Spes Magna Games

Today’s 30-Day D&D Challenge topic seems a bit, well, vague to me. I’m not a huge fan of megadungeons, so those are right out. I’d be happy to never get involved in another megadungeon as long as game. I like short dungeons with clearly defined goals which can be reached through a variety of different paths. I also like dungeons that aren’t really dungeons. It’s not that I mind an old-fashioned crawl through dark caverns full of monsters, but a “dungeon” can be any setting which requires exploration and confrontation with some obstacle in order to achieve a goal.

For example, last OwlCon, I ran a scenario loosely designed for Sine Nomine Publishing’s wonderful Stars Without Number. The set-up involved the PCs running a mission to salvage a long-lost luxury space yacht. Unfortunately, the yacht was haunted by horrible evil. Beyond this premise, I had little of the adventure detailed. There were no NPCs to interact with, and the only locations were the PCs’ ship and the yacht. Instead, I had a short list of spooky events. The PCs interacted with each other and the environments. The players hatched theories and asked questions. I took notes and made stuff up as a I went along. The players themselves ended up providing most of the details, to include the final resolution of the scenario itself.

And now a bonus monster!

Tangle Bug
Hit Dice: 6
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Attacks: Bite (1d8)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Tangle
Move: 9 (Climb 6)
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 7/600

This yellow and brown insect grows to lengths of 5 feet. It attacks with its powerful bite. Tangle bugs have an unusual defense mechanism. When it suffers damage, fibrous branches sprout from its body.

These branches break off easily and harmlessly close to the surface of the bug’s carapace, leaving nearby creatures tangled in the tough fibers. The branches that sprout after damage reach out to a length equal to twice the number of points of damage inflicted. Thus, striking a tangle bug for 7 points of damage causes fibrous branches to extend out to 14 feet. Creatures within the reach of the branches must make a saving throw to avoid being tangled. Otherwise, it requires a round and a successful open doors check to break free. A tangled creature moves and fights at half speed. Tangle bugs are immune to these fibrous branches.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, Stars Without Number, Swords & Wizardry

Again, I’m not quite sure I’m a reflective enough gamer to complete the 30-Day D&D Challenge in its literal intent. I’ve run so many adventures for just about every version of D&D that I’m not sure I can pick a favorite one. I can, however, at least pick out one adventure that I’ve enjoyed, specifically The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. I’ve run this delightful module three different times that I remember. I’ve never had a party of adventurers complete the module with what could be called rousing success. Two parties failed; the third survived but unleashed a horrible evil.

The first time I ran Lost Caverns was in high school. I don’t remember everyone who played. Fred was there, probably running Blake. Big Greg was there, and he definitely ran a cleric of Poseidon. (Why Poseidon was a deity in the World of Greyhawk is a mystery.) There were other players, perhaps Little Greg, the other Mark, and Ben. Someone was playing a cleric of Thor.

Regardless, the adventure proceeded apace through the lesser caverns until the party reached the gorgimera cavern. Aside from the gorgimera, there were stairs leading from this cavern down to the greater caverns. I described how the gorgimera took wing as the party entered, maneuvering to attack. For some reason I’ve forgotten, the players sort of panicked, especially Big Greg. The cleric of Poseidon had a necklace of prayer beads that included the bead of summoning. So, Big Greg, thinking that the party needed direct divine assistance against the fearsome gorgimera, used this bead to call forth Poseidon himself.

I described how Poseidon appeared in all his divine majesty. How the stones shook. How the cavern grew larger to accommodate his awesome stature. How Poseidon casually swatted the gorgimera from the air, killing it, and then asked, “For what great purpose have you summoned me?”

This was not what Big Greg expected to happen, and Poseidon was displeased to have been summoned for so trivial as task of slaying a mere gorgimera. In tribute, he demanded one magic item from each party member. The cleric of Thor balked. Poseidon reminded his cleric (Big Greg’s PC) that “[n]o cleric [of a Greek mythos deity] may have dealings with clerics of other sects for any reason (on non-hostile terms) as this is considered a minor transgression by their deity and punishable by the stripping away of the third and higher levels of spells for a lunar month” (1E Deities & Demigods). Poseidon demanded his cleric teach the cleric of Thor a lesson in manners to avoid this punishment. This resulted in a cleric versus cleric smackdown which Big Greg’s cleric won. Poseidon took as many magic items as he wanted from the defeated cleric of Thor.

Then, just before leaving, Poseidon used his prerogatives as the god of natural disasters to have an earthquake strike the caverns, collapsing the paths back out of the lesser caverns to the surface and leaving the party no choice but to head down to the greater caverns despite their weakened state.

The party continued on. They eventually faced Drelzna, and the survivors managed to return to the surface, but poorer and perhaps wiser than when they went in. Lost Caverns tore through their resources, and I think the cleric of Thor was dead by the end of the adventure.

The second time I ran Lost Caverns I was stationed at either Fort Bragg, North Carolina, or Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. I don’t remember who the players were, which might mean I wasn’t running the adventure for my regular gaming groups at those duty stations. (That would be either the group with Wayne Royals or with Lewis Pulsipher at Fort Bragg, or the group with Ron Chance [no relation] at Schofield.)

Anyhoo, what I do remember transpired in the greater caverns, so I’m guessing the group did okay in the lesser caverns. I think it was during the fight against the demonic bar-lguras that one of the PCs died. The party retreated and, by accident, ended up in the cave with the chasme demons. Since the party had just suffered a defeat, I decided the chasme would be more conversational than confrontational.

For some reason, the players decided to trust the demonic fly monsters. I mean, what could go wrong? Right?

Turns out, plenty went wrong. The adventurers lamented the loss of their party member, and asked if the chasmes could help. One of them assured the PCs that, yes, it could restore the dead to life, but the process took a little time. The party agreed, and so the chasme rammed its proboscis into the corpse’s chest and pumped in a load of demonological goo. (By this time, I was just making stuff up as I went along.) The chasme told the adventurers to take the corpse with them, and after a while he would revive.

So, the adventurers took the corpse with them, and after a while the cadaver exploded, releasing several more chasme that had spawned from the demonological goo. At this time, the other chasme and the bar-lgura ambushed the party. During the resulting slaughter of PCs, two of the adventurers fled in terror, desperately hoping to find some safe haven. They found it by blundering into the magical cavern which teleported them into an alternate dimension valley populated by centaurs. Without the means to return to the cavern, and with the rest of the party dead, that particular foray into the caverns came to a screeching halt.

The last time I ran Lost Caverns was after I converted the module to 3E/3.5E for Man Day. The adventure became part of the campaign’s metaplot that pitted the PCs against a gradually revealed plot by forces loyal to Nerull, Erythnul, and Hextor to conquer a large swath of the World of Greyhawk. I replaced Drelzna with a monster called the Abyssal Mind, which turned out to be a fiendish vampiric intellect devourer.

This last group was the most successful, completing the modified module with no PC deaths (as far as I can remember). Unfortunately, they did fail to defeat the Abyssal Mind, and that horrible monster escaped its prison in the greater caverns to spread its evil on the surface. This was sort of recurring motif in that particular campaign. The PCs would defeat the forces of badness, but some element of badness would escape in order to cause trouble later on, such as when the adventurers were manipulated into freeing the Deathless One, a lich in service to Nerull.

But that’s another story.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, dungeon crawls, monsters

One week into the 30-Day D&D Challenge brings me to my favorite edition and another cop-out post. I don’t really have a favorite edition. I’ve played every edition of D&D up to but excluding 4E. I’ve enjoyed them all. Nowadays, if I’m GMing, I’d prefer to avoid editions later than 2E. I find them too work-intensive for game prep, and I no longer have that kind of time or energy. If I’m not GMing, but instead am actually getting to run a PC, I don’t think it’d matter to me much which edition I was playing. They all have their good and bad points.

That said, I would like to get to play in a 0E game again. It’s been more than two decades since I got to do that. I vaguely remember the last time 0E was on the table. I made up a halfling. That was it. Both his race and his class were halfling. I don’t recall the specifics about which flavor of 0E it was. I think that Jeff Dee’s picture of the long-haired human squatting to talk to one or more halflings was on the page that described what halflings could do.

Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, I’m the GM for Man Day Adventures, so the odds of me getting another chance to play that halfling seem small.

Ah, well. Next up, here’s a new monster and a spell to go with it.

Hungry Ghost
Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 7 [12]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d3), 1 gore (1d4)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Clairvoyance, teleport
Move: 6
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 4/120

A hungry ghost is a horrible undead creature that appears as a humanoid with a deformed body: spindly limbs, tusks like a boar and claws, a long and slender neck, and a bloated abdomen. A hungry ghost was a person with a passion for some pleasure that ruled his life, leading him to commit all manner of crimes to sate his inordinate desires. In undeath, this inordinate desire becomes insatiable hunger, made all the more torturous since the hungry ghost cannot gulp down food through its scrawny neck without suffering terrible pain. Hungry ghosts can see through solid stone and other obstacles within a range of 60 feet. Hungry ghosts can also teleport short distances (up to 15 feet). It can do so and attack in the same turn. In most cases (75%), a hungry ghost teleports behind an opponent and attacks from the rear (with appropriate bonuses). These monsters cannot see through obstacles that have been appropriately blessed or that stand on consecrated ground. Likewise, they cannot teleport through or within such places.

Jautan’s Abhorrent Attendants
Spell Level: Magic-User, 5th Level
Range: Referee’s Discretion
Duration: 1 day

This spell conjures hungry ghosts. 1d4 hungry ghosts are conjured per level of the caster above 8th. The monsters remain until slain or until 24 have passed.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

First up, the 30-Day D&D Challenge about my favorite class!

Thief. Hands down. No contest. I enjoy the dichotomoy between the thief’s obvious role (the one who steals stuff) and the heroic role that I prefer the game to focus on. My thieves have often been people who want to be out for numero uno, to get rich off the sweat of other folk’s brows, et cetera, but cannot escape the nagging persistence of conscience. This has resulted in some unusual in-play situations.

Back in the day, my friend Fred and I would take turns DMing little solo adventures for each other’s characters. Most often, these involved something happening in a town, and the sessions were often ad-libbed. During one such session with Fred as DM, my most-used PC, Lord Jon Korbok, dwarven fighter/thief, stumbled past a dark alley wherein a youth was being mugged by a gang of ruffians. Korbok loudly scoffed at the ruffians’ technique. He then thrashed the lot of them to show them how a real ruffian takes care of business. After the fight, the exchange went something like this:

Fred as the Rescued Youth: Gosh! Thanks for saving me!

Me as Korbok: Shut up, and give me your gold.

Ah, good times.

And now, a dangerous quartet of alluring villains!

The Seekers of the Eternal Flame seek to cleanse the world of all forms of injustice. Unfortunately, the only way this can be accomplished is to eliminate injustice at its source, which lies within the hearts and minds of people. Those who are not perfectly just must be forced to be just. Those who cannot be forced to act justly must be destroyed. When the time is right, the Eternal Flame will reveal itself. The faithful will be rewarded. The unfaithful will be converted or killed.

There can be no other way.

Protective Aura: A magical aura constantly protects all four Seekers. This aura grants protection against attacks, which explains the Seekers’ Armor Class. It also renders them invulnerable to normal missiles (as protection from normal missiles).

Swords & Wizardry

Bahar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Fiery touch 2d8
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Ignite materials, immune to fire, protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Bahar controls the fires of purification. Her fiery touch inflicts horrible burns and causes flammable materials to ignite if the material fails a saving throw (as determined by the Referee).

Gulzar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Scimitar (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Charming gaze, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Gulzar’s gaze subjects any living creature who meets it to a powerful charm effect (-2 penalty to saving throw, works as charm monster). Gulzar can never have more than 18 Hit Dice worth of creatures charmed at a time.

Minu
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Battle axe (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Magic resistance (35%), protective aura, shriek
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Once every 1d6 rounds, Minu can unleash a shriek of terrible power. All creatures (except for the other Seekers, whose auras protect them from Minu’s shriek) within 50 feet Minu when she shrieks must make a saving throw. Those that fail are stunned for 2d6 rounds and suffer 2d8 points of damage.

Shokufeh
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Quarterstaff (1d6)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Catch spell, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Shokufeh has the ability to “catch” spells that target her. If Shokufeh’s magic resistance would protect her from the spell, she “catches” the spell and can immediately “throw” it (even if it isn’t her turn to act). A “thrown” spell takes effect just as if the original caster had targeted whomever Shokufeh chooses as her target.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, NPCs, Swords & Wizardry

A doppelgänger hails from Vioo, the barren, dark realm that exists on the other side of mirrors and mirror-like surfaces (which form the only passages through which light passes into Vioo). Most of the time, doppelgängers have no life apart from acting as reflections for whomever is facing the mirror (which isn’t to say that all reflections are doppel- gängers). These monsters hate their limited existences. They hate the fact that they fade in and out of being, and that their appearances change, and doppelgängers most of all hate the people their strange state of being forces them to mimic.

Rarely, a doppelgänger’s hatred becomes so great that the monster manages to transcend the limitations of its nature. When this happens, the doppelgänger can act independently of the person using the mirror, and the doppelgänger can even break through the mirrored surface to enter our world. Then, the doppelgänger seeks to murder and replace the person it almost perfectly duplicates.

Doppelgängers have enormous physical strength. As such, they enjoy a +2 bonus to attack rolls, and their weapon attacks (including unarmed attacks) inflict an extra 1d6 points of damage. These creatures are immune to sleep and charm, and they are considered magic resistant for purposes such as breaking through wizard lock and similar spells. They have a very good saving throw (5+) against magic of all kinds.

Swords & Wizardry

Hit Dice: 4
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Attacks: By weapon
Saving Throw: 13 (5 against magic)
Special: Enormous strength, immune to sleep and charm
Move: As humanoid mimicked
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 6/400

Tags: monsters, place of power, Swords & Wizardry