Anabstercorian
First Post
Don't use chicken monks, use chicken swarms. Chicken swarms could be believable, but not chicken monks.
Orwell's Animal Farm in D&D
- Thread starter Vraille Darkfang
- Start date
Lasher Dragon
First Post
Seems to me you could use a lot of flavor to get the creep feel. For example, IRL a bunch of chickens will avoid you and run all over the place, squawking and whatnot. In your world, the PCs step out of the farm house and there is a coopload of chickens, all staring them in the eye, none of them moving or making a sound. That would freak me out - I mean, how often IRL do animals make eye contact, and when they do, how long do they keep it? Of course, animals like cats and dogs do, but chickens? I think not.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Consider lycanthropy as well. Druids + Werestuff go well together, and you can feel free to ignore the usual "lycanthropes need to be omnivores or carnivores" line.
See, in this way, lycanthropy becomes an important plot point for infiltration. The animals don't trust 'nuthin' with thumbs, but once one of the PC's gains Weregoatism from some mad weregoat, they can infiltrate the organization and find out more about it. Indeed, an organization of lycanthropes (representing the "wild" animals opposed to the intelligent "domesticated" animals) could make for an interesting opponent group, hungrily stalking the intelligent animals, painting them as unnatural abberations who deserve nothing but wrath.
Maybe the druid is playing them off of each other, trying to marshall the animals into making weapons of industry and castles of wood, while milking the lycanthropes for all the rage they're worth. And maybe at the center of it all is a town with a slaughterhouse....(I'm thinking a lot of undead, too.
)
Of course, seeing human evil in the dispassionate eyes of a beast is always interesting. Murder, necromancy, 'cannibalism' (which wouldn't really be cannibalism for these beasts, but meh), an inversion of the hunter-prey relationship (the barnyard animals don't have thumbs, so they need slaves to build their great works...slaves are humans).
This idea is so neat, I'm yoinking it for a large swath of Concordance (which loves that civilization vs. wilderness line of conflict!).....sweet.
See, in this way, lycanthropy becomes an important plot point for infiltration. The animals don't trust 'nuthin' with thumbs, but once one of the PC's gains Weregoatism from some mad weregoat, they can infiltrate the organization and find out more about it. Indeed, an organization of lycanthropes (representing the "wild" animals opposed to the intelligent "domesticated" animals) could make for an interesting opponent group, hungrily stalking the intelligent animals, painting them as unnatural abberations who deserve nothing but wrath.
Maybe the druid is playing them off of each other, trying to marshall the animals into making weapons of industry and castles of wood, while milking the lycanthropes for all the rage they're worth. And maybe at the center of it all is a town with a slaughterhouse....(I'm thinking a lot of undead, too.
)Of course, seeing human evil in the dispassionate eyes of a beast is always interesting. Murder, necromancy, 'cannibalism' (which wouldn't really be cannibalism for these beasts, but meh), an inversion of the hunter-prey relationship (the barnyard animals don't have thumbs, so they need slaves to build their great works...slaves are humans).
This idea is so neat, I'm yoinking it for a large swath of Concordance (which loves that civilization vs. wilderness line of conflict!).....sweet.
spider_minion
First Post
Awsome idea. Considor it stolen.
Maybe the druid whose awakening the animals gets to a zoo . . .
A cat with rogue levels could act as a diplomat, sneaking to a lone PC and trying to convince him / her to join the animals. Maybe the animals can offer some unneeded magic items as gifts.
If the animals could get a blacksmith on their side, then they could get armor / barding. Maybe even flaming horseshoes +1.
An animal psion would be very dangerous, since it would be so innocous.
A powerful wand could turn any measly wizard into a dangous threat. A well-hidden band of bird mages could snipe the party with magic missiles.
The animals would have a very strong information network. Any cat, rat, or toad could be a spy. Some would probably follow the PCs.
Some of the animals might steal some of the PCs gear when they let their guard down.
If any of the PCs have familiars, maybe the critter would want to change sides. Or maybe the familiar would get sent off as a spy, but its master might not be sure where its real alligence lies.
Perhaps as a cruel joke, some of the slain enemies of the druid are reincarnated, force to live the short life of a barnyard beast.
Large groups of cattle could stampede people, like bison. A bard could greatly boost the power of a large group of animals.
Mules and horses have a high constitution score. Combined with an elite ability score array and some hit dice / levels, they could be very powerful.
Most animals have at least an above-average wisdom, making them good clerics or druids. What sort of religion would they create?
If you want to go off the deep end . . . have the animals steel and aparatus of kwalish.
Maybe the druid whose awakening the animals gets to a zoo . . .
A cat with rogue levels could act as a diplomat, sneaking to a lone PC and trying to convince him / her to join the animals. Maybe the animals can offer some unneeded magic items as gifts.
If the animals could get a blacksmith on their side, then they could get armor / barding. Maybe even flaming horseshoes +1.
An animal psion would be very dangerous, since it would be so innocous.
A powerful wand could turn any measly wizard into a dangous threat. A well-hidden band of bird mages could snipe the party with magic missiles.
The animals would have a very strong information network. Any cat, rat, or toad could be a spy. Some would probably follow the PCs.
Some of the animals might steal some of the PCs gear when they let their guard down.
If any of the PCs have familiars, maybe the critter would want to change sides. Or maybe the familiar would get sent off as a spy, but its master might not be sure where its real alligence lies.
Perhaps as a cruel joke, some of the slain enemies of the druid are reincarnated, force to live the short life of a barnyard beast.
Large groups of cattle could stampede people, like bison. A bard could greatly boost the power of a large group of animals.
Mules and horses have a high constitution score. Combined with an elite ability score array and some hit dice / levels, they could be very powerful.
Most animals have at least an above-average wisdom, making them good clerics or druids. What sort of religion would they create?
If you want to go off the deep end . . . have the animals steel and aparatus of kwalish.
Vraille Darkfang
First Post
Well,
In my game, (actually 2 games) Ones high level (25+) the other is low level (3rd). The low level party is adventuring in the lands the high level party was given as a reward for destroying a demon-lord (admittidly, it was the back-ends, swamplands from nowhere), but it was theirs. In one of their adventures they banished Hastur (as in Lovecraft's Hastur).
Hastur is the one behind the Crazy Druid's being able to cast Awaken without losing XP.
Thus, in my game the awakened animals are taking on a darker shade than what is implied in the spell description.
Starting to get some good ideas,
In my game, (actually 2 games) Ones high level (25+) the other is low level (3rd). The low level party is adventuring in the lands the high level party was given as a reward for destroying a demon-lord (admittidly, it was the back-ends, swamplands from nowhere), but it was theirs. In one of their adventures they banished Hastur (as in Lovecraft's Hastur).
Hastur is the one behind the Crazy Druid's being able to cast Awaken without losing XP.
Thus, in my game the awakened animals are taking on a darker shade than what is implied in the spell description.
Starting to get some good ideas,
Lasher Dragon
First Post
Imagine the PCs stumbling across a scene where there are a bunch of blood-spattered chickens at some weird demonic altar, complete with a pentagram. They have just finished sacrificing some poor farmer to summon in a fiend. 
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