Gazing back at me this entire time has been a foe I’m pretty partial to: the Majestic Medusa. My impatience to tackle this one finally got the better of me, so here we are. I unabashedly adore the more Mythological Monsters.
There’s something almost intrinsically voyeuristic about writing Entries for a Medusa, since they’re likely only witnessed via peeping on a reflection by prepared Players (don’t forget to buy that Mirror!). Though I sometimes soften this a bit…rationalizing that it is meeting the glowering GAZE or seeing the (invariably pulchritudinous) FACE that petrifies, not simply clapping eyes on them.
But by the book, it’s an interesting dilemma: What is the unwatched doing when they can’t be watched? 😊 In this case the act of watching (unaided by reflection) almost certainly influences the viewer rather than the viewed in some strange evil twin of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Schrödinger’s gassed grimalkin aside, here are one hundred entries for one my personal favorites:
As mentioned in the prior entries for the Cockatrice, Basilisk, and Gorgons there may be more interesting ways than simply “Save or Statue” to handle Petrification, and that might be helpful here as well.
I used this table to check what a coven of Medusae were doing as a Halfling snuck in scouting the room out...and got "Pretending not to notice a hidden Halfling"!
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