Spes Magna Games

In years past, I’ve done Advent and/or Christmas-themed posts once December rolls around. For example. I’m not doing that this year, but I am doing something similiar via social media. For example, in the Old-School Essentials (OSE) public Facebook group, I’m participating in the Dicember challenge to follow the Dicember calendar and come up with something for each day of December. I’m going to stick to OSE content for those posts, which I’ll compile into a document of some sort once January hits.

Speaking of OSE, a long time ago, some Germans coined the term Öhrwurm, which was a compound of dried, ground insects used to treat ear ailments. I think in the 1970s, some author used the English translation of Öhrwurm to mean a bit of music so catchy that it metaphorically burrows into your ear and keeps humming away, which brings us to today’s creature.

Ondlibi Worm Infestation
Found in the steaming Ondlibi rainforests, these gray-brown, psionic maggots that hatch from tiny Ondlibi fly eggs, usually deposited in narrow, warm orifices, such as ear canals. Wise travelers wear headgear that covers the ears.

AC 9 [10], HD 1 hp, Att NA, THAC0 NA, MV 3’ (1’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 12, AL Neutral.

• Infest: 4-16 eggs hatch in 1-6 hours. Worms burrow into host right after. Symptoms include itchy rashes, low-grade fevers, and psychic cacophony (see below).
• Just a Maggot: No threat at all in combat. At its largest, it’s a fat worm about the size of a human pinky’s terminal knucklebone.
• Psychic Cacophony: Worms detect and mimic host’s thoughts, mentally echoing snippets of them repeatedly. Host cannot concentrate or sleep. Cure disease kills the infestation.

Tags: B/X D&D, monsters, Old School Essentials

I took a break from grading book reports and pulled out the Four Evil Brothers’ Fortress map (FEBF), a blank sheet of graph paper, a pencil, a couple of black markers, and an eraser. Some time later, I had remapped FEBF’s northwest quadrant, as you can see below.

I tweaked the layout a bit, most obviously by adding some thickness to the walls. FEBF’s exterior wall is 5 feet thick. Interior walls are usually about half that, although there are few places where the walls are thicker. I also changed the map scale from 10 feet to a square to five feet a square. The quadrant barely fits on the paper, but it fits.

I left off all the doors. The original write-up included brown puddings as wandering monsters, and brown puddings eat wood and leather. Given how long FEBF has been abandoned, it’s reasonable that brown puddings would have devoured most wood and leather in the complex. FEBF was built in a swamp, and I like the idea of swamp monsters more or less having free run of an ancient fortress of evil. It’ll change the ecology of the place a bit, I’m sure.

I also like the idea of a dungeon crawl without doors. Nothing to close or open. Nothing to barricade or listen at. Adventurers with light sources will unintentionally cast illumination into shadowy corners. The thick walls, all made of stone, baffle or block sound. Add details related to years of humidity, darkness, moisture, and rot, and the entire place is likely rank with mold and fungus.

How long before explorers develop respiratory problems?

Tags: dungeon crawls, maps, place of power

In the past few weeks, I finally got my library remodeled. New shelving installed, new paint, new floor, better use of space, et cetera. It’s a roomier, brighter place now with more exposed wall on which to display framed art, my Greyhawk maps, and a selection of LPs above my turntable. During the reshelving process, I found 18 pages stapled in the upper lefthand corner. The pages summarize a dungeon that I wrote some time after I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (so, after the summer of 1985). The dungeon itself is written for 1E AD&D. After this paragraph, you’ll see a column of pics of the dungeon. Each pic embiggens when clicked upon (caveat: the pictures might not open in a new tab).

The dungeon had an poetric intro, which I’m pretty sure I wrote in the form of an epic limerick. I strung together several limericks that told the story of four evil brothers who built a fortress in a swamp. Mondo, a paladin, assembled a team of heroes, who assaulted the evil brothers’ fortress, emerging victorious but only after many goodfolk fell in battle. Unfortunately, I no longer have that epic limerick, thus making the world a poetically poorer place.

The fortress itself is divided into five parts. Each brother lived in one of the sections accessed via tower (the circular rooms to the northwest, north, east, and southwest). Each tower leads into a quadrant (loosely speaking), and each quadrant is not directly accessible from any other quadrant. Each brother had his own motif, and the chambers in his quadrant reflect that motif. For example, one brother was a thief and a glutton, and his quadrant included a sumptuous dining hall, extensive kitchens, and a collection of treatises on lockpicking. Each brother also had a special item that enabled them to control the maze in the center of the fortress.

I don’t recall the exact workings of the maze, and that description isn’t in the dungeon’s write-up. I remember that each brother had a special item (which are mentioned in the dungeon’s write-up). These items could somehow be used to change the configuration of the maze. Why and how? No idea. There might have been some sort of dimension travel possible when the last maze configuration was unlocked through the use of all four items at once.

Looking the Wandering Monster Chart, a few things become clear. First, I used the 1E AD&D’s Monster Manual II method to construct a random encounter table. Using 1d8+1d12, the table produces results from 2 to 20, “with a large flat spot of equal probability in the 9-13 range” (to quote MM2, page 138). The more common monsters go in the slots near the center of the table. As one moves closer to 2 and 20, the monsters become increasingly rare. Returning to the Wandering Monster Chart, I see that there is a death knight in the dungeon, but that fearsome monster isn’t likely to be encountered just wandering around the place. The most common encounter is “no encounter”, with hordes of giant rats or a solitary mist horror being somewhat less common.

Also, with at least a small nod to a sensible dungeon ecology, most of the monsters are undead, not particularly intelligent, and/or small enough to access the fortress via the narrow arrow slit windows that pierce its walls. The major villains in the fortress, based on the Wandering Monster Chart, would be the aforementioned death knight as well as a ghoul lord and a night hag (whose presence hints at the dimension travel angle that is perhaps connected to the maze).

Take a look at the stat blocks. Notice the circled portion. After HD and hp, there is a bonus. This is something I picked up from gaming with Lewis Pulsipher, game designer and contributor to the Fiend Folio and Dragon magazine. A giant centipede has a +1 to-hit bonus. By contrast, the night hag (not shown) has a +8 to-hit bonus. THAC0 worked like this:

Character’s THAC0 – (d20 +/- all relevant modifiers) = AC hit

So, a character with a THAC0 of 18 scores a 15 on his to-hit roll. This hits AC 3 (18 minus 15). Lew’s method kept everyone’s THAC0 at 20 with a variable attack bonus equal to the difference between 20 and the creature’s THAC0. So, a night hag has a THAC0 of 12, and 20 minus 12 equals 8, so a night hag has a +8 to-hit bonus. (This also means I either goofed the giant centipede’s attack bonus or else I wanted robust giant centipedes.) Using Lew’s system, THAC0 ends up like this:

20 – (d20 +/- all relevant modifiers) = AC hit

So, if that night hag scores a modified 22 attack roll (14 + her bonus of 8), then she hits AC -2 (20 minus 22). Lew’s system sped up combat by keeping the minuend at a constant 20. This system also foreshadows 3E D&D’s base attack bonus system, which I’ve long maintained is just THAC0 standing on its head.

In the last picture, we see handwritten notes about the dungeon. For whatever reason, those last pages never got typed. What likely happened is this. I had a leave coming up, probably for Christmas. I knew gaming with my old group from high school would be part of that leave, and, therefore, I needed something to DM. So, I drew the map, and then used one of the few military computers I had access to where I worked. The paper on which the print appears was fed through a dot-matrix printer in a continuous feed. I can see where I separated the pages and removed the left and right strips along the perforations. Then, I ran out of time, and so I hand-wrote the rest of the dungeon while on leave but before we met to play.

I remember running the adventure. There are a few marks here and there in the text that indicate which encounters the players faced. I fondly recall the ambush on the party by the githyanki warband (yet another dimension travel hint), but I’m not sure what happened after that. The githyanki might have been the encounter that broke the party, especially since the githyanki managed to catch the PCs by surprise in a crossfire of rebounding lightning bolts.

Ah, good times.

Tags: 1E AD&D, dungeon crawls, place of power

Among the gems of my game collection is the third edition of RuneQuest, a Chaosium Game published by The Avalon Hill Game Company. The boxed set astonishes with its detailed character creation and its overview of a wonderful, pseudo-historical campaign setting. Magic fills the world, and most RuneQuest characters have some ability to use magic. For example, the sample character Cormac, a Pictish hunter from a culture little above the Stone Age in terms of tools, has two spell-points and knows three spells.

RuneQuest takes seriously the ancient idea that malevolent spirits cause at least some ailments, both physical and mental. These spirits as described in the Creatures Book sound much like the medieval Scholastics’ descriptions of intellectual beings such as angels. In a RuneQuest world, a character suffering from brain fever may be possessed by a disease spirit. Another character with chronic pain may have fallen victim to a passion spirit.

The RuneQuest magic system includes spells that summon, command, bind, and dispel spirits. Some spirits can be captured and used as tools. Others may impart knowledge to those who can subdue them. It’s a robust system that shaman, priests, and sorcerers may exploit to grow in power and skill, but not without risk. Successful dealings with spirits are seldom sure things, and failure often results in spirit possession.

For purposes of this post, I want to give the B/X D&D treatment to two spirit types: disease and passion. These spirits are always malevolent.

Common Spirit Traits

Spirits are not undead. Clerics have no special ability to turn spirits.

Spirits are naturally invisible and incorporeal. When a spirit attacks, it manifests a visible, but still incorporeal form. This form’s appearance varies from spirit to spirit, but it is always grotesque and obviously malevolent. If a manifested spirit does not attack for a round, it becomes invisible again.

Only magical weapons or spells can damage a spirit. Spirits are immune to sleep, charm, and hold spells.

Spirits fly at a speed 240′ (80′), and mundane barriers pose no obstacle to them. A spirit can fly through doors, walls, et cetera, as easily as it flies through the air.

Spirits only make noise when they want to or when they attack. Spirits seldom communicate in any known language. They surprise others on a roll of 1-5 (on 1d6).

Disease or Passion Spirit (Spirit, Chaotic)
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 1-4** (S or M)
Move: Fly 240′ (80′)
Attacks: 1 possession attack
Damage: Special
No. Appearing: 1 (1)
Save As: Fighter 1-4
Morale: 10

A spirit attacks an intelligent, living creature within 10 feet per HD the spirit has. The target must make a saving throw against death with a penalty equal to the spirit’s HD. Success means the target is immune to that spirit’s possession attack. If the target fails the saving throw, it takes 2 points of damage per HD the spirit has. If this damage reduces the target to 0 or fewer hit points, the target falls unconscious and becomes possessed by the spirit. The target regains consciousness in 1-4 turns with as many hit points remaining as it had before the spirit’s attack. The effects of possession depend on the type of spirit.

A disease spirit infects its host with a horrible malady:

Wasting Sickness: The victim loses 1 point of Strength per day. If the victim’s Strength is reduced to less than 3, the victim becomes comatose. If the victim’s Strength reaches 0, the victim dies.

Creeping Chills: The victim loses 1 point of Constitution per day. If the victim’s Constitution is reduced to less than 3, the victim becomes comatose. If the victim’s Constitution reaches 0, the victim dies.

Brain Fever: The victim loses 1 point of Intelligence per day. If the victim’s Intelligence is reduced to less than 3, the victim becomes comatose. If the victim’s Intelligence reaches 0, the victim dies.

Soul Waste: The victim loses 1 point of Wisdom per day. If the victim’s Wisdom is reduced to less than 3, the victim becomes comatose. If the victim’s Wisdom reaches 0, the victim dies.

Shakes: The victim loses 1 point of Dexterity per day. If the victim’s Dexterity is reduced to less than 3, the victim becomes comatose. If the victim’s Dexterity reaches 0, the victim dies.

Lost ability score points recover at the same rate, but only after the victim has been freed from spirit possession.

A passion spirit damages the host’s mind:

Fear: The victim grows fearful, suffering a -2 “to hit” penalty on all attack rolls. When faced with numerically superior opposition or an unnatural foe, the victim must make a saving throw versus spells or be affected by cause fear (the reverse of remove fear). The victim automatically fails saving throws against other fear-based effects.

Madness: In any stressful situation (e.g., combat), or at least once per day regardless, the victim must make a saving throw versus spells. Failure reduces the victim to incoherence. The victim can do nothing else except scream, giggle, lapse into catatonia, et cetera, for 1-20 hours.

Pain: The victim suffers from chronic, debilitating pain, incurring a -1 “to hit” penalty on all attack rolls and on saving throws against effects that cause damage. Damage from any source forces the victim to make a saving throw versus paralysis to avoid being rendered incapable of actions other than writhing in agony, whimpering, et cetera, for 2-5 rounds.

A remove curse cast by a Lawful cleric forces the spirit to make a saving throw versus spells with a -2 penalty. Failure forces the spirit out of the host, banishing the spirit from the material realm. Remove curse cast by others might have the same effect, but the spirit makes its saving throw with no penalty.

Tags: B/X D&D, RuneQuest

Hello! Long time no post. I return with a brief post that features two links and one monster. The first link is a reminder that I have a teacher blog called The Knights of the Mightier Pen. The second link is to the RPG Stock Art patreon of Jeshields. I like his work, an example of which is below, and I talked with him for a few minutes at North Texas RPG earlier this year. He seemed like a good guy, and I’m happy to now be one of his patrons.

And now, a new monster for B/X D&D, the illustration of which was done by Jeshields.

Four segmented legs end in three-toed feet, the center toe of each foot noticeably wide and longer than the other two, and each toe ending in a soft pad. Two tentacles of mottled, gray-green flesh. A serpentine body, muscular and smooth, dark gray to black, tapering down to a short, segmented tail, each segment covered in chitin. Its head, more bestial than humanoid, is fringed with short horns. Its wide mouth grins, revealing jagged, ill-spaced fangs, between which writhes a three-pronged tongue nearly as long as a man’s arm from shoulder to fingertip. Its black eyes reflect light like polished obsidian.

Corpse Creeper (Monstrous, Chaotic)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 6+1** (L)
Move: 150′ (50′)
Attacks: 2 tentacles/1 tongue
Damage: 1-4/1-4/2-5 + special
No. Appearing: 1-2 (2-5, B)
Save As: Fighter 6
Morale: 7

The corpse creeper feeds on decaying flesh. Highly intelligent, a corpse creeper often speaks and reads several languages. Stealthy, it moves equally well on a floor, wall, or ceiling, surprising others on a roll of 1-3 (on 1d6). If both tentacles hit a man-sized or smaller target, the corpse creeper seizes that target, constricting for 2-8 points of damage each round thereafter until the creeper is killed, releases its victim, or the victim escapes. The prongs of the corpse creeper’s tongue conceal wicked barbs. On a hit, the target must make a saving throw versus Paralysis, which lasts 2-8 turns if the saving throw fails. Against a victim being constricted, the tongue strikes with a +4 “to hit” bonus. Corpse creepers are immune to disease, poison, and the paralyzing touch of ghouls and ghasts.

Tags: B/X D&D, monsters