DW Monsters: Gelth

The third story in the revised series is The Unquiet Dead, for which the alien menace are the Gelth. They are a one-off monster in the TV series, and, apart from a few minor mentions here and there, have only appeared once since, and that in a short story, rather than anything more substantial.

Description and Biology

We are told that the Gelth were originally regular organic beings. They somehow lost their physical bodies during the Time War, becoming gaseous instead. How this would work is obviously unclear, but, in fairness, we have little idea from the TV series of how exactly the Time War was fought or what the weapons brought to bear in it were capable of.

Either way, the Gelth as they are now are gaseous wraiths, capable of creating partially humanoid shapes, but generally not bothering to do so. The evidence suggests that are composed of organic gases; they can survive without difficulty in natural gas, which is mostly methane, so it’s unlikely they contain much of that or they’d diffuse away, but ethane, propane, butane, and more complex hydrocarbons may all be involved. Biologically, it’s hard to see how this could possibly work, at least in Earth-like conditions, so a more likely explanation is that the body is somehow held together by force of psychic will.

Which is basically saying “it’s magic”, rather like the air elementals of fantasy games, but it’s what we’ve got.

The Gelth can control and move their gaseous substance around which, in the context of the story, means that they can inhabit the putrefying gases inside a human corpse and make it move around. Their preference for humans here, since any other animal would surely also work, is likely a simple matter of availability, given where they happened to appear. Assuming that they were originally humanoid, as the briefly-seen blue form implies, there’s probably also an improved degree of familiarity with the form that makes it easier (and arguably more useful) for them to animate a human cadaver than, say, a dead rat.

We know essentially nothing of Gelth society and culture, beyond the fact that it was destroyed in the Time War. We don’t know whether they breathe or how they obtain energy although whatever they do it’s likely not obvious – obtaining energy from the air molecules around them, say. Lacking any actual sense organs, we’re again left with psychic powers to explain how they navigate the world around them; perhaps the ‘real’ Gelth are purely psychic constructs that find it easiest to interact with the environment by controlling gas molecules. Although, if so, the molecules must act as a necessary tether, since destroying them (by combustion) kills the Gelth and prevents it from reforming.

How, and even if, Gelth reproduce is equally mysterious. Potentially, it could be an ability that they lost when they lost their bodies, although with “billions” of them supposedly still in existence at the time of the TV story, that must have been a recent event for them – for whatever that means in the Time War.

Game Attributes

While inhabiting human bodies, the Gelth are essentially zombies, a concept familiar in many fantasy games and echoed a few other times in Doctor Who itself. We can see that they move slowly and clumsily, doubtless due to the difficulty of the Gelth controlling the host body, and there’s no evidence to suggest that they are any physically stronger than they were in life. They likely are physically resilient, however, being unable to bleed to death and having no vital organs since they are animated purely by the putrefying gases inside them. Similarly, they won’t feel pain, since even if their nerve endings are still functional (which seems unlikely) the Gelth isn’t actually inhabiting their nervous system and wouldn’t receive any signals from it. Destroying the zombies is instead a matter of somehow getting the gas to leave the body or destroying enough of it that it’s no longer functional.

Depending on the game system, this could be quite difficult or just a case of knocking a few hit points off.

The Zombies seem unintelligent, partly because the Gelth don’t seem to have enough control of their vocal cords to be able to speak. Logically, this is something they could get the hang of with time, since gas moving about is rather how speech works, but gaining the necessary fine control evidently isn’t a simple process. Nonetheless, while it may appear stupid, the zombie is directly controlled by a Gelth, and these are presumably no less intelligent than the average human – and their leaders likely more so. Some remnant of the original soul apparently remains, but the Gelth seem to be able to force it down with a little effort.

There’s also the question of the Gelth in their natural form. Here, they appear agile but have a physical strength no more powerful than a breeze, likely at the very minimum that a given system will allow. How difficult they are to destroy depends on how strongly the animating force can hold the molecules together and, from everything we see, that’s pretty tough. Physical attacks aren’t going to do anything to them, so we’re left with psychic assaults and effects that might change their chemical composition. The obvious example here is combustion, since we know they are flammable, and this seems a particularly high vulnerability. (When it comes to D&D, it’s worth noting that lightning attacks would probably also ignite them).

They probably can’t be poisoned, even with other gases – unless, perhaps the ’poison’ reacts with their hydrocarbon molecules to make something they can’t control. But this isn’t necessarily an issue in plausible conditions. For example, while hydrocarbons react with chlorine, the result is usually still a gas, which the Gelth may not have any problem animating… although they’re likely to smell worse as a result.

Lack of any knowledge of their culture makes it harder to say what skills the typical Gelth might have. Being so silent, they’re going to be stealthy and they can evidently sense their environment and communicate with anyone who is psychic, but otherwise we don’t see them doing anything that’s indicative of what they get up to. Possibly not much, lacking bodies as they do.

Other than psychic communication, their only special power is the ability to possess corpses.

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5E - Gelth Zombie

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armour Class: 8 (natural)

Hit Points: 34 (4d8+16)

Speed: 20 ft.

STR 10 (+0)	DEX 6 (-2)	CON 18 (+4)
INT 10 (+0)	WIS 10 (+0)	CHA 6 (-2)

Damage Resistances: piercing, bludgeoning

Damage Immunities: poison

Condition Immunities: poisoned

Senses: Passive Perception 10

Actions:

Unarmed. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage.

Challenge: 1/8 (25 XP)

5E - Gelth

Medium elemental, neutral evil

Armour Class: 18 (partially insubstantial)

Hit Points: 26 (4d8+8)

Speed: fly 60 ft.

STR 1 (-4)	DEX 16 (+3)	CON 14 (+2)
INT 10 (+0)	WIS 10 (+0)	CHA 10 (+0)

Skills: Deception +2, Stealth +5

Damage Resistances: cold, poison, thunder

Damage Immunities: acid, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing

Damage Vulnerabilities: fire, lightning

Condition Immunities: grappled, paralysed, prone, restrained

Senses: Passive Perception 10

Actions:

Possession. As an action, a Gelth can possess a recently deceased corpse, creating a Gelth Zombie, which becomes active at the beginning of the next round. If the zombie falls to 0 hit points, the Gelth is released unharmed, but then becomes vulnerable to external attacks.

Challenge: 1/4 (50 XP)

BRP - Gelth Zombie

STR 3D6 (10-11)	CON 2D6+9 (16)	SIZ 2D6+6 (13)
INT 2D6+6 (13)	POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 2D6 (7)	CHA 2D6 (7)
Hit Points: 15	Move: 8
Base SR: 6	Damage Bonus: +1D4

Armour: None

Skills: Grapple 50%, Stealth 30%

Combat Skills: Brawling 50%, damage: 1D3+1D4

BRP - Gelth

STR 0	CON 2D6+9 (16)	SIZ 1D6+6 (9-10)
INT 2D6+6 (13)	POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 2D6+9 (16)	CHA 3D6 (10-11)
Hit Points: 13	Move: 15
Base SR: 7

Armour: None

Skills: Dodge 80%, Fly 70%, Persuade 50%

Possession: A Gelth can possess a recently deceased corpse, taking one round to enter and animate the body. This creates a Gelth Zombie, which becomes active at the beginning of the next round. If the zombie is destroyed, the Gelth is released unharmed, but then becomes vulnerable to external attacks.

GURPS - Gelth Zombie

ST 10	DX 6	IQ 10	HT 14
Thrust: 1d-2		Swing: 1d
Speed: 5		Move: 3

Advantages: Doesn’t Eat or Drink, Doesn’t Sleep, High Pain Threshold, Injury Tolerance (Unliving)

Disadvantages: Appearance (ugly), Bad Smell, Cannot Speak, Compulsive Behaviour, Unhealing

Skills: Brawling-10, Stealth-8, Wrestling-10

GURPS - Gelth

ST 0	DX 16	IQ 10	HT 14
Thrust: 0		Swing: 0
Speed: 7.5		Move: 7
Size: -2		HP: 10

Advantages: Body of Air, Doesn't Eat of Drink, Doesn't Sleep, Enhanced Move-1 (Air), Possession (parasitic, dead bodies only), Telecommunication

Skills: Acting-12, Persuade-12, Stealth-18

Savage Worlds - Gelth Zombie

Agility: d6	Smarts: d8	Spirit: d8
Strength: d8	Vigour: d10

Skills: Fighting d4, Stealth d6

Hindrances: Mute, Slow (major), Ugly

Special Abilities: Undead

Pace: 4                  Parry: 4                 Toughness: 7                      Size: 0

Savage Worlds - Gelth

Agility: d12	Smarts: d8	Spirit: d8
Strength: 1	Vigour: d10

Skills: Persuasion d6, Stealth d8

Edges: Dodge

Powers: Possession (can possess a recently deceased corpse, taking one round to enter and animate the body. This creates a Gelth Zombie, which becomes active at the beginning of the next round. If the zombie is destroyed, the Gelth is released unharmed, but then becomes vulnerable to external attacks.)

Special Abilities: Elemental, Flight, Gaseous Form

Pace: 8                  Parry: 2                Toughness: 6                      Size: -2

STA - Gelth Zombie

Control: 6	Fitness: 12	Presence: 7
Daring: 10	Insight: 8	Reason: 8
Command: 0	Security: 1	Science: 0
Conn: 0	Engineering: 0	Medicine: 0
Stress: 13	Resistance: 0

STA - Gelth

Control: 11	Fitness: 9	Presence: 10
Daring: 10	Insight: 8	Reason: 8
Command: 1	Security: 1	Science: 1
Conn: 0	Engineering: 0	Medicine: 0
Stress: 10	Resistance: 0

Gaseous: Cannot be injured by physical attacks; can enter a recently deceased body and possess it, creating a Gelth Zombie

DW Monsters: The Forest of Cheem

The second story of the modern show is The End of the World, which features quite a few different aliens. It’s difficult to say too much about many of them, however, either because they are represented only by a single individual (the Moxx of Balhoon), they aren’t really aliens (the Adherents), or both (the Face of Boe and Lady Cassandra). This leaves only the Crespallions, who don’t seem all that different from humans, and the Forest of Cheem.

The Forest have not appeared again in the TV series, but have returned in a couple of stories in the audio anthology Tales of New Earth (which reveals "Cheem" to be the name of a planet to which they were transplanted), and occasionally in the comics.

DW Monsters: The Nestene Consciousness

The first story of the modern series features the Autons, which I have already described. However, the story also features the creators of the Autons, the alien race known as the Nestene, and it is now time to look at those specifically.

One could argue that, strictly speaking, any Auton story is also a Nestene story. However, not all such stories include a direct appearance by a member of the race. In the TV series, we have only seen them directly twice, in Spearhead from Space and Rose, although they have perhaps been more common in the assorted spin-off media. But, for the most part, there is, as one might expect, considerable overlap and, unsurprisingly, there are no Nestene stories that don’t also feature Autons.

DW Monsters: Eight-Legs

The next story we come to is The Monster of Peladon, which, for the most part, features the same aliens and creatures we have already seen in The Curse of Peladon. There is one new alien race introduced, the Vegans (yes, that’s actually their name), but the one individual we see isn’t around long enough to tell us much about his wider race. The tie-in novel Legacy does add that the race can see in the infrared and adds some further detail about their culture, but they remain tangential enough in the TV series itself that I am going to leave them out. Which brings us to the final Third Doctor story, Planet of the Spiders.

DW Monsters: Exxilons

The first two stories of season 11 are:

• The Time Warrior – The first appearance of the Sontarans.

• Invasion of the Dinosaurs – Dinosaurs are real-world creatures and often already statted up in RPGs

The story that follows is Death to the Daleks, which has exactly the main foes that you would expect it to have. It does, however, also feature the Exxilons. While there’s no reason to suppose Exxilons are dramatically different from other humanoids, they can serve as an example of a primitive race and do at least have some minor differences from regular humans. They appeared only once in the TV series, but have appeared twice in audio stories and, because of their history as an advanced space-faring power, have occasionally been mentioned in tie-in novels and elsewhere.

Description and Biology

The Exxilons are hairless humanoids with rough skin, flat noses, and large eyes. Since they are alien and not even as visibly similar to humans as Time Lords are, we can’t conclude too much about their biology and internal anatomy. The humanoid shape has some implications for this – the presence of a rib cage implies that that is where the lungs are, for example – but there are limitations. One thing that might be worth noting is that we never see any evident females. This could be due to a patriarchal society that hides their women away, but it’s also possible that they just aren’t mammalian, and the sexes aren’t that easy for we humans to tell apart.

Another difference is the large, dark, eyes which fit with the idea that the Exxilons are naturally nocturnal (or subterranean, as stated in the novelisation). This, of course, does not imply anything like the magical ‘darkvision’ of D&D, but they should be able to see in much fainter light than humans can and be more affected by bright glare than we are.

Game Attributes

The living Exxilons that we see are all warriors and their society appears to be one of hunter-gatherers, so it may be that this is true of the bulk of their population. They seem to be reasonably well-built, as one would expect for someone trained as a warrior, but the average individual is unlikely to be remarkable by human standards. The harsh environment in which they live also implies a reasonable degree of physical fitness.

While they are primitive by the time period seen in the story, in the past they were a highly advanced spacefaring race. This indicates at least human-level intelligence and, although one could argue that their current ‘degenerate’ state has lowered this somewhat, it’s perhaps more likely that it remains the same as it always was. Their limitations are in their skill and knowledge, not their basic brainpower. 

Speaking of which, their skills are likely to be the same as any other hunter-gatherer. We know that they can use bows and other simple weapons are surely in their repertoire. Survival skills are also a must and they probably have abilities relating to hunting and the local vegetation (such as it is) even if there’s nothing in the TV story to indicate what their prey might be. Religion is central to their society, so that may be relevant, too, depending on the game system.

They don’t have any particularly exciting special abilities, but their skin looks tough and resilient, so there’s probably some minimal armour, equivalent to leather. And, of course, there’s the night vision.

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5E - Exxilon

Medium humanoid, neutral

Armour Class: 11 (natural)

Hit Points: 17 (3d8+3)

Speed: 30 ft.

STR 12 (+1)	DEX 10 (+0)	CON 12 (+1)
INT 10 (+0)	WIS 10 (+0)	CHA 8 (-1)

Skills: Athletics +3, Religion +2, Survival +2

Combat Skills: Ranged Attack +2, Melee Attack +3

Senses: Passive Perception 10, Night Vision (the Exxilon treats dim light as if it were bright light and regular nighttime darkness as if it were dim light, but cannot see in pitch blackness).

Challenge: ¼ (50 XP)

BRP - Exxilon

STR 3D6 (10-11)	CON 3D6+3 (13-14)	SIZ 2D6+6 (13)
INT 2D6+6 (13)	POW 3D6 (10-11)
DEX 3D6 (10-11)	CHA 2D6 (7)
Hit Points: 13	Move: 10
Base SR: 5	Damage Bonus: 0

Armour: 1-point leathery skin

Skills: Hide 40%

Combat Skills: Bow 50%, Brawl 50%

Night Vision: An Exxilon’s combat skills do not become Difficult in conditions of near-total darkness, but suffer the usual penalties in pitch-black darkness.

GURPS - Exxilon

ST 12	DX 10	IQ 10	HT 12
Thrust: 1d-1		Swing: 1d+2
Speed: 5.5		Move: 5

Advantages: Fit, Night Vision-4

Disadvantages: Fanaticism (worship the City)

Skills: Bow-12, Brawling-13, Climbing-12, Stealth-10, Survival (quarry-like planets)-13, Theology-9

Savage Worlds - Exxilon

Agility: d6	Smarts: d6	Spirit: d6
Strength: d8	Vigour: d8

Skills: Athletics d4, Fighting d8, Shooting d6, Survival d8

Hindrances: Vow (Minor, worship the City)

Special Abilities: Low Light Vision

Pace: 6                  Parry: 6               Toughness: 7 (1)                   Size: 0

STA - Exxilon

Control: 8	Fitness: 10	Presence: 8
Daring: 9	Insight: 8	Reason: 8
Command: 0	Security: 2	Science: 0
Conn: 0	Engineering: 0	Medicine: 0
Stress: 12	Resistance: 1

DW Monsters: Giant Maggots

Continuing through season 10, we get:

• Frontier in Space – While the Draconians are undeniably interesting, this is primarily due to their culture. In terms of basic attributes, they don’t seem that different from humans and can probably be described in the same way. Therefore, I will pass on them.

• I will also pass on the unnamed Ogron-eating blob monster from the same story, on the grounds we know almost nothing about it.

• Planet of the Daleks – It’s still not quite time for the Daleks on this blog yet…

Which brings us to The Green Death… and giant maggots!

DW Monsters: Drashigs

The next two stories, moving us from season 9 into season 10 are:

• 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.

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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

Traits: Due to its large size, the drashig has 50% more Stress than it would normally have.

Attack: Bite 5^ (Piercing-1, Vicious-1)