Rrougath

Name: Rrougath (The double r is pronounced by gurgling in the back of your throat. Try it, it’s fun!) Species: Half dragon, half monstrous spider Gender: Unknown Age: Approx 180 years History: Years ago, a powerful covey of hags began threatening a community of good-aligned cave dwelling dragons. Upon confronting the hags, they turned out to be much more difficult to deal with than they had anticipated; they seemed to be aided by some fell power, and conflict after conflict incurred heavy losses on the dragon’s side. Finally, while several of the dragons were attacking the hags’ mind slaves and destroying their hag eyes, the leader of the dragons, Argaliel the Radiant, was able to locate the trio and attack them directly. He defeated them, but with their dying breaths, they cursed him with a plague of insanity that would gradually consume him. Victory was won, but as they returned home, their leader was already beginning to show signs of madness, which none of their healers were able to cure. While he still had some of his faculties, Argaliel went off alone one night so that when the insanity entirely claimed him, he would not be a threat to the rest of his community. He traveled far, and when the madness had all but taken him, he landed in a dense, dark swamp land surrounded by trees. After totally losing his mind, he polymorphed into a giant spider and lived the rest of his days in that form. Before the end, he mated with a female monstrous spider, who killed and consumed him after mating. Of her brood, only a single spiderling survived. The creature grew rapidly and became terribly strong. Rumors that some horrible abomination was living in the darkest regions of the forest began to surface. It began to be known as Rrougath. How this came to be the creature’s name is not known, for though there have been those (though very few) who have seen it and escaped with their lives, there are no reports of the creature ever deigning to speak. Those who have seen it do tell tales of an immense spider-like creature, the size of a small hut, with the head and neck of a dragon, long fangs dripping with poison, but not a poison that kills… no, this horrid creature, after catching its prey, hangs them carefully around its massive web. Then, when it hungers, it sets fire to the entire web, then devours the charred corpses and ash that remain. It’s said that Rrougath’s favorite prey are young dragons. Whether it has a particular taste for dragonflesh or simply a deep-seated hatred for all dragonkind is unknown. But if it can spot a young dragon unaccompanied by an adult, it will do everything in its power to bring them down, stalking them for days if necessary. Dragon mothers have taken to telling this story to their little ones in order to convince them not to go wandering off on their own.

Wow… what you see before you is not only my finished entry for ’s create a creature contest, but also an excellent example of an art project taking on a life of its own! This started as an idea I had years ago for what I thought would make a terrible yet awesome monster, went through a series of concept sketches, and then somehow became this monstrosity. (I got so into it, I even made it into a monster for Dungeons and Dragons… [link]) I… almost feel bad for putting that poor little guy in Rrougath’s clutches… (Lesson to all dragonlings: Listen to your mother!) I kinda feel like I need to make up for making something so dark and scary by making something cute and fluffy… Well, we’ll see how long that inclination lasts… I don’t know how long I took on this, but it was a long time.