I do. He was pretty cool. Here’s an ugly version I cooked up for my Arden Vul game. Sorry you had to see this.
Anybody remember the Gallon Man?
….what is this
Tag: 5e
Wood Woad & Ash Woad: The protector and avenger of the woods! (OSE Monster)
The woods thrived and nature did too. But now, the dragon is gone, and the woods are sensitive to this.
To their vulnerability.
So a tree falls in the forest, and is silent.
Art is owned by Wizards of the Coast. (Wish they’d credit the individual artist.)
5th edition isn’t exactly my thing. It’s got its merits, and I used to quite like running for it, but as I’ve grown older as a GM, I’ve become canny to the things I love in my tabletop. Lean games with an emphasis on problem-solving and roleplay beyond the dice, as well as hackability.
But when it comes to thinking about “The World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game”, and its influence on the hobby, I have a hard time ignoring the good it’s done.
- A swath of new players for all games.
- Gorgeous art for cool monsters (and maps!), new and old.
- The advantage/disadvantage system.
- The Wood Woad.
Calm down! I hear you screaming about 3rd edition, I know the Wood Woad wasn’t introduced in 5e. Wood Woads started off as big wooden barbarians, beating off anybody who dare step foot in their forests.
But the 5e one is hella cute, how could you argue with that? It looks like a freakin Jawa from Star Wars, or like a Final Fantasy monster. It’s a brave little defender of the forest, and frankly, due to it’s art in Volo’s, earned a place in some of my favorite monsters ever!
So when I wanted to work one into OSE, and couldn’t find anything about a B/X Wood Woad, I thought I’d better cook something up.
The Lone Defender of the Forest
In many forests, there live spirits and protectors. But some small and gloomy woods don’t have any at all.
Their trees gnarl around eachother, their grass grows long and wild, their branches split and fall, their fruit drops to the ground and and rots into the loamy soil to feed the animals.
These woods are in a delicate balance, between protection and invasion. Maybe a dragon lived nearby, and all peoples avoided this place. The dragon ate the occasional moose, but did not eat the deer, nor the falcons, nor the rabbits.
The woods thrived and nature did too. But now, the dragon is gone, and the woods are sensitive to this. To their vulnerability.
So a tree falls in the forest, and is silent. It rots and blooms with fungi. It stands, one hand gripping a dry branch from its body, another hand blooming with a big natural buckler, the cap of a mushroom.
It’s eyes let it see through the dim light peaking from the canopy, its feet let it cross the roots without stumbling. Its skin wicks moisture from the air to drink, and its trilling whistle lets the animals know they’re safe.
The Wood Woad is here to protect them.
It can travel through the trees, diving into, then out of its enourmous bark-skinned cattle. It hunts down those who take from the living woods. Those who ignore dead wood to chop down its healthy brethren. Those who pluck lone mushrooms before letting them populate. Those who rip fruit off the stems not yet ripe. It’s distrustful of strangers, and deadly to its enemies.
The Wood Woad can strike with its club, and paralyze with the spores in its mushroom cap shield. If a creature is paralyzed for the max amount of turns, its taught a physical lesson. It will gain a random Botanical mutation. The Wood Woad is merciful, it will warn its enemies off, paralyzing and wounding them, but not killing. However, if the enemy strikes again once the paralytic spores wear off, then the Wood Woad will not hesitate to end them.
Wood Woad
Armor Class 5 (14)
HD 2*
Attacks 1 x club (1d4 + 1), 1 x shield bash (paralysis)
THAC0 18 (+1)
Movement 120′ (40′)
Saves D10 W11 P12 B13 S14
Morale 6 (10 if fighting enemies of the woods)
Alignment Lawful
Number Appearing 1
TT D
XP 50
Paralysis: The wood woad uses its large mushroom shield hand to bash someone. Target must save vs paralysis for 1d4 turns. Creatures who are paralyzed for a full 4 turns recieve a bottanical [[Mutation]], and the language of plants.
Treewalk: Can enter a tree and leave through another tree up to 100′ away.
Defensive: Distrustful of strangers, attacks any who pick lone mushrooms, chop living trees, or pluck undropped fruit. Once a Wood Woad has paralysed a creature, it will ignore that creature and target others. If a paralyzed creature attacks once the spores wear off, the Wood Woad will attempt to kill them.
Treasure: Hidden within their hollow body, taken from its enemies. Given as gifts from the birds. Confiscated from greedy fox’s
Ash Woad (Variant)
When the woods are burned away, by purposeful action, the Wood Woad does not die. It is risen again, ruthless to those who would cross it. Living charcoal, with bright fiery eyes. Cracks and hissing along its body, as gasses escape the everyburning wood. Ash pours from the hollow of its head, is left in trails from its feet. Twin burning clubs in its hands. Angry as the day is hot. Merciless as the night is cold.
The Ash Woad gains the following traits that replace or add to the Wood Woad.
- Fire Immunity
- Ashwalking (replaces treewalk): The Ash Woad can travel through piles of ashe, or burned out husks of trees.
- Denial of Resource (replaces treasure): The Ash Woad burns any chopped firewood it comes across, for each log it consumes, it gains 1 HD.
- Morale 12
- Shield Bash and Paralysis are all removed.
- 2 x Club attack (1d6 + 3 Fire Damage)
- When the Ash Woad dies, all in 10′ will take Fire Damage equal to 1d6 x HD. Saving vs Breath halves this damage.
A Sense of Immersion: Troll
You gotta pay the troll toll, if you want this little boy’s soul.
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This week’s monster was suggested by Reddit User /u/Singhilarity
Far worse than the internet kind. But just as smelly.
The Troll Toll
While in our world, Trolls are creatures who live under bridges and in internet forums. In the world of D&D, they are based on old Nordic and Scandinavian folktales and lore.
Nordic Trolls generally dwell in mountains and seemed to be an “other” type of being (A creature that can represent something not quite human, with very human features).
Scandinavian Trolls were much more focused on nature as a whole, and would represent all forms of nature as a characterized “being”. Sometimes the Trolls would even eat people and would turn to stone in sunlight. Both medias “The Hobbit” and “Frozen” use these Scandinavian trolls as inspiration for their own Troll creatures.
It seems accurate than that the Troll of D&D lore is mostly based on the Scandinavian tales, but it also has a good amount of inspiration from other sources, which is where the weakness from fire, rubbery skin, and regenerating body comes from. Some have theorized that these features originate in the fantasy novel “Three Hearts and Three Lions” by Poul Anderson, but these claims are, as far as I can tell, speculation.
If you’d like more info on a more accurate Scandinavian form of the troll in D&D, go check out this awesome article on Nerdarchy.
Senses
Trolls mostly look like extremely tall humanoids with thick, rubbery skin. They are a dark greenish color, with specks of blue, silver, or brown. They have small bumps and sores all over their bodies, presumably because their rubbery skin does not have easily opened pores.
Their skin looks constantly wet is complimented by thick clumping hair that dangles down in heavy ropes around it’s face. This could lead a creature to think they are from a watery area, though far from it. They have simple humanoid feet, with sharp and stubby claws that protrude from each toe. Their arms hang down to their knees, which gives them a very simian feel, which can be misleading when viewed in silhouette.
When you spy a Troll, you usually won’t be surprised. That’s because the Troll’s stench will have alerted you beforehand. A Troll stinks like rancid meat, mixed together with spoiled milk in a barrel of fish. The closed up pores I mentioned before mean that the sweats and the body odors of the Troll are trapped for decades, before being released randomly after being built up so long. This smell is the origin of many long held superstitions, and some even say is the reason for the Trolls weakness to fire.
When a Troll crashes into you, it’s rubbery skin will feel like a slick, featureless, and uncomfortable texture, but you will struggle against it’s friction to escape while it holds you. It’s claws are short swords and sharp as rusted nails, and it’s jagged teeth are like stepping on a broken bottle.
The Troll may smell awful, feel disturbing, and look horrible. But it sounds just disturbing. That’s because the Troll has fairly human-like speech, and talks in Giant language. It’s language similar to Common and Dwarven, but when you hear it, it feels like Common without context, like it should make sense but doesn’t. This can be unnerving, because if you get a Troll to talk, it won’t be saying anything nice.
Environments
Trolls love the mountainous areas of the world, specifically the ones with forested areas. They find shelter in caves, hunt in rivers, and climb through trees to pick eggs and chicks from birds nests. They munch on these like little treats while hunting down more food.
In some lands, Trolls are intelligent, so they have very basic tent-like structures and wooden cabins. These Trolls set traps, hunt in packs, and work with a community. They follow a Shaman who leads them through the land with a bit of Druidic magic and wit.
You can tell if a Troll is in the area by the rocks. Like an Owlbear sharpening it’s claws on a tree trunk, the Trolls like to use rocks and boulders for this purpose. They will have four to five deep gouges in them, because Trolls are habitual, and like to use the same rock.
Encounter
As far as more peaceful encounters go, unless you can speak Giant and are charming as a snake, you won’t have an easy time convincing a Troll not to attack if it’s already made up it’s mind.
Trolls acting on their own will attack or avoid you, and will usually only attack if you give them a good reason. The best bet to avoid a Troll fight is to brandish fire very clearly, and be in greater numbers. If you’re alone and it’s raining, I’ve got bad news for you. You’re kinda fucked.
Fighting one Troll can be brutal. It can eat lesser hits easily due to it’s regenerating health. As long as your attack wasn’t fire or acid, it’ll regain 10 HP per turn! That’s an insane amount of health, and is the common concern when fighting a Troll. Sometimes, you’ll cut a limb off, and it’ll end up with two in it’s place! Heads, feet, arms, hell, even ears or noses will be regrown if the Troll loses them. Because of this, a Troll may regenerate it’s entire body in a month, leading to it being an entirely different Troll mentally and habitually.
Aftermath
Trolls blood weighs at a heavy cost in most markets. It’s incredibly useful for potions of healing or regeneration, and can be used as ink in healing spell scrolls to increase their power. If modified, it can also be used to fuse flesh together, so occasionally a necromancer might find it useful to make a more clean Flesh Golem.
Vampires, surprisingly, are not a fan of Troll’s blood. It gives them the closest thing that Vampires get to acid re-flux.
The rubbery skin of a Troll is excellent when used as a watertight material. Stretched across the bottom of a boat, or used to make a bag, and it would work perfectly.
The hair can be used to make fairly strong rope, but doing so takes a long time to master. You must unwind the hair into long strands, and then wind it up together slowly.
Conclusion
The Troll is a complete classic of fairytale lore, and will be a stubborn and interesting addition to any travel session, forest crawl, or mountain hike. Don’t be afraid to get creative when you design your own Trolls, because honestly they don’t have to be any one specific type. The fun of these creatures is that they leave a lot of room for you to interpret them as your own.
Thanks for reading, I’ll be back with another Sense of Immersion every other Tuesday!
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Image Sources: Wizards of the Coast
Roll a D6 to see how the Trolls have mutated!
1: Every time the Troll regains health, its mass increases, which lowers it’s AC by 1.
2: The Trolls regain 15 health instead of 10 with regeneration.
3: The Troll has three eyes, giving it +6 in Perception.
4: Whenever the Troll loses a limb, it will always regain two of said limb in it’s place, unless damaged with fire or acid.
5: Whenever a creature is bitten by the Troll, they must make a DC 14 Con Save or be paralyzed for 1 minute.
6: When the Troll is damaged by fire damage or acid damage, it will explode, dealing it’s remaining health in damage to all creatures within 5 feet of it, and half that to all creatures within 20 feet of it.
A Sense of Immersion: Nothic
“C’mon down to Nothic’s Used Adventuring Gear Emporium! Only small amounts of blood on any one item!”
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“C’mon down to Nothic’s Used Adventuring Gear Emporium! Only small amounts of blood on any one item!”
Nothic Knowledge
This abberation is one ugly motherfucker, as Arnold would put it. The Nothic is a result of a wizard who goes far too into knowledge and becomes cursed by the Lich Vecna. They have a single horrifying cyclopian eye, and several unique talents, such as incredible insight and a rotting gaze. Some would think them cousins to the Beholders, just judging by looks, but this is definitively untrue. They have much more in common with the undead, given their curse and the nature of it.
The first Nothic was introduced in 3rd Edition, and boy oh boy is it just… something.
A face that only Vecna could love, if that. 
While the Nothic can only speak the Undercommon language normally, there are sources that have the Nothic speak in a telepathic sense. This is pretty thematic, and in my opinion, adds to the disturbing and intrusive quality of the monster. They’re designed to unease somebody with the way they move, the way they act, and the way they look. Why not also unease them with how they talk to people?
Memorable Senses
Nothic’s smell like nothing. This is by design, as they are sneaky and hidden little buggers, too much of a smell would make them easier to find. The smell around a Nothic nest however is usually one of their last meal: of children or animals, rotting and oozing, licked clean off the rocks used to break them open. Unrelated, but a Nothic itself usually tastes like fairly dry chicken. Spices and Broth are recommended.
Despite the heavy stenches, when you see a Nothic, or it’s space, it’s usually hard to focus on the nest. The huge hypnotic eye draws your focus towards the Nothic itself, and you never want to look away again for it’s plans could be evil and you wouldn’t want to turn your back to it. In order to keep the eye interesting, the skin and claws of a Nothic are dark in color and smooth without interesting patterns. This is to keep the eye the most distracting part so that creatures become entrapped.
While it crawls, it uses a mixture of quick and slow movements, which gives it’s crawling and gesturing an eerie stop-motion effect. Like there is a strobe light flashing at it and you are only seeing every other movement. This is not the case though, and is just more intimidation and distraction methods at work.
While it speaks, you’ll feel the slimy growls and chattering in your head as a half-sound, half-feeling. It’s like the creature itself is crawling around inside your brain, plucking out your secrets and thoughts as tasty morsels to munch on. It’s just further mind games and distractions. The more a Nothic does this, the more it controls the situation, and even the most resolute paladin has a hard time being affected by it all.
The truest feeling of a fight with a Nothic however is the horrible pain of it’s Rotting Gaze. Suddenly, you feel your arm start to numb and you look down as the skin starts to dry and flake off. Then as it continues, your arm darkens and dies, the flesh sloughing right off the bone and beginning to tear apart at the elbow. It’s mostly in your head, but you’re still losing some flesh off that arm, and it’s excruciating as it rots.
These are the trials you must face if you encounter and discuss things with a Nothic. It is a creature that owns all conversations it takes part in, because it is in many ways the ultimate intimidator.
Environments
The Nothic nests and homes are simple caverns to sleep in for the night. Otherwise, the Nothic will, in a way, haunt their old wizardly towers or favorite locations, out of habit. This can include dark towers, ancient dungeons, labyrinthine caves, and even pocket worlds or personal planes of existence.
Encounter
When fighting a Nothic, or speaking with one, it will do it’s best to distract you, trick you, or run. These are rarely brave creatures, and do their best to win without needing to fight at all. You will more than likely have to hunt it down, or entrap it.
Aftermath
The surprisingly clean and small caverns and nests of a Nothic are sparse of things with value. The Nothic trades in secrets, and wields them as weapons, becoming a duelist with words, and a great one at that. It’s material possessions are usually food, and not long for this world, as its hunger is a constant.
On the simple occasion that a Nothic does have a magical item, it will be one that can cause a huge amount of trouble, such as a Deck of Many Things or a Book of Vile Darkness. These are incredibly powerful and tricky magic items, and would wildly increase the CR of the encounter the Nothic is apart of, so keep that in mind. But there is a dark fun in handing a smaller CR creature a powerful set of items, just to see how long it can last.
Conclusion
No matter what the situation, an encounter with a Nothic is a really disturbing one. They will attempt to make deals, they will attempt to win with fear, and they will attempt to run.
Thanks for reading, I’ll be back with another Sense of Immersion every Tuesday!
Sense of Immersion is one of many materials I put out each week.
To support me and read these early, please check out My Patreon!
Image Sources: Wizards of the Coast
Roll a D20 to see what the Nothic wants you to give it in exchange for dark secrets.
1: Children.
2: Jars of colored ink.
3: Old ceramic mugs.
4: The ashes of spell scrolls.
5: Hairless Cats.
6: Trapped Ghosts.
7: Magic Wands.
8: Preserved Brains.
9: Two fingers.
10: Unfinished Maps.
11: Tears collected in a metal bottle.
12: Wooden Toys.
13: Porcelain Dolls.
14: Glass Eyes.
15: Burned Books.
16: A large piece of coal .
17: A colorful strip of silk.
18: A small clay figurine.
19: A dark metal bust.
20: A lost key.
A Sense of Immersion: Flumph
In all of D&D, there is nothing quite like the Flumph.
Be sure to submit your own monster with E-Mail or Twitter!
In all of D&D, there’s just nothing quite like a Flumph.
Flumph Farts
How can something so gross, so ugly, and so weird…be adorable? Yeah, that’s right. Adorable. The Flumph is a sweet creature, with a good heart, and absolutely no spine. Mentally or physically.
The Flumph was designed by Ian McDowall and Douglas Naismith, and first appeared in the Fiend Folio. It was a silly monster and included in all sorts of goofy encounters that found themselves in adventures to break up the pain-filled dungeon with some laughs.
The Flumph finds purpose in absorbing the latent psychic energy of an evil powerful creature, like an Aboleth or a Mind Flayer. It then relays all the evil thoughts it hears to adventurers so they may better defeat said creature. It also feels very unclean with the thoughts of evil inside its mind, and feels that gossiping and discussing the plans will clean it of wrongdoing. This is a weird reason to be good, but still works out for the Flumph all the same.
Senses
The sight of a Flumph is, to be frank, kinda gross. Equal parts Jellyfish and Stoner Grandma, they have uncomfortable placements of limbs and mouths, with all sorts of barbed tentacles that flap around to emphasize matters of great importance. Their skin is slighty see-through, but with a hint of opacity that brings about the true jellyfish “style”.
The Flumph uses its large, hollow body to propel itself forward with air. This comes out with a very quick burst of air, and sounds an awful lot like somebody… well… farting. So the Flumph farts around the galaxy, with a high-pitched and whiny voice. Its limbs even make an odd sound when they wiggle, like when you shake a large sheet of plastic or metal.
The skin of a Flumph is soft and wet. It feels like slime you would make with glue and borax. Not dense enough to stop you right away, but not liquid enough that you can just rip it apart. This lightweight flesh is how the Flumph can float so quickly, powered only by air.
The heavy scent of grape follows Flumphs everywhere they go. It’s not naturally produced, and is overpowering among all other smells. Nobody, not even the Flumphs, knows where it comes from.
A Flumph tastes like nothing. It’s the most boring flavor. But in an act of karma, if you eat a Flumph, all other Flumph you come across will know that you ate their kind. This is a natural cosmic defense system that these Lawful Good creatures were blessed with a long time ago.
Environments
Wherever you are, that’s where the Flumph will go. Like the postal service of the D&D Cosmology, the Flumph can pass through all manners of portals and planes to get to the person they wish to see and talk to. You would assume this Lawful Good creature would inhabit the seven heavens, but in reality, they were kicked out long ago. There’s no confirmation of exactly why, but most can assume it’s because they were too silly.
None the less, there is one place you can always find a Flumph.
Any carnival near an extra planar portal, since they love to eat Cotton Candy and can hide out in the plush prizes.
Encounter
When dealing with a Flumph, you won’t usually have to fight it. A fight only breaks out if the Flumph is being mind controlled by something, or is so desperate and afraid that it would rather attack you and die than let you do whatever it is it doesn’t want you to do.
Flumphs will arrive to share news, information, or thoughts that they have gathered from darker foes. This is to give you an advantage if you attempt to face or attack these evil forces. So discussions with Flumphs will be hurried, frank, and for the people the Flumph is talking to, very very annoying.
Aftermath
Once you’ve dealt with a Flumph, you will either have a corpse or an ally (most adventurers find that there is no middle-ground here). If you have a corpse, it cannot be used for anything besides candy making. Its acids are quite sour when added to batches of flavored sugar. Sigil has more than a few candy shops that make their sours out of the tentacles of a Flumph.
As for an ally, the Flumph is actually quite useful, should you get past its adorable-to-some, and obnoxious-to-others attitude and voice. They could be a valuable asset, sharing all sorts of plans and tactics used by the darkest creatures in the galaxy.
Conclusion
While the Flumph can be a two sided coin, it’s always a brightly shining one. It’s absolutely terrible at defending itself, but is intelligent, well-meaning, and very fun to play or DM.
Thanks for reading, I’ll be back with another Sense of Immersion every Tuesday!
Sense of Immersion is one of many materials I put out each week.
To support me and read these early, please check out My Patreon!
Image Sources: Wizards of the Coast
Roll a D20 to see what odd trait or quirk this particular Flumph has!
1: Very handsy while talking
2: A lisp
3: Stuttering
4: Yells everything they say
5: Cries all the time
6: Mood Swings
7: Addicted to drinking sugar water
8: Sprays ink when nervous
9: Always hungry
10: Weirdly attracted to the creatures they steal evil plans from
11: Smelly
12: Likes to be paid in seashells
13: Eats small animals
14: Turns invisible when scared
15: Very quiet
16: loves cats
17: Loves dogs
18: Afraid of Humans
19: Accident-prone
20: Friends with a Mindwitness buddy.
A Sense of Immersion 