Creatures & Critters

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

The Hungry Air

Have you heard the sound of the air chewing?

M.R.80
Dice: 9+40 ( Multiple fanged maws & ripping talons )
Special Abilities:
Floating: The Hungry Air floats several feet above the floor and displaces no weight beneath itself to leave a trail or set off traps.
Invisibility: The Hungry Air is transparent in it's natural state. It can be seen when covered with a foreign substance or after it has eaten and it's victims can be seen torn apart and digesting inside it. While Invisible The Hungry Air reduces it's attackers combat total by half.
Radar Sense: The Hungry Air can sense vibrations through the air around it and through any surface it rests against.
Heat Sense: The Hungry Air senses heat through sensitive pads on the surface of it's body.
Aura of Madness: The Hungry Air comes from a plane outside normal existence and it's presence disturbs normal life-forms. When in close proximity The Hungry Air causes characters to suffer from a +1 level difficulty to SR to take into account the disturbing effect it's presence causes and spooks animals.

The Hungry Air slips though weaknesses in the fabric or reality or is summoned by Wizards to guard their lairs or kill their enemies. The Hungry Air attacks and devours it's victims and then hides until the victim has been digested and it is invisible again. It likes to prey on the weak and helpless and makes no sound other than the horrible noise of it's many mouths chewing as it feeds.

Description: If rendered visible The Hungry Air is a uneven cancerous blob covered with dripping maws and short crooked arms with razor talons for grasping and drawing victims toward it's mouthes. No eyes mar its scabrous surface, only randomly spaced raised fleshy pads it uses to detect the heat and vibrations of it's surroundings.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Ship-Lurker

It's just a derelict ship, right?

M.R. 200 ( for the main body ) and 30 ( for Lesser tentacles )
Dice: 21+100 ( Beak and main tentacles ) 4+15 ( for Lesser tentacles )
Special Abilities:
Lesser Tentacles: The Ship-Lurker can wend it's lesser tentacles through the ship and uses them to attack from surprise or drag a victim down to the hold and it's beak.
Vibration Sense: The Ship-Lurker can use it's vibration sense to tell where anyone in it's ship-shell is moving.
Summon Fog: The Ship-Lurker can summon a bank of fog to conceal the condition of it's ship-shell and to sneak up on unsuspecting vessels.
Ship Armor: If attacking the Ship-Lurker from the outside of the ship-shell the Ship-Lurker can use the hull of the ship to protect it's main body. Providing 20 points of armor. This does not apply if attacking The Ship-Lurker from inside the ship-shell.


The Ship-Lurker A.K.A. Hermit Squid attacks ships and devours the passengers and crew. Then the Ship-Lurker makes it's way into the bottom most hold of the ship and breaks through to the water with it's powerful beak and main tentacles. Leaving the main tentacles outside to propel and defend the outside of it's new shell and it's main body ensconced in the protection of the hold.

Then the Ship-Lurker deploys it's Lesser tentacles throughout the ship and uses the ship as a lure to attract new prey to itself. It uses it's ability to summon fog to hide the condition of it's ship-shell and sneak up on other vessels.

Description: The Ship-Lurker looks like a derelict ship drifting in a fog when first encountered. Once aboard the characters will find many signs of violence and weapons scattered around the deck and cabins. Once the characters descend into the ship the Ship-Lurker will begin attacking with it's Lesser tentacles ( as many as would be appropriate to the size and level of the party ) and drag any wounded or dead down into the hold.

If the characters attempt to flee the ship the Ship-Lurker will attack their vessel with it's Main tentacles.

If the characters follow the Lesser tentacles into the hold they will be confronted with the hideous parrot beak and body of the Ship-Lurker and the remains of it's ghastly feasts. The Ship-Lurker will attack with it's full listed dice, but have no benefit of it's ship-shell armor.

[mahrundl]

One of the spells that I'll post soon allows the caster to see invisible things. It has one tiny drawback for combat purposes though...

which you'll have to wait for the spell description to find out about!

[mahrundl]

Verra nice monsters!

Time to Exalt?

Time to Exalt!

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Thank you! ;D

Glad you liked them.

I have a few more to post once I have them stated up. Your players will love meeting the "Vermin Lord" or encountering the "Gibbet Tree".

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Vermin Lord

M.R. 30 / Con: 50
Dice: 4+15 ( Fists ) or by weapon.
Special Abilities:
Rat Lord:
Command Rats: The Rat Lord can control rats and give them complex instructions they will be able to remember and carry out.
Rat Swarm: A huge swarm of rats a wave of teeth and claws and squirming bodies in a manic frenzy. M.R. 30/Con: 50 for a mid sized swarm
Plague Rats: Rats bearing disease that they spread through their bites and droppings. Used to poison wells and food supplies and spread the plague to the Rat Lords enemies. M.R. 8 each if bitten by a plague rat or eating and drinking from a diseased source the characters must make a 3rd level SR versus Con or contract the plague.
The Plague: Characters suffering from the plague lose a point of Str & Con every 12 hours unless they make a 2nd level SR for each point. Lost points are not regained until the plague is either cured or has run its course. The plague can be cured by a "Healing Feeling" spell cast by a wizard of 5th level or higher, a churgeon or healer making a fifth level SR or by surviving a week of the plague.
Greater Rats: The largest and fiercest rats in the Rat Lords army act as his scouts and assassins. Spoiling food, stealing and spreading panic through their enemies. M.R. 20 each

Gifts of the Rat: The Rat Lord gains the ability to squeeze through small places, to carry plague without harm to themselves, to gnaw through any material softer than metal, to hear and smell with the keenness of a rat
Wasp Lord:
Command Wasps: The Wasp Lord can control Wasps and give them complex instructions they will be able to remember and carry out.
Wasp Swarm: A buzzing swarm of biting, stinging wasps that attack implacably until destroyed injecting their victims with their venom. M.R. 50 for a mid-sized swarm ( This take into account the wasps poison )
Insidious Larva: The Wasp Lord can implant a larva into the nose or ears of an unconscious or paralyzed victim. The Insidious Larva is implanted through the Wasp Lords tongue and once it is in place the larva allows the Wasp Lord to control the victim. The victim seems fine at first, but as time goes on the larva grows and the victim begins to go insane with the awful pain it causes. The Insidious Larva can be killed without harming the victim by casting a "Healing Feeling" spell within a week of the larvas implantation or through a churgeon or healer making a fifth level SR.
Greater Wasps: Huge wasps capable of killing even large animals or formidable characters M.R. 30 per five greater wasps and their venom acts as Curare.

Gifts of the Wasp: The Wasp Lord gains the ability scale shear surfaces and cling like a wasp, to extend a stinger from the palm of their hand acting as a 4D+15 weapon and injecting a paralytic poison ( as spider venom ), Wasp Lords also gain 5 points of armor as their skins toughens like chitin and they gain the ability to extrude Insidious Larva.

A Vermin Lord is a man or woman who has pledged themselves to darkness and in return for their sanity and humanity have been given the power to command the lowest and meanest forms of life.

Vermin Lords are rare and terrible beings driven by murderous rage, the desire for revenge or simply hatred for those that have what they are denied.

Vermin Lords are often those who have been driven from human society or exist at its very edge. Treated like vermin by humans, Vermin Lords begin to form an attachment with the other creatures detested by man.

At some point they make a conscious decision and reach into the darkness for the power they desire to have their revenge for the wrongs heaped upon them.

The Vermin Lord attacks from the shadows, never revealing themselves openly and secretly reveling as their community dies around them. If they are successful they move on to another city or town taking their verminous legions with them and drawing more to themselves all the time.

The longer a Vermin Lord lives the greater their army becomes until they sweep like a plague over the land.

Once a Vermin Lord dies their army becomes mindless beasts again.

Each Vermin Lord commands a different form of creature. I have listed two examples above The Rat Lord & The Wasp Lord, but there are many more possibilities.

Description: A Vermin Lord will look identical to how they where before coming into their terrible power. Perhaps their greatest power is their anonymity.

[machfront]

Whoa! Now that's a rat!

[machfront]

T-D-K. You and mahrundl should put together a magic and beastie pdf, seriously.

[unclecranky]

Wiz Ticks:
MR 1 and up...
# App 1-100
Dice 1 + 1 add
Size: Miniscule
Special: Carapace takes 6 hits as armor, and see below...
Wiz Ticks are itty tiny parasites that require a L2 SR on Perception or a L4SR on Int to even detect. They are not so much 'aggressive' per se as they are 'persistant' and 'hungry'. They thrive in any locale indoors or out, the more enchanted the better. They frequently infest magical clothing and armor, growing fat as they leech the kremm out of it. The trouble for delvers starts when said armor or clothing is found and touched. Any Wiz Tick within a foot of a living being with any Kremm is likely to jump aboard for a quick feast, and if the delver has no armor on their hands, they implant themselves in the delver's skin, causing up to 7 points of damage. Furthermore, even if the poor victim does have armor, the Wiz Tick can still infest if it rolls a 6 on its single die.
Then they begin depleting one point of Wiz per game turn (ten minutes) until the character is depleted of Wiz entirely (hence the name). For each point of Kremm devoured, a Wiz Tick adds a point to its MR. During this time, the most an infested character will feel is a very mild itching, and that only if they aren't occupied with something else.
Once detected, Wiz ticks are devilishly hard to get rid of. Healing Feeling needs to be cast within one hour of infestation on a character. After that hour is up, only fire will cause a Wiz Tick to back out of the hole it has dug for itself in the character's skin. For each point of fire damage to the tick, the character so infested will suffer a point of damage as well. Furthermore, the carapace of a Wiz Tick prevents it from even this damage, until the fire involved reaches at least 7 hits of damage.
Until an infestation is entirely removed, the victim can regain no Wiz whatsoever. Furthermore, Wiz Ticks are communal critters, delighting in the company of their own kind, and breeding whenever they reach MR 10 or more. Each such breeding results in the birth of 10-20 larval Wiz Ticks within a week, which will infest magic items (or the character themselves, if they still have any Kremm left to drain). ;D
It should be noted that Wiz Ticks themselves are rarely fatal to anyone. It is for the effects of their infestation and the difficulty in detecting them that they are feared.

[unclecranky]

Fairy Fleas
# App: 1-100
MR 1
Dice 1+1 add
Size: beyond microscopic
Special: carapace takes 1 hit of damage as armor. Tiny size makes them almost impossible to detect.
Spite: 1/ (disease) 2 points of Speed per combat turn.
Fairy Fleas are the major parasite of fairies, and are not averse to munching on the larger kindred as well, when the opportunity presents itself. By themselves, they're not hard to kill-even 2 points of damage with any weapon, even a fist, will take them out... but they have to be seen or felt first, and that can be a bit of a problem for delvers preoccupied with a fight or a treasure.
Fairy fleas carry a neurological disease which saps a character's reaction time, very quickly. As the parasite settles on a character for its feast (possible even with heavily armored characters if a six is rolled for an attack), it transmits a virulent toxin which effectively kills two points of speed per combat turn, until the character has no speed left, leaving them paralyzed. A healing feeling will kill the fleas, as will any magical attack spell, but even then a too-bad toxin spell is required as well, to restore health to the character. After, and only after, both spells have been cast will the victim of these parasites begin to regain speed at the rate of a single point per hour.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Gibbet Tree

Where rest the souls of the hanged?

M.R. 50 ( For the trunk ) + 20 per body hanging from tree average M.R. 150
Dice: 16+75 ( Trunk: strangling ropes, Hanging Bodies: Fist, Teeth, Grapple )
Special Abilities:
Entangle: The empty nooses hanging from the Gibbet Tree can reach out and attempt to grab or strangle characters. At the cost of 3 points of spite the Gibbet Tree can attempt to entangle a single character. If the character in question fails a third level SR on Dex or Luck their adds are cut in half until they can make a third level SR versus Str or Luck.
Reach: The Gibbet Tree can extend it's strangling ropes and the bodies that hang from it's branches up to thirty feet from it's main trunk.
Steely Bark: Due to the tough nature of the Gibbet Tree it is considered to have 8 points of armor.
Aura of Fear: The reek of decay and an unquiet aura surround the Gibbet Tree causing character and NPC's to make a second level saving throw on IQ or Luck the first round of combat. Any character failing has all SR difficulties increased by one level for that combat.

Gibbet Zombie ( unattached )
M.R. 30
Dice: 4+15 ( Fists, Teeth & Grapple )
Special Abilities:
Undead Invulnerability: Gibbet Zombies 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 Persistence: Gibbet Zombies do not lose any of their dice until they cease to function, but they do lose their adds with damage as normal.

Sometimes when a tree is used as a hangman's gibbet the souls of those hung posses the tree and use it to vent their fury on the living world.

When this happens the tree will at first ambush single individuals who happen too near and build up it's zombie puppets. Soon however the Gibbet Tree will openly attack all within it's reach and send out it's unattached Gibbet Zombies to drag more victims within it's reach.

When attacked the Gibbet Tree will defend itself with it's strangling nooses and any bodies hung from it's branches will attack from the ends of their ropes like monstrous marionettes.

As most Gibbet Tree's are found at crossroads they can become a deadly menace in short order.

Description: A huge and ancient tree with a great canopy and many sturdy limbs projecting from the trunk. Suspended from these limbs are ropes knotted into nooses. Hanging from these ropes twisting pitifully in the wind are the bodies of the Gibbet Tree's victims in various stages of decay. A foul stench permeates the surroundings of the Gibbet Tree and nothing will grow near it.

Gibbet Zombies can be distinguished from other zombies by the nooses they wear and many have broken lolling necks.

[Toad-Killer-Dog]

Killer Ape

E.R. Burroughs, Edger Alan Poe & Robert E. Howard can't be wrong! ;D

M.R. 60 and Up
Dice: 7+30 ( Fangs, fists and crushing grapple )
Special Abilities:
Bestial Endurance: Killer Apes do not lose their dice as they lose M.R., maintaining the same dice until death. Although their adds diminish as normal.
Crushing Grapple: Killer Apes 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.
Leathery Hide: The tough fur and hide of the Killer Ape provides 4 points of armor.
Animal Senses: Killer Apes heightened senses allow them to detect the smallest changes in their environment. Characters attempting to surprise Killer Apes have the difficulty of the SR increased by 1 level.
Jungle Stealth: When attempting to resist surprise from Killer Apes characters have the difficulty of the SR increased by 1 level.

The great apes of Howard and Burroughs are both bestial and noble, dangerous and unpredictable, but capable of almost human feeling.

Cunning and powerful, though primitive Killer Apes are capable of rudimentary tactics and can be very stealthy.

A favorite minion and guardian of wizards, Killer Apes can be found almost anywhere wizards make their homes as well as jungles and ancient runes.


Description: Huge, hairy gorilla like primates, but larger than gorillas with a more erect posture and with less receding foreheads. Ranging in color from albino white to black, with stops in reddish, grey and brown.

[mahrundl]

UncleCranky, I assume that the Wiz Ticks and Fairy Fleas are aimed at high level characters? Because they'd make mincemeat out of low level ones.

Say you have 20 ticks, a lowish number when there can be up to 100. On average, 3 will fasten on to even a heavily armoured character in the first round, with a fairly low chance of detection. Even if no more attach, at the end of an hour the character has lost 18 points of WIZ (assuming he started with that many), can no longer be cured by Healing Feeling, and to remove the ticks will have to take 39 points of damage (6 carapace + 1 initial MR + 6 MR from draining WIZ multiplied by 3 ticks)! I suppose that the character could just leave them there and live out his life with a WIZ of 0, since they aren't doing any CON damage, but personally I'd probably just retire the character.

The fleas are possibly even worse. If 3 attach to a character in the first round, as in the scenario above, the character's Speed will drop by 6 points, plus whatever CON damage they do. I'm not certain whether they have to re-inject toxin to continue reducing the victim's Speed, but I'd assume that since they are attached, they can just pump more toxin in as needed. Our victim will be paralysed in very short order, and probably killed thereafter.

For such tiny creatures they seem very over-powered - a 6 point carapace for a creature described as 'miniscule' is way too high, in my opinion. Perhaps stat out 'swarm' versions that produce the listed effects, and make them easier to detect, rather than having them as individuals.

I'm not trying to discourage you here. I do like the concepts - I'm just not crazy about the specific details you've given.

[unclecranky]

Of course, neither parasite is fatal in and of itself. At most, each only does 7 pts of damage to Con. I made them that way purposely, in order to dispatch rules lawyers who got mouthy with me about the rules. Toss a few dozen Wiz Ticks their wizard's way, and watch them squirm when they go up against a gremlin with a MR of 20... Toss a few dozen fairie fleas at Warriors and thieving Rogues, and watch them wiggle and squirm when faced with a half-dozen evil hobbits with MRs of 5 each...heeheehee... Have I ever mentioned how I feel about rules lawyers and politicians?

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

My favorites are The Hungry Air, Ship Lurker, Wiz Ticks, Fairy Fleas and the Gibbet Tree. All very creepy, and all capable of being an adventure by themselves.

Discovering Wiz Ticks and Fairy Fleas would quickly change the balance of power between Wizard and Warrior. My Wizards' Guilds would be working overtime to come up with some noxious cure for the parasites.

Great job. I'll be handing out Exaults as I can (I think I'm limited to one a day, so unclecranky will get the award today).