Merriments and Festivities

Not much to report, here.  Chipping away at a solo-play module for DCC, in the vein of the old Choose Your Own Adventure modules.  A healthy sprinkling of Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf books, as well as the D&D B/X SOLO ones (which I am currently combing through very carefully for stylistic/layout issues).  I think I could manage a pre-release teaser of the wandering monsters portion of the book after some crowd-sourced editing and some place-holder art inserted.

We'll see.  It's coming along.  I just noticed that my fitbit account posts to my old wordpress blog, and it's also tied to my flickr account that my wife keeps putting baby pictures on, so I have a wee bit o' cleaning to do.

Also, as Tlaloc, I brought Horus and Sharee low in a game of Master of Magic.  I was most of the way through research on the Spell of Mastery and kind of just marched my Collossi and Dragon Turtles and heroes armed with death-dealing artifacts all through their cities.  Pretty tame for Christmas this year.

Raze?  Yes.  No worries, that way, of reconquered cities coming up behind me.  The Gods of Death and Nature must be satisfied.

Oh yeah. Merry Christmas, if you're into that pseudo-paganry.  My wife (and daughter) are of the chosen people and we need not celebrate Jesus of Nazareth's birth and then ascension into demigodhood, but we still partake of merriment.

tremulous anticipations

There is (almost always) something about the Autumn that makes me afeared.  Being from Miami, Florida, I was somewhat mystified and taken aback by the falling of leaves and the cool, brisk winds.  It made me take up smoking, once.  I'm done with that now, but when the winds blow I always have the urge to sit on the stoop and light up, and think about awful things.

In that spirit, I give you some ideas for a few monsters.  This is DCC format, since that's the way I roll these days.

I just submitted one to the Spellburn monster contest, shouted out in episode 12: Like a thief in the night.  I don't want to promote too much competition with me, but hey - get on it.  Details in the episode.

http://spellburn.com/2013/11/01/episode-13-like-a-thief-in-the-night/

Also, you should take a look at the adventure that's linked to in there (The Jeweler That Dealt in Stardust).  It is damn fine work.

Here is an autumn body/sex horror monster, burbling around in my psyche since I started to eat crabs after a long psycho-somatic period of pseudo-allergies

The Succubus Crab

Init -4; Atk Claw x2 melee (1d6) or fly bite +2 missile fire (range 120’, 1d3+1); AC 15; HD 3d8+12; MV 20’; Act 1d20; SP charm.  SV Fort +5, Ref -5, Will +6; AL N

The Succubus Crab requires, for its sexual reproduction, the transmogrified essence of a male humanoid host. It is a lumbering 10 foot tall semi-aquatic abomination, appearing for all intents to be a tentacle-mouthed pink crab-like being with a chitinous shell and razor-sharp claws.  These are the females. Buzzing around the giant clacking horrors are a cloud of males, smaller by an order of magnitude and winge'd.

In order to complete the reproduction cycle, the female sends a contingent of males to a likely victim, who is promptly stung should a succesful attack occur.  Those males that miss are not fit to reproduce in any case.  A small sting signals success, and the victim (usually a human male) must make a DC 15 Fortitude Save, else the reproductive essence of the male succubus crab wends its way (temporarily) into the host.  Aside from the walloping sting of a bite, no further effects are immediately incurred.  That said, biological changes are occuring on a cellular level in very specific tissues.

Any party encountering the female crabs are right to flee in horror and disgust - however, any stung and affected male humans are suddenly enraptured by a cloud of pheromones.  The tentacular and chitnous foreparts of the Succubus Crab female appear to be a desirable member of the female human sex, writhing in erotically charged agony and ecstasy.  The human male victim approaches, mates with the facial parts of the Succubus Crab, and is stunned for 1d3 rounds in utter sexual helplessness.  Meanwhile, his captor carves him up into piecemeal to sustain the egg-hatching process, for the young of the species need much in the way of sustenance - at least, the females do.  The males flit around like flies.

The chitin of the Succubus Crab can be shaped and worked into plates, and cured into light-weight and durable armor (AC 15, light encumbrance).  They are very succulent with a sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning and sprayed with lemon, but difficult to place entirely in a steamer.