Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Sapphire Mountains Encounters

The blue in the sky is not the true sky you see at night. The blue is the sapphire mountains; blue mountains above the world. The dirt is bright blue, with stones of deeper dark blue. The stones are not sapphires, but their dark color makes them more valuable then marble for the rich and for temples; each cart full is worth a thousand coins.

[1] The cloud above you gets curious about your little group traveling through the mountains. It slowly floats lower, which covers the entire ridge and makes it hard for you to see, meaning all wandering monsters have a 5 in 6 chance to surprise you. 
If you attack the cloud with a magic weapon, a spell, or insult it in a way it can understand it will become black, stormy, and aggressive, with stats as (1).

The Cloud loses interest in 2d6 days.

[2] Red Faced Nobles. They appear as typical young, slightly pudgy nobles with facial features common throughout the world attributed to nobility. However, their faces look dark red as though caked in clay mud. They wear expensive outfits with white stripes flawlessly stitched along the side; as they are nobles from the outer realm. They are all young men, and if an attractive female party members offers to marry one (or all) of them; treat reaction check as good result.

Red Faced Nobles (2 HD, +4 to-hit and AC, 1d6+2 magic shortswords, +2 bonus AC vs swords, +4 to all saving throws, lesser spells, whisper spells)
Morale: 17
Number: 1d6+2

On a reaction roll;
Good Result- The Red Faced Nobles feel curious about where the party is from and sponsoring their little expedition; each offers a platinum trinket worth 2,000 coins in return for draining a single level from the character's head worth of experience from their world and culture. They are disappointed if you refuse the offer.

Neutral Result- Red Faced Nobles lord status over common “adventurers”, profiteers in their mountainous other realm. They will hurl insults, demand you relinquish a few weapons, or cast lesser curses on you to giggle at your misfortune. Don't attack unless you resist.

Bad Result- Red Faced Nobles pretend to be supportive, but while one speaks two begin to whisper spell incantations. All but one gets to cast a spell as a surprise round from their whisper casting ability.

The otherworldly Nobles have lesser spells, each one knows a single first level spell and can cast it once, either as a surprise round from whisper casting or in normal combat in place of an attack.

The Noble boys use magic swords and have metal slits underneath their clothes; the metal is magic and counts as +2 for weapons and +4 for armors but degrades the lower in elevation it gets. In the highest mountains in the setting they will only act as +1 or +2, and if brought to sea level will corrode into slag dust.

[3] Frothy white masses move across the landscape like animals in a migration, but are simply a kind of unliving strange phenomena. The frothy liquid smells and looks like spit and is heavily acidic, breaking down anything in its path. If you roll this encounter while the characters are asleep or camping, then make a save or one of the tents and all its occupants get swept up in the mass. Save each round to escape, else take 2d8 acidic damage and burn away leather and wood equipment and objects. These are not living things at all, and are simply a naturally moving mass that exists here, driven by invisible ethereal winds.

[4] Reverse avalanche. In areas where there is great noise such as from a river or arguing (2), too much silence could cause a sudden reverse avalanche. The avalanche sweeps everything up the mountain to its peak, in which case it will flow right into the sky and never come back down, like a cold, slow motion volcanic eruption.

You can avoid the avalanche by making enough noise. Characters in the area get a sense that too much silence will cause the event, and will need to make a lot of noise either through shouting, spells, banging pots and pans together, etc. These will trigger a wandering encounter check.

[5] You find a Smallstone on the ground. The Smallstone is a smooth, black, tablet shaped piece of stone with magical properties that is nearly impossible to snap or reshape. Only a character of demigod levels of strength, incredible magic, or an intricate and expensive machine could break the stone. The moment it is broken, the magic user could cast a single spell of any level without its normal physical component, as the stone substitutes for it.

Once the stone is broken, or if it is broken and a spell is not cast immediately after, it dissolves into black dust and floats back into the heavens to be reformed once again, the magical spent energies of the world coalescing into this shape.

[6] This peak has a five hour year, with each season taking one hour. All the life here grows, wilts, sleeps, and dies within the span of five hours, as though living through a year. They do not move or act any faster then normal animals and creatures, but simply go as though the year ends every five hours. Some animals may live for a real time day or two, growing old by those years.

The effect is constant and never ends. When first encountered, roll what season the peak is beginning on and every hour it changes. The seasons here are abnormal and don't really apply to regular seasons. Races or spells that have specific advantages or abilities for certain times of the year get roughly 50% of the bonus or penalty if the season of the peak is close enough to the season of the peak.

  1. Season of the Floods- Water comes down in great rivers from the peak, sweeping away the dead. Water is easily followed to [7]
  2. Season of the Gatherers- All animals here gather seeds, plants, fruits, and corpses from their hunts. Plants gather piles of dirt nearby them slow grasping roots.
  3. Season of Growth- Animals and plants rapidly grow, and babies become adults. They eat from their stockpiles, predator and prey sitting back to back ignoring each other for this short time of year.
  4. Season of the Witch- Spells have double duration, effect, or enhanced qualities. All animals and plants glow with ambient mana from their transformations, and begin to fight with each other with magically enhanced and charged bodies.
  5. Season of Stillness- Almost all creatures and plants lie dead now, murdered from the magical war. It is very quiet until the floods come, to begin the cycle again.

[7] Village of moldy shrews. They look like shrew people, stained green with mold in their fur, with long necks and fingers to pick through garbage. They live directly underneath [6] and harvest what floods downwards to live; but do a poor job of it. Everything from above degrades within mere minutes, sometimes so fast you can watch it go away, so the shrews spend almost all their time eating the debris and getting soaked by the flood, hence the growth of mold on their bodies, with almost no time to groom themselves.

They speak common and can only throw the blue rocks as weapons, at 1d3, treat morale as 8 if you fight them. If you try to trade with one or get information out of them, roll a reaction check.

Good Result- The chief of the tribe will request the party members grant them any useful item that will stand the test of time (as in, won't degrade to nothingness overnight like everything else they have). Weapons, clothes, a tool, etc. If you grant him this, it will be considered a powerful relic among their people and he will offer you his daughter's hand in marriage; the most beautiful and least moldy shrew girl in the village. She has flower seeds tied in her fur, so they constantly bud, bloom, and fall away as you look at her.

Neutral Result- Party members are ignored, caloric intake too pressing, even a moment of hesitation could lead to starvation.

Bad Result- The shrews assume, like almost everything else they've known, that the party members are escaped animals from the upper peak. As such, they'll lock them in cages made of rapidly decomposing materials in the hope that the party will become old and die of natural causes. The cage falls apart once the shrews have gone to sleep, letting you easily escape. If you choose to be “captured” you'll only be locked up for 2d6 hours. Easy roll to pick the lock.

[8] Massive stone faced chiseled into the side of this mountain incline. Steep angle, required to climb further up. The face is shaped like an oval lengthwise, with a cracked mustache and close lidded heavy eyes. Stepping on the face at any point makes the character bleed, usually from feet, or from the feet of their mount they are riding. Deals 1d4 damage if you cross the face.
Only floating methods of travel avoid this damage.

The face will “suck” up blood spilled upon it into its mouth, either from battle or walking across it, and will be awoken if it is damaged. The face has a name and personality; it is named Barnaboros. Since waking it up means damaging it, it is already hostile and attacks once awake.

Barnaboros (6+4 HD, cannot dodge, made of stone, boiling blood spew deals 2d8 damage- save for half, casts greater spells)
Morale- N/A

The great stone face vomits out pools of boiling blood from within its mountain; collected from all creatures who dared trod upon its face. The stone face speaks cruel and harshly upon all who step upon it, and demands their deaths in its name. There is a 1 in 4 chance that this attracts (3) to the party during the fight with Barnaboros. Within this mountain is a huge reservoir of hot blood, with room for much more, pooled for the end times.

The stone face is so large that it requires no to-hit roll, since it is literally the mountain you are climbing on, but can only be hurt by magic weapons of +2 or better, or something that can actually damage its stone; like a spell, siege weapon, or sledgehammer.

Barnaboros knows and casts several greater spells, of 3rd level and above, which quake the mountains around him when he incants. One such spell is Enlarge Visage which lets him spread his face across the entire mountain, dealing 1d4 bleeding damage to all who are forced to stand on it for that round. Magic users could copy and learn this spell, allowing them to project their face on surfaces or across the rest of their body.

[9] You reach the top of a mountain, and find a breathtaking vista. Restore all retainer loyalty to normal levels, and every character injured restores 1d6 Hit points from the beauty and peace of this location, but only the first time it is visited. This peak is quite high up and can see [6], [8], and [14] from its position.

[10] Between two of the blue mountains, you find a secret red chasm. It goes deeper down then you'd think possible in the sapphire mountains; and the stone here of any kind is worth double the blue stone from the other mountains.

Within the chasm are several obvious skeletal remains and their possessions; bags of gold coins, a few weapons and armor shards, and a well painted shield that glows in the dark and grants +1 AC vs orcs and creatures of the caverns. Each of these items is separated and must be precariously lifted up or explored through slow rappelling down into the chasm on ropes or spells.

If you spend more then three turns in the chasm, then you attract the attention of the Ruby Whippers, monsters native to this place and makers of those skeletons.

Ruby Whippers (1 HD, +3 to hit, 1d6+1 red whips, fraying damage, camouflage)
Morale- 11
Number- 1d10

The Ruby Whippers appear as odd imp-like creatures with red skin and horns that appear exactly as the red chasm where they live. This camouflage means they are very likely to get a surprise attack round against the party, and if they stand still for a round they can blend in and easily escape. These creatures use magic red whips that always deal 1 damage, even on a miss, as the red energy from the whip's crack penetrates armor.

Every wandering monster encounter roll in the red chasm after the ruby whippers have been encountered is treated as a chance to encounter more of the whippers again.

[11] Silver Stream. It's water with a silvery color, flowing down the mountain in a clean stream. Tastes very fresh and clean, and can be used to refill your flasks, water your animals, to bathe and clean wounds, etc.

Over the course of 1d4 days, any of this water stored for later slowly turns into puffy gray cloud mist. These streams in the sapphire mountains flow out into the sky of the normal world, becoming rain clouds. Any of the stream-water you've stored do the same, becoming miniature rainclouds that either release much more water then what you gathered when let out from their container, or floating away and bringing the rains to that land in a few days. Rain clouds gathered this way will only have a minimal impact on drought stricken lands.

[12] High in the mountains; an elf village. They live in small squat white trees, twisted into boxy houses from their elf songs and elf magic. Roll a reaction check on your approach.

Good Result- The elves don't get many villagers and invite you within. They say they will brew you special tea by singing to the plants, but it will take a day of rest to accomplish it. If you wait, they'll brew the tea and everyone in the party who drinks it will restore 2d6 hit points and the same amount to any damaged ability scores they have.

Neutral Result- The village is open to you, but you are asked to keep your weapons sheathed, and your magic users take a vow of silence. Shops that sell elf goods have normal expensive prices, slightly inflated even moreso for visitors. Elves mostly sell rations, lamp oil, rope, and other useful items with slightly enhanced or magic properties.

Bad Result- The elves close their doors to you and tell you to leave, as you are attracting the various predators and dangers of the mountains with your conspicuous noise and travel companions. If you refuse to leave they'll pelt you with spells and arrows, or call a group of (6) to attack you; the archers have guarded the village for centuries.

[13] The Emerald Sapling. Tiny green tree, appears to be made of some kind of crystal. Once every century, the elves from [12] visit the tree and drip a single drop of purest water on its soul. The Tree is grown in the blue soil of the mountains, the rocks around it forming a small circle.

If dug up, the tree would die, but could be sold as a single piece worth 20,000 coins, or if broken into pieces that could be sold as 3d6 individual gemstones worth 1,000 coins each. The person carrying the tree will cause it to shatter into pieces if they drop it, are attacked in melee by a blunt weapon, or fall off a cliff.

[14] The corpse of a massive sky whale, tethered to a nearby mountain peak. The sky whale has spiraling marks of bright yellow on its nose and face. The whale is tied by a collar around its neck, implying it was someone's pet. There is no writing on the collar, and its faded from age.

The whale itself is crawling with parasites and decomposers trying to eat its flesh; a large hole in the side of its flank opens to the inside of the whale. The whale's corpse is a small dungeon, filled with giant maggots and lice as monsters. The whale has a magic crystal worth a ton of money growing on its heart; its as big as your head.

[15] Huge black iguana sunning itself on the blue stones. It's as long as two horses put nose to tail and has a fat face and lazy eyes. Roll a reaction check, and add +1 if your group is especially large or noisy on approach.

Good Result- The iguana runs off, believing the party is more then a match for it.

Neutral Result- The iguana hisses and flicks its tail in irritation, it doesn't want to be disturbed. It will only attack if attacked or anyone gets close enough to touch it.

Bad Result- The iguana turns and starts attacking immediately, sensing easy prey. +1 Morale.

Regardless of what happens; the iguana was revealed to have been laying on a nice warm pile of copper sand. It's a very fine sandy material made of pure copper, worth its weight in pure copper coinage, and easy to carry and store. The pile is enough to smelt 5,000 copper coins.

Great Black Iguana (4 HD, +8 AC, 1d8 bite, 1d4 tail whip, terrifying hiss, spell absorption)
Morale- 12 or 13

The Great Black Iguana is a simple creature with tough hide, strong jaws, and an innate resistance to magic. Anyone killed by its bite attack has part or all of their body greedily swallowed, and anyone killed by the tail whip is jutted off a cliff instead.

The Iguana's hiss is so loud and penetrates into your bones that it causes morale checks among retainers and hirelings. The creature's reptile hunger and driven nature make it quite scary.

The Iguana is also resistant to spells; treat it as an 8 HD creature for the purposes of monster HD for spells and spell saving throws, and it takes half damage from all magic spells.

[16] Rings of Ice. Suspended by tiny, almost invisible pillars of frozen ice high in the air, these rings are clear. Mountain birds fly through the rings to attract mates. A single attack or shove could cause any ring to fall down and shatter.

If Wandering Monster number (8) is encountered here, the blue wind travels through the rings of ice and makes it even more bitingly cold. Characters also take -1d6 Con damage without taking cover.

[17] You find the old shepard woman's hut. The hut lies on a lonely peak with short shaggy grasses criss crossing the blue mountain, and a few neglected long haired white alpacas roam around eating their fill. The hut is abandoned and the shepard woman can be found somewhere down the slope, mummified from the cold with bright blue knuckles and knees. The alpaca could serve as mounts or a source of food in this desolate place.

Within the hut is a small bag of silver coins hidden inside a large urn; a life's savings for her. Plus, a single large pajama like suit made of alpaca fur. The suit has a 1 in 6 chance to fit anyone who tries it on; even beast races or ogre people or very small creatures as well; and once the person who it fits is found it will always only fit them. The suit is white with yellow stripes and little purple balls in place of buttons; forced through loops to connect the outfit loosely together.

The suit counts as magic leather armor, reduces all damage taken from cold elemental spells or attacks by -2, and a total resistance to (8)'s effects. The suit is also self cleaning and self repairing.

[18] Doing a full split between two almost touching mountains is a Disciple of Many Ways; a master of martial arts. For his arrogance and thirst for combat; his master cursed him with an animal tail. Roll on the table to determine the tail.
  1. Lobster
  2. Pig
  3. Lynx
  4. Lion
  5. Horse
  6. Dog

He is deep in meditation, which means he will not notice you unless you speak to him. Roll reaction.

Good Result- The Disciple ignores you, but if anyone in the party is close to reaching their physical prime in a physical stat (17 in Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) he will give them some pointers and a dieting plan to reach the peak (18) in that stat over the course of two seasons. Treat as +1 to a stat, but only if the character follows the advice and pays an expensive budget for special food and training.

Neutral Result- The Disciple looks over the party and will ask the most imposing warrior to a duel. The conditions of the duel are simple; to the brink of death, and no armor. If accepted, the Disciple will stop his final strike right before the lethal damage is rolled, but has a 1 in 4 chance to kill the character instead on accident from his overzealous nature. If refused, the Disciple simply mocks your weakness and lets you pass.

Bad Result- The Disciple believes you are phantasms conjured by his master that he must defeat, which has happened to him before, and attacks. He rolls morale the first time he kills someone, not sure if its real or an illusion. He keeps failing his training because he's not supposed to fight the phantasms at all, and work things out peacefully.

Disciple of Many Ways (4 HD, +3 to hit, +3 AC, 1d4 Bo Staff, 1d6+1 magic unarmed punch, combat tail, +4 to saves, deflecting strike)
Morale- 12

The Disciple is a combat expert and knows who to single out first in combat; he will intentionally try to attack or throw his Bo Staff at any magic users about to chant a spell. He can also give up his unarmed punch to deflect a single melee attack coming his way each round.

The Disciple can use his tail to spring up and leap very high, or as a prehensile third arm to pick up a dropped or disarmed weapon and use it as an extra attack. If you cut off his tail, it magically grows back and the attack only does 1 damage. He's tried cutting it off before, but his Master won't let him get out of his trail that easily.

[19] The Empowered platform. Cube made of dark blue stone, darker then the normal color of the mountains. It draws in energies from the mountains themselves and brings it to whoever is standing on the platform. If only one person is on the platform, they feel a rush of euphoria and have any spells they cast be treated as though they were one caster level higher. If multiple people occupy the platform, then they all feel a buzz but are not benefited. The platform can be used once per 1d6 days before it needs to recharge.

Near the platform is a mummified person with bright blue joints, killed by the winds. They have on them surveying equipment and an insignia from the empire ruled by mages in the setting; they have a vested interest in this platform.

[20] White trees, low to the ground and very young, dot this area. The trees are protected by white wasps, which blend in perfectly and live on the tree as a symbiotic relationship to protect them and provide the wasps with shelter. The trees themselves can have their bark scraped to collect the jelly amber just underneath their bark; the jelly amber is a dark purple color and can be sold like a semiprecious gemstone at 1d10x100 from each tree scrapped.

Any noise louder then a whisper or fast movements, such as drawing a sword, will alert the wasps and make them attack the source of the disturbance. Scrapping a tree will alert only the swarm of that tree, as long as the fight with them is kept quiet.

White Wasp Swarm (2 HD, 1d8 brutal stingers, white aura, swarm rules)
Morale- 17
Number- 1d4

White Wasps are little white insects that have extremely powerful stingers. As a swarm, you can only deal 1 damage to them through melee attacks without a special weapon; AoE spells deal full damage against a swarm.

The White Wasps also have a special magical aura, which blocks out any abilities using truesight or magical wizard vision as big clouds of white as the swarm moves its spirit in unison. Studying the corpses of these wasps along with 4,000 coins of research would allow a magic user to make a new spell; White Aura Fog.

White Aura Fog - 2nd level
Obscures magical vision over a person or small area, equal to a single room. Blocks all aura sight, true sight, wizard vision, scrying & divination, etc. The area or person will appear as a white featureless fog, and the spell lasts for 1d4 days. If a corpse of a White Wasp is used with the spell casting, then the spell lasts for 1d4 weeks instead.

Wandering Monsters
Roll 1d8
(1) Malevolent Stormcloud (4 HD, ethereal, 1d8+2 lightning damage bolts, flight)
Morale- 9
Numbers- 1 or 2

Small black stormcloud, possesses intelligence, wishes to harm and destroy. Has to fly close to deal damage by shooting lightning bolts.

Characters wearing heavy metal armor are always attacked first by this ability. Because it's just a magic cloud, can only be hurt by magic weapons or spells, or by more powerful blasts of air or weather effects.

(2) Gravelthroats (5 HD, +2 AC, 1d10 stone bags, thunderous voices)
Morale- 14
Numbers- 1d4+1

Gravelthroats are large, gray, ogre like creatures with a hole in their throats, revealing spinning and tumbling stones and gravel. Whenever they speak, the stones move and crash against each other, giving the creature a loud and booming voice. The noise is so tremendous that there is no chance for you to be surprised by these creatures, and you can trivially sneak up or past them as they speak to each other. The gravelthroats constantly argue with each other about nonsense, like the number of wings a bird has (none of them have ever seen a bird), or how long you'd have to stand on a mountain until your weight would press it flat against the ground.

The gravelthroats carry large bags full of stones they gather, their favorites, along with stones that fell out of their throat when they burped or hiccuped. The bags are also used as weapons, and are simply so heavy and burdened with stones they are very dangerous.

The gravelthroats will shout over any spell incantations they hear, and the noise is so great that it will chase its way into the magic user's throat, cutting off their spell as it is cast and causing it to fail. The gravelthroats can only do this if they aren't in melee, or as long as they keep stones in their throats.

(3) Barnaboros Cultists (2 HD, +2 AC, +6 AC from chainmail armor, 2 attacks with 1d4 bleeding knives, blood parasite jars)
Morale- 13
Number- 1d10 + Neophytes

The cultists seek blood to feed to their God; Barnaboros, the great blue stone face. The cultists wield knives with channels within; where the blood flows down into the hollow hilt for collection.

The cultists also carry an extra jar filled with spoiled blood and a spiked worm parasite; the blood parasite can be thrown as a weapon and upon the jar being broken the creature skitters to the nearest source of warm blood; usually within a creature. Save or the creature starts to dig its way into your body dealing 1d6 damage per turn. Those with poisonous or acidic blood, or no blood, will simply kill the creature when it tries to feed on them.

The Barnaboros cultists also have the power to Turn Bloodless. This ability functions exactly as turn undead, but it works on bloodless beings instead.

When you encounter the cultists, they are chastising the Neophytes. Roll a reaction check.

Good Result- The cultists demand the party fill a jar of blood for their God, and will bandage and cure the wound for free in return. The jar only needs 6 points of hit point damage to fill, and can be done collectively among any party members. They will also accept the location of [7] as payment, as the shrews are easy prey, but will not accept [12] because the elves are too dangerous for them to assault.

Neutral Result- The cultists demand a person or large animal to sacrifice to their god via lethal exsanguination. They will also accept the location of [7] as payment, but not [12] as above.

Bad Result- The cultists immediately attack; sending the Neophytes in first as they draw the blood parasite jars from their bags.

Barnaboros Neophyte (1 HD, -2 AC, 1d8 penance stone)
Morale- Does not retreat until Cultists do
Numbers- 1d4+1

The Barnaboros Neophytes are initiates to the cult; and are forced to carry very large heavy blue stones with Barnaboros's face carved upon them. These are called penance stones, and the neophytes are made to walk laps around the carved face of Barnaboros.

(4) Vochomp (2-3 HD, +2 to hit and AC, 2d10 ambush bite, 1d6 normal bite, leaps)
Morale- 7
Number- Always 1

The Vochomp is an ambush predator that lives on the slopes of the sapphire mountains. It appears as a furry crocodile with no hind legs and a long, spiraling paddle tail. The Vochomp aims itself for its prey across mountain ranges and valleys using its incredible eyesight, then leaps across the vast distance. It can seemingly know where the prey is going to be in a few minutes after it leaps, even if the prey stops or slows their walking speed. This ability is not supernatural, and is just a talent the creature seems to possess. The creature has a 1 in 6 chance to have 3 HD instead, which is a more territorial male that will continue to leap and return again and again against the same party to slowly kill and dismember them; the 2 HD females are more passive and will only take a limb to feed themselves, preferring not to attack prey a second time to avoid retailiation.

On its first bite, the Vochomp attempts to sever a limb or kill a creature; before picking up the limb in its jaw or the greater part of its corpse and jumping back across the mountain range to safely gnaw on the limb over the course of several hours to feed. It's first bite always deals 2d10 damage from the surprise and great speed it travels, characters only get a hard save to avoid this if they're already on edge, otherwise it happens no matter what they do because of the Vochomp's planned jump & bite attack. Once it leaps away, it's basically impossible to see where the Vochomp is headed, as its blue fur helps it blend in with the mountains flawlessly, as well hide it's approach.

The Vochomp's fur is bright blue and very valuable; worth 600 coins if in good condition, or 400 coins if its tattered up. Male Vochomp fur is worth 1.5x the females from his enhanced size.

(5) Fallen Star (9 HD, -2 to hit, cannot dodge, 3 lightburst attacks at 1d4, causes blindness)
Morale- N/A
Number- Always 1

This fallen star rolls slowly along the ground, either having left or been kicked out of the night sky. It's a huge ball of light, twinkling its own light-based body to move and exist. Every attack aimed against it automatically hits; you merely must swing at the light to harm it. You can also easily escape the star, simply reaching out of its range of light means it can no longer sense or harm you.

The Fallen Star can only roll very slowly, and is bright as to never surprise anything with eyes. It can only attack by attempting to spear you with clumsy shafts of light, and gets 3 of these attacks each turn. Anyone who enters the center mass of this star can see its face; a cartoon-esque look of either apathy, despair, or anger. Anyone who sees this face must make a save or be stuck totally blind for the rest of their life. The Star may attempt to roll into people to force them to see its face.

(6) Lapis Archer (2 HD, +10 to hit, +1 AC, 1d10 Great Blue Bow, breaking bolt, camouflage)
Morale- N/A
Number- 1d4

Huge, sleek, statuesque being that appears as a naked man or woman with equal frequency. They have no visible genitalia and their hair is made out of the same rubbery flesh as their body is, which is always neatly styled on their head. The archers are very similar in color to the mountains, making them hard to see, and they often pose in silence for very long periods of time, making them seem or appear as statues.

As long as the party has not “disturbed” the mountains; such as by hunting its wildlife (except in self defense), taking tools to the stones, disturbed corpses or graves on the mountain, dug up [13], or messed with the elves at [12], then the Lapis Archers simply stay still and do not interact.

Once active, the archers aim to kill trespassers in the mountains by using their huge blue bows and arrows. The archers do not miss regular shots; their only chance to miss their target comes from the armor and footwork of the character, and they always hit unarmored average people.

Each carries a breaking bolt; a large arrow with a pyramid shaped head; the flat base of the pyramid on the end of the arrow with it tapering to the shaft. This bolt can smash through shields, armor, spell barriers, even barricaded walls not also made of stone. There is a 1 in 20 chance after fighting the Lapis Archers that you will find a small square depressions of the bolts hitting the mountains themselves from so bygone ancient battle.

(7) Dark Flier (2 HD, +4 AC, 1d6 black talons, flight, casts spells in form of sky runes)
Morale- 14
Number- 1d4

The Dark Flier is a black shadow in the rough shape of an eagle that flies across the sky. It leaves a black streak that persists for several seconds wherever it flies, and appears as little more then a shadow. Due its speed and the black streak, it is difficult to hit.

As it flies, the dark fliers make patterns in the shape of spell runes that glow with dark energy. Looking at these runes for more then a second causes them to cast a 2nd or 3rd level spell upon the character who accidentally looked at the rune. You have to make a saving throw when looking into the sky at the fliers or to make a range attack; if you fail the save, then you've glanced at a rune on accident and the spell is cast upon you. The Dark Flier swoops in to attack with its talons at targets who refuse to look skyward as a backup, and they prefer to target people close to ledges or climbing as to knock them off.

(8) Instead of a creature, a magical blue wind blows your way. The sapphire mountains are cold all over; but this wind is magic and especially bad. If you do not immediately take cover, either by making camp or ducking inside something, the wind deals 1d6 damage to your Dexterity score. The more damage it deals, the more blue your joints turn from the biting cold. Even if you warm up your fingers and knees right after by a fire, the damage remains and your joint still appear tinted blue from the magical harm of the wind.

1 comment:

  1. I like the way the reaction check shapes how intelligent beings respond to the characters. (Also some of these intelligent beings are real creeps, even if you get a "good" reaction!)

    ReplyDelete