Forlorn Skulk's Evil Statues

Evil Statues and their Gods

In remote locations, far from the prying eyes of the city watch, cultists erect and worship statues dedicated to their unholy masters. Across the multiverse, wizard priests read profane secrets to their acolytes beneath Vecna’s watchful eye. In the deepest, darkest swamps of the Flanaess, Wastri’s toadies gather around his likeness and croak sermons of hatred. And in the remote steppes of the Arctic Circle, the mad followers of Rhamiel build evermore complex effigies in tribute to their unknowable god/dess.

These evil statues form the central nodes of cultist networks that span entire regions. Any one such statue is likely to contain hints to the whereabouts of others - be it through a map, messages left behind for other cultists, or hissing magic mouths. And so, adventurers who stumble upon one such statue often end up pursuing leads that ultimately culminate in finding a fully fledged temple dedicated to the god in question.

Running Evil Statues 

Evil Statues are an easy way to insert a cult into any location. They make for great side quests in hexcrawls, as well as hooks into larger campaign arcs. Need to generate something on the spot because your players went somewhere unexpected? Evil Statues!

Once players have destroyed one Evil Statue, watch their completionist tendencies kick in. They’ll be itching to smash ‘em all. The following rules are designed for old school games such as OSE, but can easily be adapted to other systems.

Destruction

Destroying an evil statue is a noisy affair. It requires tools and time.

Number of equipped characters	Time needed to destroy the statue
1	6 turns
2	4 turns
3	2 turns
Procedures
- Required equipment:  Rope, sledgehammers, anything the DM deems necessary  - Check for wandering monsters once per turn
Rewards
- 500 XP per statue   - Good and lawful priests often grant a free clerical spell, and other favours, in exchange for evidence of a destroyed statue  - See individual statues for examples of treasure

Example deities

The following are examples of Evil Statues dedicated to particular deities, two from familiar settings, and one from the Antarctic Adventure Jam that I participated in earlier this year. Evil Statues of the same deity do not all present in the same way. Instead they reflect different aspects of the god in question.    

Statues of Wastri

 
 

 

 

 

 

Appearance
1. Statue of a human with froglike features wielding a glaive-guisarme.  2. A bust of a human with a toad face.  3. A large, grey stone frog.  4. An oversized glaive-guisarme statue surrounded by smaller amphibian statuettes.
Combat Effects (within 30')
1. Amphibians regain 3 hp per round.  2. Demihumans and humanoids take 1 hp of damage per round.  3. Once per round, the statue attacks with a long tongue. Take a strength check or be dragged to the statue and bitten (1d6 damage).  4. Critical hits against humanoids and demi-humans are scored on a 18-20.  5. Followers of Wastri and amphibious monsters gain a mighty leap. Even if the party is aware of monsters, they are still surprised as 1d4 enemies close the distance with improbable leaps. These enemies are immediately engaged with the party. All monsters present gain a surprise round.       6. Upon first entering range, save vs wand or gain a toad-like feature.
Statue Traps
1. The first time a character touches the statue, save vs wand or be turned into a toad (curse).  2. The statue attacks with its glaive-guisarme. Save vs death or be hit for 1d8 damage (or 2d6 damage if it is statue type number 4).  3. The statue spews a cone of putrid bogwater (30’ long and 20’ wide at the far end). Everyone hit must save vs poison or be cursed with toad-like warts that lower Con and Cha by 1d4.   4. When touching the statue, pass a Wis check, or fly into a hateful rage and attack the nearest humanoid or demi-human for 1d6 rounds.
Accompanying Monsters
1. Giant Frogs 2. Giant Toads 3. Giant Salamanders 4. Giant Axolotels
Treasure
1. The Croaking Glave-Guisarme. Functions as a polearm +1, or polearm +3 vs humanoids and demihumans. On a critical miss, the wielder falls into a hateful rage for 1d6 rounds, attacking the nearest humanoid or demihuman - friend or foe.        2. Cloak of Wastri’s Blessing. Humans wearing it gain +2 to saves vs poison. It functions as a Cloak of Poison for any non-humans who don it.    3. A silver salamander statuette with emerald eyes (350gp).   4. Belt of Humankind (cursed). Negates all humanoid and demihuman traits, gives a +3 Cha bonus when interacting with humans.   5. Wastri’s Nectar. Potion of cure light wounds for humans, potion of inflict light wounds for humanoids and demihumans.   6. A pouch of 7,000sp drenched in green goop.

Statues of Vecna

Appearance
1. A lych-like human missing his left eye and hand.  2. A bust of Vecna with crackling blue light in its left eye socket.  3. A large, amputated hand with an eye in the centre of its palm.  4. An iron casting of an abstract rune.
Combat Effects (within 60')
1. All magic cast intensifies: spell damage and effect sizes double.  2. Undead regain 3 hp per round.  3. Lawful and Good clerics suffer a -2 penalty to Turn Undead rolls.  4. Magic Users all hear a raspy whisper in their ear. It offers great magical rewards in exchange for their comrades’ lives.  5. An immaterial magical hand detaches from the statue (1HD, AC14, Movement 20’) and tries to choke the nearest party member (1d4 Con damage per round upon contact). It can only be damaged by magical means, and disappears if out of 60’ range.  6. Each round of combat, there is an “N” in 6 chance that each party member is paralysed (no save). N = number of rounds since combat began
Statue Traps
1. The statue fires a poison dart or lightning bolt from its eye socket.  2. The first party member to touch the statue loses control of their left eye for 1 day. All undead in the hex can see through the character’s left eye. If any are present, check for an undead encounter each turn until the curse lifts.  3. Anyone touching the statue must save vs wand or lose control of their left hand for 1d6 rounds. It will try to attack all allies (-2 to hit) unless restrained. If no allies in range it will attack the “owner”.  4. Upon touching the statue, a character must pass a will check or utter their most damaging secret (DM’s discretion).
Accompanying Monsters
1. Bone Guardians 2. Zombraires 3. Necrophidii 4. Kenku Clerics 5. The Eye of Vecna (monster) 6. A wrecked Hideous Engine
Treasure
1. Scroll of Vecna's Conflagration.    2. A map that points to one of Vecna’s famed relics.   3. 500 platinum coins, minted with a one-eyed skull.   4. A Potion of Control, a Potion of Invisibility, and a Potion of ESP.   5. A smattering of pages from The book of Vile Darkness.   6. A secret family tree of the local lord which names all of his bastard heirs.

 Statues of Rhamiel 

 

 

A bit more should be said here about Rhamiel. He/She/They/It is a god created by Golden Buddha as part of the Antarctic Adventure Jam. The following is the blurb that Golden Buddha wrote for Rhamiel: 

Rhamiel the Transformed, The Formed and Formless One: Rhamiel is a god of constant chaos and ever changing form and whim. To worship him is to worship nothing and everything all at once. In the legends, it is often the cause of some trouble or curse and she is capricious as he is crafty. Rhamiel has many guises and many avatars, but they all answer to the name Rhamiel when said three times, even if this answer cannot be understood by human ears. She has no symbol and is worshipped by Aghadh Gadas (Face Thieves) and other abhorrent creatures.

Appearance
1. An oilslick-coloured, crystalline statue. Depending on which angle it is approached from it looks like a different dancing figure.  2. A white marble bust depicting an old and young woman at the same time.  3. An arch of onyx. Miraculously, black sand continuously falls from the top into a dark hole beneath. The falling sand forms ever-shifting faces.  4. A grinning, androgynous statue made of pink marble. Its eyes seem to move; always avoiding your gaze.
Combat Effects (within 60')
1. All spells cast have their reverse effect. Eg light is cast as darkness.  2. On a critical failure, the enemy you thought you were attacking melts away to reveal that you have instead hit an ally (no armour save allowed, maximum damage)   3. Each round there is a 2 in 6 chance that all combatants randomly swap positions.   4. Each round, the statue shoots a stream of blue flame at a random enemy, save vs Spell or the target's weapon turns in a writhing white eel.
Statue Traps
1. Save vs Death or lose (roll 1d6): 1 Your entire face. You cannot breath and die in 3 rounds unless the curse is lifted. 2-4 Your eyes. You are blinded. 5-6 Your mouth. You cannot eat or drink.  2. When the statue is touched, the entire room teleports to (roll 1d10): 1-6 somewhere else in the dungeon. 7-9 another hex. 10 Another dimension.  3. When approached, the statue casts colour spray on everyone in the room.   4. The statue shifts into an onyx skinned, faceless figure. It jumps onto the ceiling and runs from the room. Those who follow it may never be seen again.  5. When you hit what you thought was the statue, it shatters into a thousand rending shards of glass (save vs death or 1d20 damage). A mirror trick. The real statue is in the opposite corner of the room.   6. Upon touching the statue, you permanently swap bodies with another party member.
Accompanying Monsters
1. Chimera 2. Psychic Current 3. Doppelganger 4. Faceless Figures 5. Goxiplines 6. Headless Folk of the Lower Peninsula
Treasure
1. Ulfire dagger +2 Whenever you roll damage, do not inflict it on the dagger’s target. Instead roll damage on a randomly determined enemy in the combat (on a critical failure roll damage on an ally)     2. A mask that allows you to change faces once a week (but never again can you use your own face) .   3. 5,000 coins. The type of metal changes each day.    4. A Potion of Polymorphism, a Potion of Gaseous Form, and a Potion of Random Effect .   5. A shimmering silver mirror (cursed). Anyone who gazes upon it is trapped inside of it.   6. Cursed Belt of Changing: randomly switch class, alignment, or gender once a week. While the change in category is random, the player gets to chose what it changes to.