Arnold K wrote a post last year about 1 HD Cosmic Monsters that I liked at the time, but never came up with anything to do with it. However, for a session last week, I needed just such a thing while the PCs were in a rotting fungal forest, and decided to revisit the idea.
Aboleths have an identity problem. They seem to be obviously Lovecraftian in nature, but the writers of the various edition Monster Manuals have done everything in their power to make them just mundane underwater monstrosities. Conceptually, they have always been one of my favorite D&D monsters. I’ve used them in many adventures and campaigns, and have had a lot of issues reconciling what I want an aboleth to be with how they are presented in the manuals. So I’m going to try to rectify that now. Here are a couple ideas.
With a homebrew class I’ve been working on (more details soon), I’ve been inspired to create some golem types. I have stats and more details for some of these which I may post eventually. So currently more like drawing prompts if anything.
There’s a travelling family that travels the area, selling things they’ve picked up from others. Sometimes it’s cool stuff. Sometimes it’s really cool stuff.
Awhile back I created what I called a Random Fey Generator. Though at the time I created it I received a lot of positive feedback, I’ve become less satisfied with it as time’s gone by for several reasons. So it’s time for a change. Below is my new “Procedurally Generated Fey” table.
After years of digging in graveyards, Necro-Engineers have become quite adept at sawing through bones, sewing flesh together, and attaching all of this to each other through the clever use of gears, screws, staples, and thread. They have departed from the traditional realm of necromancy, in favor of a hands-on “crafting” approach to their magic. Experts in seamsters’ kits, they use a combination of masterful Necromancy and crafty engineering to imbue dead flesh and bone with a supernatural unlife, creating terrifying minions. With these minions under their control, Necro-Engineers can chill in the background, allowing their horrible abominations to handle whatever messes present themselves, wading in only when battlefield wounds need a bit of “touching up.”
In part of my ongoing series to revitalize and reshape the fey, I’ve come up with a table for generating fey appearances. Up until two days ago, this was a hand-written table that I’ve had taped to the inside cover of my primary campaign notebook for several years now. I decided it was time to update it, and in the process, I may as well digitize it (for future-proofing).
The following excerpts are from the journal of Jason Canderman, of the eight-man Canderman-Dodder Expedition, which was documenting the newly-discovered ruins of an ancient Hithan pyramid. This journal was found by a group of nine explorers (three of whom met their fate later by the same creatures described within). Based on the following excerpts, we recommend bringing a full regimen of prepared soldiers before the next expedition is attempted.
Coiled beneath the stones and brush, it waits. It hears voices approaching – high-pitched, playful voices. Voices it recognizes as younglings from the community down the river. It opens its beak, pointed tongue running along the edge of its sharp lips. It knows it is in a bad position to strike, but cannot risk moving now, as the voices are close now, and would hear the stones above it shifting. It feels excitement welling – it hasn’t eaten in a week, since eating the meat off the bones of a deer, and fresh man-meat is always preferable to deer. The voices are only a few feet away now, voices filled with joy and glee, unaware of what lies beneath the stones they play atop…
As a GM, what/who is your favorite BBEG you’ve ever created? That did the BBEG do that made it so interesting? And how did the players feel/react? Here’s mine.