Idk I just like sea monsters and have ideas, lemme rant in peace.
The Hythul is a behemoth-class sea monster unique to the Dark Seas. It is highly territorial, but beyond that relatively passive, meaning if you leave after trespassing, it won’t chase you down.
Appearance
The Hythul appears to be a hybrid of a large crab and a Cephalopod. It has a large main body covered in a hard shell, which is highly armoured and offers it abundant natural protection. It’s skin is black, and the shell is also black, with hints of white in some places, such as the spikes or end. 4 red eye stalks sprout from either side of its “face”. Though calling it a face is a bit of a stretch, it’s more just where the eyestalks are along with a beak surrounded by a set of powerful crushing mandibles.
6 long tentacles sprout from it’s body, 3 on each side, and all of them lack armour to preserve dexterity and mobility. In addition to the tentacles, 4 thicker, stronger arms are also present, and have a coating of armour over their front side, though they’re underside is exposed. At the tips of these arms are a set of powerful claws, perfect for grabbing and restraining prey or cracking ships in half.
Hythul mainly prey on Whales and small sea monsters, letting their naturally black colour disguise themselves at the bottom of the sea and trailing their tentacles behind them like enormous jellyfish. Anything unfortunate enough to brush against them is quickly restrained and killed via the use of their crushing pincers. Hythul territories are littered with bones, and the water around them is almost pitch black. This serves the purpose of marking their territory to other Hythul, and allows Sailors to easily realise if they’re trespassing. Hythul’s method of movement relies on ejecting vast amounts of sea water to propel themselves forward. Their claws are capable of also ejecting sea water in pressurized jets.
Combat
The Hythul has 5500 HP.
The Hythul’s wide variety of natural weapons offer it a large advantage in combat. When first agroed, Hythul will keep themselves submerged and send up 2 or 3 tentacles to scare off intruders, and if they refuse to leave, painfully persuade them. These tentacles have 600 hitpoints, and attack simply by bludgeoning a ship. If you’re unlucky and get hit directly without blocking or parrying it, you’ll get launched off the ship. This is rare however as they usually stick to targeting the ship. If you block a tentacle’s hit, you aren’t launched and instead just pushed back a small amount, and if you parry it you stun the tentacle for a short while. If a tentacle has been damaged to 100 hitpoints or below, they will submerge once more and the Hythul itself will arise. It will true and stay at afar at first, chipping at the ship by way of spraying it with pressurized water from it’s claws. If this is ineffective or if the Hythul is knocked down to half it’s hitpoints, it submerged before rising up next to the ship, attacking it up close and personal. It will utilise it’s most potent weapons, the Giant pincers on its 4 arms, which each have 900 hp, along with bringing up it’s 6 tentacles. The Pincers are capable of grabbing players off the deck, at which point they will be slowly brought over to the Hythul’s maw, and eventually dropped inside. Luckily, 100 or so points of damage dealt to the Hythul will cause it to drop anything it’s holding. Killing a Hythul’s tentacle causes it to take 50% of the tentacles max hp in damage, as well as lose the ability to use said tentacle.
The Hythul is ravenous as well as Territorial, and will attempt to eat anything that goes overboard. Including explosive barrels. When it eats an explosive barrel, it will get stuck in its jaws. You’ll have a small window to attack the barrel for an extra 500 damage, but it cracks it and eats it quickly so acting fast is vital.
Loot
Killing a Hythul will result in it dropping:
75% 4-9 Hythul Shell Shards, which can be used to brew high quality healing potions.
75% 1-3 Hythul Tentacles, which are used as a powerful rare ingredient that provide 45 hunger points when cooked, as well as Recovery III and Fortified I. Using Tentacles in a meal creates Calamari, and using 3 or more creates Large Calamari. Using Colossal Squid also does this now.
50% 2-7 Hythul Claws. By using a Claw, you boost your damage by 10% for 10 seconds. The Claw is consumed on use. The effect does not stack.