Crab Village: r/ImaginaryMonsters Setting Challenge

There are horrifying things in this otherwise peaceful place...

Before I get into this post, you're probably seeing a widget for this on the blog anyway (or as the featured post), but if not, check out my first published game, Pixels & Platforms: The Platform Crawl RPG! It's available for free / PWYW, it's a short and simple game built on the Lasers & Feelings engine but unlike any other L&F game I've ever seen, and has awesome cover art by the amazing harveydentmd. And with that out of the way, the article you came here to read...


Along the lines of the 10 Monsters Setting Challenge, I'm creating this new challenge based on my love for the subreddit r/ImaginaryMonsters. Take the first five monsters you see, or that catch your fancy, or at random, and build a setting around them!

Here's mine (likely the first of many!):


Crab Village

Home Crab by maddielovescolours

There is a Giant Terrestrial Crab, which has developed a symbiotic relationship with humans, who live atop it in their serene Crab Village. Despite the name of Crab Village, it is actually closer in size to a small city, and a significant portion of the crab's backside is uncharted or inhospitable forest. The village itself is mostly safe and pleasant, and in addition to farming, the people hunt, forage, and scavenge in the forests. They are an agricultural society, largely dependent on the hemolymph blood of the Giant Terrestrial Crab which seeps into the soil from parasite-induced punctures, including wells drilled by the villagers. However, on the whole, the Crab Village cleanses the Giant Terrestrial Crab of more hemolymph-consuming parasites than what it consumes for itself, and so the Giant Terrestrial Crab tolerates their presence.

The Piercing thing

Anteater by Anastasios Gionis

The Piercing Things are parasites. Although they appear like large, humanoid anteaters, they are actually more closely related to shipworms. They use their claws and powerful tongues to pierce through the Giant Terrestrial Crab's carapace, carving tunnels and habitats into its innards. They swim through rivers of hemolymph, from which they also gain much of their sustenance. However, what they truly crave is human meat. They amass their forces, then puncture through the earth to hunt the people of Crab Village. For this reason, the villagers have developed various means of trench defense, and geomancy to predict and repel the Piercing Things.

Black Honeypot

"Come on in, the water's fine!" by jade_cabbage

Another parasite of Crab Village are the Black Honeypots. They create abscesses in the muscle tissue of the Giant Terrestrial Crab, which eventually puncture, launching a torrent of pus and hemolymph, enriching the soil and providing for the ecosystem. The villagers ritualistically celebrate these events, and will sometimes construct permanent hemolymph wells from these punctures. However, these punctures bring threats as well, such as the Piercing Things, and the Black Honeypots. They grow an appendage in the shape of a human, and they seem to recognize which humans are the most attractive, powerful, or useful for luring in prey. A teenage boy yearning to mate with his nude and alluring crush, a father seeing his child drowning, or an important political figure committing suicide. The Black Honeypot leverages plausible scenarios, and preys on the desperate or greedy, those who can't afford to be wrong or are willing to take the risk. It is not clear what exactly the Black Honeypots are, how intelligent they are, or what they want. What is known, is that those who fall into a Black Honeypot never return.

The Forest Maw

Monster Teeth by Mark Molnar (I found an artstation but not sure if it's the same guy...)

Crab Village is surrounded by a rich forest, which the villagers use for hunting, foraging, and scavenging. However, the forest is not without threat. The Forest Maws are large, shaggy beasts with a toothy maw. Strangely, they are actually hemocyte immune cells that have seemingly evolved into independent lifeforms, and have adapted to protect the Giant Terrestrial Crab. Their shaggy "hair" is actually copper, oxidized into a greenish-white. They crackle white with electricity in the sun. They are strong, fast, their skin is nearly impenetrable, and they go into a rage at the sight of humans or Piercing Things.

The Man in the Chair

It just sat there and stared at nothing by William Harry

The Giant Terrestrial Crab is female. The Crab Villagers have never witnessed another Giant Terrestrial Crab, but once every other generation she rushes to the ocean to spawn, depositing a cluster of somehow fertilized eggs as large as Crab Village itself into the ocean. There is something desperate in these mad rushes, and generation-over-generation the desperation seems to increase. In the time preceding the spawning, an ominous, paranoid, depressed mood overtakes Crab Village, and for that time, many villagers lose color vision and see blurry visions. There are anecdotal variations, but the most common vision is of The Man in the Chair. It sits in the villager's home, in their favorite chair, a black inky splotch, dripping and spreading like liquid shadow. It's impression is difficult to discern, notable mainly for its fiery white pinprick eyes that stare off at nothing. The villager will not verbally acknowledge The Man in the Chair and will adamantly deny seeing it, but also cannot take their eyes off of it, and will absolutely refuse to sit in the chair. Those who see The Man in the Chair and later have children tend to treat the child apathetically and negligently at first, as if in ennui, and later with fear, resentment, or manic hysteria. If they have partners, they treat their partner with contempt. It is not uncommon for those who witness The Man in the Chair and later have children to commit infanticide, Munchhausen by proxy, cannibalism, or other insane acts towards their children, sometimes claiming to do it in the child's best interest. They do this even with adopted children, but the child must have been born or adopted before the visions of The Man in the Chair. There are no known cases of a child of one who has seen The Man in the Chair surviving into adulthood. Those suspected of having seen The Man in the Chair are often barred from having children, or outright exiled, sometimes thrown into the ocean, to drown amidst the eggs. It is said that if one were to travel to the abdomen of the Giant Terrestrial Crab, where the eggs are stored, they would find The Man in the Chair in each egg, and if one were to puncture and feed on an egg, one would develop terrible and awesome powers from Beyond.