FLARD



ORIGIN: Nirvana
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: -3
MOVE: 0”
HIT DICE: 12
% IN LAIR: 100%
TREASURE TYPE: A x 5
NO. OF ATTACKS: Nil
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Nil
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Cold, fear
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: See below
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral
SIZE: L (infinite height)
PSIONIC ABILITY: 300
Attack/Defense Modes: All/all

Flards were created by a now-extinct
race of humanoids for the sole purpose
of answering questions. Flards are extremely old, and spend most of their time
dormant, gathering information. All attacks on an unawakened Flard will be
turned back against the attacker. Flards
are never discovered awake,

Each Flard has a specific name which
triggers it awake when spoken. These
names can only be found out through
arduous research in the oldest and rarest

documents (which are certainly not available on the Prime Material Plane). Another
er Flard’s name is the only thing a Flard is
not likely to know (2% chance).

If the party speaks the Flard’s name it
will awaken and will answer one question with 100% accuracy. 
The Flard will then sleep for one thousand years.

Flards will, of course, know everything
there is to know about the party, so it is
never surprised in battle (it knew the party’s intentions previously). Flards
have two attacks: The first is a cone of
cold (6” long with a 3” base) in any direction, and the alternate one is fear (as a
wand) in a 6” radius, which can be used
whenever the Flard desires, Fire does
double damage to a Flard, and cold does
half damage,

Flards cannot go to sleep once they
have been awakened unless they are
asked a question, so in all likelihood they
will attack a party which is not quick with
its query.

A Flard is considered Non-intelligent
in dormant state, and of Godlike intelligence when awake.
All spells in existence higher than 3rd
level did not exist when Flards were
created, so only spells of 3rd level and
below will affect Flards. The following
lower-level spells also have no effect:

Fireball, Burning Hands, and all spells 
that were obviously created by a character 
(they have a name like "Bigby" or 
Tensor" attached as a possessive). 

A Flard's treasure is stored inside its 
body, and the body can only be opened 
(while the Flard is still living) by the Flard 
itself. All magic items in the treasure are 
considered to be usable by the Flard if it 
wishes (e.g. if it had a Wand of Fireballs it 
could shoot fireballs at the party; if it had 
a Ring of Invisibility it would be invisible, 
etc.).

Flards are never encountered as 
wandering monsters, and should only be 
placed by the DM in hard-to-get-at places 
in Nirvana. A quest for a Flard would 
not be unusual. 

Description: Flards appear as towering 
pillars of pure white marble with a 
veined, pink marble base. The opening 
to their treasure cache should be treated 
as a secret door (if the Flard is killed). 
Flards have infinite height. 

By Patrick Amory