Monsters of Dual: Brain Vine and Fungaloid Lurkers

In a recent session of The Lands of Dual, I wanted my players to be harrassed by some plant minions during their exploration of a tunnel network like my favourite flamethrower wielding heroine Ripley.  

This is the fruit of my labours:

The Brain Vine

This plant is only ever found in subterranean locations and therefore does not rely on sunlight for energy, instead it has evolved a mechanism to secrete a highly acidic enzyme from its tendrils which breaks-down the soil and rock to release minerals which it then consumes.  Once the plant has grown to a huge size its energy needs soon outstrip it's surroundings and so it sends out its tendrils to find new sources of minerals, eating through solid rock and anything else which stands in its way.  The plant often encounters small quantities of Gold within the rock it consumes which solidify and become trapped within the plants heart like gall stones.

Although the majority of its diet is made up of processed rock, it is actually omnivorous in nature and equally suited to extracting nutrients from other plants or animals.  This unusual feeding mechanism also provides the brain vine with its only defence mechanism.  When attacked the plant exudes a cloud of acidic poison gas for 1d4 / 1d6 or 1d8 rounds (depending on the size of the plant).  In the first round the gas cloud has a radius of 10ft and expands by 10ft each round after that.  The gas causes all creatures within the cloud to suffer 1d6 damage unless they make a save against poison.

It is especially vulnerable to strong sunlight which causes any exposed parts to wither and calcify and is pale white yellow in colour topped by a purple-pink fruit resembling a giant brain, hence the name.  PCs may confuse this growth as evidence of an evolved intelligence however this is not the case and the brain vine has only a plant-like intelligence.

The brain vine is asexual and once it reaches adult size produces a single seed every 2 years.  This seed is contained deep within the fleshy brain fruit and resembles a spiky rugby ball.  When planted the seed grows quite slowly taking 1 year to germinate and grow into a Young plant (Medium size), 2 further years to grow to a fully grown into an Adult (Large size) and a further 5 years to mature into a Great Brain Vine (Huge size).  A Great Brain Vine can live upto 5d6 further years before it will wither and die.  

BRAIN VINE
# Appearing:	1
Size:	Medium (Young), Large (Adult), Huge (Great)
HD:	4d8 (Young), 6d8 (Adult), 8d8 (Great)
MOVE:	0
AC:	10
ATTACKS:	None
SPECIAL:	Acid Gas Cloud: 1d6 damage for 1d4 Rnds (Young), 1d6 Rnds (Adult), 1d8 Rnds (Great)
SAVES:	N/A
INT:	None
ALIGNMENT:	Neutral
TYPE:	Plant
TREASURE:	1d4 x 100 GP (Young), 1d6 x 100 GP (Adult), 1d8 x 100GP (Great)
XP:	40 +4/HP (Young), 120 +6/HP (Adult), 250 +8/HP (Great)

Fugaloid Lurkers

These human sized fungal plants are an entirely seperate species which have evolved a symbiotic relationship tending to the Brain Vine and feeding off its decaying plant material and any other plants which inhabit its underground ecosystem.  They are of low intelligence and appear to communicate with each other by releasing fungal spores from the pustules covering their bodies which they inhale through their tendril covered mouths.  They are a mottled green colour, vaguely humanoid and each armlike appendage ends in two tentacles covered in vicious barbs.  Fungaloid lurkers are immune to the Brain Vine's toxic gas.

They are fiercely territorial and interpret anything that is not either another Lurker or the Brain Vine as a threat to the survival of their colony and they will attempt to grapple their prey to the ground and use their barbed tentacles to macerate the flesh in order to bleed it dry.  They will then feed the remains to the brain vine's tendrils and consume whatever is left behind.  They are relatively quick to grow to maturity but the size of their colony is entirely dependant on the size of the Brain Vine plant that they tend. 

A young Brain Vine can support a colony of 15 Lurkers, an Adult Brain Vine supports upto 30 Lurkers and a Great Brain Vine supports upto 45 Lurkers.  When a Brain Vine dies the Lurker population will consume the remains of the vine and then plant a vine seed in its place (if one is available).  Once this process is complete they will consume each other until only a handful are left in order to tend the immature plant.  As the vine grows in size more Lurkers will be created and so the cycle is repeated.

FUNGALOID LURKER
# Appearing:	6-15 (Young), 12-30 (Adult), 18-45 (Great)
Size:	Medium
HD:	2d8
MOVE:	30 feet
AC:	15
ATTACKS:	2 x Tentacles (1d6)
SPECIAL:	None
SAVES:	P
INT:	Low
ALIGNMENT:	Neutral
TYPE:	Plant
TREASURE:	None
XP:	20 +2/HP

You can also download a free sheet of standees for use in your own adventures from RPGNow.

On the Workbench: Ral Partha Djinn & Efreet

One of my favourite AD&D campaign settings is Al-Quadim: The Land of Fate and I've used the odd scenario or module on numerous occasions in my own campaign world.  I picked up these two Ral Partha minis as a blister pair at least 20 years ago and I've had several abortive attempts at painting the Djinn (the turban wearing guy on the left) but never touched the Efreet.  Hopefully this time (with an audience) I can push myself all the way to the finish.

Ral Partha (ES69) Djinn (left) and Efreet (right)

Here's an updated shot after the efreet had a little accident. His blade bent and snapped off... Guess I'll have to do some sort of fix, but not sure what yet, the blade is too thin to pin so perhaps I'll have to build something up in milliput as a replacement. I do however like how the skin and face came out.  I'm also trying to work out how to blend from red to white on his trousers to make it look like he's rising out of a pool of smoke.

Unworked Blue Djinn and Battle damaged Efreet

On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll - Complete

Yesterday I posted a progress photo of my first miniature painting project in rather a long time.  Here's the finished miniature (apologies for the crap photography).

On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll

Giant Forest Troll

I have been out of the miniature painting game for many years but as I've always found it to be quite stress relieving I recently decided to give it a another go, so invested in some new brushes and paints.  I hope that I can begin to put a dent in the large stock of unpainted miniatures which I have collected over the years.  My first project is a Harlequin Miniatures Giant Forest Troll.

I was given this miniature many moons ago as a birthday gift and I had one abortive attempt at painting it soon after moving into my new home 9 years ago.  The miniature is a multipart casting comprising of torso, legs and a huge log club which the troll wields with both hands.  So the first order of the day was to de-flash the parts and then pin and glue them together with superglue.  The gaps (and there are plenty) were then filled with milliput and textured.  I then mounted the miniature to a Foundations of War 60mm Round - Battlefield Debris Base and sprayed it with black primer.

I never liked the painted image on the box lid as it was far too troll-like, so I decided to make mine a bit more generic so it could serve equally well as a giant or a giant ogre.  I use Miniature Paints (the ones in the little glass bottles), they're cheap and have a reasonable consistency and don't seperate too much unlike other paints I've tried in the past.  My painting style is to build up layers of colour from a black base getting gradually lighter and lighter and I find that this gives a good balance of detail at a stand-off scale, particularly when you are painting a bad casting.

Progress: face and skin all painted

I usually paint the face first to give me a guide to the rest of the figure and then block out the large areas of skin and clothing in darkest shades.  With this miniature it was almost 30% painted to begin with but I wasn't happy with the skin tones so I decided to paint all the skin first.

The giant troll is wearing a sort of animal skin toga which barely covers its bum but the painted example on the box shows no trousers.  Clearly this creature is fashion concious ( and enough of a seamstress to sew an animal hide toga) so I decided that it wasn't going to be comfortable without trousers.  These I'll paint as a patchwork of different smaller pieces of cloth which it has clearly picked up off the battlefield (including a rather fetching red gingham tablecloth).

Dinosaurs, Myths, Monsters

This was the title of a fascinating programme on BBC Four in which historian and novelist Dr. Tom Holland charts the alternative history of Paleontonlogy.  

 

The premise being that the fossilised bones and footprints which make up the fossil record have been misinterpreted by different cultures across the ages, from the early Chinese Dynasties through Ancient Greece to the Victorians.

I was aware that the origins of many western dragon myths lay in the discoveries made by earlier civilisations, but not in any level of detail.  The Greeks believed that they were descended from the Gods and Titans and that paleontological evidence uncovered during this age was ascribed not just to mythical beasts but to the Gods and demigods themselves.  Holland recounts that the successful conquest of the city of Tegea by the Spartans who recovered a Mastodon leg bone which they mistook for the leg of the giant hero Orestes.

Every bestiary I've ever read has had it's fair share of mythical beasts or giant this, that and the other, so much so that that you don't think twice about their origins.  Players also take for granted that if their patrons say their village was attacked by a dragon, they ask "did you see what colour it was?"  This blase approach to the origins of mythology got me thinking about some plot options which I could throw at my players.

Leg-endary Hero 

The villagers have long revered their most treasured artifact a leg bone of a giant hero which they keep in their long house and bring out on feast days.  During one such feast day, the village is attacked by a dragon who has caught the scent of the bone and swoops down to attack right in the middle of the festivities.  The hero's leg bone is in fact that of another dragon which even though it is hundreds of years old, still contains plenty of tasty marrow.  

 

For the PCs there's a village to be saved, a dragon to be hunted and a precious artifact to be recovered.

Skeletal Jigsaw 

A scholarly wizard contracts the PCs to recover the final piece of his paleontological puzzle which he has pieced together over many decades.  He is now far too old to go digging around in the mud himself and pays handsomely for the party to recover and escort the bone from the dig site to the university where it will be installed along with the other bones in a reconstruction of a giant mythological beast.  Unfortunately the wizard has gotten his reconstruction all wrong and has put the bones together in the wrong order.  

 

When the all the pieces are in place, the mage has unwittingly reunited the bones of some terrifying ancient magical beast which rearranges itself in its correct configuration before going on a rampage.

Beast of the Week: Hydrothermal Worm

Nature proves yet again that it can evolve animals which would fit quite nicely into any RPG scenario.  Meet... 

The Hydro Thermal Worm

This photo was taken by Philippe Crassous at FEI (makers of Electron Scanning Microscopes).

I think that this is a suitable image for my 100th post

Monster Mistakes of Yesteryear - The Killer Penguin

In 1985, when I was an impressionable 13 year old, someone gave me a copy of Dragonroar RPG by Standard Games.  

I remember it not for it's qualities as an RPG but for one hideously bad monster idea.  

The Killer Penguin...

The Killer Penguin Miniature???

Now I'm not one for dismissing people's creations off hand, but come on guys, what were you smoking that day?  Needless to say no-one's arguing over the rule changes between Dragonroar 3.5 and Dragonroar 4e so the RPG itself was neither a commercial or a critical success and it has long sinced disappeared into RPG obscurity.  

However, I do think that we need to preserve the memory of the Killer Penguin as a warning to all the misguided monster makers out there who may be toying with nature.

If you can think of any other more catastrophic monster mistakes or you think that the KP is much maligned feel free to write to the usual address...

Troll Hunter

Caught this movie trailer on The Book of Worlds.  

Released in Norway on 29 Oct 2010, but so far no details on when it will be scheduled for release in the UK, I expect it will be straight to DVD.  Enjoy...



I can see this having lots of potential for a modern horror scenario, perhaps Cthulhu Now, Delta Green or Conspiracy X. How about mixing in a bit of Kaiju, Godzilla vs Grimetosser perhaps?

Update: This film was fantastic and everyone should see it.