Monster of Folklore: Sun Drake

Large dragon, unaligned

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 51 (6d10+18)
Speed 20 ft., fly 80 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
19 (+4)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)	5 (−3)	12 (+1)	6 (−2)

Skills Perception +4

Damage Resistances cold, fire, necrotic, poison, force, slashing

Damage Immunities piercing, radiant

Damage Vulnerability lightning

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages --

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Solar Wings. The drake's wings alternate with the passing of day & night.

• Day. The wings glow with the brightness of a bonfire.
• Night. The wings take the form of a cloak of shadow, granting advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks against those using eyesight. During this time, the wings are not functional for flight.
• Dusk/Dawn. A dim glow on par with a torch, maintaining flight requires concentration.

Actions

Multiattack. The sun drake makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its stinger. While flying, it can use its claws in place of one other attack.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage.

Stinger. Melee Weapon Attack +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) piercing damage. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 24 (7d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.

Lore

More commonly known in the Sword, the region of sandy dunes in the Anauroch, these creatures were originally the chosen of At'ar the Merciless. They have become rare and reclusive since the rise of Amaunator, having chosen to spend much of their time sleeping.

Reflecting the sun, their wings shine brightly during the day and turn into a cloak of darkness during the night. Cloud cover does not change this, which makes sun drakes uncomfortable with storms during the day, strongly preferring to not leave whatever shelter they've found. Retaining their original patron's blessing, their hide cannot be pierced, not even by the rays of the sun. Their weakness to lightning is a sign of Kozah's punishment for At'ar's infidelity.

When active, sun drakes are commonly scavengers, attracted to sites of death and carnage.

Belldrone: A Tavern's Silencer

Artist: Aleksandar Ignatov

Designed by Draco Hallacan, a former adventuring wizard who turned to running a drinking hole called the Wight House, the Belldrone is a novelty of convenience. It's primary function is to manage the noise level in a tavern to a comfortable level. Draco's belldrone has become the de facto mascot, its light-emitting clapper having been adapted to adjust the colours generated and allowing for a dazzling performance.

It's been a popular design, and has seen variations made in taverns across the realms.

For a PDF of these stats, go < HERE >

[Volaire, Pathfinder E6] Ishtarian Serpents

In Volaire, fiends do exist, but they are considered rare threats. Cultists can pool their resources and ritually summon energies from dark dimensions, but imps are among the most powerful fiends they can pull wholly into our dimension. It's generally more efficacious to use said energies to corrupt an extant being, generally a beast, as sentient minds don't react well to such corruption. Operating in such a manner over the span of years can twist the environment, leaving traces in the land itself. Over the span of generations, the uninterrupted work of dark cultists on a large scale can pollute entire ecologic regions.

The planet Unas is a world where rampant, uncontrolled channeling of extraplanar energies had gone unchecked for a century by a corrupt government who ignored the existential threat. The Moon Gate of Quag Keep, once the gleaming jewel of the system, was disrupted by a rival faction in an attempt at sabotage; resulting in a domino effect in an already magically unstable region that opened what is known as a Hellmouth, a permanently torn rift in space. The larger a Hell Mouth, the more powerful the fiend that can fit through. The Hell Mouth of Ishtar is the largest known in the Tapestry, and one of several such entities that came through is what is colloquially known as the Ishtarian Serpent. Academics call it a Thethtu.

O flower heart hides within a serpent’s face!

The gate is barred! Smash the door, shatter the bolt.

Life becomes death. Death becomes life.

• Cataclysm of Quag Keep, Epistle of Milo

Thethtu are exceptionally dangerous fiendish serpents; between five & six feet wide and roughly a hundred feet long. Most dangerous is Thethtu venom, which will enslave escalating loyalty to the serpent, animating their corpse if they die while it courses through their veins. As zombies are accrued, they move about like ants in service to their queen; protecting the serpent and its territory, seeking living creatures to subdue and drag to the serpent for conversion, etc.

Thethtu, Ishtarian Serpent [CR 6]

Gargantuan outsider (evil)

Init +1; Senses DV 60’, Notice +6; Spd 40’, 40' climb (compression); Reach 20’ (30’ tail)

hp 68 (5d8+45); AC 19 (+12 nat, +1 Dex, -4 size); SV Fort +13, Ref +2, Will +3

Immune mind-affecting; Resist cold/fire 10; DR 5/good; SR 11

Melee bite +10 (2d8+11 plus poison), tail slap +5 (1d4 nonlethal plus trip)

Stats 33.13.29.-.14.6; BAB +3; CMB +18; CMD 28 (cannot be tripped)

Skills Climb +19, Notice +6, Stealth +0

Ishtarian Poison (Su) When exposed to the poison, the victim must make a DC 21 Fortitude save or be unable to attack the Ishtarian serpent, effectively charmed. Every round afterward for the next minute, another Fortitude save must be made or the condition will progress. Failing a second time results in the victim being fascinated by the sight of the Ishtarian Serpent. Failing a third time results in the victim being dominated to serve the serpent for 1d4 hours. If the creature dies while under the effects of this poison, then their body is immediately animated as a zombie with the instinct to serve the serpent.

After Sundown

After Sundown RPG: On Sale Now

After Sundown is a cooperative storytelling game that tells stories in the realm of horror. Players take on the roles of monsters out of horror movies or the humans who oppose them, while one of the players takes on the role of the MC – a combination referee, narrator, and roleplayer of last resort for antagonists and minor characters in the story.

The setting of After Sundown is a world like our own would be if horror fiction had an element of truth to it. There really are monsters in the night and other worlds full of nightmarish horrors that bleed into the mortal world. But it is also set in a world which is decidedly modern, and that means modern sensibilities. The game's backstory sees history and mythology through a modern interpretation, and adopts horror tropes that resonate with modern audiences. Many horror tropes are timeless – blood speckled claws in the dark is pretty much always going to be scary – but many other horror elements are merely puzzling, and are going to be downplayed. The modern audience is not particularly worried about miscegenation or communist invasion, and those elements of old horror fiction are deliberately excluded from their appropriation into After Sundown.

Commoner, Peasant, Mud-Farmer

Commoner Quickstats: HP 4; Init +0; AC 10, Grapple +0; Club +0 (1d6), Sling +0 (1d3); Saves +0/+2/+0; Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (Farmer) +4 


Commoner 
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (Human) 
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp) 
Initiative: +0 
Speed: 30 ft. 
Armor Class: 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10 
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+0 
Full Attack: Club +0 (1d6), or Sling +0 (1d3) 
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. 
Saves: Fortitude +0, Reflex +2, Will +0 
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10 
Skills*: Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (Farmer) +4 
Feats*: Endurance, Skill Focus (Knowledge - Nature) 
Environment: Temperate Plains 
Organization: Hermit (1), Family (2 to 7), Hamlet (20 to 100) 
Challenge Rating: 1/6 
Treasure: Standard 
Alignment: Usually neutral 
Advancement: By character class 
Everyone knows what a commoner looks like. Watch one of the Disney movies set in medieval times and look at any of the unnamed villagers. They are the lowest of civilized life, not even deserving of a class level, their pitiful combat prowess making the ruthless adventurer question the point in suffering them to live. Literacy is not assumed, and only the commoners who are especially educated are able to do more than add up their tabs. 

Variant Proletariat 
Commoners at the bottom of the social ladder have varied ability based on the drudgery of their existence. The above assumes the most common lifestyle for the D&D human, a farmer. The following templates are to be used for alternate skill and feat selections, based on their lifestyle. 
Cutpurse

• Skills: Hide +2, Listen +2, Open Lock +4, Sleight of Hand +4, Spot +2 
• Feats: Idle Hands, Alertness

Performer

• Skills: Bluff +3, Perform (Dance, Sing) +4, Sleight of Hand +2 
• Feats: Jazz Hands, Skill Focus (Bluff)

Labourer/Knave

• Skills: Craft (any two) +4, Use Rope +4 
• Feats: Endurance, Pack Mule

Master Craftsman

• Skills: Craft (any one) +7, Profession (Artisan) +4, Spellcraft +2 (+6 identify) 
• Feats: Skill Focus (Craft), Iron Hands

Healer/Midwife

• Skills: Heal +7, Knowledge (nature, religion) +4 
• Feats: Healing Hands, Folk Lore

Beggar

• Skills: Perform (oratory) +2, Knowledge (local) +2, Search +2 
• Feats: False Pretenses, Omniscient Whispers

Merchant

• Skills: Appraise +4, Diplomacy +4, Profession (merchant) +4, Spellcraft +4 (identify only) 
• Feats: Iron Hands, Skill Knowledge (Appraise, Diplomacy)

Scholar

• Skills: Knowledge (any one) +5, Decipher Script +5, Speak Language +2 
• Feats: Skill Focus (Knowledge, Decipher Script)

Expert: This is as notable as a commoner can get and still be a commoner, the one recognized by their peers as being good at their job. They have a +2 to the primary stat used in their profession. If the stat is Intelligence, then the additional skill is something suitable for their circumstances, like an additional Craft or Knowledge. 

New Feats

• False Pretenses [Spelltouched]: When successfully saves against a charm or compulsion, opponent believes the spell was successful. 
• Folk Lore: You get a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (religion) checks. 
• Healing Hands: You get a +3 bonus on all Heal checks, and it is considered a class skill. 
• Idle Hands: You get a +2 bonus on all Open Lock and Sleight of Hands checks. 
• Iron Hands: You get a +4 bonus on Spellcraft checks to identify a spell or magically created/shaped material that's already in place, which you can do untrained. 
• Jazz Hands: You get a +2 bonus on all Perform (Dance) and Perform (Sing) checks. 
• Omniscient Whispers [Spelltouched]: Once per week, you can tune into the voices you hear, getting hte answer to a question much as if you had asked it with a commune spell. Using this feat renders you exhausted. 
• Pack Mule: Your Strength is considered 5 points higher for purposes of carrying capacity.

Mini-Module: Shrinking Room

For use in any of your dungeons. Obviously, it is something that you adjust according to the needs of your campaign, but it's originally designed for one of the more pulpy D&D genre gaming.

If you're stumped for reasons why this dungeon exists, working under the assumption you need a reason for it to be there, feel free to use this random table for it.

Reasons for the Shrinking Room (d6)

1. Door is a malfunctioning portal to the microverse, maybe it can be repaired

2. Temporary storage closet, the door on the other side will reverse the process

3. A wizard was cursed to have everyone near him feel as small as he did, his corpse lies buried beneath the floor while the magic continues, the process will reverse once you move 20' beyond the door

4. The mushroom emits magical spores. Killing it will undo the effects of anything shrunk in the last 24 hours

5. It is a prison for a giant, ancient, sentient, & evil bacterium that has been shrunk several times. If the magic is undone, the reversal will release it upon the world. Undoing the magic is as simple as finding the stone carvings in the room as marring them significantly

6. In the back of the mouse hole, there is a portal to another room/wing of the dungeon that also reverses the shrinking magic

A1. Shrinking Room

A plain and simple cubical room of aged, cracked stonework, 10’ on each side. Spiderwebs, moss, dustbunnies, and mouse droppings are almost everything of note in the room. On the opposite wall is a stoutly reinforced wooden door, and in the center is a mushroom with a tiny sign sticking out of it with two words written on it, “EAT ME.”

Any who enter the room will shrink to 1/70th their original size, making the average human one inch tall and the room 700’ in each dimension while shrunk. The door’s shrinking property functions only one way, and going through a second time will cause the character to shrink into nothingness, forever lost. Every twenty subjective feet there is a 10’ wide crevasse where the stonework has separated, going down between 10’ and 20’.

Halfway from the door to the mushroom, there is a large trapdoor spider that will attack the party from one of the crevasses. There are seven others; one over the exit door, two in two different ceiling corners, three inside the abandoned mouse hole guarding a single gold piece, and another between the mushroom and one of the corners on the floor.
Three roving packs of small dust bunnies roam the room, attacking anything except spiders and will not approach within 6” of the mushroom or any spider. Each pack is 80 strong.




The mushroom in the center will attack anything that comes within it’s 6” reach. There is small text on the bottom of the sign reading “one side will make you grow larger, the other will make you grow smaller.” Eating from one side of the mushroom will make the character grow to their original size, while the other will cause them to shrink into nothingness.

The coin from the mouse hole will grow with player if it’s carried with them, but it weighs 15 tonnes in total. If any part of the coin is broken off and subsequently enlarged, the remainder will not enlarge.


1E D&D
Dust Bunny - AC 8, MV 3”, HD 1hp, #AT 1, D 1-3
Mushroom - AC 7, MV 1”, HD 6, hp 63, #AT 4, D 1-4/1-4/1-4/1-4; two simultaneous attacks against the same character equal entanglement and force a save against poison or be unconscious for one turn
Large Trapdoor Spider - AC 4, MV Nil, HD 4+4, hp 28, #AT 1, D 2-8, save vs poison at +1 or be killed with a bite

3.X/Pathfinder
Large Trapdoor Spider - Use giant black widow hunting spider


Mushroom - Use violet fungus with 20’ reach, no movement speed, and camouflaged to look innocuous (Perception 20 to recognize)


Dust Bunny Swarm (CR 2)
N Tiny (swarm)
Init +6; Senses Low-Light vision, Scent; Perception +8
Defense
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 size)
HP 16 (3d8+3)
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +2
Defensive Abilities swarm traits
Offense
Speed 25’
Melee swarm (2d6)
Space 10’; Reach 0’
Special Attacks Distraction (DC 12)
Statistics
Str 2, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 2
Base Atk +2; CMB -; CMD -
Feats Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Acrobatics +6, Climb +10, Perception +8, Stealth +14