Forgewraiths are the angry spirits of those consigned to death in the Lavapit Forges. The wraiths hate the living and seek to destroy them in any way possible, but take particular delight in watching their victims burned alive.
Instinct: To roast the living
Vomit Lava
Induce fever with a touch
Fever Touch: Inflicts the Shaky debility, plus Forgewraith regains 1d4 health
I personally really like the “Vomit Lava” move. It can quickly change the terrain and make movement a real hazard. Also, my thoughts behind the fever touch move inflicting Shaky stem from a time when I had a high fever and my knees were shaking so bad I couldn’t stand for more than a few seconds (and it’s kind of heat related LOL). All thoughts, comments and criticisms are welcome!
This immense moth has huge purple wings marked with spiraling black patterns that seem to shift and writhe.A gloomwing hunts for 2 to 3 hours at dawn and again for 2 to 3 hours at dusk, preferring to spend the remaining hours of the day hiding in abandoned buildings, caves, or deep canyons or foliage where the shadows are thickest. During its periods of activity, it flies through the sky on the hunt for creatures to attack and implant its eggs in—the gloomwing does not need to eat, leaving this urge to propagate its species as its primary drive.The eerie shifting of patterns on a gloomwing’s wings is hypnotic—make a Defy Danger +DEX at or become charmed. This is a mind-affecting effect—gloomwings and tenebrous worms are immune to this effect.A gloomwing can lay eggs inside a small or larger helpless creature as a attack.Within 24 hours of a creature’s death, 1d4 young tenebrous worms emerge from the corpse, devouring it completely in the process. The eggs can be destroyed via any effect that cures disease or magically heals.For all the dangers a gloomwing presents, it is the creature’s young that pose the gravest threat. These creatures are known as tenebrous worms, and despite being the larval form of the adult gloomwing, are much more dangerous creatures. The fact that a gloomwing can lay several eggs a day if presented with enough living hosts makes them dangerous not for what they can inflict themselves, but for what they can spawn.
Instinct: Implant Eggs
Tenebrous Worm (Group, Tiny, Planar)
Acid bite (d6-2 damage)1 HP
Hand, Ignores Armor
Special Qualities: Paralytic poison, Melts flesh into shadows
This pallid worm clatters upon dozens of small legs. Writhing bristles twitch on its back, and its shadow seems strangely mobile.The caterpillar-like tenebrous worm is a voracious predator that hungers for mortal flesh. The tenebrous worm is the larval stage of the gloomwing—but in a strange reversal, these younger creatures are more dangerous than the adults they grow into. A tenebrous worm hatches from the corpse of an unfortunate creature that has been implanted with an egg by a gloomwing. The tenebrous worm is fully grown upon hatching, and immediately begins to scour its environs for flesh to consume.Although the tenebrous worm tends to be relatively pale-colored, its internal organs seethe and roil with shadowy energies and dark fluids. As the creature feeds, these shadowy innards begin to grow out of its body, forming strange bristle-like filaments of semisolid shadowstuff not only capable of piercing the flesh of those who would attack the worm, but also possessing a deadly paralytic poison. Additional shadowy fluids constantly seep from the worm’s mandibles—when it bites prey, these fluids melt flesh into shadows that the creature can then consume. When a tenebrous worm feeds on enough of this shadowy flesh, the creature seeks out a secluded, shady area (typically just within a cave entrance or in a ruined building) and spins a shadowy cocoon around itself. A tenebrous worm’s cocoon exudes the effects of a darkness spell, muting the surrounding light. After a period of several days, the cocoon tears open and a fully grown gloomwing emerges, ready to seek a host for its eggs.
Instinct: Consume
*Custom Rule: When first hit by a Tenebrous worm the player must Defy Danger+CON or become paralyzed until the party next makes camp.
Something Actually Useful: Instant Monsters for Dungeon World
Something Actually Useful: Instant Monsters for Dungeon World
Do you ever miss the days of Tunnels & Trolls, when you could just spin up a monster on the fly with a creative description and a single stat?
Okay, probably not. Making monsters in Dungeon World is not exactly rocket science. Still, it does have more steps than T&T, and it’s complicated enough that Jeremy Strandberg created a one-sheet variant to make it easier.
But Dungeon World and T&T otherwise have a lot in common when it comes to monsters: What makes monsters interesting in both games, their entire presence in the game and how the players engage them, is their fictional positioning, rather than their ratings. DW formalizes this by giving monsters moves and tags and stuff, but T&T has been implying it since 1975.
So, if you’d like to try out a system for busting out monsters raw like sushi, check it out here:
Design Challenge: What powers and stats might an undead troll have?
Design Challenge: What powers and stats might an undead troll have? A player spoke about one when I asked what rumours he’d heard about the guardian on the underwater tower they’re investigating.
A Dungeon World creature and teaser for Plundergrounds 4.
A Dungeon World creature and teaser for Plundergrounds 4. The stats are absurd, but you aren’t supposed to fight it. At best you might try to maneuver it into driving itself off a cliff! [Edit – the “it’s” is a typo. I’ll fix that and make a few minor tweaks for the zine release.]
I wrote another “Whole Damn Army” article. This one’s been a long time coming because it’s part of a campaign location in my Into the Heart of the Dragon campaign. It’s what happens if the party attacks The Hellfire Imperium.
