Creatures & Critters

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

You want Zombies? try on this trio of terrors! ;D

Famine Spirit

M.R. 70
Dice: 8+35 ( Withering/Decaying Touch )
Special Abilities:
Withering Wind: The Famine Spirit can summon a terrible wind that decays crops, spoils food and sickens animals.
Raise Undead: The Famine Spirit can raise the bodies of those it has slain and the bodies of anyone or thing that has died of starvation in the form of a Hunger Ghouls Listed below.
Control Hunger Ghouls: Famine Spirits can see command any Hunger Ghouls it has created.
Summon/Control Gore Crows: The ability to summon and control Gore Crows stats listed below.
Immaterial: The Famine Spirit can only be harmed by magic, silver or by instruments that have been used to harvest food ( like scythes, sickles, grain-flails and other agricultural implements ).
Ignore Armor: The Famine Spirit's Withering touch ignores all non-magical armor.

The Famine Spirit is a revenant of vengeance that is brought about when an innocent is starved to death for a crime they did not commit. Such a death opens the body of the deceased to possession by a vengeful ghost who will use the vessel to wreak havoc until it is put to rest.

Famine Spirit's are clever and unlikely to directly confront it's enemies. Preferring to send it's servants the Hunger Ghouls to deal with them and it's Gore Crows to spy and steal form them while remaining safe in a hidden location. Almost always a secret stash of food who's owner refused to share even as others starved around them.

Description: A horrid corpse like phantom of indeterminate sex whose body shows all the ravages of death by starvation. With empty eye-sockets filled with flickering green corpse lights. Floating ethereally over the ground.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Hunger Ghouls

M.R. 35
Dice: 4+18 ( Claw-like hands and Teeth )
Special Abilities:
Undead Invulnerability: Hunger Ghouls are immune to poison, disease, nor do they breath or feel pain and their undead state gives them the equivalent of 3 points of armor.
Undead Reproduction: A victim killed by a Hunger Ghoul who is not completely devoured rises from the dead as a new Hunger Ghoul.
Undead Persistence: Hunger Ghouls do not lose any of their dice until they cease to function, but they do lose their adds with damage as normal.

Hunger Ghouls are created from the victims of Famine Spirits and rise to an un-life of ravenous eternal hunger. Hunger Ghouls will eat any and all food they find and this includes animals and people. A Hunger Ghoul will happily sit down and devour a whole sack of salt or flour or tear apart a man or a dog and feast on their flesh.

All of this of course helps the Famine Spirit spread the killing hunger that it draws it power from.

They are capable of complex plans only when directly controlled by a Famine Spirit. Other wise they behave like mindless eating machines, incapable of all but the most simple of tactics. Such as hiding in a closet or under a set of stairs waiting to ambush a victim.

Description: Depending on how the Hunger Ghoul died its body may look almost alive or be horrible starved, mutilated or if killed directly by the Famine Spirit desiccated and withered.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Gore Crows

M.R. 20
Dice:3+10 ( Serrated Beak and Talons )
Special Abilities:
Winged Flight: Gore Crows are capable of flight.
Far-Seeing: The Gore Crow can transmit images it sees to the Famine Spirit that controls it.


Gore Crows are the eyes and scouts of the Famine Spirit that controls it. In truth spirits in physical form Gore Crows are maliciousness incarnate. Filled with hatred and bloodlust, the Gore Crow serves the Famine Spirits to satiate it's own dark desires.

While only used in combat in large groups, they are excellent thieves and have been know to steal small important items from the Famine Spirit's enemies, or to spy on it's enemies plans.

Description: Huge crows the size of vultures with hooked serrated beaks and bloody red eyes. Giving off a foul corpse like odor and raucous guttural call.

[machfront]

I can hear the italian exploitation music already!

[mahrundl]

Very nice, T-K-D!

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Greater Cave Bear

M.R. 75
Dice: 8+38
Special Abilities:
Dense Fur & Muscle: Worth 6 points of armor.
Bear Hug: The Greater Cave Bear can single out one character and attempt to do all it's damage for that turn to them alone. The character affected must take all damage due the opposing side if they fail a 2nd level S.R. on either Strength,Dexterity or Luck.
Improved Berserker Rage: Once the Greater Cave Bear falls below half M.R. it has double the original adds until dead or rendered unconscious.
Burst of Speed: If pursuing fleeing characters the Greater Cave Bear can attain a Speed score of 30 for short bursts.

Summoned from the depths of the last Ice Age the Greater Cave Bear is one of the most fearsome predators to ever walk the land. Sometimes resurrected by Wizards as guardians or found in lost valleys or guarding sacred groves.

Description: A huge bear, 12' foot at the shoulder when on hind legs, with a massive jaw and longer limbs than modern bears. Ranging from black to reddish brown in color.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

The Jager Duck/Chicken/Sheep A.K.A. The BEAST

Warning: This thing is a Killer

M.R. 200
Dice: 21+ 100 ( Teeth, Bone-tipped tentacles and killer chicken feet)
Special Abilities:
Trample: For the cost of 6 generated spite points The BEAST can elect to trample all party members that fail a Luck or Dex SR if he wins that round of combat. If trampled a character takes full damage for that round without the benefit of armor.
Armor Skin: worth 10 points of armor.
Tentacle Grab: For the cost of 6 generated spite points The Beast can make a grab for up to three characters and if they fail a third level SR versus Str, Dex or luck they have been lifted from the ground and must fight at half adds until they make a third level SR versus Str, Dex or luck at the beginning of a subsequent combat round.
Thunder-Quack: May forgo an attack and let loose a thunderous quack that causes all non-player characters to make a SR versus flight or flee the battle and all characters to make a SR versus IQ or Luck or be stunned for that combat round.

The Beast came about years ago when I was running a WarHammer FRP game and we where about to switch to another system. By this time the characters where formidable in the extreme, in fact they where so cocky ( which can happen when the characters are on their 5th to 7th career )they figured they where pretty much invulnerable.

We where going to switch to Over the Edge, but the Gm was not ready to begin so I stepped in with a little adventure to keep us busy for that week while he got his campaign ready ( it never really did come to much ).

So I ran the standard "The Evil Chaos Beast is terrorizing the village!" adventure the only twist was that the Beast-men where backed up by what was described by the villagers as the most fearsome chaos beast in existence.

Well the players tracked the Beast-men down and after a brief fight the Beast-men fled to the forest. The characters pursued and entered a clearing some way into the forest.

There they saw "A giant fifteen foot tall Walleyed duck-headed beast with huge flabby Mick-Jager lips atop a sheep-like torso mounted on two giant chicken legs" wandering around the clearing in listless random circles.

They kind of broke down in laughter at the table and it took a few minutes to get back to the game.

I really tried to give them the benefit of the first attack, strangely though they had a hard time taking The Beast seriously. ;D

Finally the Templar decided to chuck a rock at it and chase it off.

At which point The Beast focused it's goggly eyes on the party and parted it's floppy lips to reveal enormous dagger-like teeth and dozens of long thin tentacles tipped with either serrated bone hooks or barbed bone points shot out of the wooly body.

It gave a horrific quack that struck terror in the characters retainers and charged down on the party.

It was an ugly fight that dragged on for most of the evening. Three out of five of the character where dead when it ended. Only the Templar and the Wizard survived and The Beast kind of became iconic in our group.

For a long while afterwards anything I described in humorous detail was under a death sentence as far as the players where concerned.

Description: A fifteen foot tall beast with the head of a duck with huge flabby Mick-Jager lips and walleyes, an off-white puff-ball sheep like torso atop giant chicken legs. A more humorous beast it is hard to imagine.

Of course the Jager lips conceal mammoth sized dagger like teeth, within the puffy sheep-like torso ( which has the strength of iron wool ) are numerous long thin tentacles that end in either serrated bone hooks or barbed bone points and of course the two mighty chicken legs are deadly with talons and spurs.

[mahrundl]

Heh! An amusing critter, indeed!

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

The Bombie

Because Necromancers can use gunpowder too. ;D

M.R.20
Dice: 3+10 ( Teeth, talons or Torch )
Special Abilities:
Undead Invulnerability: Bombie's are immune to poison and disease, nor do they breath or feel pain and their undead state gives them the equivalent of 3 points of armor.
Undead Persistence: Bombie's do not lose any of their dice until they cease to function, but they do lose their adds with damage as normal.
Explosion: One-Time attack ( this destroys the Bombie ) once amid the characters the Bombie will attempt to thrust it's torch into the bomb sown into it's abdomen. If the characters manage to make a 3rd level SR on Str, Dex or luck they stop the Bombie from detonating it's payload. If they fail the Bombie does 10d+10 damage to all in melee range minus any armor the characters may have. All characters can make a 2nd level SR versus Dex or Luck for half damage.

The Bombie is the undead equivalent of the smart bomb ( Zombie? smart? ). Created by a progressive Necromancer looking to make the most out of his minions. You only have to throw one at your players and they will worry about any torch carrying Zombies they come across as long as you are Gm'ing.


Description: A Zombie wielding a large burning torch with a horribly distended abdomen and hideous stitches leading from the end of the sternum to the groin.

P.S. Y'know after writing down some of these monsters that I have used over the years I have come to the conclusion that while I never killed many of my player's characters I was perhaps a little to inventive in my torments.

[unclecranky]

You hit the bullseye with that last one, Toad-killer (and took out most of the surrounding landscape in the process) lol. BTW Jager duck/chicken/sheep? (snicker...mad laughter, fading into chuckles in the background...)

[order99]

Bombies...heh heh heh.

Reminds me of an early Holmes Edition D&D my old GM ran in college...the EHP had teamed up with a M-U and created the Ultimate Weapon-a handful of ragged Zombies wearing suspiciously decent shirts. No big deal, right?

We found out fiendish cleverness of our foe too late, alas. The zombies were programmed to shuffle towards thier target, get within melee range-and rip open thier shirts so the party could get a good look at thier tattoos...which were Explosive Runes.


Yep, our enemies had created mobile Zombie Claymores. At least they didn't have the depravity to place them in Kilts a la Braveheart....

[mahrundl]

Oooo, nasty! I like!

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Might I suggest trench coats?

Is there anything as terrifying as explosive zombie flashers! ;D

[order99]

Hence the Braveheart reference... ;D

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

Toad-Killer-Dog you are one twisted evil GM. And I mean that as the highest complement I could give.

Jager Duck/Chicken/Sheep ... Wow... I may have to throw the Jager Duck at my own players someday. Just cannot let them know when ...

Perhaps they can visit a village afterward and be served the local home remedy for injuries Duck-Sheep-Chicken Soup