Four Accidental Monsters

 Bale Snails

 

 

HIT DICE: 3

ARMOR CLASS: Front 8 [11]; rear 4 (16)

MOVE: 3"

ATTACK: Antlers d8

SPECIAL ATTACK: None

SPECIAL DEFENSE: Rear half: Weapon resistance, fire vulnerability

MIND: Animal

A wizard did it - but not all wizards should do it.

If you take the fromt end of a deer - shades of Project Peryton! - and, playing with the platonic forms of the germ-seed as wizards do, append to it  the rear end of a gaint hermit crab, the hybrid will seek out tall grass and roll itself a thick and durable protection. Attacks from the rear, and optionally the side, do no damage to the hay-shell if blunt or piercing, half damage if slashing or cold, but double if fire.

Craven

HIT DICE: 1

ARMOR CLASS: 6 [13]. skill 2

MOVE: 12"/15" flying

ATTACK: Scratch, 2x d2 nonlethal, or peck, d2

SPECIAL ATTACK: None

SPECIAL DEFENSE: Shadow walk

MIND: Average

When asked where her unusual familiar came from, the witch Aphetra Burnish replied, "My one-eyed cat was overshadowed by a raven's shadow that had lost its raven." Whatever that means, the resulting beast is a most effective emissary of sorcery. It can walk silently as a cat, or tilt its head and unfurl wings that make a dull beating noise. In either form it traverses open areas of complete darkness instantaneously.

Imperial Vulture

HIT DICE: 2+2

ARMOR CLASS: 7 [12]

MOVE: 3"/12" flying

ATTACK: Two beaks, d6 + 1

SPECIAL ATTACK: None

SPECIAL DEFENSE: None

MIND: Animal

Among the lesser of the unpleasant secrets held by the Empire, we find this: its double eagle emblem resembles no noble bird in nature, but rather this mutant, man-tall baron of carrion infrequently sighted over the southern wastes. Indeed, the Empire's apologists work overtime to pour meaning into the two heads: they are the divine and the secular, the joining of two soaring kingdoms, the vision of the Little Father of Heaven that knows no blind spots. But the imperial vulture needs no elaboration. It is content to rule a dozen or so of its one-headed kindred, urging them to abandon their usual ways and flock on prey like carnivores, swooping down to gorge on its dead and broken fellows while the survivors bend to their usual feast.

Gallion

HIT DICE: 12

ARMOR CLASS: front: 6 [13]. rear: 3 [16]

MOVE: 3"/swimming 9"

ATTACK: Two paws, 2d6, and bite, 2d10

SPECIAL ATTACKS: None

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Rear half resistances

MIND: Animal

To impale or to dimidiate? The choice may seem easy when two sets of long horizontal charges are to be marshalled within the same escutcheon. In our world, the confederation of ports that joined the lions of England to a trio of ships can lay claim to that rare feat in heraldry, a joke that is not a pun. 

In a fantastic world, though, life can imitate heraldry with disastrous results. Thus the debt-ridden Duke of Argenrath, he of the three lions passant guardant, joined his fortune to the heiress Melva, she of the three ships which coyly betray that trade-gold had bought her grandfather a barony. The dimidiated arms of the new family caused much comment, not least when ships of Melva's concern began disappearing. A tale from a survivor could hardly be credited, until a fast-fleeing ketch confirmed the nature of another disaster two weeks later. The ships were being smashed by monstrous sea-lions, each the size of a small whale, and without the usual fish's tail, but rather, the rear end of a stout oak-timbered ship's hull!

Nature, pontificated the savants, was passing its judgment on the most unnatural debasement of a noble house forced to prostitute its sons to the coin-counting classes. All the same, Melva's coin still spends, and she is looking for powerful adventurers and wizards to test their mettle as guardians of trade. The mythological menaces are fearsome at close quarters, but slow in the water, and most liable to strike out of fog, darkness, calm, or contrary winds. It is guessed that their ship-half, in place of a belly, digests cargo and timbers. Being of wood, its ship parts take half damage from slashing and bashing weapons, none from piercing or cold, but are fully damaged by fire.