Magic Item: Ring of the Winter Beast

Ring of the Winter Beast:  No sage has divined the origin of these slim, pale rings; a wan silver-gold frosted over with some indefinable, glittering dust, smoothed as if by long wear, rings of the winter beast seem as likely to be unearthed pristine from within nexi of air and water channels as they are to be claimed from unattended and pilfered hoards.  Others care less for the rings' origins as they do for the benefits that can be coaxed from its cool touch, and save the scholarly debates for another time.

A ring of the winter beast, untapped, contains ten charges.  Expending a charge produces the following possible effects as desired by the wearer of the ring:

- frosttalon:  glittering claws sprout, granting 1-6/1-6 damage attacks for six turns
- snowshield:  icy, scalelike nodules spread across the body, granting an AC bonus of 4 for an hour
- winterfang:  six crystalline spurs sprout, which may be pulled free and thrown up to 20' for 1-4 damage; these dissolve in an hour if not used
- icebite:  an extra 1-6 of cold damage may be added to an offensive spell being cast within the next six turns
- coldheart:  for two charges, one spell slot may be regained (attempting this more than once a day causes the ring to explode in a 3-24 damage burst of freezing energy in a 20' radius)

So long as a ring of the winter beast contains charges, its wearer takes one less point per die of damage from cold, air or water.  Physical attacks caused by ring powers are considered cold-based.

Monster: Chromatic Ooze

Chromatic ooze
Armour Class: 7
Hit Dice: 1-1**
Move: 90' (30'), Cl 90' (30')
Attacks:  1
Damage: 1-6
No. Appearing: 2-20
Save As: M-U1
Morale: 12
Treasure Type:  Special
Alignment:  Neutral
XP Value:  7

 Flowing along like syrupy, opalescent clots of ever-shifting, multicoloured paints, chromatic oozes create a riotous swarm of flesh-devouring colour wherever they happen to be found -- and they can be found virtually anywhere.  What the oozes lack in size they make up for in numbers and reproductive capacity.  The clinging acids of a chromatic ooze dissolve any living material it manages to engulf, leaving behind both non-organics and dead organics.

A chromatic ooze inflicts 1-6 hit points of damage per attack, its dissolving touch causing injury out of all proportion to the ooze's small size.  Worse still, when an ooze has caused enough damage to equal its maximum hit points it promptly fissions into a pair of identical oozes.

Striking a chromatic ooze is a gamble.  Whenever an attack on an ooze is successful, the ooze releases a flash of bright light with one of the following effects, avoidable by the attacker with a successful save vs. poison:

1) red:  berzerk for two rounds
2) orange:  nausea for two rounds (-3 to all actions)
3) yellow:  flee in terror for three rounds
4) green:  poisonsoul, -3 to all saves for two rounds
5) blue:  paralysis for two rounds
6) indigo:  prism charm, refuse to allow oozes to be harmed for two rounds
7) violet:  blindness for four rounds
8) roll twice

One in three oozes contain a jelly opal within their mass, a dense cyst of glassy nature and translucent play of colour.  Each such jelly opal may be valued at 10-60 gp depending on size and the appeal of its colours. 

Monster: Nightshatter

Nightshatter
Armour Class: 4
Hit Dice: 2+2***
Move: 90' (30')
Attacks: 2 claws or special
Damage: 1-6/1-6 + special
No. Appearing: 2-8
Save As: C3
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: G
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 55

Creatures formed of a slick and brittle darkness, nightshatters (kurtae) hail from a plane lying in parallel with the ordinary world.  Though they resemble smoky, barbed skeletons fossilized into obsidian and draped in shadowy tatters, as if of robes or clerical vestments, they are not undead -- but they do feed on the strength of living creatures, the coil of bloody ghost-flames in their empty ribcages growing with every successful hunt.  For all that they may be parleyed with, with offers of beauty or the lifeforce of other living things, and they appreciate clever subversions of their demands for new, fresh life.

Each successful strike from a kurtae's sharp talons drains 1-4 points of Constitution from the victim, which returns after a day of rest per point lost.  Each such point drained grants a +1 bonus to saves, attack and damage rolls to the nightshatter in question for the next hour. A kurtae may forfeit all attacks for two rounds in order to shadowshift, disappearing from sight and returning anywhere within 100', delivering (if it wishes) a backstabbing attack (as a thief of its Hit Dice) upon a single target.

Nightshatters may only be harmed by spells or magical weapons.  They take no damage from holy water and cannot be turned (as they are not undead), but fire inflicts half again as much damage upon them.  Purified water and specially consecrated earth can be used to ward away nightshatters.

Some knots of kurtae are led by a nightshard, a kurtae of five Hit Dice with the spellcasting ability of a fourth level cleric or magic-user.

Musing of Posting

I've been contemplating a wee little setting writeup for the Red Box as of late, a village or town or two and a few minidungeons with some broad-brush wider setting hints, and those contemplations have been spawning a few creations.  So I'm working on clawing past the posting paralysis for a little.

(no, seriously, it's taken me nigh onto three weeks just to brass up and get this far.)

I'm not making any promises of daily (aiie) or continuing regular postings, but hopefully I'll get a bit more added at least ;3  Just the gribbly bits, I won't bog the blog down in setting material meanderings.

Onward --