Spes Magna Games

The Skyrealms AD&D campaign resumes this coming Sunday with the heroes continuing their exploration of the so-called “haunted house” on the outskirts of Saltmarsh. One of the inspirations for the campaign is The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. I recently started re-reading Beyond the Deepwoods, the first of the books in the Twig Saga.

In Beyond the Deepwoods, readers are introduced to the Deepwoods, a place of magic and danger. Unusual trees grow in the Deepwoods.

Scentwood: This wood burns with a soporific fragrance that sends “those who breathed it drifting into dream-filled sleep”. A creature that breathes air tinged with scentwood for 1 turn must make a saving throw versus poison or fall asleep for 1d4+2 hours. The creature can be awakened before this time by rough handling, loud noises, or damage, but he is treated as moderately intoxicated if less than half the time has passed, or slightly intoxicated otherwise. See page 82, Dungeon Masters Guide for the specifics. If the affected creature sleeps for the entire duration, he awakens refreshed as if he had rested for a full day. Minimum Size of Log: 2 lbs. Cost: 5 gold pieces per pound.

Lullabee: When burned, this wood, silvery-turquoise in color, sings “strange mournful songs” that are widely viewed as an acquired taste. A creature that listens to the singing wood for 1 turn must make a saving throw versus spells after falling asleep. If the saving throw fails, the creature’s dreams are sad and disturbing. The creature loses 1d4 points of wisdom, which are restored at a rate of 1 point per hour after waking up. If the saving throw succeeds, the creature is mentally fortified, enjoying a +1 bonus to saving throws against enchantment/charm and fear effects for 1d4 hours after waking up. Minimum Size of Log: 2 lbs. Cost: 15 gold pieces per pound.

Lufwood: This wood is the most popular for home fires. It burns softly and well, producing a restful purple glow. This glow acts as a protection from evil in a 5-foot radius per burning log. A log burns for 1 hour. Minimum Size of Log: 3 lbs. Cost: 25 gold pieces per pound.

Bloodoak: Bloodoak is the most bouyant of woods, and it’s used in the construction of floatboats and skyships. Bloodoak burns brightly and hotly, moreso than other woods. It also wails and screams while burning. Bloodoaks are dangerous, and invariably grow alongside the predatory tarry-vine. Cost: 1 gold piece per pound.

At the top of the trunks of these huge flesh-eating Deepwoods trees are a ring of enormous teeth which ensures that hapless prey, captured for it by the parasitic lassoo-like tarry-vine, can never escape.

Bloodoak
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 3 (5 for tarry-vine)
Move: 0″ (12″ for tarry-vine)
Hit Dice: 16+16 (4+4 for tarry-vine)
% in Lair: Nil
Treasure Type: Incidental
No. of Attacks: 1 (4 for tarry-vine)
Damage/Attack: 5-20 (1-4 for tarry-vine)
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Semi-
Alignment: Neutral evil
Size: L (20+ feet tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: IX/5,250 + 20/hp (Tarry-Vine: IV/205 + 5/hp)

Climate/Terrain: Any non-tropical/any forest
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Nocturnal
Diet: Carnivore
Morale: Fearless (19)

The bloodoak cannot be easily mistaken for a normal tree. Great, scab-like growths cover its thick, nearly limbless trunk. Its thick roots can be seen pulsing slowly, pumping bloodsap. Ropy, barbed tarry-vines grow riot around the bloodoak’s trunk and roots. These vines snake and strike, and account for the characteristic “deathstillness” around the bloodoak, for it is a careless or very hungry animal that gets close enough to the tree to become a meal. Closer to the bloodoak, depending on wind conditions, the “underscent” of rotting carcasses and blood might be detected. Atop the bloodoak’s trunk is a gaping mouth ringed by huge, jagged teeth.

In truth, the bloodoak is two creatures: the bloodoak itself and its symbiotic tarry-vine. The tarry-vine attacks with barbed, lithe branches, striking in any direction out to 12″ around the bloodoak. A tarry-vine has 13-20 attack vines, each one treated as AC 5 and requiring 4 points of damage from an edged weapon to sever. Damage inflicted to the attack vines does not affect the tarry-vine’s body, which has 4+4 Hit Dice. When an attack vine hits, it inflicts 1-4 points of damage and wraps tight around a limb or the neck. The attack vine inflicts damage automatically each round it is attached. Furthermore, it lifts the victim into the air to drop the victim into the bloodoak’s gaping maw. This takes 1-4 rounds.

The bloodoak’s maw grinds its food, inflicting 5-20 points of damage each round with no need to make a “to-hit” roll. It is almost impossible to climb out of the bloodoak’s throat due to the numerous, downward slanting fangs. A thief (or character with climb walls ability) might succeed, but with half the normal chance. The inner armor class of the bloodoak is 8. Bludgeoning weapons are ineffective against the bloodoak, whether its interior or exterior. Nonmagical piercing weapons also cannot harm a bloodoak.

Bloodoaks hate fire, but they are not particularly vulnerable to it. Tarry-vines take +1 point of damage per damage die from fire attacks. Cold spells have their normal effect, and also slow the bloodoak and/or tarry-vine for 1-4 rounds. Bloodoaks and tarry-vines are immune to enchantment/charm and magic missile spells.

Tags: AD&D, Mirelyn's Skyrealm, monsters, ThursdAD&D

This Sunday, the AD&D game continues as the characters — all squires serving Lady Mirelyn — continue to investigate sinister and secretive skullduggery in Saltmarsh’s allegedly haunted house. So far, the squires have found little evidence of haunting, but they have found evidence of murder in the form of a rot grub bloated corpse in the house’s basement.

Last Thursday, I presented AD&D versions of two creatures from the 1981 printing of TSR’s Gamma World. I’m a little more pressed for time this week, so here’s one more mutant monster reimagined.

Fen
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 4-40
Armor Class: 7
Move: 6″//12″
Hit Dice: 2+1
% in Lair: 30%
Treasure Type: D
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-6/by weapon
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to average
Alignment: Neutral (evil)
Size: M
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: III/65 + 3/hp (Assistant or guard: III/110 + 4/hp. Leader: IV/170 + 5/hp. Chief: V/300 + 6/hp. Shaman: III/135 + 4/hp.)

Climate/Terrain: Coastal waters and swamps/tropical to temperate
Organization: Tribal
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Omnivore
Morale: Elite (14)

Fens are intelligent, man-sized humanoid fish. On land, they walk on stubby fins that double as legs. Fens have both lungs and gills, and they may remain out of water for as long as 24 hours without suffering any ill effects. Due to their translucent skin, fens blend into their environs when underwater so as to become invisible (requiring the ability to see invisible objects to locate them) as long as they are not attacking.

Fens are immune to electricity, and they take half damage from fire-based attacks. They make saving throws against light-based attacks with a +2 bonus. Fens fight with weapons, especially stabbing weapons and nets. They also use their tails to club their enemies. Once per day, a fen can polymorph into a large bird (treat as a giant eagle, but the fen’s hit points do not change). A fen can maintain its bird form for up to 1 turn.

For every 10 fens encountered, there will be a leader with armor class 5, 19 hit points, and 4+1 hit dice and four assistants with with armor class 6, 14 hit points, and 3+1 hit dice. If more than 24 are encountered, there will be in addition a chief with armor class 4, 22 hit points, and 5+1 hit dice and 12 guards with armor class 5, 12-14 hit points, and 3+1 hit dice. For every 10 fens encountered, there is a 50% chance for a shaman with 3+1 hit dice and the spell ability of a 3rd-level cleric.

The lair of these creatures is usually underwater in caves. Fens rarely build crude villages on the coast or on a hillock in a swamp. A fen lair will be protected by 2-8 giant electric eels (if underwater) or 2-5 crocodiles (if built on land). Female fens are nearly indistinguishable from males, and usually stay in the lair, where they guard hatcheries and train the tribe’s animals. Females and young typically number 85% and 125% the total number of males.

Fens are omnivorous, but they are likely to prefer human flesh to other meats.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, Mirelyn's Skyrealm, monsters, ThursdAD&D

This last Sunday, I re-restarted an AD&D game. The characters all live on a flying island and serve as squires to Lady Mirelyn. For their first mission, the characters were dispatched to the sleepy town of Saltmarsh to investigate why the town has been consistently behind on its annual harvest taxes for the past several years.

Turns out, the root of the problem has something do with a haunted house….

Anyway, I’ve got a small group with only one player new to tabletop RPGs. Amusingly enough (to me), our new player is a former student of mine, whom I taught way back when he was in middle school. He’s all grown up now, older than my son. It’s funny as he struggles to address me as anything other than “Mr. Chance”.

But I digress.

Given that most of my players are D&D veterans, I want to change up things a bit to try to recreate that sense of wonder we first had when we started playing and hadn’t read the entire Monster Manual. This means new monsters. Well, sort of. Today’s offerings aren’t really new. They come the 1981 printing of TSR’s Gamma World, which remains one of the greatest RPGs of all time.

Ark
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 20-200
Armor Class: 5
Move: 15″
Hit Dice: 2
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: Individuals L, M; D, Q (x5), S in lair
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 2-8 or by weapon
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to average
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Size: L (9′ tall)
Psionic Ability:
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: II/28 + 2/hp (Leader-type or guard: III/125 + 4/hp. Chieftan: IV/165 + 5/hp)

Climate/Terrain: Any non-desert/tropical to temperate
Organization: Band
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Carnivore
Morale: Steady (11)

Arks are intelligent, brutal dog-men of great height but slender build. They live and travel in rapacious bands, wherein the largest and strongest dominate their smaller, weaker pack mates. Arks are generally on friendly terms with other evil races, such as badders. Arks are strong and fast. They have infravision. They speak their racial tongue, chaotic evil, and often (60%) badder and/or the common tongue.

For every 20 arks encountered, there will be a leader-type with 3+3 hit dice and 16 hit points. If 100 or more of these creatures are encountered, there will be a chieftan with 4+4 hit dice, 22 hit points, armor class 3, and +2 to damage. The chieftan has 2-12 guards with 3+3 hit dice, 16 hit points, armor class 4, and +1 to damage. If arks are encountered in their lair, there will always be a chieftan with 5-20 guards. The lair also contains females and young equal to 50% and 200% respectively the number of males present.

Arks are nomadic 80% of the time, but occasionally (20%) take up residence in an abandoned (or cleared) village, building, or cave. If nomadic, arks are quite likely (65%) to have 2-8 ark-hounds (treat as hyenas) or 1-6 ark-beasts (treat as hyaenodons) (80% and 20%, respectively). These beasts serve as pets and guards. If the arks have settled a location, double the number of beasts possible. Arks capture others for slaves and food, especially humans, as arks view human hands as a delicacy. Arks always have captives numbering 1 victim per 10 arks.

Arks are not dangerous only because of their numbers and their vicious natures. They also possess strange, magical powers. An ark who concentrates (treat the ark as motionless opponent as per DMG, p. 70) is capable of telekinesis with a range of 1″ per hit die, affecting 250 gold pieces of weight per hit die. Multiple arks can cooperate to increase the range and strength of their telekinesis, but the arks must be touching each other to do so.

Ark leader-types, chieftans, and guards can drain life energy from creatures of semi- or greater intelligence. This life leech ability can be used once per day. It affects a 3″ radius around the ark, and it affects all creatures in the radius (except the user). An affected creature loses 1-6 hit points (save versus death magic negates). The ark gains a number of hit points equal to the total damage inflicted (but this power cannot increase the ark’s hit points to more than twice normal value). Excess leeched hit points not destroyed in combat dissipate after 24 hours.

An ark chieftan can control weather as a druid once per week, but only after 1 turn of concentration. After the period of concentration, another 1-4 turns pass before the weather change is complete. This power weakens the chieftan, causing a loss of 3-10 hit points.

A peculiar aspect of ark psychology is their fear of large, winged creatures. Arks have -1 “to hit” and a -2 morale penalties against such creatures.

Badder
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 40-400
Armor Class: 4
Move: 12″ (3″)
Hit Dice: 2-7 hit points
% in Lair: 40%
Treasure Type: Individuals K; C in lair
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1-6 or by weapon
Special Attacks: Empathy
Special Defenses: Empathy
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low-average
Alignment: Lawful evil
Size: S-M (4′ to 5′ tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: I/5 + 1/hp (Leader or assistant: I/14 + 1/hp. Chief or bodyguard: II/40 + 3/hp.)

Climate/Terrain: Any land/any non-tropical
Organization: Tribe
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Omnivore
Morale: Average (10)

Badders are militaristic, humanoid badgers. They have a tribal society, the strongest ruling the rest, allowing fealty to the badder king. Badders enjoy dwelling in dismal surroundings, preferring subterranean habitats to others. Badders hate full daylight and attack at a -1 when in sunlight. They have normal infravision (60′ range). Badders are quick and agile, which in part accounts for their high armor class. These humanoids hate gnomes and dwarves, and will attack them in preference to other creatures. Badders are slave takers and are fond of torture. They speak their own tongue, lawful evil, and (80%) one or two other languages.

For every 40 badders encountered, there will be a leader and 4 assistants, all of whom have 1 hit die. If 200 or more badders are encountered, there will be the following additional figures: a sub-chief and 2-8 guards, each with 1+1 hit dice, armor class 5, and doing +1 damage. In their lair, there will be a badder chief and 2-8 bodyguards, each with 2+2 HD, armor class 4, and doing +2 damage. Also, there will be females and young equal to 60% and 100% respectively of the number of male badders encountered. Badders often have beasts in their lair, specifically 5-30 badgers (60%) or 3-18 giant badgers (40%), with these animals being present 60% of the time.

There is a 25% chance that any force of badders encountered will have 10% of its strength mounted on giant badgers. If this is the case, there will be an additional 10-40 giant badgers without riders.

Badders are fair miners, and they are able to detect passages which slope, unsafe areas, and approximate depth and direction between 50% to 80% of the time.

Exceptional badders (e.g. leaders, assistants, et cetera) have empathy. This allows them to detect the basic needs, drives, and/or emotioned generated by any unshielded mind within 1″ per hit die. This makes an alert badder difficult to surprise (1 in 6 chance). Badders can project emotions into the minds of creatures of semi-intelligence or less. This ability has a range of 3″ and affects a 1″ wide path. Creatures are permitted a saving throw versus spell to resist the effects, which last for 1-4 melee rounds per hit die of the badder. Exceptional badders use their empathic projection ability to frighten animals, entice prey, et cetera.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, Mirelyn's Skyrealm, monsters, ThursdAD&D

This Sunday, I’m re-restarting an AD&D game. I did this once before, several years ago. It didn’t last long. This time, I’m hoping for more longevity. I’ve got three players so far. We’re making up characters this Sunday.

All the characters work for Lady Mirelyn, a knight errant who occupies a fortress that sits atop and within a flying island called a skyrealm. I’m sticking reasonably close to first edition rules, including Unearthed Arcana, but I am incorporating some material drawn from second edition AD&D, a Dragon magazine or two, and my personal preferences.

Since the characters all live on a flying island, it seems reasonable that flying will be part of the campaign. Lady Mirelyn has a skyship, the Galerider. She and her knights ride hippogriffs, which brings me to today’s post.

Aerial Travel

Long distance travel on a hippogriff is quick. A rider travels one mile per hour for every 3″ of flying speed, and a hippogriff can bear a rider for up to nine hours before it must rest for at least that long. Also, a hippogriff needs an hour of rest for every three hours of flight. It is possible to push the hippogriff to ignore fatigue and hunger, but this is not without its risks.

Aerial Combat

Hippogriffs cannot hover. They are maneuverability class C without a rider, or maneuverability class D if carrying a rider. While flying, a hippogriff attacks with either its claws or its bite. If the hippogriff drives at least 30 feet, it can inflict double damage to a target that is not diving. As war-trained mounts, Lady Mirelyn’s hippogriffs fight on the second and succeeding rounds of melee, as long as their rider remains mounted.

A hippogriff cannot maintain flight if it sustains damage greater than 50% of its hit points. It must land as quickly as possible. If a hippogriff sustains more than 75% damage, it cannot control its descent, but instead plummets. Fortunately, as creatures with feathered wings, a hippogriff is treated as if its hit point maximum is 50% higher than it really is for purposes of determining whether flight can be maintained. This adjustment neither changes the amount of damage a hippogriff can sustain nor does it absorb damage from attacks.

Missile fire from the back of a flying hippogriff is tricky. Treat short range as medium (-2 “to hit”) and medium range as long (-5 “to hit”). Shots fired at ranges longer than medium will always miss.

Flight Saddles

Lady Mirelyn’s knights use specialized saddles. It takes two melee rounds to properly strap into the saddle, and this prevents the rider from falling or being knocked from his or her seat under most circumstances.

Weight Classes

Lady Mirelyn’s hippogriffs come in three weight classes: heavy, light, and medium. They have the same loads as heavy, light, and medium warhorses, respectively. A hippogriff cannot fly if encumbered. The statistics for each type of hippogriff are shown on the table.

Tags: AD&D, Mirelyn's Skyrealm, monsters, ThursdAD&D