[Monster] Huxol by Daniel Luce

I found the following GIF at google plus feed and wanted to share it and stat it. Unfortunately I was occupied at the moment so I decided to stat the beast later. +Daniel Luce (my new friend because he is nice and I like his stuff) stepped in and made THIS so I didn't have to do anything with the idea anymore! With Daniel's permission, I share HIS monster writing here. Statted for BLUEHOLME(tm).

Thank you Daniel!

HUXOL

HD-1 AC-7 Mov-40 XP-20 Alignment-CE

Treasure: (roll on Hereticwerkz random jink table)

Attack: 2 Claws + 1 Nite / Screech

Damage: 1d4, 1d4, 1d6 / Special

Born when the apes of the jungle consume the flesh of those slain in clan wars, the Huxol (Lost Child) takes on the rage and anguish of the unrestful dead. Their intelligence heightened, and their minds twisted, the Huxol in gruesome fetish collection takes the face of one of the dead, donning it like a hat. From a distance, the Huxol may be mistaken for a lost child, hence their name. In combat, the Huxol will fight until dead, packs of Huxols have become a bane to travellers in the verdant expanses of late.

The shriek of a Huxol is laden with that same force of emotion that birthed it. Those hearing the shriek must save vs spell. Failure induces a berserker fury in the listeners, increasing their attack vs Humanoids by +2.

There is a 50% change the victims will attack friend in lieue of foe.

Being immune to the screech of the Huxol, the Lizardmen of the jungle have taken to hauling the things around in cages, further adding to the chaos of teheir raids.

[LL] Material I used for "Forgotten Legend Lives" campaign

It all begun when I wanted to play Labyrinth Lord the traditional-ish vanilla-ish fantasy way. My girlfriend is not a big fantasy fan in tabletop roleplaying games, even though she has enjoyed games like Elder Scrolls III to V.

She likes elves, so an elf character we created for her. I let her roll a random magic weapon from treasure tables. As she was only player for this campaign, I thought I'd give her an edge with more powerful item. Also that item worked as an inspiration for the campaign. The item was +2 sword (+3 against giants). The buff against giants gave me already some ideas.

But a setting needs a map! I thought that it would be a good introduction to fantasy gaming if she didn't know anything about the world her character was about to step in, so I just made a map of the area everything is going to happen at.

So I made a hex map. I didn't have any idea what the setting would be like. I just thought "like a fantasy place" but more humans than demi-humans and fantastic beings.

Then I had to choose the starting place, which is at 56P. And a map for that place. I asked around google plus and +Dyson Logos suggested I'd use one of his maps, The Village Of Brenton's Bend . That is very cool small town map with an extra dungeon to delve. Perfect! I didn't include the dungeon but later in the campaign, though.

This and many other great maps can be found at Dyson Logos' website: https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/
Also he's got Patreon campaign going for more maps: https://www.patreon.com/dysonlogos

The campaign started like Elder Scrolls games: you are a prisoner and you end up in the place where you are going to adventure and you yet don't know what the setting - or your character is going to be like. That was perfect for the player so she didn't have to learn what the setting is and everything, she could just start to explore fantasy with her character and herself! It also gave me free hands to go what ever direction I wanted from a scratch. Sounds hard, does it? Not really, I just had to know as much as player knows plus the important events what are in the background. Quite simple and fun, actually.

To get things going, I wanted to have a small adventure what was not a dungeon. So I created "Graveyard Of Dusk". It's a small location with few hotspots to wonder, a NPC to meet and a bigger plot with spooky encounter. Very simple.

That's how it started. Now to the material I used for the campaign:

Labyrinth Lord for core rules.

Dwarves Of Longland post here for describing the most important race after humans.

The Hanging Garden for side-quest but it turned out to be a secret lab (premise) after clearing.

Norman's Gone Missing for side-quest and to introduce cultists into the plot.

The Overrun Mines was a review copy I received, so why not to use it! Also it led to pet dragon.

Gurah, necromancer I created to be the big bad guy.

Cleric Blessed Holy Symbol I created so elf could have some fun turning undead.

Where Is Margesh Blackblood? A side-quest and to introduce a new NPC.

Silvervine Games Paper Mini Maker to craft minis for the final battle.

Dwarven Warrior Stats I created for minis combat.

AC10 Bestiary Of Dragons And Giants for inspiration as the campaign was about those two.

Monster Manuals of 1st and 3rd editions to compare dragon stats and find a cool pet dragon for character.

"AC10 TSR9211 Bestiary Of Dragons And Giants" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia

The campaign started with a character who basically didn't know who she is in a land where Elves had left ages ago. She ended to be the elven queen of the past what came back to slay undead giant armies controlled by his father who now was evil necromancer. Also she found her old pet dragon.

FUN!

Three headed guardian bird of giants

Three Headed Guardian Bird of Giants

From www.liveauctioneers.com

Big horse sized stupid birds breed by giants. Domesticated thus rarely seen in the wild without giants in present. Giants breed these stupid birds as guardians for sites of importance (ancient giant ruins; giant settlements; places not to be disturbed; in example where dragons sleep and should remain so).

Those birds giants don't train to be guardians, they eat. The meat tastes smoky, it tingles the tongue and makes you very sleepy after the dinner. Many times after feasting with three headed bird meat giants get itis and nap for 3-6 hours after. The bird eggs are delicious, and nutritious, but the itis is even stronger, 6-10 hours nap needed. For humanoids the durations of nap are 3 times longer, except for Halflings and Dwarves who recover as giants. One meal of three headed guardian bird every two days is enough to keep you going.

Training of three headed bird is hard and strength of a giant is needed. Also healthy dose of stubborn and lack of self-protection. Stupid birds don't control their attacks if not trained, so giants who have specialized in training these birds usually wear special equipment to protect themselves from electrocution, fire and sleep poison.

Three Headed Guardian Bird Of Giants (Labyrinth Lord)

No. Enc.: 2d4 (depending on a thread)

Alignment: Neutral

Movement: 30' (10', Fly: 180' (60')

Armor Class: 6

Hit Dice: 8 (40 HP, first head is lost at 30 HP, second at 15)

Attacks: 3 heads

Damage: Electrocution, Fire, Poison

Save: F11

Morale: 10

Hoard Class: As giant(s) who hurled it + 1d2 eggs

Damage:

• Electrocution: 2d6 damage, ignores AC by two points. Save or be stunned for next round.
• Fire: 2d4 damage, 30 ft. cone. 1 in 6 change that victim catches fire (higher change if wearing more flammable equipment). When set on fire suffer 1d4 damage dext round.
• Poison: 10 ft. cone. Save or as sleep spell cast by 3th level Magic-User.

Giants throw the bird in the location of their decision and the bird precisely lands there using its wings. It takes 1d3 rounds for the bird to land after throwing. When the bird lands randomly determine in which direction each of its three heads looks at (1d8 for each head, each result is one direction - 1 is north, 2 north-east, 3 east and so on). The bird observes these directions for 1d3 rounds after it will seek around. Roll again new directions. The bird is stupid and will not change the direction of a head which it currently observes.

It will attack everything on sight of the direction, except giants.

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Inspired by a dream where I was equipped with a chainmail, lance and a tower shield exploring ancient giant ruins when I spotted a giant in a distance. The giant hurled a three headed bird at me and then the combat begun...

Mythoard Beta and January reviews

Mythoard (their website HERE) is a RPG subscription box service, where you get a packet of RPG stuff at your door, every month! This is a review of beta package from 2014 and first official release of January 2015.

You might want to check the post where I interviewed +Jarrod Shaw before continuing to read the reviews. The interview can be found HERE.

BETA

Monster post card (Aenglum), Blue dungeon tile sampler (Red Kobold), Baby Bestiary poster and proof (Metal Weave Games), Newsletter with a map by: +Dyson Logos, 10+ Treasures (Awful Good Games), Stone Fields of Azoroth (GM Games), Dice (Chessex and Red Kobold)

Monster Card. There were two options of monster cards what were randomly selected for each pack. I got "tri pod". Art is damn cool and this is like a post card. But you can also use it for your game! No stats, but you could stat it up to address field of post cards for any system. Really net!

Blue Dungeon Tile Sampler. The tiles look good but there is a problem. There are only three of them so basically these are useless. If there was four, you could make small 2x2 grid for small battles. I know that it is a sampler, what explains everything. There's also a card with instructions how to use the map explaining you can use different kinds of markers. The back of the card is a "legend" of most common dungeon symbols.
These tiles are very cool and I could consider buying more. I knew these exist but didn't think about them before. Marketing trick? Success. Legend card is useful anyways.
There's also a business card for Red Kobold what is very neat.

Baby Bestiary Poster. Cute baby monsters! Quality artwork. Nice extra.

Newsletter. Dyson's map is Great Hall of the Ur-Goblin, what is great. There is also a QR Code for free pdf copy of 10+ Treasures included in this package. There is also a nice introduction section of the suppliers for Mythoard, where small information about them like first and last game systems and favorite monsters are told.

10+ Treasures. I am not a Dungeon World guy, so the title of this product was confusing. There are 10 and more magic items in this, okay, but isn't that boring title? Then I think I figured out that rolling stuff or treasures or something result of 10+ is that it's a magic item (correct me if I am wrong!). Still, boring title!

The content is pretty good. I am not familiar with DW system but for OSR these are easy to stat. It's mostly the fluff and writing what magic items do so I can see this used in many different systems. Nice touch is that many of these items have some tweaks and variations. Neat idea, that same item with minor changes can be totally different.

In the end some topics like who can make magic items, what tools are needed, where it can be made. There are only few DW specific rules so this is also good inspiration for various systems.

I think this is highly OSR-D&D compatible if you spend some time to stat stuff. I like this small book.

Stone Fields Of Azoroth. Cover is loose hiding three little booklets. Inside of the cover is a full color map. This is a mini-sandbox for experienced adventurers containing the village with plenty of npcs and interesting adventuring possibilities. Last Temple of Praxus and The Prison of Azoroth are nicely tied to each other still being different to play.

Dice. You can never have enough dice. And these dice happen to be cool. Nice d20, super great colored orange d6 I fell in love with and a black d6 where number (pip) 1 is replaced with Red Kobold logo. These two d6s I've used when creating random content for Hulks & Horrors.

JANUARY

Custom folder (art: Randy Musseau, map: +MonkeyBlood Design), Creature deck (Inkwell Design), The Guns of Brimostone & The Brimstone Epitaph (Stormlord), Newesletter #2, miniatyre and pin (Lesser Gnome), The Power That Be (Bryan Stewart), Chessex dice, Mythoard business card, card sleeves

Folder. Art and map are both neat and folders are something you always need. I got two of these, maybe it was a mistake. Sorry, Mythoard crew! Good for me though. As I said, folders are always needed. The map is titled The Slime Chambers of Gebbellurd.

Creature Deck. There were three randomly selected options and I got "Fey Constructs & Wildlife". Normal poker card size, 54 in total. Other side of the card is artwork, other information. There are no stats so these are compatible with several systems. The information contains things like usual attitude, favored locations, favored prey, organization, strengths and so on.

These cards can be easily used as random encounters or for planning areas. On the box there is an index of the monsters, too.

Only complaint I have is that almost in every card the monster art is a little too dark. Otherwise pretty cool product.

The Guns Of Brimstone and The Brimostone Epitaph and The Real Story. Preview of alternative Dungeon Crawl Classics gun rules, and adventure ideas and setting details.

I am not familiar with DCCRPG rules, so I have to view the gun rules through OSR D&D (S&W, LL, LotFP, you know) glasses and I have to say I could easily use these rules and guns in wild west OSR game. Mighty Deed Of Arms introduces a rule for "fanning" where you hold down the trigger and quickly pull the hammer back. Cool idea, don't know how it works in table because I am not familiar with rules.

Overall this DCCRPG wild west teaser is nice and you can actually already use it. The layout is also nice representing old newspaper.

Newsletter #2. Map by +matt jackson, Tenkar's Tomb, with a description, included. Matt is also one of the greatest mappers I know. Similar introduction of contributors, too.

Gnome mini and Lesser Gnome pin. Cool little mini! When was the last time I painted minis? 15 years ago? I want to start painting minis again. The pin has Lesser Gnome text and a gnome portrait on it.

The Power That Be. A Pits & Perils supplement of pantheon by Black Paperclip Games. I usually find pantheons boring but this is well written. The text is not a burden to read and there's many gods. Also alignments have their own gods. Very mythos inspired. Rules are minimal so this can easily be used with your favorite game. Excellent stuff!

Dice. Four and eight sided orange dice from the same series the six-sided orange die from the beta. The newsletter promises you'll get a full set of these with Mythoard. I really like these dice!

Business Card And Card Sleeves. Card sleeves have one clear side, one colored. Perfect for aforementioned monster cards. You can slip a card in one of this kind of sleeves and hand it for the players to see the illustration of the monster but hide the information on the other side. Great idea!

Special thanks to +Jarrod Shaw and +Mythoard for making it possible to me to get these two packages! Good stuff!

CONCLUSION

Jarred is a great guy and Mythoard is a brilliant idea! The content is solid and it is a nice surprise to open the package. Like a monthly Christmas! Even though there's material for games I don't own or play in these two packages they have been something easy to use and convert with my favorite systems.

The RPG material is good and small trinkets and dice are a nice addition of surprise. I really dig the concept of Mythoard but also the content has been very good in my opinion. I have enjoyed these two Mythoard packages a lot!

Special thanks to Jarrod for making it possible for me getting these two packages to far-away Finland. You rock man and I wish you all the best with continuing Mythoard.

Thank you, Mythoard rocks!
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