Mobstrosity

A King Mob or Mobstrosity is a human swarm: a regular rabble changed by rare conditions to a strange entity of singular purpose. The people making up the entity never appear to communicate but nevertheless move and act with uncanny coordination. A mobstrosity never forms from less than 20 individuals and seldom more than a 150. It seldom dissipates without blood being spilled.

In game terms a mobstrosity acts like a swarm (and has the usual characteristics of such) except that it's made up of medium sized creatures. Any to-hit roll but a "1" hits a mobstrosity, but it only takes half damage from piercing or stabbing weapons. Attack from the vanguard or outer edge of a mobstrosity does 2d6 points of damage per round. Being engulfed or trampled by it deals 5d6 per round.

Mobstrosities are best defeated not by direct engagement but by removal of the thing that led to its formation. This is often a spell or a cursed item of some sort. When a nidus for its creation can't be found, it's most prudent to get out of the area of the swarm. There are reports of the peculiar madness of a mobstrosity  being infectious and drawing new members into it.

MOBSTROSITY
HD 15+  AC: 10 (see above) Attacks: 1 swarm (see above) Save: F1 (has certain spell immunities due to its nature)

Happy Thanksgiving

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I hope has a great Thanksgiving! May your turkey be well-dressed.

Warlord Wednesday: The Uxmal Encounter

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"The Uxmal Encounter"

Warlord Annual #5 (1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Adam Kubert

Synopsis: Tourists are visiting the ruins of the Mayan city of Uxmal. One of the them, the Hawaiian shirted and plaid socks wearing Douglas Wendell, goes inside a building to try out his new camera and runs right into a real-live Mayan warrior!

A little while later in Skartaris, Morgan is doing a little early morning exploring when he’s attacked by Mayans on a flying platform. He returns fire but, there are just too many of them. They capture him and take him back to their city:

Morgan notices a guy in a Hawaiian shirt toiling with the Mayan’s other captives. There leader explains (in Skartarian, I suppose) how they've been building here for generations since they passed through a cave from the surface world and now they’re ready to return and restart the Mayan Empire.

The high priest calls on Kukulkan to receive Douglas as a sacrifice. An image of a feathered serpent begins to form. Morgan surmises it’s an Atlantean “hologram” created by the priest’s staff--though as long as the hologram's “energized” it’s solid-- and deadly.

Morgan makes his escape and grabs a futuristic weapon from one of them. He shoots the priest’s staff and dissipates the hologram, but there’s only one of him and hundreds of Mayans. Xtala, the Mayan ruler, offers Morgan a chance of survival: survive an ordeal in the Path of Penance, and win a boon.

Morgan agrees, but the king double-crosses him and has him thrown in the Well of Endless Sorrow.

Soon, an installation of Americans and Colombian allies involved in the war on drugs is overrun by the Skartarian Mayans. The Mayan invasion of the surface world has begun.

Meanwhile, Morgan finds himself pulled from the well by agents of the king. It appears Xtala has changed his mind. He wants to know the secret of the high priest's staff so he can quit sharing power. Morgan’s willing to make a deal, but the priest shows up, and it's on!

While they fight, Morgan slips away. He grabs Douglas and a sky platform. They head into the cave to the surface. The high priest won the fight with the king and is soon in pursuit.

Things to Notice:

• The Mayans' speech is completely intelligible to Morgan (and apparently Douglas) for some reason.

Where it Comes From:
Uxmal is a real Mayan city found in the modern Mexican state of Yucatán. The technology employed by the Mayans resembles that we've seen used before by Deimos and his ancestor Daamon with good reason: it all presumably has Atlantis as its source.

The Elves' New Skin

I did a post a before on putting a fresh spin on the classic D&D races by giving them a new visual.

So this guy to the left will now be one of the ulthona--who mechanically are elves.  Here's some other things we know about them:

1. All ulthona are male (or at least only males are ever encountered).
2. They swear (on the rare occasion their unflappability is perturbed) by "the Great Intellects."
3. They often seem emotionless and distant to other races.
4. There were only a finite number of ulthona intelligences created in the distant past. Each intelligence reincarnates when its old form dies.
5. Each ulthona seeks an object called an ojalv that holds individual meaning and can take any form.

Meet Carnival Pandemonium

After our last Weird Adventures game, Cornelius Doyle and Don Diabolico went to do some research to find out more about their foes. This is what they found out:

Marzo, Orlando Vincenzo Rodomonte Visconte di, the assumed name of an adventurer, courtier, thaumaturgist (or charlatan), and likely confidence trickster active in the latter half of the 58th Century. Some sources place his origins much earlier, but this may be only so much propaganda. His detractors appear accurate in their assertion that he was no nobleman of the Vitellian League, at least in the sense that no viscounty of Marzo is known to have existed.

Marzo’s primary attribute seems to have been his ability to insinuate himself into the courts of various Ealderdish nobles their his theatrical use of magical power. He has been derided as a mere illusionist by some, while others have embraced that mantle and championed him as the secret founder of the Brotherhood of Illusion.

Marzo’s fame was such that even long after his likely death he figures into legend. Several adventurers over the past half century have claimed to have encountered Marzo who sought to act as an agent for infernal powers looking to acquire souls. Whether these encounters are mere fabulations, the actions of pretenders, or brushes with an immortal magician are the subject of debate. [from The Practioners of the Art (Roodmas, 5802).]

Deadeye: Stage name of Jonas Early, a sharpshooter in Bucksnort Bill's Wild West Show. He toured with the show from 5833 until his death in 5838. Early died from infection after having been shot in a quarrel over a gambling debt. After display at the Wild West Show, his body disappeared before he could be buried. During life his life, rumor attributed Early's skill with firearms to a pact he had made with a devil--a rumor Early did nothing to discourage. [from The Wild West Shows and Their Performers (Weedle, 5877).]

Polly the Rubber Girl: Polly Ethel Leane was born in 5844. Gifted with unusual flexibility, she became a contortionist and dancer, performing in vaudeville theaters in the City. She died of an ether overdose in 5869. [from The Vaudevillians (Smoal, 5882).]

Mail Order Magic Item: The Horror Mask

This is another of those minor magic items that occasional shows up for mail order, supplied by sources unknown (and possibly extraplanar) for some inscrutable purpose.

When worn, the mask is unsettling beyond its appearance alone. Any creature below 5 HD viewing it must make a saving throw or be shaken and at a -2 to all attack rolls or saving throws. Even if a saving throw is successfully made the wearer is better able to intimidate those they deal with (bonus to reaction rolls to do so).

There is a 10% change (cumulative with each wearing greater than 5 minutes) that the mask will somehow become affixed to the wearer's face and only removal by magical means.

Carnival of Evil

In last night's Weird Adventures game, gentleman thief Don Diabolico and former lion tamer Cornelius Doyle found themselves confronting the supernatural as just a duo.

It started with a message from Philo Markham, a confidence man and friend of Diabolico. The two went to meet him at a waterfront warehouse full of circus and carnival equipment. Despite the fact they heard what seemed to be his voice, Markham was found dead. A knife in his back pinned a flyer to him: an advertisement for the Carnival Pandemonium in Rookend.

Investigation revealed there was a Carnival there, but it seemed old and abandoned--until they stepped inside and the lights came on. They entered through the giant head of a laughing devil. A show began courtesy of one Viscount Orlando Vincenzo Rodomonte Marzo. He admitted to killing Markham to lure "Team Victory" to him, and he expressed disappointment only two of them had come.

Diabolico shot the over-theatric murderer, only to have Marzo rise to his feet again after invoking the intercession of dark powers. Cornelius and Diabolic thought it best to retreat at that point, but the way was blocked by zombie roustabouts!

Our heroes were forced to retreat into the big tent. There, Marzo appeared again and introduced his confederates: the undead pistoleer Deadeye, Chaundoo the Mystic of the East, and Polly the Rubber Girl. He invited Diabolico and Cornelius to join their fellowship.  He promised his employers would grant them all the money and power they desired; they need only sign over their immortal souls.

Cornelius and Diabolico made a break for it. They narrowly avoided a trapdoor on the way out. Once out of the tent, the carnival appeared deserted again.  They headed for their car and home, determined to find out what they could about this new foe.