Skip to main content

Cryogorgon

Cryogorgon

Description

Large wild mountain ram, with shaggy yellow-white fur, and frosted blue eyes. When it gets angry or hungry it grows to the size of a horse, and becomes even stronger.

Drivers

  • Needs to eat: vegetation or frozen and shattered animals are fine.
  • Needs to breed with female sheep at least daily, if possible.
  • Wants to eat frozen and shattered intelligent life–it tastes best.
  • Wants to know it is feared, and will play with survivors after it has had its fill.

O5R

Str 14 (20) Dex 15 Con 16 Int 2 Wis 15 Cha 10
MV 18", jump 6", wall run 12" vertically HD 7 AC 16 HP 7d8+21 (52) Att +5: Ram 2d6+2(5) blunt, target must Str save (-5) or be knocked back the Cryogorgon's feet in distance; Trample straight line run for double movement, against creatures two size levels smaller than it, or creatures its size or smaller that are prone causing 2d6+5 damage to each creature it hits, and bumps creatures up to its size, who are knocked prone unless they save vs. Str. Morale 9
Special Attack: Freeze As a bonus action, the Cryogorgon can gaze attack one target looking at it, save vs. Con (-5) each round: On a successful save, creature is immune to this ability for this encounter. 1st. fail: slowed as spell, and feels a chill, 2nd fail: paralyzed as by hold person, and covered in frost, 3rd fail: Petrified, turned into solid ice and you are no longer able to make saves to resist these effects. Protection from Energy or a Daylight spell targeted on a creature negate Freeze's progress. Ice Petrified creatures can be thawed out with a Heal, Regenerate, or Power Word Heal spell.

Old School

AC 6, MV 18”, Wall Run 12", HD 5, hp 24, #AT 1, D 2-12 (ram with horns: 2d6), or trample
MonsterSource# Enc.MoveACHD# AttacksAttack TypesDamageSaveMoraleXP
CrygorgonEtW118", wall 12"551Ram at
end of
run, or
Trample
as part of a move)		Ram 2d6, or TrampleF59??
Notes: Freeze Anyone meeting the Cryogorgon gaze must save vs. paralysis each round: On a successful save, creature is immune to this ability for this encounter. 1st. fail: -2 AC and -10' movement, and feels a chill, 2nd fail: paralyzed as by hold person, and covered in frost, 3rd fail: Ice Petrified, turned into solid ice and you are no longer able to make saves to resist these effects. Protection from Energy or a Daylight spell targeted on a creature negate Freeze's progress. Ice Petrified creatures can be thawed out with a Heal, Regenerate, or Power Word Heal spell. Ice to Stone might also be useful here.

Encounter Guide

  • Territory: Cold Mountainous
  1. Foraging with herd: 1 Cryogorgon with 1d6+1 mountain goat females. Will attempt to goad herd away (preferably vertically).
  2. Searching for mates: 1 Cryogorgon. Will wait for party to leave. If approached to within 80', will start towards party, accelerating if they do not retreat, stopping if they do retreat.
  3. Maneater: 1 Cryogorgon. Will openly follow and harass party, attacking stragglers or small groups of small humanoids.

Results of Corpse

d6LResult
1.1d2 intact horns
2.1d2 cold eyes
3.Cryogorgon hide
4.1d2 intact horns, Cryogorgon hide
5.1d2 cold eyes, Cryogorgon hide
6.1d2 intact horns, 1d2 cold eyes, Cryogorgon hide
  • d6L: Roll two d6, take the lower result.

Reagents

  • Cryogorgon hide: stable if cured. Useful for hide armor, hide buckler, or leather armor with cold resistance.
  • Cryogorgon horn: stable. Useful for making minor horn items, or a mundane horn.
  • cold eyes: stable if kept away from fire or sunlight. When cast with fireball, makes damage cold instead of fire damage.

Consumption and Preparation

Just like goat: gamey, stringy texture. Generally recommended for slow cooking.
d10Result
1-2Chilled: Save twice vs. polymorph/fortitude/Con (DC 15): If both saves
are made, you get cold and covered in frost. If one save is failed, you
get hypothermia, and are -4 on all actions until treated. If both saves
fail, you are are affected by the Cryogorgon's Ice Petrify ability.
3-5Goat Headed: For 2d6 hours: gain advantage on saves against mind-
affecting spells or effects, disadvantage on intelligence checks, also
emit an odor identical to a goat, and must save against Will/Wisdom
to withdraw/disengage. NPCs also gain advantage on morale checks
for the duration. Lasts 2d3 days.
6-7Goat's Grace: Run up walls at half your ground movement speed with
a 10 foot runnning start, to a maximum height of your ground
movement speed. +2 to Breath/Dex/Reflex saves. Lasts 2d6 days.
7-8Frost Pulse: Save vs. paralysis: success gives you +2 vs. cold, ice,
blizzards, etc. for 2d3 days,
9Magic Goat Sense: If you don't already have Magic Goat Sense, gain
+1 Wisdom, and your pupils become rectangular.
10Chilling: For up to 2d2 hours after consuming, gain Freeze ability of
a Cryogorgon, but other creatures have a +2 bonus to save. Immune
to Ice Petrify from other creatures for duration.

References

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Names

  Note : There are a lot of external links in this post. None of them should be affiliate links If they are, please let me know . Note2 : This has been bouncing around in my brain informally for a while, but putting it to pixel was prompted by Rook’s post on names on Beneath Foreign Planets as part of the RPG Blog Carnival .  There’s a lot of great material that comes from these prompts. I encourage you, dear reader, to check that out. Note3 : Link to the GDoc version this post was originally composed in. On Names One of the holes new Game Masters fall into while playing D&D-esque games is names. I’ll start with random NPC names first, to get the subject out of the way:  Make a d20 or d100 list of names for each gender, and for families.  Either stick it on the fourth panel of your DM screen, or pre-roll five of each, and stick those lists on your fourth panel. If you need a list of real world names, use an onomastikon .   Onomastikon “What is an on...
2 comments
Read more

How I Generate Home Brew Fantasy Towns Quickly

I was prompted to write this by an article about world building  ( https://ofdiceanddragons.com/rpg-carnival-world-building/ ). One of the challenges of a  gamemaster (GM) is spending time building things that are useful in play.  From that  point of view, after sketching out the world in thirty words, it seems more productive to me to focus on the places the player characters are most likely to go.   Generally, for a sandbox style exploration game in the West Marches style, I want it to be some sort of town or small city.  A village is too small to do more than provide food and fodder, and maybe shelter in a farmer’s barn.  A large city can be an interesting setting, but is probably a little too large for a new GM to start with, even though it basically extrapolates on what’s outlined here. Why? In our elf games, we typically focus on going to wild or hostile places to bring something back or handle a threat.  We don’t really spend much time in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Elements of Magic Weapons, and Most Especially the Side Effects of Wielding Them

Through September Attronarch of Attronarch's Athenaeum is hosting September 2024's RPG Blog Carnival!  The theme is  Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers .  In relation to that, I would like to talk about the elements of generating a magical weapon with a touch more depth than Old Gary got into. Typical D&D weapons provide a benefit, but with no drawback.  This is great as far as it goes, but I believe a little more thought should be put into it, since each weapon should have the following elements: A numeric bonus An allegiance An intended enemy A weapon effect A side-effect First, I believe all magic weapons should have a numeric bonus, even if it's just +1 to hit and damage.  Call me old-fashioned. Second, gentle reader, all weapons should have some sort of magical effect, even if it's just an elemental damage bonus.  Weapons are made for a purpose, and are made by some person or group.  The makers of the weapon set the allegiance. That doesn'...
Post a Comment
Read more