ginnydi
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The Grasping Mother and her Lost Children
🕑 Added 2023-02-25 01:35:20 +0000 UTCThis month, I wanted to create not just a monster, but a whole story — a villain with some fun mechanics, as well as some thematic minions that could create an interesting, dynamic combat. And of course, who doesn't love a good lair? Thus the grasping mother and her lost children were born!
I was originally planning on including a lair map with this, but "forest clearing" felt like one of the most common and least interesting maps I could make. If you have a forest map or some forest terrain already, this could be very easily suited to whatever's on hand.
All images were created from public domain images, stock images that I licensed, and a little of my own high-effort Photoshop magic. Let me know what you think, and if you use the grasping mother in your game, I'd love to hear how it goes!
Comments
Phil O'Neill
Ah, gotcha. I was wondering if there was a "standard" number in mind. I like it better this way, though - I can just adjust up or down depending on what challenge I want for the encounter. Cheers! ETA: Sorry! Forgot the main thing! Five x 5th level PCs. They're also a pretty efficient group in combat. So I'm thinking about 6 lost children. That would technically make it a Deadly encounter, but I think with my group it would be Hard.
Ginny Di
That depends: what’s your party’s size and level?
Phil O'Neill
Love this one, Ginny. I was looking for a creepy random encounter to throw at my group while they're exploring in Barovia during Curse of Strahd, and this is perfect! One question - how many Lost Children would you suggest starting the encounter with?
Jonathan & Megan Pierson
This is pretty brilliant. I really like the faceless children constructs. My first thought was, "What if she actually slices off the faces of her victims and stitches them onto the new lost children she creates, basically making her victims her new children!" But thinking about it, the faceless thing, the fact that she's forgotten her son's face, is wonderfully heartbreaking. The face stealing thing would just be kind of shocky. There is a loss-of-identity, being forcibly "adopted" theme to it, but ... nah, I like the forgetting the son's face better. Kind of a deeper, more subtle stab, going for the heart instead of the guts. So, yeah, very nice. Thanks Ginny.
I love it! Creepy and sad mother creatures have a soft spot in my heart
