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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Spider
A large spider made of translucent crystal. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Dark Sun is still a D&D setting. Therefore it needs giant spiders.
Athasian giant spiders behave much like their kin from other worlds. They prefer locations that afford them plenty of hiding and ambush spots like caves, deep valleys, and so on. While neither of the varieties presented here can spin webs fast enought to do so during combat, they still might cover entire chasms or large passages in them as they wait for more prey to wander by.
Crystal Spider
One of the prettiest monsters in the Tablelands, its carapace is made of actual crystal. Aside from the usual venomous bite and their razor-sharp appendages, crystal spiders also have smome power over light and are capable of radiant attacks.
Crystal Spiders are Large Natural Beasts and Level 4 Lurkers with 39 HP. Their ground and Spider Climb speeds are both 8, and they have Tremorsense 10 to detect people touching their webs. Their carapace makes gives them Resist 5 Radiant, but also Vulnerable 5 Thunder.
It also gives them the Gleaming Carapace trait, which gives them concealment until the end of their next turn any time they move more than 5 squares in the same action. I guess glare is a major problem with fighting crystal spiders on their home turf.
Their basic attack is a decently damaging Razor Leg (melee 2), and they can use a bite (melee 1 vs. Fort) against a target that cannot see them, dealing both immediate and 10 ongoing poison damage (save ends).
Crystal spiders could achieve that unseen state by moving more than 5 squares and hiding, but they have a couple of shortcuts in the form of their light-bending powers. Radiant Agony (close burst 2 vs. Fort) pushes its targets 3 squares and blinds them for a turn, recharging whenever no one is blinded or when the spider hits with its bite. Brilliant Ray (ranged 10 vs. Ref, recharge 5+) does a good chunk of radiant damage and blinds for a turn.
Crystalline Web
Any place where crystal spiders hunt will be filled with these razor sharp traps. They’re statted up as Level 4 Obstacles, each consisting of a patch of webbing 4x4 squares in size, stretched between two surfaces. They’re semi-transparent and require a DC 14 Perception check to notice in bright light, or 19 in dim light.
When a character enters a web square, the web attacks their Reflex, doing immediate and ongoing 5 physical damage on a hit (save ends). Hit or miss, the target’s movement ends and it gets pushed back to the last square it occupied.
A character can use Acrobatics (DC 14) to move through a webbed square, or they can attack the web and deplete its 25 HP to destroy it.
An elite version of this trap has 50 HP instead, and deals increased damage when it catches someone. In either case, good luck dodging these in dim light or while blinded by the crystal spiders who made them!
The book doesn’t explicily state it, but I would say crystal spiders should be immune to the effects of their own webs.
White Widow
White Widows are a bigger, stronger, and stealthier relative of the crystal spider. While they lack the ability to fire lasers, they still have some control over light and like to blind their prey. They’re Huge Natural Beasts and Level 15 Lurkers with 110 HP, resist 10 poison and radiant, and Vulnerable 10 thunder. Their speed and senses are the same as a crystal spider.
The reason white widows like to blind their prey is that they deal 15 ongoing “poison and radiant” damage (save ends) when they hit blinded targets with any attack. Yes, this means their venom is deadly even to things that are normally resistant or immune to poison. This trait is named Combat Advantage but that name is misleading, as it only grants its benefit against blinded targets.
The spider’s bite is a basic attack that also deals “poison and radiant” damage, but it’s not going to be used on its own unless conditions are right.
Instead of biting it can turtle up and use its Reflective Defense, which gives it a +5 bonus to all defenses for a turn and blinds anyone who misses them with an attack during that time. The Scuttling Attack maneuver (recharge 5+) lets it shift half its speed, bite someone, and shift the other half.
When hit by a fire, radiant or lightning attack (in other words, anything shiny) the spider can react with the Venomous Dawn attack, enhancing and reflecting that light back at its attackers. This is a Close Burst 5 vs. Reflex, deals radiant damage, and blinds (save ends).
Widow’s Web
Any battle against white widows will happen in a place filled with these. They’re not sharp like a crystal spider’s, but they’re still quite dangerous as Level 15 Obstacle traps.
White widow web patches are 10x10 squares in size and require a DC 22 Perception check to notice in dim light, but are automatically visible in bright light. The web attacks the Reflex of anyone who enters one of its squares, and restrains on a hit (save ends). Webbed squares are also difficult terrain to anyone without the Spider Climb ability.
Characters can avoid the trap by leaping over webbed terrain, or destroy the web by dealing 40 HP of damage to it. An elite version has double the HP and can take two opportunity attacks per turn, which is useful in case two or more targets get pushed into it in the same action.
Encounters and Final Impressions
You’ll mostly commonly be meeting these spiders singly or in pairs, with the rest of the encounter balance being made up of web patches. They can appear anywhere you would expect to find the standard varieties of D&D giant spider, which also exist in Athas because why wouldn’t they?
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Silt Runner
A silt-runner, which looks like a little purple lizard dude running very fast while carrying a spear. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Silt Runners are basically Athasian Kobolds. While they’re not described as “savage”, all of the usual kobold slander is also present here. They’re small reptilian humanoids who are intensely xenophobic and whose entire society is based on raiding other humanoid settlements. They wield stolen weapons and wear bits of clothing and body parts from their victims as trophies, eating the rest.
The main differences here seem to be that Silt Runners are more related to ssurrans (Athasian lizardfolk) than to dragons, and that they’re much more nomadic and aggressive. They gather in warrens linked by tunnels and located near their prospective raid targets, but are quick to abandon those hideouts when their targets attempt a retaliatory strike.
For some reason, silt runners hate the fey, and have been known to ignore far more vulnerable targets in favor of attacking well-protected elves and eladrin.
The Numbers
Silt Runners are low-level and fit right alongside kobolds as Small Natural Humanoids with the Reptile tag. But while standard kobolds have the Shifty trait, Silt Runners have Silt Runner Swarm, which causes any enemy adjacent to 2 or more silt runners to take 2 damage at the start of their turn. They also have low-light vision and a surprisingly zippy ground speed of 7.
Silt Runner Darter
These Level 1 Artillery menaces have 25 HP and wield blowguns with an assortment of darts. They keep to the edges of the battle and shoot whoever they can.
The Blowgun deals standard damage and has Range 12, so they can keep a fair distance away from the scrum. Some of their shots will be with Poisoned Darts (recharge 5+), which deal heavy poison damage and immobilize (save ends). As an aftereffect, the target is slowed (save ends). A miss deals half damage and slows for a turn, which is very strong for a rechargeable attack.
If engaged in melee, they can defend themselves with Wooden Daggers, but those are nothing to write home about.
Silt Runner Rager
Ragers are Level 1 Brutes with 34 HP. The Bone Spears they wield look comically large, but have Reach 2 and are very effective. In addition to standard attacks, they can use them in Brutal Spear maneuvers that deal increased damage and recharge when first bloodied, or in a Penetrating Spear maneuver that also deals increased damage and makes the target Vulnerable 5 to all damage for a turn.
Silt Runner Inciter
This one is a Level 2 Controller with the Leader tag and 38 HP. If they had a PC class, they would be Ardents, as they have psionic powers capable of causing strong emotions on their allies - fury, in this case.
Inciters can make a decent show of themselves in melee with their Bone Swords, and they can attack at range with a Psionic Detonation (area 1 within 10, recharge 6+) that deals force damage and creates a zone that lasts for a turn and is difficult terrain for enemies.
They can also Incite Fury in a close blast 5, causing each ally within the blast to shift 1 square and make a free basic attack either before or after the shift. When first bloodied, they can do that again as a free action, and Incite Fury recharges, which means they could use this power a total of three times per encounter.
Inciters want to drop that difficult terrain zone as soon as possible and then have their allies swarm the PCs caught inside so that Incite Fury is maximally effective.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Silt Runners mostly stick together, but will sometimes cooperate with other reptilian humanoids, and keep reptilian beasts as pets.
So yeah, they’re Athasian Kobolds. You can easily take standard kobold stat blocks, increase their speed to 7, and replace Shifty with Silt Runner Swarm to increase your collection of silt runner stat blocks.
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Dungeon Fantasy "Monster": Recap
I’m going to write this in the same format I use for my Monster Manual Let’s Reads, even though it’s not really a “monster”.
The Lore
These plump mushrooms are a about a foot tall when fully grown, and have purple caps. They’re very distantly related to shriekers, but their abilities are much more specialized.
When someone disturbs a recap, the mushroom scans the person’s memories and loudly summarizes the most important events of the last week or so of their lives.
“Most important” here is defined by what’s foremost in the target’s minds. Yes, they do have a tendency to spill closely held secrets that are big sources of anxiety or regret for the victim. Some believe recaps they were originally developed by an underground civilization with a strong tradition in psionics to act as interrogation tools. Nowadays you can find them in the wild inside caves and other damp and dark places, like many dungeons.
At least one investigator on the surface is known to carry a potted recap around in a specially built cage, using it for its original purpose when questioning suspects.
Even if the victim manages to resist the mind reading attempt, the recap will still speak a bunch of unconnected nonsense words for a minute or so. Those who are mainly concerned about noise should refrain from touching them at all.
The Numbers
Recaps aren’t “monsters” in a literal sense. Despite their radio-announcer voices, they’re nonsapient and immobile. A good whack with any weapon will destroy your typical recap. In GURPS, it has SM -5, DR 0, and 1 HP.
Wild Recap Cluster
In the wild, recaps grow in clusters and work like traps. Clusters are usually on the ground, but might also grow on walls or ceilings. If one mushroom in the cluster is disturbed by a touch at least strong enough to jostle it, the whole cluster “activates” and performs its narration as one big speaker. Actual damage also counts, of course - if a damaging attack leaves at least one recap standing, it will activate on the next turn.
A recap cluster takes up 1 hex and has the following stats.
Detect: Clusters are usually big enough to be plainly visible. Roll Naturalist at -2 to identify the mushrooms as recaps.
Disarm: No. Attacks that deal at least 6 damage to the whole hex at once will completely destroy all the recaps before they can activate. Anything less will trigger them.
Avoid: DX at -5 or Light Walk. The Silence spell will render the cluster harmless for as long as it lasts.
Save: Quick Contest of Will against skill 16 to avoid having your mind read. Magic Resistance helps.
Effect: About a minute of loud noises. If the target won the contest of Will, this will be a string of nonsense words. If they lost, the recap will summarize the previous week of their lives as if it was the last episode of a radio serial, potentially airing some dirty laundry.
Shots: Constant.
Rearm: No.
Steal: Roll against Naturalist to harvest one large, healthy recap specimen per hex. This weights 1 lb. and is worth $1000 if delivered intact to the right people back in town.
Recap Inquisitor
This consists of a large, healthy recap specimen planted on good soil in a clay pot, surrounded by small but sturdy iron cage with large gaps between the bars. It’s used by the “right people” back in town or by unscrupulous villains in interrogations. They just need to ask (or force) the subject to poke the mushroom.
The subject must win a quick contest of Will against a skill of 16 to prevent the ‘shroom from narrating all their dirty laundry from the past seven days. It will speak a string of nonsense words if the subject resists, and experienced handlers will know what that means. The cage offers DR 7 against swinging attacks and other impacts (such as dropping the device), but the large gaps mean it doesn’t protect against thrusting ones.
Recap Inquisitors cost $2000 and weight 10 lbs. Monthly maintenance requires $100 in supplies and success in a Naturalist roll to keep the ‘shroom alive.
Additional Notes
I put in the same resistance mechanics for the two entries but I think they’re mostly relevant for an interrogation scenario. When you step onto a recap patch in the wild it’s probably funnier if they just succeed and narrate your last week. It might even be fun to have the PC’s player do the narration if they’re so inclined.
I say this because in my experience PCs rarely have something to hide from each other, so there wouldn’t be really any dirty laundry that they didn’t want aired. Of course, if you your group is a party of sneaky gits who do keep important secrets from each other, then you should probably keep the resistance test in place.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Silt Horror
A silt horror devouring a group of adventurers. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
As mentioned before, the only sea most Athasians know is the Sea of Silt. The name here is pretty descriptive - an endless expanse of silvery dust that makes up the eastern “border” of the Tyr Region. You can sail on it using special vessels, and its depths conceal many ruins of extinct civilizations, as well as an extensive ecosystem that’s a mystery to most surfacers.
Those who have more experience with the Sea of Silt might know of the Floating Mantles who sometimes wander into land, but the thing they fear the most is the aptly named Silt Horror. These enormous beasts are more or less Darker and Sunnier krakens, emerging from the deep to wrestle entire ships with their grasping tentacles and devour them with their bottomless maws.
And that’s for the “basic” version that appears close to shore, the one with white tentacles. Silt sailors who have ventured further away from shore come back with stories about horrors with brown or gray tentacles who are even larger - some of them larger than entire city-states. Are these tales true? Who knows? It’s not like it’s easy to fact-check them.
The Numbers
We only get the “basic” white-tentacled silt horror here. The bigger versions, if they exist, are left as an exercise for the GM. Unlike a standard D&D Kraken, the silt horror is not sapient, but that doesn’t make it less dangerous.
The creature is so large that we get a stat block for the main body and a couple of different stat blocks for its tentacles, which act like minions and regenerate fast enough to keep coming back in the same fight after being “slain”.
Silt Horror
The main body of the creature is a Huge Aberrant Beast and a Level 12 Solo Lurker with 496 HP. It has a ground speed of 2 and a burrow speed of 6 on soft earth, which is like a swim speed on the Sea of Silt. It’s Blind, and therefore immune to the blinded conditions and to all gaze attacks. It perceives the world via Termorsense 20.
The horror’s main trait covers its Regenerating Tentacles. Any time when the horror has less than 4 tentacles within 20 squares of itself, a number of new tentacles appear until it has 4. The horror chooses which types they are from the three available (constricting, raking, sweeping). They appear above ground even if the main body is burrowing, and act on their own initiative, rolled when they appear.
The main body itself has a fairly basic Bite attack, but the star of the show here is the Chomping Maw maneuver, which deals almost double the damage and can target up to two creatures. The restriction here is that the main body must be entirely underground to attack, and the targets must be grabbed by tentacles.
As a move action, it can Submerge, burrowing its way to a space that’s entirely underground. This recharges whenever it’s on the surface, so it’s more or less at will. And when one of its tentacles is reduced to 0 HP with a melee attack, it can make a free melee attack of its own before disappearing, dealing 10 extra damage and pushing the triggering PC 5 squares instead of grabbing them.
Silt Horror Tentacles
All three tentacle types are very similar to each other, so we’ll cover them in the same entry.
First, the common traits: all three are Level 12 Minions. They have ground and burrow speeds of 6, and act as sensory organs with the same Tremorsense 20 as the main body. They’re obviously Attached to the silt horror and cannot be more than 20 squares from the main body. They’re also Unhindered, which as we know means they can pull any grabbed victims along with them when they move.
All three tentacles have a basic Seize attack, which deals physical damage and grabs the victim. The stats that vary between the three types are their creature roles, and what they can do with a grabbed victim using their second attack.
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Constricting tentacles are Soldiers and their Constricting Grab damages and dazes the victim for a turn.
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Raking tentacles are Skirmishers and their Sweeping Grab damages and slides the victim 3 squares to a space adjacent to the tentacle.
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Sweeping tentacles are Brutes and their Suffocating Grab damages and knocks prone.
Even after the special attacks, the victims remain grabbed - use the standard rules to try to get away.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Silt Horrors will most likely be found alone. They’re not sapient so they don’t form alliances, and they’re impossible to tame. At most you might find them already fighting another victim, such as a different ship, or a giant who was wading through the Sea. These fellow targets might be friendly to the PCs, or they might not.
Another possibility is an horror intruding upon an already ongoing fight against those other ships or giants…
The mechanics here are very interesting. The tentacles want to grab as many victims as possible and do nasty things to them while bringing them closer to the main body’s location. The main body wants to stay underground until two victims are in reach, use Chomping Maw on them, and then use Submerge to get away again. As long as at least one PC remains grabbed, the horror could do this every turn.
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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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