Spes Magna Games

Almost five decades ago, Mom took me to the historic Plaza Theatre in El Paso, Texas, to see Creature from the Black Lagoon in glorious 3-D. Today, I offer a re-imagining of the famed Gill Man for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Gill-Folk

These fearsome creatures live in not-so-distant swamps and tropical rainforests, venturing through submerged tunnels from hidden caves to hunt, fish, and abduct humanoids to offer to their horrid queen.

Init +0; Atk slap +4 melee (1d6+1 plus stun) or claws +4 melee (1d4+2 plus poison); AC 14; HD 2d8+2; MV 25′ or swim 40′; Act 2d20; SP camouflage, infravision 60′; SV Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +1; AL L.

Most gill-folk encountered are warrior-drones in the service of a queen. These man-sized creatures combine the features of humanoids, fish, and reptiles. They have large hands and feet with webbed, strong digits. Their fingers end with wicked claws. Gill-folk have lungs and gills, making them able to breathe both air and water. They grow increasingly uncomfortable as their scaly flesh dries out, however, making them prefer to remain at least partially submerged as much as possible. Gill-folk are adaptively colored for their usual environments, gaining a +4 bonus to hide attempts.

Gill-folk often attack with the intention of subduing humanoids, doing so with a powerful slap. Man-sized or smaller creatures slapped must make a Fort save (DC 8 + damage inflicted) or be stunned and helpless for 1d7 rounds. A gill-folk may quickly bind a stunned victim’s wrists and ankles with crude ropes to make the victim easier to drag back to the gill-folk’s queen. A gill-folk may also rake with its venomous claws (Delivery Wound, Fort 12, Successful Save no damage, Failed Save 1d4 temporary Stamina, Recovery normal healing).

A gill-folk queen seldom leaves her lair. The warrior-drones bring her food and victims. Victims are kept subdued and bound by guards until the queen has need of them.

Gill-Folk Queen: Init +2; Atk claws +8 melee (2d6+2 plus poison); AC 16; HD 6d8+12; MV 30′ or swim 50′; Act 2d20; SP camouflage, infravision 60′, mindlink; SV Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +6; AL L.

The queen towers over the tallest human and has considerable bulk along with the strength needed to move her mass quickly. Her powerful arms are disproportionately long. A frill of blood-red, bony plates adorns her frog-like head and extends down her neck and spine. The queen’s venom is deadly (Fort save DC 15), causing immediate unconscious followed by death in 1d4 rounds with a failed saving throw. After death by this venom, 1d4+6 eggs begin to grow in the corpse, hatching in 1d3+3 days. The gill-man tadpoles devour the host corpse and rapidly grown to adulthood.

Tags: B-Movies, DCC, monsters

For the second time, I draw on 1958’s wonderful Fiend Without a Face, which was based on “The Thought Monster“, a short story by Amelia Reynolds Long published in Weird Tales in the March 1930.

Faceless Fiend

In some bygone age, a monomaniacal wizard sought to give thought physical form to create servants to assist in magical experimentations. After tapping into primal energies, the wizard succeeded in part, creating a cunning, corporeal creature from incorporeal thought, but the entity proved too strong-willed to serve its creator. It killed the wizard and escaped into the wild.

Init +4; Atk tail +3 melee (1d4 + constrict); AC 12; HD 1d8+1; MV 40′ or climb 20′; SP brain burrow, constriction 1d4, invisibility; Act 1d20; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +3; AL C.

In its normal state, a faceless fiend is invisible. When visible, a faceless fiend resembles a melon-sized brain. From its frontal lobe grow two snail-like eyestalks which provide almost a 360-degree field of vision. From its occipital lobe grows a tail composed of a spine-like series of bony structures by which the creatures crawls, climbs, and hops. Beneath the base of its tail extend whip-like strands of prehensile muscle.

Coupled with its small size and speed, targeted attacks against an invisible faceless fiend miss automatically half the time, assuming the attacker has managed to determine the fiend’s location. Fortunately, a faceless fiend is not particularly stealthy. Its soft, moist body squelches when it moves, and it often emits involuntary trilling or thudding noises. A PC can make an Intelligence or Luck check as an action to locate an invisible faceless fiend.

This monster’s attack while invisible is made with a +2 bonus. Immediately after a faceless fiend attacks, it becomes visible until the end of its next turn. With a successful attack, the faceless fiend wraps its tail about its victim’s throat and constricts for an automatic 1d4 points of damage.

At the same time, its strands of prehensile muscle burrow toward the victim’s brain. Each round, the victim makes a DC 11 Fortitude save; failure results in unconsciousness for 2d5 minutes. The next round, the faceless fiend extracts the victim’s brain and spinal column, causing immediate death. The extracted brain and spinal column transform into a new faceless fiend in 1d3 rounds.

Tags: B-Movies, DCC, monsters

Inspired by Larry Buchanan’s awful The Eye Creatures, which was a rip off of the less-than-good Invasion of the Saucer Men, which was inspired by Paul W. Fairman’s short story “The Cosmic Frame”, today for Old-School Essentials I present a grade-B alien menace.

Hailing from some distant space void or strange dimension, the bizarre eye creatures travel in saucer-shaped flying vehicles of unfathomable construction and operation. Highly intelligent and dispassionate, these alien beings view other forms of life as inferior and suitable for a wide range of horrifying experiments. Bright light is fatal to them.

Eye Creature

AC 7 [12], HD 2+2 (11 hp), Att 2 x claws (1d4) or 1 x ray gun (2d6), THAC0 17 [+2], MV 120′ (40′), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (2), ML 7, AL Chaotic, XP 500, NA 2d4 (1d4), TT V

▶ Detachable Hands: Hands detach (even after death). Hands move at half speed, have 3 hp each, and make melee attacks.
▶ Infravision: 120′.
▶ Light Vulnerability: Take 2d10 damage from contact with bright light. Save versus breath weapon halves the damage.
▶ Ray Gun: Requires two hands. Fires a bolt of electricity. 120′ range with no range modifiers. Battery is good for 6 shots.

Tags: B-Movies, monsters, movies, OSE