MONSTERS & CREATURES
Well, here we are, the monsters section, where nightmares come to life. Wapiti Der Gilderbeaste By the way, although the beast prefers to have it's loyal minions do it's work, it is quite capable of leaving
it's lair and venturing into town. The lair is unguarded during these times, for his treasure room is hidden behind
a wall of solid gold over five feet thick. There is no door to find, actually, for the doorway is seamlessly melted
into the rest of the surrounding wall, which is also solid gold five feet thick. ( It has some very nice items, by the way.)
Whenever the beast ventures forth it polymorphs itself into a normal looking person. However, it only looks normal,
for it still possesses most of it's other abilities. So, what are those abilities? The beast has a large, Jabba-the-Hut-like body. It has six legs and four tentacles. On it's Demos Magen--- Vampire Frogs Well, that's it for MY contributions, so send in YOUR beasties!
Here you may post new monsters OR creatures, OR describe new uses for an old one.
I have three monsters and a new use for an old one to get things started.
This is also the name of an Earthly species of reindeer, but most players won't know that.
The wapiti is a swamp dweller. It is amphibious. It is stupid, but instinctual, and very deadly.
The wapiti is grey in color and very slimy. It is a large blob, basically, that can levitate
like a beholder or swim. It has four long tentacles, each equipped with suckers (like an octopus)
and a stinging spike on the end. The sting is not of the injecting variety, but of the coated-spike
type found in stingrays and fire ants. The wapiti has a large mouth with many rows of very sharp
teeth, just like a shark. The wapiti has a great many eyes covering it's entire body. These eyes are
simple light gray spots which are rather creepy-looking. The average size of a grown wapiti is five
feet in diameter, with the mouth being about four feet wide. The tentacles, which are about twelve
feet long, move with surprising quickness, and as such the sluggish-looking wapiti has claimed many
lives among those who have underestimated it. The body slime is highly toxic, causing paralysis very
quickly after contact, and numbness instantly in slime-coated areas. (the slime can have medicinal use)
Finally, to top it all off, the tentacles are moderately electric, shocking for 2d4 dmg if wrapped around a victim.
Wapiti hunt by stunning or grasping their prey and pulling it underwater to drown. They hunt in packs of
5-8, and share the kill if it is large enough. The sting causes incredible, incapacitating pain and cramps.
A large pearl can be found in the body of a slain wapiti. Black dragons have a peculiarly strong affinity for these
pearls, and will often even stoop so low as to bargain with PCs to get them. No one knows why.
This is one of the nastiest monsters ever created. The stuff of legends.
Entire campaigns have been spawned around this thing. Beware, it can set your entire world on it's ear.
The Gilderbeaste lives in a cave on MT. Pathas in Zygland Province. Fortunately, it is the only one
of it's kind. This beast is actually a construct, you see, created by some liches to make gold and guard
their lair. Make gold? That's right. The Gilderbeaste is the monster with the Midas Touch.
Unfortunately for the liches, they did too good a job. The beast slew it's masters on the spot and absorbed
their very souls, once it found them. The monstrosity was bad enough beforehand, but then it had the abilities
of three liches and an evil cleric who happened to be visiting that day. ( not to mention all of their stuff )
"So, basically it's just a spellcasting construct, right?" you may ask. Oh, were that only true.
Der Gilderbeaste is a truly intelligent entity. Very intelligent, indeed, as well as unspeakably evil.
It has a number of innate powers, some of which are quite unusual. The lair of the beast is lined in solid
gold, polished smooth. Imagine the look on an intruder's face when he stumbles upon an entire cave made
of pure gold. Can he resist walking inside the cave? Probably not. Too bad for him, for soon he will see
a sight that will make him regret having eyes. Rising from the floor, in a fludidic motion, ( think about
that scene in T-2 when the terminator rose from the tile floor, but much faster ) is a creature so horrifying
that just looking upon it can cause madness and terror. Then it smiles.
The Gilderbeaste truly enjoys terrorizing people, and the visitor who pees his pants and begs for mercy shall
actually receive it, for this type of thing brings joy and amusement to the otherwise lonely and miserable
creature. On the other hand, those who put on a brave front and boldly challenge the beast are slain at once.
The beast is capable of being quite friendly to those who please it, and after a while it's appearance isn't
so frightening. It will often befriend a lone visitor, telling him to help himself to all the gold he can carry.
The visitor is then told to tell his friends about his good fortune, and to send them over for a visit. When they
arrive he either slays them all outright, interrogates them for various information, or allows them to leave with
chests of gold, all depending upon their initial reactions and the beaste's current goals. The local economy can be ruined if the beast stays in a
good mood for very long. The beast of course always offers the highest bid for anything on the market that it may want.
About half as many people who have been killed by the beast have been made very wealthy.
It can freely meld with, travel through, and emerge from any layer of gold or other heavy metal.
Polymorph at will without losing most of it's other abilities.
The Midas Touch turns anything it touches to gold if it desires the transformation. (save allowed)
Spellcaster as a lich or cleric of very high level.
It can vomit up green slimes and spit them onto victims.
Soul Drain. Anyone slain by the beaste will have his soul absorbed by it, adding to it's knowledge and power.
It has the powers of FEAR, AWE, and CHARM PERSON at will.
It is immune to any magic of sixth level or lower, and enjoys a 35% magic resistance from higher levels.
It regenerates at a rate of 2 hit DICE per round. It has ten hit dice and 100 hit points..
Only weapons of a +4 enchantment may harm it in any way.
It's powerful stinger on the end of it's tail (only in true form) contains 9HD poison. ( inorganic chemicals )
It's tail also has numerous quills which can be hurled at an opponent.
In it's true form it can attack with it's tail, teeth, and tentacles.(It's arms are too short and stubby to fight with.)
It's intelligence is easily 18, probably 19, and it fights to win.
crocodile-like head there are two long antennae; these both must strike a target to turn it to gold.
The beaste is about the size of seven men.
Anyone touching the beast takes 1d10 in lichlike cold damage, & must save vs death or suffer a drain of two levels!.
The beast eats gold much like a rust monster eats rust. It does not breathe. It has no heart. Stay away from it!
By the way, the Gilderbeaste is quite apt to show up in other lands at any time, due to the wanderings of
Zygland Province. As such, no world is truly safe from it.
I get a real kick out of watching high and mighty heroes die by stupid ways or by 1st level monsters.
The Demos Magen, or magical man, is just the ticket you need to punch some PC's tickets.
Almost forgotten since their debut in the module "Castle Amber" so many years ago, the time has come for them to shine!
They are especially useful in those dungeons where living monsters are too much bother. Just give them some weapons with
which to fight, instead of their fists, and watch the fun! ( May I suggest magic bows & arrows? ) These guys work best in
areas where there is a lot of magical treasure lying about, for the PC's won't want to risk ruining any magic goodies by
trying to dispell the Demos Magen. Murder holes are their true forte', but they are also very handy for manually setting,
springing, and resetting traps. Loyal to the end, you can even trust them to bring any slain adventurer's goodies right
to your main bad guy. They can't be bribed, they work well in large groups, and they are very low- maintenance. Just make
sure that your casting wizard is of high enough level, and that he remembers to cast permanency on each batch.
Trust me on this one. I've seen mighty parties of 15th level laid low by these guys in mere minutes.
These big black bullfrogs are vampiric bloodsuckers.
They cause a drain of one level to anyone stupid enough to grab one.
They attack en masse, so that the victim may well find himself bitten by over
a dozen frogs each round. The bite causes only one point of damage,
and does not cause any level drain. The saliva of the vampire frog
contains a powerful anti-coagulation agent. As a result, any bites
do not stop bleeding normally. It is quite possible to die, as if hit
by a sword of wounding, by the loss of one hitpoint per round
per bite. They have only one hit die, and average five hit points.
Most fatalities are caused by trying to repel the creatures, which
often causes more damage to the victim than the bites! A rather fine
way for a high-and-mighty hero to die, don't you think?
Vampire frogs croak with a voice that actually says "ribbit,ribbit",
which sounds almost comical. The creepy part is that the ribbits are all
sounded simultaneously, so there is only one great ribbit. ( Think of
how it would sound if the BORG from Star Trek all said "ribbit" in that
unified voice of their collective. Now give the Borg a good whiff of helium. ) The ribbits get louder, and when
they reach their climax the frogs attack with a mighty hiss.
This species was accidentally created by Telustis the Mad when he spilled a serum into a nearby swamp during a freak earthquake.
The serum which might have cured vampirism one day ironically transformed some normal bullfrogs into these monstrosities, and
the rest, as they say, is history.
