New Monster: The Xaoclost

The past and present are separate places. The timestream is constantly turning Now into Then, but they have no influence on each other after that’s done. It might be possible to travel from the present to the past, but it is impossible to change the Now with your actions in the past. You can travel to the past to kill the mother of your greatest enemy, but as the murder happens in the past, it doesn’t have any impact on the present. If you return he’ll still be alive, and so will she.

That is, if you return.

For the past is the domain of the Xaoclost, a species of nightmarish reality-defying creatures. These 50-feet-tall monstrosities roam the past, ever looking for ways to break into the present. With difficulty, they can come within milliseconds of Now, but they can never fully reach it. The Xaoclost are always just behind you.

Unfortunately, people go into the past all the time: Chronomancers have their spells, Time portals are known (like the one below the city of Vulture), and ancient dungeons like the Library of the Death Speakers are often so old the Now no longer has a grip on them. The Xaoclost cannot come here, but they lie in waiting for adventurers to come to them.

No. Enc.:	1 (1)
Alignment:	Chaotic
Movement:	90’ (30’)
Armor Class:	3 (base)
Hit Dice:	10 (base)
Attacks:	1 claw or weapon/1 whip/1 bite, or breath weapon
Damage:	1d8 or by weapon/1d8+poison/3d8, or 2d8 (base)
Save:	F10
Morale:	10
Hoard Class:	XV
XP:	2100 (base)

The stats above are the weakest possible Xaoclost, one more than 1,500 years in the past. When they move closer to the present, they grow stronger and more powerful. However, it costs them a lot of effort and it does hurt them terribly. When a Xaoclost moves close to the present, use the table beneath to determine changes to his stats.

Years in the Past	Hit Dice	AC	Breath Weapon	XP	Special Abilities
0 – 5	20	-7	22d8	8250	Suggestion once per day
6 – 15	19	-6	20d8	7250
16 – 25	18	-5	18d8	7250	Hallucinatory terrain once per day
26– 50	17	-4	16d8	6250
51 – 100	16	-3	14d8	5100
101 – 250	15	-2	12d8	5100	Half damage from normal weapons
251 – 500	14	-1	10d8	4200
501 – 750	13	0	8d8	4200
751 – 1000	12	1	6d8	3600
1,001 – 1,500	11	2	4d8	3600
1,500 or more	10	3	2d8	2100	Breath weapon, fear aura, poisonous whip

Breath Weapon: Xaoclost have powerful breath weapons. Every individual Xaoclost has a different kind of breath. Usually, the breath weapon of a Xaoclost other effects besides the damage it does. All breath weapons are usable every 3 rounds. All victims of a breath attack may attempt a saving throw versus breath attack for half damage, and maybe an additional saving throw for the secondary attacks.

Breath Weapon Examples:

1 - Cloud of Hate: 50’ long, 40’ wide cloud of black smoke. In addition to taking damage, all chaotically aligned characters must make a save vs. spells or instantly attack lawful and neutral characters. Lawful and neutral characters must make a save vs. death or suffer an additional 2d8 damage.

2 - Mud Stream: 80’ long, 30’ wide cone of mud. In addition to doing damage, the mud stream contains 1d4 small earth elementals. These have 6 hD, AC 4, and do 1d8 damage.

3 - Napalm: 70’ long, 20’ wide cone of napalm. The napalm does normal damage on the round of the attack, and half that again the next round (save for half).

4 - Negative Fog: 50’ long, 40’ wide cloud of grey mist. The Xaoclost’s breath weapon is a living creature from the negative plane that feeds of the warmth of its victims: Move 90’(30’); AC 2; hp 25, #attacks 1 per creature; attacks as a ten HD monster; Dmg 1d6; M n/a.

5 - Phantasmal Killers: 100’ long, 5’ wide line of terrifying illusions. In addition to suffering damage, the victim must try to disbelieve the illusion once by succeeding in an INT attribute check, or die from fear.

6 - Rat Swarm: 80’ long, 30’ wide cone of living rats. There’s 4d10 rats in the pack. In addition to normal damage from the breath weapon, the rats get to attack. They get 1 attack per 10 individuals, inflicting 1d6 hit points of damage per hit. If a character is swarmed by a whole pack, he must make a save versus death or fall to the ground under the horde. The victim can make no attacks until he gets back on his feet.

Fear Aura: Xaoclost have a fear aura of 250 feet. Creatures of fewer than 1 Hit Die within the aura flee automatically. Others may save vs. petrification or are stricken with fear (-2 penalty to attack and damage).

Whip: These creatures also attack with a stinger-tipped whip for 1d8 damage. Victims must additionally save versus poison or fall in a coma for 2d10 days. Unless the victim is very lucky, the Xaoclost will probably eat the victim before he gets out of his coma.

The First Language

The common language in the world of Seralin is a constructed language: conceived and kept up to date by the Society for Language, Vocabulary and Idiom, or SoLVI in short. This Guild changes the common vocabulary and grammar, and publishes a new edition of The Green Tome, almost every decade. There are now a total of eighty-six (86) editions of The Green Tome, all different from each other - sometimes only a little, but often greatly.

Common was originally designed to be easy to learn and to be understood by speakers of all existing languages​​. But in the dozens of editions SoLVI has released the language has changed so much that no one really knows what exactly is correct. There are dozens of versions of Common. The speakers of different versions can more-or-less understand each other, but is not really a common language that everyone uses, which was how it was intended.

But few people know there are no eighty-six, but eighty-seven versions of the common language. The first version of Common was written nearly 2000 years ago Dr. Alandra Sannie, a linguist at the University of Pretomournon. She based the language on a number of ancient scrolls adventurers had found in sea caves on the Silk Sea coast. After she had studied the roles, Alandra came to the conclusion that the unknown, ancient language they were written in was an ancestor to many - if not all - modern languages ​. She was amazed at the clarity and simplicity of the language, and decided to use it as a base for a new language that would serve as a common language to all people of Seralin.

Constructing the language took Alandra many years, but eventually she presented her life's work: The Grey Tome. The academics of Pretomournon received Alandra’s work enthusiastically, and the university immediately organized lectures in which Alandra could teach her new language to others.

No one survived the first lecture. Alandra had never spoken the language during her studies, and did not know the language was only safe as long as it was written. Pronounced out loud the words contained terrible power. Alandra was right: this flawless language could conjure beautiful images in her audience with only a few words, but her students gouged  out their own eyes so they didn’t have to see those images. Others stabbed sharpened pencils in their ears not to hear her words. Others jumped out of the window and, as this took place on the fourth floor, fell dead on impact or died on the way to hospital.

The Grey Tome was safely hidden in a vault and not until a thousand years later was brought out to consult while writing the first version of The Green Tome.  Linguists have paid more attention which elements of the language they used, so that their new language wouldn’t have the same terrible consequences. Yet, there are still traces of the Language of Death found in the current common language. That’s why words can hurt.

(The books below use the ‘Reading Eldritch Tomes’ rules from Realms of Crawling Chaos.)

The Scrolls from the Sea Caves

The original scrolls that a group of adventurers found in the sea caves on the Silk Sea coast. The five scrolls are all extremely fragile and must be treated with great caution. Someone rolling out a scroll must make a Dexterity check or the scroll crumbles to dust.

Spells: Power Word: Blind, Power Word: Kill, Power Word: Stun.

Complexity	Study Period	Total Comp. Rolls	Potency	Spells
14	6 days	15	16	3

Alandra’s Copy of the Scrolls

Alandra copied the fragile, damaged-by-silt scrolls in two thin notebooks bound in black leather. The text is almost the same as that in the scrolls, but it differs in a few key points: Alandra didn’t know the language in which the scrolls were written and therefore made ​​a few mistakes. The entire text has been annotated, and Alandra included a number of spells that were not in the original.

These books are long since removed from the vaults of the University of Pretomournon. Where they are at this time is unknown.

Spells: Confusion, Power Word: Blind, Power Word: Stun, Read Language, Read Magic.

Complexity	Study Period	Total Comp. Rolls	Potency	Spells
12	5 days	12	16	5

The Grey Tome

The Grey Tome is a thick book with a gray dust jacket. The pages are yellowing and gnawed at by worms and rats, but for a 2000 year old book is in good shape. It’s still in the vaults of the University of Pretomournon. Since Alandra wrote it, an unknown number of incomplete copies were made, that might pop up anywhere the Labyrinth Lord wishes.

This version of the First Language is perhaps the most dangerous: it has the power of Death Speak, coupled with the uncontrollability of people who want to use that power without understanding it. The words in this book easily describe the clearest images, but the images are of the sort the human brain cannot comprehend and have insanity as a result.

Spells: Confusion, Fear, Power Word: Blind, Power Word; Kill, Power Word: Stun.

Complexity	Study Period	Total Comp. Rolls	Potency	Spells
12	4 days	11	15	5

The Green Tome (first edition)

The first edition of The Green Tome is a book of great size with a green leather cover. It is much thinner than the Grey Book, and a lot less complete. The linguist who compiled the book was Somin Gennek, one of the founders of SoLVI. Gennek used The Grey Tome as an example to make his version of Common as clear and as easy to learn, but he was fully aware of the dangers that the use of First Language entailed. He was very careful, and the result was a common language that possessed only some dangerous supernatural properties.

Spells: Confusion, Read Language, Scare.

Complexity	Study Period	Total Comp. Rolls	Potency	Spells
9	2 days	2	10	3

Death Speak

This is the first language, from which all other languages have evolved. It is an ancient tongue of the dead, and it’s words are words of pain and corruption. It’s an powerful language and it can convey concepts and feelings, but it is difficult to pronounce.

Anyone who tries to pronounce Death Speak must make an Intelligence check with a -4 penalty. Failure means everyone hearing the words, including the speaker himself, suffers 3d6 damage and gets the irresistible urge to commit suicide. This works as a suggestion spell, but with a harmful act (obviously).

If the roll succeeds, the words of the speaker convey the emotions he wanted to express. This has one of the following effects:

Confusion: As the magic-user spell of the same name.

Fear: As the magic-user spell of the same name.

Joy: All people in the audience get a +2 Charisma and a +2 on morale rolls for 2d6 turns.

Love: The members of the audience get romantic feelings for each other and the speaker. Hilarity ensues.

Rage: The members of the audience go berserk, as described in the dweomer of rage spell, and start attacking each other.

Sorrow: All people in the audience get a -3 on all die rolls for 2d6 turns.

Learning Death Speak: To learn the First Language, someone should have a teacher who already knows it, or have access to The Silk Sea Scrolls, Alandra’s copy of them, or The Grey Book. The pupil must study for a total of 200 hours to learn the language. Then, even a rudimentary knowledge of the language is gained, and Intelligence checks to pronounce it are made with an additional -3 penalty (for a total of -6). This extra penalty will disappear over time, provided the character Death Speaks on a regular basis.

New "Monster": Green Fairy

Green Fairy (Absinthe Fairy)

No. Enc.:	1d6
Alignment:	Neutral
Movement:	60’ (20’)
Fly:	180’ (60’)
Armor Class:	3
Hit Dice:	1d4 hit points
Attacks:	1 (intoxication)
Damage:	See below
Save:	M1
Morale:	7
Hoard Class:	IV
XP:	8

These 1’tall girls are cousins to sprites and pixies, and are associated with drinking hard liquor. They are not malevolent, but their naughty mischiefs show they do not understand the limits of the (demi)human body concerning pain, alcohol, sex, and being trampled on by pink elephants.

Invisible: Green fairies are naturally invisible, but can be seen by anyone who is at least a little tipsy. Green fairies may act freely, including attacking, without becoming visible. Therefore they always surprise their victims. Sober people cannot affect a green fairy.

Intoxication: The green fairy makes this attack by touching her victim. On a successful attack, the fairy may slide the victim down one level on the Absinthe Intoxication Chart.

ABSINTHE INTOXICATION CHART
Intoxication Level	Modifier*	Other Effects
Sober	0
Tipsy	-3 / -15%	Victim sees and may affect the fairy
Drunk	-6 / -30%	Movement is halved , summon pink elephants
Wasted	-10 / -50%
Unconscious	No actions possible
*On all die rolls made.

Summon Pink Elephants: When the victim is Drunk, the green fairy may summon 1d4 pink elephants. These have the same stats as a regular elephant, but have a fly speed of 150’ (50’), and can shoot soap bubbles out of their trunks. On a successful hit, the victim must make a save vs. paralysis or becomes trapped inside a bubble for 1d6 rounds. Pink Elephants can only be seen and affected by characters who are Drunk.

Three Sad Wizards

My 7-year old son Mathijs is eager to play D&D, so he sent an e-mail to my players group asking if they wanted to play. He sent me an e-mail asking if I could “provide the map”.

At first I thought I could run a part of Castle Verge or some other adventure I had already lying around, but then it occurred to me I better play something with a little less necrotic mutations, virginal sacrifice, and prostitutes than I normally run. So I decided to write something new, more suitable for a 7-year old but hopefully, still cool.

The adventure “Three Sad Wizards” consists of three mini-dungeons:

Bymen the Botanomancer (plant mage) lives in a little shack in a garden with beautiful flowers. But when he experimented with fertilizer potions brewed by Ermard the Entomomancer, the plants grew bigger and more dangerous than expected. Now terrible carnivorous plants grow in the garden: Archer bushes, strangleweed, vampire roses, and more make the garden unsafe.

Ermard the Entomomancer (insect mage) has many rare specimens of insects and arachnids in his underground laboratory. However, unkown to him, one of his giant spiders was really an arachnea. She has opened all the cages and now all the insects are running free in the house: Giant centipedes, a crab spider, beetle swarms and more. And there’s the aranea: a beautiful woman called Andrea.

Ostal the Ornithomancer (bird mage) lives in a tower. His birds somehow escaped out of their cages. Most of the flew away to freedom, with the exception of an axe beak, that roams the corridors of the tower. Unknown to Ostal, the birds were set free by an Evil Doppelganger of Lessie, his apprentice. Lessie looked into a mirror of opposition, and was set prisoner by Evil Lessie. When the Player Characters come to the tower expecting to fight birds, they will have to pass traps and Evil Lessie’s wand of wonder in a Home Alone scenario.

I found it more difficult to write an all-ages adventure than I anticipated. But in the end, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I like the concept of three mini-dungeons the Player Characters can visit in any order, or not-at-all, if they don’t want to. There’s a little village, which I’ll give a bit of detail, and in the forest in which Ermard’s dungeon is located there are a few beast lairs.

All-in-all it’s one of the more complete adventure’s I have written. After we have played it, I’ll probably flesh it out a bit and put a pdf up on my blog.