Moon men

[Mallus]

I have this idea of nine- or ten-foot-tall pillars of silvery light that cause Wisdom damage if you look at them too hard. Voices like old-time radio heard at the bottom of the sea.

That's terrific, BTW.

 

[jaerdaph]

Green cheese golems!

Seriously though, I would go with something intelligent, subterranean (sublunar or sublunary actually), and fungal.

 

[Temmogen]

How about this...

What about the Moon Calf? Just plain wierd critters there. Maybe they are trying to get into the tower and retrieve a migic item or artifact....

 

[EricNoah]

But instead of ooey gooey... how about the "pillars of silvery light that cause Wisdom damage if you look at them too hard. Voices like old-time radio heard at the bottom of the sea." (per WayneL)

The men themselves CANNOT manifest here on earth, and come down in their "robotech mechs" but instead of a corporeal body living and breathing inside, they are ghostly, incandescent "psi-archons" pulling the meat puppet strings.

Nice. Quite nice indeed.

Ok, so we've got...

mechanical moon men (right now I like mechanical xill but could go for something else bug-like -- four arms --> two for smashin', one for shootin' electrical balls, one for maybe shooting entangling ectoplasm?) with crystal universal translators built in. When there aren't any pesky PCs to interfere, they just stay in the tower when it submerges, ready for the next time.

balls or pillars of psionic light that travel from the moon on a beam of moonlight on this special night, to take possession of their mechanical servants and make sure the mooncalf is birthed

A baby/fetal mooncalf -- thinking something along the lines of a gibbering mouther with a tentacle or two. Nothing too fancy, nothing too lethal.

And in the lower levels, a pack of fish-men who took up residence in the tower while it was submerged and are very surprised to see "their" tower rise to the surface of the ocean.

--

I feel like there's something missing -- a way to provide help or a resource or a friendly NPC. I have this notion of an MMII style water weird trapped ... not sure why, not sure what she would do if freed, but might grant the PCs a later boon...

 

[frankthedm]

[IMaGel]http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/651/moonbeastcl1.th.jpg[/IMaGel]_________________________
Originally Posted by EricNoah
I have an adventure coming up that features a tower that emerges from the ocean once every few years under the light of the full moon. I think I will have it attract some undersea menaces -- something like the Fish Men of Dagon from the recent Dungeon adventure. However, I also have this idea that there is some actual connection -- maybe a portal or something -- to the moon itself. I thought it might be cool if there were some "moon men" hanging around there, too.

Pitch me some ideas for moon men, if you will. I thought about taking spellweavers or xill and dressing them up the way the Fish Men of Dagon are dressed up Kuo-Toans. I'd love to hear other ideas -- what powers should a moon man have, how should they behave, and what would they want with the people of "earth"?
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Dungeon magazine #83 Deep Freeze by Cameron Widen has stats for the Farranth, who look a LOT like Lovecraftian Moon beasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_beast

The moon-beasts sail black galleys between the moon and the Dreamlands, trading rubies for slaves and gold at the port of Dylath-Leen. When there, they employ the Men of Leng, disguised in turbans, as their go-betweens and stay hidden below deck, lest the merchants of Dylath-Leen learn the terrible secret of whom they are dealing.

 

[GreatLemur]

Hmmm, don't have that book, but do have a psionic PC in the group. I should look that direction too...

Actually, he specializes in astral constructs. All along I have had the idea that the tower would exude an "aura of disobedience" that would allow his astral constructs to try to free themselves from their master's control. Maybe the astral goop gets infected when it is conjured or whatever.

Hell, make the moon men living astral constructs. Maybe they're wholly independant beings, or maybe they're being projected by psionic masters on the moon. Maybe they're recognizeable as astral constructs, or maybe they look like duplicates of their creators (I'm picturing a bunch of old humans of unidentifiable ethnicity, dressed in very foreign but clearly very fancy clothing).

 

[Echohawk]

I can't remember what book it was in but, there are actual "moon men" defined somewhere out there. I want to say maybe its 2nd edition Dragonlance but I don't have books with me at the moment.

There are indeed. Polyhedron #74 has a 2nd Edition Spelljammer article detailing Moon Men, Earthmen, High Martians and Venusian Lizard Men.

 

[EricNoah]

Dungeon magazine #83 Deep Freeze by Cameron Widen has stats for the Farranth, who look a LOT like Lovecraftian Moon beasts.

Love the look. I recall that the farranth weren't all that special, stats-wise, though ... but they could be snazzied up I'll bet.

 

[Flynn]

Ok, here's a different angle you could help me with ... there is a "humanoid" template out there I could apply to just about any kind of critter. Spiders, carrion crawlers, oozes, whathaveyou. Is there a good critter that's not already a humanoid that might make a super-cool moon man?

In Advanced Bestiary, there's a manimal template that you could use to do exactly that.

Why not apply it (with a little elbow grease) to the moon calf, and see what you get?

Hope It Helps,
Flynn

 

[EricNoah]

In Advanced Bestiary, there's a manimal template that you could use to do exactly that.

I think that's the one I'm thinking of.

Why not apply it (with a little elbow grease) to the moon calf, and see what you get?

Hope It Helps,
Flynn

I think the mooncalf is what the moon men are trying to give birth to, so I want the moon men to be something different. For some reason I have John Carter of Mars and various bug-men on the brain today.