Saturday 22 September 2018

From the Library - Some Inhabitants

Some inhabitants of the library, statted and stuff.

The Librarians
These are the closest the library has to native inhabitants. They were mortal accademics once, who found their way into the library and - like a breed of that finds its way into a deep underground cave and slowly becomes a troglodyte - remained there indefinately. over time, the library has warped them into the beings they now are.
The librarians are diminutive, standing no more than five feet tall at most, and possess a slender, almost emaciated frame. Under their voluminous robes, wide eyes per out from pallid faces. For the most part, these beings are furtive when visitors are around, and can make themselves scarce with suprising speed and quietness when they wish to.
The librarians are divided into five ordes - the red, yellow, black, grey and white orders - who each attend to different duties in the library and teach different magical arts with which to pursue this work. The orders are broadly cooperative, acting in synchrony to keep the library running and the sheol computer working, much like a colony of social insects. It seems they possess no leadership among their own kind - each order is considered broadly equal in rank - and instead seem to serve the sheol computer and calculation engines directly.

hit dice 4, P 8, armour as unarmoured humans, unarmed attacks (+0, d2) or magic missiles (hits automatically, d6), saves as magic-user 8.
All librarians possess the following abilities:

  • They do not sleep or tire.
  • They are totally immune to any mind-controlling effect that would turn them against their work on the great calculation.
  • They can, if hidden behind a bookshelf, step to any other bookshelf in the library as if there was no intervening space, so long as the start and end points are both unobserved - effectively allowing teleportation.


The Red Order - Those who Maintain The Library's Infrastructure.
Can cast the following each once per turn: Mending, Message, Shape Stone, Shape Wood, Spider Climb, Levitate, Create Stone.

The Yellow Order - Those who Maintain The Books.
Can cast the following each once per turn: Mending, Message, Charm Person, Suggestion, Detect Thieves (as detect undead), See Invisible.

The Black Order - Those who Maintain the Portals.
Can cast the following each once per turn: Hold Portal, Knock, Hold Person, Turn Mortals (as turn undead),Wall of Iron.

The Grey Order - Those who Shepherd the Restless Dead.
Can cast the following each once per turn: Detect Undead, See Invisible, Trap the Soul, Command Undead, Reduce to Phantom.
Reduce to Phantom targets a single undead being or trapped soul. If a save vs magic is failed, the target is stripped of its individuality and reduced to a mere phantom.

The White Order - Those who Tend to the Calculations.
Can cast the following each once per turn: Invisibility, Dispel Magic, Levitate, Inflict Blindness, Inflict Deafness.



Phantoms
Phantoms are, effectively, the spiritual remainders of a dead mortal, stripped down to their most basic form. Personality and thought are eroded, leaving little more than a spiritual automata laden with the collected data of that mortal's lifetime. Suffice to say, such beings are ripe for exploitation by the skilled necromancer. Thus, they have become invaluable to the infrastructure of the library, which stores them in glass tubes and uses them to power all manner of arcane machines.

Hit Dice 1, HP 1, Armour as unarmoured humans, Emotional Lash (save vs paralysis to avoid, see below effects), save as fighter 1.
Phantoms are gaseous beings, immune to all physical damage save that caused by magical items. They can pass throughpermeable objects, and are unafected by fire, poison, and so on.
An emotional lash is not a physical attack (indeed a phantom is incapable of affecting the physical world directly) but rather a projection of raw emotion into the mind of its victim.The effects of a phantom's emotional lash depend on its current emotional state, as listed.

  • Contentment or torpor: The victim gets disadadvantage to all rolls to act in anger or other strong emotions for one round.
  • Pain or irritation: d4 damage.
  • Rage or anguish: The victim takes d8 damage if they don't spend their next action attacking the subject of the phantom's emotions.
  • Fear or despair: The victim takes d8 damage if they don't spend their next action hiding or cowering.
  • Hunger or envy: The victim takes d8 damage if they don't spend their next action divesting themselves of their equipment.
A phantom's emotions are simple and direct, like those of an infant not yet able to talk or an unsophisticated animal. It understands speech only vaguely, able to detect emotion and tone but not precise meanings Influencing its emotions - to calm it, or agitate it and direct it against enemies - is simple to achieve, perhaps requiring a charisma roll if the PCs have a sensible plan. It always fails saves to resist magical effects that manipulate its emotions.

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