After the Flood and Channeling the Plant God

(more material from my defunct 3e campaign, slightly edited to remove specific references to the party I ran through this setup)

This occurred as the party was caught in a farmland below a dam when the dam was broken.  In my campaign world the dam and farmland are on a high plateau with sheer cliffs falling thousands of feet to an uncivilized wild coastline below.

“The surge of flood water sweeps you up and rapidly carries you across the now ruined and flooded farmlands.  With hardly any warning, you realize that the waters have found or created a path over the great cliffs and are spilling out into the savage wilderness thousands of feet below.”

If the characters fail to somehow extricate themselves from the rapidly moving floodwaters (no easy task as they find themselves in a body of water nearly a mile wide and rapidly rising as the waters continue to flood out of the dam through the burst gates):

“Your efforts are useless as the powerful current whisks you over the edge and you find yourself in terrifying free fall,  caught in a monumental waterfall dropping several thousand feet vertically. “

The newly created waterfall falls over the cliff for a total of 3,000 feet of elevation loss.  This is divided into two sections: 

several short falls at the beginning that should tumble and damage the characters with a chance of killing them (perhaps some kind of dexterity check to avoid a save vs. death situation, along with 3d6 damage from tumbling and rocks - a kind DM might allow for a character that dies during the fall to be merely unconscious with water in their lungs, and any attempt to get them to spit the water out and breath would revive them with 1d4 HP);

 and one long 2,500 foot uninterrupted fall into a huge and newly created pool of water.  A natural depression at the base of the cliff formed by the fault line has become a very deep and turbulent pool.  The 2,640’ free fall takes only 14 and half seconds (assuming a terminal velocity of a human body in free fall of 182.414 feet per second) so give the players a chance to try something QUICK or nothing at all.

  

The water level continues to rise for a half hour after the PCs arrive, raising from 2 to 4 feet deep in most places, then gradually dropping at the rate of 2” per hour after that (in two days, it will have mostly drained, leaving swampy ground and pools wherever there were depressions and a lake over the fault line rift that will persist for decades ).

If a Random Encounter is called for,  roll 1d8

1:  angry dire brown bear, splashing across the landscape, with a raw wound and broken off sapling in it in its flank (-15 HP).  It is angry and confused and likely to attack.  Somehow removing the wound and helping the bear might be worth extra experience for a nature oriented character.  The bear might shadow the party through the flooded zone and assist them in a later encounter if they run into trouble...

2:  5 owlbears with 10 young in tow, searching for a new home.  They are not quiet moving across the flooded landscape.  They are also looking for a meal and the biggest three will attack if they find a sitting target, with two hanging back with the young and the entire group fleeing if the combat turns against them. 

3-5: Multiple splashdowns into unseen pits.  They can just be a nuisance, they can function as an attack against the leading member of the party as if the hidden pit under the water was a 3 HD monster, combining a fall with jagged broken logs to do 2d4 damage, they can swallow the victim in choking mud, they can be the home of a frightened giant sturgeon that was washed out from the dam in the flooding...

6:  Shambling mound ambush.  One pile of uprooted debris left from the flood is not what it seems...

7.  Swarm of biting flies follows the party.  Can be driven off with smoke, certain plant oils or some kind of creative PC tactic that might work with a swarm of thousands of little biting flies.  PCs that do not take special measures to clean and avoid itching the fly bites run the risk of infection in the dirty water.

8.  A displaced and angry dragon is sitting on a patch of high ground near its flooded caverns, looking for answers and someone to pay.  Not necessarily a combat encounter, unless you are feeling mean!

As evening arrives:

 “ The waning light illuminates the undersides of the leaves and casts a red glow on the tree trunks protruding from the muddy brown, sediment filled water. “ 

When the characters start looking for a place to camp, or soon after in any case:

Read the following to a player whose character has high wisdom or is particularly in tune with nature:

“You feel compelled to stop and look at a vine growing up the side of an immense dead stump; the vine has oddly shaped leaves which resemble a 9 pointed star, deep green in color with intense red veins.”  

 If the vine is touched, it communicates with the toucher telepathically:

“I am Haoma.  I am the god of the vine, the lord of green growing things and the Prince of the Dark Realm beneath the Soil.  Drink the milk squeezed from the roots of my vine-body and know the wisdom of Haoma...”

Each Vine of Haoma yields enough juice for 2d6 doses.  A 1' section of the vine yields one dose when squeezed.  The milk must be imbibed within 10 minutes of cutting the section of the vine, and there is no way to preserve the vine or milk for later consumption once the vine has been cut.  Uprooting the plant proves... difficult.  Each Vine of Haoma grows in a place sacred to Haoma and will grow there as long as Haoma is a power in the dark places.  Attempts to uproot the plant or destroy its roots will be met by progressively more severe responses by Haoma’s insect minions.  The roots themselves are incredibly tough and hardy, taking hundreds of HP of damage and dulling many normal swords or axes before they would be cut.  They will die if removed from their sacred location and a new vine will sprout forth.

Channeling the Plant God:  

If the milk of the vine is drunk, the imbiber is possessed by Haoma.  The possession lasts for 1d6 minutes +1 per point of wisdom above 16.  The character remains under control of its player but some personality changes may be evident.  In some cases special cases the possession can last indefinitely as long as the imbiber is carrying out Haoma’s wishes (in such cases, the Earthswim ability can be used once a day and the imbiber can cast a number of spells from the spell list equal to the number a cleric of the same level could cast – these spells do not in any way effect the number of spells the imbiber could otherwise cast in a day).

During the possession the imbiber will know that he or she is God of the Vine, Lord of Plants, Prince of the Dirt and all the bugs and mushrooms and other creatures and things that inhabit the soil.  Any actions that would be contrary to this god are incredibly difficult to take, requiring a roll of 19 or 20 on a d20 with the roll modified by +1 per point of wisdom above 15 possessed by the imbiber.  Haoma has little concern with  human (or demihuman) squabbles, but anyone possessed by Haoma would have a hard time taking actions that would render any natural habitat unfit for plant and animal life.  Note that in many cases, Haoma would not oppose destroying plant life if it opened up new living spaces for other plants and insects, but paving paradise and putting up a parking lot would be next to impossible to undertake while possessed by Haoma.

Haoma grants many powers during a possession but all are contingent on being barefoot and contacting the earth directly:

+6 to AC, +4 to Constitution (and any related bonus HP, if any), +2 to hit and damage, the ability to speak with and understand replies from plants and insects, and the ability to animate plants and control them in a 30’ radius (1 large (small tree, large cactus), 2 medium (bush, large vine), or 4 small (flowering plant, small vine, mushroom, etc) plants animated per level, e.g. a second level imbiber could animate a tree and two bushes).  These plants will generally have 1-4 HD, with exceptionally large trees counting as two or more trees for the purposes of animating them and having up to 20 HD (a forest giant worth five regular trees).  They can attack as a monster of their HD and do damage appropriate to the type of plant as adjudicated by the DM.  Poisonous plants and mushrooms can include their poison in attacks as appropriate.  Any animated plants return to their normal condition (first returning to their former position if they have uprooted and wandered away during their animation) at the end of the possession.

  The following special ability can also be used (which ends the possession) at any time; 

Earthswim:  You and anyone you are holding hands with sink into the earth and gain the ability to “swim” like a mole through the dirt, at the rate of 300’ per minute (slightly faster than average adult walking speed).  This ability lasts 1 minute per level.

Casting a spell will also end the possession – the imbiber casts spells as a cleric of the same level for purposes of determining access to and effects of the following spells:

Spell List:

1^{st Level}:animate wood (animate a small wooden object and it attacks a foe of your choice), branch to branch (+10 to climb checks in trees and can brachiate hand to hand like a monkey), camouflage (+10 bonus to hide checks), wood wose (summons translucent green nature spirit which will do simple tasks that do not involve knowledge of technology.  It can fly, lift 20 pounds and drag 100 pounds.  It cannot attack.  It cannot move more than 25’ +5’/2 levels away from you.  Duration:1 hour/level)

2^{nd Level}:brambles (wooden weapon grows spikes that deal +1 damage/level), briar web (area slows creatures and thorns deal 1 point of damage/5’ moved, area:40’ spread, duration: 1 minute per level), camouflage, mass (as camouflage but multiple subjects), earthbind (subject creature can’t fly), earthen grace (subject takes only non-lethal damage from stone and earth), easy trail (you make a temporary trail through any kind of undergrowth), embrace the wild (you gain an animal’s senses for 10 minutes/level), mountain stance (subject becomes hard to move), one with the land (link with nature gives a +2 bonus on nature-related skill checks),

3^{rd Level}:crumble ( you erode building or other structure), entangling staff (quarterstaff can grapple and constrict foes, forestfold (gain +10 bonus to hide and move silently checks in one type of terrain), giant’s wrath (pebbles you throw become boulders), nature’s rampart (you mold the terrain to provide fortifications), primal form (you change into earth elemental form, gain damage reduction 5, 25% chance of negating critical hits and sneak attacks on you, duration 1 minute /level), spikes (wooden weapon gains spikes which do +1 dmg/ level, weapon gets +2 bonus to hit, and doubles threat range), thornskin (your unarmed attacks deal +1d6 damage, natural and unarmed attacks against you take 5 damage), vine mine (vines grow rapidly, can use as climbing aid, to bind helpless targets, to hamper movement, or to camouflage/+4 on hide checks, vines grow in a spread, 10’ radius/level, range 100’+10’/level, duration 10 minutes/level

Using Haoma in Play - I leave it up to the DM to determine what if anything Haoma wanted to accomplish by reaching out to contact the PC.  Obviously, Haoma can be removed from the flooded landscape that my PCs encountered the vine in and placed nearly anywhere in the wilderness.  Vines of Haoma can become a strategic resource if an enemy can be lured within range to use the power of the short lasting possession on them.  Alternatively, a druid could protect the section of the wilderness that the PCs are intruding into and uses the power of the milk of the vine against the PCs unless they prove themselves to be friends of Haoma.

Orcish Lowlands - an introduction

A bit of a misnomer, the Orcish Lowlands from my 3e campaign were actually a high plateau that gently sloped up from south to north and from west to east.  They were called the lowlands because of the hilly highlands that rose above them and gradually turned into the jagged northern mountains.  I developed quite a lot of material for the lowlands as I ran two of my players through an extended journey across them.  This is a general introduction to traveling through the area, and future posts will detail specific sites, monsters, plants and encounters to be found in the lowlands.

First Impressions:  Gnarly twisted pines struggle to reach even 10' in height on the high, windswept plateau.  Every tree is bent to the south, mute evidence of the prevailing north winds that knife off the highlands, carrying the true cold of the north country along with them.  Tough, springy heather and colorful yellow and orange lichens fill the spaces between the choking scrubby bushes which abound like a scattering of thorn covered, four-foot throw pillows.  High overhead, the raucous caws of carrion birds remind travelers that should they meet their untimely demise in these harsh environs, their bodies will not have to sit long in decomposition before they rejoin the food chain.

The birds:  Large solid black vultures with bright blue heads and 9' wingspans.  They circle for hours over any large mammals they see, figuring chances are excellent that something will kill them before the day is out.  They are a more or less constant presence; even if not directly overhead, a few are always visible soaring the thermals on the horizon.  Clusters of them denote battles and carrion, and they gather from miles around to form great congregations (6d6 in number).  They will not attack anything that is still moving.

The Weather:  Roll 1d6 to determine predominant wind direction and weather once daily (there are almost always mixed clouds to solid clouds overhead, depending on the wind strength - strong winds scatter the oppressive cloud cover somewhat):
1-3: North wind, bitterly cold, 2d20+3 MPH, 25% chance of snow, 5% chance of rain, temperature: 3d4x4 degrees Fahrenheit, minus 2 degrees windchill per MPH of wind.  If it is raining and below freezing, the rain is freezing rain that coats everything on the ground in ice and makes traveling dangerous and miserable.
4: Westerly wind, 1d12 MPH, 5% chance of snow, 10% chance of rain, 25% chance of fog (1d10x10' visibility), temperature: 7d6+8 degrees Fahrenheit, minus 1 degree windchill per MPH of wind.
5:  Easterly wind, 1d12+4 MPH, 10% chance of snow, 10% chance of rain, temperature: 3d4x4 degrees Fahrenheit, minus 1 degree windchill per MPH of wind.
6: South wind, 1d20 MPH, 20% chance of rain, 20% chance of fog (1d10x10' visibility), 25% chance sunny (!), temperature: 4d6+30 degrees Fahrenheit

Trails:  Many twisting trails cross the landscape, most narrow paths worn down by animals with the occasional well worn orc road, 3' wide and 2-3' deep ruts that wind their way between entrances to the underground warrens.
Roll 1d20 every hour to determine if another trail or animal tracks cross the travelers path; if the results indicate tracks, roll 1d4 to determine direction traveled (1: North, 2: South, 3: East, 4: West) and 1d20 to determine how old the tracks or animal signs are (in days).
1d20 Trail and Track Chart:
1-2: Nothing
3: Deer tracks and droppings
4: Wolf tracks
5: Rabbit signs (droppings and fur tufts)
6: Hill giant trail
7: large reptile tracks
8: Bear trail
9: Large cat tracks (puma sized)
10: bear scat, bent and scratched tree
11: wild boar trail
12: four legged humanoid tracks (wolfen - a sort of were-wolf like creature that only has a man-wolf form)
13-14: Nothing
15-16: Deer trail (regularly traveled by large groups of deer)
17: Dallen (a centaur like creature with a mountain goat body) signs (white fur caught on ochoka bushes, fused-hoof print)
18: Rabbit sign
19-20: Orc trail

Animal trails and tracks normally lead between caves that serve as shelters from the vampire bats that swarm the plateau at night and grazing or hunting grounds that the animals frequent during the day.

Ochoka bushes and Movement Rates:  Resembling a tumbleweed with nasty thorns, travelers soon discover (whenever the wind blows) that a bouncing ochoka bush is not a pleasant mouthful.  Movement is at half normal rate (1/4 when the wind is blowing more than 10 MPH) unless the traveler wishes to take an automatic 6 hits per hour from the thorns of the ever present and painful ochoka bushes (well established and regularly used trails are normally clear of this threat and can be traveled at regular movement rates, 1/2 when the wind is blowing more than 10 MPH).  The thorns are needle thin, about an inch long and detach only if the barb which sits 1/3 of the way up the thorn finds a home to sink into.  Six thorn hits = 1 damage, but each thorn also delivers a minute dose of hallucinogenic poison.  At 6, 12, 18, etc. doses of accumulated poison in the system (it stays in the system for months as it is stored in fat cells), a fortitude save (save vs. poison) is required at DC 12, 15, 18, etc (or at -0, -3, -6, etc. if using Save vs. Poison rules).  When activated by a failed save, the effects of the poison last for 1d6 rounds per point that the save was missed by.  The poison acts to dull the senses, inducing a powerful fatigue and also an overwhelming urge to embrace the ochoka bush.  While under the influence, the ochoka bush is a soft and fuzzy pillow which radiates a soothing light and warmth, while the rest of the landscape seems alien, dark and frightening.  The poison affects balance and movement, making it hard to move away from the bush but extremely easy to move toward it.  Every three rounds that a PC is within 15' of a bush under the influence, a Will save DC20 (or a Wisdom check with a -4 penalty) is required to avoid stumbling into a bush (2d6 thorns attach).  When a victim dies on top of an ochoka bush, their blood triggers the bush to flower.  Within a day, brilliant pink and white blossoms bloom, emitting a sweet scent.  Pods soon emerge where the flowers shrivel away, bursting to shower the body with tiny seeds - new ochoka bushes sprout off the corpse like needles from a pin cushion, growing rapidly as they consume the nutrients in the body until a new generation of ochoka bushes rolls free across the landscape.  Note - the toxins in the bodies of ochoka victims are deadly to the carrion vultures, so they leave the bodies alone while the bush reproduces.

Encounter - Kur-Ken

What may seem at first glance like a single deformed monster is in reality two conjoined twins who each have half of a body, Kur and Ken.  Kur is the left head and the right side of the body, and he is a giant.  Ken is the right head and the left side of the body and he is very small.  Kur-Ken, as they are collectively known, are the sons of a mountain witch named Agu Yobi.  They are attached to her mobile house (think Baba Yaga's hut) with a magical silver chain that can stretch out to 3000' and will phase through any obstacles that it encounters as Kur-Ken wanders.  Agu Yobi and her hut will be detailed in an upcoming post; her hut is far larger inside than it appears and has many portals linking it to far flung locales where Agu Yobi hunts for food to feed herself and her sons.

I think the cards are legible enough as is, so refer to them for more detailed stats and play notes.

Quick Stats for Kur:

HP: 80

AC: 12

Attack: +10

Damage: club 2d6+5, boulder 1d8+5, 50' range

Movement: 20

Quick Stats for Ken:

HP: 25

AC: 13

Attack: +1

Damage: 1d4 (dagger)

Magical Abilities: Telepathy and Detect Life Forms, both 200' range, Telekinesis up to 30 lbs

Priest Spells: light, cure minor wounds x2; command, cure light wounds, sanctuary; hold person, cure moderate wounds

Play Notes:

Kur is constantly angry, in physical pain, and is immensely strong.  Kur is like a tired and grumpy child... who could crush your skull in his bare hand.  Ken is calm and happy; his atrophied body does not pain him like Kur's.  He is the brains of the operation and attempts to minimize the damage done by his angry brother.  Kur-Ken should be encountered a few thousand feet from the hut, as the sight of a one legged giant hopping around with an atrophied person sprouting out of his side, attached to a silver chain that disappears into the trees, should be enough to pique anyones curiosity.  Woe unto anyone who harms the twins, as their mother is the real danger.  Should anyone follow the chain to the hut, it is extremely difficult to enter from outside when Agu Yobi is away - she uses a form of wizard lock on the giant rolled up tongue that serves as door and access ramp.

This is a good example of how I scribble on anything handy when inspiration strikes me - in this case, the backs of some flyers for my band.  Agu Yobi's hut is pretty cool, I have no idea how similar it is to Baba Yaga's hut because I have never seen that adventure, but I was inspired by the folktale of Baba Yaga.  I love the idea of a hut on legs walking around.

Bestiary - Sally's Siege Engines

These are truly horrifying monstrosities, brought up from the depths by the great orc warlord Sally Forth (Sally was named after the war cry of the humans his father fought on the frontier).  Shortly after Sally was possessed by the river god Xylitin and became obsessed with destroying the dam and unchaining the river, he disappeared into the tunnels under the orc warrens and was gone for months.  He finally emerged leading three baby beasts out, having slain their mother in a truly epic combat.  He raised them by hand and trained them to become the pride of the orc army, instrumental in uniting the warring factions and raising the great army of hill and grey orcs that did finally overrun the defenses of the dam and set the river free.

Here is the original sheet detailing Sally's Siege Engines:

They are eyeless and shaped much like a sperm whale in the body.  They have thick legs and two boneless, muscular tails that can expand and contract up to 50% from their base length of 70' (giving them a maximum range of 105').  A 30' club with 12-15' spikes caps each tail.  Their only attack form is to anchor their massive head on the ground, raise their tail end and thrash wildly with their tails - each tail can target a 40' diameter area and one attack roll serves against all targets in that area.  While it is not particularly hard to hit them, their hide is thick and rubbery and they are protected by a thick layer of blubber.  They sense their prey with sensitive "ears" (pits along the side of their body) which can pick up vibrations, odors and electro-magnetic fields.  Much like a shark, they go into a frenzy at the smell of blood and will seek it out.  They pound their prey to a pulp and then snuffle up the bloody remains with their toothless mouth.

Quick Stats (using D&D 3e conventions):

HP: 350-440

AC: 18

Attacks: +30 / +30 (40' diameter burst)

Damage:4d20 / 4d20

Damage Reduction: 8/everything, 1/4 damage from blunt weapons, 1/2 damage from slashing weapons

Play Notes:

The siege engines in play made quite an impact. Two members of the party had been previously shrunk to the size of grains of rice and cast into the pit that served as the siege engine's home in the orc encampment, so they already had a healthy fear of the creatures.  When the orcs finally descended down the mountain pass, the defenders of the dam met them at the narrow gorge that they must funnel through, at the point that so many orc invasions had been stymied before.  This time, the orcs stayed out of range and sent a score of naked berserkers running down.  These frothing maniacs were whipping themselves with thorns as they ran, leaving a trail of blood behind.  As they neared the gorge, a hail of arrows rained down but the orc beserkers were in a frenzied state that propelled them forward with the blessings of their god even as their bodies suffered mortal wounds from the arrows.  As they neared the massive logjam that choked the gorge, evidence of an ancient flood, each berserker grabbed a bladder that had been tied to its back and hurled it at the logjam.  The bladders burst and covered the ancient petrified trees with blood.

The defenders were quite confused about what was happening until the siege engines were brought forth from the rear of the orc position.  The lumbering behemoths followed the bloody trail left by the berserkers, ignoring the arrows and lightening bolts that rained down from above, and began to smash the logjam with their tails.

The defenders that were holed up among the ancient tree trunks fled as the siege engines smashed a broad trail through the logjam, pausing only to snuffle up the remains of the unfortunate ones who could not scramble out of the range of their deadly tails.

Encounter - Gorradons

This encounter was a lot of fun when I ran my 3.5 group through it last year. The Gorradon are a race of winged gorilla demons, the result of the the devil progenitors mating with the jungle apes that lived in the shadow of the great cliffs. The Gorradon disappeared thousands of years ago along with most of the other races of devil progeny (the devil progeny are also known as "old ones" as the Gorradon are referred to on sheet 1 below) as the bloodlines began to thin, but the more powerful early generations sequestered themselves within domes equipped with life support systems that kept them in a state of stasis, awaiting the return of the comet. When the black gates were opened in the dam and the flood waters spilled from the upper plateau over the cliffs and scoured the lowlands below, one of these Gorradon life support domes was exposed, the top of the dome poking out above the muddy jumble that remained when the flood waters subsided.

I may never get around to fully explaining the world that my 3.5 campaign occurred in (I have hundreds of pages of material), but I will post pieces of it here that I think would be useful taken out of context. Here are the two sheets that I used to run this encounter:
Sheet 1:

Sheet 2:

While these sheets make perfect sense to me, I could see how other people might have trouble deciphering my scribbles.

Notes on Sheet 1:  The flood has uncovered a dome that rests on a disc of solid stone.  The disc is 5' tall, but 3' is still buried in the sediment.  The dome has a 55' diameter and is 25' tall at its apex.  It is made of a nearly perfectly transparent, thin but extremely durable material.  For game purposes, the dome should be more or less indestructible, unless some truly extraordinary measures are brought to bear against it.  There are four entrances at the four cardinal directions - these are 12' tall arches (see sketch) which appear to be completely open but are blocked by a mild force field.  This force field keeps out dirt and water, and any other non-living substances.  Living organic tissue can pass through, so if a PC wants to enter they will have to remove all clothing and equipment.

Inside the dome, a score of unresponsive Gorradons lie in a ring on beds, covered in organic looking webbing that turns into a solid covering over their faces; thick tubes connect this face covering with a 10' diameter globe of steel which radiates energy and a faint hint of evil or chaos (the device is a soul battery, a device that stores captured souls and uses their energy).  The beds are made of a soft, squishy black material (foam cushioning with black vinyl exterior).  A chest lies at the foot of each bed.  Directly above and to the left of the sketch of the dome entrance, there is a top view sketch showing the 20 Gorradons connected to the central globe.  One Gorradon is awake, but he is gathering his strength and appears as motionless as the others.

Chest Stats:  The chests are made of a burnished black steel, 5' long, unmarked except for a large hand shaped indent  on the side facing the bed.  Each indent is keyed to the hand of its owner and the chest will open for no other. The chest has 200 HP (and a hardness of 10, which I forgot to mention on the sheet, so 10 damage is subtracted from each blow that hits the chest) and is protected by a forcefield that grants the chest an effective AC of 22.  See sheet 2 notes for chest contents.

Gorradon Quick Stats (using ascending AC and other 3e conventions):
Movement: 40, Flight: 60 (good maneuverability)
HP:130
AC:20 (while covered in webbing, which is extremely durable and rubbery) or 16 (normal unarmored AC)
Attacks: +15 / +15 (bare hands)
Damage: 1d8+5 / 1d8+5
If both attacks hit, the Gorradon gets a free grapple using its legs as well with a +18 to the grapple check.

Gorradon are extremely intelligent and had an advanced high-tech society.  They are very disciplined and war-like, and will use sound tactics in combat.

Notes on sheet 2:  While the more powerful older generations of the Gorradon slept in their domes and waited in a dreamless state for the comet to return, the vast majority of the Gorradon devolved as the devil genes in each successive generation became more diluted.  The large, semi-intelligent gorilla-like apes which populate the forest today are their descendants - they still sport vestigial wings, boneless flaps of skin and cartilage on their back.  They can be encountered in the forests and muddy plains surrounding the dome.
Quick Stats for the Gorradon descendants:
HP:40-70
AC:16
Attack: +10 / +10
Damage: 1d6+5 / 1d6+5
A quick sketch of one of the Gorradon descendants can be seen to the left of their stats, showing the vestigial wings.  On the upper left of the sheet, there is a quick sketch of a Gorradon on its bed, chest at its feet, covered in webbing and connected with a tube to its face covering.

The rest of this sheet is dedicated to the contents of the chests - the Gorradon war kit.  Each chest contains: a suit of fibercloth armor (granting the Gorradon an AC of 25 when equipped), a battle helmet, a rations belt, a bracelet of gas grenades and a blast staff.  The armor and helmet are, of course, sized to fit a 10' winged gorilla.

Battle Helmet:  There is a quick sketch of this item under the word "helmet" on sheet 2.  An opaque viscous membrane stretches across the open bottom of the helmet; to don the helmet, the wearer must push his head through this membrane which gives way and reforms an airtight seal around his or her neck.  The helmet has a sophisticated air filtration system which will nullify almost all poisonous gases.  The lenses in the eye holes enable the wearer to see in the infrared and x-ray spectrums, and also function as telescope and microscope.  These modes are activated by clicking a button by the right eye - each click cycles through from infrared to x-ray to normal vision - while in any vision mode, a dial by the left eye serves as a zoom.  The helmet also has a super-imposed crosshairs that appears over the visual display when its wearer is wielding a blast staff - this grants a +2 bonus to hit with the blast staff.

Rations Belt:  This belt has 16 tubes attached to it (see sketch).  Each tube has two indents that separate it into three parts.  You can easily break the tube at an indent.  The first two sections are a condensed, high protein meal (tasteless and powdery) while the last section expands and pulls moisture out of the air, becoming a large, ready to drink cup of water.

Bracelet with Gas Grenades (see sketch):  This bracelet has six gas grenades attached to it.  Twisting a grenade 90 degrees releases it from the bracelet and activates it - once activated, it will explode on impact into a rapidly expanding cloud of green gas.  It expands 10' per round until it fills a 40' diameter sphere.  Gas: fortitude save DC 20, initial damage: 6d6 HP and 1d6 CON, secondary: 2d6 rounds to kick in, blindness for 1d4 hours and extreme nausea for 1d10 rounds.

Blast Staff (see sketches):  This is the primary weapon of the Gorradons.  It collapses down to 4'10", just fitting inside the chest.  It weighs just over 100 pounds, making it an extremely unwieldy weapon for someone of human stature.  The sketches show it collapsed, expanded, and a detail of the middle section with the hand guard, trigger and three way selector switch.  The staff is powered with a small, unscrewable soul battery, containing 3d6 charges.  The three way switch selects between: wide fire - a 25' long cone, 15' wide at the apex which does 6d6 damage; medium fire - a 50' cone, 7' wide at the apex which does 9d6 damage; and narrow fire - a 200' column, 3' in diameter which does 12d6 damage.  All three take the form of a crackling blast of blue energy which ignores AC bonuses granted by armor.  A Gorradon can take two attacks a round with this weapon at +14 to hit, +16 if using the battle helmet.

Notes on running the encounter:
When I ran this thing, the party could not pass up the chests that were in plain view inside the sphere.  They were more than a little unnerved by the realization that they would have to remove all clothing and gear to enter, but after discovering that they could put living plant matter through the entrance, they animated a tree and had it fish out a chest.  Unable to break into the chest, they hauled out a sleeping Gorradon and hacked off its hand, using this to open the chest (!).  The lone conscious Gorradon inside the dome scrambled to its feet and ran to the central sphere, sending the signal through it to awake the rest of the sleeping ape demons.  The party fled and very nearly ended up being killed down to the last man.  The stone disc began to rotate and slowly raised up, revealing that it was just the top of a much larger pillar-like structure that extended hundreds of feet down.  This structure was honeycombed with chambers containing all sorts of ancient technological artifacts, including hover vehicles that the Gorradons used to pursue the fleeing party!

The party had a very guilty conscience about their actions in this incident, and were sure that the Gorradon were going to hunt them down and destroy them for what they had done.  Much later, in a city far away, the party was sitting in a tavern and became convinced that two men were watching them.  One of the party members ate a seed pod of a desert plant that granted an altered state of awareness, and realized that the two men where in fact not men at all but were some other kind of creature entirely wearing the semblance of humanity.  The party instantly assumed it was the Gorradons come back to get their revenge and they ran for the hills!  As it turned out, it was not the Gorradons after all, but that shows how badly they were spooked by the encounter and how disturbed they were with their own actions (cutting the arm of an unconscious being to open a chest is probably not a very good act no matter how you slice it).  Still, the gear they got from the chest proved invaluable and saved their butts on many an occasion.