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<title>Alex Schroeder: Monsters</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:38:58 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Alex Schroeder: Monsters</title>
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<item>
<title>More Monsters</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-12-22_More_Monsters</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-12-22_More_Monsters</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/8295888903/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8295888903_a351136729.jpg" alt="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8295888903_a351136729.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recently I started extracting the monsters from my &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Caverns_of_Slime"&gt;Caverns of Slime&lt;/a&gt; adventure and posting it on this blog. The idea is that this way, people might spot something they like without having to go through the thirty or fourty pages of the adventure. It also makes it easier to leave a comment on a particular element.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I wrote &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;Caverns of Slime&lt;/em&gt;, I decided that all of the magic-users in the adventure would have a complete spell book with new names for all the spells. I hoped that referees would then pick the effects from obvious matches in their rule book or improvise something interesting. That&amp;#x2019;s how I handle it. Does this work for you? Would you have preferred me to use the standard spell names and list new spells at the end as appears to be the standard approach these days?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;ghoul&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 3; AC 6; Atk 2 claws and 1 bite (1d6 each); MV 9; victims need to save vs. paralysis or be paralysed; these ghouls prefer to eat their helpless victims during combat; in subsequent rounds roll a d6 and loose 1. eye, 2. arm, 3. other arm, 4. liver, 5. heart, 6. brain; mutilated corpses rise as ghouls within the hour and grow terrible claws if an arm or two was lost&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;bulbous demon&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 13; AC 6; Atk 1 bite (2d6); MV 3; victims need to save vs. paralysis or suffer the same fate as a ghoul victim; can only be hit by magic weapons&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;lemur&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 1; AC 6; Atk 1 bite (1d6); MV 3&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;psychic lampreys&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 5; AC 5; Atk 1 bite (2d6) and 1 psi storm (save vs. paralysis or faint for 1d6 rounds); MV 3 fly&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;spider warrior&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 5; AC 3; Atk 2 weapons and bite (1d8, 1d8, 1d6); MV 9 climbing&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kilistrexta&lt;/b&gt;, arachnid queen&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 12; AC 3; Atk 1 bite (1d6); MV 6 climbing&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;giant spider&lt;/b&gt;, intelligent&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 6; AC 3; Atk 2 claws and bite (1d6 each); MV 9 climbing; save vs. poison when bitten or fall unconscious as your internal organs are slowly digested; terminal damage after one hour; these are effectively spider barbarians, cruel and angry, always trying to rob and steal from their city dwelling relatives; they respect violence&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;giant ant&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 4; AC 3; Atk 1 bite (2d6), acid spray (3d6); MV 9&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;great mother&lt;/b&gt; of the ants&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 15; AC 4; Atk 1 bite (3d6), MV 3; pheromone powers: all giant ants will know when their queen needs help; the acid vapours in the queen&amp;#x2019;s cave require a save vs. poison every round to act&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;gargantuan centipede queen&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 12; AC 3; Atk 1 bite (3d6), MV 6; save vs. poison or die in excruciating pain within three rounds&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Atraxaka&lt;/b&gt;, arachnomatrix, is willing to trade in spells and information&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;no stats given but I&amp;#x2019;d base her on the arachnid queen: HD 13; AC 3; Atk 1 bite (1d6); MV 6 climbing&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;Spells of the arachnomatrix (level 13):&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table class="user"&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;1st level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;2nd level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;3rd level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;4th level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;the friendship of lesser minds&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;hunting and webbing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;the tongues of strangers&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;jumping through space on the strands of our forefathers&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;power of mimicry&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;triangulation of know objects&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;electric powers of destruction&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;subjugation of reason&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;communion with animals&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;conquest of gravity&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;powers of flight&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;arachnophobia of the highest degree&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;telestrangulation using strands of webbing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;detection of magical energies&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;silken words of binding&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td align="right"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;5th level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;6th level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;th align="center"&gt;7th level &lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;travel to the shadow lands&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;communicating with the ancient earth spirits&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;mysteries of astral chords and travel to foreign worlds&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;em&gt;contacting the spider lords of the beyond&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;(unassigned)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td align="right"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;(unassigned)&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td align="right"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atraxaka also knows how to build a &lt;b&gt;rod of electric destruction&lt;/b&gt; (shoots &lt;em&gt;lightning bolts&lt;/em&gt; for 3d6 at will with a 5% chance to hit somebody near the intended victim unless the wielder has four arms to aim it with).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Old%20School"&gt;Old School&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Old%20School"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Monsters"&gt;Monsters&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Monsters"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Caverns%20of%20Slime"&gt;Caverns of Slime&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Caverns%20of%20Slime"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Dec 2012 11:20:04 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2012-12-22_More_Monsters</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2012-12-22_More_Monsters</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2012-12-22_More_Monsters</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>Old School</category>
<category>Monsters</category>
<category>Caverns of Slime</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Monsters</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-12-20_Monsters</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-12-20_Monsters</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/2562351831/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3162/2562351831_0cec72a155_n.jpg" alt="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3162/2562351831_0cec72a155_n.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;A while ago, I worked on &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Caverns_of_Slime"&gt;Caverns of Slime&lt;/a&gt; for &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.fightonmagazine.com/"&gt;Fight On&lt;/a&gt;! #14. I recently made it available as a free PDF. (I should add a license to it: &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"&gt;Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike&lt;/a&gt; for the text!) Here are some of its monsters I wrote up.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This list also contains two instances of &lt;b&gt;rituals&lt;/b&gt;. I describe them as follows: &amp;#x201c;Rituals are the ceremonies and prayers that take many minutes to perform, usually powered by demon lords and devils.&amp;#x201d; The first monster can be summoned by a ritual that player characters can be taught by &amp;#x201c;a winged pig man with four legs and wielding a blood falchion.&amp;#x201d; The last monster, on the other hand, performs a handful of rituals that player characters can learn through observation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bel, Slayer of Men&lt;/b&gt;, a summoned demon&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 10; AC 2; Atk 1 flaming whip (no damage but on a hit it grants +4 on the hit with the sword in the same round and on a 20 it disarms the opponent), 1 flaming sword (3d6); MV 9; &lt;em&gt;flaming aura&lt;/em&gt; deals an extra 1d6 to everybody nearby; immune to non-magic weapons; immune to fire); this may be the same ritual that the mage-wraith in the &lt;em&gt;Warrens of the Troglodytes&lt;/em&gt; had learned&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Merquishti&lt;/b&gt;, a giant intelligent spider hungry for meat – and conversation&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 8; AC 4; Atk 1 bite (1d6); MV 15; when bitten, save vs. poison or fall comatose for 24h; can set up area web traps); it speaks the language of giant spiders, a dialect of subsurface elves and the common tongue of all demons; if asked about gold, the spider will know that a knight’s golden armor was carried down this way by devil worshipers a “very long time” ago; if asked about the destination, the spider will mention a city of evil half-spiders preying on the caverns and tunnels below; when the conversation ends, the spider considers capturing a party member by triggering a web trap (save vs. wands or be trapped in a web; the web prevents spellcasting; trapped victims need to deal 20 points of damage using a dagger or a similar small blade; free allies can aid trapped victims using larger blades&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Earth Elementals&lt;/b&gt; surface, eager to take back any &lt;em&gt;gems&lt;/em&gt; the party may have “stolen” from the deep earth&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 6; AC 0; Atk 1 bite (2d6); MV 9; immune against fire and electricity; can melt into the surrounding rocks in one round&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Nixies&lt;/b&gt; enjoying a bath, apparently ignorant of any males approaching&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 3; AC 8; Atk 1 bite (1d6); &lt;em&gt;charm man&lt;/em&gt; 3×/day, &lt;em&gt;kiss of water breathing for charmed men&lt;/em&gt; at will&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Stone Polyps&lt;/b&gt; are growing on the stone walls, immobile, with their arms limp and soft; as soon as a warm creature passes nearby, however, they activate&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 6; AC 0; Atk 1 bite (2d6), 8 tentacles (save vs. petrification of fall unconscious and be dragged towards the mouth); MV 3&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Shroom Lord&lt;/b&gt; is growing his own &lt;em&gt;circle of psychotic colors&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 15; AC 5; Atk 1 smash (2d6), 1 lick (poison); MV 9; licked victims must  save vs. poison or be charmed&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;The shroom lord can be observed for days as it sings its telepathic praise to the Gibbering Fungus God. A very patient person interested in mushroom magic can learn the following rituals through simple observation:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;the care of magic mushrooms&lt;/em&gt; requires an appropriate dark and humid cave, spores, a rotting corpse and a lot of spit; when cared for, these will grow up to three feet in height within four days; the mushroom will keep for a single day only&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;the summoning of the Gibbering Fungus God&lt;/em&gt; requires a deep hole in the ground and a fresh magic mushroom; partake of the mushroom and sing the &lt;em&gt;psychic psalm of the greatest mycelian panopticon&lt;/em&gt; (learning it requires some form of &lt;em&gt;ESP&lt;/em&gt; even though anybody may notice that psychic energies emanate from the &lt;em&gt;shroom lord&lt;/em&gt; as it sings to its flock); the &lt;b&gt;fungus god&lt;/b&gt; will materialize in the form of a huge toad head within half an hour; licking it will grant servants visions of the future; on a failed save vs. poison these visions are confusing and wrong, otherwise they act as powerful and lurid divination magic (the divination magic will only work for those people that ate of magic mushrooms grown with their own spit)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;the circle of psychotic colors&lt;/em&gt; requires a circle of at least six magic mushrooms; each mushroom must be sacrificed a small animal such as a cat; the animal corpse is absorbed by the magic mushroom and a few hours later these mushrooms can be activated with a touch&amp;#x2014;save vs. poison or roll a d6:&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;close your eyes for just a second and fall asleep immediately&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;chase an erotic fantasy and run away&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;bad trip paralyzes you with fear&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;drop weapons, bend over and barf&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;close your eyes and enjoy the visions&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;everybody else seems slow and stupid, take two actions&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another monster, related to &lt;em&gt;the circle of psychotic colors&lt;/em&gt;: any enemies that fell asleep because of the spores will die over night and rise as a spore zombie.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;Spore Zombie&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;HD 2; AC 8; Atk 1 bite (1d6); when smashed, anybody in melee must roll a d6 as described above&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=RPG"&gt;RPG&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/RPG"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Old%20School"&gt;Old School&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Old%20School"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Caverns%20of%20Slime"&gt;Caverns of Slime&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Caverns%20of%20Slime"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Monsters"&gt;Monsters&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Monsters"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:07:52 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2012-12-20_Monsters</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2012-12-20_Monsters</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2012-12-20_Monsters</wiki:diff>
<category>RPG</category>
<category>Old School</category>
<category>Caverns of Slime</category>
<category>Monsters</category>
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