Fiend Factory 5E. White Dwarf Isue 20: The Cauldron Born

 White Dwarf Issue 20: Cauldron-Born

 

Issue 20 has the first of a common theme during Albie Fiore’s tenure, where the monster selection is turned into a kind of mini-scenario, linking each monster as an encounter. These are actually quite good, and even if one doesn’t use them as written, it’s nice to contextualise the monsters and give an example of how to use them.

This particular scenario doesn’t have a title. It starts in the village of Xibabu on the borders of the everglades of Kish, wherein the characters hear rumours of a city deep in the everglades where a mysterious cauldron sends forth monsters that have cursed the temple, and of the rewards that await should the menace be removed.

The first encounter is with John R Gordon’s Creeper, which is a bit like a variant shambling mound, albeit not a plant. The creeper has two tentacle attacks and can bite with its beak, delivering one of two venoms that it has it its disposal. One venom paralyses, the other kills outright. The notes say that the creeper feeds on liquefying carrion and on fresh blood, so I guess which venom it uses depends on what it feels like for its dinner.

On top of that, it has camouflage ability, for some reason gains +1 to all saving throws and if it wants to escape it can release a stinking cloud once per day. The rather stiff-looking illustration amusingly makes it looks like the Creeper farts this out. Which, well, I guess, if it’s afraid….

The next encounter is with the first of many entries by Roger E Moore, the Water Leaper, which is a kind of giant flying fish/frog hybrid.

 From 8 to 10 feet in length, these creatures leap from the water and can stay aloft for a couple of rounds at most. They emit a stunning shriek as they attack (“Those are the shrieking eels, Princess”. Well, the book of The Princess Bride came out in 1973 so maybe Roger had some inspiration?).

I like these, especially as they’re effectively doomed if they end up on land. A great fun little beastie, but perhaps not enough to really dig into. Another evocative picture by Polly Wilson as well, even though she isn’t credited in this issues list of illustrators.

The next encounter is with a Slime Beast, by Dave Stapleton.

The picture makes it look rather strange and comical, and it kind of looks like it ought to be something from the Moomins to me.

 

However, it’s a good enough idea, able to transform all or part of itself between a runny slime, thick mud, or rock-hard consistency, and it attacks by manifesting part of itself as a rock hard weapon. Actually, it’s a little like the T1000 from Terminator 2 in some way, only made of mud. Fire and cold cause it to bake into its hard form, water turns it runny.

A little tricky to adjudicate if different parts of it are at different consistencies, but I think it’d be a fun monster to employ.

Following the Slime Beast, the next encounter area are some houses made in the roots of partially submerged trees, home to the Frog Folk, from the fertile pen of Phil Masters.

 Statistically these are a bit redundant in the face of the Bullywugs, although they have a similar slimy skin effect as the Kua-Toa, rendering them almost impossible to grapple. I rather like the description of the frog-folk society, worshipping a demonic frog god (Bokrug, perhaps?), and how the females are basically non-intelligent and use small Giant Frog stats. Perhaps that’s why the frog-folk in the illustration looks like he’s gettin’ it on with his sword?

 

Once the characters reach the temple they are faced with a Melodemon, by Michael Wilkinson.

This is a kind of crocodile-snake guardian beast, reared from an egg in a pool of burning oil, resistant to extreme conditions and with a stinger in its tail. It has a song attack (hence the name, and not because it’s mellow). The trouble is, although the description tells us the song effects are “discord, charm, sleep and terror”, we get no further explanation. I’d guess charm would be charm person, sleep would be, well, sleep, and maybe terror is cause fear, but who knows? What would “discord” be?

 Still loving Polly Wilson’s illustrations, though.

 

The final encounter, within the Temple of Kish, is with the Cauldron Born (by Tim Walters) which is handy, since these are the ones I’ve chosen to convert.

 

Is it me, or is there Simpsons-esque about the Polly Wilson illustration?

I'd always thought that these creatures were based on the Cauldron of the Daghda, based on how it worked in Slaine The Horned God (200AD). But upon further research, it’s more likely the Cauldron of Rebirth, the Pair Dadeni from the Mabinogion. The Cauldron of The Daghda, it turns out, is just one of those constantly replenishing cauldrons that gives a constant supply of stew or porridge, and has nothing to do with reanimating corpses.

So, anyway, the main feature of the Cauldron-Born is the escalating threat level of the survivors as they are killed off. Rather than the somewhat cumbersome procedure of dividing everything up, I just went with a flat increase in hit points as well as the +1 armour class and +5 ft. to movement (This also conveniently only alters the top section of the stat block). I think this is more than enough of an effect, although if you wanted to really make it hard you could give them a +1 bonus to attack as well. What this also means is that the Challenge Rating doesn’t need to be recalculated on the fly. The challenge scales according to the number of cauldron born in an encounter, to the extent that the last cauldron born will be equivalent (if not a bit less) than the total challenge for the entire group.

I don’t know how big a “hex” is, my recollection is that it kind of depends on the scale of your map, so I made the range of the cauldron-born a mile before they start to suffer. That way they can guard a location (as they do in this scenario), as well as perhaps trouble nearby settlements without ranging too far. I also made them turn-immunity dependent on a closer range to the cauldron, but it would be my guess that a turned cauldron-born would try to run back to the safety of the cauldron anyway.

And there we are:

Cauldron-Born

Medium undead, neutral

Armour Class 12 (natural armour) Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4) Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 13 (+1) 1 (-5) 10 (+0) 4 (-3)

Proficiency Bonus +2 Damage Immunities necrotic, poison Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned Senses passive Perception 10

Languages understands Common but cannot speak

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Binding. The cauldron-born are bound to the cauldron that created them. At the start of every hour that it spends 1 mile or more from its cauldron, the cauldron-born loses 1 point for every mile (i.e.2 hit points at 2 miles, 3 hit points at 3 miles etc.) that it is away from the site of its cauldron. Shared Power. If the cauldron-born is killed, all the other cauldron-born created from the same cauldron gain 10 hit points, their Armour Class increases by 1, and their movement rate increases by 5 feet. This is cumulative every time a cauldron-born from the same spawn is killed. Turning Immunity. As long as the cauldron-born is within 100 feet of its cauldron it cannot be turned. ACTIONS

Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) slashing damage.

  

Cauldron-Born (after one loss)

Medium undead, neutral

Armour Class 13 (natural armour) Hit Points 32 (4d8 + 4) Speed 35 ft.

  

Cauldron-Born (after two losses)

Medium undead, neutral

Armour Class 14 (natural armour) Hit Points 42 (4d8 + 4) Speed 40 ft.

 

Cauldron-Born (after three losses)

Medium undead, neutral

Armour Class 15 (natural armour) Hit Points 52 (4d8 + 4) Speed 45 ft.

  

Cauldron-Born (after four losses)

Medium undead, neutral

Armour Class 16 (natural armour) Hit Points 62 (4d8 + 4) Speed 50 ft.

  

Cauldron-Born (after five losses, last survivor)

Medium undead, neutral

Armour Class 17 (natural armour) Hit Points 72 (4d8 + 4) Speed 55 ft.