Morlocks (& Monstrome v3)

Progress on my bestiary continues. I've completed Monstrome v3!  New monsters:

• Morlocks
• Ogres
• Skeleton Jellies

Thank you Louis, Claytonian, Jake, and Anon for pointing out all of my typos.

Anyway, here are the morlocks:

Morlock

Blind, subterranean remnants of a heroic empire, changed by long centuries of darkness and intensive eugenics.  The surface world was promised to them, and they will have it.

Lvl 2  Def none  Spear 1d6+1

Dis *

Climbers - If anyone can climb it, they can climb it (albeit slowly).  If they are forced to climb quickly, they merely get +4 to the Climb check.

Almost Blind - Can see light sources within 10’.  Can see the sun.  Pretty much everything else is invisible to them.  However, their other senses are sharp enough that they are not impaired when fighting someone within 10’.  Beyond that range, they get -4 to hit (same as normal blindness) although they still have excellent hearing.  Because of how easy it is for a blind creature to trip (or fall in a pit), morlocks hardly ever run, and instead advance at a bow-legged march.

There are different types of “low” morlocks, plus a “race” of savage morlocks.  All morlocks can speak, except grangers.

1. Troglodytes (savage morlocks)

Troglodytes are the morlocks who have become isolated from their civilization, and descended into intentional savagery.  (If “civilization” is cruel, become uncivilized.)  Troglodyte colonies are usually founded by either (1) the remnants of a failed attempt to conquer the surface world, or (2) morlocks who have fled the cruelty of their own civilization.

Without leadership from the higher clades, their bloodlines have mingled into a roughly homogenous population.  Their disposition varies, but if encountered near their homes they will be motivated by food, security, and the desire to keep outsiders away from their homes.  If encountered further away, they are most likely a hunting party, looking for easier prey than the party.

Trogs have not lost their spoken or written languages, and they still remember the civilization from which they came.  They consider themselves free, and fear morlocks above all other things.  They are terrified that their freedom will vanish under the willpower of a chelinausca.  (They are correct.)

Troglodytes have no special abilities.  

2. Killlian Morlocks

The most human-looking of the morlocks, killians tend to be stoop-shouldered, pale, and heavy-browed.  Since killians are considered the “midpoint” of their race, they tend to be numerous, and most tools and armor are made for their bodily proportions.  

Whenever there are 3 or more killians in a group, one of them will be an artifactor.  If an artifactor is deprived of their artifact, they will do anything to recover it, although asking them to betray the other morlocks is pushing it and requires a Cha check.  Artifactors carry lightning guns (pictured above).

Lightning guns take a full turn to charge up, during which they glow, vibrate, and make a high-pitched noise.  The lightning bolt does 3d6 damage (Dex for half).  

Artifactor weapons can be used 1d3 times (rolled secretly), after which they will blow up in your hands, dealing 1d6 damage to you.  Morlocks can teach you how to determine how many charges are left, but they really don’t want to.  You’ll have to study morlockery as a skill to really get a sense of how these things work.

3. Granger Morlocks

In the Underworld, the proto-morlocks realized that there were many foods that they could not digest, and much labor to be done.  They greatly missed the horses and oxen of the surface world.  And so, they bred some new ones.  

Grangers are huge, muscular, and docile.  They have the following traits.

Livestock - Maximum HP.  High Strength.  Animal-level intelligence.  If the only morlocks remaining are granger morlocks, they become immediately docile, and will not even fight to defend themselves.  Can digest molds, slimes, grasses, and cellulose.  Different sub-breeds are used for meat, milk, pulling carts, and combat.  The grangers in the last category are usually armed, with their distinctive helmets having blinders (so that they aren’t startled by objects in their periphery).

4. Tyrochian Morlock

Exposed brains.  Faces obscured behind psychohaptic plates, but behind them blind eyes still roll. Tyrochian morlocks are focused on the abysso-pelagic pseudofauna of the World Behind the World.  Most, but not all of them, are completely insane. 

Tyrochian morlocks have the following traits.

Gift of Eyes - Tyrochian Morlocks can see everything within 10’.  And I do mean everything.  This combines darkvision, X-ray vision, and true sight.  They can read the book in your pocket.  They can count the polyps on your lungs.  Among other things, this makes them excellent trackers, which is one of their most common uses.  During combat they will run away and hide in the next room (usually).  If you don’t find them and kill them, they will fetch a warband of morlocks and swiftly track you down in 1d6+2 exploration turns.

5. Majuscule Morlocks

Small as a child, but quick and strong.  They can climb, leap, and hide.  They are clever–perhaps the cleverest of the morlock breeds.  They are covered with visible varicose veins, and most of them seem to have positions of authority over the other morlocks.  

Although killian morlocks are almost always the representatives of their race, majuscule morlocks are the leaders as often as not.  Majuscule morlocks have the following traits:

Evil Monkey - Climbs even better–as well as a monkey.  Deals +1d6 damage whenever it attacks with a situational advantage.  Can do yoda flips, giving it +8 Defense, but only against the first attack made against it each round.  Their shortswords and blowguns are often poisoned.

Common Knowledge

Everyone knows that there are a bunch of weirdos who live underground and want to take over the surface world, even if they don’t know the word “morlock”.  The blindness stuff is common knowledge.

Delvers can tell you that morlocks are great climbers, that they’re ruled by giant centipedes (false), and that there’s big ones and little ones, and the big ones will stop fighting if you kill all of the little ones.

Historians will tell you how Lassarac Boregal saved the world, and how everything does in fact technically belong to the morlocks.  However, historians with more Wis than Int are aware that this piece of history tends to get them slapped in the mouth, so they’ll tread carefully.

Tactics

All morlocks are aware of their blindness, and will try to mitigate this disadvantage.  On the surface, they attack only at night.  Underground, they know that if they can disable the torchbearers, they have a huge advantage.  (Remember that they can see light sources within 10’.)

Morlocks are intelligent foes, and they usually travel in bands.  If you encounter hostile morlocks, they’ll often assume a defensive position, gather reinforcements, and then track you down with a tyrochian morlock.  Even troglodytes know that their greatest strength is their clan.

Encounter Design

Assemble warbands from a group of killians.  Small groups are killian-only.  Medium sized groups will have 1 special troop type.  And Large groups will have two special troop types.  

I’d also recommend giving each troop of morlocks a mission:

1. Explore and map.  Make friends–give gifts to people you meet.

2. Capture someone and bring them back, we need a translator.

3. Diplomatic mission.  Make friends, get them to help us establish a secret base on the surface.

4. Diplomatic mission.  We’re looking to hire someone with eyes for a secret task.

5. Fortifying this area.  Killing dangerous animals, building traps, installing doors, digging a tunnel.

6. Scouting and foraging for the main army, half a day’s journey away.  (This was a major task for real armies.)

Note that most of these goals will probably yield morlock warbands who are more interested in talking, than fighting.  I would recommend creating 2-4 groups of morlocks and placing them in the dungeon, maybe having 1-2 of them as wandering groups, and 2-3 of them as fixed encounters. If morlocks run into trouble, they’ll run to the other groups for reinforcements.

Dungeon Design

Morlocks work well as a dungeon faction, or a centerpiece of the dungeon.  Morlocks don’t keep any animals (they are the animals), so morlock factions usually don’t include any tame animals.  Morlocks are diverse enough that you should be able to make interesting warbands using only morlocks.  If you need more types of morlocks, consider giving more abilities to killian artifactors.

Morlocks are blind, so they are at a major disadvantage in large spaces where the party can shoot arrows at them from more than 30’ away.  The morlocks don’t have an effective counter-tactic.  Similarly, blind morlocks are vulnerable to tripwires and caltrops (especially since so many of them are barefoot).

Don’t take away these advantages from the players.  If you want morlocks to be more challenging, just write encounters with more morlocks.

Definitely give players these environments (large chambers, tripwire opportunities) but also place environments that are advantageous to morlocks.

Anything that threatens to put the players into darkness is a major advantage for morlocks.  Waterfalls, fog, wind, weird gases.  Be sure to put some of those into the morlock dungeon, too.

History

Morlocks have attacked the surface world several times, with drill castles bursting up at random.  Each of these assaults has been successfully repelled by the kingdoms of the surface (although to be fair, disease is a far more effective defender of the surface world).

Psychology

Morlock psychology is characterized by the love that the commoners have for their nobility.  Loyalty has been bred into them.  And if you watch a morlock noble interact with her subjects, you’ll see a lot of the same behaviors that you’ll see in dogs: looking for approval, protectiveness, deference.

Morlocks tend to operate in groups.  They aren’t hyper-aggressive, and they cooperate well.  

Culture

Morlocks care deeply about other morlocks, but they don’t mourn the way that we do. They believe that all morlocks go to heaven, so what is there to mourn? They are cannibals. Friends are honored with a feast in their honor. Enemies are ground into mash and fed to grangers.

Agreements are sealed by an exchanging of gifts. The best gift is a piece of one’s own flesh, to be eaten.

While their nobles can read books, regular morlocks write using cuneiform. They read their cuneiform by by dragging a set of pins across the surface and feeling how the pins drop, or don’t.

Loot

Cold Smoke Grenades - Doesn’t bother the morlocks.  Extinguishes torches.

Potion of Sight - Used to grant morlocks regular vision.

Potion of Disguise - Used to infiltrate human cities.

Water Compass - Points towards the nearest body of water.  Invaluable in the Underworld.

Stone Cloak - Provides excellent camouflage against natural stone.

Marching Stone - Alleviates feelings of hunger when sucked.  Provides no actual nutrition.

Discussion

Morlocks are my substitutes for the drow: a general race of underground weirdos.

A lot of the things that make morlocks feel unique aren’t their special abilities.  It’s their tactics and their limitations that make them interesting.  Grangers stop fighting as soon as all the killians are killed.  Tyrochians must be tracked down swiftly.  

And of course, the blindness permeates all of their encounters.  Be sure to factor their blindness into all of their encounters.  Let them trip over tripwires.  Let them fawn over books.  If the party can get them into a large, well-lit cavern, let them die swiftly under arrow fire.

Variants & Reskins

Some other weapons for killian artefactors: 

1 - Ice Rod.  Takes a full turn to charge up.  Fires an ice ball that deals 1d6 damage to all creatures in a 20’ radius and freezes them to the floor.  Str check 1/round as a free action to break free.  Can also attack ice (standard action) to break free.

2 - Fire Rod.  Takes a full turn to charge up.  Fires a 2d6 fireball.

3 - Time Machine Bracelet.  The morlock fiddles with the watch and then vanishes.  They reappear a few seconds later and you remember now.  You’ve seen them before in your childhood.  They hurt you in some way.  They broke your leg, or they poisoned you, or they got you expelled from school.  One of your stats (chosen at random) is permanently reduced.  It’s always been reduced.  You don’t know why you ever thought you were better than this.

However, you do know that if you break the bracelet, you can undo what they’ve done to you.  A time machine bracelet can be used 1/day.

Grangers can be armored, or they can just pull carts.

You can give majuscules different types of poisons in order to modulate their difficulty.

1. Deal more damage.

2. Paralysis + invisibility for 1d6 minutes.

3. Rage.  If there are no enemies, attack allies.

4. Utter peace.  Cannot make attack rolls.

Morlock Noble

Morlock nobles call themselves chelinausca, a word which means centipede.  It is the symbol of the royal family, and is featured on all of their crests (although individual houses with have their own, additional symbols).  The highly stylized shape is also called the nausca.  (Kinda like the fleur de lis, for France.)

The Chelinausca are immediately recognizable, since they have complex bodies composed of many fused individuals.  This is the result of eugenics, grafting, and magic.  However, the chelinausca pride themselves on having attractive features, and so their bodies are always meant to be attractive and fashionable.

Lvl 6  Def none  Weapon 1d6+1/1d6+1

Int high  Cha high  Dis *

Nearsighted - Cannot see well beyond 30’. Cannot see in the dark..

Polybrain - Counts as three creatures (each level 2) for the purposes of mental effects, and all three must be affected simultaneously for any to be affected.  For example, a noble is unaffected by charm person unless it is cast successfully three times.

There several different houses of morlocks, each one shaped focusing on a different body plan.

Morlock Noble (Sphinx)

A feline built of human parts, with powerful claws on all legs.  Their wings are composed of human arms, each hand clutching a painted fan.  It can fly up to 60’, but it must end its turn on solid ground.

Additionally, the arms can drop their fans and draw daggers (worn on the back) as a free action.  The sphinx loses its limited flight but can make 10 attacks in a round, each at a -4 penalty, and each dealing 1d6 damage.  These can also be thrown, but only only once.

Morlock Noble (Panopticon)

Long, beautiful legs with a radially symmetrical body.  Five heads watch outwards, five right arms move in harmony.  All melee attacks against them deal half damage unless made with a reach weapon (like a spear).  This morlock noble has five attacks, but cannot make more than 2 of them against the same target.  They face all directions and know 3 spells (instead of 2).

Morlock Noble (Traditional)

A series of muscular torsos creates a serpentine body.  Two pairs of forearms cover the head, serving as both protection, decoration, and a means of expression.  

This noble can burrow through soil at half speed.  They can replace any of their regular attacks with a poisoned claw (actually the pointer fingers of their strongest arms) that deals 1 damage + 1d6 poison (repeats 1/round, Hard Con save ends).

Spellcasting (3 MD)

Each noble knows 2 of the following spells.

1. Illusion

2. Blindness

3. Spell Shield (+2 AC, immune to spells from the front, lasts 2*[dice] rounds)

4. Fusion (fuse 2 adjacent creatures into one, use best of 2 stats, fight for control each turn with Cha)

5. Ultrageneration (touched creature stunned/regenerates [dice]d6 HP/rnd for 3 rnds, Hard save)

6. Symbol of Flame (basically a delayed blast fireball that can be inscribed on any surface you touch (can work on living creatures if you can hit them, and they get no save) set timer for 1-6 rnds)

Common Knowledge

Morlock nobles are not common knowledge.  Most people will repeat the common rumor that morlocks are ruled by a race of giant centipedes.

Interrogate the correct morlock, though, and you’ll learn that there are two houses competing for the conquest of the surface world: House Dravion is composed of mostly sphinxes, while House Valorin is composed of mostly Panopticons.  

Opposing them is the ancient and esteemed House Inoferox, who is charged with convincing the two wayward houses to abandon their stupid raids and return to the Tunnels of Morl, where their armies are desperately needed.

Tactics

Morlock nobles are boss monsters.  Specifically, they are spellcasters and controllers, which means that they like to be in the back, with all of their meatshields in front of them.  The party will never encounter them alone.  

They are intelligent, so play them as such.  They never have a reason to fight to the death, so expect for them to flee early, as soon as it looks like they might lose.  Their AC is terrible, so their only defenses are mobility, minions, and spells.

Their spells are mostly used to disrupt and control.  Symbol of Flame can do direct damage (and function like a sticky grenade, hilariously).  Illusion has plenty of out-of-combat uses.  Ultrageneration can be used offensively or defensively.  Consider using spell selection as a prompt for determining personality–for example, a noble with spell shield might be more paranoid and nervous.

They usually have a powerful melee attack, but it’s a last resort.  If they’re getting into melee, they’re probably going to be quickly dead, even though they might have the satisfaction of taking someone with them.

Encounter Design

Put them in the back of your dungeon.  Maaaaybe put them on the wandering monster table and let them take walks with a solid honor guard.

As a general rule, you want to make sure that your boss is traveling with some meat shields (e.g. armored grangers) and some other high priority targets (e.g. killian morlock with a lightning gun).  That way the players have to decide which high priority target to take out first (boss or lightning gun guy), and the meat shields just represent a blunt obstacle to get around.

In terms of lairs, use environments that allow your boss easy escape.  Multiple levels for the ones with wings and giraffe legs.  Dirt for the ones that burrow.  If you want to monologue before combat, put a wooden conversation screen between the players and the boss, so the players can’t sucker punch the boss with a spell.  (But if you want to give the players that advantage, let them have it.)

Lairs and Encounters

Here’s a sample encounter (boss room).

• A tall, alabaster skinned morlock sits in a chair, combing his long white hair and putting it into an intricate braid.  Other chairs and clothing racks dot the room.  Mirrors cover the walls.  Unusually enough, the floor is sand, except for one location where a conversation pit has been installed.  In the center of the conversation pit is an enormous hookah with a despondent fair trapped inside.

• If you smoke a spellcaster, you can learn their spells.

• Yes, I know that you normally put the smokeable stuff on top of the hookah, but not this hookah.

• This killian morlock is the noble’s concubine; he has a hidden lightning gun.

• At the back of the room is a ziggurat of drawers, containing hundreds of drawers.  The flat parts of each level are covered with papers and writing implements.

• This is a desk for someone who can’t sit in chairs.

• A cage hangs in each corner of the room, holding a magnificent, iridescent insect.  They sing a tuneless song, although they harmonize.  

• These are deadly insects.  Aggressive, and poisonous.

• An armored granger morlock stands guard in each corner of the room.

The noble is hidden under the sand, of course, sleeping off the opium.  If the players aren’t cautious, combat will start with two of them getting stung on the toe.

If you want a full lair, use a morlock drill castle.  This is what they use to attack the surface world.  After a period of rumbling, they just bust up out of the ground and morlocks attack.  Or if it’s daytime, they’ll wait until nightfall and then attack.  (Morlocks are always impressed at how bright the sun is.  Like, they’ve heard about it, but it’s still incredible to see it in person.)

But Arnold, why are there drill towers?  That doesn’t look very terradynamic.

You fool.  You blind wad.  You absolute candlestick.  Only 1-2 drills operate at a time.  The other drills function as anchors, to give the rest of the drill castle something to push against.

History

700 years ago, the world was ending.  Volcanoes erupted ceaselessly, refugee fire fleeing from the transmetallic pogroms of the inner spheres.  The Magisterium of Flesh was unable to enforce its conceptual boundaries against the Magisteria of Water and Earth.  The sky choked the world, and impossible diseases rocked a helpless populace.

Klaiath Lassarac, a princess and mercenary general, swore that she would put an end to the wayward elements, or die trying.  Her price for this feat was all the kingdoms of the earth.

She raised an army of fourteen flags, and journeyed into the Underworld.  Over the first decade, messengers returned bearing good news–the army was making good progress towards the center of the world.  But eventually the messengers dwindled and became few.  The paths between the army and the surface had grown dim and desolate, and there was no safe path between anymore.

Within a decade, the pyroclastic pox had ceased and the fires had quieted.  Dirt was no longer flammable.  By all accounts, Lasserac had succeeded.  The kingdoms of the surface prepared for the return of the triumphant army.  There was great debate about exactly how the world would be given to a singular woman (and such a mercenary one), and there was no agreement.

Another decade passed.  Eventually word reached the surface that the armies were still embroiled in a war for the world’s soul.  A century passed, and then another.  Eventually, the kings forgot their debt.

Lasserac’s children called her “empress” now.  Her empire will one day cover everything the sun touches, and everything it does not.

Biology

The bodies of nobles are built on cosmetic concerns.  They have immaculate skin, usually of a singular tone, somewhere between alabaster, a dolphin-like grey, or a gentle blue.  You might see complex, beautifully symmetrical veins beneath their skin, worn like lace around the wrists.  And of course, they keep a tailor at hand at all times.

They are technologists, not biomancers.  Their incredible bodies are made possible through a crude form of grafting, similar to the process of separating a conjoined twin, but in reverse.  Because this is only possible through identical twins (who can also be accurately described as clones), noble families will use alchemical strategies to ensure that each noble brood includes 6-10 identical twins.  Like all children, morlock nobles spend a great deal of time discussing what they would like to look like when they are older.

This is ideal, since it allows for the nobles to determine which of the twins is most exceptional.  Childhood is a time of intense competition for a noble morlock.

Culling typically takes place around adolescence.  A ceremony is performed for the chosen morlock, in front of their siblings.  They will choose which body plan they wish to have.  The next day, their siblings are sacrificed and grafted according to specification.  The most favorite sibling is typically grafted nearest the chosen scion or–if the desired body plan is radially symmetrical–on the right-hand side.

Psychology

Morlock nobles are intelligent and sophisticated.  Most will speak half a dozen languages.  They travel with books, which are an inestimable sign of privilege among the morlock.

Mentally, they aren’t too different from other humans, with two large differences.

First, they have a callousness around suffering and death that seems alien to us.  They think nothing of killing a sibling, or allowing a troop of their brave soldiers to die painfully, as long as it serves a greater objective.  They’d still work hard to recover the corpses and give them an honorable funeral, though–they have plenty of respect for these sacrifices, even though they don’t hesitate to make them.

Second, they see love as an instrument of oppression and rule.  (To be fair, this is an accurate description of love in their society.)  As such, they are inherently hostile to any sign of affection or charm.  Anything that seems engineered to make a person loveable seems like a crass attempt at manipulation to them.  (If a PC tries to sweet talk a morlock noble, you may consider applying their Cha bonus as a penalty, until the characters figure out the correct approach).  

Overt attempts at seduction–even a brief innuendo–are treated the same as we would treat physical assault.  Successful morlock lovers express care (“Did you drink water today?”) rather than affection (“You look beautiful today.  I’ve missed you so much.”).  The former is how a noble talks to their spouse, the latter is how a noble talks to their slave.

Instead, what morlock nobles respect are (1) work towards a shared goal, and (2) beautiful things.    

The relationship between a morlock noble and their subjects is almost exactly like the relationship between a dog trainer and their dogs.  Although there is a lot of love there, it takes different shapes.  A morlock would die for their master.  A noble may share their plate and their bed, and may think of them as a child of theirs, but they would never die for them.

Interestingly enough, although troglodyte clans specifically deserted their civilization in order to get away from the chelinausca, they invariably end up recreating it.

Loot

Ring of the Faithful & Ring of the Master- A pair of rings.  Whoever wears the faithful’s ring hears all of the words of the master as if they were suggestions.  Usually only needed for young morlocks, until the forced obedience becomes genuine.

Fusion Elixir - Comes as a pair.  Drink them to fuse together.  Lasts until both parties choose to willingly separate.

Love Potion - Functions as a potent form of charm person.  Drinker might or might not be affected romantically, depending on their own inclinations.  Morlock nobles expect their underlings to drink these as a show of faith.  Sometimes, at negotiations, all parties will be required to drink them in order to seal a contract.  (This is frowned up, like two CEOS taking MDMA in order to sign a contract, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.)

Tirapheg Flute - Summons a tirapheg.

Whip of Command - Only does 1 point of damage, but allows you to cast command simultaneously on anything you whip.

Lovers Lash - Bladed whip, deals 1d4 damage, casts charm on anything it strikes.

Bone Castanets - Used in training morlocks.  Gives all morlocks +2 to all of their rolls on the next turn.  Useable 1/combat.

Discussion

Yep, morlock nobles are pretty fucked up.  Some advice for roleplaying weird cultures like this: 

(1) Lean into the weirdness.  If you’re chatting with a morlock noble, let them creep everyone out by talking about their siblings (“This was my sister’s arm before it was mine.  Don’t you like it?  I was always jealous of her gracile wrists.”)  They have a completely alien society, so make it clear.

(2) Lean into the normal stuff.  Find things that they have in common with the party.  A morlock noble might talk about their favorite childhood book, and how lucky the surface dwellers are to have so many.  They might talk about how much they miss their homes, and taking walks among the farms.  They might ask the party if they’re homesick, too.  That kinda thing.

If you’re using a published adventure, morlocks would be a good replacement for the drow.  Just replace any shrines to Lolth with statues of the Empress.  Swap out the clerics for artifactors.  Replace any weird monsters with weird morlocks.

And although Morlock society looks pretty horrifying from the outside, individual morlocks would probably tell you that they’re happier than anyone.  They know their role in society, they are protected, they aren’t slaves, and they’re economically doing better than their parents were.  (Home ownership is on the rise among young morlocks.)  Morlock society has the same problem as Brave New World, where everyone’s mindset has been artificially shaped to be well suited for their society (instead of the opposite, like what all of the human utopianists recommend).

It's up to you how evil you want to make them.

Variants & Reskins

There are other forms of morlock nobles that you might find deeper underground.  

Little Princes - Inbred and imbecilic, they possess incredible psychic powers.

Polybodies - A swarm of limbed torsos capable of combining into different shapes.  Sumptuary laws limit this body plan only to those of the imperial family, or those who are betrothed.  (It’s tough to consummate your marriage if you are a polybody and your spouse is not.)

Dauphins - Amphibious families–although their houses occasionally lapse into civil war.