Kelpie
Kelpies are horselike aquatic creatures from Scottish folklore with the ability to take a human form. Typically, they use the guise of either a rakishly handsome human man or a very high-quality horse to lure mortals away. When in human form, they try to seduce human women so they can lure them into lakes, drown them and eat them. Whilst in horse form, they attempt to trick travelers into trying to ride them, whereupon they go off on a terrifyingly wild ride that ends with the kelpie plunging into a lake or a river; if the rider is lucky, they'll be left in the shallows, drenched and terrified, but alive, otherwise the kelpie will drag them underwater, drown them and eat them.
In Dungeons & Dragons, the kelpie is instead portrayed as a carnivorous water weed with psionics; it uses a telepathic illusion of being a pretty human woman in distress to lure people close so it can drown and eat them. Why is it an aquatic killer plant instead of a shapeshifting river fey, despite both being Gotcha Monsters? It's because the specific species of water weed it resembles is called kelp. It's a kelpie made of kelp. Yeah, we groaned too.
A monster that more closely resembles the kelpie of legend called the Water-Horse appeared in Dragon Magazine #48.
Gallery[edit]
-
1e
-
2e
-
-
3e
-
Pathfinder
-
Water-Horse
