Day Three -- Varr (giant-kin)

To start off the blog I'm going to try to do thirty monsters in thirty days, using Finch's Tome of Adventuring Design as a jumping off point. Today we've got a giant.

Varr (giant-kin)

# encountered: 1 (1d2)
% in Lair: 35%
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 8+4**
Attacks: 1 (club or rock)
Damage: 2d10 or 3d6
Save: F8
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: XVIII+5000 gp
XP: 1820

Varr are a rare variety of giant, usually solitary in nature, dwelling on remote islands or sea-cliffs. They stand about 14' tall, with wild hair and loose, baggy skin. Varr survive largely by fishing. 50% of Varr will maintain a cast of 1d8 giant crabs, which they are able to give simple commands in the ancient, clacking language of crustaceans.

Varrs attack with a giant club dealing 2d10 points of damage, can toss boulders to a range of 200' dealing 3d6 points of damage each, and can inflict curses upon their enemies. Once per day they can curse an opponent within 60'. The target must Save v. Spells or be transformed into a giant crab. The transformation is permanent unless dispelled, and can only be used against intelligent, humanoid targets. The target retains her native reasoning, losing one point of Intelligence per day until it reaches 1 and they become a giant crab irrevocably, short of powerful restorative magics. Varr themselves are immune to all forms of transmutation magics.

Lair Encounter

A single Varr named Brugrom dwells on a remote, treeless island in the middle of the Silver Sea, tending to the cast of five giant crabs he has tamed. His dwelling is a shallow cave, partially created by a crazily leaning rock and the soft dirt of a hill overlooking the ocean. Brugrom is both hungry for the taste of man-flesh and lonely, so he tries to capture men alive, so as to have some one to chat to before hunger overwhelms him. He currently has no captives, but the survivors of a shipwreck washed ashore a week ago, one of whom, a magic-user, was turned into a giant crab and has a current Intelligence score of 9.

Brugrom has 46 hit points and carries a massive cudgel carved from a driftwood log. He has amassed quite a treasure from years of combing through the flotsam that washes ashore on his island, as follows:

• 4000 ep
• 7000 gp
• 1 scroll containing the spell Web. This scroll was waterlogged and damaged, and there's a 1 in 6 chance the reader is targeted by the spell.
• 1 scroll containing the spells Haste and Lightning Bolt
• a rolled up, once fine carpet in reds and blues that is actually a flying carpet. Brugrom is using it as a tablecloth.
• 6 crossbow bolts +1
• a cursed set of chain mail that gives the wearer an AC of 9.