Three horrors of the jungle (new monsters)

These three new monsters from the Jungle are presented in D&D Rules Cyclopedia format.

Kananicte (Sleep Flower)
Small Lowlife (Uncommon)
Armor Class: 9
Hit Dice: 1/2 (1d4 hp)
Move: 0
Attacks: 1
Damage: Special
No Appearing: 1d6
Save As: Normal Man
Morale: -NA-
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 0
Alignment: Nuetral
XP Value: 8

Kananicte are small, brightly colored flowers with thick stems and delicate leaves, found clumped together around the base of larger plants or trees in wet, muddy terrain. The flowers hide extensive root systems that are extremely sensitive to vibration, allowing the plant to sense the approach of any creature of halfling size or larger within 10 feet of the flower.

When any creature does approach within 10 feet, the flowers release a 20 foot radius cloud of pollen spores which on the first round of contact carry only a delicate aroma and peaceful sensation. Any creature who remains in the cloud (which will disperse after 1d12 rounds, or can be dispersed by use of the Create Air spell or similar magic) after the first round must make a saving throw vs poison or fall asleep (treat as if affected by the Sleep spell, though this effect is a poison and non-magical) for 1d4 hours.

Each flower can spray its pollen only once per hour, and since the plant is unintelligent, all flowers present will spray at once, invoking mulitple saving throws to reflect the higher concentration of spores in the air.

Some intelligent creatures, notably tribesmen and Lizardmen, will plant these flowers in or near patches of Kuumyak (see below), which will attack sleeping characters.

Adventure Ideas:
Some tribesmenn and Lizardmen believe the dreams one has while sleeping off the effects of Kananicte pollen are prophetic, and the shamans of these tribes jealously guard the plants. PCs who are found destroying the plants will be attacked with the intent to capture them, to be sacrificed later to appease any spirits who may have been offended by the acts. On the other hand, PCs who are discovered asleep from their encounter with the plants may be carried back to the village, to be questioned by the shamans as to the nature of their dreams, providing an opportunity for the DM to introduce new plot hooks or twists.


Kuumyak (Jungle Ooze)
Medium Lowlife (Uncommon)
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 3
Move: 10 (1)
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d8 + Special
No Appearing: 1
Save As: Fighter 2
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 0
Alignment: Nuetral
XP Value: 60

Kuumyak is a disgusting ooze appearing to be made up of mud and rotting vegetation, making it extremely difficult to spot in the wet areas of the jungle. It will attack, by splashing itself up towards any living creature that passes within 3 feet of it. The corrosive nature of the ooze causes an immediate 1d8 points of damage, and in addition, the victim must make a saving throw vs. poison of suffer an additional 1d8 points of damage from the ooze's toxins.

Kuumyak is immune to all fire and heat damage, but suffers double damage from cold based attacks.

Any creature who is killed by a Kuumyak, and not burned (or revived somehow) will rise as a Khalmaak (see below) in 1d4 days.

Adventure Ideas:
Some reclusive folk, human or otherwise, of the jungle will often gather Kuumyak to place around their lairs as makeshift, but effective traps. As noted above, Kananicte flowers are sometimes placed nearby to incapacitate victims, allowing the Kuumyak ooze to easily kill them. This can be a nasty, unusual trap, but take care when placing the monsters, for they can have devastating results against PCs who don't roll well on their saving throws. To avoid a total party kill in such a situation, the DM may wish to invoke a scenario where NPCs find the unfortunate PCs and drag them to safety, but such a favor will almost always result in the party being asked or coerced into performing some deed of repayment, which is an excellent opportunity to introduce a new plothook or prod the players back along the path of the adventure if they have strayed.

Khalmaak (Ooze Man)
Medium Monster (Rare)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 10
Move: 60 (4)
Attacks: 2
Damage: 2d10
No Appearing: 1
Save As: Dwarf 8
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 3
Alignment: Nuetral
XP Value: 2000

Khalmaaks are orc sized humanoid fungus creatures, appearing to have bloated, slimy green skin and hugely muscled bodies. It is well known by the folk of the jungle that creatures who die from wounds taken from, and are consumed by Kuumyak ooze will rise as Khalmaaks within a week's time.

Khalmaaks are, thankfully, fairly stupid creatures, wandering aimlessly through the jungle until they encounter living creatures upon which to feed. A Khalmaak will attack any creature or group of creatures without hesitation, fighting without morale checks until it is destroyed or attacked with cold magic (which causes an immediate morale check). The creature's attacks are slow and crude smashes with its thick, heavy arms, causing 2d10 per successful hit. That slowness, however, causes the Khalmaak to automatically lose initiative each round.

Due to their wet composition, Khalmaaks take only 1/2 damage from heat or fire attacks, but double damage from cold attacks. Although they posess a primitive intelligence, Khalmaaks are immune to Charm, ESP and similar mental magics.

Adventure Ideas:
The tribesmen of a village that has proven non-hostile to the party has been stricken of late with a relative scourge of Khalmaaks. Livestock and even the villagers themselves have been attacked in the jungle near the village, and despite near constant searching, the Kuumyak responsible for creating these beasts has not been found. After being enlisted to fight off a couple of the Khalmaaks, the villagers grow to respect and trust the party enough to share the secret of the origins of the vile creatures and seek the help of the PCs in finding and destroying the Kuumyak.

Variant Non-Magical Arrows

In the standard rules all attacks with a bow do 1d6 points of damage. I wanted to add a little variety for characters who use bows heavily, as well as give the DM some options to use with NPCs and monsters who make use of archery in combat, so here's a collection of new arrows I devised to give your archers a little more flexibility. Enjoy.

Note: Damage statistics are given in the following format: 1d6 (1d8). The first die roll is for shortbows, the second, in parentheses, is for longbows

Bone Tipped Arrow : 1d4 (1d6) damage
Used mostly by primitive cultures, including those of humanoids like Goblins and Kobolds, this arrow costs of a 3 or 4 inch long sliver of bone strapped to the end of the arrow's shaft. It's ineffective against any armor heavy than studded leather, causing armored opponents to simply ignore the attack, unless the archer takes a -4 called shot penalty to his attack roll to aim for an unprotected part of the body (if any, DM's discretion).
Cost : 1cp each

Stone Tipped Arrow: 1d6-1 (1d6+1) damage
Also used mainly by primitve peoples, this arrow is fitted with a head made of stone chipped into a suitable shape. The major improvement from bone arrows is that this variety can be effective against heavier armors.
Cost : 2cp

Sheaf Arrow : 1d6+1 (1d8+1) damage, -2 to hit
A thicker shaft and heavier head reduce the accuracy of this arrow, but give it a higher damage potential than the standard arrow.
Cost : 1sp

Whistling (or Screaming) Arrow : normal damage
Forces a moral check against creatures with wis of 10 or lower carved channels in the shaft caused the arrow to spin on its horizontal axis, creating a high pitched screaming sound easily heard up to 1000 yards away
Cost : 5sp

Flare (or Flame) Arrow : normal damage
Causes additional 1d4 points fire damage if target fails a save vs. breath. Often used in the field by rangers and soldiers by shooting them straight up, hence the flare name.
Cost : 1gp

Stinger (Ceramic Hollow Tipped) Arrow : 1d6-2 (1d8-2) damage, -20 range increment due to weight
May be filled acid or poison that is released on impact. these arrows shatter on impact and cannot be reused.
Cost : 1pp (does not include cost of acid or poison if used)

Frog Crotch Arrow : Not effective as a weapon, -4 to hit (generally against AC 10, but DM's discretion applies)
Succesful hit allows the archer to cut ropes and cords. Used often by recon type rangers and archers involved in seige situations. The name is taken from the old 1E Oriental Adventures book, so don't blame me if it sounds a bit crude. The name is derived from the shape of the head, sort of a rounded v with the open end facing forward and sharpened along the inside edges, the arrow catches the rope and severs it.
Cost : 1gp

Note: I originally presented this on the Grognard's Tavern forum. One response to that post was a query by the owner of that forum, who posts as Gutboy Barrelhouse, regarding how glass arrowhead tipped arrows would fit into my list, here's my response to GB:

Not sure what you have in mind with glass arrowheads. If you want something hollow that can be used to deliver a substance to the target, I'd say just use the stats I suggested for ceramic/hollow tip heads. If you want something solid, the stone tip head should work.

In the interest of simplicity, I've not bothered to adjust range increments for these arrow variants, except for the stinger/hollow tip arrow. I welcome any comments or ideas on this matter though, feel free to leave a comment.

Lock and Trap qualities

I like to give some variety to locks and traps, to make things a little more interesting than the old "ok, roll to unlock/disarm it". While intricate detail of the workings of the device is overkill in most cases, I found that a simple system to differentiate the quality of various devices doesn't slow things down too much. Here's what I came up with.

Lock/Trap Quality	Open Locks and Remove Trap Adj.	Notes and probability
Shoddy	+10%	Very poor quality; bad worksmanship, cheap materials and outdated technology. 1-15% chance of device being this quality.
Poor	+5%	Poor quality; bad workmanship, cheap materials or outdated tech. 16-40% chance of device being of this quality.
Average	0	Average quality. 41-75% of device being of this quality.
Good	-10%	Good quality. High quality materials used. 76-90% of device being of this quality.
Excellent	-20%	Very good quality. Excellent materials, workmanship or innovative tech. 91-98% chance of device being of this quality.
Peerless	-40%	Exceptional quality. Excellent materials, workmanship and innovative tech. 99-00% chance of device being of this quality.

I also added a set of higher quality thieves picks and tools to the equipment list. The "Peerless thieves picks and tools" cost 250gp, but grant a 10% bonus to all OL/RT checks made by the thief using them.

In addition, I came up with a system allowing for multiple attempts at picking a single lock. By the book, if the thief fails the first attempt, he must wait until he gains another experience level before attempting it again. This is a little unreasonable, in my opinion.

I rule that the first attempt at picking a lock takes 1d4 minutes. Each subsequent attempt is made at a -10% (cumulative) chance of success, and takes an additional 1d6 minutes (so, the first attempt is 1d4 minutes, the second is 1d4+1d6 minutes, the third is 1d4+2d6 minutes, etc)

Expanded XP awards

Overall, there's nothing really wrong with the XP awards as written, but I like to have some loose guidelines for XP awards for non-combat activities.

This is a more detailed version of the system I've used in other games.

XP award	Player/Character Action
25	Clever but ineffective idea or action:
100	Clever and effective idea or action:
50	Well role played encounter
150	Exceptionally role played encounter
25	Class ability used successfully Note that spells are considered under "Clever Actions, above, not as class abilities.
50	Class ability used to benefit a fellow PC or NPC, not self Note that spells are considered under "Clever Actions, above, not as class abilities.
100	Furthering the game. In other words, Encouraging, teaching or helping other players; avoiding rules lawyering arguments, helping the DM remember relevant rules, etc.
50	Innovative or creative use of the rules.
100	Selfless bravado, placing your character in harm's way to aid another PC or NPC.
100	Solving a puzzle, riddle or similar situation.
50	Playing within alignment guidelines as decided by the DM and players
10	Defeating an opponent (in other words, delivering the death blow). This is in addition to the normal XP awarded for the monster.
10	Defeating an opponent with a spell (in other words, delivering the death blow). This is in addition to the normal XP awarded for the monster.
10	Defeating an opponent with a Sneak Attack (in other words, delivering the death blow). This is in addition to the normal XP awarded for the monster.
50	Active participation in the story. This is awarded once per session, to each PC who qualifies.
100	Completing a campaign/story goal. This is awarded to each member of the party.