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“He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, ‘Where is the LORD God of Elijah?’ and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.” (2 Kings 2:13-14)

The Mantle of the Prophets appears to be nothing more than a normal cloak of the sort worn by many people, especially to keep warm during the night or during chilly weather. In truth, the Mantle is a powerful Lawful relic once worn by at least two of the holiest of the People’s prophets. When worn by a Lawful Cleric who has been chosen by the Lord, the Mantle serves to channel divine power through the wearer in order to demonstrate the power and majesty of the Lord. The Mantle has had the following reputed powers:

1. Once per day, create highly nourishing food and clean, fresh water in sufficient quantity to provide for 27 human-sized creatures for a full day.

2. Once per month, permit the wearer to Raise Dead (as the spell).

3. Once per week, permit the wearer to Control Weather (as the spell).

4. Once per day, the wearer can call down a column of holy fire. The column is 10 feet in diameter and 30 feet high. It inflicts 6d8 points of damage on creatures caught in its area of effect. A successful saving throw halves this damage.

5. Once per week, permit the wearer to Part Water (as the spell).

6. Once per day, the wearer can summon a bear to fight his enemies. The bear arrives in 1d4 rounds, and it serves the wearer for 1 hour or until killed. Use standard bear statistics as the base, but the animal summoned by this ability has no fewer than 5 hit points per Hit Die, and it enjoys a +1 bonus on attack rolls.

Tags: Catholic, magic items, Swords & Wizardry

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

Three new magic weapons for you to put into the hands of enemies to see if your players’ characters can earn them the hard way.

Borya’s Needle

Ornate, light, and nimble, Borya’s Needle is a +1 short sword that weighs as much as a dagger. A hit from Borya’s Needle that inflicts 5-7 points of damage on a living creature causes a slender steel needle to grow from the sword’s quillons. Upon command instead of a melee attack, the wielder may cause one or more of these needles to take flight as Magic Missiles. This remarkable blade cannot produce more than five needles per day.

Borya the Nimble was an Elven Fighter/Magic-User with a reputation for roguish and romantic exploits. Stories claim he owned several remarkable magic items, including a pocket watch that could slow time, a silken handkerchief that could alter its user’s facial features, and, of course, Borya’s Needle, the elegant rapier which bears his name. Borya finally met his match in a battle of love and wits waged against Cassia, the queen of dryads whose beauty is rumored to be so great that even a fleeting glimpse of her leads to longing, then to obsession, and finally to insanity. At Cassia’s request, Borya cast his fabled blade into the Verdant Whirlpool and then attempted to win Cassia’s love by refusing food or drink from one new moon to the next. Consequently, Borya the Nimble wasted away from hunger and thirst. The last word that passed his cracked, parched lips was the name of the dryad queen.

The Hideous Scimitar

Beautiful, inlaid with precious metals, and superbly balanced, this dread weapon was not forged for mortal hands, but instead was crafted in a cursed forge fueled by coals stolen from a hellish plane as a badge of office for a fiendish commander. Each day, for the first 10 combat turns the Hideous Scimitar is wielded in melee, it functions as a +2 scimitar. At the end of the tenth round of melee that day, the blade changes, becoming tarnished and gore-streaked no matter how well it is cleaned. For the next 10 combat turns after this change, any living, mortal creature damaged by the Hideous Scimitar must make a saving throw to avoid contracting a deadly disease (the effects of which are left to the Referee’s discretion). At the end of the twentieth round of melee fought that day with this weapon, the blade becomes even more horrible. It becomes pockmarked and scabrous, and its lesions ooze noxious fluids. For the remainder of the day after this second change, wounds inflicted by the Hideous Scimitar cannot be healed by magical means (a Remove Curse or similar effect can negate this effect).

Mortal creatures are not meant to wield the Hideous Scimitar. Each combat turn during the time the scimitar causes disease that a mortal uses this weapon, the wielder must make a saving throw or suffer 1d4+1 points of damage in the form of spontaneous gashes and bruises. During the time the scimitar causes wounds that cannot be magically healed, the wielder runs the same risk, but the damage suffered increases to 1d6+1 points per combat turn per failed saving throw. Tales claim that a mortal who dies from the baleful effects of wielding the Hideous Scimitar forfeits his soul to the infernal power that first created this weapon.

Stonebreaker

Carved from the heart of a stone brought to the Material Plane from the Plane of Elemental Earth, Stonebreaker weighs 20 pounds and must be wielded with two hands. It functions as a +3 weapon that inflicts 1d8+4 points of damage in melee (including its magical bonus). In the hands of a Dwarf, Stonebreaker‘s full might is revealed. Goblins and orcs cannot look directly at a Dwarf who wields Stonebreaker in battle, which causes those creatures to suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls against that Dwarf. What’s more, a Dwarfish wielder of Stonebreaker inflicts double damage (2d8+8) against Chaotic giants and all sorts of earth elementals.

The fabled Blind Masons of Kadiphonek carved Stonebreaker for King Bofnar Stonedelver at the start of the War of the Boundless Vaults. Stonedelver led his companions, the dread Ironbreakers, into battle after battle against the orcs, goblins, giants, and elementals that sought to unlock the Boundless Vaults. In Stonedelver’s hands, Stonebreaker turned the tide against the vastly outnumbered Dwarfs time and time again. After days of savage battle, Stonedelver stood victorious, but he succumbed to his injuries before he could be treated. Stonedelver and Stonebreaker were buried in the Catacombs of the Kings. Centuries later, after a succession of weak and quarrelsome kings, Stonedelver’s domain fell to a new threat, and Stonebreaker reportedly fell into the hands of drow priestesses.

Nota Bene: From now until the end of May, all Spes Magna Games PDFs in the category of OGL OSR are on-sale for 50% off their normal prices. Huzzah! You can check out the affected titles by clicking here.

Tags: magic items, place of power, Swords & Wizardry

Before we get to the new druid spells, an important announcement: From now until the end of May, all Spes Magna Games PDFs in the category of OGL OSR are on-sale for 50% off their normal prices. Huzzah! You can check out the affected titles by clicking here.

And, now, some love for druids!

Gnauskaia’s Arid Brotherhood

Spell Level: Druid, 3rd Level
Range: 30-foot radius around caster
Duration: 1 hour

By means of this spell, the druid summons a 1d4+1 small dust devils to perform simple tasks. These whirling masses of dust and hot air can fetch and carry things, open doors, blow small objects about, et cetera. Each continues its assigned task until it is given another command. A dust devil conjured by this spell cannot exert a force of more than 20 pounds, nor can it attack or move beyond the spell’s range.

Laununill’s Muddy Lexicon

Spell Level: Druid, 1st Level
Range: Normal reading distance
Duration: 10 minutes

The druid pours a quantity of water and mixes it with dirt while casting this spell. For the duration of the spell, words spoken within range appear in the mud scribed in the secret tongue of the druids. Written words may also appear in the mud if the source of the writing is touched to the puddle. Once the druid reads the words, they fade away.

The Spell of Centrifugal Aurora

Spell Level: Druid, 4th Level
Range: 20-foot cylinder
Duration: 1d6+1 turns

A cylinder of roaring wind and cracking electricity with a 20-foot diameter whirls about the druid. Each round, any creature within the cylinder other than the druid must make a saving throw. Failure means the creature is sucked through the vortex of wind and lightning, suffering 1d6 points of damage from being buffetted about and another 3d6 points of damage from lightning blasts before being thrown to the outside of the cylinder.

Tags: spells, Swords & Wizardry