VILLAGE OF EIRIE by Ray A. Reaux *Copywritten 1996 by author. Permission to use this work for private and non commercial use is granted. However, permission is not granted to redistribute this work without the author's explicit permission. AD&D is trademarked by TSR and retains all rights to it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The following adventure is designed for a party of four to six adventurers, each between 5th or 7th level. The party composition should make up at least one cleric and one mage, and someone who has reading proficiencies. The combined levels of the party should not be less than 35 nor more than 48. The adventurers should be equipped with no more than two magic items per person, excluding healing potions. These magic items should be comparable to a +2 sword or a +2 ring of protection. This module is the first in what I intended to be a series of three short adventures, beginning with the Village of Eirie, continuing with the Keep of Clouds, and ending with the Lair of the Green Mother. Dungeon Master's Background Eirie was once a peaceful village like many other boring peaceful villages. Established by settlers from the civilized city states, the small farming settlement that traded with the then friendly natives grew into a small village. A missionary priest built a small chapel in which he taught the true gods to the natives. Then one day, Goopsa the necromancer came to town. Disguised as a retired merchant, he bought the village's only inn and became a distinguished citizen of the village. However, his real purpose for coming to the village was to find a great power trapped in the well of Carkinaxital. Goopsa had found, in the great library of Thurdis, an ancient tome of the Elder Race that spoke of the tomb of the Whistler, a demon entity from the Chaos Pits that had been sealed within the well of Carknaxital. Consulting ancient maps, Goopsa found that the village of Eirei was built on the ruined site of Carkinaxital. The power hungry necromancer sought to find and bargain with the trapped entity. Not soon after Goopsa's arrival, evil fell on the village. Several unlucky villagers were horribly killed and mutilated, as if torn by powerful claws, and dark creatures roamed the village at night. The missionary turned his skills at combatting this evil, but being a small village cleric, his abilities were limited, so he wrote to the mother church in Aliago for someone more skilled at combatting the evil. The church responded by pledging a militant within a fortnight, and sent back a message courier to reassure the simple village cleric. However, a band of Goopsa's undead minions intercepted and slew the courier and delivered the message to Goopsa. Because he knew that a militant priest had answered the missionary's summons, Goopsa redoubled his search for the well of Carkinaxital. His efforts finally met with success the day the militant priest rode into town. He found the entrance to the tomb deep at the bottom of the water well in the center of the village. Within the tomb, he found the alien demon with which he tried to bargain. Nervous because of the arrival of the militant cleric, Goopsa got careless with the Whistler. He bungled the SpiritWrack spell badly, and inadvertently set it free. He barely escaped his confrontation with the demon and fled to his laboratory to gather his valuables before fleeing what he surely knew was a doomed village. Sensing evil stirring, the militant priest ventured into the well to confront the Whistler. He battled the creature and invoked a powerful spell of banishment, but the spell was only partially successful. The position of the village in the intersection of two powerful ley lines (invisible fields of magical force criss-crossing the world) amplified the conflagaration of opposing magics. The backwash of magical energies mutated into a powerful containment spell that neither priest nor Whistler could control. It created an extraplanar bubble around the village and its immediate locality, trapping everyone, Whistler, Goopsa, and the villagers. Weakened by the spell he cast, the militant priest fell to the Whistler. The extraplanar bubble cut the village adrift from the prime material plane, and the attached it to the dark realm of Ravenloft. However, once a month prime material time (a day of village time), the Village of Eirei drifts back into the prime material plane for one night. From the perspective of people in the village, only a day has passed, whereas to the outside world, a month has passed during that day. People can only enter the village at night, when it is attached to the prime material plane. They will walk through a chilly fog that is the physically manifestation of the extraplanar bubble that enshrouds the village. Visibility in the fog is half normal, even for people with infra-red vision. If they wish to leave the village, they must leave during the day when the village is attached to Ravenloft. The problem is that adventurers cannot leave the village at night while it is attached to the prime material plane until one of the two classic "good-versus-evil" forces is destroyed. The Whistler in the Well is the force of evil which was not killed in the battle with the militant priest. It now controls Goopsa, and with him all the undead village citizenry. The spirit of Kevin of Cambrilia is the force of good. It inhabits the chapel, the only stronghold of goodness in the village. At night, anyone attempting to walk out of the village will find himself or herself walking through the fog back into the village from the opposite side. If the adventurers want to leave the village during the day, they are free to do so. But then they will be climbing the mountains and enduring the dark mysteries of Ravenloft. Eirei is in effect a carriage that takes travelers on what may be a one-way trip to Ravenloft. The village has been cut off from the prime material plane for over 75 years, during which the natives, too often exploited, had turned hostile. The inroads into the jungle has since vanished as the natives and the jungle reclaimed the frontier settlements, pushing the borders of the civilized city states back from the jungle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Using This Module The game master should not try to use this module as a dungeon crawl. Things are happening in the village, and Goopsa is a thinking, albeit insane, and plotting antagonist who will be spyiing on, manipulating, and otherwise trying to destroy the adventurers. He sees them as a tool to get one of the wards he wants, but he recognizes that they are a threat he must destroy, and once he gets his prize, he will turn his creatures on them. What makes the scenario even more complicated is that unknown to Goopsa, he is subtely being controlled by the Whistler, and the Whistler demon fears the wards and wants them destroyed. The spells that Goopsa might have are purposely left to the game master so that he or she can tailor Goopsa as a challenge for the adventurers. One of the tasks the adventurers should accomplish is to retrieve at least three of the four Elder Signs of Raxataxyl. Three wards are needed to again entrap theWhistler, and thereby break the extraplanar bubble and lift the curse on the village. All four Elders Signs can banish the creature into the Abyss. Two of the wards are in the village. The Circle of Moon and Sun is with Kevin of Cambrilla as explained below. Goopsa has the Disc of Hope and Despair. The third ward, the Disc of Life, Death, and Rebirth had originally been used to maintain the Whistler's imprisonment, however, after Goopsa had broken the Whistler loose, he lost the ward while fleeing for his life. A villager who fled into Ravenloft found the ward and took it with him but fell prey to Altaira the Wampyre, a lord of a micro-realm of Ravenloft (Keep of Clouds), who now has the ward. This is a hook to another module, however, if the game master does not want to use the module, then he or she can chose to place the Disc of Life, Death, and Rebirth in the village, perhaps in a sarcophagus in the mausoleum, or in the mill. Long before Goopsa came, the mages of the Elder Race lost the fourth ward, the Disc of Time, to the Dark Orcs during the Orc Wars. It passed through numerous hands and is now held by Xacotal, the Green Mother, an ancient dragon, which is another hook to a module. The game master may choose to dispence with the fourth ward, using only the three to ward the Whistler, or if properly used, to banish it back into the Abyss. The main areas pertinent to the scenario, the chapel, the Elder's Inn and Goopsa's lab, the Elder Artifact, and the Well, are layed out for the game master. The actual village itself has 30 additional log houses, including a wind-powered mill. The houses are simple two or three room dwellings. Goopsa and his bonies will use these abandoned houses to their advantage as hiding places and ambush concealments. As previously mentioned, the village is built on the junction of two magical ley lines. An optional rule that shows the effect of a ley line junction on magic is to vary the effect of magic in the village. All spells cast by mages also have a 20% chance of going wild as a wild surge. Any magic also has a 25% chance of being amplified by 0-50%, that is the duration, the range, and the area of effects. This makes for some interesting and unpredictable effects. Goopsa is accustomed to these effect, and his spells are always cast at 25% amplification, with only 10% chance of a surge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Entering the Village When the adventurers first enter the village, it will of course be night. The darkness and clammy fog will be oppressive, and the first evidence that they have of being in the village will be when they see or stumble over some tomb stones in the cemetary at the edge of the village. At the same time, they will hear chittering sounds coming from several directions around them. However, if any one approaches or runs toward the sounds, the creatures that make them will retreat. Depending on how keen an adventurer's senses are, they will have a base 20% chance of seeing glimpses of shadowy movements in the fog (apply no perceptual bonuses for infra-vision since the creatures are temperature neutral). The chittering sound comes from Goopsa's bonies (see description that follows), and they will immediately alert Goopsa of any intruders into the village. At first, the bonies will only observe, but as the adventurers get within sight of the chapel which looms out of the fog in front of them, two or three of the bonies will attack. Goopsa is a cautious general and will not commit all of his bonies at once until he has a measure of the adventurer's strength. Besides, Goopsa wants the adventurers to go into the chapel. He needs them to retrieve something he wants very badly. And since neither he nor the bonies can venture into the chapel, he needs the adventurers to do it for him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Chapel The chapel is on the outskirts of the village and in the center of a small graveyard. It is dedicated to the Valars and consists of a large worship room with three smaller rooms in the back used as living quarters by the priest. A ladder is nailed into the wall near the large door to the worship room. It leads to a trap door in the bell tower. The bell tower is just large enough for three men to stand comfortably. The adventurers will see a single man lying near the altar. However, when the adventurers come up to the person, they will see that the man is long dead. These are the last remains of Kevin of Cambrilla. Lying on the floor before him is a longsword (+2), a small device, and a ruck sack. The device is a plumb bob hanging on a tripod suspended over a compass like ceramic plate. The plate has a groove around its edge with dry encrusted blood. If someone scrapes off the encrusted blood, he or she will see Elder runes. The compass is magical pointing device which Kevin had used to track down Goopsa, or more accurately, the elder sign which Goopsa carries. It is powered by pouring blood (human) onto the plate and concentrating on the target. The incredibly tough ceramic (stronger than steel) is also one of the Elder Wards, specifically the Disc of Moon and Sun, that was once used to imprison the Whistler in the Well. Kevin wrestled the ward from Goopsa during one of their earlier confrontations. In the rucksack are some dessicated foodstuff and a leather bound book. The leather book is a diary written by Kevin of Cambrilia in the 265th Year of the Awakening, i.e., 75 years ago. If an adventurer takes the time to read the book, it will detail how Goopsa had killed Kevin's beloved and his family, and how Kevin had chased Goopsa the Necromancer for 30 years, until finally his pursuit brought him to the village of Eirei. If the book is opened, a faded parchment will fall out. The parchment has a crude drawings of the four elder signs with their ancient runes. Also on the open page of the book, Kevin has written: "I do not know what deviltry Goopsa is up to, but surely it is no good. I have tracked him to the Grand Library of Aliago, but once again, I am a few steps behind him. The old librarian told me that Goopsa stoled a book of the Elder Race, but that it has no power of its own. But experience has shown me what Goopsa does, he does to feed his lust for power. I fear what is in that book because, from what the librarian remembers, the book speaks of the Dark Orc Wars and the horrible weapons the Elder Races brought forth from unknown places to wage their terrible war. Though I am ashamed that I deceived the guileless librarian, I managed to steal the drawing he showed me of the Elder Signs. When this is over, I shall return to the Grand Library and return what I borrowed. I swear this to the Goddess." The passage is dated a month before the third to the last entry in the diary. The entry reads: "Finally, I feel that I am at my journey's end, and my sweet Alwen's memory and those of my tragic family can be put to rest. I have chased the foul necromancer for 30 long years, but now I have chased him to ground in this rude village of Eirei. He has hidden himself well,but the foul stench of his presence assails my nostrils. Before the sun sets, I shall have him under my blade, and my Alwen will be at peace at last." The second to the last entry in the diary drift across the page as if Kevin had collapsed from exhaustion: "What horrors I have seen this night. Although I knew that Goopsa was evil, I did not think that even he would traffic with the horror from the Pit. He has sacrificed the village people, his own brother, and even the children. Even the children. Although I can hear them crying in the yard outside the chapel door, may the gods forgive me, because I dare not let them in. I can hear the whistling, the whistling...". The last entry in the diary is written in another handwriting, and is signed with a stylistic florish with the name Sir Themopol Davias of Antraki Falls. "This is a strange village that I have come to, and although I know not why, the passage of the moon is swift here. Two nights ago, my good men Sunnik and Gemal and I stumbled into this cursed village, and the nights and intervening day has been one of horror and fright. I have lost my companions to some cursed creatures of the night. I do not know what creatures are out there, but I can hear them, skulking. I welcomed the coming of day, but my joy at seeing the feeble sunlight was destroyed when I stepped out the door. Where I had passed trees coming into the village the night before, I saw wild jagged mountains and meadows I had not seen before. And as I wandered the village, I felt eyes watching, until I could stand it no more, and I retreated back into the chapel. Night has come, and with it, through the windows of the chapel, even through the acursed fog, I can see that the trees have returned. I will venture out, taking nothing from this accursed village, not even this book which I found besides this poor soul, another victim of this foul village. Perhaps thus, this village will let me go." If anyone says a prayer over Kevin's body, the person will experience a sudden feeling of good will. The person will be under a Bless spell which will begin as soon as he or she falls into a dangerous situation. Once triggered, the Bless lasts for 10 rounds. One of the three rooms at the back of the chapel is outfitted as a kitchen. It has a secret trap door hidden in a false charcoal stove which opens into a crawl tunnel under the chapel. The missionaries built the secret tunnel as an escape route just in case unfriendly natives raided the village. The crawl tunnel leads to a mausoleum 130 feet away from the chapel. The mausoleum is closed off with a huge boulder and is chained from the outside. However, at the back of the mausoleum, a crude tunnel has been dug out. It connects to a zig-zag of tunnels dug by the bonies. These tunnels are where the bonies sleep during the day. Note that the bonies can be active during the day, although they prefer to "sleep" like rats in the tunnels. The zig-zag of tunnels eventually break out of a hill near the Elder's Inn. The tunnel exit is hard to find from the outside since it is hidden behind bushes and an outhouse. The second room is the missionary priest's bedroom. It is asturely furnished with a cot, a small table, a meditation kneeling bench, and a wash bowl. Hanging from pegs in the wall are several garments. The third room is also furnished like a bedroom. However, it has no personal gear other than a saddle on a rack, two saddle bags, and a mud splattered woolen cloak hanging from a wall peg. The saddle bags belonged to Deacon McCormic, the militant priest that was sent by the holy mother church in Aliago to battle Goopsa's evil. They contain spare clothing and trail gear such as fire starter and small pan. Also in one of the bags are two ceramic bottles which hold Healing Potions. While the adventurers are in the chapel, they will hear creatures roaming outside. Goopsa or the bonies cannot enter the chapel uninvited. They can enter, however, if anyone in the chapel invites them. Knowing this, Goopsa will frequently have a bonie knock on the chapel door, hoping someone inside will slip up and be foolish enough to invite it in, in which case all the bonies, followed by Goopsa at a safe distance, will rush in. If no one inside invites them, but someone comes to open the door, the bonie will have retreated back into the fog, leaving the adventurer to wonder if the noise was a trick of the wind or of his imagination. If the adventurers leave the chapel during the night, bonies will attack in an effort to get the elder sign. Goopsa is somewhat of a hesitant general and will gauge the strength of his opponents first by sending against them two bonies for each person in the party. However, if he sees that his bonies are not getting what he wants, and after he has estimated the strengths and weaknesses of the adventurers, he will adjust his plans accordingly and will send his remaining creatures. He has lots of bonies (80 to start with). If the adventurers flee to the chapel, the bonies will encircle the chapel and wait in the fog just outside visual range until the adventurers come out or until dawn comes. With the coming of dawn, the bonies will disappear back into their underground tunnels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elder's Inn and Goopsa's Lab When Goopsa came to Eirei, he bought the village's only tavern and renamed it the Elder's Inn. The Elder's Inn has a common room with six long tables, the village's largest kitchen, and three guest rooms. It also has a two room suite for the tavern keeper and an attached storeroom. The guest rooms each have a single fireplace. It looks like someone or something has tunneled through the chimney into the rooms. Broken furniture are strewn everywhere in all of the rooms. The suite that makes up the tavern keeper's bedroom is fairly large, with a large central fireplace in the wall that separates the two rooms. Anyone who examines the fireplace or wall will notice discrepancies in workmanship. Goopsa built a secret passage from the tavern keeper's bedroom to an underground laboratory. A clock sits on the mantle over the fireplace. Anyone examining the mantle or clock closely will notice broken cobwebs on the face. The clock has stopped at the 3 o'clock position. Moving the face of the clock on the mantle counter-clockwise back to the 12 o'clock position will open a secret door on the right side of the fire place. Behind the door is a ladder leading down into a short corridor at the end of which is a locked door. The door has a simple poison blade trap (1-6 pts. damage, strikes as 3rd level fighter, save versus poison at +2, the poison does 3d6 points of damage). Within the laboratory is a huge tub, several acid batteries, three fluid-filled jars with rat brain floating in them, a large barrel of vinegar, several other odd tools and implements, and a bookshelf with books on anatomy, herbalogy, etc. Buried in the hard packed loam that makes up the room's floor is a guardian flesh golem. The 7 feet tall flesh golem will burst out of the ground to attack any people other than Goopsa who enters the room. The golem senses other people's presence by vibrations on the floor. The golem has a 60% chance of surprising its opponents, in which case, it will get a free attack and automatically win initiative on its second attack. Carved into the wall above the book shelves is a 2 feet by 3 feet niche. The niche is not visible to anyone who stands less than 7 feet tall. Inside the niche is a locked flat strong box which contains two items of the Elder Race. One is an intricately made two-feet diameter spinning wheel made of ivory and polished glass. The wheel has a folding tripod base. When spun, the device generates colored lights in direct opposition to the colored lights generated by the Whistler. It can actually counter the Whistler's maddening light power. It can also fascinate other light, electricity, or fire-based creatures such as will-o-wisps and fire elemnetals. However, this fascination does not effect the Whistler. It has no effect on other creatures. The other item is a book written in the Elder Race's arcane tongue. In the book, which Goopsa stoled from the library of Aliago, is an entry that has been pain-stakingly translated. The translation reads: "And it came to pass that the Wise Ones bound the light beast with strings of silver and three of the four Wards of Raxataxyl which are the Disc of the Three-Fold Paths of Life, Death, and Rebirth; the Disc of Sorrow and Joy; and the Disk of Time. They drove the whistling beast into the womb of the earth, behind the pool of the sky's sorrow and put the stone fist of god to guard so that none may break the beast's chains." "But the four mages of the Elder Race did not forget their crime, for in summoning the beast, they had jeopardized the world. The beast was of wild magic, which has no place under the Arch of Time. They swore an oath to ward the beast's tomb, and so oath-swore their children and their children's children until the end of days. And Djikstra, the youngest among them, took his leave from his kinsemen to pursue the trail of the Disc of Hope and Despair, the fourth ward with which the mages could undo their peril." Another translated paragraph outlines the ritual that needs to be performed to entomb the Whistler. Of course to do so requires the use of three of the wards, and the use of the Elder Color Wheel to protect against the Whistler while doing so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Elder Artifact A single building remains of the Elder Race's settlement of Carkinaxital. The building is easily recognizable from the fairly simple peasant homes of the villagers. It is star-shaped and constructed of blue stone blocks that absorb sunlight during the day. It rests on five stone columns . The bottom of the upraised building is 10 feet above the ground, and the villagers had built a wooden stair that lead up to the belly of the building. The Blue House, as the villagers have named it, has been used as the mayors hall for over 50 years. The door in the building's belly opens like a hatch into the center of a pentagon-shaped room which has an axis of 40 feet. Amazingly enough, the inside of the building is at a comfortable 70 F, even though the night air outside is chilly. Inside the room is a large oaken desk and three plush arm chairs. Centered in each of the five walls is a door, and behind each door is a triangular room that is 30 feet long and 25 feet wide at its base. The villagers used Room 1 of the Blue House as the library of genealogy and legal documents. This room has crude wooden shelves that hold parchment and books recording birthrights and deeds. The documents are scattered across the floor as if they had been carelessly searched. Dust chokes the room, indicating that it has been some time since someone has last been here. Room 2 was used by the mayor as a bedroom. The last mayor obviously loved comfort since the room is furnished with a plush bed and a wardrobe. In the base of the wardrobe is a secret compartment which is opened by turning clock-wise one of the coat hooks in the back of the wardrobe. The compartment holds a sack of 250 gp, a large ruby and gold necklace (1850 gp), a pearl bracelet (350 gp, and a gold and pearl amulet (950 gp). Also inside the compartment are three jars of Kheotum's ointments. Room 3 was a child's room. It holds a bunk bed, a chest full of children's clothing, and a second chest full of wooden toys. Room 4 was used as an official guest room. Like the mayor's room, this room is furnished with a plush bed and a wardrobe. Room 5 was originally locked, but the door has been smashed in. Inside are 240 bags of rice in 50 pound sacks, and a smashed chest. Inside the chest are some tarnished silver coins and a silver mug. The room was originally used by the villagers as a "bank", and the bags of rice are part of the villagers' taxes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Village Well The well in the middle of the village square is a fairly large well with a seven feet diameter shaft. A wooden oak door once covered the well, but it looks like it has been ripped off its hinges by an immense force. A frame and a pulley are suspended over the well. The well has a 40 feet drop into a water filled cistern. The cistern is actually 25 feet in diameter, and the water is waist high. Carved into the wall, five feet above the water level, is a four feet diameter tunnel. Twenty feet back, the tunnel leads into another chamber, this one 30 feet in diameter. A large broken statue (once a stone golem) partially blocks the entrance into the chamber, but the rubble can be easily crawled over. A burnt out torch lies on the floor, and a triangle of molten silver poured into grooves is inscribed in the floor. At the apexs of the triangle are small triangle, diamond, and circle shaped impressions. These are the sockets for the Elder Signs. Three wards or the Elder Signs are needed to reseal theWhistler, and thereby break the containment spell and the curse on the village. The first ward, the Disc of Moon and Sun, is in Kevin's pack in the chapel. Goopsa has the second ward, the Disc of Hope and Despair. The third ward, the Disc of Life, Death, and Rebirth, is held by Altaira the Wampyre, a lord of a micro-realm of Ravenloft (Keep of Clouds). Although three wards will bind the creature, possession of all four wards, including the Disc of Time is needed to banish theWhistler from the prime material plane. The fourth ward has passed through numerous hands and is now possed by Xacotal, the Green Mother, a hook for a third module. At the farthest distance from the entrance, a multicolored swirled material paves the floor. The multicolored swirl is actually the Whistler in the Well in a semi-dormant phase. It will come awake if stepped on, if magic is used in the chamber, or if someone makes a loud noise. It will attack anyone who disturbs its alien rest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goopsa 9 hit die undead, 14th level necromancer hit points: 49 a.c. 4 attacks: claw for 1-4 damage and paralysis special defense: vulnerable only to silver, magic, or blessed weapons Goopsa, once a necromancer who sought to bargain for power with the Whistler in the well, is now a lich-like undead creature. He still has his spell abilities plus someof the characteristcis of a lich. He possesses a Dagger of venom, an Amulet of far reaching (which extends the range of 1st and 2nd level spells by 50%), a Rod of pain, and a +3 Ring of protection. He also carries with him the Disc of Hope and Despair, one of the four Elder Signs of Raxataxy. Goopsa knows that one of the Elder Signs is still in the chapel, but he cannot venture in to retrieve it. If he gets the upper hand in combat, he may try to bully the adventurers to retrieve it for him. However, when he does so, he will keep at least half of the party as hostages. Goopsa wants to escape from the village, and if the adventurers try very carefully, they may be able to bargain with the necromancer to assist each other in trying to escape. However, Goopsa's sanity has been steadily eroded by the centuries during which he spent imprisoned in Eirie, in close proximity to the Whistler. His insanity is very dangerous since it makes him very unpredictable and obsessively cunning. Unknown to Goopsa, he is also being subtely manipulated by the Whistler, who wants Goopsa to venture from the village to retrieve the other lost wards. It has planted in Goopsa's mind an obsessive desire for the wards, and the ambition to return and try to bind the Whistler, thus giving the demon a way to give him free rein and still have him return. Goopsa looks very much like a sickly-grey haggard human. Parts of his skin have begun to decay, giving him the look and smell of a leper in advancing stages of disease. He still retains some of his vanity and wears concealing, loose-fitting clothing. He wears a dark cowled cape and speaks with a dry rasping affected voice. As an undead, Goopsa is immune to sleep, hold person, and Charm spells, as well as poison and gas attacks. He is also vulnerable only to silver, blessed, or magical weapons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Bonies 2 hit die undead move: 9" a.c. 8 special defense: silver, magic, or blessed attacks: claw for 1-6 points Bonies are animated pale-white corpses that stink with the smell of formaldehyde. They get their name from their emaciated bony body which looks like skin is stretched tight over their skeleton. Goopsa the Necromancer created the bonies. He found humans much too difficult to work with since he could not surpress their will, even when they were dead. Therefore, he created these atrocities by transfering the brains of ensorcered rats into corpses. Although they have no true intelligence of their own, they have an unnatural ferociousness and rat-like cunning. They are insensitive to pain, but their rat-like brain still harbors a fear of fire. There are over 80 bonies in the village, all of them lusting after the spirits of the living. Like most undeads, Bonies are immune to sleep, hold person, and charm spells. Bonies attack in packs and are tenacious creatures. They have a simple tactic: overwhelm, pull-down, and gnaw. When attacking, they will make a chittering sound and will gnash their teeth. Although prepared defenders with weapons usually get initiative since they have longer weapons, once a bony gets past the defender's guard, i.e., has struck the defender, the bony will have the advantage and will get initiative until the defender again hits the creature. A defender will only be able to guard (gain initiative with weapon) against three creatures in front. Once one bony has gotten past a defender's weapon, all the attacking bonies will have the advantage. They will drag the person down so that they can gnaw away at the person's vulnerable parts. Given the chance, a bony will gnaw a limb off. When a person is dragged down, he will fight at a penalty of -3 on his attack rolls. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pig Eyes 6 hit die undead move: see below a.c. 8 attacks: claw with variable damage special defense: silver, magic, or blessed weapons required to do damage Pig-eyes are undead cretures Goopsa created from a patch-work of body parts, mostly inhman. Goopsa transplanted pig brains into the creatures he sewed together from animal body parts and the occaisional wandering creature that blundered into the village. Pig-eyes have no true intelligence of their own and are insensitive to pain. All are distinguishable by their sunken pig-like eyes. Goopsa has 6 pig-eyes. Three are centaur-like in that he has grafted the upper torsos of ogres and a black onto horse bodies. He has also created two minotaur-like creatures by grafting the torso of oxen to the lower bodies of ogres. Like most undeads, pig-eyes are immune to Sleep, Hold Person, and Charm spells. The pig-eyes have a simple method of fighting. They will bash, smash, and crush everything that Goopsa commands them to destroy. Their long reach generally puts them on equal terms with armed opponents for initiative. The characteristics unique to each type of pig-eye are listed below. Pig-Eye Attacks Damage Special Attacks 2 centaur-ogres hoof/hoof/fist d3/d3/2d6 none centaur-bear hoof/hoof/claw/claw/bite d3/d3/d3/d3/d6 crushing hug (2d4) 2 minotaurs fst/fist d6/d6 gore for 2d4 lion-ogre claw/claw/fist d4/d4/2d6 rake (d4/d4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Whistler in the Well 10 hit die move 3" hit points: 60 a.c. 6 special attacks: insanity special defense: not damaged by blunt weapons or weapons of less than +2, magic immunity Long ago, the most powerful mages of the Elder Race summoned the Whistler, a creature of wild magic from the Chaos Pits, and used the entity against their enemies, the Dark Orcs. They used the four elder wards of power called the Signs of Raxataxy to summon and control the creature. However, during the Mage Wars, one of the wards was captured by the Dark Orcs. Without the fourth ward, the Elder Race could not banish the creature back to whence it had come. Instead, the elder race used the three remaining wards to seal the Whistler within a prison and set a stone golem to guard the secret chamber. Although three wards were needed to entrap the creature, only one was needed to maintain the containment. Two of the wards, the Disc of Moon and Sun, and the Disc of Hope and Despair were taken by the mages, and in time, they passed into other hands and eventually into Goopsa's. The Whistler was entombed for millenia until Goopsa defeated the golem and removed the three wards, thus freeing the Whistler. The Whistler is a multicolored monstrosity that looks like a giant five feet amoeba. It's kaleidoscopic lights give it an unearthly and mesmerizing beauty. It has thousands of small mouths growing all over its body, and these mouths are the source of the whistling. The whistling and the pulsating lights that emanate from the creature can drive a man insane, i.e., as if under the confusion spell. Any person who is within 20' of this creature (hearing and sight range) has to make a saving throw versus spell or suffer insanity. If the person only sees or only hears the creature, he makes the saving throw against spell at a +3 advantage. Although intelligent, the Whistler has a totally alien intellect which makes its actions almost impossible to predict. Without the wards, it is impossible to communicate with the creature. With a ward, a telepathi communication can be established between the holder of the ward and the Whistler, however the person trying to establish the communication must save versus spell at a 5 point penalty or go permanently insane. The Whistler is a demonic elemental of chaos and pure wild magic. Since it is wild magic incarnate, the ordinary laws of magic does not apply to the creature. Its very nature is to disrupt the laws of magic. In fact, given time, it could disrupt the very fabric of existence and destroy the Arch of Now. Base magic (that of mages) cannot hurt the Whistler, although high magic (given by the gods) can. Any base magic directed against the creature or cast within 50 feet of it is reflected back against its caster as wild magic (see Tome of Magic's Wild Surge Table, but all effects are targeted on the caster and do not adversely effect the Whistler). The Whistler is only vulnerable to enchanted weapons of +2 or better; however magic weapons that strike the creature has to save versus disintegration or be destroyed in a Wild Surge as its magical energy is released. Although the Whistler can be hurt and its energy form can be temporarily dissipated, it cannot be permanently destroyed. If reduced to 0 hit points, the Whistler will go to the nearest magic source (spell or magical devices) and absorb its magical energy, using it to rebuilts its energy form. For each spell level cast within 30 yards of it, the Whistler gains a d8 worth of hit points. For each plus of a weapon or magical armor, it gains a d8 worth of hit ppoints. The effects of other magic items can be estimated by comparing equivalent worth). The Whistler can also generate a Wildzone once a day, and two Wildstrikes a day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1997 by Rayzer