I love your video colab on the Stellar Dragon. And have used it in a campaign! I basically turned the Luxon/Beacon (Critical Role) in the Mikado Would love to learn more about it and the Phlogiston
A "trolling bridge". In the middle of the forest you run across a bridge but there is no river around for miles not even a stream or pond is under the bridge just a section of the road you were traveling on. The trees and underbrush around are thick and close together in all directions (difficult terrain) for thousands of feet so the easiest and fastest thing to do would be to just cross the weird and mysterious bridge. That is until it starts laughing at you and becomes nearly vertical as it begin to attack you
Simple stupid quest idea - up the speed stat on one of these and put the PC’s goal on the other side of a deep rushing river. Wanna cross? Chase down the bridge and convince it to sit still for 5 minutes. And then good luck getting back.
Introducing “Bridget” the spanner that tells the party about a spooky lich who marched thousands of skeletons over them with vague info on where the lich may be…only for the party to eventually realize that lich was defeated…over 400 years ago.
I like the idea that Bridget really wanted to help out, and didn't even realise that 400 years had past by the time they tell the party about the lich... so it's a little bit sad by the time they find out!
Plot twist the lich survived and spent the last 400 years recovering only to have a party of adventurers bust in and beat him up and now he’s confused and wondering how they knew exactly when he’d recover his body.
It was at this moment the bard made a joke about making a bridge mad, and the bridge replied back in common " Actually, I'm not. You guys worked out a kink in me left cobble., so thanks!".
Bard joke: "We crossed the bridge. _Now it wants REVENGE!"_ Bridge: "No, not so much - but if you clear that patch of moss I can't _quite_ reach off of my North footing, I'll tell you where all of the prettiest Farmer's daughters are in the area. How about it, Bard?"
@@xeth9074 Bridge: "Foolish of you to assume I'm NOT one of those 'Farmers Daughter's' I was talking about (Daddy's a retired Wizard who took up farming). Also - that's NOT my "footing"... _hansome."_ 😉😁
Dungeon Dad never fails to find wacky and silly creatures. With that said, I have a few ideas for it: 1. As you said, a spanner guards a wizard's tower. But what if the river beneath the tower is a water elemental just waiting for a snack? 2. The thieve's guild could use them to collect information. Maybe, the guild master made the monster or tamed them with the promise of hearing stories. I already envision an NPC that just stays on that bridge that looks like he just stares into a distance for a few hours, but he's communicating telepathically to the bridge, asking for information. 3. A large and successful merchant kingdom situated on a large river that connects to the ocean, uses two spanners as a drawbridge to let their giant ships to pass through. 4. Lastly, an old and large spanner who protected a kingdom from an invasion by just flinging half their army to their deaths. It did this not to protect the kingdom or anything, but because the army was too heavy.
The idea of a Spanner that’s dealing with “back pain” because of old age is hilarious. Throwing people off because of the amount of weight is to heavy for it to handle.
Another idea: a Spanner comes looking for help, because its wizard hasn’t left the tower in weeks, or even sent a _message._ It can’t fit through the front door, and needs someone trustworthy to go inside & see if the wizard is sick or hurt.
Okay, so what if you had a spanner that is bad at being a spanner over like a small little stream, maybe half a feet deep but too wide to jump over, and luckily for you, there is a bridge. But as the party gets closer, they hear excited giggling and if they fail their perception checks and walk over the bridge, it just whacks them off into the water. I think that would be funny
The party: why is everyone in this town doing everything except using the bridge? The party: *gets trolled by the little silly boi the spanner is, falling into the water* the (now drenched) party: oh thats why
There's a strong psychological effect there... you introduce your new party to a cheeky, playful, prankster Spanner that harmlessly dunks them... Then, 2 levels later, you describe a veeeeeeery similar looking structure, only it's now on a cliff-face with a 100ft drop 😈 (And then hopefully the paranoid Paladin uses a Detect Good and Evil because they're a smart cookie)
I like the idea of a Spanner being a literal bridge between dimensions and the crux is it wanting to let go and be a bridge somewhere else, cutting off travel in the process. Just dropping little hints like repeating "It groans" whenever the players pass over would be fun. That or a murder-mystery where the bridge a person was thrown from is a witness itself.
Well there was in the original Marvel Comics a character called Spanner. He was an autobot engineer who invented Spacebridge tech. And then the Decepticons kidnapped him, and turned him into a bridge. He got mercy killed.
I like an idea that since it is a bridge it could have a spiked fence that stabs people or lampposts that let it have a ranged fire attack. For roleplay scenarios; maybe it has withdrawn itself entirely to the opposite side and players have to bargain or befriend it. Lots of fun ideas.
As spanners have a decent amount of intelligence, it can open a wide amount of doors for roleplay opportunities. Maybe its sad because the town it adopted was raided and the old inhabitants got killed, or its kind of vindictive and doesnt want the people to cross unless they give it something valuable in return
Or, as a younger version, have it be a "raft-and-ropes" type bridge, that matures into a pontoon, then into wood, then into stone - but have it be able to reproduce in _several_ different ways, and by choosing which one is the most convenient way: mitosis, budding, panspermia (using humanoids as carriers for its "genetic-information-equivalent" - can you say "quest hook"?), by the Nine Hells, even _sexual_ reproduction (it's not called a "river _bed"_ for no reason, you know...) and, as is well known, there's a LOT of room for stories, plots and intriguing adventures where relationships, romance, family and reproduction overlap (though hopefully NOT all at the same time).
@@zcarp8642 Ooh! That gives me another fun idea! The Spanner’s town was wiped out, so it tries to find a new home. And the DM gets to say “you see a stone bridge moving through the forest.”
@@2993LPThat can end baldy depending on how long the Spanner is. Because imagine you are crossing this 200ft bridge on horse back to escape some bandits and then to escape the bandits Spanner starts mores forward letting its backside hang down causing you to drop to your death as your horse can’t climb the rock wall that the Spanner just became so it can escape to the other side of the gap.
@@2993LP That works too. But if knows that it is well hidden I don’t think it would do much. Because bandits probably won’t start intentionally hitting the bridge.
I think having a Spanner that was once an aquaduct would be interesting. The party has to get to the bottom of what happened to a town/city's water supply, and it turns out that the Spanner had just buggered off for some reason, so water isn't being transported across a gap anymore.
I love the idea of the bridge being fairly capable of manipulating its own body, such as being able to twist itself around creating a corkscrew bridge the party has to parkour across or being able to retract itself accordian-style if the party can't provide interesting gossip.
I KNOW RIGHT. one of my first thoughts was one of the PCs accidentally stepping on one of its eyes and it curling up when they try to continue on so that they fall in the water, and then staying on the other side until they can make it feel better.
It makes me think of the bridge in the U.S. that was nicknamed Galloping Gertie because of the way the wind made it wobble and bounce... until it "galloped" so much it collapsed.
I like the idea of a really slow spanner. Like a original road leading to the 'bridge' just ends in river, then you see to spanner down stream on the outskirts of town coz the town is too lazy to replace it yet.
I love the idea of coming across one of these as it is moving to a new location. Just enjoying a leisurely rest at your woodland camp and seeing a BRIDGE slowly walking passed you in the distance. Or finding a bridge crossing a river but there is no road on either side.
Imagine a city, like Venice, filled with canals and a number of spanners. The church/bridge watch is an organization that cares for and has an ongoing relationship with the local spanners. In order to move from one island to another you have to pay a toll to the assigned watcher. If you don't you get wet. The watchers and the denizens of a particular neighborhood had a falling out and the bridges just disappeared one night. It's now been weeks and the gondola guilds are being pressured by the watchers to cease more and more trade to the recalcitrant neighborhood. Perhaps the spanners too are missing particular visitors from the neighborhood. And/or It was started because the spoiled grown/teen child of the neighborhood rich family wore some adamantine spurs and threw a tantrum and ended up dropped into the canal because their shoes were hurting the spanner.
Reminds me of an encounter I had years back with a “whispering nymph” who lived in a river but never presented herself. The thing would tel you all sorts of gossip if you tossed a coin off a particular bridge and asked politely. Many people trying to find ‘her’ beneath the stream when it was probably that bridge all along… I’m gonna bring it back
Perhaps the spanner heard this through the people in the town that it has "adopted" and is particularly upset about it. Maybe even the townsfolk can help
I really like the idea of a spanner being part of a thieves guild, as an info gatherer, members of the guild know to do deals on the spanner as it will have their back, or to extort info on the spanner so it can collect the info, and it will listen for secrets it about the town to feed the guild, it can be used as the way for the players to learn about the guild, maybe it was strong armed into this deal and it has so much info on the guild that forces it to be a spy, that might be really cool
Because of the snail eyes I can't get the image out of my head of a wizard going to their tower which is in the middle of a giant ravine and having to entice their rather unruly spanner to connect up his side of the ravine with a lettuce leaf or cabbage.
For a plot hook what if an intelligent Spanner is on friendly terms with a village/town located on an island in the middle of a wide and deep river. The story goes that some decades ago when the village was first established a child became friends with a wild Spanner with an unusual amount of intelligence and the other local kids soon did too as its a living bridge that can move and wiggle while their on top of it without hurting them. In the time since the Spanner has also learned how to identify bandits, thieves, just suspicious people in general and uses it's mobility to protect the town by suddenly isolating the island from would-be attackers. But now after decades most of those kids are either dead or very old and the Spanner is sick but nobody here knows how to help it. Maybe its illness is caused by someone secretly poisoning the Spanner, maybe a Mage is attacking the Spanner in some unseen way possibly even a necromancer seeking to add a Spanner to their army of undead. Perhaps the Spanner is literally dying of a broken heart as it slowly loses all its friends to old age, a concept that is foreign to the Spanner itself. (Edit) I paused the video about 10 minutes in so I hadn't actually gotten to the Plot Hooks and Lore part yet when I wrote this so I'm back and shocked at how close I was to some of his ideas
An additional feature of the Spanner: “Falling Down” When a Spanner loses half its maximum hit points, the next attack made while on the Spanner will cause it to split in two, causing everyone on the Spanner to fall. The Spanner can reattach to itself with an action.
I really like the idea of the party finding a spanned just in the middle of a flat plain. The subtle horror of slowly approaching a stone bridge in a grass field, only to trigger an Elden Ring mini boss no one was prepared for.
Seeing that artwork is giving me ideas of a "Viking of Stanford Bridge". Where you have a large strong warrior on a bridge, the party has to fight the Warrior to pass. But when the fight starts the Spanner reveals itself has the Warrior's partner and keeps shaking to throw the party off their feet with the Warrior used to it and attacking them.
Here is another idea. You start with a small hamlet that is next to a very ancient bridge. Every time the villagers want to build a public building stacks of bricks that seem to be the same material as the bridge just appear next to the bridge. No one asks questions they just use the bricks to make up the town hall and other buildings as the town grows. The town grows into a big city and sometimes people see eyes staring back at them from blank walls. One day a large red dragon attacks the city and "decorative" gargoyles no one can remember installing on the town hall and some of the older cathedrals morph transformer like into lovecraftian insect like horrors that drive off the dragon before returning and transforming back. Both the city and the dragon continue to grow with the dragon determined to destroy the "city" that defeated it. Even the ancient dragon does not know the entity that defeated it is really the ancient bridge so it's plots are always thwarted until one day it finds out the truth and the "city guardian" needs the now ancient dragon offed.
I was just listening to start with, envisioning a giant tapeworm, with a stoney exterior. I'm so glad I looked when you went over the revised artwork, it's adorable 😊
I see a spanner taking on symbotic relationships with others. A couple trolls live under it for shelter, the trolls collect tolls from people using it, while the spanner gets protection and the trolls collect and bring it rocks so it can grow into a bigger bridge.
If its a fancy bridge it could use the guard rails as teeth to bite at those atop it. Or use it legs to crash into your character. There are so many directions you can go off of to make it an interesting encounter.
I think what I love most about adding the climb speed is... you could easily repurpose this to be say... a ramp. Or a staircase. Heck you could make a spanner a recurring character who seems to set up shop in places the party just happens to be going. Sometimes it's a staircase, sometimes it's a regular old bridge. Maybe a pier now and again. Lots of stuff you can do with 'stone construction of up to 200ft in length' that remains bridge-like with minimal effort to justify. Maybe it's a spy. Maybe it's just really good friends with one of the party members. Maybe it's 100% coincidence and Kevin the Spanner becomes an unofficial party member. I like this monster. It is a good monster. I also like the new art, I think thats' incredibly fun!
"Dang it! The bridge is gone again. We'll have to find it or figure out another way across." I like the idea of these being innately magical creatures and having the ability to cast the spells that infuse them, such as Stone Shape, Wall of Stone, Animate Objects, and Conjure Minor Elementals. Once a week it could cast Summon Elemental. Another variant could be a living Arcane Gate or Tree Stride spell and there's an x% chance you Plane Shift to the Astral plane or the Fey Wild instead.
Imagine seeing this thing inchworming its way across the landscape one day. A cute plot hook would be getting called to action because a lonely spanner destroyed the local bridge of some backwater(in broad daylight) and replaced it. It's not doing any harm, but most people are somewhat reluctant to cross it.
Imagine a spanner who made friends with someone who thought it was a regular bridge because they were about to jump off of it to their death and the spanner talked them out of it. Feels like a weirdly touching idea for a PC backstory, like maybe the spanner is getting older and the PC uses some of their treasure to keep them repaired and healthy.
Give it the stone shape spell so it can suck people through instead of just chucking them at higher levels! Seeing as its magical in origin, i feel that would be really cool 😊
I love this idea! What if the original enchantment was to combine Animate Objects and Stone Shape cast on a Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, and it bound an earth elemental to the stone permanently and gave it access to those spells once a day as well as Summon Minor Elementals. Wizard wanted an elemental to guard the bridge without having to recast the spell all the time and thought he could just do a one and done. It was embarassing when he went outside, and the bridge had left.
if it needs to move you could make it more centipede like by using the long bricks on the underside as legs going from this - to this / and have it snake around or even constrict people
I would consider this a "Construct". Anyway, I could imagine it being "Chaotic Neutral" and not inherently Hostile. It charges a Toll everytime, but the Toll varies. Sometimes it is merely tell it a story, other times it asks Riddles/Trivia (such as 'What is the Flying Speed of an unladen Swallow'), other times if perhaps it 'adopted' someone it charges money. Basically, I think it is very interesting and love the idea of it being more of a Roleplay situation rather then a Combat situation.
I can imagine vampires telling their "children" scary stories about the predator bridge that exploits vampire weakness of running water. Or a notorious riddle master who is actually an illusion that the bridge itself speaks through.
An idea I have, maybe a Silver Dragon befriends a Spanner, both deeming the community/city they live in/lead to as theirs. But also finding enjoyment in learning about the people they live around. So they create a symbiotic relationship, where say the dragon establishes its horde, maybe a library, a famous one, and puts it on the opposite end of a Spanner. So any who wish to visit the library must cross it, making for much more foot traffic across the Spanner. While the Spanner listens into conversations, and maybe alerts the dragon to interesting people who are making their way across. Maybe it has been given some magical ability by the silver dragon through some magical artifact that allows the Spanner to identify magic. Or maybe the Spanner is just old and can already do that and that’s how it discovered the Silver Dragon. And to keep its secret the silver dragon promised to create a library to something similar, promising that in each of its many lives it would make reasons for the city to be visited. And overtime they grew friendly.
This could be a great role play encounter in a starting session to get players to learn about each others characters. Maybe they need to cross a raging river to get to the main city but the spanner would only let them across after hearing a story from each of the characters. If they want to tell a story from their character’s backstory, that’s great! And if they don’t, it could be a fun adventure trying to find another way across that shows off their creativity or strength!
I like this idea of living background/terrain creatures. Like your Living Wall or Genius Loci vids this kind of encounter is just wild. I wonder is there a creature that is a living building? The idea of a Genius Loci plateau as the property with a Spanner on the land as the entry way with a living house with a Living Wall in it all trying to coexist but being passive aggressive to each other like terrible roommates sounds like a fun campaign to run.
Seeing the design you went with I just picture it would be funny to describe to the party an encounter where the see a Spanner moving to a new location by crawling like an inchworm.
Amazing as usual!! As for a suggestion…. I forget if I’ve already suggested it, but it’s spooky adjacent, AND could be used very well for a Planescape campaign, as that’s coming out p soon! It’s called Hunefer, it’s a mummy/corpse of a Demi-god whose divine soul got left out in the astral plane, leaving them a husk of their former power They’re in the Epic Level Handbook for 3.5, but I can see this becoming a 20-something CR in 5e
so the idea of a spanner having lived a long life watching a small town grow into the capital of a kingdom or even just a wealthy city state got my mind thinking: imagine an absolutely *massive* Spanner. Like, Im talking a COLOSSAL one. One so big that it isnt *just* the bridge into the city, it *IS* the city. A spanner so huge it quite literally has an entire kingdom's capital on it's back. Now imagine it secretly keeps any would-be threats from entering the city and is either in-league with the ruler of the kingdom, or is secretly the ruler themselves. That might be a really cool set piece reveal for a campaign: learning the kingdom was founded on the back of a watchful and wise guardian creature.
There's a comment from...Jonathon Wojcik of Bogleech, I think. "My favorite kind of monster is the sort that expands on the environment of the world without necessarily being hostile." The Spanner is absolutely perfect, in that regard. Of COURSE there's a type of creature in a fantasy world that imitates bridges but is actually alive, why *wouldn't* there be? This thing feels like something out of 80s fantasy, but it's exactly as at-home in the likes of Krull as it would be in Labyrinth. What a wonderful little (or not so little) dude.
I'm not a DM but I've been devouring your channel since I found it a month ago. Your editing has become very good but all of them from the start have been highly entertaining. You manage to make every monster very interesting and that can't be easy with how many you've done. Maybe you'll yet change me from DM-curious to a DM. Thanks so much!
I love the idea of a gigantic one of these being an entire town. No, stick with me here! Ever heard of Pacifidlog town in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire? A whole town on flotillas. Flotillas are kinda like bridges…imagine one of these got so big and was maybe friendly, so people in a really flooded area, like a swamp or something, settled on the solid ground that protected them and never got flooded (it could literally just move to higher ground). But maybe it got a bit annoyed at these funny people living on its back, or maybe it got a bit high and mighty. Suddenly the nice town is ruled over by some vague, mysterious tyrant that the people are all afraid of, and if they speak out against it, they’re suddenly stabbed by a streetlamp, or their house is suddenly thrown off by a weird, localized earthquake. Or maybe the town suddenly starts running and basically kidnapped thousands of people.
I have a region of my world known for the amber that comes from the trees there. One small town on the continent connects to the only bridge in the region that crosses into this region of trees. It goes over this incredibly large and dangerous set of rapids. I always thought, oh it would make sense for 1 solid bridge to have been upkept here and no need for another to be made anywhere else but oh my fucking god this is such a better idea. The bridge is just a spanner, been around for as long as the nation itself and has been safeguarding the village nearby from any creatures that attempt to cross. Like it fits so fucking perfectly. Thank you for bringing this to my attention dad, this is such a good idea and I can’t wait for my players to encounter it.
Designed an Outhouse Mimic a while ago , called a Privytor. The Pryvitor's more like an evolved mimic than a separate being created by wizards directly. Instead of sitting and waiting they've taken to the trade roads to actively hunt. They wait by the roads near abandoned farmhouses or roadside inns if they're feeling bold. They also get a guaranteed grapple on a victim before initiative begins, since of course the victim is in the most vulnerable position one could be in.
An idea: Bribing the bridge with varies foods to let you get across or maybe it it's able to talk you can make a contract with it to have it as a type of Swing Bridge/Drawbridge.
Ooh, if the bridge is to an island it could let them cross _onto_ the island without even making its presence known, but then demand a tribute to get _off_ the island!
i think using it as a source of info in a town could be good too if it were the main bridge through the middle of town that everyone walks over or even use it as a murder in a mystery
I think it'd be interesting to have 2 kinds of spanners 1 is an animal: looks more natural (moss, grass and dirt) and attacks things walking on it after a certain weight limit reached snapping on them. Inspiration is the meat eating caterpillers that mimic sticks. 2 contruct: this video Could open some good lore about telling which is which AND gives players reason to inspect every bridge.
So much awesome potential for background development: A bridge famous for being a romantic get away. A place known for true loves kiss. And a spanner that is in love with love despite not understanding it themselves. A spanner crafted as part of the signing of a truce. A peace held for many years. But what happens when the truce or the spinner begin to break down? An area that was to be invaded by a rampaging horde and only stopped by one brave spanner. That area having kept the history and the tradition of their very odd war hero.
I could see a archwizard or even a rich kingdom/city-state using spanners for the first levels of defense to stop intruders or even move themselves to cut off routes into, on the way towards or in a city itself.
As a DM's note: try using your spanner as a pickpocket one that is ornate and covered in filigree or otherwise looks like Vines think Robin Hood esque vibes
A spanner with its troll guard that makes a living as a freelancer road workers: when there is too much traffic for an event or a road is closed for some reason, they set up temporarily over gorges and rivers to open new tracks in exchange for tolls.
It’d be cool to use a Spanner as a setting for a battle with different monsters. Maybe the players could try to convince the Spanner to attack their enemies, or maybe the Spanner would get annoyed and fight both parties.
You come to the river Styx and realize that you dont have coin for the ferryman. Worry not, your elven eyes spot something in the distance. A blood red cobblestone bridge of impossible size spans across the river. Filled with relief at this turn of fate in your favor, you set off across it. Dread fills you as you continue across, you feel vibrations swell under your feet. Roll initiative.
I would have a Fling ability, entry feet clamp down, exit loosens and as the victim gets near the exit the spanner catapults said victim through the air in the direction from whence they came. 😂
The eyes make the creature infinitely more DnD and infinitely less goofy all in one so I say good job adding more 'alive' characteristics! Makes the gossip-y attitude of the Spanner way funnier too, like talking to a gargantuan stone slug about how much they hate Lucy down the road cus she yelled at Margarets kids.
A spooky spanner who exists in the village's folklore as the haunted bridge where your sister's friend's coworker maybe saw someone die one time. Teenagers dare each other to cross it at midnight, and the spanner takes exceptional glee in making spooky noises and shaking its foundations
What if the Spanner was a collective mind of (mostly) minor Rock (Earth) Elementals, like a Hive Mind? In that way, it may even spread to the stones of some of the cobblestone roads in the city (possibly by replacing them or just being such conveniently placed stones!), which would expand its awareness and ability to keep up-to-date with the news of the mortal world. Perhaps it has expanded upon the most busy areas, such as open markets where most business transactions are completed or the city's Agora, where ideas are discussed and exchanged? Maybe even the slums or darker alleys where organized crime aggregate, for the darker Spanner out there. What about the Waterfront? Perhaps it silently passes judgement upon those it deems dangerous or otherwise unworthy of living, under the cover of the night, with bodies mysteriously washing downstream/ashore/down below, as if fallen from the bridge in a drunken stupor? Being the curious entity it is, it might take an interest into taking some things into its own proverbial "hands" and give into some form of vigilantism. But what happens then when such a cruel fate is bestowed upon a corrupt priest or official well known for his sobriety, raising a few eyebrows? Did it overstep and get undue attention upon itself? What will the city do when they discover such a vital artery is in fact sentient that acts of its own volition? Should it be discovered, can the community really afford to lose it or are they wiling to consider another type of resolution? But can it be trusted, if negociations were to happen, and should it be public knowledge or should the truth be known to only a handful, in order to avoid distrust or panic, the city's economic activity being at stake? What if it had an avatar, a mouthpiece through which it could travel some (limited?) distance, explore and communicate with the outside world? Perhaps they would seek to gain the magical ability to change the appearance and/or shape of this "mouthpiece" in order to better blend in society and communicate more efficiently? Following on your mercantile Spanner idea, what if it used its gold and wealth gained by its toll to buy stronger types of stone, perhaps even magically reinforced, in order to make themselves stronger or more resilient? Perhaps it could hire a group of well-spoken but threatening adventurers as envoys in order to fetch some type or rare, exotic, or sought-after-by-most-likely-nefarious-forces material (Obdurium?) rather than their dim-witted troll guardians/pets, who are otherwise very poor merchants and negociators? This type of rock could either be very valuable for the Spanner's ability to grow beyond its ordinary treshold (explaining the rare individuals who can surpass their size limit due to more common rock's physical limitations), what with its unusual strength, or perhaps it is necessary for some other vital (animating?) function. Antagonistic forces might aim to use to animate their own malicious creations with such a valuable resource, or perhaps bind a Spanner to do their bidding by influencing geopolitics in their favour, communications being of utmost importance for logistics, land or otherwise, and creating a unexpected access over running water or an overpass over steep creeks that were deemed inaccessible for any type of invading force and therefore neglected in terms of defense, might just turn the tide of war in favour of the bolder party. It cannot be overstated how powerful an entity a Spanner could end up becoming in the political realm, should they be allowed to attain a sufficiently significant size. They could make for the most effective pontoon bridge there is or change the economy of a whole country on a whim. Not to mention an economic powerhouse, what with the toll they could request for safe passage. This could easily attract the envy of a Chromatic Dragon or other such powerful greedy entity. After all, Black Dragons, among others, are known to regularly require payment in order to simply pass throuh their territory, if you can manage a settlement more interesting than the sustenance and immediate gratification devouring your body would bring. This type of conflict could also shape the socioeconomics of an entire region. Either party could easily attempt to hire a powerful group of adventurers in order to get rid of their rival. The massive payout of such a contract would easily pale in comparison with the profit and power that comes with the control such an area. What if, instead of going the magical route, the Spanner has a higher interest into technology, engineering and architecture in particular, allowing it to better understand itself and their physical limitations, or rather, hiring artificers and company in order to enhance their physical bodies? What with reinforced steel beams, reinforced conrete pillars or suspension cables in order to achieve more epic proportions and sizes? The Spanner could even gear up with, for instance, "traffic lights" of sorts, in order to communicate more or less passively with passerby's (Stop, Go, Warning, Slow, etc.). You can potentially push the idea further, what with having animated defenses (gates, ballistas or other missile launchers as anti-aerial defenses, etc.) or a bunch of hirelings easily paid by the toll the Spanner requires for passing. The economic activity a Spanner brings could easily pay for a small community dedicated to serve it, possibly even revering it as a higher being. With enough devouts, the Spanner could even potentially end up with some (limited) divine abilities (spellcasting, small miracles, weather or water control, etc.). Could a Spanner actually be physically capable of functioning as a bascule bridge, I wonder? What if the mastermind behind their machinations is not the Spanner itself, but rather the Artificer in charge of the repairs and upgrades who hid well-placed demolition charges as an insurance policy, holding the bridge hostage?
I like the idea of the party encountering a particularly greedy bridge troll, noticing that the bridge itself is shaking before suddenly the troll is dumped off into the abyss because the spanner wasn't all too fond of this new squatter/extortionist
For unsettling creatures, I am again going to recommend the Oil Nymph from Dragonmech. It is a regular Nymph whose grotto has been polluted but is effectively in denial that anything has changed with her. So, for example, she might take in an injured Goose and care for it, trying to nurse it back to health, only to be killing it in actuality.
Why can I see a Spanner living for long enough that a tale of its deeds spreads around and it gains godlike power from it. It becoming more like a spirit and maybe even bestowing some people, potentially a player warlock or cleric, with power.
Oh wow, I made a Spanner before some months ago for a quick one shot. The players ran into it by pure chance because. Well I gave it a fun move that it catapults enemies that are on its back or if it grabs them. So... to sum the story very quickly. The party were heading towards an old hamlet run by an old witch for help in magical knowledge for their quest. Along the way the party, with crazy as you mentioned it, had a dwarf that was looking at the amazingly fine polish and maintained stone bridge that spanned across the mass ravine of the canyons toward the small hamlet the witch has isolated herself in. The dwarf rolled decently well, so I mention about the strange heavy foot prints and suddenly the player were expecting a troll or ogre. They were somewhat half right since an Ogre did come by behind them, looking angry at their direction. The party is preparing to do battle but the Ogre points in their direction and is cursing out the bridge in poor common. The players are confused and with a quick insight. Realized the Ogre is mad and cursing out the bridge. The party, wisely step aside, unsure what to do and were holding their actions to attack. The ogre begins advancing towards the bridge, ignoring the players completely and then. The bridge stands up and I gave it a more... dragon like stone head, akin to a gargoyle. The Ogre attacked, but then the Spanner just grabs the Ogre and well... Catapults it off into the ravine with the Spanner (Stoney is his name) looking back at the falling ogre saying in fine common. "Come back when you learn some manners boy!" Then Stoney just returns to normal while eyeing the party carefully and adds. "Be respectful to the lassie in the hamlet or you be joining Do'migar down there." All party members were respectful to the old witch, even the pick pocketing rogue.
That is a GREAT idea for Spanners having Subspecies, some Spanners are more insect like while others are like what you described with all Spanners starting out fairly similarly but their surroundings decide what subspecies they become, those that stick around people who use magic tend to become more malleable in how they can appear, as in Spanners near the homes of magic users gain limited shapeshifting abilities and tend to be protective of said magic users. Could open up a lot of cool role play possibilities and even plot points such as a Spanner asking the party to go check on its nearby Wizard friend who hasn’t stopped by for their usual chat in a while.
“Over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go!” Narrator: “little did they know how short their journey would be, for the river needed to be crossed over on a bridge….but it was no ordinary bridge. This bridge had other plans in mind, none that involved a little girl visit dear old grandmomma!”
just wanted to share that i used this in a game but instead of stories i had the players give it riddles to ammuse, i had each of the players try to tell the bridge a riddle, then, that player was allowed to cross but they only had until the bridge solved the riddle, if they made it halfway on an easy riddle and the bridge found the answer before that reached the other side, the player got thrown off. my players ended up just making up a fake riddles at the end and try to run across before it noticed, which did end up working since it was a small bridge, but the feeling of relief quickly washed away when the bridge got mad and starting chasing them
OH WOW, yeah i can see so many things to do with this creature for plot hooks or just nice lil touches for npcs or even pc backstories, maybe your character is a type of wizard who's father made friends with monstrosities and creatures of a neutral nature or like said in this video, a quaint lil town with a local legend of a guardian spirit who protects merchants and travelers from harm or one of the plot relevant npcs is a wizard with a particular field in magic creatures who lives on an island in the middle of a lake! god the amount of possibilities makes me kind of pissed that we haven't seen a creature like this in any of the future editions!
Thank you so much for watching gang! What monsters would you like to see show up in future episodes of Monsterof the Week?
I think the Astral Stalker would be cool
I love your video colab on the Stellar Dragon. And have used it in a campaign! I basically turned the Luxon/Beacon (Critical Role) in the Mikado
Would love to learn more about it and the Phlogiston
@@StunningSummarysTop10s Definitely on the list.
Still voting Hullathoin and Ulgurstasta (I really liked undead when I got into D&D).
OG Devourer and Soul-Spike Devourer for spooky month.
You've heard of a bridge troll... but have uou heard of a troll bridge?
This is now the official tagline of this monster.
A "trolling bridge". In the middle of the forest you run across a bridge but there is no river around for miles not even a stream or pond is under the bridge just a section of the road you were traveling on. The trees and underbrush around are thick and close together in all directions (difficult terrain) for thousands of feet so the easiest and fastest thing to do would be to just cross the weird and mysterious bridge. That is until it starts laughing at you and becomes nearly vertical as it begin to attack you
_Troll Bridge_ is the title of a short story by the late, great Terry Pratchett.
I now want a sitcom series of a troll and a Spanner meeting up and learning to live with each other and try to mess with adventurers.
Simple stupid quest idea - up the speed stat on one of these and put the PC’s goal on the other side of a deep rushing river. Wanna cross? Chase down the bridge and convince it to sit still for 5 minutes. And then good luck getting back.
Introducing “Bridget” the spanner that tells the party about a spooky lich who marched thousands of skeletons over them with vague info on where the lich may be…only for the party to eventually realize that lich was defeated…over 400 years ago.
Plot twist! Bridget was the one to defeat the lich!
I like the idea that Bridget really wanted to help out, and didn't even realise that 400 years had past by the time they tell the party about the lich... so it's a little bit sad by the time they find out!
YES! them having HORRIBLE time perception but photographic memories is just wonderful icing...it fits way too good!
Or just no concept of time as it passes for other creatures...
Plot twist the lich survived and spent the last 400 years recovering only to have a party of adventurers bust in and beat him up and now he’s confused and wondering how they knew exactly when he’d recover his body.
The Spanner has got to be one the easiest monsters ever to integrate into a campaign. You cross a bridge. The Bridge is alive. Done.
It was at this moment the bard made a joke about making a bridge mad, and the bridge replied back in common " Actually, I'm not. You guys worked out a kink in me left cobble., so thanks!".
Bard joke:
"We crossed the bridge.
_Now it wants REVENGE!"_
Bridge:
"No, not so much - but if you clear that patch of moss I can't _quite_ reach off of my North footing, I'll tell you where all of the prettiest Farmer's daughters are in the area. How about it, Bard?"
@@jamesnoneyabizness5611Bard: “no, how bout I try you?”….
@@xeth9074
Bridge:
"Foolish of you to assume I'm NOT one of those 'Farmers Daughter's' I was talking about (Daddy's a retired Wizard who took up farming). Also - that's NOT my "footing"... _hansome."_
😉😁
*GMs running dessert campaigns *
"NOOOOOOO!" 😂
You mentioned how they were originally intended as a guardian for a wizard's tower and immediately the term "bribe-able drawbridge" came to mind.
"Let us pass into the territory!"
"No!"
"We will tell you stories about the outside world if you let us pass"
"......."
"Deal"
Just because you _can_ enchant something to be sentient, doesn’t mean you _should_ .
A large chunk to your BBEG fight prep involves sneaking over to the drawbridge every night to read Lord of the rings.
Dungeon Dad never fails to find wacky and silly creatures. With that said, I have a few ideas for it:
1. As you said, a spanner guards a wizard's tower. But what if the river beneath the tower is a water elemental just waiting for a snack?
2. The thieve's guild could use them to collect information. Maybe, the guild master made the monster or tamed them with the promise of hearing stories.
I already envision an NPC that just stays on that bridge that looks like he just stares into a distance for a few hours, but he's communicating telepathically to the bridge, asking for information.
3. A large and successful merchant kingdom situated on a large river that connects to the ocean, uses two spanners as a drawbridge to let their giant ships to pass through.
4. Lastly, an old and large spanner who protected a kingdom from an invasion by just flinging half their army to their deaths. It did this not to protect the kingdom or anything, but because the army was too heavy.
The idea of a Spanner that’s dealing with “back pain” because of old age is hilarious. Throwing people off because of the amount of weight is to heavy for it to handle.
Another idea: a Spanner comes looking for help, because its wizard hasn’t left the tower in weeks, or even sent a _message._ It can’t fit through the front door, and needs someone trustworthy to go inside & see if the wizard is sick or hurt.
DaD: it's a sentient bridge.
Me: oh that's just silly.
*End of video*
Me: I'm an definitely putting this in my next campaign
Okay, so what if you had a spanner that is bad at being a spanner over like a small little stream, maybe half a feet deep but too wide to jump over, and luckily for you, there is a bridge. But as the party gets closer, they hear excited giggling and if they fail their perception checks and walk over the bridge, it just whacks them off into the water. I think that would be funny
A very "young" Spanner
thats great a muddy river bed rather than a river could be good too would add difficult terrain if your party is inclined to fight
The party: why is everyone in this town doing everything except using the bridge?
The party: *gets trolled by the little silly boi the spanner is, falling into the water*
the (now drenched) party: oh thats why
There's a strong psychological effect there... you introduce your new party to a cheeky, playful, prankster Spanner that harmlessly dunks them...
Then, 2 levels later, you describe a veeeeeeery similar looking structure, only it's now on a cliff-face with a 100ft drop 😈
(And then hopefully the paranoid Paladin uses a Detect Good and Evil because they're a smart cookie)
I like the idea of a Spanner being a literal bridge between dimensions and the crux is it wanting to let go and be a bridge somewhere else, cutting off travel in the process.
Just dropping little hints like repeating "It groans" whenever the players pass over would be fun.
That or a murder-mystery where the bridge a person was thrown from is a witness itself.
Well there was in the original Marvel Comics a character called Spanner. He was an autobot engineer who invented Spacebridge tech. And then the Decepticons kidnapped him, and turned him into a bridge. He got mercy killed.
@@brettwood1351 With lots and lots of explosives.
I like an idea that since it is a bridge it could have a spiked fence that stabs people or lampposts that let it have a ranged fire attack. For roleplay scenarios; maybe it has withdrawn itself entirely to the opposite side and players have to bargain or befriend it. Lots of fun ideas.
Exactly!
As spanners have a decent amount of intelligence, it can open a wide amount of doors for roleplay opportunities.
Maybe its sad because the town it adopted was raided and the old inhabitants got killed, or its kind of vindictive and doesnt want the people to cross unless they give it something valuable in return
Or, as a younger version, have it be a "raft-and-ropes" type bridge, that matures into a pontoon, then into wood, then into stone - but have it be able to reproduce in _several_ different ways, and by choosing which one is the most convenient way: mitosis, budding, panspermia (using humanoids as carriers for its "genetic-information-equivalent" - can you say "quest hook"?), by the Nine Hells, even _sexual_ reproduction (it's not called a "river _bed"_ for no reason, you know...) and, as is well known, there's a LOT of room for stories, plots and intriguing adventures where relationships, romance, family and reproduction overlap (though hopefully NOT all at the same time).
Cobblestone Ankle Biter?
@@zcarp8642 Ooh! That gives me another fun idea! The Spanner’s town was wiped out, so it tries to find a new home. And the DM gets to say “you see a stone bridge moving through the forest.”
Imagine going to high ground to run away from the sentient bridge and it starts climbing up
Jokes on you, the "High Ground" is the arch of another Sentient Bridge, who happens to be the Great Great Great Great Grandpa of that Sentient bridge.
Or the party is trying to cross the bridge to escape bandits, and the bridge is starting to escape too.
@@2993LPThat can end baldy depending on how long the Spanner is. Because imagine you are crossing this 200ft bridge on horse back to escape some bandits and then to escape the bandits Spanner starts mores forward letting its backside hang down causing you to drop to your death as your horse can’t climb the rock wall that the Spanner just became so it can escape to the other side of the gap.
@@ThefifthBishopofGord I was thinking more the bridge runs away just as the party reaches it, some kind of Looney Toons shenanigans.
@@2993LP That works too. But if knows that it is well hidden I don’t think it would do much. Because bandits probably won’t start intentionally hitting the bridge.
I think having a Spanner that was once an aquaduct would be interesting.
The party has to get to the bottom of what happened to a town/city's water supply, and it turns out that the Spanner had just buggered off for some reason, so water isn't being transported across a gap anymore.
I love the idea of the bridge being fairly capable of manipulating its own body, such as being able to twist itself around creating a corkscrew bridge the party has to parkour across or being able to retract itself accordian-style if the party can't provide interesting gossip.
I KNOW RIGHT. one of my first thoughts was one of the PCs accidentally stepping on one of its eyes and it curling up when they try to continue on so that they fall in the water, and then staying on the other side until they can make it feel better.
OF COURSE, the British came up with a living bridge! This takes "mind the gap" to some weird heights 😮
And named it after their word for wrench. Also lends a new meaning to "throw a spanner in the works" doesn't it?
It makes me think of the bridge in the U.S. that was nicknamed Galloping Gertie because of the way the wind made it wobble and bounce... until it "galloped" so much it collapsed.
Its also a Gordon ramsay level insult in the UK.
"Shut it you spanner!"
I definitely agree that the art plays a bigger role than normal for this monster
I agree.
It sure would suck if that bridge suddenly stopped bridging...
I like the idea of a really slow spanner. Like a original road leading to the 'bridge' just ends in river, then you see to spanner down stream on the outskirts of town coz the town is too lazy to replace it yet.
I love the idea of coming across one of these as it is moving to a new location. Just enjoying a leisurely rest at your woodland camp and seeing a BRIDGE slowly walking passed you in the distance. Or finding a bridge crossing a river but there is no road on either side.
Have one of the player characters on guard duty while the rest of the party sleeps and sees it creep by during the night.
@@26th_Primarchfunny if no one believes them because it runs off before they can rouse the party. 😂
@@KogaDendez exactly!
Every upload, Dungeon Dad brings me the strangest DnD monster I've ever seen and then decides to one-up himself and find something even stranger
Such is my curse.
@@DungeonDadyou have a weird Curse
@@ivarramirezpaulsen8212 weird curses are a cornerstone of D&D
@@demonzabrak very true
I like the idea of a friendly Spanner who pretends to house an invisible troll to keep bandits from accosting the town.
Imagine a city, like Venice, filled with canals and a number of spanners. The church/bridge watch is an organization that cares for and has an ongoing relationship with the local spanners. In order to move from one island to another you have to pay a toll to the assigned watcher. If you don't you get wet. The watchers and the denizens of a particular neighborhood had a falling out and the bridges just disappeared one night. It's now been weeks and the gondola guilds are being pressured by the watchers to cease more and more trade to the recalcitrant neighborhood. Perhaps the spanners too are missing particular visitors from the neighborhood.
And/or
It was started because the spoiled grown/teen child of the neighborhood rich family wore some adamantine spurs and threw a tantrum and ended up dropped into the canal because their shoes were hurting the spanner.
Reminds me of an encounter I had years back with a “whispering nymph” who lived in a river but never presented herself. The thing would tel you all sorts of gossip if you tossed a coin off a particular bridge and asked politely. Many people trying to find ‘her’ beneath the stream when it was probably that bridge all along… I’m gonna bring it back
I'm just imagining the comedy sketch where the bridge just randomly has beef with 1 chacter and dumping said character in the river by sudden pothole.
16:00 that background image gives me the idea that a spanner "repaired" part of an old aqueduct by snuggling into the broken bits.
the perfect encounter for players who love to burn bridges
Perhaps the spanner heard this through the people in the town that it has "adopted" and is particularly upset about it.
Maybe even the townsfolk can help
I really like the idea of a spanner being part of a thieves guild, as an info gatherer, members of the guild know to do deals on the spanner as it will have their back, or to extort info on the spanner so it can collect the info, and it will listen for secrets it about the town to feed the guild, it can be used as the way for the players to learn about the guild, maybe it was strong armed into this deal and it has so much info on the guild that forces it to be a spy, that might be really cool
Because of the snail eyes I can't get the image out of my head of a wizard going to their tower which is in the middle of a giant ravine and having to entice their rather unruly spanner to connect up his side of the ravine with a lettuce leaf or cabbage.
For a plot hook what if an intelligent Spanner is on friendly terms with a village/town located on an island in the middle of a wide and deep river.
The story goes that some decades ago when the village was first established a child became friends with a wild Spanner with an unusual amount of intelligence and the other local kids soon did too as its a living bridge that can move and wiggle while their on top of it without hurting them. In the time since the Spanner has also learned how to identify bandits, thieves, just suspicious people in general and uses it's mobility to protect the town by suddenly isolating the island from would-be attackers. But now after decades most of those kids are either dead or very old and the Spanner is sick but nobody here knows how to help it.
Maybe its illness is caused by someone secretly poisoning the Spanner, maybe a Mage is attacking the Spanner in some unseen way possibly even a necromancer seeking to add a Spanner to their army of undead. Perhaps the Spanner is literally dying of a broken heart as it slowly loses all its friends to old age, a concept that is foreign to the Spanner itself.
(Edit) I paused the video about 10 minutes in so I hadn't actually gotten to the Plot Hooks and Lore part yet when I wrote this so I'm back and shocked at how close I was to some of his ideas
"Don't tread on me..." It's the Gadsden bridge! 😂
I like the eye stocks, like you get halfway across when, on the other side, two eyes pop up and glare at you, blocking your path
An additional feature of the Spanner: “Falling Down”
When a Spanner loses half its maximum hit points, the next attack made while on the Spanner will cause it to split in two, causing everyone on the Spanner to fall.
The Spanner can reattach to itself with an action.
Imagine a compassionate Spanner that reaches out to anyone thats depressed and considering offing themselves by jumping off them.
Or someones going to jump and they hear "jump, jump, jump" out of nowhere
@@Thurmanation2011s"Do a flip!"
@@Thurmanation2011s
Id imagine since spanners are intelligent like people, some probably have a twisted sense of humor
Nice creature . With a few tweaks I can see it being a nice addition to the Feywild .
I really like the idea of the party finding a spanned just in the middle of a flat plain. The subtle horror of slowly approaching a stone bridge in a grass field, only to trigger an Elden Ring mini boss no one was prepared for.
Seeing that artwork is giving me ideas of a "Viking of Stanford Bridge". Where you have a large strong warrior on a bridge, the party has to fight the Warrior to pass. But when the fight starts the Spanner reveals itself has the Warrior's partner and keeps shaking to throw the party off their feet with the Warrior used to it and attacking them.
Here is another idea. You start with a small hamlet that is next to a very ancient bridge. Every time the villagers want to build a public building stacks of bricks that seem to be the same material as the bridge just appear next to the bridge. No one asks questions they just use the bricks to make up the town hall and other buildings as the town grows. The town grows into a big city and sometimes people see eyes staring back at them from blank walls. One day a large red dragon attacks the city and "decorative" gargoyles no one can remember installing on the town hall and some of the older cathedrals morph transformer like into lovecraftian insect like horrors that drive off the dragon before returning and transforming back. Both the city and the dragon continue to grow with the dragon determined to destroy the "city" that defeated it. Even the ancient dragon does not know the entity that defeated it is really the ancient bridge so it's plots are always thwarted until one day it finds out the truth and the "city guardian" needs the now ancient dragon offed.
I was just listening to start with, envisioning a giant tapeworm, with a stoney exterior. I'm so glad I looked when you went over the revised artwork, it's adorable 😊
My favorite part is that this is only a few tweaks away before being Danny the Street and I love that for them.
imagine trying to install some streetlamps and suddenly the bridge yells in pain
If a group killed one of these innocent talkative bridges I'd never be able to get over it.. 😐😁
Ayyyy
Waiting for someone to make a 5e module entirely out of Monsters of the Week
I see a spanner taking on symbotic relationships with others. A couple trolls live under it for shelter, the trolls collect tolls from people using it, while the spanner gets protection and the trolls collect and bring it rocks so it can grow into a bigger bridge.
If its a fancy bridge it could use the guard rails as teeth to bite at those atop it. Or use it legs to crash into your character. There are so many directions you can go off of to make it an interesting encounter.
I think what I love most about adding the climb speed is... you could easily repurpose this to be say... a ramp. Or a staircase.
Heck you could make a spanner a recurring character who seems to set up shop in places the party just happens to be going. Sometimes it's a staircase, sometimes it's a regular old bridge. Maybe a pier now and again.
Lots of stuff you can do with 'stone construction of up to 200ft in length' that remains bridge-like with minimal effort to justify. Maybe it's a spy. Maybe it's just really good friends with one of the party members. Maybe it's 100% coincidence and Kevin the Spanner becomes an unofficial party member.
I like this monster. It is a good monster. I also like the new art, I think thats' incredibly fun!
"I'd like to intimidate the bridge." *Nat 20* "It skedaddles."
A killed spanner becoming just an ordinary bridge sounds a lot like the mattresses from the Hitchhiker's Guide series.
"Dang it! The bridge is gone again. We'll have to find it or figure out another way across." I like the idea of these being innately magical creatures and having the ability to cast the spells that infuse them, such as Stone Shape, Wall of Stone, Animate Objects, and Conjure Minor Elementals. Once a week it could cast Summon Elemental. Another variant could be a living Arcane Gate or Tree Stride spell and there's an x% chance you Plane Shift to the Astral plane or the Fey Wild instead.
Imagine seeing this thing inchworming its way across the landscape one day.
A cute plot hook would be getting called to action because a lonely spanner destroyed the local bridge of some backwater(in broad daylight) and replaced it. It's not doing any harm, but most people are somewhat reluctant to cross it.
Imagine a spanner who made friends with someone who thought it was a regular bridge because they were about to jump off of it to their death and the spanner talked them out of it. Feels like a weirdly touching idea for a PC backstory, like maybe the spanner is getting older and the PC uses some of their treasure to keep them repaired and healthy.
"you may not cross unless you answer my riddles three"
"Oh yeah? Who'se asking?"
Bridge stands up.
Give it the stone shape spell so it can suck people through instead of just chucking them at higher levels! Seeing as its magical in origin, i feel that would be really cool 😊
I love this idea! What if the original enchantment was to combine Animate Objects and Stone Shape cast on a Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, and it bound an earth elemental to the stone permanently and gave it access to those spells once a day as well as Summon Minor Elementals. Wizard wanted an elemental to guard the bridge without having to recast the spell all the time and thought he could just do a one and done. It was embarassing when he went outside, and the bridge had left.
if it needs to move you could make it more centipede like by using the long bricks on the underside as legs going from this - to this / and have it snake around or even constrict people
I would consider this a "Construct". Anyway, I could imagine it being "Chaotic Neutral" and not inherently Hostile. It charges a Toll everytime, but the Toll varies. Sometimes it is merely tell it a story, other times it asks Riddles/Trivia (such as 'What is the Flying Speed of an unladen Swallow'), other times if perhaps it 'adopted' someone it charges money.
Basically, I think it is very interesting and love the idea of it being more of a Roleplay situation rather then a Combat situation.
I can imagine vampires telling their "children" scary stories about the predator bridge that exploits vampire weakness of running water.
Or a notorious riddle master who is actually an illusion that the bridge itself speaks through.
"What is the average airspeed of an unladen swallow?"
@@brettwood1351 "What do you mean? An African or a European swallow?"
@@SuperSaiyanMaze I don't know that. *yeets away*
An idea I have, maybe a Silver Dragon befriends a Spanner, both deeming the community/city they live in/lead to as theirs. But also finding enjoyment in learning about the people they live around. So they create a symbiotic relationship, where say the dragon establishes its horde, maybe a library, a famous one, and puts it on the opposite end of a Spanner. So any who wish to visit the library must cross it, making for much more foot traffic across the Spanner. While the Spanner listens into conversations, and maybe alerts the dragon to interesting people who are making their way across. Maybe it has been given some magical ability by the silver dragon through some magical artifact that allows the Spanner to identify magic. Or maybe the Spanner is just old and can already do that and that’s how it discovered the Silver Dragon. And to keep its secret the silver dragon promised to create a library to something similar, promising that in each of its many lives it would make reasons for the city to be visited. And overtime they grew friendly.
This could be a great role play encounter in a starting session to get players to learn about each others characters.
Maybe they need to cross a raging river to get to the main city but the spanner would only let them across after hearing a story from each of the characters.
If they want to tell a story from their character’s backstory, that’s great! And if they don’t, it could be a fun adventure trying to find another way across that shows off their creativity or strength!
That is an EXCELLENT idea. Very playful and fun.
I like this idea of living background/terrain creatures. Like your Living Wall or Genius Loci vids this kind of encounter is just wild. I wonder is there a creature that is a living building? The idea of a Genius Loci plateau as the property with a Spanner on the land as the entry way with a living house with a Living Wall in it all trying to coexist but being passive aggressive to each other like terrible roommates sounds like a fun campaign to run.
Seeing the design you went with I just picture it would be funny to describe to the party an encounter where the see a Spanner moving to a new location by crawling like an inchworm.
I like that Dungen Dad really spreads footing, piled on the puns and really decked the span of this monster
Amazing as usual!!
As for a suggestion…. I forget if I’ve already suggested it, but it’s spooky adjacent, AND could be used very well for a Planescape campaign, as that’s coming out p soon!
It’s called Hunefer, it’s a mummy/corpse of a Demi-god whose divine soul got left out in the astral plane, leaving them a husk of their former power
They’re in the Epic Level Handbook for 3.5, but I can see this becoming a 20-something CR in 5e
Yes, you did request it alongside one other person. Definitely on the list.
@@KevinVideo ah awesome! Ill try to remember this time lmao, thanks!
so the idea of a spanner having lived a long life watching a small town grow into the capital of a kingdom or even just a wealthy city state got my mind thinking:
imagine an absolutely *massive* Spanner. Like, Im talking a COLOSSAL one. One so big that it isnt *just* the bridge into the city, it *IS* the city. A spanner so huge it quite literally has an entire kingdom's capital on it's back. Now imagine it secretly keeps any would-be threats from entering the city and is either in-league with the ruler of the kingdom, or is secretly the ruler themselves. That might be a really cool set piece reveal for a campaign: learning the kingdom was founded on the back of a watchful and wise guardian creature.
I'm just imagining a spanner with a vaguely draconic face it hides in the dirt.
There's a comment from...Jonathon Wojcik of Bogleech, I think. "My favorite kind of monster is the sort that expands on the environment of the world without necessarily being hostile."
The Spanner is absolutely perfect, in that regard. Of COURSE there's a type of creature in a fantasy world that imitates bridges but is actually alive, why *wouldn't* there be? This thing feels like something out of 80s fantasy, but it's exactly as at-home in the likes of Krull as it would be in Labyrinth.
What a wonderful little (or not so little) dude.
I'm not a DM but I've been devouring your channel since I found it a month ago. Your editing has become very good but all of them from the start have been highly entertaining. You manage to make every monster very interesting and that can't be easy with how many you've done. Maybe you'll yet change me from DM-curious to a DM. Thanks so much!
Alright, im making it a mount. YOU CANT STOP ME!
The pionerers used to ride these babies for miles.
I love the idea of a gigantic one of these being an entire town.
No, stick with me here! Ever heard of Pacifidlog town in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire? A whole town on flotillas. Flotillas are kinda like bridges…imagine one of these got so big and was maybe friendly, so people in a really flooded area, like a swamp or something, settled on the solid ground that protected them and never got flooded (it could literally just move to higher ground).
But maybe it got a bit annoyed at these funny people living on its back, or maybe it got a bit high and mighty. Suddenly the nice town is ruled over by some vague, mysterious tyrant that the people are all afraid of, and if they speak out against it, they’re suddenly stabbed by a streetlamp, or their house is suddenly thrown off by a weird, localized earthquake.
Or maybe the town suddenly starts running and basically kidnapped thousands of people.
I have a region of my world known for the amber that comes from the trees there. One small town on the continent connects to the only bridge in the region that crosses into this region of trees. It goes over this incredibly large and dangerous set of rapids.
I always thought, oh it would make sense for 1 solid bridge to have been upkept here and no need for another to be made anywhere else but oh my fucking god this is such a better idea.
The bridge is just a spanner, been around for as long as the nation itself and has been safeguarding the village nearby from any creatures that attempt to cross. Like it fits so fucking perfectly.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention dad, this is such a good idea and I can’t wait for my players to encounter it.
Designed an Outhouse Mimic a while ago , called a Privytor.
The Pryvitor's more like an evolved mimic than a separate being created by wizards directly. Instead of sitting and waiting they've taken to the trade roads to actively hunt. They wait by the roads near abandoned farmhouses or roadside inns if they're feeling bold. They also get a guaranteed grapple on a victim before initiative begins, since of course the victim is in the most vulnerable position one could be in.
Now that monster is real nightmare fuel!!! That should be made into an official monster!
Too edgy for WotC I think!
Its a new category, a Constoozity.
An idea: Bribing the bridge with varies foods to let you get across or maybe it it's able to talk you can make a contract with it to have it as a type of Swing Bridge/Drawbridge.
Ooh, if the bridge is to an island it could let them cross _onto_ the island without even making its presence known, but then demand a tribute to get _off_ the island!
i think using it as a source of info in a town could be good too if it were the main bridge through the middle of town that everyone walks over or even use it as a murder in a mystery
Imagine having a party member stand on the bridge, undermining the wizard's warning about sensing life and getting flung by the bridge. Peak comedy.
I think it'd be interesting to have 2 kinds of spanners
1 is an animal: looks more natural (moss, grass and dirt) and attacks things walking on it after a certain weight limit reached snapping on them. Inspiration is the meat eating caterpillers that mimic sticks.
2 contruct: this video
Could open some good lore about telling which is which AND gives players reason to inspect every bridge.
Mossy log plant, like a Venus fly trap. Living Arcane Gate or Tree Stride spell. Big, big Xorn toll bridge.
"You cross the little wooden bridge, into the small town."
Later:
"You leave the way you came, once again crossing the little stone bridge."
So much awesome potential for background development:
A bridge famous for being a romantic get away. A place known for true loves kiss. And a spanner that is in love with love despite not understanding it themselves.
A spanner crafted as part of the signing of a truce. A peace held for many years. But what happens when the truce or the spinner begin to break down?
An area that was to be invaded by a rampaging horde and only stopped by one brave spanner. That area having kept the history and the tradition of their very odd war hero.
I love this. It's cool to have a "monster" as a critical part of the plot background in a positive way.
I could see a archwizard or even a rich kingdom/city-state using spanners for the first levels of defense to stop intruders or even move themselves to cut off routes into, on the way towards or in a city itself.
I feel like this creature could be used for some wacky Monty Python hijinks.
Also, the art you have for this conversion is absolutely amazing!
As a DM's note: try using your spanner as a pickpocket one that is ornate and covered in filigree or otherwise looks like Vines think Robin Hood esque vibes
Ah yes another dungeon dad upload... let's see what horrific creature he has this time. Oh... a bridge
A spanner with its troll guard that makes a living as a freelancer road workers: when there is too much traffic for an event or a road is closed for some reason, they set up temporarily over gorges and rivers to open new tracks in exchange for tolls.
It’d be cool to use a Spanner as a setting for a battle with different monsters. Maybe the players could try to convince the Spanner to attack their enemies, or maybe the Spanner would get annoyed and fight both parties.
You come to the river Styx and realize that you dont have coin for the ferryman. Worry not, your elven eyes spot something in the distance. A blood red cobblestone bridge of impossible size spans across the river. Filled with relief at this turn of fate in your favor, you set off across it. Dread fills you as you continue across, you feel vibrations swell under your feet. Roll initiative.
I really like the idea of a spanner as a 'draw bridge'
I’m imagining a Spanner with lamp posts at either end, only the lamp posts are the eyestalks.
Can you do living spells next. I know they kind of already exist in 5e but I feel like they really need a touch-up and some expansion
I used them in my game, and I love them. I would love to see a video on them.
YES MORE LIVING SPELLS PLEASE
What a powerful storytelling tool!
Imagine how fun it would be to interact with a sentient bridge who loves spilling tea lol.
I would have a Fling ability, entry feet clamp down, exit loosens and as the victim gets near the exit the spanner catapults said victim through the air in the direction from whence they came. 😂
I can agree with that one. Take the one from Storm King's Thunder for giants, or the kraken, and put it on there. Great for getting rid of bandits.
A Colossal+ spanner would be quite a surprise for an invading army. XD
The eyes make the creature infinitely more DnD and infinitely less goofy all in one so I say good job adding more 'alive' characteristics! Makes the gossip-y attitude of the Spanner way funnier too, like talking to a gargantuan stone slug about how much they hate Lucy down the road cus she yelled at Margarets kids.
A spooky spanner who exists in the village's folklore as the haunted bridge where your sister's friend's coworker maybe saw someone die one time. Teenagers dare each other to cross it at midnight, and the spanner takes exceptional glee in making spooky noises and shaking its foundations
What if the Spanner was a collective mind of (mostly) minor Rock (Earth) Elementals, like a Hive Mind? In that way, it may even spread to the stones of some of the cobblestone roads in the city (possibly by replacing them or just being such conveniently placed stones!), which would expand its awareness and ability to keep up-to-date with the news of the mortal world. Perhaps it has expanded upon the most busy areas, such as open markets where most business transactions are completed or the city's Agora, where ideas are discussed and exchanged? Maybe even the slums or darker alleys where organized crime aggregate, for the darker Spanner out there. What about the Waterfront? Perhaps it silently passes judgement upon those it deems dangerous or otherwise unworthy of living, under the cover of the night, with bodies mysteriously washing downstream/ashore/down below, as if fallen from the bridge in a drunken stupor? Being the curious entity it is, it might take an interest into taking some things into its own proverbial "hands" and give into some form of vigilantism. But what happens then when such a cruel fate is bestowed upon a corrupt priest or official well known for his sobriety, raising a few eyebrows? Did it overstep and get undue attention upon itself? What will the city do when they discover such a vital artery is in fact sentient that acts of its own volition? Should it be discovered, can the community really afford to lose it or are they wiling to consider another type of resolution? But can it be trusted, if negociations were to happen, and should it be public knowledge or should the truth be known to only a handful, in order to avoid distrust or panic, the city's economic activity being at stake?
What if it had an avatar, a mouthpiece through which it could travel some (limited?) distance, explore and communicate with the outside world? Perhaps they would seek to gain the magical ability to change the appearance and/or shape of this "mouthpiece" in order to better blend in society and communicate more efficiently?
Following on your mercantile Spanner idea, what if it used its gold and wealth gained by its toll to buy stronger types of stone, perhaps even magically reinforced, in order to make themselves stronger or more resilient? Perhaps it could hire a group of well-spoken but threatening adventurers as envoys in order to fetch some type or rare, exotic, or sought-after-by-most-likely-nefarious-forces material (Obdurium?) rather than their dim-witted troll guardians/pets, who are otherwise very poor merchants and negociators? This type of rock could either be very valuable for the Spanner's ability to grow beyond its ordinary treshold (explaining the rare individuals who can surpass their size limit due to more common rock's physical limitations), what with its unusual strength, or perhaps it is necessary for some other vital (animating?) function. Antagonistic forces might aim to use to animate their own malicious creations with such a valuable resource, or perhaps bind a Spanner to do their bidding by influencing geopolitics in their favour, communications being of utmost importance for logistics, land or otherwise, and creating a unexpected access over running water or an overpass over steep creeks that were deemed inaccessible for any type of invading force and therefore neglected in terms of defense, might just turn the tide of war in favour of the bolder party.
It cannot be overstated how powerful an entity a Spanner could end up becoming in the political realm, should they be allowed to attain a sufficiently significant size. They could make for the most effective pontoon bridge there is or change the economy of a whole country on a whim. Not to mention an economic powerhouse, what with the toll they could request for safe passage. This could easily attract the envy of a Chromatic Dragon or other such powerful greedy entity. After all, Black Dragons, among others, are known to regularly require payment in order to simply pass throuh their territory, if you can manage a settlement more interesting than the sustenance and immediate gratification devouring your body would bring. This type of conflict could also shape the socioeconomics of an entire region. Either party could easily attempt to hire a powerful group of adventurers in order to get rid of their rival. The massive payout of such a contract would easily pale in comparison with the profit and power that comes with the control such an area.
What if, instead of going the magical route, the Spanner has a higher interest into technology, engineering and architecture in particular, allowing it to better understand itself and their physical limitations, or rather, hiring artificers and company in order to enhance their physical bodies? What with reinforced steel beams, reinforced conrete pillars or suspension cables in order to achieve more epic proportions and sizes? The Spanner could even gear up with, for instance, "traffic lights" of sorts, in order to communicate more or less passively with passerby's (Stop, Go, Warning, Slow, etc.). You can potentially push the idea further, what with having animated defenses (gates, ballistas or other missile launchers as anti-aerial defenses, etc.) or a bunch of hirelings easily paid by the toll the Spanner requires for passing. The economic activity a Spanner brings could easily pay for a small community dedicated to serve it, possibly even revering it as a higher being. With enough devouts, the Spanner could even potentially end up with some (limited) divine abilities (spellcasting, small miracles, weather or water control, etc.). Could a Spanner actually be physically capable of functioning as a bascule bridge, I wonder? What if the mastermind behind their machinations is not the Spanner itself, but rather the Artificer in charge of the repairs and upgrades who hid well-placed demolition charges as an insurance policy, holding the bridge hostage?
I like the idea of the party encountering a particularly greedy bridge troll, noticing that the bridge itself is shaking before suddenly the troll is dumped off into the abyss because the spanner wasn't all too fond of this new squatter/extortionist
For unsettling creatures, I am again going to recommend the Oil Nymph from Dragonmech. It is a regular Nymph whose grotto has been polluted but is effectively in denial that anything has changed with her. So, for example, she might take in an injured Goose and care for it, trying to nurse it back to health, only to be killing it in actuality.
The real killer-talking bridge were the friends we made along the way 🌁
Why can I see a Spanner living for long enough that a tale of its deeds spreads around and it gains godlike power from it. It becoming more like a spirit and maybe even bestowing some people, potentially a player warlock or cleric, with power.
Wooo! Yea bridge bad guy. Its catch phrase is "No no no! You will not step all over me!" Or "Becareful which bridges you burn!"
Oh wow, I made a Spanner before some months ago for a quick one shot. The players ran into it by pure chance because. Well I gave it a fun move that it catapults enemies that are on its back or if it grabs them.
So... to sum the story very quickly.
The party were heading towards an old hamlet run by an old witch for help in magical knowledge for their quest. Along the way the party, with crazy as you mentioned it, had a dwarf that was looking at the amazingly fine polish and maintained stone bridge that spanned across the mass ravine of the canyons toward the small hamlet the witch has isolated herself in. The dwarf rolled decently well, so I mention about the strange heavy foot prints and suddenly the player were expecting a troll or ogre. They were somewhat half right since an Ogre did come by behind them, looking angry at their direction.
The party is preparing to do battle but the Ogre points in their direction and is cursing out the bridge in poor common. The players are confused and with a quick insight. Realized the Ogre is mad and cursing out the bridge. The party, wisely step aside, unsure what to do and were holding their actions to attack. The ogre begins advancing towards the bridge, ignoring the players completely and then.
The bridge stands up and I gave it a more... dragon like stone head, akin to a gargoyle. The Ogre attacked, but then the Spanner just grabs the Ogre and well... Catapults it off into the ravine with the Spanner (Stoney is his name) looking back at the falling ogre saying in fine common.
"Come back when you learn some manners boy!"
Then Stoney just returns to normal while eyeing the party carefully and adds.
"Be respectful to the lassie in the hamlet or you be joining Do'migar down there."
All party members were respectful to the old witch, even the pick pocketing rogue.
That is a GREAT idea for Spanners having Subspecies, some Spanners are more insect like while others are like what you described with all Spanners starting out fairly similarly but their surroundings decide what subspecies they become, those that stick around people who use magic tend to become more malleable in how they can appear, as in Spanners near the homes of magic users gain limited shapeshifting abilities and tend to be protective of said magic users. Could open up a lot of cool role play possibilities and even plot points such as a Spanner asking the party to go check on its nearby Wizard friend who hasn’t stopped by for their usual chat in a while.
“Over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house we go!”
Narrator: “little did they know how short their journey would be, for the river needed to be crossed over on a bridge….but it was no ordinary bridge. This bridge had other plans in mind, none that involved a little girl visit dear old grandmomma!”
just wanted to share that i used this in a game but instead of stories i had the players give it riddles to ammuse,
i had each of the players try to tell the bridge a riddle, then, that player was allowed to cross but they only had until the bridge solved the riddle,
if they made it halfway on an easy riddle and the bridge found the answer before that reached the other side, the player got thrown off.
my players ended up just making up a fake riddles at the end and try to run across before it noticed,
which did end up working since it was a small bridge, but the feeling of relief quickly washed away when the bridge got mad and starting chasing them
The little conch eyestalks are such a perfect addition
OH WOW, yeah i can see so many things to do with this creature for plot hooks or just nice lil touches for npcs or even pc backstories, maybe your character is a type of wizard who's father made friends with monstrosities and creatures of a neutral nature or like said in this video, a quaint lil town with a local legend of a guardian spirit who protects merchants and travelers from harm or one of the plot relevant npcs is a wizard with a particular field in magic creatures who lives on an island in the middle of a lake! god the amount of possibilities makes me kind of pissed that we haven't seen a creature like this in any of the future editions!
I like this, this is cool. Not so often we get a super wholesome monster
You approach a bridge over a casm and hear, "Answer me these questions three," as two eyestalks emerge from the stone of the bridge to stare at you.