The Doors to Perceptive Things

In the silence of these spaces, something may rise.

 

The Door to Perceptive Things

Echoes of strange cries and whispered promises in unknown tongues can be heard before it can be seen. A rectangle floating in the air, its height half that of a man, its width as wide as one. Black as the absence of all light, its height at chest level. It is without depth, a thing of two dimensions that defies the sight when turned in profile. Something reaches out of it, a boneless arm with a grasping child's hand, a bone white tentacle tipped with five writhing protrusions, or nothing of the sort. As quick as it extends, it retreats before the black is shattered by colors never before seen, hues that defy comparison. Colors retreat as quickly as they advanced, leaving with them a new set of alien sounds and the feeling of being watched.

They are breaks in reality, or untended doors to other places, cast adrift in the world, or allowed to move about by their own will. The sudden explosion of color marks a shift to a new reality, a new plane where things on the other side can reach out and touch the alien. Books have been written to describe their construction, though most are lost in the fires of the superstitious and the wise alike. The Doors lack any unified set of behaviors among each other, or with themselves, prone to actions that appear to be guided by the minds looking out of their black frames. Things of the physical world, they can be broken as anything else made by the hands of mortals, but care should be taken. In their destruction they can cast out the energies that fuel them, or open tears to places best left unvisited.

OSR

Type: Construct

Activity Cycle: Time means little to things such as these.

Diet: They are sustained by strange inner furnaces.

Intelligence: Varies by those who peer out of its threshold.

Treasure: None

Alignment: Varies by its current controller.

No. Appearing: Usually 1, may travel in larger groups.

Armor Class: 18 / 2 (They are impossible to hit from the direct right or left of the Door)

Movement: 60 ft (Perfect Flight).

Hit Dice: 6

To-Hit: 1D12*

No. of Attacks: 1D4*

Damage: 1D3 - 1D12* 
All Saves: 12 

Special Attacks:

The Door is incapable of attacking on its own, rather it relies on the beings on the other side of the threshold to attack for it. Since the door can open to a panoply of various planes and worlds, the combat abilities and defenses can vary each time one of a Door to Perceptive Things is encountered. Upon encountering one of these creatures roll on the chart below. If a DM is pressed for time, or does not wish to go through the hassle of rolling on charts, they may use the following stats.

To-Hit: +6 Number of Attacks: 2 Damage: 1D6+4 Special Abilities: May sacrifice one of its attacks to cast a Magic Missile caster level 6. May sacrifice one of its attacks to cast Shield upon itself, caster level 6.

To-Hit

Roll 1D12 to determine the Door's to-hit score.

Number of Attacks

Roll 1D4 to determine the number of attacks the Door may use.

Damage of Attacks – 1D6

1. 1D3
2. 1D4
3. 1D6
4. 1D8
5. 1D10
6. 1D12

Attack Type

The DM may roll once to decide whether all of the attacks are ranged or melee, or they may roll for each of the attacks, if the Door has multiple, to decide what type each attack is. Since there are only two base types, an odd or even roll can be used to determine melee or ranged, odd for melee and even for ranged. Roll on the tables below for the reach or range of the attacks

Melee – 1D4

1. No reach, must be in standard melee range.
2. 10 ft. Reach.
3. 15 ft. Reach.
4. 20 ft. Reach.

Ranged – 1D4

Assume that there are no range penalties, and that the range listed is the maximum range it can strike.

1. 20 ft.
2. 40 ft.
3. 80 ft.
4. 160 ft.

Damage Type – 1D4

1. Bludgeoning / Crushing
2. Slashing
3. Piercing

Bonus Damage – 1D10

Apply the number on the D10 as a number bonus to all attacks made by the Door. A 0 on the D10 indicates that the monster does not receive a damage bonus.

Optional Extras – Here are a few more tables if you want to add additional flare by describing the type of appendage that emerges from the door, or if you want to increase the difficulty by adding additional modifiers to the damage.

The Appendage that Emerges – 1D6

1. An elongated and boneless arm that is as much a tentacle in its movement. At the end of the tentacle/arm is a humanoid hand with the proportions of a baby's. After the arm-tentacle impacts with bone breaking force, the small hand gently plays with the targets hair or an item on their person before withdrawing. Optional Ability: A free grab attempt after a successful strike.
2. A hairless head and face, deathly pale and Asiatic in appearance. Once it emerges from the Stygian threshold, its eyes and mouth spring open to reveal empty eye sockets opening wider and wider to expose rows of long hooked teeth. Its lips peel back to expose an eye, the iris the color of sulfur, the dark blue pupil changing shapes from one geometric form to another. At times the pupil will push away from the iris to take on various three-dimensional shapes. The head extends on a thin neck the same color as the rest of its skin. Laughs exit out of the empty eye sockets, as well as meaningless babble in the voice of one of the character's beloved mother or little sister. Optional Ability: Character must save versus Poison or take an addition 2D6 damage.
3. A woman or man (DM's choice) in their early twenties, nude and comely, stretches out of the door a look of panic and fear on their face as they reach out to the target. If the target indicates they wish to help maid or lad, the next attack is considered a surprise attack and does an additional die of damage. The arms and body are incredibly strong, far stronger than should be capable of a body that size, as well as coated in a nearly invisible lubricant of some kind which makes grabbing onto the 'person' impossible. As the maid/lad withdraws from their attack their stricken look of panic and fear changes to one of slyness and amusement. Once the ruse is over, their legs up to their shoulder, take on sinuous movements that any bone structure would not allow. Optional Ability: The pseudo-man/woman picks the target's pocket as they withdraw, or disarms them of their weapon. The weapon or object is tossed into or onto the most inconvenient place within 60 feet of the door.
4. Dozens of humanoid arms extend and flash out in a simultaneous strike, the arms of various ethnicities and in various stages of health and decomposition. While individually they would not warrant the strength of the blow, their unified attack added a great deal of force to their strike. As the arms withdraw from their attack, they make various lewd and inviting gestures to their victim. Optional Ability: The arms may make a free push or trip attempt after a successful strike due to the shear force delivered from the blow.
5. Rusted blades, clubs, and polearms extend to strike their target, their surfaces coated in the gore of various animals and humanoid species, the handles of the weapons always staying just inside the threshold of the door. Attached to the tip of an extended pike is the impaled head of a beloved childhood pet that had belonged to one of the PC's, its collar still dangling from the remains of its neck. (DM: If you wish to really mess with your players, have the head belong to one of the player's current love interests, their mouth still shaping the words 'I love you' or 'Help me'. Naturally, it isn't their loved one. Or maybe you really hate the PC, and it really is their loved one.) Optional Ability: After a successful strike, the victim must make a successful save versus Disease, if they fail the contract a random disease from the DMG. A successful save indicates they are immune from further possible infections from this monster.
6. The head of a horse, dog, cat, or sheep (1D4 – 1. Horse 2. Dog 3. Cat 4. Sheep) extends from the portal, its neck thinned, twisted, and elongated beyond physical possibility. The poor animal is alive, its eyes rolling, its mouth foaming and letting out shrieks of a nature the characters have never heard before. Optional Ability: Once the characters hear the shrieks of the animal have them make a save versus a magical fear effect. Those that fail must flee as if under the effect of the Fear spell. A successful save indicates that the character is immune from the monster's fear effect for the rest of the encounter.

The Projectile that was Fired – 1D6

1. A cockroach like bug that impacts with the force of a bullet, its shell exploding in fragments that are as hard and sharp as glass. As the piece fall away from the target they can see a tiny human-like head thrashing about on the remains of the body, the expression is one of a person in throw of intense pleasure. Optional Ability – You can have the gooey innards act as an acid that does an addition 1D3 points of damage each round for six rounds. Or have the head of the insect imbedded into the victims skin causing an addition 1 point of damage each round until the character takes a full round to dig it out, doing an addition point of damage to themselves in the process. Alternately, if you want to turn the difficult of this monster of up to 11, you can have both the acid and the head of the creature do damage to the victim. If the head gets imbedded in the character, leave off the part about the humanoid face until they dig it out of their skin.
2. A human body part, thankfully adult in its proportions, is launched from the blackness of the door at one of the characters. The speed and force of the impact such that it can easily break bones. The limbs are completely bloodless, and flop lifelessly on the ground after they strike their target. Roll 1D6 – 1. Head 2. Torso 3. Left Arm 4. Right Arm 5. Left Leg 6. Right Leg. (At the DM's discretion, if you wish to really mess with your players heads, have the pieces belong to one of the player's loved ones.) Optional Ability – Have the door shoot out each body part in order until there is a complete set. Once there is a complete set, the bloodless ends of the parts extend tentacles to one another with lightning speed to reassemble before anyone can react. If you have taken the route of messing with the players' heads you have two options. You can have the individual look like a loved one of one of the PC's, and have them whisper and coo very inappropriate things to said PC while trying to kill them bare handed (I'm assuming you're a sick person at this point for choosing this option, so I also assume you can make up some really creepy things for the loved one to say.) Or you can have the new person look exactly like one of the PC's, the fake-PC will attempt to kill the real one bare handed while screaming, “You're not real, I'm real.” repeatedly. To up the ante even more, you can give the fake-PC the same stats and abilities are the real PC, even their signature weapon, just not any other items since they are naked. Otherwise the new person has the same stats and attacks as a ghoul, just without any special abilities.
3. A barrage of needle sharp spines with the appearance of Porcupine quills that ripple and flow as if they are made of liquid. They strike with the force of a crossbow bolt. Optional Ability – The spines quickly burrow into the target, thrashing about as they dig deeper and deeper. Each round for the next 3 rounds the spine does 1D4 points of damage as it burrows straight through the victim. The victim can dig the spine out doing an addition 2 points of damage to themselves.
4. A stream of broken glass, bone fragments, and rock chips fly out of the doorway with incredible speed and force. Optional Ability – The stream erupts in a cone that is 20 ft. long and 20 ft. wide at its widest point, hitting every character in the area of the stream. The stream does 3 times the normal amount of damage, but all those in the area may make a save versus Breath for half damage. The door may use this ability once every 3 rounds.
5. A glob of amber liquid, the consistency of mucus, come flying out the doorway at the target, impacting with incredible force. Optional Ability – Upon impact the glob hardens quickly, locking the victim's upper or lower body in place (Roll odd or even to determine which). The character must make a successful escape artist check or successfully roll below their strength on 1D20 with a +3 penalty on the roll. The mucus doesn't always harden, it has a 2 out of 6 chance of hardening.
6. A worm-like creature comes spiraling out of the doorway, the spikes along its body lacerating the target. On impact the creature dies, curling up into a tight ball as it expires. Optional Ability – The tip of the worm thing opens like the blossom of the flower, exposing thousands of rows of teeth. Before dying, the worm bites the victim which requires the target to make a save versus Poison or take an additional 2D6 points of damage.

Optional Defensive Ability – 1D6

1. A swarm of headless beetles erupt from the doorway, their bodies black and iridescent. The swarm orbits the door in such numbers that the door is partially obscured. Targeted ranged attacks have a 25% miss chance, melee attacks have a 10% miss chance.
2. With perfect timing, every time the door is struck an aged book erupts from the portal to interpose itself between the target and the weapon or projectile. The pages of the book are filled with non-sense words and random strings of letters. These books reduce the incoming damage by 1D4. Despite any trick or magical ability that is used against the door, it is always able to interpose a book between itself and the attack.
3. Coins of strange design and shape made of worthless metal and wood erupt from the doorway. No matter how the players may struggle to clear away the coins, more always join their place. These coins float in mid-air around the doorway providing it with a +4 bonus to AC against ranged attacks and a +2 bonus against melee.
4. A 10 ft aura surrounds the doorway. This aura either manifests as extreme heat (Odd) or a powerful electromagnetic field (Even). This field does 1D4 damage each round to each person caught in the field.
5. A transparent field tinged black surrounds the field and moves with it. The field takes the form of a geodesic dome that is just large enough for the door to fit into. Each time the door is struck, a perfect copy of the weapon or projectile used in the attack hits the attacker with unerring accuracy for 1D4 points of damage.
6. A thin smoke seeps from the door, creating a thin haze around the portal. Those who get within 10 feet of the door must make a save versus Poison each round they are in the miasma or take 1D6 damage. A successful save one round does not render the victim immune from the poison the next round.