X: Xeric Blast

Geh - missed a day or so - i'll finish this exercise this weekend.
Work is overwhelming, plus I couldn't think of anything for X - I suck.

Wand of Xeric Blast

Appearing to be nothing more than a desiccated stick wrapped with some crumbling, poorly tanned leather.  However, the 'stick' emanates magic, and, upon closer examination, is found to be a wand.

A blast from this wand is sufficient to reduce some creatures to desiccated husks, if not to outright piles of dust. A found wand will have 2d12 charges remaining.

Xeric Blast:
3rd level MU spell (necromantic/elementalist).
Range: 60 feet
Target: single (wand allows for multiple (up to four) targets within a 15' circle)
Duration: instantaneous

Desiccates a foe by literally ripping the water from their body.  Cells hemorrhage and mists rise from the target in excruciating, massive dehydration.  The target withers and sufficient damage may cause the body to crumble.  Damage caused is 1d4 x the level of the caster (wand acts as 6th level caster, or DM discretion).  Additionally, the target must save or lose 1d3 CON points (permanent) due to system shock.

A target killed by xeric blast has a 10% chance of arising as an undead 'Salt Mummy' that seeks moisture: (HD 4, AC 6/14, Atk; 1d6+1d3 CON damage [dehydration, temporary if target drinks 1 qt water per pt of COM loss within 1 hour], move 6, save 14, Resistances: Magic weapon to hit)

Stone or earth-based creatures (golems, earth elementals, xorn, etc.) are not affected by this spell. Water-based or protoplasmic creatures (water elementals, oozes, gelatinous cubes) lose their consistency and composition and must save or take double damage from this spell.

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Washrooms of the Troglodytes

W - Dungeon washrooms of a race not expected to be fastidious.

Little is it known, but the notorious stench of the troglodyte is maintained only through disciplined hygiene and ritual. Troglodytes emit their distinctive musk though glands at the base of their tails.  If they stray away from water bodies or baths for too long, the glands may become blocked, and the stench decreases.  So much so, that opponents may receive a bonus save, or the effects of the stench are for a much shorter duration. Likewise, a troglodyte warrior will lose status if he is not able to keep clean, and therefore emanate his stink within the clutch or battle-band.

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Therefore, the troglodytes maintain secret baths in their underground lairs.  This is not commonly known, and, according to some, may actually be a bit of a racial embarrassment...

babies in the bathwater

A bath will consist of several stone-lined, interconnected pools fed by a diverted subterranean stream or spring. The troglodytes bathe in order of status, highest to lowest, the lower-status individual washing in the effluvia of their betters.  The warbands reinforce bonds in this way, where the symbolic runoff from the baths both cleanses the warriors, as well as reinforces the 'aroma of the clutch' through the intermingling of bath waters. Group bathing takes place, with the individuals emitting a sonorous, subsonic hum, much deeper-toned than their usual draconic chatter.  Carved fetishes in the shapes of spiders, rats, and lizards are floated in the baths, and sponges or bound bunches of rushes tossed back and forth for scrubbing.

Linked Inca baths at Phuyupatamarca

A bathmaster keeps some semblance of order. This rotating position is one if the few that may come from any level of hierarchy, and the bathmaster reigns within the baths, wielding a symbolic sponge-headed javelin, keeping the chaos to a manageable level, and assuring that all may bathe in their appropriate rank. Even if the bathmaster is of the lower caste, he minds his authority, for the position will pass from his claws to the next master soon.

Inca baths at Tambomachay

Lernys' Veranda

(missed a day - catching up - work and life interposed on my silly pursuits)

V is for Veranda, because an under-lord still appreciates a room with a view....

The sorceress Lernys comes to this balcony to meditate and take in the view of the yawning chasm before her. Sometimes she just enjoys the luminous fungi lining the dripping walls, or listens to the soothing susurrations of the hoards of vampire bats as they rise and decend through the gap. Twice a year, she marks the scintillating migration of the luminous jellies as they rise to the towering cavern roof to mate and hang their mucous-like egg cases. Then she awaits the birth-fall of the young as they drift downward, a portion consumed by filter-feeding sieve-bats.

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The veranda extends out over the chasm, ringed by stout columns (closely arrayed, but not so close that a disappointing servant or spent sacrifice can't easily be pitched into the abyss).

Lernys reclines on an azurite throne, absconded from some dwarven stronghold.  Braziers behind her hold not flames, but tiny flame elementals (2HD, atk 1d8).

To her right is a massive onyx sacrificial alter, cut through with an s-shaped gutter for collecting the blood of the lost. Sensitive about her height, a minion provided curved steps for Lernys to access the alter for ease in plunging the knife.

A pasha's pavilion tent, captured in some surface raid, jauntily occupies one third of the veranda. Inside are the usual array of simpering servants, cushions and delicacies both subterranean and surficial.

The entrance is guarded by a pair of Tusken ogres, each armed with a feersum double-bladed axe (2 hits per round, 1d12). If attacked, they will use their mirror image ability, and one will hold the entrance, while the second moves to free the sorceress' 'pet.'

She keeps as a pet, a small acid wyrm, (6HD, atk bite 2d8 or acid spit [20' range, successful hit causes 1d8 first round, 1d6 second round], no tail sting).  The creature is chained to an azurite pedestal.  If one of the ogres manages to free it, the wyrm will fly free to attack, otherwise it will thrash and defend itself from its position.

Lernys, 11th level sorcerer, 30 HP, AC 6/14 (leather / ring of protection +2),  obsidian dagger +1, healthstealer (save or 1d3 CON loss), scrolls (charm, summon monster I, invisibility)

Under-druids

U is for Under-druids, distorted, subterranean versions of their more familiar, arboraceous brethren.

Tied to the dark and stone, rather than the moon and forests, the under-druids draw power from the stone, and twist it to their needs.

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Under-druids (spec'ed here for S&W, with some add-ons borrowed from 3.5) share many characteristics with druids, modified for their subterranean environs. Deviations and modifications are noted below:

Prime Attribute: Wisdom and Constitution, both 13+ (a druid character gains a +5% experience bonus only if both their Wisdom and Constitution are 13 or higher.)

Hit Dice: 1d6/level (Gains 1 hp/level after 9th.)

Armor/Shield Permitted: Leather or bone armor and wooden shields only.

Weapons Permitted: Dagger, hammer, spear, sling, oil. Stone or stone-bladed weapons, if wielded by an under-druids may be treated as magical weapons.

Race: Any humanoids may become Under-druids.

Alignment - Any chaotic

Because of their disconnection from the world above, an under-druid does not require mistletoe as a spell/powers component. Instead, they utilize a variety of fungi, many of a hallucinogenic nature. In fact, they are likely addicted to them, resulting in a somewhat addled nature.  However, this also increases their sensitivity to the currents of the world around them, and they may cast an augury (as per 3.5) once per day.

Under-druids gain a +2 saving throw bonus against petrification.

Under-druids share most elements of the druidic spell list, except as noted below:
They do not have access to any weather-related spells, and plant-centered spells are substituted with either fungus/oozes, or stone.

Level 1

• Detect Magic
• Detect Snares & Pits
• Faerie Fire
• Locate Animals
• Predict Weather
• Magic Stone (as per 3.5 spell)
• Purify Water
• Stone Fists (as per 3.5 spell)

Level 2

• Call Stone (as per 3.5 spell)
• Create Water
• Cure Light Wounds
• Heat Metal
• Locate Plants Fungus
• Obscuring Mist
• Produce Flame
• Speak with Animals
• Warp Wood 

Level 3

• Call Lightning
• Cure Disease
• Hold Animal
• Neutralize Poison
• Plant Fungal Growth
• Protection Against Fire Petrification 
• Pyrotechnics
• Stone Shape (as per 3.5 spell)
• Water Breathing

Level 4

• Animal Summoning I (summoned animals limited to subterranean types)
• Control Temperature 10-ft. Radius
• Cure Serious Wounds
• Dispel Magic
• Hallucinatory Forest Stones
• Insect Vermin Plague (calls creeping, flying, scuttling mass of cave vermin)
• Plant Stone Doorway (created passage through stone wall, only accessible by caster)
• Produce Fire
• Protection from Lightning
• Speak with Plants Fungus and Oozes (may communicate with fungus, as well as oozes/slimes/jellies up to under-druid's HD)

Level 5

• Animal Growth
• Animal Summoning II
• Anti-Plant Fungal and Ooze Ward (Protects caster from fungal attacks, as well as oozes/slimes/jellies, 10' radius)
• Commune with Nature
• Control Winds
• Hold Plant Fungus and Oozes
• Transmute Rock to Mud
• Passplantwall (as 5th level MU spell)
• Sticks to SnakesStones to Spiders caster may turn as many as 2d6 normal stones into large (1HD) spiders (lethal poison, +2 save).
• Wall of Fire Stone (as per 3.5 spell)

Level 6

• Animal Summoning III
• Anti-Animal Ward
• Conjuration of Fire Earth Elementals
• Feeblemind
• Finger of Death
• Repel Wood Fungus and Oozes
• Transport via Plants Stones
• Weather Summoning Stone to Flesh (as per 3.5 spell)

Level 7

• Animate Rock
• Confusion
• Conjuration of Earth Elementals
• Control Weather
• Creeping Doom
• Fire Storm Meteor storm (as 9th level MU spell)
• Reincarnation
• Transmute Metal to Wood Earth (transmutation of metal to soil in a 10x10 area

Update: Gavin Norman commented on G+ that he'd made up some spells specifically for a druid such as this.  Here, here, and here. Thanks!

Turbulent tunnels

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1. Howling winds, 75% chance to extinguish torch, 50% chance to extinguish lantern, hats lost, loosely held scrolls or maps flutter off.
2. Screaming ghosts - despondent undead, generally harmless, however, party deafened for 1d4 turns, unable to communicate vocally, vocal spells impossible, warns any critters in the area.
3. Inundation: water floods the passageway. 1-2) ankle deep; 3-6) knee deep; 7-9) waist deep; 10) neck deep. 50% chance that knee deep or deeper water contains bitey critter(s).
4. Tumbling tunnel - passageway 1-3) shakes, as if by earthquake (50% chance of stonework falling for 2d6 dmg); 4-5) spins 90 degrees; 6) rotates downward 90 degrees, turning tunnel into shaft (1d6 dmg per 10' fallen).
5. Transparent - suspended over apparently bottomless chasm - save or terrifying vertigo
6. Gelatinous cube, feeding on luminous dungeon geckos (also slow and languid). (contains dwarf-sized chainmail, +1 battleaxe, potion of spider climb, crystal skull [50 GP], and 320 SP scattered throughout)

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