Cleverly Named Monsters in Atlantasia

John Holland, in his The Realms of Atlantasia role-playing game, offers several monsters with names that sound familiar but which have an atypical spelling. I think that Holland has done this for reasons having to do with intellectual property. Anyone can have salamanders, but only Atlantasia can have salamandorrs.

Leetch (not to be confused with ‘leech’)

Actually, Holland confuses leech with leetch, using either spelling when referring to the same thing. ‘Soul Leetches‘ attach themselves to the base of the neck and feed upon Magic Source Points which “cannot ever be recovered.” ‘Brain Leetches‘ crawl into a person's ear and feed upon memories. Eventually all memories will be irrevocably lost, so the afflicted “will have to be trained for another career.” At least they get to keep their hit points life points.

Peridactyll (not to be confused with ‘pterodactyl‘)

“While many will automatically perceive a large reptilian bird, on Atlantasia a peridactyll is actually an enormous, hairy beast that lumbers across the tundra.”

Salamandorr (not to be confused with ‘salamander’)

Salamandorrs are anthropomorphic crocodiles. Although they use weapons, their bite does twice as much damage as a war axe on average. Their special attack is a “Death Roll (will take you to the bottom and roll over until you die).” No rules are provided to implement this attack.

Stalycyte (not to be confused with ‘stalactite’)

Stalycytes are cone-shaped entities that reside on cave ceilings. They spin webs upon unsuspecting prey beneath them. Stalycytes haul up their entrapped prey and then “secrete an acid that will eat anything non-magical and turn it in to a liquid that the stalycyte will drink for food.” Apparently, since stalycytes “glow red when seen through infra-red” they are warm-blooded. “There is [sic] only two things that will kill a stalycyte; a magical axe wielded by someone who can reach them, or by freezing them and then smashing them while frozen with a magical hammer.” I suppose throwing a magical axe isn't good enough.

Sychobyss (not to be confused with ‘succubus’)

“Sychobysses will appear to be beautiful, sultry women (5' 6" tall). In actuality, sychobysses are scaled, bat-winged serpents 2' - 4' long.” They use spells to attack but “if magical attacks fail, sychobysses will revert to true form, slither into cracks and disappear.” Men will never attack a sychobyss.

Trollip (not to be confused with ‘trollop’)

You won't find these irrepressible fellows on Gary's Harlot Table! Trollips are like trolls, but only one to two feet tall. Like trolls, they regenerate. “While severed appendages will not grow back, those that are cut off WILL regenerate a new trollip.” Fire isn't effective against trollips, but electricity can kill them. “The only other way to kill a trollip is to cut its head off.” (Does the head grow a new trollip?)

Mogul (not to be confused with ‘mound of snow’ or ‘tycoon‘)

Moguls “appear to be large balls of mud...rolling across vast areas of land.” In combat, they change to a humanoid shape. If the attack of a mogul connects, “you will be covered in a hardening mud that will slow you down at the rate of 1/2 your movements per ss.” Ha ha, the joke's on the mogul! Atlantasian characters don't have movement rates!