Magru
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The magru appears to be a huge, gelatinous red lump that pulses, swelling and shrinking slightly with a hypnotic rhythm. Its skin glistens with a dark, disgusting ooze.
Invulnerabilities
Any weapon attack except for one-handed blunt weapons is useless against a magru.
Magru are also immune to fire damage.
You utter a light chant and raise your hands, beckoning the lesser spirits to aid you with the Fire Spirit spell...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a magru.
You hurl a roaring ball of fire at a magru!
AS: +265 vs DS: +75 with AvD: +70 + d100 roll: +86 = +346
The magru scoffs at the heat!
The roaring ball of fire strikes a magru, blossoming into a much larger sphere of flame upon impact.
The magru scoffs at the heat!
A burst of flame from your roaring ball of fire flies off and hits a magru.
The magru scoffs at the heat!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
Magru will not stun. They seem to be unaffected by Pestilence (716) flares, even when they should have no chance of warding.
Stream of Fluid
More offensive stances are safer against the magru's stream of fluid attack, which causes acid damage.
- Successful dodge:
A magru pulsates violently and a stream of dark fluid shoots out in your direction!
You try to dodge out of the way and manage to avoid the stream of fluid.
- Mild hit:
A magru pulsates violently and a stream of dark fluid shoots out in your direction!
You try to dodge out of the way but you are struck by the stream of fluid!
Hit for 3 concussion points.
... 2 points of damage!
Bit of acid strikes your calf leaving bright red spots.
- Major hit:
A magru pulsates violently and a stream of dark fluid shoots out in your direction!
You try to dodge out of the way but you are struck by the stream of fluid!
Hit for 5 concussion points.
... 22 points of damage!
Acid dissolves the skin on the neck exposing the windpipe!
You are stunned for 6 rounds!
Looting Gems
- Perception plays a role in searching or looting them. Each search causes one minor hand injury and uncovers between zero and three gems. There is no known way to avoid the hand wound, so access to a good bundle of ambrominas leaf or Troll's Blood (1125) is recommended. Alternatively, one might be able to ignore the wounds allow the minors to accumulate to mediums, effectively maintaining two fractured and bleeding hands.
You reach out to search the magru.
As soon as you make contact with it, you feel an intense burning sensation! You are injured!
You do not find anything in the disgusting pile of jelly.
The remains of a magru evaporate away.
You reach out to search the magru.
As soon as you make contact with it, you feel an intense burning sensation! You are injured!
You find a white opal, a large black pearl and a turquoise stone concealed in the disgusting pile of jelly!
The remains of a magru evaporate away.
Other Messaging
In spite of their background lore and the bone pit, the magru do not eat your flesh when they kill you.
The surface of the magru suddenly pulsates, forming a long blunt appendage! A magru pounds at you with its fist! AS: +210 vs DS: +290 with AvD: +42 + d100 roll: +80 = +42 A clean miss. A magru heads southwest. A magru just arrived. A magru pulsates violently and a stream of dark fluid shoots out in your direction! You try to roll out of the way but you are struck by the stream of fluid! Hit for 19 concussion points. ... 60 points of damage! Acid eats into lungs. Hemorrhaging fills your lungs with fluid! (death) A magru pulses, swelling and shrinking slightly. A magru heads southeast.
Behind The Scenes
Uthex Kathiasas named these "lug'shuk traglaakh" (Iruaric: "ugly fire cave makers" [actually a subtle play on words in Iruaric, see explanation below]), which formed parts or all of the Dark Grotto. "shuk" would be plausibly derived from "shulu" as well, which is the Iruaric word for "wet", referencing their acidic sprays and gelatinous bodies. These were "other standard" (non-demonic) extra-planar entities from Rolemaster called Absorbers. They originated on a highly caustic "unearthly" plane of existence, and were always trying to escape to others, because there was almost no flesh left for them to absorb. They would use the mass of the flesh to replicate themselves, like v'reen morphs in the modern history. Whether "magru" was an homage to the grue trope can only be guessed.
While intelligent, they were utterly alien, so no one knew how to communicate with them. They would follow portals wherever they led. Absorbers would attack with acid, causing heat criticals, and were so caustic most weapons were useless on them. Their immunity to fire is unique to GemStone. They are not considered extraplanar beings for system purposes in GemStone IV.
The Broken Lands contains numerous allusions to "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H.P. Lovecraft. The magru may be a split reference to the "toad-things", who lived on the moon with black cats and almost-humans, with the myklian who are solidly amphibious but not oozingly gelatinous and morphic. In the story these factions slaughter each other with reference to the "blasphemous plateau" of fungi. The word "shuk" is also a particularly odd composite glyph, possibly incorporating the concept of "hulkanen", implying the magru make worlds and whatever they touch ugly, barren and empty.
Interestingly, "traglaakh" was probably a dark joke, because "trag" is not proper Iruaric. The Iruaric glossary in the Tomes of Kulthea used "laakh" to mean both "maker" and "lost", when the source material has maker being "lavan." It was apparently an intentional typographical error, so the phrase would have a double meaning, referring to two separate properties. Since "trog" is cavern, and "shu" is fire, players interpreted it as "ugly fire cave makers." (Similarly, this version of the glossary is missing the translation for the word fire or flames, pushing players away from translating it that way. It added lore about symbols containing multiple meanings.) It would more literally mean "ugly fiery wet traag losers", or "made from the loss of traag", which were another kind of "other standard" extra-planar entity. Traag resembled huge black panthers, which were known for their demonic summoning, residing in subterranean chambers. Uthex was implying he had Traag, but the magru ate them all.
References
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