Hydrospawn Leader

When hydrospawn warriors capture a strong human warrior alive, she will be brought to the hivemind for transformation.  The human is injected with spores, ooze and ichor and must save vs. death at -4 or fall into a coma.  The comatose human will be transformed over the course of a month into a hydrospawn leader.  Only a remove curse and a cure disease can restore the victim to her original form.

Like hydrospawn warriors, hydrospawn leaders are skeletal in appearance with no skin.  They surprise others 3 in 6,  can see in the dark, breathe underwater and they are excellent swimmers.

Hydrospawn leaders can use a "mind tangle" power upon one target within 12" each round.  Previous victims of the mind tangle are not released when a new target is attacked.  Multiple targets can be affected.   If the hydrospawn leader is killed, the effects of all its mind tangles go away in one round.  The target must save vs. illusion or suffer the effects of the power.  Roll on the table below:

Roll d6	Effect of the Mind Tangle
1	The target cannot move and can only defend for 1d4 rounds
2-5	The target will drop what they are holding and wander around for 1d4 rounds
6	All hydrospawn are effectively invisible to the target for 1d4 rounds

In melee combat, the hydrospawn leader attacks with its two massive hook spines.  Each spine does 1d6+2 if it hits.  If both hit the same target, the target must save vs. illusion or suffer the effect of the "mind tangle" above.

Hydrospawn warriors fighting in the presence of a hydrospawn leader are +1 to hit and +1 to all saving throws.

Hydrospawn Leader		000M0
fungal humanoid	M = All affected by "mind tangles" get a new saving throw to cancel the effect
HD 4	AC 3[16]	Atk 2 hook spines	Move 9/Swim 15
Save 14	MOR 11	CL/XP 6/400	TT None
Special: water breathing, mind control
The hydrospawn hive mind is a giant tentacular creature that dwells in a subterranean cavern.  The hivemind needs water and biological matter to create its warriors (and other servant beasts).  As a result, the hivemind often sends its warriors on raids to hunt and kill/capture animals that can be brought back to the cavern for use in its fungal plans.  The hydrospawn leader is often "cultivated" when a mission is particularly difficult or strategy and tactics are important.  A hydrospawn leader will always have 2-8 hydrospawn warriors with her.
Treasures: Hydrospawn leaders carry no treasure

Hydrospawn Warriors

A good friend came by yesterday and gifted me with the starter set to HeroScape.  I already have a copy, but I plan to give parts of it away to my grandson.  He'll be able to add the parts to the parts I've already given him PLUS the HeroScape Underdark set he got for his birthday last year.

Anyway, I was looking in the box and I found these beauties!  Marro Warriors!  I've re-imagined them below as "Hydrospawn Warriors" and I plan to put them in the MMMM. 

Enjoy!

Hydrospawn are a race of fungus-based humanoid warriors.  They are skeletal in appearance and have no skin.  They serve a tyrannical hivemind that drives them to seek out fertilizer (usually humanoid beings) to feed the pod farm.

Hydrospawn are stealthy and able to surprise opponents 1-3 on a d6.  Hydrospawn can see in the dark and can breathe underwater.  They are excellent swimmers.

In melee combat, hydrospawn can fight with their claws or with any melee weapon.  They prefer to ambush at range, using their bio-powered "blorp" guns, which they fire at +2 to hit.  The guns are called this by other races because of the noise they make when fired.  The hydrospawn themselves have no word for their guns, thinking of them as mere extensions of themselves.  A blorp gun in the hands of a hydrospawn may be fired every round and will never run out of ammunition.

A target hit with a "blorper" suffers 1d6 damage and must save vs. concussive force (STR bonus applies) at +2 or suffer the random effects below:

D6 roll	Effect
1	Target knocked down
2-3	Target knocked down and back 1"
4-5	Target knocked down and back 2"
6	Target knocked down and stunned for 1 round

"Blorp" guns can be taken as treasure and can be used by creatures that have the appropriate appendages.  Blorpers are bulky, somewhat heavy and their ammunition cannot be swapped from one gun to another.  No one has been able to figure out how to reload a blorp gun once its empty, only the hydrospawn have the ability to do that.  Captive hydrospawn will not refill a blorp gun even if threatened with death.  In all cases, blorp guns cease to function (whether they have charges left or not) within one week of being taken from their hydrospawn.  Roll 1d6 each day after the first.  If you roll a number greater than the number of days the blorp gun has been removed from its hydrospawn, the gun will function.

Hydrospawn warriors can also "split" once per day if they submerge all or part of their bodies (like a foot or hand) in water.  In one round,  in a "blurrrp" the hydrospawn will split in two.  This will happen at the end of the round and during that round the hydrospawn will not attack -- it will only defend itself.  The second hydrospawn will be uninjured even if the first hydrospawn has taken damage.  The second hydrospawn will not have a blorp gun.  The two resulting hydrospawn cannot further "split" for one month.  During this process, the hydrospawn will deposit an "egg" in the water.  The egg is a sphere, about 2" in circumference and dark green in color.  This egg will sink to the bottom of the water and in one week, a new hydrospawn warrior will be born.

Hydrospawn Warrior		3 Hits
fungal humanoid
HD 2	AC 5[14]	Atk 1 claws/melee weapon or "blorp" gun	Move 9/Swim 15
Save 16	MOR 10	CL/XP 4/120	TT Special
Special: water breathing, "blorp" gun (see table), splitting ability (see above)
The hydrospawn hive mind is a giant tentacular creature that dwells in a subterranean cavern.  The hivemind needs water and biological matter to create its warriors (and other servant beasts).  As a result, the hivemind often sends its warriors on raids to hunt and kill/capture animals that can be brought back to the cavern for use in its fungal plans.  The hydrospawn warriors are the pawns in these plans.  Expendable troops that can be used in overwhelming numbers against its prey.  The hivemind has an organ that excretes the basic tube structure of the "blorp" gun.  Once its attached to the hydrospawn warrior, it becomes a fully functional blorper.
Treasures (d6 - roll twice; once for gun, once for other item) 1 - "blorp" gun (2 shots left); dried fish wafers 2 - "blorp" gun (3 shots left); pretty shells on thong 3 - "blorp" gun (4 shots left); strange teeth on thong 4 - "blorp" gun (5 shots left); copper trinket (1d4x20 cp value) 5 - "blorp" gun (6 shots left); silver trinket (1d4x10 sp value) 6 - "blorp" gun (7 shots left); pearl or coral trinket (1d4+1x10 gp value)

Juggernaut Amphoron

I'm still playing with the stat-blocks and I'm still working to generate "Gygaxian Naturalism" and Treasures for the monsters.

Anyway, here's one that I've been working on.

Juggernaut Amphoron

The Juggernaut Amphoron is a harvester/processor the size of a semi-attached trailer truck, with a moving crane mounted on its back and two huge circular saws mounted on its articulated arms. If the Juggernaut’s crane hits an opponent, the victim is lifted up into the air over the Juggernaut’s processing hatch, and dropped automatically in the following round. If the crane hits, a saving throw is permitted to escape the its grasp unless the target is wearing metal armor, in which case no saving throw is allowed (the crane contains a backup magnet). Anyone dropped into the processing hatch is processed within 1d4 rounds into a small brick.

Juggernaut Amphoron		00000 UCPI0
automaton	U = Unstable - chance to "flicker" now 2 in 6 C = Crane Demagnetized - the crane magnets no longer work. Targets in metal armor are now allowed a saving throw P = Processor Malfunction - 1 in 6 chance per round that the processor will cease functioning I = Intangible - chance to be "solid" now only 1 in 6
HD 10	AC 2[17]	Atk 2 whirling blades (2d6+2) or crane	Move 9
Save 5	MOR A	CL/XP 13/2300	TT
Special: magic resistance 25%, crane, chance of flickering
Gygaxian Naturalism goes here
Treasures (d6) I'm creating a list of treasures for the monsters.  You'll roll a d6 and read off the list.

Sorry about the delay...

Hi everyone,

I'm posting this to let everyone know that I haven't given up the idea of reworking this book.  :)

In fact, I've tinkered with a number of critters (I'll post a couple soon...)

I'm trying to get the formatting correct.  I'm working on the pre-generated treasure tables.

Several people have offered to help and I'm very grateful for their interest and their patience.  My work has just been insane lately, but Christmas break is coming up.  I hope to get on some kind of roll in the near future; cranking out a couple monsters for the blog each week and powering through the book.  I'd love to get it in the publishing pipeline in Q2 2011.

Anyway, thanks for staying tuned.  I'm certain that the book will be a good one and the intermission is almost over...