Drunk Billy... will be missed.
It was a bad night for henchmen, but a great night for the party. And wow, they just couldn't lose a reaction roll. Monsters just love my players.
First, a little bit about my encounter design philosophy - when I put an encounter or trap together, I don't worry at all about how the players will defeat it. I have no idea what they'll do. Last night is a great example of that. When faced with murderous crystal statues, they bartered dead henchmen for services. It was chancy, especially with the +4 reaction modifiers the automatons have, but the dice favored them, and they handily defeated the trap. I had no idea how they'd get that. I didn't think they'd figure the riddle bit out, it wasn't an obvious riddle with an obvious answer, but I left the encounter in just to see what they'd do.
The first key thing to remember is that there are more of them than there are of you. Whatever you put together, they're probably going to be able to figure a way around it. The second key thing to remember, is when you are faced with something the rules don't cover, if the players are being clever, let them get away with stuff. Make a roll if it's appropriate, but let the players know your estimation of the odds so they can make informed decisions, and then see what happens. Arbitrary failure will cheese people off, when they think they're coming up with good ideas.
I had figured the session would start with the party trying to get out of the dungeon, as we had a mismatch between characters in the dungeon and players who showed up. The party ended up exploring most of the gatehouse area before finding the way out, and I was getting nervous they'd find the way down to the first level and start hunting around for exits to the surface there. Fortunately that didn't happen. I didn't have any of the first level keyed, and while I'm able to improvise, for dungeon areas I really prefer to have things keyed advance. For town and wilderness, I almost never key anything and just wing it, but dungeons, I like to have stuff plotted out.
I was pleased when one of the players, upon leaving the dungeon, said "Hey, we didn't explore it all, we can keep going back in for more treasure." Yes, yes, you'll be going back in for the length of the campaign most likely... as I've stated before, my players have no idea this is a megadungeon campaign. I want to see if they find the dungeon compelling enough to keep revisiting on their own. I imagine there will be occasional forays to other places, to shake things up a bit, but the dungeon will probably be a theme.
Another parting comment was that they have the impression they'll have to go to the big city to hire some more henchmen. They're right, the small farming community of Chelmsfordshire is pretty much fresh out of willing louts, and getting quite full of angry widows and mothers. The recent sales of loot are likely to attract unwanted interest as well.
So I've got a few tasks to do over the next 2 weeks:
a. Key the dungeon
b. Come up with some 1st level henchmen. In particular, they may end up with an agent of the Church of Starry Wisdom, which has their own reasons for wanting to head down into the deep. It'll all be driven by random tables though, so if the dice continue to favor the party, they'll only have the loyalist and stupidest henchmen in town. I'm hoping for "sinister" though.
c. Come up with some wizard encounters. Eventually they're going to run into a wilderness wandering monster, and some of those are going to be megalomaniacal wizards. Plus, it'll be interesting to start name-dropping the wizards of the surrounding city-states, and rogue wizards of note, once the party reaches the city of Denethix
d. Make more monsters. After 30 years, I'm tired of the same-old, same-old monsters. I'm liking the morlocks in the Labyrinth Lord rules, there will be a nest of them, and I'll probably load up with a bit more dungeon vermin. I need to come up with some interesting low-level critters that like to hoard treasure though.
This is all fairly achievable. It only took 2 nights to key the 30-room dungeon, so it's about 6 nights of work to key the first level, if I work at the same pace. The rest of the tasks to finish are all simple enough. Nothing tonight though, I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and I want to read the Lamentation of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy RPG rules and see what the fuss is about.
2010-10-07
PDF
Session recap, 10/6/2010
Here's the recap email I just sent for tonight's session:
Gentlemen,
Here's the recap of events for the Oct 6th session:
As Too, P.W., and the 3 surviving henchmen watched, the 5 bone-and-metal constructs that had accompanied them into the cylindrical room fell upon the corpses of elf Randy and henchman Zorno. They began chopping the corpses to pieces, and cutting the meat away to get at the bones, tussling with each other to get the best femurs.
The party moved east, leaving the bone/metal monsters behind. They found a room with two doors leading out, a recessed area in the wall with a red wire and a blue wire sticking out, and a metal bin in the center of the room, filled with many wires
The halfling P.W. went back west to gather see what had happened, and found that the constructs were gone, leaving a pair of filleted corpses and some of Randy's equipment behind. He gathered up the useful bits of Randy's stuff and returned to the others.
P.W. then ordered Drunk Billy to open one of the doors, at which point Drunk Billy and the other henchmen told them to stick it, and that they were getting out of there. The three henchmen marched off west back towards the cylindrical room, where nothing remained except the filleted corpses of Randy and Zorno. P.W. and Too followed them at a safe distance into the cylindrical room, where the henchmen headed south to the room with the cage. They heard the henchmen exclaim "What the..." in surprise, and then voices shouting "Parts! Parts!". The two PC's decided to leave the henchmen to their fate, and climbed up a ladder to the upper catwalk, and then headed west through the door, hoping to find a way out of the dungeon.
They entered a small room with a few doors leading out, and many cabinets attached to the west wall. As they entered, the dust at their feet rose up into humanoid shapes, filled with sparkling light. Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, P.W. and Too slammed the door shut and retreated back through the cylindrical room, to the room with the bin of wires.
From there, they headed deeper into the dungeon, and came upon a seemingly empty room. When they entered, a transparent man in clothing of ancient design appeared, facing away from them, and said the following: "Welcome, visitors and employees, to the Subsurface Research Facility! As you prepare to enter the Subsurface Environment, remember to follow your Expedition Checklist, and listen to the instructions of your guide at all times. We have been accident free for three thousand, seven hundred, twenty nine years, 11 months, and 2 days. A company record! Don’t be the team to break it!" He then disappeared. According to the party's map, the corridor out of this room would probably lead back to the bone-and-metal constructs, and they decided to retreat back into some other unexplored passages rather than face the constructs again, worrying that they might want to take their bones.
Going even deeper, the pair came into a room with a large jewelled metal frame on the wall, with bits of jagged broken plastic material sticking out of it. When P.W. began prying the jewels from the frame, it made a strange whispering, but he couldn't make out what it was saying. He then continued prying the gems out.
Heading south from there, they came upon a room with a row of lockers on the east side. In the rotting cloth at the bottom of the lockers, they managed to collect 500 s.p.
In the next room, they came across 10 more of the bone-and-metal constructs. These constructs stared at the party warily, shouting "Humans! Humans!". The constructs didn't appear hostile, so they questioned them, about what was through the door to the west, and the constructs answered "Nothing!". When asked what was to the north, the direction the party had come from, the constructs became agitated and started shouting "Danger! Danger!" With no more questions, the pair headed west.
At the end of a corridor they found a strange bank-vault-like door, but the cylindrical opening mechanism was missing a bar to turn it. Too used his sword, and they opened the vault. It led into a room with many wooden tables, with many empty glass containers on those tables. In the center of the room, on the floor, was a metal disk, and above it floated an 8 foot wide sphere of brilliant bluish-white light.
They experimented with tossing things through. First Too grabbed a glass container off a table (and the table collapsed into dust as Too removed it, dropping the remaining containers to the floor where they shatterd), and threw it through the light. Nothing happened to the container, except shattering as it hit the floor. Then they retreated to a door on the south end of the room and hurled a flask of oil through the light. It burst into flames as it went through.
The experiment concluded, the party continued through that door to the south, and after heading through another empty room, found they had arrived again at the set of stairs leading up to the first room of the dungeon. They quickly headed up and back to town, selling their hard-earned loot.
P.W. went on his merry way for the time being, and Too met up with Rollo Jr. and the replacement priest that had been sent from Dethethix, Gutboy Barrellhouse, a worshipper of Thor. After a brief discussion, they decided that they should really be looking for some easy money in the dungeon on top of Mount Rendon. They hired and equipped a pair of henchmen from the local louts, Leo and Twonk. Gutboy also purchased a guard dog, that he named Rufus.
They returned to the dungeon at the top of Mount Rendon, and head northeast through the door marked "Emergency Generator Core". In here, they found another octagonal room, with a door to the north marked "Emergency Generator Core", and a door to the east marked "Authorized Personnel Only." They opened the door, and saw a 5' wide corridor that ended at a closed door, some 50' away. They had Leo go first, followed by Twonk, followed by the rest of the party. At the halfway point, Leo stepped on a pressure plate, and behind him a pit trap opened, dropping Twonk 20' into an iron cage, suspended from the ceiling of the room below. Twonk was clearly dead, his neck bent at an unnatural angle. As the party stared at his body, a group of metal-and-bone constructs entered the room below and pointed upwards, shouting "Parts! Parts!"
The party made their way over the pit to the door at the far end and tried opening it, but the door was firmly shut. They gave up on that, and returned to the octagonal room and headed north. There, they found they had made their way to the room with the strange sparkling dust-creatures and the cabinets. They decided to fight the dust-creatures, and with the help of Rufus made short work of them. Rollo Jr. was wounded, but Gutboy's magic quickly healed him.
A search of the cabinets revealed many ancient papers within, but the words written thereon didn't make any sense, so they left the papers behind.
The party made their way back through the cylindrical room, the room with the wire bin, and headed in a different direction, finding a room that was dark inside. Rollo Jr. entered and scouted the room using his infravision. He found a dais with a chest upon it, and two poles with rings at the ends on either side of the chest. In the corners of the room were two crystal statues, and the pedestals they stood on were inscribed with "We Dwell" and "In Darkness" respectively. He lit a torch and the rest of the party entered. Rollo Jr. was able to move the poles so they pointed at the statues, and then opened the chest. Within he saw a gold bar, with the words "Simulated Subsurface Treasure" written on it. As the party stared in confusion at the gold bar, the statues came to life and proceeded to hack Leo into pieces. The survivors ran out of the room in terror, but stopped when they realized there was no pursuit. Rollo looked back inside the room, and saw that it had been restored to its original state.
The party then went and got Leo's remains, and headed south to the room with 10 bone-and-metal constructs. Gutboy offered the constructs a deal: parts for their assistance in defeating the crystal statues. The constructs agreed, and Rollo brought Leo's body in. The constructs fell upon it, slashing the body to pieces, and replacing their old, ancient bones with these new fresh ones. One of the constructs peeled the flesh off poor Leo's skull, and placed it over the remains of its metallic head.
With this gruesome mob in tow, the party returned to the darkened chamber, positioned five automatons around each statue, hung some of Leo's belongings from each pole, pointed the poles at the statues, and opened the chest. The statues came to life, and in the battle that ensued, both statues and four constructs were destroyed. The constructs then began tearing apart their fallen comrades for parts.
Rollo and Gutboy had a discussion about the purpose of the rooms they had found. Gutboy thought the darkened room may have been some sort of museum, with its "Simulated Subsurface Treasure". Rollo thought the room with the sphere of light must have been the emergency generator core that the signs mentioned.
The party then decided that it was time to head back to town, so they returned and sold the latest batch of loot. As it turns out, the "Simulated Subsurface Treasure" was a genuine gold bar, worth 600 gp.
Gentlemen,
Here's the recap of events for the Oct 6th session:
As Too, P.W., and the 3 surviving henchmen watched, the 5 bone-and-metal constructs that had accompanied them into the cylindrical room fell upon the corpses of elf Randy and henchman Zorno. They began chopping the corpses to pieces, and cutting the meat away to get at the bones, tussling with each other to get the best femurs.
The party moved east, leaving the bone/metal monsters behind. They found a room with two doors leading out, a recessed area in the wall with a red wire and a blue wire sticking out, and a metal bin in the center of the room, filled with many wires
The halfling P.W. went back west to gather see what had happened, and found that the constructs were gone, leaving a pair of filleted corpses and some of Randy's equipment behind. He gathered up the useful bits of Randy's stuff and returned to the others.
P.W. then ordered Drunk Billy to open one of the doors, at which point Drunk Billy and the other henchmen told them to stick it, and that they were getting out of there. The three henchmen marched off west back towards the cylindrical room, where nothing remained except the filleted corpses of Randy and Zorno. P.W. and Too followed them at a safe distance into the cylindrical room, where the henchmen headed south to the room with the cage. They heard the henchmen exclaim "What the..." in surprise, and then voices shouting "Parts! Parts!". The two PC's decided to leave the henchmen to their fate, and climbed up a ladder to the upper catwalk, and then headed west through the door, hoping to find a way out of the dungeon.
They entered a small room with a few doors leading out, and many cabinets attached to the west wall. As they entered, the dust at their feet rose up into humanoid shapes, filled with sparkling light. Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, P.W. and Too slammed the door shut and retreated back through the cylindrical room, to the room with the bin of wires.
From there, they headed deeper into the dungeon, and came upon a seemingly empty room. When they entered, a transparent man in clothing of ancient design appeared, facing away from them, and said the following: "Welcome, visitors and employees, to the Subsurface Research Facility! As you prepare to enter the Subsurface Environment, remember to follow your Expedition Checklist, and listen to the instructions of your guide at all times. We have been accident free for three thousand, seven hundred, twenty nine years, 11 months, and 2 days. A company record! Don’t be the team to break it!" He then disappeared. According to the party's map, the corridor out of this room would probably lead back to the bone-and-metal constructs, and they decided to retreat back into some other unexplored passages rather than face the constructs again, worrying that they might want to take their bones.
Going even deeper, the pair came into a room with a large jewelled metal frame on the wall, with bits of jagged broken plastic material sticking out of it. When P.W. began prying the jewels from the frame, it made a strange whispering, but he couldn't make out what it was saying. He then continued prying the gems out.
Heading south from there, they came upon a room with a row of lockers on the east side. In the rotting cloth at the bottom of the lockers, they managed to collect 500 s.p.
In the next room, they came across 10 more of the bone-and-metal constructs. These constructs stared at the party warily, shouting "Humans! Humans!". The constructs didn't appear hostile, so they questioned them, about what was through the door to the west, and the constructs answered "Nothing!". When asked what was to the north, the direction the party had come from, the constructs became agitated and started shouting "Danger! Danger!" With no more questions, the pair headed west.
At the end of a corridor they found a strange bank-vault-like door, but the cylindrical opening mechanism was missing a bar to turn it. Too used his sword, and they opened the vault. It led into a room with many wooden tables, with many empty glass containers on those tables. In the center of the room, on the floor, was a metal disk, and above it floated an 8 foot wide sphere of brilliant bluish-white light.
They experimented with tossing things through. First Too grabbed a glass container off a table (and the table collapsed into dust as Too removed it, dropping the remaining containers to the floor where they shatterd), and threw it through the light. Nothing happened to the container, except shattering as it hit the floor. Then they retreated to a door on the south end of the room and hurled a flask of oil through the light. It burst into flames as it went through.
The experiment concluded, the party continued through that door to the south, and after heading through another empty room, found they had arrived again at the set of stairs leading up to the first room of the dungeon. They quickly headed up and back to town, selling their hard-earned loot.
P.W. went on his merry way for the time being, and Too met up with Rollo Jr. and the replacement priest that had been sent from Dethethix, Gutboy Barrellhouse, a worshipper of Thor. After a brief discussion, they decided that they should really be looking for some easy money in the dungeon on top of Mount Rendon. They hired and equipped a pair of henchmen from the local louts, Leo and Twonk. Gutboy also purchased a guard dog, that he named Rufus.
They returned to the dungeon at the top of Mount Rendon, and head northeast through the door marked "Emergency Generator Core". In here, they found another octagonal room, with a door to the north marked "Emergency Generator Core", and a door to the east marked "Authorized Personnel Only." They opened the door, and saw a 5' wide corridor that ended at a closed door, some 50' away. They had Leo go first, followed by Twonk, followed by the rest of the party. At the halfway point, Leo stepped on a pressure plate, and behind him a pit trap opened, dropping Twonk 20' into an iron cage, suspended from the ceiling of the room below. Twonk was clearly dead, his neck bent at an unnatural angle. As the party stared at his body, a group of metal-and-bone constructs entered the room below and pointed upwards, shouting "Parts! Parts!"
The party made their way over the pit to the door at the far end and tried opening it, but the door was firmly shut. They gave up on that, and returned to the octagonal room and headed north. There, they found they had made their way to the room with the strange sparkling dust-creatures and the cabinets. They decided to fight the dust-creatures, and with the help of Rufus made short work of them. Rollo Jr. was wounded, but Gutboy's magic quickly healed him.
A search of the cabinets revealed many ancient papers within, but the words written thereon didn't make any sense, so they left the papers behind.
The party made their way back through the cylindrical room, the room with the wire bin, and headed in a different direction, finding a room that was dark inside. Rollo Jr. entered and scouted the room using his infravision. He found a dais with a chest upon it, and two poles with rings at the ends on either side of the chest. In the corners of the room were two crystal statues, and the pedestals they stood on were inscribed with "We Dwell" and "In Darkness" respectively. He lit a torch and the rest of the party entered. Rollo Jr. was able to move the poles so they pointed at the statues, and then opened the chest. Within he saw a gold bar, with the words "Simulated Subsurface Treasure" written on it. As the party stared in confusion at the gold bar, the statues came to life and proceeded to hack Leo into pieces. The survivors ran out of the room in terror, but stopped when they realized there was no pursuit. Rollo looked back inside the room, and saw that it had been restored to its original state.
The party then went and got Leo's remains, and headed south to the room with 10 bone-and-metal constructs. Gutboy offered the constructs a deal: parts for their assistance in defeating the crystal statues. The constructs agreed, and Rollo brought Leo's body in. The constructs fell upon it, slashing the body to pieces, and replacing their old, ancient bones with these new fresh ones. One of the constructs peeled the flesh off poor Leo's skull, and placed it over the remains of its metallic head.
With this gruesome mob in tow, the party returned to the darkened chamber, positioned five automatons around each statue, hung some of Leo's belongings from each pole, pointed the poles at the statues, and opened the chest. The statues came to life, and in the battle that ensued, both statues and four constructs were destroyed. The constructs then began tearing apart their fallen comrades for parts.
Rollo and Gutboy had a discussion about the purpose of the rooms they had found. Gutboy thought the darkened room may have been some sort of museum, with its "Simulated Subsurface Treasure". Rollo thought the room with the sphere of light must have been the emergency generator core that the signs mentioned.
The party then decided that it was time to head back to town, so they returned and sold the latest batch of loot. As it turns out, the "Simulated Subsurface Treasure" was a genuine gold bar, worth 600 gp.
2010-10-05
Rumors and a Name for the Megadungeon
In module B2 (among others), a handy-dandy list of rumors is presented, so the players can get some leads to follow when they go off adventuring. This is a little trickier given the background I've come up with for my megadungeon. Since it hasn't been accessible for the past 3,000 years, there's no rumors to be had (well, there is one rumor that the Church of Starry Wisdom has been desperately clinging to, but they won't be sharing it with the party).
I'm going to initially handle this problem by letting the players find fragments of research and exploration notes from the original megacorporation foray into the dungeon. The research notes will be very brief, as I don't plan to sit at the table and orate a pages-long monograph on megadungeon exploration. I'm planning a sentence of background, to let the players in on some of the megadungeon history, and a sentence of rumor, to let them know what might be found in the deeper levels. This will give them some goals, so they aren't feeling completely aimless as they wander around. It will also let them know that getting to the deeper levels may be interesting, as I haven't told them that this is a megadungeon. That's something they are going to have to find out on their own.
An example would be, "...authorized construction of an on-site subsurface lab. They're also interested in getting more samples from the pool in B-level, after the test subjects' tumors..."
As the players go deeper, time will pass, and wizards, surface monsters, rival adventuring parties, and the city guard from the "friendly" city-state of Denethix will begin exploring the megadungeon through its alternate entrances. At that point, I'll have a plausible source for a random-rumors table, and I'll start dropping hints true and false at the local taverns.
The megacorporation responsible for the construction of the gatehouse, and the subsequent sealing off of the megadungeon, named the place the "Anomalous Subsurface Environment." It's a fairly bland name, for a place that defied known physical laws and promised untold riches to its explorers.
Probably the "Jackpot we're all rich if we don't die horribly Caves" name was already taken. JWARIWDDHC isn't quite as nice an acronym as ASE, either.
I'm going to initially handle this problem by letting the players find fragments of research and exploration notes from the original megacorporation foray into the dungeon. The research notes will be very brief, as I don't plan to sit at the table and orate a pages-long monograph on megadungeon exploration. I'm planning a sentence of background, to let the players in on some of the megadungeon history, and a sentence of rumor, to let them know what might be found in the deeper levels. This will give them some goals, so they aren't feeling completely aimless as they wander around. It will also let them know that getting to the deeper levels may be interesting, as I haven't told them that this is a megadungeon. That's something they are going to have to find out on their own.
An example would be, "...authorized construction of an on-site subsurface lab. They're also interested in getting more samples from the pool in B-level, after the test subjects' tumors..."
As the players go deeper, time will pass, and wizards, surface monsters, rival adventuring parties, and the city guard from the "friendly" city-state of Denethix will begin exploring the megadungeon through its alternate entrances. At that point, I'll have a plausible source for a random-rumors table, and I'll start dropping hints true and false at the local taverns.
The megacorporation responsible for the construction of the gatehouse, and the subsequent sealing off of the megadungeon, named the place the "Anomalous Subsurface Environment." It's a fairly bland name, for a place that defied known physical laws and promised untold riches to its explorers.
Probably the "Jackpot we're all rich if we don't die horribly Caves" name was already taken. JWARIWDDHC isn't quite as nice an acronym as ASE, either.
Augh! Get it off me!
So looking at the entries I did for the giant polychaete worm and the giant earwig, it's clear I have serious issues with creepy-crawlies clinging to people. I'm opposed, in case it needs clarification. Unless it's clinging to a henchman, those guys have it coming.
The polychaete worm attack is very similar to the earwig's cling-attack. Fortunately, they are very far apart in levels, so the players will have plenty of time to forget the horror of carnivorous earwigs before the worm appears. I do think I will add some more abilities to the polychaete worm though. It's spines are loaded with neurotoxins, so I'll have anything going hand-to-hand with it, or using a bite attack, have to save vs. paralyzation on a successful hit. That's not really going to affect the PC's, who will be using weapons, but if they've picked up any creature-buddies by that time, it may come into play.
The polychaete worm attack is very similar to the earwig's cling-attack. Fortunately, they are very far apart in levels, so the players will have plenty of time to forget the horror of carnivorous earwigs before the worm appears. I do think I will add some more abilities to the polychaete worm though. It's spines are loaded with neurotoxins, so I'll have anything going hand-to-hand with it, or using a bite attack, have to save vs. paralyzation on a successful hit. That's not really going to affect the PC's, who will be using weapons, but if they've picked up any creature-buddies by that time, it may come into play.
2010-10-04
Polychaete worm, giant
Probably everyone has read the story of this hideous thing, the giant polychaete worm that popped up in an aquarium: Barry the giant sea worm. In any case, it's going to be making an appearance at some point. The photos of it filled me with such utter revulsion (childhood memories of being bitten by his littler cousins while I tried to hook them for use as fishing bait), that I'm inspired to make a mid-level monster from it.
And yeah, it's Chaotic. When you look that ugly, you've picked sides.
Worm, polychaete, giant
No. Enc: 1d6
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (30')
Swim: 150' (50')
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 1
Damage: 2d6
Save: F5
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VII
XP: 350
The giant polychaete worm is one of the most feared creatures in the sea. In appearance, it is as revolting a specimen of worm as can be imagined, with thousands of legs running down the sides of its 20' long body, each leg tipped with a single sharp claw. The head of the worm has a nasty set of mandibles, designed not just to bite meat off, but to tear through the flesh of its prey.
Once the worm has successfully bitten an opponent, it will hang on and continue chewing through its victim for each round thereafter, automatically doing another 2d6 damage each round. The victim has a +2 bonus to hit the worm while it is gnawing away at his chest, seeking out his still-beating heart for a mid-afternoon snack. It's hard to miss the 20' long worm hanging off your body, after all. After damage is applied each round, the victim may attempt a save vs. petrification to see if he can shake off the worm.
The giant polychaete worm requires a moist environment to live, but can leave the water for a few hours at a time with no ill effects. These creatures are typically found in the ocean, but are occasionally also found in underground pools and lakes, feeding on dungeon inhabitants. It is particularly vulnerable to fire, taking double damage from fire-based attacks.
Whatever treasure the worm has will be incidentals that it has consumed along with its victims, and adventurers will have to cut into its gut to retrieve the loot. This is time consuming, as it has a hard exoskeleton, and the gut extends the length of the creature's body.
And yeah, it's Chaotic. When you look that ugly, you've picked sides.
Worm, polychaete, giant
No. Enc: 1d6
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (30')
Swim: 150' (50')
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 1
Damage: 2d6
Save: F5
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VII
XP: 350
The giant polychaete worm is one of the most feared creatures in the sea. In appearance, it is as revolting a specimen of worm as can be imagined, with thousands of legs running down the sides of its 20' long body, each leg tipped with a single sharp claw. The head of the worm has a nasty set of mandibles, designed not just to bite meat off, but to tear through the flesh of its prey.
Once the worm has successfully bitten an opponent, it will hang on and continue chewing through its victim for each round thereafter, automatically doing another 2d6 damage each round. The victim has a +2 bonus to hit the worm while it is gnawing away at his chest, seeking out his still-beating heart for a mid-afternoon snack. It's hard to miss the 20' long worm hanging off your body, after all. After damage is applied each round, the victim may attempt a save vs. petrification to see if he can shake off the worm.
The giant polychaete worm requires a moist environment to live, but can leave the water for a few hours at a time with no ill effects. These creatures are typically found in the ocean, but are occasionally also found in underground pools and lakes, feeding on dungeon inhabitants. It is particularly vulnerable to fire, taking double damage from fire-based attacks.
Whatever treasure the worm has will be incidentals that it has consumed along with its victims, and adventurers will have to cut into its gut to retrieve the loot. This is time consuming, as it has a hard exoskeleton, and the gut extends the length of the creature's body.
2010-10-03
Level 1 map
I finished the first draft of the map for level 1 of the megadungeon.
Click the image to get the larger version that you can actually kind-of-read.
Click the image to get the larger version that you can actually kind-of-read.
2010-10-02
Corpse Jelly
No, it's not a condiment, it's a monster. Although if there's a market for corpse jelly, let me know, because I've got to do something with all these bodies.
I've switched to Labyrinth Lord style stat blocks for my monster posts. The only substantive change is the "hoard class", which uses a roman numeral, as opposed to the "treasure type".
Corpse Jelly
No. Enc: 1d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 10' (3')
On Skeleton: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 9 (or as armor)
Hit Dice:1+2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 + see below
Save: F 1
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 21
This clear jelly, in its natural state, will attack as other jellies and oozes, by flowing along the ground and attempting to engulf victims. Once it has engulfed a victim and digested its flesh, it uses the victim's skeletal structure to move around more quickly. Being able to hold a skeleton together and cause it to walk is the creature's strength and its weakness, as the corpse jelly cannot absorb blows as well as more traditional jellies and oozes (thus its low hit dice).
A corpse jelly will attempt to kill all creatures it meets. It will not stop to feed on a corpse until all creatures around are dead. Once it begins feeding, it will abandon the old skeleton and engulf the new corpse.
When the corpse jelly strikes, it leaves a smear of itself on the victim. If the victim dies within the next 24 hours (and isn't consumed by the parent corpse jelly), this smear will itself consume the body and become a new corpse jelly. A corpse jelly that kills multiple victims will only consume one, leaving the rest to its spawn. It takes 48 hours for a new corpse jelly to grow and consume its host. The corpse jelly smears cause no damage to living hosts, and will die off within a day.
The corpse jelly replaces its victim's flesh as it consumes it. The jelly will thus be wearing any armor the victim had when he died. The jelly will remove gloves so its hands are free to strike. Its touch is both acidic and paralyzing. If a victim fails to save, he will be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds.
When reduced to 1 or 2 hit points, the jelly's skeleton will be damaged beyond use, and it will flow off the skeleton to attack as a normal jelly (with reduced movement rate). A skeleton-less jelly that encounters an undamaged skeleton will spend 1 round to engulf the skeleton, healing itself 1d4 hit points in the process, if damaged.
I've switched to Labyrinth Lord style stat blocks for my monster posts. The only substantive change is the "hoard class", which uses a roman numeral, as opposed to the "treasure type".
Corpse Jelly
No. Enc: 1d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 10' (3')
On Skeleton: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 9 (or as armor)
Hit Dice:1+2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 + see below
Save: F 1
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 21
This clear jelly, in its natural state, will attack as other jellies and oozes, by flowing along the ground and attempting to engulf victims. Once it has engulfed a victim and digested its flesh, it uses the victim's skeletal structure to move around more quickly. Being able to hold a skeleton together and cause it to walk is the creature's strength and its weakness, as the corpse jelly cannot absorb blows as well as more traditional jellies and oozes (thus its low hit dice).
A corpse jelly will attempt to kill all creatures it meets. It will not stop to feed on a corpse until all creatures around are dead. Once it begins feeding, it will abandon the old skeleton and engulf the new corpse.
When the corpse jelly strikes, it leaves a smear of itself on the victim. If the victim dies within the next 24 hours (and isn't consumed by the parent corpse jelly), this smear will itself consume the body and become a new corpse jelly. A corpse jelly that kills multiple victims will only consume one, leaving the rest to its spawn. It takes 48 hours for a new corpse jelly to grow and consume its host. The corpse jelly smears cause no damage to living hosts, and will die off within a day.
The corpse jelly replaces its victim's flesh as it consumes it. The jelly will thus be wearing any armor the victim had when he died. The jelly will remove gloves so its hands are free to strike. Its touch is both acidic and paralyzing. If a victim fails to save, he will be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds.
When reduced to 1 or 2 hit points, the jelly's skeleton will be damaged beyond use, and it will flow off the skeleton to attack as a normal jelly (with reduced movement rate). A skeleton-less jelly that encounters an undamaged skeleton will spend 1 round to engulf the skeleton, healing itself 1d4 hit points in the process, if damaged.
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