Mu-Pan

Hengeyokai for Blood and Treasure

/ jstater / 6 Comments

Here’s my take on the much requested hegeyokai for Blood & Treasure. I tried to keep it simple, since they’re a playable race. Let me know what you think.

Hengeyokai

Magical Beast, Alignment Varies, Average Intelligence; Solitary

HD 1
AC 14
ATK Staff (1d6) or dagger (1d4) or by animal type
MV 30
SV F 11, R 11, W 13
XP 100

The hengeyokai are magical beasts that can take human form, usually to play tricks on human beings. They can also take a hybrid form of animal and human, often to good effect when attempting to shock their human victims. Some hengeyokai are rather malevolent, others merely mischievous.

Hengeyokai are usually tiny or small animals in their animal form. When in their animal form, they have the same armor class, movement rate, attacks and damage as that animal form, as well as any special abilities that animal might have. When in hybrid form, they retain the animal form’s attacks, but inflict +1 damage due to their larger size. Hengeyokai can change their shape (i.e. from animal to hybrid, or hybrid to human, or back) three times per day. In animal and hybrid form, hengeyokai have darkvision to a range of 60 feet.

Hengeyolai in hybrid and human form have the following additional abilities, depending on their type:

BAKENEKO (Cat) are usually malevolent creatures. They are immune to poison and can cast dancing lights once per day. Bakeneko with 6 or more hit dice or levels can also cast animate dead, turning corpses into zombies by leaping over them in cat or hybrid form.

INUGAMI (Dog) are loyal and generally lawful in alignment, the protectors of humanity from other hengeyokai. In human form, they typically take the shape of an armored warrior. They can cast cure light wounds once per day, and can cure disease once per week by licking a wound in dog or hybrid form.

JORŌGUMO (Giant Spider): Like the kitsune, the jorōgumo is a temptress, her human form being that of a willowy, elegant woman. They can cast spider climb and web once per day each.

KITSUNE (Fox): Kitsune, or fox maidens, may be the most famous of the hengeyokai. They appear as beautiful women and use their powers to charm and seduce men, using them as bodyguards and servants. Kitsune can charm person once per day and, when they have an instrument, fascinate as a bard with as many levels as the kitsune has Hit Dice. For each additional level or Hit Dice a kitsune gains, they grow an additional tail in their fox form, up to a maximum of nine tails.

MUJINA (Badger): The mujina are not particularly evil, but they do delight in frightening people. They can use the spell change self once per day to give themselves a frightening appearance, and cause fear once per day to frighten those who are not shocked by their appearance. Like badgerd, they are tenacious and ill-tempered when their tricks go awry.

TANUKI (Racoon Dog): Tanuki are pot-bellied tricksters, often drunk and always in good spirits. They can change self once per day, using this ability to make humans feel foolish.

HENGEYOKAI AS CHARACTERS
Hengeyokai characters are whimsical and capricious, and thus suffer a -1 penalty to their starting wisdom score. Bakeneko and jorōgumo gain a +1 bonus to their starting dexterity score, kitsune and tanuki a +1 bonus to their starting charisma and inugami and mujina a +1 bonus to their starting constitution score. They retain the ability to change shape and to cast the spells of their normal type. Hengeyokai cannot take levels as clerics, but can advance as druids. They can multi-class as fighter/sorcerers or sorcerer/thieves.

NOD 10 Goes Live!

/ jstater

NOD 10 – the August issue – is finally live. The Mutant Trucker article was holding things up, but since I had enough material without it, I’m pushing it back to next issue and getting this show on the road. Here’s the description …

NOD is rounding out Summer with the remainder of the Mu-Pan hex crawl begun in issue 8. It also presents the Leech, a new playable class, randomized chimerae, two new races for PARS FORTUNA, two new Demon Lords and a continuation of Phantastes. 80 pages. 

E-Book (PDF) is up for sale at $3.50. I’ll get the print book up once I get my proof copy. You can visit my Lulu shop HERE.

Hopefully, I’ll get a more entertaining and useful post up later today.

Nodian Oddities

/ jstater

When I’m writing a hex crawl for NOD, I like to let my mind wander once and while and create a new species or two on the fly. I’m going to collect a few of these Nodian oddities here, with some guidelines for using them as a playable race. To start with, I have three from Mu-Pan …

DIDI
The Didi are small (halfling-sized) creatures. They look like nothing but skin and bones, with large, round heads and pointed ears. Didi’s are covered with velvety, platinum-blond fur and have ugly, wan, drawn faces. Despite their appearance, they are uncommonly kind and renowned for their knowledge of the healing arts. The didi dwell underground. Seemingly immune to the chill environment of their subterranean home, they do not wear clothing, though they often don leather armor or aprons when they prove useful to their work.

Didi have a knack for medicine and herbcraft. Those under their care heal +1 hit point per night of rest and receive a +1 bonus to saving throws against the effects of diseases. Because of their frail physiques, they suffer a -3 penalty to their constitution roll at character creation, though this penalty cannot reduce their constitution score below 3. Didi have magic resistance equal to their wisdom score (i.e. a 13 wisdom grants 13% magic reistance). Didi can see in the dark as well as dwarves.

Didi are permitted to advance as cleric/magic-users (up to 5th level max.), cleric/thieves (5th/7th level max.) or as pure thieves (9th level max.). Didi clerics worship nature spirits and deities of darkness, healing and generosity.

KETEKete are tall humanoids with stark white skin, black eyes and toothless mouths. They have no hair and wear kilts and tunics of interlocking steel rings (i.e. chainmail, though sometimes so light as to be no more protective than padded armor). Kete are surrounded by an aura of heat, and they require no teeth because food simply burns away in their mouths. This heat aura gives them an unarmed attack damage of 1d4 (or +1 to damage for monks) and the blurry aura gives them a -1 [+1] adjustment to Armor Class. Kete suffer only half damage from fire attacks and enjoy a +1 bonus to saving throws against dragon fire and fire spells. Once per day they can sheath themselves in roaring flames, causing 1d4 points of fire damage to all within 10 feet of them and possibly setting flammable objects aflame.

Kete cannot wear or use objects constructed of wood, leather or cloth (hence their chainmail clothing). They can advance as fighters up to 6th level (7th level with a strength of 14+), thieves of 8th level (9th level with dexterity of 15+) or fighter/thieves up to 5th/7th level.

ZOUSHOU
There are few creatures in Mu-Pan as strange as the zoushou. They look like large, grotesque human heads balanced atop four human legs, forcing them to walk like a crab or to hop about. Zoushou have deep, purple skin. Their long toes allow them to grasp items with fine manual dexterity. While they cannot wield weapons or use shields, they can wear armor that is specially made.

Zoushou can leap five feet vertically and up to 1d6+5 feet horizontally. They can kick in combat for 1d4+1 points of damage. Because of their rugged bodies, zoushou characters begin the game with 2 hit dice (though they are still limited in the total number of hit dice they can have based on their class). Three times per day, they can use x-ray vision per the ring of x-ray vision. In place of this, they can focus this vision one time per day on a single subject within 20 feet, inflicting 1d6 points of damage.

Zoushou advance as fighters up to 5th level (6th level with strength of 13+) or thieves up to 7th level (8th level with dexterity of 15+).

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Note: For players of Ruins & Ronin, didi can advance as shugenja up to 6th level, kete can advance as bujin up to 7th level and zoushou can advance as bujin up to 6th level.
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At some point I’m going to have to commission art for these oddballs. Should be fun!

News from the Land of Nod and a little more Mu-Pan

/ jstater / 4 Comments

Busy weekend, but a good one. I finished my fifth Hex Crawl Chronicle – The Pirate Coast – and just need to send it along to the good people at Frog God Games. Next up is The Troll Hills, in which I try to incorporate every version of troll I can. If you have an OGL troll you’d like stuck into those very dangerous hills, let me know.

Oh – for that matter – the Tome of Horrors Complete is now available. I have scads of lairs in that tome and did the conversions of the monsters from Tome 1.

I’m about 1 week away from publishing NOD 10. Contents should be …

Mu-Pan – continuation of the hex crawl in NOD 8. I’ve been running excerpts all month.

Polyester Road – this is a mini-game/mini-campaign about truckers hauling goods on post-apocalyptic highways. The technology is mid-1970’s and the mutations not too gonzo.

Monstrous Evolutions – two race/classes for Pars Fortuna in the tradition of beast-people. In this case, the “beasts” are a rust monster and owl bear. Will include an illustration and a mini-adventure.

Chim-Chimera-Cheree – The random chimera generator I posted on this blog with a nice illustration.

The Leech – A fantasy doctor/surgeon class for Swords and Wizardry – think of this class as the medical equivalent of Indiana Jones’ archaeologist.

Phantastes – a few more chapters of the fantasy classic.

Coming up for NOD 11 – A journey into Hell (hex crawl inspired by Dante’s vision of the underworld), Action X (mini-game of special operations teams in the Cold War) and probably something spooky for Halloween – probably a dungeon crawl in a haunted manor.

And now, two encounters – one from Mu-Pan, the other from the Pirate Coast. Enjoy …

0108. The floor of this valley is a chain of shallow lakes linked by channels of sandy, sluggish streams. The lakes are heated geo-thermally, and this has made the valley steamy and verdant. In ages past, great creatures akin to reptiles lived in the valley until they were hunted to extinction by the ancient elves – many an old elven sword has a pommel wrapped in leather cured from their skin and ancient elf lodges often have their strange, massive heads mounted on the walls.
While these massive beasts no longer roam the valley, their spirits do, and are encountered here on a roll of 1-2 on 1d6 (1-4 on 1d6 during a full moon). Use the following table to determine what kind of animal is encountered.
1-3
Ankylosaurus: HD 8; AC 0 [19]; Atk 1 clubbed tail (special); Move 9; Save 8; CL/XP 8/800; Special: None.
4
Brontosaurus: HD 25; AC 6 [13]; Atk 1 stomp (special); Move 9; Save 3; CL/XP 25/5900; Special: None.
5-6
Stegosaurus: HD 15; AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 bite (special), 1 spiked tail (special); Move 9; Save 3; CL/XP 15/2900; Special: None.
7-8
Triceratops: HD 15; AC 0 [19] front, 5 [14] back; Atk 1 gore (special); Move 12; Save 3; CL/XP 15/2900; Special: None.
9-10
Tyrannosaurus: HD 18; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 bite (special); Move 18; Save 3; CL/XP 19/2400; Special: Chews and tears.
The dinosaur spirits are ethereal, and can thus only be harmed by silver or magical weapons and spells of force or dispelling. Their attacks cause 2d6 points of chilling cold damage and force a victim to save or be drained of one level.
One of the shallow lakes is an illusion, hiding an ivory palace of the ancient elves – one that has been abandoned and forgotten for centuries. The palace is composed of eighty-one cells, each with a vaulted ceiling and connected to four adjacent vaults via a short (5 feet long) passage. These passages are blocked by walls of force, each one a shimmering curtain of one of five colors – cerise, ultramarine, gamboge, myrtle and heliotrope.
The palace has four entrances; each of these entrance cells has only three curtains for force blocking further access to the palace. One of these entrance cells contains a colored tetrahedron of metal, the exact color being determined randomly (see below). In the middle of each cell there is a tripedal stand which fits this tetrahedron. By placing the tetrahedron in the base and tapping it with something metallic, the corresponding colored curtain of force disappears for 1 minute. The colors of the curtains in each cell should be determined randomly with a d10 (1-2 = cerise, 3-4 = ultramarine; 5-6 = gamboge; 7-8 = myrtle; 9-10 = heliotrope), and the color of the tetrahedron changes (using the same random table) when it is brought into a new cell. This makes moving through the strange palace quite a chore, and potentially dangerous as there is a slight chance one will enter a cell and be unable to exit due to the color of the tetrahedron.
Each time a cell is entered, there is a 1 in 1d6 chance of a random monster (CL 3) appearing in the cell. These monsters are given the same random colors as the rooms and tetrahedron, and the color of the creature makes it vulnerable to a single form of attack: Cerise = cold, Ultramarine = fire; Gamboge = silver; Myrtle = steel and Heliotrope = wood. All of these beasts can be harmed by magic missiles. Their bodies disappear after one leaves their cell.
The center cells of the palace are combined into a single large chamber. In the middle of this chamber there is an elf-hewn idol of a four-faced, eight-armed and eight-legged goddess. Each pair of hands holds a golden plate hidden by a pelt of sable. The plates face the curtains of colored force, and these colors determine what secrets are etched on the plates. The plate facing a cerise curtain is attuned to fighters (and rangers and paladins). The plate facing an ultramarine curtain is attuned to clerics (and druids). The plate facing a myrtle curtain is attuned to thieves (and assassins and monks) and the plate facing a gamboge curtain is attuned to magic-users. A plate facing a heliotrope curtain is replaced by a portal into the void, per a sphere of annihilation.
Looking upon a plate not attuned to their class forces a character to save vs. blindess. Looking upon the proper plate grants a magic-user a new spell of their highest spell level (though it must be written into their spellbook), a cleric or druid access to a magic-user spell that can be associated with their deity, a fighter-type a +1 bonus to wield a random weapon and a thief-type a +10% bonus to use one of their skills.
7238. Dinsan: Dinsan is a city of 6,000 people situated atop a plateau that rises 200 feet above the surrounding landscape and looks over the source of the river. The city is quite ancient and the buildings show their age. Although the people are productive, growing sweet, golden barriers (sun berries) and turning them into a very potent liqueur favored by the Ying nobility.
The city is notable for seven grand constructions. The first is a central tower with a single, large wooden gate. This tower is the entrance to the plateau, as it connects with a tunnel that spirals up through the plateau. This tunnel is guarded by albino apes chained to the walls. The roof of the tower is conical and set with six mirrors. As the sun hits these mirrors, it sends a beam of light to strike the face of one of the six statues.
The six statues represent the six founders of the city. Each of the founders is represented by a faction in the city, and while the face of a faction’s founder is illuminated, that faction governs the city absolutely. This makes for rather confused government, though the locals are fairly used to the arrangement and almost take pride in it.
The first faction was founded by Binua, a priestess of Inzana. Her sohei are now commanded by Temang, a muscular woman with a round face and long grey hair. The sohei wear armor lacquered red and brass masks meant to depict Inzana, the sun maiden. The sohei are warlike and easily annoyed, and demand almost constant tribute to their goddess and her sacred monkeys.
The second faction are the samurai descended from the army of Chireng and now ruled by Agchaan. Agchaan is a straight-forward, brash woman with fiery green eyes. Agchaan is big boned and has a small-featured face. She and her samurai rule with wisdom and restraint, following the bushido code zealously.
The third faction are the shugenja of the White Order, a band of moralists who outlaw alcohol, gambling and promiscuous behavior while they are in charge. They are all ascetics who wear simple white loincloths and who anoint their bodies with the oil of stinging herbs. The White Order was founded by Manalch and governed by Haampi, a small man with a thin face and sunken eyes.
The fourth faction are the ninja of Geri, the so-called Jade Prosperity Society. The ninja are a crime syndicate of smugglers and assassins who run protection rackets even when they are not in power. The ninja are ruled by Uncle Take, a secretive man, tall, with a long face, who runs a shop of calligraphers and keeps white mice.
The fifth faction are the wushen of Geran, a monkey hengeyokai who preached the values of laughter and festivities. The city takes on a Mardi-Gras atmosphere while the monkey lords are in power (though not all of them are monkey hengeyokai). The wushen are governed, loosely, by their eldest member, Mudar. Mudar is a willowy men with a heart-shaped face. He and his priests dress in silk tunics and pantaloons, carry staves and wear monkey masks.
The sixth factions are the descendants of the slaves who constructed the city-state and the tunnel through the plateau. They are no longer slaves, and most of the time work on repairing buildings and constructing new buildings. When they are in power, however, they run rampant through the city destroying the work they had done and causing new destruction – though never to the houses of the other factions or the central tower. They are led by the half-ogre Suhaz.
|    Temang, Sohei Lvl 6: HP 20; AC 3 [16]; Save 9 (7 vs death & poisons); CL/XP 7/600; Special: Banish undead, spells (4th). Kabuto, haramaki-do, haidate, masakari, prayer beads.
|    Agchaan, Bujin Lvl 6: HP 6d6+1; AC -1 [20]; Save 11 (10 vs death & poison); CL/XP 6/400; Special: Follow through. O-yoroi, dadao, daikyu.
|    Haampi, Shugenja Lvl 5: HP 19; AC 9 [10]; Save 11 (9 vs magic); CL/XP 4/120; Special: Spells (3rd). Bo staff, spellbook.
|    Uncle Take, Ninja Lvl 7: HP 23; AC 9 [10]; Save 8 (6 vs. death & poison); CL/XP 4/120; Special: Move silently, hide in shadows, climb sheer surfaces, backstab x3, read languages. Bo staff, hankyu.
|    Mudar, Wushen Lvl 5: HP 14; AC 9 [10]; Save 10; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Spells (3rd), turn undead, xxx, xxx. Kama, prayer beads.
|    Suhaz, Half-Ogre: HP 7; AC 9 [10]; Save 16 (15 vs death, 12 vs. poison & disease); CL/XP 1/15; Special: Follow through, ogre’s ferociousness, open door on 1-4 on 1d6.

 

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Image by jurer2, found HERE.

Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter XII

/ jstater

Finally finished writing all the Mu-Pan encounters over the weekend! Now I just have to clean up the rough edges, insert some game stats here and there, write the intro stuff (regions, monster encounter tables, etc) and figure out what I want to do (or need to do) about art. I’m about 90% complete with Mutant Truckers as well – finished writing up some monster stats (all re-purposed from the d20 SRD) and just need to write a few more and then drop them into encounter tables. I’ll probably do a play-through in the next few days with some folks on Google + and see if things actually work. In the meantime …

6038. Umborodom’s Abbey: There is an ancient fortress-monastery constructed here of red bricks and tall, peaked roofs of copper. The roof is covered with hundreds of tall, copper spires that attract lightning. The monastery is dedicated to Umborodom, whose hound was the thunder. The monastery is inhabited by 16 low-level sohei and their abbess, Deneg, a temperamental woman with blue-gray eyes and a powerful hatred of the Jade Empress, who quells her lovely storms and keeps her “hounds” hungry.

The “hounds” are three lightning elementals that dwell within a golden matrix that serves as the monastery’s idol. The monastery is surrounded by a village of red brick buildings inhabited by about 150 tin miners. The mines are of ancient vintage, but still producing tin and a few tourmalines and topaz each month. Tourmalines are claimed by the sohei and topaz by the empress.

The sohei of the monastery wear blue armor and carry large, steel-shod mallets.

6111. Ghost Town: These dusty hills are crossed by numerous trails, for the hills once hosted the grand city-state of Ganiz. Ganiz is now a ghost town – literally. Travelers see wisps of people walking through ghostly streets and the outlines of buildings when one squints or looks away from the sun. The buildings and people are more pronounced in the moonlight. The people move slowly and are completely unaware of the living. They are almost certainly not undead, as they are unaffected by turning and cannot be spoken to using the speak with dead spell. Likewise, they do not seem to inhabit the Ethereal Plane, for they still appear as ghostly images in that place and the Astral Plane. Sages do not know what to make of the phenomenon and prefer to ignore it and avoid the hex.

Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter XI

/ jstater / 2 Comments

Still cranking away – I think I’m about 5 days away from finishing the encounters – then I have to draw some maps, write all the regional/random encounter stuff, etc. Mutant Truckers is looking pretty good as well – these two articles will make up the bulk of NOD 10. Then I just have to figure out what the heck I’m doing with NOD 11 – anyone interested in a hexcrawl set in a pseudo-Dante’s Hell?

5916. House of Clones: At the foot of the mountains there is an old manor built of wood, with domed towers and a peaked roof. The manor has extensive gardens of cherry trees, creeping junipers, roses, chrysanthemums and ponds of goldfish. The manor is home to a secret society of men and women who are clones – created by a shugenja, Jutem, as part of his plan to conquer the empire. The men and women are clones of nobles now largely deceased, aged and replaced by their sons or daughters, or removed from power with the change of imperial control.

The clones are now unable to serve their original purpose, but they are still ambitious and possessed of a desire to rule. They have thus begun the slow task of gathering an army of humanoids from the mountains, their first target being the port of Artuk.

6021. Plateau of Jackals: Much of this hex is taken up by a rugged plateau of rocky outcroppings and long grass. The plateau is surrounded by an abyssal chasm that exhales foul gases (save or suffer 1d6 points of burning damage to the lungs). In the south, there is a single wooden bridge with a 10 foot gap in its center and signs of burning – perhaps the work of a fire breathing dragon.

The plateau is hunted by three packs of jackals. Each pack contains 1d3 x 10 animals. There was once a sprawling village of grass huts in the center of the hex, but those huts have long since been burned to the ground. The village is now a series of shallow graves, many disturbed. Night encounters with ghouls (1d6+1) occur on a roll of 1-3 on 1d6. The ghouls have burrows into the earth, most of them rather small, but some networking into a series of deeper tunnels that smell of the same acrid smoke of the chasm, but without the negative effects.

The ghouls of the plateau number 30 in all. Roll treasure for them randomly as they are encountered – their burrows can also be generated randomly. They go no deeper than 3 levels, and at the bottom level there dwells their chief, an oversized brute called Myan. Myan possesses the great treasure of the plateau, a pair of +1 sode constructed of leather scales dyed black and ornamented with ivory carvings. The sode give the wearer an acid touch (1d6 damage) and likewise cause any weapon they wield in anger to drip with acid, causing an additional 1d6 damage per hit.

Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter X

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Still cranking away on this hex crawl. About 30 more encounters to write, then the overall description and encounter tables. Getting there …

5140. Fey Samurai: A fairy knight in the trappings of a samurai has made camp here. He has been wandering the land searching for an honest man, for it is the kiss of an honest man that will awaken the Silver Maiden who sleeps beneath the mountains.

5227. Bonnacon Herd: This district is home to a large herd of bonnacon, and a somewhat flighty herd at that. The grassy hills and trees show many signs of burning, and more than a few bonnacon carcasses are evident, victims of “friendly fire”, so to speak. Long-legged buzzards constantly patrol the sky, waiting for accidents. Encounters with the herd, or at least portions of it numbering 2d6 x 20 animals, occur on a roll of 1-4 on 1d6.

Attacks on the bonnacon have a 1% chance of drawing the attention of the bonnacon lord, called Choupi by the Mu-Panese and worshipped as a minor deity of comical rudeness to authorities. Choupi appears as an old man with a large, bloated belly and long, wispy beard. He carries a staff to which is affixed three gourds.

5408. Magic Fountain: There is a limestone cavern here in which drips enchanted waters into a shallow pool stained electric blue. The water of the fountain staves off death, but only barely retards aging – perhaps halving it. At the same time, it links the drinker to the pool. Drinkers who try to leave the pool are affected as though by a geas.

Living under the cavern there is a tribe of troglodytes in service (out of fear) to the shugenja Qorchon, who dwells in the cavern, depending on its waters to keep himself alive. Qorchon is now 120 years old, and his time is growing very short.

Beneath the troglodyte caverns there is lies the body of the demon A’meggologabo imprisoned in ice.

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PS – Mutant Truckers is working out pretty well. Should have a preview soon.

PPS – Still gathering players for the Mystery Men! Dark Renaissance campaign on Google +. We have about 12 people who have shown interest and four who have actually produced characters. Should be fun!

Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter IX

/ jstater / 3 Comments

4811. Banshee: A stone road extends from the river to Artuk. Those walking the road often (66% chance) come across an aged woman with lank hair, eyes sealed shut, with clawed fingers and tattered robes. The woman bears a great burden of sticks on her back and wails a mournful song, singing of terrible dooms that are to befall the people she meets. She uses the people’s names in these songs. People who ask her if they might ease her burden are given a toothless smile and handed a stick, which can be used one time as a wand of turn undead (as a cleric of 6th level). Those who do not are cursed and spat at as they pass. Once behind them, the woman throws her sticks at them, one each round. The sticks become white snakes that attack as cobras. Their venom causes a person to shift into the ethereal plane whenever they are stressed or frightened (i.e. save whenever a situation becomes tense) for 1 hour.

4921. Forest of Legs: The forest of trees in this hex gradually turns into a forest of giant, stone legs. The legs are limestone and carved from the “living rock” as some people say. They once held aloft a create limestone cavern that was apparently pulled apart in ancient times. The woodland of stone legs is inhabited by giant blue eagles and silver foxes, and a few of the legs serve as the roosts of hermits, devout wushen who seek enlightenment through the denial of comforts like regular meals and bathing.

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Image from Wikipedia

Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter VIII

/ jstater / 1 Comment

No, all that Target 12 jazz doesn’t mean I’m not still writing the next hex crawl. Here are two more sample encounters …

4604. Cherik, Chan of the Sea: The pleasure barque of the suzerain of the Jade Sea, a sinuous dragon called Cherik, often visits this hex due to its exceptional beauty. The barque looks like a hemisphere of coral-colored metal that can achieve whatever depth its master desires. The hemisphere is 200 feet in diameter and fitted with a massive couch of gold. Two dozen aquatic gargoyles held with 80-ft long bronze chains surround the barque at all times as its protectors. A school of web-fingered mermaids with grey-green skin and billowing crimson hair entertain Cherik and feed him delicate morsels plucked from the sea. Cherik is usually accompanied by his ministers, a brass dragon called Noger and a copper dragon called Kipchech.

A secret door beneath the couch holds a small treasure of 9,685 gp in coins stamped with a spiral pattern and a suit of cursed haramaki-do -3.

| Cherik, Ancient Gold Dragon: HD 12 (96 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 2 claws (1d6), 1 bite (3d8); Move 12 (Fly 24); Save 3; CL/XP 15/2900; Special: Fire (90-ft cone, 30-ft wide at base) or chlorine breath (cloud 50-ft long, 40-ft wide, 30-ft hide, save or die), spells as 8th level shugenja.

| Noger, Brass Dragon: HD 7 (42 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 2 claws (1d4), 1 bite (3d6); Move 12 (Fly 24); Save 9; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: Fear or sleep breath.

| Kipchech, Copper Dragon: HD 8 (48 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 2 claws (1d6), 1 bite (2d10); Move 9 (Fly 24); Save 8; CL/XP 10/1400; Special: Spit acid or breathe slowing gas.

4740. Colossal Skeletons: In a dry cave obscured by tall trees there are three colossal humanoid skeletons. In life, these creatures must have stood 40 ft tall. The bones appear to made of crystal clear glass. Touching a bone brings on a vision of doom that lasts only a moment. For the rest of the day, the person who had a vision must pass a saving throw each time they go into combat or suffer a -2 penalty to hit and make saving throws during that fight.

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Image from HERE

Mu-Pan Eastern Encounter VII

/ jstater

4505. Island of Dust: This island was once covered by lush grasses and macacque peach (kiwifruit) trees, but the destruction of the islands of the Nakdani sent a wave over the island that carried away the soil and sowed what remained with salt. The island is now inhabited by two factions – the men of the barren high plateau and the men of the shore, which is covered with scrub. The only fresh water comes from springs on the plateau, making the men of the plateau the island’s masters. They demand a heavy tribute in shellfish from the men of the shore, as well as taking their most beautiful daughters to be their wives.

The fresh spring on the plateau arose after the disaster. It followed a trio of pearl-skinned demons that looked like glistening children with black eyes that burrowed up from the underworld. The spring does provide plenty of sweet water, but those who drink from the spring itself lose their ability to sympathize with others, gradually becoming cold and humorless and thoroughly chaotic.

The men of the high plateau live in burrows, while the men of the shore dwell in little huts of driftwood.

4547. Qatu of the Nine Fingers: Qatu is an elder shugenja that lost a finger to the belly of a tiger whose skin now forms her cape. Qatu is a big-boned woman of Amazonian stature, with gray-green eyes and dull brown hair worn in thick braids.

Qatu’s tower is a pagoda of fulgarite bricks bound in copper bands. The roof is peaked, and electricity courses down the length of the building, making it very dangerous to approach without invitation or some manner of protection. A lightning elemental is bound in a globe of glass in the roof of the building, powering the pagoda’s defenses and other bizarre devices kept by the shugenja.

Qatu has a treasure of 1,430 sp, 1,520 gp, a rose quartz worth 200 gp, 22 black bear skins worth 5 gp each, a brass locket holding the skin of a human thumb (worth 5 gp with or without the skin), a brass toe ring worth 95 gp and, her greatest treasure, a strange salt-glazed jug shaped like a squat samurai. The jug holds a giddy wine in which resides the essence of Manai, a warrior who adventured with the shugenja in olden times before tangling with a lich and winding up in his strange, pitiable state.