NPCs: Mr. Gregarious, First Mate of the Fromage Puant

Mr. Gregarious

First Mate of the Fromage Puant

Mr. Gregarious

Background

     Mr. Gregarious is the first mate of the pirate vessel the Fromage Puant, captained by Cheebeard, Goblin King of Pirates. Though he seems harmless, even for a six foot tall stuffed bear, he is not. The crew of the Fromage Puant follow his orders to avoid his dreaded hug. He is animate, quite strong and intelligent, but does not speak. He communicates with the crew through sign and gesturing. His orders are rarely misunderstood because the penalties are dangerously steep. First time offenders will lose out on a share of the next pay out. A second offense gets time in the brig, a third gets a hug from Mr. Gregarious (see Combat section).
     Mr. Gregarious is fiercely loyal to Cheesebeard as he saved him from the Candy Witch of Upside Down Island. Cheesebeard also has a special ring that can heal Mr. Gregarious if he becomes damaged, it is a Ring of Spell Storing with mending, cantrip, and unseen servant.

NPC Stat block

Primary Class

Doll Golem

HD

10

XP Value

6,000

A/C: 4

HD: 10

HP:  40

THAC0: 11

#Att: 1

Dmg: 3d6

MR: 25%

Size: M

Move: 15

Combat
 
     Mr. Gregarious is a large animated stuffed teddy bear. As a doll golem he is, like all similar creatures, immune to almost all magical attacks. He can be harmed by fire-based spells, although these do only half damage, while a warp wood spell will affect Mr. Gregarious as if it were a slow spell. A mending spell restores him to full hit points at once.
     Each round, Mr. Gregarious will leap onto a victim and attempts to hug it. Success inflicts 3d6 points of damage and forces the victim to save versus spells. Failure to save causes the victim to begin to laugh uncontrollably (as if under the influence of a Tasha’s uncontrollable hideous laughter spell) and become unable to perform any other action. The effects of his hugs are far worse, however. The victim begins to laugh on the round after the failed save. At this time, they take 1d4 points of damage from the muscle spasms imposed by the laughter. On following rounds, this increases to 2d4, then 3d4, and so on.
     The laughter stops when the character dies or receives a dispel magic. Following recovery, the victim suffers a penalty on all attack and saving throws of -1 per round that they were overcome with laughter (e.g., four rounds of uncontrolled laughter would equal a -4 penalty on attack/saving throws). This represents the weakness caused by the character’s inability to breathe and is reduced by 1 point per subsequent turn until the character is fully recovered.

Note

     Mr. Gregarious was first created by my eldest daughter when she was but nine years old. After a series of four adventures involving Cheesebeard and Mr. Gregarious she had retired the NPCs. I recently got permission to revive and revise the NPC you see posted here.