Monster of the Week: The Metaphysical Horde
Fickle defenders of Law, or Chaos--and fantastic singers!
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The Metaphysical Horde is a swarm of bizarre creatures from the Nightmare Dimension, partially manifesting in another dimension to battle the forces of either Law or Chaos. Hopping about on multiple legs, they use their tentacles to immobilize opponents, and bite with vicious fangs set in gaping jaws, while rolling their large, bulbous eyes this way and that.
Metaphysical hordlings sing while they fight—loudly, magnificently, and in perfect, beautiful, multipart harmony with their fellows. Due to their singing, the Horde never achieves surprise—their opponents can hear them singing from great distances as they approach.
A successful hit by the tentacles of a hordling will restrain a human-sized or smaller creature, unless the creature succeeds at a Save vs. Paralysis. The creature may repeat the save each round, in an attempt to free itself. A given hordling may only restrain one creature at a time. A restrained creature loses its Move action until freed, and suffers a -1 to its “to hit” rolls.
Because they remain primarily in their own dimension while attacking, hordlings are indestructible. They have no HD outside their home plane, because they cannot take damage—even from magical weapons and other magic items. They only way to escape the Metaphysical Horde is to outrun it, or to banish the hordelings (as the fifth level cleric spell dispel evil; depending on the size of the Horde, banishing all the hordlings may require multiple castings.)
The Horde may appear without warning during a major conflict between Law and Chaos. While Neutral by nature, all the hordlings in a given encounter will fight on either the side of Law, or the side of Chaos—never on opposite sides from one another. The Horde may fight on the side of Law in one encounter, only to reappear and fight for Chaos in a later encounter. For any given encounter, the DM should randomly determine whether the horde is fighting for Law or Chaos.
Because the Horde is indestructible, the DM should use it with care. When describing character attacks, be sure to explain that even solid hits seem to do no damage at all. Before using the Horde in an encounter, consider providing at least one PC with a rumor, a legend, or teaching from a mentor about how to survive the Horde.
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: Nil (8** for purposes of XP)
Move: 90’ (30’)
Attack(s): 1 tentacle/1 bite
Damage: Restraint/2d8
No. Appearing: 10-100
Save As: Fighter 8
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 1750 (per hordling)
N.B. Metaphysical hordlings are inspired by the Karmenal of Zert, in Michael Moorcock’s The Queen of the Swords.