A Cat of Tindalos

A Cat of Tindalos

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Additional Dungeon World Monsters

Flying Dagger SwarmSolitary, Amorphous, Construct
Strike (d10-2 damage 1 piercing)14 HP3 armor
Hand, Near
Special Qualities: Guards

A set of a dozen or more daggers, animated through spellcraft to obey the commands of their creator. When active, they form a swarm of sharp metal that flits through the air like a shoal of fish. If they are guarding a location, they rise and circle to form a whirlwind of blades.The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny dagger. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. 

Instinct: Stabs
  • Levitates
  • Lunges
  • Skewers

Gygax Ghoul
Group, Devious, Terrifying
Bite (d6 damage)
10 HP
0 armor
Close
Special Qualities: Paraylze with touch, Undead

Ghouls are undead creatures, once human, who now feed on the flesh of corpses. Although the change from human to ghoul has deranged and destroyed their minds, ghouls have a terrible cunning which enables them to hunt their prey most effectively.Ghouls are vaguely recognizable as once having been human, but have become horribly disfigured by their change to ghouls. The tongue becomes long and tough for licking marrow from cracked bones, the teeth become sharp and elongated, and the nails grow strong and sharp like claws. Their touch causes humans (including dwarves and halflings, but excluding elves) to become rigid unless a Defy Danger versus CON or paralyzation is successful. Ghouls delight in revolting and loathsome things – from which we draw our adjectives “ghoulish” and “ghastly”. 

Custom Move: When you are touched by a ghoul, ROLL+CON. On a 10+, you keep going. On a 7-9, you choose 1: You don't take -1 ongoing until you rest. Your movements are not slowed down. A part of your body is not paralyzed. On a 6-, you're paralyzed until after the combat. 

Instinct: Devours living and the dead
  • Consume all
  • Paralyze with a touch
  • Ambush


Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Dungeon World Monster

Cave FisherSolitary, Stealthy, Hoarder
Claws (d12 damage)12 HP3 armor
Close
Special Qualities: Blindsight, Fire does double damage, Silence spells stun

A cave fisher is a lobster-like monster which inhabits subterranean locations and ambushes its prey using a sticky filament similar to a strand of giant spider silk. Cave fishers grow to about seven feet (2.1 meters) long and have a hard, chitinous shell arranged in overlapping armor. It has eight legs and two forelimbs that end in large pincers. Living underground, cave fishers are sightless creatures that use multiple auditory sensor organs to detect prey. These organs are located on the head and could be mistaken for multiple eyes. The creature has a large proboscis from which it shot a long (up to 60 feet or 18 meters) sticky filament.

The cave fisher hides on ledges above passageways and hunts by emitting a long strand of sticky filament, either dangling it to catch passing creatures such as bats, or shooting it at a creature as it wanders by. They can also secrete their adhesive onto their feet and anchor themselves to a ledge, wall, or ceiling once they found a good hunting location. To release themselves, they secret a substance from their proboscis that contained their blood that dissolves the adhesive.

Cave fishers can attack any creature up to man-sized, but are intelligent enough to avoid large groups, preferring to pick off scouts, loners, and stragglers. On a successful attack, the victim is stuck to the cave fisher's filament and slowly drawn up to the cave fisher's level where it is attacked with the two front pincers. Cave fishers can reel in victims weighing up to 200 or possibly 400 lbs (91 to 182 kg). Their filament is very difficult to cut, sometimes even requiring a magically enhanced blade, and any failure to do so resulted in the blade being stuck fast. 

Cave fishers have flammable blood and therefore were very adverse to fire. Casting silence on a cave fisher makes it freeze in place as it listens intently, attacking only (and much less effectively) if it is attacked first.

 Instinct: Consume
  • Ambush
  • Capture with Sticky filament
  • Devour


Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Ebony Turtle Monster of the Week Mysteries

J. Cale (AKA Ebony Turtle from RPG Geek) has posted the following Monster-of-the-Week (revised edition mysteries. They are worth checking out:

From Below:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ld8ZCM4YdzCMcxgrne2kOv4jeuXPi8wB

The Grays are Coming:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wXVYYiDD7EOPGkmw6xVfUPFQnOYgBqn1

A little Supernatural Surf and Turf!


Sunday, December 3, 2017

New Dungeon World Adventure: Vampire Castle

Ravenloft is one of those classic D&D modules like Barrier Peaks or The Lost City that gets a lot of deserved love and has some great ideas that are easy to harvest for Dungeon World. A variety of Ravenloft  inspired "labyrinth move" adaptions are floating around, several very good. I couldn't find the one I wanted/needed/remembered or imagined awhile back so I was forced to make one of my own. Hopefully it will help with any vampire hunts you have planned...I call my version Vampire Castle.Feedback appreciated!

Happy Holidays! Stay clear of Ravenloft!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=15GlaAdjSo_sqmDRqGN6JuICvsNI1J-Uf


Monday, November 27, 2017

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Iron God for Dungeon World



The Iron God

Lesser God  

Symbol: Iron shaped medallion with the Arrow of Law, Arrow of Law with a Skull or Gravestone or an Iron Golem with a Sword (think Academy Award in Iron)

Home Plane: “Underworld”

Alignment: Lawful neutral (Lord of Law)

Portfolio: Retribution, truth, discipline, death, darkness, graveyards, underworld, wealth

Worshipers: Fighters, monks, judges, constables, executioners and undertakers

Cleric Alignments: LN, N, Lawful

Domains: Destruction, Law, Protection, Strength, Death and Wealth

Favored Weapons: Sword, Mace

The Iron God is a largely forgotten deity of the Underworld that guards the spirits and bodies of the dead. He is neither evil nor good but highly lawful and very vengeful towards oath breakers and traitors to his own order. A sort of chthonic Hemidall he stands at the gates of the graveyard or underworld and he acts as a psychopomp. A psychopomp (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, psuchopompos, literally meaning the "guide of souls") are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage.


Apparently his followers were originally a guild of undertakers than gained great wealth because of a boon he can offer: burial on the god’s holy ground will hold the deceased soul in a dreamless sleep in their tomb deferring judgment or forfeiture to dark powers as long as the tomb is undisturbed. Many powerful evil sorcerers and brutal aristocrats would pay enormous sums and powerful magic items to delay judgment day.


The problem was the harsh and judgmental nature of this deity who would strike down with terrible wrath any member of his clergy who violated his precepts. This coupled with the tempting target the rich graveyard monasteries and nunneries of his order offered to freebooters may have what lead to the cult’s decline. Ruins of his cultic sites and the god's few remaining cult centers remain popular targets for adventurers and robbers due to the cult’s fabulous wealth and known habit of stockpiling magic items donated by desperate and dying wizards and rulers.


(The Iron God was conceived by Matt Finch for his OSR adventure module The Tomb of the Iron God)



The Prison of the Hated Pretender from the Dungeon of Signs: A Few Dungeon World Conversion Notes

The Prison of the Hated Pretender 

from the Dungeon of Signs blog 

Download this free module at: 

A Few, Brief Dungeon World Conversion Notes by Mark Tygart

General Rule

All types of metal coins (gp, cp, sp, etc.)= Same number of Dungeon World coins. All values are now in Dungeon World coins.

Questions

What treasure do you hope to find in the Prison of the Hated Pretender?

What do you plan to do with this treasure?

What stories have you heard about his crimes? His terrible fate?

What rumors have you heard about the crusaders who built the tower?

What do you think lurks within the tower?

What have you heard about the worship of "The Iron God"?


Items

I would replace silvered scale mail +1  in Crypt Area 10 with the following:

Prisoner's Ring
0 Weight
A simple silver ring set with a strange smoky blue stone. The owner of the ring may not be bound or confined by any locks, ropes, etc. on his person but may open these by pure mental will alone whenever desired. 
Note that the bindings must apply to the owner's physical person for the ring's magic to apply. Written in runic letters is a message inside the ring: "Happy Holidays Mouser! S."

I would also make each of the “small rubies” act as a potion of healing as opposed to just healing one point.

I would add as items of treasure at various locations:

Hecate’s Ghostly Dagger
1 Use, 0 Weight
A dagger, silvery and bright, but strangely lighter than one would expect. If you stab yourself and sacrifice half your hit points you will be immune to attacks from the undead for the rest of this adventure, but during that time your hit points may not be regained. After one use the dagger vanishes.

Wand of Bone
1 Use, 0 Weight
If this wand of bone touches any undead creature in the tower then that creature and the wand will both crumble into dust.

LORE

I made the crusaders and their leader followers of the Iron God from Matt Finch’s excellent Tomb of the Iron God module. The Iron God is a largely forgotten deity of the Underworld that guards the spirits and bodies of the dead. He is neither evil nor good but highly lawful and very vengeful towards oath breakers and traitors to his order. I also dissolved the Phantasms if the Hated Pretender was freed from his anguish and awarded extra XP for the deed to good or neutral players. The Iron God is also the patron of  "Tannoch: Rest of Kings" in my Dungeon World conversion:   (http://www.trilemma.com/blog/adventures/06%20Tannoch.pdf ).

Monsters

Hated Pretender
Solitary
Skeleton Claws (w[2d4] damage)
12 HP
0 armor
Close
Special Qualities: Undead, Regenerates

Whatever the Hated Pretender did he's likely been punished for it long since. He was converted into an undead and undying parody of himself by a sect of fanatically lawful warrior priests and placed in the prison to be tormented by Phantasms of Vengeance trapped with him. The Pretender can be destroyed by normal means, but his battered limbs will reform and his unlife will return the night after he is 'killed' unless his body is burnt and the ashes scattered or purified with unholy water. The Hated Pretender is a pitiful undead wretch, who despite retaining a normal intelligence, has been driven several varieties of insane and barely remembers his previous life as some sort of monarch. The Pretender's torturers were successful in tormenting him to madness and the thing lives in constant, overpowering fear of being burned and shredded by the Phantasms (having had this happen to him numerous times). He appears as an obviously unwell man: skeletal, stooped, with wild hair and beard, parched crackling skin, open wounds that ooze only crusted brown ichor and huge bright green eyes. He wears the cast off remnants of peasants' clothing (from a more recent victim) and a comical "crown" constructed of small animal bones, bird feathers, twigs and bits of thread. He is not actually aggressive, but the Phantasms require light to manifest he is equally afraid of light as he is in phantasms. The Pretender becomes agitated in the presence of light, fleeing to a dark area if possible and launching a furious attack with his claw like hands and unholy strength on anyone carrying a light if trapped. This monster was adapted from the famous and free mini OSR module "Prison of the Hated Pretender". 

Instinct: Light Panics

  • Suffers
  • Regenerates
  • Hates Light

Phantasm of Vengeance
Group, Construct, Amorphous
Spectral Strike (d4 damage)
3 HP
0 armor
Close, Ignores Armor, Near
Special Qualities: Vengeful lawful manifestation, Undead, Noncorporeal, Regenerates

A nasty species of vengeful lawful manifestation, each of these entities is the distilled desire for just and holy revenge of any number of lawful victims who died of violence. They are not complete spirits themselves, just a collection of the departed souls' earthly disbelief, rage and sadness at their slaughter. Phantasms are not very intelligent and seek vengeance on anyone they can reach that isn't a cleric or anointed follower of a specific lawful religion or cult. The phantasms can't really be destroyed; except by a proper exorcism (or similar ritual), but can be forced to dissipate and reform hours or days late by attacking them with normal weapons. Phantasms of Vengeance are nyctophobic and cannot abide darkness, even the darkness of normal night. Torchlight or magical light is sufficient for them to manifest. Each individual Phantasm's appearance varies; examples include: a fiery warrior, a ball of blue fire or a female ghostly figure wrapped in spectral chains. This monster was adapted from the famous and free mini OSR module "Prison of the Hated Pretender". 

Instinct: Vengeance on the unlawful!
  • Haunts
  • Inflicts Terror
  • Strikes


Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Lost Ubar, Irem, the City of Pillars, the Atlantis of the Sands...


Beautiful Art...

The Quran, chapter 89 (Al-Fajr), verse 6 to 14:

6: Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Aad -

7: [With] Iram – who had lofty pillars, 8: The likes of whom had never been created in the lands 9: And [with] Thamud, who carved out the rocks in the valley? 10: And [with] Pharaoh, owner of the stakes? – 11: [All of] whom oppressed within the lands 12: And increased therein the corruption. 13: So your Lord poured upon them a scourge of punishment.

14: Indeed, your Lord is in observation.

Iram is used in quatrain 5 of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to describe the brevity of human endeavors:

Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshyd's Sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows;
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.

Also a great location in the video game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception...:)

Upcoming Sword breaker Dungeon World Fanzine to feature this location....http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/11205/Sword-Breaker

Sword Breaker Issue No. 5 - The Folded Lands

I wrote a Dungeon Starter based on Ubar's Legend in this product (City of Pillars)......http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/194173/20-Dungeon-Starters




Prisoners of Molok Dungeon World Stats





Amazon Prisoner of Molok
Group, Cautious
Crude Weapon (2d4 damage)
6 HP
0 armor
Close, Near

In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a tribe of women warriors. Classicist Peter Walcot wrote, "Wherever the Amazons are located by the Greeks, whether it is somewhere along the Black Sea in the distant north-east, or in Libya in the furthest south, it is always beyond the confines of the civilized world. The Amazons exist outside the range of normal human experience." These Amazons are based on J.E. Holmes "Maze of Peril" version, noble female warrior enemies of evil. Think Wonder Women in a Gygaxian World.

Instinct: Destroy Evil
  • Fight
  • Use guile
  • Be fearless
Like Dr. Eric Holmes (and certain hobbits) I prefer Amazons to rescue me..MT:) 

(Maze of Peril reference, bonus points if you got it!)






Gelatinous Cube
Solitary, Large, Devious, Amorphous
Acidic push (1d8 damage)
16 HP
1 armor
Special Qualities: Transparent

A slime monster shaped into a cube, perfectly sized for many underground hallways. It is completely mindless, subsisting on whatever grime, pest and adventures blunder into it. 

Instinct: To feed
  • Engulf food
  • Paralytic slime
  • Transparent
Always a favorite monster....





Vat Ghoul of Molok
Group, Construct
Shiv (1d4 damage)
6 HP
0 armor
Close
Special Qualities: Grown in Molok's Vat, Undead

An undead minion grown in a vat from vile goo by Molok, the Vat Ghoul needs to neither eat nor sleep and exists purely to obey the orders of its creator. Poor warriors if killed they dissolve back into a foul smelling ichor. 

Instinct: Worships Creator
  • Obey
  • Perform duties flawlessly
  • Attack poorly




Molok the Grell
Solitary, Large, Intelligent, Hoarder, Planar
Tentacle grab (d12 damage)
16 HP
0 armor
Close, Ignores Armor
Special Qualities: Paralyzing Tentacles, Flight

Grell are fearsome alien predators who exist only to devour other living beings. These aberrations divide all creatures into two categories, the eaters and the eaten, and humans fall into the latter. Grell resemble a bloated flying jellyfish. Their gray-green mass is covered in folds and wrinkles and appears like nothing so much as an enormous brain with a hard bony beak. The creatures have no eyes, instead perceiving the world by receiving sound waves and electrical impulses through their skin, which functions as a single huge ear. A grell is immune to gaze attacks, visual effects, illusions, and other attack forms that rely on sight. A grell’s body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows it to fly at a speed of 30 feet. This buoyancy also grants it a permanent feather fall effect (as the spell) with personal range. A grell has ten pink or purple prehensile tentacles with retractable barbs that inject a paralytic toxin. Sages hypothesize that the creatures spread from world to world by planar travel, either through magical portals or the Vale of Shadows. Grell have no ambitions of conquest or slavery, desiring only food, making a grell a purely local problem, but left unchecked it can represent a plague of predation capable of depopulating an entire area. 

Molok is something of an over achiever among grells. He is a skilled alchemist who has created his own servants from the dead and supplies alchemical supplies to various evildoers for a price to fund his workshop of horrors. Molok is fascinated by slimes, oozes and jellies and is constantly experimented with them. He recently got a new shipment of pet food from a mysterious new supplier: the players and as many Amazons as the GM needs.

Instinct: Devour humans
  • Paralyze with a touch
  • Grapple with tentacles
  • Disappear into shadows