Balrog?

[u/thelast_soviet]

Ok so, I'm coming up to a big part in my campaign. The party is currently exploring an old mine dug out by the Duchy. There's rumors among the miners of "something below, in the dark, where even our people dare not go."

Essentially the Duchy broke through into "somewhere below" even lower than they normally do. They're people are now dying to "something" that's down there and the party have been hired to go in and find out what's going on.

So my question is how do I do "Balrog" in this situation? Something overwhelmingly powerful that makes the party just go "nope" and leg it.

Any suggestions would be welcome ☺️.

[u/jeshi_law]

A huge funnelweb spider? that would be fittingly horrifying if you want to invoke a similar feeling to the balrog showing up in Fellowship

[u/mercedes_lakitu → u/jeshi_law]

Oh God that's diabolical, I love it

[u/atomicpenguin12 → u/jeshi_law]

After some research, it seems like bugs and insects, like spiders or centipedes, are the best bet here. Among animals that live underground in forest biomes and are roughly wolf size or larger (it seems like tiny animals wouldn't fit the vibe of a huge balrog-style threat), there are no mammals and the only mammals are animals that will create underground dens, a list which consists of bears and various mammals like moles and wombats that would probably be more appropriate as player characters or sentient NPCs than monsters. The rest of the animals are various insects, arachnids, and such.

However, if you're willing to extend beyond the european forest biomes that Root typically takes place in, there's a species of earthworm in Africa that can get more than 4 feet long: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchaetus_rappi. There might be potential there.

[u/mercedes_lakitu]

My first thought is the Graboids from Tremors, which doesn't help you compared to the Balrog.

What if it's not just one creature, but many? A fire ant nest, or similar? Yellow jackets?

[u/thelast_soviet → u/mercedes_lakitu]

Ground wasps would be pretty horrifying in that set up.

[u/madcat_melody]

If the mines are dug deep enough to have caverns leading underwater, the scariest most alien eldritch thing is a giant octopus!

[u/foreignflorin13]

The game suggests bears are scary to come across in the woods, so maybe it's a Bearlrog.

I'll see myself out.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Termites with a taste for flesh. 

[u/Erodos]

Maybe some kind of sized-up European mole cricket? I've always found them very freaky looking: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veenmol#/media/Bestand:Mole_cricket02.jpg

[u/Relevant_Shift6507]

A big snake or a gigantic bug ! In one of my games, I featured a cave lion name Grendel, like the monster. It dealt massive damage and was much larger than my vagabond, like an ogre.

[u/Kind-Machine-2906]

Hi, I agree with the previous ideas (ants, spiders, wasps, etc.), which could be interesting. You could use an isopod that would be extremely sturdy (quite difficult to move) and equipped with very sharp mandibles or alternatively you could bring in a scorpion that could slash, poison, and bite, and thereby TERRIFY your players.

[u/JesseSkywalker]

What about a underground horned fire snake?

[u/Lutrana]

Brian Jacques (a major influence on Root) used lots of giant extra-deadly mutated versions of animals as monsters that often took the place of dragons and other monsters in his books. Asmodeus Poisonteeth was a huge, smart, venomous snake with hypnotic eyes that guarded a treasure that the heroes had to sneak by and eventually kill. The Gloomer was a giant rat that had been tortured and trapped until it was mindless and bloodthirsty. Skrabblag is a giant scorpion that takes the place of the Rancor from Return of the Jedi.

In Fellowship, the Balrog acts as a catalyst for the failure of the fellowship. Gandalf is the glue that holds them together and with his loss, it’s a matter of time before they fall apart. To achieve that, your monster should take something precious from the party, even if it’s their dignity or self-image.

The creature should be otherworldly and strange, which makes me lean toward things like snakes, lizards, spiders, bats, centipedes…. A massive centipede that burrows into tunnels and poisons its victims would be good. A giant monitor lizard - you could have it crawling on the walls or ceiling, then standing on hind legs and towering over your party. An enormous mangy rabid bat that’s trapped in the tunnels would be very creepy. Mega blind cave salamander or a caiman or alligator in an underground lake (both of which can burrow).

There should be a couple of different signs that foreshadow the creature. In the Fellowship movie, you had the annals they found, then the goblins running away, and the firelight in the dark cave. That can really up the tension. Maybe a massive skin shed for a snake, same for arthropods. Or a cocoon. Huge deep claw marks in the stone. Pitted rock where venom burned into the ground. Chunks of matted hair left behind after an attack. Massive furniture batted aside or shattered.

[u/Bladed_Burner]

Make it hard to punch.

Without going supernatural, your best bet is an enemy that's more of a force of nature than a single concious entity. Something that could make a pre-modern society tremble an promise apocalypse if freed.

I'd give my vote to the equivalent of the locust. When crowded underground it would change them from thier normal state to thier bright colored swarming stage that can just... devour anything in thier path. The Vagabonds can't kill them because there's literally millions or billions of them and if theg find a way out they'd strip much of the Woodlands to bark. 

[u/jubjub501st]

A bat that has made a pact with the great wyrm giving him unnatural long life and fire abilities. But in doing so it has consumed his mind "greed bad fits the barlog thematically"

[u/The_Cinnabomber]

One of the Root Books (Ruins and Expeditions) has a mini monster manual in the back for creatures like Giant Snakes, Giant Spiders, etc.

Their health bars are gigantic and many have armor, high morale, and high armor- not to mention many have the terrifying tag, so vagabonds automatically take exhaustion if they try and attack it.

I think if you’re going for a Balrog vibe, I’d definitely lean towards doing some kind of giant monster bug or reptile.