Krampus Koal from Wermspittle

Krampus Koal for Naughty Adventurers (D10)

1. Burning this potato-shaped lump of blackness will radiate a comforting warmness through-out a 30' radius for 2d4 hours. Anyone falling asleep within this radius will dream of all the unkind and unpleasant things that they did over the last year. When the koal goes out, 1d4 small, smoky fires will spontaneously burst into flame at  random locations within the 30' radius.
2. This lump of koal produces a sweet-smelling cloud of pearlescent smoke that clings to everything that comes into contact with it. In fact the smell won't come out unless vigorously scrubbed for a couple of hours using vinegar, turpentine or kerosene. One hour after exposure, the smell turns bad and produces a choking, noxious stench that will make it impossible to remain within an enclosed space.
3. Upon being lit to serve within a stove or fire-place, this piece of koal will radiate intense, freezing cold for 1d4 hours. Anyone caught within the area of effect must make a Save or suffer 1d4 frost damage.
4. (1d4) random coins within a 30' radius will crumble into ashes for every turn this piece of koal remains burning. It will not be extinguished by water, but wine, brandy or blood will douse it effectively.
5. The person possessing this lump of koal, even if it is never burned, will take on the face and form of Krampus for 1d4 hours during one random night over the course of either the weeks preceding or following the Winter Solstice. They will have no memory of what acts of mischief they committed.
6. As this piece of koal burns, 1d6 random pre-existing/already owned magical items are randomly re-distributed among those within a 30' radius.
7. All potions with a 30' radius are converted to egg nog. This includes poisons, however the poisons remain toxic.
8. This lump of anthracite will reappear on a regular basis inside whatever foot-wear worn by the one cursed with it, making them suffer a -2 penalty to all DEX checks and reducing thier speed by half, and making it impossible to climb ropes or walls even if they are a Thief. Untended, this lump will cause 1 point of damage every 60' the sufferer attempts to walk with it in their shoe or boot. A simple Remove Curse will rid them of the koal.
9. All gems within a 30' radius are transformed into faceted pieces of coal.
10. This lump of blackness is in fact a somnolent and slightly compressed Black Pudding that will be released from its magical torpor by exposure to heat or flame.

Artwork Courtesy of Steve Austin 

This is our contribution to the Krampus Christmas Blog Carnival hosted by Nevermet Press.
Steve Austin's artwork featured above is available at RPGnow for Free and is licensed under the Creative Commons so you can use it too!

Triss [Labyrinth Lord]

Triss
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 1+1
Attacks: 2 (bite, scratch or gaze)
Damage: 1d4-1(+Rot), 1d4-1(+Rot), see below
Save: F4
Morale: 6

Diminutive and vile-natured, Triss are the questionably reptilian remnants of past indiscretions at a particular homunculists' laboratory. Some believe the Triss to be some sort of amalgam of left-over fragments or cast-off bits, but that has never been verified. All that anyone really knows about these vicious little monsters is that they have proliferated far, far too quickly for anyone's comfort and they have a disturbing ability to intermingle with a wide variety of other species in order to spawn weird mutant offspring that sometimes go on to become distinct derivative supra-species in and of themselves.

A Triss attacks by biting with its turtlish beak, scratching with its tiny claws, or using its gaze attack. They do 1d4-1 damage; if they roll a "1" for damage that means they do no damage but still transfer their rotting effect which is suspected to be the work of sorcerously twisted bacteria.

A Rotten Bite
Their bite is capable of severing small cords, cutting through leather and snipping rope (usually taking two or three bites to get through a standard rope), however their bite also transfers a copious amount of their saliva onto the target and their saliva forces a Save or else the area affected will begin to rot. The area affected is 1d4 inches in diameter and persists for 1d4 days, after which it dries up, the victim must make another Save or take an additional 1d4 damage, and the area heals normally, but has a strange greenish blemish left behind to remind them of the Triss. The rotting effect can be cured by magical healing (Cure Disease works nicely, Neutralize Poison will cut the duration of the rotting in half), but the greenish blemish will still remain.

A Horrid Scratch
The scratch of a Triss does little real damage, but it also spreads the rotting effect just as their bite does, but in addition, a Triss can use their scratch attack to target items such as those made from leather, parchment, hide or even wood and cause them to rot. To carry out this sort of vandalism the Triss must forego harming their opponent and instead target the victim's equipment and gear. Wine-skins and water bladders are common targets for this sort of thing, and even if the Triss fails to ruin them, there is a chance that they spoil or poison the contents.

A Dim View of Things
The Triss also possess a gaze attack that allows them to project a cone of magical Darkness extending from their snout to a range of 20'. This conical Darkness effect only lasts for 2d4 turns and the Triss can only use this effect 1d4 times per day. The attack itself causes no damage, but it is used by the Triss to lay-down a coating of saliva upon the ground or floor right around their enemies so as to ruin their boots, dissolve sandals, or cause their bare feet to rot. (Note: Phorain are immune to the rotting effect of Triss bacteria).

Wretched Things
Normally, such a despicable and unpleasant (they also smell like rotten milk) creature as the Triss would be relegated to the not-so-tender mercies of vermin-killers, but alas the foul things have been found to be of incredible utility to alchemists, homunculists, golemists, and quite a few other specialized scholars, sorcerers and scientists. The Triss are especially useful in developing compounds to assist in the creation of hybrids, stitching-together chimerae, creating homunculi or pseudri or other forms of synthesized life and more. In places such as Wermspittle a single Triss can bring as much as 2d4 gold pieces, double or triple that if it is still alive. Many refugees and some feral children have gotten quite adept at capturing Triss to sell in the Supplier's Market and other such places.

Lone Survivors II (Encounters/Kalaramar Drifts)

Lone Survivors: Table II (D12)

1. A filthy, smelly old man with long, bedraggled hair and grizzled eyes. He has no fingernails left, as he has spent countless hours trying to dig himself out of here by scratching away at the bare stone. His mind is broken. All he sees around him any more are slithering little Triss, each taunting him with a slow, painful death by rotting. He holds a folded leather map in his jerkin. It shows 2d6 rooms of some unnamed dungeon in great detail...but shows none of the interconnecting passages.
2. The smell of putrescent meat is incredible. Anyone with a CON lower than 14 needs to Save or vomit uncontrollably for 1d4 rounds. A shambling, massively decayed figure of what once was some sort of humanoid being lurches towards you. Over a third of this thing's body is skeletonized, the rest glistens wetly as it drips, dribbles and peels off of the bones with each movement. It holds a roughly one foot long section of a black metal javelin or spike or blade that seems to have broken off in the process of impaling the mostly undead former adventurer. He wants you to have it...
3. A laughing green hyena follows you for 1d4 turns. It seems to be laughing at some sort of inside joke. Arrows and other missiles harmlessly go through the thing's body with a wet popping noise. It will fade away at the end of its time and leave behind a patch of greenish phlegm-like stuff on the wall where it walked through. The patch is a perfect outline of the hyena.
4. A tall, regal-looking woman in heavily corroded chainmail lies dead on the floor. Her entire left arm and part of her left torso is missing. There are 1d4 Gore-worms incubating in what is left of her abdomen and they will burst forth if anyone disturbs the corpse. She has 2d6 silver coins in her belt pouch and a dagger that is still in decent shape. There is also a slender bone scroll-tube capped with platinum in her pouch. This scroll-tube contains a contract with a Revivalist in one of the near-by City-States who is bound to resurrect and/or recover this adventurer's body in the event of its untimely demise. If you can transport the body to this place, there is a fair-sized reward involved.
5. A dwarf in full plate armor sits in the corner. His head is in his lap. Literally. He will request a drink of wine, or anything stronger if it be available. Anyone giving the dead, decapitated dwarf a drink will receive a +1 bonus to hit with their chosen weapon, permanently. The dwarf fades away after a riotous belch.
6. A duck.
7. A translucent, greenish worm is gobbling-down the remains of a robed figure. The worm is the magic-user's familiar and it is attempting to absorb all of its former master's knowledge, intelligence, spells and abilities by devouring the master's corpse whole.
8. Someone is crawling towards you. They are obviously exerting themselves terribly and you can smell blood. It is what is left of a scale-mail clad man-at-arms from the waist-up. There is nothing left of him from the waist down any more. He is going into shock and will die from extreme blood loss in 1d4 turns. He has left a trail back to where he received his terrible wound...
9. A mauled-looking mule stands off to the side. It stares at you accusingly for 1d4 turns then disappears, leaving behind only a patch of wet blood and the scent of worm-spit. Investigating the patch of blood will reveal 1d4 random items of Low-End Loot. (Roll on any of the Low-End Loot Tables.)
10. A Harpy on a 12' length of chain can be heard grumbling, as well as smelled, well before you see her. Her wings have been expertly clipped and what was once a well-tailored maid's outfit is in tatters. She was a domestic servant to some gentleman adventurer who has since gone missing and she is at loose ends. She might have references...
11. A skull. If asked a single question, it will respond truthfully then crumble into dust.
12. Three sheep and a goat. They were desperate. Afraid. Besides, they'll never talk about what really happened after the party got scragged by whatever that thing was...uh...yeah...they kinda do talk...a lot. They're not very bright and they've seen a lot. They've seen too much. The goat tends to just shiver uncontrollably and babble fragments of blasphemous spells or rituals that it might have observed or participated in--it's unclear and the sheep don't know nothin' about any of that weird crap. For crying out loud, they're nervous and want to go home. (Double Wandering Monster checks as long as these critters can still jabber freely.)

Playable Races: Drilg

Drilg Player Characters

The Drilg as monsters are detailed in This Post.

Requirements: DEX 9
Prime Requisite: none
Hit Dice: 2d4 at first level, 1d4+2 each level afterwards
Maximum Level: 8th (Exceptional Drilg can progress to 10th, even 12th level in certain special circumstances)

Drilg are small, furry bipedal humanoids with a single crooked horn jutting out of their heads. Their Horn does 1d4+1 (plus STR bonus, if any) as a naturally magical weapon and gains a +1 to hit bonus.

Their base AC is 6 and improves with the addition of shields, leather armor, etc. It is rare for a Drilg to have access to plate armor, though there are tales of a Drilg who appropriated the ceremonial armor of a child-noble, but that's a rather special case and far from typical.

Drilg can Move Silently up to 4 times a day, at half their normal movement rate, regardless of their class or level.

Drilg use True Seeing at will, and can cast Detect Magic twice a day.

Any curse that affects a Drilg will slough off in 2d4 days.

A Drilg will start out with 1d4 random magic items suitable to their level.

Spell: Black Touch

Black Touch
Level: 3
Duration: 1d4 rounds
Range: Touch

Caster's fingers/hands take on the form of small black puddings, doing 3d6 damage and allowing them to climb surfaces as though they were a black pudding. Black Puddings will respond as though caster has made a neutral CHAR Reaction while the spell is in effect. Use of ESP (or possibly Empathy, or a variant of Speak With [whatever] such as Speak With Blobs) during the duration of this spell will enable direct communication with Black Puddings and the caster attempting this gets to roll a formal CHAR Reaction Roll with a +4 bonus. Any Black Pudding befriended in this manner will remain friendly to the caster until such time as the caster either attacks, harms or attempts to coerce the Black Pudding with some version of Charm or Control magic.

---

It is rumored that repeated use of this spell runs a slight chance of permanently corrupting the caster's flesh, causing them to take on more and more of the appearance and form of a Black Pudding...but of course that is rubbish and nonsense, and totally unconfirmed by any reputable scholar or spell-caster...

Xal-Daemon (Paper Mini)

Xal-Daemon
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (Passwall at will)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 7+1
Attacks: 2 (Weapon, Eye-Beam)
Damage: 2d6, see Random Eye Beam Table
Save: F9
Morale: 11

Xal-Daemons are horrid, cyclopean beasts from some squalid, tumorous fragmentary anteplane referred to as 'Daldrimog' in the Septimariner's Almanack and Concordance. They wield hungry, writhing maces of living metal and blast their opponents with terrifying beams of energy from their central eyes.

Lacking any real depth perception, Xal-Daemons prefer to blast the ground close to them and then sweep their eye-beams outwards towards their targets. This will often devastate the local area and leave once pristine meadows jumbled heaps of glassy-slag or worse.

Any location that three or more Xal-Daemons occupy for longer than 10 turns becomes a Weak Spot for 1d4 hours. Roll 2d6 every half hour and on a roll of 10 or better consult one of the Damned Things Tables for a random Fortean cross-over event.

Should three or more Xal-Daemons be allowed to remain in one place for longer than one full day, that area becomes a permanent Weak Spot, and Damned Things are regular events on any roll of 1 on a D6 every 1d6 hours.

Xal-Daemons are automatically banished by use of Holy/Unholy Word.

It is hinted at within the Septimariner's Almanack that there are other, more powerful forms of Daemonic entities prowling the smoldering green-glass wastes of Daldrimog, but the sections detailing them -- and how to summon them -- are missing and have never seen print. Yet.

Spell: Charnel Breath

Charnel Breath
Level: 1
Duration: 1d4 Turns/level of caster
Range: 10'

Caster emits a foul stench that will temporarily immobilize non-ghouls within its area of effect for 1d4 rounds/level of caster on a missed Save. It also is a customary greeting amongst certain factions among the ghouls. Use of this spell allows the caster to breathe freely amid necro-toxic vapors, tomb miasmas and most forms of poison gas. It also allows the caster to ignore terrible scents and smells, like those associated with the domains of the ghouls and the like.

Spell: Dirt to Meat

Dirt to Meat
Level: 3
Duration: Permanent*
Range: 10'

Caster converts 1d4 pounds of dirt or gravel into lumps of raw, quivering meat that will almost certainly attract flies, carcass scavengers and others. The lump of meat produced by this spell will quickly rot if not provided a regular blood-flow or otherwise supported such as by being immersed in special alchemical solutions or by being stitched into a golemic matrix. Left untended, the mass of pseudoflesh will spoil within 1d4 hours, after which it will begin to deliquesce, leaving behind a thoroughly nasty residue that will reek of decayed flesh for 3d4 days.

The meat is edible.

It is also a prime component in various rites and spells having to deal with the creation of certain types of golems, animated entities, and other constructs.

There are several dozen variant forms of this spell, most developed either by Grafters, Pseudri or Morlocks. Those developed by the Morlocks are exceeding disgusting, disconcerting or just plain grotesque in the extreme.

Berge Golem [Labyrinth Lord]

'Berge Golem
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 1
Hit Dice: 10 (can be built bigger and more powerful at significant cost)
Attacks: 1
Damage: 3d8+3 (dispel magic on 19+)
Save: F12
Morale: 12

'Berge Golems are massive, heavily-armored humanoid figures manufactured by use of the Ildravar Schematics. They are rare, costly to build and endure for centuries.

The great two-handed flamberge wielded by these golems is wrought of a special nickle-iron alloy derived from fallen meteorites. The methods for locating these deposits of metal, mining it and processing it into a suitable weapons-grade alloy are known only to those who have had access to the Ildravar Schematics. The weapon manufactured from this process is +3 to hit, +3 to damage, and dispels magic on any attack roll of 19 or better. The weapon and the golem are inextricably bound and cannot be separated so long as both survive. Upon removal from the golem specially crafted to wield it, the sword will teleport back to the golem, or if the golem is destroyed, the sword will shift itself to an unknown, unnamed plane -- the very same plane from which the golem's motivating spirit is drawn.

As with most other golem-types, 'Berge Golems are unaffected by ordinary weapons and are immune to Hold, Charm and Sleep spells or poison. They do not breathe, have no true intelligence and cannot be healed by the usual spells, instead they require the use of specialized forms of artifice, unique spells, or even rare rites that draw upon ancient transplanar mechanisms.