Retro D&D - AD&D Spelljammer

So I’ve been quiet, I know, but I’ve got an excuse: Not really. I’ve got things to do, I’ll post more about Neogi SoonTM, but I’m super excited about this miniature. A Reaper miniature that was custom painted by the talented Four Realms of Chaos team (https://www.instagram.com/fourrealmsofchaos/?hl=en ) this is not just a lich, this is Manara from Nigel Findley’s “Skull & Crossbows”.

Out of all the roving pirate ships in that Spelljammer sourcebook, her ship “Nex” and the entire idea behind Manara is just fantastic. A former curious adventurer who went into a crystal sphere that was populated by partying demigods that have super strong implications that these demigods were ah, performing some “celebrating good times” (they were bangin’). 

Manara is like, “Okay that’s happening, just gonna keep exploring,” and wanted to go on her merry way.

The demigods went, “You need to get out and also never talk about this cause Velsharoon is rubbing oil all over his bald skull and-”

And Manara laughs it off, thinking they’re just being ridiculous and keeps exploring. And then the demigods decide screw it, punish her with eternal life. Totally a Ancient Greek tragedy idea of hubris then and there, a relatively innocent gesture that causes a huge consequence because gods are drama queens/kings. 

So how does Manara die initially? The gods send a fleet of giffs to kill her, kill her crew, destroy her ship, resurrect her crew as zombies, reform her ship and bring her back as a lich with a bigger hitch than usual: She comes back regardless of her phylactery. Manara cannot die unless she dies in a fight where she tries her best, and the demigods as a majority decide that yeah she did her best in the fight- but this is super subjective. So arguments between these petty, bickering demigods who want their party crystal sphere hidden (all mentions of it and its locations have been erased by the demigods), and they channel their divine will into Manara to maintain a pseudo immortality that she doesn’t want. And Manara goes slowly crazy, from sparing people who she bested in fights to just slaughtering everyone because she can’t take her terrible existence and is jealous of the living, and any and all who die by her, by her ship or by her zombies, are taken by the gods and forced to become a part of her crew.

So over the centuries some of the demigods actually start to feel guilty (I’m guessing the nicer demigods, they are never actually named but you can pull a page from any prime material plane’s lore), and they plot to figure out how to make it seem like Manara tried her best so they can vote for her to finally rest. Unfortunately, Manara’s got centuries of constant combat under her belt, and she alone is a hard fight, never mind her crew of 50+ zombies, ranging from soldiers to umber hulk zombies who all have their abilities that they had in life. Seriously, taking her on head on with a party is pretty much a death sentence for any party, you need a small army.

I think what I really like the most is even if you kill Manara, break her “phylactery” ,which is a cheap glass gem necklace, and you stand triumphant- I just have this visualization where you stand in front of a tribune of demigods and you gotta argue why she deserves to stay dead. Nigel Findley did not have such an idea, and has a more straightforward solution, but hey I like Phoenix Wright what can I say?

Anyhoo, that’s Manara- she’s a 14th lvl wizard/lich, and in AD&D that meant real business compared to 5th E DnD. Not an insult to 5e, but AD&D’s spells definitely had a bit more...holy shit in its effects. One of her spells is the 6th level Death Spell, there is no saving throw, 1 round/standard action cast time, and when she casts it she rolls 4d20 (d20′s!!!!), and she will automatically kill that amount of creatures/players/monsters in HD. It’s a nuclear version of the sleep spell. Just imagine, automatically killing 4-80 HD worth of people without a saving throw. Granted it has a stipulation that beyond 6HD+, the spell takes an additional 10 points from the 4d20 dice to kill that creature but also you have to calculate some values for HDs between 3-5. I don’t blame 5e for removing this spell because seriously, no save throw, 4d20′s, fucking party wipe as a getgo with weird stipulations. And you know with the premise that she has to showcase she’s trying her hardest so she can die? You can bet her theme song is Megalovania, start off with her best spell to wipe you out. 

So you may have seen my banner. Those, my good friends, are the Neogi. They are, in simplest of terms: Space Assholes. Now you may find some information about them on the internet these days, you may find their 3rd edition, 4th edition or even 5th edition information, but really, the sheer amount of potential these guys had in 2nd edition and how little was defined is actually fascinating.

The full image is:

      Source: Astromundi Cluster boxset

      Source: 4th Edition D&D

So, where to start with these space spider/moray eel bastards? Guess I should go into their 2nd edition stats...which I’ll post at the end of this post. 

Neogi aren’t particularly fearsome themselves, oh no. In fact reading their damage, with their measly 1d3 dmg for their front legs (only 2 legs can attack) and despite their bite (1d6 dmg) being able to inject slowing venom into what they hit per bite, meaning they do indeed receive 3 attacks per turn, that was only 1/10th of their danger. Any Neogi worth their salt has their own Umber Hulk companion. Yes, an umber hulk. Now if you think you can board their ship and take them on in a 1v40+ fight then good luck. 

Neogi could cast spells, yes, but it was only in later Dragon magazine editions that Neogi were given their own spells (ranging from a variant of magic missile where they launch their venom to xenomorph chest bursting shenanigans) and magic items (an amulet that could be worn as a ring of protection +1 that also has hold person as a usable effect!!) and if you gave them such utility then you bet your ass you increase the XP given to your players if they manage to kill one of these Neogi.

So, quick overview of the Neogi ecology, they view everything from the point of ownership: They own everything, you are just property unclaimed by them. They are assholes from their feat of accidentally activating and inflicting the crystal spheres with the clockwork horrors to their own destructive reproductive means as a way of removing the old because who cares about the old let’s get more Neogis we’re the best. Granted something interesting I find about Spelljammer is just how many asexual species they explicitly had and continued to create. Neogi have no gender nor sex, nor any concept of it and think everything is its own unique species because of the vast levels of differentiation every species has. How did they reproduce? I’ll get into that in a bit. As a final note for the ecology, they had a hierarchy of titles like Captain Owner, servant slave and so forth. Only umber hulks seem to tickle their fancy as constant slaves, other slave races were disposable (unless you were a gnome or halfling, then you were dinner).

And yet, there is something much more sinister about the Neogis other than the fact that they’re hellbent on enslaving galaxiies. Their venom is what causes mind control, or at least that’s what the AD&D monster manual says it does. This venom, when injected enough, ranges from being able to break someone’s spirit by making them attached to the Neogi to making Umber Hulks unflappably loyal to their master, all the way to being the methods of their reproduction thanks to their now dead god of creation  Ka'jk'zxl. To me that venom is just, the connotation behind it and purposefully envenoming people with such a substance is far more evil and cruel than their almost comedic goals.

No really, the Neogi gods killed  Ka'jk'zxl by injecting it with their venom that was laced with the vices of Neogi culture: friendship, love, compassion, companionship and sharing (I am not kidding if only I were kidding). What I find fun about Spelljammer’s identity is that it flipflops between really interesting, thought provoking concepts to whacky, seemingly improvised creative mishmashes (Which was an actual problem that TSR faced because of insane deadlines and their own cruel Neogi master who ousted Gary Gygax and drove the company into the dirt financially). 

So why the Neogi as a first analysis? Because they were meant to be one of the big bad doods of Spelljammer, but I feel like they were overshadowed by the Illithid, Beholders, Stellar Dragons, Radiant Dragons, Elminster visiting Ed Greenwood by jumping through an asteroid portal to get German beer (this is cannon!!!) and eventually, and strangely, strangely contested by another alien race who have a similar goal of galactic conquest but are “neutral”, the K’r’r’r (try pronouncing that right the first time you read that). 

Next time I talk about Neogi I’ll break out my old Dragon magazine and go into more detail about their society, their religion and maybe even their outer planar cousins, the Tso. Also if you are wondering if there is such a thing as good Neogi, the answer is yes- the Reavers. The Neogi who realize just how screwed up and stupid Neogi society is, and say sod it. These Neogi are usually older, and may be selected to become Great Old Masters (which is the codeword for breeding sow ).

Neogi stats under cut:

Wild Space Campaign

Shazogrox, Beholder Mage (Custom Miniature)

Welp, first post for Spelljammer...Greetings from the world of tomorrow of the year 1400sh DR! I’ve been a fan of AD&D for years thanks to Baldur’s Gate introducing me, and I read all of the Elminster books up till “Elminster’s Daughter”, and, well, yes I do know how to calculate THAC0 and negative AC and all that fun stuff. 

So why Spelljammer? I goddamn love Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and retro sci-fi pulp fiction. So finding out that back in the day they made a sci-fi campaign series in AD&D? Sign me the hell up. So, I’m going to ramble about some Spelljammer stuff here as I read more into Spelljammer stuff, my thoughts on stuff (why are the K’r’r’r a thing??? Whyyy???), and well, I’m DM’ing a campaign so I’ll be posting some excerpts from the campaign here and there.