Oaf (Fey)--Montporte Dungeon Campaign Critter

OAF (FEY)
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 1 Spiked Club (1d10+6) or 2 Fists (1d4+1 each)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: Berserker
Move: 9
Challenge Level/XP: 9/1,100

The oaf is a large humanoid, about 10' tall, with a large head and thick body. The oaf is a fey creature and is aligned with the Summer Court. They are often used as body guards by other fey creatures, such as goblins.

COMBAT: An oaf is a fearsome opponent in combat. What they lack in intelligence, they more than make up for in courage and tenacity. They can used their spiked club to great effect in combat. They can also pummel their opponents with their fists.

BERSERKER: In the course of combat, if an oaf falls below half its hits points, it goes berserk. While berserk, it gains an additional attack per round (2 spiked club attacks per round or 3 attacks with its fists). It also gains an additional +2 to its attack roll and to damage. The oaf will then fight until it or its opponent is killed. Once combat is over, the berserk state is also over. The oaf can only go berserk 1 time per day.

Thuragian (Crab Folk)--Montporte Dungeon Campaign Critter

THURAGIAN (CRAB FOLK)
Armor Class: 1 [18]
Hit Dice:3
Attacks: 2 Claws (1d4 each)
Saving Throw: 14
Special: n.a.
Move: 9
Challenge Level/XP: 3/60

Thuragians are crab folk and are bipedal, about 6’ tall and 300 pounds. They have a heavily armored natural shell and attack with two large clawed hands. They are of low intelligence and of nasty disposition. They are at home on both land and water.  They will often serve as mercenaries for the price of a few trinkets and a regular supply of food.

COMBAT: Thuragians are not typically aggressive creatures, unless they are hunting prey, which consists of creatures smaller than themselves. In their natural state, they will surrender once it is clear that they cannot win a fight.

MONTPORTE: In the Montporte Dungeon, thuragians often serve as slaves to the “Breeders.” When used as warriors, thuragians are kept in a state of fanatical frenzy by means of drugs.

Really Big Glowing Fuzzy Green Spider (Montporte Dungeon Campaign Critter)

REALLY BIG GLOWING GREEN FUZZY SPIDERS
Armor Class: 1 [18]
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: Bite (2d4)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Blinding light beam
Move: 18
Challenge Level/XP: 7/600

Really Big Glowing Green Fuzzy Spiders are semi-intelligent spiders that are really big: They are about 4’ tall and weigh 250-350 pounds. They are are also green, fuzzy, and glow in the dark.  They are aggressive hunters that roam dank temperate forests and subterranean caverns. They do not build webs.

If raised from hatchlings, Really Big Glowing Green Fuzzy Spiders can be trained in a similar manner to dogs and excel at tracking, guarding, and attacking on behalf of their masters. Kobolds are known for their skill in training and handling Really Big Glowing Green Fuzzy Spiders.

COMBAT: Really Big Glowing Green Fuzzy Spiders are aggressive in combat. In the wild, they will always attack any warm-blooded creature that is close to their size or smaller, biting their opponents to death. Trained Really Big Glowing Green Fuzzy Spiders will follow the simple verbal commands of their master in combat.

BLINDING LIGHT BEAM: Really Big Glowing Green Fuzzy Spiders can shoot narrow bright beams of light out of their eyes and blinding their opponent. An attack die is rolled to see if the light beams hits the face of their opponent. The opponent then gets a saving throw to avoid blindness. A failed save results in blindness for 1d4 rounds. This attack may be used once per round.

The Party Token

Session 27 of the Montporte Dungeon Campaign was a good time for everyone. We decided that it was too much trouble to move all the individual character tokens around, so I created a single party token to be used in Roll20. You can see it over there on the right side of this post. I created it on the fly and I'll replace it next time with something that isn't as disruptive.

We'll pull out the character tokens for combat and such, but it is much easier to move one token around on the map.

Monday Moodsetter 42

By Marco Bonechi

RPG Rorschach: What's the first gaming thought that pops into your head?

Adventurer's Prayer

The gods and goddesses grant me
The strength to slay my enemies,
The charisma to keep my friends,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
--Delvin the Dwarf

Heisenberg's Dungeon

"Intuitively obvious to
the casual observer"
as my college physics
text book would note
(after a page of calculus)

James Mal (Grognardia) published a post back in October 2009, entitled Schrödinger's Dungeon. James' contention was that it is nearly impossible to publish a true megadungeon. Leaving aside the slightly sad irony of this statement in light of the Dwimmermount Kickstarter (unless he has used the Dwimmermount Kickstarter to prove his point, in which case supporters were really funding a research grant to prove his hypothesis...but I digress)...anyway, leaving aside the irony, I actually believe his point has some merit. But I prefer Heisenberg to Schrödinger.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is simple to state (so long as one is not interested in the why, then you have to do math stuff...not so simple): When it comes to subatomic particles, we can either precisely know the location of the particle or its momentum, but not both. The more we know about one, the less we can know about the other.

In my mind, there is a certain analogy with megadungeons, the more we define it by maps, keys, descriptions and tables, the less mega it becomes. Mega implies something that is almost infinite in scope: Endless caverns, layers, an underworld of tunnels and rooms. Defining it with a map limits its size.

I have purchased a number of published megadungeons, including Stonehell, Barrowmaze, Anomalous Subsurface Environment, and Rappan Athuk. I love them (and shamelessly borrow from them) but they all seem like there is something not quite mega about them. Maybe it is just the experience of being able to see a whole dungeon level, just by opening the book and looking at a map, that makes them smaller. But I suspect it is something more. Putting a megadungeon in print is much like adding a butterfly to an insect collection. You have to kill it to keep it. You have to kill the megadungeon, destroying its growth and dynamic qualities in the process, in order to publish it. More than anything, the mystery and the sense of the vast unknown seems to get snuffed by the act of printing.

Maybe it is just me. I am not certain.