Saturday, April 9, 2016

Dogwood City A to Z: The Heap

I guess it's appropriate that a day after I post a little manifesto on the value of the non-fantastical in a supers setting, I hit the next truly monstrous entry into the Dogwood City universe.  The Heap will be known to some folks reading this as the answer to the question, "Who was the rip-off...Swamp Thing or Man-Thing?"  The truth is they both probably ripped off the Heap, perhaps intentionally, perhaps subconsciously.


Apparently, the Heap himself may have just been treading on ground covered in a previous prose story.  I guess swamp monsters is swamp monsters is swamp monsters.  There are a fair number of resources around the web with a bit of history on the connections of these creatures.

So, who...or what...is the Heap?  Here's a nice little blurb from one of his Golden Age stories;


...and now it does things like killing animals to drain their life-giving blood.  When it comes to people, he seems to stick to killing the bad guys only, so while he may be a monster, he tries to be a good monster!  While he originated in the Polish swamp of Wausau, the Heap eventually made his way to America.  Kinda like Frankenstein...those two should meet up sometime, eh?  Here's the Heap at the PDSH wiki, and here he is for Dogwood City:

The Heap
fka Baron Eric von Emmelman
Level 14
12 Hero Dice
Defense 19

2 limbs (melee) +15 (2D damage)


As an elemental plant creature, the Heap never needs sleep, is immune to effects targeting the mind, and is not subject to critical hits.  It has some limited control of the vegetation within 100 feet of it.

On a successful saving throw, the Heap can become immovably rooted into the ground and/or blend seamlessly into surrounding vegetation.



6 comments:

  1. I didn't realize the Heap was a public domain character. I first encountered the creature in Spawn comics.

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    1. I didn't know it had appeared in Spawn. It appears that the Heap has a long line of influence weaving in and out of comics over the years. Just found out that an entire giant issue of Comic Book Creator was devoted to swamp creatures a couple of years ago. I really need to check that out!

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    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heap_(comics)

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    3. Ah, cool, thanks! I didn't even look over his regular ol' Wikipedia entry. Might have to seek out those Spawn trades.

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  2. Also known as: "The Shambling Mound!" ;)

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