Balor and the Fomors

[todd]

I stumbled across a book of Celtic myths and legends yesterday and read up a bit on the Fomors and Balor, said to be maybe the nastiest of them. I made a quick set of stats for them:



FOMORS
------
Offspring of Chaos and Old Night, they are, for the most part,
huge and deformed. Some have one arm and one leg apiece,
while others have the heads of goats, horses, or bulls. (*)

         NUMBER    ARMOR   HIT     LAIR            % IN    TYPE        UNUSUAL
TYPE    APPEARING   CLASS   DICE    IS...           LAIR    TREASURE    CHARACTERISTICS
----    ---------   -----   ----    ------------    ----    --------    -------------------------  
Giant      1-8        4      10     Underground,    75%         E       Impervious to cold, water
                                   Underwater

RANDOM FOMORIAN
---------------
Roll 1d6 on the following table three times to generate a randomly
deformed fomorian.

Roll
1d6     Arms            Legs            Head
----    --------------  --------------  -------------
 1     No Arms         No Legs         Horse head
2-4     Both Arms       Both legs       Humanoid head
 5     Right arm only  Right leg only  Goat head
 6     Left arm only   Left leg only   Bull head


BALOR
-----
Most famous and most terrible of the fomors was Balor. One of his eyes was infected by a death
spell. Unless in combat, he keeps that eye shut at all times for it is so venomous that its
gaze will slay any who look upon it. (*)

         NUMBER    ARMOR   HIT     LAIR            % IN    TYPE        UNUSUAL
TYPE    APPEARING   CLASS   DICE    IS...           LAIR    TREASURE    CHARACTERISTICS
----    ---------   -----   ----    ------------    ----    --------    -------------------------  
Giant      1          3     10+2    Underground,    85%         E       Impervious to cold, water;
                                   Underwater                          Balor's Eye

BALOR'S EYE: Once opened, anyone whose gaze falls upon the eye must SAVE VS RAY or die.


(*) Adapted from "Celtic Myth and Legend" by Charles Squire


[The Red Baron]

A save vs death would perhaps be both more universal and applicable.

Interesting writeup

[todd]

That would work just as well-- went with ray because I was thinking of it as a beam of sorts.