Converting Oriental Adventures creatures

Shade · Nov 24, 2009

Part Two.

Original thread closed due to exceeding 1,000 post count.

Shade · Nov 24, 2009

Chinese Undead
Type # Appearing AC Move HD %Lair Treasure
Celestial Stag / 2-12 / 3 / 12 / 3 / 0%

Celestial Stag
An appetizing name for an unappetizing creature, whose amoebalike form normally looks like a green nightmare deer but can ooze through any nook or cranny and reform. The creature attacks with 2 hooves 1-4 and 2 1-6. Clerics turn them as for Wraiths. Celestial Stags live underground and light equivalent to full daylight will dissolve them.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #26 (1979).

From Wikipedia

Celestial Stag - No one has ever seen a Celestial Stag. They live in underground mines, searching for the light of day. They will attempt to bribe, speak to, and even torture miners in their quest to reach the surface, where they turn into a deadly liquid form.

http://www.borges.pitt.edu/vakalo/zf/html/body_the_celestial_stag.html

Giants, monsters, and dragons: an encyclopedia of folklore, legend, and myth

http://www.angelfire.com/sk3/asianhorror/c.html

demiurge1138 · Nov 25, 2009

That's... very odd. So, do we want it to be an undead or an incorporeal magical beast?

freyar · Nov 25, 2009

I'm not getting incorporeal, but I could easily go with magical beast, aberration, or even ooze.

demiurge1138 · Nov 25, 2009

Good point. If they were incorporeal, they could fly through the walls of the mine to find the surface. Is extraplanar a possibility (from Carceri or the Plane of Shadow), or do we want to stick to native?

Shade · Nov 25, 2009

I'd be fine with extraplanar, and with their ties to tunnels, I could easily see them hailing from Pandemonium. Of course, their desire to get to the surface could explain Carceri as demiurge suggested, as evidence of them trying to escape the prison plane.

As for type, any of those freyar mentioned are plausible. Despite coming from a "Chinese Undead" article, that type seems the least appropriate of those mentioned. I'm leaning slightly toward aberration, but I'm not ready to rule out magical beast or ooze.

demiurge1138 · Nov 25, 2009

Aberration seems pretty fair.

freyar · Nov 25, 2009

Perhaps they have been transplanted from Carceri by some unknown magical force? Let's go with aberration (extraplanar).

Cleon · Nov 26, 2009

Shade said:
Chinese Undead
Type # Appearing AC Move HD %Lair Treasure
Celestial Stag / 2-12 / 3 / 12 / 3 / 0%

Celestial Stag
An appetizing name for an unappetizing creature, whose amoebalike form normally looks like a green nightmare deer but can ooze through any nook or cranny and reform. The creature attacks with 2 hooves 1-4 and 2 1-6. Clerics turn them as for Wraiths. Celestial Stags live underground and light equivalent to full daylight will dissolve them.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #26 (1979).

Just to make those stats a bit easier to read.

Type: Celestial Stag
#Appearing: 2-12
AC: 3
Move: 12
Hit Dice: 3
% in Lair: 0%

Amoeba like form normally looks like a green nightmare deer

Can ooze through any nook or cranny and reform

Attacks with 2 hooves 1-4 and 2 1-6 (2 hooves and 2 antlers?)

Turned as Wraiths.

Celestial Stags live underground and light equivalent to full daylight will dissolve them.

The Book of Imaginary Beings entry adds the following information:

We know absolutely nothing about the appearance of the Celestial Stag (maybe because nobody has ever had a good look at one), but we do know that these tragic animals live underground in mines and desire nothing more than to reach the light of day. They have the power of speech and implore the miners to help them to the surface. At first, a Celestial Stag attempts to bribe the workmen with the promise of revealing hidden veins of silver and gold; when this gambit fails, the beast becomes troublesome and the miners are forced to overpower it and wall it up in one of the mine galleries. It is also rumored that miners outnumbered by the Stags have been tortured to death. Legend has it that if the Celestial Stag finds 'its way into the open air, it becomes a foul-smelling liquid that can breed death and pestilence.
The tale is from China and is recorded by G. Willoughby Meade in his book Chinese Ghouls and Goblins.

From which we get:

Able to speak and negotiate with humans (-> sapient, knows Common)

Wants to reach the surface

If it reaches open air it becomes a foul fluid than causes disease?

The only way to contain one is to wall them up in a mine galley, encase them in clay or similarly seal them into a confined space

So, that suggests

Undead of Gravetouched Aberration
3 Hit Dice
Speed 30 ft
AC around 17
Speaks Common
Intelligence 8-12?
I'm thinking we may want to rationalize its 2 hooves and 2 antlers into
Two hooves (1d4) and horns (2d6)

I was tempted to give them regeneration, to explain why the miners don't just kill them - they just flow back together again - but a simpler explanation is anyone who kills one would be exposed to the Liquid Pestilence of their deliquescing remains.

Cleon · Nov 26, 2009

By the way, I'm a bit skeptical of the provenance of this creature, from what I can find out a Chinese "Celestial Stag" is either a Kirin or Dragon, or a creature very similar to one, rather than resembling the creature described.

Since Borges The Book of Imaginary Beings included many purely fictional creatures (like the Cheshire Cat), many obscure creatures and at least one (the Peryton) which I can't find any mention of from an earlier source, the mine-dwelling version of the Celestial Stag may well be a "made up from scratch" or a local talltale, rather than a true mythical beast.

That doesn't mean we can't convert it though, it does make a cool monster.