PPP Winner 3 of 3 Converted for AD&D: UNSWORDS! Encounter/Area

Unswords!

This area appears as a large round pastoral garden courtyard about 75 feet across. It features Roman or Romanesque type architecture of arches, columns, statues, pools, as well as frescoes depicting mythology on the sidewalls. The statues are apparently renditions of beautiful goddesses, open armed and yielding, all of which face the far end of the courtyard from the entrance. Here at the far end lies a fountain with a giant patriarchal sun god statue. In his right hand the marble sun god wields three long swords fanned out and extending downwards that during the day are aglow with a vibrant rainbow of energy cascading through the blades. When the sun sets the goddesses become lit up with spiked coronas and flowing luminescent robes all made with the same colorful light as the swords. The light of the swords extinguishes at night and becomes relit at dawn. If the robes or coronas are touched they will deliver a sharp sting, which may paralyze as the light recoils back into the statue. The robes and coronas will emerge again a few minutes later until they recede later when the sun sets. If any of the sun god’s blades are removed from his hand the energetic light in all of them is extinguished as the light recoils back into the statue. Revealing that upon close inspection the swords are hollow tubes with blades made of glass. Three holes can be found in the palm of the statue’s hands.

Disturbing these swords and/or the statues in general by breaking them will cause the “trap” to be sprung. The designers of the courtyard’s “lightshows” used heavy magic to bind two members of an exotic species from the astral plane. These creatures, one male and one female, are free floating unintelligent astral “jellyfish” composed of energy that constantly display the entire spectrum of known colors and are called spectrumones. The male appears as shaped like a 20 foot long hydra/polyp jellyfish and is trapped inside the sun god statue. The female appears as a much larger 50 foot wide circular medusa/standard jellyfish and is trapped underneath the entrance of the courtyard with the tentacles displaying the coronas and the robes of the goddesses at sunset. Desecrating (damaging) the statues and/or swords will break the magical binding and essentially free the spectrumones from the magical part of their prison. Although it remains for them to struggle out of what’s physically holding them in place. The spectrumone medusa will break through the floor near the front of the entrance of the courtyard surrounding all those within with a wall of flailing tentacles of undulating light as it struggles out. The spectrumone hydra will break out of the statue in the far end. The medusa has 20 tentacles while the hydra has 14. All paralyze upon contact with the skin and the two will be flailing at everything as they break their way out.

Treasure: WAND OF MAGIC MISSILES (95 CHARGES), and 32 GEMS (14,191 GP TOTAL) in a secret compartment behind an image on the back wall of a sun god with the three godesses matching the statues.

SPECTRUMONE

FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 4-400 (Astral plane)
ARMOR CLASS: 2

MOVE: 6"/30" on Astral
HIT DICE: 14 male/18 female
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 14 male/20female

DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-10 (x14 male;x20 female)
SPECIAL ATTACKS : Paralysis
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard

INTELLIGENCE: Animal
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (male 20' long;female 50'wide)
PSlONIC ABILITY: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE:

Male: IX/6100 +18/hp

Female: IX/10,000 +25/hp

        

DEPICTED: Here the spectrumones glide peacefully through the Astral Plane (Note: the Unholy House of Hags in the distance (See THE TROW blog post)

    

 These creatures drift in the Astral Plane feeding on the varied fist-sized simple creatures swarming throughout and whatever else it can find. They avoid most Outer and Inner planar types but will readily attack living beings (not in astral form) in their proximity about a mile or so.

The young, about a quarter of the size of the adults (5' males and 8' females), will be not as versatile (AC: 6 HD: 5 male/ 8 female DMG: 1-4) but will still mindlessly attack. If struck the spectrumone will blast with light (SAVE VS POISON or be blinded for 1-4 rounds.). Staring at the spectrumone's oscillating colors can make those watching sleepy (SAVE VS SPELLS or sleep for a 2 rounds on the 3rd Round SAVE VS SPELLS again and if no save repeat while they eat sleeping victim 3-12 dmg round.)

Spectrumones are harvested for food/magic by various evil Astral intelligent dwellers and draw their attention to the areas they inhabit. 

 COPYRIGHT GENE WEIGEL 2016

PPP Winner 2 of 3 Converted for AD&D: THE SYMP

SYMP

 

FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 2-4
ARMOR CLASS: 4

MOVE: 12"
HIT DICE: 9
% IN LAIR: 5%
TREASURE TYPE: S,T,V
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 or by weapon (see below)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-12/2-12/1-10

SPECIAL ATTACKS : Break stone/use magic crudely
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low (see below)
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (12'+)
PSlONIC ABILITY: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: VII/1300 + 12/hp

The symps are giant ape-like creatures that have been spotted in the remotest regions of the underground. They appear somewhat like a giant, hairless, ebon-skinned crossbreed between a chimpanzee and a gorilla. The shock white, pupil-less eyes of these monsters have a subtle glow that reveals their presence in the dark. They are completely bipedal but still retain the long armed body shape of a great ape. The average symp is around 12 feet in height but some can be up to 20 feet in height. They’re intelligence is somewhat of a mystery as they appear to be able to use devices, even of the magic sort, but have no language or societal structure. Some learned sages say they are the mindless servitors of a long forgotten underworld civilization not the byproduct of evolutionary trends but manufactured of the darkest lost sorceries of another age.

Symps are mostly solitary but annually they organize into loose bands for raiding and mating. The raids of these creatures are centralized around the settlements of deep earth dwelling civilizations. Although in recent years a great mountain fortress of the dwarves in the far North, that was completely on the surface, was overrun with such creatures. But it was not an easy victory as the symp battle prowess is one of raging chaotic destruction. A famous technique of these beasts is to break the ceiling to fall on an opponent’s head (Save VS death or 3-18 dmg). This is done by their ability to rend through stone with their punches. Symp tunnels can be crude, sharp, jagged, unstable or almost unnavigable by most all creatures. These symp “highways” are a boon to the giant apes as a source of food since many creatures don’t get too far before being waylaid by disaster.

The symp’s lack of cunning is sometimes forgotten because of their strange ability to use complex items as if they were trained to do so. A symp’s possessions which will often include looted magical items that the creatures have identified and learned to use. They can identify with a relentless problem solving intensity that defies logic. As mentioned above it is unknown how but given proper time a symp can even cast a spell from a scroll speaking the verbal incantation as if having been fully trained as a wizard. And yet the symps have no real language of their own and only communicate with each other through scent, growls and body language. Give a symp a day and he’ll figure out any complex or mechanical device as well. Although in the field application of “figured out” devices is where the symp’s true nature is revealed. From casting spells in the wrong direction to locking themselves in airless tombs these beasts are probably better off using their fists.

Many powerful wizards consider a beguiled symp to be a great resource indeed. 

COPYRIGHT GENE WEIGEL 2016 

PPP Winner 1 of 3 Converted for AD&D: STEIN OF STUPENDOUS IMBIBITION

STEIN OF STUPENDOUS IMBIBITION

At first glance The Stein of Stupendous Imbibition appears as a seemingly ordinary painted beer stein which features the depiction of an animal. Upon closer inspection one will note that the type of animal will change periodically through the course of the day. At the beginning of a new day at the stroke of midnight the stein will cycle through various animal pictures every two hours. If the user drinks from the stein when one of the various animal types are depicted he will be enchanted with a magical effect. The type of enchantment depends on which beast is currently portrayed on the stein. All effects last twelve hours and the stein will not function again for one week.

Stein animal’s time of appearance and the effects of drinking from stein during that time:

CAT (appears between midnight and 2 am.)

Drinking while the cat is depicted produces a stealthy cunning in the imbiber.

[Grants a 10% chance to hide or +10% to Hide in Shadows function]

WREN (appears between 2 am and 4 am.)

Drinking while the wren is depicted produces an agile gait in the imbiber.

[ Grants a 10% chance to tumble or +10' and/or +10% to thief-acrobat functions]

FROG (appears between 4 am and 6 am.)

Drinking while the frog is depicted produces a slippery defense in the imbiber.

[Grants a -1 to AC]

LION (appears between 6 am and 8 am.)

Drinking while the lion is depicted produces a better offense in the imbiber.

[Grants a +1 to hit]

PIG (appears between 8 am and 10 am.)

Drinking while the pig is depicted produces a nitpicking thoroughness in the imbiber.

[Grants a +1 to find secret doors]

EAGLE (appears between 10 am and noon.)

Drinking while the eagle is depicted produces sharpness of vision in the imbiber.

[Grants a halved search time (e.g: 10 minutes to 5 minutes, etc.]

BEAR (appears between noon and 2 pm.)

Drinking while the bear is depicted produces a great fortitude in the imbiber.

[Grants a +1 to constitution]

FISH (Appears between 2 pm and 4 pm.)

Drinking while the fish is depicted produces a knack for swimming underwater in the imbiber.

[Grants a movement rate equal to "outdoors" MR instead of "dungeons" MR while swimming underwater.]

GOAT (Appears between 4 pm and 6 pm.)

Drinking while the goat is depicted produces a longer stride in the imbiber.

[Grants a running jump 10' or +7' to thief-acrobat jump functions]

OWL (Appears between 6 pm and 8 pm.)

Drinking while the owl is depicted produces better night vision in the imbiber.

[Grants the infravision ability]

MONKEY (Appears between 8 pm and 10 pm.)

Drinking while the monkey is depicted produces a greater climbing ability in the imbiber.

[Grants extra 20% of not falling while climbing or +20% to Climb Walls for thief functions.]

FOX (Appears between 10 pm and midnight.)

Drinking while the fox is depicted produces an aptitude for stealing in the imbiber.

[Grants a 2 in 6 chance to pick a pocket instead of a 1 in 4 chance for non-thieves and a +10% to Pick Pockets for thief functions ]

As an interesting aside is in that the stein’s changing of the animal depictions every two hours can be used to keep an accurate account of time. Due to the nature of this temporal enchantment if the stein is subject to any unnatural disruption of time (i.e. time oriented spells, etc.) the stein will explode. The detonation will cause severe (6d6) damage to all within a 15 foot radius.

EXPERIENCE POINT VALUE: 4000

GOLD PIECE VALUE: 10,000

COPYRIGHT GENE WEIGEL 2016