Dragon Claw
Lung Jua: petty demon
Frequency: Unique
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class:
Move: 24"
Hit Dice: 15 (120 hit points)
% in Lair: Nil
Treasure Type: Nil
No. of Attacks: 4/round
Damage/Attack: 1-6 (claws) or 1-8 (swords)
Special Attacks: Martial Arts, See below
Special Defenses: see below
Magic Resistance: 70%
Intelligence: Genius, but greedy
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: M
Psionic Ability: None
Lung Jua is a petty demon in the Celestial Bureaucracy. He is not a demon in the true gajin sense, but rather that is a description of his attitude to his work and others. He is petty, backbiting, evil, grumbling, grasping, lazy, and greedy. He, like others of his type, will work to a plan only if that plan is his, and benefits him directly. He works within the framework of the Celestial Bureaucracy, looking for loopholes in their rulings for him to exploit. He will try to obey the letter of the law if not its spirit.
When one such as Lung Jua receives any power (such as the petition to "test" the other martial arts colleges in this adventure), he will exploit it to its maximum level, pushing others around, giving orders, and generally making life miserable for everyone involved. Lung Jua's chief goal is the advancement of Lung Jua; everything and everyone else is secondary.
Lung Jua is a repulsive-looking spirit, fat and four-armed, with the head of a dragon, and scales marring most of his body. He stands about half a head shorter than a man, but can enlarge to 10 feet tall in combat if need be (though this is usually to scare the locals more than to be effective in combat).
Lung Jua's powers include:
shape change (three times a day);
instant regeneration (three times a day);
power word blind (once per day);
cloud trapeze (four times per day);
call;
teleport without error (four times per day);
withering palm (once per day);
true sight (four times per day);
metal to rust (four times per day);
dream vision (at will, but only at night);
exaction (once per week);
mental strength (four times per day).
All spell-like abilities are at 18th level mastery. Due to his petition, Lung Jua is immune to all spells involving charm or control of spirits.
In addition, Lung Jua is the master of the Dragon Claw style of combat, using powerful hooked swords to foul and break the opponent's weapons. The Dragon Claw swords have their own abilities. Whether Lung Jua created these swords or discovered them is unknown. Lung Jua carries the "master" set of Dragon Claw swords, from which all others are derived.
Dragon Claws
The Dragon Claws are an evil artifact that may or may not have a malicious will of their own. Their origin is unknown, though it is unlikely that a petty bureaucrat like Lung Jua could come up with them.
The Dragon Claws are a pair of hooked swords, golden in color and extremely sharp. They inflict 1-10 points of damage each and save versus crushing blow on a 2. The greatest power of the Dragon Claw swords is to produce two more swords, which are then linked back to the original swords and their owner. The holder of the original Dragon Claws can see what the holders of the lesser swords can see, direct their actions and, using the Dragon Claw school of fighting, pull hit points from other holders of lesser swords to heal wounds (the holder of the original swords can never lose hit points in this fashion). The lesser
swords only inflict 1-8 points of damage.
The demon Lung Jua is the holder of the original Dragon Claws. If slain, or if Lung Jua transfers his consciousness into his statue, the swords disappear, teleporting to a new
location (where they may be discovered yet again . . . ).
Originally appeared in OA5: Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw (1988)