Fiend Factory 5E Issue 8: The Tween

Issue 8 The Tween

In this issue’s Fiend Factory, there is an unofficial theme where the monsters all have a gimmick of some kind, often one that messes with a part of adventurers by manipulating them, fiddling with their game mechanics, and other fun things.

The Stinwicodech by Eamon Bloomfield is a bipedal furry creature with a froglike face and a prehensile tongue.

Each time that the stinwicodech hits a creature with its tongue it alternately raises a random ability score by 1 point, and lowers one by 1d6 (which in 1^st Ed D&D was quite a major deal). The name comes, rather cheesily, from the first two letters of the ability scores.

I mean, it’s okay, but I see no rationale behind why this should happen. An undead shadow draining Strength makes sense, but this is really just metagaming.

 

Last issue I complained about the “artistic” headings for the monsters, and the mess for the Chaoticus Symbioticus is a case in point. By the time it went into the Fiend Folio had become a Symbiotic Jelly, but it doesn’t have an illustration in that volume.

This one is by prolific early-years contributer Roger Musson, and is a blob of yellow jelly that feeds on violence. In order to do so it first charms a carnivorous creature to stay near it, and then creates a twin illusion, making the creature appear less powerful or harmless, and also a lure of treasure.

 This is another creature that requires dungeon-bashing to occur in order to support its ecological niche, and it’s also one whose gimmick would only really work once.

The Rock Beast by Callum Forbes from New Zealand is a pretty straightforward elemental-type creature – a living rock, essentially, that can roll over victims and crush them. The rationale behind it is that it evolved from an imperfectly cast flesh to stone spell. But, really, the Galeb Duhr fulfils the same role, so updating it would be redundant.

 

The Carbuncle is a cute little armadillo creature with a gem in its forehead that crumbles if it dies. And the carbuncle can will itself to die if it chooses, but can give up the gem voluntarily (it regrows). The main action of the carbuncle, though, is to use its telepathic, empathic and precognitive powers to sow dissent among the party, or even to attract monsters to fight, possibly because the carbuncle is somehow drawn to the spectacle of death.

It’s a tricky creature to referee, and I’ve got a similar kind of creature lined up for the future (from White Dwarf 48), so I’m not going to convert this one here. This one is by Albie Fiore, who will go onto edit the Fiend Factory once Don Turnbull moves on. Albie uses it in his excellent scenario The Halls of Tizun Thane, in Issue 18.

 

Simon Eaton’s Coffer Corpse is a strange undead concept. I love the idea of an undead formed when a funeral barge didn’t reach its destination – this would work especially well in a setting where the dead were treated in this fashion, perhaps sent down river to the “Isle of the Dead” (see DL7 Dragons of Light), and would also work in the scenario The Lichway which I think is in the next issue (another Albie Fiore masterpiece).

 

However, it seems unnecessary to create a whole special class of undead for them, and it’s also not clear why it has the specific powers that it has. Which are: that it will apparently drop dead if it takes a sizeable amount of damage in one hit, but will then rise up again the next round, causing fear (in NPCs only for the White Dwarf version, while the Fiend Factory version affects any creatures that are fighting it). It can also strangle opponents.

So, again, it’s got some interesting concepts, but they don’t really feel glued together.

 

Another Simon, Simon Muth, gives is the Whirler which became the more robustly-named Vortex when it entered the Fiend Folio. It’s a kind of Medium-sized air elemental, and I think, frankly, you may as well just use a Medium-sized air elemental. It’s effectively got a “grapple” attack, and the poor victim not only takes battering damage each round but has a cumulative 5% chance of getting killed outright! That seems over-powered to me!

 

An odd one next, from Thomas Benson. I keep reading the crazy picture title as “Turing” but it’s a Turung, which makes it sound vaguely, I don’t know, Tibetan. A seven-foot tall, four-foot wide shaggy beast that constantly sheds its red fur, makes me think that perhaps it’s making fun on somebody that the author knows. The turung can also project a web, and cast anti-magic shell once per day, because … well, you tell me. Like several of the monsters this issue, I can see no rationale for why it has these abilities, although there’s nothing here that says why it couldn’t. But the abilities seem out of left-field, like they were bolted on from a random monster generator.

Oh, and it attacks with two tentacles, but as Don Turnbull points out, we don’t know where it keeps its tentacles. Don suggests it has them instead of arms, but the illustrator seems to have given them instead of eyes. Which, if I’m honest, makes for a delightfully weird and creepy-looking creature.

Which brings me to Ian Waugh’s Tween. Not an obstreperous twelve year-old, but a kind of symbiotic ethereal creature. The tween hitches itself to a host, although neither the White Dwarf or Fiend Factory descriptions give any indication about how it does this, or if the host can get rid of it. In the White Dwarf version, characters may not even be aware that they have a tween, but by the Fiend Factory the tween can communicate telepathically and is visible as a smoky outline.

 

The presence of a tween has a two-fold effect – it increases the luck of the host and decreases that of everyone else within 50 feet, friend or foe. The White Dwarf entry is a little vague about how it does this, but in the Fiend Factory entry we are told that the host rolls two dice and chooses the better result, while everyone else rolls two dice and chooses the worst result. Advantage and Disadvantage, in other words, making this creature perfect for conversion to 5^th Edition.

 

The main thing with the Tween when it comes to abilities, is that it doesn’t seem to be very impressive. Hence it doesn’t have particularly non-average ability scores, except for Intelligence based on the rating from the Fiend Folio. Because, basically, it’s not really a combat monster. As an ethereal creature, it’s pretty much immune or resistant to everything apart from force damage, but if the characters can either force it into the material plane, or meet it on the ethereal plane, it suddenly becomes pretty vulnerable. My guess would be that it would flee in short order in such a case.

Note that the original tween had just the one Hit Die; I’ve bumped it up to six Hit Dice so that it’s not a complete soap bubble of a monster, but as I say, it’s not really a combat monster. The main reason it would get attacked is through the host’s fellow adventurers getting fed up with their constant bad luck.

 Challenge, therefore, is difficult to calculate since it acts more by affecting the challenge of everything else. If it were attached to a lone opponent of the party, I’d bump the Challenge Rating of that creature up by about 3 points, but in any kind of mixed group the effect will be diluted by everything apart from the host creature becoming a lot less effective. It’s an effect that is more positive the fewer members of a group there are.

 But there we are: 

Tween

Medium monstrosity, neutral

Armour Class 10 Hit Points 27 (6d8) Speed same as host

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 11 (+0) 10 (+0) 11 (+0) 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 10 (+0)

Proficiency Bonus +2 Damage Immunities acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks Damage Resistances necrotic, radiant Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, exhaustion, grappled, paralysed, petrified, prone, restrained Senses blindsight 60 feet, passive Perception 11

Languages all (telepathy 120 ft.)

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Etherealness. The tween exists in the border ethereal. If it is forced into a material form, or if attacked on the ethereal plane, it loses all of its damage immunities, damage resistances and condition immunities. It can only use its attack against creatures that are also ethereal. Incorporeal Movement. The tween can move through solid objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. If it ends its turn inside a solid object ot takes 5 (1d10) force damage. Natural Invisibility. The tween is invisible, except in bright light, when it is visible as a faint outline. Symbiosis. The tween enters a symbiotic relationship with a willing creature on the material plane. While it does so, the host has advantage on all attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws, but all creatures within 50 feet have disadvantage on all attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws. The symbiosis lasts until either the host or the tween are killed, or until the tween voluntarily ends it. ACTIONS

Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d8) piercing damage. The tween is only able to use this attack against ethereal opponents.