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• Jun 18, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Giant

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  Athas has a lot of the same giants we can see in the Monster Manuals and Monster Vault. Athasian giants are less militarily aggressive than their counterparts in other worlds, but they still don’t like interacting with the “small folk”. They prefer to make their homes in isolated islands on the Silt Sea. A giant who wants to visit the mainland can often just wade through what to them is chest-high silt. PCs might be able to negotiate a ride with such a giant, if they’re diplomatic enough.

  In this entry we’ll take a look at two Athas-specific giants, whose descriptions will help explain why they don’t like the small ones very much.

  Beast Giants

  

  Beast Giants are the product of psionic experimentation by ancient masters of the Way, who have stabilized into their own species. They have bodies similar to that of hill giants, but the heads of beasts.

  Each giant’s head is different, and can be similar to that of any Athasian beast, whether currently living or extinct. So PCs might be faced with something familiar like a Cilops or Baazrag-headed giant, or with some exotic ancient cryptid like a lion, tiger or bear. Oh my! Their skill at mind-reading is such that they can copy most techniques used against them on the fly during a fight.

  Beast Giants are fairly cosmopolitan sorts and frequently associate with other types of giant and giant-kin who share their islands: hill giants, firbolgs, brohgs, and others.

  Beast Giant

  The typical beast giant is Large Natural Humanoid (Giant) and a Level 15 Brute with 180 HP and a ground speed of 7 and Low-light Vision.

  No matter what their head looks like, it gives them a Rending Bite that deals heavy immediate damage and ongoing 5 damage (save ends). Once per encounter they can use the Red of Tooth power to make three bite attacks on the same action, each against a different target.

  When someone attacks a beast giant, they can use Psionic Retention as a reaction. They still suffer the damage and any riders normally, but they also “retain” that result, so keep a note of it. They can then use this to power their Psionic Release attack (melee 2 vs. Fortitude). A hit deals the exact same amount and type of damage, and the exact same riders, as the giant’s “retained” attack. Psionic Release recharges when the giant uses Psionic Retention again, so it effectively “spends” the retained attack.

  Beast Titan

  The oldest Beast Giants have grown enough in power and size to qualify as Beast Titans. They’re a lot more aggressive than their younger counterparts and love displaying the skulls of their enemies as trophies.

  These are Huge instead of Large, and they’re Level 20 Elite Brutes with 466 HP. Their ground speed is an 8, and their Beast Reflexes let them roll a save to avoid falling prone.

  Their Psionic Retention and Release powers work the same as the giant’s, with the greater range and numbers from their larger size and level. Their Gnashing Bite is also upgraded.

  As a minor action the titan can use Titan’s Embrace (melee 3 vs. reflex) to do some light damage and grab on a hit. And once it has a grabbed victim, it can use Head Rip to deal massive damage, plus the same ongoing damage as the bite. The giant also throws the victim 10 squares and knocks it prone at the end.

  Shadow Giant

  

  Unlike the Death Giants of the monster manual, who are merely death-_themed_, Shadow Giants are actual undead. They’re vengeful spirits who seek retribution from an ancient slaughter, likely from the Red Age. They look like shadows cast on a wall.

  They tend to be loners, or to ally with those giants that still retain a strong elemental connection (like fire and stone giants). Sometimes, a brohg renegade will seek them out to learn the ancient arcane secrets the shadow still rememebers.

  Shadow Giants are Large Shadow Humanoids with the Undead and Giant tags, and Level 18 Soldiers with 185 HP. They have darkvision, a ground speed of 7, and a flight speed of 3. Like most undead, they are immune to disease and poison and have 20 necrotic resistance. They’re also insubstantial, but lack Phasing.

  A shadow giant projects an aura (5) of Shadow Malaise that halves any healing that takes place inside. Whenever they take radiant damage, they’re Revealed by Radiance and become substantial for a turn.

  Their basic attack is a Necrotic Touch, which targets Reflex, deals necrotic damage, and marks on a hit (save ends). They also have a non-basic Death Touch that is similar, but exchanges some of its direct damage for an additional ongoing 10 necrotic damage rider (save ends both this and the mark).

  If a marked enemy makes an attack that doesn’t include the giant, they are Cast Into Shadow as a reaction. This is a melee attack that targets Reflex. A hit does no damage, but removes the target from play for a turn! This means they’re stunned and removed from the map, reappearing at their previous position when the effect ends.

  The giant’s ability to possibly mark multiple PCs makes it a very effective “defender”. Cast Into Shadow is a very potent “save or suck” attack, so PCs will have an extra incentive to focus on the giant and not on its other buddies. And if they don’t, the giant has just removed a whole PC from consideration for the next round.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  Athas is prime giant country and plenty of core giants would be happy as clams living here, but I guess it makes sense to have some setting-specific ones to signal that we’re not in Kansas any more.

  Beast giants and titans feel a bit redundant, but their appearance is certainly striking. Shadow Giants have intriguing mechanics, but you probably don’t want to have more than one of these in play at any given encounter. They can also be used in other settings without a lot of modification, as “undead giant with a grudge” is a pretty universal concept.

• Jun 14, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Ghost, Raaig

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  Athas is a world with plenty of horrible death in it, so of course it has plenty of ghosts.

  The Lore

  The ghosts we’re talking about in this entry are also called “raaigs”, so you can use that word when nomenclature is important and you want to distinguish them from wraiths, specters, or the specific D&D monster actually called a Ghost.

  They are specifically the ghosts of priests and holy warriors that served the now-dead gods of Athas, and who met their demise while charged with protecting their holy sites and relics.

  The typical encounter with a raaig will happen when the PCs enter the ruins of such a place. The ghost, still fulfilling its mission, will manifest and challenge the intruders to check whether they’re devout pilgrims or dastardly thieves. Since no one alive remembers the proper prayers and passwords to appease these spirits, they are likely to attack.

  The Numbers

  Raaigs have the full ghost package: ground and flight speeds of 6, Darkvision, phasing, insubstantial, immune to disease and poison. The book mentions they become corporeal for a moment when they attack, but this moment doesn’t last long enough to influence their stat blocks, which considers them to be insubstantial at all times.

  They don’t have any weaknesses that let them become partially corporeal either, so the only way to deal full damage to a raaig is if you’re using the rules update that makes force damage fully affect all insubstantial creatures.

  Raaig Tomb Spirit

  Your common specimen as far as these very specific ghosts go. The Tomb Spirit is a Level 9 Soldier with 66 HP, which looks like a small number until you remember it will be taking half damage from everything.

  The tomb spirit projects an aura (1) of Gripping Dread, which forbids enemies inside from shifting and deals 5 cold damage to enemies marked by the spirit who make an attack that doesn’t target it. This is a spooky version of the Paladin’s mark mechanic.

  Its main attack is a chilling blade that deals cold damage. As a minor action once per round it can issue the Raaig’s Challenge, which targets Will, and pulls 2 squares and marks for a turn on a hit.

  Raaig Crypt Lord

  A higher-ranking guardian in life, the Crypt Lord is a Level 14 Soldier with the Leader tag and 96 HP. It’s mostly a Tomb Spirit with bigger numbers and improved abilities:

  Its Chilling Blade deals more damage and marks on a hit; its Gripping Dread has a radius of 2; ts Challenge pulls 4 squares instead of 2.

  The one new ability here is Ghostly Command (recharge 6+) which lets each undead ally within 5 squares of the lord shift 2 squares and make a basic attack. As this takes a standard action, it will probably be used to open the fight.

  Raaig Souflame

  This is the ghost of someone who was so favored by the gods in life that they retained a small spark of divine power after death. Their hold on this spark is tenuous, however, and it might leave them if they’re too damaged. In this case, they will be turned into desperate beasts full of grief and rage. This is a Level 21 Skirmisher with 138 HP and all raaig traits.

  The idea here is that they lose the divine spark when bloodied, and so they effectively have two sets of abilities and movement speeds - one for when they have the spark, and one for when they don’t.

  When “healthy”, the soulflame has a ground speed of 8 and a teleport speed of 3. It attacks with a Divine Blade that deals a mix of untyped and radiant damage and lets the ghost teleport 3 squares on a hit. It can get fancy with this and use it to perform a Flickering Phantom maneuver (recharge 5+): the souflame teleports 4 squares, makes a stronger than usual sword attack, then teleports another 4 squares and makes another, weaker attack. The teleports are effects, so they happen even if the attacks miss.

  When bloodied, it loses the ability to teleport and gains a flight speed of 8 instead. Its main attack becomes a Deathly Blade whose added damage is necrotic instead of radiant, and which makes the target only regain half HP from healing for a turn. Its Flickering Phantom ability is replaced with Hollow Rage, an encounter power that deals heavy damage and prevents the target from regaining HP entirely (save ends).

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  The book says raaigs are intelligent and strong-willed enough to take command of most other undead that haunt their temples, such as skeletons, mummies, and other ghosts, so these will make up their allies in an encounter. It also reminds us that not all gods were good - protectors of evil temples might still have command of the devils or demons that also served its patron god. Souflames in particular are likely to attract surviving angels that served the same deity, as they are drawn to that faint spark.

  This makes me think that a non-hostile raaig makes an excellent mentor and teached for the super-rare divine PCs of Athas. Maybe your cleric or paladin was trained by the soulflame who is the Last Priest of Pelor and who was aware enough to take the PC under their wing instead of treating them as an intruder.

  And if angels and devils arrive to serve such ghosts, that’d be a big draw to someone who is researching a way into the Astral Sea, as I think that plane is not normally accessible from Athas.

• Jun 13, 2025

  Ultra-Tech Dungeon Delving in GURPS

  I started writing this post a few years ago when I was GMing the Iron Gods adventure path for Pathfinder using the Dungeon Fantasy RPG rules. My approach to that campaign was pretty slap-dash, and after I stopped I began thinking of a more structured way to do it. Since a recent comment here on the blog asked for specifics, I though I’d dust the post off and publish it.

  Let’s say you have a Dungeon Fantasy game where you want your characters to get into contact with more advanced technology. How would you go about it?

  Ultra-Tech Delving: A Survey

  Steve Jackson games did a little foray into this area in Pyramid #3/60, in an article entitled “High-Tech Dungeon Crawl”, which focused on bringing modern-day characters with guns into fantasy dungeons to mow down orcs with autofire and take their stuff. This raises the inherent level of colonalism in the genre from “concerning” to “yikes!”¹.

  What I want to focus on here is in an older variation on the theme: fantasy characters exploring “dungeons” filled with elements you might be more used to seeing in science fiction stories. When I say “older”, I mean it’s older than D&D: Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign featured a whole ultra-tech city-state descended from the crew of a crashed spaceship, and it was played for several years before what became the OD&D rules were finalized and officially published. D&D proper would explore the same territory with its famous “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks” module.

  Pathfinder dedicates a whole kingdom in its setting to the idea: the land of Numeria is a barbarian kingdom where a giant spaceship crashed millenia ago, breaking up during atmospheric entry and scattering its many modules all over the region. And, of course, in Gamma World and other post-apocalyptic games all “dungeons” are ultra-tech because they’re the ruins of the futuristic civilization that preceded the apocalypse.

  Ultra-Tech Delving in GURPS

  GURPS is of course a uniquely well-suited system for this kind of thing. Its rules already support a wide range of genres and technology levels from the corebook onwards. We only need a few adjustments depending on the sort of campaign we want.

  After The End already deals with the post-apocalyptic angle and offers a set of detailed rules. What I want, however, is something simpler and more suited to a Barrier Peaks/Numeria scenario. The ultra-tech stuff is alien, but characters can gain an understanding of it with some investment, and the gap between their usual medievalish milieu and the lofty heights of alien tech isn’t completely impossible to cross. How would I do it?

  Tech Level, or the Lack Thereof.

  So on one side we have the usual “medievalish” dungeon fantasy setting. In GURPS, that’s roughtly TL 4, but without gunpowder. On the other side we have a space-opera intrusion, which corresponds very roughly to a TL9-10 selection with a few outliers (personal shields are TL11-12, but they fit the flavor). With these vague numbers in mind, we can ditch the concept of Tech Levels completely for our treatment!

  Default GURPS Tech Level rules are only useful for giving us a starting set of gadgets to work with. In actual play, the only thing that matters is if a given thing is “low-tech” and thus familiar to everyone, or “high-tech” and thus a mystery to the uninitiated. How to differentiate both? With the following advantage:

  Tech Familiarity (10 points)

  You have a layman’s knowledge of the basic principles behind the advanced technology scattered through your otherwise medieval fantasy world. You understand why it isn’t magic. You know about electricity and how it powers high-tech devices. You grasp enough of the high-tech design aesthetic to easily spot a device’s charging port or battery, its control surfaces (be they switches, triggers, or touchpads), its information displays, and its business end even if you don’t know what the thing actually does. You can identify the high-tech civilization’s writing even though you can’t read it, and you can identify its iconography for “danger”. You can also recognize hazards like exposed live wires, recognize which type of power cell goes into a device, and plug it in.

  This is a form of Unusual Background that makes you immune to the sort of amusing accident which plagues other low-tech explorers confronted with high-tech devices.

  More importantly, Tech Familiarity is a pre-requisite for learning high-tech skills, and the language of the high-tech civilization (if any). With this advantage, you can spend points on those things normally.

  Yes, this is quite similar to High TL from the core book, but much cheaper. The reason is that paying 30-35 points in High TL to get the same benefits is way too expensive for a campaign in this mold. This advantage doesn’t give you any familiarity with deeper aspects of the high-tech civilization, just what’s in the first paragraph.

  Tech Skills

  Skills that would require a /TL specialization in standard GURPS rules have only two versions here: standard (no suffix) and “/Tech”. That way, you don’t need to change anything about how you write down a standard “medievalish” character.

  The two specialties don’t overlap at all: they don’t default to each other, and can’t be used at all across the “tech divide”. If you only have standard Lockpicking, you can’t open a high-tech door with a magnetic lock. If you only have Lockpicking/Tech, you can’t open low-tech mechanical locks with old-fashioned picks, tough you might be able to operate a machine that does it for you.

  High-tech weapons are usually firearms of beam weapons - the skills to operate them properly are always “/Tech” skills. High-Tech melee weapons are a possible exception to the “no defaults” rule above, though the GM would need to rule on each case:

  Weapons that use the same skill as their low-tech counterparts can be used normally by anyone if the only difference is in their construction (such as a superfine or hyperdense blade). If they have some additional feature that requires power (such as a vibroblade or shock baton) then the character has a -2 penalty to use that feature unless they have Tech Familiarity. If they require an exclusive skill to operate (like a force sword or monowire whip) then that skill has the “/Tech” suffix. You might be able to get away with a default to a low-tech skill here, but the only way to improve on that is to buy Tech Familiarity and the high-tech skill.

  Ultra-Tech Gear

  With the character stuff out of the way, we can talk about the goodies! As I mentioned above, one advantage of GURPS is that it has entire books of high- and ultra-tech gadgets that can be plugged straight into your fantasy campaigns. Therefore, we don’t need to talk about how to stat this stuff up at all! What we do need is talk about the effects it’s going to have on your campaign, which in turn will aid you in selecting which items to include.

  How much is this stuff worth?

  A vital question in the dungeon fantasy genre! Going more or less by the book, high-tech items should be worth roughly 30 times their list price in a dungeon fantasy setting. That makes even a relatively innocuous gadget into a major piece of loot!

  This might seem a bit too much for a dungeon fantasy setting where magic and magic items are relatively common, but I think it kinda makes sense. Ultra-tech items are going to be a lot rarer than magic items, particularly in settings where they come from that single crashed spaceship. They work regardless of the local mana and sanctitiy levels. And they can be enchanted! These are exactly the same reasons why a suit of fine plate armor costs more than a standard suit enchanted with Lighten 1.

  Example: A superfine broadword would cost $3600 in its native ultra-tech society. Recovered from a crashed spaceship in a dungeon fantasy setting, it’s worth $108,000!

  That sword gives a +2 bonus to damage and a (2) armor divisor. The closest “low-tech” equivalent would be a very fine sword with a Penetrating Weapon enchantment, worth $17,000, almost ten times cheaper. Even if all the bonuses were from magic, it would still cost only $25,600. However, the superfine blade will lose none of its functionality in a low- or no-mana zone, and it could be enchanted with the same magic as the low-tech sword to become even better.

  If you do think that this is too much, you could say that the value of ultra-tech gear is capped by the value of magic items with similar properties. The sword from the example would be worth $17,000 then. Gear that has no magical equivalent might still use the “uncapped” price.

  Timeworn Gear

  One concept from Pathfinder that’s useful to borrow is that of timeworn items. In Barrier Peaks-style setups, most of the high-tech stuff the PCs come across has been sitting around in derelict ruins for a very long time; even if it was very well-built, it might not have withstood the passage of the ages intact. To model that, we introduce the following equipment modifier:

  Timeworn: This can be applied to any high-tech armor, weapon, or device that requires power or ammunition to function. These items can’t be recharged. After whatever reserves they contain when found are used up, they’ll break down and become useless. They may also have other quirks arising from their almost-broken state at the GM’s discretion. Divide final price by 10.

  Weapons and Armor

  Weapons and armor deserve special mention because Dungeon Fantasy is a combat-heavy genre, and this combat has a very specific “feel” to it. Therefore, high-tech combat gear will have an outsize impact on it.

  Baseline Dungeon Fantasy suggests that PCs should have a maximum total DR of about 15, as anything more than that will make them invulnerable to too many monster attacks.

  PC damage also has some upper bounds. Spellcasters with missile spells and a spellcasting talent of 6 can do a maximum of 18d damage, though that requires enough setup to only be possible about once per fight, and not on all fights. The maximum amount of “at-will” melee and ranged damage a PC can do is equivalent to about 7d per attack²³.

  Introducing ultra-tech armor into the game almost certainly means you’re going to exceed the DR cap. Even non-combat safety gear at these tech levels has as much DR as low-tech plate, while being much lighter. Proper combat armor is much tougher. Most of the published DF enemies will have trouble getting past the DR of a PC in full ultra-tech armor with their physical attacks.

  Similarly, high-tech weapons can change the shape of combat in your campaign. Dungeon Fantasy usually considers melee to be the main event and ranged combat to be a specialist niche, but if guns and beam weapons are common these two are going to swap places.

  Ultra-tech melee and ranged weapons can also allow PCs to approach or exceed the upper damage bounds described above much more easily. Both “boundaries” are roughly equivalent to rolling 7d of damage per attack. A force sword does 8d; a laser rifle does 6d, and can can fire many more shots per turn than a bow with no penalty. Both of those have armor divisors too, which make enemy DR become much less of an obstacle.

  The first step when addressing these issues is to carefully consider which items are available. What do you want your campaign’s new DR cap to be? What is the highest armor divisor you’re comfortable with? What sort of maximum damage do you want your PCs to do with a melee or ranged attack they can use every second? And, to quote Mister Torgue from Borderlands 2: EXPLOSIONS?

  The second step is to consider the same thing from the side of the opposition: what’s the highest DR and damage you estimate they will be able to routunely bring to the table? The gear available to the PCs should give them a chance to match those figures.

  You can then safely remove anything that exceeds your new planned limits. That will end up giving you a pretty good set of guidelines for what the ultra-tech culture and their ruins look like. A civilian medical lab infested with non-sapient monsters and low-tech looters might have plenty of medkits and wonder drugs, but no weapon heavier than a couple of timeworn electrolasers and some scalpels the thief can use as superfine daggers. For a military base filled with killer robots and with a tank at the end as a boss fight, the sky is the limit, though those anti-tank weapons might all be timeworn if you don’t want the PCs using them outside.

  1. The article itself includes a section titled “The Sociological Ramifications are Appalling”. ↩

  2. A ST 20 Knight with Weapon Master and a halberd can easily attack twice every turn and do 3d+13 per attack. This is theoretically possible right out of character creation if your knight is a half-ogre. ↩

  3. A ST 20 Scout with Weapon Master and Strongbow might be able to shoot once per turn and do about 4d+10 per shot. This particular boundary is hard to reach, so your highest “at-will” ranged damage will probably be less than that. ↩

• Jun 12, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Gaj

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  The book opens this entry by that the wastelands of Athas “sometimes spawn monsters so terrible not even the merciful can permit them to live”. Cheery.

  The Lore

  The illustration makes me think a gaj is what you get when you mix a mind flayer with a beetle. These aberrations have human-level intelligence, strong telepathic powers, and a taste for the flesh and fear of sapient creatures. They’re too anti-social to practice infiltration like mind flayers sometimes do, but there’s still a lot about them that’s familiar.

  Gaj dwell in extensive burrow networks that technically form a community, but they rarely interact with each other. They’ll band together to defend their home, but they mostly hunt alone or in mated pairs. They attack their prey with their claws and mandibles, and with invasive telepathy focused through their feathery antennae. Once a gaj has a firm grip on a victim, the touch of those antennae will rapidly disassemble the creature’s mind and use it to fuel further psychic assault.

  Certain specimens mutate to assume a sort of leadership role in a gaj community. Their powers specialize on inflicting pain, and they take upon themselves the job of keeping victims captive in the burrow as dominated slaves and/or reserve rations for lean times. These Pain Tyrants are one of the few things that can get a whole burrow together for a bigger hunt or a raid against a settlement.

  In really lean times, when gaj cannot find new victims and have already devoured all of their captives, they’ll turn on each other - even their own mates.

  Ironically, just as gaj like to hunt other sapients, so are they hunted in return. They’re very popular in the arena, so those ubuquitous slavers often mount expeditions to find and capture them.

  The Numbers

  Gaj are Medium Aberrant Magical Beasts with a ground speed of 6, a burrow speed of 3, Darkvision, and Tremorsense 5. Their signature trait is Warding Shell, which gives them +2 to defenses against any creature marking them.

  All of the stat blocks here are Chaotic Evil.

  Gaj Mindhunter

  This is the typical specimen, so named to distinguish it from the Pain Tyrant. Mindhunters are Level 8 Elite Controllers with 172 HP. Their basic attack is a bite with their Mandibles, which grab on a hit. Once the mindhunter has a victim in its jaws, it can only use this attack against it, and not against others.

  Its Invasive Presence has no such restrictions. It’s targets one or two creatures within Range 10, deals psychic damage on a hit, and pushes 1 square. There’s also Mind Wrench (recharge 5+), which targets a creature within a Close Burst 3 and dominates on a hit (save ends). Each time the target fails the save, the mindhunter’s grabbed victim takes 2d6 psychic damage.

  As a minor action, once per round, the mindhunter can use its Feathery Probe on the grabbed victim. On a hit this deals light psychic damage, 5 ongoing psychic damage, and dazes (save ends). If the target is already taking ongoing psychic damage, that damage increases by 5. Yes, repeated hits with this attack will result in more and more ongoing damage.

  All of this paints us a picture of the mindhunter’s preferred tactics: choose a victim to bite and grab, get away from the PCs, and keep using Invasive Presence and Mind Wrench to keep them busy while they nom on the victim with Feathery Probe.

  Gaj Pain Tyrant

  Pain Tyrants are considerably stronger than mindhunters, being Level 13 Elite Artillery with the Leader tag and 200 HP. Its Mandibles have no special effects other than damage. Its ranged basic attack is a Mind Shriek with range 20, that targets 1-2 creatures, and on a hit deals psychic damage and dazes for a turn.

  Less often they can use Agonizing Insight, an Area Burst 2 Within 20 with a lot of complicated effects. This weaponized anxiety attack inflicts 20 psychic damage on a hit (save ends). Whenever the target takes this ongoing damage, each of its allies within 3 squares also takes 5 psychic damage. So, if it hits 3 PCs, in the next round each of them is going to take a total of 30 psychic damage if they stay together: 20 from the main effect, 10 from splash damage. It recharges when the tyrant scores a critical hit with Phrenic Probe (see below).

  As an effect the attack also makes each enemy inside the burst grant combat advantage for a turn even if they weren’t hit by the main attack. It also lets allies in the burst use a free action to either shift 1 square or move half their speed.

  Against a dazed target, the Pain Tyrant can use Phrenic Probe as a 1/round minor action. This is a version of the mindhunter’s Feathery Probe that has range 20! Finally, Vicious Goad lets an ally within 20 squares move its speed and make a basic attack against an enemy of the tyrant’s choice as a free action. The ally is then dazed for a turn.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  Looks like the most common gaj encounter in the wilderness is a pair of mindhunters. A Pain Tyrant leading a larger group is also possible, but in this case I’d recommend making the accompanying mindhunters into regulars of a slightly lower level than their boss. Enslaved humanoids can round out the group. And you can also find mindhunters being used as arena fighters.

  These seem to be very tricky to fight.

• Jun 10, 2025

  Let's Read the Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Floating Mantle

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  The Lore

  The Silt Sea makes up the eastern border of the known regions of Athas. No one knows what’s on the other side of it, and they have only the barest idea of what’s under the dust. Sometimes, weird creatures will drift in from those far and deep regions. One of these weirdoes is the floating mantle.

  Floating mantles are giant flying jellyfish, though no one in Athas calls them that because they don’t know what a fish is. Despite their strong psionic powers, their flight is entirely mundane. Their bodies secrete a lighter than air gas into internal cavities to keep them aloft, and they expel small quantities of this gas to propel themselves.

  These creatures live in small groups called colonies, which are psychically linked to form a collective consciousness. They have some fairly obvious sexual dimorphism: males are a pale red in color, while females are a pale yellow. Both grow much more vivid in coloration when they feel agitated or threatened.

  During their reproductive cycle, the female will carry a large litter of “polyps” to term. This causes her to become larger, bluish in color and much more irritable, as the pregnancy is highly uncomfortable for her. When in this state, she’s known as a “bluesting”. When threatened, a bluesting might prematurely release some of its polyps, which can fight ferociously but don’t last long. Even when they’re properly birthed at the right time, polyps are still fragile and only a small fraction of them will grow up to join the colony.

  The book describes floating mantles as “quiet and inoffensive”, which I guess means they only attack sapients if they feel threatened, or to defend their young. They probably feed on small animals, and mainly hunt on the Silt Sea. When they do fight, they use the same natural weapons they use for hunting: sting-covered tendrils that deliver a paralytic poison, and the ability to drain the life force of a helpless victims.

  When hurt, a floating mantle emits a psychic scream that stuns attackers and warns their fellows of danger. Finally, the gas that they use is probably hydrogen, because it gives them an unfortunate tendency to explode when exposed to fire or electricity.

  The Numbers

  Floating Mantles are Aberrant Magical Beasts with the Blind tag, which makes them immune to blinding effects and gaze attacks. They perceive their surroundings with Blindsight 20. Mantles have a flight speed of 6, with an altitude limit of 3 and the ability to hover.

  Adult mantles are vulnerable 10 to fire and lightning. Polyps have too little stored hydrogen for this.

  Flying mantles are also immune to the effects of their Psychic Scream powers, whether used by themselves or by another mantle.

  Floating Mantle

  This typical specimen is Small in size, and a Level 13 Controller with 126 HP. Its basic attack is a Tentacle Rake (melee 2 vs. reflex) that deals poison damage and slows for a turn. If they have combat advantage against a target, they can use Life Leech (melee 2 vs. Fortitude) as a minor action. This deals poison damage, dazes and immobilizes (save ends both) and gives 10 temporary HP to the mantle. Of course, a target who’s hit by this once becomes susceptible to it until they save against that daze, since dazed characters grant CA.

  Also as a minor action, the mantle can squeeze out a Jet to shift its speed.

  When the mantle is first bloodied, a lot of stuff happens. First, Jet recharges. Then it lets out a Psychic Scream! The scream is a free action attack vs. Will in a Close Burst 2. On a hit, it deals psychic damage, and makes it so the affected targets take 10 psychic damage whenever they make an attack against the creature (save ends). As an effect, the floating mantle becomes invisible until the end of its next turn.

  If the mantle is reduced to 0 HP by fire or lightning, it suddenly explodes! This is another Close Burst 2, vs. Reflex this time, dealing high fire damage and pushing targets 1d4 squares. On a miss, it does half damage. This is probably the only variable push I ever saw.

  Floating Mantle Bluesting

  Bluestings grow to Medium size. They’re Level 15 Artillery with 111 HP, and a greater blindsight range of 25.

  Their Tentacle Rake Attack has reach 3 and does more damage than the common mantle’s, and they also gain the ability to fling their tiny stingers at distant targets. This Flinging Nettles attack targets Fortitude and deals poison damage out to range 20.

  If enemies manage to get close, the bluesting can let out a Toxic Burst, which targets creatures in a Close Burst 1 and deals poison damage on a hit. If the bluesting has less than four accompanying polyps, one appears in an adjacent square, acting right after the bluesting in initiative order.

  They have the same Jet ability as the common specimen, and can also perform a Sudden Birth (recharge 4+) as a minor when pressed. This is more or less the same as the secondary effect of the Toxic Burst above: it puts a new polyp in play within 3 squares if there are less than four accompanying the bluesting.

  Psychic Scream and Sudden Explosion work the same as in the common specimen, but do more damage since bluestings are higher level.

  Floating Mantle Polyp

  These Tiny youngsters can either be pre-placed in an encounter, or be produced by bluestings (in which case they’re not worth XP). A previously-placed polyp is one that reached term and was birthed normally, and adults will fiercely defend it. One produced during combat is considered premature and will die a few minutes after the fighting stops. Adults are less attached to those. In either case it’s not yet hooked up to the hive mind and it’s recklessly hangry.

  Polyps are Level 15 Minion Brutes. Their Tentacle Rakes do poison damage, and when they die they let loose a Psychic Scream in a close burst 2, which deals psychic damage and dazes for a turn on a hit.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  These are likely the most peaceful and sympathetic aberrant creatures you’re likely to find anywhere. They’ll most likely be found just chilling and minding their business, and will only become dangerous if the PCs strike the first blow. The capybaras of the Far Realm.

  Their lore is both disturbingly biological and a breath of fresh air. The first part is obvious (poor premature polyps!), and the second one is because here we have an example of powerful Athasian wildlife that isn’t so mindlessly aggressive it thinks armed adventurers are a good meal.

  Standard flying mantles need to either appear in pairs or have some other opportunistic flanking buddy that will help them get their initial combat advantage on a target. Other than that all of them have some interesting ways to punish PCs that do too well against them.

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