Observatory of the Beyond: A Dungeon for GAMMA WORLD

I set a goal for myself of making at least one post a month every month this summer. It's now the tail end of September, and I've got one post to show for it. Shameful! My RPG juices have been really not flowing, busy with personal life events (moved in with my girlfriend which is lovely!) and NOT running or playing in anything has really done a number on my creative output. I'm still plugging away on MORTUARY ON MOTH MOUNTAIN, an adventure location zine for King of Kings that I announced last year; a few months ago I lost all of the image files I used in doing the graphic design, so I've had to start over on that. BUT I will not naysay overmuch. Below is an adventure location for GAMMA WORLD and other post-apocalyptic type roleplaying games that I put together just to get something to go from brain to paper to computer screen, so to speak. Hope you like it!

 

OBSERVATORY OF THE BEYOND

Sitting atop a grassy hill, looming from between the sickly copses of trees that dot the landscape, is a concrete construction that, from afar, looks almost like a slate grey flying saucer, or perhaps a faceless turtle. Once a traveler ventures closer, however, they begin to hear it: the awful, awful buzzing. This is a place of no honor.

Far from any village, mutant or otherwise, this uncanny brutalist structure is a strange type of observatory, built for inscrutable reasons by the ancients. It is not a typical telescope observatory, not like the kind that Amish astrologers use. It was instead a radio observatory, its sensors and dishes tuned into a particular frequency, in this case the frequency that all other observatories do their best to ignore, drown out, and go past: the staticky sound of cosmic background radiation. It is said that the ancients that built this unseemly place wished to meditate on the waveforms of the very sounds of the universe itself, and on the impacts that this sound has on the minds of mortal men. What impact that is, from whispered rumors, is one that surely nobody would like to experience for themselves. It's no wonder the grand civilization of the ancients collapsed into ruin and ash, if they were such perverts who fixated on the evil noise between the stars.

But, perhaps that sound could be put to better use today. Or perhaps the technological wonders rumored to be on the other end of the uncanny sound entice you. Or maybe you just want to be the first to push past superstition and get all the copper wiring out of the walls of the place. The Observatory of the Beyond buzzes uncaringly atop that wretched hill all the same.

 

 

 

Room Key

The Main Facility

1: After entering through the still-operating airlock (marked with a set of two doors ('D') on the map above), this room was originally storage for personal items and hazmat suits worn outside the facility. There are 12 hooks for suits on the walls, all but two of which are empty. One of the hooks has a filthy rag on which is written a confession, while another has a hazmat suit sized for an unmutated human (resistance to toxins and radiation).

2: The main hub of the facility. A short desk faces the doorway leading to room 1, while a circular table set in the center of the room served as a dining table, complete with skeletons seated in the chairs. Ffarad Ssef, Hisser scholar, has set up camp in this room. He has a circular tent pitched off to the north side of the room, between the doors that open to rooms 8 and 14. He has an electric stove, battery-powered, as well as a cassette recorder (also battery-powered).

3: Supply closet. Full of brooms, mechano-mops, rusted hypertechnological vacuums, etc. One hypervacuum is in working order (complexity C, can be operated to suck in 1 human-sized opponent within range or blow air to knock over 1 human-sized opponent).

4: Kitchen. Full of (now long broken) stoves, ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, and dirty plates.

5: Hallway. Lights are flickering on low power in this room, as well as rooms 6 and 7. Visible damage to the walls, caused by Jeb Gorn.

6: Electrical and HVAC room, door locked (this isn't noted on the map above). Any damage done to the electrical system will knock out all of the lights in the entire facility (the speaker system and radio array will be unaffected, since they are on a separate electrical grid). Jeb Gorn really wants to get in here. Hidden in a ventilation pipe is a human skeleton wearing a set of ultraviolet goggles (complexity A).

7: Large pantry. Food is all rotted away, turned to dust, or eaten long ago by now. One crate is full to the brim with 16 stargazing rats.

8: Bathroom with four stalls, no urinals. There is a skeleton seated on one of the toilets. A doorway leads to room 9, while a small tube (only smaller-than-human-sized characters can fit) out the back wall (not noted on the above map) leads to rooms 10 and 11.

9: Multi-purpose room that once did double duty as a shower and storage room. The water still functions just barely.

10: Hydroponic self-cycling garden under a set of fluorescent lights. The garden beds are overflowing with cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, and watermelons. The watermelons explode when agitated, dealing 4d6 damage to those in range and possibly setting off a chain reaction. Living amongst the plants are 24 moldlings with large eyes, who hate the moldlings that live in room 11.

11: Another garden room. The garden beds are overflowing with squat stalks of corn, beans, oversized squashes, and potatoes. Living amongst the plants are 32 moldlings with large eyes, who hate the moldlings that live in room 10. There is a water pump and hose attached to the wall (complexity D) which when operated and placed into a source of liquid can issue forth a blast of water.

12: Office/laboratory. Rows of desks, desktop computers and word processors, knickknacks. Door north leads to room 13, the radio array control room. The narrow passage to room 13 is monitored by the Securitron, a mobile robotic security unit that will not leave room 12 but will attempt to destroy any who attempt to enter room 13.

13: Radio array control room. Door is locked and reinforced. This is the only room in the facility that can turn on and off the radio array, lower or raise the volume of the loudspeakers, etc. A skeleton sits in the command chair, wearing a pair of headphones. Ffarad Ssef really wants to get in here.

14: Sitting room. A skeleton sits in an armchair, holding a rusted knife.

15: Men's sleeping quarters. The ancient mystic-scientists who lived here were gender segregationists for some reason. Some of the 12 beds have skeletons in them. One bed has a single stun ray (complexity C) hidden under perfectly tucked in sheets.

16: Preparation room for the maze. Boots and pairs of goggles left strewn across the floor and benches.

17: Women's sleeping quarters. Some of the 10 beds have skeletons in them. One bed has keys to a hover car stashed under the pillow (whereabouts of the car itself unknown).

18: Secondary bathroom. No shower. Visible damage to the walls caused by Jeb Gorn.

 

The Hypno-Maze

The Hypno-Maze was originally used by the ancient mystic-scientists to study the effects of the cosmic background radiation signal on addled minds. Test subjects (usually volunteers) would be sent through the dimly lit maze, sometimes drugged, made to wander the winding halls until they became confused, and the signal would be played over the loudspeakers to add to their confusion. When wandering the Hypno-Maze, when you roll for a random encounter, roll 1d6:

1: Sources of light go out.

2-3: The players are confused and have been twisted around. Turn them to walk in the opposite direction without their knowledge.

4-5: Hallucination (see below).

6: Exhaustion.

 

Room 19: The only actual room in the Hypno-Maze. Octagonal, with an opening that connects to two passageways in the Hypno-Maze, this served as a resting area and meditation room for those who completed one round of traversing the maze. A ratty rug has a single skeleton in a crumbled lotus pose leaning against the wall. Inside the area where the skeleton's stomach would have been is a keycard to room 13. There is a pile of bottles of purified water on the floor against one of the walls.

 

Random Encounters (for the Main Facility)

Roll 1d6:

1-2: 2d6 Stargazing rats

3: 1 confused and agitated Soul besh

4: Ffarad Ssef, psychic Hisser scholar

5: Jeb Gorn, mutated human copper-burglar

6: Rogue soundwave

Ffarad Ssef and Jeb Gorn are unique characters, and killing them removes them from the encounter table. There are 2 soul beshes total in the observatory; killing both removes them from the encounter table. Replace any removed entries with another result for 2d6 stargazing rats.

A rogue soundwave is a sudden glitch and power surge in the observatory's radio array and internal speaker system which sends out a surprise blast of cosmic background radiation signal through the area the players are currently in. Track the number of rogue soundwaves rolled; after 3 rogue soundwaves, each subsequent one prompts a save vs. mental effects (or a roll against a character's MS score) or else each character experiences a randomly determined hallucination:

Hallucinations from Beyond the Stars (Main Facility)

Roll 1d6:

1: A piercing migraine roils through your skull, as the world around you plunges into the darkest night. Pinpricks of light, stars off in the far, far distance, stab through your eyes like porcupine quills. Collapse to the ground in pain.

2: A looming planet hangs over you, casting a terrible shadow as you fall to your knees in awe and majesty.

3: You feel your skin begin to burn to a crisp. It's only a sensation, not the real thing, but the pain is debilitating until something snaps you out of it.

4: You don't see anything, but you hear the unmistakable rustling sounds of something whooshing past you, the unshakable feeling that you are being watched that won't go away until you leave the room.

5: Rhythmic beeping in your ears that keeps going even after the rogue soundwave falls away, growing louder and louder and louder until you can't function.

6: The walls fall away, revealing a faceless crowd of silhouetted figures just outside of your field of vision. The anxiety caused by this revelations prompts you to flee at high speeds, even though you can't see your surroundings; 3-in-6 chance you hit a wall.

 

hallucinatory horror from between the stars

 

Hallucinations from Beyond the Stars (Hypno-Maze) 

All hallucination rolls on the random encounter table when in the Hypno-Maze prompt a roll on the table below. 

Roll 1d6:

1: A shuddering hallucinatory horror from between the stars melts out from the wall, or suddenly appears when you turn a corner! A pile of shivering visceral tendrils and uncertain limbs, this star vampire lunges at you, you feel its teeth digging into your flesh, but the whole experience never occurred.

2: Suddenly, you collapse to the floor under the weight of gravity on a world you've never set foot on, crushing you, pushing all the air out of your lungs, pinning you down, practically breaking your bones. Once the hallucination is dispelled, it becomes apparent this never occurred.

3: The maze itself falls away, leaving you floating in a formless void. It isn't exactly pure darkness. You are floating among the cosmic background radiation signal, visual noise so dense and confusing it leaves your brain unable to process any of it.

4: You see a large-headed, wide-eyed humanoid peering at you from behind the nearest corner in the maze. A feeling of complete and terrible dread sinks into your body. You are unable to progress further until the feeling has been shaken.

5: There is no air around you. You are in a vacuum. Your body begins to burst at the seams, depressurizing, expanding, exploding, so painful, so excruciatingly painful. You cannot move until the feeling has been shaken, when it becomes apparent this never occurred.

6: An eerie floating light silently hovers at high speed through the maze, colliding with you or flying so close overhead that the sudden whoosh of air painfully explodes in your ears. The heat put off by this floating light blinds and burns you, leaving no real marks.

 

(One possible way to run some of the physically damaging hallucinations could be tracking damage on player characters but making them return to their previous HP upon leaving the maze or the hallucination being dispelled).

 

Stargazing Rat

No. Encountered: 2d6

Hit Dice: 1d6

Attacks: 1 bite (1d6)

Armor: none, but fast reflexes (AC 9 or ascending AC 11)

Morale: (6 for 2d6 morale, 4 for 1d10 morale)

MS: 2d6    IN: 1d4

DX: 2d6    CH: 1d4

CN: 3d6    PS: 1d4

Mutations: none (see below)

Stargazing rats are an isolated population of rodents that have been living isolated within the observatory of the beyond for centuries. The cosmic background radiation signal has directed their evolution. They have large, upward-facing eyes tinted pink, coarse black-haired bodies that splay flat on the ground, and long wormlike tails. They are immune to all psychic effects and mental mutations, but radio transmissions tuned to the wavelength of the cosmic background radiation signal can control their movements. They attack all at once as a swarm with 2d6x1d6 HP and 2d6 bite attacks per combat round.

(Doing a new statblock format for these GW posts that mixes the stuff in my typical D&D statblock with info from the GW 1e and 2e statblocks, to make it essentially edition neutral for Gamma World)

 

I'll always love the GW7e monster art... for comparison, the GW2e Soul Besh below (they're both good in different ways!)

Adapted from GW1e and 2e:

Soul Besh (Skeeters)

No. Appearing: 1

Hit Dice: 10(d6)

Attacks: see description

Armor: 8 (ascending AC 12)

Morale: (7 for 2d6 morale, 1d4+1 for 1d10 morale)

MS: 1d4        IN: 1d4

DX: 3d6        CH: 1d4

CN: 1d10+2  PS: 1d10+2

Mutations: Chameleon powers, intuition

From GW1e: "This is a flightless, mutated mosquito with chameleon powers. It often attains a length of over 1.3 meters and inhabits swamps, marshes, grasslands, and forests, where its powers of concealment enable it to ambush prey. It has a 2 meter long coiled proboscis, which is inserts (preferably into a sleeping victim) causing an immediate 1d6 damage and, in the same melee round, the soul besh begins sucking blood at a rate of 12 hit points per melee turn. The exoskeleton of the soul besh, when boiled down in a large cauldron, will yield 150 cc of syrupy antidote to intensity 18 poison. 10 cc is the required dose for humans."

(The two soul besh in the observatory of the beyond became trapped in the facility when Ffarad Ssef entered some time previous. They are agitated (disadvantage on reaction rolls) because they haven't been able to escape the facility. They will react positively to being ushered out through the facility's front door.)

 

Ffarad Ssef, psychic Hisser scholar

HP: 66

Attacks: 1 sword (1d8, 1d12 vs large enemies) and 1 bite (1d6)

Armor: 3 (ascending AC 17)

Morale: (8 for 2d6 morale, 7 for 1d10 morale) 

MS:  14    IN: 14

DX: 9       CH: 9

CN: 16     PS: 26

Mutations: Mass Mind, Sonic Blast, Telepathy, Repulsion Field, and Multiple Body Parts (arms)

Ffarad Ssef is a scholar from a desert colony of Hissers, a psychic race of matriarchal colonial snake people. He is in the observatory to record the original cosmic radiation signal sound directly from the radio array, in order to amplify his glorious mother's sonic blast with cosmic super-signal. He has a bulging brain tumor that is the source of his psychic abilities, which he dresses up in a miniature set of ritual robes and refers to as his little sister. Like all Hissers, Ffarad Ssef is immune to lasers and sonic blasts.

 

Jeb Gorn, mutated human copper-burglar

HP: 39

Attacks: 1 knife (1d4) and 1 quill-throw (1d12) OR 1 quill strike (1d6)

Armor: none (AC 10)

Morale: (6 for 2d6 morale, 4 for 1d10 morale) 

MS: 9    IN: 9

DX: 14  CH: 13

CN: 13  PS: 13  

Mutations: Vision defect, Quills/spines, Body structure change (one eye), Weather manipulation, Life leech

Jeb Gorn is a wandering copper-burglar who ventures into ancient structures to strip them of their copper wiring and copper plating. She uses weather manipulation to, in the leadup to her expeditions, create stormclouds that dissuade other copper-burlgars from venturing into her chosen quarry. She has set up camp somewhere in the forests around the observatory of the beyond, but has been staying in the observatory for a couple days trying to get access to the insides of the walls. She does not get on well with Ffarad Ssef.

  

Moldlings

No. Appearing: 6d6

Hit Dice: 3(d6)

Attacks: 1 bludgeon (1d4) OR 1 fungal touch (see below)

Armor: 9 (ascending AC 11)

Morale: (9 for 2d6 morale, 8 for 1d10 morale)

MS: 2d6        IN: 1d6

DX: 3d6        CH: 2d6

CN: 1d8+2    PS: 1d6

Mutations: see below

The moldlings are mildly intelligent mutated soil mold that has lived for hundreds of mold-generations in the two hydroponic garden beds of the facility. The two moldling communities in each individual garden bed absolutely despise one another. They tend to be friendly to outsiders, unless they see you collaborating with the enemy. They are limited to areas with mold growth, confining them to the two garden rooms. Their touch communicates a sickening fungus that acts as a strength 6 poison. 

 

Securitron
Power source: Broadcast Power 
Sensors: Standard, infrared, ultraviolet

Control: Vocal (admin ID), programmed

Construction: 2 meters tall, radially symmetrical cylindrical upper body with three tri-jointed arms, two ambulatory lower limbs. Its three arms can lift and move up to 150 kilograms. Two arms end with metallic tentacle-fingered hands, while the third features a metallic claw.  The metallic tentacle-fingers are tipped with paralytic nodules, while the red nodule atop the unit's head is able to emit a high-temperature laser beam that deals 3d10 damage. 12 HD (72 HP), armor 3 (ascending 17).

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 16 (Tabaxi to Tween)

It's been way too long, again. I don't know if I really need to dwell on how long its been again. I gotta get over this taking months-long gaps between blogging. Anyway, here's a link to the first post in this series, here's a link to the most recent one, let's go!

Tabaxi
★★★☆☆
Tabaxi have become such an OC D&D staple (what with all the Furries that play D&D of course!) that it's almost weird to encounter them here in a totally different context. They're pretty much what you'd expect from a race of cat people, although as described here they are much closer to roving bands of paleolithic cat-men (nothing more advanced than bone and wood spears, atlatls, etc. are mentioned, and they're only tool-users when they find it convenient) than to the much more modern and social tabaxi that are more prominent these days. Also, they wear no clothes and do not trade because they find it demeaning (I'm torn on this... does that mean no player negotiation with tabaxi, or does it just make negotiating with them more complicated i.e. more interesting?). Also, love the uncanny vibe of the illustration!

Tentamort
★★★★☆
Maybe I just love weird tentacle monsters, so sue me! The tentamort (banger of a name, super unnecessary that the description opens with "its got lots of names, tentamort is just the most common" who cares, that doesn't add anything) is some kind of giant predatory echinoderm with suction cups on the underside that it uses to adhere to dungeon walls, floors, ceilings and slowly crawl along. They also have two long tentacles, one with strong constricting muscles and the other with a long bone needle on the tip that injects a corrosive saliva that melts the insides of a human-sized creature in 2 rounds (it's a bit confusingly worded... it takes 2 rounds to inject and then an additional 2 rounds to completely melt the insides and kill them, if I understand). The tentamort's M.O. is to ensnare a victim in the constricting tentacle and then inject the corrosive saliva with the other. Pretty basic, sure, but very strong conceptually! It evokes real-world animals in a way that I really love, and feels right at home in implied dungeon ecologies that are some of my favorite D&D things. Great critter all around!

Terithran
★★☆☆☆
Whatever magic-user-hating referee created the disenchanter must have loved this thing. It feels like something made specifically to counter magic-happy players, in a way that I'm not terribly interested in. Basically, the terithran is a creature of the ethereal plane that gets annoyed when magic-users cast spells because it causes ripples on the ethereal plane, so they come into the prime material plane to kill M-Us with a bunch of spelled-out supernatural powers like stunning blast, cause serious wounds, transportation (to steal away an M-U to the ethereal plane), etc. The idea of higher plane creatures that get annoyed with magic use is something that at its core interests me a lot, but the expression here is mostly boring. I'd want to take more cues from the real-life lore surrounding psychic phenomena for stuff like that! The terithran reads as a monster aimed at countering specific players with little else interesting going on (plus it's a boring little humanoid, there's so many of those).

The terithran is our first monster of this batch to be originally featured in the Fiend Factory column! Featuring this incredibly unsettling illustration that singularly bumps up the terithran to a 3/5 monster for me. Maybe I'm too susceptible to a cool drawing, but the image implied by a monster goes a long way to how likely I am to use it in my game! Mechanically, it is more or less the same. The description here is more explicit about when it will use its powers, with a bit less wordiness to get across that the terithran seeks to capture powerful magic-users and drag them back to the ethereal plane. Don Turnbull's comments open with "This is one of those creatures which is simpler to run than its description would have us believe." Good to know! The description, both here and in the Folio, does come across as very complicated. He also says he prefers anti-magic creatures like this to "klutz factor" as an added risk for magic use.

Thoqqua (aka Rockworm)
★★☆☆☆
A worm so hot that it melts through rock and ruins the arms and armor of characters when it attacks. Seems a bit redundant to me with the remorhaz also being a worm-creature with a heat-attack, but I guess the remorhaz also has an ice association... which honestly makes it more interesting anyway. It's implied the thoqqua is the larval form of some larger elemental creature which is fun. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect as a "fire worm."

Thork
★★★★☆
I love the thork, but I also just love weird birds in general. Thorks aka boiler birds are copper storks that heat up water inside their bodies to spit as an attack. The imagery of a bird made of metal standing in water with steam rising from its beak is just too good to pass up, and I honestly appreciate that they are explicitly non-hostile, only attacking in self-defense. But they very well might want to defend themselves, because they collect platinum in their subaquatic nests! The choice of platinum is a bit arbitrary and clearly just picked because it is so valuable, but having a valuable treasure protected by these boiling water birds is a great excuse to make players interact with them. Maybe, although this isn't very stork-like, thorks should build elaborate nests out of treasure, just to make it doubly hard to get the stuff out without attracting their ire.

Throat Leech
★★☆☆☆
Pretty basic, a bloodsucking leech that inhabits fresh water, looking like a twig, and if consumed latches onto the back of the throat and sucks blood (1-3 hit points of damage) for 10 melee rounds at which point it is distended with blood and stops sucking. The only way to kill it is with a heated metal rod inserted down the throat, which has a chance of horribly damaging the host's mouth and throat which is fun. But the chance of getting the leech in the first place is only 10%... So many words writing this stuff out, all just on the off chance the players even have to deal with it? I like the basic building blocks here, just wish more was done with it; drinking water hazards are always great!

Throat leeches were also a Factory original! Pretty much the same as in the Folio, except the description is mercifully much shorter. Did someone at TSR require that monster mechanics be written out in the most verbose possible way??? The illustration makes it look like throat leeches go for your throat when you go for a swim, despite what the description puts forward. 

Tiger Fly
★★★☆
The tiger fly is, at is simplest, a sexually dimorphic giant predatory stinging insect. Except, for some reason, they have a human face? Their intelligence is listed as "non-", which does bring to mind the question of just how uncanny it would be to see an explicitly non-thinking human face would be. Male tiger flies have two sharp sickle-like forelimbs they use to attack, and a venomous sting that deals a whopping 4d6 damage; females, on the other hand, have four arms which they use to grab victims, holding them in place to paralyze them with their stinger and lay a parasitoid larva in their body. Parasitoid insects are an absolute favorite of mine (and have cropped up in these reviews before, with the assassin bug!), and the combination of a parasitoid wasp-esque creature with a totally unthinking human face is very freaky. I'm imagining the face of a female tiger fly completely placid and uncanny as she injects her spawn into your abdomen, a fantastic visual! The illustration of a male tiger fly leans more goofy than uncanny, but it is still very fun either way.

Tirapheg
★★★★★
I LOVE THE TIRAPHEG!!! This is one of those monsters that I was introduced to before ever getting my hands on the Fiend Folio proper, via a mention in a Bogleech D&D monster review. And, keeping with the uncanniness implied by the tiger fly, the tirapheg is quite possibly one of the creepiest looking creatures that one could imagine shuffling out of the darkness in the dungeon depths. Seven feet tall, completely naked and hairless, with three heads, only one of which has any actual facial features, three arms, only one of which ends in a hand (and a sharp-clawed one at that), three legs, only one of which ends in a foot, and a large fleshy-lipped mouth with waving tendrils above in the middle of its torso. An inexplicable body horror monstrosity that is described as preferring to eat decayed flesh, the tirapheg is normally shy (this combined with the eating of decayed flesh perhaps implies tiraphegs are decomposers/scavengers? Yet, interestingly, they have average i.e. human-level intelligence) but sometimes will attack adventurers for "no apparent reason" (more accurately what seems like no apparent reason to the players). Additionally, the tirapheg can project illusory copies of itself in combat, which take no damage but can damage opponents, as well as creating a sudden blinding flash of light that causes confusion effects. Tiraphegs seem to be furtive dungeon scavengers, with supernatural abilities that serve to give them opportunities to flee combat and hide away somewhere... and they look like that.

For some reason, in their initial appearance in the Fiend Factory column, the tirapheg was called Lauren. The reader-provided description thankfully explains that Lauren is an anagram of "unreal." OH YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION, tiraphegs/laurens have a third eye on the back of the head and double-jointed arms that allow them to attack from either direction. That element is the same in both versions. Otherwise, the two versions are much the same, although the Factory version is much simpler. The illustration goes for a more AHH! Real Monsters gross-out sort of vibe than the surreal uncanny of the Folio drawing, and while I think for the vibe I get from the description the Folio illustration is better, I can't help but love the scrappiness of the Factory rendition.

Trilloch
★★☆☆☆
Trillochs are a terrible force from the negative energy plane that thrives on siphoning life-force from dying creatures and uses its field of influence to accelerate death (but it cannot start death). If combat occurs in the presence of a trilloch, all attacks have +1 to-hit and +1 damage, unintelligent monsters are more likely to attack, etc. Trillochs apparently gravitate to especially evil and violent creatures and attaches itself to whatever ends up killing their "host." The basic idea is one I really vibe with, but I wish it wasn't just an invisible indistinct energy-creature. Literally anything else would be more interesting. I'd much rather have an awful little piece of shit critter that hangs around evil monsters and goads violence on than a... wait what I just described is a minion.

Trolls
There are four new types of trolls described here in the Fiend Folio, but most of them are uninteresting and repetitive!

It's a pretty good creepy drawing though!

Giant Troll & Giant Two-Headed Troll
★☆☆☆☆
Hybrids of trolls and other giant humanoids (hill giants in the case of the giant troll and ettins in the case of the giant two-headed troll). I get bored of mostly uninteresting humanoid hybrids. I'd much rather normal trolls just sometimes be allowed to be really big, or have two heads, than these get written up as totally separate monsters with naturalistic explanations. The two-headed troll is basically just a normal ass troll with a lower chance of surprise! Who cares!!

 Ice Troll & Spirit Troll
★★☆☆☆
These are both mildly more interesting than the other two troll variants. Ice trolls are not literally made of ice, but have the appearance of a translucent crystalline structure. It isn't mentioned here, but I'd love if you could see their internal organs, shivering and pulsating inside their icey exteriors. The ice troll is probably my favorite of the whole set here, namely because its regeneration only works when it is immersed in water. Almost like the opposite of Minecraft's enderman, goading the monster out of the water is an interesting strategy for combatting ice trolls, and presents good OSR-style problem solving on top of the already existing challenge of troll regeneration. Spirit trolls are hybrids like the giant trolls and giant two-headed troll, but they are hybrids of trolls and invisible stalkers. My distaste for humanoid hybrids loops back around to me now being morbidly fascinated at the very question of how that match even works. The magical breeding that produces spirit trolls is literally described as "perverted." Only the most nasty of wizards make spirit trolls. Spirit trolls are basically just trolls that are invisible and deal damage to STR as well as HP.

Tween
★★☆☆☆
A stupid name for a very strange monster. Tweens are entities that exist only on the ethereal plane and partner up with people on the prime material plane, forming a hazy shadowy mirror image of them that exerts a strange sort of effect on the host and those around them. Tweens can see a few seconds into the future and increase their host's luck while making everything worse for those around them. Basically, the host always has advantage on every roll, while everyone else around them, friend or foe, always has disadvantage. They didn't have that kind of language back when the Fiend Folio was published, so this whole system is explained in way too many words. I wish more was described about the relationship that the tween has with its host. It reminds me a lot of the vibe of an X-Files episode and... dammit, that makes me want to bump it up to three stars. If this was described differently, and more of an emphasis was placed on the, for lack of a better term, human element, I think I'd like it so much more. Something that just barely nudges swords out of the way and exerts an unlucky field around itself latching onto someone that it seemingly cares about, cares about enough to make lucky instead of unlucky, is such an interesting idea... I just wish it wasn't shackled to AD&D's kinda clunky implementation.

The tween was also originally featured in the Fiend Factory column! The illustration is much more unsettling than the Folio illustration, depicting a hunched-over, hazy, emaciated thing, and the description is pretty much the same in the broad strokes as the Folio version. However, the Factory version does note that the host will not be aware of the tween's presence! That explicitly cuts out the most thought provoking part of what I liked about the tween, the idea that they may be aware of something supernatural going on even if they don't necessarily understand it, and that the tween might literally care about their host. Turnbull's comment opens with a note that the tween could have easily been a character class which is actually insane. He also delights in the confusion that players might experience having to do all these extra rolls for no clear reason if one of the party members has a tween latched onto them, and provides some advice on how to handle that sort of thing.

Well anyway! Next time, we will be picking up where we are leaving off, with the letter U! I also think that it is very likely that our next installment will be our last, since there are very few monsters in those last letters of the alphabet. Looking forward to finally getting there, after much, much too long!

King of Kings Session 15 After Action Report

Been too long since my last post, and even longer since the last session report! Had the first King of Kings session in a full year like a month ago, but kept on putting off writing the after action report until now. Gonna get back to posting more regularly soon hopefully!

A bit of a shorter expedition this time, while we were getting back into the swing of things; trying to get back into running a game after a year's absence is kinda hard!

Dramatis Personae
Coro the Esoterian, level one magic-user
Ishthyromeda the Small, level one amazon
Manchugo Coldeswain, level one cleric dedicated to Damir, foreign god of the trade routes
and Parsani, scrawny son of a rural matriarch
...and quite a few hirelings! 9 in total, 6 of which were thugs from the streets of Tabur, one of which was a light-bearer boy, another a girl from the dye works of Tabur, and another which was the most pious street beggar Manchugo could find

Yeah, the party decided to shell out for hirelings for the first time! This made the decision making calculus a bit different, though I think the full impact won't be seen until later sessions.

So after spending probably too long figuring out hirelings and resupply (I'll need to figure out some way to streamline that), the party went off to the abandoned farmstead beneath which they found, at the last session, a massive subterranean structure spiraling down into the earth. In addition to the new hirelings, they brought with them three pounds of salt, in preparation to confront the giant slug that blocked their path one week previous.

(Unfortunately not very long after getting to the depths, Ish's player had a bad headache and had to leave, so it was decided that Ishthyromeda and Parsani would stay guard at the group's wagon aboveground while the rest delved.)

First, they kept an eye out for the aforementioned giant slug, in roughly thirty minutes coming upon the very spot where the mollusk lay across the slick algal-coated stone causeway. There was no slug in sight, however, only a wide swash of faintly yellow slime on the wall that goes up the wall and then turns around; presumably the slug descended down from where it was previously. 

Trilobites!

About another half hour later, slowly shuffling as a mass down the slimy walkway, the group heard an arthropoid chittering up ahead. Inching forward, the light of their torches revealed a pile of 13 trilobites! None of them had ever seen such strange bugs before, eyeless and mostly flat, tendrils flailing in the air. The things at first showed no interest in the group, but were attracted to the warmth of their torches as they approached. Coro lit a candle and threw it to the ground to distract them, while gesturing to the mercenaries and city youths to crawl around the arthropods single file, careful not to disturb them. It takes some time, but they ultimately are able to get around them.

Another twenty or thirty minutes later, having lost a few torches sputtering in the dark and forced to light new ones, they came across a square open tunnel in the wall of the structure. Before going in, Manchugo dropped an iron spike down the open side of the slimy walkway, to try and estimate how far down the bottom of the structure was. He only heard a distant wet splash after a full 45 seconds.

They then ventured into the square tunnel, flanked on either side by ancient metal doors with strange looking locks on them. The tunnel eventually made a hard turn to the right, right next to a door rusted off its hinges and with an insectile chittering behind it. Our adventurers decided to not deal with whatever was behind that door and ventured on, inspecting some of the metallic doors and finding little inside them but small dusty cells. Right before another right turn in the tunnel, they came across another door, this time with a wet burbling noise crawling out from within. As they approach the burbling room, they see a pitch black ooze clinging to the walls and filling up the floor in the little chamber, pushing the door out at its hinges, which immediately made them want to leave, despite the glittering emeralds revealed by the flickering torchlight that the slime recedes from. They were only able to force the door shut with the help of several of their hired thugs. 

The very sketchy map of this tunnel I drew since there was some confusion while describing it. The starred cell is the one with the insectile chirping, the crescent moon cell is the one with the burbling slime.

And that's where the session ended! Like I said, not a whole lot (which makes it doubly bad that it took me this long to finish writing this augh), but I'm just glad to have gotten back to King of Kings! The next session will open up in media res in the dungeon, picking up where we left off right after the second right turn in this tunnel.

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 13 (Penanggalan to Qullan)

Been way too long on this! But, before we begin, I have to recognize a person very important to me, to Old School D&D, and to the Fiend Folio: Russ Nicholson.

Russ Nicholson, whose illustrations populate much of the Fiend Folio, passed away on May 10, 2023. His grotty, incredibly detailed art style is one of the most defining aesthetics in my mind for old school D&D, along with other great artists like Erol Otus, and more specifically an evocation of the messier, darker, more cynical, British approach to fantasy (he contributed art to Warhammer too!). Nicholson was active in making art for roleplaying games just about up to his passing, including Dungeon Crawl Classics, Old School Essentials, and Through Ultan's Door. The Fiend Folio was, I believe, my first exposure to Russ Nicholson's art, and the Fiend Folio was one of the first AD&D books I ever had; Nicholson's art was one of the major reasons I got so into old school D&D, a visual aesthetic that spoke to me and grabbed me. I think Nicholson has to be given credit for getting a lot of people into old school D&D, or at least contributing to the image and aesthetic of going on an adventure into a decrepit dungeon with strange monsters. Rest In Peace to Russ Nicholson, we've lost a truly great artist and contributor to D&D and other roleplaying games.

A great example of art by Russ Nicholson!

Penanggalan

★★☆☆☆

The penanggalan is a longtime personal favorite monster of mine, ever since I first found out about it from a now ancient article on Bogleech.com! The image of a pale woman's head flying through the sky, entrails hanging down below, sucking blood and killing children through the thatched roofs of houses is just the best, and the idea of it being a normal woman during the day and leaving her body behind at night provides a fantastic narrative and seed for adventure. Malay vampires (and really Malay folklore monsters in general) are really cool, I might make some posts statting some more up. But uh... does this need a full page and a half of description??? This is, unfortunately, probably the most unwieldy and long monster description for any AD&D monster. A PAGE AND A HALF!! I do not think that the specifics of whether the penanggalan was a cleric when she was alive, or what a know alignment spell will do when cast on it, or the feeblemind effect of seeing the transformation from human woman to flying undead head, or the slow and steady effect of the penanggalan's feeding, its hypnosis, etc etc etc, none of that is necessary in this amount of detail. The penanggalan as written is an adventure in and of itself, a specific narrative arc that progresses from it selecting a victim to the victim's death and aftermath, and there's barely any deviation from that path other than "the party figures out its a penanggalan and fights and kills it OR finds the body and kills it." I can't believe the Fiend Folio, otherwise a great monster book, completely ruined one of the world's greatest folkloric creatures by making it a damn railroad. This is a 5/5 monster brought down to 2/5 by how awful the implementation is. Just cleave close to the folklore and keep it simple!!! That's all I ask!!

More Russ!

Pernicon

★★★★☆

Now THIS is a great and well implemented monster! A large, grasshopper like insect that dwells in deserts, prized for its water divining antennae but dangerous because of its deathgrip pincers. Sweet, simple, and effective. I think giving an animalistic monster some body part that is prized or valuable, whether monetarily or for a directly applicable use, is one of the best ways to make an otherwise mundane animal relevant to the players, and the pernicon's water divining antennae are a great example of the latter. Its antennae vibrate and give off a low hum when within 120 feet of water; very useful in a desert, especially if you're actually going to make water matter to the player characters! The pincers are also delightfully terrible, only dealing 3 points of damage but also taking a point of constitution from "drain[ing] the water and other body fluids from the victim,"; AND this repeats every round! The pernicon's pincers don't just let up, even after the victim dies it will continue to grip, and forcibly removing it will only deal an additional 1d4 damage. That might not sound like much, but these guys are encountered in numbers of 4 to 40! Nasty, but reasonably so! Also, interestingly enough, they are listed as semi intelligent, and the delightfully rendered Russ Nicholson illustration has its hand raised as if it were giving a speech; the description doesn't really describe them as intelligent, but that could be an interesting angle to take.

Phantom Stalker

★★☆☆☆

Not really that interesting. Basically just a weird summonable fire elemental that serves the summoner and, when the summoner is killed, disappears only to reappear "intent on vengeance" 1d4 hours later. They can shapeshift, are immune to fire and weak to cold, deal fire damage, yadda yadda. Nothing super notable. I like how the illustration makes them look like a kind of weird B movie monster, though. Very rubber suit esque. The description only calls their typical form a "reddish, 8' tall humanoid with huge fiery eyes," so I'm glad the illustrator went in this more alien direction.

Poltergeist

★★★☆☆

Very basic, but very effective. Yet another type of ghost (it's almost comical how AD&D statted up every synonym for "ghost" as a completely separate monster—ghost, specter, apparition, etc etc etc), but in this case it feels more earned since a poltergeist is such a specific image: an invisible ghost that can only act on the physical environment, throwing objects around. That the Folio poltergeist can't even deal damage with its thrown objects is kinda funny; all a successful hit does is cause a fear effect that makes the target flee, with a chance of dropping objects they are holding. I like fear effects and effects that force the PC to flee, they're fun. Otherwise, just another incorporeal undead; but does it need to be much more? A poltergeist can just be an immaterial force that throws stuff around! I think I might not stat it up though, treat it more like a room hazard; giving it HP feels kind of wrong.

Protein Polymorph

★★★☆☆

What a name!!! This hearkens back, to me at least, to some of the more sci-fi inspirations to early D&D; a "protein polymorph" feels like something that could have appeared in an episode of Star Trek or something. But what actually is it? Well, its a colonial organism made up of intelligent single cells that can take on the appearance of anything, including inanimate objects, living beings, even Groups of living beings (its described as joining these independent bodies together by a near invisible cord or film of protoplasm which is just so cool). So, it's a weirder doppelgänger with a wider range of transformative abilities. Not the most distinct niche for a monster, given the whole slew of other imitation creatures that already exist in D&D, but I think the weird colonial single celled organism angle and its ability to imitate groups of living creatures make it a bit more interesting. Also, it can't imitate noises nor accurately recreate facial expressions, which provides a much clearer way to identify whether something is an imitation; I always wonder how the hell you're supposed to figure out a doppelgänger is a doppelgänger. Really, I kinda think this is just a 2/5 creature, but it being a slime mold and the ability to imitate a group of creatures connected by a film of protoplasm bumps it up a star for me. I'm a sucker for a gooey guy.

Quaggoth

★☆☆☆☆

Kinda mid. Yet another tribal humanoid monster that dwells underground, except this time they are mysterious pale shaggy humanoids that uh... wait a minute, why not just use white apes? Yeah, literally just use white apes. These guys are just apemen except no they're not apemen they're like, weird little eared bear men, murderous care bear types. They have leaders, they wield axes and swords, they berserk when they reach a certain HP threshold (that part is at least kind of interesting I guess), and they hate surface dwelling elves and... become slaves of the drow to assist in their war on elves? That's really weird. Why wouldn't they just be allies of the dark elves? Why slaves? That feels weird, justifying themselves... enslaving themselves to the dark elves? Weird. I would just use like, white ape men or something.

Quipper

★☆☆☆☆

These are cold water piranhas. The description even explicitly calls them that. They are bloodthirsty and swarm ravenously if blood is spilt, up to twenty can attack a human sized target at once and it has an... incredibly cumbersome way to handle that. At first I thought it was pretty interesting, since it involved rolling a percentile die to see how many even attempt to attack, but as it turns out you still end up needing to roll an individual attack roll for every single damn fish. That's so stupid. By the way, did you know piranhas don't really do the whole "swarm uncontrollably if even a bit of blood is spilt in the water" thing? Piranhas don't actually devour large animals like humans, cows, etc to the bone under normal circumstances. That myth originated in a piranha attack coordinated by Brazilian fishermen when Theodore Roosevelt visited the country on a hunting trip in 1913 (they blocked off parts of the river and didn't feed them for a very long time so that they would be desperate for meat when they threw a cow into the water) and he wrote about it in a book that he published the next year, popularizing the image of the piranha as a killer fish for American audiences. Having a killer fish is valuable for a D&D bestiary, of course, but this implementation is boring.

Unfortunately also a Russ Nicholson... they can't all be winners

Qullan

★★☆☆☆

Uh oh!! Uh oh!!! This one looks really racist! A "seemingly insane" race of humanoids that just so happen to... wear animal skins and warpaint? Very unfortunate! I think this, along with the quaggoth, is another great example of the unnecessary inflation of different humanoid types in AD&D; when you get down to it, this is just a pretty overtly weirdly racist humanoid monster. Well, with the exception of its Two Kind Of Interesting Ideas. So, Qullans exude an aura of confusion that causes all attempts at communication and interchange between them and other intelligent peoples to fail; I fear that this is just a weird justification for unquestionable violence directed toward them, but I can't help but find the idea of a whole group of people cursed to supernaturally confuse those around them just interesting! Maybe that supernatural confusion is the cause of their seeming "insanity"? Also, they have swords that are so sharp that they deal +3 damage and have +3 to hit, and if someone manages to get one of these swords the bonuses sticks around... until the sword gets blunted, and unfortunately due to the confusion effect ruining all attempts at communication, nobody knows how they keep their swords so sharp. That's kinda cool actually! Very intriguing! I generally think that making bonuses be from nonmagical stuff is pretty cool, to keep magic sticking to the really genuinely weird stuff, and connecting this mysterious sharpness to their confusion effect makes it all feel very tight conceptually. Too bad its uh, really weird and unnecessary otherwise. This is really a 1/5 monster, but the combination of the confusion effect and the super sharp swords nets it another sword; I'm just more likely to steal those ideas for something else than use this monster as is.

King of Kings Session 14 After Action Report

A bit of a shorter one! Not as much happened this session, so it mostly ended up as a sort of information gathering session. Also, this sesh happened like half a month ago, July 17th; I kept on putting off writing the post. My bad!

Dramatis Personae

Ishthyromeda the Small, level one Amazon

Manchugo Coldeswain, level one cleric dedicated to Damir, foreign god of the trade routes

She-That-Is-Harrowed-By-Our-Lord-In-The-Stars-Is-Blessed-With-Prophecy, level one scholar

also Parsani, scrawny son of a rural matriarch

(Note: She-That-Is-Harrowed-By-Our-Lord-In-The-Stars-Is-Blessed-With-Prophecy will be referred to as "Harrowed" for the remainder of this report and also probably for all future session reports)

The day previous, the group used a charm spell to get information out of the nasnas in the basement and to let them know that they wouldn't harm them. After making camp, they rested there in the walled farming compound. In the morning, the group realizes that they have been robbed! Manchugo having lost some rope and Ish having lost some food. After breakfast, Rohm'Daan had to depart for religious obligations back in Tabur (i.e. his player couldn't make it), and while the day's plans were being discussed Coro the Esoterian, tired and old, agreed to watch the group's supplies above ground while the rest of them ventured down below (i.e. his player also couldn't make it). Passing Rohm'Daan on the road back to Tabur, however, was a foreigner who had recently made contact with Farzaneh Taburi, and who had heard talk of the group's expedition. This was Harrowed, a scholar from a far off land with an affinity for insects, who joined the group for the day's venture back into the abandoned basement.

(Note: I had the players choose what got stolen in the night, and since Rohm'Daan and Coro's players weren't present for the session they didn't get to pick. I'll just bring it up next time they join.)

Western Caspian Turtle (Mauremys caspica)

After introductions were exchanged between Harrowed, Ish, Manchugo, and Parsani, the four set about finishing up where they left off the day previous. First, they went back to the outhouse where they heard a mysterious hissing yesterday, and opened the door to find... a very large turtle, its legs splayed out on the outhouse seat, hissing at the interlopers! They pick the turt up and gently place them down in the overgrown vegetable garden, although they agreed to pick him back up before they left to go back to Tabur.

After the small encounter with the outhouse turtle, the small group of adventurers went back down into the basement to enlarge the ant hole that they went through previously, so it would work better as a potential escape route or for repeated visits. Using some rusted shovels found leaning on the wall of the house outside, they set to work and make it large enough for someone to walk through, rather than having to crawl on hands and feet like before. They notice, as they work, that there are no sounds of the nasnases in the other room, and when they check the room before venturing further they notice that the creatures are gone!

Their work attracts a large group of the giant ants who live in a network of tunnels connected to the basement. Ish is cautious around the ants, and while she wants to explore the ants' tunnels she doesn't wish to anger them. Harrowed, after the digging at the hole is done, goes to the giant ants that have crowded around them and attempts to speak with them. Harrowed's monastic sect has a careful and considered relationship with insects, and so by relying on bodily communication a very simple sort of back and forth can be established, although it takes time. (Note: I just ruled that this bug communication works the same as a normal scholar class specialization, which you can see described here. It took basically an hour for Harrowed and the ant to have what would between two humans be only a few short sentences exchanged back and forth). 

While Harrowed attempts to make contact with the ants, the others take a break to eat some of their rations, and then one turn later they hear some snuffling sounds from the sloping passageway into the basement they entered through. Slowly moving back to check on it, Manchugo sees a pair of oversized weasels, which the group decide not to engage with.

After Harrowed's hour of focus, they report that the giant ants will allow the group to go straight through their tunnels and to a carved out passageway on the other end of their nest, a passageway that they dread, but that they are not allowed to enter any other chambers of the ant nest. The group agrees, and gently crawls into the giant ant's nest, as guests passing through. They crawl through one empty chamber dug out of the earth, then through a second round chamber that has on its southern edge a sloping tunnel carved out of the earth by tools not by ant mandibles, immediately apparent that something else dug it out, not the ants. In that chamber, they also find, hidden under a small pile of loose dirt, ten drachmae and a crystal syringe full of a strange green liquid. After pocketing the coins and the syringe, they venture into the dark dug out passageway that the ants dread.

After a lengthy march down the sloping passage, the four of them end up in a strange immense structure that none of them recognize. It is a massive open space, completely dark except for the minuscule spheres of light from their lamps, with a walkway that curves past them and out of view. This walkway seems to spiral around the edge of an immense cylinder, so large that they can't even clearly see the other side from where they stand, and they can only just make out the vaunted, curved ceiling high above them when they lift their lanterns up high. Above them is a stony dome shimmering with slime and dripping water, the walls similarly covered with green algae and slowly dripping slime. In this ancient structure, these adventurers are deeper in the earth than they have ever been before.

They realize that this place is likely That Which Yawns Deep which they heard in prophecy, and agree not to spend too long down here with such a small group. They plan to scout a little and then return to Tabur, to come back with a larger group. With that plan in mind, they send Parsani back to the surface; they don't want to have to tell his mother that he died in this dark and dingy place. They begin to crawl down the slowly sloping spiraling walkway, careful with their footing so as to not fall into the unknown depths below.

A giant slug by Tony DiTerlizzi!

Up ahead, they make out a scraping noise that catches their attention. Weapons at the ready and slowly inching forward, a vague lumpy shape takes form on the edge of their lantern light, slowly coming into focus as they get closer and see... a giant slug! It is larger than any of the adventurers, and is adhered to the wall and walkway at a right angle, scraping algae off the wall with its rough radula. After some discussion, they decide to just not mess with it and to not bother trying to climb over it, and so turn around and go back up to the surface.

The classic giant slug from the AD&D Monster Manual!

Grouping back up with Coro and Parsani on the surface, they set out for Tabur. Just outside Tabur, they run into a group of noblemen and their hangers on who are playing a game of polo out in the rolling hills of the valley. Manchugo strikes up a small conversation with one of them, who takes kindly to his polo advice and throws him a golden denar as a gift. Passing through the northern gate into the Tigerskin District, they get by with only an inspection of their goods. When they report to Farzaneh, she is very glad to hear the news of Parsani's family switching allegiances to her noble house, and is interested in the alien cylinder buried deep within the earth that the group discovered. And with that, the session drew to a close!

Treasure Acquired

10 drachmae

1 denar (worth 100 drachmae)

A crystal syringe filled with a strange green liquid

Non Treasure XP Acquired

50 each for discovering That Which Yawns Deep

10 for Harrowed for successfully making contact with ants