The Hounds of Ak-Syt Bill Gant 1993. The Hounds of Ak-Syt are large (180 lbs), black, bristle-haired beasts with evil, fiery eyes that can see in darkness. These creatures are the dogs of Agrik's dreaded torture chamber Ak-Syt, who hungrily feed off the scraps and discarded body parts of tortured victims. Lean, vicious beasts, the Hounds are always hungry. They hunt in packs. Although rare on the mundane plane, they are sometimes summoned to feed off the dead on large battlefields, particularly if many of the dead are Laranian. Of course, the Hounds always prefer the taste of live flesh. The Hounds can vomit forth gobs of flame (300' range) that shoot out at great speed (High Velocity). This action costs 1d6 FPs. The Hounds are immune to their fireballs and any mundane fire. The bite of a Hound is prone to cause disease. The Healing Rate of any bite wounds decreases by 1 level. The Hounds of Ak-Syt are usually found in packs of 8. They dislike water and cannot cross streams or pools. They never appear when it is raining or snowing. STR 17 SPD 15 INT 05 MOB 75 END 20 EYE 16 AUR 16 DGE 105 DEX -- HRG 18 WIL 17 INI 63 AGL 15 SMT 20 FR 2 Bite: 80/8t Fireball: 80/6f Tracking: 55 ARMOUR: B5 E4 P3 F6 S3 T5 (except eyes) - - - - - Satyr Bill Gant 1993. Satyrs are the ugly, squat, horned, hairy and rapaciously lustful offspring of the beautiful and immortal Syverhyn, nymphs cursed by the goddess Halea. They typically stand between four and a half and five feet in height and are of heavy build. All Satyrs are male, and although they are unable to breed more of their kind, they actively seek sexual intercourse, especially with human females (Sindarin women would be most desirable, but few Satyrs would be fortunate enough to couple with them). It is said that women who have been taken by a Satyr often bear deformed babies. No few illegitimate human births are blamed on the lustful Satyrs. Satyrs have the haunches and rear limbs of goats, the loins of small ponies and have short horns smilar to those of a goat or ram. Their skin baked brown and leathery. Their muscles and faces are gnarled. Satyrs are famed for their constant lechery and wiry strength. Most Satyrs possess enchanted pan pipes with which to seduce their targets. The effects of the pipes work only on human females, who must be within earshot and listening for at least one minute. All human females listening can be affected, and each must roll against Willx3 (x1 if the Satyr achieved CS) to avoid being hypnotised by the music. (A Value Enhancement of at least 4.0 is required for the hypnosis to work at all.) Once hypnotised, the Satyr can make the victims dance or indulge in whatever sexual act he desires, for as long as the Satyr continues to play and for a further Pan Pipes SIx5 minutes (x15 minutes with CS) after he stops playing. Note that when the Satyr causes the females to dance, he can have them follow him to another location. If the Satyr plays the pipes again while the victim is entranced, the hypnotism continues automatically. If a female listener succeeds in her Will roll but remains within earshot of the pipes, she must make further Will rolls each minute until a CS is rolled (in which case she is immune to the effects), she leaves or she fails. The pan pipes can also be used against human males (even male Khuzdul and Gargun are said to be affected), as a kind of weapon to scare them away. The pipes may not be used in this manner against females of any species. When used as a weapon, the Satyr accrues 1d6 FPs but the targets (i.e. all males who can hear the haunting tunes of the pipes) must make Willx5 rolls (x3 with CS) every Round until CS, MF or CF is rolled. This roll is essentially a morale check - with failure, the victim runs away and will not voluntarily return. As with the seduction attempt, a Value Enhancement of at least 4.0 is needed for the fear attack to work. STR 15 EYE 13 INT 12 MOB 60 END 16 HRG 16 AUR 13 DGE 65 DEX 14 SMT 14 WIL 12 INI 67 AGL 13 TCH 14 FR 1 SPD 12 VOI 08 COM 05 (to humans) Head Butt: 60/4b Spear: 70/9p Pan Pipes: 105 ARMOUR: B4 E3 P1 F3 S1 T3 (Sk, Hp, Gr, Th, Kn, Ft only) B3 E1 P0 F1 S1 T1 (everywhere else, except eyes) Immune except to enchanted weapons. - - - - - The Knuck Bill Gant 1993. The Knuck is a bizarre, magical, 5' tall chimera. It appears as a young human male with pointed ears and a bristly stripe of hair across the top of his otherwise bald head. Instead of hands he has chitinous, sharp pincers, like a crab's. From the hips down is a pony's body. In the forequarters is a giant, slavering mouth with vicious fangs. The front hooves are cloven but the rear legs are clawed and scaly like a lizard's. Instead of a pony's tail there is a huge scorpion's tail with poisonous sting at the tip. The Knuck is a highly magical demon. It is immune to spells of Complexity Level III or lower, and has a permanent negation field surrounding it. It is vulnerable to mundane weapons, but regenerates at a rate of 2 IPs per Round from wounds inflicted by them. The gaze of the Knuck is petrifying. Anyone within 100' who sees the Knuck's gaze must make a Willx3 (x1 if the Knuck achieved CS) roll to avoid being frozen in complete fear. A petrified victim cannot move and must choose Ignore as a defence for as long as the Knuck is nearby, and for a further 5d6 minutes after the Knuck has vanished. The gaze is very fatiguing for the Knuck, however (30 FPs), so he does not use this special ability often. The Knuck is an ethereal being, capable of becoming corporeal (and visible) for short periods of time. It can attempt possession when non-corporeal. STR 19 EYE 15 INT 16 MOB 70 END 17 HRG 12 AUR 24 DGE 75 DEX 11 SMT 16 WIL 17 INI 75 AGL 15 TCH 11 FR 1 SPD 14 VOI 15 Claw: 85/8bt Sting: 75/8p (H3 poison) Bite: 55/10t Petrifying Gaze: 85 ARMOUR: B4 E3 P1 F3 S1 T3 (except eyes) PSIONICS: Clairvoyance: 95 Medium: 123 Mental Bolt: 80 Sensitivity: 100 - - - - - Vermis Aetherius (Psychic Parasites) Bill Gant 1993. The worms of the ethereal fabric of Kelestia, these invisible parasites feed off the Aura of the living. With Auras of 25 or less, living beings do not notice the effects of the feeding, since what little Aura is consumed is completely recovered in a short time. The danger occurs when a being with extremely high Aura (26+) appears on the mundane plance, for such creatures show up as bright beacons in the ether, and therefore summon a disproportionately high number of the Vermis Aetherius. When the worms arrive in such large numbers, serious damage to the victim's Aura can be inflicted. For this reason, creatures with Auras of 26+ generally stay away from the mundane plane, and instead live on Yashain or some other magic-rich world where such Auras are far less conspicuous. It is not known whether the Vermis Aetherius affected the Earthmasters, most of whom had Auras of 13 to 28 (20-21 on average). For each point of Aura above 25, the victim has a 1% chance of summoning a massive horde of the Vermis Aetherius. A check is made when the Aura first appears on the mundane world, and a further check is made every 40-Aura minutes (1 minute minimum). Thus a character with an Aura of 27 has a 2% chance of summoning the horde when he or she first manifests his or her Aura on the mundane plane, with an additional check being made every 13 minutes until the Aura drops to 25 or less. 1d3 Rounds (10-30 seconds) after a check succeeds, the victim is attacked by hundreds of invisible, maggot-like worms from the surrounding ether. Mental Conflict ensues, with the worms possessing a "Will" of 3d6+6 and an MCF of Willx4. During the conflict, the victim collapses into the equivalent of a seizure and is unable to do anything else. The Vermis Aetherius horde continues to initiate Mental Conflict each phase until it either loses (in which case it disappears into the ether until another summoning check succeeds) or drains the victim's Aura to less than 26. Each time the worms win the Round's conflict, they viciously eat 1d3 points of the victim's Aura. When Aura is eaten by the Vermis Aetherius, the loss is permanent. Particularly with strong opponents, the Mental Conflict could last a very long time. If during the conflict another summoning check is required and succeeds, the horde's "Will" is increased by +6. Any time a summoning roll succeeds, assume a fresh horde of Vermis Aetherius has arrived - that is, they have no Fatigue Points accrued from previous Mental Conflicts. If the victim's Aura is over 25 because of magical enhancement (e.g. from the Savoryan spell, "Perfection of Sif" or the Earthmaster artifact, Amulet of Blessing), both the original Aura and the Aura bonus are affected by any loss. In the case of "Perfection of Sif", if the Aura is reduced, the victim's original Aura can be determined by dividing the reduced Aura by the multiple used to increase the original Aura (1.5 with MS, 2 with CS). Round halves down. In the case of the Amulet of Blessing, half of the Aura loss is subtracted from the amulet, the other from the victim's own Aura, but with an odd number, the extra point is taken off the original Aura. The Vermis Aetherius are completely immune to mundane attacks. Even magic will not affect the horde as a whole unless it affects each worm in the horde. EXAMPLE: Mandukar of the Omnipotent Violet Iris of Illimitability is a proud and selfish Shenava of the Savoryan convocation. His Aura is 18 and his Will 16. During a pitched battle between his adventuring party and a large group of Gargu-Khanu, he decides to cast "Perfection of Sif" (ML 120) to boost his Aura, then cast "Arrow of Utern" (ML 67) to blast the orcs' psyche. Casting his first spell in just 75% of the time normally required so that spellfire occurs in the same Round (thereby reducing EML to 87, including Physical Penalty, etc), Mandukar makes his skill roll. He arrogantly achieves a Critical Success - his Aura bursts up to an awesome 36. This adds an EML +60 bonus to "Arrow of Utern"! However, because his Aura has become so high, there is an 11% chance of inadvertantly summoning a horde of the dreaded Vermis Aetherius... Oh oh! A 07 was rolled. The GM determines that the worms will arrive in the following Round. Unaware of what is occurring in the ether around him, Mandukar begins to cast "Arrow of Utern" in the second Round. As Mandukar is casting his spell, the worms attack! The Shek-Pvar collapses in a mad fit, causing his attack spell to automatically abort (the GM reduces EML by -20 and treats any MF as a CF). "Arrow of Utern" fortunately aborts harmlessly (after all, EML is still 95). The battle between Mandukar and the Vermis Aetherius begins. The psychic parasites have a collective Will of 18; hence each phase of Mental Conflict takes 15 seconds. The horde has an MCF of 72; Mandukar's is 80 (he possesses a home ground advantage) minus current fatigue and other Physical Penalties, so his actual MCF is only 41. During the first phase of Mental Conflict, both parties achieve MS - the horde suffers 14 FPs and Mandukar suffers 20. In the 2nd phase of the conflict (30 seconds later), Mandukar achieves MF while the worms achieve MS. Mandukar suffers another 20 FPs and loses 3 points from current Aura (hence it is now down to 33). In the 3rd phase (45 seconds later), the horde (now with a MCF of 44) achieve CF, while Mandukar (down to an MCF of 05) achieves MF. Mandukar successfully banishes the worms for the moment, but not before suffering from a great amount of fatigue and permanently losing 3 points of Aura. Assuming Mandukar was not killed during the 5 Rounds he was in a seizure, on the 7th minute another summoning roll is made. The chance is now down to only 8% and fortunately fails. When "Perfection of Sif" wears off after 12 minutes, Mandukar finds that his original Aura has dropped from 18 down to 16, forcing him to lose a couple of psionic talents and re-configure his psionic and spell MLs! He begins to wish that he had paid more attention to his Viran about the dangers of Aura enhancement... - - - - - The Lalankh Bill Gant 1993. The Lalankh is a small, elegant and agile Ahnerin. This dragon has a great fondness for human flesh that is surpassed only by his love for beautiful songs and poems. The Lalankh is usually encountered on lonely forest roads. He ambushes the victim(s) and eloquently challenges them to sing a fine song or recite a clever poem, or else he shall eat the victim(s) for supper. If the victim chooses to attack or flee, or if a song or poem is not forthcoming, the Lalankh roars in anger and attacks fiercely, breathing deadly flames. If the victim accepts the challenge, a roll against either his or her Singing or Oratory is required. During the song or poem, the dragon listens intently - his reaction at the end depends on the Value Enhancement level achieved: 7.0+ The Lalankh is amazed. He has never heard anything better! Thoroughly impressed, the dragon gives the singer/poet a fine gift (e.g. a rare gem) and cordially bids him farewell. 4.0+ The Lalankh is impressed. He complements the singer/poet and bids him or her goodbye, thanking him or her for the fine performance. 2.5+ Hmm... He's heard better. The victim is allowed to go, having only barely satisfied the dragon. 1.2+ The Lalankh is disappointed. The singer/poet is allowed to go, but the Lalankh warns that he had better improve next time... and there *will* be a next time (in 1d100+100 days). If the character doesn't achieve a Value Enhancement of 2.5+ next time, the dragon will attack. Less than 1.2 The Lalankh is angered by the atrocious performance and attacks! Any character who gave a performance and survived will receive 5 development rolls to the skill used.