So there is this thing called an RPG blog carnival. So here is my entry for this month's
What walks into Town.
Book Scorpions
While usual book scorpions will eat mites that eat bookbindings, when they begin to defend ancient tomb's of magic from dust mites, they can often begin to absorb strange powers. Brought into town by an uncles old book, a recovered library, or a strange gift in the mail. A book scorpion can emerge to terrorize a town. While not all wicked, they are usually perceived as such.
Each book scorpion is unique in how it absorbs magic and gains powers and unusually long life (for a scorpion.)
Sample book scorpions: (1d6 to select one at random)
1. Libram Terram: This book scorpion on emerging will generate offspring who bury into the ground and cause plants to die and people to take ill if eating plants grown nearby. The disease will cause extreme lethargy (sleepiness) and slow creeping words moving on their skin. For magic users taken ill they have random events (5e Wild magic table) or possible corruption (harder roll in the DCC system) accompany any spell they cast. Once the person stops eating things from nearby the symptoms pass in 2d4 days.
2. Libram Occultus: This book scorpion has lived hundreds of years and absorbed the wisdom of the ages. It is driven to find more books and absorb more information and will use any abilities to get more. It can charm a person with moderate difficulty to resist, in order to get more books. It is found stealing spell books if at all possible. Over the course of weeks and months it can acquire a horde of books in a random basement defending by charming would be assailants to it's horde. When it feels it has exhausted the supply of information in the town it will charm someone to take it on a trip infest another town. It knows 2d4 cantrips and/or 1st level spells that it can cast each once a day.
3. Libram Corpus: This book scorpion extends it's body by animating books and scrolls. Often flying books and scrolls around to maximize access to the tastiest book mites. Generally this freaks librarians out and they will panic by trying to move things back. This book scorpion can use mage hand / telekensis without any visible signs except for a random odor (roll on the table below)
| Random Odors |
| 1 | Fudge |
| 2 | Sour pickled vegetables |
| 3 | Petrichor (the smell before rain) |
| 4 | Sewer |
| 5 | Baked bread |
| 6 | Wet Dog |
4. Libram Resono: This book scorpion generates crazy sounds often leading people to become insane or crazy. It desired noise, and in the lack of noise it creates it's own. So typically during a busy loud day it will remain silent, but at night or in a quiet library it makes sounds. It acts like a minor illusion that can be cast 2d6 times a day and the sound is random and changes every 1d4 days or is always the same type.
| Random Sounds |
| 1 | Ringing Chimes |
| 2 | Voices in a strange language |
| 3 | Grinding stones |
| 4 | Mellodic strains |
| 5 | Thousands of crickets |
| 6 | Sounds related to a character's youth |
5. Libram Amorum: This book scorpion is perhaps misnamed, it doesn't just thrive off love, it thrives off of drama. It mimics other people's voices to instigate all possible drama. It also loves to find it's way to personal diaries and histories. Roll on the table below for it's preferred form of drama.
| Drama |
| 1 | Love |
| 2 | Betreyal |
| 3 | Jelousy |
| 4 | Vegence |
6. Libram Indium: This book scorpion loves art and finds books with art and pictures best. It also encourages new art in a violent, possessive way. It will possess anyone who displays artistic talent of the painting, drawing or calligraphic variety. It will possess them for 48 hours at a time, preventing the person from sleeping and cause them to create amazing art everywhere. Creating art in books, walls, carpets, walls or anything avaliable. Then the possessed will be exhausted for days and not recall anything that happened. Roll for a random theme of the art.
| Art |
| 1 | Female bodies |
| 2 | Male bodies |
| 3 | Bizzare plants |
| 4 | Abstract patterns |
| 5 | Harsh angular geometries |
| 6 | Spell like diagrams |
| 7 | Mutated forms of plants, animals and humans. |
| 8 | Bright, eye popping splotches |
| 9 | Poetry of (roll on Drama table above) |
| 10 | Long passsages of nonsense in many languages |
If you use any idea let me know how it went.
