Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Free

The tribal Mother and her attendants
use poison where necessary. This
deadly toxin is brewed from the
vilest snake venoms. If touched, the
victim must make a saving throw vs.
poison or die. When used on a
weapon, a victim struck takes 1-6
points of additional damage and must
make a saving throw, with a -4
penalty to the roll, or die.
The Mother is also psionic. In
addition to Attack/Defense modes
A,C/G,J, she knows the discipline of
telepathic projection, a major
science, at 6th level of mastery
(range 60 feet, area 10-foot-wide
path, cost 3/use, duration 6 rounds
per use). With this, she can either
sense or send emotions: hunger,
fear, fatigue, pain, rage, hatred,
uncertainty, curiosity, hostility,
friendliness, love, and so forth.
She uses this discipline to sense PC
intentions, to influence others in
her tribe, and (if necessary) to
arouse antihuman feelings in other
creatures of the area. Each tribe's
Mother has the same abilities.
The tribal Mother handles all
negotiations for her people; no
other Grippli can speak for the
tribe. She knows the human Common
tongue in addition to the usual
Grippli languages. While talking
with PCs, she beams trustworthiness
(via her psionics) at them. If the
Mother or her attendants are harmed
in any way, four Grippli from the
village flee to gather the other
five nearby tribes, while the
remainder of the village Grippli
attack with great ferocity, gaining
a +4 bonus to all "to hit" rolls
(new THACO: 14) and +2 to damage.
The tribal Mother's first message to
the PCs is very important. She tells
the PCs that they may use all the
trees they wish from the area north
of the ruins, but they cannot cut
trees to the east or west nor in any
area closer to the beach. (Luckily,
there are no trees on the old
roadway, only underbrush. She has no
objections about clearing that. The
Mother warns that very great evil
things may happen if her warning is
not heeded÷things far beyond Grippli
powers. While not quite truthful,
the Mother's admonition is made to
protect the areas around the Grippli
villages. See Mother's Revenge if
logging in forbidden areas occurs.
The Mother next reveals that some of
her folk oppose the human invasion
on religious grounds. The maze and
obelisk are held sacred by a large
conservative group of the tribe (12
Grippli). She cannot guarantee their
good behavior, but will control them
as best she can with the aid of the
other 18 Grippli if the PCs offer an
appropriate gift.
The tribe must be offered (through
their Mother) at least 200 square
feet of brightly colored cloth or
one crafted item (such as a metal
weapon) per Grippli native for
negotiations to succeed. Even then,
the best the Mother can do is to
order the Grippli to avoid
hostilities with the humans for two
moons (56 days). No amount of
further bribing extends this time
nor gains Grippli aid. If the PCs
later protest to the Grippli about
raiding, the Mother becomes
irritated and denies all Grippli
involvement.
Mother's Revenge
If the PCs do not cooperate with the
Grippli, or kill many of them, the
tribal Mother (or another tribe's
Mother, if this one is slain) has an
ultimate weapon at her disposal.
Using her psionic discipline, she
can muster the forces of the jungle,
pushing their emotions into an antihuman
rage. The denizens of the
treetops can be agitated into nearly
continuous attacks on the obeliskmoving
operation. If this occurs, 1-
10 randomly determined treetop
creatures attack some part of the
group (often not the PCs) each hour,
day and night. Once relations have
degenerated to this extent, the
party's only recourse is escape. The
entire PC expedition must flee to
the boats and return home in
failure.
Grippli Native: AC 9; MV 9"//15"; HD
1+1; hp 5; #AT 1; THACO 18; Dmg 1d4