Let’s Convert the Fiend Folio: Stunjelly and Sussurus

If you really want to understand how robust the random systems in Dungeon Crawl Classics really are, turn to pages 423 to 424, and check out the entry for “Primeval Slime”. You can use this to create green slimes, ochre jellies, grey oozes, gelatinous cubes…and, yes, our first entry for today. In fact, I built my version of the Stunjelly almost completely from the core rulebook.

The Sussurus from the Fiend Folio is an underused monster, but one whose potential is fully realized in the initial version of Death Frost Doom. I know that people have a lot of reasons to avoid the person who “revised” this adventure, but I own both versions and I think that the revision detracts from, rather than enhances, the original work.

When I first started this series of posts, way back in the lost days of 2022, it was partially for selfish reasons. For my own home games, I wanted the Fiend Folio converted. I also wanted something to blog about when I didn’t have anything else to talk about. Also, to be completely honest, I wanted to provide something of use to the DCC community overall – and this is selfish, too, because I love being part of this community!

Nonetheless, if you feel like tipping, here is a way to do so.

 

Stunjelly

Stunjelly: Init (always last); Atk Pseudopod +4 melee (1d4 plus paralysis); AC 10; HD 4d8; MV 5’ or climb 5’; Act 4d20; SP Camouflage, paralysis, engulf, half damage from slicing and piercing weapons; SV Fort +6, Ref -8, Will -6; AL N.

Stunjellies appear just like 10’ x 10’ sections of dungeon corridor, and are 1d4+1 feet thick. They cling to walls, blending in with a +5 bonus to hide even when searched for (Intelligence check opposes). Their pseudopodia exude a paralytic agent (Fort DC 14 or be paralyzed for 4d6 rounds. A stunjelly can use an Action Die to engulf paralyzed victims, inflicting an automatic 1d6 damage per round.

Metallic treasures that the jellies cannot digest have been found within stunjellies, but the slimes are only partially translucent in even the brightest of lights, so that adventurers must sift through the defeated protoplasm to determine if anything of value is within. In normal torch- or lantern-light, stunjellies are completely opaque.

 

 

 

Sussurus

Sussurus: Init +2; Atk Slam +3 melee (2d4); AC 16; HD 6d8; MV 50’; Act 2d20; SP Plant, hug, detect vibrations, susurration; SV Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +0; AL N.

These weird beings are mobile, coral-like plants roughly seven feet in height, and looking like nothing so much as large gorillas, hairless and headless, made up of tough honeycombed fibers. The creatures are named for the constant noise they make, a sound like a gentle wind blowing through leafy trees. Above ground, this susurration can be heard up to a quarter mile away. Underground, the noise echoes, often filling a complex, although the source can be difficult to pinpoint. The sussurus feeds by filtering air through its body, consuming microscopic airborne pollen, bacteria, and animals. Although they can move quite quickly, a sussurus will often remain in the same place if undisturbed, and may live for well over a millennium.

A sussurus defends itself by making sweeping attacks with its arm-like branches. If both attacks hit the same opponent, the target is drawn into a hug for an additional 2d8 damage. Because it senses vibrations in the air, invisibility is meaningless to a sussurus – it has no external organs.

Interestingly enough, the constant noise made by these beings is soothing to the un-dead (including non-corporeal un-dead), who remain dormant so long as they are close enough to “hear” it. If a sussurus is killed, the susurration it makes ceases, and any un-dead which had remain quiescent as a result begin to arise once more. While inert from this susurration, un-dead cannot be turned or destroyed, and if they are attacked physically they will awaken to defend themselves for 1d6 rounds per Hit Die before succumbing to the soothing noises again.

It is believed that these strange beings have some dim intelligence, and can communicate with others of their kind by slight and subtle variations in the susurrations they produce. However, it is only very rarely that two sussuri are close enough together to communicate in this way, if indeed this is even the truth.