A Couple of Creatures

Monday’s session involved two particularly interesting creatures. One of them was the Colossus of Femur, which is mostly just a phase spider with some nifty tricks. The other is the spider-headed women inspired by China Meiville’s Perdido Street Station. The spider-women were quite a bit more terrifying and very, very gross.

 

Ketheret		Level 3 Elite Controller
Medium natural humanoid		XP 300
Initiative +2                          Senses Perception +0; low-light vision HP 88; Bloodied 44 AC 18; Fortitude 14; Reflex 14; Will 14 Saving Throws +2 Speed 6 Action Points 1
m Dagger (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+8 vs AC; 1d4 + 1 damage
r Magic Missile (standard; at-will) • Force, Implement
Ranged 20; +6 vs Reflex; 3d4 + 4 force damage
R Misdirected Mark (standard; encounter) • Implement
Ranged 10; +7 vs Reflex; 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is marked by an ally of Ketheret’s choice within 5 squares of her until the end of her next turn
A Webspray (standard; encounter) • Illusion, Implement
Area burst 1 within 10; +6 vs Will; until the end of Ketheret’s next turn, the target is immobilized and takes a -4 to attack rolls
Expeditious Retreat (move; encounter)
Ketheret shifts twice her speed.
Alignment Unaligned		Languages Common, Deep Speech, Draconic
Skills Arcana +10, Bluff +6, History +10
Str 11 (+1)	Dex 13 (+2)		Wis 9 (+0)
Con 12 (+2)	Int 18 (+5)		Cha 16 (+4)
Equipment Dagger, Spellbook, Wand Implement

Ketheret was the Matriarch of the Neith (spider-woman) clan in the mountains that separate the Femoral Forest from the Basin Plains. We didn’t really get to learn much about her, as the heroes brutally killed her in the mating chamber of the nest. Which sort of makes sense, since the rest of the spiders were going to feed the heroes to Ketheret at first opportunity.

Neith sign language is going to be available as a language in my campaign from now on, and as this is not the last time we’ll be meeting up with them, we’ll be learning more about these enigmatic people as the game goes on.

Neith Protectorate		Level 3 Soldier
Medium natural humanoid		XP 150
Initiative +4                          Senses Perception +3 HP 44; Bloodied 22 AC 19; Fortitude 18; Reflex 15; Will 16 Speed 5
m Longsword (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+11 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is marked until the end of the Protectorate's next turn
r Longbow (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 20/40; +4 vs AC; 1d10 + 1 damage
M Sure Strike (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+13 vs AC; 1d8 + 1 damage
M Tide of Iron (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Requires shield; +11 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target, if Large or smaller, is pushed 1 square. The target is marked until the end of the Protectorate's next turn. The Protectorate can shift into the space the pushed target vacated
M Dance of Steel (standard; encounter) • Weapon
+11 vs AC; 2d8 + 5 damage, and the target is marked and slowed until the end of the Protectorate's next turn
No Opening (immediate interrupt, when an enemy attacks and has combat advantage; encounter)
The Protectorate cancels the combat advantage she was about to grant.
Alignment Good		Languages Common, Goblin
Skills Intimidate +6
Str 18 (+5)	Dex 13 (+2)		Wis 14 (+3)
Con 12 (+2)	Int 11 (+1)		Cha 10 (+1)
Equipment Scale Armor, Light Shield, Longsword, Longbow, Arrow x20, Adventurer’s Kit

The basic footsoldiers of the Neith clans, the Protectorate is always female (males are too dumb and lack opposable thumbs), and always a deadly fighter. This wasn’t actually the character sheet for the Neith as they were played last time, but it is the template I will be using from now on. The previous build was more paladin-like, which was sweet, but this better fits the image I had of the Neith as I was planning the session.

The Neith are, as stated a few times, straight jacked from China Meiville. As such, they are sexually dimorphic, do not have vocal chords, have a diverse culture, and a strict religious lifestyle. Like the khepri from Perdido Street Station, the Neith are named after an Egyptian goddess. In this case, she’s the goddess of weaving.

There was a scene in the mating room. The males (who just look like spiders) were mating with the females (who look like women who have spiders for heads). The males mate with the backs of the females’ heads. It was pretty gross. 

Colossus of Femur		Level 8 Solo Skirmisher
Gargantuan elemental beast		XP 1,750
Initiative +11                        Senses Perception +7; tremorsense HP 348; Bloodied 174 AC 22; Fortitude 19; Reflex 21; Will 18 Saving Throws +5 Speed 6 , Climb 6 (spider climb), Teleport 6 Action Points 2
m Bite (standard; at-will) • Poison, Sleep
+13 vs AC; 1d8 + 5 damage, and the target is slowed (save ends). First Failed Saving Throw: The target is knocked unconscious instead of slowed (save ends)
M Ethereal Bite (standard; recharge 5 6) • Teleportation
The Colossus teleports 10 squares and makes a bite attack
M Ethereal Repulsion (immediate interrupt, when an enemy moves adjacent to the colossus; at-will) • Teleportation
Targets the triggering enemy; +11 vs Will; the Colossus teleports the target 4 squares. A successful Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Dungeoneering, Nature or Thievery check deactivates this ability for two rounds.
Indomitable (standard; at-will)
The colossus ignores all damage. If an effect can end with a save, the colossus does not suffer from it. The colossus is immune to all forced movement. If it suffers from an effect that ends at the end of a creatures turn, the effect ends at the end of the colossus’s next turn. A successful Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Dungeoneering, or Thievery check deactivates this ability for two rounds.
C Death From Above (standard; recharge 6)
The Colossus must be at least two squares above the ground to use this abilty. The Colossus teleports up to it's teleport speed and crashes down on its opponents.
Close burst 2; +13 vs AC; 3d10 + 5
Alignment Unaligned		Languages —
Skills Stealth +14
Str 17 (+7)	Dex 20 (+9)		Wis 17 (+7)
Con 15 (+6)	Int 5 (+1)		Cha 10 (+4)
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. All monster statistics blocks have been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.

 

This Colossus was much more mobile, zipping around the map like it was nothing. There was a lot of charging going on. The poisonous bite was scary. The ethereal bite came out a few times (in a strange bit of DMing for me, I rolled on recharge for that one secretly). Despite being very fast, the original encounter with the neith was such that fighting the colossus just wasn’t very frightening.

In the next session, we’ll be fighting Babagya (and getting a look at her character sheet afterwards, which should be fun). The boss fight after that will hopefully fix the problems I’ve been having with boss fights so far. This one will be as mobile as the Colossus of Femur, as powerful as the Colossus of Tarsil and will have a few tricks up its sleeve that, hopefully, the party won’t see coming.

Also, JP should draw me some pictures of women with spiders for heads so I have something to illustrate this post with. ^_^