Spes Magna Games

And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. (Genesis 3:14)

Nahash
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1-4
Armor Class: 3
Move: 18″
Hit Dice: 8
% in Lair: 15%
Treasure Type: E
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-4
Special Attacks: Poison
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: 35%
Intelligence: Exceptional
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Size: L (20′ long)
Psionic Ability: 100
Attack/Defense Modes: C, D/G, I
Level/XP Value: VII/1,550 + 10/hp

The demonic nahashim appear as huge serpents with black to gray scales, uneven red stripes, and crimson eyes. These monsters can be found throughout the Abyss. On the Prime Material Plane, they seek to deceive and tempt, especially if doing so brings ruin to the innocent.

Being a demon, the nahash cannot be harmed by any sort of normal weaponry or by silver weapons, even those that are magical. It takes half damage from cold, electrity, fire, and gas. The nahash is immune to poison. It communicates via telepathy as well by speech, always as if under the effect of a tongues spell. It has infravision (of the normal 60-foot variety), sheds darkness in a 15-foot radius, can teleport (no error), and can gate in another nahash (50%), a type V demon (25%), or 4-16 manes (25%) (40% chance of success).

A nahash’s bite is not especially powerful, but it carries a horrifying poison. If a poison saving throw fails, the victim dies immediately. Even if the poison save succeeds, the victim takes 3-18 points of damage. Any creature slain by the nahash’s poison dries up and turns to dust in 1-4 rounds. Nahashim love to devour this dust.

A nahash has three minor psionic disciplines. One of these will always be hypnosis. Its magical abilities, any one of which can be used at will, are detect invisibility, dispel magic, fear, phantasmal force, and telekinesis 2,500 gold pieces weight. Once per day, it can transmute water to dust, affecting up to 80 cubic feet of water.

Nahash
Large fiend (demon), chaotic evil

Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 102 (12d10+36)
Speed 45 ft.
Ability Scores STR 14 (+2), DEX 16 (+3), CON 17 (+3), INT 16 (+3), WIS 15 (+2), CHA 18 (+4)

Saving Throws INT +7, WIS +6, CHA +8
Skills Deception +8, Insight +6, Perception +6, Persuasion +8, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances cold, fire, electricity; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical and nonsilver weapons
Damage Immunities poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from silver weapons
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses blindsight 20 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages all, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

Innate Spellcasting. The nahash’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: darkness, dispel magic, fear, phantasmal force, see invisibility, telekinesis, teleport
3/day each: charm person, suggestion
1/day: create or destroy water (destroy only, as if cast in a 4th-level spell slot)

Magic Resistance. The nahash has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Summon Demon (1/Day). The nahash has a 40 percent chance of summoning one nahash, one marilith, or 4d4 manes.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful save. A creature that dies from nahash venom turns to dust in 1d4 rounds.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, Catholic, monsters

What follows is a short speech I gave at my the party celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary. The picture embiggens if clicked.

As you know, Trina and I celebrate our 25th anniversary with you here today. As we prepared for today’s festivities, I had cause to reflect on life and love. Trina is certainly the love of my life, but she was not my first love. I saw my first love in a movie theater way back in 1977. We didn’t get a chance to speak, although I would later imagine what we would have talked about. I still smile when I remember her, this first love of mine.

And she still impresses me, a bit more than 40 years later. Of course, she was beautiful. But, more importantly, she was brave. She was forthright. She was committed to making the world a better in place, but not in some grandiose way. She was no utopian dreamer. Instead, she was practical. She saw a problem, and she did not hesitate to be the one to stand up say, “This is wrong. I’ll fix it.”

There are many reasons why my first love remained unrequited. First, I was 10. Also, her love belonged to another. For a long time, I couldn’t understand what she saw in him, this Bernard. He was a bumbler. He was a bit of a coward. He was kind of dull.

But, as I watched and learned, I saw that my first love’s love for that dull bumbler had an amazing effect. Her love for him made him a better person. He bumbled less. He acted with bravery and honor. His dullness transformed into a sharpness of character.

Part of me still loves my first love. Part of me will always love her. By now, you’re all wondering, who was this remarkable lady? Trina is wondering as well, because I forbade her to read this little speech.

So, I’ll tell you. My first love was none other than Miss Bianca, the Hungarian representative to the Rescue Aid Society, that remarkable organization of mice featured in Disney’s The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.

At age 10, I was in love with a cartoon mouse. It was a relationship doomed before it could ever start. But don’t be sad. I found my Miss Bianca, and she is everything that cartoon mouse was and more.

The Church teaches us that marriage is a channel by which God’s grace works the lives of the family. How true this is. Without Trina playing Miss Bianca to my Bernard, voiced by the legendary Bob Newhart, I would not be the man I am today. I’m convinced that whatever man I might have been would be both a sad and a poor man.

Tags: Catholic, Not Gaming Related

As I write this, I’m 50 years old and seriously under-employed. I left my teaching position largely due to health concerns. I’ve had one heart attack. That was seven years ago. I had a heart attack while driving me and the family home after church one fine Sunday morning. I still remember that next Monday morning, waking up in the hospital with tubes and monitors attached to me, and thinking, “Well, at least I woke up.”

A couple of days later, the day after having my femoral artery snaked to look for blockages and cardiac damage, I got to take an actual shower for the first time since the previous Sunday morning. A few hours later, I got to go home and lay on my couch, facing the television with the remote control within easy reach. That was Wednesday, if I recall correctly. I was back to work that week (against doctor’s orders).

That first week, I did something I’d not done in a while. I felt grateful for waking up. I felt grateful for a hot shower. I felt grateful for a comfortable couch and a remote control that works. I felt grateful for the large number of people in my life who care for me. For the first time in a long time, I truly appreciated G. K. Chesterton’s observation, “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

I had been taking waking up in the morning for granted. I’d been taking couches, remote controls, and hot showers for granted. I’d even been taking my friends, family, students, and co-workers for granted. It’s perhaps a poor reflection on the quality of my character that it took a heart attack to shake the scales from my eyes so that I could see better the very many things I have in my life to be grateful for. I ought to be especially grateful for the things in my life that I’ve done nothing to earn but that I have regardless.

Which brings me to another of Chesterton’s observations: “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

There are so many things in my life that don’t have to be the way they are. They could be another way, but they’re not. How I cannot be struck by a sense of wonder by my good fortune? Sure, things aren’t perfect. Things will never be perfect. That’s not my point.

Consider food, for example. Why does it taste good? Is it inconceivable that the world would have arrived at an arrangement wherein food had no special flavor at all? Imagine that all food tasted like steamed asparagus. I like steamed asparagus, but I wouldn’t want all of my food to taste like it. But, if it did, I’d still eat. I’d have to still eat. Would I enjoy eating? Would anyone? I’m not sure about the answers to those questions.

But food does (or, at least, can) taste good, and I’m used to that, so I take it for granted rather than being filled with gratitude and wonder. That seems a shame because, if Chesterton is right (and he almost always is), gratitude and wonder are essential to happiness.

Tags: Catholic, Not Gaming Related

See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. (The Gospel According to St. Matthew 18:10)

Not all angels are celestial agents “sent forth into the planes to further” some god’s agenda for weal or woe. Not all angels “are destroyers”. The guardian angel’s task is simple: to protect some mortal from harm. Most often, the guardian angel watches over a child. The guardian angel spends much of its time observing both unseen and unheard its charge. When it needs to intervene, it does so carefully so as to have the least direct influence on events. This does not mean the guardian angel cannot take direct action when necessary. While it lacks the power of, say, the deva, the guardian angel is not a foe to be trifled with lightly.

Guardian Angel
Medium celestial, lawful good

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 105 (14d8+42)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.
Ability Scores STR 16 (+3), DEX 16 (+3), CON 16 (+3), INT 15 (+2), WIS 18 (+4), CHA 18 (+4)

Saving Throws Wis +7, Cha +7
Skills Insight +7, Perception +7, Persuasion +7, Stealth +6
Damage Resistances poison, radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned
Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages all, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Angelic Weapons. The guardian angel’s weapon attacks are magical. When the guardian angel hits with any weapon, the weapon deals an extra 3d8 radiant damage (included in the attack).

Innate Spellcasting. The guardian angel’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The guardian angel can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:

* At will: detect evil and good, detect poison and disease, sanctuary
* 1/day: dispel evil and good

Magic Resistance. The guardian angel has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Actions

Multiattack. The guardian angel makes two attacks using its spear, or one attack with its fire bolt.

Holy Fire. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 120 ft. Hit: 27 (6d8) fire damage plus 13 (3d8) radiant damage.

Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage plus 13 (3d8) radiant damage, or 7 (1d8+3) plus 13 (3d8) radiant damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack. As a bonus action, the guardian angel can teleport the spear back to its hand. It can do this in between attacks with the spear.

Superior Invisibility. The guardian angel magically turns invisible (as invisibility but requiring no concentration). Any equipment the guardian angel wears or carries is invisible with it. While invisible, the guardian angel has advantage with Stealth checks.

Tags: 5E D&D, Catholic, monsters

According to legend, a famous bishop of a distant land earned the love and respect of the people through his unstinting generosity and unwavering commitment to justice. Where the customs and laws of his land were hostile to true law and good, he took bold action to help the downtrodden and oppose tyranny. After his death, new tales told of his benevolence delivered to the needy from beyond the grave.

1E Stats

Silver Sleigh and Reindeer: These figurines of wondrous power, cast from purest silver, depict a tiny sleigh and four reindeer. Upon speaking the command word, they transform into a full-sized sleigh and four clockwork reindeer. The sleigh and reindeer can be used a maximum of 1 day each week, either continually or in any combination of periods totaling 24 hours. At this point, or when he command word is repeated, the sleigh and reindeer return to their original form.

A single reindeer pulls the sleigh at a 12″ movement rate either over ground or flying. Each additional reindeer used for this purpose increases the speed by 12″, for a maximum speed of 48″. A single reindeer has an air maneuverability class of E. Each additional reindeer improves the air maneuverability class by one category (two reindeer equals D, three reindeer equals C, and four reindeer equals B). A reindeer can carry 280 pounds, and the sleigh can carry up to four man-sized creatures with a combined weight of 1,120 pounds. Reduce speeds by -1″ for each additional 14 pounds carried.

The clockwork reindeer can detach from the sleigh in order to fight or obey simple commands (AC 5; MV 12″/12″; HD 6 (27 hp); #AT 1; D 2-12; SD half damage from nonmagical weapons, immune to effects that require a living target; INT semi-; SZ M). A reindeer reduced to 0 hit points cannot be brought back from statuette form for 1 full week.

5E Stats

Silver Sleigh and Reindeer
Wondrous item, very rare

Upon command, this set of silver figurines of wondrous power becomes a full-sized sleigh pulled by four clockwork reindeer. They can be used for up to 24 hours in a one week period. Each reindeer has a carrying capacity of 280 pounds, which means the team can move up to 5,600 pounds when the sleigh is full (see page 155, PH). The reindeer pull the sleigh at a speed of 30 feet, plus 15 feet for each additional reindeer after the first (for a maximum speed of 75 feet either over ground or flying). The clockwork reindeer can detach from the sleigh upon command in order to fight. If a clockwork reindeer is reduced to 0 hit points, it immediately reverts to figurine form and cannot be used again for one week.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, Catholic, magic items, monsters, OSR Christmas Calendar