Spes Magna Games

I hadn’t done any cleric spells, which just somehow seemed wrong; therefore, today’s post. I picture Gaion as having been some wise-cracking saint honored by a moderately bellicose religion.

Gaion’s Derisive Acolyte
Spell Level: Cleric, 3rd Level
Range: 60 feet
Duration: 1 hour

By means of this spell, the cleric conjures a smiling, insubstantial youth clad in suitable vestments that floats nearby for the duration of the spell. This youth produces light about as bright as a torch to a radius of 20 feet. In combat, the acolyte gleefully mocks the cleric’s enemies. These jibes and taunts encourage the cleric and those allies of the cleric’s alignment who are within range, granting all affected a +1 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws against fear (and improves morale, if the recipient is not a player character).

Tags: spells, Swords & Wizardry, Vancian magic

The Kivulis of the Cairn Lands specialized in magic related to light and shadow. Each of these five protectors wore a Charm of Emitting Shadow as a badge of their authority. When the Ebon Contagion swept across the Cairn Lands, not even the Kivulis could stem the tide of soulless evil that followed. The sacred burial grounds guarded by the Kivulis for generations became corrupted, and the cairns themselves cracked open as the hallowed dead within clawed their way to the surface as undead horrors.

Four of the five Charms of Emitting Shadow remain lost, presumably somewhere within the haunted wilderness that once was the Cairn Lands. Princess Nuru of House Taa wears the fifth charm, and it is no secret that she wishes to found the Kivulis anew as a first step toward reconsecrating the Cairn Lands.

The Charm of Emitting Shadow: This colorless crystalline sphere holds within it a shadowy imperfection that seems to shift and twist as if seeking escape. When held and concentrated upon, the shadow within the sphere leaps forth, extending from the holder across intervening surfaces to a range of 60 feet. As long as the charm’s user concentrates, he can will the shadow to shift location, but it always remains anchored to the user. The shadow can manipulate objects with its shadowy hands, lifting and moving up to 20 pounds per point of Wisdom possessed by the user. It is up to the Referee’s interpretation whether the objects can be thrown, and, if so, to what effect. The charm will not function in total darkness.

Tags: magic items, Swords & Wizardry

Every now and then in the Old School Gamers Facebook group, people post pictures and say, “Stat this.” On Tuesday, 8 October, Ethan Myerson posted the picture you see to the right of these words. (Click on the pic to embiggen. Click here to check out Ethan’s iStock site.)

Ethan’s stat request struck a chord with me because he said his kids came up with the idea for the firefrog, and then he drew the picture to fit their idea. That’s just cool, and so I tossed together this as my version of the firefrog:

About five feet long, firefrogs are the product of mad breeding experiments. They have claws and teeth, and attack relentlessly. Three times per day, a firefrog may spew a 5-foot-wide, 30-foot-long line of caustic chemical that ignites shortly after coming into contact with air. Creatures struck by this burning liquid suffer 1d8+4 points of damage (saving throw for half damage permitted).

Swords & Wizardry Stats

Hit Dice: 2+8
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d3), 1 bite (1d6+1)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Leap, liquid fire
Move: 6 (Leap 12)
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 4/120

Tags: monsters, Swords & Wizardry

The waters of Lake Mauti churn eternally black even under the bluest of skies, and they remain icy even under the hottest of summer suns. Mauti’s dark chill seems to have infected the rugged hill around the lake as well. What few plants grow in the area are sickly and twisted, and the only fauna are reptiles, serpents, disease-carrying insects, and scavenging birds. As for the lake itself, nothing living calls its waters home.

The gnoll clans that prowl the plains, rocky hills, and canyons avoid Mauti and its surrounding territory. They call Mauti “demon-haunted” in their harsh, yapping language, and the gnolls refuse to pursue even their most hated enemies to within sight of the lake.

Every 19 years, when the new moon falls on the same night as the winter solstice, a terrifying event changes Mauti. From the depths rises a horrible bridge made from the intertwined bodies of screaming, squirming damned ones from some fearsome hell. This bridge of the damned spans the lake from shore to shore, a distance of about six miles, remaining until the first rays of the sun spill across the western horizon. Then, it goes shrieking back to whence it came.

Crossing the bridge is no easy feat. The hellspawned terrors that form the bridge object being walked upon. They grab and claw and bite. Each of the damned can be destroyed by spell, undead turning, or magical weapons, but to no real purpose. There are plenty more of the damned ready to take the place of any part of the bridge destroyed by those who attempt to cross it.

But, you wonder, why would anyone want to walk across the bridge?

Legends give several reasons. Any, all, or none of them may be true. Some say the bridge leads to the underworld. Those that manage to cross over can gain audiences with the evilest sorcerers and the unholiest priests who’ve ever lived, bartering for lost knowledge with these scions of hell. Other legends say the bridge leads to the gates into a palace long abandoned by one hell’s dukes. What manner of riches may await in such a place?

Then there are those tales that claim the bridge has two destinations. Those who seek only their own betterment find themselves plunged into a pit of black fire, wherein they are destroyed and reborn as part of the bridge itself. Those, however, with pure hearts discover themselves in a verdant field beneath a starry sky in the company of angelic beings whose blessings cannot be obtained any other way.

Tags: place of power, Swords & Wizardry

The jitundege (jē-tŭnd-ē-gǝ) is an enormous xenobeast combining the traits of birds and reptiles. They make nests high up on the imposing cliffs that dominate the western sea coasts of Lygia, not too far from the Shenzi Highlands.

A full-grown jitundege stands about 20 feet at the shoulder. It’s neck, about 12-feet in length, supports a narrow, long cranium. A strong, saw-toothed beak comprises most of the cranium’s length. A fan-like ridge of cartilage covered with fine down tops the head. A jitundege has wing membranes extending between its fingers and toes as webbing, a uropatagium, or membrane between the feet and tail, and a propatagium, or membrane between the wrist and shoulder. Iron-hard keratin sheaths cover its finger and toe claws, which extend and curve into sharp hooks well beyond their bony cores.

Jitundeges lack the ability to truly fly like birds. Instead, they must launch themselves by dropping from a height, much like an enormous bat. Once airborne, a jitundege can remain aloft for hours, drifting on thermals and flapping its membrane wings for additional thrust and altitude. These creatures are also far from helpless on the ground. They can trot on all fours faster than a man can run.

Jitundeges prey on smaller land animals (those roughly the size of an adult human). The typical attack involves catching the victim with a powerful bite and then flipping it through the air to crash back to the ground (6d6 points of damage with an Evasion save for half damage). These xenobeasts also use their powerful foreclaws to rend their prey so as to gain access to its internal organs.

The jitundege’s bony cranial ridge houses and protects a complex neural cluster that protects the xenobeast from psionics. Any creature that targets a jitundege with a psionic power must make a Mental Effect saving throw. If the creature fails this saving throw, it suffers neural feedback that inflicts hit point damage equal to half the activation cost of any powers they use. Mastered powers are treated as if they had their normal activation cost. The existence of this psionic defense adaptation is a source of controversy as there are no known psionic predators on Lygia.

Stars Without Number Data

Jitundege
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 12
Attack Bonus: +12
Damage: 3d6 bite and catch, 2d6/2d6 claws
No. Appearing: 4-16
Saving Throw: 9+
Movement: 40 ft., 60 ft. flying
Morale: 9

Tags: monsters, Stars Without Number