Hello and welcome, the adherer first appeared as the gluey in White Dwarf magazine issue #7 printed in 1978, it was selected for inclusion in the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Fiend Folio in 1981 and finally the second edition AD&D Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix in 1992. So for over 30 years, this monster has been a lost gem, waiting to leap out of the shadows and obscurity and right into your games.
Coincidently, that is exactly what the Adherer tends to do anyway, it is a masterful ambush predator that uses a very simple tactic really, it is sticky... very sticky. One might ask why the monster is not the mascot for my youtube channel, the Mighty Gluestick... fair, but its undeniably a kind of hilarious critter at first glance... at least, it is up until you are fighting one to four of the things, and then you are screwing up yet another character sheet and thinking to yourself, well shit, that was a hell of a lot more dangerous than I thought it would be.
Grab yourself a tasty beverage and settle back, but don't get too comfortable because we are going to get deeply nerdy and deeply disturbing as we learn all there is to know about the Adherer.
Picture if you will, a party of a few adventurers, they are freshly woken from their campsite on the edge of a small but ancient stand of trees, woken this morning to the grim discovery of a missing pack mule, and a large sack of copper coins they had used to weigh down the rope the mule was tethered to. Loss of the horse was bad enough, but those coins were hard fought and quite a vicious band of goblins scrapped like little demons to keep hold of their raided booty, the entire payroll for a local mining settlement the adventurers are working for. So, following the fresh hoof prints in the morning dew, the adventurers enter the edge of the tree line, and the sharp eyes of the cleric of Lathander spot something white and translucent, like a really long worm on the ground.
Its spiderweb. Really thick spiderweb.
"Ah shit" he says, looking to the canopy of thick branches and dense leaves overhead with a wary intensity. Turning to his dwarven companion, his eyes gleaming in the dim light, he gives his warning, "Giant spider." The dwarf grunts, he has no fear of spiders, where he comes from they are almost as common as pack mules anyway, but those that live in the surface of the world do tend to be pretty damn nasty, more of the fast and aggressive hunters, less of the big, bloated lurkers who spin giant webs across dark chasms in his homeland far to the southwest.
"Aye, its either very big or it got an ass like Rupert's mum," he says, smirking at their third companion, a highly unlikely, round, and very rocky Galeb Dur, who holds up one thick arm and raises a single stubby finger at the dwarf.
"You know my mother was an elf, you fluffy-faced bastard; now stay behind me," he grumbled in a voice even deeper than the dwarven fighter's. his hands suddenly holding a pair of wicked-looking elven blades. Wild Magic was often deadly, sometimes transformative and crazy, particularly that summoned by insane goblin warlocks, but, aside from how strange it felt, the galeb dur body was one hell of a tactical asset for the elven burglar, even if his days of climbing anything were probably at an end if he couldn't get turned back to normal.
Sure enough, not far into the woods, the galeb dur stopped in his stomping tracks and locked his beady eyes on an excellent example of a giant spiderweb strung between three tall Duskwood trees with a dark clump closer to the ground and no sign of any giant arachnid. It was quiet, too quiet, not a bird or bug made a peep or squeak, he would have sniffed the air, but in his current form, he had no sense of smell at all.
The dwarf sure did, he had one hand clamped on his face, tucked in behind his heavy metal shield, and he quietly complained, "That smells like a pool of week-old rothe piss, ammonia or something; what kind of spider is this, a dead one?"
They gathered together behind a large fern and watched the scene for a while, but nothing was moving.
"I don't like this at all, and I don't see any sign of the mule or the coins," said the cleric.
"The coins are over there under that pile of ... oh wait, is that a cave entrance?" asked Rupert, pointing a his rocky finger.
The dwarf grunted again and crept toward the location as best he could in heavy armor, which was not very good at all, and no sooner had he stepped within five paces of the base of the web than the dark shape snared within it suddenly sprang to life, with an almost metallic echo of twangs, the ropes of spiderweb snapped like steel cables and the humanoid figure leaped suddenly right on top of the dwarf, who got a balled fist slammed into the side of his helmet and uncharacteristically went down in a rolling heap among the vegetation, throwing up clumps of dirt and one of his leather boots.
Whatever it was that attacked him was tremendously strong but didn't make any sort of sound, the cleric gagged a little as a wave of stench billowed across him, coming from the monster's ragged-looking body and his eyes grew very wide as he recognized what it was, what it surely couldn't be... a powerful form of undead, cursed to rise from the grave and slay trespassers and despoilers of ancient tombs and temples, this was a Mummy!
In a forest? In broad daylight? No matter, he quickly grabbed for mace and asked his radiant god to bless it with the gift of fire, feeling the warmth of the morning lord flow through him and ignite the metal weapon with flickering flames.
"Unhand him in the name of Lathander!" he bellowed and took a mighty swing at the back of the thing's head.
It did not go as expected, and right behind him, a large shadow silently descended from the treetops, its long, hairy legs reaching out to grab him.
The Adherer is another monstrosity with a mysterious origin that has long been a source of fascination and frustration among alchemists and druids alike.
Nobody seems to know where they first came from, but it is known that they do not reproduce like mammals or reptiles; they don't bear young or lay eggs and only seem to grow in number when in environments with a rich source of prey for them to hunt. They seem to simply grow from a mass of ragged flesh that comes away from the body of the parent, so they may not require any other adherer to reproduce and have no gender in their species at all. They can be encountered solo or in groups of up to four individuals; none are the leader; they just seem to tolerate each other's company and gain the benefits of mutual protection and being able to take down more prey with the help of their allies, and quite often they will also cohabitate and form hunting strategies with giant spiders, who they will never attack or see as a source of food, though they will eat pretty much any other living creature they can ambush.
Adherers tend to live only about 35 years and have a humanoid form, standing five or six feet tall. On close inspection, they resemble a decrepit human corpse wrapped in pale, filthy bandages. The folds and flaps are actually the Adherer's tough and flexible skin, covered in a very powerful organic adhesive. Only a few things are effective against the adhesive resin the creature constantly excretes, leaving it stinking of musty, dank, and rotted vegetation. Fire or boiling hot water are both capable of reducing the skin's adhesive capabilities, but only death will eventually render all its resin inert within 12 hours. The adherer also exudes a perfect amount of solvent from countless pores across its body and under it's complete control, which allows them to stick to only certain objects or prey.
In many ways it would be less disturbing if these monsters were undead, because the fact is, they will start to eat their prey as soon as they grab it, while its alive, and being killed by an adherer can take far too long.
There has been something of an update, and on the rare occasion I do mention Pathfinder, but I have to say, um NO, I'm not including that version of the monsters because eating people alive is bad enough, you don't need to include raping them on top of that, and Paizo should be ashamed of itself. But I'll use the artwork at least.
Oh alright, basically that book states the origin of those adherers is they are the horrifically tortured and transformed former victims of a cult of Phase Spiders which held them trapped in their interdimensional nightmare web lair for centuries feeding on their blood, the phase spiders eventually dispersed and so did their former victims, scattered across the dimensions as the dreaded adherers. It would explain their sort of telepathic communication with spiders, but, why would they live with any sort of spider after centuries of being horrifically enslaved by the things?
OK so lets update the monster to the modern game and give it some stats!
It's fairly straightforward, we have to keep in mind that it can appear either solo or in a group of four, so a challenge to low-level and medium-level parties of adventurers and absolutely deadly when combined with giant spiders and ettercaps or a squad of them being directed and controlled by a spell-slinging and very intelligent Aranea spider mage in their Underdark territory on the outskirts of Calimshan, for example.
I'm going to convert the Adherer into a challenge rating 3 monster for 5th edition D&D and I am going to provide some notes so you can create an encounter location which is a hard, and I mean hard, challenge for a party of level 3 to 4 player characters, they will face off against four adherers, one giant spider and one ettercap in a forest.
The full stats and notes for this are available for patrons in my patreon page and also for channel members and patrons on my Discord server as my thanks for all your vital support.
Adherers are rare medium-sized humanoid aberrations usually found in caves or shaded forested areas where they can ambush creatures undisturbed. Their adhesive resin loses potency soon after death, and attempts to harvest it for alchemical purposes have so far been unsuccessful. They are known to associate and work together with Arachnids and Ettercaps and can communicate with them silently somehow (could be telepathy, could be tremorsense, they do not speak and have no language of their own); they have a natural armor class of 15 and an average of 58 hit points, a speed of 30 feet (and given their control over their adhesion, I would just assume they have a spider climb type ability).
Adherers are very strong, with a strength of 18; they have a dexterity of 14, a constitution of 14, a maximum intelligence of 8, wisdom of 10, and charisma of 6; they are Lawful evil and consider other humanoids as nothing but food. They are immune to becoming charmed, exhausted, frightened, or being knocked prone and have damage resistance to acid, bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing from non-magical, non-fire-based weapons and have special immunity to non-fire-based cantrips and first-level spells, except for Magic Missile. However, normal missile weapons also only do half damage. They are vulnerable to all kinds of fire, taking double damage from it, and they also take double damage from magic missiles.
Adherers have 60-foot darkvision and passive perception of 10; they have +4 to stealth, +2 to active perception checks, and +6 to all strength-based and +4 to all dexterity-based saving throws and checks; when concealed and motionless, they have advantage on stealth checks, or those checking the area visually have disadvantage unless the search is close or involves an enhanced sense of smell, where the sour stink of the Adherer will work against them.
Any creature that touches the adherer or hits it with a melee attack using a nonmagical weapon must succeed on a DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check to free themselves or their weapon from the adherer’s adhesive secretion. Until it succeeds, the creature or weapon remains adhered to the adherer.
The adhesive can only be removed by a creature’s action to break free or by fire, boiling liquids, or the adherer’s own secretions. Weapons adhered to the adherer deal only half damage. A weapon removed from the adherer’s adhesive can’t be used until the beginning of the user’s next turn.
The adherer takes double damage from all fire attacks. In addition, a creature adhered to the adherer can use an action to apply fire to the adhesive (such as a torch) to break free of the adhesion automatically.
Each round the Adherer makes two adhesive fist attacks, +6 to hit one target within their 5 ft reach inflicting 1d4+4 bludgeoning damage. On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check or become grappled by the adherer. A creature grappled by the adherer is restrained.
While grappling a creature, the adherer can use that creature as a shield against ranged attacks or spells. The restrained creature provides the adherer with half cover (+2 to AC and Dexterity saving throws). If the restrained creature is Medium or larger, the cover is instead three-quarters cover (+5 to AC and Dexterity saving throws).
finally, When damaged by fire, the adherer must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or take the Dash action and move as far away from the source of fire as possible on its next turn and they really hate being fired before they get a chance to leap out and ambush a victim, which may cause them to simply run away from the fight before it even begins, which is not cowardice exactly, its just that they know they are much better off if they get the drop on their prey and they are hunting for food after all, not fighting to the death for no reason.
Now for the example combat encounter, this counts as a challenge rating 6 encounter for 3rd to 4th level adventurers.
Deep within a dense forest, the adventurers stumble upon a shadowed grove tangled with webs. The canopy is thick with webs stretching between towering trees, obscuring sunlight and creating a dim, almost claustrophobic atmosphere. Thick, sticky webs cover much of the ground and trail up to the tree branches, forming walls of sticky obstacles and scattered piles of bones or other leftovers from past prey.
Much of the ground is covered with webbing that acts as difficult terrain for the adventurers. Any non-spider, non-adherer creature must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or become restrained upon entering the web terrain. Restrained creatures can use their action to make a DC 14 Strength check to break free.
Several 10-foot-high web walls block visibility and movement. Web walls are flammable and have an AC of 10 with 15 HP. Fire damage spreads quickly through the web, burning away terrain within 5 feet of the impact each round.
There are suspended, sticky webs connecting branches high in the canopy where the giant spider and ettercap are hiding, waiting to ambush from above.
The smooth black-barked and straight-trunked Duskwood trees are 60-80 feet tall, with most branches starting about 20 feet up. This height offers strategic points for the spider and ettercap, and any attempts to spot them from the ground require a DC 15 Perception check due to the dense foliage on the small lacy branches and webbing. Duskwood trees are very resistant to fire, by the way. The canopy and thick web walls give creatures hiding within them half cover if they remain motionless. This allows the giant spider and ettercap to stay hidden while they wait for the right moment to strike.
The ettercap and giant spider wait above, ready to drop down into the fight. The ettercap commands the spider telepathically, coordinating their moves with precision. If any adventurer tries to move out of the central webbed clearing, the ettercap will send the spider down to block their path while it webs up any attackers. The ettercap uses Web Garrote tactics, trying to ensnare weaker or more isolated adventurers.
The ettercap uses Web actions to shoot at characters who stay at range, forcing them to either burn through webbing or waste actions breaking free. The giant spider, hidden in the trees, will use Web attacks to immobilize targets from a distance, then descend to deliver a bite attack.
The adherers are positioned around the clearing, partially buried under debris and dirt, lying in wait. They’ll attempt to ambush characters who move into the sticky ground terrain or try to bypass the web walls. Once the party enters, each adherer will pounce on the closest character, attempting to grapple and restrain them using their Adhesion Fist attacks. If they successfully restrain someone, they’ll use the restrained character as a shield against ranged attacks or spells, aiming to keep the party’s focus away from the hidden enemies above.
During the fight the giant spider could drop down on an unsuspecting target, forcing a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the target is restrained as the spider’s weight pins them briefly. This can add tension and a sense of surprise, especially if the adventurers think they've cleared one part of the encounter only for the spider to leap down. Smaller spiders (swarm of spiders, CR 1/2) can be added to the encounter if the players are moving too freely or need an added challenge. They can drop from the trees and scurry over the webbed terrain to swarm players, forcing additional Dexterity saving throws.
As the webs are burned, some sections of the terrain open up, but smoldering flames can leave hazardous areas where players must avoid burning debris. Any web structure struck by fire will cause it to spread in a 5-foot radius each round, forcing players to be careful where they aim.
If you want to get really nasty, throw in a special hammering Logs or falling log pile trap set up by the ettercap and the tremendously strong Adherers, exactly like the traps created by the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, except the ropes are all made of spiderweb.
And there you have it.
My name is AJ Pickett, thanks for joining me and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment