Wednesday 15 January 2014

Encounter: The Blue Ogre

Art: Caza!
Frequency: Unique
No. Appearing: 1
Armour Class: 8
Move: 12"
Hit Dice: 8+16 (51hp)
% In-lair: 5%
Treasure Type: See below
No. Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 1d2+5 or by weapon +5
Special Attacks: Stun
Special Defences: Mirror Image
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: 17
Alignment: N
Size: L (7')
Psionic Ability: none
Lv/xp: VII/1812

The Blue Ogre is a traveller from a distant world, stranded on the gameworld by some malfunctioning part for his transworld ship.

Physically tough, he is generally able to get by without resorting to the high-tech items in his ship and will normally be encountered somewhere where he thinks there might be some useful material or element that he needs to get his ship working again. His language, spoken and written, is totally foreign to the point that it may take characters a while to realise that either are actually words and not threatening rumbles or random indentations respectively.

With a strength of 18/93, his combat level is 11 and he has been stranded long enough to be come proficient with the bastard sword and footman's mace. His thick skin and musculature give him armour equivalent to "padded" and allow him to roam most tropical, sub-tropical, or temperate climates without need of clothing.

When not equipped with a weapon (which is most of the time) his massive fists deal 6-7 points of stunning damage - the target is stunned for 1 round per point of damage done unless they save versus death magic (CON hp bonus allowed as modifier). Damage is 25% real, 75% temporary. If using weapon versus armour, use the open hand modifiers.

Additionally, the Blue Ogre has an implant which allows him to create 2 mirror images, much as the spell of the same name. These last for up to a turn but can not be dispelled, although they do disappear if struck. As they are mental projections, they do not work against undead and elves have a 90% chance of recognizing the images as fake. It has no effect on anyone beyond 12". He can use this ability once per day.

The Blue Ogre's Cave
The ogre's cave is in fact his stranded ship, which has been wedged into the back of a natural cave. If the ogre is in lair, the door will be open and he will be working on some piece of inexplicable electronic equipment (if he had fixed the ship, he would no longer be there).

In these cases, he will be wearing his toolbelt. This contains:
  1. A plasma gun. 2 attacks/rnd, 1d10 damage, use the heavy lance for armour adjustments. Ranges: 2",4",6". 24 charges/shots remaining. Can not be recharged even by the ogre, so he's cautious with it.
  2. A laser welder. Used hand-to-hand does 1d12 damage. At range: 3 attack/rnd. Short range: up to 2", 1d6 per hit. Medium range: up to 3", 1d4 per hit. Long range: up to 20", 1d3 per hit. 1-40 charges (40 max) and each attack uses a charge whether it hits or not and whether it is in melee combat or ranged. Use bo-stick modifiers for armour. Can be recharged by Ogre when at his ship.
  3. A motorized screwdriver. "Intelligent Morph-Steel™" tip allows it to fit any screw head (down to microscopic scales) and operates as STR 20. 1d20 charges; Ogre can recharge it at his ship.
  4. 3,000,000 candle-power torch. 1d3 turns of charge; ogre can recharge. A magic user might be able to recharge this item at the DM's discretion.
  5. A Morph-Steel Wrench. Treat as footman's mace in combat. Fits any bolt head, down to microscopic size but is operated manually.
  6. Scan-scope™ lenses. As per Eyes of Minute Seeing but require charging. Currently has 1d20 rounds of charge (20 max), can be charged at ship.
  7. Various other odds and ends, basically small items of no value to a party other than curiosity.
He has also accumulated 11,461gp in coins, mostly from people who attacked him, as well as a bastard sword and a footman's mace which he normally keeps in the ship and which are perfectly normal examples.

The door of the ship can be shut by the ogre's voice command or by inputting a code on a panel beside it. The internal lights and so on are working and will continue to do so for decades, as will the force shield that protects it from almost any outside event (treat hull as cube of force with 10 charges, regaining 1 per round if depleted by attacks; hull itself has 100hp and regenerates 1hp per turn).

The ogre's goal is to go home. If a party can not converse with him he will normally ignore them, or simply barge past them if they are in his way. If they can talk to him (via magic) he will not be hostile but will only be interested in co-operating if he can get what he needs, and what he needs is gemstones. They don't have to be large, but they have to be good quality.

Basically, the ogre will pay for, or offer his aid in return for gems which are either precious or gem-quality (roll of 71+ on base value table, DMG p25) and which have been promoted at least once on the "increase or decrease of worth" table on DMG p26. He will pay 20% more than the listed price if the gems are already in a party's possession.

The one thing that he has almost given up hope for is a ruby of 10,000gp value. This is the only gem he will consider attacking a non-hostile party for.