MONSTERS OF MYTH Questions About "Grimlings"

[geneweigel]

Since I've seen T. Foster around I'd like to ask him something about one of the creatures he designed for MONSTERS OF MYTH (2006). The grimling(devil children) "infiltrate human society by posing either as foundlings or by slaying and secretly replacing actual human children, and from this position of comfort and safety they proceed to wreak havoc and terror upon their host families and communities." It doesn't say how replacing is accomplished. Some kind of disguise? Shape change? Mental?

[foster1941]

I think I was cynically picturing that in a family with a whole passel of grubby, ill-behaved little kids* that the parents might not notice if a couple of them got replaced by superficially-similar-looking and acting little monsters

I definitely wasn't envisioning magical doppelganger-like shape-changing; more like the assassin's disguise ability. All my stuff for that book was written using OD&D (it was converted to AD&D by the editors) so I was deliberately vague and "mechanics-lite" on a lot of stuff. If I were writing them up today as an AD&D monster I'd probably include some sort of roll for parents (or nannies, wetnurses, etc.) to notice the replacement, say base 30% chance per day, +3% per point of Int above 12, -2% per point below 8; double chance if the adult is especially devoted to the child. Other children will always notice the replacement, but may not be able to communicate their knowledge, and are unlikely to be believed by adults even if they are (and, of course, the grimlings are also likely to threaten and intimidate the children to ensure their silence).

*It's been long enough that I can't remember if the description in the book specifies, but I picture grimlings looking like very young children - from toddlers up to about age 6 at the most

[geneweigel]

So it just moves in on some LLCs who have to do a head count every night otherwise it stays away? I was just wondering if it would toy with parties by pretending to be someone they know because the village situation is probably unlikely.

[foster1941]

The main ways I picture a party being likely to encounter these creatures is traveling overland, stopping for the night in a rustic village and getting robbed/captured/murdered in their sleep (possibly after being drugged), or when venturing into the slum quarter of a larger city - sort of like an above-ground "hiding in plain sight" variation on jermlaine. Higher-level characters with strongholds might end up with an infestation among the families of their servants and tenants which could create an ongoing, escalating situation if it's not nipped in the bud. Infiltrating the characters' own families is probably outside of the capabilities of the baseline version of the monster, but "leader-types" with spellcasting ability might be able to use Change Self or similar magic to improve the quality of their disguise (the description says they use MU spells, but that's another OD&Dism - in an AD&D context they should probably use Illusionist spells as well or instead), especially if they're working as servants of a more powerful devil.

[foster1941]

Another possibility is the PCs encountering a group of "feral children" who claim to be lost or to be the only survivors of a massacre. Most players are probably too suspicious to actually be taken in by this, but perhaps they are encountered in the company of a group of NPCs who have already taken them in (and will be likely to have a very, very negative reaction if the PCs try to attack the children under their protection). Lots of possibilities for these smart, sneaky little creeps

[geneweigel]

There was a lot of illustrations but this image seems to be just random on the same page. Or am I overlooking something? Here:

[foster1941]

Unless it's relevant to something on the facing page that's just a generic "filler" illustration. It doesn't have any connection to the Grimlings.

[geneweigel]

Yeah, the facing page has monster with an illustration for it and its the end of the "G" section the "H" section starts off with an illustrated monster as well so thats how I arrived at the question.