GLOGtober '22: Challenge 1: Moving Dungeons

GLOGtober '22

This challenge is courtesy of SunderedWorldDM.

Inspiration for this post came from Paper Elemental's posts on giant wandering monsters here & here.

This post is about a moving dungeon - written for GLOG (Skerples' Many Rats on a Stick specifically) for parties of level 2 or so.

THE IMPERIAL WAR-BEAST: LAKEDRUMMER

An armoured immensity - in appearance between an ape and an elephant, scaled up such that the oldest growths of forests merely brush against its elbows. Forging its barding alone would bankrupt the petty emperors of today, to say nothing of the multifarious breeding and augmentation projects that produced its towering bulk. The investment was well worth the return. In all the centuries of its deployment the war-beast was never defeated. Not once.

Yet invincibility on the battlefield could only preserve its makers for so long. They crushed their rivals, crushed their rebels, crushed each other when inevitable disagreements developed. When nothing was left but dust, the war-beast wandered far away.

Rules

Lakedrummer occupies a hex, in addition to the hex's normal features. Each day, roll 2d6, and in the case of doubles move Lakedrummer as per the chart below:

In the hex Lakedrummer occupies, and in neighbouring hexes, water ripples musically with its footfalls. Lakes produce a deep bass, full glasses a ringing staccato, and so on. The cumulative cacophony resembles a military marching song. People and animals tend to unconsciously move to its beat.

The durability of stone structures within this range is halved from the vibrations. Already-teetering structures will collapse. Also, replace one entry on the local encounter table with:
-1 Cultist Bat (elaborated on below) & 2d6 Hypnotized Lackeys (as peasant - if four or more are encountered, group will include one level 2 fighter - if six or more are encountered, group will also include one level 2 wizard).

Cultist Bat
Man-sized vampire bats that have evolved to feed on the blood of eldritch creatures. While not flying they appear to be people wearing dark, concealing robes. Peek under their hood to glimpse their wrinkled, cartilaginous, inhuman face. Their grunts and squeaks sound like incantations in some barely-comprehensible language. Cultist bats hypnotize people to tend to and serve as sacrifices for their hosts.
HD 2 ATK 1d4 bite + 1d4 constitution damage (blood drain)
AC as leather Morale 6
Mov as bat INT clever beast
Ultrasonic Hypnosis: Cultist bats have 2 MD which they can use to cast the following spells:

• Charm:
  R: 50' T: person D: [dice] hours
  Target person regards the cultist bat as an enlightened master and ignores the obvious spell
  it just cast on them. Target becomes convinced they are on the precipice of terrible cosmic truths, and makes grandiose and dire proclamations about made-up gods.
  
• Confusion:
  R: 50' T: [sum] HD of targets D: [dice] rounds
  Each round they're affected, targets must roll a d6. On a 1-2, they may act normally. On a 3-4, they are stunned and befuddled. On a 5-6, they attack their allies, or themself if they are alone.
  

In addition to the above effects, Lakedrummer also acts as a dungeon - one that is climbed upon rather than delved into. Climbing requires at least one hand free to grasp the long and abundant fur.

The "rooms" are probably-arbitrarily-divided sections of its body. Unless otherwise noted, moving between these rooms requires a constitution check, which on a failure fills one inventory slot with exhaustion. These filled inventory slots are cleared the next time one is able to get a good night's sleep (you can't get a good night's sleep on a titanic lumbering war-beast). Using ropes and pitons or some similar method removes the need for a constitution check.

Dealing 6 or more damage to Lakedrummer in a round causes it to shudder, requiring everyone hanging on it to make a strength check (unless firmly secured) or else fall off it. Falling off deals 1d6 for the lowest rooms, 3d6 for the back, and 2d6 for everywhere else.

The Map

(Lakedrummer's left legs and side are hairless save for a few sparse patches and are extensively scarred. Climbing them without the aid of magic is impossible. The room sizes are abstract. The map is really bad. Smoke weed and fuggedaboutit.)

Rooms drawn in blue are level enough that moving between them does not require a constitution check. Moving into or out of these rooms from/to a room drawn in black still requires a check.

Visibility: Room-to-room visibility on Lakedrummer is limited by the dense fur, bony crests and ridges, barding, and the tattered remnants of the fortress-howdah that once stood atop it. From the ground, the following landmarks can be spotted: the gleaming harpoon in its hip (7.), the helmet dangling chains on its head (33.), and the gongs hanging from its neck (32.)

The Key

1. The Back Foot

Lakedrummer's back right leg was lamed by an old injury (the harpoon embedded in 7. Hip), and so drags across the ground as it walks. It takes no special effort to climb up onto it.

On the top of the foot is a collapsed tent, held on by stakes dug into the thick skin. Within the tent is a cask of small beer containing 3 rations, and a journal wherein an adventurer records their oath to take vengeance on Lakedrummer after the beast trampled his village, and the steps of his journey to track it down. Feel free to include various details and rumours about sites in your hexcrawl in this latter part of the journal.

2. Shin Guard

Corroded bronze, flaking, caked with inches of dirt, and thick enough that a Rust Monster has eaten a cavity out of it to make a nest. Brushing away the dirt reveals embossed, ironic paeans to city-states destroyed by Lakedrummer, written in Ker-Ashlan*.

Rust Monster
HD 5 (19 HP) ATK Rusting Feelers
AC As Chain + Rusting Touch Morale 8
Mov As Horse That Can Climb INT Hungry Beast
Rusting Feelers: On successful attack disintegrates metal item into flakes of rust. Magic items get save to resist.
Rusting Touch: As Rusting Feels but affects any metal item that strikes it.

Within the Rust Monster's nest are:

• Skeleton of adventurer with 100 feet of rope and lynx fur-trimmed cape worth 30 sp
  
• 3 rust monster eggs
• Crude parachute (single-use, 3-in-6 chance of preventing all damage from fall when used, halves damage otherwise)
  

3. Calf

The fur here's matted and full of burs. A bushy-browed would-be adventurer named Nan is holding tight to the calf, having lost her nerve and become unable to move up or descend. Like a drowning person, she will attempt to grab onto anyone who approaches her unless talked down.

4. Knee

An improvised rope-and-piton system has been embedded in Lakedrummer's knee, using arrows and belts. A pouch containing beeswax and a note is tied to one of the belts. The note reads "For the bats. This helps. -Leon". Stuffing your ears with the beeswax will indeed give you +4 on saves against the cultist bats' hypnosis, but -4 on any checks involving hearing.

5. Quadriceps

An 'orrible Gregory has made a cup-shaped perch here out of fur and rib bones. It's fed recently, and so would prefer to make territorial displays and take shiny things to attract mates over killing for meat. Stuck in the outward face of its perch are a trio of burnished brass bangles worth 50 sp as a set, 10 sp separately.

'orrible Gregory
HD 4 ATK 1d8/1d8 or Hook Pull
AC As chain with shield Morale 10
Mov As gibbon INT Ambush predator
Hook Pull: Can replace one of their claw attacks with a hook pull, which pulls the target creature adjacent.  Str/Dex negates.  30' range.

Their tendons can be harvested for use as ropes.  They take up 1 slot, but are twice as long (100').  They will rot in 3 days unless preserved.

6. Hamstring

The flesh here is pocked with track marks, and a section of fur has been shaved bare. The words "Don't trust the masked woman" are scratched into the skin. The snapped-off tips of some off-puttingly wide-gauge needles stick out by the writing.

7. Hip

A harpoon of gleaming orichalcum is embedded in Lakedrummer's hip, its tip sunk right in to the bone. The flesh around it is inflamed, constantly leaking blood and pus. The harpoon is large enough to require a siege weapon to throw, and is so deeply embedded that a team of oxen (or a being or beings with comparable strength) to yank it out.

The harpoon does 8d6 damage, and any armour or magical protections are ineffective against it. It would take a suitably mythic forge to melt it down, but if it were it would provide enough magic metal to outfit ten soldiers head to toe with enchanted arms and armour.

8. Right Rump

Dark brown abscesses with shiny, metallic bits within can be glimpsed through the skin here, and the flesh around them is spongy. The abscesses are full of brown pudding, which will begin seeping out if they're stepped on. The abscesses formed around a load of enchanted grapeshot - each shot is a +2 weapon against demons. There are 8 shots in total.

Brown Pudding
HD 11 (54 HP) ATK 3d6 + Corrosion
AC As Flesh + Ooze Morale N/A
Mov As Snake INT Non-existent - will chase after nearest moving source of heat.
Ooze: Immune to cold, acid, and poison. Weapons strikes divide them into two puddings, each with half the HP of the original. Magic and fire do normal damage.
Corrosion: Targets struck by the slime must save or have leather, wood, and fiber items on their person dissolve. Magical items add +4 to this save.

9. Left Rump

A hut where the diseased victims of the biomancer Morbosa's (24. Armpit) experiments are quarantined by the folk hypnotized by the cultist bats. A child named Skip sits on the roof lazily swinging a sling. She takes shots at anyone she doesn't recognize or isn't accompanied by someone she recognizes who approaches. Skip has resisted the cultist bats' hypnotism, but her father Clive (21. Upper Spine) hasn't. She wants to get the hell out of here but won't leave without him.

One of the victims (slowly and painfully separating into two people down the middle) is the heir of a locally-powerful family. They promise screeching through the bars to lavish favour on whoever frees them from captivity and returns them home.

10. Right Lower Back

The fur in this area has been trimmed short, and ticks swollen as big as fists slurp audibly at Lakedrummer's blood. Cutesy names like "Bloaty" and "Sucksuck" have been painted on their abdomens. The ticks are farmed by haggard folk dressed in rags - people hypnotized by the cultist bats. They're weak and cowardly, and if confronted forcefully will flee to 18. Mid Spine to beg Thresher for help.

11. Lower Spine

A pile of green, leafy branches and straw taller than you are and as wide as a wagon. A few stripped and broken-backed, -necked, or -legged corpses lie strewn around it. 1-in-6 chance that a trio of cultist bats will be flying by to drop a hypnotized person onto the pile, 4-in-6 chance they succeed in dropping them onto the pile.

Extensive searching of the pile will turn up a rose gold and turtle-shell hairpin worth 40 sp.

12. Left Lower Back

A crowd of hypnotized people gather around a dead cultist bat. They are undergoing a crisis of faith, and are coming close to blows over what sort of funeral to hold for it. A couple furiously scratch at Lakedrummer's flesh for a burial. One particularly creepy individual insists on eating it. Others are making a travois from branches and fur to drag the carcass to the zigurrat at 18. Mid Spine.

13. Lower Flank

Broad straps affixed to wrist-thick piercings in Lakedrummer's hide trail from here down to 14. Lower Belly. A baby cultist bat and a baby 'orrible Gregory have wandered from their respective nests and encountered each other here, and are playing in the manner of a cute animal video compilation. Threatening either one would cause them to emit warning cries that would bring their parents rushing over 1d4+1 rounds later. If both pairs of parents show up around the same time, they will assume the others are responsible and a bloodbath will ensue.

14. Lower Belly

The corner of an immense howdah made of bronze, horn, and canvas dangles here from straps leading up to 13. Lower Flank. Within this section there is an old yet functional longbow and 20 arrows tied to a wall-hanger, as well as a cracked pot of salt sealed up with wax.

15. Upper Flank

Morbosa in 24. Armpit has torn out random patches of fur here then glued them back on. If moving carefully or warned by Morbosa you may see the gunk holding these patches on at the base, if not (and if you're not secured by a rope or somesuch) then check dexterity or fall down to 16. Upper Belly and check dexterity again. If you succeed the second check you catch yourself there. If not, it's a long way down. Anyone within arm's reach may assist you on the first check.

16. Upper Belly

A motion-sick owlbear clinging on for dear life amid clay bricks and pottery shards tangled in clumps of fur - the debris of sieges millennia past.

Owlbear
HD 5+2 (23 HP) ATK 1d6/1d6/2d6
AC As Chain Morale 10
Mov As bear (faster than you'd think, good climber) INT Drug-addled man pretending to be a bear and an owl simultaneously
Hug: If an owlbear rolls an 18 or higher on a claw attack, it wraps up its target in a crushing hug.

The owlbear has made a nest in a spaghetti-twirl of fur. Within the nest are football (American)-sized pellets, which can be broken open to find a dagger with an engraved ivory hilt worth 35 sp, a gold ring set with an emerald and prongs modeled after a cornucopia worth 200 sp, and a set of dentures with pearls for teeth worth 15 sp.

17. Right Mid Back

Cluster of pathetic shelters leaning against a particularly tall dorsal crest. 2d6 exhausted bat-hypnotized people passed out in the shelters or sleepwalking around them at any time. A pair of young cultist bats (1 HD, Morale 4) lurk in the shadows, practicing their abilities on sleeping minds.

If anyone obviously not hypnotized snoops about, the bats will fly off to warn their parents, returning 2d4 rounds later with 4 adult cultist bats in tow.

18. Mid Spine

A three-layer ziggurat of stones and branches stuck together with pitch and streaked with guano. Very flammable. Within the cultist bats have chewed out a pit in Lakedrummer's back that wells up with blood for them to drink. A ceremonial jade bowl worth 100 sp lies by the pit, and is now clotted with gore.

There is a 2-in-6 chance when visiting the Mid Spine that 1d6 cultist bats will be lapping up the blood in an ominous-looking procession.

Within the ziggurat kneels a muscular man wearing a cow skull mask. He is anointing himself with the blood while praying to entities with gobbledygook names. He goes by Thresher (barbarian 4). Thresher believes wholeheartedly in the made-up religion the hypnotized people have cobbled together, but believes he is more worthy of leading it than the cultist bats. With the right push, he will go to the gatehouse at 21. Upper Spine and fight his way through the gatekeepers there to discover what lies beyond. Left to his own devices after that point, he will eventually figure out how to guide Lakedrummer and be overcome with the megalomaniacal urge to wipe out all non-believers. Thresher is much less willing to discuss these thoughts while there are cultist bats around the ziggurat.

Thresher wields a magic axe (also called Thresher): it has a saw-toothed head of purplish metal, and its haft is flecked with flickering chips like embers that glow purple. Thresher (the axe) can be entangled with any other axe within its wielder's line of sight, causing it to mimic Thresher's movements. If that axe is held by someone else, it can only be moved if Thresher's wielder succeeds at a contested strength check.

19. Left Mid Back

Armour plates have been stripped and shoved into a ring here. Sticks and planks have been lashed together into shoddy platforms around the ring's rim, where excited people watch the happenings within and cheer. Within the ring, a captured owlbear and 'orrible Gregory are dueling each other. The people who bet on the losing beast will be dragged into the ziggurat in 18. Mid Spine and ritually sacrificed there afterwards.

20. Right Upper Back

The fur here has been trampled into a sprawling occult diagram that resembles a crop circle. At the diagram's center, a bearded man has fallen down gibbering and foaming at the mouth. A nervous woman kneels by his side holding his hand. Those familiar with magic who study the diagram will recognize that the man accidentally created a sigil for summoning alien spirits to inhabit one's body. They will be able to disrupt the diagram, freeing the man from the possession and the cultist bats' hypnosis, or complete it to transform him into an elongated abomination with squirming tentacles for flesh (stat as troll) that preferentially attacks hypnotized people.

Messing with the diagram randomly has a 2-in-6 chance of doing nothing, a 2-in-6 chance of disrupting the diagram, and a 2-in-6 chance of completing it.

21. Upper Spine

A makeshift gatehouse made of stripped armour plates. The gate blocks the way to 31. Neck. The guards Rollo (short & fat) and Clive (tall & skinny) have sworn to only let someone through who has clear evidence of favour from the cultist bats. They are uncertain of what this would look like. Clive tells bad jokes, and Rollo pretends to laugh at them.

Rollo is secretly embarrassed about having dropped the gate's "key" (a glorified crowbar) off Lakedrummer's back, but he saw it get caught on a tuft of fur on the war-beasts right forelimb. He'd be very grateful to have it returned. If his negligence was discovered, he would be brought for execution at 22. Left Upper Back. The key is in fact unnecessary for opening the gate - any prying tool would do.

22. Left Upper Back

A walkway of planks has been nailed into the war-beast's flesh here. Insufficiently-faithful hypnotized people are being made to walk the plank by a crew of four wild-eyed fanatics wielding sharpened chunks of bronze. A cultist bat oversees the proceedings, and occasionally flits down to the splattered corpses for choice bits it tries and fails to feed to Lakedrummer.

23. Shoulder

An ebony telescope on a tripod is firmly nestled on the top of the shoulder's rent pauldron. The telescope is worth 50 sp to an astronomer or navigator.

Wrapped around the lower part of the shoulder is a long leather thong with an ornate weighted ball on the end. This implement can be wielded as a flail with twice the normal range. It was originally used by Lakedrummer's handler to ring the gongs at 32. Throat while seated on its head. Left where it is, it also provides a secure anchoring point for ropes and suchlike.

24. Armpit

Knit together from the reeking fur of Lakedrummer's armpit is the hut of Morbosa, a cackling old woman in a plague doctor mask and crusty black robes (biomancer wizard 3). Syringes and vials filled with various colourful fluids clink along the walls - except for one section with only colourless vials, which is in fact a curtain that leads to a secret path up to 32. Throat along Lakedrummer's collarbone. Morbosa will reveal this secret passage to those she's on good terms with. Her bed is a pile of stained corks. Buried under the corks is a grimoire written in yellow bile on pale leather, containing the spells Monsterize, Become Delicious, and Animate Potion.

Morbosa has vague knowledge of the war-beast and the creatures on it, but her main interest is in testing her homegrown diseases. If a character consents to being infected with one of the following diseases, they can choose one of the below potions to receive in return:

Diseases:

• Bubblin' Boils: Your body becomes covered with red boils filled with effervescent fluid. Wearing armour puts pressure on them that is so uncomfortable you receive -4 to all rolls. If your face is exposed, you receive -2 to all reaction rolls. Is cured on its own after a week, or you can take the time and expense to wrap yourself in tincture-soaked bandages.
• Cat-Killin' Curiousity: Whenever you're presented with a lever, a closed chest, or any other contraption or container that might do or hold something, you must save or immediately interact with it. Sometimes your forehead squirms unpleasantly. Can be cured by spending a day in a dark, empty room without stimulation.
• The Woggles: Your arms fall out and are replaced with clusters of 1d3+1 tentacles. Your arms' strength is split evenly between the tentacles, and getting them to do anything complicated requires an intelligence check. Can be cured by sticking the tentacles in a barrel of salt.
• Poppin' Peepers. When surprised, ambushed, or otherwise shocked, your eyes explode. They grow back 2d6 rounds later. Is cured on its own after a week, or after your friends throw you a surprise party.
  

Potions:

• Flight: Able to fly as a bird for 1d6 rounds, but horrid plucked chicken wings sprout from your back.
• Were-Toad: You contract lycanthropy. Instead of turning into a cool werewolf you turn into a gross toad-thing. If you were already a werewolf, you now turn into a warty, slimy werewolf.
  
• Honest Tumour: Whoever drinks it sprouts a tumour with a mouth that knows everything they know and is very honest and helpful towards whoever talks to it. Lasts until excised.
• Auto-Evisceration: Whoever drinks it immediately vomits out their intestines. Anyone who sees this happen is compelled to see the drinker's intestines as them and the drinker as a pile of smelly and unappealing intestines. They get a save to break this compulsion if reality strongly contradicts it, such as by the drinker attacking them. This is harmless to the drinker, in fact curing any ingested poisons in the process, and 1d6 hours later their intestines regrow.
  

Morbosa's highest ambition is to create a disease that will kill Lakedrummer itself. Due to the toughness of its hide and immune system, she requires her latest invention to this end to be applied to a deep, already existing wound on it. The blood-well in 18. Mid Spine would suffice, as would the hole left behind should the harpoon in 7. Hip be removed.

If her vial of war-beast-killing plague is so applied, she will ecstatically offer to work for you as a poisoner and apothecary. In a month's time the plague will finish off Lakedrummer, and a swarm of giant, bloodthirsty flies will spawn in its corpse and afflict the region.

25. Bicep

A particularly large giant tick (max HP, ATK 1d6) is sucking away at Lakedrummer's blood here.

26. Tricep

Marked with old wounds and infections. Receiving any damage here is enough to make Lakedrummer's whole limb shake and require a strength check from all non-secured people on it to avoid being tossed off.

27. Elbow

A keratinous spike adorned with metal serrations juts from Lakedrummer's elbow. It seems to be a good point to secure rope, but hairline fractures sustained in battle cause it to snap off the moment serious weight is put on it.

28. Outer Forelimb

A xylophonist by the name of Gehrmina set up a hammock-suspended campsite here, hoping to gain inspiration from Lakedrummer's beats. She was inspired, but was also driven made by the constant swinging about. Gehrmina outwardly presents as a manic pixie dream girl type, but secretly is murderously paranoid. She'll begin subtly, sabotaging climbing equipment and the like, but escalates over time until she's screaming and trying to stab you with her sharpened mallet.

In Gehrmina's camp is a tin xylophone worth 20 sp, and sheet music worth 100 sp to a composer able to recognize its terrible genius.

29. Inner Forelimb

A tuft of fur here has caught the rough metal "key" of the gatehouse in 21. Upper Spine. Yet another tuft of fur has caught the decapitated head of one of Gehrmina's (28. Outer Forelimb) victims. The head has the word "Philistine" carved across its face.

30. Front Foot

Unlike 1. The Back Foot, Lakedrummer's front foot is uninjured, and so swings swiftly and widely as it walks. Getting onto it requires some reckless plan to catch it or leap onto it from a high point or the like.

A snapped, trailing chain is wrapped around one of Lakedrummer's stubby digits like a ring.

31. Neck

An expanse of wrinkled grey skin studded with bulging glands that leak a brownish, cinnamon-scented jelly. Halfway up the neck are a pair of corpses in rags throttling each other. Inhaling the jelly's fumes requires a save or else induces a hormonal rage, causing those affected to attack the nearest living thing for 1d4 rounds.

The sides of Lakedrummer's neck are fitted with an anti-bite collar lined with spikes as thick as a ship's mast.

32. Throat

A thrumming sac like a howler monkey's - the source of Lakedrummer's musical yet destructive emanations. Three gongs are hung on the sac: left, right, and center.

The left gong is embossed with the image of a grimacing ape with hands clapped over its ears. It amplifies Lakedrummer's vibrations when rung. Any stone structures less solidly built than a cathedral in the hex topple, and anyone standing near a body of water pond-sized or bigger is permanently deafened.

The right gong is embossed with the image of a serenely-smiling ape resting its chin in its hands. It stops Lakedrummer's vibrations when rung, until a day has passed or another gong is used.

The center gong is embossed with the image of a dancing ape with tiny figures flung away from it. It turns Lakedrummer's vibrations inwards to its own body when rung. Each time this gong is struck, everyone on a random part of its body is flung off without a save unless they are secured to it. The body part is decided by a d6 as follows: 1. left arm, 2. left leg, 3. right arm, 4. right leg, 5. torso, 6. head.

33. Head

Lakedrummer's head is encased in a helmet that obstructs its vision and has guide-chains running through its sensitive bits. The leads of these guide-chains lie in front of a sun ray-backed bronze throne nailed into the helmet's crown, which is set with straps to secure the handler. By pulling on these leads you can direct the war-beast's movements or make it smash or charge through whatever's in front of it, but each time you do you must make a charisma check or Lakedrummer will be so pissed off that he'll flip onto his back and scrape everything on it off 2d6 rounds later.

There is also a clasp on the back of its head that keeps the helmet in place. If this big metal clasp is broken, the helmet will crash to the ground. Lakedrummer will look around, bleary-eyed and confused, then begin the long journey back to its birthplace, taking special care not to squash anything on its way.

Wandering Monsters (D6)

1. 2d4 hypnotized people (as peasants, led by level 1 fighter)

2. 1d4 cultist bats

3. 1 owlbear

4. 1d6 giant ticks

5. 1 'orrible Gregory

6. 1 springleech swarm

Giant Tick
HD 1 ATK 1d4 + Latch
AC As leather Morale 7
Mov Like hare INT Dumb animal
Latch: After a successful attack, a giant tick will latch onto its target and deal an automatic 1d4 damage each round after. Latched giant ticks can be removed with a strength check, or by application of fire or immersion in water.

Springleech Swarm
HD N/A - see Swarm ATK 1d10 damage/round to anyone within its radius
AC As flesh + Swarm Morale 5
Mov As aggressive Slinkys INT Dumb animals
Swarm: A swarm of leeches rolling end-over-end ten feet in diameter. Area of effect attacks dealing 10 or more points of cumulative damage will disperse them. The leeches will not cross a line of salt, and flung salt deals damage as acid to them.

*Or whatever language was spoken in an ancient, conquering empire in your own setting