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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Running from May into December of last year, I would never have suspected my Let's Read of the second Tome of Horrors installment would meet with the thread necromancy limitations.

    Then my grandmother came down with pneumonia, leading to a series of events that discovered lung cancer, started chemotherapy, and produced (currently) ongoing radiation therapy.

    Due to these events coming to a crescendo on Christmas day with a trip to the hospital with another case of pneumonia for her, I started lagging in my writing on all fronts, including my Let's Read here. And thus, it managed to slip a mere few days past the thread necromancy limit.

    So...here we are. Welcome to Mk. II of Let's Read the Tome of Horrors II, a project that I plan to see through, even if its first incarnation technically went dead last month. It's time to raise this phoenix from its ashes.

    You can read up on the book so far in the previous thread.



    Contents
    Oakman, Ogren, and Oil Shark
    Phantasm, Phlogiston, Proscriber
    Puddings (Blood and Stone), Quasi-Elementals (Acid and Obsdiian)
    Last edited by Rappy; 2012-02-12 at 05:25 PM.
    LGBTitP

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Oakman
    The CR 3 oakman is a Chaotic Neutral fey that epitomizes the idea of "Chaotic Jackass"...but without trying to shoehorn them as Chaotic Good! Bravo, writers, bravo. Now if you'd only done the same with the mimi...

    In any case, as their name implies, oakmen are goblin-like male fey that are the spirits of oak trees. Our sage friends say that they might be the male equivalent of the dryads and that their curmudgeonry drives the dryads to seek human mates, but as with most sage comments this is a supposition rather than a fact (read: the Dungeon Master can take it or leave it). What is known is that no sane Druid would want to associate with oakmen. They're rude, crude, lewd, and generally dickish, sitting on their oak branches all day while insulting and demeaning passersby. The only time they get off their branch is to feed humans magical moss cakes that can perform any number of effects from changing the consumer's skin color to causing 1d4 hours of gut-wrenching pain. Lovely.



    Ogren
    Remember the orog and ogrillion? Well, meet the ogren, a hybrid of ogre and hobgoblin! The ogren are a culture of rule-by-the-strongest warriors – aren't they always? – that have a savoring for elf and human blood, even going so far as to have blood sacrifices of the two species at their intertribal weddings known as "Takings".

    Combining the best of both worlds, the CR 1 ogren is strong and steady (+6 Strength and +4 Constitution) like an ogre and as intelligent and clever as a hobgoblin, if a bit uncouth (-2 to Charisma). Basically, they're what you want as a DM desiring a clever and powerful warring species or a player wanting to play a rather strong species without intelligence penalties.



    Oil Shark
    Remember the fire crab and fire whale from earlier in this very book? Remember how I stated my confusion at the Plane of Fire basically being "the ocean, but burning-pain-oh-gods-so-much-pain"? Yeeeeah...

    The oil shark does at least have some ecology to it, I guess. Packs of them will hunt fire whales, volcano giants find them tasty, and salamanders make slick armor (+5 bonus to Escape Artist checks and immunity to webs and similar obsctructions) from their oily hides.
    Last edited by Rappy; 2012-01-26 at 03:49 AM.
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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Phantasm
    These twisted, malevolent spirits are pure evil...literally. They aren't the undead remnants of humans, but undead that are literally made whole cloth from negative energy. At CR 8 and capable of a desecrating aura, possession powers, and negative level drain, the phantasm isn't exactly a creature to mess with. I would personally get more mileage out of them by removing the evil streak, making them merely pure creatures of necromantic energy that aren't evil so much as hazardous to your health if you bother them. That's just my opinion, though.



    Phlogiston
    Phlogiston, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept, is an outdated hypothesis for why things are combustible: namely, the idea that everything has a "phlogiston material" inside of it that produces combustion. So the phlogiston monster is an ur-fire elemental, right?

    Wrong! It's a CR 3 Plant that shoots weak fire bullets. Clearly the most logical conclusion to reach, no?



    Proscriber
    No, it's not your pharmacist's assistant. The proscriber, a CR 15 Outsider, is basically the Cleric's alignment enforcer. While a Paladin risks falling, a Cleric that deviates from their deities' preachings has to worry about a proscriber being sent to punish them, be it through removing class features (including spellcasting) for a divine spellcaster or simply just outright slaughtering. "Oh, you sacrificed a sheep when I stated clearly in my teachings you should sacrifice a goat? Proscribers upon your house!"
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    Eldritch Horror in the Playground Moderator
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    You can get special thread necromancy exemptions by requesting them from a moderator overseeing the subforum in question, you know.

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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Cool thread, just like the old one.
    Nice to see this one revived.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rappy View Post
    Ogren
    Remember the orog and ogrillion? Well, meet the ogren, a hybrid of ogre and hobgoblin! The ogren are a culture of rule-by-the-strongest warriors – aren't they always? – that have a savoring for elf and human blood, even going so far as to have blood sacrifices of the two species at their intertribal weddings known as "Takings".

    Combining the best of both worlds, the CR 1 ogren is strong and steady (+6 Strength and +4 Charisma) like an ogre and as intelligent and clever as a hobgoblin, if a bit uncouth (-2 to Charisma). Basically, they're what you want as a DM desiring a clever and powerful warring species or a player wanting to play a rather strong species without intelligence penalties.
    The bolded part bothers me, though. It appears to be a typo. What do they actually get a +4 bonus to? My guess would be Constitution, but you might want to check and fix that.
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    You can get special thread necromancy exemptions by requesting them from a moderator overseeing the subforum in question, you know.
    I imagine there are more important things to be done.

    Quote Originally Posted by SilverLeaf167 View Post
    The bolded part bothers me, though. It appears to be a typo. What do they actually get a +4 bonus to? My guess would be Constitution, but you might want to check and fix that.
    Yeah, it's Constitution. I'm not sure how I missed that, or made the mistake in the first place, but it's corrected now.
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Pudding, Blood
    Ah yes, the puddings, everyone's favorite oozes (only not at all). Would you believe that the CR 5 blood pudding resembles blood? What a shocker! Even more shocking is what it feeds on: blood! In seriousness, though, the blood pudding seems to be purely designed for gore factor. Their main method of attack is siphoning into another lifeform and then forcibly expelling said lifeform's blood out from any available orifice. In a supernatural horror campaign, especially one in a more modern setting, this could actually be used in interesting ways. What if, rather than manifestations of bigger supernatural phenomena, things such as stigmata or "tears of blood" are actually signs someone is being slowly eaten alive by a blood pudding?



    Pudding, Stone
    Would you believe that the stone pudding has a touch that can turn people to stone? Shocking, I know.



    Quasi-Elementals
    Now here's something you old school D&Ders might be familiar with: quasi-elementals! Basically, to make a long story short, quasi-elemental planes are where Negative and Postive planes meet elemental planes. The quasi-elemental planes of classic Gygaxian canon are the Quasi-Elemental planes of Lightning (Air and Positive), Vacuum (Air and Negative), Mineral (Earth and Positive), Dust (Earth and Negative), Radiance (Fire and Positive), Ash (Fire and Negative), Steam (Water and Positive), and Salt (Water and Negative). In the first Tome of Horrors, only the lightning quasi-elemental was detailed. That means that we get vacuum, radiance, etc. elementals here in the ToH II, right?

    Sadly, no. What we do get are the elementals of two new quasi-elemental planes: the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Acid and Obsidian. Acid quasi-elementals are basically very caustic water elementals, having the Acid rather than Water subtype. The Acid subtype is vulnerable to water damage, which dilutes and injures the acidic creature, and Acid subtype creatures tend to (surprise surprise) deal acid damage. In the case of acid quasi-elementals, they have both acid damage upon their drenching touch as well as a leaking of noxious fumes that deal Constitution damage.

    Obsdian quasi-elementals, by contrast, are more or less alterations of earth elementals, even still having the Earth subtype rather than a new one. The main difference with the obsidians is that their partially fiery nature means that if they are wounded, they "bleed" molten glass in potentially damaging spurts, and explode into numerous spiky shards upon death.
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Quote Originally Posted by Rappy View Post
    I imagine there are more important things to be done.
    Not usually, as this is a fairly peaceful neck of the woods. They're generally pretty open to being approached in my experience and secondhand experience.
    Quote Originally Posted by Keld Denar View Post
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    Default Re: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors, Mk. II: the Book Strikes Again!

    Quote Originally Posted by Coidzor View Post
    Not usually, as this is a fairly peaceful neck of the woods. They're generally pretty open to being approached in my experience and secondhand experience.
    Fair enough. I just tend to have a bit of a self-depreciating streak, 's all.

    Rakklethorn Toad
    Having once of the stranger names for a magical beast (and that's saying something), the rakklethorn toad actually doesn't really have much to it. It's CR 1, and it excretes a Dexterity-hindering poison from the thorns that stud its back. Oh, and said thorns can be launched like projectiles, so I guess there's that.



    Rat, Barrow
    What is it with rats and getting so many variants?

    ...Actually, thinking about how prolific rats are, it kinda makes sense, but still.

    In any case, barrow rats are CR 1/4 Magical Beasts that, as their name implies, hang out around barrows and other places where carrion is easily attained. They are obligate scavengers, feasting on whatever corpses they can find and taking whatever's left over with them in bits and pieces. Their only supernatural ability is stoneskin as an SLA as a defensive maneuver against predators. In other words, they are interesting set pieces, but as-is there's not a whole lot to justify their existence or explain their role.



    Red Jester
    These horrendous CR 10 undead are the personal court jesters of Orcus, demon prince of the undead, and are just as humorous as that title would imply...in other words, absolutely terrifying. First off, dressing up a ghoul in a jester's outfit doesn't really mask the fact that it's a razor-toothed undead abomination, so its appearance isn't exactly the most pleasant. Then you add in its ability to induce fear with a cackling laugh or bash you with its masterwork light mace...but make you laugh uncontrollably as it painfully blugeons you with this enchanted device. Of course, if that isn't enough, it can also use a deck of many things on people as a ranged touch attack. And the worst part? These things are supposedly typically sent to "humor" Orcus's favored. Now imagine what they'll do to you if you aren't in the demon prince's favor.
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