Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Monsters of the Boiling Depression

The Boiling Depression is an example of what happens when wizards get to warring, or maybe just when they get too powerful and start cutting corners.  Over twenty miles long, and several miles wide the region is a blasted waste of ever shifting magical pollution. Portals wink open and closed releasing all manner of things onto the sorcery ripped ground to rummage amongst the distorted and abnormal plants.  Terrestrial creatures that live within or stray too close to the depression become twisted in incomprehensible ways and even the most peaceful become things out of nightmare.  Foolhardy types who dare pass or enter the Concavity in search of otherworldly minerals, fragments of mythical beasts or lost magical trinkets often meet horrors.  Below is a list of beasts, entities and encounters that live withing this scar of wild magic.

Table of encounters below...



D10
Encounters for the Boiling Depression
1
Wailing Trees – A stand of unnaturally colored screaming trees.  Trees scream constantly through bulbous gourd like sacks that inflate and deflate rhythmically.  If approached within 10’ the screams will resonate in the mind and cause violent insanity (Save vs. Spells or attack as berserker until subdued and a curse removed). 
2
Animate Home – A huge extraterrestrial mollusk (or a terrestrial mollusk enlarged by strange magic), has bent a small cottage into a shell.  It appears as a rundown but cozy abandoned cottage (possibly concealed in a ruined thorp), but contains a crab and/or slug like monstrosity that will surprise on 1-5 if approached with anything less than the utmost caution.

Hermit Beast –HD 10, AC 0, ATK 4 (serrated limbs/sticky pseudopods) DAM 1D6/1D6/1D6/2D10 SV F10, MV 20’, ML 10
3
Possibilities Field.  The air above this large patch of churned earth vibrates and twists as if heated.  Causality and time are loosely held here, and any living thing walking through the field will be shifted into another possibility that it's past or future contains.  Roll D4 1- 1D12x100 Experience gained (50%) or Lost. (50%) 2- Age. (1D100 -30) years 3- All Stats rerolled 4- Gain a strange peculiarity (eye color, odd growths or other cosmetic mutation), -1 CHR.
4
Bestial Trees and Predatory Plants – In this copse (1D10x10’ diameter) the nature of animal and plant have been reversed. ‘Trees’ made of hide and white bone are surrounded by fleshy and furred ‘brush’ that has eyes in place of berries.  Amongst the strange plants small animals consisting of overly mobile creeper vine ‘monkeys’ and floating gas filled succulent ‘birds’.  A herd of dangerous flesh eating ‘deer’ lurk within the copse and are likely to use their thorny teeth to ‘graze’ on any animal that moves through their unnatural forest.

Green Stags (4D8) – HD 3, AC 5*, ATK 1 bite**, DAM 1D8, SV F3, MV 40’, ML 8 *take x2 damage from fire and ½ damage from cold attacks **May charge into melee and gore with thorny horns for +2 hit and 2D8 damage.  Mossy Skins (100 GP each)
5
Energy Bleed – Blasted clear of all life, and turned into a crater of black glass this spot still contains valuable bleed energy in the rock, 2D10x100 GP worth of fragments easy to pick from the ground.  Attempts to mine the crater with picks or shovels will result in a bleed eruption (as 1-10D6 fireball).  40% crater is inhabited by creature (human or animal originally) that has transformed into pure energy.  It is unlikely to be initially hostile, but is somewhat territorial and the energy wraith’s touch will electrocute living tissue.

Energy Wraith (1) HD 6, AC 6,* ATK 1 grab, DAM 2D6, SV F6,MV 30’, ML 12 *Immune to electricity, fire, normal & silver weapons
6
Fractal Hounds – Like a pack of shadows made from broken glass, these extra planar beasts attack out of the odd geometries of other universes.  They will be known by their strange baying that comes from within the hearts of their prey.  Still they are dogs, and may be lured off the hunt by easier prey.

Fractal Hounds (2D6) HD 1, AC 5*, ATK 1** bite, DAM 1D8, SV CL 10, MV teleport/80’ ML 8
*Hounds do not exist in normal time and space and may only be attacked as they attack and only by their target on a successful save vs. paralysis. ** If target fails save vs. paralysis (needed to attack) hound attacks as a backstab (+4 hit, x3 damage)
7
Feral Infant - Huge shambling predators that appear to be grossly mutated human infants.  Most suffer from microcephaly, while many show other deformities.  They crawl along the ground, devouring anything they come across.

Feral Infant (1-2) HD 8+8 AC 4, ATK 1 maul*, DAM 2D8, SV F9, MV 30' ML 10
*On a natural 20 will rend target, removing 1D4 limbs for 25% total HP per limb and incapacitating any survivor.
8
Forest King - Swarming masses of small forest animals, warped and fused by foul magic into a single brightly colored entity, Forest Kings proceed implacably, devouring everything in their path down to the soil.  The forest king moves slowly, like a fuzzy a carpet of teeth and strangely colored fur and they are fairly unintelligent, but Forest Kings never rest adn will sometimes pursue a moving food source for days at a time.

Forest King (1) HD 10 AC 9* ATK 1 swarm** DAM 1D8, SV CL 10, MV 20' ML 13
*All non area effect attacks do 1 pt of damage. Immune to mind effecting spells and poison.
** With attack will grapple as STR 19, failure to escape will automatically damage target for 2D12 per round.
9
Liquid Magic - Essence of sorcery, a small pool of liquified magic sit here at the bottom of a depression, with the land around completely drained of magic.  No magical effects will work within 50' of the pool, but the liquid itself is worth 1D4 x 1,000 GP if bottled and sold for further refinement.
10
Gravity Inversion - Sudden inversion of natural laws hurls all objects into the air 1D100 feet.  Objects will fall back, taking damage, after a few seconds.  Characters, NPCs and henchmen may make a Dexterity check to grab something rooted to the earth, and a Strength check to avoid being pummeled loose by debris.


3 comments:

  1. I can think of an area of one of my game worlds which this would be perfect for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those huge feral infants would be so much fun to run. Now that's a monster that could do some unexpected, disastrous things.

    ReplyDelete