New Release: Footprints Issue #25

 It's finally out!

Footprints Magazine from Dragonsfoot. Packed with almost 200 pages of Completely Free old school gaming scene goodness.

Get it HERE.

I bring this up because this issue has a 20-page adventure for Labyrinth Lord written and lovingly illustrated by ME. For characters of levels 3-6 with about 50 keyed areas.  

It's called Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen. Originally it was for a random dungeon design contest and then took on a life of its own after that. I wrote it so that it could be dropped in to anybody's campaign, and I hope you, gentle reader, give it a chance and try playing it in your own game.

Venture into a floating sanctum built to transcend mortality itself! Weigh your soul on the great scales before Zarmuun, Eater of Hearts! Battle the sadistic Witch-Queen, plunder her vast treasure hoard, sail her ocean-going barge, or climb the celestial staircase up to a mysterious fate...?

Play Report: Death Love Doom [LotFP]

I have been writing these play reports for my online Labyrinth Lord group, set around the City-State of the World Emperor. Since I spend so much time on them, I thought I'd share them here for everyone to peruse. This session actually took place last year, before we switched to online play a few months ago. This weekend we're also returning to Land's End - the fun never stops.

As one of my players said the other day: "your world has more shit to do than the real one right now!"

*****

2nd-12th Meadowlark, 4433

Characters

Aladar IX, M-U 1
"Sir Karavon" aka Tullius Jr, fighter 1
Lothos the Undesirable, elf 1
Eric Withakay, cleric 1
Meep, dwarf 1
Veigar Thricescarred, fighter 1


Leaving Drydale
(see last session)

After their torchlight exhumation, the gang re-interred the corpse of James Blake with a mocking note, taunting whoever might come searching afterwards for his journal and The Great Devourer.

"Meet on the 10th of Blackmoon in Viridistan. Under the Grand Red Statue, look for the man with twelve lit candles."

After recollecting their previous adventures, they decided to follow up a lead at the port of Targnol a few days travel away:

"The rich merchant Philotheos Sten hasn't been around lately. His large estate lies on the edge of town, and nobody has been seen coming or going for several days. Some fear the worst while others remark on the man's riches, accumulated through a lifetime of trading. A few thugs are going to case his place soon. You might be able to beat them to it and see what kind of loot is lying around!"

The port of Targnol was a sprawling mess of crumbling wooden buildings packed with Imperial sailors on leave, dockworkers, merchants, thieves and cutthroats. Notable buildings included a grand temple to Thoth and a mysterious black pyramid containing a sleeping sorceress within a glass coffin. The town offers a standing reward for anyone who can reawaken this mysterious ebony-skinned woman.

Not having an interest in that, the gang met with a local contact of Two-Faced Humphrey's (he had business back in Viridisan, and couldn't accompany them). The man was a sullen and scarred Viridian named Komang. He gave them some basics, and a few trips around town asking questions filled in the blanks:

- Philotheos and his family hadn't been seen in two weeks, but there had been no surge of activity suggesting they were moving house or taking an extended vacation. The current theory was sudden illness or foul play of some kind.
- Old Graham's Gang, a strange and mysterious crew of all-child thieves from the capital about whom rumours have swirled for years, were casing the place. They planned to raid it for valuables the next night. Komang offered to put the party in touch with them, but this offer was declined.
- Philotheos kept no personal guards, for he lived on the edge of town in a rich area patrolled by (notoriously lazy) Imperial troops.

The party pooled their money and bought a wagon and two horses. On the way up to Philotheos' mansion, Eric and "Sir Karavon" drove while the rest hid under some straw in the back, hoping the "knight" and priest would discourage prying eyes or nosy guardsmen.

As night drew down they pulled into the driveway and approached the great mansion. Disdaining to explore the large grounds, "Sir Karavon" knocked on the door and getting no response, opened it. A distant weeping could be heard, but no foes presented themselves.


Charnel Mansion

The party entered the lightless home and progressed through a set of double-doors into a large parlor and dining-room. The place was trashed. Plates and vessels broken, splashes of blood everywhere, and the source of the weeping: a young Viridian girl strung up to the chandelier, her innards hanging out in a bloody mess!

In terrible shape as she was, the girl regained some lucidity after being released from the chandelier. She told them her name was Ariel, and related a strange story:

“One night after dinner, Father told everyone that he had a very special present for Mother. It was a very pretty necklace! But then a big monster and two smaller monsters came out of the necklace! And the big monster told the smaller monsters to get the lovers, and they jumped on Father and Nanny Alba! Then Mother and Grandma started yelling at Father, and everyone ran away! Then Grandma came to get me... and now I’m here.”

The child's injuries were quite severe and the party wasn't sure if they could help her. In the meantime, they explored the dining room and parlour, spotting an oil painting of a newlywed couple with a copper nameplate that read:

Philotheos Sten and Domitilla Sten. Married Sunstrong 17, 4423

Mounted on the wall above the painting were two fine-looking crossed falcatas that looked functional enough. The group took all these items and left Ariel for the moment to continue exploring.

The two other rooms on the main floor turned out to be Philotheos' office and a conservatory. The centrepiece in the conservatory was a grand harp, and three statuettes of dark blue & yellow marble rested on the mantelpiece: a dragon, eagle and nymph. The group took all of these and loaded them into their cart.

In Philotheos' office, Lothos rifled the great oak desk and found stacks of business papers - deeds, shipping manifests, etc. He pocketed a stack to peruse later, along with a fine stiletto in one of the drawers. The group was drawn to the large, shining silvery cube in the back corner which turned out to be an advanced combination safe! Three number-wheels ranged from 1 to 20. After giving it some thought, they fetched the painting of the Stens' wedding-day from their wagon. Guessing that 17 and 8 were important (Sunstrong is the 8th month of the year), they tried a few combinations until hitting upon 17 - 8 - 1. The shining door swung open and revealed Philotheos' hidden fortune!

It was at this time that Lothos thought to consult the mysterious ancient tome in Eric's possession. Pricking his finger, he wrote on the pages in blood, describing the party's situation and what they knew. Oddly, the book had a ready answer! This disaster was likely caused by the gift Philotheos gave his wife. The book identified it as The Necklace of the Sleepless Queen. It was created long ago by someone called the Dead King, to destroy all love in the world.

Perturbed by this news and not wanting to meet Ariel's sadistic grandmother or the "monsters" spawned by the necklace, the party elected to start the mansion ablaze and retreat safely with their wealth. Aladar IX used his Unseen Servant to carry a torch around inside the house while the others barred the door to prevent any aberrations from escaping. They waited until flames were visible from outside, then rode out of Targnol full-tilt, their wagon full of loot.

Return To the Immortal City

On the road home, Lothos consulted the strange blood-drinking tome again, learning its name: Pheldrazash. It claimed to know many other secrets, and was willing to teach him and Aladar IX a spell that would expand their knowledge for free: Call to Familiar Spirit.

Two days' travel from Viridistan, the party approached the Great Wall: a colossal structure a quarter-mile high and 200 feet thick, built by the ancients in the dawning days of the world for reasons unknown to men. Approaching the eastern entrance, called the Moon Gate, they met a farmer on the road who told them a strange tale:

"Not too far from here, a brand-new building has sprung up overnight! It's a great structure in a bizarre foreign style, red stone and dark wood with a peaked black roof and pointed square towers, set back from the road on the edge of the Elsenwood. Travellers say it simply appeared one day with no signs of construction, no work crews, and certainly no negotiations with the elves who make the woods dangerous for honest Imperial folk!"

After hearing that rumour, the gang pressed on towards the City of Spices, glad to be home after their bizarre and harrowing journeys. To move their ill-gotten loot, Lothos travelled to the Otherside district where many of his elven kinfolk live in ghettos, segregated from the larger city. His cousin Darius said he "knew a guy," and a meeting could be arranged at the Plaza of Dark Delights that night. The sullen, cloaked Viridian who met Darius & the party was eager to buy most of their loot - his eyes lit up with greed at the sight of the gold trade bars. He wasn't especially interested in the painting, but kicked in a bit of silver for it as part of the whole deal.

Thousands of silver richer than they had ever been before, the party cast about for something to spend their money on. Someone had heard of a pleasure palace for the rich in the exclusive Cliffside district, called The Sign of Olive & Lotus. Anything could be had there for the right price: fine liquor, exotic foods, high-stakes games of chance, tantalizing companions and strange drugs.

Once again installing "Sir Karavon" in the front of their humble wagon, the group rode up the gates of Cliffside, waving their stolen deeds in the guards' faces. Suitably cowed by the presence of a knight who owned such property, they opened the gates. Following the main Cliffsedge Road, the party espied a beacon in the night. A lone tout, signalling late-night revellers down to his place of business, which turned out to be the very establishment they sought!

The Sign of Olive & Lotus was built right into the side of the cliffs, accessible only by narrow, ancient stair carved into the living rock. The view of Trident Gulf during the day is said to be unparalleled. Checking in cost a princely sum of 200 silvers per person per night, for the cheapest suites and a berth for the horses and wagon! The group was led through sparkling marble hallways by a mute eunuch wearing only a sash of gold lamé. Over carpets made from the skins of striped tigers and snow-white northern wolves, past doorways trimmed in gold leaf with smiling silk-clad houris the party reached their rooms.

With a bit of privacy for the first time in a while, Lothos and Aladar IX ignited the special incenses and herbs they had previously brought and each cast the spell that would summon a spiritual helper to their side: Call to Familiar Spirit.

This done, the gang prepared to party as only those in the Immortal City can...

Enemies Defeated: 

none

Treasure:

3 blue & yellow marble statues
1900 copper coins

633 silver coins

10 gold trade bars

a mound of gold & silver jewellery - necklaces, rings, bracelets, etc

portrait of Philotheos and Domitilla Sten, in frame

Ornate grand harp (planned to sell later)
fine stiletto (Lothos)
2 decorative falcatas (Lothos and Meep)
stack of Philotheos' documents, deeds, etc (Lothos)

Play Report: No Salvation For Witches! [LotFP]

The kickoff to my (currently online) Labyrinth Lord game based around the City-State of the World Emperor was last Halloween, when I ran an ostensible one-shot for my regulars and some of their friends who had never gamed before. 

I wrote this report up for all of them to read, and may as well share it with you folks here. Now that we're making progress in this campaign, you can expect other fun material forthwith. 

I also included what I thought would be a fun campaign kickoff, combined with NSFW - the adventure idea at the back of Kelvin Green's Forgive Us, called "Death And Taxes." Mixing these adventures together went pretty well, and of course I had to add in some of my own ideas as well. Later play reports will show that the PCs, in classic fashion, have not pursued ANY of the leads discovered in this session.

*****

NO SALVATION FOR WITCHES

1st Meadowlark, 4433

Characters

Aladar IX, half-elf M-U 1

Tullius Jr, human fighter 1

Lothos the Undesirable, elf 1

Eric Withakay, human cleric 1

Avala, human elementalist 1

Two-Faced Humphrey, human spy 1

Funeral For a Friend

The characters met at the funeral of James Blake, an old army buddy who died under mysterious circumstances. They assembled to pay their respects on the way to Drydale Priory where longstanding rumours suggested heretical activities and/or valuable treasure.

A neighbouring farmer was the only other attendee. He was confused that Bishop Gray hadn't sent at least a junior priest to officiate and worried about Blake's missing 11-year old daughter Deotina. He also mentioned a group of tax collectors had been asking questions, and asked the group to find out anything they could. A search of Blake's home turned up little except his old Legion gear and a scrap of paper torn from his diary about the taxmen. There were signs someone had packed and left in a hurry.

At the caravanserai, the party found human bodies everywhere killed and mutilated in the most horrible ways. The only two people left alive were a terrified, useless traveler named Arrerand and the concussed woman Naniela, who was beyond his power to help. She mumbled and raved about "red lights in the sky... the dancing woman with skin of diamonds" and clutched her bleeding head wound. Eric healed her injury and she became more lucid. The two helpless travelers were interrogated about the tax collectors and recent events but didn't know much. The party sent them on their way.

The priory itself was unreachable, covered by an impassable dome of lambent red light. Leaving it for the moment, the group proceeded to Drydale for clues and found the citizens in the middle of a witch trial! Leading the event was a thin, intense man named Kynnakon. Four women had already been killed and a fifth cried upon the scaffold, pleading for mercy. At the back of the village, a strange glow similar to the red dome could be seen.

Thinking quickly, Eric stepped in and engaged the man in a discussion about witches and their verification. As a man of the cloth his words carried weight on these matters and he convinced the crowd to disperse. Without his mob, Kynnakon was less confident. He released the "witch" Mertysa to the party's care and told them a strange story: six women had passed through towards the priory a few days ago armed and armoured, dressed in strange clothes. Since then all their livestock had died and they blamed witchcraft.

Lothos circled around the village to investigate the red glow. A small red sphere floated at head height, softly glowing. While the townsfolk were distracted he took it in his cloak and rejoined the group, who departed before the crowd's temper could change again. Returning to the priory, the small red sphere crumbled into dust, sympathetically bringing down the giant glowing dome and allowing entry. Unluckily for the elf, the sphere destroyed a few of his possessions as it vanished from the world - including his spellbook!

Inside The Priory

The party entered the grounds, avoiding the church for now. Searching the outbuildings revealed a succession of horrors - women giving birth to mutated children, a man and woman fused together while still alive and a puddle of fast-moving scarlet bile.

Outside the baths, they were greeted by an imposing figure - Sir Karavon, a knight in gleaming white plate mail. He demanded to know their business and claimed to serve the cause of Mistress Orelia. After all his tough talk, battle was inevitable. Lothos sustained a terrible blow from Karavon's greatsword but the group felled him together and stripped the body.

The group had had enough of these horrors. They barricaded the infirmary full of aberrant children and set the roof on fire. While they were debating their next move, Kynnakon arrived on the scene leading a small torch-and-pitchfork mob. The group took up ambush positions, Tullius Jr slipped inside incognito as Sir Karavon while Eric addressed the mob, whipping them into a witch-hunting frenzy.

Inside the church was a whirl of activity: dozens of peasant women dancing in a mad frenzy guarded by five heavily armed foreign women, overseen by two robed & hooded men and an ice-pale Avalonian sorceress in a red sash. Orelia called out to "Sir Karavon," asking the knight for a report. Tullius Jr indicated the angry mob outside and mobilized the warrior-women to battle, remaining indoors at Orelia's side in case of emergency.

Battle was joined in front of the church! The Five Bishops (as they called themselves) guarded the door in a wedge formation, bravely meeting the mob's charge. What they weren't prepared for was the party's vicious ambush: Humphrey ran up behind one for a backstab while Aladar and Lothos peppered them from a safe distance. The Bishops couldn't withstand this assault for long and began a fighting retreat into the church. This turned out to be a mistake, as the mob charged in and held the door open! Things began to happen very quickly. Tullius Jr showed his true colours when he struck Orelia by surprise with his greatsword, nearly killing her in one strike. Retaliation with her magic wand did not have its intended effect. Two-Faced Humphrey ran around to the back and climbed up to a window for a surprise attack. Eric began smashing windows which allowed Lothos, Aladar and Avala to take up firing positions.

In a deft use of magic, Aladar used his Unseen Servant to snatch Orelia's magic wand right from her hand before she could use it again. Tullius' greatsword finished her off after that. With magical support from Avala's earth elementine, a diving attack by Humphrey and a magical grasping fist from Aladar, the two robed figures were destroyed and revealed to be only the flayed skins of men animated by Orelia's witchcraft.

With all opponents defeated, the mob began dragging the dancers off the platform and the party felt the beginnings of a tremor run through the building. Thinking quickly they fled the scene just in time for the church to come crashing down in a blaze of light and magic, killing or wounding all inside! The rubble began to burn, but Eric and Humphrey dragged over a tub of water from the baths, buying everyone time to sift the wreckage, rescue a few townsfolk and recover some valuables and the mysterious book they originally sought.


Exhumation

The smoky priory grounds were visited by a new group - the much-talked-about tax collectors! Their leader was a turbaned Viridian named Irmugar, sent by the Padishah to investigate rumours that Blake had stolen or unreported wealth. They seemed not to know he was dead. The party convinced the taxmen to take the peasant survivors back to Drydale - Irmugar indicated Tullius Jr and agreed the situation was well in hand with a "Knight of the Cockatrice" present. But something else he said got the group thinking...

The adventure ended where it began with the party exhuming James Blake by torchlight. Inside his coffin with his body was a locked oak box. Prying it open revealed a battered knife in an old scabbard, a locket containing a single golden hair, Blake's diary and a strange leatherbound book called The Great Devourer.

Eric meanwhile was perusing the blackened tome he had found in the rubble and touched its faded pages with his bloodstained hands. They blossomed into fresh crimson runes and symbols, while words formed in Imperial: "Greetings. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

ENEMIES DEFEATED

Charles & Gwendolin
the scarlet bile
Sir Karavon
"The Five Bishops"
Orelia Woolcott
2 animated skin guardians

TREASURE

Sir Karavon's white plate mail & greatsword (Tullius Jr.)

Assorted armour, weapons and ammunition from the Bishops (various)

Orelia's ivory-tipped magic wand (Aladar IX) and red sash (Tullius Jr.)

A mysterious blackened tome (Eric)

Blake's diary (Aladar IX)

The Great Devourer (Lothos)

Locket with a golden hair (Eric)

Silver drinking horn, carved with runes and studded with garnets, slightly scuffed (640 sp)

A silver-gilt radiated brooch ringed with amethysts (1200 sp)

Solid-gold decorative phallus (800 sp)

Treasure value: 2640 sp

Each character gets 440 sp and 490 xp

*****

Don't worry - more Land's End material is in progress. Honestly the biggest obstacle to my blogging is that I'm gaming more often than I'm used to! It's a great problem to have, but one I was unfamiliar with before now.

Thoughts on Reaction Rolls & Campaign Updates

Remember when I reviewed the mathematics for my random encounter tables? Today I have been thinking about the humble reaction roll. I use these and the morale rules (taken straight from Labyrinth Lord) in every game I run. I transplanted them into my Mathfinder game and they work fantastically. These days I would at a minimum hesitate to run a game without these kinds of rules.

So here are a few things I like to do to mess with reaction rolls. Some I've been doing for a while, but I was inspired to post about them when I remembered a conversation on d4 caltrops quite a while back. Ktrey really ran with the idea of overloading various rolls to create more information about a monster! This breakdown is a bit simpler but these techniques work well for me, and hopefully the reader may find them useful.

By The Numbers

Note: I've inverted the normal "lower is better" reaction roll for ease of use, so +1 is an improvement and -1 is a penalty. No need to confuse things.

Reaction Table (2d6):
2: hostile, attacks
3-5: unfriendly, may attack
6-8: neutral, uncertain
9-11: indifferent, uninterested
12: friendly, helpful

Normal PF stat modifiers are +1/-1 for every 2 points away from 10. Obviously I use the stat modifiers from Labyrinth Lord to match the reaction rules. This is funny because my players ask "What does my 'Reaction Skill' mean? Why is the bonus so low? Why can't I put points into it?" I have to explain it all every time.

LL's CHA modifier table looks like this:
3: -2
4-8: -1
9-12: +0
13-17: +1
18: +2

Not much of a bonus, but on a 2d6 roll it really changes the game. Jeff talks about this here. Even a 13 CHA makes "instant hostility" impossible, and that 18-CHA paladin makes friends with a monster on 10, 11 or 12! As always with classic D&D, the rules support each other if you use them all together: rolling stats straight down the line means having a character with the gift of gab is a lucky situation not to be overlooked.


Circumstance Modifiers

The basic thing I do to mess around with reaction rolls is a flat modifier based on the temperament of the creature, or circumstances in the dungeon or wilderness region. A few examples from my Land's End random encounter tables:

Lizardmen: Neutral, standoffish.
Jungle Bear: +2 to reaction. Rarely hostile unless provoked or near food/cubs.
Goblins: -1 to reaction. Jumpy and irritable from being cooped up inside the fort.
Mosquito Swarm: Thirsty!

Three basic possibilities: roll unmodified, roll with a bonus/penalty, or instant attack. These modifiers could be likened to a 'slide' of the probability curve up or down. Note how they can drastically change results at the extremes, so keep that in mind.


Reaction Rolls based on Modifiers (%):

Modifier	Hostile	Unfriendly	Neutral	Indifferent	Friendly
-4	41.7	41.7	16.7	0	0
-3	27.8	44	25	2.8	0
-2	16.7	41.7	33.3	8.3	0
-1	8.3	33.3	41.7	16.7	0
0	2.8	25	44	25	2.8
+1	0	16.7	41.7	33.3	8.3
+2	0	8.3	33.3	41.7	16.7
+3	0	2.8	25	44	27.8
+4	0	0	16.7	41.7	41.7

Going beyond +/-2 obviously can only happen by combining extreme CHA scores and situational modifiers. I include them for completeness and info-tainment purposes. Be careful when that 18 CHA PC starts taking the lead!


Limits

Another possibility. Less extreme than +/- modifiers, more consistent results. Simply determine the best or worst possible reaction the creature might respond with. I would use this only in specific cases, as I think it's more fun to have a wide range of possibilities. For example:

Charau-Ka: Demon-worshipping ape-men. Disdain other humanoids, especially hairless ones. Best reaction is Neutral.

An encounter with the Charau-Ka has the same chance of being instantly hostile and a huge chance of being neutral (6-12). That charismatic paladin won't make friends with them, but has some chance of being able to defuse the situation without violence. This sets a limit to how well (or poorly) the encounter will go, while leaving some room for chance and stat modifiers to play their part. In a sense it is a halfway point between "instantly hostile" and a numerical modifier.


Quantum Reactions

A fun technique is to build other random determinations into your reaction roll. Look at this entry from my encounter tables:

Wildmen: Reaction roll for tribe
2: Wolf or Jackal. Hate everyone.
3-11: Any (1d6 - 1 Wolf, 2 Bear, 3 Caiman, 4 Bat, 5 Spider, 6 DM's choice)
12: Caiman. Welcoming to travellers, enjoy games & contests.

This combines the Limit technique with some baked-in detail about the game world. I am not 100% sure about this method yet, but it continues to work well for me in Land's End. The players don't know what the rolls do, it all happens behind the scenes. It just so happens that all the belligerent locals wear wolf pelts, and the friendly ones crocodile-skin masks. In the middle, anything can happen and relationships will be determined by player character actions and circumstance. This does mean that you can have "indifferent" reactions from the Wolf tribe and "unfriendly" reactions from the Caiman tribe. These groups are still people like everyone else. Ultimately this saves time and allows the DM to absorb setting information with one glance at the local encounter table.


More Suggestions

The possibilities are endless. I have not tried these yet, but they might work:

Motivations. I am considering this in a dungeon I'm working on right now, but care must be taken. If you have an array of interests or goals for a group of monsters and can't choose one, a reaction roll would be one way to decide. Eg: If the neanderthals want to make contact with the gnolls on level 2 and are also fighting with the goblins for control of the main corridors, perhaps the initial reaction roll sets the tenor for their attitudes throughout the dungeon delve: 2-5 indicates they are on war footing against the goblins and 9-12 suggesting diplomatic efforts towards the gnolls. Later on, other neanderthal parties will be in the midst of pursuing this same goal.

What are the monsters doing when you meet?
Hostile: patrolling territory, on a raid
Unfriendly: hiding loot, hunting, getting high on cave fungus
Neutral: guarding an area
Indifferent: trying to sleep, absorbed in a game,
Friendly: recovering from another fight, selling something, on a religious holiday

What condition are they in? A 'friendly' result might mean they're wounded or low on manpower, willing to bargain. A 'hostile' group is at full strength and ready to throw down. Modify the # encountered by 10-20% depending on the reaction roll.

Let's hear suggestions in the comments, or maybe some links to other folks that have discussed this!


***** Campaign Update *****


It had to happen: the Land's End game is going to slow right down since my brother just had his daughter. Cigars all around folks, I'm an uncle now!

As a rules-heavy, character-driven sandbox with only three players, it will be tough to play without him. My brother is one of the best players I've ever DM'd for, and his serpent oracle Vuk Thuul seems to drive the campaign along just by showing up. Luckily the drop-in game is taking off, new people keep showing up and we're having great fun.

There are still plenty of articles in my 'Drafts' folder about Land's End, including the last dungeon they explored but I'm going to be shifting my focus to the other side of the campaign world and the escapades of a brand-new group of 1st level scrubs trying to survive all my LotFP adventures and the encounters from The Nocturnal Table!

Pursuant to this, YOU dear readers can expect more of:

-Play reports on various OSR modules as I run my players through them. I don't like "standard narrative play reports" but I am writing them up for my players anyway, so you'll get something between a review and a play report - what went wrong, what the players liked, what was easy to use, what was difficult, what I'd do differently next time.

-Making the Wilderlands my own, likely by borrowing more from Book of the New Sun

-Nameless Cults and Gifts of Chaos

-The return of Fun on the Velvet Horizon

-More demon-summoning rules

-New Labyrinth Lord rules and less pathfinder content!


Next week we're back with High Medieval weapons & armour.

Necropolis

Last year I found a book called Necropolis - London and Its Dead at the used bookstore. It gets me PUMPED! Although I left my Spoils of Annwn game on the back burner, Necropolis gave me some great ideas for the haunted ruins of Londinium. I still haven't finished reading the book and actually can't find it at the moment, but sometimes thinking up new undead monsters is the only thing worth doing...


*****

"Surely you know that just as the momentous events of the past cast their shadows down the ages, so now, when the sun is drawing toward the dark, our own shadows race into the past to trouble mankind's dreams."
-The Sword of the Lictor, Gene Wolfe

Remember that bit in From Hell (the comic, not the movie) when Gull has that vision of the skyscraper? The carnage, death and infernal magic that brought Londinium low twist not just the city's environment but the very force of time itself. For now, it's just an excuse to do things like this:

PLAGUE-DEAD

Bleeding, weeping, covered in sores, their skin turning black, these zombies still think they're alive (they seem so from a distance) and will do anything to avoid "dying" of the disease that still infests them. Dressed in peasant rags from the plague years (perceptive PCs might notice the differences in fashion and realize something's up), clutching rosaries or garlanded with herbs they stumble, crawl and scream for mercy - from you or God, who knows? They aren't actually intelligent, the things they say are like tics with no real meaning. All the while they're trying to hold your hand, get you to pray for them and lick your face.

Stats as zombies but if they touch you, could get the black plague. Save vs. death or you're fucked: lose 1d4 CON/day. Every day you get a new save, and the disease has run its course if you can make 2 saves in a row (if you're a merciful DM). Cure Disease and similar magic will help as normal, but only high-level spells like Restoration will restore lost CON points.





PLAGUE PIT HORDE

To this day there are places under London they can't dig for fear of what will be unearthed. In 1665, the expense of individual burial plots for each dead Londoner was too high. The poor of the city were dumped by the authorities into huge mass graves. Since the city's Bishop wasn't willing to consecrate ground that couldn't be held in perpetuity by the church, these short-term plague pits were left unhallowed. And now the poor dead are restless.

A great mass of human bones, animal skeletons and dirt all mixed together. The horde might be stuck in a wall as if just breached by digging machinery - this makes the immediate area highly dangerous, but much worse is a horde freeing itself to move around, crawling & dragging slowly through the cramped dungeon corridors, hungry to add infected victims to itself.

Stats go like this:

No 1, AL C, Mv 60' (20') or none, AC 13, HD 6, Att 1d6x1d6 + plague, Sv F, ML 12, HC XII + XIII, XP 820

Their touch is infectious exactly as the Plague-Dead above.
Miasma - The entire area around a plague pit horde is infected. Anyone within 30' must save vs. paralyzation every 2nd round (every single round when breathing hard - running, combat, etc) or begin to choke & cough on the noisome air: -2 to attack rolls AC and saves, stealth is impossible. 1d6 rounds after leaving the miasma it wears off, but make a final save with a +2 modifier. If you fail, contract the black plague as above.

These creatures make the tunnels and crypts beneath Londinium extremely hazardous. Many adventurers have returned to civilization laden with Roman coins and grave goods only to perish a few days later, coughing colours. A few enterprising grifters have begun selling miracle-cures for the malady (which they call Orcus' Revenge) outside Verulamium - needless to say their effectiveness is limited.


*****

These Brits need no introduction around here:

MAILBAG - My first published thing!

It's here!

In the dying days of the legendary Google+ I jumped in on this project spearheaded by Eric Nieudan. I finally got my own copy, and it's just awesome. 40+ monsters created by 16 different contributors, including one very cool monster written by THIS GUY! This is the first time I've ever had anything published in print and I feel great, even though my parents will never understand.

There will be no "review" - the PDF is free on drivethru and the print version is only six bucks. So go download it, give it a read and buy it in print if you like it. Eric gets some money from each copy for all his hard work!

Nameless Cults VII

This is one I've had on the back-burner for a while. It goes hand-in-hand with the next article which I hope to put up next week, if the Emperor and homework permit.

*****


CULTISTS OF ABRAXAS, 
Master of The Final Incantation, The Cruelty of the Heavens

No. Appearing: 1d4

Alignment: C
Move: 120’ (40’)
Armour Class: 12
Hit Dice: 4
Attack: kris (1d4+1) or spell
Save: MU
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: special
Experience: 245

Librarians, lorekeepers, thieves, treasure hunters and finders of secrets, the cultists of Abraxas hoard lost knowledge. Each one hopes to amass enough information to be one day raptured away to the demon lord's long-lost dimension of secrets where they'll study forbidden tomes eternally at the grandest library in creation. 

Each cultist (they call themselves "scribes," which has led to confusion a few times) has his own field of literary interest and spends most of his time amassing a collection, sometimes travelling around the world to search out unique volumes. That makes every member of the cult a sage in his own right, and usually a seasoned thief. Forming a relationship with an Abraxian coven is a great way for adventurers to get questions answered. 

Devotion to their lord is measured by secrets learned, books acquired, and personal information stored. Cultists tattoo or even carve words all over their bodies: important secrets, passwords, names, spells, titles of books they've found, things they don't want to forget but are too sensitive to write down anywhere else. High-ranking cultists get completely covered in writing over the course of years. There is a story (maybe apocryphal) among scribes of one who sold his skin as storage space to two kings to save state secrets - many like to speculate on what happened when each monarch found out about the other!

In their private gatherings they wear as little clothing as possible to better showcase their piety but when encountered outside their lairs they are usually in disguise with as much skin covered as possible. Unlike many of the Nameless Cults who come around the corner yelling "WAAAAGH!" hacking and slashing, you might meet an Abraxian and have no idea whatsoever until it's too late.

While they do technically worship a Chaos lord, they aren't all that dangerous unless you have a book they're interested in. Experts at tracking down scraps of lost information, they'll find out all your secrets and sell them back to you to get what they want.

Most scribes aren't well-suited to battle, preferring the routes of knowledge and stealth. Their master's favour does lend them some assistance though: they have inhuman vision, especially in dim light (double the normal distance of whatever light source you're using). Their exotic, wavy kris knives are imbued with a portion of Abraxas' hunger for information: on a successful hit, save vs. spell or 'forget' a random memorized spell up to a level equal to the damage dealt. The scribe gets +1 to hit on his next attack roll with the kris per level of a spell stolen in this way. Once a scribe is killed, his kris will remain powerful for 24 hours before becoming a normal weapon again.


Fleshly Magic

When scribes are pressed, they can use some of their lost & secret knowledge to cast spells. Consuming their tattoos (burning them with fire, flaying the skin, etc) will invoke powerful magic. Roll a die sized equal to the HP damage the cultist takes (ie. 6 damage, roll a D6). The result is the level of spell the cultist manages to cast. DM's choice, or roll randomly on a spell list from a brand-new supplement you just bought or totally different game to really give your players a shock.

No scribe wants to do this, and will resort to it only having exhausted all other options.

Cultists that are killed or captured can be valuable sources of knowledge & arcane power. Flaying their skin and treating it with special preservatives can render some (very gross) spell scrolls. Roll a die sized using the scribe's remaining hit points if alive, or 1d3 if you're scrounging from a dead one. This gives the combined spell levels of scrolls you can salvage. Again the spells are rolled randomly from your list (cleric, MU, whatever feels appropriate). This renders any secret knowledge the cultist scribed on his body unreadable - you can't have both.

Abraxian covens have been known to pay enormous ransoms for hostages for this reason. Even a dead but intact scribe is worth more to them than a living prisoner missing some of his text...

*****

Also: I just discovered the Mud & Blood podcast. Really cool stuff if you're into Warhammer, or dark fantasy in general. Give it a listen!

Dig into this album for the next time you run Death Frost Doom or the PCs make an unscheduled stop in R'lyeh:

Nameless Cults VI

I was thinking about Warhammer the other day, and reading some of my old books. I had forgotten for a while how fucking pure it really is, despite cutting my teeth on 40k for years back in the day. (My space marines were consistently mangled by my pal Dave's chaos army).

Games Workshop was tapping into something really special way back in those early days. Is there any point in doing the Lovecraft Mythos, or classic AD&D demon lords, or the absurd profusion of extra-dimensional beings in Paizo's Book of The Damned (which I do like...), when we have the mainlines to our collective unconscious called Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch? 

Just a thought.

CULTISTS OF TSATHOGGUA the demon toad-god, AKA The Hungry One, Zothaqquah

These are good

No. Appearing: 1-6
Alignment: C
Move: 120’ (40’)
Armour Class: 16
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: by weapon (whip or club)
Save: D
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: I
Experience: 38

Tsathoggua is a hungry god. Its clergy cast living offerings into the slimy feeding-pits at their temples in the hidden and dark places beyond the Barrier. For those who aren't eaten, another fate is in store:

TRANSFORMATION

Seeking to prove their faith, postulants to the cult of the demon toad will modify their bodies to resemble a frog's: they cut their mouths wider "chelsea grin" style, or have their thumbs broken and reset sideways to bend the same direction as the other fingers. Some graft skin-webbing between their fingers, or immerse themselves in brightly-coloured dyes to remove their humanity. Filing the teeth down flat and even hideous eye surgeries are not unknown. Through these modifications they become closer to the Hungry One and his ascended servants, the tsathar or toad-men.

For initiation into full membership in the cult, they cast themselves into the slime pit that forms the center of every temple of Tsathoggua. These pits could be as simple as a humble cauldron for a minor shrine or the size of foul swimming pool of corruption in the case of a major power center.

Repeated immersions in this primordial mixture renders humanoid flesh down to a soft, spongy material resembling moss or algae. Veteran cultists can be recognized by their pale green, yellow or blue skin and bleary indistinct features - their humanity has been slowly washed away. They don't become slime creatures (we'll save that for another NAMELESS CULT edition), but rather a strange plant-slime-toad hybrid being. This bodily transformation has several effects other than the cosmetic. Cultists' moss-bodies are spongy and absorb blows easily, thus their high natural AC (they don't usually wear armour).

(Player characters without the cult's blessing who get immersed in the slime pit should at the very least take HP damage, if not be dissolved utterly. Tsathoggua is hungry!!!)


SPIRIT ANIMALS

A transformed cultist's moss-body cannot contain an intelligent humanoid's mind or spirit.

Instead, they carry their souls in small animals (reptile, bird or rodent) that live inside their bodies. This spirit-animal IS the cultist in a real sense, their 'body' is like a giant moss-suit controlled from within. This animal can leave the cultist's body to send a message, spy on foes or do any other task its form will allow. While the animal is outside, a cultist's body has only zombie-like intelligence and will continue with whatever task it was last doing when the spirit-animal departed.

If a cultist is killed, his spirit-animal will crawl out of the corpse's mouth in 1d6 rounds. It makes all haste to the temple where it will immerse itself in the slime-pool and grow a new body. This is the equivalent of a Raise Dead or similar spell, the new body is an exact duplicate of the last one.

If the spirit-animal is killed while on a trip outside the cultist's body, it remains alive but near-mindless. It continues with the last thing it was doing before its spirit left, or will follow simple orders given by a cultist of higher rank, a tsathar, or any other frog- or toadlike being.

These unfortunates are used as shock-troops and cheap labour since they don't complain. Without the animating force of a mind or soul, they don't feel pain and cannot recover hit points or heal in any way. You'll encounter many that are missing fingers or even limbs, getting shoved out in front en masse by the cult to mob their opponents and bring them down with sheer numbers. Another vicious 'recruitment tactic' is to immerse hapless villagers in the slime-pool, and then reach down their throats and pull out their spirit-animals...


***** ACHTUNG! PATHFINDER SECTION *****

Since Tsathoggua's cult also exists in Land's End (not all the Nameless Cults do) I have to come up with PF stats for them. I have sworn not to compose a single one of those infernal stat blocks.

Luckily the Tomb of Abysthor has tsathar already! Their stats will work fine for all the transformed cultists, pretty sure they are 2 HD anyway. Postulants can just have basic stats based on race/class, nothing fancy.

***** END DIGRESSION *****

Now let's get back to the important thing...

CULTING!!!

Nameless Cults 666: Reflections of the Solstice / I'm Flaying Everyone

Here we go with some cultishness that for once isn't based in H.P. Lovecraft! 

I'll bet you thought it would never happen. Starting with the heaviest, nastiest, most Black Metal bad guy, the whole reason I'm using the classic demon lords in the first place:

ORCUS!!!
AKA Prince of the Dead, The Goatlord, Yredelemnul, His Corpulence

Why even play Labyrinth Lord without Orcus? He is the game's mascot. The question is how to make him scary, dangerous and interesting? We already have Chthulhu, Azathoth and other extra-dimensional beings inimical to human life and sanity.

The difference has to be interest. Yog-Sothoth doesn't care about you and doesn't even notice its human worshippers, but Orcus Wants You to play Labyrinth Lord! (and for his army of the undying). He answers prayers, gives instructions and sends servants and avatars to Earth, just like normal D&D gods & demons.

If you don't want this guy in your game, then fuck you.

In classic D&D and Labyrinth Lord, Orcus is the lord of the undead, but I've already given some control over undeath to the Esoteric Order of Dagon, who raise the drowned from beneath the waves. Of course lots of people could learn to raise the dead, but I want more flavour.

Since I included muscled-up Chris Moyen goat monsters in my game, they naturally fall under Orcus' purview. Let's say their own legends place him as their ancient progenitor. If this is true, it means they are a race of true demons living on Earth, and should be vulnerable to banishment, holy word, etc, although few pious folks are interested in finding out. No musclegoat-women have ever been spotted, and nobody knows if they are created, summoned through gates from Orcus' realm, or born by some other means.

Orcus also resembles Baphomet, which is interesting. D&D and heavy metal already combine in a great way, but Baphomet means the occult is no longer implied, it MUST be involved. This gives Orcus domain over secrets, forbidden magic and maybe some groups worship him under the guise of some other being, never knowing who they really pay homage to? I see it as Orcus representing all the things your mom's church said D&D was about. Orcus' priests will have special spells, and I can try to base them on historical ceremonial magic to add that little bit of Extra.

The grand-daddy of them all.

To sum up:

Orcus is the demon lord of all black metal topics: undead, goatmen, spikes, whips, church burnings, human sacrifice, the occult and crucifixions. He opposes Christianity (unlike Satanism, which I'm placing alongside Gnosticism, etc as one of many choices in a MUCH more tolerant, polytheistic and unrealistic Judeo-Christian pantheon), countering the ideas of piety, meekness, martyrdom, and heavenly reward with: existing forever among the undead.

He is not charismatic, tempting or sly. He just sits around saying "Hey human, you wanna live forever? Well, here's the next best thing: lichdom, or if you aren't a wizard, maybe as a shadow or wight or something. We'll give you a bunch of skeleton slaves and you can keep all the goth girls to yourself."

"Don't like it? Finger of Death!!"

LICK THE HOOF.

Placing the worship of Orcus in the setting should be quite easy: the historical Orcus was a Roman underworld deity. So I'm thinking Rome made dire bargains to preserve its power in the waning years of the corrupt empire. Along with Demogorgon and other demon lords, Orcus was invoked by the Romans during their withdrawal from the old city of Londinium. The disastrous results of that final battle can still be seen today by anyone foolish enough to venture near that cursed city (better believe we'll be seeing more of it soon).

Wherever decadent and corrupt Roman culture still lives in Albion, the worshippers of Orcus can't be far behind. They hate that they were driven underground by Christianity, and sometimes make temporary alliances with other forgotten cults to bring down the age of the Crucified One.

The other great thing about putting Orcus in the game is I can use all those Necromancer Games adventures I have, since they also love the guy and so many of the dungeons were built by his cultists. Holy fuck, should Rappan Athuk, the dreaded Dungeon of Graves, be somewhere in Albion? Maybe/maybe not, but there is a good stack of other great adventures to be used. The Crucible of Freya and The Tomb of Abysthor are both sweet low-level jams.

Flipping through these modules again is already getting me stoked to start hacking them up and shoehorning them into the game!

*****

I was going to write up Demogorgon too, but I forgot about this! I simply can't come close to doing a demon lord like the aliens from Animal Man and referencing every band with that name from Metal Archives. I'll try and reinterpret some other classic D&D villains if I can.

*****

Now here is a fat stack of Orcus-approved albums:

The main thing:

You have no choice but to turn this up loud:

Hella fast goat-grind, listen or be FLAYED:

Worth it for the atmosphere, vocals and guitar tone alone:

Nameless Cults V

CULTISTS OF YOG-SOTHOTH who is The Key and The Gate, AKA Iok-Sotot

No. Appearing: 2d4

Alignment: C 

Move: 120’ (40’) 

Armour Class: 17

Hit Dice: 2 

Attack: 1d6+1

Save: Cleric 

Morale: 12 

Hoard Class: *

Experience: 38

Only madmen would worship this Ancient One. Anyone who isn't mad when they join sure will be after the terrible initiation rituals this cult administers. They charge into battle in once-fine robes and giant black hats, wreathed in pungent incense smoke and swinging two-handed weapons (scythes, hammers or flails) chanting "IOK-SO-TOT! IOK-SO-TOT!"

In any group, one of the cultists will have a censer that looks like a big two-handed ball and chain, from which issues the maddening and pungent smoke that drives the cultists into their battle frenzy and disables their opponents. It gives them insight into space & time so they can predict their enemy's movements, this accounts for their high AC and makes them immune to surprise and sneak attacks while in the smoke. If you try to jump them, you find they are looking straight at you no matter which way you attack from, even if you are invisible (they have a premonition of being stabbed in the back, even if they don't know who will be doing it). This also means that the cultists, from a short distance away, look like a big chanting cloud in the dungeon.

Outside the smoke, effects wear off (for cultists and victims) after 1d6 rounds, which renders the cultists AC 13 and vulnerable to surprise. The smoke renders them perpetually weird and difficult to converse with - as if they weren't already bloody lunatics. Imagine that girl/guy you tried to pick up outside the bar that one time, but she/he was stoned as hell and kept saying things sort of annoying and totally unrelated to the conversation*.

The smoke has various effects on those who inhale it. Roll 1d6 on the table for each character who inhales the smoke.

1 - Bugs!!!: They're crawling all over you. Save vs spell each round to do anything other than freak out and pick at your clothes.
2 - Permafried: No save. The same ability the cultists have. +4 to AC, -4 WIS, can't be surprised, you have trouble making complex decisions (rush the player, make them decide what to do first every round even if their initiative roll is way later. If you skip over them for being too slow, they'll get the idea).
3 - Dream Warrior: No save. Move slowly, just like you're fighting in a dream. Hit last every round, movement rate and damage reduced by half (round up). Taking any hit point damage will wake you up and you're back to normal.
4 - Terror in the Depths of the Fog: No save. How big is this room again? Why is it so quiet? Where is everyone? The smoke is too thick, your character is lost in the Silent Hill emptiness between worlds. After 1d6 rounds of wandering, make a WIS check to find your way back. If you succeed, no problem. If you fail, something followed you back. Roll up a low-tier demon encounter, hostile to anyone and everyone. Or if you are a real dick, the character ends up in another dimension chosen by YOG-SOTHOTH.
5 - Through the haze of Time: Granted a vision of the future! The player can look at the dungeon map for a number of seconds equal to their character's INT or WIS, whichever is lower. Save vs. spell. If you fail, the character is so terrified by this knowledge that they cannot discuss it aloud. If the player SPEAKS about any of what's been learned, visit some horrible doom upon them: time paradox, insanity effects, curses, etc. Once the future has come to pass (the party has explored some more rooms, met more monsters, etc: 1d6 encounters), player can speak normally.
6 - Instant Death: Not really. Character believes self to be dead, falls over, breathing and vital functions slow to a crawl (only an expert can tell). Save vs. death every 2nd round to wake up, no worse for wear.

They don't usually carry treasure, but their robes are high quality (although often ripped and torn). Also the censers are finely made and could be worth 1d6x100 gp to the right buyer (a church or collector maybe).

*This is important, as all the cults of the Ancient Ones still have their own motivations and goals and can be open to negotiation, trades or even temporary alliances. Most have human-level intelligence, it should just be difficult and confusing at times for PCs to understand them or make themselves understood. This is a way to get some more adventure hooks happening, and I find dungeons can be real boring sometimes with nobody to talk to.

*****

Today's post brought to you by IPAs and:

BLOOD AND SOULS FOR MY LORD ARIOCH

Nameless Cults 665

Other editions of NAMELESS CULTS: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, 666,

Other important CULTY LINKS:
- Against the Wicked City - Cults, Cultists and D&D

*****

So a while back, I was looking through the 2nd edition Forgotten Realms book "Faiths and Avatars" to find a god for my cleric in a buddy's game. The struggles of finding a specialty cleric that can do the few things I wanted was really frustrating and not worth describing.

My real objection to that book is this:

Why in Lucifer's name are there four - count 'em, FOUR - hippy-dippy, best-friends-forever, green thumb, pat a unicorn on the head nature deities in the Forgotten Realms?

Google Image search for "tree hugger"

Chew on this granola:

Chauntea - goddess of agriculture, plants cultivated by humans, farmers, gardeners, summer

Eldath - goddess of quiet places, springs, pools, stillness, peace, waterfalls, druid groves

Mielikki - goddess of forests, forest creatures, rangers, dryads, autumn

Silvanus - god of wild nature, druids

One nature deity? Of course. Two? There's an outside chance. Three looks a bit silly, and by the time we have four I can't think of any explanation but trying to pad out the size of the book.

I imagine bringing my new character to the table: "Oh yeah, my guy serves the goddess of calm and peaceful groves." Then being laughed out of my gaming group forever, insults and Dr. Peppers hurled after me as I run out the door crying.

Honestly the "super harsh bad guy" gods aren't much better. Bhall is so exactly what you'd expect, anybody could have written out that entry. Here's a hint: his domain is death & murder. The specialty priests are called "deathstalkers." I'm absolutely not the first to say that they all seem about the least exciting fantasy-adventure extradimensional ultimate beings anyone's ever heard of. Tie that noose and start with me please.

Too topical? Or not enough?

Give me some old-fashioned CULTS god damn you! I want to see bizarre, hair-raising initiations and terrible prices paid for incomprehensible extrahuman power. I was reading Clark Ashton Smith and thinking about how bloody magical The Door to Saturn is with Eibon's patron deity Zhothaqquah, and its relative Hzuilquoigmnzhah. You know your god truly can't be fucked about you when even pronouncing its name is impossible. Another thing I liked about Dungeon Crawl is they take a shot at this kind of thing: the death god is Yredelemnul, and the god of necromantic magic is Kikubaaqudgha. Pretty damned alien. Followers of those gods don't stand on a milk crate on the avenue Friday nights, yelling at people through a badly set-up PA about abortion. You have to find them, and it won't work out the way you think.

After I get done the classic Mythos cultists I will try to branch out a bit. I am considering Arioch, Thasaidon and Mordiggian, and then maybe I'll do a few D&D standbys like Orcus, Demogorgon, Jubilex and Lolth, although they do feel a bit odd next to the Ancient Ones. I will have to think harder about how to put a fun spin on the classics and take them out of their usual fantasy context. Also, that's a A LOT of evil gods, considering all the "real-world" pantheons have bad guys built in already. Law definitely has the deck stacked against them here.

Just like in real life I guess.

Okay that was a lot of ranting. In the mean time, for tax purposes, here are some stats for a monster I was thinking about yesterday, adapted from another classic '90s computer game.

*****

PUKING DEMON

Feel lucky punk?

No. Appearing: 1d4

Alignment: C

Move: 90’ (30’)

Armour Class: 16

Hit Dice: 4

Attacks: 1+
Damage: 2d6

Save: Fighter

Morale: 7

Hoard Class: VI

Experience: 245

Yep, you heard right. Short, fat, slimy and bilious as hell, these fiends look like a typical red-skinned devil's underachieving, cheeto-loving cousin. They dangle morningstars from their long sideways horns, and attack by spinning around to smash any- and everyone nearby. Their melee attack (2d6 represents the two morningstars) hits everyone in close combat with the puking demon, with a progressive -1 penalty to hit each opponent beyond the first (so a normal attack against the first guy, -1 to hit the second, -2 to hit the third, and so on. Or you could save time and just give them a middling penalty on all rolls). Note that this spin attack won't work on enemies that are too short (<4'), lying on the ground, etc. Common sense applies.

They are used as heavy shock troops in demon armies because they're tough, hard to kill and have some truly morale-destroying abilities! Because they usually terrify or incapacitate their enemies, they don't have the stomach for a fight and will flee if they meet stiff resistance.

Other puking demons are of course immune to both of the following abilities:

HALITOSIS: The foul breath of the puking demons surrounds them at all times in a horrifying miasma. Beings that breathe the air within 10' of a puking demon suffer -2 to attack rolls, morale checks and anything involving swiftness or movement (some saving throws, DEX bonuses, etc) from the debilitating gases. Creatures of 2 HD or less must save vs. poison or be incapacitated, gagging and choking for 1d6 rounds or until they are out of the area. If more demons group together, the area of effect will expand accordingly.

BILE: Instead of melee attacks, the puking demon can Exorcist-style vomit a vile, corrosive slime in a 30 degree cone, extending 20 feet forward. They can do this every third combat round. It does 1d4 acid damage to anyone affected, and the bile sticks to every surface until scraped or washed off. The floor and walls become highly dangerous and corrosive surfaces. Creatures take 1d4 damage each round until they aren't in contact with the bile anymore, or it dries and becomes inert after an hour.

*****

Now go listen to this for the rest of the day. Doctor's orders.