• The Time Monster – while the monster of the title is described as belonging to a race of beings (the Chronovores) we don’t see any others, so it’s hard to know what their generic abilities might be, and I will therefore leave them out. I will also leave the Minotaur until later.
• The Three Doctors – while there are antimatter blobs in this story, they’re more a peril than a ‘monster’, and the real foe is Omega, so this is another one I will skip.
Next up is Carnival of Monsters. Despite the title, most of the monsters are only seen briefly over the viewing screen. The only exceptions, and the only ones that are original to the story, are the drashigs. This is their only significant appearance on screen so far, but they have proved popular enough in the ‘deadly alien animals’ niche to appear in two of the spin-off novels and two of the audios – in each case, making one appearance inside a miniscope, and one out in the wild.
The audio Planet of the Drashigs makes the most use of them, as a sort of Jurassic Park homage that introduces two new subtypes of the creatures. But I will stick with the version seen on screen.
Description and Biology
The drashigs are large creatures with snake-like bodies. Their bodies appear to be segmented, more like earthworms than snakes, although this may well be a muscular adaptation for a worm-like mode of movement rather than a reflection of genuine segmentation in their internal anatomy. The head is also not snake-like, having a shape similar to that of a dog and decidedly mammalian teeth (for good reason, considering how the prop was made for the series).
From both this, and the description of their behaviour, we can infer a mode of attack quite different from that of either venomous or constrictor snakes. For instance, while they probably do eat smaller prey whole, they are unlikely to swallow larger prey in the way that snakes do; those teeth are clearly there for something.
The other distinctive feature, of course, is the presence of six eyestalks on the head. Although we’re told that they hunt by scent, the number of eyes, and the fact that they’re raised above the level of the head implies that vision is also important - and there are, of course, many real-world animals that use a combination of vision and scent to track prey. The eyestalks make perfect sense for a creature that can ambush prey by hiding beneath swamp water, although such an adaptation could be even more useful for a herbivore wanting to look out for predators around it, so perhaps drashigs evolved from something less dangerous.
That there are six eyes, rather than two, is unusual from a real-world perspective; while spiders, for example, do have multiple eyes, those that require good binocular vision for hunting (rather than allowing prey to fall into their webs) tend to have two that are much larger than the others, which they use for that purpose. This may imply an unusual brain structure.
While there is a published non-canonical source that states otherwise, drashigs are indicated to be alien in the canonical material. This means that we know little about their more detailed biology. For instance, just because they look reptilian, this is no guarantee that they lay eggs or that they’re cold-blooded.
Game Attributes
Clearly, our starting point for drashigs is not going to be the humanoid base levels that I have been using for most aliens. For a start, drashigs are much larger than humans. Exactly how much larger is difficult to gauge since there are no shots in the serial that give us a firm basis for comparison, but the creatures are undeniably substantial. This alone would give them significant resistance to damage, and they also seem to have a tough hide, making them difficult to injure.
Their strength at least matches their size and may even be higher than we might typically expect. We’re told, for instance, that they can literally eat a spaceship, although this comes from a man who has good reason to exaggerate and who, even if he is being honest, might simply be repeating an urban legend. Either way, they have a powerful bite, although they don’t look to be agile enough to, say, swat somebody with their tails as a means of attack. Indeed, their overall agility is likely unimpressive, although probably not terrible.
Drashigs are regular, non-sentient, animals, and in some systems will therefore not receive any statistics related to intelligence. Where such figures are given, there’s no particular reason to limit such alien beings to the low ratings often given to crocodiles and the like, and their ability at tracking probably implies something closer to a cat or dog. Speaking of which, since they hunt at least partially by scent, we know that they have a particularly keen sense in that area.
5E - Drashig
Huge animal, unaligned
Armour Class: 16 (natural)
Hit Points: 105 (10d12+40)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 22 (+6) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 18 (+4) |
INT 3 (-4) | WIS 12 (+1) | CHA 12 (+1) |
Skills: Perception +3, Survival +3
Senses: Passive Perception 13
Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (1d12+6) slashing damage
Challenge: 3 (700 XP)
BRP - Drashig
STR 4D6+30 (44) | CON 3D6+6 (16-17) | SIZ 4D6+24 (38) |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 28 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 3 | Damage Bonus: +4D6 |
Armour: 10-point tough hide
Skills: Track 75%
Combat Skills: Brawl 60% (1D10+4D6 damage)
GURPS - Drashig
ST 25 | DX 10 | IQ 5 | HT 16 |
Damage: 2d+2 | Move: 5 | ||
DR: 10 | Size: 6 |
Traits: 360° Vision, Discriminatory Smell, No Legs (slithers)
Savage Worlds - Drashig
Agility: d8 | Smarts: d6 (A) | Spirit: d10 |
Strength: d12+6 | Vigour: d12 |
Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d12, Notice d8
Special Abilities: Bite (Str+d6)
Powers: Blast, Intangibility, Mind Link, Telekinesis
Pace: 6 Parry: 8 Toughness: 8 (4) Size: 7 (large)
STA - Drashig
Control: 6 | Fitness: 12 | Presence: 10 |
Daring: 10 | Insight: 5 | Reason: 4 |
Command: 2 | Security: 2 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 21 | Resistance: 2 |
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