The Faeborn of Virid

I finally got a chance to look through the Elemental Evil Players Companion to see if there was anything that jumped out to me to add to my Land of Azurth campaign. I've already written about the Azurthite version of Aarakocraa, so I probably won't be using them as a PCs race. Deep gnomes are different, so they'll take a bit more adapting first. The Genasi work pretty well, we'll call them the Faeborn.

In the Land of Azurth, people with faerie ancestry are uncommon outside of the Country of Virid. Lady Desira, the Enchantress of Virid, is herself of fae descent. The most common sort of Faeborn folk are those who have ancestors among the elemental faerie who worked for Gob, the great craftsman, and Queen Azulina in fashioning the land of Azurth. Each of these types occupies various subkingdoms within Virid.

While they're variable as other folk, their personalities tend toward the humor associated with their element.

Each of the faeborn subkingdoms has a prince or princess and most of these are friends and/or former suitors of Lady Desira:  Parald, Ariel, Jin, Seraph, Gobe, Necksa and Nixi. They took part in the many adventures of her youth: ,

"Shuttlecraft to Traffic Control..."

So, how about a peak at some new Strange Stars art? I had originally planned not to get any new art for the gamebooks, but the sales of Strange Stars have gone a little better than expected, so I felt better about outlaying a bit more money for (just a few) black and white images. The piece above is by Reno Maniquis. You can also expect to see stuff by David Lewis Johnson and Adam Moore, who did the well-received DMG/King Kong homage in Weird Adventures.

Wednesday Comics: Weirdworlds and Slayers

Marvel has release a couple of new collections of interest both to the Bronze Age comic fan and the tabletop rpg playing comics enthusiast.

I've covered Weirdworld here before. Inspired by the work of Tolkien, It was the creation of Doug Moench and initially brought to life by the art of Mike Ploog. This is the first time all of the Weirdworld stories have been collected in one place.

Skull the Slayer is a bit pulpier. It involves a Vietnam vet in a plane crash in the Bermuda Triangle, which you might thing is about as 70s concept you can get, except that the other survivors are other 70s stock characters (angry black man, rebellious rich kid, downtrodden young woman trying to get liberated), and the world they've found themselves mixes The Land That Time Forgot with Chariot of the Gods. It's no Warlord, but if you like Warlord, it's probably in your wheelhouse.

Fate Strange Stars Page

Here's another page from the work-in-progress Strange Stars Fate gamebook. The text is by John Till, the picture by David Lewis Johnson, and the layout by Lester B. Portly.

More Savage Worlds Strange Stars

Mike's latest efforts over at Wrathofzombie:

from the Vokun Empire, the Kuath, ibglibdishpan, voidgliders, and the Yantrans; and the nomadic Star Folk.

Check them out.

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.

Azurthite Bestiary: Tigerpillar

by B.R. Guthrie

Tigerpillars are horrible because they are always hungry. Owing to their magical nature (their creation blamed on one ancient and obviously depraved sorcerer or another), their organs are all mixed up--in one place tiger-like and another more like an inchworm--and they can never get fully satiated. They make their lairs in remote places in the wilderness or underground not because they prefer these places, but there they can devour whatever unfortunates might happen by with less interference.

Some say the tigerpillar metamorphizes into an adult form--a tiger moth or slaughterfly, perhaps--at some point, but others say this is nonsense.

TIGERPILLAR
large monstrosity, unaligned
AC 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 51 (6d10+18)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 17(+3) DEX 13(+1) CON 16(+3) INT 3(+4) WIS 12(+1) CHA 8(-1)
Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13.

Keen Smell. The tigerpillar an advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on smell.

Pounce. If the tigerpillar moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a creature then hits it with a claw on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the tigerpillar can make one bite attack it as a bonus action.

Actions:
Multiattack. The tigerpillar makes two attacks: one with its claws and one with its bite.
Bite. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10+3) piercing damage.
Claws. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit 7 (1d8+3) slashing damage.