Table: Wandering Monsters (Your Dungeon Tour Table)

Wandering about, you encounter one or more wandering monsters... wandering... about...

This is the twenty-fourth table of Your Dungeon Tour Table.

Wandering Monsters

Roll 1d20

1. A bunch of bogglebears (3d8).
2. A cantaloupapapas.
3. A carrion cruller.
4. A coterie of hobnoblins (4d6).
5. A dungeon-delving chicken.
6. A fearsome ogreat.
7. A flock of lava-loving infernal ducks (2d30).
8. A gathering of grablins (10d10).
9. A group of glowbolds (5d100).
10. A hiyahidra.
11. A horrendous ughyuck.
12. A horrible neo-ughyuck.
13. A Munchkin Liberation Army task force (14 operatives).
14. A number of nulls (3d12).
15. A platoon of porcs (20).
16. A terrible steam-blowing bragon.
17. A troper.
18. A wiant. (Like a giant, but with an emphasis on width.)
19. Roll on this table of wandering monsters.
20. Roll on this other table of wandering monsters.

Table: Room Monsters (Your Dungeon Tour Table)

Monster(s) in this room...

This is the twenty-third table of Your Dungeon Tour Table.

Room Monsters

Roll 1d20

1. annoying youths
2. bored monster
3. brooding monster
4. gambling monsters
5. housekeeping monster
6. hungry monster frustrated with current diet
7. inebriated monster trying to forget past mistakes
8. jealous monster
9. partying monsters
10. pet monster
11. petty squabbling monsters
12. preoccupied bookkeeping monster
13. ragtag band of lost sidekicks
14. slumbering monster
15. sneaky monsters lying in ambush
16. snobbish adventuring party
17. somnambulant monster
18. standard monsters
19. unreasonably wrathful monster
20. vain monster

N.B. Use any desired monster type or roll as a wandering monster.

Reflecting on Fantasy Bestiaries

One of the best and worst things about Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was the Monster Manual and the Fiend Folio. They provided hours of entertainment to my younger brother and me outside of role-playing. My brother's copy of the Monster Manual was our very first exposure to role-playing games years before we knew what a role-playing game was. If it was a book filled with illustrations of monsters, we were fascinated by it. Once we started role-playing, it was a double-edged sword. It was a useful and inspiring resource for me as a Dungeon Master, but for my players (and for me when I was a player) it was an unintentional source of cheating. Hours of poring through monster descriptions is bound to give players an advantage and spoil the surprise. Alas, as in most forms of fiction, the surprise is at least half the fun. Even the new monsters introduced in adventure modules were destined to reappear in the Monster Manual 2, which would be devoured by DMs and players alike. Some were lucky enough to encounter the monsters as players before the book was published, but as more and more players discovered the hobby, they were destined to have their surprises spoiled by the availability of published statistics.

When Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG was first published, it asserted the importance of monsters as an element of the unknown. They were to be the subject of rumors if they were known at all, and player characters would be encountering them with little to no prior knowledge. This preserved the spirit of adventure prevalent in sword & sorcery fiction (one of the main inspirations of DCC RPG), and it enabled many players to relive the thrill of fantasy role-playing when they were first introduced to it and everything was new. Only a few monsters were included in the rule book to be used as a benchmark for judges to create their own. It seemed that manuals of monsters were antithetical to the spirit of DCC RPG, and yet its publisher, Goodman Games, is running a Kickstarter project for just such a tome entitled Dungeon Denizens, and I have backed it. Why? Am I suddenly feeling the grip of Ye Olde Fear of Missing Out? It may be a bit of that, but I think the more pertinent reason is that, unlike D&D, DCC RPG has less clearly defined levels of challenge in regard to monsters. I need more of these benchmarks mentioned in the rule book to help guide me in creating foes for this system. Regardless of which monsters from Dungeon Denizens I decide to use in the adventures I design, I will keep in mind the excellent advice from Chapter 9 (of DCC RPG) under the heading "Keeping Monsters Mysterious."

So, go ahead and back the Dungeon Denizens Kickstarter project, but if you're playing in one of my games, expect the unexpected.

Click here for information.

Table: Wandering Monsters 2 (Unpredict-O-Bubble Table)

Once upon a time there was a Wandering Monsters table that dwelled in the Table of Many Tables. It was lonely, however, so it was introduced to a new friend: Wandering Monsters 2. This is the thirteenth table of the Unpredict-O-Bubble Table.

Wandering Monsters 2

Roll 1d20

1. Aerial Shirker. Frequency: More common than you would think
2. Ankleg. Number Appearing: 2
3. Beeholder. Armor Class: 10 [9]
4. Bissellisk. Move: Almost average
5. Carnivorous Silverfish. Hit Dice: 1 (subject), 10 (aristocrat)
6. Cloud Gerbil. Treasure Type: Nil
7. Dire Aphid. % in Lair: 0%
8. Eye Float. No. of Attacks: 1
9. Grape Ooze. Damage/Attack: 2-16
10. Grin Slime. Special Attacks: Uncontrollable smiling
11. Lungfish, Wild. Special Defenses: Disarming personality
12. Mint Flayer. Magic Resistance: 34%
13. Phase Earwig. Intelligence: Non- (as far as anyone knows...)
14. Rambling Mound. Alignment: Chaotic neutral
15. Rumorhazit. Size: L (quite L)
16. Slumber Hulk. Psionic Ability: Considerable
17. Tapioca Pudding. Psionic Attack Mode: Nil
18. Thought Snacker. Psionic Defense Mode: A variety
19. Wazzit. Note: Often employed as a familiar by absent-minded wizards
20. Wereweevil. Description: Resembles an ordinary weevil except for its palpable aura of malice.

Table: Wandering Cosmic Entities (Unpredict-O-Bubble Table)

Here is a table of wandering Outer Gods, Elder Gods, Great Old Ones, and other Beings of Sanity-Shattering Significance for your average random encounter needs. This is the second table of the Unpredict-O-Bubble Table.

Wandering Cosmic Entities

Roll 1d8

1. Cthaooga
2. Gnarlihotep
3. Schlub Blubberwrath
4. Shystur the Unlitigable
5. Spitooloo
6. Tsafrogyaknow
7. Yo Gurtsothoth
8. Zappathoth

Table: Wandering Monsters (Table of Many Tables)

A table of wandering monsters courtesy of the Table of Many Tables.

Wandering Monsters

Roll 1d20

1. Shambling Hogweed. One of the worst, most formidable monsters you will ever encounter. Not fun. Frequency: Very rare
2. Vampire Hat. Number Appearing: 1-100.
3. Ineffable Hovering Sphere of Inescapable Terror with One Big Scary Eye and Lots of Smaller Scary Eyes. Armor Class: 1 [18]; 4 [15]; 8 [11]
4. Brain-Eating Cuttlefish-Headed Psi-Tyrant. Move: Average.
5. Rockslider. Hit Dice: 9 (foreign), 12 (domestic)
6. Boulet. (Pronounced "bull-lit") Treasure Type: Y
7. Living House. % in Lair: 100%
8. Action Mold. No. of Attacks: 1 or 10
9. Pixie, Feral, Giant. Damage/Attack: 3-12
10. Lobstormer. Special Attacks: Summon a storm of lobsters 1 time/day
11. Pangolin, Giant. Special Defenses: Can roll itself into an impenetrable ball
12. Creepy Crawly, Standard. Magic Resistance: Standard
13. Giant, Quarry. Intelligence: Low
14. Hobnoblin. Alignment: Neutral evil
15. Eel Magistrate. Size: M
16. Beige Slime. Psionic Ability: Nil
17. Flying Calamari. Psionic Attack Mode: ?
18. Golem, Bread. Psionic Defense Mode: Nil
19. Cavy, Dire. Note: Rarely tamed except by ringwraiths or nightgaunts or whatnot
20. Primordial Blah. Description: Indescribable. And unknowable. And unspeakable.

Monster: Karpitrax

Attention! The following is for GM eyes only. If you wish to encounter this creature as a player, do not read this article.

Monster: Telateg

The following creature was inspired by a dream I had a few nights ago. It looked exactly as described.

Telateg

No. Enc.: 1d6 (8d10)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 9' (3')
      Fly: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1d4 hit points
Attacks: 2 (bite, sting + electric shock)
Damage: 1 hit point/2 hit points + 1d8
Save: F1
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: XI
XP: 8

Telategs resemble large, bluish-black wasps 6 to 8 inches in length with long, segmented abdomens ending in bulbous, dual-pronged stingers that emit a dim white glow. Ordinarily, the glow is continual, but it may flash at a frequency that varies depending on whether the telateg is signalling a desire to mate, attract others to a source of food, or rally others to defend the nest. Another property of the telateg’s stinger is its ability to deliver a powerful electrical shock. Telategs use this ability to hunt for small fish by electrocuting schools of them when they are sighted near the surface of a body of water. Telateg “fishing parties” will patrol slow-moving rivers and placid lakes until they discover a school of desirable fish, then dip their stingers into the water and deliver a charge, carrying off the dead fish as they float to the surface. These stingers are also used as weapons to attack intruders in their territory (generally the area ranging from their nest to the nearest body of water), although they generally only attack if molested or their nest is perceived to be threatened. (Telategs are strongly attracted to the sight of gems, however. If gems are visible, telategs will attempt to carry them off to their nest and will attack if prevented from doing so.) Telategs build their nests almost anywhere with mud collected from nearby streams, rivers, or lakes.

Telategs are immune to electrical attacks and are unaffected by smoke.

Monster: Dire Beastfolk

This is the creature mentioned at the end of the beastfolk article.

Dire Beastfolk

No. Enc.: 2d4 (5d12)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: by armor type
Hit Dice: 1+1
Attacks: 1 (bite or weapon)
Damage: 1d6 or by weapon type
Save: F1
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XXI
XP: 15

Dire beastfolk are inherently vicious humanoids whose minds and bodies are warped by the powerful dark magic that spawned them. Believed to be the result of an unholy merging of beast and goblinkind, they were created to be slave soldiers, and as such their culture is entirely militaristic. Most dire beastfolk appear to be an indeterminate mix of various beasts with goblinoid features, but a few exhibit a singular (though goblinish) beast nature, such as that of the bear, great cat, mole, rat, wild boar, or wolf. Their lairs usually consist of barracks in the forts or strongholds of their masters, although there may be independent tribes of dire beastfolk who became free by virtue of the death of their masters, in which case they might inhabit caves or ruins. They are typically armed with pole arms, morning stars, or spears. A minority are armed with crossbows. Typical armor includes padded and leather, with a shield for those not wielding two-handed weapons (AC 8, 7, or 6). Officers, chiefs, and sub-chiefs have 2+2 hit dice, wear laminar armor, carry a shield, and wield a sword or scimitar (AC 3).

Monster: Beastfolk

This is another creature that makes an appearance on the Neutral Monster Incarnation Table of the induced reincarnation spell.

Beastfolk

No. Enc.: 1d6 (3d12)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150' (50')
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 3 or 1 (claw/claw/bite or weapon)
Damage: 1d3/1d3/1d6 or by weapon type
Save: F2
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: XX
XP: 29

Beastfolk are semi-human creatures with beast-like characteristics both in temperament and appearance. Undoubtedly the result of magical experimentation on a large scale in the distant past, most beastfolk exhibit a single dominant beast nature, typically that of the bear, great cat, or wolf. They have human-like intelligence, but rational thought is at constant war with their animal instincts, a condition which has prevented their society from rising above a very primitive tribal structure. Their lairs are natural caves, although hunting bands sometimes build temporary structures of hide or foliage when they are far from home. The only weapons they make or use are spears or hand axes, both of which have stone blades. Shunning armor of any kind, beastfolk rely on their natural agility to avoid death when hunting dangerous prey. Beastfolk in their natural habitat surprise enemies on a roll of 1-3 on 1d6 and are only surprised on a roll of 1.

It is rumored that there are dire beastfolk, created by a merging of beast and goblinkind and trained in the arts and weapons of war, but these rumors have not yet been confirmed.

Monster: Snakefolk

Behold my first creature contribution (inspired by my need to add another creature to the Neutral Monster Incarnation Table for the induced reincarnation spell): a variation of the ophidian from the Monster Manual II (AD&D 1st Edition).

Snakefolk

No. Enc.: 1d12 (6d8)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90' (30')
      Swim: 180' (60')
Armor Class: 6 (5 with shield)
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1 (bite) or 2 (bite, weapon)
Damage: 1d4 + poison; or 1d4 + poison and by weapon type
Save: F3
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XVIII
XP: 80

Snakefolk are creatures of human intelligence who resemble large venomous snakes (average thickness 8-12") with two human-like arms that give them the capability of using tools and weapons. Their scales are the equivalent of scale armor. In combat, snakefolk attack by biting with their venomous fangs and striking with a weapon (if armed). Those who are bitten must save vs. poison or fall asleep for 4d6 hours. Upon waking, the victim must make another save vs. poison. Failure to save means the victim will gradually transform into one of the snakefolk within 1d4+3 days. The spell neutralize poison will prevent the transformation if used before it is complete. The spell cure disease will reverse the effects of the poison. Humans, demi-humans, and humanoids who fall unconscious from the effects of the poison will not be harmed, but will be bound and taken to special chambers deep within the lair until they are fully transformed. Enemies who do not fall unconscious or who resist the transformative effects of the poison are slain and devoured.

Snakefolk who use weapons are typically armed with spear and shield, sword and shield, trident, or bow. Snakefolk are equally at home in caves, trees, rivers, marshes, and deserts, and their coloration varies depending on the habitat of their colony. Those encountered in the natural habitat of their colony are able to surprise enemies or prey with a surprise check of 1-4 on 1d6 due to their camouflage.