Spelljammer Take a D&D Monster, and Spelljammer it!

[Urriak Uruk]

I couldn't figure out a good way to state this in the title, but the premise of this thread is this; there are a lot of Classic D&D Monsters, that have shown up in several editions and maintain a certain theme. A number of these have their own takes in the Spelljammer universe, with the Elven Armada, the orcs and "Scro", Beholders in giant eye ships, and of course mind flayers and the nautiloids.

So my ask is... take a monster that hasn't had much exposure in Spelljammer... and Spelljammer it!

I'll go first, with one my favorite D&D monsters... the Fire Giant!

Now, what would Fire Giants do in space? Well, in my mind they'd pilot massive ships, more planetoid than craft, going from world (and even star) to strip them of resources (and even people) for their massive forges and to ensave. And of course, they would wear armor, have harpoons, all kinds of crazy weapons.

That's my start... what classic monster would you Spelljammer-ify, and what would they do in the Astral Sea?

 

[Quickleaf]

Sea hag!

She's bad to the bone, even if she was once carved from the bone of an astral whale as part of a spelljammer's masthead.

See, every sea hag was once painstakingly sculpted from living wood, astral bone, or even the petrified husk of dead gods. Who sculpted them? The sea hags aren't saying.

But one accursed and starless night, they woke up, crawling down from the prow to slaughter scores of travelers before the awful truth was revealed.

Every time a new sea hag awakens, she must bind a pour soul in her place. Their dying screams are forever inscribed on their petrified face, now one with the ship as the hag once was.

 

[Greg Benage]

But, um, make him purple or something.

 

[Fifinjir]

Someone stuffed a soul in a yggrasti, now we have space blights.

 

[RangerWickett]

Dryads. There are vast 'integral trees' that orbit a dwarf star. They're truly immense, like tens of miles tall. This is inspired by a novella by Larry Niven.

There are clouds and weather and birds all around the trees. Communities can live in their boughs (which are at both ends). And each grove of integral trees is home to a cosmic dryad, large enough to function like a sea monster threatening ships, worshiped like a god. You'd probably be traveling in your ship, stop by the grove to gather resources, and then your ship gets grabbed by the colossal dryad. You have to swoop between the different villages in the trees and solve their problems, and eventually a communion of druids from the various villages can call forth the dryad god to release your ship. You're rewarded with some ship upgrade, like maybe making the hull into living wood so it can heal, or turning your figurehead into the shape of the dryad, giving you the ability to cast entangle on enemy vessels.

 

[Stormonu]

Okay, I'll take the obvious - coeurl... I mean, Displacer Beasts.

Adventurers are used to them on planets being able to mask their location with a displaced image, hence their name. But in space - any place smaller than the Rock of Braal - and away from the thick atmosphere and ley magicks of a planet, their true ability comes forward as their displacement becomes Invisibility at will, as their psionic powers coalesce and manifest (including mind blast and/or charm). They slip onto ships, kill everything alive and then use their unusual space siren call to lure other ships to investigate the wreckage.

Elder displacer beasts can be truly formidable foes both physically and mentally. Even worse, such elder beasts lead packs of their lessers, telepathically directing their lesser brethren amid the sargassos of ship wrecks left from their prey. Truly cunning coeurl occasionally allow a single individual escape, half-mad and terrified, to spread rumors of a slinking darkness amid a treasure trove of lost ships and their precious cargo.

Conversely, sometimes young couerl rebel against their hunting instincts, training their psychic powers to mutate their bodies into more humanoid form to satiate their curiousity of the worlds at large - often cryptically referring to themselves as Rhakasta. These offshots invariably develop "bad luck" auras that allow them to psychically feed off others without drawing to much attention to themselves. Many, in time, revert to their animalistic form and return to preying directly on others.

 

[humble minion]

When a phoenix has lived for lifetimes upon reincarnated lifetimes beyond counting, sometimes it'll be so weighed down by years and ennui that it'll seek a way to permanently end its existence without any chance of reincarnation. When such a phoenix flies into a black hole, a nightwing is what flies out again.

 

[Stormonu]

Picking this back up...

Wild packs of Nightmares roam the Astral seas near pockets of infernal energy. For centuries, some ships and their captains have sought out these herds to capture and sell them to amoral individuals who desire their ability to quickly reach the Astral sea. Nightmares are also able to naturally spelljam and bizarredly carry their own self-regenerating air envelope (though it smells of brimstone, and tends to be cloudy from wisps of smoke - but not in a harmful way). Nightmares, being intelligent, sometimes hunt and/or harrass spelljamming ships, or even undertake rescue missions to free individuals of their herd that have been captured by Wildspacers.