20 Random Curses

20 Random Curses to befall your players. Be it from the final dying words of an old witch to the misfortune of opening a tomb that shouldn't have been. Curses can be cured through a remove curse spell or a set of circumstances that the DM decides. The DM can also use these curses as effects of a bestow curse spell if he sees fit.

20 Random Curses

1. Fragile: A natural 1 on an attack automatically shatters your weapon beyond repair.

2. Weakness: Your damage is reduced by one die type. A weapon that does 1d10 does 1d8. A spell that does 6d6 does 6d4.

3. Speech: Anyone who can understand you suffers 1 point of damage each round you speak.

4. Dark Reincarnation: Once you are slain your are immediately reincarnated as an undead creature.

                                                                d4 Undead

                                                                1. Zombie

                                                                2. Ghoul

                                                                3. Ghast

                                                                4. Wight

5. Thirst: Water or other liquids provide you no hydration. You must consume magical potions to be hydrated. Failure to consume potions will result in death in 1d4+2 days.

6. Indecision: You hesitate in all your actions. You attack once every two rounds and all spell casting times are doubled.

7. Crawl: You can't stand or walk, but you can crawl. You are considered prone and your movement is reduced by half.

8. Incurable: You don't naturally heal damage or all cure spells have no effect on you.

9. Painful: All damage dealt to you is maxed.

10. Nearsighted: You see perfectly clear within 10' of you. Beyond that your vision is blurry and you can't perceive anything. Your suffer 50% miss chance on all missile attack rolls.

11. Farsighted: You vision is blurry within 10' of you. All your melee attacks suffer a 50% miss chance. Beyond 10' you see perfectly clear.

12. Remorseful: Every time you slay an enemy you feel sorrow for their lost. You can't do anything for 1d4 rounds as you mourn their death.

13. Addiction: Your addicted to blueberry pie or whatever. If on any given day you don't indulge in your vice you enter a severe depression and refuse to do anything except find your blueberry pie.

14. Beacon: Your draw unwanted attention. All random encounter rolls are doubled.

15. Bleeder: Every time you take damage you continue to bleed for one additional round. Repeat the damage your were dealt the following round.

16. Yellow: Every time you are presented with danger your must make a wisdom attribute check to maintain your composure. Failure mean you move at full speed away from the danger. A new check can be made each round.

17. Misfortune: All saving throws are made with a 2d8 rather then a d20.

18. Youthful: Each day your age is reduced by 1d6 years. If you pass the infant stage you cease to exist.

19.Growing Old: You age 1d6 years each day. You gain all the negative physical modifiers but none of the beneficial mental ones associated with age.

20. Poor Comprehension: Every time you read or are spoken to you must make an intelligence attribute check to comprehend the meaning.

10 Variant Wights

The Wight and its oh so nasty energy drain. When an adventuring party encounters a Wight its best to head the other way. Nothing is worst to a player then losing a level, especially if there is no restoration readily available. As a DM I use energy draining creatures sparingly and when I do I might create a slight variation on their defining ability.

The baseline for the Wight is Labyrinth Lord, which is a retro-clone of B/X D&D. In LL Wights are 3HD undead with the ability to touch a victim and drain a level. No save is given. If your levels are reduced to zero you die and become a Wight in 1d4 days. Wights also enjoy immunity to sleep/charms spells plus can only be hit by silver or magic weapons. In the undead hierarchy they are the next progression from Ghouls.

Wights are simply terrifying opponents. Below are 10 variants of the Wight. The variant will have its energy drain ability swapped out. So if you feel a bit more forgiving(or less) hopefully one of these variants will do you well.


Positive Energy: This Wight has a connection to the positive energy plane rather then the negative energy plane. Its touch causes HD gain instead of drain. The opponents gains only the benefits of additional hit points, not any additional class features, bonus to saving throw progression, attacks bonus, etc. Bonus HD fade at a rate of 1 per hour. If an opponent has gained twice its starting HD it explodes in radiant light and cannot be resurrected.

Spellstealing: The touch of the Wight drains spells. Any touch will randomly drain the highest level spell memorized. The spell drained should be determined randomly. Once the Wight has drained twice its HD in spell levels it explodes in a 30' radius doing 6d6 points of damage. If a Wight is killed with spell levels absorbed it still explodes just for less damage. Each spell level drained does 1d6 points of damage. (For example if the Wight drains one second level spell slot and two first level spell slots then the damage would be 4d6 upon death.)

Alternatively, the Wight could drain the spell memorized and recast the spell the following round.

Lunacy: Each touch from this Wight causes 1d4 wisdom drain. If reduced to zero wisdom the character dies. For each point of wisdom drained there is a 10% cumulative chance of gaining an insanity. Roll for insanity should be made after each attack.
                                     
                                        d6 Random Insanity (Or consult the AD&D 1E DMG)
                                        1. Catatonia
                                        2. Melancholia
                                        3. Monomania
                                        4. Dipsomania
                                        5. Kleptomania
                                        6. Hebrephrenia

Lingering: The touch of this Wight does 1d4 points of damage. For each round thereafter the victim wounds continue to bleed. He continues to take an additional 1d4 points of damage after the first round until the wound is bandaged or a cure spell is cast. Multiple touches by these Wights are cumulative.

Festering: Each touch from this Wight does 1d4 points of damage. This damage cannot be healed naturally. All curative spells and magic only heal half as much.

Disease Bearer: This Wight has various diseases incubating throughout its body. The touch of this Wight does 1d4 points of constitution drain. Characters reduced to zero constitution die. Also for each point of constitution lost there is a 10% chance of contacting a disease.. Roll should be made after each attack. AD&D 1E DMG has great section on diseases and game effects.

Depleting: Each touch attack drains 1d4x100 experience points. For each 100 experience points drained the Wight gains one Cognition Point. These points can be used to augment their abilities. Cognition Points can be spent freely once per round. They also fade after 1 hours.
                                     
                                                   Cognition Point Cost
                                         1 Point: Next attack drains 1d6x100 experience points.
                                         1 Point: Increase armor class by 1.
                                         1 Point: Increase attack bonus by 1.
                                         1 Point: Heal 1d4 hit points.
                                         2 Points: Next attack also causes paralysis for 2d4 turns.
                                         2 Points: Can only be harmed by +2 magic weapon for 1 round.
                                         2 Points: Movement increases by X2.
                                         3 Points: Next attack roll 2d20 and take the better of the results.
                                         4 Points: Next attack drains a level.
                                       
Withering: Each touch drains the vitality from a random body part. The affected area becomes lifeless and unusable. Touching an arm will make holding a weapon impossible. Touching a leg will knock the opponent prone and require that person to hop around, etc. Touching the head however will put the victim into a coma and requires a system shock roll(or con attribute check). Failure results in instant death. The DM should adjudicate game mechanic effects. Vitality to the afflicted area will return after a nights rest.
                                        d6 Random Body Part
                                        1. Right Arm
                                        2. Left Arm
                                        3. Right Leg
                                        4. Left Leg
                                        5. Torso
                                        6. Head

Umbral: The touch of this Wight drains color and eventually turns the victim into a Shadow. The first touch drains all vibrant colors from the victims body and clothes. He appears dark and dull grey. The second touch turns the victim clothes and body into solid darkness. The third touch the body becomes incorporeal and the victim immediately becomes a Shadow.

Tumor: Each touch causes a large pulsating cyst to form on the victims body. The following round the cyst burst doing 1d6 points of damage and birthing a Homunculus. The Homunculus is linked to the Wight and attacks the victim the following round.

50 Random Mundane Items IV

50 Random Mundane Items IV

Items to give some color to your typical treasure hoard. From worthless junk to items of value.
Instead of 100cp, 50sp, 10gp, etc you can add in a mix of low/high value items to replace part of your typical coin assortments.

1. Bronze Measuring Weights
2. Leather Leash
3. Empty Art Frame
4. Tin Drinking Horn
5. Irregular Freshwater Pearls
6. Timber Raft
7. Stone Tablet with Dwarven Runes
8. Block of Dried Clay
9. Bleached Drake Skull
10. Bone Scroll Case
11. Panel of Stained Glass
12. Fur Cloak with Fleas
13. Water Skin filled with Holy Water
14. Lace Wedding Dress
15. Paper Lantern
16. Crown of Brambles
17. Carriage Wheel
18. Threadbare Cloak
19. Platinum Fish Scale
20. Spirit Board
21. Container with Cured Organs
22. Glass Globe with Purple Liquid.
23. Transparent Glass Chest
24. Bag filled with Goblin Teeth
25. God Braided Necklace
26. Iron Pike with a Severed Head Skewered on it.
27. Jar of Mashed Brains
28. Spiked Leather Collar
29. Belt of Faerie Skulls
30. Crate with Black Mushrooms
31. Fist Sized Silver Cube with Runic Symbols
32. Weapon Cleaning Kit
33. Poppet Doll with Needles Inserted
34. Teddy Bear with a Bag of Coins Sewn Inside
35. Horn Crown (Headdress bearing Stag's Antlers)
36. White-handed Knife
37. Animal Skin Medicine Ball
38. Mummified House Cat
39. Ornate Music Box
40. Pair of Charcoal Pencils
41. Blank Spellbook
42. Bag with 10 Obsidian Arrowheads
43. Twelve Sticks of Incense
44. Calfskin Gloves
45. Large Golden Nugget
46. Wooden Ruler
47. Pair of Iron Tweezers
48. Hemp Sack filled with Raffle Tickets
49. Porcelain Matryoshka Doll
50. Platinum Clover Charm

For more Mundane Items, check out part I, II, and III

50 Random Mundane Items
50 Random Mundane Items II
50 Random Mundane Items III

Mnemonic Devourer

Mnemonic Devourer

No. Enc: 1 (1d4)
Alignment: Chaos
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 9
Attack: 1
Damage: 1d10
Save: M9
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: XIV
XP: 2060

Mnemonic Devourers are the remnants of an alien race who crashed upon the planet centuries ago. After the crash the few remaining Devourers established strongholds in isolated regions. There they cultivate knowledge and experiences. Devourers are driven by the need to consume mental data. They manipulate lesser races to acquire rare tomes, scrolls, manuscripts, minds, etc. Their extreme hunger for knowledge also sustain their physical bodies. Devourers survive by feasting on the mind of living creature. Not by consuming their brains but by draining their minds.

Devourers appears as emaciated pale humanoids with runic scars distributed throughout their body. Part of their cranium is cracked revealing a blood red cerebrum. When a Devourer is in the process of draining a victims mind their runic scars faintly glow as mental nourishment feeds them.

Devourers use lesser minions to fight their battles and try to restrain themselves from physical combat. Devourers will use their brain drain ability to melt their opponents mind. Brain drain has a range of 60' and opponents must save vs spell. Upon failure the victim loses one random language they know. If a brain drain attack is used and all languages are exhausted the victims final thoughts and memories are consumed. Upon losing all of their mental functions the victim dies.

Devourers are able cast charm person and charm monster three times per day. They can cast feeblemind and confusion once per day. All spells are cast as a 9th level magic-user. Because of their mental acuity Devourers receive a +4 to charm/enchantment/mental saving throws.

                     
                       New Item

Memory Cube: These coin sized cubes are made of pure silver. They have red runic symbols engraved upon them. Mnemonic Devourers can choose to transfer drained information into these cubes instead of using that knowledge as sustenance. The cubes are used as memory storage devices. The Devourer can touch the memory cube to recall any of their previous victims thoughts. A memory cube can store up to 10 minds. Only figures with great knowledge and importance are stored for later research or reference.

Adventure Seeds

1. Frontier Blues: A village located in a remote frontier region has gone silent. No communication has been heard for months. Upon travelling to the village the adventurers find lifeless bodies sprawled upon the village streets. Not a soul has survived.

2. Stolen Language: A wizards apprentice has hired the group to retrieve a memory cube. His master recently encountered a Mnemonic Devourer and barely escaped with his life. Unfortunately for him he lost all of his languages. The group is tasked with finding the Devourers outpost and bringing back his master memory cube.

3. Lost Treasures: Recently the City's Grand Library has been burglarized. Hundreds of manuscripts and books have been stolen. Most of the stolen items are extremely rare.

4. Thrall Frenzy: A Mnemonic Devourer has begun to manipulate humanoid tribes into a frenzy. Goblins and Orc tribes are on a rampage. Searching the countryside for a buried vault. Rumors has it that this vault houses rare items from a bygone civilization.

5. On the Road Again: The group is hired to transport an ancient manuscript. The group is being shadowed as they travel these lonely roads.

6. Hidden City: Recently a lone survivor from a expedition has arrived in town. He claims that a giant domed city resides inside the mountain range. Under the right alignment of the stars does the domed city reveal itself. His group investigated too closely and all his comrades had their minds erased.

7. Knowledge is Power: The local wizard academy has learned of the Mind Vaults of the Mnemoic Devourers. Located in their isolated cities are grand structures that house hundred of memory cubes.

artwork of Mnemonic Devourer by Joanna Ballendorf
owned by Steven Marella