Spes Magna Games

To create the giant vulture, I took the dire wolf’s stats and tweaked them a wee bit, indulging in a variation on the Just Use Bears idea.

Vulture, Giant
Large, scabrous, semi-intelligent birds. Dwell in remote places.

AC 6 [13], HD 4+1 (19 hp), Att 1 x bite (2d4), THAC0 15 [+4], MV 90′ (30′) / 150′ (50′) flying, SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (2), ML 8, AL Neutral, XP 125, NA 2d4 (4d4), TT None.

▶ Keen Senses: Acute vision and olfactory senses. Can track by scent. Surprised only on a 1 (in 6).

▶ Mounts: Sometimes trained as mounts by goblins.

▶ Training: At the referee’s discretion, captured chicks may be trained like falcons. Giant vultures are rebellious and extremely difficult to train.

And because they’re in the picture: Goblin vulture-riders often bomb their victims (Core Rules 132). The two most common bombs goblins use are described below.

▶ Bomb: Explodes on impact. Inflicts 2d4 damage in a 5-foot radius. Successful save versus breath halves damage.

▶ Slime Sack: Bursts on impact. Entangles targets in a 5-foot radius. Open doors check to break free. Successful save versus breath grants +1 on checks to break free.

Tags: B/X D&D, monsters, OSE

I dove back into Erin D. Smale’s BX Options: Class Builder to put together a phanaton character class, perhaps useful to people playing The Isle of Dread. Nota Bene: Those previous links are affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I get a few coppers.

Phanaton

“The phanaton looks like a cross between raccoons and monkeys. They are roughly halfling-size and have 4-foot long tails can grasp objects. …. In addition, phanaton have membrances of skin stretching from arm to leg. They can spread these membrances and glide…” (quoted from 1983’s D&D Expert Rules by Frank Mentzer)

Requirements: Minimum DEX 11
Prime Requisite: DEX
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 8
Armor and Shields: Shields only
Weapons: Any appropriate to size
Languages: Alignment, Common, Dryad, Elvish, Phanaton, Treant

Damage Bonus: At 6th level, a phanaton receives a +1 bonus to melee and missile damage rolls. This bonus increases to +2 at 8th level.

Climb Sheer Surfaces: A phanaton can climb sheer surfaces as a thief of the same level.

Combat: A phanaton makes attacks as a monster (Rules Tome 135) and saving throws as fighters (Rules Tome 29). Phanaton cannot use longbows or two-handed swords.

Gliding: A phanaton glides via its wing-like membranes, dropping 5 feet for every 10 feet it moves.

Prehensile Tail: An adult phanaton’s tail is about four feet long. It can manipulate items somewhat clumsily.

Stronghold: When phanaton reach 6th level, they may build strongholds.

Tags: B/X D&D, Character Classes, OSE

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

In effort to spend less time watching TV and/or playing Fishdom (which is open on my tablet while I type these words), I’ve started working on a new Spes Magna Games product titled Caveat Emptor, which presents a collection of Old School Essentials magic items with sinister origins and/or somewhat unpredictable effects. Here’s a sample, with some art by Jeshields:

Origaminicon

Legends claim that only a small number of these books exist. The first was created by an oni lord who had become enthralled by a beautiful princess. The oni lord presented an Origaminicon to her, hoping to win her affection by means of his clever gift. The princess carefully folded every page according to the book’s instructions. Before her father’s court with the oni lord in attendance, she sang the command words, animating two dozen origami animals, which she then ordered to tear the oni lord to pieces for her cruel amusement.

An Origaminicon measures 6 inches by 9 inches. Bound in leather with ornamental corner pieces fashioned from silver, the covers have rectangular plates of the same metal, inscribed with delicate pictures of animals. Inside the book are 49 pages, the first of which bears the book’s title.

After the title page, each pair of pages follow a pattern. Every other page is blank on both sides and creased in such a way as to make it easy to tear from the book. In between each page is a command word and a beautifully illustrated set of diagrams that show how to cut and fold the removed blank page in such a way as to create a charming origami animal.

It takes 1-3 turns to complete an origami animal, during which time the folder must roll under his or her Dexterity on 1d20. Each origami animal has its own command word that, when spoken by the folder, animates the paper creation for 1-3 hours. If the folder’s Dexterity check was successful, the origami animal grows in size and strength. Otherwise, it remains rather tiny. In either case, the origami obeys its folder’s simple commands to the best of its ability.

Full-Size Origami Animal: AC 6 [13], HD 3 (13 hp), Att 2 paper cuts (1d4), THAC0 17 [+2], MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16, ML 12, AL Neutral.

• Immunity: Unharmed by gas; unaffected by charm, hold, and sleep spells.
• Infravision: 60’.
• Made of Paper: Suffers from double damage from slashing weapons and from fire.

Tiny Origami Animal: AC 8 [11], HD 1 hp, Att nil, THAC0 NA, MV 90’ (30’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 12, AL Neutral.

• Immunity: Unharmed by gas; unaffected by charm, hold, and sleep spells.
• Infravision: 60’.
• Made of Paper: Suffers from double damage from slashing weapons and from fire.

Nota Bene: Each command word in the Origaminicon functions only once.

Tags: B/X D&D, magic items, Old School Essentials

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