Wermilith

"I don't care how much they offered you for it--get rid of that damned thing!"

Gnosiomandus

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The first Wermilith was discovered just prior to the Second Cloud Incursion, although there is an unverified allegation that was put forth by Gnosiomandus that one of his students uncovered a Wermilith prior to the First Cloud Incursion. Since Gnosiomandus left Wermspittle some time ago and is not expected to return any time soon, if ever, there has been no progress whatsoever on ascertaining the veracity of this claim and it has been deemed academically spurious and inconsequential by the Council of Unnatural Affairs.


What Is Known

1. The myriad 'eyes' covering each Wermilith seem to be similar to Purple Amber. In fact the first ones to be examined were mistakenly thought to be simple votary carvings and when an 'eye' was removed it was discovered that these things are in fact some sort of fossil or pupal-state living creature.
2. Wermiliths have so far proven to be impervious to acid, fire and electrical discharge.
3. Anyone sleeping within 300' of one of these things tends to be harassed by nightmares that defy description even by trained oneirosophists.
4. All conventional divination and prognostication magics reveal only that the Wermiliths are deeply enchanted, oneirically toxic, and do not originate on any of the Known Worlds nor any of the common Adjacent Worlds. More than that cannot be reliably verified as those attempting deeper inquiries suffer various and sundry backlash effects including but not limited to madness, being rendered comatose for weeks at a time, or loss of all memory.

What Might Happen Around Wermiliths...

1. Roachers appear to be drawn to a particular Wermilith, entering into a strange trance-like state as they mindlessly skitter around it at a distance of 30' to 90'. Masses of up to a hundred of the creatures have been reported and they are doggedly persistent. Only extremely bright lights, actinic weapons or fire has so far driven them off, and that only temporarily.
2. A nearby Wermilith has attracted the attention of an Ungezeifer who has sent (2d4) Cacozombies to retrieve the thing. If the Cacozombies are destroyed, another (3d4) will follow in under an hour. If necessary another 3d4 Cacozombies will attack whomever possesses the Wermilith every 1d4 hours until, after the fifth wave, the Ungezeifer will come calling personally.
3. (1d4) War-Grubs of Nhorr guard the entrance-way to a mostly abandoned tenement where a spell-caster has been experimenting with a recently discovered Wermilith. It is unclear whether the spell-caster summoned the war-grubs or if they came at the service of someone...or something else. Could the Wermiliths have some sort of connection to Nhorr?
4. An Interstitial Insectoid wishes to sponsor a small group of dedicated professionals to recover a Wermilith from a rival Thysanurian anti-librarian. If the group could be so kind as to eviscerate the Thysanurian in the course of the recovery effort there will be a bonus. Unfortunately the Thysanurian not only knows the group is on their way, it has known for at least a week and has taken what it feels are appropriate counter-measures...
5. A local sorcerer and collector of peculiar antiquities, Julixian Vall, has discovered that his recently purchased Wermilith is in fact a fake. Now (1d4) Octovoidal Transvectors are hunting him with bad intent. He didn't look closely before, there wasn't time, but glued inside the remaining fragment of his fake Wermilith is an octagonal talisman cast from some sort of gray metal. Perhaps the creatures will leave him be if they are offered the talisman? Will he willingly part with the new-found talisman? Will your group leave him much choice in the matter? [The creatures will attack anyone who attempts to assist the targeted sorcerer.]
6. One of your group has met a pretty young thing who does everything in their power to convince your group to help them retrieve their master's rightful property...which turns out to be a Wermilith...and the Eloi is actually an infected thrall in service to a Fungal Tyrant.

What People Are Saying: Rumors

1. Wermiliths are some sort of weapon sent into Wermspittle by the Purple Hordes to prepare the way for their masters to finally claim the city for the Purple Clouds.
2. These are some sort of secret Pruztian counter-measure originally meant to be deployed against some other secret Franzikaner uber-weapon during the last war.
3. These things are the vengeful spawn of some hideous god-thing that is a rival to the Purple Clouds...either that, or they are residual fragments from the Nightlands.
4. Wermiliths have no connection to the Clouds, but rather are semi-living relics of some lost civilization yet to be discovered out past the boundaries of the established camps in the Purple Forest.
5. Everyone else is completely wrong, these things are merely astral anchors intended for use in plumbing the depths of the Violet Abyss and were crafted by some long forgotten cult that was wiped-out decades ago.
6. These aren't werms at all. They are in fact seeds. Unreal seeds that will eventually sprout into horrid things that will seek to kill or enslave us all.
7. Some disgraced Franzikaner Noble bred these creatures as a way to preserve the souls and memories of his lineage in the face of the Revolution and one day soon the Wermiliths will awaken in order to facilitate the return of these despicable aristocrats.
8. These are merely the precursors of an invasion by forces never before seen among the Known Worlds.

What People Are Doing...

1. The Council of Unnatural Affairs has posted a reward for the recovery of any further Wermiliths, Details of the reward are vague and subject to negotiation, but the Council has a reputation for being generous to a fault, so this does little to dampen anyone's enthusiasm.
2. Curiosity Seekers have started to scour the less-traveled and picked-over areas of the cities looking for Wermiliths. So far only a few have disappeared.
3. Three Verminista warlords have denounced the Academy and its puppets for attempting to thwart the will of their so far unidentified benefactor. Each of their stories conflict significantly, so few take them seriously at this time.
4. So far every Nomad that has seen as much as a photograph of a Wermilith has closed-out all their accounts and left the city as quickly as possible.
5. A band of Cuckoos has taken out an ad in the Whisperer to announce that they've uncovered a cache of no less than six Wermiliths. They are attempting to set up some sort of auction to determine who will get access to the newly uncovered Wermiliths.
6. There have been reports of a Deep Purple Smog prowling the Near Deeps close to Schroedinger and Cave's shop. Local Authorities claim it is an entirely unrelated incident, but others aren't so sure...

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"If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fall to leave their impress behind them."

Helena Blavatsky

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Todtenhilzig (Nasty Little People)

Twilight had fallen by the time they came to the trees, beneath which were the black, circular objects they had marked from a distance. Dozens of them were scattered around and Dorothy bent near to one, which was about as tall as she was, to examine it more closely. As she did so the top flew open and out popped a dusky creature, rising its length into the air and then plumping down upon the ground just beside the little girl. Another and another popped out of the circular, pot-like dwelling, while from all the other black objects came popping more creatures—very like jumping-jacks when their boxes are unhooked—until fully a hundred stood gathered around our little group of travelers...

The Patchwork Girl of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

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Todtenhilzig
No. Enc.: 5d20
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 30' (10')
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1d4 hit points
Attacks: 1 (bite or by weapon)
Damage: 1d6 or by weapon [most often 1d4 Biting Dolls]
Save: F2
Morale: 6

Special: Todtenhilzig are very strong for their size, being able to lift approximately three times their own body weight with ease. Their bite is the equivalent of a +1 weapon for both 'to hit' and damage purposes. Anyone devoured by these things is rendered physically unrecoverable, as if that needed to be said...

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Nocturnal, tiny and curiously formed little people with wrinkly, leathery skin that appears like some sort of husk or loose wrapping, the Todtenhilzig appear mischievous and playful...even comical...until they have their intended victim surrounded. Then they strike in a mad, hooting and hollering wave of snapping teeth and slashing blades. They prefer to attack only when they have the means to overwhelm a victim, but being hot-blooded and impatient folk, they can sometimes be a bit premature in their all-out assaults.

Merciless, murderous abhuman creatures, the Todtenhilzig crave human flesh above all other meat except perhaps Grimflesh and of course Thumblings, whose flesh they desire over all else. They wear the tanned and painted hides of their former victims and are very skilled in the crafting of bone implements, weapons and adornments, including various talismans and charms cunningly contrived from shards of human bone that they will offer to sell to an unwary traveler whom they are not prepared to ambush quite yet. They are incredibly gifted as doll-makers and are notorious for the 'Biting Dolls' that they make to serve them as guards and weapons.

Todtenhilzig spell-casters construct vicious iron-toothed 'biting dolls' that they send after their enemies among the Thumblings, Lillipts or others, such as those larger folk who manage to escape one of their ambushes. These are a vicious, vengeful people, who exchange torture tips with Bogles and have been known to swap prisoners with certain of the Comprachicos, or one of their agents, on the basis of an equal amount of meat by body-weight basis, of course.

All their spells tend to involve skinning their prey and molding bones into useful shapes, regardless of whether the bones have been removed from their target's body or not. In fact, they have a few spells for the removal of bones that can help with that as well, but they are loathe to teach their spells to outsiders, though they can be bribed with sufficient quantities of fresh meat and strong drink.

Of all the amorphous horrors to be found within Wermspittle, the bone-dissolving Gelbores are of especial interest to the Todtenhilzig. They have allowed trespassers to leave unmolested upon giving the nasty little people very detailed directions to the location of a Gelbore--once the directions were proven to be accurate, of course. No one knows just what the Todtenhilzig do with the Gelbores they capture. It's probably better not to ask...

They dwell in cast iron domes converted from old cauldrons. Presenting a group of Todtenhilzig with a cauldron will earn their friendship and prevent them from attempting to ambush and/or devour such a generous person for at least a few hours. The only thing that would gain a stranger even more acclaim and renown, not to mention good favor among the Todtenhilzig would be to deliver unto them a few Thumbling prisoners. They delight in tormenting, dismembering and ultimately devouring Thumblings more than any other creature. Their hatred for the Thumblings stems from the days Achuin Occupation when roving bands of Thumblings took up the yellow banner and hunted down and killed as many of the Todtenhilzig as they could. Then the Thumblings took over their jobs in the local toy-makers and doll factories. When the Pruztians drove out the Achuin forces, the Thumblings switched sides and served the Pruztians, which allowed them to continue to harass and persecute the Todtenhilzig. Now there is no one to protect their one-time tormentors and the Todtenhilzig are out for revenge...

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1d6 Lesser Biting Dolls

1. The severed head and one arm of a celluloid-based doll are mounted on an old broom-stick. The doll's jaws have been extended with wired-together sections of bone and wood. Instead of teeth, this doll's gaping maw is filled with dozens upon dozens of rusty nails. The arm flaps around but cannot grip anything now that all its fingers have been hacked off.
   

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   Doll-Head Stick [AL C, MV n/a, AC 7, HD 2 (16hp), #AT 1, DG 1d4+2 (Strikes as +2 weapon), SV F1, ML 3+Wielder's CHAR Mod. Special: Takes double damage from fire.]
   
   Control Mechanism: Wielder must invest 1 hit point to wield this weaponized-doll each time they pick it up, failure or refusal to do so results in the thing attacking them at +2 to hit for three consecutive attempts. at the end of the third attempt, if the thing has not drawn blood by way of its attacks, it goes inert until someone, anyone, invests one hit point of their own blood into the thing. Also, each time this thing achieves a natural 20 on the To Hit dice in combat it will require one additional hit point of damage invested to keep it working for the current wielder.
   

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2. A rag doll soaked in Spectral Brine, it's insides are a viscous black jelly and the thing spews corrosive tar-like gunk in-between biting attacks. The gunk clings to most surfaces and is highly flammable in addition to causing 1d4 damage per turn for the next 4 turns.
   
   Control Mechanism: A square button carved from walrus ivory. The button must be stitched into the clothing of the would-be master. They then must squeeze the button between two fingers while giving the doll simple commands of three words or less in Urzine or some related dialect.
   

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   Pukey Doll [AL C, MV 30' (10'), AC 7, HD 2 (11hp), #AT 1 (Bite or Spewage), DG 1d4/1d6 (+1d4 per Turn for next 4 Turns), SV F1, ML 3+Master's CHAR Mod., Special: On a successful bite attack the doll will attempt to latch onto its victim, gaining a +2 bonus to hit on its next attack, which if successful inflicts double damage. However, once it accomplishes this special attack, the doll slips free and must try again.]
   
   Control Mechanism: A ring of laminated bone. Wearer gains a +6 bonus to dominate the doll psychically. The doll has an Ego/Psyche of 12. Each time the doll takes damage, the ring-wearer takes 1 hit point of damage as well.
   

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3. Garishly re-painted porcelain-headed doll in a miniature hoop-skirt. The fabric body is packed with a mixture of gunpowder and Achromic Powder. Someone has thoughtfully wired a torch into the thing's tiny little hands and it appears very happy to see you. [Explodes as a Fireball spell.]

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   Dolly-BoomBoom [AL C, MV 60' (20'), AC 7, HD 1 (4hp), #AT 1, DG 4d6 damage in 30' radius blast, SV F1, ML 3+Master's CHAR Mod. If doll fails Morale check, it has a 30% chance to run crying back to Master.]
   
   Control Mechanism: A tear-drop shaped 'gem' formed from a lacquered blob of gray jelly containing a substantial quantity of gunpowder and attached to a slender Horla-hide cord. The wearer can command the doll up to a distance of 20', even though the blast radius is 30'.
   

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4. Papier mache coated with lacquer, this doll has the bulging eyes of a grizzled veteran from the fighting pits lovingly glued into its too-small sockets. The thing's nose is the pick-end of a broken warhammer (does 1d6, but breaks loose in wound) and it's teeth are ice-picks and bodkins stolen from failed revolutionaries.
   

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   Pick-Nose Doll [AL C, MV n/a (Legs are actually the handle of a warhammer), AC 7, HD 2 (14hp), #AT 1 (Bite), DG 1d4+1, SV F1, ML 3+Wielder's CHAR Mod. Takes triple damage from fire.]
   
   Control Mechanism: Whomever wishes to control this doll must carefully insert an appropriate bodkin or ice-pick into its over-sized jaws. Doing so grants you complete control of the thing for the next 36 hours, after which time it rebels and either runs away (60%) or attacks (40%). It can be destroyed by driving another ice-pick through its head, or held at bay by reciting revolutionary doctrine and press releases in a suitably sonorous and monotonous voice for so long as the recitation continues uninterrupted.
   

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5. Headless Cutie Doll. It's body is hollow, but filled with 3d6 green-speckled centipedes that swarm out of the gaping hole where its head ought to be.
   

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   Headless Cutie-Doll [AL C, MV 30' (10'), AC 7, HD 2 (9hp), #AT 1, DG Special, SV F1, ML 3+Master's CHAR Mod. Special: Contains 3d6 venomous vermin that will attack if disturbed.]
   
   Green-Speckled Centipedes [AL C, MV 90' (30'), AC 6, HD 1+1, #AT 1, DG 1d4+Poison, SV F1, ML 5. Special: Save +1 versus Poison or suffer -4 penalty to Initiative, half movement, -2 penalty to hit and lose any DEX bonus to AC for next 1d4 Turns. effects Are cumulative.]
   
   Control Mechanism: A bent stick carved with lazy spirals is given to the would-be owner or controller. Wherever you point the stick, the doll will move towards that direction. This effect is continual and cannot be paused or stopped. Letting go of the stick causes the doll to come after whoever held it last.
   

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6. Grotesquely carved from wood and bone, this warrior-doll has an over-sized nutcracker-like mouth fitted with many, many triangular iron teeth. It also has multiple bloody scalps affixed to its head; each one chewed off of the head of a past victim.
   

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   Biting Doll (Scalper) [AL C, MV 60' (20'), AC 6, HD 2, #AT 1, DG 1d4+3 (Strikes as +1 weapon), SV F4, ML 10, Special: Limited to a 120' radius around master. Every scalp taken has a 20% chance to grant the doll 1 additional point of Ego (as magical/sapient sword).]
   
   Control Mechanism: A small leather bag that contains several wadded-up and bloody scalps. The exterior is picked-out with crude bead-work, with the beads being human teeth. holding the bag allows you to direct the doll, but your influence wanes the longer it goes without committing an act of violence. There is no set formula or measure to how this functions, only a never-ending need by the doll to be biting, tearing, hurting things that the 'master' must accommodate, or else the doll will turn on them.
   

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Six Biting Dolls

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Inspiration: The Todtenhitzig were inspired by a desire to replace Mr. Baum's 'tiny and curiously formed' little people, the Tottenhots of Oz with something that wasn't quite so stupidly racist, so I re-imagined them as a truly nasty type of 'lower form of humanity,' with ancestral ties back to the wicked Voorish Domes in Deep Dendo as rivals and competitors (and hunters) of the Thumblings. Thus we manage to mash-up The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum with The White People of Arthur Machen...and find out who really makes those evil little fetish dolls with the oh so sharp iron teeth...

Six Biting Dolls

"Look at the teeth. LOOK At THE TEETH! LOOK--"

 Last words of Grevok Lak
Former Delve-Scout

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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...

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

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   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.

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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.
   

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   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.

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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...
   

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   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.

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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...
   

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   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.

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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.
   

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   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.

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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.
   

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   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...

Red Bestiary Index

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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...

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