Little Shops of Horror

[Palanan]

In my next game session, I’m planning for the party to work their way through a trading outpost with a variety of small shops—apothecary, smithy, dry goods, tackle & gear, etc. This is a frontier outpost that’s been all but abandoned in the face of Dark Forces RisingTM.

What sorts of small, flavorful monsters could I have hiding in the various shops? The party is second level and they’ll be pretty ragged when they arrive, so I don’t want to overwhelm them—but I do want them stressed and paranoid. What are some creepy, oddball creatures I could throw at them?

[Calthropstu]

An imp who won't actually engage them, but will make them miserable.
A quickling.
A pair of naked bugbears in the middle of copulating.
A qlippoth. Few things are as weird as qlippoths.

[Arael666]

In my next game session, I’m planning for the party to work their way through a trading outpost with a variety of small shops—apothecary, smithy, dry goods, tackle & gear, etc. This is a frontier outpost that’s been all but abandoned in the face of Dark Forces RisingTM.

What sorts of small, flavorful monsters could I have hiding in the various shops? The party is second level and they’ll be pretty ragged when they arrive, so I don’t want to overwhelm them—but I do want them stressed and paranoid. What are some creepy, oddball creatures I could throw at them?

The dungeonbred template would help a lot with that, imagine chimeras the size of riding dogs locked in cages; eyeballs (tiny beholderkin) are already a good candidate to be filling jars, but with this template you could have hundreds diminutive moving eyeballs inside a jar or a small aquarium or you could lock other small/medium sized beholderkin in similar cages/tanks; will-o-wists and howler waps (both small without the template) could be locked in bird cages suspended from the ceiling or high up the walls along with stirges or blood hawks (tiny and small without the template);

If you don't care about size, aberrations make the bulk of what you'd see in a shop like that (a huge tank with an aboleth - like the one in baldur's gate II - would be fantastic and a possible hook for a quest: free, kill or steal the beast), Gibbering Mouthers, chulls, Avolakias are a few examples of what I would expect to see (with or without the template); but I would not find strage if you see an ocasional magical beast like a Krenshar or a Worg or even a dinossaur (depending if your campaign world does not have/use them as pack beasts or transportation)

[Arael666]

A pair of naked bugbears in the middle of copulating.

:eek:
https://i.imgur.com/s4XqxxT.png

[Segev]

Shocker lizards.

[Telonius]

Mephits
Derro
Mongrelfolk
Marruspawn
One perfectly normal Halfling who's made excellent friends with his neighbors
Poison Dusk Lizardfolk

[Blackhawk748]

Darkling Snatcher
Tarantubats
Sheet Phantom

[Darrin]

What are some creepy, oddball creatures I could throw at them?

Tsochar from Lords of Madness. The creature itself isn't too tough, 4HD and DR 5/adamantine, but they ride around *inside* other creatures. After the first one bursts out of a dying NPC, they will drastically change their watch order, their sleeping arrangements, and how they approach NPCs for a good long while.

[Segev]

Tsochar from Lords of Madness. The creature itself isn't too tough, 4HD and DR 5/adamantine, but they ride around *inside* other creatures. After the first one bursts out of a dying NPC, they will drastically change their watch order, their sleeping arrangements, and how they approach NPCs for a good long while.

Ooh, good choice. Also, they don't have to lurk inside intelligent creatures. Put one in a wild dog that's acting strangely - possibly too intelligent or independently - for instance.

[denthor]

Have 5 cr rat lord attack. This a pack of rats tangled by tails that have learned to live with it.

You don't say what level or type of characters

[Segev]

The skulking cyst from Libris Mortis is CR 4, IIRC, and is an ambush predator. And it sets up victims for later exploitation by necromancers, or any caster using a Mother Cyst.

[Nifft]

What sorts of small, flavorful monsters could I have hiding in the various shops? The party is second level and they’ll be pretty ragged (...)


You don't say what level or type of characters

Think he did.



Mutants. Is there a humanoid tribe nearby? Goblins or kobolds or humans or whatever? Well, some of them messed with stuff in the shops, bad things happend to them, and they are now messed up. Break out some templates:
- Dark Creature (ToM)
- Wood Element (MotP)
- Insectile (SS)
- Spellwarped (MM3)
- etc.

These are not healthy or enhanced, though. They've got relatively few HP each, since they're based off of low-level humanoids, but they're weird and can attack in unexpected ways.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Darrin
Tsochar from Lords of Madness. The creature itself isn't too tough, 4HD and DR 5/adamantine, but they ride around *inside* other creatures. After the first one bursts out of a dying NPC, they will drastically change their watch order, their sleeping arrangements, and how they approach NPCs for a good long while.

*Cheshire grin*


Originally Posted by Segev
Ooh, good choice. Also, they don't have to lurk inside intelligent creatures. Put one in a wild dog that's acting strangely - possibly too intelligent or independently - for instance.

oooo.

Mu ha.


Originally Posted by denthor
You don't say what level….


Originally Posted by Palanan in the OP
The party is second level….

…so nothing too overwhelming.


Originally Posted by Segev
The skulking cyst from Libris Mortis is CR 4, IIRC, and is an ambush predator.

Not familiar with this one, but it sounds perfect for the mood.


Originally Posted by Nifft
Mutants. Is there a humanoid tribe nearby? Goblins or kobolds or humans or whatever? Well, some of them messed with stuff in the shops, bad things happend to them, and they are now messed up. Break out some templates:
- Dark Creature (ToM)
- Wood Element (MotP)
- Insectile (SS)
- Spellwarped (MM3)
- etc.

When I first saw all this, for some reason I thought it was part of your sig.

But these are interesting suggestions. Where is the Wood Element template from? The acronym isn’t obvious to me.

[Nifft]

But these are interesting suggestions. Where is the Wood Element template from? The acronym isn’t obvious to me.

Manual of the Planes, a 3.0e resource which got updated. There are a bunch of good templates in there.

Savage Species has a bunch, too (also 3.0e which got updated).


You can also just make stuff up, of course:

Gibbering Goblin
- Move speed: 10 ft.
- Special attack: 60 ft. ranged touch attack +4, 2d4 acid
- Special attack: confusing gaze (10 ft. range), save DC 14 or confusion as the spell
- Special quality: insane babbling (can't Hide, can't Move Silently)
This goblin's mad eyes pulse with crimson energy, darting around as it shambles toward you. One of its arms ends in a stump, but the stump is ringed with small eyes, and from the stump a strange ocher substance occasionally spurts. Where the ocher substance touches the ground, the ground sizzles, and wisps of smoke arise.

[denthor]

My apologies you did say 2nd level I missed it giant rats, spiders. The imp is great if it does only offer deals. There should be a 7th level wizard there as well that has had the feeblemind cast on him the imp may want to help.

[Thurbane]

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106319.jpg

http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/Cityscape_Gallery/101095.jpg

[Anthrowhale]

The Choker (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/choker.htm) is a small CR2 ambush predator normally found underground with a climb speed, a 10' reach, improved grab/constrict, and a freakish extra action.