New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Gaseous Lantern

If you've ever seen Robert Altman's 1992 movie The Player, there's a scene where Richard E. Grant's character pitches a movie to Tim Robbins' character. Grant describes a nighttime scene outside a jail where a group of people holds vigil for a man about to be electrocuted. It's raining, and the candlelight flickering under all the umbrellas makes them appear like glowing Japanese lanterns. That's actually sort of what inspired today's monster.

DESCRIPTION Gaseous lanterns are seemingly benign creatures that appear as a sort of veiny fleshy balloon approximately 2’ in diameter set atop 7-12 tentacles approximately 8” in length. As a biological by-product of their digestion process (their diet consists mostly of lichen), they “glow”, with each lantern emitting an amount of light equal to to a dim candle. It is said that viewing an underground cavern filled with gaseous lanterns is truly a sight to behold. Unfortunately, the gas that gives these creatures their luminous appearance is extremely volatile and highly explosive. If contact is made between open flame (e.g., candles, torches and fireballs) and a gaseous lantern, the gaseous lantern will combust, doing 1-2 points of fire damage to all creaures within a 5’ radius (unless a saving throw +1 vs. breath weapon is made) and producing a cloud of toxic smoke that will cause all creatures within the same 5’ radius to fall unconscious for 1-3 turns (unless an additional saving throw +2 vs. poision is made.) Any gaseous lantern within 5’ of a gaseous lantern that has combusted must make a saving throw at -1 vs. breath weapon or combust as well, creating the same flame/smoke effects, and pontentially continuing a chain reaction of explosions among other nearby gaseous lanterns. Any successful “to hit” roll against a gaseous lantern by an edged weapon will cause the gaseous lantern to explode and release its toxic gas, causing the same effects as the toxic smoke noted above (but will not create any of the flame effects or cause any chain reaction.) For any successful “to hit” roll against a gaseous lantern by a blunt (non-edged weapon), there is a 50% chance that it will burst the gaseous lantern, causing the same gaseous effects as an edged weapon. Exposure to (without contacting) a significant heat source will cause a gaseous lantern to expand, causing it to “burst” (as by a weapon) in 1-2 turns. Gaseous lantern spores are released during these explosions. Though the spores are not dangerous, the 5-30 spores that are released from a single gaseous lantern, will each mature to a full gaseous lantern in approximately 2 weeks.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 10-60 ARMOR CLASS: 9 MOVE: /1” HIT DICE: 1 pt. % IN LAIR: Nil TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Non- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: S (2’ diameter) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 9 HIT DICE: 1 pt. MOVE: /10’ ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE: 1d6+2/1d6+2 NO. APPEARING: 10-60 SAVE AS: Normal man MORALE: 7 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral