Valley of the Spike Demons (#21/30, #264/365)
"The valley opens out into a bowl-shaped depression, dominated by an enormous black rectangular rock, rising from the red earth like some sort of featureless obelisk. Gathered around the base of the rock are a tribe of five giant green-furred ape-like creatures with spiked heads, who howl and slap at the ground with their clawed paws."
Contents: The edifice is Grogar the Dark Obelisk, Spirit of the Black Rock, a renegade Earth Spirit from the Magical Plane of Earth, that has used its powers to take over the minds of these Spike Demons, and order them to provide it with tribute and sacrifice.
The Spike Demons will attempt to capture the Heroes and carry them to the Dark Obelisk, forcing them to touch the rock with their bare hand. Anyone who does so must Test their Luck. If Unlucky, they are drained of 2-12 STAMINA points (which are added to Grogar's total below). They must then Test their Luck a second time; those that are Unlucky are now under Grogar's control and will be ordered to attack any colleagues who are free or uncontrolled, alongside the Spike Demons.
If the battle is going badly for the Spike Demons, or the majority of Heroes are uncontrolled or free, Grogar will transform, taking 1-3 Attack Rounds, into an immense humanoid figue of black rock, equivalent to an Earth Elemental, and attack as well.
Stats:
5 SPIKE DEMONS, SKILL 16 STAMINA 12, 2 Attacks, Large Claw, Light Armour, +1 to Damage Roll. Spike Demons are so fast that they are impossible to Escape from in melee combat, unless slowed down in some way.
The Spike Demons have accumulated some treasure from their depredations and heaped it at the base of the Dark Obelisk as offerings, including 3-36 GP, 2-12 Obsidian chips (worth 1 GP each), a Bronze Key, two vials of silver Rustbane fungus, 2-7 Red Jewels worth 20GP each, a Demonhair Rope, and a Hellblade.
1 DARK OBELISK (active), SKILL 18 STAMINA 22 (plus any from drained victims), 2 Attacks, causes 4 STAMINA damage per hit. Only wounded by magic weapons. Only suffers 1 STAMINA damage for each successful hit.
As the Dark Obelisk is equivalent to an Earth Elemental, parts of it, such as its eyes or powdered dust and fragments, may be of use to traders in magical monster organs (e.g. see Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume 1, p. 66).
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