Ternketh - Monster Encounters

Throughout the description I have added the location of certain monsters, particularly harpies, yellow musk creepers, snakes, rats, spiders, as well as oozes. I offer no specific descriptions regarding these, no hit dice or hit points, with few details about their attacks or how big and tough they are. Different games will have different rules regarding these creatures and it would be a waste of time for me to describe them according to any particular rule-set since it is assumed the reader has rules of some kind for this.

Harpies

In my game, harpies are able to charm both by singing and by attacking with their claws and teeth. My harpies do not use weapons (though they could) because the best method is to attack physically so that the victim must save vs. charm (magic). This save is done every time a creature is hit by a different harpy. This does not mean that if the harpy hits twice or three times, the character must save twice or three times; one time per harpy is the rule. If two harpies hit a character in a round, however, the character must save against each harpy.

Characters that save against the harpy singing are immune for the remainder of the adventure. Characters that fail and are thereafter resussitated must make save again if they later hear singing. Once they have finally saved against the singing, they are immune.

Charm will result in the character dropping their weapons and taking no action whatsoever except to make themselves fully available to the harpies future attacks. If the harpy feels safe, it is presumed that they hit with all their attacks the next round, so only damage need be rolled. If five or more damage is done, this will break the charm – but the character must make save again or remain in a charmed state. If the save is made, the character may regain their weapons and attack, if able.

The harpies will always flee if they feel they haven’t the advantage, except in the assembly hall and temple – primarily because they will be trapped there and unable to get out. Due to the yellow musk zombies, the harpies are finding less and less of the keep can be moved through safely.

Throughout their stay at the Keep, the harpies have systematically defiled every surface and place with their filth. This defacement will have the effect of making every weapon or tool in the keep act as  cursed. Each has a modifier of -1 to hit or upon damage done (the latter per die, with regards to the ballista or arrow hracha on the walls). The DM may wish to compel characters to use any cursed weapons they pick up in preference to their own weapons.

Yellow Musk Creeper & Zombies

I run my yellow musk creepers very differently from what is described in books – but the reader does not need to follow my lead. A description of the creeper’s special abilities and fighting power can be found in the room description, below. The changes have been made to create a creeper that is quite dangerous, which is what I want in the basement of my keep.

The zombies the creeper creates are similar to ordinary zombies except that they are not undead and infected by a fungus. They are immune to the yellow musk creeper’s attacks. Usually they need to infect living bodies, but the unholy effect of the harpy desecration has meant that many dead bodies have been infected and transformed. As well, the yellow musk creeper, from which the zombies are spawned, should be a much more powerful creeper than normal (at least twice as powerful), with the ability to move slowly and fire four bolt-like missiles per round (mine cause 1d6).

The harpies have been forced to trap the zombies largely in the central tower of the Keep. Now and then these zombies will slip out and there are a number that are wandering the north end of the Lower Map (the first level below ground – see Maps of the Keep), in and around the guards quarters and kitchen. These will be easy for the party to kill, but they will either cause some attrition damage or force the party to sacrifice precious spells (presuming a system where spell-use is limited, which in mine it is).

Moreover, the zombies will be more powerful if they are closer to the central creeper. Zombies on the surface of the yard or in the guard’s quarters will have only 2 HD. Those in the Magician’s Rooms (see Maps of the Keep) will have 3 HD and those in the Basement (the lowest level) will have 4 HD. THAC0 will increase accordingly.

Snakes & Giant Rats

These can be found in the area of the well and the pipes that lead from the well to drain and ultimately to the kitchen. These snakes are only six feet long, ordinary in size, but will be poisonous. My poison causes 8 hit points per HD, over time, so in the case of the snakes a failed saving throw will cause a victim that has failed to save to suffer 4 hp per round for a total of four rounds (16 hp total). DMs should feel free to run poison in their own way.

If any of these areas around the pipes are examined, the snakes will make their presence known. The snakes will move up onto the yard or into the kitchen only if the drains or well are investigated – if a player retreats from the snake, there is a 50% chance that the snake will simply slither away.

The giant rats will hide under the guards bunks, on either side of the lower level. These are ordinary giant rats; however, they have a double chance of transmitting disease, due to the condition of the Keep and what they have been eating. The king rat found in the soldiers barracks has been dramatically altered into something bordering a higher intelligence.

There is no specific number of snakes or giant rats in the Keep. The DM may set a number if desired.

Rather than creating a random table for wandering monsters, it is suggested that DMs simply decide if these should be a snake or a giant rat. In and around the kitchen, it should probably be a snake; in the armory or among the guard’s quarters and bunks, a giant rat. Note that huge spiders (see below) may also be an option.

Spiders

There are an unknown number of huge spiders in the store. These are hunters and there will be no webs. The spiders are able to get under doors and regularly hunt rats or snakes. They correspond to most wolf-spider characteristics. The poison from these spiders is weak and only causes 2 damage per round for four rounds.

There is also a phase spider in the storeroom. This will conform to the traditional monster. It’s appearance is dictated in the room descriptions, but the DM may wish it to phase into the kitchen, mess or tavern, attacking once then disappearing, if the characters are showing signs of fatigue from stumbling through rooms (DMs should go with their feeling on this).

Grey Pudding

This creature dwells in the offal pits in the yard. It is slightly different from the traditional black pudding in that this particular feeds on the sewage and offal in these pits. Though it has plenty of food, it does not grow larger than its present size; typically it moves from pit to pit, depending on how the detritus in each has been allowed to ferment. It attacks like a black pudding.

Giant Slug

The giant slug in the crypt will correspond to the traditional creature. If it senses that the zombies are killed and it senses that the air has changed by opening the door to the passage leading to the treasure room, the slug may emerge at any time through the crypt door, which it will have the strength to force open. I had intended to make my slug more deadly and powerful than ordinary giant slugs, given what the creature will have been feeding upon for many months. I presume it began as a much smaller creature when the harpies first arrived, perhaps even as a natural slug, made freakishly larger by the amount of evil magic associated with its diet.

Green Slime

This creature will also correspond to the traditional creature. As with other creatures in the Keep, this will have begun as a small bit that might have been simply destroyed in its initial state by the Keep’s proper inhabitants, but it has grown out of control over the years.

From additional notes throughout the Keep, the DM should imagine what sorts of creatures might ‘infect’ the various polluted rooms left in the harpies wake. Remember always that there were once more than a hundred harpies dwelling in the Keep. The players should gain a sense of distaste and unpleasantness from every room, enabling them to see the logic of the Keep’s basement being filled with fungus, slime and a slug that would comfortably feed on such creatures. If the DM feels that more monsters should be added to the Keep, there’s nothing wrong with this – but the monsters should be chosen to reflect the general theme of unnatural growth and choose logical infestations to fit into the rooms (brown or yellow mold, other jellies, violet fungi, shriekers, worms and so on.

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Doing this, it makes me want to sit down and rewrite the whole module, improving the art and so on.  But, best to abandon things from the past and put energies towards new projects.  Still, depending on how the reader views this, perhaps I should take my older self and try another module.

If you have any comments to make on the above, or upon any of my work, please email me at alexiss1@telus.net.  Comments, with answers, are posted on Saturday.