Spes Magna Games

One of the first things I do with a game system is write up monsters, villains, et cetera. Hereafter, I try my hand with a few horrors for The Cthulhu Hack.

Chthonian

An enormous squid-like monstrosity at least 20 feet long. Numerous grasping tentacles. Its worm-like body coated with slime. All around, an alien chanting that seems to come from the very air itself.

Hit Dice: 10
Notes: Tentacle (1d6 plus CON Save to avoid additional 1d6 from blood drain). Crush (1d4 nearby targets for 1d8; DEX Save avoids). Armor 5. Powerful telepathy. Regenerates 5 hit points per round until dead. Casts 1d6 spells. Multiple Chthonians working in concert can cause earthquakes.

Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath

An vast mass of writhing, ropy tentacles the color of night. Covered with puckered mouths that drool green goo. Lower tentacles end in ebon hooves upon which the monster walks. The stench of an open grave hangs thick in the air.

Hit Dice: 7
Notes: Tentacle (1d8 plus CON Save to avoid weakness causing a Disadvantage in STR Saves). Firearms do minimum damage. Casts 1d6 spells. Stealthy in forests.

Dimensional Shambler

“Shuffling toward him in the darkness was the gigantic, blasphemous form of a black thing not wholly ape and not wholly insect. Its hide hung loosely upon its frame, and its rugose, dead-eyed rudiment of a head swayed drunkenly from side to side. Its fore paws were extended, with talons spread wide, and its whole body was taut with murderous malignity despite its utter lack of facial expression. After the screams and the final coming of darkness it leaped, and in a moment had Jones pinned to the floor. There was no struggle, for the watcher had fainted.” (The Horror in the Museum by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald)

Hit Dice: 4
Notes: 2 claws (1d4). Travel between planes (INT Save prevents being dragged along when applicable). Armor 3. Casts 1d3 spells.

Fire Vampire

“On the instant that the final guttural sound had left his lips, there began a sequence of events no human eye was ever destined to witness. For suddenly the darkness was gone, giving way to a fearsome amber glow; simultaneously the flute-like music ceased, and in its place rose cries of rage and terror. Then, instantaneously, there appeared thousands of tiny points of light—not only on and among the trees, but on the earth itself, on the lodge and the car standing before it. For still a further moment, we were rooted to the spot, and then it was borne in upon us that the myriad points of light were living entities of flame!” (The Dweller in Darkness by August Derleth)

Hit Dice: 1
Notes: Touch (1d6). Immune to material weapons. Suffers improvised damage from materials that smother flame.

Tags: horror, monsters, The Cthulhu Hack

Inspired by a Facebook post by Joe Pizzirusso in the 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons group, here comes two special abilities for more scientifically accurate giant spiders. If you want more information about the discovery of a new species of tarantula, check out this NatGeo article. Also, this is not the first time I’ve visited monstrous arachnids. Check out these older posts:

* The Spiders from Mars, monstrous foes for Fate Accelerated Edition.
* Plague of Spiders, a terrifying Third Magnitude spell for Barbarians of Lemuria.
* The Pholcids of Orgimchak, magical spiders for Swords & Wizardry.
* Day 17: My Animal/Vermin for assorted spider facts.

But enough of that. Giant spiders stalk hereafter.

Everyone knows that giant spiders are web builders who construct their webs “horizontally or vertically so as to entrap any creature which touches the web.” Of course, a giant spider’s bite packs a poisonous punch. “A victim must save versus poison or be killed.” All of this is explained on page 90 of the Monster Manual. Go ahead and check. While you’re at it, look at the glorious full page illustration on page 91. See those bristles and hairs on the giant spider fixing to pounce on the unsuspecting adventurers?

Those are urticating hairs, which aren’t really hairs. Instead, they’re bristles covered with microbarbs, and they’re a defensive adaptation. When bothered or angered, a giant spider shakes and scrapes its legs together and across is abdomen. This kicks up a cloud of urticating hairs in a 1/2″ or 1″ radius around the spider (50% chance of either). The cloud lasts for one to three rounds, depending on air conditions (shorter duration in wind or rain, for example).

Creatures other than giant spiders caught in a cloud of urticating hairs must save versus paralyzation. Failure means the creature has inhaled some of the hairs while other hairs have embedded themselves in the creature’s eyes and skin. This is not a good thing as it renders the victim blind and in pain for 1d4+1 turns. The pain part is simulated by suffering 2d4 points of damage per turn unless the victim remains very still.

Rarely, a giant spider’s urticating hairs grow sturdier and sharper. The saving throw against these sorts of urticating hairs is made with a -2 penalty, and the victim suffers the aforesaid effects for 1d6+1 turns. What’s more, a combatant who attacks such a giant spider with a weapon no longer than 2 feet must make a saving throw versus paralyzation if the combatant’s attack roll fails. An attacker who fails this saving throw is jabbed by 1d8 urticating hairs. Each hair inflicts 1 point of damage.

If you add either or both of these abilities to a standard giant spider, adjust the spider’s XP value accordingly. Here’re my recommendations:

Standard Giant Spider Level/XP Value: V/315+5/hp
With Urticating Hair Cloud: +75 XP
With Sturdier Urticating Hairs: +40 XP

Tags: AD&D, monsters

I recently rewatched Horror Express. Here’s the monster from that movie imagined as a recurring villain for Amazing Adventures, published by Troll Lord Games.

Chuluurkhag, a nearly immortal alien being, came to our world hundreds of millions of years ago as part of an exploratory mission. Due to circumstances beyond its control, it was left behind when the mission departed. Chuluurkhag used its psychic powers to survive, transferring its consciousness from one primitive life form to another, gradually taking control of more advanced animals until it assumed control of an early hominid, an event that put the alien onto the path toward a human guise. Chuluurkhag’s painfully slow ascent of the evolutionary ladder came to a halt during the last major ice age when it fell into a glacial crevasse. There it remained, trapped in a frozen, dead body in a cave in Manchuria until discovered by Alexander Saxton, a renowned British anthropologist affiliated with the Royal Geological Society.

Chuluurkhag reanimated the thawing body it had been trapped within for centuries. As its strength returned, it used its psychic powers again, transferring its consciousness into a Russian police inspector named Leo Mirov. After this, Chuluurkhag bided its time aboard the Trans-Siberian Express. Still occupying Mirov’s body, Chuluurkhag vanished shortly after arriving in Moscow. Its current whereabouts are unknown, but members of the Brotherhood of William St. John believe that a recent spate of strange murders by dissection in Whitechapel, London, show signs of an alien and malevolent intelligence. Could the Brotherhood have stumbled upon Chuluurkhag?

Chuluurkhag: # Enc 1; SZ as current form; HD as current form; Move as current form; AC as current form; Atk as current form; Special animate dead, drain memory, psychic transfer; Sanity 1/1d4; SV M; Int High; AL LE; Type aberration; XP as current form with one additional Special II ability and two additional Special III abilities.

Animate Dead: Chuluurkhag can animate the corpses of any creature it recently has killed via psychic transfer. This functions as the spell of the same name, except that Chuluurkhag animates one zombie per round it concentrates on the task. Chuluurkhag’s zombies obey its mental commands.

Drain Memory: Chuluurkhag gains the skills of whatever creatures it kills via psychic transfer, and Chuluurkhag has killed many over the millenia. As such, Chuluurkhag can be assumed to have at least a +2 bonus for pretty much any skill check imaginable. At the GM’s discretion, Chuluurkhag’s bonus may be even higher, maybe even as high as +6, especially when it comes to Knowledge skills.

Psychic Transfer: Chuluurkhag properly exists today only as mental energy. As such, it is both limited to the strengths of its current form and nearly impossible to kill. Regardless of form, Chuluurkhag’s main attack is psychic. Any living creature that meets Chuluurkhag’s gaze can be subjected to this attack should Chuluurkhag will it. A saving throw resists the attack, but a new saving throw must be made each time a victim meets Chuluurkhag’s gaze. Failing this saving throw paralyzes the victim as long as Chuluurkhag maintains contact. Each round, the victim loses 1d6 points of Intelligence and Wisdom. If both Intelligence and Wisdom reach 0, the victim dies and Chuluurkhag gains all of the victim’s skills and memories. If it wishes, Chuluurkhag may transfer its consciousness into the victim’s body, animating and using the body as its own.

If Chuluurkhag is reduced to 0 hit points, it abandons its current form and unleashes its full psychic might against the nearest creature within 120 feet. The victim suffers 3d6 points of Intelligence and Wisdom drain. A successful saving throw halves this damage. If this attack reduces the victim’s Intelligence and Wisdom to 0, Chuluurkhag takes control of a new host.

Tags: Amazing Adventures, horror, monsters

Today offers three more monsters, one each for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Mutant Future, and Swords & Wizardry, respectively. Enjoy!

Dringwr

Not all halflings are “hard-working, orderly, and peaceful citizens”. A few embrace lives of sloth, disorder, and violence. These aberrations seldom last long in the typically lawful and good villages of their fellow halflings. Exile or even execution for their crimes are the most common consequences. Very rarely, such a wicked halfling returns from the grave as a dringwr, a terrible undead monster that loves nothing except for inflicting pain and causing sorrow. Of course, a dringwr prefers to prey on halflings, but its spiteful nature delights in harming any living creature that it can. A dringwr can summon and control dogs, calling 3-18 such animals to arrive in 2-12 melee rounds. It also moves with great stealth, surprising other creatures 4 times in 6. A dringwr cannot be harmed by normal weapons, and it makes all saving throws as if it had 6 Hit Dice. In combat, it attacks with its talons and fangs.

Of grayish-green complexion, a dringwr tends toward rust-red or black hair coloration. Its eyes are solid white. It dresses in drab trousers and coat, and often uses a hooded cloak to hide its obvious undead appearance. Short, ragged fangs line its gums, and its fingernails and toenails hook like talons. A dringwr speaks whatever languages it knew in life.

Dringwr: Freq very rare; # App. 1-6; AC 5; Move 9″; HD 2; % in Lair 35%; Treasure B; # Atk 3; Dmg/Atk 1-3/1-3/1-4; SA summon/control dogs, surprise others 4 in 6; SD +1 or better weapon to hit, save as 6-HD monster; MR standard; Int Very; AL CE; Size S; Psi nil; Lvl/XP III/52 +2/hp.

Demodex

Eight-legged with a flat tail, growing to the length of a man’s arm, fleshy with a rippled and leathery back, its blunt head featuring antennae and multiple small black eyes, the horrid demodex attacks with its spiked, oval mandibles. This mutant monster feeds on skin and sebum, the oily or waxy matter secreted to lubricate and waterproof the skin and hair of mammals.

Demodexes are aggressive and voracious. They use their remarkable olfactory abilities to detect and track mammals, which are their preferred prey given the demodex’s unusual diet. A demodex’s attacks can cause an allergic infection in mammals. Such a victim has a 2% cumulative chance per point of damage suffered from a demodex to develop such an infection. Treat allergic infection as a disease with the following statistics: save modifier -1; infection duration 1d12 days; affected stats DEX -2, CHA -1 (if visible); damage/day 1d4.

Demodex: # Enc. 2d4; AL N; MV 120′ (40′); AC 6; HD 2; Atks 5 (4 claws, bite); Dmg 1d4/1d4/1d4/1d4/1d6; SV L1; Morale 7; Hoard None; XP 38; Mutations Allergic Infection, Increased Smell.

Skacina

Skacinas are brutish humanoids with a thick, wrinkled hide. A peaked, heavy plate of bone tops a skacina’s heavy skull, which is supported by powerful neck and shoulder muscles. These creatures live in rugged hills and mountains, and make their lairs in natural caves or abandoned structures built by others. Skacinas practice only the crudest of crafts, making simple tools from hide, bone, wood, and stone. While they are not particularly intelligent, skacinas are territorial and prone to violence.

For some reason, skacinas are immune to petrification. Some sages conclude that these monsters have a distant origin on the Elemental Plane of Earth. This theory seems to gain support due to the fact that skacinas often kill captured trespassers by crushing them beneath large rocks or by burying the captives alive.

Skacina: HD 3; AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 head butt (1d4) and weapon (1d6); Move 12; Save 14; AL C; CL/XP 3/60; Special: immune to petrification.

Tags: AD&D, monsters, Mutant Future, Swords & Wizardry

Abami

The malacious abamies lurk in languid rivers, deep lakes, and trackless swamps. Combining features humanoid and reptilian, abamies walk on two legs, swim silently, and their leathery flesh and scales provide natural camouflage due to their coloration and texture. It is mostly likely that abamies are a type of wicked water fairy, but some scholars claim they are either undead or devils (or both). Whatever the truth, abamies revel in cruelty. They use their stealth and magical abilities to lure victims into ambushes, to cause confusion and fear, and to torment travelers.

When an abami attacks, it usually does so by surprise, using its hooked claws and jagged fangs. If both claw attacks hit a target, an abami gets a +2 to-hit bonus on its bite attack. Should all three attacks hit a target, the abami clamps its maw across the victim’s mouth and jaw and tries to steal the victim’s breath. Unless the victim succeeds in a saving throw, the abami steals his breath, which leaves the victim unable to speak, use breath weapons, or cast spells for 1d4 rounds. The victim also takes 1d6 points of damage each round from not being able to breathe. Once per day each, an abami can use the following spells: Obscuring Mist, Protection from Good, and Sticks to Snakes.

Abami: HD 3+3; AC 4 [15]; Atk 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d6); Move 9/15 (swimming); Save 14; AL C; CL/XP 5/240; Special: 4 in 6 chance to surprise prey, spells, steal breath.

Eekanna

An eekanna is an undead monster that in life was a man or woman who embraced violence and deceit before being caught and executed (or lynched). In undeath, the creature burns with a mad passion to terrorize and maim. During the day, an eekanna hides away from the sun, perhaps in a sewer system or in a lightless cavern. When the sun sets, which is something the creature can mystically sense, it scurries from its lair in order hunt, seeking to inflict pain and create strife, for an eekanna is a sort of psychic vampire, feeding on the suffering of living creatures. The younger and more innocent the victim, the sweeter the meal.

An eekana radiates a profane aura that affects Lawful creatures within 20 feet as well as normal animals. The latter are automatically affected as if by a Fear spell (no saving throw). Lawful creatures suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls and saving throws within the aura, and magical healing in the same area has no more than its minimal effects. This monster attacks with its long claws and horrible fangs. Its bite causes rage unless the victim makes a saving throw. Otherwise, a bite victim attacks the nearest creature other than the eekana with murderous intent, striking with a +2 bonus to-hit (and no longer being affected by the monster’s profane aura until the rage passes in 2d4 rounds). Looking into an eekana’s terrible eyes forces a saving throw to avoid paralysis for 2d10 rounds. In and between areas of darkness, an eekana can use Dimension Door.

Eekanas hate light. Illumination other than candlelight or moonlight pains the monster, causing it to suffer a -2 penalty on to-hit rolls. A Light spell inflicts 1d6 points of damage if cast on or near an eekana, and Continual Light inflicts 3d6 points of damage and forces the monster to retreat from the area. Actual sunlight will kill an eekana in 1d4+1 rounds (reducing its hit points by an appropriate amount each round). Eekanas also hate the smell of apples and apple blossoms, and they retreat from these objects.

Eekanna: HD 5-7; AC 3 [16]; Atk 2 claws (1d6), 1 bite (1d4); Move 15; Save 12, 11, or 9; AL C; CL/XP 5 HD (7/600), 6 HD (8/800), 7 HD (9/1,100); Special: bite causes rage, Dimension Door (in darkness only), gaze causes paralysis, profane aura, undead.

Opolo

Brutish, shaggy, and violent, opolos are gorilla-like humanoids most often found in rugged highlands and forests where they live in caves or ruins. An adult opolo stands at least as tall as a man, and it is powerfully built and covered with tangled, smelly fur, except for its face, hands, feet, and the top of its head. A close observer may notice the deep groove that circles an opolo’s head at the hairline. These monsters do not wear clothes and seldom use tools or weapons. Despite their primitive appearance and habits, opoloes are not unintelligent and exhibit a devious, cold cunning.

An opolo’s keen senses, especially its senses of smell and hearing, make it difficult to surprise. In combat, it attacks with its thick, short claws and its powerful fangs. If both claws hit the same target, an opolo rends its victim, tearing flesh and inflicting an additional 1d8 points of damage. Instead of attacking, an opolo can open the top of its skull (hence the aforementioned deep groove) and scoop out a bit of its brain. The next round, it releases this bit of gray matter at a target within 60 feet (no attack roll necessary). The victim must make a saving throw. Otherwise, the bit of brain soaks through the victim’s flesh. After 1d6 rounds, the hunk of gray matter reaches the victim’s brain, causing feeblemindedness. A Cure Disease stops this process and can also reverse the feeblemindedness.

Opolo: HD 5; AC 6 [13]; Atk 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (1d8); Move 12; Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 7/600; Special: piece of its mind, rending (1d8), surprised on a 1.

Tags: monsters, Swords & Wizardry