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<blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 7832777" data-attributes="member: 57383"><p><span style="font-size: 26px"><strong>Dark Dweller</strong></span></p><p><strong>Created by Mark Cummings</strong></p><p><em>FREQUENCY: Very rare</em></p><p><em>NO. APPEARING: 2-24 in large lairs; 1-8 wandering or in small lairs</em></p><p><em>ARMOR CLASS: -4</em></p><p><em>MOVE: 12″</em></p><p><em>HIT DICE: 9-14</em></p><p><em>% IN LAIR: 80%</em></p><p><em>TREASURE TYPE: V, W in large lairs; G in small lairs; nothing on individuals</em></p><p><em>NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 (claw, claw, bite) or 1 (by weapon)</em></p><p><em>DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6/1-6/1-8 or by weapon type</em></p><p><em>SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil</em></p><p><em>SPECIAL DEFENSES: Regeneration</em></p><p><em>MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard</em></p><p><em>INTELLIGENCE: Average to high</em></p><p><em>ALlGNMENT: Lawful evil</em></p><p><em>SIZE: L (9′ + tall)</em></p><p><em>PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil</em></p><p><em>Attack/Defense Modes: Nil</em></p><p></p><p>Dark Dwellers are much like trolls in appearance, lending support to the theory that the two species are distant relatives. Dark Dwellers (also known as subterranean trolls) have the general physical characteristics of trolls, including regeneration, but are physically different in some respects and vastly different in overall intelligence and basic behavior.</p><p></p><p>They are bigger and stronger than trolls, and the warriors almost always (90%) wear plate armor. They are lawful evil instead of chaotic evil in alignment.</p><p></p><p>Dark Dwellers are excellent miners and smiths. They have the following special abilities:</p><p></p><p>—All of the mining skills possessed by dwarves, according to the AD&D™ Players Handbook.</p><p>—The ability to construct secret doors that are only detectable 8% of the time by elves, and then only if they are actively seeking them. Men detect them only 4% of the time when searching for them. A sword or another magical device with the ability to detect secret doors will detect them only 33% of the time. Multiple searches of the same area are allowed.</p><p>— The ability to construct mechanical traps that will only be detected 75% of the time by a sword or a <em>Find Traps</em> spell. <em>True Seeing</em> will reveal them 80% of the time. Thieves find/remove such traps at a -20% to the score they normally need to be successful.</p><p>— The ability to construct their own arms and armor.</p><p></p><p>Dark Dwellers are very strong. Males have a minimum Strength of 19, enabling them to attack at +4, and to do an additional 8 points of damage per hit with their favorite weapon, a great sword. Their strength allows them to wear plate mail of unusual thickness and to carry great shields, which gives them an effective armor class of -4. Females have strengths of 17-18, with “to hit” and damage bonuses accordingly reduced, and do not bear such heavy armor and shield (AC 0). Males and females are equally ferocious, but the females have 9-11 hit dice while males have 12-14 hit dice each.</p><p></p><p>The main weakness of subterranean trolls is their inability to withstand bright lights. Full exposure to the light of the sun will blind. <em>Light</em> and <em>Continual light</em> spells cause them to lose their +4-to-hit bonus, However, they will not flee from light spells, and only true sunlight will blind them.</p><p></p><p>Dark Dwellers share a communal lifestyle. In a small lair, all of the inhabitants will be adults. In a large lair, one third of the creatures present will be young. They will function as regular trolls with regard to melee, etc.</p><p></p><p>Subterranean trolls are very greedy. They live in their extensive, hard-to-find underground tunnels, venturing forth at night to raid and hunt for food. Their superior infravision (150′) combines with their excellent sense of smell to make them formidable hunters. Mainly carnivorous, they will eat any kind of flesh. They live for about 200 years and have a very low rate of reproduction.</p><p></p><p>Their favorite tactic is to build a lair near a populated area. The advance team will consist of 2-12 adults. They will avoid the inhabitants of the area in an effort to expand the lair until it is large enough for the rest of the tribe to come and join them. Then they will begin a campaign of terror and destruction, living off the inhabitants and their livestock until the inhabitants drive them off (rarely) or until the inhabitants are killed off or driven out. They will then live off the game in that area while a new advance team seeks a new area to raid.</p><p></p><p>Subterranean trolls have one more ability that makes them even more fearful: the ability to domesticate the Antrodemus dinosaur as a beast of burden and as a war mount. Since Dark Dwellers must raid at night, they use these beasts to increase the range of their raids. There is a 33% chance that a large lair will contain 1-20 of these beasts.</p><p></p><p>The lair of a group of Dwellers will always be more extensive than the group needs. It may consist of many levels; subterranean trolls love to mine for the sake of mining.</p><p></p><p>All of the group’s treasure will always be kept in one central location that is well concealed and well trapped. A lair will always have more than one entrance, and these will be hard to find. There is a 1% chance to find such an entrance in an all-day search of five square miles, per every 20 men involved in the search. Additional bonuses to the chance of finding the entrance are as follows:</p><p></p><p>— Each additional day of search of the same area, plus 5%.</p><p>— Each Ranger or Druid involved in a search adds 2%; each elf adds 1%.</p><p>— If the lair contains Antrodemus dinosaurs, add an additional 10%.</p><p></p><p>Subterranean trolls will sometimes build small lairs with only one or two entrances to use when raiding areas that are more than one night’s journey away from the main lair. When Dark Dwellers leave an area, other creatures may move into their abandoned nests, bringing their own treasure with them. In this way, many networks of underground tunnels and chambers have been formed for adventurers to loot and die in.</p><p></p><p><em>Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #51 (“Dragon’s Bestiary”, July 1981).</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cleon, post: 7832777, member: 57383"] [SIZE=7][B]Dark Dweller[/B][/SIZE] [B]Created by Mark Cummings[/B] [I]FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 2-24 in large lairs; 1-8 wandering or in small lairs ARMOR CLASS: -4 MOVE: 12″ HIT DICE: 9-14 % IN LAIR: 80% TREASURE TYPE: V, W in large lairs; G in small lairs; nothing on individuals NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 (claw, claw, bite) or 1 (by weapon) DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6/1-6/1-8 or by weapon type SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil SPECIAL DEFENSES: Regeneration MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Average to high ALlGNMENT: Lawful evil SIZE: L (9′ + tall) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil[/I] Dark Dwellers are much like trolls in appearance, lending support to the theory that the two species are distant relatives. Dark Dwellers (also known as subterranean trolls) have the general physical characteristics of trolls, including regeneration, but are physically different in some respects and vastly different in overall intelligence and basic behavior. They are bigger and stronger than trolls, and the warriors almost always (90%) wear plate armor. They are lawful evil instead of chaotic evil in alignment. Dark Dwellers are excellent miners and smiths. They have the following special abilities: —All of the mining skills possessed by dwarves, according to the AD&D™ Players Handbook. —The ability to construct secret doors that are only detectable 8% of the time by elves, and then only if they are actively seeking them. Men detect them only 4% of the time when searching for them. A sword or another magical device with the ability to detect secret doors will detect them only 33% of the time. Multiple searches of the same area are allowed. — The ability to construct mechanical traps that will only be detected 75% of the time by a sword or a [I]Find Traps[/I] spell. [I]True Seeing[/I] will reveal them 80% of the time. Thieves find/remove such traps at a -20% to the score they normally need to be successful. — The ability to construct their own arms and armor. Dark Dwellers are very strong. Males have a minimum Strength of 19, enabling them to attack at +4, and to do an additional 8 points of damage per hit with their favorite weapon, a great sword. Their strength allows them to wear plate mail of unusual thickness and to carry great shields, which gives them an effective armor class of -4. Females have strengths of 17-18, with “to hit” and damage bonuses accordingly reduced, and do not bear such heavy armor and shield (AC 0). Males and females are equally ferocious, but the females have 9-11 hit dice while males have 12-14 hit dice each. The main weakness of subterranean trolls is their inability to withstand bright lights. Full exposure to the light of the sun will blind. [I]Light[/I] and [I]Continual light[/I] spells cause them to lose their +4-to-hit bonus, However, they will not flee from light spells, and only true sunlight will blind them. Dark Dwellers share a communal lifestyle. In a small lair, all of the inhabitants will be adults. In a large lair, one third of the creatures present will be young. They will function as regular trolls with regard to melee, etc. Subterranean trolls are very greedy. They live in their extensive, hard-to-find underground tunnels, venturing forth at night to raid and hunt for food. Their superior infravision (150′) combines with their excellent sense of smell to make them formidable hunters. Mainly carnivorous, they will eat any kind of flesh. They live for about 200 years and have a very low rate of reproduction. Their favorite tactic is to build a lair near a populated area. The advance team will consist of 2-12 adults. They will avoid the inhabitants of the area in an effort to expand the lair until it is large enough for the rest of the tribe to come and join them. Then they will begin a campaign of terror and destruction, living off the inhabitants and their livestock until the inhabitants drive them off (rarely) or until the inhabitants are killed off or driven out. They will then live off the game in that area while a new advance team seeks a new area to raid. Subterranean trolls have one more ability that makes them even more fearful: the ability to domesticate the Antrodemus dinosaur as a beast of burden and as a war mount. Since Dark Dwellers must raid at night, they use these beasts to increase the range of their raids. There is a 33% chance that a large lair will contain 1-20 of these beasts. The lair of a group of Dwellers will always be more extensive than the group needs. It may consist of many levels; subterranean trolls love to mine for the sake of mining. All of the group’s treasure will always be kept in one central location that is well concealed and well trapped. A lair will always have more than one entrance, and these will be hard to find. There is a 1% chance to find such an entrance in an all-day search of five square miles, per every 20 men involved in the search. Additional bonuses to the chance of finding the entrance are as follows: — Each additional day of search of the same area, plus 5%. — Each Ranger or Druid involved in a search adds 2%; each elf adds 1%. — If the lair contains Antrodemus dinosaurs, add an additional 10%. Subterranean trolls will sometimes build small lairs with only one or two entrances to use when raiding areas that are more than one night’s journey away from the main lair. When Dark Dwellers leave an area, other creatures may move into their abandoned nests, bringing their own treasure with them. In this way, many networks of underground tunnels and chambers have been formed for adventurers to loot and die in. [I]Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #51 (“Dragon’s Bestiary”, July 1981).[/I] [/QUOTE]
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