Saturday, June 14, 2014

Six Biting Dolls

"Look at the teeth. LOOK At THE TEETH! LOOK--"
 Last words of Grevok Lak
Former Delve-Scout


The Todtenhilzig are renowned for crafting Biting Dolls as personal guards and weapons. Since the horrid little people continually work on making new dolls all the time, and they can only ever control just a few at a time, they sell the things off by the bushel basket to merchants who are willing to deal with them. It is said you can spot the best sellers of Biting Dolls by how many fingers they still have, only no one agrees on whether it is better that they have lost a few fingers to exceptionally sharp-toothed dolls, or if it is better that they still have all their digits, which could be seen as a sign that they are adept at controlling the nasty little things...



  1. Trilly-Ninda. This floppy rag doll is fashioned to appear like a morlock clown, complete with constipated grimace and gleaming green-brass teeth.

    Trilly-Ninda (unique) [Biting Doll; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 7, HD 2, #AT 1, DG 2d4, SV F1, ML 10, Special: Trilly-Ninda can bite immaterial targets, such as geists, as a +1 weapon thanks to the Plattnerized teeth. It only takes half-damage from blunt weapons.]

    Control Mechanism: Trilly-Ninda is controlled by a sigillized sock that the controller must wear on their left hand.

  2. Frilly-Nan. A foppish rake of a doll, Frilly-Nan was originally molded to serve as a typical baby doll from the Krempf Dollwerks. That was before the Todtenhilzig recovered the pieces of her burned and half-melted body from the wreckage and set about rebuilding it into a sleek, almost gangly-limbed long-nosed courtier complete with a brass mask to hide the burnt parts of its face and a cod-piece that is equipped with a fighting-syringe filled with sulfuric acid.

    Frilly-Nan (unique) [Biting Doll; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 4, HD 3, #AT 1, DG 1d6+1 (bite) or 2d8 (acid), SV F3, ML 9, Special: Frilly-Nan has been heavily reinforced and all the ribbons, fancy jacket and lace cover an articulated armature of hand-tooled brass with only three segments replaced with carved bone or scrap metal. The syringe is retractable.]

    Control Mechanism: Frilly-Nan only obeys the commands of whomever is wearing an exceptionally frilly collar of filthy lace taken from the corpse of an obscure opera singer. She also tends to get distracted around opera music.

  3. Silly-Linny. This hideous doll comes after you astride a badly singed and partly melted Creeping Baby Doll. Where did the Todtenhilzig ever get their tiny hands on actual shark teeth? No one knows...

    Silly-Linny (unique) [Biting Doll; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 7, HD 1+1, #AT 1, DG 2d4+2, SV F1, ML 12 (fearless), Special: On any attack roll of 19 or 20, Silly-Linny gets to make a follow-up attack at +1. Her limbs are sand-filled fabric bound with grass and leather, her torso is a leather form fitted with whalebone strips taken from a corset and her head is half porcelain (top-half) and molded leather (Bottom-half) fitted over an actual shark's jaws.] She carries a prop whip, actually it's stitched into her hand.

    Control Mechanism: Silly-Linny answers to a hand-carved shark tooth set in red-brass. Three times. then it tries to eat whomever tried to control it.

    Riding Doll [Creeping Baby Doll; AL C, MV 15' (5'), AC 7, HD 1, #AT 1, DG 1d4, SV (as Zero-Level Human), ML 12 (Doesn't Know Any Better), Special: Extremely flammable, if exposed to open flame the doll with erupt into flames causing 2d4 damage as they rub burning celluloid-flesh on victims. Regain 1 hit point per ten minutes, unless inner workings are destroyed after being hit with a natural 20 on to Hit roll. After inflicting 20 points of damage, the doll goes inert for 1d4 turns while it regurgitates a slippery pool of gore in a 10'x10' radius.]

    Control Mechanism: It is unknown how Silly-Linny controls this doll; if Silly-Linny is destroyed the riding doll is no longer under anyone's control.

  4. Willy-Nik. A harlequin-style marionette that has had all its strings cut and twisted around itself, then wrapped with the tendons of dozens of mice, rats, voles and other small mammals. Its teeth are the needles, punches and pointy-tools of a master leather-worker who ran afoul of the Todtenhilzig and was subsequently devoured. It carries along a foul-smelling Hand Puppet that it tosses at you as its opening move...

    Willy-Nik (unique) [Biting Doll; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 6, HD 3, #AT 1, DG 2d6, SV F2, ML 10, Special: After scoring a successful hit, this doll moves at double normal speed and only takes half-damage from all non-magical for the next two turns.]

    Control Mechanism: Willy-Nik serves a leather mask painted with sharply slanted diamonds of green and purple on one side, red and black on the other. The inside surface of the mask is lined with the broken tips of needles. Few people are willing to wear the thing, so controlling this doll is very hit or miss, unless you wear the mask, then it is supposed to get better...but anyone willing to wear that sort of thing is probably not going to remain in control of the doll for very long.

    Zik-zik [Hand Puppet; AL C, MV 30', AC 7, HD 1, #AT 1, DG 1d4*, SV F8, ML 4, Special: On any modified To Hit roll of 20 or better the Hand Puppet envelopes the victim's hand and inflicts triple damage (3d4) and will remain in place until destroyed or they succeed in severing their target's hand.]

    Control Mechanism: Willy-Nik has a way with Hand Puppets that seems to be an in-born knack.

  5. Jilly-Boo. Plump and proper-seeming, this doll rarely smiles, unless it is to sink her serrated steel teeth snapped from discarded surgical instruments into the flesh of her victims.

    Jilly-Boo (unique) [Biting Doll; AL N, MV 90' (30'), AC 6, HD 2+2, #AT 1, DG 2d4+2, SV F1, ML 7, Special: If Jilly-Boo can catch a victim unawares, she gains an attack bonus of +2 to hit and does double damage. She can only attempt this sort of thing once per encounter, unless she can get someone to think that they've destroyed her and then she can try to surprise them one last time. Just to add insult to injury, the main cavity of this doll is stuffed with rotting meat and maggots.]

    Control Mechanism: Jill-Boo is controlled by whomever carries the doctor's bag she hides inside, but only so long as they remain very polite and speak only Franzik.

  6. Kill-Billy. Buck-toothed and ornery in the extreme, this doll has a bruthem-hide torso-covering faux breast-plate that splits down the middle to expose a second mouth full of wickd-sharp teeth in its belly that it uses as a follow-up attack once they've hit with the first mouth.

    Kill-Billy (unique) [Biting Doll; AL N, MV 90' (30'), AC 5, HD 3, #AT 1*, DG 2d4 (2d4), SV F4, ML 12 (fearless), Special: If Kill-Bully scores a hit, they get to make a follow-up attack at +4 to hit for an additional 2d4 damage using their hidden belly-maw.]

    Control Mechanism: There is a bone-flute that can be used to make Kill-billy do various things, tricks mostly, but the old woman who carved the flute was eaten, and the note-book she left behind is incomplete where it isn't soaked in her blood...

The Street Patrol had to break-up an unlicensed Doll-Fighting Ring that had taken over an abandoned flour mill just off of Washburn Boulevard. Things got out of hand when some local genius threw a soggy stuffed bear into the ring and it tore more than a dozen dolls to pieces before it was finally burned to a cinder with cling-tar...

7 comments:

  1. Morlock clowns, fighting-syringes, and doll-fighting rings? Time to move!

    ReplyDelete
  2. But how does one gain control of a biting doll (with fingers intact preferably)?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is deliberately not included. If a buyer doesn't ask, it doesn't happen. If a buyer wants to know, they must pay extra. Each doll has a different method of control unique to it in some manner. The Todtenhilzig are very rigorous in their efforts to keep such information limited only to themselves, and occasionally those who purchase their dolls.

      There are cheap knock-offs of these sorts of dolls available, but they're not that useful as a weapon if other people are aware of how they are controlled and know how to interrupt or neutralize them.

      Any spell-caster who manufactures their own biting dolls had better get really good at it fast, as they will attract the attention of the Todtenhizig who do not appreciate anyone else attempting to move in on their territory...keep in mind this does not stop people from trying their had at this craft, but it does cut down on the incompetents pretty ruthlessly...

      Delete
    2. Some particulars:
      Trilly-Ninda is controlled by a sigillized sock that the controller must wear on their left hand.
      Frilly-Nan only obeys the commands of whomever is wearing an exceptionally frilly collar of filthy lace taken from the corpse of an obscure opera singer. She also tends to get distracted around opera music.
      Silly-Linny answers to a hand-carved shark tooth set in red-brass. Three times. then it tries to eat whomever tried to control it.
      Willy-Nik serves a leather mask painted with sharply slanted diamonds of green and purple on one side, red and black on the other. The inside surface of the mask is lined with the broken tips of needles. Few people are willing to wear the thing, so controlling this doll is very hit or miss, unless you wear the mask, then it is supposed to get better...but anyone willing to wear that sort of thing is probably not going to remain in control of the doll for very long.
      Jill-Boo is controlled by whomever carries the doctor's bag she hides inside, bu only so long as they remain very polite and speak only Franzik.
      There is a bone-flute that can be used to make Kill-billy do various things, tricks mostly, but the old woman who carved the flute was eaten, and the note-book she left behind is incomplete where it isn't soaked in her blood...

      Whatever you do, don't let the Todtenhilzig know that I told you any of this...

      Delete
    3. I am not going near the Todtenhilzig, ever, for any reason. So fear not.

      Delete
    4. Well if you do run across the nasty little things, watch your fingers...and make sure you are very, very clear on what you are buying--leave nothing to chance or to their interpretation...

      Delete

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