Spes Magna Games

Terrors of the Toxic Waste is ready for its final edit. In next day or two, 21 new mutants hit the virtual streets, ready for inclusion in your Mutant Future game. Huzzah.

Speaking of Mutant Future, permit me to introduce Agnesa and Gleda, sisters and mercenaries. Born in Perisnak, a village set in a rugged hill country and populated largely by Pure Humans, the sisters had what passes for a normal childhood, tending the rabboxen herds and, when old enough, taking their turns with the town guard, watching the passes for bandits and spidergoats. An army of pigmen brought death and ruin to Perisnak shortly after Gleda’s fifteenth birthday. The few survivors fled into the hills, becoming refugees in world that tends to equate stranger with enemy. The destruction of Perisnak and the cruel deaths of most of their friends and family taught Agnesa and Gleda hard lessons. The two vowed to never depend on anyone other than each other, and during the passing years the sisters have forged themselves into tough guerilla fighters.

Agnesa, the elder, is a Pure Human. She is clever and slow to anger. Due to her intelligence, she enjoys a +5% technology roll modifier. Agnesa has the equivalent of a 17 Charisma and a 15 Willpower. Among her possessions are a carbine (1d10 damage), a revolver (1d10 damage), and a sturdy dagger (1d4 damage). Agnesa wears ballistic nylon armor (AC 5).

Agnesa
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120′ (30′)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 14 (77 hit points)
Attacks: 2 (weapon)
Damage: By weapon (+1 damage)
Save: L14
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: XV
XP: 2,400

Gleda is a Mutant Human. She is quick and strong, having the equivalent of scores of 16 in Strength and Dexterity. She is equipped much like Agnesa with a carbine (1d10 damage), a revolver (1d10 damage), and a sturdy dagger (1d4 damage). She also wears ballistic nylon armor (AC 5).

Gleda
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120′ (30′)
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 12 (54 hit points)
Attacks: 2 (weapon) (+2 to-hit with missile weapons)
Damage: By weapon (+1 damage)
Save: L12
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: XV
XP: 3,600

Mutations: Echolocation, Increased Balance, Know Direction

Tags: Mutant Future, NPCs

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

Few explorers brave the Neverglads, that vast expanse of toxic tropical wetlands that has swallowed up the ruins of several ancient cities, several of which boasted impressive biological and chemical industries. As the End of All Things spread havoc across the world, industry safeguards failed and the Neverglads became a mutagenic hellscape covering more than 11,000 square miles (28,500 square kilometers). The natural and mutant hazards found within the Neverglads are legion. The farther one travels into the region’s heart, the wilder the terrain becomes. Poisonous quicksand, mutant pythons, giant alligators, bizarre temporal ripples, dangerous plants, savage tribes, billions of disease-carrying pests, and xenophobic secret societies are only some of the more well-known dangers.

Ojoran

Ojorans are probably the most common amphibian in the Neverglads. They appear as small tree frogs, most growing to no more than three or four inches long. An ojorans most remarkable feature is its bulbous single eye. In general, ojorans are inoffensive creatures. They prey on small insects, not on explorers. Timid, even skittish, ojorans avoid contact with other creatures, usually via their adaptive and variable coloration. Ojorans are prodigious climbers as well, easily able to retreat to the heights of the trees that grow throughout the Neverglads. All of this should be construed as saying that ojorans are harmless. They often congregate in large groups, especially during mating season. While the poison slime that an ojoran’s pores secretes is not especially toxic, more than a few careless explorers have succumbed to the effects of blundering into dozens of ojorans.

No. Enc.: 2d6 (12d6)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60′ (20′)
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 1d2 hit points
Attacks: 1 (poison slime)
Damage: 1d6
Save: L1
Morale: 6
Hoard Class: None
XP: 8

Mutations: Chameleon Epidermis, Dermal Poison Slime (Class 1), Increased Balance

Ranaserp

Compared to ojorans, ranaserps merit caution, even fear. A ranaserp appears to be a strange hybrid of frog and serpent, but of impressive size as the adult ranaserp reaches lengths of 18 feet. This six-legged amphibious predator has a sinuous, powerful neck and a highly venomous bite. While not particularly quick on the run, it moves with great silence, striking by surprise whenever possible, doing so 4 times out of 6. Ranaserps prey on all manner of creatures, preferring warm-blooded animals (mutant or otherwise).

If two ranaserps are encountered, they are 85% likely to be a mated pair, in which case it is 50% likely that an additional 2d8 immature offspring are nearby. Despite this mutant’s amphibian ancestry, ranaserps are protective of their young. Typically the female stays near the den to guard the young while the male hunts, swallowing poisoned prey whole to regurgitate later the partially digested meal for the immature ranaserps.

No. Enc.: 1d2
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90′ (30′)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d6+3 plus 5d6 poison
Save: L3
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: None
XP: 1,320

Mutations: Gigantism, Natural Weapon (fangs), Toxic Weapon (Class 5), Thermal Vision

Ranenferm

In truth, the ranenferm is not a mutant frog. It instead is a mutant fungus that prefers to use a giant amphibian as a growth medium. (Nota Bene: Use standard giant toad stats for “ordinary” giant frogs to duplicate the mutant shown in the picture.) A ranenferm without a host is immobile. It uses possession to bring a potential host close enough for its vegetal parasitism to take effect. After this, the ranenferm need no longer maintain mental domination of the host via possession. Also, the host organism becomes harder to kill as the ranenferm’s hyphae spread into the host’s tissues, muscles, bones, and nervous system.

Ranenferms are highly intelligent and malicious. They communicate with their own kind via a form of telepathy, but their mental processes are so alien that communication with other lifeforms appears impossible. Of course, it could be that ranenferms simply view other creatures as beneath contempt, thus refusing to communicate to such “inferior” specimens. Whatever the truth, ranenferms pose a serious danger to travelers within the Neverglads, and communities both near and within that region often exhibit justifiable alarm about even perceived signs of ranenferm “infection”. Fire is the preferred method of treating those believed to be playing host to a ranenferm.

No. Enc.: 1d4 per host organism
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: As host organism
Armor Class: As host organism + 1 per ranenferm
Hit Dice: As host organism + 1 Hit Die per ranenferm
Attacks: As host organism
Damage: As host organism
Save: Equal to total Hit Dice
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XX
XP: As host organism modified by additional Hit Dice and mutations

Mutations: As host organism, plus Metaconcert, Possession, Prehensile Tendrils (Simple), Vegetal Parasite

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future, place of power

Nestled near the center of New Motor City stands the library of Yozuvchi of the Endless Tales. Yozzie, as she is called by the locals, is a mutant human gifted with great longevity, intelligence, and a bizarre mutation. Rumors say that Yozzie has lived for centuries, and that she spent much of her time traveling the world, seeking and finding the knowledge of the Ancients.

Whatever the truth of these rumors, Yozzie’s knowledge cannot be doubted. She understands many technological artifacts, and her advice to New Motor City’s rulers has proven invaluable in improving the quality of life for the city’s residents. New hybrids of grain and farming methods help ensure that few go hungry even in the leanest of times. Her work on the city’s water purification systems has likewise been a boon to all. In her position as Prime Educator, Yozzie oversees schools as well as New Motor City’s library.

Yozzie appears very much like a human woman in late middle age, but she stands a mere 20 inches high, or so it appears. In truth, Yozzie is a woman of average height, but a strange spatial displacement effect causes her to be 30 feet away from objects that can touch her even when she is really only an arm’s length or so away from the object. What’s more, this displacement effect does not affect Yozzie. This means that Yozzie can be close enough to slap you but too far away from you to hit her even with a polearm.

Not that Yozzie worries about being able to attack enemies. She is very nearly revered throughout New Motor City. She has repaired and reprogrammed two assault bots called Bric and Brac. These formidable machines serve as Yozzie’s guards. Yozzie also carries a stun baton. If she’s expecting trouble, she’ll be wearing ballistic nylon armor.

No. Enc.: 1 (unique)
Alignment: Lawful
Movement: 120′ (40′)
Armor Class: 9 or 5
Hit Dice: 8 (36 hit points)
Attacks: 1
Damage: Weapon type
Save: L9
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 2,560

Mutations: Intellectual Affinity (Tinkerer), Regenerative Capability, Quick Mind, Unique (Paradoxical Spatial Displacement, Slow Aging)

Tags: Mutant Future, NPCs

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that through God’s grace even the “touch” of Peter’s shadow could heal the sick. Since so many fantasy RPG spells clearly draw at least some inspiration from Jewish and Christian scriptures, why not one more?

Petrine Umbra

Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that when Peter came his shadow at the least might overshadow any of them, and they might be delivered from their infirmities. (Acts 5:15)

Spell Level: Cleric, 3rd Level
Range: See below
Duration: 10 minutes

By means of this spell, the Cleric transforms his shadow into a conduit for divine power. For the duration of the spell, the Cleric may use the “touch” of his shadow to transmit spells with a range of touch. In low-light conditions, such as provided by candle light, the Cleric’s shadow has a range of 15 feet. In full daylight, this range increases to 45 feet. This spell requires a light source sufficient for the Cleric to cast a shadow in order to function.

*

I’ve been watching The X-Files on Netflix. I watched the series when it first aired. Currently, I’m somewhere in season two at the moment. Some of the episodes don’t hold up well. A few of the stories are little too pat or else a little too confused. For example, season two’s “The Calusari” is kind of a hot mess. Is it a low-rent riff on The Exorcist? Is it an insult aimed at immigrants?

But enough commentary. Let’s snatch up Tony Shaloub and turn him into a creature for Mutant Future:

Shadow Killer

A shadow killer is a strain of mutant human with some most unusual abilities. In most respects, a shadow killer appears to be a Pure Human. Sure, a shadow killer’s demeanor reflects a combination of agitation and exhaustion, and its flesh looks sallow and glistens with what appears to be the sheen of sweat, but a Pure Human who has endured a period of illness and stress might exhibit the same signs. What makes these solitary mutants dangerous are their shadows, which are semi-sentient projections of destructive “dark radiation”.

Many shadow killers exhibit behaviors contrary to their ominous name. They are not killers, but instead are often lonely creatures who think of themselves as cursed by their mutations to always been on the outside looking in. They cannot really take part in society because of the lethality of their shadows, but they still long for some contact with other sentient creatures. Of course, some shadow killers seem to revel in their destructive powers, and it is these individuals that have given shadow killers their fearsome reputation.

In combat, a shadow killer attacks with whatever weapons it has on hand. Also, each round, its semi-sentient shadow is 50% likely to attack a random target within 30 feet. The shadow stretches across the ground, along walls, and so forth in order to reach its target. A successful attack by the shadow inflicts damage as exposure to radiation equal to class 1d6+4 (roll for each attack). A shadow killer can not always control its shadow. If the shadow killer has not killed a creature with its shadow in the past hour, the shadow is 50% likely to attack any creature than approaches within range regardless of the shadow killer’s wishes.

Diffused light or total darkness that negates shadows prevents a shadow killer’s most dangerous, unpredictable attack from functioning.

No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Any
Movement: 120′ (40′)
Armor Class: Armor type
Hit Dice: 10
Attacks: 1 (50% for 2)
Damage: Weapon type/radiation class 1d6+4
Save: L10
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: XII
XP: 2,400

Mutations: Ultraviolet Vision, Unique (Semi-Sentient Shadow)

Tags: Catholic, monsters, Mutant Future, spells, Swords & Wizardry