
4. Wild or primordial beasts (ancient ones may speak) 
5. Spirits (linked to a element or concept) 
6. Guardians (linked to a special location, gain advantage or power from it) 
7. Corrupted, cursed or undead 
8. Monstrous hoarder (accumulate stuff) 
9. Mimics, shapeshifters 
10. Deforestation, destruction of the environment 
11. Influenced or affected by a other building block (like falcons trained by humans or a ancient potoo spirit who hate humans) (Roll a d10 on this table to determine archetype and d8 on the building blocs table to determine relation) 
12. Roll two d10 on this table and mix the results, double result give a unique champion encounter with +1HD) 

I also crafted a random table that spotlight traits or aspects of the potoos. I will roll on this table when I need inspiration.

Potoo's aspects (d10)

1. Big eyes 
2. Big mouth, eat things whole 
3. Eerie call, induce fear or sadness 
4. Camouflage 
5. Stillness (or the need to avoid movements) 
6. Nocturnal, sleepy or lazy during day 
7. Eat insects and small birds 
8. Don’t hunt on the ground, mob defense 
9. Mate for life and lay a single egg, camouflaged hidden egg. 
10. Can be cartoony or spooky

I will probably start by generating creatures for each Hit Die I want to feature on the island. Then I will assign HD to areas of the island and craft random tables around these.

My template will probably be something like:

Area HD (d6)

1. Encounter from area’s HD 
2. Encounter from area’s HD 
3. Encounter from area’s HD 
4. Encounter from lower HD 
5. Encounter from +1 HD 
6. Encounter from +2 HD 

I will post next what I will have generated with these tables.

(cartoony)

(spooky)

Bird Legs House

I love witch house with chicken legs inspired from Baba Yaga's story. 

I quickly draw one, feel free to use it if you want to create a one page dungeon, a zine or a blog post.

William F keyed the house on his blog: Auspexias Birdhouse

Nomadic Tortoisefolk and Finchfolk

Some time ago in a Google+ post I asked for a nomadic race of creature that travel long distances on foot. I would like someday to draw a large banner of a caravan of them walking in the desert.

Here is our discussion, this is how I liked to use G+. <3

Benjamin F
The tortoisefolk are huge and heavy, strong as mountains, about as quick. They wander the midlands, all their possessions lashed to their shelled backs in towering heaps of chests and barrels bags sacks crates and bundles. They sway along, singing slow low songs, almost too deep for human ears to hear, felt like a rumble in the chest. When the stars are right, they unship their possessions, raise their yurts into the shape of the prevailing moon and stomp down a dancing circle in the middle, where they perform their stamp-dances to raise good fortune for the next leg of their endless migration.

Evlyn M
Ok there is a second species that follows them around. They are dependent of the tortoises. The tortoises tolerates them and may see some minor benefits in their presence.

Benjamin F
In nature, there are several small breeds of finch which follow large tortoises around and eat the bugs and other small parasites that live in and around their folds and shells. Could be something like that maybe?

Benjamin B
I really need Finchfolk in my life. I'm imagining a bright little fatbird in a hooded jerkin.

Evlyn M
Did they lose their ability to fly?

Benjamin B
flightless, but they build kites from reeds and precious waxed paper, and the tortoises will tow the lead-lines, letting the finchins soar like their ancestors.

Benjamin F
Given that they have followed the tortoise folk for generations, perhaps they simply forgot how. Perhaps it is part of their cultural history to revere the wind and sky and their ancestors who were so much closer to it.

Benjamin F
Which, with the addition of kites, I now see the long lines of tortoises having colorful banners on thin poles whipping in the wind as they travel. Sometimes it's all you can see above the dust.

Evlyn M
I am trying to draw a bunch of characters walking together. I am having a bit of difficulty finding how to draw their back shell so that it don't unbalance their walk. I am tempted now to let them walk on four legs when they do long distances. I wonder if a back shell would be of any use to a upright bipedal humanoid.

Benjamin F
In my head they were walking on all fours. Even monkeys who theoretically can walk on two legs and use their hands for everything usually travel on all fours.

Evlyn M
yeah I think this make more sense.

Benjamin B
I imagined them curved over in a hunch, short back legs, longer arms that could double as legs. Their load would sway gently, a counter motion to their stride not unlike the subtle sway of people carrying loads on their head.

Benjamin B


Evlyn M
I will try to draw them walking on four legs using their knuckles like a gorilla.

Benjamin B
Perhaps more than one can cooperate, each carrying the corner of a large palanquin or pallet. Maybe they carry their Holly of Hollies with them, a temple of driftwood timbers preserved from their ancient island home, before they crossed to the mainland.

Evlyn M
Short legs and big gorilla like forearms, I like this visually.

Benjamin B
Had an idea - you know how some bit tortoises have big spike-like forms on their shells and limbs? The tortoisfolk would carve and round these into tie-down points to lash their loads to.

Benjamin F
Pretty sure the finch-folk also hang little baskets for the young and elderly off these.

Benjamin B
this is magnificent. Nest Baskets. Kites with bright ribbon tails. Its such a great mix of dour and steadfast and bright and flighty.

Benjamin B
Finchfolk are a short-lived people. They hatch from eggs, grow to maturity in a couple of years, and are venerable in their 30's. They are incredibly verbose, chattering constantly - they maintain their oral culture not by using the elderly as a repository, but by getting everyone up to speed incredibly quickly.

By contrast, the tortoisfolk are incredibly long-lived, reproduce only rarely (and indifferently), and are tough enough that this survival strategy works for them. So they're routinely a thousand plus years old, and would have seen generation after generation of finchfolk. Perhaps each finch family considers one of the tortoises to be 'theirs' - like a senior family member. "Grandad" or "Nanna". Each finch family anchors to one tortoise. And despite being dower and grumpy, the tortoises are very protective of their finches, and endure having their shells painted gaudy colors, and their belaying horns hung with shiny found objects and ribbon and the artwork of a hundred generation of fenchlings.

Benjamin F
I bet some of the tortoises are like the Ents in Lord of the Rings; super talkative about sleep inducing subjects of utmost interest to elderly tortoise folk.

Giant Goose Rider

Totem summoning

I am trying to draw more background images behind my characters. 

Chicken Witch

She trade magic eggs for teeth.

Duck Cursed Cuirassier

Some concepts are just hard to be intimidating. 

Puffin's Paladin

Take the paladin class and add in some bard, trisckster and fisherman abilities.