Today lets take a look at the second set of monsters that come in the Forgotten King core box.

The Old-Growth Hollow is a paired spawn. That means it counts as two spawning points. As discussed in the rules preview on spawning a paired spawn comes with advantages and disadvantages. We won’t rehash those here so on to the monsters!

Mooks are the Old-Growth Hollow’s baseline troop. Like the chimeric Billmen they feature a solid 3 blue dice for strength and 1 static “white” dice for armor. The Mooks rely on getting into base contact in order to make their melee attack.

Where Mooks shine are in their abilities. Immune: Poison is a handy ability against Heroes, but is situational at best. Its real power is when taken into consideration with the dungeon tiles themselves. The Forgotten King dungeon tiles are covered in poison bramble squares. This makes it so the Mook’s immunity gives them the ability to move through these squares without fear.

Next up the Mooks have the ability Poison. Meaning anytime their melee attack offensive action wounds they inflict the status effect Poison. Poison reduces a model’s number of action points by 1, to a minimum of 1. Very nasty for Heroes who need every action point they can get!

Virulent is a signature ability that many Kodama share. A model with Virulent adds +1 blue dice to any offense roll they make if their target is suffering Poison. This makes it so a Mook attacking a poisoned Hero rolls 4 blue dice. Very nice indeed!

The Turniphead is a fantastic support monster. Its low STR and ARM make it eager to remain far away from sword swinging Heroes. Fortunately it is able to make a Missile 6 attack using its formidable DEX.

Like the Mook, Turnipheads are Immune: Poison and Virulent. Virulent affects all offense rolls so where the Mook uses the ability to benefit its melee attack the Turniphead may use it to benefit its missile attack.

The real reason the Consul loves the little Turniphead is the support action It’s Medicinal. This support action targets friendly models within 2 squares and may heal either one wound or one status effect. Turnipheads are the currently the only monster in all of Super Dungeon Explore that can heal its fellow monsters, making it a valuable addition to any dungeon!

Once Wisps helped lead lost travelers to safety, now they only lead them to their doom. The first thing that separates the Wisp from her lesser brethren is her two action points and two hearts. This lends her extra destructive and staying power but at the cost of requiring two skull points to activate.

While the Wisp can make a melee attack she will typically choose to use her high WILL to make a Magic 6 attack. Like other Kodama this offense roll can be increased if the target is poisoned thanks to Virulent.

Pollen Dream is the Wisp’s support action. It requires an offense roll using the Wisp’s WILL and the target may make a defense roll using its WILL. If the Wisp wins the roll she may Compel  the target 4 squares, allowing her to move them in any direction. Perfect for moving a Hero away from a treasure chest, out of range or into brambles.

The Sprout is a 16-Bit monster and thus is not part of the first free spawn a Consul makes. At first glance you may wonder why this little guy is 16-Bit, but there is a lot of potential lurking within. Lets take a look.

Obviously the Sprout is no great fighter thanks to its meager 1 blue dice for STR. However, it has a very stout 2 red dice for ARM, making it a tough little nut to crack.

Rampant Growth is a solid support ability, granting Kodama and Kinoko (mushrooms!) +1 blue dice to their STR. Rampant Growth combined with the virulent ability allows a Mook to make its melee attacks with 5 blue dice—very potent!

The Sprout’s true secret is in its Forced Shift and Shapeshift: King Sprout abilities. Both of these abilities are closely related. Shapeshift allows the Sprout to use the Shapeshift basic action to transform into the King Sprout whenever it chooses. The Forced Shift ability means that when the Sprout suffers two wounds instead of being destroyed as normal it instead automatically Shapeshifts into its might King Sprout form. So lets take a look at the King Sprout!

Once the Sprout shapeshifts it transforms into the mighty King Sprout. Unlike most models with the shapeshift ability the King Sprout has a Fixed Form, meaning once the Sprout has shapeshifted into the King Sprout it may not shapeshift back to its original form.  Fortunately the King Sprout is a truly terrifying monster, rivaled only by mini-bosses for sheer brutality.

The first thing you’ll notice is the King Sprout has Speed 0. This means the Consul wants to be very particular about where the Sprout shapeshifts. Doorways and narrow passageways are ideal locations that force the Heroes to confront the King Sprout.

The lack of movement is alleviated somewhat by the fact that the King Sprout has Melee 4allowing it to make a melee attack from 4 squares away. Combine this ability with its offensive action Grasping Vines which allows the King Sprout to pull a model 4 squares towards it and Heroes caught by a thrashing King Sprout can find it very hard to escape.

The Grasping Vines synergizes well with the Wisp’s Pollen Dream and the Billmen’s, or its own Rootdown, Slow abilities. Used well and suddenly you have a party of Heroes trapped in the clutches of the forest doomed to be destroyed! Did we mention King Sprout’s STR is 2 blue and 2 red dice and it causes Poison? Ya, we really meant doomed.

Just in case the Heroes have managed to beat up the King Sprout it may use its Feed Meability to eat one friendly model within melee range to heal one wound. With a steady diet of weedy monsters and a couple of Turnipheads providing backup healing the King Sprout can prove to be an almost unassailable adversary.

As you can see the Old-Growth Hollow is a paired spawn to be feared. It has several key synergies that a cunning Consul can build to defeat the Heroes and ensure the Dark Consul and the Forgotten King bring darkness to the lands of Crystalia. Mwhahahaha!

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