The Beastly State of Your Campaign
Bivalves
Two hinged shells make up the 9,200 species of clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops. Many are edible or used by humans in one form or another.
Edible Bivalves
Clams: Most freshwater and marine clams have the capacity to be edible, although some are too small for use and others are not considered palatable. Clams can be eaten raw, steamed, boiled, baked, or fried. They can also be made into clam chowder or cooked using hot rocks and seaweed in a New England clam bake. In Italy clams are often used in mixed seafood dishes or eaten with pasta. In India clams make curries and side dishes.Cockles: Small edible shellfish that are collected by raking them from the sands at low tide. Sold as a boiled or pickled snack in Britain and Wales, grilled or boiled in Southeast Asia, the consumption of cockles can lead to hepatitis. Harvesting cockles has led to deaths: in 2004 at least 21 immigrant workers died from an incoming tide while harvesting cockles in North West England. They were being paid 5 pounds for 25 kg. of cockles.
Mussels: Seventeen species are considered edible, although freshwater mussels were mainly eaten by Native American tribes. During the Second World War, red meat became rationed, leading to many meals of mussels commonly served to diners. Served fried, baked, steam cooked, boiled, smoked, or barbecued. Mussel poisoning due to red tide (planktonic organisms) is a possibility, causing paralytic shellfish poisoning.
Oysters: Oyster farming has existed since the ancient Roman era, and a merchant named Sergius Orata created a cultivation system based on hydraulics just to farm oysters. The 19th century oyster harvesting in the New York Harbor kept many working class people alive until the early 20th century, when oystermen destroyed the beds with greed. Oysters have been cultivated and farmed for over a century. They are considered best raw, but cal also be cooked. Oysters can contain harmful bacteria that are especially dangerous to immune-suppressed individuals, casing septicemia. The bacteriae Vibro has a higher case-to-death ration than Salmonella or E. coli.
Scallop: Scallops are harvested in the wild or via aquaculture. They are sautéed or deep-fried, in soup, or prepared in sushi.
Other Uses
Almost all shell-bearing mollusks can produce pearls, but most are not very valuable. The best known pearls are produced by pearl oysters or pearl mussels. Freshwater mussels are used as host animals for cultivating freshwater pearls and pearl oysters secrete cultured and natural pearls. The inner lining of the shell is almost entirely nacre (mother-of-pearl) and is often also used for decorative purposes.Pearl diving has been going on for thousands of years, mainly in the Indian Ocean and then in the South China Sea. Spanish conquistadors discovered early on that there was an extensive pearl bed along the Venezuelan shoreline. The concept of pearl farming was developed in Britain and patented by a Japanese gentleman in 1916. The first string of cultured pearls was produced in 1928.
Pearls have quite a status in religion and folklore. Ayurveda medicine states pearl powder stimulates digestion and treats mental ailments. The pearl is associated with several Hundu deities, and was seen in several stories of folklore. The Nine Pearls were a group of sacred gemstones, most of which were bezoars found in various animals.
Opening, or “shucking” oysters, has become a competitive sport, with a championship held in Ireland in September.
The scalloped shell is a common symbol in many cultures. In Christianity it is the symbol of St. James and medieval pilgrims to his shrine would carry scallops. When presented to a church, in, or home, the pilgrim could expect to be given as much sustenance that can fit on the shell. Depictions of the Roman goddess of love, Venus, often show a scallop shell as a feminine principle. Pre-Christian Celts saw the shell as a symbol of the setting sun. Later the scallop became a symbol of pilgrimage in heraldry.
Windowpane Oysters/Shells are bivalves that have in the past been valued as a glass substitute in glazing and have been used in the manufacture of trays, lampshades, and other decorative items.
Byssus is filament by which mussels of certain species attach themselves to rocks. These filaments have been spun into fiber called sea silk. The Rosetta Stone Greek version discusses taxes on the byssus cloth and it was used to wrap mummies. It was durable, fine, and very valuable. Sea silk was produced in the Mediterranean region until the 20th century. Byssus is a remarkable adhesive, one that is neither degraded nor deformed by water, as are synthetic adhesives. This property has spurred genetic engineers to insert mussel DNA into yeast cells for translating the genes into the appropriate proteins.
Gastropods
There are between 60,000 and 80,000 snail and slug species currently identified, living in gardens, woodlands, deserts, mountains, freshwater, saltwater, and as parasites.
Edible Species
Abalone: Farming of Abalone began in the 1950s and 60s in Asia and quickly spread to other countries as wild populations died out. Abalone meat can often be found in Asian cuisine and is eaten on pizza in California. Sport-diving for abalone is allowed in certain countries with severe limits due to its scarcity.Conches: All parts of the conch meat are edible, although most people only find the “white” meat appetizing. Eaten raw or cooked in East Asia and the Caribbean.
Limpet: Consisting of a number of snails of both marine and freshwater variety, the larger marine “true limpets” are eaten in Hawaii, Portugal, Scotland, and Ireland.
Periwinkle: This small sea snail has been an important food source in Europe since 7,500 BCE and are considered a delicacy in Africa and Asia. They are also used as bait for other fish.
Whelks: Whelks are eaten throughout the world, believed best when boiled in seawater. Larger whelks are similar to conches in shape and can be made into bugles like conches. The Native Americans used whelk shells for everything, including tools, ornaments, containers and gorgets.
Other snails: The mud-flat snail was an important food source for the Maori. The Korean mud snail is an important food source for commercial export in China, sent to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The common garden snail, which is a land-based gastropod, is known as petit gris in French cuisine. It’s the Burgandy or Roman Snail that has gained fame as escargot and is frequently farmed for such use. Recently, Helix aspersa has gained popularity as the chief ingredient in skin creams and gels (crema/gel de caracol) sold within the Latino community and used for wrinkles, scars, dry skin, and acne. Occasionally the garden snail is also a household pet in a terrarium. Also… oh, hey.
You just found something disturbing, didn’t you?
I did indeed.
... <Sigh>
Love Darts
Also known as a gypsobelum, land snails and slugs create long, hard, sharp, ARROWS of chitin or calcium. Note, these are not semen-transfer devices… that’s an entirely separate event. But the snail that stabs the other with a love dart introduces a hormone like substance that allows far more of its sperm to survive. The mating dance itself can take up to six hours (!) as each snail or slug maneuvers to get its genital pore in the best position. When the body of one snail touches the other’s genital pore, the dart is fired. The darting can sometimes be so forceful that the dart ends up buried in the internal organs, or pierce the body or head entirely, sticking out the other side. After both snails have fired their darts, the snails copulate and exchange sperm. …Okay I’m done.
Other Uses
The inner nacre layer of the abalone is traditionally called “mother-of-pearl,” and has been used as a decorative inlay for jewelry, musical instruments, and other items.The conch can be used as a wind instrument. The conch also produces pearls that have been collector’s items since the Victorian era. This shell has been popular as a decorative item in many households and its use as a container was first made popular by the Mayans. The broken shells are used as anti-theft devices around a house by having pieces embedded on the tops of walls.
The Dakshinavarti Shankh is a sacred Hindu object, the shell of a large sea snail (Turbinella pyrum) that has a reverse-turning spiral, which occurs in 1 in 100,000 shells. They are only found in the Indian Ocean. In Hinduism the Lakshmi Conch confers all manner of blessings, especially material wealth. A medium-sized shell with five ridges and white can sell for the equivalent of $20,000. Even small ones to be used as pendants can fetch the equivalent of $120 a gram. The divine conch is blown to announce battles and believed to drive away bad spirits. Buddhism also used the conch as one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols. It was also used in a famous Middle English riddle:
I was by sound, near seawall, at ocean-stream; I dwelt alone in my first resting place. ... Little did I know that I, ere or since, ever should speak mouthless over mead-benches
And Spongebob listened to the Magic Conch and did whatever it told them to.
The Chilean abalone (actually a sea snail) contains hemocyanin (blue blood), which has immunotherapeutic effects against bladder, and prostate cancers. A type of sea snail called the green ormer is strictly regulated after overfishing caused its endangerment and led to the first underwater arrest of a gentleman by a police officer in full diving gear.
Another sea snail is responsible for making royalty more annoying. First produced by the ancient Phoenicians, the Tyrian purple dye was greatly prized because it did not fade in light; in fact it got more intense with age. The dye substance consists of a mucous secretion from the hypobranchial gland of one of several medium-sized predatory sea snails found in the eastern Mediterranean. Worth its weight in silver, the dye became relegated to use by the royal and the sacred. Many other species have since been found to produce the red-purple dye. The phoenicians also created royal blue dye from a related snail species.
Cephalopods
Ai, Ai…..
Okay, then. These are exclusively marine animals with a prominent head and tentacles or arms instead of feet. Most have the ability to squirt ink.
Nautiloids: Mainly these are cephalopods that have shells. Most are extinct, their reign starting in the Late Cambrian era and peaking during the Paleozoic era. Nautiluses have more tentacles than their other relatives, up to ninety around the mouth area. The largest species can get up to 26 cm (about 10inches) and the smallest no more than16 cm (6 inches). They are considered edible. The shell has been used to make a jewelry product called the osmana pearl. Nautilus shells were popular decorative items in the Renaissance period, used to create cups. The Burghley Nef is a silver-gilt salt cellar made in the 1500s in Paris, and is set on a nautilus shell mounted in silver.
Cuttlefish: Cuttlefish have an internal shell called the cuttlebone. Jewelers and silversmiths traditionally use cuttlebones as moulds for casting small objects, but they are probably better known as the tough material given to parakeets and other caged birds as a source of dietary calcium. They also have W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles. All cuttlefish contain bacterially produced neurotoxins in their saliva. The muscles of Pfeffer’s Flamboyant Cuttlefish contain a toxin as lethal as that of the blue-ringed octopus. Cuttlefish also have the largest brain-to-body size ratios and may be the most intelligent vertebrates. Cuttlefish are caught for food in the Mediterranean, East Asia, the English Channel, and elsewhere. It is especially popular in Italy and Spain, and a dried snackfood common in East Asia. The cuttlefish dye is used both as a culinary ingredient and was once an important dye, called sepia. It has since been replaced by artificial dyes although Jews use it for the techelet dye of theirTallit strings.
Octopus: Octopuses have two eyes and four sets of arms. They have a beak for a mouth and are some of the most intelligent and behaviorially diverse invertebrates. The Giant Pacific Octupus is generally around15 kg (33 lbs) with an arms span of 4.3 meters (14 ft), but specimens larger than that have occurred, one documented at 71 kg (156.5 lb). All are venemous, although only the blue-ringed octopus is deadly to humans. The octopus is also genetically programmed to die after a certain amount of time, caused by endocrine secretions. The are the only invertebrates to use tools.
The octopus has several defenses, number one being able to camouflage itself using color changes or to hide in a small crevice using its muscles. They can also jet-propel themselves to an escape. They can also use ink sacs, have detachable limbs, and one—the mimic octupus—will contort its body with color changes to look like other animals, including the lionfish, sea snakes, and eels.
The octupus has fascinated people for thousands of years. It is depicted in Greek art from 1500 BCE and Moche art of ancient Peru from 200 AD. The Hawaiians believe that each cosmos is one in a series birthed from the destruction of the previous cosmos—the octopus is the lone survivor from that strange alien universe. Humans eat octopus in many cultures, and it is a common ingredient in Hawaiian, Mediterranean, and Japanese cuisine. In Lorea, the octopus is eaten still alive. Care must be taken to cook or prepare them properly, to rid them of the smell, slime and residual ink.
Squid: Squid have distinct heads, a mantle, and eight arms, plus two longer tentacles. They are strong swimmers; in fact, some species can “fly” out of the water. The skin is covered in chromatosphores, allowing it to change color and render itself practically invisible. The squid also show high intelligence, and Humboldt squid hunt cooperatively and use active communication. Most squid are no more than 2 feet long (60 cm), but the giant squid can reach 13 meters (43 ft). The colossal squid, discovered in 2003, can grow to 14 meters (46 feet) and may be the basis for the concept of the kraken.
Squid are popular culinary dishes in Chinese, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, and Filipino cooking. Also called calamari (from Italian), the only parts not eaten of the beak and gladius (a long thin hard horn-like bodypart inside the squid, a vestige of a shell).
Chiton: Chitons are primitive molluscs sometimes also called “sea cradles.” They have dorsal shells of overlapping plates that give them flexibility and protection. They live worldwide from intertidal zones to deep water.
Chitons are eaten in many islands of the Caribbean and were also consumed by the Native Americans of the Pacific coasts in both North and South America. It is prepared similarly to abalone.
Game Setting Ideas
Make the PCs work for their meal. You know, it’s funny; I’ve played two adventure-type RPG games where we ended up near the ocean and we never ate seafood from the surf as far as I can tell. Not only that, but there should be mollusc farmers on the beaches during low tide bringing in the day’s catches for sale. It would be a lucrative business trade to have the PCs help out for a good meal.Jewelers may pay well for some shell types, including mother-of-pearl, adding to the possible lucrative businesses that PCs can be a part of or witness, The Nautilus Shell goblets are beautiful and inlayed with precious metals; certainly being on the lookout for such things would be a valuable side career at least. Then there’s pearls.
"And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every gate was of one pearl: and the streets of the city were pure gold, as if transparent glass." Revelation 21:21
So… what if the “Pearly” Gates of heaven were in fact symbolic of a set of twelve pearls findable in the world, that when brought together… did something. Same goes with the Nine Pearls of the Hindu culture. It is said that there are nine pearls: The Oyster Pearl, Conch Pearl, Cobra Pearl, Boar Pearl, Elephant Pearl, Bamboo Pearl, Whale Pearl, Fish Pearl, Cloud Pearl
Now, in real life, most of these pearls are in fact masses of indigestible substances formed by the digestive systems of animals. The ancients believed they were an antidote to poisons. But in an adventure setting, these Nine Pearls could actually be findable, make-able, or something to search for in order to bring them together for some sort of magical result.
The PCs could find a new resource for byssus cloth or sea silk; a group of young sisters on a remote island have mastered the art of creating the fabric from mussels and the characters could make a fortune if they’re careful not to glut the market.
Cuttlebones have been used for years to make polishing powder, included in absorbents, antacids, and toothpastes. Yes, you too may have had cuttlebone! What use is this to GMs? Next ancient Evil One game you play, when the characters are asking why it’s happened to them, the Great and Terrible Cthulhu points out they polished their teeth with Uncle Larry. Let’s see them get out of that
Speaking of rare, the production of Tyrian Purple and Royal Blue dyes was a closely guarded secret, one that many other countries would have paid dearly to have. Better yet if the players can steal the process for themselves and get in on the trade. The beginning requires leaving the snails in a vat to ferment with salt, with a stench so strong that it was abominable. Don’t mention the stinky portion to the players until it’s too late. The actually processing after that has been lost since the sacking of Constantinople. .
Love Darts. Yea…. Let’s just leave that one to YOUR imagination. Although I can’t stopping seeing the image of a blind cupid shooting someone through the head.
See? I’m not perverted.
The World Octopus Wrestling Championships
Octupus wrestling was once popular on the west coast of the US during the 1960s. Afterwards the octopuses were either eaten, sent to aquariums, or returned to the sea. The Championships were held at Puget Sound, by the way.The concept of the octopus being the last survivor of a long-dead alien cosmos leads me to think that the next villain for horror stories should be a cephalo—
Oh, wait.
