The Wood Gnomelem

Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with three thirteen year old boys as participants. These three had never previously played DnD together, and one of them had never played at all, so it was certainly an interesting experience.

One of the boys played a level 1 Gnome wizard. All the boys were level 1 characters and I found a campaign that would lead them at least through level 4. Good times were ahead!

We had allotted six hours, and we filled the vast majority of it. A lot of it consisted of the boys goofing around, which was good fun.

As this first adventure came to a close the boys character's ventured into their first dungeon. They split up, with two of them going in one direction and the other going in, perhaps obviously, another. The solitary character was the gnome wizard. He entered a large cavern with beetles and rodents scurrying along the cavern ceiling, between dozens to hundreds of hanging cocoons. Just thinking about it sends a shiver up my spine.

Anyway, the gnome, in 13 year old wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to firebolt one of the cocoons to have it drop to the floor so he could cut it open and see what's in it. Of course, he rolled a natural 1 in his attempt and, instead, set fire to the ceiling.

Chaos ensued.

Flamings rodents and beetles began falling from the ceiling. Cocoons exploded, sending blood, guts, and partially mummified body parts everywhere. The gnome dodged this way and that to avoid falling flaming piles of death... and met the angry ogre who's home the gnome had just set on fire.

To say the ogre was angry would be understatement. A battle commenced, with a 9 foot, angry, 59 HP ogre on one side, and a 2.5 food, confused 8 HP gnome on the other.

It was glorious. Fantastic. Very nearly epic. The gnome continued to dodge, weave, dart, cast fire bolts and duck beneath the ogre's swinging 20 pound club. The ogre was down to 1 HP.. 1 Hit Point from 59... and finally connected with his club. Maximum damage. The poor gnome went from 5 HP to -15. The body went flying and connected hard with the wall. thud. And slowly squeeked to the ground.

By this time the gnome's compatriots finally arrived and sent one magic missile to the ogre to finish the encounter. That was somewhat anti-climactic. Perhaps obviously, they could not revive the gnome.

However, in a previous encounter the gnome had found an ivory statuette of the local Forest Goddess. I, as all-knowing and all-deciding Dungeon Master, have decided that this was a very special statuette which summoned the local forest fay's to the location (after the ceiling fire quit collapsing, of course), whereupon they whisked the gnome's body away to a secluded corner of the forest and resurrected it as... A Wood Gnomelem. What is a "gnomelem" you ask? Why, it's like a "golem", but from a gnome instead!

For your pleasure, I present to you, The Wood Gnomelem

Wood Gnomelem

Small, Neutral
Armour Class: 9
Hit Points: 1d8
Speed: 20
Str: 10
Int: 8
Wis: 8
Dex: 12
Con: 10
Chr: 10

Damage Immunities: Wood, plant, poison
Condition Immunities: Sleep, charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned

Attack: Weapon based

Magic: Firebolt

Special abilities: Friend of the Fae. When in a forest setting is assisted by 2d6 forest fae and can summon 1d6 more. Outside of the forest is attended to by 2d4 fae.

(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe