From an Ancient Bestiary

I was going through some boxes in the attic when I found my old school notebook from when I was nine or ten years old. It contains what is probably the first bestiary that I've made, scrawled in between homework. It is... rather silly, really. Apparently I was enamoured with deadly poison and big numbers at the time. And the word "super".

This is no RPG bestiary, mind you. Just some hand-drawn monsters with short descriptions of capabilities. For your enjoyment, I have scanned the pictures and noted some fun facts from the descriptions. Hope you like really shitty art.

 

Winged Knight
His right hand has been replaced with a hurricane-strength wind cannon and he is apparently wearing heavy armour, yet he can still fly. His sword is also "super-sharp".

 

Carp Knight
This one had his right hand replaced with a water cannon capable of cutting steel, his fish-scales are as hard as his armour, and he can swim at a maximum speed of 300 km/h.

They are not present in this bestiary, but I distinctly remember there were more types of these knight, the Knights of the Labyrinth. There were the Four-armed Knights (with two arm-cannons) and the Tentacled Knights (with a normal upper body and a lower body dissolving into a mass of tentacles) and maybe even more that I don't recall. They all hail from the Enchanted Labyrinth, a dungeon that we explored with my brothers before we knew about any RPG rules and systems, using just make believe.

 

Three-humped Dragon
I like how this dragon is more of a chimera, mixing bits of a camel, hippogriff, goat, lion and an actual dragon. His three humps allow him to survive without food and water for up to three years and he can fly at a top speed of 300 million km/s, which is a thousand times faster than light. It is not written anywhere, but I'd like to imagine that this dragon can survive in the outer space and migrates between solar systems.

He also doesn't breathe fire, but rather shoots lightning from his horns.

 

Unicorn Devil
Probably my favourite creature of this bunch, simply because he looks so silly.

The unicorn horn secretes a "super-deadly" poison. I told you it's coming. The devil horns are even stranger, with a note saying they have "magic rope". Can they manifest some animated rope, or what exactly is going on? It's a mystery.

He is also noted as being super strong and tough, wearing no armour and needing none.

 

Mud Devil
This is both a devil and an alien, hailing from the solar system of Sirius. His whole body is made of living mud, which lets him pass through cracks or grating. He's also in love with lasers, because both his sword and his staff can shoot lasers.

 

Alien of Jupiter
Or I guess Jovian?

He can fly (presumably via psychic powers) and shoot ball lightning from his antennae (seen in action on the picture). His robe is also indestructible.

 

Tiny Ghost-Ghoul
His tentacles have venomous suckers, though not super-deadly this time. However, the weapons are enchanted to kill instantly.

Being a ghost, he can also phase through walls and fly. No information is given on how tiny he truly is, but given that I had once considered it necessary to mention his size, he is probably really small.

 

Elastic Ghost-Vampire
Now this one has a fun form of attack. His whole body and all the hands can stretch and twist. He reaches through a wall to grapple a victim, and once the victim is immobilized, bites them and drains their blood.

 

Poison Daisy
Not only does this flower have venomous teeth, she is also thorny with any scratches resulting in an infection. Thankfully, she is rooted in place, so just keep your distance.

 

Serpent Sapling
It's a coniferous tree sapling which can slither around on its single overlarge root. It can also shoot needles imbued with super-deadly poison. And it's so small and inconspicuous it can easily hide. Oh joy.

 

Guardian Robot
I don't know what is he guarding, but he might be better off switching lines of work to a killer robot. His right hand-cannon fires rockets while the left hand-cannon produces a death ray. He can also stomp for a shockwave, shoot lightning bolts from his antenna (Why did I like electrified antennae so much?) and if all that fails, bite off your limbs. His visor pierces invisibility and the material of his body ignores intangibility.

Finally, he can slide out wings and fly, with a maximum speed of 300 million km/s. Now I must imagine a chase scene where this robot is attempting to capture some adventurers riding three-humped dragons, plummeting through outer space at FTL speeds.

 

Sunfire Monster
Not much is noted about this creature, except that it attacks with flaming fists that burn with the heat of 11 trillion °C. Funnily, our Sun at its very hottest, in the very core, only has a temperature of 15 million °C.

Oh, and he also ignores cold of up to -100 °C, but given how he would pretty much instantly turn the whole planet into a ball of plasma, that shouldn't be a problem.

QHW, Day 29: Location

Here are some desert hexes:

Terrain: Sand dunes.
Obvious: Tall, ancient tree. Has roots so deep they reach the underground river hidden beneath the sand. Great for orientation, as there is nothing but it and sand all around.
Hidden: City ruins buried in sand. A sandstorm might uncover them, only for the next one to bury them again.

Terrain: Sand dunes.
Obvious: Tents of d6 bedouin families. They are taking their herd of camels to a town fair. You can come with if you wish to.
Hidden: Several corpses freshly buried in shallow graves.

Terrain: Small town with a fort.
Obvious: An inn, a bazaar, baths, barracks with barely any soldiers.
Hidden: A watchtower with all entrances bricked up.

Terrain: Wadi.
Obvious: One-armed goatherd with a massive herd of goats.
Hidden: Giant sandstone hand sticking out of the ground.

Terrain: Sandstone rocks.
Obvious: Sand people campsite with a wellspring, hidden in a rock crevasse.
Hidden: Sandstone tombs deeper in the rocks.

And here are some undead:

Elkali

• Also known as the Sun vampires, elkali are solitary desert-dwelling undead who prey on caravans and oasis settlements.
• They appear as sun-dried corpses, and thus usually hide their visage behind robes, veils and headdresses.
• They feed by draining a creature of all their moisture, leaving them mummified.
• They are known to possess inhuman strength and speed, plus the ability to transform into a flying cloud of sand.
• They only stay active when the Sun is up. Even being in shadow weakens them.
• At night, they fall into a deathly torpor and cannot be roused. Thus they dig themselves deep into sand to sleep in safety until the Sun rises again.
• Unlike their local counterparts, they cannot stealthily hunt under the cover of the night, so they rely on disguises, ambushes and kidnapping their victims for later meals.
• During the night, hunters will use thin poles to discover dormant elkali. However, they also have to deal with the ghouls that come out at night to devour the corpses left behind by elkali.

QHW, Day 2: Beggars

Ah, the beggar-dead. Those unmourned souls and unburied skeletons.

They are immortal. They are ever-present. They are so feeble that even a child could beat them up.

They hide in the shadows and back alleys. They swarm the gates of graveyards and temples.

They want your mourning, your sorrow, your tears.

"Please sir, I died alone and nobody cared."

"Just a tear, ma'am, please! My children never loved me."

"I beg you, milord, show mercy! I was murdered by my wife and left in a ditch. Please, help me move on."

Don't. You help one and a thousand more will swarm you. You could cry yourself dry and they would still keep coming.

Just ignore them or notify the Busters' Guild.

Class: Random Advancement Vampire

Vampirism - You don't need to eat, sleep, or breath, but you must drink blood. Allergic to sunlight. Powers and weaknesses develop as you drink more people.

 
A character of mine in a Finders Keepers game currently has this trait. The question remains, what kind of powers and weaknesses will a vampire develop? You can use the generator below - once you drink enough blood, press the button and you will gain one random power and one random weakness.

While the powers and weaknesses were created with Finders Keepers* in mind, they can easily be used for vampiric characters in any Into the Odd-style game. To make it work as a GLOG class, you could grant Vampirism and one roll on the generator at template A, then one extra roll each level. Or just use it to inspire powers for your NPC vampires.

 
Dead blood is any blood removed from a living body for over an hour, or taken from a dead body that already started to grow cold.

To feed someone your blood, take d4 damage unless otherwise specified.

*) Some of the abilities are frankly stolen from there.

Traditional Vampire Weaknesses

Maybe you want a traditional vampire, but with a little bit of randomness sprinkled in. Maybe you just want to stop the sparkling...

 

d30 Vampire Weaknesses

1. Animosity: Most animals are afraid of the vampire, running away or attacking. Bats, wolves and insects instead adore him.
2. Black eyes: The vampire is blinded in bright light. In any lighting above a dim candlelight, the vampire's eyes appear solid black.
3. Bloodline: When the sire dies, all his children die as well. Those not yet fully turned are cured instead.
4. Bloodlust: If not fully sated, the vampire must Save vs going into bestial frenzy at the sight of blood. If hungry, she must Save in the presence of any living creature with blood.
5. Burial ground: The vampire must sleep on at least a small amount of dirt from her grave, otherwise she cannot heal from resting.
6. Coffin: The vampire must sleep in the coffin he was buried in, otherwise he cannot heal from resting.
7. Daysleeper: The vampire cannot stay awake during daylight hours and won't wake up even if threatened.
8. Dead blood: Coming into contact with dead blood (drinking from a cadaver, being injured by a weapon coated in old, clotted blood) forces a Save vs unconsciousness.
9. Vampire blood: Drinking the blood of another vampire forces the vampire to Save or devolve into a ravenous bat-beast.
10. Healing blood: The vampire cannot heal but through the consumption of blood.
11. Fatal hunger: The vampire must feed at least once per day. Starvation kills the vampire instead of resulting in deathless sleep.
12. Feeble hunger: The vampire becomes physically weaker than a normal human while malnourished.
13. Fear of fire: The vampire must Save vs Fear in the presence of any flame larger than a torch.
14. Food rejection: Consuming anything but blood causes severe and prolonged vomiting.
15. Garlic: The vampire cannot use any supernatural powers while poisoned with garlic.
16. Hideous: The vampire has the appearance of a rotting corpse, a pale and gaunt husk, or a gargoyle-like demon. She cannot use any magic to hide this.
17. Holy ground: The vampire cannot enter consecrated ground unless physically forced onto it, and cannot take any other action but flee while there.
18. Holy symbols: The vampire must Save to advance against anyone who presents a holy symbol of faith they truly hold.
19. Holy water: In addition to the normal damage against undead, holy water temporarily blocks the vampire's supernatural powers.
20. Insanity: The vampire is not really of sound mind. Most likely insanities are delusion, compulsion, obsession, paranoia, or quirks.
21. Invitation: The vampire cannot enter a long-term dwelling uninvited. Campsites or hotel rooms are fine, though.
22. No reflection: The vampire has no reflection and involuntarily recoils when looking into a mirror, gaining disadvantage on her rolls.
23. No shadow: The vampire has no shadow. She automatically fails any Saves vs light-based magic (including illusions).
24. Pride: The vampire may not refuse any challenge that she believes she would win, nor may she break her word unless the other party betrays her first.
25. Running water: Whenever the vampire has more than a half of any body part (legs above knees, arm above elbow, body up to chest) submerged in running water (any river or brook, but not lake or sea), this body part becomes immobile and unusable. Especially in the case of legs, this can make the vampire fall into the water, rendering him completely immobile until removed from the flow.
26. Salt: The vampire takes damage from salt and salt water as if it was acid.
27. Silver: The vampire takes double damage from silver weapons, or 1d4 damage per round per any silver item touching his bare skin.
28. Scorching sunlight: The vampire is turned to dust instantly in sunlight, instead of only taking damage.
29. Stoning sunlight: The vampire is turned to stone instantly in sunlight, instead of only taking damage.
30. Wooden stake: If impaled through the heart by a wooden stake of a specific wood (ash, hawthorn, cherry), the vampire is instantly slain and crumples to dust. Other types of wood only paralyse the vampire until the stake is removed.

Here are several examples of what I consider good vampire looks: