Sunday, July 5, 2009

Monster: Living Statue, Black Iron

Living Statue, Black Iron
Armour Class: 0
Hit Dice: 6+5*
Move: 150' (50') (see below)
Attacks: 2
Damage: 1-10/1-10
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: F6
Morale: 11
Treasure Type: Nil
Alignment: Lawful
XP Value: 680

A living statue of black iron is a construct utterly without mercy. It exists, though a thinking construct, only to carry out the tasks it has been ordered with swift and unhesitating action. Black iron statues are a bewildering combination of sharp edges and curved -- almost bulbous -- surfaces, and are, as their name implies, constructed solely of shining black iron. Most black iron statues are created in the form of stylized predators, but some take the from of monstrous beetles or centipedes; this last variant is often confused with the iron centipede, which is in fact a living creature.

Black iron statues attack twice, inflicting 1-10 hit points of damage with each successful strike. The statue's presence is enervating, even when not attacking or even moving; any creature within a 50' radius of a black iron statue receives a -4 penalty to initiative, and a -2 to to-hit rolls if a save vs. death ray is failed. Affected creatures move at half speed until two rounds out of the statue's range of influence.

3 comments:

Tomira Eliyes said...

This would be a good time to be able to summon a rust monster, I'm thinking.

Tacoma said...

You know what? I was about to make some snarky comment about how the creator of the Black Iron Living Statue could have painted it with a metal-bonding black lacquer so it never rusts.

But then I realized that was engendered by my resentment that a rust monster could down this thing in one hit.

But that's how the game is, you know? Sometimes there are trump cards, and a rust monster certainly is. So if this thing encounters a rust monster and doesn't take it down soon enough, the living statue becomes a big pile of flakes. So it goes.

taichara said...

Sometimes there are trump cards, sometimes there aren't.

Sometimes the iron is exactly that; sometimes "black iron" is more than just dark pig metal.

In other words -- some DMs might decide that iron is iron. others might have a specific unusual substance in mind that just has the name ;3 Leaving these open to DM interpretation is part of my point ...

... so maybe the rust monster could. Or not. Heh.