So, You've Killed Yourself a Dragon

Solomon VK at World Building & Woolgathering recently made a post on that old staple, the dragon in fantasy world building. He discusses various dragon myths, and the (apparently refuted but great) phylogenetic fancy that dragons are found in nearly all cultures because of some hard (or semi-hard) coded primordial fear of snakes. At the end of the post, the author suggests how one can avoid the worn out name 'dragon' by turning to the kenning of the skalds of old: more or less complicated ways of speaking about a person or phenomena without mentioning their names. One part code, one part poetic image. The sea becomes 'way of the whale', the raven a 'corpse cuckoo' and treasure 'Fafnir's bed' after the dragon in the Völsunga saga.

Using the Völsunga saga as point of departure there's also the possibility of using 'dragon' not as species, but as the end result of greed (or accumulation of wealth not spread around?). For Fafnir was once a mortal man (Or possibly a dwarf. With a brother who could turn into an otter.), but driven by greed he murders his father to lay claim to a great treasure. He then retires with this treasure into the wilderness where he, ever watchful of those who would steal the gold, transforms into a great, venomous wyrm. The characteristics of the monstrous seeps into both the treasure (being cursed, and accompanied by misfortune for anyone laying claim to it) and his very blood (giving those who drink it the ability to understand the language of birds).

There's a lot of transgressions going on in the Fafnir myth. Apart from the  kind of obvious father murdering (frowned upon in many cultures, apparently), two important points are  (1) Fafnir's refusal to give his brother his rightful part of the inheritance, and (2) that the act of accumulation of wealth is separated from the distribution of it among friends, kin, loyal followers, rivals etc. that is expected from the rich and mighty (At least one kenning for 'lord' referring to the golden rings he is supposed to gift to his loyal hirdsmen). 

From this we could take the following idea to the gaming table: There is not first a monster, and then a treasure, but rather a pile of unimaginable riches that produces the monster that sleeps on it. In other words:, 'dragon' envisioned as a taint or curse, a sibling affliction to lycanthropy. The dragon slayer who is more afraid of the dragon than its treasure is a dilettante dragon slayer.*

The killing of Fafner as retold on the Rimsund carving, one of several Sigurd stones.

 In game terms, such a conception of dragons could look something like this:

The same scene as imagined by Arthur Rackham, via Wagner.

The Dragon Curse

First off: Dragons don't belong to a species. They are monsters, a break with nature and proper customs. They are not the end result of an amorous encounter between two dragon lovers, but of the unproductive accumulation of wealth. The dragon hoard predates and spawns the dragon, and works as a curse on whoever has it in his possession. The hoard is conveniently statted out in B/X as Treasure type H. It varies in size and content, but is worth an average of 60,000 gp in coins gems, jewellery and the occasional magic item. Fafnir's treasure, for example, had some really impressive armour, if the saga is anything to go by.

Anyone who has received a share of the dragon hoard (PCs, retainers, sponsors) must save against spells once every week for as long as they possess any part of the original treasure. If they fail, they have to roll on the draconic traits table below. Re-roll any non-cumulative repeating results. If you feel that the table is too beneficial, either add +1 for each previously failed save if you want to make the becoming-a-dragon a more acute danger. Or demand a save every morning.

1D20 Draconic Traits

1. Speak with birds (not that they necessarily want to speak with you)
2. Speak with reptiles. As 1.
3. Sniff for gold (10 ft).Can sense any source of gold within the range. Can be rolled multiple times, increasing the range each time.
4. Frightening: -1 on all reaction rolls, -1 on all morale rolls for enemies. Can be rolled multiple times.
5. Mine, all mine! Must pass a ST when parting with any of her belongings. If failed, she loses a permanent HP until it has been returned
6. Fire resistance. She (but not her belongings) take half damage from mundane flames. If rolled again, she becomes immune to fire.
7. Poison resistance. As 6.
8. Dragon sleep. The sleeping pattern changes. Roll 1d6 every week: 1-5: Has no need for sleep except for HP and spell memorizing purposes. 6: Sleeps for a week, but can force herself to stay awake with a cumulative -1 on all rolls per day without sleep.
9. Ancient sejd. Gains a random lvl 1d6 spell, usable 1/day
10. Proper bed. Must sleep on lvl x 1000 gp worth of treasure to regain HP and spell slots from resting
11. Alarm. Can sense thieves. Immediately knows if anyone has stolen one of her possessions. When that happens, ST or fly into a berserker rage (-2 ac, +2 tohit). First priority is the thief, but if he is out of reach, the closest ally will do just fine.
12. Rip & shred. Nails grow into sharp claws (2x1d6)
13. Dragon size. Grows 1 HD in size. Can be rolled multiple times.
14. Poison breath. Usable 1/day. Poisonous cloud. Lvl x d6 in damage, victims must save or suffer -4 on all rolls while in the cloud. Can be rolled multiple times.
15. Scales/Fur. +1 in natural AC, but looks distinctly inhuman. Note: Opponents versed in dragon lore (knights, magic-users, bards, etc) can spend a turn looking for your weak spot, nullifying the natural AC bonus for future attacks. Can be rolled multiple times.
16. Fire breath. Usable 1/day. Damage as current HP, AOE. Can be rolled multiple times.
17. Wings. Half walking speed if unencumbered. Each additional result doubles the flying speed. She can no longer use a normal packback.
18. Slithering. Legs turn into snakelike tail. Unable to do those things that demand that you be bipedal.
19.Devour Yggdrasil! Head turns reptilian, complete with terrible fangs (1d8)
20. Full transformation. Roll a new pc if a player. HD etc like current lvl, but no smaller than a young dragon.

A dragon has no friends

The gradual change into a dragon is only part of the curse. It also affects all those around you. Make a loyalty roll for each retainer and hireling every night. If failed, they attempt to steal the most valuable piece of the dragon hoard. Or, if in a position of strength, murder the PCs and take the whole treasure for their own.

Getting rid of the curse

Carousing and charity is the only known cures to stop the transformation. The owner of a dragon's hoard is allowed an ST every time she goes carousing or rolls on a similar table: If successful, the waster of wealth may rid herself of one dragon trait. If she finds herself without dragon traits and broke as Conan at the beginning of a short story, she is free of the curse. (Or, if you want to go a more classic route: The curse ends when you drop the hoard into the Rhine river.)

* Solomon VK points out another great example of the trope: Eustace Scrubb, the spoiled boy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that turns into a dragon in similar (if more sanitized and, perhaps, christian) circumstances.

Read Magic, No Wait, Law

Wizards, we are told, are quite jealous when it comes to guarding their secrets. Legal knowledge, on the other hand, is generally thought of in terms of transparency: laws, to be functional and fair, should be available to anyone who is subject to them. This is of course more of an ideal conception than a material truth: Legal texts are not known for being easily deciphered by the layman. It is also a very modern conception. In Njàls Saga. A Critical Introduction, Lars Lönnroth sketches an altogether different approach to the law, as it was practiced on Iceland before the country became subjected to the Norwegian crown. It is an oral, secretive practicing of juridical formulae that a player of d&d might be tempted to call a 'vancian' system of law -- complete with an emphasis on memorization*: 

"As we have seen, every legal case [pre-Járnsíða] was handled as a case of civil litigation, in which neither plaintiff nor defendant could base his arguments on written documents but had to rely on oral tradition merely in order to find out what the law said. No wonder, then, that legal knowledge was often as jealously guarded as a family secret or that genealogies -- on which inheritance claims could be based -- were carefully memorized." (Lönnroth, Njáls Saga. A Critical Introduction, p. 213)

In some ways, the secrecy and the fragile balance is similar to how I envision natural law on the Red Planet: Remnants of a juridical caste, guarding and collecting potent formulations to force their own (or, more likely, their employer's) will on man and nature. It begs the question -- how many legal mysteries can a lvl 3 itinerant jurist memorize?

Here's a magic item with some bearing on the above discussion:

Footsteps, yes, but where is the feet that made them?

 

A small silver box.

Covered in flowing jugendesque etchings. Filled with talc powder. An invisible force creates and erases geometrical doodles in the powder. On the inside of the lid, a risque etching of a nude wind bound to an allegorical rack, the four cardinal winds pulling in different directions. The inner bottom of the box details the terms of the contract for the aerial servant bound to the box: Every week it can be employed as a porter (for six days) OR as a spy/scout (for an hour) OR as a courier (Max distance: 6 miles, double the speed of a racing horse). The contract stipulates that the owner must provide the elemental with one day of rest and one melody it has never heard before every week. 

About the elemental: 1 HP, reforms after 1d4 days if destroyed. Doesn't like the experience. It cannot fly, but is very fast and nimble. The spirit is mute, but can communicate via writing in the talc powder. It is invisible, but blowing powder or sand at it will temporarily reveal its contours.

...and its attitude: The elemental is addicted to music, and has gone without for ages. On a positive reaction roll it will make itself known when the box is opened, on a neutral or negative roll it will only make itself known if someone unearths the contract. It wants (from highest to lowest priority): 

• The box destroyed & to be freed
• To have a song written for it
  
• To hear new melodies (any new song mesmerizes it for the duration of the performance)
• To be addressed politely

If it is slighted, or an initial reaction roll goes poorly it will:

• Drop or hide items of sentimental importance to the owner of the box
• Make noise in the hopes of drawing hostile attention to the owner
• Word its reports to maximize the potential of misinterpretation
  

* The guarantee of the law on Iceland was, of course, very different from the material power it carries along the canals. It rested on a complex network of always competing, often feuding families. In many ways simply a method of giving forms to the blood feud that ensured it didn't develop into a full-scale civil war.

I Loot the Body, But Find No Coin

First attempt at cover for a possible d13 Tribes of Vacuum Nomads zine.

 I Loot the Body, But Find No Coin

Those who roam the Great Vacuum care little for conventional riches, but are by no means above the love of worldly possessions. Here's d13 things you might find on a fallen nomad:

1. Gourd filled with (actual) moonshine
2. Glass pearls in many different colours
3. Chipped dagger carved out of solid amber
4. Pet asp (Save or hp to zero and bed-ridden for 1d4 days)
5. Jar of honey
6. Illustrated bestiary of (mostly extinct) ocean fauna
7. Three torches discreetly interspersed with incense
8. Alligator boots, very well made.
9. Deed to family crypt below the canal city of Adomdes
10. Jade cup with motif of nursing tiger
11. Hyena skin cloak and a Mehen board, doubling as shield
12. Long-stemmed pipe and 7 doses of grinded bone. ­Imparts permanent appetite for Venusians as well as the one-time use of random lvl 1 spell (first and second smoke). After that, each use grants a lvl 2 spell but the smoker needs to save or suffer a debilitating stroke.
13. Pouch of cinnamon and a jet black porcelain shell; If blown, sounds like the mating call of the cinomolgus. 25% chance of attracting that ferocious bird if in mountain areas.

Speaking of worldly possessions: Toad of Holding and Remnants of the Restless Republic as physical artefacts below.

The d13 Tribes of Vacuum Nomads

Reading the spell descriptions in Ben Laurence’s Through Ultan’s Door, I was impressed with how efficient a simple reskinning is for giving flavour to d&d staples. The Fleischguildsmen don't use cause light wounds but Cook Flesh, Shaltromo protects himself with a Shield of Memories instead of Sanctuary. Here's a riff on the ‘just use a bear’ notion (is Jack Guignol the originator? Google points in that direction, at least), using a bandit stat line instead.

 By dropping the vacuum prefix, these d13 tribes should be fairly easy to spirit away from their Red planet surroundings, either as nomads crisscrossing the wilderness around one Lost City or other, or as strange warrior-mystics/cultist.

EMPTY SKIES OF THE RED PLANET 

(introductory lore dump)

Shamash raised up against Humbaba mighty tempests’– Southwind, Northwind, Eastwind, Westwind, Whistling Wind, Piercing Wind, Blizzard, Bad Wind, Wind of Simurru, Demon Wind, Ice Wind, Storm, Sandstorm– thirteen winds rose up against him and covered Humbaba’s face.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Maureen Gallery Kovacs’ translation

The major Winds of the Red Planet have all dissipated, the minor ones forming local climes and wandering trade winds, hermit breezes and dwindling whirlwinds in an ever-present Vacuum. A rare few flock around the Phobian court, vying for the privilege to fan the brow of the Imperial Throne, courtiers anthropomorphized beyond (and into) recognition.

Some, such as the Weather of Jokk and the indentured Breaths of the Canal cities, remain bound through brute force or ancient contracts.

A small number roam the empty plains of the planet, as poisonous ill-winds or sandstorms. Fewer still travel with bands of vacuum nomads.

The latter day civilizations of the Red Planet huddle around the Canals, attempting to hold the Great Vacuum at bay. Trade routes and war campaigns are made according to the concatenations of available climes. Only seldom is travel done in a straight line.

If the citizens of the Canal States do their best to ignore the emptiness next door, the vacuum nomads have embraced it. They form mysterious tribes traversing the silent landscape of a dying planet, bent on bizarre undertakings and moved by strange ethics.

VACUUM NOMADS AS ADDED COMPLICATIONS 

The tribes are, as implied by their name, seldom stationary for any longer period of time. Include them in your wilderness encounter table as a small scout force (1d8, without wind, 25% leader). When rolled, generate the tribe (3d10, with leader and wind) and place it in an adjacent hex. Stats as bandits.

Hieroglyphs as spoor of the nomads

The spoors of the nomads arefirst and foremost signs say­ing something about the hex or an adjacent hex. The vacuum nomads speak their own dialects of the lingua martia, understandable to any native of the Red planet. But in addition, the tribes use ancient hieroglyphs to mark out places of great danger, resting spots and hidden secrets among them­selves. They could be modelled on hobo signs or cuneiform.

A character with 13+ intelligence may use a spare language slot to decipher the meaning of the hieroglyphs. 

THE TRIBE 

The members of the tribe wear...

1 Layers of thin veils, moving as if under water

2 Crusts of glittering mud, made from rare earths and slowly dwindling supply of ancient wines

3 Practical, no-nonsense clothing

4 Elaborate, non-figurative glass masks. Heirlooms.

5 Amber-embroidered kaftans, ever rattling

6 Copper chainmail, covered in verdigris

7 Swarms of overbred hummingbirds in yellows and purples

8 Long hair manes that have never been cut

9 Religious symbols and signs of office from fallen enemies

10 Scales of hydra

11 Impractical but light mineralised tree frames covered with primitive wind chimes

12 Millstone collars of much too long finger bones

13Tight fitting acrobat's leotards

 

...and are currently...

1 Selling their services to local potentate

2 Robbing travellers dressed in red

3 Bartering for an abstract concept with bewildered locals

4 Protecting a canal caravan

5 Fleeing a battle

6 Preparing a ritual

7 Negotiating a marriage with another tribe

8 Excavating their presumed ancestral home

9 Their chief is arguing with the tribal wind. The children cries.

10 Playing for their tribal wind. Smoking, drinking age-old teas.

11 Starving and thirsty

12 On a pilgrimage

13 Finding and abducting a new avatar for their patron

They worship their patron...

1 The Empty Lady

2 The Mineral Mirth

3 The Hidden Constellation

4 The Torso of Evenus

5 The Lichen Covenant

6 The Bull of Six-And-Seven Horns

7 The Petitioned Drought

8 The Clay of Many Colours

9 The Tindalos Hound-Mother

10 The Palace of a Thousand Suites (The Anemochory Godhead)

11 The Deimosian Litter

12 The Mystery of the Burning Lungs

13 The Tiger-of-Three-Shades

...who demands...

1 That the tribal song never ends, even for a moment

2 The co-mingling of disparate bloods

3 The shrouding of all hands

4 The desecration of long-forgotten temples

5 The damming of canals

6 The protection of travellers and massacre of the sessile

7 The decoration of abandoned architecture

8 That the tribe breeds and multiplies

9 Impossible wagers

10 The excavation of Phaëton-from-the-Skies

11 Novel culinary sensations

12 That sun beams never touch members of their congregation

13 Expeditious assaults and retreats

THE WIND

It is impossible to cross the Great Vacuum without wind, and every tribe has bound its fate to one of those fickle elementals. Use djinni stats, but with the weakness Addicted to music: Will be mesmerized by any new song or music it encounters.  

 

d13 Tribal Winds

1 Lacks a tribal wind, wear masks with imprisoned sylphs.

2 A perfumed summer breeze, gentle and forgiving

3 (The still before) a thunderstorm

4 A sophisticated dilettant searching for its primeval roots; doesn’t want to expose itself as a poser to tribe

5 Plague wind. Careful not to infects its humans.

6 An addict of wind chimes, tormented by bad conscience

7 An autumn gale, memento mori incarnate

8 A storm in a tea cup, choleric

9 A whirlwind, moving everything within reach

10 A mordant mistral, making everyone ill at ease

11 A former sandstorm, arranging mandala like grain patterns

12 A whispering cross-wind, tearing your eyes

13 A major Clime, tricked into service. Looking for a way out.

THE TRIBE IS LED BY

A lvl 1d4+1 fighter (1-2), thief (3-4), cleric (5) or magic-user (6)

 

Name

1 Polypée

2 Tseresia

3 Aimo

4 Ceder

5 Twelfth

6 Vers

7 Önska

8 Tranĉilo

9 Kahle

10 Enterigita

11 Sonĝo

12 Ĉenataj

13 Elfosaĵo 

Title

1 Sparapet

2 Tribune

3 Reciter

4 ... the Anointed One

5 ...the Eunuch

6 -Speaks-Last

7 Sibyl of Kison

8 of Monochrome Visions

9 Shofet

10 Prytaneis

11 Nomarch

12 Marasi

13  ...the Mnemonic

Personality

1 Opportunist

2 Resentful

3 Erratic

4 Loyal

5 Stubborn

6 Amorous

7 Brutal

8 Melancholic

9 Vain

10 Extravagant

11 Ancient

12 Howling

13 Stoic

...who carries...

1 A complicated metal flute. Belonged to a virtuoso at the Continuous Opera of Ochus. Charms audience once/week.

2 A wig made of impossibly thin strands of copper. Shields the wearer’s thoughts, but imparts a more-than-human coquetry.

3 Beautiful polydactyl white leather gloves. Wearer gains extra thumbs (+2 thief skills, no disadvantage for using two weapons).

4 A tardigrade shaped golden censer. Incense of the Sea (sealed minor water elemental, produces a cup of salt/day).

5 A necklace with kernels and seeds in impractical ampoule. One from each plant in the botanical garden of the Sleeping City.

6 Tattoo needles and green ink. Infected: Any tattoo will spread over the body until stopped by scars or burned skin.

7 Sandals with tribal history in pictograms engraved into soles.

8 The Executioner’s axe of Niph-Below-The-Sand. Attacks those that abuse hospitality in its presence, wielded or not.

9 The Ark of Dybbuk. Carries 1d4-1 ancient souls, waiting for new bodies to inhabit (demands a ritual).

10 Unbound verse by The Poet in the Tower. ST or inflicts madness if heard by the uninitiated.

11 A sturgeonite copper scroll. Ciphered map to caviar cache.

12 The Key of Second Solomon (opens any mundane lock once)

13 A Mantle of sand. Minor sand spirit forms a stylish mantle around the wearer of the contract (+1 AC, can’t cross water, en­cumbering when wet). Signed contract in silver locket.

Toad of Holding: Item, Monster, Dungeon Entrance

Jean-Charles Chenu, Encyclopedie d’histoire naturelle (1856)

[Edit 2020-04-26: I cleaned up and expanded on the idea and turned it into a 12 page mini zine available on DriveThruRPG ]

1. Origin of a Species

The era which is not to be referred to as the Age of Decadence (The reigns of the Nth-Emperors, up to and including to the reign of God-Queen Aelita, having been excised from Imperial annals) brought with it all the wonders and horrors of post-scarcity imagination. The Toads of Holding are one such living artefact of dubitable practicality.

Most likely as a result of a passing biomantic fancy, the migratory sexual drive of the common Arean toad was isolated and turned in on itself. Through this displacement of the species’ libidinal practices, love was forced to find another way – one that could be put to communicative uses. Turned introspective and sedentary, the amorous peregrinates of the toads were resumed as internal longing, the inside of the individual toad slowly expanding and – when reaching sexual maturity – forming spatial pseudopods, entwining and joining with the insides of others of its kind. This, in time, created a species-being pocket dimension of uncertain size dominated by a Sea of Acid, stretching on to a pharyngeal horizon.

This inner mating ball enabled the autopoiesis of the species, while also allowing those willing to be swallowed to travel over great distances, maw to maw. For a while worlds grew closer: ideas, dreams and passions circulated through the Ether at an almost unfathomable speed. But as so many other things conceived during those brief, feverish millenia, with Necessity seemingly exiled from the Red planet, the toads were soon put to new uses. Touring art exhibitions were muscled out by regiments of terracottieri, exotic food-stuffs by vehicles of destruction. The Inner Sea of Acid swarmed with the ships of would-be contenders for the throne, and a War of Entrails laid waste to most mature toads, closing down a species spanning network of teethless maws.
Some eggs remained. Now the remnants of the species are scattered around the world and, perhaps, beyond.

2. Magic Item: Eggs of Holding.

The size of an ostrich egg. Translucent, with a dark red yolk. Generally found in clusters of 2d4.

Effect: Eating an egg allows you to stash an item, no wider than your outstretched jaws, in your stomach for 24 hours. If not retrieved during that time, it is lost. 

The Eggs are quite valuable to the right buyer: A dynasty, a religious order, an elf. Anyone with the patience to take care of a toad during the generations it takes for it to reach adulthood.

CC: Mario Massone, see thumbnail for link

3. Monster: Tadpole of Holding

The size of pikes, perpetually hungry because of ever-expanding stomachs. Copper coloured, sometimes (50%) with legs and (25%) arms.

No. Appearing: 2d4 
HD: 1 AC: As leather

Attacks: 1 Suck attack

Damage: No damage on successful attack, but ST or lose 1 permanent HP for every successive turn until removed. Feel free to use exciting grapple rules. 
Movement: Twice human in water, (half the speed of humans on land with legs)

Morale: 4

Save As: Magic-User

Treasure: The flesh of a tadpole emaciates the consumer. Delicacy and a great way to signal wealth.

4. Monster/Retainer: Juvenile Toad of Holding

Once it grows out of its tadpole form, the toad’s inside expands at a much faster rate than its outside, and soon disconnects from the latter almost entirely. This petite portmonnä dimension forms a discrete space-beyond-space until it reaches adulthood.

This makes the juvenile toad a sought after beast of burden along the canals of the Red planet. Intelligence as a dog and temper as a goat.

If bribed with its food of choice, it holds up to [HDx3] items, and an accomplished toad tender can learn how to massage its stomach to make it vomit back the right object.

The wet, acidic environment of the stomach dimension necessitates the packaging of goods to protect it from being spoiled or corroded.

Likes: Maggots, water, silent reflection.

Dislikes: Snakes, harsh words.

NB: A toad in a toad breaks the world. Dissimilarly to Russian dolls, small toads do not fit neatly into larger ones. It rends reality as per any bag of holding worth its name. 

Table: Retrieval Failure

When attempting to retrieve items from an untrained or grumpy toad (hungry, exposed to the cold, too hot, dry, hurt – there will be no doubt when the toad is grumpy), roll a CHA. On a failure:

1 Stomach acid! Save or 1d4 acid damage

2 Nothing emerges

3 Extremely loud croak. Roll for wandering monsters.

4 Wrong item!

5 The sought after item is irretrievably lost

6 The toad starts to hibernate out of spite until its demands for food, moisture, care are met.

And, if you should find yourself at odds with a juvenile toad, a statblock:

No. Appearing: 1 
HD: 4 AC: As chain mail 

Movement: Twice human in water, as human on land

Attacks: 1 Bite (1d6, ST or lose one HP permanently)

Morale: 7 
Save As: Fighter

Treasure: 25% vomits random treasure at death

Alignment: Neutral

Special: Croak. Once per battle, it can make a load croak. Roll on applicable Wandering Monster table.

5. Monster or Dungeon Entrance: Elder Toad of Holding

Size, intelligence and memory as an elephant. Half closed eyes, glazed over and distant. Sighs. Found in canals, caves and the estates of the powerful. Might speak or barter if approached in the right way.

If you cover yourself in appropriate food for an ennui-haunted ancient amphibian, you will be promptly swallowed and transported to the Acid Sea and the Tongue Lands.

No. Appearing: 1

HD: 9 AC: As chain mail 

Movement: Twice human in water, half the speed of humans on land

Attacks: 1 Bite: 1d10, ST or lose all HP permanently. If the damage > the character’s HD, it is swallowed into the pocket dimension instead. OR Trample (50% each round). AOE, hits adjacent targets in melee distance, 4d8 damage.

Morale: 10

Save As: Fighter

Treasure: 25% vomits random treasure at death In Lair: 25% chance of egg cluster.

Alignment: Neutral

Special: Croak. Once per battle, it can make a load croak. Deafens all other combatants (ST: If successful 2d4 hours, if failed permanent). Roll on Wandering Monster table.

Special 2: Spew Reinforcements (When HP is halved): Roll on a random encounter table not appropriate for the setting; The toad vomits forth lost travellers or monsters from within. Roll reaction for the newly arrived.

6. An Example Encounter: Somewhere Between the Twin Canals of Thoth-Nepenthes

The echoing sounds of stone cutting fill the still air. At the bottom of an enormous marble quarry, an elder toad lounges in the shady interior of a giant covered cart.

The tent is surrounded by scruffy guards dressed in exotic livery. They are tasked with keeping the toad fed, moist and happy. When the toad gets too hot, it takes a swim in the turquoise water of the flooded lower part of the quarry. The guards know that this is not allowed by their employer, and uneasily passes the minutes on the square-cut beach. The toad knows that the swims make its tenders uneasy, which adds to the pleasure. 

Meanwhile, chain gangs of goblinesque workers cut up blocks of marble. The blocks are covered with maggots and snails, transported to the cart and promptly swallowed by the toad.

(An aristocrat of ill repute is amassing an army of condottieri inside the toads. The marble blocks are used for repairing the ancient Keep on the Acid Beach where s/he plots against the Throne. The pretender is trying to locate another maw; one hibernating somewhere under the Imperial residence on Phobos.

The chain gangs have been shanghaied from the driftwood labyrinth of Bricolage, an ad hoc settlement created by those marooned inside the toads generations ago. The sun is scorching their almost transparent skin. At least the work is better than being sent to the Toadstone mines.)