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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Silk Wyrm
A silk wyrm, which looks like a very large snake covered in a segmented green carapace, and whose grinning mouth is about three times as wide as its head. The Lore
Silk Wyrms are snakelike monsters covered in chitinous carapaces. They’re gifted with many natural weapons: bites laced with paralytic venom and the psionic powers of flight, camouflage, and mesmerism.
Though incapable of communicating in humanoid languages they’re tenacious endurance predators who employ clever hunting strategies.
Silk Wyrms will shadow their intended prey for days, looking for a time when its guard is down. The book is not too specific about the nature of this prey. It could be an adventuring party, a traveling caravan with humanoids and several kinds of pack animal, or something like a pack of baazrags or other wild animals. What matters is that the prey is easy to hunt and can be eaten “fresh”, because silk wyrms apparently only eat their victims while they’re alive, and abandon them when they die.
When their intended targets are vulnerable, the silk wyrm will sneak in, paralyze a chosen victim, and devour them on the spot. If it manages to incapacitate more than one victim it will drag one of them to its nest, where it will trap them in silk strands and eat them over the course of the next few days while they’re still alive.
Silk wyrms band together as hatchlings, but as soon as they reach the adult stage their deeply antisocial instincts take over and they set off on their own to become lone hunters. Only after many years do they become wise enough to overcome this instinct and start allying with other creatures. Some manage to lead bands of their own younger kin, while others can ally with those creatures whose telepathy allows them to communicate with the wyrms and buy their service with easy food.
The Numbers
Silk Wyrms are Natural Magical Beasts with the Reptile tag and Low-Light Vision. All silk wyrms have a flight speed, but their flight is Clumsy, which means they have a -4 penalty to attacks and defenses while on the air. This means silk wyrms only fly to travel, but they prefer to fight on the ground.
We’ll look at their other traits in each stat block below.
Silk Wyrm Hatchling
Too frail to set out on their own, hatchlings roam the wastes in bands, spreading out to scout for prey and emitting a loud chirping noise when they find it to call their clutch-mates. They’re Medium-sized Level 3 Minion Skirmishers, with ground and flight speeds of 6.
Their Blood Scent trait means their attacks against bloodied creatures ignore concealment. These will mostly be bites that deal poison damage and slow for a turn. When the hatchling hits 0 HP, they release Silk Strands as a last attack, which deal a bit of acid damage and restrain (save ends).
Silk Wyrm Adult
In their “lone hunter” phase, adults are Large-sized Level 3 Solo Skirmishers with 174 HP. Their flight speed increases to 8, but remains clumsy.
Adults retain Blood Scent, which works exactly the same way. They will likely start the encounter in Shadow Form (minor, recharges when first bloodied), which makes Insubstantial with Phasing and gives them +5 to Stealth while stopping it from attacking. It can get out of this with a free action, and will do so shortly after springing its ambush.
Once the wyrm appears in the middle of its targets, and again whenever the power is charged, it will use Mesmerizing Dread (minor, recharge 4+), which deals psychic damage to enemies in a Close Burst 5, slides them 3 squares, and inflicts a -2 penalty to all defenses for a turn. Then it’s bite time.
Their bites deal more poison damage, since they’re not minions, and their venom becomes stronger. The target is slowed (save ends), which worsens to immobilized (save ends) on the first save and to helpless (save ends) on the second failure. Wyrm Strike lets it bite two different targets with one action.
Helpless is a funny and very worrying condition. It’s funny because going strictly by the book, you can move and act normally while Helpless. However you’re never just Helpless. The most common way to get this condition is to be unconscious. In this case, even on a strict reading you’ll still be Restrained when you fail your second save and become Helpless.
Being Helpless is worrying because it makes the victim grant combat advantage, and opens them up to the Coup de Grace action, which is an attack with any applicable power that auto-crits and kills the target outright if it deals more than their bloodied value in damage.
If the Silk Wyrm manages to get someone immobilized, restrained, or helpless, it will Feed on them, attacking their Fortitide eating one of their healing surges, and healing 10 HP. There’s no damage other than this, apparently, which makes this attack a lot more forgiving in a fight than it would otherwise seem.
It someone hits the adult wyrm with a melee or close attack, it can respond with Silk Strands as a reaction. This is a melee 3 attack vs. Reflex, dealing acid damage and restraining on a hit.
Silk Worm Elder
Elders have lived long enough to learn the value of teamwork despite or perhaps because of the loss of their ability to project silk strands in combat. They band together with one another or with other powerful allies in order to survive and keep eating. They’re Level 14 Skirmishers with 125 HP. Not being solos, they don’t have a blanked +5 on all saves, but they still have that bonus on saves against Immobilized or Slowed.
Shadow Form and Mesmerizing Dread work exactly the same, with Shadow Form just making the wyrm Weakened instead of preventing attacks entirely. They can only bite once per turn but their venom remains as potent as the adult’s.
The problem here is the damage: both Mesmerizing Dread and the basic bite do exactly the same damage as the adult’s, which is way, way below what it should be for a level 14 monster.
Feed, on the other hand, does a huge chunk of physical damage (5d10+6) in addition to deleting a healing surge. It recharges when first bloodied instead of being at-will, but it no longer has any target restictions. They still really want to use this in a helpless target if they can, because it’s going to kill any helpless target with 112 maximum HP or less.
Still, outside of their one or two uses of Feed, elders are significantly less scary. The venom is still a concern, particularly if they have heavy hitters with them, but barring errata it seems to me elders were made to rush in, use Feed once or twice, and escape the fight using Shadow Form and Serpent Strike, which they still have.
Encounters and Final Impressions
I think the Lore section outlines possible silk wyrm encounters pretty well.
Mechanically, the first two seem okay to me, but the elder is weird. The damage of their bites and Mesmerizing stare needs a buff. It’d make them more consistently dangerous despite making their Feed attack a little less impressive in comparison (as its 28 average damage is not a lot higher than the 22 their bites would need).
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Let's Read the 4e Creature Catalog: Sand Bride
A sand bride, which looks like a pretty lady lounging in an illusory oasis that hides a sandstorm. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
This wouldn’t be a proper D&D monster book without at least one vile seductress that tries to lure in unsuspecting adventurers with her womanly wiles.
Sand Brides are basically Darker and Sunnier Nymphs. More specifically, they are the things this world’s surviving nymphs turned into when the ecosystem went to shit and the Feywild was mostly destroyed. Like a lot of other Athasian fey, they blame all intelligent natural creatures for their corrupted state, and try to victimize them as an act of vengeance.
Their preferred tactic is to build traps and ambush spots out in the desert and use their illusion powers to disguise them as safe places like oases, sheltering ruins, or caravan rest stops. Then they disguise themselves as harmless humanoids and try to lure their targets to the ambush. The illustration and some of the descriptions imply these “harmless humanoids” are pretty ladies, but they don’t have to be.
Once the victims are at the intended spot, the ambush is sprung, and the sand bride will use her sand-bending powers and dehydrating touch to kill the victims, leaving only dried husks behind.
The Numbers
Sand Brides are Medium Fey Humanoids and Level 10 Elite Controllers with an even 200 HP. Despite being living beings they have Darkvision and are immune to disease and poison, traits commonly found in undead. Their ground speed is 8, and they have a burrow speed of 6. This doesn’t say it’s for loose earth only, so they could theoretically tunnel through rock.
Their Sandform Body lets them ignore all difficult terrain, tough they’re less diffuse than the dune constructs we saw previously. They attack in melee with a Dehydrating Touch that deals necrotic damage and inflicts -2 to all defenses for a turn on a hit. At range, they use Sand Blasts that deal physical damage and push 4 squares. Double Attack lets them make two melee attacks per action.
They can also employ a Sand Drown power (recharge 5+) if the PCs bunch up too much. This is an Area 1 Within 10 attack, dealing heavy physical damage and restraining on a hit.
Its ability to create illusory terrain is weaponized as an Insidious Mirage (Encounter), which lets the Sand Bride create a zone 4 squares on a side that lasts until the end of the encounter. This counts as difficult terrain for enemies, lets the bride slide enemies who end their turns inside by up to 2 squares as a free action, and can be moved by up to 4 squares as minor action.
And finally they have Deceptive Veil, allowing them to appear as a humanoid of any species. Piercing the illusion requires an Insight contest against the bride’s Bluff skill of +15. This doesn’t have to be a pretty lady, but it’s apparently traditional. The bride’s stats remain the same while disguised, and she can attack without dropping the illusion.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Sand brides target groups of travelers The creatures are fairly social with each other and will organize in groups. They can probably ally with other fey too, or have some Athasian beasts under their control ready to attack.
I’m not overly fond of vile seductress monsters but sand brides seem easy to reskin into something less cliche while keeping the same tactics.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Rampager
A rampager, which look like a big green kaiju with a human-like face. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
These creatures were known as so-ut in olden times, but most people found that name wasn’t very descriptive, so now they’re known as Rampagers. And they do what it says on the tin.
True, that doesn’t narrow it down by a lot given that we just looked at Nightmare Beasts, which are also big rampaging monsters. But there are some important differences: Nightmare Beasts are hateful monsters twisted by the energies of the Gray who hate all living things; Rampagers are hateful monsters twisted by vengeful primal spirits who hate all artifice.
Sure, they’ll kill anything that gets in their way, but the thing they really hate are buildings and other constructed signs of civilization. The cloud of angry elementals that constantly surrounds these creatures fills them with rage and drives them to seek these things out and utterly destroy them with their acidic claws. Ruins or new buildings, it doesn’t matter. They will all be razed to their foundations.
Those who can’t take on a Rampager in direct combat (i.e, most Athasians) might have a chance to avoid a deadly confrontation by placating the immaterial spirits that surround the creature via rituals or diplomacy, convincing them to direct their weapon elsewhere.
The Numbers
A Rampager is a Large Elemental Beast and a Level 21 Solo Brute with 800 HP. It has Darkvision and a ground speed of 7.
The angry spirits surrounding the so-ut aren’t modeled as separate creatures and cannot be targeted in combat, but I think they might be the source of its Entropic Presence aura (2), which strips immunities and resistances from all creatures and objects within. I believe that does include most of the inherent immunities objects have (such as to poison and necrotic damage).
The Rampager also has two other passive traits: Destruction’s Storm boosts its damage while bloodied, and Soul of Destruction boosts it even more against constructs, objects, and structures.
Its active attacks start with acid-laced Reach 2 Claws, which deal a hearty blend of physical and acid damage and penalize AC by -1 until the end of the encounter on a hit. This accumulates to a maximum of -5. And to top it off they have the High Crit property.
The Bite is Reach 2 and targets Reflex, and seems weak at first, but that’s just the primary attack. If that hits, the creature makes a secondary attack against the target’s Fortitude, which weakens and inflicts 30 ongoing poison damage on a hit (save ends). Entropic Presence makes this as effective against structures and objects as it would be against flesh and blood enemies.
Our last attack is the one that gives the Rampager its name: Destructive Rampage is an at-will power that lets it make three claw and one bite attack in any order. At most 2 attacks can be directed at the same target, and the monster can shift 2 squares after each one as an effect.
When the Rampager is first bloodied, and again when it drops to 0 HP, it can use Destructive Rampage as a free action.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Overall I wasn’t as impressed by the Rampager’s lore since it comes right after the Nightmare Beast and the Psurlon, but it’s very in theme for Athas. You could also easily reskin it as a sort of tarrasque spawn, since both follow similar themes.
Mechanically, I think all the mechanics that combine to make it a menace against constructs and structures are really cool. I can easily see an adventure where PCs must somehow direct a rampager to fight something like the Dark Sun version of the Wandering Tower (originally from Threats to the Nentir Vale). And of course, if this thing ever meets a Nightmare Beast meet, they’re going to fight, and while the Rampager as written might not win that one without PC help it can serve as an important distraction.
The book clearly intends for Rampagers to be found alone, since as mentioned above the spirit cloud is more of an special effect than a separate creature, mechanically. Nothing stops you from adding some actual epic level elementals to the encounter if your PCs are higher level, though.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Psurlon
A psurlon, which look like a gray-skinned centipede centaur with scythe-like forearms and a xenomorh-style head. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
A long time ago, in a world far, far away, there was a civilization whose mastery of psionics was so complete they decided to merge their entire population into a single collective god-mind. They failed, and the backlash destroyed their planet.
The survivors managed to escape to the Astral Sea, but only as disembodied consciences. There, they came upon another world that radiated vast amounts of psychic energy, comparable to their old home. The survivors were drawn to it like moths to a flame, piercing the barriers that surrounded this new world and taking over a species of worm that turned out to be particularly receptive to their minds.
Over the following generations, these planar refugees would shape their hosts to be more useful to their mysterious purposes, and would come to prefer their new bodies over their old humanoid forms. And this is how the psurlons came to be, though no one in Athas really knows the whole story.
Some psurlons reside in the Gray, amid the graves of the gods. Many others live in Athas itself, where they often take human form to infiltrate and spy on the city-states of the sorcerer-kings, working towards some mysterious goal of their own. Psurlons are an old people with long memories and extremely advanced psionic skills, so sometimes they’ll be sought out by powerful psychics, spellcasters, and historians willing to risk their lives to bargain for knowledge.
The Numbers
Psurlons are Medium Aberrant Magical Beasts. They have resistance to psychic damage, a burrow speed, and Tremorsense, though the exact values on these traits vary per stat block. Their signature ability is Armored Mind, a passive trait that lets them roll saves against domination both at the start and end of their turns, even if the condition doesn’t normally end with a save.
Psurlon Dustworm
Dustworms are specialized infiltrators, disguising themselves as humanoids to spy on the city-states and on the comings and goings of the sorcerer-kings. They’re Level 17 Skirmishers with 164 HP. Their ground and burrow speeds are 8, and they have 5 psychic resistance and Tremorsense 10.
The dustworm can Change Shape as a minor action to appear as a humanoid. Others need to pass a DC 36 Insight check to detect the deception. Most dustworms encountered by PCs will start out disguised, and will do their best to maintain cover until there is no other alternative. Then, they take their natural shapes and fight, likely attempting to escape.
In addition to Armored Mind, they also project a Psychic Deadpool (aura 5), which inflicts -2 on enemy saves against ongoing psychic damage. They can attack in melee with their Claws, which damage and deal ongoing 5 psychic damage (save ends). At range, they fling Mindknives which deal psychic damage and forbid the target from making opportunity attacks for a turn.
Both of these attacks can be boosted by Psionic Augment, which triggers after one of them hits and lets them deal an extra 2d6 psychic damage. This recharges when the dustworm takes psychic damage.
They can use a Burrowing Attack to burrow half their speed, attack someone with a claw, and then burrow the other half of their speed. This is strangely precise phrasing compared to the other “moving attack” skills we have seen so far.
Psurlon Warworm
Warworms cannot change shape, possibly because they’re Huge instead of Medium. They defend psurlon settlements and stay hidden underground near infiltrators, waiting to burst out when things go pear-shaped. They’re Level 18 Elite Brutes with 424 HP. Their ground and burrow speeds are 6, their Tremorsense is 20, and their psychic resistance is 15.
Their bite deals heavy damage and inflicts ongoing 5 psychic damage (save ends), and Double Attack lets them bite twice per action. Once per encounter, they can let out a Mind Scream that attacks enemies in a Close Burst 2. A hit deals heavy psychic damage and stuns for a turn. Nasty! A miss deals half damage.
Psurlon Mindworm
Mindworms are powerful seers, able to see many futures at once. They guide their fellow psurlons to the ones most favorable to their secret objectives. Mindworms are Level 19 Controllers with 181 HP. Their movement speed is 6, they have 10 Psychic resistance, and Tremorsense 10.
Their additional passive is a Whispering Meme aura (5) that lets the mindworm slide enemies that start their turns within 1 square. I guess the mysterious whispers of “this is fine” and “always has been” drive enemies to distraction.
A mindworm will probably start the fight at range and attempt to use Ego Control (recharge 5+) on a PC. This deals a sizable chunk of psychic damage and dominates on a hit (save ends). Then they’ll close in to melee range and alternate between Referred Pain and their Psychic Claws. The first power is a Close Burst 2 that deals psychic damage and slows for a turn; the other is a basic attack that deals a mix of psychic and physical damage and inflicts -2 to AC for a turn.
Mindworms can also Change Shape and use Psionic Augment, both of which work just like the dustworm’s, but with higher numbers.
Encounters and Final Impressions
There’s a lot here that reminds me of mind flayers, but I think I actually like psurlons better. With mind flayers, you know they want to eat your brain, and most PCs will start drawing their weapons as soon as they spot one.
Psurlons have a much more mysterious goal, so they can more easily fill the “mysterious but dangerous stranger” role instead of always being overtly hostile. Heck, PCs might want to ally with them against a sorcerer-king.
That said, they do employ a lot of the same tactics as flayers, including keeping large groups of dominated thralls around to help compose mixed encounter groups.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Nightmare Beast
A rampaging nightmare beast with a doomed human spearman for scale. The spearman looks tiny. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Nightmare Beasts are among the most feared horrors to walk the surface of Athas, second only to the Dragon of Tyr itself. The mere presence of a nightmare beast poisons the surrounding land and contaminates its water. This seems to be a continuous defiling effect - and the beasts can defile further to fuel their powers. The description also makes me think they might be radioactive, if you want to inject some science fantasy into your campaign.
Sages can only speculate as to their origin. The leading theory is that they were summoned from the Gray by powerful defilers during an age in the distant past where war raged all over the world. Fully grown beasts are solitary, but smaller versions can be seen hanging out in packs with each other or with other predatory animals. Those same sages theorize these are young beasts, born through natural reproduction.
Everything about the preceding paragraph is wrong, however. Nightmare beasts form when one of the many natural predators of Athas consumes too much prey from areas tainted by the Gray or marked by heavy defiling. The creature begins to slowly mutate. It acquires intelligence, power, and a hatred for all living things, becoming a nightmare beast when the metamorphosis is complete. The “spawn” are merely beasts whose transformation is still ongoing. Fully transformed beasts are solitary. Partially-mutated spawn still display behaviors reminiscent of their previous form, which is why they can be found in packs.
Nightmare beast lairs tend to be pretty obvious and imposing landmarks at the center of a horribly corrupted region.
The Numbers
Nightmare Beasts are Shadow Magical Beasts with Darkvision. We get stat blocks for both spawn and fully transformed specimens. Both can invade people’s dreams and use magical black lightning as a weapon, in addition to having very large and sharp tusks, but the effects of all of these vary per stat block. We’ll see them from weaker to stronger.
At the GM’s option, beasts poison the area around them when they die. The area within 10 squares of a full beast’s corpse become Defiled Terrain (a hazard described at the end of the book). Spawn also do this, but the area is only 5 squares in radius.
Nightmare Beast Spawn
As mentioned above, “spawn” is a misleading name. This Large creature was formerly a more mundane Athasian predator who is currently in the process of mutating into a nightmare beast. It will kinda resemble the animal it once was, but is already clearly unnatural. Spawn are Level 16 Elite Artillery with 244 HP. Their ground speed is 8 and they also have Burrow and Climb speeds of 4. Maybe this was a megapede?
The creature’s basic melee attack uses its Tusks (Melee 2), which damage and slide the target 2 squares on a hit. Its favorite tactic, however, is to hang back and rain Black Lightning (Ranged 20) upon its foes. This attack vs. Reflex targets one or two victims. On a hit it deals “lightning and necrotic” damage, and ongoing 5 necrotic damage (save ends). This worsens to 10 ongoing on the first failed save, and to unconsciousness (save ends) on the second.
The spawn can further torment its unconscious victims with Horrid Nightmares (minor action, recharge 6+, Ranged 10), which deal psychic damage and prevent the target from rolling saves for a turn on a hit. Yeah the spawn can potentially lock a PC down once they’re unconscious from Black Lightning. This also works if they manage to sneak up on their victims while they sleep, though the spawn might not yet be clever enough to think of this.
If a target steps into the spawn’s melee reach, it can use its Barbed Tongue (Melee 3) as a reaction. This attack vs Fortitude deals necrotic damage on a hit and prevents the target from regaining HP for a turn.
Nightmare Beast
The fully mutated beast is size Huge, and a Level 25 Solo Controller with 928 HP. In other words, it’s a kaiju. This specimen is stronger than the spawn in every way, from physical weapons all the way to psychic and magical powers. Its ground speed is just 6, though, with no other movement modes. It likes to use its magic to torment its victims, but once it gets injured it will drop the mind games and get physical.
The beast has no less than three basic attacks, all Melee 3 and each with a different rider: Claws that slide 3 squares, Tusks that knock prone, and a Bite that grabs the target if the beast hasn’t grabbed anyone yet. Each of those of course also does respectable damage. Double Attack lets the beast pick any two of those to use on the same action.
Bloodied Fury (recharge 4+) becomes available while the beast is bloodied. It lets the creature move its speed and use a claw/claw/tusk/bite combo at any point along the movement, using up to two attacks against each target.
While the beast is not bloodied, it can instead use its Black Lightning (recharge 4+). This version targets 1 or 2 creatures in a Close Burst 5, and on a hit inflicts ongoing 30 lightning and necrotic damage (save ends). Each creature adjacent to one of the targets takes 20 lightning and necrotic damage when the target is hit, as well. The targets fall unconscious right on the first failed saving throw.
If the beast misses a target while using Black Lightning, it can use its Hideous Defiling to attack every enemy in a Close Burst 2, dealing a chunk of necrotic damage on a hit. A hit also allows it to reroll the missed Black Lightning attacks.
Whether bloodied or not, the beast can inflict Horrid Nightmares on unsconscious targets just like its less-developed counterpart, with better damage. It can also use Dream Step at will, teleporting 15 squares to a space adjacent to an unconscious creature!
Encounters and Final Impressions
Full beasts will usually be found alone, as they kill anything else they can perceive. A GM who wishes to add more spice to this solo encounter could add powerful undead minions. The beast might tolerate their presence since they aren’t living creatures.
Spawn could be found in groups, either with each other or still hanging around their packs as the transformation proceeds. Eventually the day comes when they complete the transformation and slay their packmates.
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