Fiend Folio Friday: Berbalang

I yet again revisit my love of the Fiend Folio in order to provide a new adaptation of a Fiend Folio creature for 5th edition. I'm going to try to do this once per week for a while, skipping to the creatures I actually like or wished I could like and loosely going in alphabetical order.

I will certainly alter details to suit my own idea of what would be improvements to the creature, so while these will largely be true to the source, don't count on slavish devotion to reproducing creatures.

Berbalang

The berbalang is a solitary biped with leathery skin and bat-like wings. Its eyes are white and watery. DM note: the Berbalang is a low-level mystery monster, a terror that strikes and returns no matter what the PCs do. It's a menace that strikes at and devours people in a village, and even when the PCs are able to kill it off, it comes back looking for revenge, perhaps multiple times, until its lair can be found and the creature killed.

A Dual Life on the Astral Plane

The creature spends the greater part of each month in an apparently dormant state, hibernating preferably in a well-hidden cave. Though seemingly comatose, the berbalang is actually roaming the Astral Plane where it spends its time hunting and killing creatures weaker than itself and engaging in bizarre and complex courtship and mating rituals with other berbalangs. If its body is discovered and interfered with during the creature's astral roaming, the berbalang will attempt to return to the body and animate it; however this can take a long time (1-100 rounds) depending on the berbalang's actual distance away across the planes. If the body is destroyed, the astral berbalang dies as well. For this reason the creature takes a great deal of care in hiding itself and is very ingenious in this regard.

Duplicate Projection 

For three days each month at the time of the full moon, the berbalang returns to its material body, only to alter its form of trance and send forth a physical projection of itself upon the Prime Material Plane. The projection flies in search of food — a freshly-killed human corpse. The projection is physical in the sense that it can receive and inflict damage — in this respect it is a duplicate of the original. The berbalang can use all of the senses of the projection and will command (and essentially 'is') the projection in its quest for food. The projection can range up to 3 miles from the material berbalang body. The projection fights, if it needs to do so.

If the projection is hit and suffers damage it immediately takes flight, returning  to the body which will be unable to project again for a number of days equal to the number of hit points lost. If the projection is 'killed' it disappears, and the berbalang must make a DC10 CON save. If it fails the save, it falls to 0 hit points..

If the berbalang survives an attack, it will eventually seek revenge upon its attacker, though this may be delayed while the body recovers. If a wounded projection is followed back to the berbalang lair, the followers may be taken aback when they confront the unwounded physical creature.

If the protection is forced back to the body before the berbalang was able to feed, or if the projection was destroyed before feeding, a new projection will go forth again as soon as possible (after the compulsory period of recovery) regardless of the phase of the moon.

Sneaky Bugger  

To keep from depleting its food supply or arousing too great a local alarm, a berbalang will move its physical body to a new area every three or four months. They always travel by night and avoid confrontations when they are actually physically present. Since berbalangs live on the edge of civilisation, where lack of organisation allows them free rein, a berbalang is very rarely encountered in its physical form unless adventurers happen upon its lair or follow its projection back to its body.

Eat on the Run

If a projection kills a human it will immediately pick up the body and fly, at full rate, back to the host which will immediately emerge from its trance. While in flight, the projection will be feeding on the body — a fully-grown human can thus be devoured in one turn, leaving only the bones, garments and equipment.

WTF? 

How the berbalang derives sustenance when only its projection feeds, and how it reproduces when all mating activity takes place on the Astral Plane, are mysteries so far unexplained.

Berbalang

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Medium humanoid, chaotic evil

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Armor Class: 13
Hit Points: 19 (3d8+6)
Speed: 30 feet, 60 feet flying

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STR 10 (+0), DEX 16 (+3), 14 CON (+2), INT 15 (+2), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 10 (+0)

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Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +5
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages: Common, Deep Speech
Challenge: 1

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Actions

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• Multiattack: the berbalang attacks with its claws and a bite.
• Claws: melee weapon attack, +5 hit, reach 5 feet, one target 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage.
• Bite: melee weapon attack, +5 hit, reach 5 feet, one target 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage.

Estarion, Game 12 (plus a mansion map)

The PCs are invited to a party at noblewoman Julia Martus' house. While mingling with a cast of colorful characters, they are embroiled in the investigation of the murder of Nevius Albanus, Imperial Master of the Keys and Orcus cultist. The death is blatant hit job, and Jerrit's ridiculous passive perception helps them quickly identify the main suspect.

A confrontation eventually follows, allowing the group to flush out and fight the killer— who turns out to really be an Intellect Devourer riding around in the skull of a party guest.

Arturius barely manages to end the night with a brain, while Meadow finds that Searing Ray provides a compelling choice for frying an enemy. The revelation of the killer is confusing, as it seems to indicate an opponent that is not seeming to belong to any known faction so far. Jerrit, at least, has a brain with animal-like legs that could provide some interesting research opportunities.

Estarion, Games 10 and 11

Game 10

We returned from a real-life holiday break to the heroes still talking to the priestesses of Astarte to learn that the Night Hag had stolen a key from the basement of the temple, one that would open an ancient enchanted tower under the bay. The coming night, a once-a-millenium low tide will make the top of the tower rise above the waves and lower the magical wards around the entrance and allow entry. Even then, the tower is enchanted to prevent followers of the goddess and the hags and their creations from entering. Inside is imprisoned a terrible master of the hags, that they worshipped as a power before the gods, and Elder Thing waiting to awaken.

The heroes plan a shipboard dash to the tower, supported by the warrior-priestesses of Astarte. They are met by a pirate ship. Using their spell-power, they mess up the pirates, but not before they drop a barrel into the water -- which turns out to be the Apparatus of Kwalish.

The heroes gather to stop the apparatus, waiting out the tide and waiting for the tower to be swallowed up by the waves again. They then dragged the apparatus to shore, defeated the drivers -- Regga and a wererat.

The heroes manage to convince the priestesses of Astarte to introduce them to the high priestess of Hecate, who helps them sequester the key in a magical hiding place, but they now know the hags will have to wait for another opportunity.

DM’s note: This was a total railroad of a session, I hate to admit, driven by the fact that we had way too many plot threads hanging out. I wanted to get the hags back on the back burner, close out the rat cult plotline, and get the PCs back to their interest in rooting out the cult of Orcus. Not my favorite way of handling things, but the group was getting stuck on where to go, so I focused on reducing options for them to make more meaningful decisions available.

Game 11

After some thought, the heroes decide to scout out two possible approaches to fighting the Cult of Orcus. They begin by sending Meadow’s familiar to scout the brothel of Tatiana Scaevola, and find out her operation is all kink upstairs and worse kink with zombie women in the basement. The rich and sadistic’s playground, and a source of potential blackmail material and wealth for the cult. They decide that, while they are squicked out about her, she isn’t a huge threat.

Next they look at Herminia Cassius. Researching the weaknesses of the penanngalan, the group manages to set up a plan to raid her house, steal her body, and burn it in the ruins of the temple of Astarte. The plan is a hit an run, and involves kidnapping a servant, killing Herminia’s charmed husband (with Arturius killing his old friend), and destroying a quasit with a lot of fire.

They also begin spreading rumors of unsavory activity in the brothel, and have yet to figure out deprogramming Regga. 

Also, it looks as if Meadow is now secretly visiting the town orphanage with children's books, helping teach the young about the good news of her patroness, Ereshkigal, to help them see the light of her warlock patroness. That's sweet, right?

Gratuitous Dungeon Map

A simple map of a headquarters in the sewers, loosely based on the maps in one of the Slavers modules from AD&D.

Sketchbook: Aboleth

A quick sketch of an aboleth, inks on brown paper.

Converting Fiend Folio Favorites: Caryatid Column

Caryatid columns are created much like stone golems. The column appears to be a column incorporating the form of a slim woman bearing a narrow, old-fashioned sword, about 7' tall.

Defensive functions. A caryatid column will always have a specific defensive function such as guarding a treasure-chest or preventing intrusion into a particular area. This task will have been set by the creator.

The caryatid column will 'activate' as soon as any act is committed which its task specifically prohibits — the approach of a potential thief towards the treasure the column has been set to guard, an intrusion into a 'forbidden' area and so on. When it does animate, the caryatid column takes on a fleshy appearance, the sword, becomes steel and it is this weapon that the caryatid column will use in melee if necessary.

However the caryatid column will not necessarily enter into combat; its main task is to guard the treasure, prevent intrusion into a particular area or another similar task and if it can carry out this task without combat it will attempt to do so. Its behaviour will depend a great deal on the circumstances and the instructions given by its creator but it might, for example, attempt to divert the attention of intruding adventurers from the forbidden area and lead them to a place where they will be trapped or attacked by a monster.

If combat is inevitable, however, the caryatid column will initiate it. When the caryatid column's task is complete — intruders killed, treasure no longer vulnerable, for example — it will return to its original position and revert to its original stone shape, the sword becoming stone as well. If the column is killed, it returns to stone (as does the sword) on the spot.

Medium Construct, Unaligned

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Armor Class:    15
Hit Points:         37 (5d8+15)
Speed:             30 ft, climb 30 ft

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STR 16 (+3); DEX 14 (+2); CON 16 (+3); INT 3 (-4); WIS 10 (+0); CHA 10 (+0)

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Damage Immunities: Psychic, poison.
Condition Immunities: Charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned.
Damage Reduction: Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing damage from non-magical weapons that are not adamantine. Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages: Understands the languages of its creator, but does not speak.

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Immutable form: The caryatid column is immune to any spell that or effect that would alter its form.

Magic resistance: The caryatid column has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Weapon breakage: Any nonmagical weapon that strikes the caryatid column has a 25% chance (not cumulative) per strike of breaking.

ACTIONS

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Sword: +5 melee weapon, reach 5 feet, 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage.