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, 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.

Adventurer, Conqueror, King……Farmer?

Whilst checking out the stats for Owlbears in the Monster Manual during the most recent Team Adventure session, I noticed that in the third paragraph, there is the following information

“Eggs are worth 2,000gp, young under 50% grown are worth 5,000 on the open market”

The passage also tell us that there will be a 25% chance of  1-6 eggs or young (40% to 70% grown). That’s an average of 3.5 eggs (7,000gp) or young, about a third of which (let’s say 1) will be marketable – 5,000gp.

That’s a nice haul if you’re playing the females and young rules (which I’m not). But let’s take that information to the next step. Let’s suppose that a party, with its perspicacity, manages to capture but not kill the owlbears. Presuming that they’ve got at least one male and one female, they could technically breed them in captivity.   The gestation period for an owl is 4 to 5 weeks, that of a bear 215 days (grizzly). I guess an average of the two would be used for owlbears;  we’ll call it 125 days. If you work it right, you can get three clutches of 3.5 eggs per year from one breeding pair. Sell the eggs, you’ll get 21,000gp but wait until the young are hatched and then sell them before they’re 50% grown and you’re looking at 52,500gp per annum.

And that’s from just one breeding pair. A party with vision and secure breeding facilities is going to be rolling in gold.

But the owlbear is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to farming magical livestock. Let’s flick through the pages of the Monster Manual and see what else suggests itself.

The pelt of the badger is worth 10-30gp

Giant beaver pelts fetch 500-2,000 gold pieces each. Kits of under 8hp can be captured, subdued and sold at market for 100 to 200gp per hit point.

Blink dog pups (and good luck catching those!) fetch 1,000-2,000gp

The plates behind a bulette’s head are of course highly prized by dwarf craftsmen. They can turn them into +1 to +3 shields. That’s anywhere between 2,500 and 8,000gp – assuming that the dwarves’ creations count as magical items. Even if they don’t, just count those back plates – at least eight and possibly ten by my count, gives you at least 41,000gp – of course, you have to factor in the payment to the dwarves but half should do, which leaves you with 20,000gp per bulette.

Let us not forget that subdued dragons are worth 100-800g per hit point.  A very rough average of the hit dice of all dragons gives 8.5 hit dice, and at 4.5 hit points per die, that’s an average hit point total of 38.25.  This makes the average subdued dragon worth 17,212 gold pieces. That’s after you’ve looted its haul, of course.

Giant eagle eggs sell for 500-800gp each.

Elephant tusks have a value of 100-600gp each.

If you fancy a challenge, try capturing a pair of griffons and breeding them. The rewards are plentiful – fledglings sell for 5,000gp, eggs for 2,000gp.

The hippogriff fledglings are slightly less valuable at 2,000-3,000gp. Their eggs fetch 1,000gp.

The skin of the ki-rin is worth 25,000 gp if it can be obtained perfectly intact. I don’t recommend that you try it because ki-rin are lethal.

The eggs of the fire lizard are worth 5,000gp each, and you’ve got a 10% chance that the lair will contain 1-4 eggs. That’s not very high, but create your own lairs and you can probably up those odds.

Giant otter pelts sell for 1,000-4,000 gp.

The eggs of giant owls sell for 1,000gp, the young for 2,000gp.

Although it might seem hard to believe, pegasi lay eggs. Yes, that’s what it says on page 78 of the Monster Manual so it must be true. They’re worth 3,000gp each but if you wait till they hatch, the young are worth 5,000gp.

Remorhaz eggs (25% chance of there being 1-2 eggs in the lair) fetch 5,000gp if you can sell them.

Another creature that has a valuable pelt is the giant weasel – these go for 1,000-6,000gp each.

Following the weasel in the Monster Manual, we have the whale.  Never mind the tiny chance of coins being found in its stomach. What you’re looking for, o party on the make, is the sick whale. This type produces ambergris, which, so the book tells us, is “a stinking mess which is worth 1,000-20,000 gold pieces in a large city”. Yes, that’s right. One sick whale can get you on average 10,500gp. The whale carcass can bring in at the very least 5,400gp and the really big specimens will net you 16,200gp. Time to get a bigger boat.

The winter wolf is, the book says, “a horrid carnivore”, which is going to freeze your ass if you don’t finish it off first. When you do, make sure that you don’t damage the pelt as it’s worth 5,000gp. Alternatively, wrap up warm and capture yourself a breeding pair.

So, as can be seen, there are a good few monsters out there that can bring in cash in the thousands for those who don’t mind attracting the attention of PETMA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Magical Animals – they’ve probably got tough druids and rangers on their side, so beware).  And in many cases, breeding them in captivity means they’re the gift that keeps on giving.




CAVEAT ONE - the foregoing will probably only be of interest to parties if their DM allows XP for GP earned in such a manner.

CAVEAT TWO - none of the foregoing should indicate authorial approval for fur-farming in the real world. 

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 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

An Adventure for Every Monster - Succubus

Succubus

A little more covered up (barely) than the MM picture

 
Frequency    Rare
No. appearing  1
Armour class 0
Move  12”/18”
Hit Dice 6
Percentage in lair 5%   
Treasure type I,Q
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack  1-3/1-3  
Special attack Energy Drain
Special defences  +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 70%
Intelligence Exceptional
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  M (6’+ tall)
THAC0  13
XP value 2100 + 6/hp

Cannot be harmed by any normal weaponry

Cause Darkness 5’ radius

The kiss drains one energy level

Can perform the following at will

• Become ethereal
• Charm person
• ESP
• Clairaudience
• Suggestion
• Shape Change

Gate in (40% chance of gate opening)
Type IV 70%
Type V 25%
One of the Lords or Princes 5%


The situation this week is as follows:

The succubus has attached herself to a mature yet vain woman who is convinced that her best days are not behind her. She has used her shape change ability to appear as the demure and downtrodden maid of the woman and her suggestion and charm person abilities to make her mistress treat her badly so that noble and virtuous men will take pity on her and seek to rescue her from her plight. She happily plays along with these overtures and then manoeuvres them into situations where they are putty in her hands. With their virtue gone, it is then easy to steer them towards a life on the Dark Side, setting their souls up for an eventual trip to the Abyss.

A second target for the succubus is richer, older men whose greed and rapacious desires make them perfect fodder for the somewhat venal mistress. The succubus will kiss them and drain their energy once they’re sufficiently drunk, using her servant cover to serve them stronger drink than they think they’re getting. She then seduces them (her ESP can reveal their inner desires, enabling her to seem like the answer to their prayers).

If the succubus thinks that she’s been rumbled, she will use all her defences to protect herself and then call on demonic aid to cause chaos and cover her getaway.

The party can become involved in a number of ways

1. A relative of one of the succubus’ victims can become concerned about the situation and hire the party to investigate.
2. A young and foolish victim of the succubus, set up as a toyboy of the mistress, has lost a magical item of extreme significance to the cult of which his father is a leading member. Cult members with some heavy eldritch mojo are on their way to the mistress’ house to get it back; unfortunately, the succubus has taken a liking to it and won’t give it up without a fight.
3. The mistress’ friends or relations, baffled by her change of character since the succubus arrived, want the party to look into it.
4. The party are hired as bodyguards by a potential target for the succubus and encounter the ‘mistress and maid’ combo when they arrive at the house. The succubus will be able to detect that they are trouble and set to dividing and conquering.
5. The party are asked to investigate by the guard captain of another town where the succubus tried a similar trick; the similarities rang alarm bells and the captain suspects it’s the same woman.
6. The succubus has tried it on with the husband of a woman who is far more than she seems; in fact, said wronged wife is a more powerful demon and could make serious trouble in the Abyss, so the succubus throws herself on the mercy of the party and offers rewards if they will help her against her enemy. 

 Art from this site. 

An Adventure for Every Monster - Manes

Manes

Frequency    Rare
No. appearing  4-16
Armour class  7
Move  3” (yes, that’s right – three paltry inches) 
Hit Dice   1
Percentage in lair  Nil   
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 3
Damage per attack  1-2/1-2/1-4   
Special attack  Nil  
Special defences  +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Semi-
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  S (3’ tall) boy, these guys are shrimps; I’d never noticed how small they were. Kind of like the hobbits of the Abyss.
THAC0  19
XP value 18 + 1/hp

The party is contacted by a rich but elderly merchant who has spent his life grasping, squeezing and extorting every penny he could get his hands on. Now however, his health is failing and he is keen to address the question of the afterlife.

Over the past couple of weeks, he has noticed several chilling events which he has interpreted as omens of impending doom. (These can be developed by the DM or might be the usual run of sinister stuff – rooms go cold when he’s in there and nobody else notices, mirrors turn black when he looks into them, blood oozes from chairs in which he’s sat, roses wither just after he’s visited the garden, that sort of thing).

Needless to say, he is now convinced that the forces of darkness are on their way to collect and so he has sent for a priest to carry out the necessary rituals to ensure that he does not go to the demonic realms when he finally passes on. The priest has to travel some considerable distance (the merchant lives in an out-of-the-way manor house in the countryside, away from the riff-raff from whom he’s squeezed his ill-gotten fortune).

The party is therefore given the task of protecting the merchant from whomever is coming to claim his soul until he can obtain his “Get into Heaven Free” pass.

The DM can crank up the occurrence of omens in the time it takes the priest to arrive (perhaps a few days but as we know, a lot can happen in a few days).

The catch is that the demons are in fact uninterested in the merchant – it’s the priest that they’re interested in. The omens relate to his arrival at the manor house. He is a venal, self-centred, greedy and corrupt individual whose only interest in attending the worried merchant is the sizeable bequest that will be made to the church – a windfall he’s looking to pocket himself. 

When the priest arrives, the party will probably think that their task is over but that’s far from true as the demon with the task of collecting (probably a Type IV) will cause havoc when he arrives and will deploy a squad of manes to divert or delay the party whilst he turns his attention to the priest.  Of course, this shift of focus may not necessarily be noticed immediately by the party, who may still be trying to protect the merchant – a few DM-inspired red herrings to convince them he’s still the target, coupled with the fact that the demon will arrive as darkness falls, will cause confusion and chaos on a grand scale.

With the manor being so far out of the way, it will of course be unlikely that there’ll be anybody else about to help the party. Many of the merchant’s servants will have packed their bags and left by the time the priest arrives.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Crocodile

Frequency    Common 
No. appearing  3-24 
Armour class 5  
Move  6”/12” 
Hit Dice 3 
Percentage in lair  Nil   
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack 2-8/1-12     
Special attack Nil   
Special defences  Nil
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Animal
Alignment Neutral
Size  L (8-15’ long)
THAC0  16
XP value 60 + 4/hp


The High King is dead! Woe and tears in abundance, as well as opportunities for the more larcenous members of society.  The tomb of the King lies in an area of rocky gullies and hills and the local thieves’ guild would very much like to get in and help themselves to the wonderful treasures that lie within. Preferably before a rival guild decides to pre-empt them. Of course, being devout worshippers of the very gods invoked to protect the tomb, they cannot do the deed themselves and so turn to the party to assist by breaking in and liberating the riches.
The thieves’ guild will supply the party with a map of the tomb, details of some (but not all) of the traps that have been laid there to catch the unwary and arrange a rendezvous to hand over the loot. A suitably complex safeguarding process will have been arranged to ensure that the party do not simply ride off with the gold (details are up to the DM but it will probably involve assassins, geases, hostages, etc).

Off the party set to the Valley of the Kings, which has the obligatory jackals, vultures and undead lurking amongst the rocks and shadows (many of the ravines in which tombs are delved are so deep that the sunlight never reaches the bottom).

When the party reaches the tomb entrance, they will find that the cartouche of the High Priest who officiated at the burial and sealed the tomb is still intact; they may well assume from this that the tomb is undisturbed. Unfortunately for them, when they break in, they will find that it is completely empty.

It won’t take a genius to work out that the High Priest sneaked back after the funeral, broke in, looted the tomb and then resealed it afterwards.

It will, however, take a genius to convince the thieves’ guild that there was no treasure in the tomb. The thieves will take the view that the party is trying to pull a swift one and call in the heavy mob to put the frighteners on the party to return the loot they ‘stole’. Not kill them, mind. Dead men can’t hand back the treasure.

The party obviously needs to find the missing High Priest and get the treasure back. Tracking him down is not quite so easy; if the DM is feeling harsh, allocate two possibilities and roll for them

a) the High Priest decided that the further away he was from the Kingdom, the better and decided to make his escape across the desert. A huge sandstorm blew up and swallowed him and his mule train in its entirety. The party must somehow track down the remains in the vast and trackless sands.

b) The High Priest was somewhat more relaxed and took another route, stopping for the night by a river where, the next morning, he made a crossing and the mule train was attacked by crocodiles who made mincemeat of it. The treasure is now at the bottom of the river, being guarded – albeit inadvertently – by the crocodiles.

The party now have to get it back without getting eaten which is no mean feat considering they’ll have to dive down to get it and keep the scaly terrors busy at the same time. That assumes that they can find it in the first place – it’s muddy down there.

If the DM is feeling somewhat kinder, dispense with option a) and merely strew the High Priest’s journey with some misleading clues to make the party’s job that little bit harder. Perhaps a few rumours might not go amiss?

1. The High Priest was devoured by a demon after cheating on a promise to hand over the King’s treasure
2. The High Priest has a twin brother who is working with him to defraud the Kingdom
3. The High Priest has lost heavily on linen futures and needs to make up the losses by fair means or foul
4. All the treasure in the tomb was fake and the real riches were smuggled out of the Kingdom to a pre-agreed meeting point where the High Priest was waiting. The cartouche ring was passed to a member of the Thieves’ Guild who wanted to betray his fellows
5. The treasure is still in the tomb but a trap triggered by the break-in has turned it ethereal.
6. The King is not really dead but made a deal with the High Priest to fake his demise so that he could flee the Kingdom with the beggar girl with whom he has fallen in love.

Of course the DM might actually find one of these rumours more interesting to play as the real outcome of this adventure. Please feel free to do so if you want. Of course, the crocodiles will need to be put back in their box unless you can find a use for them.

In case you want to substitute the giant crocodile for its somewhat smaller cousin, these are the stats.


Frequency    Very rare to common
No. appearing  2-12
Armour class  4
Move  6”/12” 
Hit Dice   7
Percentage in lair  Nil   
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack  3-18/2-20    
Special attack Nil   
Special defences  Nil
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Animal
Alignment Neutral
Size  L (21-30’)
THAC0  13
XP value 400 + 8/hp

The fabled Sarcosuchus, giant crocodile of prehistory with its unsuspecting dinner

Fear of Leprechauns

In a recent Team Adventure session, Alurax ran into a leprechaun in a forest encounter; the little fellow delighted in using his invisibility and shape changing ability to deprive Alurax of his beloved trident and generally wind him up until he was extremely agitated.

Now all I have to do is whistle a jaunty jig and put on a cod 'Oirish' accent and poor old Junior Grognard reacts like Pavlov's dog when the bell was rung.

I was wondering if anybody else has acquired an irrational reaction to an otherwise anodyne monster following a bad experience? 

An Adventure for Every Monster - Crayfish, Giant

Crayfish, Giant

Frequency Uncommon
No. appearing 1-4
Armour class 4
Move 6"/12"
Hit Dice 4+4
Percentage in lair Nil (but in this case, the pool is their lair)
Treasure type Nil (but see below)
No. of attacks 2
Damage per attack 2-12/2-12
Special attack Nil
Special Defences Nil
Magic Resistance Standard
Intelligence Non-
Alignment Neutral
Size L (8+ feet long)
 THAC0 15
XP value 90 + 5/hp

The adventure will probably be best suited to a party of five adventurers of 2/3rd level, who may nevertheless find it a tough one.

The party is travelling through lightly-forested terrain, halfway between forest and scrubland. There are some overgrown ruins in the area and if they are attentive, they will hear the sound of a disturbance from those ruins. Approaching them with stealth, they are able to observe a pool amidst the ruins, into which a hill giant is throwing rocks pulled from the wall of a ruined building.

The giant’s name is Ogi and he believes that a pack of giant crayfish who live in the pool have pulled his brother Bogi to his death. He is determined to even the score, particularly with Old Whitey, the biggest and oldest of the pack.

If the party is sufficiently attentive and alert, they may notice that the wall from which Ogi is pulling the rocks has a faded carved mural of ancient priests using the pool as a sacrificial well. If he manages to pull the wall down in its entirety, this clue as to the true nature of the pool will be lost.

Whatever treasure is at the bottom would still be there but the crayfish (a gang of four) must be fought off first before it can be recovered. This assumes that Ogi can be stopped from destroying the wall before the party can read the inscriptions.

Amongst the silt and muck at the bottom of the pool is the following treasure:

Javelin of Piercing (250xp)
Pearl of Wisdom (500xp)
69gp
82 ep (40gp)
880sp (44gp)
6975cp (35gp)
55gp worth of silver plate
Deep purple amethyst, 120gp
Platinum candlestick, ornate, with gems 45pp (225gp)

If the DM wants to put any more in a more inaccessible area of the well, that’s fine. Bear in mind that there may well be items that have been ruined by immersion in the water for so long, and very probably skeletal remains of unfortunates who have braved the pool and perished in the attempt.

Once the party have got themselves firmly enmeshed in the adventure, a die roll will determine what happens next

1. Bogi is really at the bottom of the pool, drowned and partially eaten
2. Bogi has wandered off and will return soon, feeling hungry because he hasn’t had lunch.
3. Ogi and Bogi’s father will turn up soon, wondering where his good-fer-nothing sons have got to
4. Two giants from the neighbouring family have heard the noise and will wander over to see what’s going on. They are rivals of Ogi and Bogi, named Onka and Bonka.
5. Nothing of consequence will happen.
6. All the noise will have attracted other wandering monsters in the area; roll twice on the relevant encounter table

 Plenty of opportunity for the party to use their wits to outsmart Ogi; if they are brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to take him on, they will need some lucky dice to get out of it without some damage.

In case you were wondering what an 8' long giant crayfish would look like in real life