Dr Simon Reads...

  Issue 26: The Forest Giant   The White Dwarf 26 Fiend Factory is titled “ Dire Tribes ”, and the four creatures discussed are, more or less, all what they used to call “tribal monsters”, in other words they are both intelligent and social. I was going to go with the Shadow Goblins, by Barney Sloane, as my Monster Of The Week, but on closer examination, they’re just a bit too similar to the Dream Demon that I did last time – a small creature with an affinity for illusion magic. I do, however, really like the level of detail involved and may well return to them as a “bonus” round. I used these guys in an adventure in a sunken temple once, and it was a very memorable encounter where the darkness spells of the shadow goblins and the light spells of the PCs ended up giving a kind of strobe effect to add to the fun. But does the picture remind anyone else of Scorpius from Farscape?   The Asrai is by Roger E Moore, you know, the one who’s taken over from Roger...

Dhammapada Part Twenty Four: Craving (Tanhavagga) Sticky Stuff and Tasty Fruit. “ The craving of one given to heedless living grows like a creeper. Like the monkey seeking fruits in the forest, he leaps from life to life (tasting the fruit of his kamma ).” Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Dhammapada). In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Dhammapada, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. For more detail, see the introductory post https://bit.ly/3IbwtwE For the online Dhammapada that I use, see here https://bit.ly/3IgCiJr And now: Dhammapada Part Twenty Four: Craving (Tanhavagga) This section discusses the effects of “ wicked and sticky craving ”, the desire for earthly things like “ jewels and ornaments, children and wives ” which keep a person bound on the samsara stronger than fetters of “ iron, wood or hemp ”. Craving, the Dhammapada tells us, should be cut off at...

  Issue 25: The Dream Demon   This is another Fiend Factory presented as a mini-scenario, called The Black Manse . In this scenario, the setting is a town or village that is suffering injustice and heavy taxation ever since the former, benevolent baron was supplanted by his son and his twelve dwarf henchmen. Since the local mayor turned into a gibbering idiot when he went to plead with the son, there’s obviously an opening for adventurers to investigate. There’s no map, but a nice evocative illustration of the Manse for inspiration.   In reality, the son is an Incubus , The main difference between this version and the 5 th Edition version is that Roger E Moore’s incubi have more spell-like abilities for affecting the mind of their victims, including confusion and the psionic ability to cause insanity (which this particular incubus used on the former baron). The baron’s men have been taken over by Brain Suckers (by John R Gordon). These are quite neat, and ...