Karr Otter Bevy

The earliest record of karr-otters anywhere in the Sword Coast was only about 5 years ago, and the creatures have lived as myths in most people’s minds during that time. The residents of Sanctus Paulus first started noticing jagged chunks of wood missing from their belongings about a year ago. The first true sightings of the monstrosities occurred a couple of months after that. Since then, roving packs of karr-otters have been scavenging from the town’s structures and wagon caravans, leaving destruction and havoc in their wake. The creatures have been using the debris to build a large nest. As attacks have increased and the nest has grown larger, the river has been almost completely blocked. Most places along the river are now only about 2 feet at their deepest points.

The nest is a mountainous ramshackle of wagon wheels, smashed barrels, and wooden planks stripped from structures and vehicles. Vicious karr otters prowl both within and without the nest, constantly adding more scrap to expand their home. It sits in the trench of a narrow section of the river about 20 miles upriver of Sanctus Paulus.

Inside the nest is the source of the karr otters’ recent aggression: a karr otter infected with a **slaad tadpole**. Slaadi are toad-like, extraplanar beings that devour and multiply across every plane of existence. The tadpole happened upon the karr otter bevy and burrowed into the matriarch’s brain, infecting it and giving it psionic powers that make the others more aggressive and savage. Though only capable of basic urges and animalistic compulsions, the tadpole has been psionically compelling the other karr otters to build it a lair while it grows larger and stronger in it’s hosts head. In time, the tadpole will grow strong enough to chew its way out of the karr otter’s brain and become a **red slaad**.