'Oxkarrotous--Montporte Dungeon Campaign Critter

'OXKARROTOUS 
Armor Class: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: By weapon (2 attacks per round)
Saving Throw: 12
Special: Saving Throw Bonus Versus Magic; Limited Teleport
Move: 6
Challenge Level/XP: 5/250

'Oxkarrotous are short, stocky demon-worshiping humanoids.  They typically wear heavy leather cloaks with hoods. Underneath their cloaks, they wear chainmail armor of the finest craftsmanship.

'Oxkarrotous make their homes in remote areas of the Deep Dark, coming near to the earth's surface only to capture humanoids of every variety for slaves and sacrifice. It is rumored that the more powerful 'oxkarrotous can perform the most foul sorcery, summoning and controlling demons to the darkest ends. Some sages have suggested that 'oxkarrotous started as dwarves, whose greed led them to demon worship and the demonic arts.

COMBAT: 'Oxkarrotous often avoid combat by the use of minions, slaves, or even the occasional demon. However, they are capable melee fighters with two attacks per round. Once engaged in combat, they rarely surrender.

SAVING THROW BONUS: 'Oxkarrotous gain a +4 bonus to saving throws versus magic.

LIMITED TELEPORT: 'Oxkarrotous are able to teleport up to 60' twice per day.

Aur-Mornder (Montporte Dungeon Campaign Critter)

AUR-MORNDER
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: Pickaxe (1d6) or by weapon type
Saving Throw: 14
Special: Dexterity Drain; Move Silently; Deepvision
Move: 30
Challenge Level/XP: 3/60

Aur-mornder are Dwarven undead. They are created when dwarves become filled with gold lust to such an extent that it has replaced their life force. They live on as undead, inhabiting mines and other remote areas, searching for and mining phantom gold deposits.

Aur-mornder appear as dwarfs, but their flesh is gray and flaky and their eyes are black and without pupils. Their skin is very cold to the touch and they speak with thin, raspy voices.

Aur-mornder have a hatred of the living, particularly of dwarves. They will attack them on sight, assuming that other dwarves have come to jump their claim and steal their gold.

Aur-mornder can be turned by clerics. They are turned as ghouls.

COMBAT: Aur-mornder are aggressive, yet crafty, in combat. While they ignore unintelligent beasts and vermin, they generally assume that intelligent creatures, particularly dwarfs, are out to steal their mining area and gold. They will use their move silently ability to ambush their opponents whenever possible.

DEXTERITY DRAIN: Upon a successful strike with their weapon, an aur-mornder will drain 2 points of dexterity from its opponent, unless the opponent makes a constitution saving throw. The dexterity points lost are regained at 1 point per hour.

MOVE SILENTLY: An aur-mornder is able to move silently as a third level thief.

DEEPVISION: Aur-mornder can see in complete darkness (excluding magical darkness) up to 120’.

Five for Friday 19: Why Dwarves Are Better

I have been swamped with work, so I have asked Delvin to take a turn writing a Five for Friday post for me. Some of you may remember Delvin from the GURPS Majestic Wilderlands session notes on my blog. By the way, Delvin prefers to use "dwarves" as the plural for dwarf (following Tolkien).

I am not much for this whole blogging thing, but, then I should keep Ken happy as I am his character and I am hosed if he decides to create a different character. Anyway, I am not much for writing so I am going to use pictures to help me tell my story today. Most of you humans would rather see pictures than have to read and think anyway. Since I have been given free reign for this post, I am going to give you Five Irrefutable Reasons Why Dwarves Are Better:

  

5. We Can Multi-Task: Do dishes, sing, juggle, and play catch all at once? No problem. 

4. Our Weapons Can Multi-Task: I quick draw with my +2 bass guitar.

3. Farts and Burps Always Acceptable (even especially at weddings and funerals): I know. How cool is that? 

2. We Are Optimists: We always see the positive in everything. 

1. We Are Not Elves: No explanation needed.

Domesticated Gamers: A Valentine Post

D&D Wedding Cake (Retroist)

"You are about to get bitchslapped!" an unfamiliar feminine voice exclaimed during our most recent Monday Night Gaming Group session (via Skype). And it was true, one of the PCs was about to experience a beat down at the hands of an angry king. This is the usual way we meet a gamer spouse...an unexpected and wickedly funny comment floating in through our headphones.

One of the best parts of our Monday night group is the audio window we each get into each other's lives...a window that gives us a glimpse beyond the virtual gaming table. We get funny comments, interruptions for homework questions, LEGOs being put together, the occasional "brb" for refereeing sibling squabbles or tucking kiddoes into bed, and Tim's dog, Bug, grunting and growling at his feet.

Our gaming group is amazingly committed to our Monday night sessions. Getting seven married guys with responsible jobs to make that commitment is remarkable. But the sounds coming through Skype of wives, kids, and dogs are reminders that gaming is just one part of our lives...and not the most important part. It is also reminder that we each have very tolerant people around us who give us the time and space to get together on a regular basis to do something we enjoy. It is a gift to me that my wife laughs with me (and often at me) while I game. How could she not laugh when she sees a stack of books, each prominently labeled with the word "GURPS?" My guess is that not everyone has that sort of support to play a dwarf and roll dice on a weekly basis.

Combat Tactics (A GURPS Newbie Post)

Despite the difference in system mechanics, our current GURPS campaign in Rob's Majestic Wilderlands feels very much like our Swords & Wizardry campaign of a few years ago. Same setting, same GM, same players (with a few new additions), and same lousy weather.

GURPS is very different from S&W, yet the gaming sessions feel much the same. That makes it easy for a GURPS newbie like me. I have noticed, however, that GURPS does play differently in combat. Of course, the list of tactical options in GURPS is much greater than in S&W. However, even taking that difference into account, I have noticed a difference that I will illustrate by recounting a recent encounter in the Majestic Wilderlands. But, before I do that, I need to reference a recent post by Patrick at Renovating the Temple.

In his post, "Maintaining Encounter Balance", Patrick notes the following differences between GURPS and AD&D (and, by extension, S&W):

• AD&D is about managing resources (in combat, managing hit points) while GURPS is about managing actions.
• AD&D characters increase in defensive capacity faster than in offensive capacity. In GURPS, characters generally increase in offensive capabilities faster than they do in defensive capacity (I am not sure if that holds true for magic-users).
• In AD&D, one really powerful bad guy is a greater threat than several weaker bad guys. In GURPS, the opposite is generally true.

The above is my summary of Patrick's post and I could be misunderstanding his point, but as I never let facts stop me on this blog, I'll continue.

My epiphany came after reading Patrick's post and thinking about a recent Majestic Wilderlands session involving a fair amount of combat. Our characters are a group of low-powered mercenaries who most recently have been engaged in a series of border raids. As Tim Shorts puts it in a summary of one of our sessions, "Kill the lords, free the slaves." (or, for us, "kill the conquering Scanadians, free the peasants").

In this particularly session, our characters are attacking a small Scanadian manor house at the edge of a small village. The manor offered just enough defensive works to slow us down (low stone fence surrounding it, sturdy stone walls, and stout wooden doors). Our group attacked the few guards we could see posted on the outside of the building. As we overpowered the guards, I (Delvin the dwarf) took a peek over my shoulder to see what was happening in the village. Behind me, I could see about a half dozen armed Scanadians scattered around the village doing whatever Scanadians do in their conquered villages.

At this point, I had to make a tactical decision: Do I dismount and continue with my group on the assault of the manor house or do I turn my horse around and go after as many of the Scanadians in the village as I can get? In S&W (and AD&D), it doesn't really matter which I do, at least from a tactical perspective. I might be worried that a Scanadian will escape and get help, but that is a strategic worry, not a tactical concern. In AD&D, being outnumbered is not good, but it is not usually a significant tactical disadvantage.

In GURPS, however, being outnumbered is a bad thing. Although I didn't really know why at the time, I realized that we could be in big trouble if the Scanadians in the village were able to mount a counter-attack from behind us. Intuitively sensing the danger, Delvin wheeled his horse around and rode down the Scanadians, killing, wounding or scattering them as I traversed the length of the village.

That is one of the things I have come to enjoy about GURPS. Tactics matter in a way that they do not in some other systems.

Blades of Glory (Game Session Report)

Our Monday Night Gaming Group was back in action this past Monday, after a month off. We were again hounded by technical difficulties that threatened to TPK the session, but switching to Roll20 redeemed the evening.(1)

Our cast of characters currently serve as mercenaries who have been assigned the task of raiding Scanadian manors. We started the session by dropping off a group of refugees that we had escorted back to our camp. We also had to deposit our haul of coins and such. We were then going to head back out into Scanadian territory, but we were delayed by the disappearance of one of our henchmen, Bob. Given that he is only a human, my character (Delvin, a dwarf) was content to leave him behind but the others in the group felt compelled to search for him.

After checking with the local tavern and finding out that he was last seen in the company of lady of the evening, I was again ready to leave him to his fate (stupid humans are worse than rabbits) but again the group continued the search. Our tracker guy followed Bob and his companion's tracks out into the woods where it was obvious that they were intending to engage in a business transaction. We found the where they did the nasty (ewww) and then discovered a serious of insect/arachnid tracks all around. No humans but lots of giant creepy-crawly tracks. Truly a case of being caught with your pants down.

My lack of enthusiasm for risking my precious dwarven flesh to save these two humans was overcome by the joy of brandishing my battle axe against spiders. Delvin is at his best when he is moving forward and going all in with his axe blade.(2)

Notes:
(1) We have been struggling with fatal instabilities with Fantasy Grounds. The funny thing is that I (Delvin) always asks for a weather update at the beginning of the day, an inside joke that goes back to our GM (Rob) and his love of Harn weather charts. However, my last two weather queries are being blamed for our technical difficulties (as evidenced by this post and this post).

(2) I am thoroughly enjoying my first experience with GURPS. While there are lots of fiddly bits, the overall mechanics are very simple and I like the options we have as players both in character creation and as our characters are in action.