Two Summoning Spells

Call Chaos Monkeys

Arcane 1 Range: 120' Duration: 1 turn per level

This spell allows the caster to summon forth 2 Chaos Monkeys for each level of experience he possesses. The monkeys will instantly appear within 120 feet of the caster and will zealously serve him for 1 turn per level of the caster, or until killed or dispelled. The monkeys have no language, but will understand the following command words: kill, stay, follow, open, carry, and quiet. They will also understand pointing by their master. So, he can point to a foe and say “kill” and the monkey will attack the foe pointed toward. If summoned near the caster's enemies, the monkeys will automatically attack without need for further command.

Conjure Monkey Minions

Arcane 2 Range: 10' Duration: Permanent

This spell allows the caster to summon forth 2 Chaos Monkeys for each level of experience he possesses. The monkeys will instantly appear within 10 feet of the caster and will zealously serve him permanently, until killed or dispelled. The monkeys have no language, but will understand the following command words: kill, stay, follow, open, carry, and quiet. They will also understand pointing by their master. So, he can point to a foe and say “kill” and the monkey will attack the foe pointed toward.

CHAOS MONKEYS

CHAOS MONKEYS

% In Lair	30%
Dungeon Enc.	Pack 2d6, Lair 5d6
Wilderness Enc.	Crowd 5d6, Lair 5d6
Alignment	Chaotic
Movement	120' (40')
Armor Class	3
Hit Dice	1d4 hit points*
Attacks	1
Damage	1d4
Save	F0
Morale	0
Treasure Type	none
XP	6

Theses beasts can be summoned from the Abyss by magicians using one of several spells. One such spell, Conjure Monkey Minions, permanently summons the creatures into the world, where they occasionally outlive their summoner and take up a life in the wild, reproducing and spreading their mischief. They appear to be small to medium sized monkeys, but with long, muscular hands and sickly green-glowing eyes. They possess infravision to 90 feet, and are naturally stealthy, imposing a -1 to the surprise rolls of their enemies. If they surprise their enemies, they sneak around to the back of their enemies and strike with a +4 to hit, and if they score a hit they have mounted their victim's back and have wrapped their hands around his throat. The throttling attack scores 1d4 points of damage immediately and the monkey will maintain the hold, scoring 1d4 points per round, until it or the victim is dead. A victim being choked by a Chaos Monkey cannot cast spells, nor can it attack the monkey himself. The only action he can take is to try to break free, by using his round to attempt a saving throw versus paralysis.

If they monkeys do not have surprise, they can attempt to leap behind their target on a proficiency roll of 15+ to make a throttling backstab. If 6 or more chaos monkeys attack a single non-surprised victim, one is assumed to be behind the victim and can attempt a throttling back-stab. No more than one chaos monkey can have a successful throttling hold on any individual at one time.

Freaking Crab People

Well, my Crab People Miniatures came today.   They should have put a big warning label saying "Danger, you have to glue their arms on."  I hate gluing miniatures together, especially when it's a case of free-flapping arms.  So far two are done.   5 have their left arms on, and the last has had both arms fall back off when I tried to add the right arm.   Pooh.

Post Scriptum:  I went back down and tried to finish gluing them at about 9:00pm Thursday.  It suddenly was as easy as pie.  One, two, three, instantly glued together.   My working hypothesis is that the humidity in the air was preventing the glue from drying in a timely fashion, and when I went back, the rain storm in the early evening had sucked out so much water from the air that the glue could properly dry.

After two days of Work (the bad kind); Back to Work (the good kind)

I spent Monday and Tuesday back at Work, teaching other teachers a graduate-level class on "Classical Rhetoric and The Common Core Standards", which went fantastically well.

But now, finally I can get back to more proper summer-time work.  This morning so far, I've soaked the parts of my model trucks and I've glue together and based my brand new Apes, and the King Theoden and Bullroarer Took miniatures I bought a while ago (the Crab people haven't arrived yet).  

An afternoon of gluing and painting awaits.

Exciting Trip to Bel Air, Maryland

Today the family took an exciting trip to Bel Air, Maryland.   We were looking for some place to go and Annie mentioned that she'd like to go to a book store, but was unsatisfied with BAM!    There were Barnes and Noble stores in Lancaster and Camp Hill, but we've been to Lancaster enough times lately, and Camp Hill is no thrill.   The next closest B&N was in Bel Air.   I'd always heard of it, but couldn't recall actually ever having been to Bel Air at all.  So, off we went.

We poked around the Barnes and Noble and the Michaels, where Annie and Katie bought a bunch of books and art supplies respectively.  We dropped by the "Harford Mall" which was just a smaller, older, version of the Galleria.  Then we had a disappointing lunch at the Double T Diner, which was just like the Lyndon Diner in York, but without the nasty fish smell.

After lunch, however, I did find a really proper hobby shop, called Hobby Works.   It was a fine establishment, reminding one of the former glory of Race-O-Rama.   It was a new, clean, well-stocked store, with a fine selection of train stuff, race cars, and tons of models.   They also had tons of HO scale airfix and other brand plastic miniatures, which really took me back.   They didn't have any actual RPG or non-plastic miniatures, but that was just fine.

I ended up buying a 1/72 plastic model kit of 2 Army Trucks, and some model glue.  I haven't put a plastic model kit together in like 30 years,   I'll try to get around to building them this week, so we can use one for the Mutants and Muskets diesel truck next week.  Fingers crossed.

All Henchmen Done

I finished a deck of 14 level 2, 7 level 3, and 7 level 4 henchmen, probably all we'll need for the higher level guys, given their relative scarcity.

Some names:   
Bard:  Depeche Mike
Craft Priest:  Holy Jack!
Assassin:   Bad Cheesely
Elven Night Blades:  Derk Halo and Spatium Umbra (Latin for Space Ghost)
Burglar:   Bosco Pudding
Lackey:   Red Bentley, Dungeon Expert

I decided to use the system whereby:
d4 hit die=  count 1's as 2's
d6 hit die=  1d4+2
d8 hit die= 1d4+4

It's going to make the PC's and henchmen pretty robust as opposed to equivalent HD of monsters, but that probably makes for a better game, because low hit points are just blowful and make you stop and rest too often and to puss out too much.

ACKS project two complete

I've finished my second deck, this time it's of first level henchmen (about 60).  I had already converted the ones in the AD&D deck, but now I've added another 20 or so to the pile.

This time, creating from scratch, I used the "reduce a score by 2 to raise the prime requisite by 1" rule.   That really has a huge impact on character creation.  Out of 21 guys, there are 2 fighters and a dwarf fury with 18 strengths, and an elf enchanter with an 18 intelligence.

I did get a little tired of picking "general" proficiencies, but besides that it was a very helpful exercise in getting more familiar with the character types.

Some Names;

Sister Susan Ordinary;  Barry Potter,  Other Barry Potter,  Crazy Jack, Brother Mumbles, Brother Turnip,  Dazzling Wanda