Spes Magna Games

Last week, I took the aerial servant from the AD&D Monster Manual and statted it up for Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition. If you missed that installment of Savage Wednesday, you can click here to make amends.

(Nota Bene: The first two links above are affiliate links.)

I kind of enjoyed writing the aerial servant post, and so I asked myself, “Self, why not do the same thing for the next monster?” I couldn’t think of a good reason to not do so. The AD&D Monster Manual remains a classic among the host of roleplaying game collections of monsters. Sure, some of the art is a bit uninspired. (I’m looking at you, Brachiosaurus.) Some of the monsters are perhaps a bit odd or even unnecessary. (Now I’m looking at you, Mule. You’re not a monster.)

Other entries, however, are classics, and the anhkheg (note the correct spelling) is a classic. An giant burrowing arthropod that attacks by surprise and spits acid? What’s not to love?

Anhkheg

The anhkheg burrows through the earth like an earthworm, preferring soil rich in minerals and organic matter. Thus it will usually be found in forests and choice agricultural land. This causes farmers great consternation, since the anhkheg likes to supplement its earthly diet with a bit of fresh meat, human or otherwise. The anhkheg has a chitinous shell which is brownish in color. Its underside is pinkish. The creature’s eyes are glistening black.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d12+4, Vigor d10
Skills: Fighting d8, Notice d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d8
Charisma: —
Pace: 6
Parry: 6
Toughness: 14 (3)
Special Abilities:

Armor: +3.

Bite: STR+d10.

Burrowing: The anhkheg has a Burrowing Pace of 3. When burrowing, the anhkheg gains a +2 to Stealth rolls.

Spray Acid: The anhkheg sprays acid using the Cone Template. Every target within this cone must beat the anhkheg’s Shooting roll with Agility or suffer 4d8 points of damage. The anhkheg can spray acid once every 1d6 hours.

Size +4: The anhkheg reaches lengths of 20 feet.

Tremorsense: The anhkheg tends to lurk underground and attacks by ambush. The anhkheg detects vibrations within 6″, gaining a +2 to Notice rolls.

Tags: monsters, Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds

Back when I was in high school, TSR published Star Frontiers. It wasn’t the first sci-fi game we played. That would be Gamma World. It wasn’t even the second, which would be Traveller. (N.B. That’s an affiliate link.)

But, man, did we play the heck out of Star Frontiers, and, as usual, our characters were a possee of shady mercenaries out to get rich and probably die young in the process. If memory serves, our characters’ last adventure involved trying to steal a prototype military robot in order to sell it on the black market. The mission did not succeed, and I’m pretty sure we moved on to another game.

Anyhoo, here’s a new monster adapted from the creature of the same name found in Crash on Volturnus:

Rasties are vicious mammals of medium size that prey upon hapless shovelmouths and other gentle prey living in the caverns of Volturnus. [They] look like a cross between a rat and a small monkey. They have four legs, but can sit upright and use their forelimbs to grasp meat or small prey. Rasties are usually hungry, and will attack anything that looks edible to them.

Rasties
Small monstrosity, neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 27 (6d6+6)
Speed 30 ft.

STR 8 (-1), DEX 16 (+3), CON 13 (+1), INT 6 (-2), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Rasties
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Blood Rampage. As a bonus action, the rasties can move up to half its speed toward a hostile creature that doesn’t have all its hit points and then make a bite attack against that creature. The rasties must be able to see the creature.

Keen Smell. The rasties has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Pack Tactics. The rasties has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the rasties’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the rasties cannot bite another target.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters, Tuesday Terror

The Kids’ Game campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition is on a brief hiatus. Last Saturday would have been our next session, but folks were out of town or otherwise unavailable. This is probably a good thing. The next session looks to be a bit, well, busy. The kids in the forms of their pulp hero characters are holed up in Watusi, a small African town at the edge of Leopard Man territory. Pharaoh Doctor Mobius has a detachment of stormtroopers moving toward the fabled Temple of Tears, presumably to ambush the heroes when they show up with the Tiles bearing the secrets to finding the Chalice of Possibilities.

Realizing forewarned is forearmed, the heroes beat the streets and broke into some offices to gather intelligence. One of Mobius’s lieutenants, the inscrutable and deadly Wu Han, is en route via airship with more stormtroopers. Elements of the Resistance have allied themselves with the heroes while collaborators make ready to welcome Wu Han. In short, the heroes sit on a powder keg of potential insurrection. Hundreds of lives hang in the balance.

Like I said: busy. On the plus side, the next session presents a great opportunity to test out the Allies and Mass Battles rules, so I got that going for me.

And now, for no particular reason, the first monster in the AD&D Monster Manual. (Nota Bene: The links above are affiliate links.)

Aerial Servant

The aerial servant is a semi-intelligent form of an air elemental, typically encountered only due to conjuration by a cleric.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d12+2, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d10
Charisma: —
Pace: —
Parry: 7
Toughness: 9
Special Abilities:

Elemental: An aerial servant takes no additional damage from called shots. It is Fearless, and immune to disease and poison.

Flight: An aerial servant flies at a rate of 12″ with a Climb of 3. It may not run.

Ethereal: An aerial servant cannot be harmed by nonmagical attacks.

Invisibility: An aerial servant is naturally invisible. Its presence can be detected due to disturbances in the air. A character may detect an aerial servant with a Notice roll at -4. Once detected, an aerial servant may be attacked, but with a -4.

Size +3: An aerial servant is about 8 feet tall.

Slam: STR+d6.

Tags: monsters, Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game

Way back in 1978, Ms. Marvel met a race of lizard people who had mutated from common desert reptiles into an intelligent society, all as a result of atomic bomb testing. I used to have that comic book. I’m pretty sure it was among the several comics from late 60s through the mid-80s that did survive the purge of my bedroom after I left for basic training in the summer of 1985.

Dinosaurs, lizardmen, et cetera have long been a staple of fantastic fiction and roleplaying games. From Lost Worlds to Lovecraftian serpent people to tragically mutated one-armed scientists, who doesn’t love scaly creatures? People who are wrong. That’s who.

Sollersaurus
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1-6 (4-24 in lair)
Armor Class: 4
Move: 15″ or 21″ (see below)
Hit Dice: 4+4
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: D
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 1-4/1-4/2-8
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (6′ tall, 12′ long)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: IV/250 + 5/hp (Alphas: IV/290 + 5/hp)

The sollersaurus is an intelligent saurian carnivore. It is fast, and it has a whip-like tail, grasping forearms with hand-like appendages sporting sharp talons, a strong jaw full of fangs, and powerful hindlegs. The sollersaurus travels on either two legs or four (move 15″ or 21″, respectively). Its coloration is highly adaptable, much like that of a chameleon.

The sollersaurus has keen senses and infravision of the 90-foot variety. It is immune to illusions and is surprised only 1 in 8 times. The sollersaurus moves quickly and stealthily. It surprises its prey 4 in 6 times. On the first round of combat, the sollersaurus may leap up to 3″ and attack with the gutting talons on its hind legs. This attack enjoys a +2 to-hit bonus and inflicts 3-12 points of damage.

A pack of sollersauruses numbering at least 4 creatures will be coordinated by a mated pair of alphas. These alphas have at least 6 hit points per hit die and have a +1 to-hit bonus on attacks.

The sollersaurus speaks it own language of barks, trills, and hisses. It has a 25% chance to understand 1-2 other languages, although the sollersaurus lacks the vocal apparatus to speak most other tongues. Despite its intelligence, the sollersaurus seldom makes use of tools.

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It’s been a while since I featured anything for The Four Color Hack, and a post that opens talking about a comic book seems an good time to remedy this omission.

The lizard people that Ms. Marvel met included some pretty tough customers. Some had psychic powers. One was a giant viper of sorts. Another threw a tank at Ms. Marvel. That takes some muscle.

Sca-Lor
Level 5 Villain

Quote: “Rraauwrrr!”
Real Name: H’stok
Identity: Secret
Place of Birth: Somewhere in the southwestern United States
Height: 7 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 390 lb.
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: None

Hit Points: 30 (4 Vigor)
Base Damage: d10
Powers: Desert Camouflage d10, Regeneration d10, Super-Strength d16 (d10+d16 damage), Thick Scales d12 (7 protection)

Background: Sca-Lor is the war-like champion and self-appointed guardian of the saurian people who live hidden in caves in the southwestern United States. Belligerent, xenophobic, and ambitious, Sca-Lor believes he should lead his people out of hiding in order to wage war on the “sssoft skinsss” that seem to be increasingly encroaching on saurian territory.

Powers: Sca-Lor’s powers are straightforward and quite exceptional for a saurian. He can lift 50 tons, and his thick scales are immune to most conventional weaponry. He heals rapidly, and he can even regenerate lost limbs and organs.

Tags: monsters, TFCH, ThursdAD&D

The Kids’ Game campaign continues. The heroes left behind Miami, Florida, in the 1980s and entered the Nile Empire, a strange mixture of ancient Egyptian society, Depression-era pulp noir, weird science, and masked men of mystery. Transformed from 8th-graders into men of action, the heroes found themselves thwarting attempted murder by giant scorpion, matching wits and bullets and fists against a master of disguise, and racing against the agents of the diabolical Wu Han, servant of Pharoah Doctor Mobius, to retrieve a set of mysterious tiles stolen from the Temple of Tears deep in be-jungled Leopard Man territory. The tiles, it is said, must be restored to their original configuration in the Temple in order to reveal the location of the fabled Chalice of Possibilities, an obscure but allegedly powerful artifact that several would-be world conquerors seek to possess.

Among foes faced by the heroes were a Priestess of Sobek and an Avatar of Sobek, a monstrous crocodile. Between the Avatar’s jaws and the Priestess’s fear magic, the heroes nearly met defeat.

Avatar of Sobek (Wild Card)

Larger and more powerful than most Nile crocodiles, the Avatar of Sobek bears the hieroglyph of Sobet on its head, branded between its eyes. It obeys its mistress’s orders.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d12, Swimming d10
Charisma: —
Pace: 4
Parry: 7
Toughness: 12
Special Abilities:

Aquatic Pace: 6

Bite: STR+d6

Tail: STR+d6. The Avatar of Sobek cannot target the same creature with its bite and its tail.

Death Roll: With a raise, the Avatar of Sobek inflicts +2d4 damage.

Size +4: The Avatar of Sobek is more than 20 feet long.

Priestess of Sobek (Wild Card)

Scaly fleshed and wearing a crocodilian mask, the Priestess of Sobek is a fearsome enemy.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d10, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d12, Swimming d10
Charisma: +0
Pace: 6
Parry: 6
Toughness: 7
Special Abilities:

Aquatic Pace: 5

Crocodile Fang Sword: STR+d6

Crocodile Paw Throwing Knife: STR+d4 (3/6/12 range)

Miracles of Sobek: The Priestess has 10 Power Points to spend on Beast Friend and Fear. She gets a +2 to influence reptiles, but has a -2 to influence other animals.

Scaly Blessing: +2 TOU

And, just because I did it for two other game systems, here’s a third version of the bearboar:

“Everybody died,” the scientist claims. The grizzly boar charged through the grounds and impaled the rich hunters, one after the other, on its sharp tusks. Though it was shot a few times, the creature seemed to have no problem absorbing bullets.

Mad scientists in a lab with poor security? Of course. Sheesh, what fresh hell will it be this time?

Bearboar

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12
Skills: Fighting d8, Notice d8, Swimming d6
Charisma: —
Pace: 8
Parry: 6
Toughness: 10
Special Abilities:

Bear Hug: A bearboar that hits with a claw and gets a raise has pinned its foe. The foe may only attempt to escape the “hug” on his action, which requires a raise on an opposed Strength roll.

Bulletproof: The bearboar’s mutated hide negates up to 4 AP from bullets and provides +4 protection from them as well. This bonus is not added to the bearboar’s Toughness above.

Claws: STR+d6

Improved Frenzy: The bearboar can make two Fighting attacks each action at no penalty.

Tusks: STR+d6. If the bearboar can charge at least 6″ before attacking with its tusks, it adds +4 to its damage total.

Size +2: The bearboar is more than 8 feet long and weighs more than 1,000 pounds.

Tags: monsters, NPCs, Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game