Monday, February 15, 2010

Spirit of Greyhawk - Monster Translation "Hellhound"

(It was mentioned in the comments of a prior post of mine that I ought to share what I ended up using as my first attempt at a Spirit of Greyhawk Hellhound. So, enjoy!)

Source Material Reference:
MM, p.51 (published 1977-1978)

Disclaimer: This was an "on the fly" translation; I didn't plan this one out. The party was looking for a way to break into a mansion occupied by 4 Iuz clerics and their staff. The PC's had decided to break in via "an exterior root cellar entrance", and so to make things interesting, I decided to turn the root cellar into a converted oubliette / Hellhound doghouse.

Hellhound (a la "Spirit of Greyhawk")

Stress: 4
Skills: Stealth (+4), Melee (+4, claws / fangs), Missile (+4, see Special Attack, below), Alertness (+4)
Consequences: Minor, Moderate
Special Attack: Flame Breath (Missile Attack, same zone, Aspect "Hellfire Breath")
Aspects: "Denizen of Hell (LE)"

Notes: Typically encountered in groups of 2-8

Translation Notes:
  • My standard guideline of 2 HD = 1 Stress Box was adjusted a bit by the source material's AC4. So rather than add "Light Armor" to the creature, I upped the overall toughness a bit.
  • I consider this particular translation represents the "high end" of a hellhound's range.
  • You could probably half the stress / skill (possibly consider dropping the consequences to just 1) and get your entry-level hellhound.

They're also strong enough that I played them as separate creatures, rather than as "pack mooks". They've got enough skill to able to successfully manuever aspects onto PCs, that the other hellhounds in the pack will then tag.

Adventure Side Notes:
In case you're interested, the root cellar had a scene aspect on it of "low ceiling" which meant the PCs had to fight in a crouch the whole time against two of the hellhounds as listed: which meant one character was crouching behind his shield (helped with the flame breath), jabbing (somewhat ineffectively) with his broadsword. Meanwhile, the other Acrobatic PC was pretty hindered, which ended up with him on his back under one hellhound--essentially shanking it while it struggled to get off him (resultingly the PC was also able to tag the "low ceiling" aspect to make it harder for the hellhound to get off him).

Once the PCs managed (barely) to defeat the Hellhounds, the Acrobatic (ex-Assassin) PC was heard to quietly exclaim in glee that "now we've got the PERFECT place to dispose of bodies!!"

It was so sincere and the player playing the Paladin PC was so disgusted and I was laughing so hard I couldn't help but award a Fate point for staying in character.

"What are you looking at me like that for? Wait... hey, come back--what are you so upset about? I just meant: who'd think to look here, amiright?"

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