[New Monster] Brogon
Brogon
Chalk watched as a small group of children threw coins at a giant bug. Any of the coins would fly at the creature and stick to it rather than hit the ground, causing the large insect to make a strange gibbering sound.
“What’s the point of the game?” asked the wizard.
“We will see of my father can tear these coins from the brogon’s shell. These are his earnings for the week,” replied one of the boys.
A roar of anger suddenly was heard emanating from a nearby shop. A blacksmith came running into the alley bearing a big hammer.
“What are you kids up to now?” the man screamed at them and then he saw what they were doing. He eyed the wizard.
“Is this your idea?” the blacksmith asked.
Chalk, taken aback, just shook his head.
“My profits are stuck to that thing and all you can do is shake your head!” growled the angry blacksmith.
Chalk did a quick estimate of the coins on the creature’s back and made the blacksmith a offer. The man pondered a moment then accepted it. The wizard handed over a few coins and made a hasty retreat.
“Good job boys!” laughed the blacksmith. “That’s doubled our week’s earnings! Now let’s slay this greedy bug and double our profits!”
Brogon
No. Enc.: 1d6 (1d20)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60′ (20′)
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4 bite
Save: F4
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: IV, V, VI (all x2)
X.P.: 80
Brogon are large bugs, about the size of a raccoon that inhabit subterranean places. A striking feature of these heavily armored creatures is the fact that their hard, chitinous shells are often covered in coins, which make them natural targets for treasure hunters. Unfortunately for the brogon the easiest way to remove these coins is to kill the thing, which immediately releases all the coins that were stuck to its shell. Some feel that these poor creatures were once greedy dwarfs that were punished by being turned into crawling bugs that forever carried treasure around with them, but could not appreciate a single coin of it. Any loose coins within 2′ of a brogon will fly to the bug’s tough shell and stick, requiring either a roll against Strength of 16+ or the death of the creature to release them.
I really like this monster! The concept works well for weird dungeons and can scale in both loot and difficulty if you just add extra coin “plating” to it. The idea of it being cursed greedy dwarfs is also priceless!
I’ll definitely be using these in my next dungeon crawl, although I may make them a little differently to make them more of a threat/challenge. A simple addition of a fast charge when spooked should do the trick. This works well at “low levels” where the coin armour is minimal and they’ll run from adventurers more often than not, but also works offensively at “high levels” where the coin armour is massive granting much better protection so they often attempt to “run away” *through* their attacks, trampling them as they do so.
Thanks for the idea! (again)
Thanks a million, Fenton! I am glad you like the little guys.
I like this one, but even more than the cursed dwarf I can’t help but think of this as a curse from a Dying Earth story…imagine someone aiming this one at Cugel himself.
Thank you for the comment, Herb! One of these days I need to read those books. I have the Compleat Dying Earth, yet just haven’t gotten into it yet.