Bitty Beasties

A dozen bitty critters ~

All of the following wee beasties have the following stats, unless noted otherwise:

HD: 1 hp, [Armour Class 10], damage 1, movement abilities as appropriate

A successful attack will, predictably, smite one flat. If any of these critters are attacking en masse — in a swarm, or the like — each hit point of damage dealt by sword, club, fireball, etc can be assumed to kill one critter.

Flutterclam (Sapphire Scallop)
– if successful in attack, has clamped on; victim acts last due to distracting irritation
Is that a brilliant blue bivalve flapping its way through the air? … Yes, yes it is.

Raindrop Jelly
– -2 to attempts to hit a raindrop jelly
Palm-sized, completely transparent jelly. Edible, if rather flavourless; sprinkle toasted bean flour and syrup on top for best results.

Angel Echo
– whisper a recently performed kindness or justice to it and it grants a single +2 bonus to a later action, then fades
A drifting half-glimpsed spectre of wings, blade and nimbus, like dust in a sunbeam.

Shivermoth
– will eat any light it comes into contact with
Big, tatterwinged moth, with sooty translucent wings two handspans wide.

The Dancing Cat
– if treated well, treater is given a useful tidbit of knowledge; if attacked or treated poorly, inflicts a -1 hex to saves for the day and disappears
A large housecat with greeny-gold fur, amber eyes, filmy wings and a knowing look. Is not actually dancing.

Rogue Apple
– always acts first at the beginning of an encounter (always has surprise)
Who expected a luscious fruit to open a fanged maw?! Not always an apple; peaches, plums and even pomegranates have their rogues, among others.

Saw Viper
– venomous bite makes victim grow woody, punky patches on skin, -2 CHA (fade in 1d2 days)
This tawny coloured, rough-scaled snake is less a threat to people as it is to wood, which it burrows — and cuts — through with abandon.

Pale Veil
– if successful in attack, does no damage; settles over target’s eyes, blinding until killed or removed
A strange fluttering thing of diaphanous silky tissue of iridescent colour, drawn to eyes it does not possess.

Barbeque Chicken
– can and will set flammable objects on fire with a touch
These speckled red-and-brown-and-black fowl are as spicy as they are feisty; look out for burning beaks!

Spellghost
– if attacking a spellcaster of any kind, eats one level off a spell slot (potential casting) instead of inflicting damage
Not a ghost; this skittering insectile knot of essence is named for the void it leaves in caster’s minds.

Primordia
– spits attack at 30′ range, immune to element
Sessile fleshy growths or floating honeycombed globes, the least of elementals: air, earth, fire, water, light, dark, thunder, ice, venom.

Skullcrab
– trip attack makes target lose next action (but so does crab, except for movement)
A bony bone-coloured crab using a skull as a home. Yes sir. Not actually undead despite its looks; turning will not help you.

Pleasant Small Things

I had some more trinket tables and decided to experiment with making them into a very basic, quarter-page zine.

It’s eight pages including the front and back cover, with six themed d10 tables.  If you set your pdf printer to print 2×2 pages per sheet, double-sided, the 2×2 pdf should work (I got it working in mine at least); yell if it misbehaves?

 

Pleasant Small Things (pdf)

Pleasant Small Things (pdf, printable page arrangement)

[Troika] Silver Dragon’s Forest backgrounds, Pt. 01

Curious Refugee From Darkness

Sure, the Silver Dragon’s Forest holds cursed sunlight and suspicious inhabitants (whose delicious life you long to consume), but it still always sounded better than jockeying for shadow powers, blight geodes and conjured servants in the caverns of the Four Courts.

So you braved the tunnels and pled your case with the Dead Priest.

He lowered the razored rings of his staff — and gave you glistening red fruits to eat.

So many tiny little lives inside.

Delicious.

But …

It can’t be that easy, can it?

Possessions:

* ornate clothing of shadowsilk, scales and iron filigree (treat as light armour)
* black crystal shrillblade (treat as sword)
* broad hat
* veil
* 3d6 pomegranates or kiwis or dragonfruit or pitahaya (treat as one Provision each)
* scalehound on a leash
* two blight geodes

Skills:

2 – Sword Fighting
2 – Etiquette
1 – Tunnel Fighting
1 – Poison
1 – Spell: Fear
2 – Spell: Leech
1 – Spell: Sentry

 

Dead Priest’s Acolyte

Darkness for to battle darkness.

To keep the souleaters beneath the Forest where they belong, you joined the Dead Priest in his eternal vigilance; but you still live, and you can’t stay still forever.

Your armoured robes and bladed crozier glint darkly under silvery branches and verdant leaves and it’s odd to deal with the living again, but you’ll take every opportunity you can get.

Besides, you’re just being proactive in your dedication. Right?

Possessions:

* robes of satin and steel articulation (treat as medium armour)
* bladed crozier (treat as spear)
* maps of the current upper underworld
* schematic maps of the major Forest points
* a pouch of salt
* a flask of consecrated oil
* a pillow stuffed with myrrh and rose petals and dust

Skills:

2 – Awareness
2 – Necrology
1 – Spear Fighting
1 – Healing
2 – Spell: Flash
1 – Spell: Coal Resolve
1 – Spell: Random

 

Moonfae

Okay, you aren’t really what they call a “fairy”. More like a conglomeration of baboon and cat finished off with a pewter-purple shaggy pelt, two blunt horns (great for butting heads, getting signals and carving glyphs into), and stubby furry wings that shouldn’t let you fly (but you fly anyway, because).

But that doesn’t really matter, because you, like all your frenemies and associates, have other things to occupy your time than what the rest of the Forest calls you. It’s a competition to see who amasses the best and most interesting Things, the most outlandish stories, and the most panache, and you’re planning to win by cleverness, loopholes, or just plain orneriness.

Possessions:

* wings (fly as fast as a human can run)
* 12d6 silvers’ worth of trinkets, gewgaws and “fairy” charms
* claws (treat as knife)
* pouches, waistcoat pockets (with or without waistcoat), silky sashes and other places to hide your stash
* six secrets
* a glowing light-tablet diary
* a sack of pearlshrooms
* an orbiting gloworb

Skills:

2 – Fly
1 – Evaluate
2 – Second Sight
2 – Bluffing
2 – Spell: Animate
1 – Spell: Babble

[spacehack] Who Lives In The Void?

Of course, what are the Void and the Shard Sea without someone — or several someones — to inhabit them and the worlds found within them?

Sample Kinds

Haouu (Owlfolk)
Tall, sturdy and feathered, with small wings folding neatly away, taloned hands and feet and the visages of tufted-eared owls
– Advantage against illusion, charm or other mystifying effect

Miuren (Catfolk)
A kith sporting retractile claws, an expressive tail, a soft pelt of fur and the features of a domestic feline
– Advantage on a test to avoid damage of any kind 1/day

Sebau (Shardfolk)
-Humanlike, sporting a scatter of tiny “false stars” in the hair and eyes of brilliant jewel colours
– mindspeak with Nearby sapients

Melitti (Beefolk)
Bipedal, fuzzy bee people, with four arms, two wings and variable colours to their plush
– create simple tools at will

Parad (Greenfolk)
Sapient plant people varying from green-tinted exemplars of other folk to gnarled wood-wights and all gradations between
– Advantage to resist or overcome poison and disease and similar afflictions

 
Kinds Table

01. Beefolk 05. Daemonen 09. Glitterwing 13. Crystalin 17. Greenscales
02. Human 06. Brazen Ones 10. Fair Folk 14. Minotauros 18. The Wise
03. Ghuls 07. Sebau 11. False Angels 15. Bonefolk 19. Shadowalkers
04. Alabastri 08. Parad 12. Wolfen 16. Living Lights 20. Naga

 

And, if you fancy adding a change or two, some physical quirks:

01. bits of body replaced by living copper, starvine, bloodwood, crystal, royal resin 11. oddly-coloured or luminescent blood
02. third eye, round and gemlike 12. corpse eyes
03. additional pair of slender limbs 13. antennae, or extra antennae
04. moonblade tusks 14. bioluminescent strands in hair or other pelage
05. bioluminescent patterns 15. symbiotic algae in skin or pelage
06. perpetually charred flesh patches 16. glassy nails or claws
07. one or more pairs of slender translucent tentacles 17. molts unusual dust (golden, iridescent, ashy, tiny scales, pollen)
08. brassy scales, feathers or fur in patches 18. implanted voidbloom
09. bone thorns 19. drinks blood/ichor
10. a tail, or an extra tail 20. filmy or glassy vestigial wings (of any kind)