Weird Revisited: Mondegreen's Mixed-Up Magics

In the Land of Azurth, the wizard Mondegreen is infamous among magical practitioners, not because he was powerful (though he was) nor for his output of arcane scrolls (though it was prodigious) but because of his habit of misprinting magical sigils and formulae. He seems to have suffered some sort of malady in this regard, perhaps a curse.

A Mondegreen scroll will not contain the traditional version of the spell it appears to catalog at cursory examination. The subtle errors will either effect some aspect of the spell 50% of the time, giving:

1 Advantage to the spell save
2 An increased duration
3 Increased damage (if applicable)
4 Decreased damage (if applicable)
5 A decreased duration
6 Disadvantage to the spell save

The other 50% of the time, it will not work as it should, but rather produce a magical effect from a roll on the Wild Magic Table.

The original version of this post appeared in 2018.

To Catch A Titan

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night with the party having successfully completed their quest to collect all the pieces of the magical armor known as the Quicksilver Panoply from the mind of Gob. They returned to the regular world, only to hear from Princess Viola that the giant automaton they were acquiring the armor to safely control had been stolen by a traitorous gnome artificer, Zobus Bok and a group of mercenaries. 

Bok apparently plans to sell the giant automaton to the Wizard.  Princess Viola wants to party to chase down the automaton and regain control using the armor. She tells them there's a way to get inside the giant from either foot.

After a rest, the party pursues the automation using a device the princess gave them. When it stops to survey a ravine, the party attaches chains to its feet to try to trip it, but that doesn't work. They gain access through the right foot portal, though a gnome guard escapes to raise the alarm.

Traveling up the leg on an internal portal system, they make it to the first floor in the body, where they find a conference room--and an ambush by two tough bravos of the Nighthawk mercenary group. The party's superior numbers carry the day and after looting the bodies, they prepare to proceed upward.

Minotaurs, Mazes, and the Eyes of Gob

 

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last Sunday with the party exploring further into the Level 4 of the brain of Gob. They find the passage into one of Gob's eyes where they find a bunch of Phantfasm-serving goblins sleeping. In the other, a theriocephalic Phantfasm is instructing bored goblins on evil.

In Gob's equivalent the pineal region, they find a throne with an armored boot upon it. Another piece of the armored suit they were seeking! The quest was nearing completion.

Soon after they came upon a labyrinth stalked by a minotaur, or as it turned out, minotaurs. They killed one and looted his ring of Hill Giant Strength. Then they made their slow way through the labyrinth by following a wall constantly with their left hands. When they got to the exit, the other minotaur they had covered it with a large stone. They killed this one too and stole his magic items as well.  It required the additional strength of a blessing to help them roll aside the rock.

Then they came to a dungeon or torture chamber with skeletal former victims in cages dangling from chains.

A Cold Reception on Level 4

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last weekend with the party still searching the lower levels of the mind of Gob looking for pieces of a magical suit of armor. Having explored the 3rd level, they had moved on to level 4, but avoided a room that appeared to be the site of a battle shrouded in some magical mist.  Their avoidance had been rewarded by the lucky discovery of an armor piece in a kobold gut-wagon.

Now, though there was nothing to do but brave the battle. They chose to skirt the edges of the room, having several near-misses with combatants--and some not misses, as a stray lightning bolt injured two of them. A group of the avian Fantsies, clearing the fallen, informed them that this was the site of an eternal battle between good and evil. They kept creeping around, and Waylon "recoveed" a Ring of Flight from the body of a slain ogre that almost literally fell into their path.

After skirting the room they encountered a giant with a whip and a captive woman wearing one of the gauntlets. Classic story: the giant claimed the woman was a monster and had to be imprisoned, while the woman protested her innocence and begged for release. The party didn't for a minute completely buy the woman's story, but they also questioned her imprisonment and treatment. And, at the end of the day, they needed that gauntlet chained up with her! They negotiated with the giant to let them get the gauntlet, but when they tried, the imprisoned demon in a woman's form escaped. Still, mission accomplished!

Next, they encountered a statue of one of the evil Phantfasms with the bird-like wings of a Fantsie instead of arms. They remembered the statue whose wings he been removed on an upper level. They went to retrieve them, the statue breathed cold at them and nearly killed poor Waylon.

Amid the Kobold Parts

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with the party searching the room they fought the spider god in, then wedging shut the exits so they could take a much needed rest.

Once that was done, they explored beyond a secret door they had found. They gave goodberries to a troop of white apes to avoid conflict and then a suit of extra leather armor to a small party of rebel goblins. They took a seemingly magical crystal from the hands of an ensorcelled dwarf who appeared to have had his memories stolen by it, but unfortunately that led to his death despite the party's best intentions.

Having explored this level of the mind of Gob, they took the stairs down the the next level. In in the stairwell, they could hear the clamor of battle. They explored in a direction other than toward those sounds at first and came upon a pair of villainous Phanfasms gnawing on the choice bits of a wheelbarrow full of dismembered kobold corpses.

These guys the party fought and their numbers quickly won the day. Within the corpse wagon, they found a glittering gauntlet, one of the pieces of armor they sought!

The Spider God in the Other Hemisphere

Our Land of Azurth 5e campaign continued last weekend with the party exploring the left hemisphere of a level of the mind of Gob. Strange encounters were once again the theme of their explorations.

They ran into some snooty mermen who they nevertheless were able to convince to trade one of the pieces of the armor suit the party is seeking for an ever-full jug of waters. Then, they rescued one of the bird-like guardians of the level and a particular sagacious giant slug from torture by a group of sadistic Phanfasms.

Lastly, they came up a run with a hanging, diabolic looking, giant spider statue with a gleaming rod of some sort clutched in its fangs. They debated what to do, but before consensus was reached Waylon, the frogling thief just snatched it. The spider instantly started moving and attack. And it was fearsome.

Without the healing of Dagmar the Cleric, it's likely the whole party would have died, and in fact, Erekose was briefly hovering on deaths door. In the end though, their numbers wore the spider down. For their troubles, they won (ironically) a Rod of Resurrection.

Roaming the Mind of Gob

After a hiatus we returned to the Land of Azurth last Tuesday and picked up where we left off in an adaptation of the Role-Aids adventure Swordthrust. The party was roaming the labyrinth inside the mind (or at least brain) of the giant, crystalline gnome, Gob. They were trying to collect all the pieces of a magical suit of armor.

This time, they avoided some fights with some Rat folk cultists, a dining troll, and a kobold Necromancer:

This, and their previous expressions of solidarity with some goblin revolutionaries made their job of exploring the dungeon easier because it allowed them to backtrack through controlled territory. This was particularly useful then they wanted to move from one "hemisphere" of Gob's brain to the other. 

They didn't negotiate their way around everything, though. They had to kill an irate cockatrice and 3 disagreeable harpies:

Like these guys but more birdy

No armor pieces discovered this session, so the quest continues!

Talking with Gob

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night. The party was still dealing with the bifurcated black and white adepts from last session. They tried to make sense of each adept's claim that the other was the villain, but ultimately, they just decided to try and seize the magic sabaton and be done with it.

A fight broke out as one kept blasting them with glowing orbs, while the other triplicated himself and attacked. The party triumphed, but only after depleting poor Dagmar's healing magic keeping them from going down. They wore forced to take a long rest in the barricaded room and wind up having to bluff a Phanfasm and his goblin troops once and them stay quite when some other (unseen) wandering monsters came sniffing around.

The next room contained the crystalline Gob, himself--or more precisely, Gob's self-image. He was at work on some sort of geometric equations and fretting over the elementary particles responsible for good and evil. The party got to ask him some questions about the origins of the world, discovering that Azurth was a sort of "terrarium" and outside it's "event horizon" was the rest of the universe. Whatever any of that meant!

After that, they had to backtrack to the domain of the Snooty Elves to go another direction. They found a room with a red crytal altar that held another piece of armor, a greave, floating in the middle of the room. When Waylon tried to grab it, he was frozen in some sort of stasis field. The party tried dispelling it (didn't work), then moving things with mage hand (didn't work in the duration of the spell), but finally Erekose was able to drag Waylon out. They then used mage hand to put a noose around the greave and they took turns slooowly dragging it out of the field.

The Weird Mind of Gob

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued, with the party avoiding fighting the snooty elves at the dinner party they crashed last adventure. The elves let them pass into "The Room Revolving," but only if they promised not to steal anything. The party did. Reluctantly.

The revolving room left Waylon and Shade dizzy and motion sick, but when they stopped, they found a centaur with a Brian Blessed-type, expansive personality and a need to brawl to regain full "reality"--whatever than might mean for a figment of a crystalline, giant gnome's imagination. For their troubles, Wayon is gifted with a lucky silver horseshoe.

Next, they encountered a room with a town of tiny people in colorful costumes--who started shooting siege weapons at the party when they crossed their land. Next was a webbed filled chasm....and where there are webs, of course, there are giant spiders. These were adept at shooting webs and entangling the party, but eventually they were felled thanks to distance weapon work.

Next room sucked them in and threw them against the opposite wall with some strange force. After that insult, it was empty.

They came a room in darkness save for a revolving, sparkling orb. Two monk-like figures, bifurcated black and white, each declared the other a villain. Within the room was a silver sabaton--one of the armor pieces the party was seeking!

The Battle with the Loom

I'm a session behind with my reports on our 5e Land of Azurth campaign. We played last Sunday and on October 29th, and the second was a continuation of the first, the events separated only by a short rest. The party was seeking the artificial being, Loom, responsible for this place, the even madder copy of the failing mind of Mad Mirabilis Lum. They had managed to defeat every challenge Loom had thrown at him, but they still hadn't found the Warrior Princess of Sang they were trying to rescue.

They took on two robots with flamethrowers, then an enraged Ettin. After that, they progressed down into the excavation. Clearly Loom was having his forces dig out some ancient structure which none of them recognized. Looking for some evidence of what it might be, they came into a cave. They didn't have much time to look around, because there was a battle cry and the mind-controlled Princess Bellona came running at them with sword and pistol. They get lucky, evading her blows and their numbers allow them party to finally subdue her. They notice a shimmering cloud that leaves her and flies away into the dark extent of the cave.

The party followed it and came to the end of the excavation. There was the shimmering image of Loom. he sent forth more of those clouds to attack them (nanite swarms, though they didn't know what they were). Still, they persevered and the substance of Loom was so degraded, what was left of him had to flee. That worried them, but it was a problem for another day.

The returned with Bellona to the workshop of the Clockwork Princess who told them about a metal giant she planned to resurrect to attack the Wizard in the Sapphire City!

Into the Arena

 Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last Sunday with the party still trying to find the power core within the crashed spacecraft. It turns out there weren't any more major threats after the undead spacemen--just a will o' wisp and some poltergeist, so it's mostly down to doing a thorough search. The party finds the core, but they are (quite reasonably) afraid of some sort of malign energy or radiation off it, so they choose to handle it with mage hands. They carry it back to the Church of Clockwork without (apparent) incident. 

Viola thanks them for their help, but now she has another mission for them. She needs them to Bellona, the Battle Princess of Sang, out of the arena of Junk City. She's fallen under the control of the Loom--the mad and bad duplicate of the mind of Mirabilis Lum. She leaves it to the party to determine how they do it, but she assures them it's necessary.

The next day, the party disguises themselves and heads over to the arena to check things out. Waylon disguises himself as a theatrical gladiatorial combat promoter from Yanth Country and Erekose pretends to be a fighter. They talked to the trollish emcee of the arena, but things go badly when Dagmar gets insulted and snaps back at the caustic creature. 

They do get to check out the games, though, and they see the fierce, silver-masked, woman warrior, who they are sure is Bellona.

Dead Spacemen and the Clockwork Princess

Last week, I forgot the session report on our last Land of Azurth 5e game, so here it is. The party was still in the labyrinthine, ramshackle of Junk City. The former Mayor of Rivertown, Gladhand, though ailing from a mysterious attack was able to lead them to where Viola, the Clockwork Princess of Yanth Country (who has been absent for quite some time) was hiding out. Turns out it's in a shabby temple to Clockwork--but that's really just a front for her operation to build--well, some sort of weapon, she didn't elaborate to fight the Wizard and his shadowy allies.

The party is a bit nervous about this as last time they saw her (in the future) she was crazy and on a rampage. They ask a lot of questions to probe for signs. She seems her same old self though, and she has a mission for them. She needs them to still a power source from a crashed spaceship to power her weapon.

The party agrees, but later maybe they wish they hadn't as the remnant of the ship's crew are undead. At least one of them a fairly powerful undead with the power to drain life. It's a close call for Erekose, but the group wears the creature down. 

They still haven't found the power core, though.

Creepy Spheroids and Mutant Manticores

Our 5e game continued last night with the part exploring the strange ruin with the dish on top. The first thing they discovered was a cell, and inside was someone they knew: the former Mayor Gladhand. They had last seen Gladhand in Rivertown after helping him acquire (well, steal it from the Raccoon Crime Family's vault) money to hire mercenaries to take back the town from Mayor Drumpf. Gladhand tells them he had come to Sang where the Clockwork Princess had agreed to help him, and he had been running errands for her, checking up on wayward "Looms." Looms, he says, are duplicates of Mirabiilis Lum the genius who built her, who is now in advanced state of senility. One of the wayward Looms is in league with the Shadow.

Gladhand was captured by one of the Junk City's gangs for some reason. They threw him in this cell, but then stopped coming a few days ago. The group sends Gladhand off to an end to meet up with him later. This proves to be a mistake.

Shortly before freeing Gladhand, they had encountered a folksy talking but very creepy spheroid being. He had asked to touch them with a sucker-ended tentacle. They had obviously declined. He disappeared. 

The group had explored much farther before they here Gladhand scream. They return to find unconscious but otherwise apparently unharmed. They assume it was the ball face, but the thing is nowhere to be seen.

They pick up Gladhand and carry him back to an inn. Looking to save time, they use a back alley. That's a mistake too, when a weird manticore flies down to attack. The creature is toxic and makes a few of the party sick before they are able to kill him.

Wheelers in Sang

After a bit of a hiatus, our Land of Azurth 5e game returned last Sunday with the party headed to Sang to find the Clockwork Princess in the mysterious Junk City. It seems that ability of the leaders of Yai to spy on people through Azurth fails in the vicinity of the Junk City. It's a blind spot. Still, they saw the Princess before she entered the blind spot.

Using the flying ship re-acquired last adventure and why super-fan Irwin-37 as the pilot, they plan on flying to Fort Daldon, a waystation not too far from the Junk City. The group wants to do reconnaissance on the city, but they have to abort when their ship mysteriously starts to lose power.

Instead, they land in the desert near the fort. Their landing apparently annoys some burrowing dragonish creature, and they have a fight on their hands. After killing the beast, they head to the fort. Black smoke rising from it is an ominous sign. Even more concerning are the weird, wheeled people they fight when they call out at the fort's portcullis.

Forced the climb over the gate, they find evidence of the slaughter (and possibly cannibalism) of a caravan and the burning of some of the buildings. Sneaking around, they find some people tied on in the base of a tower, then the marauders attack. They call themselves the Wheelers.

Caught off-guard by the speed and the ferocity of the assault, it takes the part a little while to rally, but when they do they triumph over the Wheelers. They still don't know what's going on, though.

TO BE CONTINUED

Weird Revisited: Froglings for 5e

This post originally appeared in 2014. it's interesting what remained true and what got tweaked regarding the Land of Azurth from this conceptual, pre-game phase...

 

Frox or Bufokin (a bit of a misnomer, as frox resemble frogs more than their warty, dry-skinned cousins) are amphibious humanoids native to the bottomlands and marshes of the country of Yanth. Following rivers, they've ranged beyond their ancestral home to be a common sight in river towns. Their call and response work songs can be heard dockside all over Azurth. Frox work as bargemen or stevedores in civilized areas, and as hunters, farmers, or guides in their villages.

Frox legends say they come from a land across the Boundless Sea, which they left to escape persecution by a terrible and poisonous race of toad-folk, but this claim is considered doubtful by the scholars of Azurth for many reasons--not the least of which being that the Boundless Sea has no other side!

Frox are generally shorter than humans and tend to be thinner of limb, though many develop a potbelly as they age. Their skin colors are generally a dull green or brown, though they range from muted reds to purplish-gray.

A wealthy Frox businessman and tribal chieftain visiting the palace

Frox Traits
Ability Score Increase. Dexterity increased by 2 and another ability score by 1.
Age. Frox live shorter lifespans than humans on average with only a few living beyond their mid-60s. They are mature by their early teens.
Alignment. Frox tend toward good but are have no special affinity for Law and Chaos.
Size. Frox are between 3 and 4 feet tall. Small.
Speed. Base walking speed in 25 feet.
Jumper. Frox can long jump their full Strength score in feet from standing start, and double their Strength in feet with at least 10 feet of movement in a running start. They can high jump a total of 6 feet (rather than the usual 3) + their Strength modifier in a moving high jump and  half that for a standing jump. They have an advantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks to land in difficult terrain.
Swimmer. Frox can swim at their full movement rate and rough waters only cost them 1 extra foot for each foot of movement. They use double their Constitution modifier for the purposes of holding their breath.
Resistance to Poisons. Frox have an advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance against poison damage.
Moisture Dependent. Frox require twice as much water as most races. However, submerging most of their body in water for 20 minutes or more reduces their requirement to standard levels.
Languages. Frox can speak and read (limited) Common. They also speak their on croaking, chirping tongue, which has no written form.

[Thanks to Evan Elkins, the creator of the Froglings, the basis for the Frox.]

A frox traditional dwelling

Transportation Acquired

 Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night with the party intending to go to the Country of Sang and meet up with the Clockwork Princess now that they had secured the Elders of Yai as an ally against the Wizard. Waylon asked the Elders if they could provide transportation. They could, not directly, as the folk of Yai don't leave the city, but they did at one time have a suitable craft. It had been stolen by an impetuous member of their community, Gill-24, but it was currently located not far from the city in the mountains.

The Elders agree to sleep-train the party's biggest fanboy, Irwin-37, to fly it and send hm to accompany the group. With that accomplished, they set out down a precarious set of hidden stairs on the outside of the city's dome. They trek through the mountains, avoiding conflict with a creature like a cross between a porcupine and a grizzly, before reaching the ship's crash site. Of course it was guarded by robots.

The party has bcome pretty good at destroying robots by now. Shade even made constructs her favored enemy!

Inside the ship, they discovered a group of imprisoned creations. Two telepathic, floating things clued them into the fact that the ship was now under the control of a pirate named Garbulex. Garbulex threatened the party over the intercom and tried to turn a giant monster loose on them, but Irwin-37 saved the day by putting the creature back in stasis. 

The party decided Garbulex was going down. They made their way to the control room where Garbulex did a share swivel with tented fingers and gloating thing.

Then the fight started.

Garbulex has some sort of energy sword and a cloak that seems to have a life of its own like Dr. Strange's in the movies. He looks to be a formidable opponent.

Then Kairon polymorphs him into a chicken.

His unpolymorphed cloak manages to fly the chicken out of the ship, despite the best efforts of the party to kill them both. Despite their foes' escape, the party are the easy victors and now have a ship.

The Entertainment Industry in Yai

 Our Land of Azurth game continued with the party awaiting the archivist in the ancient, abandoned lounge in the depths of the city of Yai. Unfortunately, the Archivist returns in the custody of young guards of Yai who arrest the party. The leader would have summarily executed them had not one of his juniors named Irwin-37 recognized them as the characters from a popular entertainment. In an attempt to prove who they were he asked trivia questions about their adventures, but they barely remember the details and didn't do so well.

Still, it was good enough to so doubt and they were escorted to the city so that the Elders could decide what to do with them. They find out on the way that the show about them is the creation of the reclusive celebrity producer, Cory-01.

In the more vibrant areas of the domed city they are imprisoned while awaiting an audience with the Elders. Irwin-37 reveals that the city is indeed a ship, an ark, sent into space in a long, elliptical orbit to return to Earth after the planet had sufficiently recovered from a cataclysm and could be repopulated by the people for the ark. Apparently, though, something went wrong as they arrived to a world still dangerous and overrun with mutants (which he assumes the party to be). Irwin-37 tells them it has been generations since they landed, but the Elders feel the outside is full of contagion.

After Irwin leaves, a weird, unicycle vehicle brings a mysterious visitor and his body guards. He somehow is able to free Kully and beckons him to come forward. Kully is reluctant, but the visitor reveals himself to be Kory Keenstep, his father! Kully goes with him.

Kory reveals himself to be the producer Cory-01. He connived his way into Yai society using tech from the Toad Temple. He noticed they had read the Azurth book, so he sold them on further adventures of our heroes. He later revealed that he had come by these tales by spying on the party using a device of Yai.

Unfortunately, his production has been shut down due to the Elders' concerns that it was corrupting the morals of the youth. Kory has an idea to convince them using a "ghost trick" he got from an old book he read in Yai. He claims to have a way to send Kully back in time to haunt the Elders and somehow change their minds. He offers Kully a disguise that looks like the outfit warn by the mysterious stranger the party meet in the future.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party got an audience with the Elders. Well, not in person with the giant images of the three Elder's heads. They don't want to listen to the party's concerns about the Wizard and the shadows. They are aware of the Wizard's menace, but dismiss his ability to effect them. The party does get through to them sufficiently that they at least agree to consider their words.

The group is moved from the jail, at least, to better quarters, but they are still prisoners. Kully returns and tells them what his father said. Later, Kory comes to visit and they try to convince him to help, but predictably he is unwilling to stick his neck out--until they mention the Shadows. He's heard them talk about what they saw in the future when he was spying on them, but didn't see any of the events they were describing. He tells them he can send them to the future again, and they can get the images he needs to make a special--essentially a propaganda film to convince Yai to join the fight against the Wizard. The party doesn't trust him, but they agree.

Convincing Irwin-37 to give them a visit with Kory the next day, they are surprised to see the time machine he promised isn't a machine at all but more like a magic ritual. This is why he couldn't send any Yai folk through time: they don't have the talent for it. He explains it won't be their bodies but their "thoughtforms" or something. 

The party prepares. Kully is to go to the location of their other selves and film them--becoming the mysterious stranger the others always suspected he was. The rest of the party will stay hidden and film the Gloom Elves and their Shadow allies outside.

The ritual begins, but it doesn't go as smoothly for Shade as for the others...

To be continued.

Star Child

Our Land of Azurth game continued last night, with the party trying to communicate with the child-like star being they had freed last session. The creature didn't know the language but was a quick study. Still, comprehension seemed to lag behind linguistic fluency. The being expressed and interest in a story, and Waylon decided to read from the Wizard of Azurth book.

Meanwhile, the void dragon is getting impatient and anxious for his meal. Kully tries to stall him.

As if they don't have enough problems, and amorphous shadow creature emerges from hiding. It's touch is necrotic and drains strength. The party defeats it, but is forced to take a short rest.

After that, they hatch a plan to make the star child invisible and create an illusion of it to fool the void dragon while they escape. The dragon sees through the illusion quickly, but is at first confused as to the whereabouts of the real creature. Waylon uses that opportunity to attack, and the party is in a fight they initially hoped to avoid.

Using the energy weapons they got in the future, the party gives as good as they get, though not before Waylon goes down. Still, Shade manages to revive him with goodberries while the others make the dragon beat a frustrated retreat to the heavens.

The star child is joined by friends: luminous fairy-type creatures from the stars. She asks for the story, and Wayon (somewhat reluctantly) gives her the book. All the star beings huddle around it, and a sphere of light seems to push the party away and back to their own time. They materialize in Lum-One's workshop.

Fire from the Void

Our Land of Azurth 5e continued to explore the tower built to channel the the wild magic of the fallen star. After damage from some traps, they found a room where the energy could be dampened by slowing the flow of energy to the spinning stone--which a wizard's notes was be used somehow to bore into realities.

After shutting off two dampeners, the power decreased considerably. They entered the room where the jagged length of obsidian-like star stone was slowly stopping it's spinning. In the distance sealing of the dark room a shadow shape spoke: 

"How long have I waited? Drawn here from the shadows, warming myself on this meager fire and hating the wan light of the young stars...And you, you come to extinguish it!"

"Once there were many of us. We were born in the first hot rush of the universe with the primal stars. We danced and sang amid the radiance. Now there are few, and the universe has creatures such as you things--cold and leaden. I will share with you the fires of the heavens!"

A void dragon unleashed it's star radiance breath weapon on them! Kairon was dying and none of the rest were feeling so good.

The dragon told them to bring it the creature that had been in the stone. It wished to consume it's celestial energy. It admitted it was unable to fit into the room where the thing was held. It showed them the door and again demanded they get it. 

Kully taunted the dragon that he was hardly afraid of a creature that could leave the room. It wasn't an accurate taunt, but it served for the moment, because the party was through the door before the dragon could react.

In the room there was a glass orb full of an energized arcane fluid. This was the source of the power for the entire place. Within, they saw the shadow of a slim, human hand beckoning them.

They debated briefly on what to do. Kully used music to attempt to communicate. The creature responded with something like ethereal, whale-song. The party decided to cracked the orb. A slim, strange being emerged.

5e Hadozee

Another species in my 5e pulp sci-fi game, which will probably be somewhat familiar to those of you that remember Star Frontiers... 

HADOZEE

Hadozee are tall, furry humanoids with manes around their necks and heads and large (sometimes tufted) ears. They evolved from arboreal hunters. Humans sometimes call them "monkeys" because they resemble to a degree simian primates of Old Earth, but this can be considered somewhat derogatory. Two large flaps of skin (a patagium) grow on either side of their bodies, attached along their arms, torso, and legs. A Hadozee can use these as a sort of wing or gliding.

Hadozee have four joints (one more than Humans) on their digits. The inside toe is partially opposable like a thumb, allowing them to grasp things with their feet. The tips of their fingers and toes end in broad, ribbed pads, giving them an excellent grip.

Hadozee communities are divided into large, loosely organized clans. All the members of a clan are related to each other. In the past, clan ties were very strong, and inter-clan conflict was common and often violent. These tendencies have been tempered in the modern age, but hadozee still have a proud warrior tradition.

Homeworld: Verdis 

Average Height: 2.1 meters

Average Weight: 50 kg (male), 60 kg (female)

Phenotypic Variation: Individual hadozee vary in color of their head manes and body fur from glossy black to pale yellow. Their skin color ranges from deep gray to light-tan. Certain colorations tend to run in particular clans or historic geographical groups.

Reproduction: Two sexes, viviparous

Traits:

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Age. Hadozee mature a little faster than humans, reaching adulthood around age 14. They age similarly though and can live up to 100 years.

Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this species.

Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed.

Darkvision. Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.

Dexterous Feet. You can take the Use an Object action as a bonus action.

Glide. If you are not incapacitated or wearing heavy armor, you can extend your skin membranes and glide. When you do so, you can perform the following aerial

maneuvers:

• When you fall at least 30 feet, you can move up to 5 feet horizontally

for every 1 foot you descend.

• When you would take damage from a fall, you can use

your reaction to reduce the fall’s damage to 0.

Languages. You can speak, read and write in Solar Trade Common and Verdisian.