Welcome to The Bestiary, a collection of monsters for use with fantasy role playing games. I have included statistics for TSR's D&D game but they should be easy to adapt to any other system.
Absorber
Brain Stirge
Infester
Monster Type: Lowlife (Very Rare)
| Armour Class: | 0 |
| Hit Dice: | 5d8+1 |
| Movement: | 60' |
| Attacks: | Special |
| No. Appearing: | 1 (1) |
| Save As: | M5 |
| Morale: | 12 |
| Damage: | Special |
| Treasure Type: | Special |
| Intelligence: | 10 |
| Alignment: | Chaotic |
| XP Value: | 425 |
Appearance
This creature appears as an amorphous cloud of grey green dust. It is attracted to magical items and magic users. It attacks by enveloping and draining magic powers from wands, staffs and rods as well as swords and armour, in fact anything of a magical nature. It does no physical damage but drains 1d4 charges from items with charges or 1 plus from magical items. The items get a saving throw vs. spells at the same level as the wielder. ALL items enveloped must make saving throws. Items that are magical but have no charges or pluses (e.g. bags of holding, potions etc.) are destroyed if the saving throw fails. Attacks by magical items require the item to make a saving throw in the same way. Spells and weapons do normal damage. Each plus or charge drained by the Absorber allows it to add 1d4 hit points to its total up to a maximum of 40. Once at 40 it will split into 4 each with 10 hit points. Occasionally it will leave behind partly or totally drained items if it is at its maximum strength, for later use.
Terrain: Ruins, settled.
Monster Type: Monster (Rare)
| Armour Class: | 7 |
| Hit Dice: | 2d8 |
| Movement: | 30' (180' Fly) |
| Attacks: | 1 Bite |
| No. Appearing: | 1d6 (3d6) |
| Save As: | F2 |
| Morale: | 9 |
| Damage: | Special |
| Treasure Type: | L |
| Intelligence: | 3 |
| Alignment: | Neutral |
| XP Value: | 30 |
Appearance
This creature which appears to be a normal stirge on first sight is in fact a deadly foe to all spell casters. The only distinguishing mark are the sharp claw like projections on the front of its wings. On sensing a magical or clerical spell being cast it will target it's attacks on that PC. On a successful attack it will drain 1d6 points of damage (which is added to the stirges hp) and locks onto the PC's face. A successful bend bars roll is needed to remove it, but this will do another 1d6 points of damage. Burning, spells or attacks will cause 1/2 damage to the creature 1/2 to the player (including magic missiles). The player so afflicted cannot speak or cast spells. Each round that the Brain Stirge is connected to the player it will drain one spell from the PC's memory starting with the HIGHEST level. It gains 1hp for each spell so drained. If pulled off then killed one of the spells will go off (choose or select randomly) affecting the killer of the stirge. There are rumours that some high level magic users can 'milk' the Brain Stirge for the spells.
Terrain: Ruins, woods.
Monster Type: Monster (Rare)
| Armour Class: | 7 |
| Hit Dice: | 1d8+1 |
| Movement: | 30' (Fly: 180') |
| Attacks: | 1 bite + Special |
| No. Appearing: | 1d8 (2d10) |
| Save As: | F2 |
| Morale: | 9 |
| Damage: | 1d4 per round & egg insertion |
| Treasure Type: | L |
| Intelligence: | 1 |
| Alignment: | Neutral |
| XP Value: | 19 |
Appearance
The infester appears to be identical to a stirge but has a slight bluish tinge to its feathers and its eyes are a glassy green. On a successful attack as well as drawing blood from the victim (doing 1d4 points of damage each round) it injects an egg into the flesh. The victim gets a saving throw vs disease which if it fails the egg grows into a maggot that eventually (1d3 months later) emerges as a fully grown infester. The only way for the egg to be removed is if a Cureall spell is cast at the victim. The victim must make a saving through vs death ray to survive this. If the save is successful the PC loses 1/2 of his or her hit points and is incapacitated for 1d4 days. They are especially common in areas of sheep or cattle farming where they can infect a large number of animals in a short period of time. Like magpies they have a taste for gems and bawbles which they keep in nests near the top of dead trees or ruined towers.
Terrain: Ruins, woods, farmland.
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© Alan Jones 1998