Thursday, February 20, 2014

Faces of Pretomournon:The Dwarf with the Eye-patch

Ibbo

A strange-looking creature, small and stocky, but broad and strong. Maybe it's a small man, or maybe a large gnome. Maybe it's a member of an unknown race from a distant corner of Seralin, or even from one of the other moons of Anderove. Anyway, the creature calls itself a “dwarf”.

Dwarves are not native to the Weird opera world, but then, Ibbo is not from this world. He comes from a distant planet located in another universe, where immortals rule over an eternal empire. Ibbo double-crossed one of them, and had to run for his life.

Following an ancient map, Ibbo found his way into a strange multi-dimensional castle, in which he quickly became lost. Wandering through the castle’s many rooms and corridors, the strangeness and horrors he encountered almost drove him mad. Chased by a swarm of vargouilles, he sought refuge in what appeared to be a chapel. It was there he was contacted by Arak-Kur-Mortahn, The Death Titan, a demonic destroyer of worlds traveling from world to world in his ship of the lost. Ibbo vowed to serve the Lord of Twist and The Death Titan provided a portal key that would activate one of the many magical portals out of the castle. Ibbo ended up on Seralin, where he resides to this day.

The dwarf has dull gray skin and wears shiny black leather armor. He wears an eye-patch over his left eye, making him look like a pirate, shaves his head bald, and wears his graying beard short. He speaks with a deep voice that could be described as “fatherly”, or as “disturbing”.

Pretomournon’s inhabitants don’t notice, but Ibbo has the surly attitude of a typical dwarf; stoic and stern, dour and humorless. In addition, he’s very foul-tempered and mean. He fully intends to help the Lords of Misrule to destroy this world and many others after that. Even though Ibbo’s the Disciple of the 5th Lord of Misrule, he’s happy to let another demon bring about the Apocalypse. It’s for this reason he helps the jester Quinzel to summon her master, Padat The Fall. That, and the girl is easy to take advantage of when she’s in one of her depressive moods.

If not working to cause the end of the world, Ibbo indulges in his hobbies: robbery, theft, murder and tax evasion. Not too long ago he stole a chest of magical weapons from smuggler Vithimiris Reizensteijn, with the help of a key provided by key maker Frederika Gvene. He sold the weapons for a large sum of money to the amazon Demostratia. However, Gvene talked under pressure, and now Reizensteijn has offered a substantial award for "the dwarf with the eye-patch".

Ibbo: AL C; MV 12; AC 6 (studded leather, Dex); Male Dwarf 9; hp 59; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+5 (dwarven thrower war hammer, Str) or 2d6+10 when thrown, or by weapon +2; S 16, D 13, C 16, I 15, W 10, Ch 15; M 6; items: amulet vs. crystal balls and ESP; XP 2,400.

Ibbo has all the special qualities of the dwarf class.

Location: The lighthouse in the harbor, Quinzel’s apartment in the River District, or committing a crime somewhere else in the city.

See also: Demostratia, Frederika Gvene, Quinzel, Vithimiris Reizensteijn.

Note: Arak-Kur-Mortahn, The Death Titan appears in the one-page dungeon Ship of the Lost.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Stationery Vermin

There are lots of monsters said to be the result of magical experiments, and so are the creatures known as stationery vermin. It seems plausible indeed that these pests were an invention of an office working mage, cleric, or clerk who was tired of misplacing his scissors or pencils. Whatever the truth, now stationery vermin are breeding, and have become a nuisance in any office environment.

Stationery vermin are small creatures, about the size of rats. Each has a piece of office supplies for a head: scissors, a stapler, a pencil, etc. They can be either bipedal and quadrupedal, and there are species that are bird-like and can fly. Apparently, these shapes are independent of the type of stationery – there are both running and flying scissorheads, for example.

Stationery vermin can be trained to follow orders.

Stationary Vermin (2d12): AL N; MV 150’ (50’), (birdlike vermin have 180’ (60’) flying); AC 7; HD 1-2 hp; #AT 1 (bite); Dmg 1; Save Human0; M 5; XP 6. In addition, every type of stationery has a special attack or ability, as given below.

Eraserhead. Erase: At will, the eraserhead can erase magical writing as the 1st-level magic-user spell.

Glue-Tubehead. Glue: The glue-tubehead can cover any surface with a sticky substance. Creatures touching the glue cannot mow, unless a Str-check is made. If the check is unsuccessful other actions to free oneself can be taken (for example, taking of ones boots or gloves).

Pencilhead: Illusory script: Once per day, the pencilhead can disguise it’s writing as per the 3rd-level illusionist spell illusory script.

Scissorhead: Cut: The attacks of the scissorhead do 1d6 damage.

Staplerhead: Staples: The attacks of a staplerhead do 1d4 damage.

Tape-Dispenserhead. Constriction: if the tape-dispenserhead’s attack hits, its target’s legs are constricted, making it impossible to walk without falling (1d4 dmg).