Mystaran Deepspawn

 

Deepspawn, by Baxa (source)

Deepspawn have been mentioned earlier as possible generators of infestation-style dungeons. It seems appropriate to properly stat them out here. I should point out that deepspawn are not my own creation - they were first encountered in the Forgotten Realms in the FR11 Dwarves Deep supplement but I have adapted them here for the B/X rules and my version of Mystara. My stat block for them is:

Name	Deepspawn
Armor Class	See table below
Hit Dice (Avg hp)	See table below
Movement	60’
No Attacks	3 bites/2 tentacles
THAC0	As per HD
Damage	See table below
No Enc	1
Save as	Fighter at same level  as HD
Morale	10
Alignment	Chaotic
Treasure	See table below
Size/Type	Aberration (see table  below for size)
Intelligence	See table below
XP value	See table below

Hit Dice	AC	Bite damage	Tentacle damage	Intelligence	Size	XP	Treasure Type
2	9	1d2	1d2	4 (semi)	Medium	20	nil
4	9	1d3	1d2	6 (low)	Medium	75	C
6	8	1d4	1d3	8 (low)	Large	275	C x2
8	8	1d6	1d3	10 (avg)	Large	650	B
10	7	1d8	1d4	12 (very)	Huge	900	B
12	7	2d4	1d4	14 (high)	Huge	1100	A
14	6	1d10	1d6	15 (high	Huge	1350	A
16	6	1d12	1d6	16 (excep)	Huge	1350	A
18	5	2d6	1d8	17(excep)	Gargantuan	2000	H
20	5	2d8	1d8	18(genius)	Gargantuan	2000	H
22	4	3d6	1d10	19(genius)	Gargantuan	2500	H x2
24	4	2d10	1d10	20(genius)	Gargantuan	3000	H x2

Deepspawn can defend themselves, lashing out with tentacles and vicious maws on the end of rubbery appendages. However, they rarely allow themselves to get into situations where they must fight for themselves, and much prefer to get minions to fight for them. 

These deepspawn can create minions that serve and protect them, bringing food, treasure and information, as well as creating and maintaining large dungeon-like lairs. Deepspawn can create minions if they have sampled the flesh of that species. Minions are always of living species (animals, humanoids, magical beasts, vermin), never undead, constructs or elementals. Note that minions spawned by a deepspawn are not born with much knowledge or experience, but may gain these by staying alive and serving the deepspawn. Unlike deepspawn of the Forgotten Realms, these ones cannot spawn NPCs with levels in classes - they start off unskilled and must gain levels through experience. They are spawned biologically mature though - the deepspawn has no use for infant minions, and they are always loyal to their "parent". The size, power and quantity of minions is determined by the deepspawn's Hit Dice - larger, older deepspawn can spawn bigger, more powerful minions. 

Deepspawn Hit Dice	Max minion size	Max minion HD	No of Minions
2	Small	1	4
4	Small	2	8
6	Medium	3	12
8	Medium	4	16
10	Large	5	20
12	Large	6	24
14	Large	7	28
16	Large	8	32
18	Huge	9	36
20	Huge	10	40
22	Huge	11	44
24	Huge	12	48

Minions come in all sorts of varieties including humans, demihumans and for the largest deepspawn, giants and dragons. Deepspawn tend not to have minions that are too dangerous for even the deepspawn - cockatrice and basilisk minions have a tendency to petrify their parent deepspawn by accident.

Deepspawn start off as stupid, small and vulnerable but those that survive will learn quickly and become very clever and dangerous leaders and masterminds. Deepspawn pick up languages quickly and will often speak Common, Goblin, Orc and other languages of creatures they have encountered (and then devoured and sampled). Their lairs are usually excavated by their minions - deepspawn avoid hard physical work unless they have to. Gestating and spawning a minion generally takes a single day, but they cannot spawn new minions in the middle of combat. Gestating and spawning also requires a substantial amount of food (usually meat), so deepspawn are particularly ravenous when they are spawning lots of minions. 

Deepspawn are believed to have originated from other dimenions or planes of existence, but have arrived in Mystara and adapted well. Once a deepspawn reaches Huge size (10HD), it gains the ability to spawn a 2HD baby deepspawn once per year; this is asexual - no mate is required. Unlike minions, this baby deepspawn is not compelled to be loyal to its parent, but may stay around for the first few years, benefiting from the parent's protection and experience before setting out to set up its own lair with its own minions. .