Friday, August 26, 2011

Petrocloptrian [Labyrinth Lord]


The Petrocloptrians first appear in the Special Encounters Table for the recently discovered Black Ziggurat of Jalamere, but they are not limited to just that one setting. They are also encountered in Tsan Y'an as xeno-gladiators, in Zalchis as random wandering threats, and they may be involved in some of the unpleasant events transpiring along the Bitter Sea of late...and they may also cross-over into certain Humanspace Empires games from time to time...

Here are their stats for Labyrinth Lord


Petrocloptrian
No. Enc.: 1d2 (1d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (directional levitation)
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 7
Attacks: 1d6+1 (can be split between as many as up to 7 opponents at a time)
Damage: 1d4 or by weapon
Save: F7
Morale: 7


Special: Contact-Telepathy, Close-Quarters Telekinesis, Personal-Levitation, (1d4) Random Psychic Abilities (see Table)

Rugose and ruthless, Petrocloptrians are strange levitating six-limbed quasi-silicaceous beings whose reliance on contact-telepathy requires them to physically touch anyone with whom they wish to communicate. They are also masters of close-quarters telekinesis, which they use to manipulate tools, devices and weapons. Their trailing appendage is prehensile, serving as a seventh limb. Petrocloptrians have a wide range of perceptions that they prefer over visual or auditory senses, which can sometimes put them at a disadvantage when facing more primitive beings.

The flesh of a Petrocloptrian is saturated with fluorocarbon compounds and their blood is highly toxic to carbon-based life (Save -2).

Petrocloptrians are an arrogant people, with a society organized around hunting. Anything not worthy of being hunted, they tend to ignore as vulgar and uninteresting. Each Petrocloptrian is in direct competition with all others of their race in the pursuit of the biggest, most impressive and dangerous trophies they can acquire and then install or mount on the walls of their communal enclaves.

Petrocloptrians have a -2 penalty to all Charisma reactions, -4 with all animals/pack beasts.
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Random Psychic Abilities Table (1d4 per Individual)
  1. Arcane Eye
  2. Cause Fear
  3. Clairvoyance
  4. Commune (as cleric spell, only with Database/AI)
  5. Confusion
  6. Contact Other Plane (as spell, but only able to connect with other Petrocloptrian enclaves)
  7. Detect Invisible
  8. Detect Lie
  9. Detect Magic
  10. Dimension Door
  11. ESP
  12. Feeblemind
  13. Find Traps
  14. Hold Person
  15. Hold Portal
  16. Know Alignment
  17. Locate Object
  18. Speak with Animals (works with most non-Petrocloptrian humanoids as well)
  19. Speak with Plants (as above, no penalty on Charisma reaction)
  20. Stone Tell (as above, but with +2 Charisma reaction bonus)
All of these psychic abilities are equivalent to the named Labyrinth Lord spell, only they all require the Petrocloptrian to physically touch whomever or whatever they seek to use these abilities on. Breaking the contact breaks the effect. All other penalties apply, especially the chance of insanity for use of Contact Other Plane.

There are Petrocloptrian sorcerers as well as high-order psychics, but they are fairly uncommon, except in Zalchis and among the Jewelled Net of Yndroxxa. There are also specialized Petrocloptrian Voyanteurs, Guardians and Gladiators that might be of interest, so the stats for those specialized sub-types will be forthcoming as we further explore the Black Ziggurat, Jalamere and beyond.

3 comments:

  1. Any creature description that uses the word "rugose" gets the benefit of the doubt from me at the outside. ;)

    And interesting and well-thought out beastie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Trey: 'Rugose' is one of those words that just sounds interesting, but all it means is wrinkly and pruned-out.

    We aim to have our monsters fulfill a role within a functional ecology, or at least have a good reason why they don't, won't or can't...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep. Outside of Lovecraftiana, I've only ever encountered it in medical textbooks.

    ReplyDelete

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