Monday, October 29, 2012

Nguema

Nguema
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral (Evil)
Movement: 90' (120')
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 3+
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6
Save: F1/MU3
Morale: 12

Special: Every 3 points of damage inflicted by a Nguema also inflicts a cumulative -1 penalty to Morale Checks. Those individuals (such as retainers) who fail their Morale Check (even if it isn't made until after the adventure is completed), must Save or transfer their loyalty to the Nguema, whom they will now consider accepting as their employer and benefactor. Since the Nguema tend to pay very well, this will often result in a serious bout of labor relations turmoil, defection, desertion and outright abandonment. More than one would-be conquistador or plunderer has instead hired-on with the Nguema to serve them as mercenaries...

Slave-Master: ESP, Cause/Remove Fear (on touch), Cure Disease (once/day), advances as fighter 2 levels below current HD, has effective Charisma of 16-18 in regards to Retainers and Retainer Morale.

Spell-Slug: ESPCause/Remove Fear (on touch), Cure Disease (once/day), advances as magic-user of level equal to HD, has effective Charisma of 13-18  in regards to Retainers and Retainer Morale.

Tthe Nguema originate within the reeking depths of the jungles and mangrove swamps along the southern coastline of Ambrool, one of the Western-most isles within the Archipelago of Scattered Jewels. Blind, emotionless beings, these invertebrate tyrants slither about guided by incredibly developed senses of hearing and touch.

Smooth and glistening with a thin layer of greasy slime, the Nguema deftly and quickly slip through tight spots and constricted spaces with the greatest of ease. When constructing their own redoubts or refuges, the Nguema make full use of this capability in order to make their innermost sanctums incredibly treacherous and difficult to navigate for any invaders.

Nguema slime hardens into a variety of consistencies and textures based upon the direct manipulation of this substance by the Nguema secreting it. One of the most common things Nguema do with their slime is to form pseudo-pearls that retain some slight healing properties, which they use as currency and trade tokens. The inner-most sections of a Nguema lair are lined with several overlapping varieties of pearl-like material. Certain individuals have been known to dabble at sculpting their slime into elegant pseudo-pearl armor, weapons or works of art that they then used to pay their followers or to trade with foreign merchants.

Nguema breath through their skin, much like frogs, and are able to acquire breathable oxygen when submerged within brackish water or while immersed within river mud equally well. They cannot be drowned, but they can suffocate and both salt and gas-based attacks tend to do double damage to Nguema.

Nguema Fighter/Slave-Masters use ESP to direct their servants, slaves and hirelings to fight on their behalf. Nguema spell-casters reserve their own spells, preferring to only accept the service or servitude of other spell-casters. Neither of the two main Nguema castes use tools or weapons personally, as a matter of principle. This prohibition apparently does not include the swallowing or embedding of enchanted gems or pearls that the Nguema can then use much as other species use magical rings or amulets.

Introduction | Map | Index | Player's Guide


28 comments:

  1. This just keeps getting creepier and creepier.

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    1. Yep. We aim to ick, at least with some of the more squishy monstery-bits...

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  2. This one has a lot to offer for sure, many different ways of playing it. I'd also like to know more about this Archipelago of Scattered Jewels...

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    1. We have an adventure built around these creatures coming up. We're just trying to decide if we'll send it to Fight On! or just toss it out there as a freebie pdf. As to the Archipelgo of Scattered Jewels...you will be seeing more on that locale/setting shortly.

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  3. So it's a slug?

    thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com

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    1. They're as much leech as slug, and yet not quite either. Malevolent, cold-blooded inhuman invertebrates of a decidedly parasitical nature...they are not strictly gastropods...but people often refer to them as 'slugs' as a sort of derogatory epithet. Those that manage to escape from them...

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  4. Creepy thing! Looks more like it comes from the depths of the ocean rather than swamps, but that doesn't lessen it at all!

    Very cool.

    Thanks for participating in my blogfest!

    Tim

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    1. They began life in the deeps, but have taken over the swamps as they have adapted and evolved. There are more primitive, and much larger forms of the Nguema to be encountered beneath the waves...some of them grow large enough to threaten ships. The truly large ones pretty much remain deep, deep below the surface where they maintain something of an isolated culture unto themselves, selectively breeding their larval-forms into living tools, servitors and whatever else they require or desire. Very little is known about these deep-dwelling progenitors for they appear to have no interest in the affairs of other species. What little is known about them comes from highly suspect sources, mostly small-scale cults that still have not discovered an effective way to make meaningful contact their masters-to-be...

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  5. Ewww, icky! And yet very cool. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. You're welcome. We couldn't keep such a thing to ourselves, now could we?

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  6. That is one nasty sounding slug.

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    1. ...actually it's worse if you touch one of them. Really gross.

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  7. Replies
    1. Glad you like it. It definitely is one of the creepier creatures we've done so far...of course that does sort of set us a new challenge, to see if we can out-ick this one...

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  8. Very creepy and nasty monsters! I like that they breathe through their skin and have some serious vulnerabilities.

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    1. That is one of the things that make these things all the more inhuman; they don't breathe like us, not at all. Their sense of taste/smell/touch are all comingled into one sense, partly because they do not have olfactory receptors that can sample air being taken in through sinuses, etc. And you are right--they are highly susceptible to contact toxins and things like poison gas...so they tend to avoid coming into contact with such things...

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  9. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but...I'd kinda like to be a Nguema. Ah well, maybe next Halloween. Excellent monster.

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    1. Thanks for dropping by--it's not strange to want to live a life of luxury, ease and constant pampering by a horde of salves. It would be kind of a sacrifice to have to become one of these critters in order to realize such ambitions. Hmmm...there might be a sorcerer or the like out there who willingly transforms themself via spells or other means into a Nguema in order to live out their life-long ambition of being a powerful slave-master...there could be an adventure or three in that notion...

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  10. A suitably unpleasant beastie for Monstrous Monday.

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    1. Thanks Trey. We like these creatures. They make good villains, but better ambiguous neighbors of unknown intent. Very disturbing things with horrid personal habits, yet a unique source of specific forms of treasure and knowledge...one ownders just how many merchants beat a path to the Nguema's lairs hoping to sell slaves for 'pearls' and the like...

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  11. Replies
    1. Nope. Doesn't need them. Those palp-like protrusions in the front are highly sensitive to electromagnetism and related things. They tend to be more tactile in how they perceive the world around them, hence their warped (some would say disturbing) sense of sensuality...

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  12. Freaky! Equally freaky is using the slime to make other items. Yeuch!

    Thanks for stopping by to see my monster!

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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    1. Thanks for dropping by. I'm still looking for clues about that GOG monster you posted. Maybe I'll get some time to go internet-searching a bit later today.

      As for the Nguema using their slime to craft objects d'art...well, you work with what you have...

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  13. Ewww. I'm creeped out and intrigued.

    Thank you for commenting on my post.

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