Sunday, December 24, 2017

Megadungeon: Starting Character Rules





Booezor Campaign Starting PC Rules

Entry-level PCs in this campaign will fit within one of four categories that determine the method of character generation:


  Tower Dweller, upper-class Booezorian with wealth and connections, rolls 3d6 six times in order for stats, has 1d3+1 City Confidants, 1d4+1 Wealth Points, has normal starting money and possessions plus an additional 300gp “pocket money”, and rolls HP every level.

  Citizen, a life-long city denizen of no importance, rolls 3d6 six times and assigns for stats, has one City Confidant, OR one Wealth Point, has normal starting money and possessions, and may choose average HP each level.

  Wildlander, one who comes from outside the city, from the monster villages and the fief-farms, or a traveller from somewhere across the continent, or one of the true primals a wanderer of the wilds... rolls 4d6, discards the lowest, and assigns for stats; has proficiency in an additional nature-based skill, OR has one Wilds Confidant, OR gets max HP for 1st level; may choose average HP each level.

  Outlander/Exotic, those who hail from another world and have become trapped here: standard characters (human, elf, dwarf, goblin, orc, half-whatever) = rolls 3d6 seven times, drops the lowest value, and assigns for stats; has against all odds one City Confidant (always another Exotic), OR a minor magical item; non-standard characters are case-by-case negotiations with your DM.


Wealth Points can be “spent” for large sums of money, or retained as functional status. To get into the first of the retricted tiers of the city one must retain at least one Wealth Point.

City Confidants are NPCs that a character has a positive relationship with, who will provide assistance, and grow in usefulness and loyalty if nurtured.

Wilds Confidants are as city ones but tend to be more useful since they are harder to interact with.


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Thoughts?  Balance is not exactly my forte...

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Megadungeon Beneath Booezor

I got distracted a bit, and so this is what I have been working on...

There is a megadungeon beneath the Magic City of Booezor that stretches down through the Sculpted Mountain and deep into the earth below.  It is unknown for how many levels the structure continues underground, but there are six entry points and each is a dungeon of its own: a giant magnetic termite mound, the sewer system, the tomb of the mountain's heart, the magically accelerated dumping grounds, the moonmetal mine, and the partially physical prison space the Labrynthyne.

Booezor is divided into eight "tiers", the first three are accessible to anyone (like 1st level PCs), while the other five are unlocked by amassing wealth or otherwise raising your social station:

The Weave, a hanging shantytown and scattered caves hung from the side of the sculpted mountain, difficult to get to, many entrances exist not considered part of the city proper.

Bottomshelf / Beastmile, lower cliff villages each with their own name, difficult to get to, many entrances exist, not considered part of the city proper, and the city's external animal market, a town in itself.

Fruitbasket / Waspnest / the Sprawl, the lowest main level of the city, street after street of markets, shops, residences, taverns, lodging, and assorted frantic industry.

Secondmarket / Cindiband, the higher classed and more specialized markets and shops are here, the residences higher, the entertainment more elaborate.

Lighttown, high class everything, hotels, night life, gambling, street noble culture, everyone wears disposable magic light junk and revels in excess.

Stoneforest, bridge-connected highspires house the super-rich, the mage elite, and their clustered entertainments.

Precious Pillars, the highest and most improbable towers belong to the most venerable Children, unaligned magi, and the ultra-rich (1%).

The Egg, a permanent physical extrusion, made of pure magic, of a vast extradimensional space that serves as the campus of the Children. Truly there is a palace within the space the Egg describes.

So I need to continue to work on Booezor enough to comfortably run it without getting completely carried away.  A bunch of boring work is done, tentative tables of item, armor, and weapon prices and which tiers of the city they are available in.  Started a table for animal prices.  Got an easy d100 table of types of buildings in the city.  And I am waist deep in a d100 table of city rumors and another of specific NPCs, which are super cool.  Oh, and this fun motivation table:

d20 Reasons to Seek the Depths

1 you seek an ancestor's spirit trapped within a soul crystal you will know by touch, such crystals were popular in ages past, and are found in the deeper areas.

2 you seek to confront a specific powerful undead creature, whom you have a (personal) connection to, and who lairs in the deepest depths.

3 you seek the water at the source of the Haelix, one of the twin rivers that flow beneath the city, whose current flows in an upward spiral.

4 you seek the land of the subterranean sea fed by the mouth of the Xeeres, one of the twin rivers that flow beneath the city, whose current flows in a downward spiral.

5 you seek to recapture seven unbound demons, who have installed themselves as lords of the deeper dungeon.

6 you seek access to the insane civilizations and beings of the 'Veins of the Earth', which can be found through the lowest levels of the megadungeon.

7 you seek to purge the various “cancers” of the depths, clearing held and wild areas in the name of Tyrant or Immacula.

8 you seek the “fortune” you feared to seek till now, the ambiguous prediction that your fate would be found in the depths.

9 you seek ancient magic secrets of the Shem, who first raised Booezor as a hive countless ages ago.

10 you seek the unplundered riches of the deepest depths, it's the only way to finance your impossible dream.

11 you seek one of the missing pieces of the sky for capricious Se’vensaera, broken and hidden ages ago deep beneath the earth.

12 you seek the Inverted Throne that is rumored to sit at the lowest point of the megadungeon, anyone who sits upon it will be made a great ruler.

13 you seek the prize of a noble Treasure Hunt, the mad singular desire of those who need never try for themselves.

14 you seek the archancient technological secrets of the Tenzoril, many believe the deeper megadungeon to be one of their creations.

15 you seek a stable gate to other worlds hidden in the lowest levels of the megadungeon.

16 you seek to consume the heart of a Dragon of the Source, one of which sleeps far beneath the city.

17 you seek the valuable secrets of the megadungeon's structure, inhabitants, and layout to sell, share, or hoard.

18 you seek the truth of your hazy past, and bizarre recurring dreams you are sure point deep below the city.

19 you seek an audience with the Naudde, the Goddess of Mysteries herself, you will find her avatar beyond many labyrinths, deep underground.

20 you seek to delve deeper than has any other, you seek fame and singularity, immortality in legend and influence.



Back soon with those tasty d100 rumor and npc tables... or something, you never know.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Random Encounters by Terrain - Desert


The fourth in my series of d100 random encounters tables for terrain type for the Furthest Lands continent, brings us to deserts.  Water use, exposure to heat, and to the cold of night are the greatest problems in any desert, but owl wizards, leucrotta, and hierarchies of sandworms will keep those deaths interesting.  The largest and most important desert on continent is the Tomada Yoma, the great western expanse, hundreds of miles in any direction, which still has a civilized center in the Great Temple of Tauk Toma.  There are also many smaller deserts, scattered across the lands, several in the inhospitable region called "Centerscar", which tend to have dangerous magical/environmental quirks particular to each.   

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Desert - 20%/day



01-02  Great Beaded Lizard – huge, venomous, and implacable, the Giant Gila Monster!

03  Tower Owl – an owl sorcerer-sage that lives in the hollow top of an giant enchanted cactus. Man-sized, but wide and heavy for a bird. The owl can operate the cactus as a golem by serving as its “face”. The cactus regenerates, alters its form and size, throws needles, and manufactures a host of dangerous chemicals to coat them.
04-05  Suitable Elemental ( Earth/Sandstorm/Wind/Fire )
06-07  (Greater) Leucrotta – superficially it resembles a large antelope: small fine head, long neck, sleek torso, and long hooved legs. On closer inspection, a wretched monster: mad red and yellow eyes, matted fur, and a mouth that continues all the way down the neck to the torso. The leucrotta's secret maw is filled with row after row of teeth, and the source of the beast's near-magical vocal mimicry, numerous tongues.
08-09  Mummy (1d4)
1. Iele
2. Goboda
3. Umash
4. Other, race or monster

10-11  Bombardier Beetle – giant beetle with a caustic chemical weapon.
12-13  Hurry Ants – pony-sized, stilt-legged ants that burst from the sand and dash about, madly killing and dismembering prey before dragging the pieces underground. Their exoskeleton is thermochromic, it cycles from cold black, through blue and purple, to warm red and orange, to hot yellow and white within a few minutes of emerging on the surface (AC goes down throughout cycle). Their bodies explode 20 seconds after turning white hot, showering the area with molten clumps of exoskeletal goo and chemically activated combustible blood. The ants will occasionally force their own explosive deaths, to cover their retreat or counter dangerous opponents, but in general are in a “hurry” to escape the sun.
14-15  Giant Rattlesnake – arguably the most dangerous of all the vocal snakes, rattlesnakes are typified by their great paranoia. Highly intelligent, desperately fearful, and brutally venomous, they are best avoided.
16-17  Mirage
of (1d6)
1. Oasis
2. Orchard
3. Temple
4. Caravan
5. Isolated Low-Hanging Rain Cloud
6. Bright Light

Hiding (1d4)
1. Nothing
2. Monster
3. Trap
4. Treasure

18-19  Ultrachiroptera Flock – the giant bats of the desert night, large enough to bear a man as prey or rider.  70% carnivorous, 30% nectivorous.
20-23  Hyaenadon Pack – multiple species exist in a range of sizes (1d8 x 100 lbs.), replace gorgonopsids as pack hunting predators in the most arid regions.
24-25  Bellows Horse – hollow, wheezing, rapid. Boneless, sightless, restless. Inscrutable, elegant, horrible. A bellows horse is a three-legged, accordion-bodied, beast that seems to make little sense.
26-27  Giant Tortoise – non-aggressive, with a powerful bite and unfailing stamina, perfect for riding or bearing loads... very slowly.
28-29  Cudgelhead – a huge, two-legged monster with a battering skull. Cudgelheads do not eat the creatures they beat into a paste with their bony faces, their diet is unknown.
30-31  Ogres (1d6)
1. Freshly Cursed: hateful, sadistic, a great parody of an iele, berserker.
2. Freshly Cursed, Mage: a great mad spellcaster, random magic specialization.
3. Second Gen.: Warrior
4. Second Gen.: Priest
5. Second Gen.: Sorcerer/Wizard
6. Second Gen.: "Paladin"


32-35  Goboda Group (1d10)
1. Warrior Monks
2. Bandits
3. Hunters
4. Trading Company
5. Lone Merchant
6. Desert Druid
7. Wizards (Chronomancer/Diviner/Elementalist/Enchanter)
8. Priests (Se'vensaera/Naudde/Immacula)
9. Eternal Pilgrims (Orobolus)
10. Cultists

36-37  Obelisk – a statuary monster from an ancient civilization, some break into pieces or twist into a mobile shape, some remain in their original form and function like a turret or a roper monster.
38-41  Glyptodon Herd – herbivorous giant mammals with armored shells and bony, clubbed tails. Often domesticated by the umash, they produce milk, make slow but steady pack beasts, and every bit of one's corpse is useful.
42-43  Shard Leech Scree - razor-edged stones used as the shell of a land mollusc, 4"-14". Hide in areas of loose rock waiting for man size or larger prey, throw themselves en masse at a target, pierce flesh and release a mild paralytic venom, drink their fill of blood, fall out of the target, and move away from the remains.
44-45  Thirsty Wind – a day-long weather change, no cloud cover with extremely hot and unnaturally dry winds. Water use is doubled, exhausted npcs and animals may die outright. A thirsty wind always blows against the party's goal.
46-47  Lancet Stirge Flock - naked birdlike creatures with elongated, saw-edged lower jaws, cat size. Function as stirges but can pin targets in numbers and interfere with movement/spellcasting.
48-51  Umash Group (1d6) - the baboon-faced race of the Tomada Yoma.
1. Dervishes
2. Hunters
3. Trading Group
4. Elementalists
5. Priests of the Sisters of Mysteries
6. Common Nomads
52-53  Solar Dimetrodon – this large species of dimetrodon is capable of storing solar energy in its iridescent sail as it basks, then releasing this energy as a ray or wave shaped attack. Other dimetrodon affected by an energy discharge will be hasted for 1d6 rounds and heal half the attack's damage. They receive some nourishment through solar energy, but pursue living prey of a certain size whenever possible.
54-55  Manticor - spirit cursed iele, usually lawful/poachers/defilers, now always hungry for other people.
56-57  Sandstorm – a powerful sandstorm batters the area, seek cover or be suffocated, scoured, blinded, even buried. Trails and small landmarks are erased.
58-59  Iele Group (1d6)
1. Hunters
2. Trading Group
3. Ranger
4. Explorers
5. Random Priest
6. Random Mage
60-61  Shem Formation - 4-10 Shem hunting for or returning with captives. Often accompanied by Bloat Cages (1-4), ground slaves (5-50), or aerial slaves (2-20).
62-63  Sandworm – a two to six meter, vibration-sensitive, predatory worm.
64-65  Sandwormother – a slow moving, colossal, swollen sandworm, covered in a thick pink waxy cuticle. The mother worm is constantly laying eggs, even as it moves, even as it sleeps, even after death (for a bit). Eggs hatch quickly, and the speedy arm-length wormlettes hurry back to hide in the mother's mouth. The young are only occasionally disgorged to attack and feed for themselves, if this occurs the mother will avoid attacking the young's targets.
66-67  Sandfather – fifty feet long and covered in armored scutes, the rapid-moving sandfather worm ranges the desert, searching for prey and unfertilized females with its array of eversible head organs. Two of these surprising tentacle shaped appendages are coated in caustic chemicals.
68-69  MutantTroll Pack - slightly undersized trolls that mutate as they regenerate. Each has one additional mutation when encountered and is twice as hungry. During regeneration of massive damage they can fuse together into larger abominations or break into smaller, independent, ruined parts.
70-71  Suitable Nature Spirit (1d4)
1. Starvation Spirit – a possessing spirit that forces its host to an artificial brink of 
starvation, and holds them there.  They will not be satisfied by any amount of food, 
and will not starve to death. However, the host will behave as if it must find food now 
or die, eating all available rations, tiny animals, and... left alone with another person, 
they will attempt to murder and cannibalize them. 
2. Erosion Spirit – its whisper can be heard in stirring sand and curling around wind 
eaten rocks, it wants to make everything dust, but isn't greedy, it likes to destroy a bit 
at a time. Appease it with something interesting to nibble, or it will eats holes in you 
and your things, or strip layers from something (layers like skin). The more artificial the 
offering, the better. 
3. Plague Spirit – a possessing spirit that makes a creature into a asymptomatic carrier of an
awful illness.
4. Sun Spirit – appears as tricks of light, suggestive afterimages of thin partial humanoids, impossible to see from a distance. Curious and cruel, they will lead the way to dangerous mirages, evaporate exposed water in seconds, and their touch causes heat madness.

72  Dune Dragon – the longer the dragons of the endless sands live, the more time they spend asleep, sand collecting on their serpent bodies. They are often irritable, bleary, confusing fantasy with reality. They control the weather, and their breath is a storm of sands that tears, or a cloud of dust that lulls to sleep. There is always a cavern filled with drinkable water beneath a sleeping dune dragon.
73-74  Archaeotherium (carnivorous boar) – a ravenous omnivorous beast, like a monstrous boar with long legs and a huge head. Simple and single minded with an amazing olfactory sense.
75-76  Giant Antlion (Funneller/Doodlebeast) – the L-G sized predatory larva of an unknown insect. The giant antlion buries its body in loose sand and creates a funnel trap, where it lies in wait for prey. Doodlebeasts have been known to hurl rains of sand, spray caustic acids, and create tremors in the ground.
77-78  Dust Skeleton – the countless dead of the desert, now skeletons made of sand and bone dust. When defeated they reform in 1d100 hours, but can be permanently destroyed with a “mouthful” of water.
79-80  Swarm of Insects (1d4)
1. Yokaibubu Locusts – devouring locusts, large as a man's hand. A plague's worth (plagues may vary).
2. Sweat Flies – quicken exhaustion by drinking sweat and other bodily moisture.
3. Golden Sand Fleas – biting mass of fleas, leave bleeding painful wounds, will infest clothes, packs, and bedding.
4. Black Beads – a carpet of round, shiny, black beetles hungry for non-living organic material: leather, wood, paper, foodstuffs, even hair. Each beetle bears fertilized eggs at birth, and will easily infest belongings if not exterminated.
81-82  Scopophobic Cacti – approach blooded creatures at a rapid pace, as long as nothing watches them. “Strike” by pressing themselves against their targets and draining the water from their blood with wicked needles.
83  Elder'lisk (True Basilisk) - gigantic, slow as stone, fast as a rock slide, the elder'lisk perched atop its heap of broken statues, the evilest eye. A thin tall body, six to ten spindly legs, and two independently moving eyes. Reflecting the creature's gaze will turn just one eye to stone. This basilisk can move silently on its split-toed padded feet, and climbs sheer surfaces with ease.
84-85  Hungry Ghost – ghosts desperate for your water, your food, your breath, your blood. Younger ghosts use their lives' knowledge to deceive and confuse, while the ghosts who have wandered hundreds of years or more are ravening spectres without a trace of personhood left, they will claw what they need from you without hesitation.
86-87  Giant Vulture Kettle – the party begins to be followed by great vultures who patiently wait for exhaustion or grievous wounds, their presence increases the likelihood of encounters by 20%.
88-89  Weird Water Source (1d6)
1. Sipping Succulent – a branching succulent whose swollen leaves can be carefully plucked and drunk like little juice boxes up to two weeks later. The liquid is light, refreshing, and mostly flavorless, though it has a slightly medicinal aftertaste. Mildly promote healing when poured on wounds or infected areas.
2. Keg Cactus – a squat, yellow-green, long-needled cactus filled with a great reserve of clear watery liquid within its thick skin. The liquid is mildly alcoholic, but just as hydrating as real water. Living on keg cactus juice only for three days will render a person completely and constantly drunk until they drink something else for three days.
3. Water Melons – delicious watery underground melons 6” to 18” across, keep for a few weeks after picked. If they are opened and the juices stored in other containers, the odor will often attract certain insects and larger animals.
4. Sand Cucumbers (Piss Grubs) – tube shaped underground animals about a foot long. Pinched and stroked in a certain way the creature will squirt out its stored water supply, which can be up to three days worth of water. Cucumbers can be eaten, though they taste pretty awful and will immediately poison their water stores when injured.
5. Voilumpf - sized between camels and giraffes, six long thin legs, a long neck with a small, nearly eyeless head, feathered antennae, and a complicated folding proboscis, and an inflatable sack of rubbery skin on its back. These docile, dull-witted creatures eat moisture-rich plants and fungi deep underground and store the excess water in their back sack. Rangers know the animals will violently resist attack, but a person can “tap” their sack for its water and they will take little notice. Sack water is identical to normal well water, just very slightly... pork flavored. Can be ridden, but their food is unsustainable outside the desert. Their liver is the only worthwhile meat on their body.
6. Spider Cups – a white, grape-sized spider will spin a cup shaped web with a cover within a hole in the sand. The webbing is water repellent and the spider uses the water filled cup as a lure for prey. A person can scoop spider cups out of the sand to take away easily, but they are fragile. The spiders are not dangerous. 
 
90-91  Dune Ghuul – cannibalistic degenerates of various original races that roam the open desert at night, their life or undeath status up for debate.  Their touch is paralytic (of course) and their anguished howls terrify the weak.   
92-93  Swimming Sword – a blade-like cousin of the bulette, long and rigid-bodied, can potentially be tamed and used as a mount. 30% chance of being encountered with its immature form, the Severfish. The young specifically attempt with their bladed bodies to amputate digits and limbs for their own consumption.
94-95  Dromiceioseismos Herd - huge (50') flightless birds, non-hostile but dangerous if harassed. Sometimes attract the largest of predators to an area.
96-97  Strange Sands (1d10)
1. Mandala Sands – sand that changes color when shifted. Tracks are usually easy to spot and follow, though the vistas can muddle the mind or sicken the stomach.
2. Sandsea – liquid sand that functions almost like water. Normal water vessels will not function properly, if at all.
3. Sleeping Sand – fabled soporific sand.
4. Magnetic Sand – greenish sand that cakes ferrous metal materials, will quickly encumber a person bearing much of them unless scraped off regularly.
5. Living Sand – essentially low functioning nanomachines, able to assume one large high-functioning form, or many smaller lower-functioning forms. Some say these are the eroded remains of once mighty ancient golems.
6. Sand Garden – a jungle, orchard, or topiary garden formed of sand. May form only during the day, night, or a particular season, etc.
7. Rust Sand – blueish sand that causes metal equipment to rapidly oxidize.
8. Scouring Sand – razor sharp granules of nearly diamond hard crystal. Shreds skin and light fabric in a few hours, easily blinds unprotected eyes, deals permanent con damage if inhaled.
9. Skeleton Sand – sands composed mostly of skeletal remains, dust skeletons common.
10. Quicksand – horrific cartoonish quicksand, indistinguishable from the normal sands around it.   

98-99  Gunmen – radial bodied sand dwelling creatures with a primitive intelligence. They are aggressive, territorial, known to eat anything and anyone, and steal whatever supplies are available (a few have been known to trade). Gunmen or Stars, have a puck shaped body about 2' in diameter ringed with 3-5 rubbery arms each tipped with 3-5 retractable fingers. One flat side of the creature's body is its “face”, disconcerting to most races as it is composed of recognizable features scattered randomly across the surface: an eye here, a nostril here, a mouth? an ear? Each is different from another, but all have at least one eye and a single mouth, which serves both ends of the beast's digestive system. Gunmen create weapons and clothing for themselves, shoddily constructed and made for a strange physiology they are nearly useless to other races.

00  Special *




Till next time...
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

"Sasym" Traesasymphicon, Wide Vibrational Messenger

"The rough stone stairs emerge on the third story of the red rock formation the little village was carved from.  A flock of small white birds is scattered across the upward-sloping stone, gathered about a natural platform on the far side.  Upon the raised stone, gazing out across the valley with its three crystal blue eyes is a giant white cat, eight feet tall at the shoulder.  Its body or fur glows a soft yellow white, you would still see it perfectly in any normal darkness.  Three sets of feathered wings beat upon its back, constantly stretching and rearranging themselves, its neck is greatly elongated, as well as its limbs and body.  The face looks like a beautiful, though unsettling mix of human and Siamese cat, with a tiny split-lipped mouth and its three unreal eyes.  When it speaks, it does in a childlike voice with a telepathic 'echo', relaxed and with great self-satisfaction.  It is one of the most beautiful creatures you have ever seen, it smells of honey and cinnamon, its purr is a syrupy joy that tickles your spine, just being near it makes you feel good."

Traesasymphicon, Sasym as it calls itself, is an entity from the wider vibrational planes.  Dimensions mortals often call Upper Planes, where as you "ascend" through them, the energies that compose beings are more diffuse, and the divisions between creatures become more and more ambiguous.  The amalgamous being Sasym is a lower mid-level extrusion, a nunciomorph that excels at maintaining a consistent form and identity in the "Material Plane".
The Furthest Lands continent is a kind of dimensional sink, it seems to pull destination portals to itself.  This means while it can be easy to travel to, it is incredibly difficult to travel away from.    Like many other, more mundane creatures, Sasym has become trapped here.  Its natural gate power only moves it randomly within the continent, not through the membranes of reality.  Its Celestial Song could surely draw the attention of its Greater Family, but if others came and were trapped as well... it could never bear the guilt.  (stop reading if you are my player)  Last, Sasym's existence is fueled by a form of energy that exists in this plane in much shorter supply, energy it has only found produced by the love and adoration of followers it has acquired in starving desperation.  This messenger was never meant to be away for so long.
Now, a small cult has grown around Sasym in a great rock formation that has become a hidden village.  Three families of 'iele' raise their children, do their hunting and farming in the shadow of the rock called CragDen.  A dozen or so others gravitated here or lost their caravans and were guided back by luck or Sasym.  Here in the sheltered valley that lies before the den, massive ravening beasts and cruel nature spirits are few under its near-constant vigilance and benign influence.  This is no novel occurrence on a continent where seeking symbiosis with a powerful creature is one of the top survival strategies, "monster villages" are fairly common.
N'gael, the demon artificer has found his floating, planeshifting tower stalled in the Cnacociel region to the northwest, and the two otherworldly creatures have found themselves in an uneasy relationship.

Sasym

  16 Str, 20 Dex, 14 Con, 16 Int, 18 Wis, 23 Cha

  HD:  10d8+20;  AC:  18

  Saves:  Wis, Cha;  Skills:  Perception +8, Persuasion +10


  Dmg Resist:  radiant, non-magic weapons


  Immune:  sleep, charm, fear


  Senses:  darkvision 180', passive perception 18


  Languages:  all, telepathy 90'

  CR:  9



  Advantage on saves vs. spells and magic effects, +3d8 radiant dmg., innate spellcasting (Cha, DC 18), at will: detect evil/good, animal friendship, 1/day: reincarnate.
Multiattack, claw/weapon attack: +9 to hit 1d4+5 slashing + 3d8 radiant dmg, healing touch (3/day) non-evil target regains 3d8+2 hp and is cured of poison, disease, blindness, and deafness.  Polymorphs into any living form, retains all stats, always appears yellow-white with bright blue eyes, Celestial Song attracts the attention of other wide vibrational beings, 75% chance of success.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Random Encounters by Terrain - Swamp/Marshland

The third in my series of d100 random encounter tables by terrain type for the Furthest Lands continent, this time swamps and marshlands.  Plains/grasslands, and forest/jungle were the other two, and there are at least seven (not counting the *Special* table) more in various stages of completion.  Ideally I would've spaced out swamp and jungle more, but I needed to get the swamp list finished to head off some players.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Swamp - 33%/day

01-02  Giant Salt-Fen Spitter – a thirty foot amphibious worm that sprays acid and corrosive enzymes from its bulb-like head.
03-04  Catoblepas – the body of an emaciated water buffalo, the lumpen head of a warthog on a shaggy giraffe neck. The catoblepas kills any creature that meets its eyes, and poisons the area around it. All the food it eats is rotten and ruined, and it remains hungry at all times. Some enjoy submerging their bodies in deep water, letting their massive heads float on the surface, found this way they are incredibly dangerous. Milk and live animals are quite valuable. It is said that if a catoblepas could be fed from an early age food that wouldn't rot, it would mature into a beast of another nature.
05-06  Quicksand/Sinkhole – suffocating quicksand or a random sinkhole appears beneath party and/or in direction of movement.
07-08  Tanystropheus – crocodile-sized, low-bodied reptiles with long stiff necks. Fish and bird eaters, will attack a person only territorially, in self-defense, or desperation.
09-10  Marsh Squirterhorse Family – well camouflaged dog-sized seahorse-like fish, uses their blowgun snouts in the manner of a deadly archerfish. Fires a spray of acid and enzymes that slowly consume metal, quickly consume organic material, and has no effect on stone.
11-12  Fasinaa Group (1d6)
     1. Hunters
     2. Bandits
     3. Trading Group
     4. Liar of Tsugumi
     5. Sorcerer
     6. Ranger
13-14  Giant Mosquito Swarm – massive man-sized mosquitoes, capable of completely draining a person of blood in minutes. Many carry horrible blood-borne diseases, and the victims of others return from the dead as withered zombies.
15-16  Swamp Zombie Herd – the putrid flesh of many swamp zombies carries a great threat of disease and infection, may be submerged and attack waders, or be surrounded by a nauseating stench.
17-18  Choke-creeper - strangling vine monster.
19-20  Bronzebeak Fisher - giant kingfisher bird with a metallic beak, huge, aggressive and territorial. Attacks characters wearing shining objects (armor, jewellery, iridescent fabric) who it confuses for fish.
21-22  Giant Vicemouth Turtle – massive, car-sized snapping turtle, swallows prey whole or severs limbs.
23-24  Marsh Rats - oddly intelligent, tool-using, plan-making rodents of unusual size.
25-26  Ogres (1d6)
     1. Freshly Cursed: hateful, sadistic, a great parody of an iele, berserker.
     2. Freshly Cursed, Mage: a great mad spellcaster, random magic specialization.
     3. Second Gen.: Warrior
     4. Second Gen.: Priest
     5. Second Gen.: Sorcerer/Wizard
     6. Second Gen.: "Paladin"
27-28  Swamp Filth – a collective term for various oozes and jellies of the marshlands.
29-30  Electric Eel – a normal or a giant electric eel, giants can discharge two or three times as often as normal eels, both are highly valuable captured alive.
31-32  Fenflies – giant biting flies, some leave stinging lightly poisoned wounds (weakness, pain), some leave diseases, some insert eggs into wounds.
33-34  Lanternhulk – a bag-like creature, like a great toothless mouth, large as a room, its slug-like foot an anchor buried beneath the surface. Draped in plants, filth, and natural illusions it can resemble a cave if it wishes to hunt during the day. At night the Lanternhulk earns its name, displaying various forms of bioluminescence, lights within its mouth, lights on mobile tendrils, as well as floating biomagical light effects. Prey that enters the creature's mouth is enfolded, sometimes suffocated, sometimes drugged, eventually dissolved.
35-36  Bear-frog – a head and powerful forelimbs reminiscent of a bear, partly furred, with the elongated leaping back legs of a frog. Unlike the famous Owlbear, the Bear-frog is a “natural” animal, though it shares the Owlbear's preference for attacking magic-users.
37-38  Koolasuchus – massive, spade-headed amphibious salamander, can swallow M-sized prey whole.
39-41  Otyugh (single/pair) – the Wretched Sages, the repulsive and often murderously hungry otyughs are common in the swamps, where they dine on and bathe in decaying matter. Because they are in constant telepathic communication with every being they encounter, and despite their poor intelligence, they are sought out occasionally for the wisdom of fools. Otyughs in pairs are engaged in philosophical argument and are eager for outside input... or a quick snack.
42-43  Suitable Elemental (mud / water / death)
44-46  Snake (1d4) – as usual, every snake is intelligent and able to speak. Venomous and constrictor snakes love hostage situations and making deals, spitting snakes often work in concert with other creatures, intelligent or otherwise.
    1. Venomous
    2. Giant Constrictor
    3. Venom Spitting
    4. Elder Serpent - giant, venomous, highly intelligent, wizard or cleric spells.
47-48  Giant Sundew – a massive deadly sundew plant, slightly mobile, vaguely aware. Positions itself at choke points, waterlines, feeding and nesting grounds. The peculiar odor of its digestion attracts oozes.
49-50  Brown Pudding – this gelatinous creature will consume any organic material, but vastly prefers larger living prey, for this reason they are often encountered semi-dormant in “pudding pits”, their orifices concentrating downward, slowly dissolving the decaying matter beneath them, but will form up and become mobile after a round or two.
51-53  Naga - the “oldest masters”, they are selfish, secretive, and suspicious. They can be civilized folk, cold-blooded killers, slave takers, or enigmatic guardians, depending on the day. The Naga have their own small city-temples, but they are not fond of each other's company.
54-55  Dark Banyan – a strangled treant, completely dominated by the parasitic magical fig vine that took epiphytic root in its body. A wooden tentacled mass capable of cruel nature magics, and the control of other ill-willed vegetable creatures (Ollgrad, Boskbeasts in particular).
56-57  Iele Group (1d6)
     1. Hunters
     2. Trading Group
     3. Ranger
     4. Explorers
     5. Random Priest
     6. Random Mage
58  Vampiric Moss – inanimate hanging moss that drains the lifeforce of a nearby creature after establishing a link, consumes a set amount of hp, and loses link when victim leaves its 30' area of effect.

59-60  Giant Water Beetle – an eight foot predatory water (diving) beetle, ambushes prey at the water's surface, or attacks underwater. May create a “pen” of trapped air to preserve live creatures underwater.
61-62  MutantTroll Pack - slightly undersized trolls that mutate as they regenerate. Amphibious, regenerate slightly faster than those of other terrain. During regeneration of massive damage they can fuse together into larger abominations or break into smaller, independent, ruined parts.
63-64  Ollgrad - small, bloodthirsty (literally) root people.
65-66  Giant Leech – three to ten foot long leeches, potentially deadly, more difficult to remove, and much more likely to transmit a blood born disease than normal leeches.
67-68  Suitable Nature Spirit
    1. Phlebeth - like a Kappa, keeps its mouth full of water to remain strong on land. Can adopt the shape of a person, but is always wet and silent.
    2. Sclarrianth – an attendant spirit of Skraosh the goddess of evolution, an amorphous entity with a will and strength to bestow a mutation, create a new species, bestow one of the lycanthropic raptures, or create a chaos blessed area. The Sclarrianth can be argued with and guided in its gift giving to a certain extent, but must give and expire in the process.
    3. Mucugulob – this spirit attaches itself to a creature transforming it to a locus of disease and decay, slowly kills host who eventually becomes a powerful cursed undead, infects others with rotting and wasting illnesses. Appears to host initially as an almost pokemon-like stylized semi-real animal.
    4. Waiwie "Tilted Scale" (Chaos Spirit) - from a distance a glowing dragonfly, closer just branching luminous nerves. A spirit that takes/erases elements of law and society from an individual and replaces them with natural elements (Example: the Waiwei steals your money and replaces it with meat or seeds, or maybe erases the Fasinaa language from your mind and replaces it with the tongue of flowers or birds).
69  Mud Dragon – fat-bodied amphibious dragons, wingless and scaleless, with weak tiny eyes and round, toothless jaws, a dragon that looks like a catfish and a salamander. Mud dragons are slow and stubborn, they spend much of their time asleep buried beneath mulch and silt and clay and brackish water, slowly eating, chewing, and digesting vast mouthfuls of earth, and rendering it into thick gooey mud. The thick mud is the dragon's “breath weapon”, victims of failed saves are mostly/completely buried in mud, others in area slimed, additional 'stinking cloud' effect.
70-71  Boskbeast (Shambling Mound) - animate heap of rotting vegetative matter, always hungry for intelligent beings.
72-73  Marsh Gas (1d4)
    1. Flammable/Explosive – area of party movement contains an invisible gas that will explode on contact with open flame.
    2. Inebriating – area of party movement contains an invisible drug-like gas of various effects.
    3. Deadly – area of party movement contains a deadly gas that has at least one noticeable sign.
    4. Nauseating – area of party movement contains a gas with a nauseating stench, as per 'stinking cloud'.


74-75  Skunk Ape – bigfoot, sasquatch, yowie, yeti, a large hairy humanoid of tremendous strength, adept at traversing the marshes undetected. Some accounts portray this “swamp man” as a malicious, territorial beast, others as a gentle hermit.
76-77  Muckdweller – take the 2nd ed. MM entry as truth, but they look like mudskipper fish, done.
78-79  Poisonous Frog (1d6)
    1. Bloodmask Frog - red face, black or yellow body, neurotoxic and quickly fatal.
    2. Moon Frog - light blue and white, causes intense hallucinations for 3d6 hours.
    3. Opal Frog - darkly iridescent skin, vomiting and diarrhea for 1d6 days.
    4. Vrian's Peeper - light green body with orange head, very small, paralysis for 1d20 hours.
    5. Firefrog - yellow, orange, red and purple, severe itching rash for 1d4 weeks.
    6. Mist Frog - purple to dark blue, anesthetic numbs random body part.
80-81  Giant/Huge/Colossal Centipede - suitable venomous centipede encounter.
82-83  Sonihadrosaur (pair/herd) - mid-sized (for hadrosaurs) duck-billed dinosaurs with an elaborate fluted crest on their heads. Adults inflate their resonating crests to release a Sonic Honk in a 100' cone every few rounds. Fiercely protective of non-sonic young and nesting sites. Can be subdued by "banding” the crest, binding it with a leather belt or metal band.
84-85  Cleaverclaw Crab – a giant marsh crab, big as a one-family hut, males have one tremendous limb-severing claw. Another animal attracted to the glints of metal, glass and other fine materials that it tears to shreds in front of its lair, hoping to attract the attention of bauble-draped females, who have two smaller claws, just as sharp.
86  Swamp (Green) Hag – not a woman, not 'iele', misshapen and deranged, less evil and more dangerously other, a hag is more npc than monster, but more spirit than mortal. There may be a hag for every swamp, a swamp for every hag. Each one is completely different from the next, still they claim sorority with every other.
87-88  Cloak Stalker – a huge bird, resembling in general form a great crane, twice the size of , its plumage many difficult to discern dark colors, its wings are covered in overlong feathers that it holds loosely around its body like a cloak, its bright and tiny eyes purple and orange. The stalker may follow its prey through the marshes for weeks, waiting for a perfect time to strike, it is highly intelligent and possessed of old magics of illusion, obfuscation, and trickery. 
 
89-90  Goo Basilisk (Jellilisk) – larger than a normal basilisk, The gaze of the dreaded basilisk of the swamplands turns its victim to living ooze. Try turning your friend back from that! The Jellilisk is one of the favored familiars of the greater Jellementalists, and their eyes a key ingredient in the manufacture of ioun slimes.
91-92  Swamp Crocodile – a long-limbed prehistoric crocodilian that excels in the broken, varied terrain of the marshes, equally at home darting through murky water as running and leaping across the mud and roots.
93-94  Cave / Lair / Structure
1. Partially submerged cave, cleared and habitable.
2. Fully submerged cave, inhabited.
3. Swamp structure (fungus, raised hut, tree), uninhabited.
4. Lair of nesting creature.
95  Giant Dragonfly – M or L size giant prehistoric dragonflies, glittering, rapid, and quiet, large species attempt to fly away with a victim, others attempt to amputate body parts and escape.
96  Giant Dragonfly Nymph – predatory aquatic larva of the giant dragonfly.
97  Shriekers - the classic alarm sounding, random encounter attracting, oversized fungus. There are over a dozen species, each with a distinct morphology, so they may look like: giant puff balls, tall thin mushrooms, brightly colored tree growths, etc.
98  Piranha School – comically voracious school of piranha fish, able to give extended chase, chew through inedible objects, and skeletonize a person in under a minute.
99  Peat Mummy – mummified exile or criminal buried in the swamp ages ago, an undead creature with shiny, dark, leather-like skin, and a rigor-racked wasted frame, strong and fast but awkward, it wants blood and breath and whichever organs you keep your soul in.
00  Special *