Sunday, March 18, 2012

Jalamere: Encounters Within a 1 Mile Radius of the Black Ziggurat

This is a continuation of what we began in the previous Black Ziggurat of Jalamere post. We want to thank Blair of Planet Algol for his feed-back, encouragement and the contribution of a couple of entries to further flesh out the special encounters that might take place in the area surrounding this version of the Black Ziggurat.


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Encounters Within 1 Mile of the Black Ziggurat
  1. Masked Watchers: 2d6 black robed and masked figures appear in the distance; waver like mirages; disappear in seconds although one PC may hear strange whispers on the wind. (From Blair of Planet Algol.) 
  2. Menticore: (1d2): HD 6+4; HP 32; AC 4[15]; Atk 1 Claw, Bite or Psychotropic Tail-spikes; Move 12/8 (flies); Save 13; HDE/XP 8/800; Special: Flight and Psychotropic Tail-spikes. (Menticore starts with 24 spikes and can hurl up to six spikes per attack to a maximum range of 180 feet.) Anyone struck by one of the Menticore's Psychotropic Tail-Spikes must make a Save or be disoriented for 1d4 minutes by a strobing light show only they can see. The Spikes are worth 2d100 GP in the right places.
  3. Seething Seepage: (1): HD 4; HP 26; AC 8[11]; Atk 1 Corrosive Saturation; Move 3; Save 15; HDE/XP 5/240; Special: Remains unseen as it lurks beneath debris and sand, waiting for victims to walk over its body, then it rears up and attempts to form a gelatinous crater or bowl from its own flesh that it fills with a potent, corrosive stew of digestive juices. It takes less than 3 minutes for the 'bowl' to fill to capacity. The juices destroy leather, corrode metals, and discolor flesh that survives the attack to a grotesque mottled green and yellow that is easily recognized as the 'mark of the lurker.'
  4. Tumbling Cube: A huge stone block rolls past in the distance (3d6 miles out). It is nearly a mile across on each surface and it is headed away from the Black Ziggurat.
  5. Petrocloptrian: 1d4 hovering telepathic alien beings who wield seven melee weapons at a time using a form of close-quarters telekinesis. They are hunting Bandersnatches and arrogantly disdain having any interactions with humans whom they see as coarse, vulgar and uninteresting. This is probably a good thing though, as the Petrocloptrians tend to hunt anything that they think is interesting in order to mount it upon the walls of their orbital estates. [Petrocloptrian S&W (White Box) stats] [Petrocloptrian Labyrinth Lord stats]
  6. Glyph Block: Random PC trips over or stubs toe (save or take 1 pt. damage) on corner of corroded basalt tablet/block embedded in sand. Examination reveals glyphs worn away into illegibility but sinister in form. May be worth 1d100 gp to the right buyer but doubles chance of nocturnal random encounters while in possession. (From Blair of Planet Algol.)
  7. Naked Lizard Shaman: A laid-back, even kind of sluggish and scaly spell caster out in the middle of nowhere looking for some of those Aerial Jelly-fish that they've heard are to be found in these parts. Anyone pointing them in the right direction receives a fizzly green potion that will heal 3d4 damage, even if you haven't been hurt yet. The effect will persist for as long as it takes to use-up the liquid goodwill of the potion.
  8. Twitching Corpses, every one of them someone the characters have killed either directly or indirectly, parade before the party. Each corpse stares at those whom it holds responsible for its terrible fate. They are all now the possessions of a terrible otherplanar being that has taken a decidedly unhealthy and clearly malevolent interest in the party... 
  9. Pool of Molten Green Glass: Extremely hot and bothered, this malevolent fluid will attempt to lure the curious into coming within reach of its pseudopods (about 10-12'). It inflicts 2d4 damage.
  10. 400 stunned carp fall from the sky. Most are still alive. For now.
  11. (2d8) Three-Toed Mutants:  HD 4; HP 20; AC 4[15]; Atk 1 Fork or Claw; Move 4; Save 11; HDE/XP 6/600; Special: 1 in 8 has an additional Eye-Beam weapon.  Each stands fully seven feet tall and wields a wickedly barbed stabby-fork. Their middle toes are tipped with a vicious, hooked claw which they will use in close-quarters. Only one of them has a tail and the rest make fun of him because of it.
  12. Slime Fall: Bilious green clouds roll in from the North and begin to drizzle green slime over everything. The slime evaporates, leaving a foul-smelling crust after about an hour. It tastes like licorice, but will cause dysentery if eaten.
  13. Blue Light: A glaring, sizzling blue radiance erupts from the ground itself. The effect blinds everyone within 300' for the next 2d10 minutes.
  14. (2d12) Camels are tethered to low-lying clumps of cacti and thorn-wood. They don't seem particularly concerned about much of anything.
  15. (1d6) dead bodies of previous adventurers, all of them stripped of their possessions and tossed into the brush to feed scavengers. (Base Chance of 10% that there is a minor magical ring or some such to be found by investigating the bodies, but that will incur at least one, if not more, wandering monster checks.)
  16. Iron Golem with +1 bassoon. It was kicked out its marching band and is looking for a new gig. Unfortunately the thing is completely tone-deaf.
  17. A blue-haired dwarf in besmirched chain-mail stands up to its waist in dead rat-headed monkey-things. Their eyes are wide and staring and unresponsive. He still chops and hacks the air with his twin hand-axes as tough the creatures are still coming after him.
  18. (1d4) Drilg surround a fallen comrade who is complaining of stomach pains. The fallen one is no longer their friend and ally, but has been entirely consumed from within by an intelligent 6 HD Black Pudding.
  19. (3d6) Serpent Men are looking for volunteers for their most recent series of experiments exploring the capacity of lower-order mammals to perceive trans-temporal tonalities under the influence of modulated electrical stimulation.
  20. Roll twice on any of the previous tables, or a stampede of (6d100) Titanotherium rumble through the immediate area. Roll three Saves to avoid getting stomped or run over. Player's Choice.

4 comments:

  1. I like the tumbling cube. That being said, it is probably a tad more painful to have this roll over you than one Iof the big white balls found pursuing escapees from certain coastal villages,

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  2. Not many coastal villages in Jalamere...but those weird white spheres might show up here or there. Mostly when least expected...

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  3. I've decided the Black Ziggurat is going to make an appearance in my Diaspora campaign. Your image is very cool. One minute I see a face, and the next the nosecone of a crashed ship.

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  4. Now that we have a scanner again, I'm doing more black & white line-art. The Tumbling Cubes are one of the things on my to-do list.

    Bringing the Black Ziggurat into your game is cool--that was what Blair was encouraging when he first posted about it. It's a wonderful cross-blog artifact of imagination that just reeks of potential. Bringing the BZ into Diaspora should be fun...

    Hope the players are well-armed, loaded for bear and ready for anything...

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