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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9023225" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 77: Nov/Dec 1999part 3/5Side Treks - A Feast of Flesh: Giant beetles are one of the first enemies you see in the D&D basic set, so it's surprising how rarely they've appeared in this magazine. I guess they are pretty mindless, so it's hard to write a plot revolving around them, while random dungeons have long since gone out of fashion. Indeed, to make this more interesting, they've made the beetles eusocial, so they're smarter than the sum of their parts and are developing basic tactics like farming fungi for more old school fun, and digging a big network of tunnels just below the surface of a village so they can pop out anywhere, prevent them from leaving and make easy prey of them. The people of the village obviously don't like the role reversal of being kept like livestock and will be willing to pay what little money they have to solve the problem. Will you venture down into the beetle sized tunnels to try and fight them, which will leave anyone above 5' tall unable to stand up and maneuver easily. Or will you try other tactics to lure them out and fight on more advantageous ground using flaming oil, magic and whatever other tricks you have in your arsenal? Either way it's probably going to be a grubbier fight than you expected. One of those reminders that any creature can be made more interesting and dangerous by using better tactics, even if their stats remain exactly the same. We've had enough examples of kobolds doing this, why not some of the other basic D&D staples? Wind Chill: Another short adventure that barely escapes the side trek label in quick succession. But while last one used some of the oldest monsters in the book, this revolves around a brand new one. While travelling through icy mountains they attract the attention of a Windigo. (not to be confused with a Wendigo, which got stats in Dragon 119, because D&D has never had a problem with creating entirely different monsters from the same source material by using a slightly different spelling/pronunciation, as Tengu/Kenku, Goblins/Goblyns etc demonstrate) The evil spirit will do as evil spirits do and gradually escalate the foreboding scariness before attacking, because your fear is what it really wants to feed off. With wind control powers (obviously, given the name) insect summoning and the ability to go from incorporeal to solid selectively they're pretty scary, only limited by their claustrophobia. (but hey, there's tons of monsters that only appear indoors to take up the slack) All pretty simple & straightforward, this feels like they made the monster first and did the adventure afterwards just so it could get in here rather than Dragon. Another decent enough 6/10er. Nodwick gives the Windigo indigestion, which I suspect often saves his hide.</blockquote>

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