Spes Magna Games

For the second time, I draw on 1958’s wonderful Fiend Without a Face, which was based on “The Thought Monster“, a short story by Amelia Reynolds Long published in Weird Tales in the March 1930.

Faceless Fiend

In some bygone age, a monomaniacal wizard sought to give thought physical form to create servants to assist in magical experimentations. After tapping into primal energies, the wizard succeeded in part, creating a cunning, corporeal creature from incorporeal thought, but the entity proved too strong-willed to serve its creator. It killed the wizard and escaped into the wild.

Init +4; Atk tail +3 melee (1d4 + constrict); AC 12; HD 1d8+1; MV 40′ or climb 20′; SP brain burrow, constriction 1d4, invisibility; Act 1d20; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +3; AL C.

In its normal state, a faceless fiend is invisible. When visible, a faceless fiend resembles a melon-sized brain. From its frontal lobe grow two snail-like eyestalks which provide almost a 360-degree field of vision. From its occipital lobe grows a tail composed of a spine-like series of bony structures by which the creatures crawls, climbs, and hops. Beneath the base of its tail extend whip-like strands of prehensile muscle.

Coupled with its small size and speed, targeted attacks against an invisible faceless fiend miss automatically half the time, assuming the attacker has managed to determine the fiend’s location. Fortunately, a faceless fiend is not particularly stealthy. Its soft, moist body squelches when it moves, and it often emits involuntary trilling or thudding noises. A PC can make an Intelligence or Luck check as an action to locate an invisible faceless fiend.

This monster’s attack while invisible is made with a +2 bonus. Immediately after a faceless fiend attacks, it becomes visible until the end of its next turn. With a successful attack, the faceless fiend wraps its tail about its victim’s throat and constricts for an automatic 1d4 points of damage.

At the same time, its strands of prehensile muscle burrow toward the victim’s brain. Each round, the victim makes a DC 11 Fortitude save; failure results in unconsciousness for 2d5 minutes. The next round, the faceless fiend extracts the victim’s brain and spinal column, causing immediate death. The extracted brain and spinal column transform into a new faceless fiend in 1d3 rounds.

Tags: B-Movies, DCC, monsters

Inspired by Larry Buchanan’s awful The Eye Creatures, which was a rip off of the less-than-good Invasion of the Saucer Men, which was inspired by Paul W. Fairman’s short story “The Cosmic Frame”, today for Old-School Essentials I present a grade-B alien menace.

Hailing from some distant space void or strange dimension, the bizarre eye creatures travel in saucer-shaped flying vehicles of unfathomable construction and operation. Highly intelligent and dispassionate, these alien beings view other forms of life as inferior and suitable for a wide range of horrifying experiments. Bright light is fatal to them.

Eye Creature

AC 7 [12], HD 2+2 (11 hp), Att 2 x claws (1d4) or 1 x ray gun (2d6), THAC0 17 [+2], MV 120′ (40′), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (2), ML 7, AL Chaotic, XP 500, NA 2d4 (1d4), TT V

▶ Detachable Hands: Hands detach (even after death). Hands move at half speed, have 3 hp each, and make melee attacks.
▶ Infravision: 120′.
▶ Light Vulnerability: Take 2d10 damage from contact with bright light. Save versus breath weapon halves the damage.
▶ Ray Gun: Requires two hands. Fires a bolt of electricity. 120′ range with no range modifiers. Battery is good for 6 shots.

Tags: B-Movies, monsters, movies, OSE

Recent posts elsewhere on the interwebz about revisualizing the kobold both charmed me and also got me thinking about retooling kobolds to be closer to the ways they’re depicted in their mythological origins. Thus, here are kobold reimagined as spirit creatures capable of taking corporeal form.

Common Traits

Kobolds live most of their lives as invisible, intangible spirits. Kobolds tend toward capriciousness, but they are generally well-meaning so long if treated with respect and appeased by regular gifts. They are natural shape-changers. To detect invisible, a kobold in spirit form appears as a halfling-sized, humanoid shape, and it cannot be harmed except by magical weapons.

A kobold must manifest to attack. A kobold cannot attack the same round it changes form. There are three known types of kobold: aquatic, domestic, and mining. Regardless of type, all kobolds can manifest as fire. In this form, a kobold cannot be harmed by nonmagical weapons, and it takes double damage from water. All kobolds have Darkvision with a range of 60′ (or 90′ for mining kobolds). They speak their own language as well as Common.

XP Value: 16

Kobold in Fire Form: AC 13; HD 1d4 Hit Points**; #AT 1; D 1d4 (+1d4 against creatures which are cold or icy in nature); MV 30′, fly 20′; #APP 1d4 (1d12+3 Wild, 1d12+3 Lair); SV Normal Man; MOR 8; TT P and Q each, C in lair.

Aquatic Kobold

These kobolds live in coastal regions and on ships. They help sailors and fishermen, and they are expert carpenters. In spirit form, they move through water, coral, and sand as easily as humans move through air. They can polymorph self into any sort of coastal bird, fish, or crustacean. They can also assume a humanoid shape, roughly halfling sized with noticeable piscatory features such as gills, small fins, et cetera. Once per day, an angry aquatic kobold can become visible to a single creature with no more than 7 Hit Dice; this creature must make a saving throw versus Death Ray or die instantly.

Aquatic Kobold: AC 13; HD 1d4 Hit Points**; #AT 1; D 1d4 or by weapon; MV 20′, Swim 30′; #APP 1d4 (1d12+3 Wild, 1d12+3 Lair); SV Normal Man; MOR 8; TT P and Q each, C in lair.

Domestic Kobold

These kobolds live in homes or on farms. They help the residents with domestic chores. In spirit form, they move through wood and stone as easily as humans move through air. They can polymorph self into any sort of domestic animal. They can also assume a humanoid shape, roughly halfling sized and resembling a pudgy child with a short tail. Once per day, a domestic kobold can cause disease.

Domestic Kobold: AC 13; HD 1d4 Hit Points**; #AT 1; D 1d4 or by weapon; MV 30′; #APP 1d4 (1d12+3 Wild, 1d12+3 Lair); SV Normal Man; MOR 8; TT P and Q each, C in lair.

Mining Kobold

These kobolds live underground in or near mines. They help the miners find valuable ore and avoid subterranean dangers. They are expert miners (equal to dwarves) as well as skilled metalworkers. In spirit form, they move through earth and stone as easily as humans move through air. Unlike other kobolds, they cannot polymorph self in animal forms. In humanoid form, they appear much a like a gaunt dwarf or gnome with luminous eyes. They can use ventriloquism at will, phantasmal force twice per day, and wall of stone once per week.

Mining Kobold: AC 13; HD 1d4 Hit Points**; #AT 1; D 1d4 or by weapon; MV 20′, Climb 20′; #APP 1d4 (1d12+3 Wild, 1d12+3 Lair); SV Normal Man; MOR 8; TT P and Q each, C in lair.

Tags: Basic Fantasy RPG, monsters

Aggressive, territorial, covered in spiked chitin, these insects grow as large as ponies.

Krekel

Init +2; Atk antenna +2 melee (1d4) or kick +2 melee (1d6); AC 15; HD 2d8; MV 30′; Act 1d20; SP charge, chirp; SV Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +2; AL N.

Krekel live on windswept grasslands, which provide these herbivores with plentiful food. They are solitary most of the time, but during mating season, the female congregate while the males compete with combative courtship displays and cacophonous chirping that can be heard for miles.

A krekel charges when threatened, doubling its move, gaining a +2 “to-hit”, and inflicting double damage as it rams an antenna home like a lance on the first round of combat. Each round after the first, a krekel has a 2-in-6 chance of emitting an ear-splitting chirp. Creatures within 10 feet of the krekel take 1d8 points of damage and must make a DC 12 Fortitude save or be deafened for a number of hours equal to the damage sustained.

Tags: DCC, monsters

“It was a monster boar indeed–one as huge as a bull, with tusks as great as an elephant’s; the bristles on its back stood up like spear points, and the hot breath of the creature withered the growth on the ground. The boar tore up the corn in the fields and trampled down the vines with their clusters and heavy bunches of grapes; also it rushed against the cattle and destroyed them in the fields. And no hounds the huntsmen were able to bring could stand before it. And so it came to pass that men had to leave their farms and take refuge behind the walls of the city because of the ravages of the boar.”

From “Atalanta the Huntress” in The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles by Padraic Colum.

Boar, Monster

AC 5 [14], HD 6* (26 hp), Att 2 x tusk (2d4) or 1 x trample (2d6) or 1 x breath (2d6), THAC0 14 [+5], MV 180′ (60′), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (6), ML 11, AL Neutral, XP 500, NA 0 (1), TT None

▶ Charge: If disturbed or threatened, will charge to attack. Requires a run of at least 20 yards. Make a tusk attack that inflicts double damage on all in the path.
▶ Fearsome Aura: Animals within 30 feet affected by fear (save versus spells resists).
▶ Scalding Breath: 3-in-20 chance per round of exhaling scalding air. 15′ long, 15′ wide, 15′ high cloud. Save versus breath for half damage.
▶ Trample: 10-in-20 chance of trampling each round. +4 to hit human-sized or smaller creatures.

Tags: monsters, Old School Essentials, OSE