Spes Magna Games

My Ludi Fabularum game club continues for another school year, this time running during the lunch/recess period, which lets more students play more often and keeps me from having to stay after school. Win, win. So far, I’ve got more than a dozen middle school lads divided into two groups playing an old-school hexcrawl using Castles & Crusades and several TSR D&D and AD&D modules along with a dash of Dungeon Crawl Classics. The picture below is the slowly expanding campaign map.

And here’s action so far:

Star. The shipwrecked adventurers swam to shore, ending up on the cold beach. To the northwest, they could see ice-capped mountains behind a vast forest. To the east? Nothing but rolling, grassy hills dotted with small woods.

1. To the Forest. The adventurers traveled to the forest to seek shelter from the icy wind and the coming night. They encountered a frogbold raiding party. After a fierce but brief battle, the adventurers won the fight. Several surviving frogbold’s fled deeper into the forest. The adventurers rescued several sprites who had been captured by the frogbolds.

2. A Home Away From. The sprites led the adventurers to Brú na Bóinne, a magically hidden fort home to a community of friendly sprites ruled by the aloof Queen Titania. This fort now serves as the adventurers’ home base.

3. The Mad Hermit. The adventurers split into two teams that set out to explore Shipwreck Island. They hope to find a way off the island. One of the teams traveled north through the forest, where they found savage, dwarf-like creatures that had caught a mountain lion. The adventurers freed the mountain lion, which fled, and then defeated the dwarf-like creatures. They tracked the mountain lion to the tree-home of Phosterius and his shape-shifting daughter Susuarana. Phosterius told the adventurers that a way home might be found in lost Quasqueton, which lies somewhere to the west near the sea cliffs.

Group two meets tomorrow for the first of three consecutive sessions of gameplay. I’ve no idea to where group two’s PCs will travel other than they’re not heading out to look for the Mad Hermit.

Tags: C&C, DCC, Ludi Fabularum

“Spider-Deer! Spider-Deer! Its fleshy antlers causing fear!”

The spider-deer is a cunning, malevolent predator, usually solitary but during mating seasons large numbers of aggressive males competing for females could be encountered. These creatures stand about five feet high at the shoulder. Their hairless flesh is spottled darker on the back, head, and haunches than on the legs and belly. They move quickly, and seldom fail to attack creatures that appear weak, injured, or elfish.

Init +4; Atk bite +1 melee (1d4 plus poison), gore +5 melee (2d5 plus grab), or web +5 ranged (entangled); AC 15; HD 5d10; MV 40′, climb 30′; Act 2d20; SP immune to charm and fear, weird glow; SV Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +2; AL C.

Entangle: Roll the spider-deer’s action die plus HD opposed by defender’s action die plus the higher of AGI or STR modifier. If the spider-deer wins, the defender is grappled and pinned. The original roll is the DC to escape from the webbing.

Grab: The gored victim man-sized or smaller is grabbed by the spider-deer’s fleshy antlers. The spider-deer’s attack roll is the DC to break free from the grab. A spider-deer gets a +4 bonus on bite attacks against a grabbed target.

Poison: DC 13 Fort save or 1d4+1 Dex. Fail by 5 or more causes paralysis for 2d3 hours. Paralyzed victims are conscience but can take no actions, move, or speak.

Weird Glow: Spider-deer’s glow in the target when agitated. The glow sheds light in a 20-foot radius. Each spider-deer’s glow might also have a special effect. Roll 1d5.

1-2: No special effect.
3: The spider-deer is invisible to creatures with infravision that are within the glow’s radius.
4: The spider-deer is displaced. Ranged attacks suffer a -4 attack roll penalty. Melee attacks suffer a -2 attack roll penalty. Spells that specifically target the spider-deer suffer a -2 spell check penalty.
5: The spider-deer’s glow is charged and regularly emits electrical arcs. Once per round, 1d3 random targets within 20 feet are shocked for 1d8 points of damage. A DC 13 REF saves halves the damage. A target wearing metal armor suffers a -4 saving throw penalty.

Tags: DCC, monsters

From out of the fogs enshrouding the Scottish highlands hops the fearsome fachan!

“He held a very thick iron flail-club in his skinny hand, and twenty chains out of it, and fifty apples on each chain of them, and a venomous spell on each great apple of them, and a girdle of the skins of deer and roebuck around the thing that was his body, and one eye in the forehead of his black-faced countenance, and one bare, hard, very hairy hand coming out of his chest, and one veiny, thick-soled leg supporting him and a close, firm, dark blue mantle of twisted hard-thick feathers, protecting his body, and surely he was more like unto devil than to man” (Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Vol. IV, John F. Campbell).

The average fachan stands about nine feet tall.

Fachan: Init +1; Atk flail +5 melee (1d6+4) and fear gaze; AC 14; HD 6d10; MV 30′; Act 2d20; SP fear gaze, incredible balance; SV Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +1; AL C.

Fear Gaze: Once per round, a fachan may use one of its action dice to cast scare with a +6 caster bonus. On a critical failure, the fachan loses its fear gaze ability for one day and is struck blind for 1d5 rounds.

Incredible Balance: A fachan always makes saving throws against being tripped or knocked off balance. It ignores fumble and critical hit results that result in being tripped or knocked off balance.

Tags: DCC, monsters

Today is the first day of my summer vacation, and so it’s time to hit the beach and witness the destruction wrought by Ray Harryhausen’s giant octopus, the true star of 1955’s atomic mutant monster classic It Came from Beneath the Sea.

Cephalopod, Titanic

A titanic cephalopod staggers the imagination. Its tentacles stretch more than 300 feet. Its mantle is 30 yards across. Its massive beak can crush boulders. The monster’s weight is incalculable. Strange energies imbue its invertebrate body with the strength and durability needed for its form to withstand its own mass. Perhaps worst of all, a titanic cephalopod can survive for a few hours on land, and it possesses an uncanny degree of problem-solving ability.

Init -2; Atk tentacle +20 melee (2d10) and beak +25 melee (4d12); AC 25; HD 20d12; MV crawl 40′ or swim 80′; Act 8d20; SP crush, regeneration, swallow whole; SV Fort +21, Ref +11, Will +11; AL N.

A titantic cephalopod regenerates 2d12 points of damage at the end of each round, including the round it’s killed. If reduced to a number of negative hit points so great that it cannot regenerate to at least 1 hit point in a single round, a titanic cephalopod dies. Wounds inflicted to its interior anatomy regenerate before other wounds.

A titantic cephalopod is so large that it cannot effectively deploy its tentacles or beak attacks against creatures giant-sized or smaller. On land against such prey, it simply shifts a portion of its massive bulk to crush its targets. This attack affects a 45-foot radius within 100 feet of a titantic cephalopod, inflicting 10d12 points of damage to affected creatures, each of whom may attempt a DC 30 Fort save for half damage. In water, a titanic cephalopod sucks in thousands of gallons of water, affecting a 60-foot-wide, 40-foot-long cone. Creatures in the cone that fail a DC 30 Ref save are swallowed whole. A titantic cephalopod’s digestive enzymes rapidly dissolve soft tissues, inflicting 2d7 points of damage per round. It might be possible to quickly hack one’s way out of the monster’s digestive cecum to less toxic parts of its interior anatomy.

Tales claim that sailors swallowed whole by a titanic cephalopod have survived by living within the beast’s non-digestive organs, there encountering strange marine creatures, survivors of lost vessels, et cetera. The truth of these tales is suspect.

Tags: B-Movies, DCC, monsters

1957 saw Not of This Earth hit U.S. movie theaters. Roger Corman, B-movie genius, brought together the talents of blocky Paul Birch and platinum-blond Beverly Garland in a movie with a truly chilling premise executed with an almost total lack of any sort of tension or character development. Several scenes that are meant to evoke awe or dread instead induce eye-widening impatience for the scene’s end. The theatrical version’s 67-minute running time seems to drag on and on. Still, Not of This Earth is not without its charms, which is par for Corman, who manages to make his trademark amateurishness both irritating and engaging at the same time.

And so today we adapt Paul Birch’s alien Mr. Johnson for DCC.

Davannians

Scholars aren’t quite sure where Davanna is. It could be a distant kingdom, or a parallel dimension, or an alien world. Whatever the truth, Davannians appear very much like humans, except for their eyes, which are milky white with pale gray pupils. Some time past, terrible wars ravaged Davanna, contaminating the very air with harmful but invisible energies. Because of this, the Davannians are a dying race, afflicted with a strange disease that slowly turns their blood from liquid to fine powder. The only way to stave off death from this condition to consume human or demihuman blood.

Since Davannians are both highly intelligent and deeply pragmatic, they acquire this blood by capturing inferior species (defined as anyone not a Davannian), transporting these captives to blood farms. The captives are kept telepathically sedated and mechanically restrained while systems of needles, tubes, and glass jars pump nutrient-rich fluids in and healthy blood out.

Init +4; Atk weapon +4 melee or ranged (by weapon type); AC 10 (unarmored); HD 4d8; MV 30′; Act 1d20; SP death glare, sensitivity to loud noises, telepathy; SV Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +4; AL L.

Davannians are competent fighters, but they prefer to use their strange powers against enemies. Davannians communicate via telepathy, which transcends language barriers. The initial range of their telepathy is only 30 feet and requires line of sight, but once contact is established, a Davannian can communicate with the target over distances measured in miles. Davannian telepathy can also induce paralysis (lasting 2d3 minutes), erase or modify memories, or implant post-hypnotic suggestions. These effects require line of sight and have a range of 60 feet. They also permit a DC 16 Will save to resist. There is no fixed duration for telepathically altered memories or implanted suggestions, but killing the Davannian ends the effects.

The Davannians’ most potent weapon is their fearsome glare. This is not a gaze attack. The target need not meet the Davannian’s stare to be effected, but the target must be visible and within 30 feet. The glare can crack stone or shatter glass. Against a creature, the glare forces a DC 16 Will save to avoid being immediately rendered unconscious and reduced to 1 hit point, and the following round suffering 1d6 points of damage from massive internal trauma. If the Will save versus the glare succeeds, the target suffers no ill effects.

Davannians have exceptional hearing, making them difficult to surprise but vulnerable to loud noises. They suffer a -4 penalty on saving throws versus sonic attacks. A loud noise, such as a scream, within 5 feet forces a Davannian to make a Fort save to avoid being stunned for 1 round. The GM determines the DC of this saving throw. A shrill scream ought to have a DC of at least 12.

Davannians use strange devices, such as blood extractors carried in small boxes and metallic frames that permit both telepathic communication over vast distances and the teleportation of objects and creatures to and from Davanna.

Tags: B-Movies, DCC, monsters