Cleon
Legend
I've started work on this section, but has proved to be a fair amount of trouble!
Spelljammer Converting Spelljammer creatures
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
I've started work on this section, but has proved to be a fair amount of trouble!
Cleon
Legend
Okay, I've made some progress on an Isopterite Hive draft, so I'll post the first half now and add the second half to this post when (if?) I finish it.
Here we go:
ISOPTERITE HIVES
An isopterite hive is a complex of tunnels, chambers and galleries with walls lined with resin. Isopterite resin is a special material isopterite workers can regurgitate, see Construction for more details. The entire hive reeks with an ammonia-like smell emitted by the resin it is built with.
The hive is normally excavated deep in the earth, but portions of it may be hollowed out from the interior of giant trees or built on the surface in the form of rock-hard towers of mixed mud and resin that may soar hundreds of feet high.
Information of general conditions within the hive and what chambers and structures it may contain is provided below.
General Conditions of an Isopterite Hive
All isopterite hives share the following properties.
Construction: The walls, floors and ceilings of the hive are reinforced with a lining of isopterite resin, a material formed from a mixture of chewed-up wood and isopterite stomach fluids. Its strength is comparable to rock or reinforced masonry (Hardness 8, 180 hp for 1 foot typical thickness, Break DC 35).
Isopterite resin gives off a poisonous vapor described in hive miasma, below.
Isopterite resin requires regular maintenance with special stomach secretions produced by isopterite workers, otherwise it begins to slowly grow weak and brittle and stops producing the hive miasma. This means that the walls of a dead or abandoned hive are likely to collapse under their own weight sooner or later.
Darkness: The interior of an isopterite hive is normally pitch black. These insect folk are able to navigate and act in darkness, so they keep no lights in their hive.
Hive Miasma: The gasses given off by isopterite resin have two significant properties. Firstly, they are toxic (see Miasma Toxin below). Secondly, they cause fires to burn more brightly and quickly (see Blaze Acceleration below).
Miasma Toxin: In the open air outside the hive the vapors from its resin are malodorous but harmless. The denser vapors inside the hive are a toxin that will slowly kill almost any living creature that breathes air. Isopterites are immune to Miasma Toxin, as are a few other creatures such as aspis and [X?] The speed at which this toxin progresses varies depending on its concentration. Normally, a creature exposed to hive miasma must make a DC [X] Fortitude save when they first breathe the toxic vapors plus an additional DC [X] Fortitude save every 30 [?] minutes they continue to breathe the toxin. Chambers with more concentrated hive miasma require more frequent Fortitude saves – the most intense Miasma Toxin is in Resin Storage Chambers (see below), which require a Fortitude save every minute. The series of Fortitude saves only ends when the creature is able to breathe fresh air again.
The first time a creature fails a save against Miasma Toxin it feels a painful irritation in its eyes, mouth and other sensitive parts – treat this distraction as the Dazzled condition. The second time a creature fails a save it starts coughing and choking, taking a –2 penalty to skill checks and ability checks. The third failure results in the creature being Sickened (q.v.) by chest pains and retching. A fourth failure results in unconsciousness. A creature rendered unconscious by hive miasma must continue making Fortitude saves and takes 1d4 [?] Constitution damage every time they fail.
The Constitution damage is the only lasting effect of Miasma Toxin. All the other unpleasant symptoms completely disappear if the affected creature breathes fresh air for 4d6+16 [?] minutes. This also "resets" how many times the creature failed its save against Miasma Toxin to zero. A delay poison spell will prevent Miasma Toxin affecting its target for the duration of the spell, and a neutralize poison spell will "reset" their exposure to zero failed saving throws.
Blaze Acceleration: The vapors inside an isopterite hive cause combustible materials to burn with twice their normal brightness (i.e. a torch will illuminate a 40-foot radius instead of a 20-foot radius). However, combustibles also burn twice as quickly, so the torch would burns for 30 minutes instead of 1 hour like it normally would. This effect does not cause the materials to burn any hotter, so it does not increase any fire damage the combusting materials might inflict. Blaze Acceleration only affects mundane combustible materials that require oxygen to burn. It has no effect on magical fire.
Navigation Strings: Strings of a brown, slightly sticky material hang from the ceiling of every passage in an isopterite hive. They hang in such thick curtains the line-of-sight visibility in isopterite passageways is restricted to 20 feet. The string material is a form of exuded resin whose porous structure absorbs and retains isopterite scent markings, serving a similar purpose to maps, sign posts and message boards in a humanoid city. Each string contains a scent-coded map of all the passages and chambers near it, with directions to each. Isopterites use navigation strings to tell where they are in the hive and post notices containing basic information – along the lines of "food storage #7 running low, work team scent-of-crocuses assigned to restock".
Isopterite chambers have sheets of navigation string affixed to their walls. The colour and texture of these sheets is indistinguishable from the construction resin of the walls, but a creature with the Scent ability might notice the difference. These sheets are usually evenly spaced around the circumference of the chamber, with additional sheets flanking each entrance.
Isopterite scent-markings are unintelligible to most other creatures.
Structures of an Isopterite Hive
Isopterite hives always contain royal apartments, hatcheries, rest chambers, storage chambers for food or resin, and waste dumps. Some isopterite hives contain additional features, such as ventilation towers, fungal gardens, wells or water tanks.
*More To Come*
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Well, I like all that so far!
I'd add formians to other immune critters, since I still like the idea of their being enemies with isopterites (given ant-termite antagonism). As isopterites are pretty low-CR, a low DC is probably reasonable. Maybe 10 or 12 for all the DCs, if that's ok with you. The rest of the question marks seem fine.
I'd add formians to other immune critters, since I still like the idea of their being enemies with isopterites (given ant-termite antagonism). As isopterites are pretty low-CR, a low DC is probably reasonable. Maybe 10 or 12 for all the DCs, if that's ok with you. The rest of the question marks seem fine.
Cleon
Legend
Yes, I was thinking of including formians and probable giant ants and giant termites in the sample immune critters list.
Yes, it's a tricky question how to balance it.
We don't want it trivially low or so high that all or most of the PCs fail four saves and get KO'd before they get very far into the nest.
However, we're talking a whole hive here so the PCs will be facing gangs of soldiers, so they probably aren't that low a level.
Remember that a dozen CR 2 warriors are, on paper at least, a CR 9 encounter. That's a pretty good match to the original adventure, which was level 5-7 and had encounters with groups of 2d6 warriors at a time (or 2d10 in the royal apartment).
I'm more inclined to go for somewhere from DC 12 to the standard fallback of DC 15 (which is also coincidentally the Con-based DC of a standard 2 HD Isopterite).
Maybe go for the middle of the 10-15 range and make it DC 13?
Cleon
Legend
Come to think of it, the multiple encounters with groups of 2d6 warriors in the original adventure suggests we should change that critter's organization to have "Squad (2-12)".
Cleon
Legend
Updating Organization line in Isopterite Warrior Working Draft.
I've finished the other half of my working draft for the Hive entry plus an "In Spelljammer" subentry, so I'll post the whole thing here for your perusal. The only undeclared mechanics in it are in the Resin Storage chamber section:
* * *
ISOPTERITE HIVES
An isopterite hive is a complex of tunnels, chambers and galleries with walls lined with resin. Isopterite resin is a special material isopterite workers can regurgitate, see Construction for more details. The entire hive reeks with an ammonia-like smell emitted by the resin it is built with.
The hive is normally excavated deep in the earth, but portions of it may be hollowed out from the interior of giant trees or built on the surface in the form of rock-hard towers of mixed mud and resin that may soar hundreds of feet high.
Information of general conditions within the hive and what chambers and structures it may contain is provided below.
General Conditions of an Isopterite Hive
All isopterite hives share the following properties.
Construction: The walls, floors and ceilings of the hive are reinforced with a lining of isopterite resin, a material formed from a mixture of chewed-up wood and isopterite stomach fluids. Its strength is comparable to rock or reinforced masonry (Hardness 8, 180 hp for 1 foot typical thickness, Break DC 35).
Isopterite resin gives off a poisonous vapor described in hive miasma, below.
Isopterite resin requires regular maintenance with special stomach secretions produced by isopterite workers, otherwise it begins to slowly grow weak and brittle and stops producing the hive miasma. This means that the walls of a dead or abandoned hive are likely to collapse under their own weight sooner or later.
Darkness: The interior of an isopterite hive is normally pitch black. These insect folk are able to navigate and act in darkness, so they keep no lights in their hive.
Hive Miasma: The gasses given off by isopterite resin have two significant properties. Firstly, they are toxic (see Miasma Toxin below). Secondly, they cause fires to burn more brightly and quickly (see Blaze Acceleration below).
Miasma Toxin: In the open air outside the hive the vapors from its resin are malodorous but harmless. The denser vapors inside the hive are a toxin that will slowly kill almost any living creature that breathes air. Isopterites are immune to Miasma Toxin, as are a few other creatures such as aspis, formians and ants or termites (both giant and normal). The speed at which this toxin progresses varies depending on its concentration. Normally, a creature exposed to hive miasma must make a DC 15 Fortitude save when they first breathe the toxic vapors plus an additional DC 15 Fortitude save every 30 minutes they continue to breathe the toxin. Chambers with more concentrated hive miasma require more frequent Fortitude saves – the most intense Miasma Toxin is in Resin Storage Chambers (see below), which require a Fortitude save every minute. The series of Fortitude saves only ends when the creature is able to breathe fresh air again.
The first time a creature fails a save against Miasma Toxin it feels a painful irritation in its eyes, mouth and other sensitive parts – treat this distraction as the Dazzled condition. The second time a creature fails a save it starts coughing and choking, taking a –2 penalty to skill checks and ability checks. The third failure results in the creature being Sickened (q.v.) by chest pains and retching. A fourth failure results in unconsciousness. A creature rendered unconscious by hive miasma must continue making Fortitude saves and takes 1d4 Constitution damage every time they fail.
The Constitution damage is the only lasting effect of Miasma Toxin. All the other unpleasant symptoms completely disappear if the affected creature breathes fresh air for 4d6+16 minutes. This also "resets" how many times the creature failed its save against Miasma Toxin to zero. A delay poison spell will prevent Miasma Toxin affecting its target for the duration of the spell, and a neutralize poison spell will "reset" their exposure to zero failed saving throws.
Blaze Acceleration: The vapors inside an isopterite hive cause combustible materials to burn with twice their normal brightness (i.e. a torch will illuminate a 40-foot radius instead of a 20-foot radius). However, combustibles also burn twice as quickly, so the torch would burns for 30 minutes instead of 1 hour like it normally would. This effect does not cause the materials to burn any hotter, so it does not increase any fire damage the combusting materials might inflict. Blaze Acceleration only affects mundane combustible materials that require oxygen to burn. It has no effect on magical fire.
Navigation Strings: Strings of a brown, slightly sticky material hang from the ceiling of every passage in an isopterite hive. They hang in such thick curtains the line-of-sight visibility in isopterite passageways is restricted to 20 feet. The string material is a form of exuded resin whose porous structure absorbs and retains isopterite scent markings, serving a similar purpose to maps, sign posts and message boards in a humanoid city. Each string contains a scent-coded map of all the passages and chambers near it, with directions to each. Isopterites use navigation strings to tell where they are in the hive and post notices containing basic information – along the lines of "food storage #7 running low, work team scent-of-crocuses assigned to restock".
Isopterite chambers have sheets of navigation string affixed to their walls. The colour and texture of these sheets is indistinguishable from the construction resin of the walls, but a creature with the Scent ability might notice the difference. These sheets are usually evenly spaced around the circumference of the chamber, with additional sheets flanking each entrance.
Isopterite scent-markings are unintelligible to most other creatures.
Structures of an Isopterite Hive
Isopterite hives always contain royal apartments, hatcheries, rest chambers, storage chambers for food or resin, and waste dumps. Some isopterite hives contain additional features, such as ventilation towers, fungal gardens, wells or water tanks.
Hive Entrances: An isopterite hive may have a single entrance or many, depending on its size and facilities. These entrances are circular openings roughly 5 feet in diameter – just wide enough for a single isopterite to easily pass through, but too narrow for many enemies to enter at the same time. The opening widens into a corridor just inside the hive entrance. Hives with experience of hostile intruders will have isopterite warriors posted to guard the entrance who may have reinforcements waiting in a nearby rest chamber. If the isopterites should want to bring an object into the hive that's too big for the standard 5-foot entrance, they simply dig the hive entrance out as wide as is necessary, bring their cargo inside, and then rebuild the narrow entrance.
Tunnels and Corridors: Simple resin-walled passageways with curtains of navigation string hanging from the ceiling. They average about 15 feet across. Isopterite passageways are rarely straight and level, but bend from side-to-side and rise or descend at various angles, including vertically. If a passageway is steep enough to require Climb checks to move through it will be set with a ladder-like series of holds that allow a climber to take 10 on Climb checks to move up or down them. Unfortunately, these holds are spaced for use by isopterites and are too far apart to be used by a typical humanoid of size Medium or smaller. The twists and slopes of an isopterite hive's passageways may seem random, but often have a purpose. Firstly, the passageways also serve as air shafts, and they may be shaped in a particular way to aid the hive's ventilation. Secondly, the passageway's walls are a tube of thick resin that can form a strong support structure for the hive. A passageway may turn in a particular direction to avoid an area that's hard to dig through or relieve stress on the fabric of the hive.
Royal Apartments: A royal apartment houses an isopterite queen, her isopterite drone mates and a retinue of warriors and workers. If the hive has multiple queens, each has her own separate apartment. The primary queen's apartment is the most important place in the entire hive so is always in the most secure location available – typically deep in the ground. The secondary queen's apartments, if any, tend to be spaced around the perimeter of the hive. Secondary apartments are still well-defended but their locations are easier for intruders to reach than the main apartment. However, they are also far enough from the primary apartment that if some disaster kills the primary queen it may not destroy all the secondary apartments too. The secondary apartment are also close enough to the hive entrances that a secondary queens can quickly venture outside on a colonising expedition.
Hatcheries: These chambers contain isopterite eggs, grubs and pupae as well as the specialized isopterite workers who attend them. Hatcheries are generally next to a royal apartment, but one or two may be in hard-to-reach corners of the hive as a backup in case intruders wipe out the other hatcheries.
Food Storage Chamber: A storage area for an isopterite foodstuff that resembles thick paste. Only creature able to eat wood can gain nourishment from this bland-tasting substance (isopterites, giant termites, and so on). The paste is stored in huge resin-walled vats, or the entire chamber is a single vat. Freshly hatched isopterite grubs are the principle consumers of this food paste, but not the exclusive one, so most food storage chambers are close to a hatchery. Isopterite queens can regurgitate this paste in prodigious quantities and in most hives are the sole source of this food, although some isopterite workers are capable of producing small quantities of it.
Rest Chambers: Isopterite workers and warriors retire to these chambers to sleep or hibernate. A rest chamber may hold both castes of isopterite, or just one. These chambers may contain alcoves, resin shelves or piles of bedding for the isopterites to lie upon, but in many rest chambers the isopterites just sleep on the floor.
Resin Storage Chamber: This chamber looks very much like a food storage chamber (see above) but reeks of hive miasma fumes. Its vats are used to store a concentrated liquid form of isopterite resin which the isopterites mix with various chewed-up substances to form the many different kinds of resin they use in the hive. This liquid has a very low density, so any humanoid who enters a deep vat of it will sink like a stone unless they can succeed at a DC 22 Swim check. It is also corrosive, doing 1d4 acid damage to anything splashed with it, or 2d10 acid damage per round for immersion.
Waste Dumps: Isopterite colonies are remarkably efficient. What little rubbish they do produce is dumped in waste areas that are typically found on the lower levels of their hives. The bulk of the waste is organic material, predominately dead isopterites and unhatched eggs, much of which will be rotting. Waste dumps are unpleasant places that are often rife with diseases (such as filth fever) amd/or inhabited by unpleasant scavenger creatures (rot grubs, otyughs and so on). Some waste dumps are actually naturally occurring caves the isopterites are using as rubbish dumps. If an isopterite hive has a connection to the Underdark it is likely to be found in a waste area.
Fungal Gardens: Some small isopterite hives supply all their food needs by gathering vegetation from outside the hive, but most hives grow gardens of fungi to help feed their population. These fungal gardens are subterranean galleries tended by specialized isopterite workers. Growing fungi is far more efficient than foraging for edible leaves, shoots and roots, for the various strains of fungus domesticated by the isopterites can turn a wide range of organic materials into food. The primary feedstock for the gardens is a chewed-up mixture of wood, straw, and soil. This produces a rich humus for the fungi to spread through and sprout fungal "fruit" that the isopterites harvest and eat. Most of the species of fungus used by the isopterites will only grow in cultivation. They are all edible to humanoids, but most have an unpleasant taste.
Wells & Water Tanks: Large and well-developed isopterite hives have hydraulic networks for storing and moving water. As well as ensuring the hives' inhabitants and gardens do not go thirsty, these water systems may incorporate mechanisms for evaporating water to keep the hive cool. The water is collected from rainwater or drawn from wells, then flows into water tanks or cisterns from which it is drawn as needed.
Ventilation Towers & Termitaries: Some isopterite hives are entirely subterranean, but the majority have some structures above ground. As a rule of thumb, the harder the ground the higher the proportion of the hive that is built above ground. A hive that's built on solid rock may have only a few tunnels and/or the primary royal apartment underground. These structures come in two basic types: ventilation towers and termitaries.
A Ventilation Tower is a hollow column of mud and resin as tall as a tree. They have large openings at the top positioned to exploit the prevailing wind, which is used to circulate air within the hive. The opening may have a thick resin grating to prevent infiltration by flying or climbing intruders. The openings in this 6-inch thick grating are small enough for a Fine creature to easily pass through, larger creatures must succeed at Escape Artist checks to squeeze through – the check is DC 20 for Diminutive creatures, DC 30 for Tiny, and impossible for bigger creatures (unless you're using Epic Skill rules, in which case it's DC 50 for Small, DC 80 for Medium and impossible for larger creatures).
A Termitary is a massive construction that is at least as big as a two-story humanoid house and is usually far larger, commonly exceeding 100 feet in height. It can contain any sort of chamber the isopterites are capable of building. All termitaries have one or more hive entrances at their base and a ventilation tower at the top. The smallest termitaries tend to be smooth-sided mounds, while larger ones always have thick buttresses to support their weight. An isopterite hive may have a single vast termitary or many smaller ones connected together by tunnels, covered passageways, and/or flying bridges.
IN SPELLJAMMER
In the spelljammer campaign, isopterites first appeared when they invaded the crystal sphere of Faeriespace. What planet, crystal sphere or plane they came from is unknown. Instead of a conventional solar system, Faeriespace has a Tree that spans the entire sphere, with sixteen suns hanging like fruit from its branches, which also support eight planets. The sphere is ruled by Aelivere the One-King of Faeriespace from his mushroom palace in the capital city of Armon, located at the trifurcation of the Tree's mind-blowingly massive trunk.
Colonising forces of isopterites immediately started carving hives and tunnel-highways out of the trunk and branches of the Tree, with disastrous consequences. The damage has thrown the movement of the Tree's leaves out of balance, the rotating shade from which causes the cycle of night and day to occur on the eight planets of this sphere, resulting in freak weather such as violent storms. The disruption to the Tree's magical qualities has thrown all of nature into chaos, causing some edible plants to turn poisonous or fail to produce harvests.
In desperation, Aelivere the One-King has commissioned bands of adventures to enter the isopterites' hives and stop their invasion.
Last edited:
Cleon
Legend
The original adventure had characters who fall into the resin take 2-20 damage per round. It's obviously nasty stuff! That'd mean immersion ought to do 2d10 damage and a splash something like 1d4 or 1d6.
Still, that's not as bad as the 2d12 acid damage the warrior's spray attack does.
Oh, and DC 15 doesn't seem nasty enough - the original adventure just had them sink automatically. I was thinking more along the lines of DC 20, or maybe even a few points more.
