An Adventure for Every Monster - Djinni

Otherworld Miniatures do it again!

Frequency  Very rare    
No appearing  1
AC 4
Move 9”/24”   
HD 10
% in lair Ni1
Treasure type Nil   
No of attacks  1
Damage per attack 3-24   
Special attacks  See below
Special defences Nil
Magic resistance Standard
Intelligence Average-high
Alignment Chaotic Good
Size  L (10.5 feet tall)
THAC0  13
XP value 725 + 5/hp

Abilities include
Create nutritious food for 2-12 persons
Create water/wine for 2-12 persons
Create soft goods or wooden items with permanence
Create metal items of up to about 1000gp in weight for a short life span
Create an illusion with both visual and audial components which lasts until dispelled
Become invisible
Assume gaseous form
Wind walk
Form a whirlwind (doing 3-18 pts of damage)


Alzabir, city of adventure, danger and mystery!  A city on the edge of the desert, the terminus of a hundred caravans, home to a dozen races, the air thick with the heady scent of a thousand spices, the cries of prayer, the music of exotic dances and the screams of the dying. Ships from every port imaginable, crammed full of riches, put into its harbour; alluring houris ply their trade from marbled courtyards, masked assassins prowl the alleys. In the palaces, the sheikhs live in unimaginable luxury, in the slums the poor fight for every last scrap of food.

The city has recently been the scene of a battle between two creatures who share an ancient and inimical enmity – djinn and efreet. Nobody knows how they entered the city but enter it they did and their battle crackled through the air above the houses and the palaces before exploding like a second sun.

Whilst the efreeti was destroyed, the djinni was gravely injured and although it was able to recover its abilities, it had suffered total loss of memory in the process as a result of the magical energies to which it had been exposed. Now it wanders the city of Alzabir in human form, unable to recall who or what it is, but nevertheless curious about the environment in which it finds itself.

Normally djinn would limit the number of wishes they give to three, along the lines of strict agreements brokered with humans but this djinni, having no memory of the existence of agreements, has started to spontaneously grant wishes when it overhears them being made. As such, some very unusual occurrences have been noted in the city, both good and bad. Nobody knows why this is happening but some people have a shrewd idea of what might be causing it.   

There are several interested parties who would like to find out what’s going on and turn it to their advantage. The party may find themselves being hired by any one of them or perhaps making a grab for power themselves.

1. City Administration who would like weird things to stop happening in their city.
2. Cult who think that an angel has fallen from heaven and is performing good deeds (or taking revenge on evil doers) and believe this to be a sign that their time has come.
3. Cult who thin that a devil has risen from hell and is using wishes to corrupt people and lead them astray) and believe this is a sign that they must take arms and fight said devil.
4. The mainstream city religions who don’t want anything to upset their little world and would quite like things to go back to the way they were.
5. Rich merchant who wants the mysterious wish-giver for his own.
6. The city folk, who have got wind of the mysterious wish giver and are trying to seek him/her out so that they too can get what they want.
7. Agents of the Efreeti who want the djinni killed to finish the job their efreet bungled
8. Sages who would absolutely love a real live supernatural entity to examine, probe, dissect…
9. Thieves’ Guild who don’t know what is granting the wishes but can be fairly sure there’s a good market for it.
10. Agents of the Djinn who are looking for the lost djinni.

The DM should ensure that as many of these factions meet and clash as possible and that the party is stuck in the middle of said clashes.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Displacer Beast

Frequency Very rare    
No appearing  2-5
AC 4
Move 15”   
HD 6
% in lair 25%
Treasure type D   
No of attacks  2
Damage per attack 2-8/2-8   
Special attacks  Nil
Special defences -2 on opponent’s attack dice
Magic resistance Save as 12th level fighter +2 on die
Intelligence  Semi-
Alignment Neutral
Size  L
THAC0  13
XP value 475 + 8/hp

The party is approached by a man who needs their help urgently. He explains that following a terrible magical accident, a friend of his has been lost in the ever-shifting interdimensional vortex that surrounds the planes of existence. He needs to get her back before she becomes insane and mutated by the powerful energies that crackle across the dimensions. To do this, he needs to create a Displacer Beast King. Just like a Rat King, the Beast King consists of a number of Displacer Beasts joined together at the tail; they then acquire power beyond those of normal Beasts and can rip holes in the fabric of reality when they jump.

If the party can find and capture sufficient Displacer Beasts to make a Beast King, the party’s new friend says that he can join them together. All they have to do then is wait for the Beast King to make its first jump and then enter the vortex.

All is as represented; the party’s first big task is to find and capture a number of Displacer Beasts. That’s not going to be easy, considering they can displace themselves at will.

If the party can complete this stage of the mission successfully, then they will find their new friend more than able to carry out his part. When the appropriate magic is used, the tails of the Beasts will fuse and they will become a Beast King. The first displacement that the Beast King makes will indeed rip a hole in reality, allowing access to the interdimensional vortex.

This is a wild and frightening place where the laws of physics and indeed, reality in general do not work, or work in very different ways. Matter itself can be distorted and warped. The party’s friend will use possessions of the missing woman to try and locate her which should work well enough. What she will be like when she is found is another thing. The DM can decide or roll a d6 to find out.

1. Relatively unaffected; traumatised and with perhaps a phobia or two. Will return to normal once brought back to the Prime Material Plane
2. Temporarily insane due to the things that she has seen; this will last for 1d12 weeks once she returns to the Prime Material Plane, during which time there is a chance, albeit small, that her ravings will reveal important information about dimensional travellers and goings-on in other planes.
3. Permanently insane – as above, but there is no recovery possible (unless it be by wish). The party’s friend will be upset but will still pay the party their fee.
4. Mildly warped; will have randomly decided body part twisted or moulded into a new appendage, or will have acquired an ability similar in character to a mutation.
5. Severely warped; will be different in body shape (but still human in flesh) or may have acquired extra appendages, limbs or heads. Very unlikely in this instance to be sane. 
6. Transformed; has become a different substance, perhaps rock, jelly, slime or similar. What little consciousness there is left will be wholly mad by now. There is a good chance that she will attack the party and her old friend.

The DM should also keep an eye on how long the party stays in the interdimensional vortex; too long and they too will start to exhibit the same symptoms. They may well see things whilst there which will affect their mental stability; the DM can be inventive and use whatever sanity rules exist in his/her campaign.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Dinosaurs!

(with thanks to Arthur Conan Doyle)

The party is in a frontier town when they are approached by two rough, tough adventurers (at least a couple of levels higher than them) who explain that they are in the business of running hunting trips for bored nobles. Their previous security detail was seduced away by the lure of a large dungeon complex and they are in need of fresh volunteers to provide the weaponry and combat expertise for a new trip that the adventurers are planning.

Provided that the party is up for this, the two men arrange for them to meet up at the town gates in two days’ time, with their equipment, weapons, armour and supplies. The trip will probably take at least a month, the adventurers advise.

Two days later, the party is met at the town gates by their two new friends and a gaggle of rather uninspiring individuals, clearly wealthy and rather indolent, with their servants and retinues in tow. The nobles in question are diffident and will not speak to the party, seeing them as ruffians and too uncouth to bother with.

The voyage begins rather uneventfully; the town is in an area which, whilst technically wilderness, has been cleared out of any menacing monsters some years ago. However, once the party has covered the safe part of the journey, the terrain becomes rather more difficult; the hills become steeper and the going much tougher. Eventually, the two adventurers announce that they are nearing their destination. The next day should show where they are headed.

And indeed it does. Coming up over a rise in the trail, the party can see ahead a huge plateau rising above the wilderness. It looks big from where they are standing but it must be absolutely massive close up. The distance to the plateau takes at least two days to cross but when the party arrives, they will be scratching their heads about how to get to the top.

The two adventurers have the answer; they have been here before and know a way up the towering cliffs. They explain to the nobles that there will be no chance of carrying up all their equipment, so everything non-essential will be left at the bottom for their return. The nobles will balk at this but the two men know a cave in the cliff face that is easily concealable and suggest that all their equipment is placed in there.

With that out of the way, the ascent can begin. The path is steep and difficult but nothing that an experienced party can’t handle (rolling 1 on a DEX check is probably the only thing that can go wrong here). The climb will take the best part of the day – if the party has started any later than mid-morning, then the sun will set while they are still on the path. The DM can inflict penalties on the group but chances are the servants and retinue will pay the price, rather than the party.

And so the party will reach the top. The interior of the plateau is a tumbled mass of jungle, rocky outcrops, rivers and lakes, the sort of thing that it will be practically impossible to negotiate by horse. The two adventurers now explain that this is the hunting ground – the prey are dinosaurs, which seem to have survived here by some inexplicable chance. The nobles seem very excited by all this and start to unpack their weapons. The party may be quite eager to try their skills out against huge beasts from the dawn of time.

But all is not as it seems. The two adventurers have indeed been to this plateau before – as part of an adventuring party of their own. Whilst there, they stumbled across a temple complex inhabited by a native cult worshipping eldritch gods and were swiftly captured.  One by one, the captives were sacrificed in horrible ways and the experience drove the last two adventurers completely insane. They in fact became members of the cult and pledged their souls to the horrifying entities who were worshipped at the temple. To prove their worth, they suggested that they should return to the outside world and lure more victims to the plateau with the promise of hunting and wealth. This has worked twice already and now the third group of unsuspecting victims has arrived.

The two adventurers will contrive to lead the group closer to the temple but not so obviously that they raise suspicion. The natives will shadow the group to ensure that nobody escapes and then, when they ‘stumble across’ the temple, the trap will be thrown.

The natives will be skilled in bushcraft, armed with bows, arrows, spears, small knives and clubs. They will be wearing next to no armour. They will, in all likelihood have a shaman or priest (who will be the equivalent of an 8th level cleric) as well as tribal champions, probably 5th level fighters.  Their tactics will be to try and incapacitate rather than kill their enemies – this means they will reduce enemy parties to unconsciousness (minus hit points if you’re using that rule) and then bind them securely and use healing magic to bring them to perhaps 1 or 2HP.

The DM is encouraged to map and plot out the temple complex, although it will not be that large – perhaps a couple of levels. Being a lair of eldritch horror, it will have mysterious and eerie carvings all over the place and the holy of holies will cause detrimental effects to characters of strongly good alignments.  It may have guardians along the lines of Lovecraftian entities.

If the party is captured en masse, it may seem as though there is little that can be done to save them. However, it is possible that one of the nobles or one of their servants has managed to escape and could try to free one or more of the party. It is unlikely that they will be able to recover their armour and weapons unless they want to provoke a battle with the entire tribe. A tactical retreat into the jungle and some canny tricks and traps a la McGyver may be the best tactic.

There is of course treasure in the temple, but it will mostly be in the form of gold idols and artefacts which have been fashioned in the image of the eldritch nasties, so making them unsellable to any but the most dedicated scholars and collectors. They can be melted down for bullion value, of course. The property and belongings of previous duped parties were stored in the cave at the foot of the cliffs and later sold for profit by the two adventurer cultists.

If the party ends up due to be sacrificed, the ceremony should tax the sanity of all those present; those who do go insane may well end up as demented servants of the eldritch entities themselves and may join the two adventurer cultists on their next trip back to civilisation in search of more victims.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Pit Fiend

Frequency   Rare
No. appearing 1 or 1-3
Armour class  -3
Move  6”/15” 
Hit Dice  13
Percentage in lair 65%     
Treasure type J, R
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack  5-8/7-12    
Special attack  See below
Special defences  +2 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 65%
Intelligence Exceptional
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size   L (12‘ tall)
THAC0  9
XP value 7900 + 18/hp

The devil’s abilities include:

Pyrotechnics
Produce Flame
Wall of Fire
Detect Magic
Detect Invisible
Polymorph Self
Hold Person
Gate in 1-3 barbed devils (60%) or another pit fiend (40%) (70% chance of success)
Once per day, the pit fiend can deploy a Symbol of Pain.
Shed Fear in a 20’ radius.
Charm Person
Suggestion
Illusion
Infravision
Teleportation (no error)
Know Alignment
Cause Fear
Animate Dead


Many years ago, a high-level party was adventuring when they came up against a particularly tough opponent. The magic user, high in intelligence but not quite as well-endowed in the Wisdom department, used a Polymorph Other on his trusted henchman to turn him into a Pit Fiend. The plan worked but the magic user got separated from his polymorphed henchman and was then killed elsewhere by another opponent.

Left on his own, the henchman struggled to come to terms with what had happened to him and what his fate would now be. He was horrified, particularly as he was a nice chap to begin with, but slowly his predicament and his isolation began to eat away at his sanity and he started to believe that he really was a Pit Fiend and that his human memories were just delusions.

Succumbing to his diabolical urges, he began to go on rampages, slaughtering parties of adventurers sent to finish him off. After each combat, he would remember his former self when looking at the bodies of adventurers and this drove him even more insane. His rampages grew worse, including atrocities more in line with demons than devils.

In time, this came to the attention of Asmodeus himself and he despatched a real Pit Fiend to destroy the impostor and restore the Lawful reputation of devildom.

Into this situation comes the luckless party, hired by a local nobleman to accompany his rather weedy son on his first mission as a member of a holy order of knights (he got the job through generous donations by his father). The party will get a bonus if they finish off the ‘pit fiend’ but the penalty if the son dies will more or less wipe out that bonus.

The party will get wind of the trail of destruction pretty quickly as the ‘pit fiend’ is not subtle about what he does. Only when the party are closing to engage will the real pit fiend show up and he’s not fussy about stuff like collateral damage. In fact, if he can garner some more souls for his diabolical master, he will do so.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Lemure

Frequency   Common
No. appearing 5-30
Armour class  7
Move  3” 
Hit Dice  3
Percentage in lair 100%     
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack  1-3    
Special attack  Nil
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Semi-
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size   M
THAC0  16
XP value 65 +3/hp

Lemures regenerate at a rate of 1hp per melee round so they are not usually destroyed by the wounds inflicted on them. They can be destroyed permanently only by blessed things (holy water, holy swords, etc). They are not subject to any form of sleep, charm or the like.

The party have been hired to (or perhaps have become involved with the efforts to) destroy a temple which worships a particular devil prince. Rumours abound of human sacrifice, sinister manifestations of diabolical power and an even darker secret at the heart of the temple.

The party should have little trouble defeating the cultists. They are mostly misfits and losers who saw the cult as a path to personal gratification. Their leader, however, is a different matter; a mid-level cleric who will give the party a hard time before ultimately being defeated.

But that’s just the start of this adventure. The dark secret at the heart of the temple is accessed through a hidden door behind the altar, and it is through this that the priest will dart. Down a shaft lies a network of tunnels, at the centre of which is a pool of oozing, festering slime, complete with semi-dissolved faces and slimy hands reaching out of it, etc. This is the pool into which the sacrificial victims’ bodies were dumped and now it has achieved a sort of semi-sentience.

If he is still alive, the priest will lead the party into the lower levels and once they are down there, he will throw a switch that causes all the passageways out to be sealed by sliding stone doors. This is the signal for the slime pool to start disgorging horribly melted humanoid figures – the lemures, who will hunt the party down through the network of tunnels and seek to drag them back to the pool, where – if they are drowned in the slime – they will rise again as lemures themselves.  If the priest has been killed, then there will be a booby trap which will be triggered as the party explore the lower levels.

The lemures are, despite their weak stats, ineluctable in their efforts to capture the party and drown them in the slime. There are ways in which the slithering menace can be defeated but will the party survive long enough to find them?

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Ice

Frequency   Uncommon
No. appearing 1 or 1-4
Armour class  -4
Move  11” 
Hit Dice  11
Percentage in lair 60%     
Treasure type Q, R
No. of attacks 4
Damage per attack  1-4/1-4/2-8/3-12    
Special attack  See below
Special defences  +2 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 55%
Intelligence High
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size   L (10 ½ ‘ tall)
THAC0  10
XP value 4400 + 16/hp

The devil’s abilities include:

Fly
Wall of Ice
Detect Magic
Detect Invisible
Polymorph Self
Gate in 2 bone devils (70%) or another ice devil (30%) (60% chance of success)
Cause Ice Storm (once per day)
Charm Person
Suggestion
Illusion
Infravision
Teleportation (no error)
Know Alignment
Cause Fear
Animate Dead

The ice devils have been having a bit of trouble recently.  The city in which the adventure is set has recently come under the domination of a fire cult, whose clerics have been strengthening their power until they are on the verge of being able to wield fireball spells, a feat usually reserved for magic users. One particular cleric, a Priest Prince of the city, has been very effective at eliminating ice devils whenever they appear to try and restore the balance between fire and ice. This is also affecting the balance of power on the lower planes.

Hitherto, the ice devils have been using the manifest-fight-destroy model of operations but one particular ice devil, who is perhaps a little smarter than his fellows, has come up with a cunning plan that has resulted from a careful study of the opposition.

His plan revolves around the character of the Priest Prince, who is an arrogant and short-tempered man, handsome but violent. His shortcomings are tolerated because of his skills at devil slaying and his clerical powers. His looks have made him a hit with the ladies of the city, including one who has become perhaps slightly more obsessed with the Priest Prince than others might be. This is due in no short part to the efforts of the ice devil, who has used his Charm Person and Suggestion powers to convince the lady, through dreams, that she is destined to be the Priest Prince’s one true love. She is not particularly comely and, in reality, has no appeal for the Priest Prince. 

Now the ice devil has prepared his arrow, he merely needs to let it fly. The lady will begin to obsessively stalk the Priest Prince, who will brush her off brusquely, causing her to become even more determined. Eventually, he will lose his temper and either assault her or kill her to be rid of her. This will cause problems for him and the Fire Priests since the lady’s family is a powerful merchant clan who wield great influence in the city. Clashes between the spiritual and secular may well spill over into civil strife as there are many who resent the dominance of the Fire Priests.

The party will walk into this situation with little knowledge of the behind-the-scenes machinations.

There are several options for them to be dragged into this scenario.

1. They are hired by the Priest Prince to ‘deter’ the lady from making any further advances towards him. This can involve diverting her if one of the party has particularly high Charisma, ruining his image in her eyes by staging some sort of sham scandal, that sort of thing.

2. Maybe another party had tried option one before and had no luck. The Priest Prince does not need this sort of distraction at a time when he is due to lead a crusade against heretics in the northern wilds and so wants the lady out of the way – permanently. The party need to have her eliminated in a way that will not lead back to the Priest Prince and which will keep them out of prison as well.

3. The lady herself realises that on her own, she stands little chance of getting anywhere near the Priest Prince, so she approaches the party to see if their superior planning and intelligence can achieve what she has failed to do. The party need to come up with a way of getting the Priest Prince to see the lady’s obvious (to her) virtues and concluding a successful match.

4. The lady’s family are getting more than a little concerned about her infatuation and think that it’s for the best if she forgets about it. This is of course not going to happen whilst the ice devil is working his wicked plan. The party are hired to provide diversions aplenty (both social and personal) for the lady so that she has no chance to pine for her (clearly) unsuitable beau.

5. As with option four, but the family have already tried many different ways to break the lady’s infatuation and nothing has worked. Her father now suspects that something fishy is going on and wants the party to find out what. This will require the DM to devise the means by which the ice devil has managed to influence the lady’s mind. It will be no easy task to find and combat him, as he is a cunning and subtle fellow. 


If the ice devil thinks it has a chance, it may lure the party into the fire temple and somehow contrive for them to desecrate it (albeit unwittingly). This will enable the ice devil to gate in infernal support which will give the party a hard time.

Assuming they survive, the party may well become embroiled in the civil strife that follows any clash between the Fire Priests and the merchants. If the ice devils make a comeback following the weakening of the Fire Priests’ power, the party may well become a target for revenge attacks.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Horned

Frequency   Uncommon
No. appearing 1-2 or 2-5
Armour class  -5
Move  9”/18” 
Hit Dice  5+5
Percentage in lair 55%     
Treasure type I
No. of attacks 4 or 1 + weapon
Damage per attack  1-4/1-4/2-5/1-3 or 1-3 plus weapon    
Special attack  See below
Special defences  +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 50%
Intelligence High
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size   L (9’ tall)
THAC0  13
XP value 1320 + 6/hp

This adventure is best saved for the time at which the party need to make a sea voyage. Perhaps they’ve upset somebody in their home town, or things are getting hot after their last mission.

The party have been hired to escort a merchant across the sea to a neighbouring port where he is going to conduct negotiations for a new trade deal. He is very keen to get it sorted out and has hinted that if things go well, the party could be in for a bonus.

However, once at sea, the party start to realise that they may have let themselves in for more than they bargained for. Somewhere on the ship, a horned devil is at large, masquerading as one of the passengers. Which one? Nobody knows. Why? To wreak havoc and turn the ship into a floating mausoleum. Who stands in its way? Why, the party of course!

The devil’s abilities include

• Pyrotechnics
• Produce flame
• ESP
• Detect Magic
• Illusion
• Summon another horned devil (50% chance of success)
• Once a day, cast a Wall of Fire with triple normal strength
• Charm Person
• Suggestion
• Illusion
• Infravision
• Teleportation
• Know Alignment
• Cause Fear
• Animate Dead

The devil will try to eliminate anybody who might realise what it is. It will not try to confront its enemies directly but use its many magical abilities to manipulate, incriminate, sow discord and suspicion and generally stir the pot. Who are the most paranoid people on the boat? Why, the party, of course!

The closed environment of a ship is an excellent opportunity for the DM to put on their Call of Cthulhu Keeper’s hat. There are many nooks and crannies for an imaginative devil to hide and it can also take the place of passengers that it has killed in order to get closer to the party without them realising it.

Let us not forget that the ship’s crew have access to more or less every inch of the vessel and a quick Charm Person can turn them into the devil’s spies. Since he can only be hit by +1 weapons, a crew member could be charmed to have any magic weapons the party has on them mysteriously disappear.

The DM can stir things up more with the revelation, delivered by carrier pigeon a couple of days into the voyage, that the patron’s entire family have been brutally murdered back home. This may have nothing to do with the patron himself; he has business rivals who he has double-crossed in the past and this might be their revenge, thinking him home at the time. However with everything that’s happening on board ship, it’s another reason for the party to be very worried indeed.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Erinyes

Although I'm a big fan of Tramp, I'm not that keen on his illustration of the Erinyes in the Monster Manual so here are some other interpretations which I found whilst out on the net.

Righty-ho, let's get on with the adventure.


Erinyes

Frequency   Uncommon
No. appearing  1-3 or 4-16
Armour class  2
Move    6”/21”
Hit Dice  6+6
Percentage in lair 20%    
Treasure type R
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack 2-8     
Special attack  See below
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 30%
Intelligence Average
Alignment  Lawful Evil
Size   M (6’ tall)
THAC0  13
XP value 875 + 8/hp

Magical dagger, when struck, save v poison or faint for 1-6 rounds
Rope of Entanglement
Cause Fear in all who look at them
Once per turn or melee round
Detect invisible
Locate Object
Invisibility
Polymorph self
Produce Flame
Summon another Erinyes (25% chance of success)

Other powers:

• Charm person
• Suggestion
• Illusion
• Teleportation
• Know alignment
• Cause fear
• Animate dead

The Adventure itself

The party is given the job of hunting down and bringing back alive a fugitive from justice. The precise details can vary depending on either DM choice or a die roll.

Five options; 

1. The fugitive has killed his father in a vicious argument that got out of hand (well, that’s his story). In fact, his father found him forging documents to get his hands on the inheritance and a fight broke out which was rather one-sided as the father was elderly and infirm. However, his siblings will be rather cross about the whole thing since the authorities have refused to permit their father’s will to be read until the killer is brought to justice. Therefore, the siblings have hired their own gang of bounty hunters to bring him back alive and this is where the party comes in.

2. The fugitive is being pursued because of his evil murder of his step-children, who were standing in the way of him inheriting his wife’s fortune. His wife is being slowly poisoned by the fugitive but his choice of method for the infanticide raised suspicions amongst the city watch and he realised that it was time for him to leave town. The city watch’s jurisdiction extended only so far from the walls and so a posse was formed to hunt him down and bring him back for trial.  The party has been hired by relatives of the fugitive’s wife to hunt him down and bring him in.

3. The fugitive had been involved in atrocities committed during a war about five years ago and had been rewarded by his master, a duke who has now been deposed by a palace coup. Keen to start with a clean deck, the new regime has turned on the favourites of the old duke and that includes the fugitive who has now skipped town. As well as the party hunting him down, there are also the relatives of the victims who want the fugitive’s head.

4. The fugitive is a professional con-man, swindler and fraudster whose latest scam has deprived a charitable foundation of its main source of income, led to soup kitchens and shelters being closed down and the suicide of one of the trustees of the foundation. The party will have been hired by an irate member of the foundation who wants to keep the revenge mission quiet as the foundation itself is run by a religious body who, much against their better judgement have forgiven the fugitive (as their doctrine demands)

5. The fugitive is a former member of the Order of Dispater who has angered his master by transgressing the precepts of the order (possibly for personal gain) and is now a marked man. The party will be hired by a member of the Order, but he will keep his identity secret and just use the cover story that he has been cheated of a large amount of money/his brother has been murdered by the fugitive. He wants the head back in one piece if possible and will offer a bonus if that can be done.

The personal stats and capabilities of the fugitive are up to the DM to decide; he can be a match for the party or an easy capture but needs to be played convincingly and with conviction.

It won’t be long before the party realises that they are not the only ones on the fugitive’s trail. The Erinyes will make their presence known through subtle manifestations of their power, since they want to make their victim sweat before bringing him in. Thus, the party will know that the fugitive is being chased but not by whom. 

When the party catches up with him (and in all likelihood they will) then he will throw himself on their mercy and explain (assuming that the presence of the Erinyes is known) that he has somehow angered the infernal powers – all the time portraying himself as an innocent man – then explain that he needs to get to the abandoned temple to find the item that will enable him to escape his doom. 

The fugitive has worked out that if he can present the infernal lord with sufficient souls, he can escape the justice of the Erinyes. However, he has to get the party to the long-abandoned temple of Dispater so that when he sacrifices them, their souls will go straight to the second plane of Hell.  He promises the party full access to the treasure which is there as long as he can have that one magic item. Of course, the temple of Dispater is a full dungeon in itself, complete with lethal traps, crumbling architecture and unknown denizens, any one of which can cause real problems for the party.

Meanwhile, there is another individual on the case – Father Sholta, a cleric whose church is keen to have the Order of Dispater destroyed. He will be pursuing the fugitive himself but believes that the fugitive can lead him to the temple, so will not attack immediately, even if he has the fugitive and the party at him mercy.

However, there are three options for Father Sholta

• He is a low-level cleric who has adopted his quest to prove his worth to his church hierarchy. Competent for his level, he is zealous, intelligent and determined – just not strong enough to take on a flock of Erinyes or the fugitive and his party in combat. He knows this and will use subtlety and cunning rather than outright confrontation. He realises that the party may in all likelihood have been tricked or deceived into helping the fugitive and may use indirect approaches to pull them back from their Faustian deal.
• He is a mid-level cleric, who has a selection of powers and weapons at his disposal but operates alone, due to the distaste evidenced by his church for his methods (he’s a bit of a loose cannon when it comes to combating evil, but the church is happy to accept the results, just not the means). Collateral casualties are all in a day’s work for Father Sholta, who has seen those he befriended and cared about killed by evil cultists in the past. If the party have thrown in their lot with a disciple of Dispater, they deserve all that’s coming to them.
•  He is a high-level cleric, with an arsenal of spiritual and magical weapons at his disposal as well as a collection of acolytes who follow him to learn his methods and gain spiritual credit in the eyes of the church. He has not got where he is today without learning a few tricks but has also acquired a degree of pragmatism, so may be more inclined to cut the party a deal if they realise that they have been stitched up by the fugitive.

As can be seen, this is a very adaptable adventure, which has a variety of possible outcomes. It might almost grow into a mini-campaign as there are off-shoots and side-quests suggested by the characters and situations.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Bone

Bone Devil

Frequency   Uncommon
No. appearing  1-2 or 2-8
Armour class  -1
Move  15” 
Hit Dice   9
Percentage in lair  55%   
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack  3-12   
Special attack  See below  
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 40%
Intelligence Very
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size  L (9’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 2800 + 12/hp

This adventure begins in what appears to be a perfectly unremarkable section of dungeon passageway. However, there is a nasty surprise waiting for the party; a pit trap of sufficient size that most, if not all of the characters are going to be caught in it.

They will be plunged down a shaft sufficiently steep that climbing back up would be difficult but not so deep that they would be incapacitated by the drop. At the bottom, they will find themselves in pitch blackness, not because the door to the pit trap has closed again (it has) but because the pit into which they have been dropped is under the influence of a Continual Darkness spell that has been made permanent.

The pit is merely one section of the Black Maze, a labyrinth of twisting, turning and sometimes dead-end passages, with a number of nasty features like doorways that open onto very deep shafts. Somewhere in the Black Maze there is the switch which will deactivate the Continual Darkness; all the party has to do is find either it or the exit (there is one) by fumbling along in the darkness, going by touch alone. Infravision or ultravision will work in the darkness, which is just as well because in the Black Maze are two Bone Devils, whose job it is to hunt down and despatch anyone who enters. They have infravision, ultravision, and they can also detect invisible.

They also have the powers of
Charm person
Suggestion
Illusion
Teleportation
Know alignment
Cause fear
Animate dead
Fly
Become invisible
Summon another bone devil (40%) – the DM could conceivably use this ability to restock the devils if the party gets lucky against one too quickly – not that a good DM would do such a dishonest thing!

Once a day, each devil can create a wall of ice, so they may well use that to block off sections of the maze to channel the party into a killing zone.

The DM can have a lot of fun with this one; remember that the remains of previous parties who didn’t find the exit in time will litter the labyrinth (which the DM can make as large as they wish). There are lots of opportunities for trips, bumps and nasty accidents – plenty of saves v DEX to be made here.  A good trick which the devils might try is to suspend the skeletons of their victims by wires from the ceiling of the maze so that the rattle of their bones might make the party think that a devil is in the area. Another nasty trick might be a patch of fungus or slime which is harmless in itself but marks the party member who blunders into it with a stain that is visible on the ultraviolet spectrum, meaning they’re even more visible to the Bone Devils.

It should also be remembered that infravision in particular may work well to see sources of heat but it’s much harder to spot things which are the same temperature as their surroundings. Like uneven slabs of stone on the dungeon floor.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Barbed

Barbed Devil

 Frequency   Uncommon
No. appearing  1-2 or 3-12
Armour class  0
Move  12” 
Hit Dice   8
Percentage in lair  50%   
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 3
Damage per attack  2-8/2-8/3-12   
Special attack  See below  
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 35%
Intelligence Very
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size  M (7’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 1425 + 10/hp

Abilities include

Charm Person
Suggestion
Illusion
Infravision
Teleportation (no error)
Know Alignment
Cause Fear
Animate Dead
Pyrotechnics
Produce Flame
Hold Person
Summon another barbed devil (30% chance of success)

Life isn’t always peachy for a devil. Powerful embodiment of evil though it is, there is often someone more powerful about and that’s what happened to this barbed devil, who had the misfortune to encounter, cross and get punished by that powerful someone. The magic used to punish the devil must have had a twisted side because it transformed him into an Iron Maiden, with all his barbs on the inside and only decorative ones outside.

Thus trapped, the devil vanished from history and from the thoughts of his vanquisher, who may well eventually have come up against somebody more powerful still (but that’s another story). But there’s always a catch with these imprisoning spells, isn’t there and this particular one is no exception. Over the years, every person tortured and killed in the Iron Maiden has weakened the magic as the slain soul is consumed by the bound devil. Now, he’s getting very close to his target; perhaps a handful of souls is all that is required to release him so that he can take his true form once again and wreak havoc on the Prime Material Plane.

None of this, of course, is known to the party. The Iron Maiden has had many owners down the years and now somebody who would like to own it has hired the party to obtain it from its current owner. They do not, of course, have the faintest idea what it really is or what might happen to it very soon.

It is in the hands of (1d6)

1. Mad collector – he’ll have plenty of other objets d’art, knick-knacks and artefacts about which even he knows little. He will be paranoid about other collectors stealing his property and will no doubt have security and traps aplenty. Much of what’s in his collection is going to have curses on or eldritch guardians because that’s the sort of stuff he goes for.

2. Cultist, non-diabolical. He’ll have sinister connections but apart from that, his collection, such as it is, will not be heavily guarded. He’ll have it hidden in a secret room with perhaps a few traps here and there but nothing like no.1. More interesting will be the members of the cult itself. It’s probably a secret but not particularly nasty group, a bit like the Freemasons.

3. Devil worshipping cultists – these chaps will know that the Iron Maiden has something very powerful inside it and will be trying to work out how to set it free. They may view the arrival of the party as a gift from the infernal powers. They will probably contrive some way of using the party as a sacrifice or trapping them inside the Iron Maiden.

4. Torturer, private – he happily tortures people on a pay-by-results basis and his lair has many torture instruments, all of which get used regularly. He take a professional’s pride in his work, being very serious about it, ensuring all his equipment is maintained and familiarising himself with the latest torture methods. If he gets wind of the party’s arrival, he will be looking forward to experimenting on them.

5. Official State Torturer – a civil servant whose job it happens to be. He is no sadist and tries to torture people within the rules, such as they are, but will get upset if he thinks that enemies of the state are trying to sabotage the security system. He will be perturbed if the true nature of the Iron Maiden is revealed to him and will probably insist it be impounded for investigation. The resources of the state will be available for his use if he is threatened or coerced in any way.

6. Harmless antiques nut who happens to have a liking for ancient torture instruments. Probably the easiest of the six options;  his collection will resemble no.4 but all the torture instruments will be old, worn or rusty – but labelled and catalogued nevertheless. He may be the target for thieves who think that he has something valuable on the premises. The devil inside the Iron Maiden may well find this fellow, with his somewhat weak mind, easy prey to corrupt and seduce. It may be that this fellow also has connections amongst the antiques fraternity who may take a dim view of anyone trying to rob their friend.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type VI

What will happen to your party if you're successful in this adventure

(artwork from Craig J Spearing - check his stuff out here)

Frequency     Rare
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class  -2
Move  6”/15”
Hit Dice 8+8
Percentage in lair  20%    
Treasure type F
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack 2-13    
Special attack  Whip and flame for 2-12/3-18/4-24 (damage dependent on size of demon)
Special defences +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 75%
Intelligence High
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (12’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value  3600 +12/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Cause Fear
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Detect Invisible Objects
Pyrotechnics
Dispel Magic
Telekinese 6000gp weight
Use Symbol of Fear, Discord, Sleep or Stunning
70% chance of gating in a Type III (80%) or IV (20%)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation


Legends tell of a mighty battle deep in the heart of a mountain fastness, in which a terrifying demon fought the last of the Grey Wizards. Enchantments, magicks and thaumaturgical power of awe-inspiring proportions were hurled between the adversaries and finally the demon was cast into an abyss and half the mountain brought down on top of it.

The Grey Wizard knew, however, that this would not kill the demon, merely trap it and that its evil would linger there unless he found some way of destroying it forever. He set off on a quest to locate the arcane knowledge that would enable him to do this but whether he succeeded or not is lost in the mists of legend. Even the existence of the demon is now doubted by those in the know; modernist revisions of the legend now hold that it is merely a metaphor for the struggle over the resources of precious metal that surely still exist deep within the mountain’s caves.

Needless to say, this is tosh. Of course the demon still exists and, like anybody who’s spent centuries with a mountain on top of him, he’s very, very angry. You would have thought that he would be angrier still that most of his hoard of treasure, unguarded since his fall, had been looted but this, strange to say, pleases him greatly. Why might this be so?

Simply put, the treasure had been in his possession for so long that he had started to imbue it with his essence; it had taken on part of his spirit and after many years under the rubble, he found that he could see shadowy images through that link. Practising concentration (because he really had nothing else to do down there) he was able to fine tune the connection and learn a lot about the people who had looted his hoard and where those items were now. He found that he was able to send images and suggestions into their dreams and he now uses this to lure adventurers to the place where he is interred so that, egged on by the promise of more loot, they will uncover him and set him free.

The party has acquired an item that once belonged to the hoard of the demon. They don’t know this but over the course of the next few weeks, one of them (or more if the item is held communally) will start to have dreams about a fabulous treasure hoard, buried in the depths of the mountains,  just waiting to be looted. Try as they might, the party will be unable to determine the source of the dreams but like a game of ‘hot or cold’, the dreams will become clearer and more vivid as they home in on the direction of the demon.

The demon takes a philosophical view of his centuries-long imprisonment; after all, it is inevitable that at some point, a determined band of adventurers will manage to find him and free him. He has some very interesting experiences in mind for them as a special reward for setting him free.

There is one slight problem with the demon’s plan, however;  in the centuries since he was imprisoned, there has developed in the mountains a cult that has been drawn there by the evil influence and now worships at a crudely constructed shrine very near where the demon is trapped. They are savage, cunning, inbred and fond of human sacrifice to their supposed deity (the demon gains no benefit from this, alas). They also know by heart the tunnels and caves surrounding their shrine and have set up simple but effective booby traps to guard it. This is going to make getting to the demon very difficult for anything but a determined and tough party.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type V

Frequency     Rare
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class  –7/-5
Move  12”
Hit Dice 7+7
Percentage in lair 10%    
Treasure type G
No. of attacks 7
Damage per attack 2-8 & 6 varying    
Special attack  See below
Special defences +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 80%
Intelligence High
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (7’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 3000 + 12/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Create illusion
Cause Fear
Levitate
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Dispel Magic
Polymorph Self
Telekinese 5000gp weight
Project Image
Use Symbol of Fear or Discord
Gate in a demon of Type I to IV (60% chance of success)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation


Demons, just like everybody else, dream. However, being demons, those dreams are typically demonic. Just how much trouble this can cause, we will now relate.

Our adventure takes place in an area of neglected countryside near a small town that is experiencing an influx of settlers, prospectors and, of course, adventurers. The town has its problems, as does any frontier town, but recently, those problems include three very grisly murders; all of young, handsome men who have been literally ripped to pieces. The town constable is perturbed to say the least, as are many of the menfolk of the town. In fact, the party may well find when they arrive that the streets are a lot quieter than they are used to and many males stay behind locked doors at night.

What could be causing this wave of consternation? The answer lies several miles outside town, in an old and almost forgotten temple, once the haunt of a cult of the Snake God, now however a lurking place for another (albeit similar) cult. This one worships Lazulari, a Type V demon who, as many of her kind tend to do, has required the regular sacrifice of strong warriors. Fortunately, there seems to be a regular supply of them in the town, where her cult members have been busy as of late. They’re not, however, the ones doing the horrific murders.

Lazulari is not the demon she once was. Until a few weeks ago, she gladly accepted the offerings made by her cultists; warriors would be brought to the temple, held till the day of the sacrifice and then slain on Lazulari’s altar. She would then channel the demonic energies to her cultists and everyone would go away happy.

That is, until her cultists brought her Jerrif, a fighter who was, shall we say, rather on the handsome side, ostensibly Chaotic Neutral but with a hidden tendency towards acts of badness. Lazulari sensed the evil within him but she also found his charisma and looks rather overwhelming. In short, she fell in love with him.

She commanded him imprisoned rather than sacrificed and spent many hours trying to turn him to evil. Jerrif, however, was having none of it and although frustrated and angry, Lazulari could not bring herself to kill him. Nor indeed did she wish to Charm him. That would be cheating. She wanted him to come to her of his own free will. The new feelings she was experiencing have started to manifest in ways that she could not have imagined; romantic dreams were only part of it. She was determined to woo him and set about discovering the strange world of human love.

On three occasions, she has assumed the shape of a young girl and gone into town to see if she can find out the way to a man’s heart and use that knowledge to seduce Jerrif. That plan went badly wrong when the men she chose, although handsome, turned out to be less than gallant and laughed at her attempts at romance. Angered, she assumed her real shape and slaughtered her mocker.

After three attempts, she gave up and set about obtaining, through demonic assistance, tomes and scrolls of a romantic nature to see if they could help in her plan.

Meanwhile, obsessed by dreams of romance, her ability to grant the wishes of her cultists is starting to go decidedly off track. The cult members are now getting rather impatient, if not irritated by her lack of demonic prowess and some are wondering if perhaps they might have better luck with another Type V demon. This is almost certainly the case and it is likely that other Type V demons are already eyeing up the potential.

And what of Jerrif? The poor chap can’t help but be a little nervous of what awaits him. He had heard stories of demon love and what might work for them certainly won’t leave him in very good shape. The human frame just isn’t robust enough. He’s desperate to escape before she gets kinky. 

The party have several opportunities to enter this adventure.

The town constable may hire them to investigate the murders. Clues may well lead them to a young girl present before each murder and her trail may lead back to the temple.

The cultists may well try to hire muscle to aid in their attempt to depose and dispose of Lazulari.

Jerrif’s friends and fellow adventurers aren’t convinced that he’s dead and seek help to track him down. A mischevious DM may plant the seeds in the party’s mind that Jerrif has gone over to the dark side during his imprisonment.

Lazulari herself may be seeking an exit strategy. Knowing that her position in the hierarchy of the Abyss is imperilled by her strange behaviour and suspecting her cult of treachery, she may try to cut a deal with the party if she can approach them in a manner that is not going to cause them immediately to attack. If the party agree to help her, she will not turn on them, provided that she and Jerrif are allowed to stay together. If the party interferes with her plan, she will turn on them.

She will use her treasure either to aid her in combat or to bribe the party to assist her.

12500 gold pieces
525 platinum pieces
4 gems
1 piece of jewellery

Magic items: Any 4 plus one scroll 35%

Given that Jerrif has been reluctant to reciprocate Lazulari’s feelings, it may be that if there is another fighter in the party with a similarly high Charisma (say 16+), then the demon may transfer her sentiments to him.

If the party help her and all goes well, they will have acquired an ally, albeit one that is, like most of her swords, double-edged. The attention of the Authorities of the Abyss will also become more focussed on them with all the bother that this entails.

Ironically, the outcome of this adventure will actually be quite negative for the nearby town if the cult survives and lazulari departs, either killed or into hiding.  A new Type V demon will arrive soon and with no romantic delusions to cloud her mind, will start to wreak havoc in the area. The cultists will also be able to warn her about the party and its abilities, so they will be less likely to be able to take the new demon by surprise.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type IV

 Frequency Uncommon   
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class -1
Move  9”/12”
Hit Dice 11
Percentage in lair 15%   
Treasure type E
No. of attacks 3
Damage per attack 1-4/1-4/2-8    
Special attack – bonus of +2 to hit; also see below
Special defences  +1 or better weapons to hit
Magic Resistance 65%
Intelligence Very
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (10 ½ feet tall)
THAC0  8
XP value 3000 + 16/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Create illusion
Cause Fear
Levitate
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Dispel Magic
Polymorph Self
Telekinese 5000gp weight
Project Image
Use Symbol of Fear or Discord
Gate in a demon of Type I to IV (60% chance of success)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation

The King has recently managed to obtain a ring; by fair means, of course, since he is a good king. This ring, ancient and arcane is not just nice to  look at. It also has, within it the amulet of a Type IV demon, Yohozrimul.  Realising what he had acquired, the King at once began to search for ways to summon the demon, thinking that with the amulet, he could bind the denizen of the Abyss to his service and overcome his enemies (who were, at that time, manifold). The king managed to do so and Yohozrimul was bound to royal service.

However, the ability to wield power far beyond the means of mortal man was rather intoxicating to the King, who – being a nice chap – had never really thought about all the advantages that an ally from the lower planes could provide. Yohozrimul, on the other hand, was well aware of the old dictum about power corrupting. He decided to try and win the King’s soul for his demonic masters by slowly working to prise the monarchy away from light and into darkness.

He has had considerable success. The King is well on his way to becoming a sybaritic despot who prefers the pleasures of the flesh to the rewards of virtue.

This has not gone down at all well with his nobles and courtiers. The King’s increasingly erratic behaviour and his arbitrary cruelty towards those who oppose him have alienated virtually everybody except the most sycophantic. They’ve decided that it’s time for the King to go but unfortunately, the presence of the demon is complicating matters and making it very difficult to arrange a little ‘accident’ for the King.

Aware of the fact that his operations will have created bad feeling amongst the courtiers and nobles, Yohozrimul has also been courting support amongst other members of society – namely the scholars and sages. His ability to change shape, along with his infernal connections and linguistic abilities has meant he is able to obtain rare scrolls and books for them, thereby keeping them on side. As far as they know, he is just a well-read and sympathetic scholar but there are rumours of wild parties in a wing of the palace to which a select few are invited.

Suave, sophisticated, cultured, well-spoken and thoroughly evil. Yes, this shape will do nicely.

Into this nice little imbroglio come the party. There are several options for an introduction to the situation.

1. The party has been hired to steal the ring from the King. This may be at the behest of another demon who fancies his chances in becoming the King’s BFF, or perhaps somebody at court has put two and two together and identified the ring as the problem, without realising that a demon goes with it.

2. The party has been hired to assassinate the King. Their employers are not fully aware of the importance of the ring and will not think to mention it to the party. Yohozrimul is believed to be just a meddlesome human who would not be missed if he got in the way of a crossbow bolt.

3. The King has got wind of the plots that are hatching in the palace and worries that he and his new friend are short on protection. The party is hired to safeguard both the King and Yohozrimul without having the faintest idea who Yohozrimul really is.

4. In the course of his cosying up to the palace scholars and sages, Yohozrimul has inadvertently stolen a very valuable scroll and its original owners want it back. It might be the assassins’ guild, the thieves’ guild or just a powerful and angry collector. Whoever it is, they will pay the party to recover it and punish the thief.

Whichever scenario it is, the party are going to have problems because Yohozrimul has learned a great many things during his studies, including some neat psychological tricks that can probably outwit the less sophisticated parties. It will also use its many abilities to confuse and faze attackers, changing shape and causing illusions wherever will be most effective. The royal court is full of officials, functionaries and flunkies. Yohozrimul will know many of them and can use this knowledge to his advantage when causing confusion and trouble for the party.

However, all this new knowledge and intelligence have had their effect on Yohozrimul. It has firstly increased his vanity, since he now considers himself a sophisticated, urbane and well-read man about town. He is far less likely to use violence as a first resort, preferring to toy with his opponents in a way that a cat and a spider might do if they were working as a team.  He may be vulnerable to flattery and the lure of knowledge and sophistication can be used against him.

There is also the problem (for Yohozrimul, anyway) that with his immersion in the world of learning, study and academia, he is becoming less chaotic and more lawful in his evil – not a fact that is going to please his demonic masters.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type III

Here's how our pincer-handed friend appeared in 1977

And here he is in all his pewterific glory, courtesy of the guys at Otherworld.

 Frequency    Uncommon
No. appearing  1-3 or 1-6
Armour class -4
Move  9”
Hit Dice 10
Percentage in lair 15%   
Treasure type D
No. of attacks 5
Damage per attack 1-2-12/2-12/1-3/1-3/2-5    
Special attack See below
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 60%
Intelligence  Average
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (9 ½ feet + tall)
THAC0  10
XP value  2400 + 14/hp

Legends tell of a battle between good and evil that lit the sky with arcane colours, scorched the earth, melted stone and left a legacy of horror that has endured for centuries.

It’s not quite that bad; a Type III demon (the one with the pincers and the dog head) was taken on by a party of high-level adventurers and defeated but not destroyed. The catacomb in which it was fought became its prison; powerful sigils and wards were used by the survivors of the fight to ensure that it remained there for the rest of their lives (their descendants were on their own).  To be fair, the catacomb sealing was done well and has lasted for a lot longer than the party envisaged. Now, many years later, the catacomb and the buildings above it have crumbled and collapsed in on themselves, whilst the countryside around it has become wooded and covered with thick undergrowth.

Nothing lasts forever, and this goes for the wards imprisoning the demon. They have started to break down and the evil influence has begun to corrupt the vegetation in the area, causing death and injury amongst the locals who now shun the area (so no chance of hiring henchmen from that source).

The party will be drawn into this lovely little scenario by getting wind of an artefact of great power that lies within an old abandoned chapel. Over the years, this is how the legend of the demon has been corrupted by folk tales and oral history. The DM, if desired, can embroider the setting with hints of this for several sessions ahead of time. Perhaps old illuminated manuscripts, travelling bards with stories of the Lost Chapel with its incredible treasures, even a Sleeping Beauty legend might have been invented to explain the corrupted vegetation that surrounds the old catacomb.

Whatever happens, the party will doubtless wish to investigate and to do so, they will have to hack their way through everybody’s idea of a cursed forest, complete with evil and undead Ents, tree spirits, yellow musk zombies and carnivorous plants, etc (see below).

If they make it to the chapel (and let’s face it, those who chicken out at some nasty trees don’t deserve treasure of any sort) then they will probably be able to force their way in with little trouble. Indeed, the sheer force of breaking into the catacomb will probably destroy the last of the wards. Inside, the tunnels and passageways may well be littered with the leftovers of the demon’s entrapment, which can provide an excuse to scatter the treasure about so that the party has to pick it up as they go along, rather than it being neatly stockpiled in one place. Bodies of former adventurers who came to grief in the forests can also be a source of loot.

When the demon finally gets free, it will be very upset and may, in its confusion, think that the party are the same ones who imprisoned it. Be sure to give them very little chance to set the record straight!

A few suggestions for the sinister and twisted vegetation that dwells within the radius of the catacomb. I’ve taken some of these from other sources and adapted them, giving credits where possible. Yellow Musk Zombies can be found in the Fiend Folio.

There's something not quite right about this wood. I feel it.

The corrupt forest will be a network of dead-end tracks, thickets of thorn devils, boggy areas that may well be home to will-o-the-wisps, mists that rise from the quagmires and reduce all visibility to virtually nothing, as well as the stench of rotting vegetation, the sound of raucous croaking and the harsh laughter of crows that lope slowly through the branches of the gnarled and twisted trees. The damp air will mean that torches will be harder to light and rations start to turn mouldy within a short period of time.  

Evil Ent

"Treebeard?  A pussycat compared to me."

 Frequency    Very rare
No. appearing  1-20
Armour class 0
Move  12”
Hit Dice 7-12
Percentage in lair n/s  
Treasure type Qx 5, X
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack Variable  
Special attack Nil
Special defences  Nil
Magic Resistance Nil
Intelligence Very
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  Large (13-14 feet)
THAC0  13(7-8HD)11(9-10HD) 9(11-12HD)
XP value 2000

Young evil ents can strike with their branches, causing 2d6 damage per blow landed. The mature specimens will do 3d6 per strike and elder evil ents do 4d6. Any weapon or attack based on fire will receive a +4 on the attack roll. Saving throws against fire-based attacks and spells are made at –4. Each evil ent can command two living trees within 60 yards. Evil ents like to devour living creatures, especially the flesh of innocents.
(from the Ravenloft setting)


Undead Ent

No. appearing  1-4
Armour class 0
Move  12”
Hit Dice 15
Percentage in lair n/s  
Treasure type  Nil
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack 5d6/8d6   
Special attack See below
Special defences See below
Magic Resistance Nil
Intelligence High
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (20’ tall)
THAC0  8
XP value 15,000

The Undead ent strikes with its branches, doing 5d6 of damage with each successful blow. On a natural roll of 19 or 20, they have knocked out or stunned their victim for 1 round per 5 points of damage inflicted.  If it is not otherwise occupied, the undead treant will move itself alongside the victim and feed off his or her blood.  This is done by sprouting 3d4 root-like appendages which will inflict 1 point of damage each as they burrow into the victim’s flesh and thereafter 1d3 of blood is drained each round for every root that is draining.

The victim, being bound by the undead ent, will be unable to free themselves except with the aid of a third party.  The roots are AC5 and a successful hit will sever one root.

If all the tendrils are cut, the victim can escape in two rounds.

If the undead treant stops feeding, either because its tendrils have all been severed or its victim is empty of blood, it needs a full round to become mobile again. 

All attacks against it whilst it is feeding or getting ready to move are at +2

Undead ents cannot animate other trees but its victims, if left where they fell, will rise as zombie slaves of the ent that created them. They can only move 20’ from their master tree but will act as its hands in procuring more victims for its vampiric tendrils.

They are also immune to holy water, sleep, charm, hold, sunlight, clerical turning, control undead or plant control spells.

(from the Ravenloft setting)


Spirits of the Forest (or Evil Dryad, whatever floats your boat)

No. appearing  1
Armour class 2
Move  6”
Hit Dice 8
Percentage in lair 100%  
Treasure type  Nil
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack 1d8   
Special attack See below
Special defences See below
Magic Resistance 10%
Intelligence High
Alignment Neutral Evil
Size  L (15’ tall)
THAC0 12

I’m not sure about XP.

Each spirit is linked  to one particular tree from which it can only move a maximum of 3”.  It can be dispelled by a cleric of 12th level or higher.

Appearing as a 15' tall, spectral, treelike humanoid with extremely long twig-like fingers, it attacks all non-magically armoured targets as if they were AC10.

It can only be hit by magic weapons; and has a magic resistance of 10%. In combat, if the spirit scores 5 or more over what it needs to hit, it has clutched its victim's heart with its spectral hands. The victim will then collapse for 1-4 rounds and for each round unconscious will age by 10% of his initial age.

Also, for each round unconscious, the victim loses 1 hit point per hit die permanently. If the damage accrued by this exceeds the victim's total, he will die. If the body is not removed or blessed, a new tree will sprout from the body; when the tree is fully grown, the damned soul of the victim will appear as a new spirit of the forest.

If the spirit drops below 0 hit points, it will flee into its tree where it will regenerate at the rate of 1 hit point per turn. During this time, it and its tree are defenceless. If the tree is destroyed, the spirit is killed forever.

(adapted from the Birch Spirit, White Dwarf no. 28, C M Cartmell)

Carnivorous Vegetation
This is seemingly normal vegetation that has a variety of flesh eating mouths. Small plants have tiny mouths that do 1d3 damage while large trees have gaping maws that can do 1d12 damage. Limbs writhe and vines curl hungrily, but do no actual damage. Each plant will have 1d4-1 (with a minimum of 1) such mouth. Anyone taking ½ damage (or more) and surviving will need to make a Save versus Petrify and Paralyse at -1 to enter a forest for one week after the encounter. Those who fail the Save will not enter any heavy vegetation and will be catatonic for 1d4 turns.
(adapted from an original creation by Bat at Eldritch Vaults and Ancient Secrets)

Thorn Devils
This vegetation has barbed thorns that lash out and attack any creatures within reach, dealing 4d6 points of damage. When rolling to hit for the plant(s), a natural 20 indicates that the plants have wrapped around an individual, causing an additional 1d6 points of damage. There may be poisonous plants within the vegetation and they will inject their poison with the thorns. Those affected will need to make a saving throw versus poison or suffer the effects of the poison as well (an additional 1d4 to 1d8 of damage, up to the DM’s discretion).
(adapted from an original creation by Bat at Eldritch Vaults and Ancient Secrets)

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type II

Here's the Dave Sutherland Monster Manual picture. He looks like a happy chap, doesn't he?

And here's the Otherworld Miniatures version. Man, that is a sweet mini!

Frequency    Common
No. appearing  1-3 or 1-6
Armour class -2
Move  6”/12”
Hit Dice 9
Percentage in lair 10%   
Treasure type C
No. of attacks 3
Damage per attack 1-3/1-3/4-16    
Special attack See below
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 55%
Intelligence  Low
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (7 feet + tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 2000 +12/hp

They may be struck by normal missiles and weapons.

Abilities:
Cause fear
Levitate
Detect invisible objects
Telekinese 3000gp weight
Gate in another Type II demon (20% chance of success)
Infravision
Darkness 15’ radius
Teleportation

The party has been contacted by a nobleman who explains that he wants them to recover a portrait of one of his ancestors, which was stolen by raiders many years ago and ended up, through a number of different owners, in the collection of a rich and powerful aristocrat. He will pay generously for their time and effort, which will be considerable because the collector is a man not to be messed with – he has connections, money, security and a sense of vengeance. The party will need to take care – the DM should ensure that the collector’s house is guarded by traps, wards and other impressive protection.

Should the party succeed (and there is every chance that they will not) then their troubles are really only beginning. The truth behind the painting is somewhat more complex than the party’s patron realises. He’s not done his homework because the portrait of his ancestor was painted over an earlier picture in order to hide it. It had to be hidden because it was in fact a real Type II demon which had been trapped in the form of a picture by a powerful magician.

Nobody knew what lay under the portrait but somehow the demon managed to exude a sense of wrongness about the painting, so much so that its subject could not bring himself to display it and kept it in storage. When it was stolen by raiders, the original owner was pleased to see it go; since then, everyone who has owned it, by fair means or foul has suffered because of it. Fires, accidents, madness, rage, suicide; as the years have gone by, the demonic influence has increased. It may well be that in some way, the portrait has become slightly damaged in one corner and the demon is putting forth all its efforts to encourage anyone nearby to free it.  Of course, the notoriety of the supposedly ‘cursed’ painting is what caused the collector to covet it in the first place.

As the party travels back to their patron with the portrait, they may well notice the slight damage. The DM might work on their paranoia (all parties have this, it shouldn’t be too difficult) to make them think they caused it and that this will decrease the value of the portrait. NPCs who get too close to the portrait may start to come under its baleful influence. The aim of the demon is to escape its confines and start wreaking havoc in the world at large.

The patron will almost certainly notice the damage and may start to wonder about what lies beneath the portrait. If he starts to pick at the paint, goodness knows what will happen – but the DM will almost certainly want it to happen with the party in the immediate vicinity.

Another idea is for the collector’s heavies to arrive whilst the patron is paying the party. A mass combat will almost certainly damage the portrait with all the horrible consequences.

The demon had treasure of quite some value but it was lost when it was captured and sealed in the picture. It is Treasure Type C, whose stats are as follows:

1000s of copper 1-12 20% 
1000s of silver 1-6 30%
1000s of electrum 1-4 10% 
1000s of gold nil
100s of platinum nil
Gems 1-6 25%
Jewellery 1-3 20%
Magic items Any 2 10%

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type I

Frequency    Common
No. appearing  1-3 or 1-6
Armour class 0
Move  12”/18”
Hit Dice 8
Percentage in lair 5%   
Treasure type B
No. of attacks 5
Damage per attack 1-4/1-4/1-8/1-8/1-6    
Special attack See below
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 50%
Intelligence  Low
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (8 ½ feet tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 1275 + 10/hp

They may be struck by normal missiles and weapons.

Abilities:
Detect invisible objects
Telekinese 2000gp weight
Gate in another Type I demon (10% chance of success)
Infravision
Darkness 5’ radius
Teleportation

The party has been hired to hunt down and eliminate a band of brigands who have been causing trouble in a remote part of the realm. A good bounty is given for each brigand but a particularly large amount has been offered for the head of the leader.

At a certain point in the hunt, the party will encounter the brigands but there is a twist. The brigands are in no way interested in fighting the party and – provided there is a chance to communicate – they will explain why.

A few weeks ago, their leader, who is both a tough fighter and a fair to middling magic user found a battered codex in a raid on archives of an ancient monastery. As he and his band had killed all the monks and taken their stuff, there was nobody around to interpret it for him but he persevered and managed to decipher it. The codex gave him the ability to summon demonic forces and, using a couple of the less successful brigands as sacrifices, called up two Type I demons. The demons were tempted by the prospect of gold and flesh and proved very effective at raiding, looting and slaughtering. Many of the crimes for which the brigands are being hunted were actually carried out by the demons, under the control of their new master. The brigands eventually left their former leader in high dudgeon, having been effectively made redundant as the leader outsourced their duties.

The brigands have a proposition for the party; kill the demons and their master and the remaining gang members will relocate to pastures new. The brigands will also guide the party to their hideout although they cannot guarantee that their leader has not made some improvements to security over the intervening weeks.

There are several options for the true situation in this adventure

1. All is as represented. The brigands are genuine in their desire to see the demons and their former leader killed, although they will want a share of the loot which they regard as theirs. There is a possibility that the brigand gang has been infiltrated by members of the military or the local law enforcement and if this is the case, the arrival of soldiers at an inopportune moment is likely.

2. The brigands are lying through their teeth; they are working in cahoots with their leader and have been sent out to find new human sacrifices for the demons to consume. The party will do nicely.

3. The brigands are telling the truth as far as they know it but whilst they have been absent from the lair, the demons have grown bored of working for their master and he has now become their latest meal. The demons are now a more chaotic opposition but have not grown sufficiently tired of raiding and pillaging. They have tried several times to bring more of their kind to the lair but so far with no success. The DM should attempt a summoning roll once per day until the party reaches the lair; this may well increase the number of demons present.

4. The leader is fully aware of the activities of the brigands and is growing tired of the threat that they pose to his operations. He has improved security no end and made several alterations that will turn what the brigands thought were safe areas into death traps. Hiding behind this security, he will send the demons to kill the brigands first, then have them hunt down the party. Without brigand aid, the party may well become lost in the network of caves and tunnels that make up the lair.

The treasure garnered by the brigands in their raids and pillaging is as follows

CP 1738
SP 864
EP 721
GP 464
PP 697

As well as the coinage, there is a sizeable hoard of gems and jewellery but this will be securely hidden and trapped.

Star ruby, worth 1000gp
Eye Agate, worth 10gp
Chalcedony, worth 50gp
Amber, worth 100gp
Topaz, worth 500gp
Ruby, worth 1000gp
Onyx, worth 50gp
Garnet, worth 500gp
Jade, worth 500gp
Chrysoprase, worth 50gp
Tiger Eye, worth 10gp
Zircon, worth 50gp
Oriental Amethyst, worth 1000gp

Jewellery
900gp clasp
5000gp medal
500gp pin
1200gp statuette
1000gp sceptre
800gp armband
400gp buckle
6000gp chain
Magic 1 item – Boots of Levitation