Fauna The Remember Bird

These birds come in 3 varieties(detailed below) but they all share the following. The bird will present a small token of what it is going to convey(the token will be directly related for the coming vision).This token(if held) will give a very brief flash insight in the brain of the holder.Their origin is lost to time. If speak w animals is cast the chirping will be revealed as"Take this Please!"i
The Common Remember Bird reveals insight about the past. For example it will give a view of a power king if you were in the ruins of his city Or maybe seeing ones grandmother you never met.

The Uncommon Remember Bird reveals the present. You might see the throne room of a noble you should see, Or maybe what your mother is up to.

The Rare Remember Bird will reveal the future. Not a possible future but the definite future. It will reveal an enemy(perhaps showing a weakness) Or you grown up son, who looks a lot like you

In all cases the visions are crystal clear, but fragmented


other than all of this, it is a just a small bird

DMs NOTE
These can be used to advance a plot or foreshadowing or to advance the player's back story


image

...a cool idea......

Here at Dragonsfoot http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=65381 The post discuses the use of the classic arcade game " Dragon's Lair" as a playable dungeon but it approaches it like a normal D&D game. You cannot represent DL with " Ok Bob, it's your turn what are you doing?" So I've got a germ of an idea.

The castle itself is a dream construct of the way-too-powerful-to fight Dragon. From a distance the castle is changing, growing towers, walls falling , getting bigger and smaller in rapid succession. The castle "eats" interesting things that the players will need to extract. It is also Multidimensional and planer and moves around.

The way I am planning on running it is that individual rounds are broken into 3 parts and only one player gets an action to interact with the "trap". a second player will be able to aid the "phasing" player in what ever action he takes. casting spells will be broken up over the 3 partial rounds(depending on L of spell).The phasing player will in essence be the party leader for the 3 partial rounds. The phasing player "job " will be rotated in some fashion(havent got this worked out yet). This is all run w/ the idea that you are trying to recreate the frantic pace of DL The growing and shrinking nature of the castle forces constant movement on the players A brief description of the situation will be provided with the idea of "looking around" will be an action that takes up a whole "partial" round. A few normal combats to be sprinkled in.

Since a lot of work will go into an encounter that should only take IRL 2 maybe 3 min., the rooms and traps are reusable (justified by the "dream logic")

This will obviously not work for a large group of players. Prob want to keep it to 3 or 4.
This will require MASSIVE prep time for what will prob amount to a 1 hour crawl at best (depending on how many standard fights you work in) That's why REUSABILITY is key. To make the prep worth it , you can rerun it w/ the "dream logic"

Not sure if I'm going to pull the trigger on this. But I really like the idea.Not promising a part two if I don't.

New Monster: Savage Turkey

The Savage Turkey looks exactly lge a novelty plastic chicken w/ claws. Big Ones. They are extremely aggressive, and will in fact pick a fight w/ anything. Wile most are ! HD , there are some as high as 4 HD..Each one gets 2 attacks as daggers and hit like a 5 HD monster, ac as chain -1. What is most interesting about them is that they are very easy for a mage to summon and are found in every environment but arctic.

New Monster: Paper Tiger

The paper Tiger is a paper golam. It has 2 HD,crits 3x better. AC 10, takes 200% damage from fire and gets no save vers this.. Hides amongst hieroglifs .

A cool pest> Dragon Duck

http://ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com/thread/1593/dragon-duck

Boss Warlord Abilities

This list of abilities is primarily oriented to fantasy but with a little tweaking can be used in other genres. Mostly you are going to be using them with a boss monster with a bunch of mooks, a bugbear and a bunch of goblins or orcs is a perfect example. Dragons, ogres and giants all also make good warlord types. A boss using these abilities will usually stand out but this doesn't have to be the case, Care must be used in assigning these as your goal should always be a challenging encounter and not a TPK. Where these abilities originate are at the Keepers discretion: Intellect, supernatural leadership, charisma, commanding presence or my favorite go to, "It's Magic!"

SWIFT STRIKE

This boss grants additional attacks to his mooks. He gives up his action and commands another of his group to attack. This can be anywhere from one additional attack to all of the group gets an attack on the boss's action and their own

INSPIRING VOICE

After a failed morale check, this warlord tries to steel his legion, granting an additional morale check to avoid breaking and running. If the second check is made, perhaps a bonus or penalty is in order: Uriki might get a small bonus to hit for a couple of rounds, Ogres might get a small bonus to damage, while goblins might be left shaken and have penalties.

"THEY ARE ALL PUPPETS"

A warlord with this ability is normally a frontline fighter and uses his compatriots as meatshields. Any attack that would ordinarily hit him, instead the damage is passed on to the mook. This may or may not include spells and the mook might take more or less damage than would normally be assigned

"DO BETTER OR ELSE!"

When one of his mooks miss, they are granted a reroll, sometimes at a bonus or penalty..A good visual for this is to give the warlord a long whip that he either cracks or strikes the hapless mook. Warlords with this ability are often in the back of the fight ( a frequent ability for goblin or kobold warlords).

WOLF PACK TACTICS

Coordinating several mooks on a single foe, a bonus to hit, damage or both is attained. This can also render a disarming, tripping or sundering attack on the foe's weapon.This can sometimes be used to initiate a grapple, possibly without the normal penalties for starting such an attack vrs an armed foe.Another good ability for smaller sized mooks.

SHIELD WALL

The mooks are organized in such a way that their shields are over lapping and a defensive bonus is granted. Not necessarily an option for shield wielders only, sometimes groups with long spears and other two handed weapons can achieve this bonus.

OVERWHELMING PRESENCE

The mere example of the warlords standing on the battlefield inspires his mooks to greater en devour. Any combat bonus is possible. Normally associated with a front line, high charisma or terror inspiring boss.

PIN POINT STRIKE

While most of these abilities tend to be melee oriented, this ability applies to missile weapons. Several archer types are coordinated in an accurate volley fire. Special troops can be trained to disrupt spellcasters specifically.

GATHER ALLIES

This warlord is able to quickly replace combat losses with effective recruits.

"WE ARE ONE"

Many different types of monsters flock to this warlord's banner. Even monsters that are diametricly opposed to each other will follow this inspiring leader. Some are even able to command strange beasts such as giant spiders or ants and rust monsters

Flora: Sighing Grass

This average looking knee high grass makes a gentle sigh when blown by wind or stepped on. It is the remnants of a lost civilization. While somewhat disturbing it is harmless. In very large quantities, boiled down, it is a very useful component in sonic, thunder and speak w/ dead spells and potion.

OSR creature 5(?) Black Cat (boss fight)

Ok for session 5 Im planning a big boss fight with a mystical Black Cat. 18 ac 9 hp(as an effect it teleports away when missed. Great spell resistance.

It will purr and rub against them as traps appear wandering monsters attack them cave ins and spears fly out of nowhere

Really looking forward to this one!

New OLD School Creature (mythos, OSR)

( I working on a mega dungeon, parts of which  will be very old school, parts of it will be modern.I've also been neglecting my OSR duties<I might not be a member but I have a very warm feeling for it>)

Angler Fishoid (abomination/Mythos)
3-5 HD
AC 12( about leather) Eye Stalks AC 20 (5HP each)
immune to charms sleep and mind effecting spells
The Fishoid has 3 eye stalks each of which appear from distance as men carrying torches.It also has metal "trophies" attached to it's body to make a metallic clanking sound. Each of these eye stalks does 1d3,d4 or d6 (based on HD) energy zaps at appropriate to hit. Entering melee with the creature requires a saving throw(should be low after adjustment player should need about a 10 to save) or you stand there fascinated by the light of the stalks. This save must be made every round and the effect only lasts for that round. To Spell or missile attack you need make a save that is about a needed 14 on the d20(From a distance the effect is stronger due to being effected by more of it's eye's.

(EDIT WOW this post is<relitivly speaking> Wildly unpopular with my core audience! abotr a 40% drop in immediate hits over previous post, which was on the very high side)

My All Time Fav Run

ok it was 1995? I was at a con and my 15 ish nephew and I went to visit an old froend of mine who was about to start a run. He was running"Cthulhu by Candlelight" and the game was for 4 players. When I got to the room , the con had overbooked him by SIXTY players! One thing lead to another and I told the frazzled con representative, that I would run, if he gave me prize support. He quickly agreed and asked how many players, in a sudden decision I said "TWENTY!"

On the way with my 20 players and my nephew agreeing to co DM we plotted a game about an aircraft over the mid atlantic with a horrible artifact in the cargo bay. We came up with 20 roes and off we went

The game was amazing , the players were grateful I was willing to tun and got so into it that as I slowly killed them off , every single player who dies laid on the ground playing dead( it turned into a larp). It was amazing RPing on the part of 21 strangers. 21 you say?. A guy had come off the street (a non gamer) and weaseled his way in. The winner was our stewardess who had an unshakable lack of fear as an ability. Also of note were the white south african and black american mercenaries who were unshakable buddies. ( The black American was played by our interloper)

At 21 players it is by far the largest group I had ever run. It was one of those times when it all just came together

My Most Controversial TPK

The year was 1987 and the Mysantia game was in it's 6th year. The players were 5th Level(very high L for me around this time). The players were full of themselves because they were at the "lofty" level and loaded with magic items. I decided to knock them down a peg with a super organized, low level major threat: The Bloodbath Orcs.

The orcs all had 8 hp and were lead by a death knight , who was the equivalent of one of the 8 or so pcs. The orcs had crossbow orcs each  with 2 females to reload. The warrior types slit the throats of unconscious PCs.

The PCs saw they were "only" fighting orcs, and underestimated them from the beginning, that is until the first throat got slit, then they panicked and proceeded to let the orcs decimate them .

The PC Mage was prob most responsible for the TPK, he was sloppy but most of all he had 2 scrolls., each of which was capable of ending the encounter in the parties favor but he refused to use them and his fireball was horribly used.

To this day the players remember this and say it was deliberate on my part, I admit it was a tough encounter. Ijust smile and remember the truth.
(Damn, Ive used my 3 posts for the day!)

Cool Encounter #4 AH AH E E TOOKY TOOKY

Ok dead of night in heavily foliage area. Your party is dead tired from a long day of travel in the wilderness. Suddenly the stillness is broken by a horrendous parrot cry: AH AH E E TOOKY TOOKY.
The party scrambles into the dark night as the elusive Tooky bird screams and screams. after an exhaustive night fight, the bird is blown up. Mated pair. Can anybody get any sleep!!

Cool Encounter #3

On a plane where the PCs are transmuted to 60' tall(naked, Hut roofes make OK shields), They encounter a Xaos elemental (Looks like a black tornado with bodies, gravestones and debris sucked up into it, very low AC, moderate HP) It can only be hurt by hitting it three times in a row with the third attack from same source (right fist, tree trunk), third try does damage

Cool Encounter #2

in a mountain ravine, a precarious rope bridge is the only escape from a horde of skeletons. The long bridge begins to fall apart as more skeletons attack from the far side. the rope breaks and a vertical fight ensues.

Cool Encounter #1

Ok small house with lots of furniture, spinning in the air in a tornado as you fight ninja were rats. The furniture slams into every one and sends vision ruining splinters everywhere even as the ninjas spread pepper to hamper vision further. All are thrown around room constantly
Hint- use group HP for ninjas or very easily distinguished minis