Converting Planescape monsters

Don't think we need this: "A sohmien's spines are treated as magic weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction."

The original flavor was pretty good, so we should rewrite that! Here's a start:

"Approaching is a large horse with dark, leathery skin and long spines growing from its shoulders. Its eyes are soulless and completely white. A faint mist oozes from its hide and trails behind it.

Legend holds that the sohmien were born from the body of the last Nightmare Lord, killed by fiends tired of bargaining for the use of his subject nightmares. Now, nightmares have no single lord, but they have great enemies in the sohmien. "

Want to put in anything about summoning or do anything with this: "The touch of their hooves kills vegetation and taints the land for years."?

A great start!

I found this, from the Planescape: Torment game that spawned them...

Heart Of The Fosterer
(Minor Artifacts)
Special: Summons the Sohmien
Weight: 1
Usable only by Evil and Neutral Characters

This strange object is said to be the "Heart of the Fosterer." According to legend, the Fosterer was a sorcerer who built his empire upon the Plane of Shale many centuries ago. He was rumored to have 3,333 hearts, and each of them carried in it a different evil he had committed in his lifetime. One of the evils he committed was the discovery of how to summon the Sohmien and bind them to his will. It is said that the Fosterer was carried away by these beasts after he invoked them against some ancient foe, leaving only his hears behind.

According to planar scholars, the Sohmien are fiendish horses, said to have been born from the blood of the last of the nightmare lords. They're not so much flesh and blood as an abstract given substance. They come to anyone who seeks revenge and bind themselves to them.

They were born from a great treachery at the Gloom Meet, the time when the fiends gather to speak to the others of their kind. The nightmares ride the skies to gather the fiends to this meeting, acting as messengers. While the fiends saw the nightmares as helpful, convenient allies, they had grown tired of bartering with the last of the nightmare lords for his consent to use them.

So the fiends called a Gloom Meet only for the purpose of killing. They lured teh nightmare lord there to kill him, and when he arrived, the fiends set upon him. He beseeched the other nightmares for aid, but they only watched, their eyes aflame as their lord was attacked.

The fiends tried to put him in the dead book - they scattered the earth with caltrops covered with the foulest poisons in the hells, hurled barbed cold-iron spears a league wide into him, and when he tried to take to the air to escape, they turned the sky alight with magick, blinding his eyes white. They struck at him with everything in their hateful arsenal - but no matter what they struck him with, he was too proud to die. They hounded him to the edge of the Outlands, firing their cruel arrows and spears into him until he staggered into the Hinterland mists and died there... or so it is said.

It's said that as the nightmare lord stumbled into the mists of the Hinterlands, his dark blood left a steaming trail across the landscape. Whereever his blood fell, the Outland itself cried out, wailing like a banshee, uttering the cries the nightmare lord would not.

Less than a year later, the Sohmien rode from the Hinterlands, seeking out any nightmares and fiends where they could find them. Their cries were the same as had risen from the blood wounds on the Outlands, and their minds were focused solely on revenge.

It is said that gripping the heart of the Sohmien and wishing harm upon another will cause them to appear. The Sohmien will answer the user's call, then fade into the mists from which they came.

Nice! Could add to the legend, as long as we can rewrite it. But I'm not sure it helps with the summoning. Just put in a summon monster bit, or add an artifact to summon a herd?

These things seem a bit too special for a standard summon monster, eh?

I'd agree. Let's just write up a quick artifact based on the one above and put in a sidebar.

I just noticed this...

A sohmien’s spines turn to vapor within three days of being taken from the corpse.

Click to expand...

So I suppose the spines should retain their enhancement bonus for 3 days?

Sure, and then turn to vapor? Heh, I can just imagine a PC getting surprised as it vaporizes just as he's charging someone.

Here's a stab at an artifact write-up. Changing the legend slightly to avoid plagiarism:

Heart Of The Fosterer: Long ago, a sorcerer known as the Fosterer discovered the secret of summoning and binding sohmien to destroy his enemies and bring him their hearts. Eventually, though, the sohmien rebelled and carried him away, leaving behind only the hearts. These artifacts resemble crystalline hearts. Once per week, the possessor can call a herd of 20? sohmien and task them to destroy one enemy; they vanish as soon as that enemy has been killed or otherwise destroyed (or after 1 week at the longest). A good-aligned character that possesses a Heart of the Fosterer gains a negative level that cannot be removed by any means as long as she possesses the Heart.

Lookin' good. Should we randomize the size of the herd? Maybe 5d4 sohmien?

Sure!

You know, if we want to excise the Fosterer bit, we could call these things "Hearts of the Sohmien" and have them formed by the death of the same Nightmare Lord that created the Sohmien themselves.

Yeah, that makes good sense.

Updated.

According to myth, sohmien are creatures of vengeance. They can be summoned by any vengeful mage or priest of sufficient power through a ritual called the sohmien pact (a spell believed lost long ago).

Click to expand...

Summoning Sohmien

Sohmien can be summoned via a ritual called the sohmien pact or through the use of the following artifact.

Hearts Of The Sohmien: These artifacts resemble crystalline hearts. Once per week, the possessor can call a herd of 5d4 sohmien and task them to destroy one enemy; they vanish as soon as that enemy has been killed or otherwise destroyed (or after 1 week at the longest). A good-aligned character that possesses a Heart Of The Sohmien gains a negative level that cannot be removed by any means as long as she possesses the Heart.

Should we provide mechanics for the sohmien pact, or just note some vague aspects of how it might work?