Lone Wolf the Intitiate fought WHAT?!?

S

SableWyvern

Mongoose
Answer: A CR14 Burrowcrawler. :shock:

I think I might be toning that down just a tad for my party of level 4 heroes wandering through Flight From the Dark. A wee little baby Burrowcrawler, methinks.

Playing around with size levels left me with:

Large Creature.
8d10-16 End (28) [Edit: Silly Smiley. That's Twenty Eight.]
+12/+8 Bite 1d8+6 damage
AC15
No swallowing-whole of Medium sized targets.

Still dangerous, but manageable ... even with a likely surprise round, and the chance that it will be be pitch black during the fight.
 
Yeah, I know the CR 14 Burrowcrawler seems a bit much, but I don't remember the one from FftD being all that big - or that difficult. It more than likely was a wee tot of a crawler.

[edit] either that or LW got REALLY lucky :p[/edit]
 
I still maintain that I think the Mongoose one is misnamed: it seems like it's actually the Stoneworm from Chasm of Doom.
 
Say, folks, are we really talking about this beastie here??

Suddenly, something heavy drops from the tunnel ceiling onto your back and you fall to your knees. It is a Burrowcrawler and you must fight it, for it is trying to strangle you with its long slimy tentacles.

Burrowcrawler: COMBAT SKILL 17 ENDURANCE 7

If you do not have a torch, deduct 3 points from your COMBAT SKILL during this fight. The Burrowcrawler is immune to Mindblast and Animal Kinship.

--Flight from the Dark, paragraph 170
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Somehow I would have expected Joe Dever to call it a Baby Burrowcrawler or somesuch if it were freshly hatched ... or whatever ...

If I read you correctly, SableWyvern, you already have reduced it's size, so in the core rules it is bigger than a Large Creature? Has even more than 28 EP? And that "No swallowing-whole of Medium sized targets" sounds like the one in the core rules can do exactly that ... *shudders*

I vaguely remember someone mentioning on the forum that the creature described as "Burrowcrawler" in the core rules looked more like a misunderstood Stoneworm - now I start to see why ...

Don't have that book yet (only a few days more, I hope!), so I can't really say. Any opinions on that? ... Not the delay of my book, dammit! :? The Burrowworm, err, Stonecrawler! :wink:


Paido


edit: Erm ... Now that was a quick answer, Ordovician ... Hadn't even posted this ... :wink:
 
The Burrowcrawler in the rulebook is:

Gargantuan
110 Average End
+28/+23/+18/+13 Bite 2d8+12 (although, with a BCS of +16 that last attack probably shouldn't be there).
Swallow whole

I don't actually recall the Stoneworm, but sounds like that could be what this Burrowcrawler is meant to be.
 
I also note now the "tentacles" comment in the quote above. The Burrowcrawler in the rulebook is just an oversized earthworm, adding evidence to the case for a misnamed Stoneworm.
 
SableWyvern said:
I don't actually recall the Stoneworm, but sounds like that could be what this Burrowcrawler is meant to be.
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*gulp* at the stats of the Burrowcrawler ...

And to refresh your memory: :wink:

A foul odour assails your nostrils, making you choke and retch. Covering your mouth and nose you step back and raise your weapon in readiness to strike, for the creature is slithering towards you at a frightening pace. Your men rain blows upon its gaping jaws, but their blades barely scratch the creature's glistening grey skin before they are snatched and swallowed whole. Relentlessly the Stoneworm advances until it is upon you. You cannot evade it and you must fight the creature to the death. It is immune to Mindblast.

Stoneworm: COMBAT SKILL 15 ENDURANCE 38

--The Chasm of Doom, paragraph 88
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For more about that beast, start at paragraph 212. And paragraph 26 has an illustration of the Stoneworm.

BTW, the paragraph I gave earlier for the Burrowcrawler also has an illustration of our little friend - just for those who didn't already know that.

(As always, for ease of reference go to Project Aon's Book List - each book as a Numbered Sections entry in its Table of Contents.)


Paido
 
Actually, according to my notes and the texts available to us for research, the creature Lone Wolf fought WAS a burrowcrawler. It was just a young one, which is why it was so close to the surface. Older ones tend to dig far deeper, coming up only for their once-a-year meals.

Keep in mind that monsters are often of variable abilities in these books. The same type of monter in Book 4 might be fought in book 14, but it will be vastly tougher (obviously).

In retrospect, I was a little remiss in not including a version of the Burrowcrawler closer to what LW fought, but trimming decisions had to be made somewhere. It is an very big book after all. :)

-A
 
Well, with d20 creatures, it's much easier to scale up than it is to scale down. Something to keep in mind for future books.
 
Mongoose August said:
Actually, according to my notes and the texts available to us for research, the creature Lone Wolf fought WAS a burrowcrawler. It was just a young one, which is why it was so close to the surface. Older ones tend to dig far deeper, coming up only for their once-a-year meals.

Keep in mind that monsters are often of variable abilities in these books. The same type of monter in Book 4 might be fought in book 14, but it will be vastly tougher (obviously).

In retrospect, I was a little remiss in not including a version of the Burrowcrawler closer to what LW fought, but trimming decisions had to be made somewhere. It is an very big book after all. :)

-A
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Um, what I meant was that in Book 1 Lone Wolf fought a Burrowcrawler, and in Book 4 he fought a Stoneworm, which appears to be the RPG's version of the Burrowcrawler, based on the description (click names for links). I don't see either anywhere in book 14.

If I misinterpreted the RPG's description, I apologize.
 
The Book 14 was an example, not a direct reference.

And no need to apologise. The beauty of a forum is the freedom to voice opinions. :)

-August
 
The best examples I can think of monsters that increase in power level between books are:

Helghast (Book 2 or 3) to Gnaag Helghast (Book 8). Reason given: The Gnaag Helghast was a newer, improved breed of Helghast created by Gnaag.

The Darklords themselves (Book 5 to Book 12). Reason given: IIRC: the Darklords are themselves tied to the Darklands and get weaker the further they get.

The Drakkarim increase in difficulty as well; typically its due to increased numbers faced concurrently at higher levels or due to special training/status (for example the Death Knights).
 
Now I actualy managed to survivie this through sheer luck and a little rules knowledge.

The first time I played through Flight From the Dark with the LWRPG I was effectively playtesting the Kai Lord class and had intentionaly gone for a non combat focussed selection of disciplines based on my previously playing through the book with the original Lone Wolf rules all those years ago...

So I had:
  • Sixth Sense 5
  • Healing 4
  • Animal Kinship 3
  • Tracking 2
  • Mindshiled 1

Now as luck would have it, when I searched through the ruins of the monastery I discovered a usable spear and kept it. Little did I know how lucky I had been.

Later I came upon a dark tunnel and, lacking a light source, set to groping in the darkness. Eventualy I heard the scuttling of the Burrow Crawler and, not knowing what it was but hearing it accellerate for a charge, won te initiative and braced my spear to recieve it. Somehow the gods blessed me and as it ran forwards the dice came up with a natural twenty (20) which then confirmed as a devastating critical (x2 for braced and x3 for the spear is x4 because x2 is only the same again once and x3 is twice as much as the base). Taking the attack and reeling from the impact I staggered back down the tunnel, bracing my spear and again it ran onto it in order to get at me. Continuing my retreat I continued to pinion it as it rushed at me (although it was causing my severe ammounts of damage in the process). Fortunately I managed to gain a second critical which brought it fairly close to death.

As I staggered from the tunnel on 2 endurance points I was glad to be alive. I did not realise everyone else considered mindblast so essential against the burrow crawler (mainly because I don't use it much, don't use weaponskill much either). A small ammount of healing later I came up against the Gourgaz and that was another story. You've no idea how much defensive fighting I had to put in to survivie that :). I believe I must've used a potion of laumpsur somewhere between the two encounters but I do know that I was nearly dead when facing the gourgaz.
 
whenever i hear mention of the Burrowcrawler i recall reading an article (perhaps it was the glossary at the back of one of the Legends of Lone Wolf novels?) saying that the burrowcrawler was one of the agarashi, can anyone confirm or deny this, i must say that the burrowcrawler always reminds me of the carrion crawler from d&d
 
Its weird, In LoLW the Burrowcrawler fight was mucked up as well, with Grant making it something else.

What is this Persicution of tne humble Burrowcrawler? Its a vast conspiracy i tells ya!!!
 
jadrax said:
Its weird, In LoLW the Burrowcrawler fight was mucked up as well, with Grant making it something else.

What is this Persicution of tne humble Burrowcrawler? Its a vast conspiracy i tells ya!!!
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Mr Evil Wicked John "disrespect" Grant decided that the Burrowcrawler was not a single creature but a whole gestalt entity: a group of symbiotic creatures with each organ being a separate entity that cohabbited to create the whole. Then he could have severed body parts screaming as they scurried away into the shadows.

That aside I don't remember anything else about it.
 
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