XDMC 25: Create a Mount!

Welcome to the twenty-fifth Expert Dungeon Master Competition! The primary purpose of the Expert Dungeon Master Competitions is threefold:

• To create a resource for new Dungeon Masters drawing on the vast talent pool of the experienced Dungeon Masters of this forum.
• To create a fun and vibrant competition that is sportsmanlike and friendly.
• To showcase the creativity and talent of Dungeon Masters like you.

The best way to keep informed about the competition is to join the Expert Dungeon Master Competition group. There you can review the rules, archives, and future contest ideas, and get broadcasts telling you when new competitions begin and when results are released!

The topic for this competition is Mount.  You are challenged to come up with a novel and usable mount that non-player and player characters alike might use.  Rules for mounts can be found in Dungeon Master's Guide, p. 46, and in the online Dungeons & Dragons Compendium.  Sample mounts can be found in the Monster Manuals, Monster Vault, Adventurer's Vault, and the online Dungeons & Dragons Compendium.

Required Elements

In order to enter this competition, your entry must fulfill the following required elements:

• Block: Provide a complete stat block for your mount.  The mount must have the mount keyword and at least one power with the mount keyword.
• Description: Describe the mount's appearance and typical behavior.
• Lore: Set forth the Lore that heroes would know of the mount with a Skill check.
• Riders: Describe those who typically ride this mount.

If you do not meet each of these required elements, you will receive a score of zero in Themes.

Optional Elements

You must meet at least three of the following optional elements:

1. Companion: The mount has a stat block that lets it serve as a companion, using the companion rules in Dungeon Masters Guide 2.
2. Diet: The mount has an unusual diet that requires its owner to make a special effort to satisfy.
3. Headstrong: The mount has an agenda that it might pursue against the rider's wishes.
4. Key: The rider must be enchanted with a ritual, have completed a quest, or possess an item, feat, or power, in order to ride the mount safely.
5. Lumbering: The mount has no method of moving more than 5 squares with a single action, but is still valuable as a mount.
6. Odious: Possession of the mount has adverse social consequences for its owner.
7. Passive: The mount has no attack powers of its own, but enhances a rider's capabilities.
8. Rare: The mount is unique, or there are fewer than a dozen of its kind.
9. Speed: If the mount does not move at least 5 squares in any turn in which it is ridden, it explodes.
10. Topsy-Turvy: Humanoids must ride the mount in an awkward position (such as upside-down).
11. Unnatural: The mount is an animate, elemental, ooze, invertebrate, or undead.
12. Wayward: The mount is subject to "out of control" rules like a vehicle when its rider is incapacitated or fails a Skill Check described in the entry.

List the optional elements you intend to include.  If you do not, the judges will credit you only for the optional elements they happen to notice.

General Rules

Following are some general rules of the Expert DM Competition. The complete list of rules is in the Expert Dungeon Master Competition Group Wiki.

• Code of Conduct. All entries must comply with the forum's Code of Conduct.
• Contest Duration. Contests usually run for two weeks, beginning with the post announcing the competition. The Coordinator may extend the duration of the contest at his discretion after consulting the other judges for that competition. However, such extensions should be done very rarely.
• Edits Made at Entrants' Own Risk. A judge may download your entry any time after it is submitted. So any edits you make might not be considered by a judge. For this reason, you should submit your entry in as complete a form as possible. Use the preview function liberally. Once winners have been announced, entrants may edit their entries.
• Images Allowed. If you want to use an image in your entry, you must first post it to your profile gallery.
• Multiple Entries Prohibited. Each applicant may only submit one entry during the period in which entries may be submitted. Submitting multiple entries disqualifies all entries. Additional entries may be submitted after the competition closes, but they will not be judged.
• Multi-Post Entries Prohibited. Each entry must be contained within a single post. The judges must ignore any subsequent posts.
• Outside Links Prohibited. Entries may not include material hosted on a website other than the post on which the entry appears.
• Plagiarism and Peer Reviewing Prohibited. All entries must be the original, exclusive work of the applicant. Entries found to be copying the work of another, or that have been posted for review prior to the close of the competition, will be disqualified.

Judges and Schedule

The contest will run from today through Friday, February 25, 2011. All entries must be submitted no later than 12:00 midnight at the end of that day (Eastern Standard Time). The judges of this contest are ClanBattlerage, Fuka, and Shaadow, and the coordinator of this contest is wrecan. Good luck and have fun!!

Entry List

1. Qube's Gelatinous Cube (Level 9 Brute)
2. madaxematt's Barak the Juggernaut (Level 8 Brute)
3. Atua's Bubble of Keal'ni (Level 11 Minion Skirmisher)
4. apzaboro's Bone golem (horse) (Level 10 Brute)
5. shinobicow's Kaboomer Dragon (Level 5 Skirmisher Minion)
6. ChimericPhase's Fey Racing Snail (Level 3 Brute)
7. RogerC's Elemental Steed (level 5 varied)
8. Pluisjen's Swaerte Bock (Level 12 Skirmisher)
9. UsagiYojimbo's Sky Bison (Level 5 and 15 Soldier)

Supplemental Entries

• Qube's Dwarf (Level 1)
• ClanBattlerage's Supercharged Elemental
• Fuka's Thront (Level 10 Solo Brute)

Are we looking for a kind of mount (celestial dragon), a specific mount (Tar'nakitosh, the Reaver of Souls), or is either acceptable?