(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Issue 334: August 2005
part 3/7
Dreams of Arabia: We continue with another article that could very easily have been branded an Al-Qadim one, but for whatever reason, they decide to go generic with it. So let's see what middle-eastern mythological monsters haven't been converted yet, and if they deserve to be more widely known than they are.
Asag are rocky creatures with three arms, three legs, and lots of eyes all over their body. If they attack you, they give you a disease that makes you feel like you're constantly dying of thirst. Never a nice way to go, so be careful which rocks you're climbing over.
Clockwork Eunuchs are obviously for people who have ridiculous amounts of money, and don't trust human guards not to
with their harem. Better hope none of the girls has any tech skills to fit them up with a vibrator function. After all, they already have automatic lubrication which would be incredibly easy to repurpose. 
Flying Monkeys should be familiar to all of you, if not from this source. Like regular monkeys in asia, they're very well adapted indeed to becoming urban scavengers and their flight makes them a real pain to exterminate. They can also do the group grab thing to carry away creatures too large for one to lift, which should worry everybody. Muahahaha.
Humbaba are also familiar, as they're massive humanoids formed from the fused together bodies of regular people. We've already had a variant of that in the epic level handbook. These ones are intelligent, and can grow bigger by incorporating more people into their bodies, which makes them even more potentially scary than an extra big flesh golem.
Relief Golems merge into the walls and look like regular carvings or paintings when not in use. Most players are already suspicious of any statues in dungeons, this'll ramp their paranoia up a little further.
Simurgh are one of those animal hybrid creatures that I'm surprised hasn't been converted to D&D before. Actually, turns out that they were converted in the 2e Al Qadim MC, and they're not that different here. Lion claws, peacock tail, human head, genius intellect and a decent set of magical powers to take advantage of. If you can find them and get them to trust you, you can learn a hell of a lot.
The fires of alchemy: Greek fire is nasty stuff, able to cause substantial amounts of havoc, particularly in naval engagements, as it floats on water and continues to burn. However, compared to flaming oil, 10 foot poles and guns, it doesn't have quite the same cache amongst D&D adventurers. Still, it's a worthy subject for an article, having both plenty of historical detail to fill us in on, and plenty of potential variants to ruin people's days with even better if you have any imagination. Who says wizards have to be the area of effect specialists in the party? Combine it with catapults and a barrel of this stuff can literally go a long way towards devastating a group of enemies. Put it in barrels, put it in landmines, squirt it from hoses, dry it out and use it as a choking cloud of dust that then goes whomph if there's any sparks around. Muahahaha. Just a shame there's not an endothermic variant to deal with the many monsters that are resistant to fire, even though there are such things in real life. I guess there's still value in breaking out the real world chemistry and history books to further supplement this material then.
part 3/7
Dreams of Arabia: We continue with another article that could very easily have been branded an Al-Qadim one, but for whatever reason, they decide to go generic with it. So let's see what middle-eastern mythological monsters haven't been converted yet, and if they deserve to be more widely known than they are.
Asag are rocky creatures with three arms, three legs, and lots of eyes all over their body. If they attack you, they give you a disease that makes you feel like you're constantly dying of thirst. Never a nice way to go, so be careful which rocks you're climbing over.
Clockwork Eunuchs are obviously for people who have ridiculous amounts of money, and don't trust human guards not to
with their harem. Better hope none of the girls has any tech skills to fit them up with a vibrator function. After all, they already have automatic lubrication which would be incredibly easy to repurpose. Flying Monkeys should be familiar to all of you, if not from this source. Like regular monkeys in asia, they're very well adapted indeed to becoming urban scavengers and their flight makes them a real pain to exterminate. They can also do the group grab thing to carry away creatures too large for one to lift, which should worry everybody. Muahahaha.
Humbaba are also familiar, as they're massive humanoids formed from the fused together bodies of regular people. We've already had a variant of that in the epic level handbook. These ones are intelligent, and can grow bigger by incorporating more people into their bodies, which makes them even more potentially scary than an extra big flesh golem.
Relief Golems merge into the walls and look like regular carvings or paintings when not in use. Most players are already suspicious of any statues in dungeons, this'll ramp their paranoia up a little further.
Simurgh are one of those animal hybrid creatures that I'm surprised hasn't been converted to D&D before. Actually, turns out that they were converted in the 2e Al Qadim MC, and they're not that different here. Lion claws, peacock tail, human head, genius intellect and a decent set of magical powers to take advantage of. If you can find them and get them to trust you, you can learn a hell of a lot.
The fires of alchemy: Greek fire is nasty stuff, able to cause substantial amounts of havoc, particularly in naval engagements, as it floats on water and continues to burn. However, compared to flaming oil, 10 foot poles and guns, it doesn't have quite the same cache amongst D&D adventurers. Still, it's a worthy subject for an article, having both plenty of historical detail to fill us in on, and plenty of potential variants to ruin people's days with even better if you have any imagination. Who says wizards have to be the area of effect specialists in the party? Combine it with catapults and a barrel of this stuff can literally go a long way towards devastating a group of enemies. Put it in barrels, put it in landmines, squirt it from hoses, dry it out and use it as a choking cloud of dust that then goes whomph if there's any sparks around. Muahahaha. Just a shame there's not an endothermic variant to deal with the many monsters that are resistant to fire, even though there are such things in real life. I guess there's still value in breaking out the real world chemistry and history books to further supplement this material then.
) Oh well, that just means we can focus all the more on drowning our sorrows. Really, it does seem odd that something that tastes foul and is poisonous to us would be discovered independently in nearly all cultures and go into common use. It has it's uses though, being very much a lesser evil compared to the diseases that proliferated in unhygienic conditions back then. Plus what is self-destructive to the individual can paradoxically turn out to be strengthening for the species as a whole, weeding out the weak so the strong can breed. After all, as any roleplayers should know, the first thing we do if we don't have any immediate and solvable problems to deal with is invent new challenges just to entertain ourselves and test each other so the social order can be properly established. As with the previous article, this is heavily historically based, but also finds room to squeeze in 8 new D&D specific liquors with their own distinct mechanical effects. Be it social bonuses, mitigating the effects of ageing or reinforcing an oathbond, these are mostly enhanced versions of stuff booze is supposed to do in real life. So I do find this article amusing and thought-provoking, but it's not particularly original. And it's very late indeed. This is why it's not a good idea for dealers to sample their own wares. Stuff doesn't get done properly unless at least one person keeps a clear head. 
