Mutants of the Forbidden Zone

MUTANT 
(Medium humanoid)
AC 10
Hit Points: 11 (2d8+2)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 10(+0) DEX 10(+0) CON 12(+1) INT 19(+4) WIS 14(+2) CHA 14(+2)
Skills  Insight +8
Senses passive Perception 12
Languages telepathy 120 ft.; Common

Mental Powers. A mutant has the equivalent of innate spellcasting based on Intelligence (save DC XX). They can utilize the following abilities:

At will: detect thoughts, dissonant whispers, dominate person
1/day: equivalent of phantasmal killer, clairvoyance

Combined Illusions. Three or more mutants working in concert (all concentrating) can great large scale illusions over long distances less than 5 mi.) similar to arcane mirage, hallucinatory terrain, or programmed illusion. Saving throws are the same as if one Mutant were creating them.

Actions:
Melee weapion--though Mutants tend to rely on mental powers.

The Mutants are a sect of humans living in the Forbidden Zone, in the underground ruins beneath what was once Manhattan. Exposure to radiation has led them to develop powerful psionic abilities but scarred features that they hide beneath human masks.

Mutants claim to be pacifists. There primary means of defense is not direct confrontation, but keeping enemies away. The stats above present an "average" psionically talented mutant. A guard would have slightly more robust physical abilities.

Some reports suggest the Mutants are able to mind control people over great distances as well as project illusions. Like the illusion powers, this is likely done by groups working together.

People of the Feud

There was a colony ship, sent out from Earth or a world very much like it to settle a new world. It's navigators had been genetically modified to take advantage of a new drive system allowing FTL travel. The majority of the colonist were placed into cryogenic suspension for the voyage.

Something went wrong. Inadequate shielding? Purposeful sabotage? No one remembers. The navigators began to mentally breakdown, expose to psychoactive and mutagenic properties of the manifold outside normal spacetime. The ship was stranded stuttering in an out of spacetime.

The navigators began to develop psionic powers and with them certain physical requirements. Boosted quantities of certain neurotransmitters. No synthetic source was available, but there were the stored colonists to feed on.

To help them manage the ship and their food source, the former Navigators awakened a military congent, a few at the time. They mentally enthralled them and enslaved them. Molding them over generations.

As generations passed under the accelerated mutagenesis of the manifold, both the Navigators--calling themselves the Masters now--and their soldier caste had diverged significantly from their original genotype. The Masters had long ago authorized larger scale awakening of more of the colonists to serve as a more docile slave caste--and cattle.

The Masters grew complacent and removed from human concerns and feelings. They didn't see the revolution coming. A soldier named Gith lead a coalition of the soldiers and the menials against their oppressors they now called Mind Flayers after their manner of feeding.

The former Masters were either killed or used their power to flee into the nonspace. The coalition that had brought about their downfall did not long survive. Former menials resented the soldiers as long time collaborators and the soldiers disagreed with the menails attempts to master Mind Flayer psionic disciplines.

When the ship was finally cannibalized and destroyed, two cultures had emerged as firm in their hatred of each other as they were in their former masters.

Azurthite Bestiary: The Arthropods from Nowhere

There is a place that the inhabitants call Zrgztl, but you might as well call it Nowhere because it's here and not here all at the same time. Its inhabitants live out of the phase with the world we know and only seldom interact with it. They are as smart as any normal folk--perhaps a little smarter--in Nowhere, but like a fish's gills don't work so well in the air, the Nowhere creatures' brains can't fully turn the corner to Earth and they become rather stupid here.

They're mean where ever they are.

The arthopods of Nowhere have strangely human-like faces, but they always look angry, like an irate schoolmaster. Even when they are in our world, they are only half here. Their forms are shimmery as heat haze. Their shadows seem more solid; They look like very flat mirrors or thin pools of mercury. The arthopods are always after something, but often they can't remember what it is.

Stats: Use the stats for the Phase Spider.

Mortzengersturm's Menagerie

Here are some of Mortzengersturm's creations that appear in his menagerie in the upcoming Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak:

Parrotbear: A bear covered in downy, green feathers with parrot’s head. It will mimic short phrases spoken to it.

Iron Shrike: An eagle-sized bird of prey made of metal. His crest and wings are sharp as knives.

Ink Dog: A sepia dog, technically, but Mortzengersturm has never been one for pedantry so far as his art is concerned. The creature resembles a messy, living sketch of a large fox made entirely of brown ink. As it moves, it throws off squiggles and errant marks in the air behind it to fall to the ground in drips. Its bite leaves tattoos.

Mocka: This attempt to cross a naga with a clown triggered even Mortzengersturm’s coulrophobia in the end. It giggles and mugs, and sways and bounces like a jack-in-the-box unboxed, eager to bring laughter and joy. Or something.

Moonster: A glowing spherical creature resembling the moon with a face: a bemused smile under half-lidded eyes. The Moonster is a narrator—and an annoying one. It will narrate the actions of anyone that enters the shaft in a somewhat florid diction, but with an ironic distance. It knows the past of the subject of its narration with certainty; its predictions for the future are only speculation, no matter how assured their delivery.

The Mummy Unwrapped

by R.L. Allen

Halloween draws ever nearer, and with it, a bandaged wrapped form shambles out of the darkness. Too classic mummy-centric posts rocket from the crypt: 2010's "Famous Monsters: The Mummy" and 2013's unwrapping of variant mummy, revealing that "Mo' Mummies" may mean more than mo' problems.

Goblinic Slime

In the Land of Azurth, Goblins don't reproduce in the manner of humankind or humanish creatures, but instead they arise from pools of a viscious, green fluid, faintly luminescent in darkness. This fluid, which wells up from the depths beneath Subazurth, is called goblinic slime--or sometimes "goblin snot" in the vulgate of the Underfolk.

How many goblins and how fast they arise depends on available sources of energy and the volume of slime. Even a pool only a few inches dead and a couple of feet across, and in a cool, dark place can produce at least a few goblin larva. Deeper or larger pools, warmed by heat from the depths, can produce hundreds, even thousands. In ideal conditions, goblins wallow in their pools until virtually adult size, but where resources are scarce, they may crawl worth as tiny goblings only inches tall (1 HP) and are certainly a menace to others when their are a foot to two feet tall (2d4 HP).

Goblins are born sexless, but at apparent maturity (in terms of size), a slight majority develop male or female sexual characteristics, seemingly at random. While some goblins (regardless of sex) enthusiastically engage in sexual activity, reproduction never results.

There are rumors of remote places in Subazurth where slime pools are associated with strange machinery--hissing valves, wheezing pumps, gurgling pipes, and the like--attended by other goblins in great numbers. These are places the prudent avoid.

 Learned texts disagree on whether goblin slime is edible, if unappetizing [a Constitution save DC 15 is necessary to avoid vomiting] or toxic to the unwise ingester by means of internal goblinization. If the former sources are to be believed, slime causes a rumbling in the bowels and strange dreams, but also may confer the ability to understand the native goblinic tongue (40% chance) for 1d10 days. If the more pessimistic sources are take for true, at a failed DC 13 Constitution save, goblins will propagate inside the individual within 1d10 days leading to 2d4 points damage a day and a DC 11 Constitution save to avoid death as they try to emerge.

Giants of Azurth

The Giants of Azurth are a varied lot, not strictly fitting into Gygaxian categories. The giants in the country of Yanth are typically primitive and almost certainly not very bright, though they are not necessarily evil (though they're likely to be). This:

And this:

Would reflect your typical Yanth giant. There is some evidence that was not always the case and that in some remote time (maybe before Azurth became Azurth) there were floating cities of blue-skinned, giantish folk, who enjoyed a life of science fictional splendor as only mid-century America could correctly imagine. They looked something like this:

They all disappeared and their cloud cities are mostly abandoned, except perhaps for a few degenerate examples.

Beyond Yanth, in the countries of Sang and Virid, giants are often less human looking and more uniformly hostile--though still not exclusively. This would be a giant you might find in those lands:

Azurthite Bestiary: Cosmic Cat

Art by Joel Priddy

It is fearfully discussed by nervous rats in conclaves beneath the cities of Man, casually rumored by upended bats hanging from branches in moonlight, and philosophically considered by telepathic xvats scuttling slowly through frigid, Plutonian twilight, that there are ultraerrene creatures not unlike cats, that visit Earth from some higher sphere. These Cosmic Cats may leap from a passing comet or arrive curled and napping upon a falling star.

To call a Cosmic Cat a cat is to rely on the most superficial of resemblances. It has the general shape of a common cat (if one ignores the fleshy antennae) to be sure, but it is about size of a lynx, and its tail tapers to a point in an almost reptilian fashion. It has no fur, and its silken hide is awash with changing patterns of color like some varieties of cuttlefish.

What Cosmic Cats do on Earth is their own affair, and rarely does it seem to others that they have any goal whatsoever--but here one would do well not to jump to conclusions. The cats demonstrate (or at least they claim to possess) a cosmic awareness that renders all time and distance transparent. Certainly, they seem to have great insight--any Cosmic Cat you meet will tell you as much--but when they share that insight with others, they inevitably do so highly cryptic manner.

COSMIC CAT
small aberration, chaotic neutral (good)
AC 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 85
Speed: 40 ft.
STR 14(+2) DEX 15(+2) CON 16(+3) INT 19(+4) WIS 16(+3) CHA 16(+3)
Skills  Insight +8
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Senses Truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages telepathy 120 ft.

Limited Magic Immunity. A cosmic cat is immune to spells of 6th level or lower unless it wishes to be affected. It has advantage on saving throws against all other spells and magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The cosmic cat's spellcasting ability is intelligence (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells with no components:

At will: blink, detect magic, detect thoughts
3/day: confusion, hypnotic pattern, levitate, identify
1/ day: plane shift (self only)

Actions:
Bite. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) piercing damage.

Sirens

Art by Diane Özdamar

In the first part of my pirate-Sargasso adventure "In Doom's Wake" the PCs encountered three unusual, but alluring creatures in a half-submerged wreck. There were 3 Cecalian (thanks, internet!) mermaids: Giddy, Sheela, and Pru. In place of legs, or a traditional mermaids fish tail, they had squid-like tentacles--a vampire squid's webbed tentacles in this case, making them look like they wore long skirts. They also had a color change and light-producing ability like a cuttlefish. In 5e, I statted them pretty much like Merfolk with a few special features. Here are their abbreviated stats:

AC 11, HP: 16
STR: 10, DEX:13 (+1), CON: 12 (+1), INT: 11, WIS 11, CHA 13 (+1)

Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing damage. Hit creature is grappled (escape DC 12).

Mesmerizing Light Display. As the spell Hypnotic Pattern. Wisdom save or be charmed (incapacitated, speed of 0). DC 11 to resist.

In all other respects they had the abilities of Merfolk.

Draconic Correspondences

This comes from a productive accidental brainstorming with Richard and Mateo on G+ yesterday. Something formed will hopefully come from this.

Chromatic Dragon Colors & Alchemical Associations:
Black: lead, vitriol (sulfuric acid), fire, the smell of sulfur, putrefation, phelgmatic.
Blue: tin, rust, water, acrid smell, dissolution, melancholic.
Green: copper, earth, saltpeter, chlorine smell, amalgamation, sanguine.
Red: iron, air, sodium carbonate, rotten egg smell, separation, choleric.
White: silver, alchemical mercury, after a rain smell, unemotional.

All in the Family

The monstrous crone that was once a pirate queen broods beneath the decks of her decaying flagship, Doom's Wake. Her many descendants, mutated by demonic taint, carry on their grandam's murderous trade:

Art by David Lewis Johnson

Perdita

Daring and cunning, she would also be beautiful if not for her green-scaled skin and the barbels drooping from the edges of her upper lip. Stats: As Bandit (Pirate) Captain, with the  +1 AC in light armor and swimming and climbing rates of the Mariner Fighting Style.

Squalo

His broad nose, gray skin, and finned head recall a shark--but no more so than his wide mouth full of serrated, triangular teeth. He is vicious, but is not as smart as Perdita and knows it. Stats: As a Sahaugin, but without shark telepathy or claws. Besides his bite, he wields a cutlass as a weapon.

"Handsome" Blut

Scarred, pale, hulking brute in a featureless wood mask, beneath the mask his mouth is a lamprey-like sucker with a circular array of teeth. Stats: As Berserker but with a bite attack like a Vampire Spawn, but necrotic damage and drain like a Wight's life drain attack.

Azurthite Bestiary: Bad Seeds

Bad Seeds are made by evil magicians and the like out to undermind Good Azulina and the rightful order of the Land of Azurth. They are made from combination of a Green Man root, a moonless night, and an unwholesome ritual whose full details are regrettably quite easy to find in magical tomes. Depending on certain details of the rite and the place of planting, different types of Bad Seed are cultivated. 

 Twig Bad Seeds have the form of crude stick dolls or effigies. They wait at the side of lonely woodland trails or guard the abodes of witches in haphazard clusters. You must be very cunning and quick to see them move before they strike. There are stores of giant twig seeds that stride through the forest like wicker giants and throw victims in the cages of their chest. 

 Thorn Bad Seeds can stand upright if they wish, but mostly they roll like bramble bush tumbleweeds making rasping noises like the growl of a dog. The spilling of blood greatly excites them. They seem to be able to taste it on the air.

Vine Bad Seeds usually take the form of slithery masses and like to hide in dark places. Other than the susurrus of their movement, they make no other sound. They will often stalk prey, stealing small items and causing confusion before finally striking.

 Bad Seeds are statted like the comparable Blight in the Monster Manual.

Not a Bad Seed, but another plant creature: a Heap as rendered by David Lewis Johnson:

Here Comes the Moon Goon

I've blogged about these guys before--twice in fact. But I've never before had an illustration of their weird villainousness. Now I do, thanks to Matthew Adams.

Moon Goons get their name from their heads or masks, large, round, and faintly luminous like the Moon, and their vile behavior. The Moon Goons avoid the real moon, only striking when it is new. Their spindly, bone-white limbs are animated with odd gestures and faintly aglow despite the lack of moonlight. They are forever mumbling and conversing, but their lips never move and their speech is unintelligible.

Azurthite Bestiary: Heap

Heaps are lumbering creatures most commonly found in the bottomland swamps along the Yellow River in the Country of Yanth, particular in the environs of Lardafa, the Beggar City. They appear as anthropomorphic mounds of plant material, sometimes mixed in garbage.

Though only a few in the Land of Azurth are aware of their origins, Heaps are made when the process of generating a Green Man goes awry, leaving them unconnected to the spirits of nature, and dumb brutes, in the main. Heaps are nevertheless dimly aware of what their mission would have been and at least seem to intend to protect the forests where they dwell, though their means of doing so is not always effective.

Heaps are feared by most folk (and not without some reason),  but Lardafans view them with reverence and augur meaning from their mysterious comings and goings.

HEAP
large plant, neutral
AC 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 128 (15d10+45)
Speed: 20 ft.
STR 18(+4) DEX 8(-1) CON 16(+3) INT 8(-1) WIS 11(+0) CHA 7(-2)
Skills  Stealth +2
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing
Condition Immunities blinded, deafened
Senses passive Perception 10.

False Appearance. A heap looks a mound of vegetation if it lies motionless.

Actions:
Multiattack. A heap makes two slam attacks per round.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 13(2d8+4) bludgeoning damage.

Azurthite Bestiary: Deodand, Leprous

Deodands are a horrible danger in the darkness of Subazurth, and the Leprous Deodand is perhaps the most feared of the lot. Not only do they favor humankind in preference to all other meals, but they spread a wasting disease to many who are lucky enough to escape their clutches. The no doubt terror-tinged recollections of their appearance agree on most points: They are giantish, like other deodands, but with an emaciated look. Their sore-marked and flaking skin hangs in loose folds as if they are wasting away within it. Their lips are receded back from their mouths lending them a permanent rictus. Their eyes are wide and vacant. The only sound they make is a desiccated wheeze or sigh, or a corpse-moan.

DEODAND, LEPROUS
large monstrosity, neutral evil
AC 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 126 (12d10+60)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 17(+3) DEX 18(+4) CON 20(+5) INT 12(+1) WIS 12(+1) CHA 17(+3)
Saving Throws  Dex +8 Con +9 Wis +5
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren't silvered
Damage Immunities poison
Senses Truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 11.

Magic Resistance. A leprous deodand has an advantage against spells and other magical effect.
Contagion. A creature that touches a leprous deodand or is touched or hit by it must make a DC 15 Constitution save or become infected. One day later the individual develops a flesh rotting which gives a vulnerability to all damage. At the end of each long rest, the infected must make a DC 15 Constitution save or the disease progresses. At the end of the next long rest the disease has spread so that they have a disadvantage to Charisma checks. At the end of the second long rest they can a disadvantage on Constitution checks. Three successful saves cause the disease's progression to halt and healing to begin. Three failures mean the effects become permanent.
Sunlight Weakness. In anything brighter candlelight, a deodand have a disadvantage to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. Bright sunlight causes them to melt like film in a projector, losing i hit dice worth of hit points a round.

Actions:
Multiattack. A leprous deodand may make two claw attacks.
Rotting Claw. +8 to hit. 10 ft. reach, 1 target. Hit: 10 (1d6+7) plus 1d6 necrotic damage.

The Weird Monsters of Krypton

Yesterday, I posted the map of Krypton and suggested it as a setting for a weird fantasy game. What would be a weird fantasy game without weird monsters? Don't worry. Krypton has got that covered too. Here's a brief list:

Drang: A giant, purple serpentine creature with a single horn.
Fish-Snake: poisonous snake-things living in the Fire Falls.
Flame Dragon: A bat-winged, dragon-like creature that breathes fire.
Ice Bird: Polar-dwelling birds with razor-sharp talons.

Metal Eater: An animal that looks something like a giant, prehistoric tapir and eats metal.
Pryllgu: A large, reptillian sea creature that attacks ships.
Rondor: A ponderous ungulate-type creature with a single horn with curative properties.

Telepathic Hound: They can locate people at a distance via mind-reading.
Thought-beast: Rhinocerous-sized, ceratopsian creatures whose frill acts like a video screen that projects there thoughts and intentions to the world.
Yagrum: A large, vaguely cat-like carnivore.

Azurthite Bestiary: The Face of the Deodand

In previous posts, I've mentioned the three species of deadly deodands in Subazurth beneath the Land of Azurth proper. Now, you, the reading public, can see what these horrible creatures look like from the safety and comfort of your own home. I commissioned artist Matthew Adams to render the deodands from the descriptions of first hand accounts. Here is the startling and slimy Gleimous Deodand for your education and wonder:

Zonal Aberrations

Aberrations (not to be confused with the D&D monster type) are a type of hazard encountered in zones. The resemble mobile anomalies in some ways, but they exhibit wider patterns of behavior, resembling (at least in limited observation) living things. They are abiologic, however; their tissues (if they have them at all) appear undifferentiated to close inspection, or they may have simulacra of organs that are clear nonfunctional. They do not appear to eat, grow, or reproduce, though they sometimes mimic behaviors associated with these activities. They can not be destroyed or driven off by "wounding" them (in most cases, it's unclear if they can be wounded) but must be completely destroyed.

Aberrations have a substance (similar to the manifestations of anomalies), a behavior pattern, and effects/abilities. A lot of D&D monsters would make good inspiration for aberrations. So are some paranormal or folkloric entities but keep in mind in their game usage they are more like obstacles or traps than monsters to be fought. Slimes and oozes are good models. You could destroy them, but it's generally more fruitful to just avoid them.

Unlike most anomalies, aberrations can spot/notice things approaching them as well as being noticed themselves--though the sensory modality by which they do this isn't clear. They are not usually as tied to as specific an area as anomalies, but most will have a specific territory, in the way an animal might.

Substance
1  Apparition
2  Construct
3  Crystalline/Mineral
4  Flesh
5  Fluid
6  Gas
7  Growth
8  Light
9  Ooze/Slime/Gelatinous
10 Shadow

Behavior
1  Ambusher. Lies in wait, sometimes in a dormant or indolent state, until approached.

2  Builder. Involved in some sort of construction project like a nest or nonrepresentational sculpture.

3  Chaser. After detecting target, follows targets at a high rate of speed.

4  Collector. Forages for particular objects or objects with particular characteristics.

5  Follower. Loosely joins with the target, following at a respectful distance without overt hostility.
6  Guard. Only active in a certain area. Patrols and menaces those who enter.

7  Harbinger. Appearance precedes some other event.

8  Lurker. Follows targets, but furtively, as if shy.

9  Mimic. Seems to repeat the actions or behaviors of a target.

10 Ritualist. Performs certain fairly complicated but perhaps mundane actions over and over.

11 Swarm. Smaller entities surround targets.

12 Snooper. Curious, possibly annoyingly and intrusively so, but not threatening.

13 Stalker. After detecting target, hunts it over distances.

14 Watcher. Stays in plan view, but at some remove as if only there to observe. No direct interaction.

Effects: Use the table for Zonal Anomalies--or borrow from a monster.

Examples:
chasing shadow: Too thick and deep black to be natural, the chasing shadow is nevertheless able to lurk unseen in normal darkness. It slides out of hiding when a living thing draws near, and if not stopped, attaches itself to them at their feet like a normal shadow--though does not also flow out in the same direction as the natural one. It slowly begins to crawl up the victims body and if not stopped, will cover a person complete in darkness in 20-30 hours. Over the next 30-45 minutes it will contort and collapse their body until only the flat shadow remains. What happens to the victim is unknown. If caught early, the shadow can be removed but only if the victim is surrounded by bright light and a small laser (like a laser pointer, for example) is used carefully "cut" away from the chasing shadow.

grim: Something like the featureless, white quadrupedal shape, surrounded by blotchy redness, like the silhouette of a large dog outlined in red spray paint. Grims simply appear on high ground, never approaching, and retreating if they are approached. They usual appear after someone has been seriously wounded, and Zone hunters fear them as a harbinger of death.

memory flashes: Groups of will-o'-the-wisp-like flashes of light with colorful after-images. They move quickly to swarm around a person, typically for no more than a minute. After the flashes pass, a person so caught will have one or more new memories of things that happened to someone else instead of them. They will also likely notice at some point that one or more of their own memories are missing--always small, discrete things, but perhaps important (like a telephone number of the location of something).

An Introduction to the Elementals of Subazurth

The primal elements of Subazurth are not the same as in the Land of Azurth above, though why this is so is not entirely clear. Perhaps they represented altered or tainted refuse from the creation of Azurth by the giant crystal gnome, Gob, under the direction of the Lady Azulina. Here are the elements as found in the world beneath the world:

Art by Juan Diego Dianderas

Ooze/Slime:It's elementals are slimes or jellies. The viscous, semi-liquid Kingdom of Oozurth with its laminar fiefdoms connects to bubbling Lake Ooze,

Crystal: It's elementals are fae folk composed of gem or crystal. It intrudes upon the environs of Troglopolis as the Crystal Forest.

Magma: It's elementals are various fae folk composed of lava or magma. It's people are kept out of the upper levels of Subazurth for the trouble they cause, however innocently.

Art by Valterri

Dust: It's elements tend to be indolent folk, resting as often as they cane, though some cause mischief as swirling dust devils. They lay claim to unused caverns, but their primary habitat is the air itself beyond many a yawning precipe.

Azurth Monster Review

Yesterday's tigerpillar was only the beginning. Here's some other entries from the bestiary you might have missed:

Deodand, Hirsute and Gleimous varieties.
Dragonborn are a different thing in the deserts of Sang.
Manhound. "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Moon Goon arrives in a lead balloon.
Super-Wizard ancient, ultra-powerful alien wizards.