Yes -- It's Bitner, Your Dead Partner

Brain-Bat: Init +4; Atk claw +0 melee or bite +2 melee (1d3) or psychic blast +3 ranged (1d6); AC 10; HD 1d7+1; MV fly 40’; Act 1d20; SP control corpse, psychic death throes; SV Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +15; AL C.

A Brain-Bat can slip onto a corpse and wear it like a zombie. Treat the corspe as a Zombie (DCC core rulebook, page 431), except that it attacks with a claw (1d4) or a weapon (by weapon type).

When a Brain-Bat is slain, its wail of psychic distress affects all living creatures within 100'. These must succeed in a DC 15 Will save or take 1d3 points of temporary damage to both Intelligence and Personality. On a natural "1", one of these points is permanent (player may choose which).

Brain-Bats are extremely intelligent. They can use corpses to speak when riding on one, and use both the living and the dead to further their schemes. 

You Look Perfectly Normal to Us!

Lobsterfication: A victim of this foul magical disease has their body slowly turn into that of a crustacean over the course of several days.

When a character first encounters a vector, they must succeed in a DC 15 Fort save to avoid infection. While victims of lobsterficiation carry the disease, other vectors might include curses, magical creatures, or even tainted food and drink (such as water consumed after a rain of tiny dead monsters).

If a character is infected, each day after the first they must roll a DC 15 Fort save. Failure indicates a bodily change, which occurs in the order below:

1. Body grows shell-like carapace. +4 to AC, armor cannot be worn.

2. Left hand becomes pincer-like claw. 1d8 damage. Can transmit lobsterfication.

3. Body becomes hunched. Permanent loss of 1d4 Agility and 10' of speed.

4. Right hand becomes pincer-like claw. 1d8 damage. Most spellcasting is now impossible. Can transmit lobsterfication.

5. Body grows extra pair of legs and victim can no longer stand upright. Head is unchanged. Lobsterfication is complete. 

The process of lobsterfication can be halted with a Lay on Hands check sufficient to do 3 HD or more of healing, but more powerful magic is needed to undo effects that have already taken place.

Average Lobsterman: Init -1; Atk claw +0 melee (1d8 + lobsterfication); AC 13; HD 1d4; MV 20’; Act 1d20; SP lobsetrfication (Fort DC 15 avoids); SV Fort +0, Ref -1, Will +0; AL N.

Good Heavens! It's Raining Tiny Dead Monsters!

It doesn't often happen, but every once in a while - maybe only once in a million years - there is a tiny dead monster in ever raindrop. These are larger-than-normal raindrops - each being a good 2 feet long - but the number of dead monsters dropping from the sky is beyond count.

Anyone caught in such a rain must succeed in a DC 10 Fort save each round or take 1d3 damage from the pummelling of tiny, water-shrouded corpses. The rain lasts 1d6 turns, so anyone not able to find shelter will surely perish. 

But the worst is yet to come!

Tiny dead monsters seep into the water supply over a 1d30 mile radius. Anyone (and anything) consuming water in this area over the next 1d7 days begins to change....

Roll 1d20, modified by Luck:

0 or Less:  The body shrivels, permanently losing 1d8 points of Strength, Agility, and Stamina.

1: The brain swells painfully, but unfortunately not helpfully. Take a permanent loss of 1d3 Intelligence and Personality.

2-3: Pull out your Mutant Crawl Classics book and roll up a Defect.

4-5: Pull out your Dungeon Crawl Classics book and roll up a Greater Corruption.

6-8: Pull out your Dungeon Crawl Classics book and roll up a Major Corruption.

9-12: Pull out your Dungeon Crawl Classics book and roll up a Minor Corruption.

13-16: You are miraculously unscathed!

17-18: Gain 1d3 points to a random attribute.

19: Pull out your Mutant Crawl Classics book and roll up a Physical Mutation.

20: Pull out your Mutant Crawl Classics book and roll up a Mental Mutation.

21: Pull out your Mutant Crawl Classics book and roll up a Physical Mutation.

22: Pull out your Mutant Crawl Classics book and roll up a Mega Mutation (equal chance of it being Physical or Mental).

23 or More: A paragon! All of your attributes are raised to 18, you gain a permanent 1d12 hit points, and you gain a permanent +2 bonus to all saves!

Minor creatures (insects, birds, etc.) undergo only minor cosmetic changes unless the judge rules otherwise. This is a great opportunity to introduce new (and sometimes tragic) monsters to a previously-explored area! Or bring some DCC monsters into MCC! Or MCC monsters into DCC! Go wild!

When creatures who have been changed by consuming the tiny dead monsters die, their bodies evaporate after one hour, eventually forming together into clouds that allow the next rain of tiny monsters to fall, millenia hence!

Aieeeeee! The Teeth!

Swarm of Teeth: Init +5; Atk swarming bite +0 melee (1d5); AC 14; HD 4d8; MV fly 30’; Act special; SP swarm (attacks all in a 20' x 20' area with 1d20, half damage from non-area attacks); SV Fort +0, Ref +5, Will +0; AL C.
 

The Flaming Head Again!!

Flaming Head: Init +2; Atk ray of flame +3 ranged (1d6 + fire); AC 18; HD 1d6; MV fly 60’; Act 1d20; SP flame (Ref DC 10 or catch fire, 1d6/round until save succeeds), immune to fire, mundane weapons that strike it are destroyed; SV Fort -2, Ref +8, Will +5; AL C.

Who can say what the flaming head wants? All that we know for sure is that Robert keeps missing it...perhaps Robert's head goes wandering at night?

Then a Huge Croco-Tiger Charges Up....

Huge Croco-Tiger: Init +4; Atk claw +2 melee (1d4+3) or bite +5 melee (1d8+3); AC 15; HD 5d8+10; MV 40’ or swim 50'; Act 2d20; SP can use an Action Die to charge up to 80' (+4 bonus to bite attack and damage, -4 penalty to AC until next action); SV Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +1; AL N.

Gary Con Events I'm Hosting

 

Characters for Spawn of Cyclops Con will go out this Wednesday. In other news, here are the events I am running for Virtual Gary Con. I have the Thursday and Friday off as well, so with luck I will also get to play in some games!

The Inn in the Forest!

From the mind of Daniel J. Bishop comes a dangerous adventure that pits players against monsters, nature, and even time itself.

You spy a semi-ruined inn on the road ahead, promising shelter from the dark woods that close in around you. But the inn is not deserted. Haunted by phantoms of the past, creatures of the present, and a malignant entity with dark designs for the future, you slip between all three timelines. As these timelines merge and horrors from the past slip into the present, you find yourself confronted by a dark and wild future that you may not be able to avoid. Worse, a future you may have helped to create!

The Kickstarter has now officially launched!

What is The Inn in the Forest?

The Inn in the Forest is a DCC RPG long-format, time-traveling, horror adventure by Daniel J. Bishop heavily influenced by the darker side of the Brothers Grimm, the moody ghost tales of M.R. James and William Hope Hodgson, and the horror stories of Robert E. Howard.

Providing multiple nights of eerie entertainment as a stand-alone adventure or as a persistent part of a larger campaign, The Inn in the Forest is perfect for any medieval or modern DCC or OSR setting, including Weird Frontiers, Shudder Mountains, Crawlthulu, OSRIC, and Labyrinth Lord.

As a player, you take the part of an unwitting traveler seeking shelter for the night. Whether drawn this direction to search for the lost magic of Zauberer the Hexmaster or following up on rumors of the innkeeper’s dark practices, what you encounter is so much worse. Sometimes making it to dawn means success, other times it may just mean trading your companions’ souls to gain the power the Waldgeist grants!

As a Judge, you will be running a unique adventure, where time is not static. Phantom shifts allow you to tell the story of the inn during its heyday as well its current state. As the PCs interact with the haunting of the inn’s past, the very real threats of its present seek to destroy them. Rules on phantom shifts, as well as new monsters, items, artifacts, and rituals, are included to bring new dimensions of gameplay to your ttrpg.

Mystery of Ilusion

The next album cover on my queue is Chastain's Mystery of Illusion. And, yes, that last link will take you to the full album. 

Although released in 1985, that cover looks like something from the 1970s Heavy Metal Magazine. Nude woman. Evil looking dude on an evil looking horse. Hazy background like something from a Ralph Bakshi film. You would have, at most, three statblocks of material here, and the woman looks more like victim than active entity.

Luckily, when I stat out these album covers, I also like to take the lyrics into account if I can. 

Herein, we have the tale of a sorceress queen, who seeks to kill the king and take his place. She sees a soldier of fortune, the black knight, as the tool she needs to accomplish this end, and sets him against the king.

In return, the queen becomes his consort. The knight, believing that she will be loyal to him, allows her to cloak him in illusion, freeing him to become the tyrant through which she acts. In the end, though, the soldier of fortune escapes, leaving the queen desolate in the ruins of her kingdom.

Or, at least, that is how I read it. And, given that reading, this album cover will not be a snapshot of just the image, but a progression from one state to another. Yes, that means that the characters will level up and change over the course of the album, and it means that judges looking to get the most use from this material will have to use it over the course of campaign years. 

I am not sure how you feel about that, but it pleases me!