Thursday, October 29, 2009

Monster: The Thousand Wings

The Thousand Wings
Armour Class: 4
Hit Dice: 2+2**
Move: fly 270' (90')
Attacks: 1
Damage:
2-8 + special
No. Appearing: 1-4
Save As: F3
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: Special
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 45

Close cousins to the least spirits of air, the creatures known as the thousand wings predictably appear as fluttering, beating masses of translucent wings -- feathery avian wings, dark batlike wings, glittering insectile wings, even the scaled clawed wings of dragons and stranger beasts -- that are yet somehow hazy, as if one's eyes cannot quite focus on them. A capricious creature driven almost entirely by instinct, a thousand wings is concerned only with its quest for emotion and the desire to travel on the winds.

Though a thousand wings is insubstantial, the edges of its multitude of pinions are as keen as the wind. In combat a thousand wings seeks to engulf a target, inflicting 2-8 hit points of damage from the buffeting and the wing's sharp edges. However this damage is a side-effect of the creature's true attack -- once a target is engulfed, the thousand wings feeds on the victim's emotion and reason. If a save vs. spell is failed, the thousand wings siphons away 1-3 points of Wisdom; if a victim's Wisdom score is entirely depleted, their body dissolves and they are transmuted into a pulsing core of elemental force that becomes a thousand wings in 1-4 rounds.

The thousand wings is harmed only by magical weapons and spells. If a thousand wings is killed it dissolved into mist, leaving behind a few iridescent folded pinions of solid air. These baubles may be worth 20-80gp each, or even more in the right circles.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Inspired by the Chichimec from the ELH at all? I love their treasure, it's 'kill and *poof* into loot' done right.

taichara said...

@Chris:

Chichimec? I know the Chichimeca as semi-nomadic people (as so called by the Azteca) ... WotC made a critter named after them? >.o

*grins* I was rather proud of the treasure idea, I admit ;3