Fiend Factory 5E. White Dwarf Issue 11: The Tribe of the Stone (Bonus Round: Berbalang)

Issue 11: The Tribe of the Stone (Bonus Monster: Berbalang)

First up this issue is the Lauren, renamed Tirapheg in the Fiend Folio. The author, Colin Reynolds, tells is that “Lauren” is anagram of “Unreal”, and so not a dig at somebody that they know called Lauren, then, as I suspected at first. I plugged “Tirapheg” into an anagram solver, and it gave me “Graphite” and “Earth Pig”. I’m guessing, but perhaps “Tirapheg” comes from some kind of play on “Tri – Peg”, e.g. three-legged.

The Lauren/Tirapheg has three legs, only one of which ends in a foot. It has three heads, only one of which has any features. It has three arms, one of which ends in a spike. Its mouth is in its chest and this is surmounted by little tentacles. I think that the Fiend Folio artist (not certain, but it looks like Emmanuel, who did the Githyanki on the Fiend Folio cover) captured it so much better than the White Dwarf artist (possibly Polly Wilson), who mistook the outer legs being described as “stumps” not as ending with no feet, but literally as stumps like an amputee. Also Emmanuel did a nicely androgynous figure, rather than interpret “hermaphrodite” as having one boob.

Apart from its wierd appearance, though, the Lauren/Tirapheg basically comes down to some attacks and a mirror image spell defence, and so isn’t really very interesting, mechnically. It would make for a good extra-planar visitor NPC, and with some development of their society or personality, could be good, but as a combat opponent there’s nothing really that justifies the oddness.

The Spook is a Roger Musson special, which means its either a bonkers one-off or crazily unbalanced.

In this case, it’s crazily unbalanced, in that it instantly creates more of its kind with a touch. Given how likely it is for an attack to succeed in D&D, this is going to have an exponential growth of spooks and potentially convert an entire party in a few rounds. Especially if you had the maximum number appearing roll of six!

The Witherstench by Jonathon Jonesis pretty straightforward, a kind of super-skunk that emits a foul odour from its pustules (this is another monster where it feels like somebody was taking the mickey out of somebody at their school). Nothing wrong with it as a monster, and I love Russ Nicholson’s version, but not a lot for conversion – pretty much an area effect that grants a condition or two.

David Wormell’s Sheet Phantom is one of those roundly mocked Fiend Folio monsters, probably not helped by Alan Hunter’s silly illustration (lower right) .I challenge anyone to make this monster look scary and not daft, though. The best bet would not to make it look like a sheet, but a nebulous cloudy effect. Mind you, that Fiend Factory illustration is, well, it's okay. Better than the Halloween Ghost Costume version by Alan Hunter at least. More like deadly clingfilm.

Mechanically it’s actually quite interesting, in that it merges with its victim to form a new kind of undead, the Sheet Ghoul, which is much like a regular ghoul except that it can squirt acid. The original White Dwarf entry doesn’t say how; for some reason the Fiend Folio editors decided it was from its nose. I’d go for a spit attack, myself. Now that I’m looking at it again, I might come back to this one.

Another Roger Musson creation, the Lapidon is a monster that looks like a pile of rope (add it to the Room Made Entirely Of Monsters). For Musson, this one is pretty straightforward and makes a certain amount of sense. It has a petrification attack riding on bludgeoning damage from its two “ends”. There’s some obscure stuff about casting three disparate spells on it in quick succession to turn it into a flail of petrification, which no adventuring party would stumble upon by accident. Maybe make it a kind of snake (with subvariants that poison or constrict), and it’s fine.

Ooh, nice splash image! The Devil Dog by Louis Boschelli makes one wonder how many more dog-like monsters we need? Wolf, Mastiff, Dire Wolf, Worg, Winter Wolf, Blink Dog, Death Dog, Hellhound, Hound of Ill Omen, Cooshee, Shadow Mastiff, Yeth Hound and Moon Dog. I guess … one more?

The Devil Dogs are cold-related, but not simply hellhounds with ice rather than fire. Instead they have a throat-ripping attack that I’m not sure how to emulate mechanically. I can think of two ways – one, give them a typical dog/wolf/hound trip attack that can render a person prone, followed by a Worry attack that does extra damage to a prone person. Or given them a special effect on a critical hit.

They also have camouflage that effectively renders them invisible beyond 30 feet – I’d maybe give them some kind of invisibility ability in snowy conditions – plus a howl that causes fear.

In the end I went with Jack McArdle’s Tribe of the Stone, since they’re fairly simple, but with enough of a twist to make them interesting. They’re a humanoid race that come in three varieties – warriors, armed with double daggers, chasers who use unarmed attacks, and a leader, who mainly gets its powers from an amulet, the “Stone” of their name.

Jack has everyone wielding +4 daggers, but this is a lot of magic to be tossing around so I replaced these with an innate skill with the dagger to cause more damage.

Beyond that, they’re quite simple to convert, and it’s a bit of a fun twist in my opinion to have the additional set of leader powers stem from the magic item. These guys would make a good adversary to a short scenario where they were taking over, or had taken over, all the people in a settlement.

Tribe Of The Stone Warrior

Medium monstrosity, lawful evil

Armour Class 11 (natural armour) Hit Points 18 (4d8) Speed 30 ft.,

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 13 (+1) 10 (+0) 11 (+0) 9 (-1) 10 (+0) 8 (-1)

Proficiency Bonus +2 Senses passive Perception 10

Languages telepathy 120 ft. with all Tribe of the Stone, understands Common but can’t speak

Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Dagger Master. The stone warrior causes an extra +2 damage when it hits with a dagger. ACTIONS

Multiattack. The stone warrior two attacks with its daggers Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage.

 

Tribe Of The Stone Chaser

Medium monstrosity, lawful evil

Armour Class 13 (natural armour) Hit Points 27 (6d8) Speed 60 ft.,

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 13 (+1) 14 (+2) 11 (+0) 9 (-1) 10 (+0) 8 (-1)

Proficiency Bonus +2 Senses passive Perception 10

Languages telepathy 120 ft. with all Tribe of the Stone, understands Common but can’t speak

Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Martial Arts. If the stone chaser hits an opponent with a kick attack it may immediately use its bonus action to make a second kick attack against the same target.. ACTIONS

Multiattack. The stone chaser makes two ttacks: one kick and one tail swipe. Kick. Melee Weapon Attack: +4to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage. Tail Swipe. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) bludgeoning damage.

 

Tribe Of The Stone Leader

Medium monstrosity, lawful evil

Armour Class 13 (natural armour) Hit Points 44 (8d8+8) Speed 60 ft.,

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 13 (+1) 11 (+0) 12 (+1) 10 (+0)

Proficiency Bonus +2 Saving Throws Str +4, Wis +3 Senses passive Perception 11

Languages telepathy 120 ft. with all Tribe of the Stone, understands Common but can’t speak

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Dagger Master. The stone leader causes an extra +2 damage when it hits with a dagger. ACTIONS

Multiattack. The stone leader makes two attacks with its daggers Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) piercing damage.

Amulet of the Stone. The stone leader wears the Amulet of the Stone, which when not worn by a member of the Tribe of the Stone is simply a gold chain set with a large ruby, worth around 1000 go in total.

If worn by a member of the Tribe of the Stone, that creature takes on the statistics of a Stone Leader. It can use the amulet in the ritual used to create more members of the tribe from humanoid creatures, and also gains the following powers:

·         The stone leader can regenerate 6 hit points at the start of its turn, provided it has at least 1 hit point remaining.

·         The stone leader can use a bonus action to transfer hit points from a Stone Warrior or Stone Chaser that it can see within 30 feet. The stone tribe member loses a number of hit points chosen by the leader, but cannot be reduced below 1 hit point. The leader heals that number of hit points.

·         The stone leader can transfer hit points between two tribe members that it can see within 30 feet of the leader (but need not be within 30 feet of each other). One tribe member stone tribe member loses a number of hit points chosen by the leader, but cannot be reduced below 1 hit point. The other tribe member heals that number of hit points.

There’s a bonus monster this time, as I couldn’t resist converting Albie Fiore’s Berbalang. This has a bit of a history – it was going to go in the Book of Lost Monsters, but then I discovered that there was already a 5^th Edition version in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. And then I was toying with using that version here, but thought that the Tribe of the Stone was more novel since they hadn’t been seen in anything since this issue of White Dwarf.

But, I do like the berbalang, especially as used in Albie Fiore’s superb scenario The Halls of Tizun Thane, coming up in Issue 18. So, here’s my take on the little Indonesian-inspired beasty that can send out a projection of itself to feed.

 

Berbalang

Medium monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armour Class 14 (natural armour) Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4) Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 13 (+1) 14 (+2) 14 (+1) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 10 (+0)

Proficiency Bonus +2 Damage Immunities poison (projection only) Condition Immunities poisoned (projection only) Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages Common

Challenge 2 (450 XP)

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The berbalang makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing. Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing. Projection. The berbalang is able to create a projected form of itself, which appears in an unoccupied space within 30 feet of the berbalang’s body. While the projection is active, the berbalang’s body goes into a deep coma and is unconscious. The projection has the same statistics as the berbalang, is physical, and able to interact with creatures and objects. If the projection is killed, the berbalang’s consciousness snaps back into its body and it is stunned and cannot form another projection for 24 hours. The berbalang is able to instantly dispel its projection and return its consciousness to its body at any time as an action, although it is stunned until the start of its next turn.