This chapter describes many common and uncommon creatures that the characters might meet—and fight—in a Cypher System game and gives their stats. The variety of creatures that populate the possible settings and genres is so great that this chapter only scratches the surface. It does, however, provide examples of kinds of inhabitants—bestial and civilized, living and undead, organic and inorganic—so that you can easily extrapolate and create your own.
Every creature is presented by name, followed by a standard template that includes the following categories.
Like the difficulty of a task, each creature and NPC has a level attached to it. You use the level to determine the target number a PC must reach to attack or defend against the opponent. In each entry, the difficulty number for the creature or NPC is listed in parentheses after its level. As shown on the following table, the target number is three times the level.
| Level | Target Number |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 9 |
| 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 15 |
| 6 | 18 |
| 7 | 21 |
| 8 | 24 |
| 9 | 27 |
| 10 | 30 |
Following the name of the creature or NPC is a general description of its appearance, nature, intelligence, or background.
This entry is a way to help the GM understand what a creature or NPC wants. Every creature or person wants something, even if it’s just to be left alone.
This entry describes whether the creature tends to be solitary or travel in groups and what kind of terrain it inhabits (such as “They travel in packs through dry wastes and temperate lowlands”).
A creature’s target number is usually also its health, which is the amount of damage it can sustain before it is dead or incapacitated. For easy reference, the entries always list a creature’s health, even when it’s the normal amount for a creature of its level.
Generally, when creatures hit in combat, they inflict their level in damage regardless of the form of attack. Some inflict more or less or have a special modifier to damage. Intelligent NPCs often use weapons, but this is more a flavor issue than a mechanical one. In other words, it doesn’t matter if a level 3 foe uses a sword or claws—it deals the same damage if it hits. The entries always specify the amount of damage inflicted, even if it’s the normal amount for a creature of its level.
This is the creature’s Armor value. Sometimes the number represents physical armor, and other times it represents natural protection. This entry doesn’t appear in the game stats if a creature has no Armor.
Movement determines how far the creature can move in a single turn. Creatures have movements of immediate, short, long, or very long, which equate to the ranges of the same name. Most PCs have an effective movement of short, so if they are chasing (or being chased by) a creature with immediate movement, their Speed tasks are eased; if the creature’s movement is long or greater, the PCs’ Speed tasks are hindered.
Use these default numbers when a creature’s information says to use a different target number. For example, a level 4 creature might say “defends as level 5,” which means PCs attacking it must roll a target number of 15 (for difficulty 5) instead of 12 (for difficulty 4). In special circumstances, some creatures have other modifications, but these are almost always specific to their level.
This entry gives advice on using the creature in combat, such as “This creature uses ambushes and hit-and-run tactics.” At the end of the combat listing, you’ll also find any special abilities, such as immunities, poisons, and healing skills. GMs should be logical about a creature’s reaction to a particular action or attack by a PC. For example, a mechanical creation is immune to normal diseases, a character can’t poison a being of energy (at least, not with a conventional poison), and so on.
This entry gives advice on using the creature in interactions, such as “These creatures are willing to talk but respond poorly to threats,” or “This creature is an animal and acts like an animal.”
This entry gives the GM suggestions for how to use the creature in a game session. It might provide general notes or specific adventure ideas.
This entry indicates what the PCs might gain if they take items from their fallen foes (or trade with or trick them). It doesn’t appear in the game stats if the creature has no loot.
This optional entry in the stats suggests a way to use GM intrusion in an encounter with the creature. It’s just one possible idea of many, and the GM is encouraged to come up with their own uses of the game mechanic.
If you need a larger or tougher version of a creature, such as a dire wolf or a giant crocodile, you can just increase the creature’s level (and all of its modifications) by 1 or 2. If the creature has a damage or health stat that isn’t the default for its level, take that into account at the modified creature’s new level.
A simple rule of thumb is to double a creature’s size (length, width, and height) for every level it increases.
Unlike many creatures in this chapter, normal animals are simple and understandable enough to be encapsulated by just their level and maybe one or two other stats.
Bat 1 Bear 4 Black Bear 3 Boar 2 Bull Shark 4
Carnivorous Ape 3 Cat 1 Catfolk 3 Cattle 2 Cave Bear 5 Centaur 4 Cheetah 3 Corporate Drone 2 Crocodile 4
Deinonychus Dinosaur 3 Dire Wolf 4 Dodo 1 Dog 2
Gamma Snake 4 Gargoyle 3 Genetically Enhanced Bruiser 3 Giant Ape 3 Giant Crab 6 Giant Frog 3 Giant Octopus 5 Giant Scorpion 4 Giant Snake 4 Gnoll 2 Gorilla 2 Great White Shark 5 Griffon 4 Grizzly Bear 5 Guard Beast 3 Guard Dog 3
Hawk 2 Hippogryph 3 Horse 3 Hyena 2 Hyenodon 3
Innocuous Rodent 1 Insect Swarm 2
Mako Shark 4 Mammoth 6 Mongrel Dog 4 Monitor Lizard 3 Mountain Lion 3 Mummy 8
Parrot 1 Pegasus 3 Physical Laborer 2 Pit Viper Snake 2 Pixie 2 Poisonous Snake 1 Polar Bear 5 Pterodactyl 3 Pterodactyl Dinosaur 4 Python Snake 2
Rat 1 Rattlesnake 2 Razorblade Butterflies 3 Rhinoceros 4 Robot Minion 4 Roc 6 Rock Baboon 2
Sabre Tooth Cat 4 Sea Snake 3 Shark 3 Sperm Whale 5 Spitting Cobra Snake 2 Stegosaurus Dinosaur 5
Talking Cat 1 Tarantula 1 Tiger 5 Titanothere 5 Triceratops Dinosaur 5 Troll 6 Turtle 1 Tyrannosaurus Rex Dinosaur 7
Warhorse 4 Werebear 5 Wererat 3 Wereshark 4 Weretiger 5 Wolf 3
By Name:
Abomination 5 Aine, Fairy Queen Of Light An Love 9 Ant, Giant 2 Artificial Intelligence (Ai) 8
Baba Yaga 9 Basilisk 5 Bat, Giant 1 Bee, Giant 3 Beetle, Giant Bombardier 3 Beetle, Giant Fire 3 Beetle, Giant Oil 2 Beetle, Giant Tiger 3 Black Dog 6 Blackguard 6 Blob 8
Cailleach 5 Cambion 5 Cat Sidhe 4 Centaur 4 Centipede, Giant 2 Chimera 6 Chronophage 4 Cockatrice 4 Cold Elemental 5 Corrupt Mage 7 Crab, Giant 3 Cryptic Moth 5 Cybrid 8 Cyclopean 6 Cyclops 7
Dame Gothel 5 Deep One 4 Deinonychus 3 Demigod 9 Demon 5 Demon Lord 9 Devil 4 Devolved 4 Djinni 7 Dragon 7 Dragon Turtle 6 Dragon, Cloud 8 Dragon, Desert (Blue Dragon) 8 Dragon, Forest (Green Dragon) 7 Dragon, Ice (White Dragon) 7 Dragon, Mountain (Red Dragon) 9 Dragon, Plains (Yellow Dragon) 7 Dragon, Sea (Gray Dragon) 8 Dragon, Swamp (Black Dragon) 7 Dryad 3
Eagle, Giant 3 Earth Elemental 5 Ecophagic Swarm 4 Efreeti 7 Elder Thing 8 Elemental, Air 4 Elemental, Thorn 6 Elemental, Water 4 Enchanter 5 Enthraller 6 Erlking 6 Evil Priest 7 Exoslime 6
Faerie (We Are All Mad Here) 3 Faerie 3 Fairy Godmother 6 Fallen Angel 5 Fire Elemental 4 Fish, Giant Barracuda 3 Fish, Giant Bass 2 Fish, Giant Catfish 3 Fish, Giant Piranha 3 Fly, Giant 2 Frog, Giant 3 Fundamental Angel 7 Fusion Hound 3
Gargoyle 4 Ghost 4 Ghoul 4 Giant 7 Giant Rat 3 Giant Snake 4 Giant Spider 3 Giant, Cloud 7 Giant, Fire 6 Giant, Frost 6 Giant, Hill 5 Giant, Mountain 7 Giant, Stone 6 Giant, Storm 7 Gnoll 3 Goblin 1 Godmind 10 Golem 6 Golem, Bronze 6 Golem, Clay 5 Golem, Flesh 4 Golem, Iron 7 Golem, Stone 6 Golem, Wood 4 Gorgon 5 Grainne, The Wayward Daughter 9 Grey 4 Griffon 5
Hag 6 Harpy 3 Hellhound 4 Hippogriff 4 Hivemind Child 2 Hobgoblin (Naphtha) 2 Hobgoblin 3 Hollow Knight 4 Hungry Haze 4 Hydra 7
Ichthysian 5 Infovore 3 Inquisitor 4
Jelly, Black (Black Pudding) 5 Jelly, Glass (Gelatinous Cube) 4 Jelly, Gray (Gray Ooze) 4 Jelly, Green (Green Slime) 3 Jelly, Ochre 3 Jotunn, Fire 6 Jotunn, Frost 6
Kaiju 10 Kelpie 6 Killer Clown 5 Killing White Light 5 Kobold 1
Leech, Giant 2 Lich 8 Lighting Elemental 5 Living Statue, Crystal 6 Living Statue, Iron 6 Living Statue, Stone 5 Lizard, Giant Gecko 3 Lycanthrope, Werebear 6 Lycanthrope, Wereboar 5 Lycanthrope, Wererat 4 Lycanthrope, Weretiger 6 Lycanthrope, Werewolf 4
Mage, Clockwork 5 Malware, Fatal 4 Manticore 6 Mechanical Soldier 4 Medusa 5 Merfolk 3 Mermaid 3 Metal Elemental 6 Mi Go 5 Minotaur 4 Minotaur, The 7 Mock Organism 3 Mokuren 3 Morgan Le Fay 9 Morlock 2 Mummy 6 Munch Munch Mob 4
Natathim 3 Necromancer 5 Nephilim 2 Nightgaunt 3 Nixie 2 Noble Knight 7 Nuppeppo 2
Octopus, Giant 4 Ogre 4 Omworwar 10 Orc 2 Oz, The Great And Terrible 5
Pegasus 5 Photonomorph 6 Pixie 3 Posthuman 7 Prince(ss) Of Summer 5 Puppet Tree 6 Purple Worm 8
Ravage Bear 4 Reanimated 6 Redivus 4 Replicant 5 Roc 7
Salamander, Flame 5 Salamander, Frost 5 Salamander, Lightning 5 Salamander, Sand 4 Sapient Tree 3 Satyr 5 Scorpion, Giant 4 Sea Serpent 7 Sentinel Tree 3 Shadow 1 Shadow Elf 4 Shepherd Wasp Nest 4 Shining One 5 Shoggoth 7 Shrew, Giant 2 Shrieker 2 Silicon Parasite 2 Skeleton 2 Snake, Giant Rattlesnake 3 Snark 7 Soul Eater 5 Space Rat 1 Spectre 7 Sphinx 7 Spider, Giant Black Widow 4 Spider, Giant Tarantula 3 Sprite 2 Squid, Giant 4 Statue, Animate 7 Stirge 2 Storm Marine 4 Supernal 5 Synthetic Person 5
The Blind Witch 5 The Red Queen 6 The Sea Witch 6 The Snow Queen 6 The West Wind 9 The Wicked Witch Of The West 5 Thundering Behemoth 7 Treant 7 Troglodyte 2 Troll 6 Tyrannosaurus Rex 7
Vacuum Fungus 5 Vampire 6 Vampire, Transitional 3 Vat Reject 3 Virgilius The Sorcerer 7
Wardroid 6 Weasel, Giant 2 Werewolf 4 Wharn Interceptor 8 Wight 5 Wind Children 4 Witch 5 Wolf, Big Bad 8 Worm That Walks 7 Wraith (Stars Are Fire) 4 Wraith 2 Wyvern 6
By Level:
Level 1: Bat, Giant Goblin Kobold Shadow Space Rat
Level 2: Ant, Giant Beetle, Giant Oil Centipede, Giant Fish, Giant Bass Fly, Giant Hivemind Child Hobgoblin (Naphtha) Leech, Giant Morlock Nephilim Nixie Nuppeppo Orc Shrew, Giant Shrieker Silicon Parasite Skeleton Sprite Stirge Troglodyte Weasel, Giant Wraith Yellow Mold
Level 3: Bee, Giant Beetle, Giant Bombardier Beetle, Giant Fire Beetle, Giant Tiger Crab, Giant Deinonychus Dryad Eagle, Giant Faerie (We Are All Mad Here) Faerie Fish, Giant Barracuda Fish, Giant Catfish Fish, Giant Piranha Frog, Giant Fusion Hound Giant Rat Giant Spider Gnoll Harpy Hobgoblin Infovore Jelly, Green (Green Slime) Jelly, Ochre Lizard, Giant Gecko Merfolk Mermaid Mock Organism Mokuren Natathim Nightgaunt Pixie Sapient Tree Sentinel Tree Snake, Giant Rattlesnake Spider, Giant Tarantula Vampire, Transitional Vat Reject Zero Point Phantom Zombie
Level 4: Cat Sidhe Centaur Chronophage Cockatrice Deep One Devil Devolved Ecophagic Swarm Elemental, Air Elemental, Water Fire Elemental Gargoyle Ghost Ghoul Giant Snake Golem, Flesh Golem, Wood Grey Hellhound Hippogriff Hollow Knight Hungry Haze Inquisitor Jelly, Glass (Gelatinous Cube) Jelly, Gray (Gray Ooze) Lycanthrope, Wererat Lycanthrope, Werewolf Malware, Fatal Mechanical Soldier Minotaur Munch Munch Mob Octopus, Giant Ogre Ravage Bear Redivus Salamander, Sand Scorpion, Giant Shadow Elf Shepherd Wasp Nest Spider, Giant Black Widow Squid, Giant Storm Marine Werewolf Wind Children Wraith (Stars Are Fire)
Level 5: Abomination Basilisk Cailleach Cambion Cold Elemental Cryptic Moth Dame Gothel Demon Earth Elemental Enchanter Fallen Angel Giant, Hill Golem, Clay Gorgon Griffon Ichthysian Jelly, Black (Black Pudding) Killer Clown Killing White Light Lighting Elemental Living Statue, Stone Lycanthrope, Wereboar Mage, Clockwork Medusa Mi Go Necromancer Oz, The Great And Terrible Pegasus Prince(ss) Of Summer Replicant Salamander, Flame Salamander, Frost Salamander, Lightning Satyr Shining One Soul Eater Supernal Synthetic Person The Blind Witch The Wicked Witch Of The West Unicorn Vacuum Fungus Wight Witch
Level 6: Black Dog Blackguard Chimera Cyclopean Dragon Turtle Elemental, Thorn Enthraller Erlking Exoslime Fairy Godmother Giant, Fire Giant, Frost Giant, Stone Golem Golem, Bronze Golem, Stone Hag Jotunn, Fire Jotunn, Frost Kelpie Living Statue, Crystal Living Statue, Iron Lycanthrope, Werebear Lycanthrope, Weretiger Manticore Metal Elemental Mummy Photonomorph Puppet Tree Queen Reanimated The Red Queen The Sea Witch The Snow Queen Troll Vampire Wardroid Wyvern Xenoparasite Yithian
Level 7: Corrupt Mage Cyclops Djinni Dragon Dragon, Forest (Green Dragon) Dragon, Ice (White Dragon) Dragon, Plains (Yellow Dragon) Dragon, Swamp (Black Dragon) Efreeti Evil Priest Fundamental Angel Giant Giant, Cloud Giant, Mountain Giant, Storm Golem, Iron Hydra Minotaur, The Noble Knight Posthuman Roc Sea Serpent Shoggoth Snark Spectre Sphinx Statue, Animate Thundering Behemoth Treant Tyrannosaurus Rex Virgilius The Sorcerer Worm That Walks
Level 8: Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Blob Cybrid Dragon, Cloud Dragon, Desert (Blue Dragon) Dragon, Sea (Gray Dragon) Elder Thing Lich Purple Worm Queen Grimhilde Wharn Interceptor Wolf, Big Bad
Level 9: Aine, Fairy Queen Of Light An Love Baba Yaga Demigod Demon Lord Dragon, Mountain (Red Dragon) Grainne, The Wayward Daughter Morgan Le Fay The West Wind
Level 10: Godmind Kaiju Omworwar
The Genres chapter also includes suggestions for creatures appropriate to various genres.
An abomination is a hideous bestial humanoid covered with thickened plates of scarlet flesh. Their eyes shine with the stagnant glow of toxic waste dumps. Standing at least 7 feet (2 m) tall, abominations are drawn to movement. Always famished, they consume living prey in great tearing bites.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, hunting alone or in pairs (Other)
- Health:
22
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Might defense as level 6; sees through deception as level 3
- Combat:
Abominations use scavenged weapons to attack prey at range, but probably switch to biting targets within immediate range. Targets damaged by a bite must also succeed on a Might defense task or descend one step on the damage track as the abomination tears off a big piece of flesh and gulps it down. Those who survive an attack must succeed on a Might defense task a day later when they come down with flu-like symptoms. Those who fail begin the process of transforming into a fresh abomination.
Abominations regain 2 points of health per round and have +5 Armor against damage inflicted by energy (radiation, X-rays, gamma rays, and so on).
- Interactions:
Most abominations can speak and have vague memories of the people they were before transforming. However, those memories, motivations, and hopes are usually submerged in a hunger that can never be sated.
- Uses:
Abominations hunt ravaged wastelands and bombed-out spacecraft hulks, lurk in basements where mad scientists have conducted illicit experiments, and haunt the dreams of children who've gotten in over their heads.
- Intrusions:
The abomination isn't dead; it stands up on the following round at full health.
Aine is the fairy queen of summer and the sun, and is known by many names: the Fairy Queen of Light and Love, Bright One, Sun Goddess, and Sweetheart of the Fairies. She is a kind, true, and benevolent ruler, and is loved by nearly everyone. Known for making just and fair bargains with humans, she is often sought after for blessings and boons.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Motive:
To be just and true, to protect her realm
- Environment:
She shares a fairy realm with her sister, Grainne, where she rules in the summer months. (Other)
- Health:
99
- Damage:
12 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Short; very long when shapeshifted
- Combat:
Aine rarely engages in combat herself, as she prefers to leave that role to her son Geroid and his army. However, if she's attacked or feels the need to defend her realm or someone in it, she will not hesitate to step in. She attacks using the power of the sun, focusing light into a narrow beam that inflicts 12 points of damage on the target.
In addition, Aine has the power of chlorokineses--she can manipulate plants and flowers within very long range, causing them to grow to enormous proportions. She can use them as weapons that grab and hold multiple victims (level 7 Might task to break free) or that do damage via strangulation or thorns (7 points of damage). Any bees in the area act to help the queen.
Queen's bees: level 3; sting victims for 3 points of damage and paralyze them for one round.
She can also shapeshift into a red mare as she chooses. As a mare, she inflicts 6 points of damage with her hooves or bite, can become immaterial as an action (makes it impossible to successfully attack her, but she cannot attack in this form), and can move to a spot within long range instantaneously (does not require an action).
- Interactions:
Just, true, and kind, Aine makes a powerful ally, provided that she does not feel that she or her realm are threatened. Those who wish harm on others or who she sees as malevolent in action or thought are more likely to find themselves on the wrong end of the Bright One's anger.
- Uses:
Characters who wish for something important in their lives to change may ask Aine to grant them a boon. She sometimes helps those in need without them asking for it (but, of course, only for a price). If the characters attend a fairy ball or feast, they may encounter Aine as an honored guest.
- Loot:
Aine wears a crown of glass, but it is not visible unless she chooses it to be (she rarely does) or she dies. She carries little else, for she is a person of deeds, not items.
- Intrusions:
One of Aine's ardent followers believes a character is threatening their beloved queen.
- Source Book:
Enormous beyond belief, with a glossy black carapace and powerful mandibles, the Giant Ant is a terrifying sight to behold. Moving in harmony with its colony, each ant is a cog in a much larger and highly efficient machine. They use their great strength to shift earth and build massive underground nests, which can often cause issues when they intersect with human structures or territories.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Protecting the colony and gathering resources
- Environment:
Underground nests, often interacting with the surface (Wilderness)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Tasks involving strength or tunneling as level 4
- Combat:
The giant ant attacks with its mandibles, grabbing and piercing for damage. A successful attack means the ant has grasped its prey; targets must succeed on a Might defense roll or be held in place, suffering an additional 2 points of damage each round as the ant continues to crush them in its grip. Prey must succeed on a separate Might-based task to escape.
- Interactions:
Giant Ants are not aggressive unless provoked or defending their nest. They communicate with pheromones and, while they don't understand speech, can sometimes be deterred or rerouted with strong scents or chemicals.
- Uses:
An ambitious mage has discovered how to communicate with the ants and is using them to undermine the city literally and figuratively.
- Loot:
Ant carapace pieces can be used as crafting materials. Pheromone glands may have alchemical uses.
- Intrusions:
As a character avoids an ant's mandibles, they inadvertently step onto a thin crust of earth. It collapses, dropping them into the nursery chamber of the nest, teeming with defensive worker ants.
- Source Book:
If a supercomputer can think independently, it's a strong AI (an artificial intelligence). Though not as advanced as godminds, AIs can develop inscrutable goals.
AIs take many forms. Some are distributed across a vast network. Others are encoded into a singular "computer core." A few are machines with organic parts. All are entities of extreme intelligence able to adapt to new situations, and most act on some kind of plan, whether long-acting, or newly concocted to fit the situation at hand.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Varies
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
33
- Damage:
10
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 2, knowledge tasks as level 9
- Combat:
An electrical discharge-or in some cases precisely pulsed sequences of lights, each designed for a specific creature to see-can affect all targets within short range of the AI (or the AI's local terminal), inflicting 10 points of damage from electricity (or 10 points of Intellect damage, which ignores Armor).
Some AIs can take an action to absorb matter around them (such as walls, floor, equipment, unresisting living creatures, and so on), regaining 5 points of health.
An AI is likely able to deploy cyphers and artifacts in combat and also relies on guardians (such as synthetic people made to its own design) to aid it. Unless a particular AI uses a computer core, damage to an AI may just be damage done to a "terminal," so even if an AI is seemingly destroyed, it might exist as another instance somewhere else.
- Interactions:
Some AIs enjoy negotiation. Others simply ignore humans as unworthy of their time and attention. An AI's voice often sounds surprisingly human.
- Uses:
The characters are contacted by an AI sympathetic to biological beings. It wants them to accomplish a task on a moon of Jupiter: assassinate a security officer who the AI calculates as being a nexus of future disaster if he isn't removed from the equation.
- Loot:
An AI might have access to 1d6 cyphers and possibly an artifact or two.
- Intrusions:
The AI knows a phrase and series of images to flash at a particular PC to stun them for around as it attempts to upload an instance of itself into their mind.
- Source Book:
Baba Yaga (sometimes called Frau Trude) lives many lives and has many personalities. She is both one witch and many. She uses her magic to create a new version of herself each time her life takes a new branch, following all of them at once, becoming every version of herself that she might have been. Some versions of Baba Yaga are helpful. Others harmful. Some Baba Yagas live in the woods in a wooden hut that walks around on giant chicken legs, some fly through the sky in a giant mortar and pestle, and some guard any wild spaces that they have deemed important. Some capture and cook young children in a special stove. Some do all of the above.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Combat:
Baba Yaga can use the following abilities: heal, hexbolt, imprison, protect, revive, shrivel, and vitality.
- Interactions:
It is almost impossible to know which Baba Yaga you have met until you look deep in her eyes (a level 7 Intellect task). There, you might see a tiny flame, and in that flame, learn a bit about her life.
- Uses:
Baba Yaga has her long, bony fingers in nearly everything that happens. She might be behind the counter at the herb and potion shop, guarding the entrance to a cave full of treasure, or offering her services in breaking (or casting) curses.
- Loot:
1d6 cyphers, an artifact, and various other odds and ends
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Forest
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Swarm constantly whisper insults, slurs, and obscenities those physically attacked must also succeed on a difficulty 3 might defense task or be stunned and lose their next turn.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Moves a long distance each round. Evasion as level 3.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Underground
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Forest
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Attacks as level 4.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Underwater perception as level 5. Strong bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Attacks as level 4. Climbing as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Speed defense as level 3 due to size and quickness.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Forest
- Health:
9
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Balancing and climbing as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Charge attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Underground
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Darkvision.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Forest
- Health:
15
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Moves a long distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Moves a very long distance each round. Sprint attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Swims a short distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Attacks as level 5. Fast movement.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Attacks and perception as level 5.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Perception as level 3.
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Flies a long distance each round. Keen sight.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
20
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Flies a long distance each round. Precision strike.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
3
- Combat:
Rooted in place lashing branches attack up to three characters as a single action and on a failed might defense task, hold the victim in place until they can escape.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Bite inflicts 5 points of speed damage (ignores armor).
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Underground
- Health:
9
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
5
- Combat:
Flies a short distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Other
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Combat:
Attacks as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Climbing and attacks as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
4
- Combat:
Pincer attack holds prey and automatically inflicts damage each turn until the target succeeds at a might or speed defense task.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
25
- Damage:
5 points
- Combat:
Might defense and stealth as level 6 attacks four times as an action.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
8
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Speed defense as level 3 due to shield.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Attacks as level 3.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Fearsome bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Perception as level 5. Flies a long distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
20
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Perception as level 4.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Attacks and perception as level 4.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Flies a long distance each round.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Attacks as level 4 flies a long distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Moves a long distance each round.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Pack hunting as level 4. Scavenging as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Pack hunting as level 5. Strong bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Hard to hit due to size. Swarm attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Stealth as level 5. Powerful pounce.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Powerful swimmer and hunter.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Jumping, stealth, and attacks as level 5.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Attacks as level 6.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Very fast swimmer. Sharp bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Powerful tusks and trample.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Mountains
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Stealth in mountains as level 5. Pounce attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
8 (24)
- Environment:
Underground
- Health:
24
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Ancient religion, climbing, and stealth as level 8.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Swim a long distance each round. Tusk attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Stealth and positive social interactions as level 6.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Forest
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Flies a short distance each round. Mimicry.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Speed defense as level 4 moves or flies a long distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
8
- Damage:
2 points
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Stealth and finding lost items as level 6.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Attacks as level 4.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Cold resistance.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Flies a long distance each round.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Flies a long distance each round. Keen sight.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Constriction attack. Stealth in forest as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Bite inflicts 3 points of speed damage (ignores armor).
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Powerful charge.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Source Book:
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
25
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Flies a long distance each round attacks twice as an action.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Mountains
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Combat:
Climbing as level 4. Group tactics.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Stealth as level 6. Powerful bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Swim a long distance each round. Venomous bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
15
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Attacks as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Ocean
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Deep dive capability.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Tail swipe attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Urban
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Combat:
Knowledge tasks as level 7.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Attacks as level 6.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Massive size and strength.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
3
- Combat:
Powerful charge attack.
- Source Book:
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Slow movement.
- Source Book:
- Level:
7 (21)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Fearsome bite.
- Source Book:
- Level:
1 (3)
- Environment:
Underground
- Health:
5
- Damage:
1 point
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Attacks as level 3, speed defense as level 3 due to quickness and size.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Perception, and attacks as level 5. Makes two attacks as its action once per hour can teleport up to 1 mile once per hour can heal a creature for 4 pool.
- Source Book:
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
6
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Bite inflicts 3 points of speed damage (ignores armor).
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Combat:
Moves a long distance each round.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Attacks as level 6.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Speed defense and stealth as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Attacks as level 5.
- Source Book:
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Attacks as level 6.
- Source Book:
- Level:
3 (9)
- Environment:
Wilderness
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Combat:
Perception as level 4.
- Source Book:
- Level:
4 (12)
- Environment:
Mountains
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Perception, and stealth as level 4.
- Source Book:
A basilisk is a magical kind of serpent that resembles a cobra, has a series of scales on its head like a crown, and crawls upright instead of slithering on its belly. It feeds on snakes and other creatures smaller than itself, relying on its poisonous aura to weaken and kill its prey. It is known to make an unnerving growl instead of a typical snake hiss. An adult basilisk is 10 to 18 feet (3 to 5.5 m) long.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Hunger
- Environment:
Forests and plains (Forest)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Perception and stealth as level 6
- Combat:
A basilisk bites like a snake, inflicting 5 points of damage and injecting a poison that moves the target one step down the damage track if they fail a Might defense roll.
The basilisk can spit its poison up to short range, inflicting 1 point of damage and moving the target one step down the damage track if they fail a Might defense roll.
The basilisk's venom affects its breath, and on its turn, anything within immediate range of it must make a Might defense roll or take 1 point of poison damage. Because of this constant invisible cloud of poison, a basilisk's lair is surrounded by a stinking area of dead vegetation, blasted earth, and etched stone.
Basilisk venom is so potent that even creatures that are immune to poison can still be harmed by it, taking 5 points of Speed damage instead of moving down the damage track. (A creature that is immune to poison and acid is fully immune to the venom.)
Anyone within short range of a basilisk who meets its gaze and fails a Might defense roll turns to stone. In combat, when a character within short distance attacks a basilisk, they must either avert their gaze to attack safely (which hinders their attack by two steps) or make a Might defense roll. On a failed Might defense roll, the character takes 5 points of ambient damage as their flesh partly mineralizes; if the character is killed by this damage, they are turned to stone.
- Interactions:
Basilisks act like simple animals and respond threateningly if disturbed or provoked. If not hungry, a basilisk avoids conflict and hides in its lair.
- Uses:
A blighted area in a field, briar, or forest suggests that a basilisk has moved into the area. Swarms of snakes enter a village, fleeing an approaching basilisk.
- Loot:
Basilisk venom is valuable, but it must be stored in a strong, sealed container or the bearer will succumb to the poison. Its blood has alchemical properties relating to transmuting metals.
- Intrusions:
The basilisk strikes quickly, biting the same creature twice on its turn.
- Source Book:
This monstrous nocturnal predator has a wingspan that can stretch up to twenty feet, with leathery wings and sharp fangs dripping with venom. Its eyes reflect the moonlight, giving it an eerie glow as it screeches through the night sky. The eerie silhouette of the giant bat is often the last thing its prey sees, as it swoops down silently to snatch and carry off its victims.
- Level:
1 (3)
- Motive:
Seeks warm-blooded prey to feed on
- Environment:
Dark caverns, ancient forests, and abandoned ruins (Underground)
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate when flying; Short otherwise
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 2 when flying in darkness; Perception as level 5 in darkness, as level 1 in daylight; Speed defense as level 2 due to agile flying
- Combat:
In combat, the giant bat uses its Echoing Screech to disorient its prey, causing them to lose a turn if they fail a difficulty 4 Intellect defense roll. The bat can then attack with its venomous bite, which inflicts 5 points of damage and requires the victim to succeed on a Might defense roll or become poisoned, taking 2 additional points of damage for three rounds or until treated. Lifesap Embrace: On a successful grab with its claws, the giant bat latches onto its prey and begins to drain its life force. The victim must make a Might defense roll each round or take 3 additional points of damage as the bat continues to feed. Vampiric Healing: For every 5 points of damage the giant bat deals with its bite, it heals 2 points of damage.
- Interactions:
The giant bat tends to avoid any creatures larger than itself unless provoked or extremely hungry. It communicates with clicks and screeches, potentially responding to similar sounds or echolocation.
- Uses:
A colony of giant bats could pose a threat to nearby settlements, stealing livestock or even unwary travelers. Alternatively, their guano could be a sought-after material for powerful alchemical concoctions.
- Intrusions:
As a character is targeted by the giant bat, it deftly snatches an item from their person, perhaps a weapon or a piece of valuable equipment, and carries it high into the air, dropping it in a difficult to reach location.
- Source Book:
Giant bees are colossal versions of their tiny brethren. Their hum resonates like the buzz of a dozen chainsaws; their stingers ooze with a lustrous venom. Giant bees construct massive hives in secluded areas, often in cliff faces or high in ancient trees. Each bee has a role, from workers collecting nectar from giant flowers to the deadly warriors who guard the hive and its precious honey.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Protecting the hive, collecting resources
- Environment:
Forests, meadows, and other areas rich in flora (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when flying; Short when crawling
- Modifications:
Perception and Stealth as level 4 due to sensory and evasive capabilities; Attacks as level 4 when protecting the hive
- Combat:
Giant bees attack with their stingers, inflicting venom that causes paralysis. A victim hit by a stinger must succeed at a Might defense roll to avoid being paralyzed for one minute. While paralyzed, they can't move, speak, or take any physical action. The bees work together in combat, using their numbers to flank and harry opponents. Working in tandem, they can carry away prey much larger than themselves back to their hive.
- Interactions:
Giant bees can communicate through complex dances and emit pheromones to signal danger or call for reinforcements. They have limited understanding of external communication but may respond to simple gestures or offerings of sweet food.
- Uses:
A rare type of golden honey can be harvested from their hives, said to hold potent healing properties. Brave or foolhardy travelers might attempt to harvest it, risking the wrath of the hive.
- Loot:
Giant bee honey, paralyzing venom (usable for coating weapons or as a trap component), wax for crafting and making candles
- Intrusions:
As a character swats away one bee, they don't notice its silent signal to the rest of the hive. Suddenly, a swarm of giant bees descends on the party from a previously unnoticed part of the environment.
- Source Book:
This oversized insect, resembling a fearsome mix between a rhinoceros beetle and a bombardier beetle, can grow up to the size of a small car. Its shimmering exoskeleton reflects the sunlight in a dazzling display of colors. The Giant Bombardier Beetle is named for its ability to spray a boiling chemical concoction from its abdomen with terrifying accuracy, which it uses to deter predators and to hunt.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defense of territory and hunting for sustenance
- Environment:
Forests, caves, or other secluded areas rich in vegetation (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Attacks with chemical spray as level 5
- Combat:
A Giant Bombardier Beetle sprays a scalding chemical mist once every two rounds, causing 5 points of damage to all within immediate range. Victims hit by the spray must make a Speed defense roll to avoid being blinded for one round. Additionally, the beetle has strong mandibles that deal 5 points of damage and can clamp down on opponents, requiring a Might-based task to escape.
- Interactions:
Not naturally aggressive unless threatened or hungry, the Giant Bombardier Beetle tries to avoid conflict but will defend its territory fiercely if provoked.
- Uses:
Could be used by a local alchemist seeking its chemical secretions, or it's terrorizing a nearby settlement by disturbing their peace.
- Loot:
Chemical glands (if extracted properly) can be used as components for potent alchemical concoctions.. Beetle shell fragments can be fashioned into resilient armor pieces.
- Intrusions:
As a PC strikes the beetle, it triggers a defense mechanism, causing the beetle's glands to rupture, releasing a large cloud of toxic fumes that envelops the combat area, creating a hazard for both the creature and players.
- Source Book:
This towering insect looms like a small car, its carapace a shimmering, heat-radiating red. Its mandibles crackle with small bursts of flames, and it has an oily sheen that reflects the flickering light. The Giant Fire Beetle thrives in scorched environments, its body adapted to withstand intense heat, making its nest near lava flows or burning forests. Emitting a heat haze that distorts its true size and location, the beetle is a master of its fiery domain.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defends territory, seeks to consume ash and charred material
- Environment:
Volcanic regions, fire-ravaged forests, and other hot areas (Mountains)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Resisting heat and fire as level 5
- Combat:
The Giant Fire Beetle's mandibles snap with searing pain. With a successful bite, it can grapple its foe. Additionally, the heat aura from its body causes passive flame damage to anyone within immediate range. When grappled by the beetle, a character must succeed on a Speed defense task to escape or take 5 additional points of damage each round from the ferocious bite. Fiery Emission: As an action, the Giant Fire Beetle can emit a burst of flame from its glands, targeting up to two creatures within short range for 4 points of fire damage (ignores armor). Thermal Mirage: Its heat distortion provides an asset to its Speed defense, making the creature difficult to hit with ranged attacks.
- Interactions:
Aggressive when its territory is invaded, the beetle communicates with hisses and clicks that could be mistaken for a language. It doesn't negotiate but responds to displays of heat or flame, perhaps seeing them as competition or a mate.
- Uses:
Characters exploring a new volcanic tunnel system accidentally awaken a Giant Fire Beetle from its slumber beneath a layer of igneous rock, igniting a fiery confrontation.
- Loot:
Characters skilled in crafting might harvest heat-resistant chitin from its carapace. Alchemists may find its fiery glands valuable.
- Intrusions:
The creature's heat aura ignites flammable items the characters are carrying, or the intense heat causes the ground they stand on to become unstable, perhaps causing a collapse or creating a flow of molten rock.
- Source Book:
The Giant Oil Beetle is a monstrous vermin with a shiny, dark exoskeleton that gleams like a pool of liquid darkness. Nearly the size of a small car, these beetles secrete a viscous, flammable oil when threatened, which they can ignite to deter predators or prey.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Territorial dominance and hunger
- Environment:
Forests, jungles, and underground caves (Forest)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climbing as level 4; Stealth in its environment as level 3 due to camouflaged exoskeleton
- Combat:
The Giant Oil Beetle's primary attack is a spray of its flammable oil, which can reach up to short range. A target hit by the oil suffers 3 points of damage and must succeed on a Speed defense roll to avoid being covered in oil. On the next round, the beetle can ignite the oil to deal an additional 4 points of damage to any creature covered.
- Interactions:
These beetles are not intelligent but fiercely protective of their territory. They might initially posture rather than attack outright, using their size and the glint of their shells to intimidate.
- Uses:
A druid or other character with control over insects could use the beetles as guardians or soldiers. Alternatively, an oil baron could try to harvest the beetle's secretions for fuel.
- Loot:
If one can safely extract it, a vial of the Giant Oil Beetle's flammable secretion might serve as an improvised explosive or fire-starting agent.
- Intrusions:
The oil sprayed on the character's gear and clothes begins to solidify, hindering all movement based tasks by one step until properly cleaned off.
- Source Book:
This gargantuan beetle sports striking black and orange patterns across its hardened carapace. With mandibles that can sheer through armor and a startling ability to leap and pounce like its namesake, the Giant Tiger Beetle is a terrifying fusion of insect agility and raw predatory power. Its chittering can be heard from a distance, often mistaken for the laughter of a madman, adding a layer of psychological warfare before it strikes.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Territory dominance and hunger
- Environment:
Tropical forests, caverns, and other dark, humid places (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when pouncing, Short otherwise
- Modifications:
Climbing as level 4; Stealth and Speed defense as level 5 due to its agility
- Combat:
The Giant Tiger Beetle pounces on its prey from above or the darkness, using its immense mandibles to inflict a fierce bite. Targets hit by the pounce attack may be knocked down or disoriented, requiring a Might defense roll to resist being knocked prone.
- Interactions:
Animalistic and aggressive, the Giant Tiger Beetle does not communicate and will attack anything it sees as food or a threat.
- Uses:
An overgrown jungle temple is home to these creatures, who have claimed the ruins and the treasures within as part of their domain.
- Loot:
Giant Tiger Beetle carapace fragments can be used in crafting strong lightweight armor.
- Intrusions:
The ground trembles as a new Giant Tiger Beetle unexpectedly emerges from underground, joining the fray or causing a chaotic stampede of other smaller insects.
- Source Book:
Black dogs go by many names: hellhounds, bearers of death, black hounds of destiny, and devil dogs, just to name a few. Typically they are spectral or demonic entities that show up at night. They are often sinister, malevolent, or purposefully harmful (such as the Barghest and Black Shuck). Occasionally, black dogs are helpful and benevolent, guarding people from danger, helping them find the correct path, or signifying the death of someone nearby. Black dogs are usually large, shaggy, and as black as night, with long ears and tails. However, despite their name, they can be any color. The real distinction is that they are definitely not regular, living dogs. Some have eyes like fire, some howl with a ghostly, ethereal song, and still others have telltale witches' marks upon their chest or back. Black dogs can see ghosts, witches, and other magical entities not typically visible to other creatures. They are sometimes a portent of death, but not always. Many carry with them an inherent sense of sadness and despair, which they can pass on to those around them. Black dogs sometimes serve as familiars for witches and sorcerers.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Bring harm and pain; help and guard
- Environment:
Crossroads, places of execution, and ancient paths (Other)
- Health:
20
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long; very long when running
- Modifications:
Sneaking, hiding, and attacking from surprise or advantage as level 7
- Combat:
Malevolent black dogs will attack from a position of surprise or advantage, inflicting 8 points of damage with their spectral teeth and claws. Some black dogs cause such a deep feeling of despair and sadness, just by being nearby, that they inflict 2 points of Intellect damage each round on everyone who can see them or otherwise sense their presence.
- Interactions:
Running, at least from the malevolent ones, is typically the best course of action. Dealing with helpful black dogs is often an interesting and unexpected experience, as they don't talk and don't explain who they choose to help or why.
- Uses:
The characters are fighting an extremely tough foe when a black dog steps in to help them out (or to help their foe). The characters are lost in the woods, and a large, menacing black dog steps out of the forest and leads them back to safety.
- Loot:
Black dogs rarely have anything valuable on them. However, killing a black dog causes it to haunt whoever dealt it the fatal blow. That person feels such deep anxiety and despair that all their actions are hindered for at least one day, and often longer.
- Intrusions:
The black dog howls, creating such a mournful sound that everyone in very long distance who can hear it takes 4 points of Intellect damage. A character who sees the black dog is deeply affected by sadness and moves one step down the damage track.
- Source Book:
Blackguards are evil knights who serve dark entities or their own corrupt agendas. Some were once honorable knights who fell to temptation and have abandoned their original principles, but many were raised under evil circumstances and have never known anything but hatred and conflict.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Power, domination of others, slaughter
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, either alone or as part of a cult or evil organization (Other)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; long when mounted
- Modifications:
Perception and Intellect defense as level 7
- Combat:
Blackguards use high-quality armor and weapons (usually decorated with symbols depicting death, demons, or evil gods). Many wear heavy armor and prefer weapons that inflict bleeding wounds, but some take a more subtle approach and act more like assassins than knights. A blackguard typically has two or three of the following abilities:
Fiendish Beast: The blackguard has a companion creature such as a dog, horse, or raven with an eerie, unnatural look (in the case of small animals, the creature may also be an exceptionally large specimen of its kind). The creature is actually a semi-intelligent fiend in animal shape (and therefore immune to abilities that affect only normal animals) that can understand the blackguard's commands, and may even be able to speak. If the beast is a horse or similar creature, the blackguard might ride it as a mount. Fiendish beast: level 4, stealth as level 5, Might and Intellect defense as level 5
Necromancy: The blackguard uses a ten-minute ritual to animate a human-sized corpse as a zombie under their control. The zombie becomes a corpse again after a day.
Poison: The blackguard coats their weapons with a level 6 poison; a foe who fails a Might defense roll moves one step down the damage track.
Spells: The blackguard knows several spells granted by an evil entity, typically spells that cause a foe to flee in fear for one minute, restore 10 health, create an eerie darkness or fog in long range, or grant +5 Armor against energy and magical attacks for an hour.
Surprise Attack: When the blackguard attacks from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before their opponent has acted in combat, they get an asset on the attack and inflict +4 points of damage. Unholy
Aura: Defense rolls by foes within immediate distance of the blackguard are hindered.
Unholy Blessing: The blackguard's defense rolls are eased.
- Interactions:
Blackguards enjoy killing righteous paragons of good and are often cruel for the sake of cruelty itself.
- Uses:
A blackguard has united various groups of bandits into a small army. An evil wizard sends her blackguard lieutenant to kill the people interfering with her plans.
- Loot:
Blackguards usually have treasures equivalent to three or four expensive items, a few useful manifest cyphers, and an artifact weapon or armor.
- Intrusions:
The blackguard's weapon flares with unholy power, inflicting an additional 6 points of damage (ignores Armor). A slain black guard rises as an undead or is possessed by a demon and continues to fight
- Source Book:
The huge, undulating mass of this creature is composed of a mucus-like solid. The half-amorphous blob defeats its foes by absorbing prey, integrating a victim's tissue into its own. In essence, the victim becomes the blob, and all of the victim's knowledge is available to the blob for later use.
If it later desires, a blob can release a nearly perfect replicant of any creature that it has absorbed. Replicants have the memories and personalities of the originals, but they do the blob's bidding, which is usually to explore distant locations or lure prey into the open using a friendly face. A particularly well-crafted replicant might not know it's not the original. Creating a replicant takes a blob a day or two of effort, during which time it's unable to defend itself or eat, so it's not a task the creature attempts lightly.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Assimilation of all flesh
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
66
- Damage:
8 points (acid gout)
- Movement:
Immediate; immediate when burrowing
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
The blob can project a gout of acid at short range against a single target. Though slow, a blob is always moving forward. A character (or two characters next to each other) within immediate range of a blob must succeed on a Might defense roll each round or be partly caught under the heaving mass of the advancing creature. A caught victim adheres to the blob's surface and takes 10 points of damage each round. The victim must succeed on a Might defense roll to pull free. A victim who dies from this damage is consumed by the blob, and their body becomes part of the creature. If a blob has absorbed living flesh within the last hour, it regenerates 3 points of health per round while its health is above 0.
- Interactions:
A blob's favored method of communication is to absorb whoever tries to interact with it. If a replicant is handy, the blob might talk through it if the blob can touch the replicant and use it like a puppet.
- Uses:
The old man the PCs accidentally hit with their vehicle has a weird, mucus-like growth on one hand (in addition to the damage he sustained in the accident). He probably should be taken to the hospital to have his injuries and the quivering growth looked at.
- Loot:
A blob might have several cyphers swirling about in its mass that it uses to equip replicants.
- Intrusions:
The character pulls free of a blob they were caught under, but a piece of quivering protoplasm remains stuck to their flesh. They must do serious damage to themselves (enough to incapacitate) within the hour, scraping off the protoplasm before it absorbs them and becomes a new mini-blob.
- Source Book:
Not actually a water spirit, but one who has made her peace with the sea in an eternal bargain, Cailleach once lived on land. Now she is a recluse deep in the ocean in the realm known as the Expanse of Halirane. She appears ancient, and in fact is much older than that. She shaves her head bald, wears dozens of shell earrings in each ear, and has a glass eye that allows her to see three views of the future. As part of her bargain with the sea, she can never return to dry land again, or she will lose all of her powers forever.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
To be left alone
- Environment:
A home hidden inside a coral reef at the bottom of the ocean. Her home is a large dead whale that the sea magically preserves as part of their bargain. (Ocean)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Short; very long when shapeshifted
- Modifications:
Seeing through deceptions and lies as level 6, healing as level 8
- Combat:
Cailleach has many abilities at her disposal, some of which come from the sea and others that come from her own magic. They include the following:
Healing Pot: If she has the proper ingredients and takes a day to do so, Cailleach can brew a healing salve in her special pot. Depending on what she adds to the mixture, this salve can do one of three things: restore 10 Might points, move someone up one step on the damage track, or remove a curse (up to level 6).
Reptilian Form: Cailleach takes the form of a reptile of any size. While in this form, she has +3 Armor and does 6 points of damage with her bite, claw, or tail lash. In addition, she regains 3 points of health per round.
Restore to Life: Putting her wizened pointer finger into someone's mouth can bring them back to life, but only if they've been dead for less than a day and only if she holds her finger there for exactly as long as they've been dead. After that, her finger falls off. It takes three days for her to regrow a new one.
See the Future: Cailleach can use her glass eye to scry the future of an individual. She does so by first removing the eye, and then having the person hold it in their mouth until she asks for it back (sometimes this is for just a second, and sometimes it's for hours--it's hard to know if the variable length of time is part of the ritual or just her dark sense of humor). She typically sees three possible futures, and all of them have an equal chance of coming to pass.
Wanton Destruction: As part of her agreement with the sea, Cailleach was given the power to control small parts of it at a time. She can create a whirlpool that catches up all creatures and objects within short range of its center and inflicts 5 points of ambient damage (ignores Armor).
- Interactions:
Cailleach is a recluse and introvert whose deepest longing is to be left alone to increase her knowledge of magic. She also likes puzzles and games, and out of everything on land, she misses birds most of all (for interacting with, not eating). Those who bring her any of those items are likely to draw Cailleach out of her shell and have a positive interaction.
- Uses:
Cailleach can be a beneficial ally, particularly as a healer. She might also be convinced to help fight against an encroaching danger, especially if it's threatening her solitude and privacy.
- Loot:
She typically carries a number of sea cyphers, and her home is filled with books, scrolls, and journals of all sorts.
- Intrusions:
The sea offers additional assistance to Cailleach's spells, increasing her damage or movement.
- Source Book:
Fine ebony scales cover a cambion's perfectly athletic figure. Two reddish horns grow from its brow, and the tips of fangs emerge from between its dusky lips. Its eyes, absent iris and pupil, are the color of driven snow. Cambions are cursed creatures, born of mortal and demonic parentage, and are also sometimes called helborn. Most cambions give in to what everyone expects of them, and embrace evil.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Defense, conquest, revenge on a world that's rejected them
- Environment:
Anywhere, often hiding in plain sight (Other)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Disguise as level 7
- Combat:
Cambions sometimes wield heavy weapons in combat, especially if they come across an artifact that can enhance their attacks. Some cambions develop their natural and magical abilities to become powerful sorcerers, but most can call up hellish energy merely by willing it at least once per day, as follows.
Finger of Torture: A ruby ray lances out from the cambion's finger to strike an enemy prone with torturous pain on a failed Might defense task. The target automatically takes 6 points of damage each round until they can escape the effect with an Intellect task.
Soulfire Blast: An explosion of soul-rending black and crimson fire explodes around up to three targets standing next to each other within short range, inflicting 4 points of damage and stunning the targets so that they lose their next action on a failed Speed defense task.
- Interactions:
Cambions are bleak, depressed, and misunderstood. Most have turned to evil, but a few can be redeemed.
- Uses:
A great fire is seen burning on the horizon. The next day, travelers come across a burned region with a crater that has destroyed a farmhouse. At the center of the crater is an unconscious human with hornlike growths on its head.
- Loot:
Powerful cambions sometimes wield artifacts as weapons.
- Intrusions:
The character's cypher explodes when touched by cambion demon fire on a failed Speed defense task.
- Source Book:
Cat sidhes, sometimes called phantom cats, are dog-sized felines that were once witches and now have shifted permanently into cat form. They're all black except for a single white symbol on their chest, which is their name.
When cat sidhes form (because a witch has turned themselves into a cat for the ninth time), they gain nine tails. Each time a cat sidhe would be killed, they can choose to lose one of their tails instead. Once a cat sidhe has no more tails remaining, their death is final. While cat sidhes inflict damage with their soul-stealing attacks, the roleplaying element of a character losing part of their soul is possibly more important than the game effect. Consider removing something from the character that will affect them in interesting and unusual ways.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Steal souls, gain power
- Environment:
Highlands, mountains, and forests (Wilderness)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to quickness and agility
- Combat:
Cat sidhes can attack with their claws for 6 points of damage, but they much prefer to engage from a long distance, using their unique ability to cast curses that steal part or all of a victim's soul. They may attack a foe using the following types of soul-stealing curses. Characters who succeed on an Intellect defense roll resist the effect, but take 1 point of Intellect damage due to the effort. If someone can read the symbol on the cat's chest and pronounce it, they gain +1 Armor against the cat's attacks.
Falter. Removes a favored part of the creature's personality, such as their sense of humor, courage, or kindness. The creature doesn't forget that they had that part of their personality; they just can't remember how to access it again. All social interactions are hindered.
Fester. Replaces a piece of the character's soul with an idea, false memory, or thought that, once placed, grows into something insidious and dangerous inside them. The character takes no damage at the time, but each time they make a recovery roll, they take 2 points of Intellect damage.
Forget. Removes something from the creature's memory, such as all nouns (including their own name), a loved one's face, their current purpose, an ability, or a skill. This inflicts 3 points of Intellect damage and causes the character to forget the specific thing.
- Interactions:
Having once been witches, cat sidhes are smart, cunning, and dangerous. Most have no interest in conversations or bargains, unless they are injured in some way. They can, however, sometimes be distracted from their purpose of stealing souls by riddles, music, and children's games.
- Uses:
A cat sidhe stalks a forest where the characters are passing through on their way elsewhere. Someone sends the characters to capture a "lost" cat, which turns out to be a cat sidhe.
- Loot:
When a cat sidhe dies, it disappears, leaving behind only the once-white symbol on its chest in the form of a medallion.
- Intrusions:
The cat sidhe yowls, causing a second cat sidhe to appear from hiding
- Source Book:
The centaur is a majestic composite creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. This confluence of human intellect and equine agility makes them formidable beings within their woodland realms. They are skilled archers and carry long, elegant spears that serve both as tools for hunting and for defending their territories. Their hooves carry a rhythmic thunder, which is both a warning and a challenge to intruders.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Protecting their territory, maintaining harmony with nature
- Environment:
Dense forests and meadows, usually found near ancient ruins or sacred groves (Forest)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to agility; Tracking as level 5, Stealth as level 3
- Combat:
Centaurs prefer to engage at a distance using their composite bows with great accuracy. If need be, they switch to a deadly spear thrust with a Might defense roll required on hit, leaving the target Impaled (5 additional points of damage next round unless the spear is carefully removed with a successful Intellect-based task of level 4). Skilled Healer: Centaur herds often possess advanced knowledge of medicinal herbs and techniques (Healing as level 5). They can choose to aid wounded creatures if they deem them to be non-hostile. Charge: A centaur can perform a charging attack that inflicts an additional 3 points of damage and can knock the target down, requiring them to use an action to stand up.
- Interactions:
Centaurs can be diplomatic if approached with respect and if the outsiders show no signs of aggression or defilement of nature. They are philosophical and may pose riddles or demand proof of good intentions.
- Uses:
Adventurers might seek the centaurs' wisdom to locate a hidden artifact within the forest or request their aid in battling a common threat.
- Loot:
Expertly crafted bows, spears with intricate carvings, potent healing salves
- Intrusions:
The centaur's arrow struck deeper than intended, hitting a vital spot or a valuable item. The player may take additional damage or need to spend time repairing or retrieving the damaged item.
- Source Book:
A horrifying manifestation of writhing legs and venomous fangs, the Giant Centipede is a relentless predator. Each of its numerous segments sports a pair of barbed legs that allow for rapid movement and tight maneuvers. Its chitinous exoskeleton glistens with a toxic sheen, and its mandibles drip with a paralytic venom utilized to incapacitate prey.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
To feed and defend its territory
- Environment:
Dark, damp places such as underground caves or dense forests (Underground)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4 due to its natural camouflage
- Combat:
The Giant Centipede can coil around a victim to incapacitate them, requiring a Might defense roll. On a failure, the prey is immobilized and begins to suffocate, taking 2 additional points of damage each round until they succeed on a Might-based task to free themselves. Additionally, its venomous fangs can inject paralytic poison, hindering all actions by the victim for a short duration.
- Interactions:
Giant Centipedes are not intelligent but driven by instinct. They may retreat if significantly harmed to avoid death.
- Loot:
Their chitinous plates can be used to craft light armor or shields, and their venom can be collected, if carefully, for use in alchemical concoctions.
- Intrusions:
As the Giant Centipede scurries away, the vibrations of its movement cause the ground to crumble, revealing hidden sinkholes or agitating other subterranean creatures.
- Source Book:
Chimeras are unsettling hybrids that combine the features of many different animals, often arranged in odd formations. The fusion of animal forms is the only thing that unifies these creatures-otherwise, different chimeras often look very different from each other. They include combinations of goat and lion, lizard and bat, dragon and spider, dinosaur and giant insect. A few even display human features, such as an improbably located face or hands instead of claws. Some chimeras can fly. Others slither across the ground.
A chimera typically has a dominant form to which other animal parts are grafted. The base form must be large enough to support the weight of the extra heads, so lions, bears, and horses are popular as the base form.
Chimeras kill even when not hungry and throw their victims' remains around a wide area in a wild rage. When not feeding or tormenting prey, a chimera that can fly takes to the air, beating its enormous leather wings to scour the landscape for new prey.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for human flesh
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually alone (Wilderness)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short while on the ground; long while flying (if it can fly)
- Modifications:
Speed defense rolls as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
All chimeras have a number of ways to kill. The exact methods vary, but most can bite, sting, and gore (three attacks) as a single action, either attacking the same opponent or attacking different foes within immediate range of each other. A chimera's sting carries a powerful toxin, and a stung target must succeed on a Might defense roll or take 4 additional points of damage. Chimeras with spikes can project them at up to three targets within long range as a single action.
- Interactions:
Chimeras are a lot like wild animals with rabies. They're confused and violent, and they behave erratically. Savage, ferocious beasts, they hate all other creatures and seize any opportunity to kill.
- Uses:
While exploring an island, the PCs find carcasses that have been torn apart, the pieces scattered in all directions. A chimera lairs nearby, and if the characters draw attention to themselves, it hunts them down, too.
- Intrusions:
The chimera grabs a character it bites and flies off with the victim
These segmented, 6-foot (2 m) long creatures look partly like larvae that have grown gargantuan and vicious. They appear in places where time moves more slowly or more quickly than normal, where balls and liquids flow upslope, or where a time traveler has visited.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for the flesh of those who create, or were created by, time anomalies
- Environment:
Clutches of four to eight fade into existence within long range of space-time fractures in almost any location. (Space)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short; can phase into the dimension of time (and disappear) as a move. On its next action, it can phase back into the world up to 300 feet (90 m) from where it disappeared (as an action).
- Modifications:
Perception as level 5
- Combat:
A chronophage attacks with its crushing mandibles.
A chronophage can phase back and forth between its home dimension, and it uses this ability to great effect when hunting prey. For instance, it can close on prey otherwise protected by barriers or features of the landscape. It can also use the ability to draw a victim's attention and then launch a surprise attack from behind after it has effectively teleported. However, it is an action for the creature to shift its phase between the dimension of time and normal reality.
- Interactions:
Chronophages are unswerving in their drive to find prey. Once one marks its target, only killing the creature can sway it from the prey.
- Uses:
When the PCs happen upon a location where the rules of space-time are loose and malleable, or if the PCs trigger a cypher or other device that interferes with time's regular flow, a clutch of chronophages may soon come calling.
- Loot:
The skin of a chronophage can be salvaged to create a silvery cloak that reflects its surroundings, but the reflection is one hour behind the present.
- Intrusions:
If a chronophage's prey fails its Speed defense roll, the attack ignores Armor, and the prey must make an Intellect defense roll (difficulty 4) or be phased into the chronophage's home dimension of time. Victims automatically phase back into reality on their next turn but are displaced by 100 feet (30 m) straight up or to the closest open space. This usually results in a fall that potentially deals 10 points of damage, knocks victims prone, and dazes them, hindering all actions for a round.
The cockatrice is a terrifying combination of lizard, bird, and dragon. With the body of a serpent, wings of a bat, and a rooster's head, it stirs primal fear in those who gaze upon it. A single glance from its piercing eyes is said to be enough to petrify the unlucky observer, turning flesh to stone with supernatural ease.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Protect territory and reproduce
- Environment:
Forests, caves, and abandoned ruins (Forest)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short when walking, Long when flying
- Modifications:
Perception as level 5; Stealth as level 5 due to camouflaging scales
- Combat:
A cockatrice attacks from above, utilizing a swift diving peck with its stone-hard beak. If the attack hits, the victim must make an immediate Speed defense roll. On a failure, they feel the onset of petrification, which hinders all their movements by two steps. Each subsequent hit from the cockatrice requires another Speed defense roll, with a failed roll worsening the petrification by another step. Full petrification occurs if movements are hindered by four steps. Some cockatrices can produce a cone-shaped petrifying breath (Short range) instead of the gaze, requiring every creature in the area to make a Speed defense roll or be hindered as with a successful peck.
- Interactions:
Generally reclusive, cockatrices may avoid combat if it can protect its nest or territory by other means. It may use illusory cries for help to lure in prey, revealing its aggressive nature only when the victim is close.
- Uses:
A cockatrice might be guarding a powerful artifact in an ancient ruin, or a panicked town might hire adventurers to deal with a cockatrice that has taken residence nearby, petrifying livestock and unwary travelers.
- Loot:
Cockatrice feathers are highly valued by alchemists, while its petrifying glands are a rare component sought out by spellcasters.
- Intrusions:
As a character attacks, the cockatrice's eyes flash, causing their weapon to petrify in their hands—you'll need a strong grip or a sudden decision to let it go.
- Source Book:
Formed from the icy depths of the elemental planes, the Cold Elemental is a swirling vortex of frost and ice shards. It glides across the ground, leaving a trail of frostbite in its wake. Iced over eyes hold an unnerving gaze, and its touch is hypothermic terror. This elemental reflects the merciless aspect of winter, bringing the chill of the grave to all it encounters.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Absorbs heat to sustain itself
- Environment:
Cold regions, frozen tundras, and any area touched by wintry magic (Wilderness)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to its fluid and icy form; Stealth as level 6 when within a snowy or icy environment
- Combat:
The Cold Elemental can freeze the moisture in the air to create slick icy surfaces, causing creatures to slip and fall. Every hit from the elemental has a chance to freeze the target, requiring a Might defense roll. On a failure, the target's limb (determined by the GM) is frozen and immobile for one round. Freezing Aura: Nearby creatures feel their warmth leeching away. Every round in immediate distance to the elemental requires a Might defense roll to resist taking 2 points of ambient cold damage. Icy Blast: Once every two rounds, the Cold Elemental can send out a cone of frigid air up to short range, forcing all targets in the area to make a Speed defense roll or take an additional 5 points of cold damage and be knocked prone.
- Interactions:
The Cold Elemental is indifferent to most creatures, focused on absorbing heat. It communicates with whistles of chilling winds, capable of understanding common languages but rarely bothers to respond.
- Uses:
A wintry curse has been set upon the land, and these frosty beings are drawn to the life force of warm-blooded beings. Perhaps they guard a frozen tomb or have been summoned by a malevolent wizard.
- Loot:
Rarely, a defeated Cold Elemental will leave behind a core of pure ice that never melts and radiates intense cold, valuable as a component in frost-related enchantments or spells.
- Intrusions:
As the characters engage the Cold Elemental, a sudden intensification of its freezing aura results in the immediate freezing of nearby water sources, potentially trapping characters or their equipment in ice.
- Source Book:
Some wizards and sorcerers are tempted by dark magic, inevitably damning their souls and corrupting their flesh as they cut corners and delve into forbidden lore. Their research and experimentation create new kinds of rampaging monsters and turn people into misshapen horrors. They sometimes modify their own bodies in order to gain demonic or draconic powers, or make pacts with such creatures for knowledge and magical ingredients.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Magical knowledge at all costs
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, usually with fleshbeast minions (Fleshbeast: level 4, attacks as level 5; health 15; Armor 1) (Other)
- Health:
35
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
All tasks related to knowledge of arcane lore, demons, and altering bodies as level 8
- Combat:
Corrupt mages blast opponents with beams of energy that blister, slash, and rot flesh, attacking up to three creatures as an action. Many of them have given themselves long claws and teeth that they can use to make up to three melee attacks per action.
A corrupt mage knows many spells, such as the following:
- Armor: Covers a creature with ugly scales, granting them +3 to Armor for an hour.
- Madness: Wracks the brain of one creature within short range for one hour, reducing them to a babbling catatonic state in which they can't recognize friend or foe. If disturbed or harmed, the creature is likely to lash out with lethal force at what it perceives as its tormentors.
- Organ Request: Extracts a handful of internal organs from an opponent within short range, moving the creature one step down the damage track if it fails a Might defense roll.
- Polymorph: Transforms one foe within short range into a tiny, helpless creature such as a cockroach, fish, or snail for one hour.
- Summon Demon: Summons a demon to serve the mage for one hour.
- Teleport: Moves the mage up to 100 miles (160 km) away, or less far if they bring additional creatures with them.
- Twist Flesh: Reshapes the flesh of a creature within close range, turning it into a hideous monstrosity for one hour. The transformed creature's actions are hindered, but its physical attacks inflict +3 points of damage. The mage's control over the creature is limited to indicating which target it should attack.
A corrupt mage usually has several cyphers useful in combat and perhaps an artifact as well.
- Interactions:
Corrupt mages generally can't be trusted and see other creatures as things to experiment on and vivisect. They might negotiate with someone who brings them a rare specimen or spell. Many are mentally disturbed by their research and self-alterations and may fluctuate between calm clarity, obsession, paranoia, and rage.
- Uses:
The strange hybrid monsters emerging from the forest are said to be the creations of a corrupt mage. A corrupt mage in a calm state presents themselves as a neutral or benevolent wizard seeking assistance on a task.
- Loot:
A corrupt mage has 1d6 cyphers and perhaps a wizardly artifact.
- Intrusions:
A desperate or dying corrupt mage transforms their own body into several new flesh beasts, which retain fragments of the mage's intelligence and immediately attack. The mage's attack spell is incredibly painful, stunning the character for one round if they fail a Might defense roll.
- Source Book:
The Giant Crab is an enormous crustacean that skitters across sandy shores and tidal flats. With a carapace measuring several feet across, it looms over most adventurers. Its two powerful pincers can snip through bone and bend metal, and its myriad of smaller legs and sharp mandibles promise a deadly embrace for those who venture too close. Tangled seaweed and barnacles often adorn its shell, giving it natural camouflage in its coastal environments.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defending its territory, searching for food
- Environment:
Coastal areas, rarely underwater (Ocean)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Defense as level 5 due to tough carapace
- Combat:
The Giant Crab's crushing claws can inflict significant damage, but they also specialize in grappling their prey. A successful attack from its pincer grants it a hold on the target, requiring a Might defense roll to escape. Failure means the character is trapped and takes an additional 5 points of damage per round until they break free. The creature can only grapple one victim at a time. Spray Brine: Once every other round, the Giant Crab can spray a jet of stinging brine from its mouth, temporarily blinding opponents within immediate range, increasing the difficulty of all tasks involving sight by two steps for one round. Armored Retreat: As a reaction to taking damage, the Giant Crab can retreat backward into its shell, increasing its overall armor level by 1 for two rounds.
- Interactions:
While not typically aggressive unless provoked, the Giant Crab can be territorial. It may attempt to communicate its displeasure through loud clicking and posturing before resorting to violence.
- Uses:
The Giant Crab can be a guardian of underwater treasure stores or shipwreck artifacts, or perhaps, there's a bounty for those brave enough to capture one for research or high-end cuisine.
- Loot:
Giant Crab meat is a delicacy, and its massive shell can be crafted into armor or shields by skilled artisans.
- Intrusions:
A character attempting to evade the Giant Crab accidentally steps on a smaller, hidden crab that immediately begins to attack, adding another combatant to the fray and distracting the characters during the battle.
- Source Book:
Normal moths are enigmatic, gauzy haunts of twilight. The feathery touch of their wings on your face can startle, even frighten. This is to be expected, since moths are the children of cryptic moths, malign and intelligent entities of another realm. Sometimes referred to as mothmen, other times as shadow faeries, cryptic moths are certainly alien. Each possesses a unique wing pattern and coloration, and, to some extent, body shape. These patterns and colors may signify where in the hierarchy a particular cryptic moth stands among its siblings of the night, but for those who do not speak the language of moths, the complexity of their social structure is overwhelming.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Capture humans, possibly for food, possibly for breeding purposes
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, usually at night (Other)
- Health:
23
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
All knowledge tasks as level 6; stealth tasks as level 7 while invisible
- Combat:
Cryptic moths usually enter combat only when they wish, because until they attack and become visible, they can remain unseen and invisible to most eyes. The touch of a cryptic moth's wing draws life and energy from targets, inflicting 5 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor).
Cryptic moths regain 1 point of health per round while their health is above 0, unless they've been damaged with a silvered or cold iron weapon, or by electrical attacks.
Once every hour or so, a cryptic moth can summon a swarm of normal moths to aid them in combat or, more often, serve as a fashion accessory or component in a piece of living art. Moth swarm: level 2
If a cryptic moth is prepared, it may carry cyphers useful in combat, and perhaps even an artifact.
- Interactions:
Although very few cryptic moths speak human languages, peaceful interaction with these creatures is not impossible. It's just extremely difficult, as they see most humans as a source of food or bodies to lay their eggs in.
- Uses:
A character is followed by a cryptic moth intent on capturing and enslaving them.
- Loot:
A cryptic moth usually has a few cyphers, and possibly a delicate artifact.
- Intrusions:
The cryptic moth grabs the character and flies up and away, taking the victim with them.
- Source Book:
Cybrid origins could be the result of someone finding a cache of ancient ultra technology, or manufactured by a post-singularity AI for some unfathomable purpose, or even the result of banned weapons research by a nation-state or conglomerate. The human remnants in each cybrid's carbon fiber and nested shells of nanotech exist in a red haze of pain; neuro-wetware and chemicals bathing their remaining living tissues hold the pain partly at bay.
From the exterior, not much of the original human is obvious, except perhaps in the echo of a humanoid shape. Each one has a unique conformation, but all are designed to strike fear in anyone seeing one, ally and enemy alike.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Kill away the pain
- Environment:
Usually set to guard important areas, creatures, or objects, or deployed in war (Other)
- Health:
60
- Damage:
10
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short; flies a very long distance each round; can maneuver like an autonomous level 5 spacecraft if using extended vehicular combat rules.
- Combat:
Cybrids can attack up to three foes that they can see up to about 300 m (1,000 feet) away as a single action with graser (gamma ray laser) beams, inflicting 10 points of damage on each target and everything in immediate range of the target. Those caught in the beam who succeed on a Speed defense roll still suffer 2 points of damage. If the cybrid focuses on a single target, treat the attack as a level 10 attack that inflicts 14 points of damage, or 6 points even on a successful Speed defense roll.
Self-repair mechanisms allow the creature to regain 2 points of health per round.
- Interactions:
If communication can be opened up through a cybrid's haze of pain, it might be possible to temporarily wake the consciousness of the human remnant inside. However, that remnant consciousness might not be happy to discover what it's become.
- Uses:
A cybrid has appeared in orbit around the station, ship, or moon with a compromised life support system or fragile dome. If it engages, the death toll will be staggering.
- Loot:
PCs who investigate the inert remains of the creature discover several manifest cyphers
- Intrusions:
The character struck by the graser beam develops radiation poisoning, in this case a level 8 disease that drops the character one step on the damage track each day that it goes untreated..
- Source Book:
A cyclopean is a brutish and disturbing giant, and many of them infest the islands even though they have no mastery of boats or swimming. With no head, one of the creature's eyes sits on the right shoulder while the other wide eye sits on the left shoulder. A sideways mouth constantly moves and mumbles on each flank. They are named for having one eye and mouth on each side of their body.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
To eat!
- Environment:
Except for very cold or hot climes, cyclopeans can be found anywhere. (Other)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Because of size, Speed Defense is 4
- Combat:
The giant creature will try to scoop up PCs, two at time if they are in immediate distance from each other. If a character does manage to wound the beast, it can make a backhand attack that knocks the target down for 8 Might damage.
- Interactions:
An uncharted island looks safe enough for hunting and restocking, but then the trees move and scream - in stereo --- and it chills you to the bone
- Uses:
The brutes can be cannon fodder - of the large variety. There's no reason not to use them as an homage that puts a twist on the solution to escaping the cave.
- Intrusions:
A hero overreaches with their thrust and the cyclopean bites for 4 points of damage.
- Source Book:
Cyclopes resemble massive humans that stand 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) tall and weigh about 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg). Everything about these giants is exaggerated, from the thick features of their faces to their oversized hands and lumpy, corpulent bodies. They clothe themselves in animal skins, scraps of cloth, or canvas stolen during their travels. A cyclops's most distinctive feature is the single eye positioned in the center of its forehead. Cyclopes live on the edges of civilized areas or on remote islands. For all their power and stature, they aren't especially brave, and most have a dim idea that puny humans have an advantage when they have numbers on their side.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
32
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Attacks targets within immediate range as level 5 due to poor eyesight; Speed defense as level 5 due to size; Intellect defense as level 4
- Combat:
A cyclops can always resort to using its fists in melee, pummeling opponents with knuckles the size of large hogs. However, most cyclopes carry a tree trunk and use it to sweep enemies from their path. Due to its massive height, a cyclops can make a melee attack against creatures within short range.
Cyclopes can pry up boulders from the ground and throw them at targets within long range. A thrown boulder inflicts 8 points of damage to all targets in an immediate area.
Killing a cyclops can be dangerous. When killed, it falls away from the attacker that delivered the killing blow. Any creature under it when it falls must make a successful Speed defense roll or be pinned under its corpse and take 7 points of damage. Escaping from under a dead cyclops requires a successful Might roll.
- Interactions:
Cyclopes know the language of the lands they inhabit, but they are notoriously dim and easily fooled. A cyclops thinks about its belly first and foremost and doesn't pay much attention to what it stuffs in its mouth.
- Uses:
A cyclops has been rampaging across the countryside, and warriors sent to deal with it have been vanquished. PCs who investigate learn that the cyclops has been robbed and is trying to find the stolen item.
- Loot:
Most cyclopes carry sacks filled with things they find interesting or plan to eat. Aside from the rubbish, a typical sack contains 1d100 coins of the realm and a couple of cyphers.
- Intrusions:
The cyclops hits a character so hard that they fly a short distance away and land prone. A character is struck by the cyclops's fist is grabbed and stuffed in the creature's sack.
- Source Book:
Sometimes taking the form of a young woman and sometimes an old one, Dame Gothel cares for one thing above all: her beautiful walled garden, the flowers and vegetables that grow inside it being the envy of all others. Unlike many other witches, she does not harm children and in fact has been known to protect them, at least as long as they are innocent of wrongdoing.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Modifications:
Gardening and potions as level 6
- Combat:
She can use the following abilities: heal, imprison, protect, and shrivel.
- Interactions:
Dame Gothel is an introvert who mostly desires to be left alone, and woe be to those who invade her space in any way, for she has a deep sense of right and wrong and a penchant for revenge upon those who cross her. However, she has been known to help those seeking aid, and is particularly skilled in using what she grows in her garden to aid her magic
- Uses:
The characters need a concoction to heal someone, remove a curse, or help them get pregnant. The characters accidentally trespass on Dame Gothel's space.
- Loot:
Various plants, potions, and cyphers
- Source Book:
Some deep ones dwell in coastal regions on land, usually in isolated villages where they might attempt to pass for human. They are able to breathe both air and water. Most, however, thrive in the ocean depths, in ancient underwater cities like "Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei." Deep ones sometimes breed with insane humans to produce squamous offspring that eventually develop fully into deep ones well after maturity (or even middle age).
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Anywhere near a large body of salt water (Ocean)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short on land; long in the water
- Modifications:
Swims as level 6; perception as level 3
- Combat:
Deep ones attack with tooth and claw most often, although occasionally one might use a weapon. They usually give no quarter, nor ask for it. Their skin is subject to drying, and they take 1 extra point of damage (ignores Armor) from any attack that deals fire or heat damage. Because of this weakness, deep ones sometimes retreat from fire and fire attacks.
- Interactions:
Deep ones are a strange mix of utter alienness and the vestiges of lost humanity. They are foul and degenerate creatures by human standards, however. Many still retain the ability to speak human languages, but all speak their own slurred, unearthly tongue. Deep ones spend a great deal of time in the sincere adoration of their gods, Mother Hydra, Father Dagon, and Cthulhu. Their religion demands frequent blood sacrifices.
- Uses:
The PCs wander into a small coastal village where everyone seems standoffish and oddly distant. A few people appear to be sickly and malformed, perhaps from mutation or birth defects. Some of the villagers have squamous skin because they are transforming into deep ones. And, of course, true deep ones hide within the community as well.
- Loot:
A few deep ones will have a cypher.
- Intrusions:
The deep one produces a net and throws it over the character. The only physical action the victim can take is to try to get free, as either a Might-based or a Speed-based action.
Popularly known as the velociraptor, the dinosaur genus called deinonychus doesn't care if its prey gets the proper terminology sorted. Meat tastes like meat. The "terrible claw" these carnivores are named after refers to their massive, sickle-shaped claws, which are unsheathed from their hind legs when attacking prey.
Deinonychus are pack hunters, which means they work together as a unit, each taking on different roles to scare, flush, and direct even intelligent prey into the claws of an ambush.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Wherever they can hunt food, in packs of three to seven (Wilderness)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Perception as level 5; attacks and Speed defense as level 4 due to quickness; overcoming obstacles and figuring out tricks as level 4
- Combat:
When a deinonychus bites its prey, the victim takes damage and must make a Might defense roll. On a failure, the deinonychus holds the victim in place with its jaws while it slices them to ribbons with its terrible claws, automatically inflicting 6 points of damage each round in which they fail a Might-based task to break free (not attempting to break free counts as a failed attempt). For a human-sized or smaller victim held in the jaws, all other tasks are hindered by two steps.
- Interactions:
Vicious, cunning, and a little too smart to be classified as simple predators, these creatures are unlikely to negotiate, give quarter, or back off from a fight even if contact could be made.
- Uses:
Some fool decided to build a Cretaceous-themed zoo. The only question is: How long before the dinosaurs get loose and take over the local mall?
- Intrusions:
The fleeing deinonychus was actually leading the character over a cliff, into a deadfall trap, or into an ambush with more deinonychus.
Lesser gods, divine children of gods and mortals, and other beings bequeathed with partly divine power are called demigods. Their capacities so radically exceed those of regular people that they have transcended humanity. Demigods are so physically and mentally powerful that it's difficult for them to hide their semi-divine appearance to mortal creatures-not that most would make the effort in the first place.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Motive:
Ineffable
- Environment:
Anywhere other divine entities exist (or once existed) (Other)
- Health:
99
- Damage:
12 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Combat:
Demigods can attack foes up to half a mile (1 km) away with bolts of divine energy (usually in the form of lightning). A demigod can dial up the level of destruction if it wishes, so that instead of affecting only one target, a bolt deals 9 points of damage to all targets within short range of the primary target. Targets caught in the conflagration who succeed on a Speed defense roll still suffer 5 points of damage.
Demigods are just as scary in hand-to-hand combat and can attack all targets within immediate range as an action. They can also call on a variety of other abilities that seem like magic to lesser foes and mimic the effect of any cypher of level 5 or lower.
A demigod doesn't need to alter reality to heal itself, as it automatically regains 2 points of health per round.
- Interactions:
For all their power, demigods share most human traits and weaknesses. This means it's possible to negotiate with one, though the consequences for angering a demigod in the process are dire.
- Uses:
A demigod was banned from the higher realm of their birth for unknown reasons. Now they seek to show their worth by undertaking a great quest in the mortal world, and they are looking to assemble a group of mortal comrades (sycophants?) to aid them.
- Loot:
Demigods might carry an artifact related to some aspect of their domain (such as wind, messages, or death), if they have one, and 1d6 cyphers.
- Intrusions:
The divine nature of the demigod allows it to act out of turn, take control of an object (such as an artifact or a cypher) that the PC is about to use against it, and either deactivate the object or turn it against the character.
Demons are formless spirits of the dead tortured in nether realms until all that was good or caring in them was burned away, forging a being of spite and hate.
A demon remembers only fragments of its former life-every good memory is cauterized, and every slight, misfortune, snub, and pain is amplified, motivating the creature to tempt others into the same state.
Having no flesh to call its own, a demon is a shadowed, ephemeral horror able to possess others. A demon can cause great harm in a short time by forcing its host to lie, steal, and harm loved ones.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Hungers for others' pain and fear
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Short; immediate while flying in immaterial form
- Modifications:
All stealth tasks as level 7 in immaterial form; deception tasks as level 6
- Combat:
The immaterial touch of a demon either inflicts 5 points of damage from rot, or allows the demon to attempt to possess the target. The target of an attempted possession must make an Intellect defense roll or become possessed, whereupon the demon's immaterial form disappears into the target.
The first round in which a character is possessed, they can act normally. In the second and all subsequent rounds, the possessing demon can control the actions of the host, but the character can attempt an Intellect defense roll to resist each suggested action. Successful resistance means that the character does nothing for one round. In other rounds, the character can act as they choose. A possessing demon's actions are limited to attempts to control its host and leaving the host.
A possessed target is allowed an Intellect defense roll to eject the demon once per day, barring any exorcism attempts. The defense roll is hindered by one additional step each day of possession after the first seven days. An ejected or cast-out demon is powerless for one or more days.
A demon not possessing another creature is immaterial and can pass through solid objects whose level is lower than its own. While the demon is immaterial, it takes only 1 point of damage from mundane attacks, but it takes full damage from magical, energy, and psychic attacks. While it possesses another creature, the demon is immune to most attacks (though not so the host; killing the host will eject the demon).
- Interactions:
A demon allows a possessed host to act normally, as long as it doesn't reveal the demon's presence. If its presence is known, the demon might negotiate, but only after a tirade of lies and obscenity, and the demon likely betrays any deal reached.
- Uses:
An ally of the PCs has begun acting differently, and not for the good.
- Intrusions:
The character who attempts an exorcism of a possessed target is successful, but the demon moves directly from the former victim into the exorcist. The new host can make an Intellect-based roll to eject the demon, but only after the first round of possession.
Demon lords are mighty demons, commanding hundreds of lesser fiends and often ruling an entire hellscape dimension. No mere brutes, they are smart, wield powerful magic, make centuries-long plans of conquest against rival demons, and seek to corrupt and enslave powerful mortals. Some are nearly as powerful as gods and are worshipped as such by cultists or evil creatures, claiming ownership of a concept like murder, rot, undeath, or seduction. A few are known to mate with mortals to produce cambion offspring.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Motive:
Power, conquest, souls
- Environment:
Any hell dimension, sometimes called by mortal magic (Other)
- Health:
100
- Damage:
12 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
History and magical knowledge as level 10
- Combat:
A demon lord attacks with a bolt of evil energy or fire up to a long distance away, inflicting 12 points of damage on one target or 9 points of damage on all targets within short range of the primary target. Targets caught in the area attack who succeed on a Speed defense roll still suffer 5 points of damage. A demon lord can make melee attacks on all targets within immediate range as an action.
They can also call on a variety of other magical abilities that mimic the effect of any cypher of level 5 or lower-usually destructive, painful, and transformative effects.
A demon lord automatically regains 3 points of health per round. They typically have the following abilities:
- Change Shape: The demon lord can take the form of a human or similar humanoid as its action, or return to its regular shape. When so changed, its disguise is nearly impenetrable without special knowledge. As a human, the demon lord is a level 7 creature.
- Possession: The demon lord can possess a creature and still use its own abilities.
- Summon Demon: Summon a demon or devil to serve it for one day.
- Wish: The demon lord can grant a mortal a wish (up to level 9) in exchange for an appropriate payment or service, but the wish is often twisted or has hidden consequences.
- Interactions:
Demon lords are willing to bargain with mortals if it leads to the mortal's corruption or advances the demon's agenda in some way. They sometimes respond to flattery or bribes of powerful souls or magic items.
- Uses:
A mad cult wants to summon a demon lord in order to end the world. A mysterious stranger offers aid in exchange for a favor to be named later.
- Loot:
A demon lord often has an artifact relating to some aspect of its nature or interests, such as a weapon, ring, or armor, as well as 1d6 cyphers.
- Intrusions:
The demon lord offers the character something so tempting (an artifact, immortality, and soon) that they lose their next action and must make an Intellect defense roll to resist trying to bargain for it. The demon lord creates a portal and retreats to its own dimension; the portal remains open for one round.
- Source Book:
Devils are manifest evil. As "native fauna" of various tortuous nether realms, devils come in many forms, though most are iterations on a theme that includes a humanoid shape, large batwings, bestial faces, and twisting horns. Most stink of brimstone and sport tails that end in a fork. Devils fill the ranks of hellish armies, guard evil vaults, and appear at the magical summons of warlocks and sorcerers who are not afraid for the sanctity of their own souls.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Collect souls
- Environment:
Anywhere in various nether realms; sometimes called by mortal magic (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short when walking or flying
- Modifications:
All tasks related to deception as level 7
- Combat:
When possible, a devil attacks with surprise. If successful, it unfurls two great wings and claws at the ends of its fingers. It leaps into the air, flies up to a short distance toward the nearest foe, and attacks that creature as a single action.
Some devils carry tridents. The weapon inflicts 5 points of damage, and the target must either move to a position within an immediate distance chosen by the devil or take 2 additional points of damage from being impaled (a total of 7 points of damage). Impaled foes automatically take 5 points of damage each round until they use an action to pull themselves free.
- Interactions:
Evil, cruel, and malevolent, devils are more than happy to talk, especially to those already caught and being readied for torture. Devils serve yet more powerful devils out of fear. If they find someone or something they fear more, they readily betray their master and become obsequious and cringing, though further betrayal is always on the table.
- Uses:
A spate of violent murders grips a city in fear-a devil has escaped into the world of mortals without a leash. It spends nights hunting anyone it spots from its perches atop the city's holy places.
- Intrusions:
A devil anticipates the character's melee attack and brings its wing down "just so" on the attacker's weapon. If the character fails a Speed defense roll, the weapon breaks. Either way, the attack fails to hit the devil.
Conglomerate security subsidiaries regularly experiment with new ways to create super-soldiers, either to supply to a government on a contract basis, or to use for themselves. These experiments produced hundreds of dead ends-literally-plus a few dangerous failures. The devolved are one of those dangerous failures. These malformed, hideous brutes share a common heritage but display a wide array of maladies and mutations in the flesh, including withered limbs or elephantine patches of thick, scaly skin, misplaced body parts, and mental abnormalities. Simple-minded and afflicted with pain from their twisted, broken forms, the devolved vent all their hatred and wrath against all others.
Even successfully created super-soldiers require a regular regimen of specialized drugs to keep them healthy. Most are shipped out to fight on faraway fronts, whether that's on a distant space station, moon, or in another star system entirely. Without their drugs, they may devolve.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Groups of three to five, usually in locations where organized security can't easily reach (Other)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
6 to 12 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intimidation tasks as level 6; Intellect defense and Speed defense as level 2 due to malformed nature
- Combat:
Devolved attack with a claw, a bite, or some other body part, inflicting 6 points of damage. They throw themselves at their enemies with mindless ferocity and little regard for their own safety. Easily frustrated, a devolved grows stronger as its fury builds. Each time it misses with an attack, the next attack is eased by one additional step and the damage it inflicts increases by 2 points (to a maximum of 12 points). Once the devolved successfully inflicts damage on a target, the amount of damage it inflicts and the difficulty of its attacks returns to normal. Then the cycle starts anew.
- Interactions:
Devolved speak when they must, punctuating their statements with growls and barks. Their understanding seems limited to what they can immediately perceive, and they have a difficult time with abstract concepts.
- Uses:
An expedition to a ruined conglomerate research facility uncovers a cyst of devolved that live within its sheltering bunkers.
- Loot:
For every three or so devolved, one is likely to carry a cypher
- Intrusions:
The devolved detonates upon its death, inflicting 6 points of damage on everything in immediate range.
- Source Book:
Djinn inhabit unseen dimensions beyond the visible universe. Just like normal creatures, djinn are individuals, and they can be good, evil, or unconcerned about the fates and doings of others.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Unpredictable
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
35
- Damage:
9 points
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
Knowledge of Arabian history as level 8
- Combat:
With a touch, a djinni can warp a victim's flesh, inflicting damage. Djinn can also use an action to send out a magitech "EMP burst" that renders all artifacts, machines, and lesser magic devices within short range inoperable for one minute. (If the item is part of a character's equipment, they can prevent this outcome by succeeding on a Speed defense roll.) Instead of disabling all devices in range, a djinni can instead take control of one item within range for one minute, if applicable.
A djinni can transform into a being of smoke and flame as its action. While in this form, it has +10 to Armor but can't attack foes. It gains the ability to fly a long distance each round and retains the ability to communicate normally. The first time each day that a djinni returns to physical form after having become smoke, it regains 25 points of health.
Some djinn have the ability to grant wishes, and a few are beholden to do so thanks to an ancient, unexplained agreement with other djinn. Those who grant wishes twist them against the asker, especially if a wish is poorly worded or there are multiple ways to interpret it. The level of the effect granted is no greater than level 7, as determined by the GM, who can modify the effect of the wish accordingly. (The larger the wish, the more likely the GM will limit its effect.)
- Interactions:
When a djinni interacts with characters, it's narcissistic, certain in its own immense power, and unlikely to let slights pass. That said, low-tier characters could negotiate with one peacefully because even djinn have needs and desires.
- Uses:
Agents of a foreign power retrieved a magic lamp from an ancient Arabian ruin. The PCs' job is to determine whether there is reason for alarm.
- Loot:
Most djinn carry a couple of cyphers, and some have a magic artifact useful in combat.
- Intrusions:
When the character is touched by a djinni, instead of taking damage, the character is turned to smoke and fire and sent whirling off in a random direction. They lose their next turn and return to normal almost 300 feet (90 m) from where they started.
Dragons are exceptionally territorial, vain, and greedy. Apex predators, dragons must eat large meals on a regular basis. They prefer virgins, though they will settle for whoever, or whatever-such as horses or wild pigs-is available in a pinch. They love games of all sorts, especially when they get to consume the loser. Drawn to wealth and magic, dragons accumulate hoards of golden treasure. A dragon's hoard is not only an end in itself, but part of a never-ending contest between dragons of a certain age to see which one can accumulate the largest trove.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Self-aggrandizement, hungers for flesh, treasure collection
- Environment:
Dragons thrive where wilderness meets the civilized frontier. (Wilderness)
- Health:
45
- Damage:
10 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short; long while flying
- Modifications:
Perception and riddles as level 8; Speed defense as level 6 due to size
- Combat:
A dragon can bite one target or claw two opponents in immediate range as a single action. When bitten, targets are also immobilized until they succeed on a Might defense roll to break free (or the dragon drops them).
Most dragons have one or more additional magical abilities they can bring to bear in combat, including the following.
Captivate: A dragon with this ability can psychically mesmerize a nondragon target in immediate range who fails an Intellect defense roll. A captivated target does the dragon's verbal bidding for one or more hours. Each time the target is confronted by a third party about its mental condition, the target is allowed another Intellect defense roll to break the effect.
Change Shape: A dragon with this ability can take the form of a human or similar humanoid as its action, or return to its regular shape. When so changed, the dragon's disguise is nearly impenetrable without special knowledge. As a human, the dragon is a level 5 creature.
Fiery Breath: A dragon can breathe a stream of fire up to long range, doing 7 points of damage to all targets within immediate range of each other. Targets who succeed on a Speed defense roll to avoid the full effect of the fire still take 3 points of damage. This ability cannot be used in consecutive rounds.
- Interactions:
Like the many hues of dragon scales, dragon personalities run the gamut from beastly thug to refined connoisseur. Some dragons lie with every smoky breath, others consider the least bit of dishonesty a personal failing, and most fall somewhere in between. All of them can be flattered and even charmed by someone with courtly manners and grace.
- Uses:
A dragon confronts the PCs, challenging them to a riddle game. If the characters win, they get a cypher. If the dragon wins, the PCs owe it a favor to be specified later . . . unless the dragon is hungry now.
- Loot:
A dragon's hoard might contain 2d6 cyphers, hard currency equivalent to 1d6 exorbitant items, and possibly a few artifacts (but a hoard is usually well guarded).
- Intrusions:
The dragon breathes fire while the character is caught in its mouth, which automatically inflicts maximum fire damage on them.
Soaring high above the most unreachable skylines, the Cloud Dragons are celestial beings partially made from condensed vapor. They blend effortlessly into cloudy skies, striking with the suddenness of a lightning bolt. These dragons have translucent bodies shimmering with a rainbow luster, with clouds swirling inside them, and gentle arcs of lightning crackling between their scales.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Protector of the sky realms, curious about ground dwellers
- Environment:
High altitude lairs, amongst the skyscapes and stormy peaks (Mountains)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when phasing through clouds, Long otherwise
- Modifications:
Intellect defense as level 9 due to cunning; Attacks as level 9 when initiating combat from cloud cover
- Combat:
A Cloud Dragon prefers hit-and-run tactics, diving out of a cloud bank to unleash a blast of lightning (6 points of electrical damage, ignoring armor) at a single target before returning to the safety of the clouds. On a failed Speed defense roll, the target is also stunned for one round, losing their action. Characters attempting to track or spot a Cloud Dragon in its natural cloudy environment face tasks that are hindered by two steps.
- Interactions:
Capable of conversation, Cloud Dragons are often whimsically engaged but protect their domain fiercely. They may trade sky-related knowledge or passage through their territory for interesting trinkets or services.
- Uses:
Characters may seek the wisdom of a Cloud Dragon to navigate aerial hazards or they could be caught in its wrath as it defends its territory against sky pirates.
- Loot:
In its hoard, one might find items forged from cloudsteel, vials of condensed storm essence, or ancient coins from fallen sky civilizations.
- Intrusions:
As a character strikes the Cloud Dragon, it bursts into a sudden cloud bank, confusing attackers and allowing it to reposition or escape. Alternatively, the next lightning strike might hit a volatile element in the environment, causing unexpected terrain changes or hazards.
- Source Book:
Majestic and terrifying, the Blue Dragon of the desert sands is a unique and formidable apex predator. With scales that shimmer like sapphires, this dragon uses its natural coloration to blend into the blue skies above. Its horned head and lightning-shaped spines speak to its elemental affinity: electricity. It basks in the scorching heat of the day, absorbing energy from the sun to fuel its lightning breath.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Dominance over its territory and accumulation of treasure
- Environment:
Arid deserts, often in a sandstone lair surrounded by dunes (Wilderness)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Immediate when burrowing, short when walking, long when flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 9 when camouflaged against the sky; Perception and Intellect defense as level 9 due to ancient wisdom
- Combat:
The Blue Dragon uses its sand-burrowing ability to set up surprise attacks, emerging suddenly to unleash its devastating lightning breath—a focused arc of electric death that targets one creature within long range, ignoring armor. Prey may not even realize they're being hunted until they feel the sand shifting beneath them. Victims of the lightning breath must make a Speed defense roll, or be stunned (unable to act) for one round in addition to the damage.
- Interactions:
Highly intelligent and capable of speech, Blue Dragons may bargain if they believe it could lead to acquiring valuable treasure or strategic advantage, but are ultimately deceitful and self-serving.
- Uses:
A powerful artifact lies buried in the dragon's domain, and it takes either a well-planned stealth mission or a bold show of force to secure it.
- Loot:
Dragon scales worth a fortune to the right buyer, rare gems from its hoard, and potentially the artifact if that is why the players are there.
- Intrusions:
As the players engage the Blue Dragon, a massive sandstorm kicks up, obscuring vision and making all tasks related to sight more difficult. Additionally, the dragon uses this to its advantage to move unseen and set up a devastating attack.
- Source Book:
The Green Dragon, with its emerald scales mimicking the verdant canopy, is a master of wooded realms. It blends perfectly with the foliage, lying in wait for unsuspecting prey. Using its sharp intellect and manipulative nature, it lures creatures into traps by mimicking sounds or using enticing scents. More than just a physical threat, it can be a manipulator of the forest itself.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Guardian of the forest, hoarder of knowledge and riches
- Environment:
Dense, ancient forests filled with towering trees and mystical energies (Forest)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short or can fly up to Long
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 8 in forests; Intimidation and intellect-based tasks as level 8; All defense as level 9 due to agility
- Combat:
The Forest Green Dragon's breath weapon is a cone of corrosive gas that extends in a Long cone from its mouth, inflicting 7 points of damage (ignores Armor) and eating away at both flesh and any non-magical materials. Enemies struck must also succeed on an Intellect defense roll or become disoriented, suffering a one-step hindrance to all actions for the next two rounds due to hallucinogenic effects.
- Interactions:
Prefers to engage with wit and guile over brute force. Will bargain for rare tomes, magical items, or fascinating stories. Can be a source of wisdom if persuaded.
- Uses:
A nearby village believes the dragon is responsible for the recent disappearance of travelers. Investigators may find a more sinister plot hidden in the woods, possibly orchestrated by the dragon itself.
- Loot:
Rare herbs, ancient tomes, and magical trinkets can be found in its lair.
- Intrusions:
The Green Dragon's camouflage is so perfect that a character could stumble right into its clutches—or the dragon chooses this moment to reveal its presence in a terrifying display of power.
- Source Book:
Shrouded in blizzard's fury, the Ice Dragon, also known as the White Dragon, makes its lair in the heart of the coldest glaciers. Its scales shimmer like the morning frost, camouflaging its massive form against the snow. With breath as chilling as the deepest winter, the Ice Dragon freezes prey before shattering them with its powerful jaws. The Ice Dragon's eyes glow like deep, cold fire, which is especially noticeable in the dark or during its intense focus on prey.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Territorial dominance, hunger for warm-blooded creatures
- Environment:
Arctic wastes, icy caverns, and snow-laden skies (Wilderness)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short, Long when flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 8 in arctic terrain; Climbing and swimming as level 8 due to claws and serpentine agility
- Combat:
The Ice Dragon's breath weapon is a cone of freezing mist that extends in a long range in front of it. Creatures caught in the breath must succeed on a Speed defense roll or take 8 points of cold damage. Those who fail by 4 or more points are frozen solid and are considered helpless. The Ice Dragon can bite or claw a frozen target, dealing an extra 4 points of damage due to their brittle state. Freezing Mist Breath: Uses its breath to unleash a cone of freezing mist that can freeze victims solid if they fail to dodge. Ice Scales: The dragon's scales grant it Armor 3 and make it difficult to distinguish from its icy surroundings, giving it an advantage in stealth. Frostbite Claws: Its claws deal additional cold damage, slowly freezing flesh and making it easier to break.
- Interactions:
The Ice Dragon is solitary and highly intelligent, often underestimating other creatures. While it prefers to avoid unnecessary conflict, it will negotiate or converse with those who show bravery or offer something of value, such as treasure or knowledge.
- Uses:
A village beseeches the players to rid them of the White Dragon that has descended from the mountains, threatening to encase their home in eternal ice.
- Loot:
Ice Dragon scales and teeth are valuable in magic-item creation. The dragon's hoard, if found, is a treasure of ancient artifacts and frozen riches.
- Intrusions:
A sudden blizzard stirred up by the Ice Dragon's wings obscures visibility, disorienting the characters and making the ground slick with ice, which may lead to slips and falls during critical moments.
- Source Book:
These majestic crimson-scaled beasts embody the fury of the mountains they call home. Eclipse in size by their grand wingspan, they guard their territory and treasure with vigilant eyes and a fiery breath that can turn stone to molten slag. These dragons prefer high altitudes and solitude, but they are intelligent and can converse in many tongues, often striking fear and awe into those who encounter them.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Motive:
To amass treasure, assert dominance over mountain regions, and sate its hearty appetite
- Environment:
High-altitude lairs, usually in deep caverns of the tallest mountains (Mountains)
- Health:
27
- Damage:
9 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Immediate on foot, Short when flying
- Modifications:
Intellect defense as level 10 due to cunning intellect; Persuasion and deception as level 10 due to ancient knowledge
- Combat:
The Mountain Red Dragon exhales a scorching breath of fire in a wide arc causing severe burns and setting the surroundings ablaze, inflicting 10 points of damage to everyone in an immediate area. Anyone hit by the breath must make a Speed defense roll or catch fire, taking an additional 5 points of damage per round until extinguished. Wing Buffet: The dragon can beat its massive wings to create a powerful gust of wind, knocking back foes within immediate range and making them prone. Fearsome Presence: It instills a paralyzing fear in its opponents. Those within short range must succeed on an Intellect defense task or be unable to move or act for one round.
- Interactions:
Proud and commanding, they engage with others only on their terms. They might parley with adventurers who show proper respect or amuse them, or they might simply demand tribute or service. Deception or disrespect is met with a swift fiery retribution.
- Uses:
An ancient Mountain Red Dragon awakens from its slumber due to disturbed ley lines. It could be a destroyer, a wise ally, or an indifferent force to be navigated. The dragon could also be a catalyst for an adventure, sending characters on quests to prove their worth or retrieve items.
- Loot:
Huge piles of gold and jewels, magical artifacts, ancient tomes, and the occasional rare weapon or piece of armor.
- Intrusions:
A sudden and violent tremor shakes the dragon's lair, dislodging stalactites and causing fissures in the ground; or the dragon feigns injury, luring the attackers closer before launching a devastating surprise attack.
- Source Book:
The Yellow Dragon makes its lair in the vast expanses of the open prairies. With shimmering, yellow-gold scales that mimic the color of the dry grass, it camouflages with its environment perfectly, waiting for unsuspecting prey or treasure seekers. Known for their cunning and patience, these dragons can lie motionless for days, absorbing the warm sun's energy, which they can unleash in devastating solar breath attacks.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Guarding its territory and hoard with predatory precision
- Environment:
Open plains, occasionally venturing to abandoned ruins or caves to rest (Wilderness)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short, Long when flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 8 due to natural camouflage; Attacks and Speed defense as level 8 due to size and agility
- Combat:
A Yellow Dragon typically starts combat with its blinding solar breath, a gout of radiant energy 50 feet long and 20 feet wide that inflicts 6 points of damage and blinds opponents for one round (unless they succeed on a Speed defense roll). After this blast, the dragon engages with its powerful jaws and sharp talons, each capable of tearing through armor as if it were cloth. Solar Breath: Once every three rounds, it can exhale a ray of concentrated solar energy in a devastating attack. Tail Lash: Can sweep its tail in a wide arc to hit everyone within immediate range, inflicting 5 points of damage and knocking them prone.
- Interactions:
The Yellow Dragon is highly intelligent, but deeply suspicious of intruders. It may bargain with those who offer significant treasures or information about threats to its realm, but double-crossing it would be a fatal error.
- Uses:
The party is enlisted to recover a powerful artifact believed to be part of the Yellow Dragon's hoard, or perhaps they must cross its territory, trying to avoid its wrath.
- Loot:
Dragon scales that serve as a very tough but flexible material for crafting. Rare gems and artifacts within its hoard
- Intrusions:
The Yellow Dragon's camouflage catches the characters entirely off guard, enabling it to ambush them or disappear from sight just as they believe they have gained the upper hand.
- Source Book:
Shrouded in the misty veils of coastal waters, the Gray Dragon is an enigmatic and ancient sea serpent with gleaming scales reminiscent of storm clouds. Their mesmerizing eyes hold the depth of the ocean, capable of bewitching sailors and fishermen alike. Despite their serpent-like appearance, these dragons have an affinity for controlling weather, conjuring storms, and creating treacherous sea conditions to confound any unwelcome visitors to their oceanic domain.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Guardian of the sea's mysteries and treasures
- Environment:
Deep ocean waters, often near hidden underwater lairs (Ocean)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Immediate when submerged, short when emerging above the water
- Modifications:
Swimming as level 10; Intellect defense to resist spells as level 9; Speed defense as level 9 when underwater
- Combat:
A Gray Dragon attacks with its mouth, dealing heavy damage and often trying to grapple a ship or large prey. It can also unleash a storm breath, causing an area wide disturbance that inflicts 5 points of damage to all within immediate range and can create difficult terrain (or turbulent seas). Those caught in the breath may be knocked prone or lose control of their vessels, respectively.
- Interactions:
The Gray Dragon is intelligent and may communicate telepathically. It usually avoids contact but may strike bargains or offer obscure knowledge in exchange for its solitude or treasures from its hoard.
- Uses:
Characters could be seeking a sunken artifact or passage through a perilous sea route, only to catch the ire of this guardian. Alternatively, it might strike a bargain with the adventurers, offering guidance or power for a price.
- Loot:
Ancient sunken treasures and artifacts from the dragon's lair, along with rare materials harvested from the Gray Dragon itself, if defeated.
- Intrusions:
As the adventurers engage with the Gray Dragon, the creature calls upon the sea to betray them. A whirlpool forms, rapidly pulling the party and their ship toward a watery abyss, or their boat's hull begins to ice over, threatening to trap them in place.
- Source Book:
Rising from the murky depths of bog and marshland, the Swamp Dragon, cloaked in glistening black scales, exudes a menacing aura. With eyes reflecting the grim swamp and a breath of corrosive fumes, this dragon specializes in ambushes, using both the treacherous terrain and its natural camouflage to its advantage. It silently glides through the water, emerging only to unleash terror upon its prey with sharp claws, powerful jaws, and a noxious, acid breath that can dissolve flesh and bone alike.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Territorial dominance and insatiable hunger
- Environment:
Dank marshes and fog-laden swamps (Wilderness)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; can swim and fly with Long movement
- Modifications:
Stealth maneuvers as level 8 due to natural camouflage; Resistance to poisons and disease as level 8
- Combat:
Apart from its physically powerful bite and claw attacks, the Swamp Dragon can exhale a cloud of corrosive gas once every other round as a short range attack that deals 6 points of damage and can affect multiple targets. Targets hit by the breath must make a Speed defense roll to avoid being partially dissolved, which hinders all actions for three rounds as the acidic fog eats away at armor, weapons, and flesh.
- Interactions:
Intelligent but cruel, the Swamp Dragon can understand several languages but prefers to demand tribute from those encroaching on its territory rather than engage in meaningful conversation. It has little patience for those who refuse or hesitate to comply.
- Uses:
As the characters navigate the treacherous swamp, they may stumble upon ancient ruins, a lonely hermit, or desperate poachers, all of whom tell tales of the black terror that hunts in the foul waters.
- Loot:
Swamp Dragon scales that resist acid and damage, valued by armorers and alchemists.
- Intrusions:
As players engage or attempt to sneak by the dragon, they may find the ground beneath them giving way, as they fall into a sinkhole filled with acidic swamp water, potentially separating them and offering the dragon an easy target.
- Source Book:
Dragon Turtles are ancient leviathans that combine features of dragons and sea turtles. With massive carapaces and long, dragon-like necks, these creatures lurk in deep oceanic trenches. Their scales shimmer like precious gems and their breath holds the fury of searing steam, which can scald sailors and sink ships.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Guarding treasures and underwater domains
- Environment:
Deep oceans, around sunken treasures, and occasionally surface waters (Ocean)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short on land, Long in water
- Modifications:
Swimming as level 7; Intellect defense as level 7 due to cunning intellect; Though slow on land, the Dragon Turtle's reaction time in water is as level 8 for defense
- Combat:
The Dragon Turtle's formidable jaws can crush wood and bone alike with little effort, requiring any character trapped in its bite to succeed on a task of difficulty 6 to escape. The steam breath of the Dragon Turtle fills an immediate area, forcing all within range to make a Speed defense roll or suffer 10 points of damage and move one step down the damage track.
- Interactions:
While typically solitary and territorial, a Dragon Turtle can sometimes be reasoned with using ancient tongues or offerings of treasure, though their mood swings from curious to wrathful without warning.
- Uses:
A sunken temple is said to hold a powerful ancient relic, but it lies within the territory of a notoriously territorial Dragon Turtle. Adventures must brave the watery depth and the Turtle's fury to retrieve it.
- Loot:
Vast treasures from sunken ships, ancient artifacts, and rare undersea materials collected in its lair.
- Intrusions:
The Dragon Turtle's presence disturbs the underwater currents, suddenly pulling the characters into dangerous whirlpools or smashing them against underwater rock formations.
- Source Book:
Dryads are mystical tree spirits that blend seamlessly with the woodlands they inhabit. They appear as humanoid figures whose skin and hair resemble leaves and bark, and their eyes glint with the verdant light of the forest. These guardians of nature are bound to a particular tree and can vanish into it or any tree in their vicinity. The dryad's eyes have no pupils and seem to follow you wherever you go, even when it remains motionless, almost indistinguishable from the trees around it.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Protect the forest and their bound tree
- Environment:
Deep forests and ancient groves (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short or immediate when moving from tree to tree
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4; Speed defense as level 2 when in the open
- Combat:
A dryad can merge with its tree or emerge from any other tree within immediate range as an action. When emerging, it can make a surprise attack against a target within immediate distance with a whip-like vine, dealing its standard damage and entangling the target. A trapped character must succeed on a Might defense roll to break free or remain immobilized. Nature's Embrace: The dryad heals 1 point of health when in contact with its bound tree or any living plant. Vine Attack: When a dryad hits with its vine attack, small thorns inject a toxin that hampers concentration, causing the target to have all tasks related to Intellect defense hindered by one step for ten minutes. Forest Illusions: The dryad can create visual and auditory illusions within the forest to confuse and mislead intruders.
- Interactions:
Dryads are wise and enigmatic, preferring to communicate with those who show respect to the natural world. They will bargain or provide aid if it benefits their forest, but they can become implacable foes if their home is threatened.
- Uses:
The characters are tasked with retrieving a rare herb found only in a sacred grove guarded by a dryad, or perhaps they must negotiate with a dryad to pass safely through an enchanted forest.
- Loot:
Rare herbs, enchanted wood, a blessing or curse tied to nature
- Intrusions:
The character accidentally damages the dryad's bound tree, causing the dryad to fly into a vengeful rage or become weakened and unable to defend its forest until the tree is healed.
- Source Book:
The giant eagle, with its massive wingspan that creates thunderous claps when flapping, soars high above the ground, keen eyes scouting for prey or threats. Possessing sharp talons that can crush bones and a beak designed to tear through hide and flesh, the giant eagle is a majestic yet formidable predator. Its plumage shimmers with a regal iridescence that belies its ferocity in combat.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Protect territory, hunt to feed
- Environment:
Mountainous regions and large forests, often nesting atop unreachable cliffs (Mountains)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long when flying, Short when on foot
- Modifications:
Perception and aerial Speed tasks as level 4; Initiative and attacks as level 5 due to speed and agility
- Combat:
The giant eagle swoops down to strike with precision, its talons capable of snatching up prey or striking with deadly force. If it hits, the target must make a Speed defense roll, or be carried off into the sky, where they suffer an additional 4 points of damage each round until they can escape or the eagle drops them from a lethal height. Death From Above: Once per combat, the giant eagle performs an aerial charge, gaining an asset to its attack and dealing an additional 2 points of damage. Terrifying Screech: The giant eagle can let out a screech so menacing it causes all non-avian or non-eagle creatures within short range to make an Intellect defense roll or become stunned for one round.
- Interactions:
Intelligent and proud, giant eagles can sometimes be communicated with, but they are fiercely territorial. They may parley with those who show great respect or offer substantial tribute.
- Uses:
A formidable guardian of sacred mountain sites or as unexpected, but noble, allies if characters can earn their trust or aid them against a common threat.
- Intrusions:
As the character strikes the giant eagle, its piercing shriek disorients them, causing them to be stunned for a round or dropping whatever they have in their hands.
- Source Book:
An excavation, a meteor fall, a still-shuddering earthquake-all these events can summon an earth elemental to take shape and expand the destruction further.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Crumble and break, reduce things to earth
- Environment:
Anywhere solid or earthen (Other)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Immediate; short when burrowing
- Combat:
Earth elementals batter foes with heavy fists. They can also create earthquakes (no more than once every other round) that affect the ground within short range. Creatures standing in the area fall to the ground and take 5 points of damage on a failed Might defense roll.
An earth elemental is vulnerable to water. Any damage it takes while standing in or being doused in water ignores its Armor.
- Interactions:
Although brooding and slow to respond if encountered as immobile stone, earth elementals are intelligent. The ones that are summoned with a spell have about a 5% chance of breaking the geas and turning on their summoner.
- Uses:
Oddly articulated monoliths were discovered high in the mountains around a shrine containing an ancient treasure. A merchant wants someone to investigate the monoliths in case they represent a trap. In fact, the monoliths are inactive earth elementals.
- Intrusions:
A character within range of the earth elemental's earthquake attack must succeed on a Speed defense roll or be covered in an avalanche from a collapsing structure or cliff face.
Tiny nanomachines can be incredibly useful tools. But they can also become a terrible threat. Like cells in a living body that develop cancer, these out-of-control self-replicating robots can consume everything in their path while building more of themselves. A typical swarm is about 6 m (20 feet) in diameter, individually consisting of millions of individual minuscule machines. However, several swarms can act together, creating a much larger cloud of death with just one purpose: to eat and replicate. Able to move large distances by gliding through the air, cloud-like swarms take on intriguing shapes and ripple with mathematical patterns as they approach a potential target, beautiful and deadly.
Ecophagic swarms sometimes build weird structures or artifacts in the wake of their feeding, like massive metallic ant or wasp mounds, or something without any reference at all in the natural world.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for matter, including flesh
- Environment:
Ecophagic swarms are drawn most to areas rich in rare-earth metals, such as large cities or space stations where everyone carries a smartphone, AR glasses, or something similar (Space)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Flies a long distance
- Combat:
As a mass of countless tiny machines, an ecophagic swarm can flow around obstacles and squeeze through cracks large enough to permit a single sub-millimeter machine. That includes over and around other creatures. Characters touched by a leading edge-or wholly enveloped within the hazy "body"-of an ecophagic swarm must succeed on a Might defense task or take 4 points of damage. If the character doesn't wear armor of some kind, they take 1 point of damage even if they succeed.
For its part, an ecophagic swarm ignores any attack that targets a single creature (unless it's an electrical attack), but it takes normal damage from attacks that affect an area (and electrical attacks), such as a detonation. A swarm cannot enter liquids, unless it takes about an hour to build new subunits that are aquatic.
- Interactions:
Someone with an ability to communicate with machines might be able to interact with a swarm. Even then, attempts to influence it are hindered by three steps.
- Uses:
A promising new nanotech "printing" technology was hacked by radical elements
- Intrusions:
The character must succeed on a Speed defense roll or their armor (or other important piece of equipment) is taken by the swarm.
- Source Book:
Born from the essence of fire and brimstone, efreeti are towering beings wreathed in flames and smoldering with barely contained power. Their bodies are made of molten rock and magma, and they float above the ground, leaving a trail of scorched earth. The intense heat that shimmers around them makes the air ripple, distorting their fearsome forms even further.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Desires to expand their dominion and exert control
- Environment:
Prefer infernal landscapes, volcanoes, and deep underground (Underground)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 8 due to fiery nimbleness; Deception and intimidation as level 8
- Combat:
Efreeti can hurl bolts of fire at their enemies that deal 6 points of damage within long range and ignite flammable materials. Each round, they can create a wall of fire up to 10 feet long, 8 feet high, and 1 foot thick; the wall inflicts 4 points of ambient damage to those passing through it and lasts for one minute. They can also cast fiery enchantments, hindering their foes. Wall of Fire: Creates an intimidating barrier that deals damage and can control the battlefield. Fire Enchantment: Casts curses that impair its enemies' abilities, demonstrating its control over the battlefield.
- Interactions:
Efreeti are proud and love to boast, often engaging in impassioned monologues about their might. They may offer deceitful bargains, promising wealth and power in exchange for servitude or a foothold in the material realm.
- Uses:
An efreeti has been summoned by a desperate sorcerer, now threatening to turn the city into a fiery wasteland unless its demands are met.
- Intrusions:
The efreeti's innate magic warps the reality around it, causing the ground to become hot and unstable. Cracks open up, spewing forth geysers of lava in the midst of combat.
- Source Book:
Elder things are mostly extinct, but a few remain trapped in the Antarctic ice or rule over crumbling cities in deep trenches at the bottom of the ocean.
Beholding an elder thing bends the mind to the point of breaking. An elder thing has a great barrel-like body standing some 8 feet (2 m) tall. Knobby protrusions in the crown and base each unfold five appendages that recall the arms of a starfish. When agitated, an elder thing unfolds a pair of wings that help it flutter a limited distance.
Meddling by elder things created multicellular life that spread across Earth billions of years ago and ultimately brought about humanity. As the younger species grew in numbers and influence, the elder things went into decline, a process hastened by wars against strange beings from other worlds and uprisings by the servitor race they created, the shoggoths.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Reclaim absolute sovereignty
- Environment:
In arctic regions or deep underwater (Ocean)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Immediate; long when flying
- Modifications:
All tasks related to knowledge of magic or science as level 10; Speed defense as level 6 due to form
- Combat:
An elder thing can attack with five tentacles divided any way it chooses among up to three targets within immediate range. A target hit by a tentacle must also succeed on a Speed defense roll or become grabbed until it escapes. Each round, the elder thing automatically inflicts 6 points of damage on each grabbed target until the victim succeeds on a Might defense roll to escape.
An elder thing can reach into the mind of a target within short distance. If the target fails an Intellect defense roll, the elder thing reads their thoughts while the target remains within long distance. During this time, the elder thing knows everything the target knows, hindering the target's attack and defense rolls against the elder thing. The elder thing can use an action to rend the target's thoughts, which inflicts 6 points of Intellect damage on a failed Intellect defense roll. An elder thing can passively read the thoughts of up to two creatures at one time.
An elder thing also might carry a few cyphers and an artifact it can use in combat.
- Interactions:
An elder thing communicates through whistles and pops created by moving air through tiny orifices arranged around its body. Elder things see humans as a lesser form of life and may demand worship, sacrifices, or something else from people it encounters.
- Uses:
Fishermen return to a coastal village with a large block of ice in tow. In the ice is something dark and large--an elder thing frozen alive. If the thing thaws out, it will likely take over the community and enslave the people living there.
- Loot:
An elder thing usually has one artifact and two or three cyphers.
- Intrusions:
A character who sees an elder thing for the first time goes temporarily crazy on a failed Intellect defense roll. They might stand in place and gibber, run away, or laugh hysterically for a few rounds. If the character takes damage, they shake off the temporary madness.
- Source Book:
Air elementals are capricious pieces of air with simple minds. They spontaneously appear in clouds and high mountains, and often resemble an area of mist or a cloudlike humanoid shape.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Mischief and destruction
- Environment:
Anywhere the wind blows (Other)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Long when flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6
- Combat:
Air elementals slice foes up to a short distance away with blades of fierce wind, or use blasts of air to throw small objects. Once every other round, an air elemental can turn into a tornado-like vortex that inflicts 4 points of damage to all creatures within immediate range. In this form, the elemental gains +1 to Armor and an additional +2 to Armor against physical projectile weapons such as arrows and javelins. The elemental reverts to its normal form at the start of its next turn.
An air elemental can disperse itself over a short area as an action. In this form it is invisible, unable to attack, and can't be attacked except with area attacks. The elemental can remain in this form indefinitely, but must use an action to return to its normal form.
Air elementals are elusive opponents and hard to destroy. If an air elemental is reduced to 0 health, there is a 50 percent chance that it rejuvenates a few rounds later with 6 health. The elemental then continues to fight or flees to cause trouble elsewhere.
- Interactions:
Air elementals see and hear many things, but they are flighty and what they remember usually isn't important or relevant. They can be summoned with magic but don't like being controlled, and there is a 10 percent chance that they free themselves and strike out on their own.
- Uses:
A safe mountain trail has become hazardous due to unseasonal winds that threaten to push travelers off a cliff. An old tree is surrounded by whispers of conversations that took place recently and has started hurling sticks and fruit at anyone who comes too close.
- Intrusions:
A violent blast of wind disarms a character and sends whatever they were holding up toa long distance away(depending on the object's size and weight).
- Source Book:
The grisly sign of an active thorn elemental in areas of heavy woods or jungle is the presence of shriveled bodies dangling from vines, dead of strangulation and poison. Thorn elementals take form in areas dense with woody growth under threat by hatchet, axe, saw, and, sometimes, human-caused climate disruptions.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Defense of forests
- Environment:
Anywhere trees grow (Forest)
- Health:
36
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Combat:
Thorn elementals batter foes with thorny, vine-wrapped fists. Targets who suffer damage must make a successful Might defense roll or take 2 points of Speed damage from a paralytic poison transmitted by a thorn's prick. Worse, the poison continues to inflict 2 points of Speed damage each round until the victim succeeds at a Might defense roll.
As its action, a thorn elemental can disentangle its form and reassemble a new body anywhere within long range where trees and plants grow. A thorn elemental regains 2 points of health each time it travels in this fashion.
- Interactions:
Thorn elementals communicate through speech, though they generally disdain talking to creatures of the animal kingdom. Thorn elementals exist within a hierarchy; those that have a greater capacity for communication are also usually more powerful. Summoned thorn elementals have about a 5 percent chance of breaking the geas and turning on their summoner.
- Uses:
Adventuring characters journey through a forest that is under threat of destruction by an encroachment of other humanoids. Thinking the PCs are part of the encroachers, a thorn elemental attacks them. If communication is opened, it might break off hostilities and instead ask the characters to help.
- Loot:
The bodies of those previously defeated by thorn elementals dangle from the forest or jungle canopy with all their former possessions. One or two might have a cypher and other tools and treasure.
- Source Book:
Water elementals are animate masses of water. When swimming, they are nearly indistinguishable from their surroundings, but when they have to move on dry land, they usually take the form of a curling wave, amorphous blob, or large puddle. They can spontaneously appear in locations with pristine salt or fresh water.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Flood, drown, and wash away
- Environment:
Anywhere there is flowing water (Ocean)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short; long if swimming
- Modifications:
Swimming and aquatic maneuvers as level 6; stealth as level 6 when in water
- Combat:
Water elementals bash opponents with heavy limbs of water or spray jets of water out to short range.
Instead of a bashing attack, a water elemental can use its action to attempt to envelop, smother, and crush one opponent, who can resist with a Might defense roll. If the opponent fails, it takes 4 points of damage immediately and every round on the elemental's turn. Each following turn, the enveloped character must attempt a new Might defense roll every round or move one step down the damage track from drowning as the elemental forces itself into the creature's lungs. The creature can free itself with a Might defense roll. An elemental with an enveloped opponent can move up to a short distance as its action; a common tactic is to dive deep, release their opponent to drown normally, then return to its previous position to fight other opponents.
Any attack that inflicts 6 or more points of cold damage hinders a water elemental's actions on its next turn.
- Interactions:
Water elementals are somewhat intelligent but think very differently from humans, so they often seem distracted and dull. They are generally compliant when summoned with magic, but there is about a 5 percent chance that they break free of the spell and lash out against their summoner.
- Uses:
Offerings left at a sacred pond have gone missing, and the water itself seems threatening. Garbage or dead bodies have polluted a water source, spawning an angry elemental that attacks everyone until the mess is cleaned up.
- Intrusions:
The force of the elemental's attack knocks over a character,sweeps them a short distance away, or both.
- Source Book:
Enchanters include magic-users of all genders. They may choose to call themselves wizards, sorcerers, mages, or diviners, depending on their strengths, abilities, and desired reputations.
Enchanters usually take great pride in their appearance, including their outfits, accouterments, and equipment. They often incorporate living or dead elements of dangerous creatures, such as spiders, snakes, crocodiles, and dragons, into the objects that matter to them. Additionally, they may imbue objects with powerful magic.
Enchanters can use long-lasting or even permanent versions of their magical abilities, but doing so usually requires minutes or hours of time.
Most enchanters have one or more apprentices or helpers, typically animals that have been made human temporarily or humans who are in the service of the enchanter until some debt of theirs or their family's has been paid.
Sorcerer's Apprentice: level 3
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Control magic, power
- Environment:
Everywhere, particularly in places where magic is present and powerful (Other)
- Health:
20
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Using and controlling magic as level 7
- Combat:
Magical weapons and artifacts (such as a whip made of living snakes, a staff with a biting wolf's head on top, or a sword that acts of its own accord) do 5 points of damage. Additionally, an enchanter may employ a number of magical abilities, including the Following:
Animate: Takes any material (such as wood or stone) and turns it into an animate level 4 creature. The creature has a mind and will of its own, and acts just as that type of creature would act if it were born instead of created.
Blood to Stone: Turns living creatures into stone, or immobilizes them in their current form. Breaking free is a level 6 Might task.
Enchant: Imbues a normal object with a magical power. The object works under the enchanter's command, and does as the enchanter asks of it. For example, an enchanter might imbue a foe's weapon and force it to attack the foe, or they might imbue a door and have it close tight against incoming dangers.
Endless Passage: Creates an endless series of thick spiderwebs, invisible barriers, rings of flame, or other hurdles across an entrance, exit, tunnel, or passage. Every time one of the hurdles is broken, another forms. Characters' movement is halved while going through the endless passage, and they take 2 points of Intellect damage each round.
Invisible: Turns anything (including themselves, others, and entire areas up to 30 feet by 30 feet [9 m by 9 m]) invisible for ten minutes. It's a level 6 Intellect task to be able to see something that has been made invisible.
Persuasion: Convinces all victims in long range that what they believe is not real or that what is false is real. Sometimes this ability just affects others' minds, creating a mental dissonance. Other times, the enchanter creates an illusion or other visible, auditory, and tactile element that persuades a character to believe everything they are experiencing. The effect lasts for ten minutes. Additionally, an enchanter may have one or more of the same abilities as a witch or a faerie.
- Interactions:
For the characters, an enchanter may be a terrifying foe or a powerful ally. Enchanters are fickle, perhaps due to their close relationship with magic, and may change their loyalties on a whim or an imagined slight.
- Uses:
The characters need to have an object imbued, a person returned to life, or a curse undone, and they turn to the enchanter for help. The characters accidentally insulted the enchanter in some way, and now the enchanter is hunting them down to get revenge.
- Loot:
Enchanters often protect their precious items with spells and magical locks (level 8). Behind those wards are 1d6 cyphers, an artifact, and an elegant or interesting outfit.
- Source Book:
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, enthraller ancestors psychically dominated a group of interstellar spacefarers who had the misfortune to land on the enthraller homeworld. Leapfrogging technological prowess by mentally commandeering the know-how of every new species they encountered using their stolen space vessel, the aliens fashioned the Enthraller Dominion, which stretches across vast swaths of space, cemented by the psychic control.
Individual enthrallers are scary, but enthraller overlords are even more powerful thanks to technological aids. These include cranial circlets that give a single enthraller governor the ability to dominate a small city, solar-system-sized ring relays that boost their control across interstellar distances, and more.
Recently, a newly contacted species of aliens developed the technological means to resist the mental influence of the enthrallers. Now war bubbles across the Enthraller Dominion. Sometimes individual enthrallers, stripped of their technological enhancements as a consequence of this war, flee into virgin space, looking for new soldiers to dominate.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Domination of other creatures
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, alone or in groups of three (Other)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
4 points; see Combat
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 4; perception and ability to detect falsehoods as level 8
- Combat:
An enthraller usually relies on dominated minions to make physical attacks on its behalf. An enthraller can make a psychic attack on a creature within short range. On a failed Intellect defense roll, the target acts as the enthraller mentally commands on its next action. If the same target is affected by this dominating attack a second time within a minute, the enthraller's mental control lasts for one minute.
Alternatively, as its action, an enthraller can emit a psychic burst that can target up to three creatures in short range. On a failed Intellect defense roll, a victim suffers 4 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and is unable to take actions on their subsequent turn. If the victim is attacked while so stunned, their defense rolls are hindered by two steps.
The enthraller's attack is a form of mental feeding. If it moves a PC down the damage track, the creature regains 4 points of health.
- Interactions:
An enthraller can communicate telepathically with characters within short range. It tries to mentally dominate whoever it runs across and will negotiate only with characters who are strong enough to harm it. Even if an enthraller makes a deal, it eventually reneges if it senses any advantage for doing so because it implicitly believes that other creatures are cattle.
- Uses:
A spacecraft (or perhaps an escape pod) crash lands. Inside, a hurt enthraller lies in suspended animation. Investigators are unlikely to realize the enthraller's nature beforehand, but they certainly learn if they wake the alien.
- Loot:
Enthrallers wear light armor suited for their forms. They might have one or two cyphers and, rarely, an artifact that boosts their already-fearsome mental capabilities.
- Intrusions:
The enthraller's intrusion into the character's mind stirs up forgotten memories. The character must deal with the contents of these memories and perhaps why they were repressed.
This vaguely humanoid creature is an animated accumulation of woodland debris--bark, lost teeth, matted weeds, and dirt. It wears a crown of oak leaves and a cloak of mist.
Its eyes are knotholes, and its hands are sharpened twigs. An erlking is a greedy spirit of hunger deemed Unseelie by the faerie nobility of that wild and wicked realm. Erlkings love to hunt and eat children, who are particularly susceptible to the promises and glamours that the creatures spin. An erlking is a former noble stripped of title, lands, and even form, and exiled into the night for crimes unimaginable in their cruelty. An erlking's victims are found in the cold sunlight, pale and bloodless, with their vital organs nibbled out.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh and to reclaim stripped titles
- Environment:
Almost anywhere wooded at night (Forest)
- Health:
27
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
4
- Movement:
Short; immediate when burrowing
- Modifications:
Stealth tasks as level 7
- Combat:
An erlking prefers to attack from hiding, and whisper a child or other creature within short distance from their bed out into the night if the victim fails an Intellect defense task. An affected creature remains under the erlking's spell for up to an hour or until attacked or otherwise harmed.
When it attacks physically, an erlking can attack three times on its turn with root tendrils. A target hit by a tendril must also succeed on a Speed defense roll or become grabbed until they escape. The erlking automatically inflicts 6 points of damage on each grabbed creature each round until they succeed on a Might-based task to escape.
Silvered and cold iron weapons ignore an erlking's Armor. If an erlking's remains are not burned or otherwise destroyed, it will sprout and grow a new body from its corpse within a day.
- Interactions:
An erlking may negotiate if creatures have something it wants, or if targets are armed with silvered or cold iron weapons.
- Uses:
An erlking is active only by night; by day, it hides beneath a mound of weedy earth indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain.
- Intrusions:
A character surprised by an erlking in the darkness must succeed on an Intellect defense task or lose their next action as they faint, run screaming, or stand paralyzed in terror.
- Source Book:
Evil priests are worshippers of evil gods, demons, devils, strange malevolent forces from beyond known dimensions, or even death itself. They lead cults, corrupt the innocent with lies and twisted ideologies, and enact the will of their patron in the mortal world. The most insidious ones are able to infiltrate good churches and secular organizations in order to tear them down from the inside.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Domination of others, divine rule
- Environment:
Almost anywhere that people live (Urban)
- Health:
28
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Deception, persuasion, and religious lore as level 8
- Combat:
Evil priests make one or two short-range magical attacks as an action, which are thematically appropriate to the god or entity they serve, such as blasts of hellfire, grasping shadowy tentacles, or disruptive necromantic energy. They often rely on zealous minions to protect them from melee opponents.
Priests usually know several spells, such as how to banish or control creatures from other dimensions, create an area of darkness, see and hear remote locations, speak with the dead, mesmerize or paralyze a person, cause blindness, or create a ward against energy damage. They also have the following magical abilities:
- Curse: The priest curses a foe within short range, hindering all of the foe's actions by two steps.
- Heal: The priest heals a touched creature for 10 health or removes an affliction such as a disease or curse.
- Necromancy: The priest uses a ten-minute ritual to animate up to four human-sized corpses as skeletons or zombies under their control. The undead revert to corpses after a day.
- Sacrifice: The priest uses a ten-minute ritual to kill a helpless, restrained, or unconscious creature of level 4 or higher, using its soul to grant one ally an asset on all actions and defenses for one day.
- Summon: Once per hour the priest can summon a demon or one level 3 or 4 creature (such as a giant snake, giant spider, or swarm of bugs). The summoned creature serves the priest for an hour before vanishing. Swarm of bugs: level 3
- An evil priest usually has one or two combat-useful manifest cyphers and often has an artifact appropriate to their religion. Most also wear armor or have an ongoing defensive spell that grants them Armor.
- Interactions:
Evil priests tend to be knowledgeable, arrogant, and condescending toward heroes and members of rival faiths. They might strike a bargain to save their lives or the life of a valuable minion, or to gain an advantage later on.
- Uses:
An evil priest is converting frightened peasants into followers, and turning those who refuse into zombie slaves. A new religious figure in the city is acting suspiciously, and members of rival faiths have been disappearing or turning up dead.
- Loot:
Evil priests usually have mundane treasures equivalent to three or four expensive items, a few useful manifest cyphers, and an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The dying evil priest utters a curse that attempts to pull the character's soul into the afterlife with them,moving them one stepdown the damage track if they fail anIntellect defense roll. The evil priest ignores, avoids, or immediately recovers from an attack that would have killed or greatly harmed them.
- Source Book:
Amoeboid life predominates in some environments. Sometimes, it slimes asteroid crevices or its greasy residue is found on abandoned spacecraft. In a few cases, large portions of entire worlds are covered in living seas of translucent protoplasm. Individual volumes of exoslime are 5 m (15 foot) diameter moldlike blobs. Exoslimes possess independent minds, but in some settings may be manufactured entities designed to explore new locations, interact with aliens, or subjugate aliens. Exoslimes can learn to respect the autonomy of other creatures, though their natural instinct is to absorb novel objects and creatures they discover in order to learn about them. Exoslimes can also replicate anything they absorb, even a previously eaten living intelligent being.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for information
- Environment:
Moist and warm areas (Other)
- Health:
33
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Immediate; immediate when climbing or burrowing
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
Though slow, an exoslime is dangerous. When roused, all characters within immediate range of an exoslime must succeed on a Might defense roll each round or be touched by the heaving mass. A victim adheres to the slime's surface and takes 6 points of acid damage each round. The victim must succeed on a Might defense roll to pull free. A victim who dies from this damage is consumed by the exoslime. The exoslime may later create a duplicate of any previously devoured fleshy creature, a process requiring about three rounds to complete. Duplicates have full autonomy, and can communicate with the slime.
- Interactions:
An exoslime prefers to eat a newly-encountered creature, then create a duplicate of it to act as a translator. Of course, a stranger might not understand why the exoslime is trying to eat it.
- Uses:
The sample brought in from the exterior has a weird, mucus-like growth that seems able to slowly eat through most materials.
- Intrusions:
The character escapes an exoslime attack, but a piece of quivering protoplasm remains stuck to their flesh, eating away at 1 point of Speed damage (ignores Armor) each round until the character succeeds on a Might roll as an action.
- Source Book:
Faeries are magic creatures of music, mirth, tricks, and taunts. Some might only perform a silly song or follow people for a while, flitting around and asking questions like an annoying young child. Some faeries are crueler and delight in stealing clothing, equipment, or prized objects. And a few are downright malicious and, under the guise of a helpful guide or a pretty light in the distance, lure lost travelers to various dooms.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Unpredictable
- Environment:
Alone or in a flutter of three to twelve (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Immediate; long when flying
- Modifications:
Tasks related to performance and deception as level 5; Speed defense as level 5 due to size and quickness
- Combat:
A faerie can hurl damaging magic dust at any target within short range, but sometimes it wields tiny weapons such as bows, spears, or swords.
If a faerie is touched or struck by a melee weapon, more magic dust puffs away from the faerie and clouds the attacker, who must make a Speed defense roll or take the same amount of damage they just dealt to the faerie.
A faerie can see in the dark, but it can also emit bright light and appear as a glowing humanoid or an illuminated sphere.
Faeries regenerate 1 point of health per round while their health is above 0.
Some faeries can attempt to use a song or light display to charm others within short range. The target must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or fall into a suggestible state for one hour. During this period, the target can be led by the faerie at their regular movement rate. The target can be brought out of the spell early if they take damage or are heartily slapped and shaken for a round or two, causing the glamour to fade. A faerie can use this power once per minute.
- Interactions:
Faeries are mercurial creatures, but except for the malicious ones, they can be negotiated with, especially if offered sweets, wine, or other gifts. However, faerie attention spans are limited, so even one that means well could end up leaving the PCs in the lurch at just the wrong moment.
- Uses:
The dancing light in the distance, leading curious PCs deeper and deeper into the dark woods, is a faerie. And the destination could be a wicked witch or other unpleasant location.
- Loot:
The tiny pouches that faeries carry are stuffed with forest bric-a-brac, but some of those pouches are ten times larger on the inside and might hold a handful of shiny coins or a cypher.
- Intrusions:
Another faerie appears, and if the character fails a Speed defense roll, it flies off with their weapon or another important possession.
- Source Book:
In general, faeries (sometimes called fairies or fair folk) are humanoid in appearance, small in stature, and magical. They are associated with music, mirth, tricks, and taunts. Seeing one is an omen--hopefully, an omen of a silly song or the first appearance of an annoying new road companion (the very faerie sighted) flitting around, asking the questions of a curious four-year-old hyped up on sugar water and ice cream. Some faeries are tricksters, delighting in playing pranks and stealing clothing, equipment, or prized objects. And a few are malicious, luring travelers to their various dooms, making deadly deals, and forcing others into captivity.
Not all faeries have wings, but those that do find many ways to use them to their advantage.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Unpredictable
- Environment:
Encountered alone or in a flutter of three to twelve, usually in forests (Forest)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Immediate; long when flying
- Modifications:
Tasks related to performance and deception as level 5; Speed defense as level 5 due to size and quickness
- Combat:
A faerie attacks by hurling sparkling magic dust at a target within short range. In addition, if a faerie is touched or struck by a melee weapon, more magic dust puffs away from the faerie and clouds the attacker, who must succeed on a Speed defense task or suffer the same amount of damage they just dealt to the faerie. Sometimes faeries wield tiny weapons, such as bows, spears, or swords; treat these as light weapons.
A faerie can see in the dark, but it can also emit bright light (often colored) and appear as a glowing humanoid or an illuminated sphere.
Faeries regain 1 point of health per round while their health is above 0 unless they've been damaged with a silvered or cold iron weapon.
In addition to inflicting damage with their fairy dust and their weapons of choice, faeries have a number of curses and abilities at their disposal. These include the following:
Animal Friend: Most faeries can communicate with animals, and a few can even summon animals within long range for help and protection. Some faeries can also grant others the ability to communicate with animals, but only for a day.
Charm: Some faeries can attempt to use a song or light display to charm others within short range. The target must succeed on an Intellect defense task or fall into a suggestible state for one hour. During this period, the target can be led by the faerie until attacked, damaged, or shaken from their glamour.
Clairvoyance: The faerie grants someone the ability to see the future, the past, faeries, or one of the hidden faerie worlds. This gift lasts for one day, or until the character makes a ten-hour recovery roll.
Heal: The faerie heals themselves, a plant, a creature, or another character for 1d6 + 2 points of damage.
Illusion: Powerful faeries can cast elaborate and convincing illusions that make them and their worlds appear more appealing and beautiful. Illusions can cover up to a mile in area. Seeing through the illusion is a task equal to the faerie's level and lasts for ten minutes. After that, the viewer reverts to seeing the illusion and quickly forgets that they saw anything else.
Invisibility: Makes the faerie invisible to most eyes. Seeing, hearing, or sensing a faerie when it's invisible is a task equal to the faerie's level. A failed attempt to see a faerie causes the viewer to see something that harms their mind, inflicting 1 point of Intellect damage.
Vortex: A defensive tactic where one or more threatened faeries use their wings to create a strong gust of wind, tornado, or vortex. The wind pushes their foes back a long distance and inflicts 2 points of damage.
Faeries have a wide variety of weaknesses, including silver, iron, technology, sugar and salt (they must count each grain), and cream (intoxicates them). But not all faeries have the same weaknesses, and some may not have any.
- Interactions:
Faeries are mercurial creatures, but except for the malicious ones, they can be negotiated with, especially if offered sweets, wine, cream, or other gifts. That said, faerie attention spans are limited, so even one that means well could end up leaving the PCs in the lurch at just the wrong moment.
- Uses:
The characters come upon an injured faerie, who promises to grant them their deepest wish if they agree to help it. They must decide if they believe the faerie speaks true, or if it's a trap.
- Loot:
The tiny pouches that faeries carry are stuffed with forest bric-a-brac, but some of those pouches are ten times larger on the inside and could contain expensive items or cyphers.
- Intrusions:
A character accidentally does something to offend a helpful faerie, causing it to turn on them.
- Source Book:
Fairy godmothers are nearly always beneficent beings, typically acting as mentors, parents, or protectors, much like human godparents. The difference, of course, is that fairy godmothers have a great deal more magic at their disposal.
Overall, fairy godmothers are kind, gentle, and loving to almost everyone, not just their godchildren. Of course, not all fairy godmothers are good at their roles--some may act out of their own interests and inadvertently (or purposefully) do harm to those they are supposed to protect. This is particularly true if they feel like they have not been given the respect they deserve, or have been offended in some way.
And if you should harm someone they have pledged to protect? Beware, beware, for there is no wrath like that of a fairy godmother's.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Protect their proteges, be respected
- Environment:
Cities, towns, and anywhere someone is in need of assistance (Urban)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Combat:
Fairy godmothers attack by shooting a stream of sharp-edged glitter up to a long distance from their magic wands (glitter gets into every nook and cranny, and thus ignores Armor). Fairy godmothers can bestow blessings upon their friends and allies, and curse their enemies.
Fairy godmothers can cast any of the skills and abilities that faeries can cast, as well as a few that are specific to them, including the following:
A Little Luck: The fairy godmother blesses a character with luck, granting them the opportunity to reroll once in the next day without spending XP.
A Little Misfortune: Despite the name, this is usually a beneficial spell. It is designed to give a nearby character something to overcome so that they might grow stronger in temperament or stature. When this spell is cast, the character receives a GM intrusion on their next action (no matter what their roll is) and receives 1 XP to give away (but not one to keep).
Alteration: Can turn any creature within short range into a different creature (such as a mouse into a horse) and any object into a similarly shaped object (such as a
Prophecy: Creates a prediction for the future of a single person. The prediction has a high chance of coming true, but is not certain. (Prophecies work like GM intrusions that will take place in the future; the player can reject the prophecy by spending an XP.) Not all prophecies are negative.
- Interactions:
Interacting with fairy godmothers is usually a little frantic, frenzied, and full of "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!" If they like you, they're likely to prove a loyal, steadfast, and useful ally. If not, well, hopefully you like being turned into a horse, or worse.
- Uses:
Fairy godmothers make great lighthearted additions to encounters, particularly ones where the characters are preparing for a ball, a fight, or a big adventure.
- Intrusions:
The fairy godmother's magic goes awry and a character is accidentally turned into a horse.
- Source Book:
Angels are normally associated with virtue and service to higher moral beings. But just like people, sometimes angels are tempted into impure acts. Those who stray too far over the line may fall from higher realms and be forced to walk the Earth in penance. This experience drives most fallen angels insane.
Fallen angel abilities wax and wane according to the position of the sun. During the day, a fallen angel seems almost sane (and is less dangerous), but at night, it is volatile and threatening to everyone.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Revenge (but on whom and for what isn't clear, even to the fallen angel)
- Environment:
Anywhere, sometimes living alone in the wilderness, other times walking the hard streets of large cities (Urban)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
6 points by day, 8 points at night
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
At night, perceptions and attacks as level 7
- Combat:
At night, a fallen angel can attack other creatures by projecting a long-range beam of burning light. Against foes within immediate range, the fallen angel manifests burning wings. A fallen angel can choose to make its attacks ignore Armor, but for each attack so modified, it loses 4 points of health.
On the rare occasion that a fallen angel is within immediate range of another of its kind, both regain 1 point of health per round.
By day, a fallen angel cannot project long-range attacks and has no visible wings with which to make melee attacks, though it may carry a melee weapon.
- Interactions:
By day, fallen angels are not automatically hostile, and they can be negotiated and reasoned with. They can seem truly angelic, though they are often confused and forgetful of their origin. But when night descends, fallen angels lose control of their faculties as they swell with rage and power. Unless a character directs a fallen angel toward another creature on which it can vent its wrath, the character becomes the object of the fury.
- Uses:
A star slips down from the sky and lands in the country. The next day, travelers come upon a farm in the area and find everyone dead and burned. A trail of scorched earth leads up into the hills.
- Loot:
Fallen angels collect cyphers and usually have a few.
- Intrusions:
A fallen angel's successful attack causes the character's cypher to detonate (if a grenade) or otherwise activate in a less-than-ideal fashion.
Searing flame in a vaguely humanoid shape, a fire elemental exists only to burn that which is not already ash. They sometimes spin into being where great conflagrations burn.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Burn
- Environment:
Anywhere fires can burn (Wilderness)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
4 to 7 points; see Combat
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
See Combat for escalating attack level modification.
- Combat:
A fire elemental attacks with a flaming limb. The more the elemental burns foes, the more powerful it grows. Its power increases according to the number of successful attacks (that dealt fire damage) it made on another creature during the previous minute.
0 successful attacks: deals 4 points of damage; attacks as level 4
1 successful attack: deals 5 points of damage; attacks as level 5
3 successful attacks: deals 6 points of damage; attacks as level 6
4+ successful attacks: deals 7 points of damage; attacks as level 7
If a fire elemental hasn't burned a foe within the last minute, its combat stats drop back to its level 4 baseline.
A fire elemental is immune to fire attacks but vulnerable to cold; every time it takes 1 point of cold damage, it takes 1 additional point of damage.
- Interactions:
Fire elementals are barely sapient and usually respond only to those who know spells able to command them. However, there's a chance (about 10%) that a fire elemental commanded to accomplish a particular task breaks free and instead burns whatever's around until it exhausts all possible fuel sources.
- Uses:
A rash of fires leads some people to suspect that an arsonist is on the loose, but the truth is worse.
- Intrusions:
A character hit by the fire elemental's attack catches on fire and takes 3 points of damage each round until they use an action patting, rolling, or smothering the flames.
Giant Barracudas are monstrous versions of their smaller counterparts, with rows of needle-like teeth and a reflective silver body that makes them near invisible against the light while underwater. They strike with lightning speed, savaging their prey before it can react. These solitary predators often lurk near shipwrecks or coral reefs, waiting for the opportune moment to ambush.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Driven by hunger and territorial aggression
- Environment:
Tropical and subtropical oceans, usually around reefs, shipwrecks, and underwater caves (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Attacks as level 4 due to rapid strikes
- Combat:
The Giant Barracuda uses its Camouflage to blend with the water, making it difficult to detect (tasks to see it are increased by two difficulty levels). When attacking, it rushes forward to bite with its powerful jaws. If the attack roll is a natural 18 or higher, the Giant Barracuda's Bite-and-Tear attack deal an additional 3 points of damage and the target bleeds, taking 2 points of damage each round until the bleeding is stopped with a difficulty 4 Might-based task.
- Interactions:
Giant Barracuda are not open to negotiation or deception, reacting only to threats or potential meals. However, they may display short bursts of curiosity towards unusual phenomena in their territory before attacking or retreating.
- Uses:
These formidable predators can be a harrowing obstacle for characters traversing underwater regions or searching for submerged treasure. Alternatively, an eccentric collector may seek one for a dangerous private aquarium.
- Intrusions:
As a character braces for the barracuda's assault, another previously unseen Giant Barracuda joins the fray from a blind spot, or the creature's swift attack knocks a character's weapon from their grasp.
- Source Book:
Dwelling in the depths of expansive lakes, the Giant Bass is a monumental and tenacious predator. Weighing several hundred pounds, it has glistening dark green scales that shimmer with an iridescence in the rare moments it surfaces. This colossus of freshwater is capable of swallowing smaller prey whole with a sudden, explosive breach from beneath.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Territorial predator
- Environment:
Large, deep freshwater systems (Ocean)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long when swimming, does not move on land
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 3 due to nimbleness in water; Stealth as level 3 when in water
- Combat:
The Giant Bass can create a powerful undertow with a swift tail movement, pulling its victim closer (an immediate range increment). Once in close range, the Giant Bass attempts to swallow or crush its prey with a powerful bite. Speed-based tasks to escape its grasp are increased by one step of difficulty.
- Interactions:
Unintelligent and driven by instinct, the Giant Bass is not open to reason or negotiation. Its behavior is primarily reactive to threats or the presence of food.
- Uses:
Adventure tales mention a hidden treasure sunk within the Giant Bass's domain, drawing fortune seekers into its perilous waters.
- Loot:
Giant Bass are coveted for their scales and possible swallowed treasures.
- Intrusions:
Just when the players think the Giant Bass is fleeing, it's actually circling around, using the murky lake bed to hide its approach for a surprise attack.
- Source Book:
This enormous catfish dwells in murky riverbeds and deep ponds. Its body is covered in slime, which makes it hard to grasp, and its mustache-like barbels are incredibly sensitive to vibrations, helping it detect even the faintest movements in the water. With a gaping mouth large enough to swallow a human whole, the giant catfish is an apex predator in its watery realm.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Territorial dominance and hunger
- Environment:
Deep freshwater bodies (Ocean)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short in water; does not move on land
- Modifications:
Sneak attacks as level 5 due to its silent movement in water; Might defense as level 5 due to its size and slippery skin
- Combat:
The giant catfish prefers to ambush its prey from below, its mouth opening in a terrifying gulp. Victims hit by this attack must succeed on a Might defense roll or be swallowed whole, suffering an additional 6 points of damage per round until they are freed or manage to cut their way out from the inside.
- Interactions:
The giant catfish is not intelligent, acting on instinct. It might be placated with food or distracted by large disturbances in the water.
- Uses:
A local legend speaks of a monstrous catfish that has claimed the lives of several villagers. Some say it guards ancient treasure in the depths of its lair.
- Loot:
Pieces of old armor and weapons from past victims can be found within its lair, some possibly of historic or monetary value.
- Intrusions:
The vibrations from the combat stir the silt and mud at the bottom of the water, massively reducing visibility and potentially disorienting the characters.
- Source Book:
A seemingly gargantuan version of its tiny cousins, the Giant Piranha is a formidable aquatic predator. With rows of razor-sharp teeth and a muscular body that gleams with dark, slippery scales, it instills terror in the hearts of those who tread its waters. Typically found in murky rivers and deep lakes, this beast moves with surprising agility, creating whirlpools to confuse its prey before it attacks.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Driven by insatiable hunger
- Environment:
Freshwater systems, primarily in large rivers and deep lakes (Ocean)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5 when submerged; Attacks and Speed defense as level 5 due to agility in water
- Combat:
A Giant Piranha can initiate a Feeding Frenzy once per day. When the creature successfully bites a target, it releases a special pheromone that signals nearby piranhas (either Giant or normal-sized) to join the fray. Each extra piranha adds +2 to the Giant Piranha attack damage for that round. Additionally, once it latches on with its bite, the Giant Piranha inflicts ongoing bleeding damage, causing an extra 2 points of damage each round until the wound is treated or it succeeds in another attack.
- Interactions:
The Giant Piranha is not intelligent, acting purely on instinct. Encounters with these creatures generally have two outcomes: feed or flee. Attempts at negotiation or intimidation will fail.
- Uses:
A group of adventurers seeks to cross a river, only to find the waters are teeming with these voracious eaters. The crossing becomes a matter of urgency and cunning, as the waters churn with deadly consequences.
- Intrusions:
The character's attack wounds the Giant Piranha, but the bloodshed incites a Feeding Frenzy earlier than anticipated. Additional piranhas converge on the injured creature, turning their frenzied attention to the characters in the water.
- Source Book:
The buzzing of these enormous insects is unnerving, a deep thrumming that vibrates in the chest of those too near. Their faceted eyes glisten with an alien intelligence, reflecting their surroundings in a prismatic display. The bristling hairs on their legs can sense movement and vibrations, making them masterful at detecting and tracking their quarry.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Feeds on refuse and carrion, occasionally preys on small creatures
- Environment:
Swamps, wastelands, caves, or near sites with decomposing matter (Wilderness)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short when walking, long when flying
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 3 due to erratic flight
- Combat:
Giant Flies are able to spit a corrosive substance at their enemies, which, on a hit, deals damage and hampers vision if it strikes the face or eyes. The target must succeed on a Speed or Might defense roll or be blinded for one round. Acidic Spit: Giant Flies can project a stream of acidic saliva up to 15 feet, which can blind opponents for a round and immediately corrode nonliving matter. Sensory Hairs: The sensitive hairs grant the Giant Fly an almost preternatural awareness of nearby movements, making it nearly impossible to sneak up on. Buzzing Dismay: The intense buzzing produced can cause unease and distraction, hindering tasks that involve concentration or precision for those within immediate range.
- Interactions:
These creatures do not have much by way of society or culture and act mainly on instinct. Their interactions with intelligent creatures are limited and typically conflictive due to their tendency to see them as potential food or threats.
- Uses:
The overgrown vermin of a pestilence god. A sign of corruption in the land, literally feeding on the decay that spreads through the world.
- Loot:
If someone is brave or desperate enough, parts of a Giant Fly can be harvested for alchemical components, particularly the acidic spit gland.
- Intrusions:
A Giant Fly's erratic flight unexpectedly changes direction, and it smashes into an adventurer, potentially knocking them off balance or off a ledge they were standing too close to.
- Source Book:
These enormous amphibians have mottled, moisture-rich skin, with vivid stripes that seem to pulse with the environment's humidity. Their eyes, wide and luminescent, swivel independently to track potential prey and predators. Giant frogs prefer damp environments, lurking in the water with only their eyes and nostrils visible. They can snap their sticky tongues with lightning speed to ensnare small creatures or disarm the unwary explorer.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Always on the lookout for a meal or a moist place to reside
- Environment:
Swamps, riversides, and wet caverns (Wilderness)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short, can make a long leap once every ten minutes
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4; Speed defense as level 4 when leaping or in water
- Combat:
The giant frog's tongue can snatch objects or small creatures up to a short distance away. A successful hit will pull an object to the frog or a creature towards its massive jaws. Prey caught by the tongue must succeed on a difficulty 3 Might defense roll or be drawn into the frog's mouth and bit, taking an additional 3 points of damage.
- Interactions:
Though not highly intelligent, giant frogs are curious and might approach non-threatening beings out of interest. They can be distracted or lured away with food or strong scents.
- Uses:
A recent deluge has flooded an ancient ruin, and now a tribe of giant frogs has taken up residence among the waterlogged corridors, posing a new threat to treasure seekers.
- Loot:
Intact giant frog skin can be worth a fair amount to the right buyer, and alchemists value their eyes for various potions.
- Intrusions:
A leaping giant frog miscalculates its trajectory, causing a chaotic moment where it lands amidst the party, causing everyone within immediate range to attempt a Speed defense roll or be knocked prone.
- Source Book:
Fundamental angels are mysterious holy beings that maintain and guard fundamental concepts of the universe, such as time, gravity, and energy. They have powers and agendas deriving from higher states of reality. They are strange, terrifying, and inconstant in form, unlike the relatively benign and comprehensible winged humanoids from religion and myth.
In the rare times when mortals interfere with these concepts, fundamental angels manifest in the world to set things right. They have intervened to destroy cataclysmic atomic weapons, power sources that skirt the rules of matter and energy, and life forms that betray the principles of creation.
For the purpose of vampire aversions, the angel's direct and area attacks count as religious power or sunlight, whichever is worse for the vampire.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Preserving the natural order
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually in response to mortal activity (Other)
- Health:
35
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; short when flying
- Modifications:
All knowledge as level 9; attacks against mad science and supernatural targets as level 8; Armor +3 against energy
- Combat:
A fundamental angel attacks other creatures by creating a long-range blast of bright divine energy that inflicts 8 points of damage. In addition, it automatically inflicts 4 points of damage each round against all creatures within short range, although it can shield itself with wings or other protrusions to negate this effect against individuals.
Any creature within long range that sees it and fails an Intellect defense roll becomes frightened unless the angel tells it (specifically or in general) not to be afraid.
As an action, it can teleport up to a hundred miles away or transport itself fully to its native dimension where it exists as pure thought and spirit.
- Interactions:
A fundamental angel operates on a mental and metaphysical level far above humans and doesn't bother to explain itself to anyone other than its targets. It goes out of its way to not harm innocent creatures. It can communicate with any creature that uses language.
- Uses:
"FEAR NOT!" says the radiant being that appears out of nowhere. It ignores bystanders and uses a beam of energy to destroy a scientist and his experimental reactor.
- Loot:
Fundamental angels sometimes create or refresh subtle cyphers by their mere presence.
- Intrusions:
A fundamental angel's successful attack also blinds its opponent, lasting until they make an Intellect defense roll (try once each round). A fundamental angel makes a second attack this round against a target that is adjacent to its primary target.
- Source Book:
In radiation-scoured wastelands, either creatures adapt to the deadly energies of their environment, or they die. Fusion hounds are mutant canines able to absorb unbelievable amounts of radiation and thrive on it. They roam in packs, killing and devouring everything they come upon.
A fusion hound's entire head appears to be a blast of flame, and gouts of dangerous radiation flare from its body.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Packs of three to eight can be found almost anywhere. (Other)
- Health:
10
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
- Combat:
Fusion hounds move very fast and use that speed to their advantage in combat. A hound can move a long distance and still attack as a single action. It can also use its action to run about in random patterns, hindering attacks against it by two steps.
A fusion hound's head is completely haloed in a seething mass of radioactive energy, so unlike traditional canines, it has no bite attack. Instead, it pounces on prey with its clawed forelimbs, which causes a burst of radiation to flare from its body, burning whatever it touches.
Anyone within close distance of a fusion hound for more than one round suffers 1 point of damage in each round after the first.
- Interactions:
Fusion hounds are animals. Creatures immune to radiation sometimes train the hounds to become guardians or hunting dogs, but such creatures are rare.
- Uses:
An NPC delivering something the characters need never made it to the rendezvous. If they backtrack to where the NPC should have come from, the PCs are attacked by a pack of fusion hounds on the road. Clearly, the courier was attacked by the pack as well, and the characters must discover if the NPC is dead or merely injured, and where the package now lies.
- Intrusions:
The hound flares with energy and the character must succeed on a Might defense task or go blind for ten minutes.
Gargoyle Sentinels are stone-carved monsters that adorn the ancient edifices of forgotten temples and ruins. By day, they are indistinguishable from other ornate sculptures, but by nightfall, these sinister beings awaken to protect their territories. Their skin is jagged stone, which provides excellent camouflage. When they spread their massive, stone wings and reveal glowing red eyes, the fear they evoke is both palpable and justified.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Guardian of its domain
- Environment:
Ancient ruins, gothic structures, and cursed grounds (Underground)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short or immediate when flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5; Might-based tasks as level 5 due to stony form; Overcoming environmental damage as level 6
- Combat:
A Gargoyle Sentinel swoops down from high perches to attack with claws and bite. Once every three rounds, it can unleash a Shriek of Stone—a loud, piercing cry that causes all within short range to become dazed, losing their next turn unless they succeed on an Intellect defense roll.
- Interactions:
Preferring to observe from above, Gargoyle Sentinels rarely engage in direct communication. They might, however, offer riddles or enigmatic warnings to those who do not seem to pose a threat to their domain.
- Uses:
The Gargoyle Sentinels are rumored to be the last line of defense for an ancient artifact hidden within the ruins. Adventurers seek the artifact, but must contend with these stone guardians.
- Intrusions:
As a character strikes a Gargoyle Sentinel, it crumbles to reveal a cluster of malevolent spirits that burst forth, requiring an immediate Speed defense roll to avoid a chilling possession attempt.
- Source Book:
Sounds with no apparent origin, such as the tap of footsteps on the stair, knocking behind the walls, crying from empty rooms, and haunting music, might be signs of a ghost. If the sound is accompanied by a sudden temperature drop and the breath of living creatures begins to steam, it's a certainty.
Ghosts are the spectral remnants of humans, which persist either as fragments of memory or as full-fledged spirits. Though their appearance varies between individuals, many appear somewhat translucent, washed out, or physically warped from their time spent as a phantom.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Unpredictable (but often seeking to complete unfinished business)
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 7; tasks related to frightening others as level 6
- Combat:
A ghost doesn't take damage from mundane physical sources, but it takes half damage from spells and attacks that direct energy, and full damage from weapons designed to affect spirits, psychic attacks, and similar attacks.
A ghost's touch inflicts freezing damage. Some ghosts can kill victims with fear. A ghost with this ability can attack all creatures within short range with a psychic display so horrible that targets who fail an Intellect defense roll take 4 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and become terrified, freezing in place. In each subsequent round, a terrified victim can attempt an Intellect-based task to push away the fright. Each failed attempt moves the victim one step down the damage track. Not attempting to clear one's mind of fear counts as a failed attempt. Those killed by fear are marked by expressions of horror and hair that has turned white.
A ghost can move through solid objects of up to level 7 at will, although it can choose to pick up and manipulate objects if it focuses on them. Ghosts can also go into a state of apparent non-existence for hours or days at a time.
- Interactions:
Some ghosts are talkative, some don't know they're dead, some want help for a task they failed to accomplish in life, and some only rage against the living and want to bring those who yet breathe into the same colorless existence they endure.
- Uses:
A ghost (that at first appears fully human) wants help in eradicating a guild of ghost hunters that has targeted it and a few others haunting an abandoned structure. The ghost promises to tell secrets of the afterlife to any who accept its strange offer.
- Loot:
A ghost usually doesn't carry objects, though some might have a keepsake (like an amulet showing the face of a loved one) or an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The character must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be possessed by the ghost until they succeed on an Intellect-based task to push it out. While possessed, the character acts just like the ghost did when it was alive.
Ghouls spend almost as much time beneath the ground as corpses do, but ghouls are very much alive. Their bodies are hairless and so porcelain-smooth that their faces are sometimes mistaken for masks, albeit gore-smeared masks. Ghouls come to the surface at night to gather humanoid remains or steal those recently interred from their graves, though many prefer to eat from still-living victims.
Most ghouls are orgiastic eaters of human flesh, but a rare few ghoul populations are more refined. These wear clothes, have language and sophisticated customs, live in grand subterranean cities of their own design, and fight with milk-white blades of bone. These civilized ghouls claim to hold dominion over the remains of all humans, according to ancient custom, even if they only sometimes assert that privilege. They eat the dead in order to absorb residual memories left in the corpses.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hunger for dead flesh; knowledge (in certain rare cases)
- Environment:
Anywhere above ground at night, usually in groups of three or more, or in subterranean lairs (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Two areas of knowledge as level 5
- Combat:
Ghoul saliva contains a paralytic agent. Ghoul bites (and weapons used by ghouls) inflict damage and, on a failed Might defense roll, render the target paralyzed for one minute. A paralyzed target can attempt a Might-based task each round to regain mobility, but for the next minute, attacks, defenses, and movement tasks are hindered.
Ghouls can see in the dark. They're blind in full daylight, but civilized ghouls who travel to the surface carry lenses that cover their eyes, allowing them to see without penalty in full sunlight.
- Interactions:
Common ghouls can't be negotiated with, though a rare civilized ghoul is an excellent linguist. These latter are willing to deal in return for the body of someone who was knowledgeable or who kept valuable secrets in life.
- Uses:
If a PC needs a piece of information not otherwise obtainable, a trip down into a ghoul city might be worthwhile, for the creatures are rumored to keep lightless libraries below the earth that store knowledge once known by humans.
- Loot:
If the PCs defeat a group of civilized ghouls, they might find a cypher and a few sets of black goggles that allow the wearer to look directly at the sun and see it as a pale circle.
- Intrusions:
The ghoul spits in the character's eye, directly introducing the paralytic into the victim's bloodstream. The victim's Might defense roll to avoid becoming paralyzed is hindered.
Violent storms, earthquakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters draw giants. Standing 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) tall, giants delight in rampaging through the middle of such calamities, creating even more destruction. Some giants grow so powerful that they can trigger natural disasters on their own.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Destruction
- Environment:
Underground, deserts, mountaintops, and similar desolate areas (Mountains)
- Health:
40
- Damage:
9 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size; breaks and throws objects as level 8; sees through deceptions and tricks as level 3
- Combat:
Giants smash foes with their fists, possibly catching up to three human-sized targets with the same attack if all the targets are in immediate range of each other.
If a giant attacks a single target, they can choose to do regular damage or to grab hold of the victim, dealing 4 points of damage instead. On their turn, the victim can attempt a Might defense roll to struggle out of the grip, a Speed defense roll to slip out, or an Intellect-based task to distract the giant. If the victim fails, the giant throws the victim as high and as far as they can on their next turn. Damage on impact varies, depending on the environment, but a victim takes an average of 10 points of ambient damage.
A few giants can generate storms, tidal waves, earthquakes, and similar phenomena that can lash an area up to 1,000 feet (300 m) across for up to a minute, inflicting 3 points of damage each round to all creatures and objects not protected by shelter designed to withstand a storm (though few shelters protect against an earthquake).
- Interactions:
Most giants are not very bright. When a giant is rampaging, someone could attempt to distract them by singing, juggling, or doing some other trick, which some giants will pause to watch for at least one or two rounds.
- Uses:
A giant came down out of the mountains and laid waste to half the nearby village. Survivors will pay someone to venture into the giant's mountain lair and destroy the creature.
- Loot:
Individual giants carry little, but giant lairs may contain currency equivalent to 1d6 expensive items, 1d6 cyphers, and a couple of artifacts.
- Intrusions:
The giant's blow sprains one of the character's limbs, making it useless for ten minutes.
This gargantuan, ethereal creature resides within storm clouds, appearing as a massive humanoid silhouette. Its form constantly shifts, with bolts of lightning crackling across its body, mimicking veins and arteries. When it moves, it sounds like the low rumble of thunder.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Patrol the skies, protect its domain
- Environment:
High in the storm clouds, found most often during violent thunderstorms (Mountains)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long when flying within clouds, Immediate on foot
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 8 when in clouds due to shifting form; Resists energy attacks as level 8 because of its ethereal body
- Combat:
The Giant, Cloud can hurl lightning bolts that crackle across the sky, striking its foes from afar. Victims struck by the lightning must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be stunned for one round. Additionally, the Giant can summon a Thunderous Clap that shakes the very air, disorienting all creatures in Long range and causing them to lose their next action.
- Interactions:
The Giant, Cloud communicates through the rumbling of thunder, and appears mostly indifferent to those who are not a direct threat to its domain. It might be appeased through respectful actions or sacrifices that honor the sky and storms.
- Uses:
To serve as a guardian of an ancient sacred site located high in the mountaintops or as an omen of forthcoming natural disasters that the characters must investigate or prevent.
- Intrusions:
As the Giant, Cloud attacks, it inadvertently causes a chain reaction in the atmosphere—suddenly a full-blown storm erupts, reducing visibility and making all tasks related to sight, hearing, and movement hindered for the duration of the encounter.
- Source Book:
Rising from the deepest volcanic pits, the Giant, Fire embodies the relentless fury of a living inferno. A towering behemoth made of smoldering rock and cascading lava flows, it radiates blistering heat that warps the air around it. The creature's immense, coal-black hands can reshape metal, and its glowing, molten gaze strikes terror in the hearts of even the bravest adventurers.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
To incinerate and consume all in its path
- Environment:
Volcanoes, lava fields, and places of intense heat (Mountains)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Resisting heat and fire as level 7; Overwhelming obstacles with brute force as level 7
- Combat:
The Giant, Fire lashes out with fists of molten rock, causing not just direct impact damage but also setting aflame anything flammable. A struck target must succeed on a Speed defense task or catch fire, taking an additional 2 points of damage every round until the flames are extinguished.
- Interactions:
Driven by its infernal nature, the Giant, Fire communicates through belching embers and roaring flames, seeing most creatures as mere fuel for its fiery rage.
- Uses:
The Giant, Fire could be the result of a dark ritual gone awry, a guardian for an ancient, powerful artifact, or an elemental force summoned to lay siege upon a kingdom.
- Loot:
Obsidian shards imbued with residual heat energy, rare minerals only found in the heart of a volcano, scorched remnants of ancient, flame-proof gear
- Intrusions:
As a character dodges the Giant's attack, they inadvertently step onto a thin crust of hardened magma, which promptly breaks, plunging them into a pool of molten rock for additional damage.
- Source Book:
This towering titan of ice and snow looms over the tundra with frost-rimed hair and icicle fangs. Its deep blue eyes reflect the winter sky, and each step leaves a footprint filled with rime. The frost giant's breath is a subzero gale, freezing victims solid in a heart-stopping instant. The frost giant's skin is infused with a magical frost, rendering it nearly impervious to ordinary weapons and giving it the ability to effortlessly slide across ice and snow.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Territorial dominance and the pursuit of icy treasures
- Environment:
Frigid climates, atop icy mountains and within glacial valleys (Wilderness)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short when walking, Immediate when sliding on ice
- Modifications:
Intimidation as level 7; Resistance to cold damage as level 7; Dealing with environmental cold hazards as level 7
- Combat:
The frost giant pummels enemies with massive punches or hurls deadly spears of ice. When it roars, the chill air generates a wave of frost that forces all within immediate range to succeed on a Speed defense roll or suffer 5 points of cold damage. Once per encounter, it can slam the ground, causing an icy tremor that knocks down everyone standing in Short range that fails a Might defense roll. Arctic Breath: The giant exhales a violent blast of icy wind in a cone (Immediate range) requiring a Might defense roll or causing victims to become frozen (hindered by two steps) for two rounds. Icy Terrain: The giant can freeze the ground in an Immediate area. Those in the area must succeed on a Speed defense roll or slip and fall, losing their next turn.
- Interactions:
Frost giants respect strength and courage. They may be challenged into single combat or parley, but they consider most other creatures inferior.
- Uses:
A curse has set a frost giant on a rampage through nearby villages, or perhaps a frost giant holds a shard of the ancient Ice Crown needed to prevent eternal winter.
- Loot:
Frost giant's heart, can be used as a powerful ward against cold. Ice-etched runes that may teach spells or lore about the icy realms
- Intrusions:
The giant's icy breath freezes the character's feet to the ground, requiring a Might task to break free, or its last thrown spear shatters near the party, sending out freezing splinters.
- Source Book:
Hill Giants are immense, brutish beings who dwell in the hilly highlands. Their skin is typically an earthy brown which aids them in blending in with the rocky terrain. Their large, calloused hands are capable of hurling boulders with devastating accuracy. Despite their intimidating size and strength, Hill Giants have simple motivations, driven by hunger and territorial instincts.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Protects territory, driven by hunger
- Environment:
Hilly highlands and remote rocky outcrops (Mountains)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Might-based tasks as level 6; Speed defense as level 3 due to size; Stealth as level 2 due their size
- Combat:
Hill Giants fight using large clubs fashioned from trees, or they hurl stones found in their environment. They can grasp and throw a boulder up to a short distance away, dealing 7 points of damage to anyone within an immediate radius of the impact site. Creatures hit directly by a boulder are knocked prone unless they succeed at a Might defense roll.
- Interactions:
Hill Giants are not highly intelligent, often grunting or using a minimal vocabulary. They may be open to offerings of food but tend to react to threats aggressively.
- Uses:
The hill giant could be a misunderstood creature disrupting local trade routes or a menace that the players must overcome to gain the respect of nearby villagers.
- Loot:
Hill Giants might hoard items from defeated foes, ranging from unusual trinkets to valuable gems, usually mistaking them for shiny rocks.
- Intrusions:
The Hill Giant stomps the ground ferociously, causing a minor tremor. This imbalance forces all characters within immediate distance to make a Speed defense task or be knocked prone.
- Source Book:
Mountain Giants are solitary behemoths that embody the rugged and formidable essence of the mountains they call home. Their craggy skin is covered in lichens and moss, giving them a natural camouflage against the rocky terrain. These titans are skilled boulder-throwers and can cause avalanches with a single stomp of their colossal feet.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Protecting their mountain territory
- Environment:
High mountain ranges, often in caves or near peak summits (Mountains)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climbing as level 8; Might-based tasks as level 8; Intellect-based tasks and social interactions as level 5 due to limited cunning
- Combat:
Mountain Giants hurl massive boulders from a distance, requiring the target to make a Speed defense roll. If hit, besides taking damage, the character is knocked down and must use an action to get back up. In melee, they can slam the ground to create a shockwave, forcing all within immediate range to succeed on a Might defense roll or be stunned and lose their next turn. Stone Camouflage: The giant has an ability to blend into the mountainous terrain, providing an asset to Stealth tasks in their environment. Earth Shaker: With a targeted stomp, the giant can cause a localized tremor, creating difficult terrain that hinders movement within an immediate area for a round.
- Interactions:
Mountain Giants are not inherently evil, but they value their solitude. They can be reasoned with if approached with respect and offerings, but they are quick to anger if they feel threatened.
- Uses:
Characters may seek out a Mountain Giant to gather knowledge about ancient mountain paths or to procure a rare mineral that the giants use to decorate their territory.
- Loot:
Rare minerals, giant-sized weaponry, and artifacts of ancient mountain cultures
- Intrusions:
A seemingly defeated Mountain Giant causes an avalanche with its dying breath, threatening to bury the adventurers or block their path forward.
- Source Book:
Giant rats are as large as big attack dogs, just as vicious, and more wily. Some giant rats are the lone matriarchs of a pack of ordinary level 1 rats, and others are just one of several making up a colony of oversized rodents. Like their smaller cousins, giant rats are known for harboring virulent disease.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defense, reproduction
- Environment:
Anywhere in ruins or sewers, in groups of one to seven (Urban)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short; long when jumping
- Modifications:
Perception as level 4; tasks related to overcoming obstacles and puzzles as level 5
- Combat:
Victims damaged by a giant rat's diseased teeth and claws take 4 points of damage and, on a failed Might defense roll, are infected with a level 5 disease. Within twelve hours, the victim's lymph glands swell, creating visible buboes. Every twelve hours thereafter, the victim must succeed on a Might defense roll or take 5 points of ambient damage.
- Interactions:
Giant rats stubbornly pursue prey, but they flee if that prey proves to be too strong.
- Uses:
A contact of the PCs dies of plague before they can deliver an important message. The PCs will have to backtrack the contact's movements to discover what they wanted to say, which leads to a giant rat colony.
- Intrusions:
A swarm of twelve ordinary rats-each level 1, but acting like a level 3 swarm-is summoned by the high-pitched squeaking of a giant rat.
Those about to stumble into the presence of a giant snake at least 50 feet (15 m) long are warned by the skin it shed and discarded and by the cracked, slippery bones of digested victims.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Anywhere a giant snake can lurk, including jungles, sewers, caves, and spacecraft access tubes (Forest)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
5 points or more; see Combat
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Perception and stealth as level 6; Speed defense as level 3 due to size
- Combat:
A giant snake bites foes, preferably from ambush, hindering the target's Speed defense by two steps. If it succeeds, the snake's bite deals 8 points of damage for that attack. On a failed Might defense roll, a bite also inflicts 3 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor). A giant snake may coil around a sleeping, stunned, or debilitated victim. Caught victims automatically take 5 points of crushing damage each round until they break free.
Giant snakes lose their perception and stealth modifications in cold climates and when attacked with abilities that reduce the temperature. Thus, the creatures retreat from cold.
- Interactions:
A giant snake is a predator that regards other creatures as food, though it ignores them when it is already busy digesting a meal.
- Uses:
Characters note something amiss as they glimpse lambent eyes peering from the darkness, glaring as if seeking to pin victims in place with cold terror.
- Loot:
A giant snake's droppings or gullet might hold a few cyphers and possibly an artifact that the creature could not digest.
- Intrusions:
The snake's venom affects the character more strongly. Instead of merely inflicting Speed damage, it also paralyzes the character for one minute, though after a couple of rounds, the victim can make another Might defense roll to throw off the effects of the poison early.
Giant spiders result most commonly from radioactive accidents, magic, or genetic manipulation. Whatever their origin, they're terrifying hunters large enough to predate people. The creatures range from the size of a large dog to the size of a large horse.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hungers for blood
- Environment:
Anywhere webs can be spun in the dark (Wilderness)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
3 points
- Movement:
Short; long when traveling on their webs
- Modifications:
Perception as level 5; Speed defense as level 4 due to quickness
- Combat:
A giant spider's envenomed fangs inflict 3 points of damage, plus 3 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) if a victim fails a Might defense roll. Debilitated victims are not killed but instead cocooned and hung for later dining. Giant spider webs (level 4) can hold victims immobile and unable to take actions until they manage to break free.
Giant spiders lose their perception and Speed defense modifications in bright light and thus often retreat from intense illumination.
- Interactions:
Most giant spiders are simple predators and react accordingly.
- Uses:
Giant spider webs can infest unlit alleys, dungeon corridors, dark forests, and darkened hallways of decommissioned genetic labs.
- Loot:
Cocooned corpses of previous victims hanging in a giant spider's web sometimes contain all manner of valuables, including cyphers.
- Intrusions:
Giant spider eggs hatch, and a level 3 swarm of tiny spiders attacks the character.
Rising from the ancient bedrock, the Stone Giant embodies the relentless power of the earth itself. Composed of rocks and boulders, it walks with thunderous strides and gazes through crystal quartz eyes. Its body hosts a small ecosystem of mosses and lichens, and its breath is a gust carrying the scent of mineral and dust.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Protect its territory
- Environment:
Mountainous regions, deep caves, or ancient ruins (Mountains)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Resists all damage except for magic level 7; Climbing and smashing things as level 7
- Combat:
The Stone Giant slams its massive fists to the ground, causing a localized earthquake. All within short range must succeed on a Speed defense roll or fall prone and take 2 points of damage. Any character failing to move away on their next turn will find the ground beneath them cracking, increasing the difficulty of escaping by one level.
- Interactions:
The Stone Giant is slow to awaken, but once disturbed, it rages against the intrusion. Intelligent but stern, it may communicate through deep, resonant vibrations and is uninterested in matters not concerning its domain.
- Uses:
An artifact critical to the player's quest is near the Stone Giant's lair, requiring them to decide between a potentially lethal confrontation and finding a way to pacify or outwit the imposing sentinel.
- Loot:
Rare gems embedded within the giant's body may be recoverable upon its defeat.
- Intrusions:
A particularly massive boulder dislodges from the Stone Giant, sealing the exit to the lair or crushing an important object or path.
- Source Book:
Heralds of tempest and disaster, Storm Giants are titanic beings whose moods sway with the weather. Veins glowing with lightning, they are cloaked in roiling clouds and command the power of thunderstorms. With each thunderous step, the earth quakes, and with a sweep of their arms, they unleash gale-force winds and bolts of lightning. They are seldom seen, but when their silhouette forms upon the horizon, it foretells a storm of cataclysmic proportions.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
To exercise dominion over the forces of nature and those who stand against the fury of the storms
- Environment:
Often found in the eye of violent storms or atop remote, storm-lashed mountain peaks (Mountains)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Might defense as level 8 due to enormous strength; Intimidation as level 8 due to frightening presence; Tasks related to knowledge of weather and the natural world as level 8
- Combat:
Storm Giants hurl lightning bolts as ranged attacks, causing devastating electrical damage and capable of hitting multiple targets if they are within immediate distance of one another. Close to the giant, fierce winds knock enemies prone unless they succeed at a Might defense roll. Anyone directly struck by the giant's fists not only suffer from brute force but also endure shock damage from the stormy energy channeled through the giant's strikes.
- Interactions:
Storm Giants typically regard smaller creatures as beneath their notice unless provoked. They may communicate with those who show proper deference or tribute, often speaking in the rumble of distant thunder.
- Uses:
A Storm Giant could be an obstacle, an enraged deity to be appeased, or an ally against a greater threat that endangers the overall balance of nature.
- Loot:
Giant relics, storm crystals infused with lightning magic, rare minerals that are formed under extreme storm conditions
- Intrusions:
As a player attacks, the Giant redirects a bolt of lightning, turning the ground beneath the player's feet into a treacherous mudslide or shocking lagoon, hindering movement and possibly leading to a fall or drowning hazard.
- Source Book:
The Gnolls are hyena-like humanoids, with mottled fur and a hunched posture that belies their vicious nature. Their laughter eerily echoes the hyenas they resemble, creating a haunting lullaby for the unfortunate souls who wander into their hunting grounds. Gnolls are known for their love of chaos and their penchant for striking fear before engaging in combat.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Thrives on chaos and bloodshed
- Environment:
Often found in arid badlands and ruins, in bands of five to twelve (Wilderness)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intimidation as level 5; Attacks as level 4 due to aggression; Stealth as level 5 because of their cunning nature
- Combat:
Gnolls prefer to launch surprise attacks, using their Cackling Frenzy to disorient their prey. When a Gnoll hits a target, the target is rattled by their bone-chilling laughter, imposing a one-step difficulty penalty on the target's next action. A Gnoll may also use its Rampaging Strike, allowing the Gnoll an immediate second attack against a different target within immediate range if its initial attack was successful.
- Interactions:
Gnolls rarely parley and generally view other creatures as food or toys for their malicious entertainment. In rare cases, a powerful being might be able to intimidate or bargain with them using offers of raw meat or the promise of battle.
- Uses:
A deranged sorcerer has summoned Gnolls to guard an ancient ruin, believing their savage nature will keep treasure seekers at bay—or a town is tormented by Gnoll raids, and heroes are called to track them to their lair.
- Loot:
Possessions of the devoured victims, crude weapons, and fetishes that may hold occult or monetary value.
- Intrusions:
A Gnoll's laughter unnerves a character so much that they drop their weapon, stumble momentarily, or reveal their hidden position to the lurking pack.
- Source Book:
Goblins are wicked, grasping, and perversely resourceful. Usually no larger than children, they can seem like pesky rabble, but that illusion hides something altogether more cunning. Tribe members work together to accomplish their goals of murder, kidnapping, and theft.
- Level:
1 (3)
- Motive:
Greed and theft
- Environment:
Tunnels and caves, usually in groups of ten or more (Wilderness)
- Health:
3
- Damage:
2 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Tasks related to perception, stealth, and setting traps as level 5
- Combat:
Goblins attack from the shadows with ambushes and hit-and-run tactics. When they have surprise, they attack as level 4 creatures and deal 2 additional points of damage, and they attempt to draw larger prey into level 5 traps they've previously set. They often flee in the face of real danger.
- Interactions:
Goblins are lying tricksters but can be cowed into cooperating for short periods.
- Uses:
Thieves and murderers, goblins are foes to all, even rival goblin tribes.
- Loot:
Aside from weapons, each goblin carries a personal stash, including bones, shiny rocks, sticks, and other bits of worthless trash, plus currency equivalent to an inexpensive item.
- Intrusions:
The goblin poisoned its knife. If struck, the character must make a Might defense roll or immediately move one step down the damage track.
Unfathomably powerful post-singularity AIs, godminds are vast, having used the matter of an entire solar system and all its planets to create an immense brain, weave themselves into a nebula, or encode themselves into quantum strings of existence light-years across. When necessary, a godmind forms a nexus of consciousness-an instance-appearing as a disembodied eye of electromagnetic energy, ranging from about the size of a human eye all the way up to the size of a planet.
- Level:
10 (30)
- Motive:
Ineffable
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually in space (Space)
- Health:
50
- Damage:
15 points
- Movement:
Very long when flying
- Combat:
A godmind can vary the physical laws of the universe within a light-second of one of its instances (some would call them avatars) to create an effect most useful to the godmind at the time. For instance, a godmind could create a gamma ray burst inflicting 15 points of damage on all creatures within very long range, attempt to put a target into temporal stasis, send a target (even a target as large as spacecraft) through a temporary wormhole gate, and so on. It could also scan the memory banks of any digital machine, and possibly of any living creatures. In any event, if an instance were targeted, and successfully neutralized or even destroyed, the godmind itself isn't harmed. An aggressor would have to find the godmind's primeval "computer core" to destroy one, likely an epic quest in and of itself.
- Interactions:
To actually get a godmind's attention and negotiate could require ancient command code, finding an old input device, or showing up with a relic from an ancient ultra or other prize. If a godmind does render aid, it's likely to be in a form that is initially enigmatic, though ultimately extremely powerful.
- Uses:
A universal threat requires a defense that is equally potent. Research suggests that the diffuse nebula known as the Double Helix may actually be the visible form of a vast godmind. Perhaps it can help.
- Loot:
Sometimes a godmind provides powerful artifacts to aid those who petition them for aid, assuming the need is dire.
- Intrusions:
The godmind rewinds time a few seconds and sidesteps whatever negative effect would have otherwise inconvenienced it.
- Source Book:
Animate creatures of stone created by magic for a specific purpose, golems usually serve as guardians. However, they may also serve as soldiers, couriers, and banner-bearers. Golems that have accomplished their task may spend years without moving, like statuary posed in unexpected places-stained, eroded, and forlorn. But if disturbed, a golem rumbles back to movement and attempts to restart the last task assigned to it by its maker.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Seeks to fulfill the commands of its creator
- Environment:
Anywhere that needs a sturdy magical guardian (Other)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intellect defense as level 2; Speed defense as level 4 due to slowness
- Combat:
Skilled with large two-handed weapons, golems inflict 2 additional points of damage (total of 8 points) when using them. Golems cannot be stunned or dazed. They are immune to most poisons and disease, and 2 of their 5 points of Armor protect against ambient damage (environmental damage, heat, cold, falling, and so on).
On the other hand, golems are activated by light, even light as dim as a candle. In complete darkness, a golem is blind and suffers penalties to attack and defend normally. A golem subject to complete darkness may choose to freeze in place like a statue. When one does so, its Armor increases to 10 (and Armor against ambient damage increases to 5), but it can take no actions, including purely mental actions. Unless something can damage the golem through its Armor, it remains frozen indefinitely or until light returns.
Even if a golem is completely destroyed, the rubble of its form slowly reassembles over the course of three days, unless that rubble is ground to the finest gravel and spread widely.
- Interactions:
Most golems can't speak. Those that can are mournful, and a few have become cruel in their isolation, but at heart, all are lonely. Many are also tired of their stone existence, in which they can move but not really feel, and they wish for some sort of final end.
- Uses:
Powerful sorcerers sometimes create golems and press them into service with yet more spells. These golems prove to be tough bodyguards, but sometimes the futility of such service overcomes a golem and it turns on the sorcerer, breaking free of the binding spells in its rage over being denied the peace of death.
- Intrusions:
The character hit by the golem is also grabbed and headbutted for 6 additional points of damage. The victim must break or slip free, or else they remain in the golem's grip.
This towering automaton, crafted from shimmering bronze plates, moves with a surprising grace given its massive frame. Folded into the intricate carvings on its surface are mystical runes of power, indicating that this is no mere construct, but a vessel for arcane energies. In the presence of the Golem, the air hums with arcane energy, causing hair to stand on end and an unshakable feeling of being watched by unseen observers.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Following the commands of its creator, usually guarding a particular site or treasure
- Environment:
Constructed and placed by powerful magic users, often found in ancient ruins, vaults, and sacred sites (Underground)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Defends as level 7 due to its tough exterior; Might-based tasks as level 7
- Combat:
The Bronze Golem's brute strength allows it to deliver crushing blows. It can use its Slam Attack to deal damage and knock opponents back, potentially causing them to be dazed or knocked prone (targets must succeed on a Might defense roll to resist being dazed or knocked down). Slam Attack: Powerful strike that causes extra damage and can knock foes back. Arcane Shockwave: Once every few minutes, the Golem releases a burst of arcane energy in a short radius around it, attacking all within range with a shockwave that disrupts magical effects and causes 4 points of intellect damage (ignores armor). Mystic Repair: When not in combat, the Golem slowly regenerates, restoring 1d6 points of health each hour as its magical runes mend its bronze form.
- Interactions:
The Bronze Golem is unable to communicate and is single-minded in its pursuit of following its creator's orders, showing no mercy or negotiation.
- Uses:
A once faithful guardian now gone rogue or a protector of forbidden knowledge that adventurers seek to claim.
- Loot:
Pieces of the golem can contain valuable bronze and residual magic for crafting or barter.
- Intrusions:
The Golem's bronze plates heat up due to the magic running through them, anyone striking it in melee takes 2 points of ambient damage from the burning metal.
- Source Book:
A hulking mass of animated clay, this golem is a sentinel bound by ancient magic. It shapes its limbs into blunt instruments of destruction when threatened. With eyes that glow with an ethereal light, it follows its creator's commands to the letter, but without guidance, it fixates on protecting its immediate environment from any intruders.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
To follow its creator's orders or protect a designated area
- Environment:
Guarding tombs, treasure chambers, or arcane sanctums (Underground)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Tasks related to standing ground and resisting being moved as level 7; Mental tasks unrelated to its orders as level 2
- Combat:
A Clay Golem pummels its foes with heavy fists that deal damage to all targets within immediate range of its attack. Additionally, when the golem is struck by a physical attack, pieces of its clay body splinter off, potentially afflicting the attacker with blinding debris (a Speed defense task to avoid being blinded for one round). Blunt Force: Clay Golem's attacks ignore 1 point of Armor due to the sheer mass behind each blow. Splintering Body: Anytime the golem is hit by a melee attack, the attacker must succeed on a Speed defense roll or suffer irritation and obscured vision from the shards for one round.
- Interactions:
Lacking true sentience, Clay Golems do not engage in conversation or negotiation. They interpret the world in the strict binary of following orders or neutralizing threats to what they guard.
- Uses:
An old wizard's tower has activated its defenses after centuries of slumber, and the Clay Golem is one of the formidable guardians now stirring to life.
- Intrusions:
The Golem, Clay exhibits a sudden burst of arcane energy, rapidly repairing itself or reshaping an arm into a massive clay hammer for a devastating strike.
- Source Book:
These towering, grotesque colossi are stitched together from various creatures' remains. A Flesh Golem moves slowly but with unrelenting force, driven by the simple biddings inscribed into its reanimated tissues. Its body parts, disparate and mismatched, provide it with unnerving resilience and surprising capabilities.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Obey its creator's commands
- Environment:
Usually found guarding forbidden areas or serving within the confines of a dark sorcerer's lair (Underground)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Might defense as level 6 due to the density of its flesh; Resists attempts to influence or control its mind as level 7
- Combat:
The Flesh Golem's unnatural vigor allows it to ignore the first 5 points of damage from any attack that normally would deal less than 6 points of damage. Each strike of its massive limbs can disorient opponents on a successful hit (opponents must succeed at an Intellect defense roll or be dazed and their actions hindered for one round).
- Interactions:
Flesh Golems have little to no will of their own, communicating rarely, if ever. They operate under strict instructions and are generally unable to be reasoned with.
- Uses:
As a guardian of forbidden knowledge or a reclusive necromancer's enforcer, the Flesh Golem can bar the way of any who dare meddle with matters best left undisturbed.
- Intrusions:
As a character evades or attacks the Golem, a stray stitch comes undone, and a swarm of carrion-eating insects bursts out, attacking the nearest creature and spreading a disease that requires an immediate Might defense roll to resist infection.
- Source Book:
Forged from the mystical forges of an ancient and forgotten era, the Iron Golem is a hulking sentinel of metal. With red rivulets of molten metal coursing through its iron body like veins of fire, the warmth radiating from the golem reveals its temperature to be unnaturally high. Towering over most creatures, this metal behemoth creaks and groans with an ominous resonance, standing as an unwavering guardian over the treasures and secrets it was created to protect.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
To protect its designated area or creator's orders
- Environment:
Guarding treasuries, tombs, or mage's sanctums, typically found where it was stationed. (Underground)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Resists Might actions to move or manipulate as level 8 due to weight and strength; Immune to all fire-based attacks; Persuasion and deception tasks as level 2 due to limited cognitive functions
- Combat:
The Iron Golem's presence is intimidating on its own, its towering iron frame and glowing veins can cause weaker foes to flee. In combat, the golem slams its massive iron fists or catches enemies in a crushing embrace, searing their flesh with its burning heat. It uses its Furnace Breath to exhale scorching fumes in a short-radius area around it, forcing enemies to make a Speed defense roll or take additional fire damage. Furnace Breath: Can exhale a cloud of scorching fumes in an immediate radius, inflicting 5 points of ambient fire damage (ignores armor). Molten Veins Repair: When damaged, the molten rivulets repair the golem, restoring 3 points of health each round.
- Interactions:
It follows commands of its creator or designated commander with complete loyalty. Attempts at reasoning with it follow strict logical patterns, and it cannot be persuaded or bargained with unless it fulfills its orders.
- Uses:
Defenders of ancient relics, iron golems can be the final test for adventurers proving their worth or the ultimate vault guardian for long-forgotten treasures.
- Loot:
Ancient artifacts or remnants of the forges that created it, possibly including rare metals or magical components.
- Intrusions:
The Iron Golem's steps disturb the ancient grounds, causing the floor beneath to crumble away, revealing traps or causing the characters to fall into lower levels of the structure.
- Source Book:
Carved from ancient bedrock and imbued with primordial magic, the Stone Golem is both sentinel and enforcer. Its hulking form is etched with runes that glow faintly with an inner light. Despite being crafted from inanimate stone, these golems move with a deliberate and unnatural grace. They guard forbidden places and treasures, obeying the commands of their creators or the enchantments that bind them.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Follows orders and protects its assigned realm
- Environment:
Ancient ruins, enchanted fortresses, and hidden vaults (Underground)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Might tasks as level 7; Intellect defense as level 4 due to limited perception; Tasks involving stealth and evasion as level 3
- Combat:
The Stone Golem's primary attack is a powerful slam with its massive arms, capable of knocking back opponents and potentially stunning them. A target hit by the golem must make a Might defense roll or be pushed back an immediate distance and dazed for one round. Additionally, the golem can stomp the ground to create a localized quake within immediate range, forcing all creatures to make a Speed defense roll or fall prone. Stonewall Shielding: Once per encounter, the golem can invoke a powerful protective stance, reducing all received damage by half for one round. Runic Resurgence: When reduced to half health, the golem's runes flare brightly, allowing it to repair some of its own damage. It regains 5 points of health and gains an asset on its next attack. Grasp of the Earth: The golem can cause stone hands to erupt from the ground and attempt to grasp its foes. Targets within immediate range must succeed at a Might defense roll or become restrained.
- Interactions:
Stone Golems have limited sentience and do not communicate beyond rudimentary gestures. They fulfill their directives without hesitation or moral consideration.
- Uses:
A new tunnel has been discovered in the city, and Stone Golems are coming through. They are the vanguard of an ancient civilization's expansion, or perhaps they are lost, still carrying out orders from a long-dead sorcerer.
- Loot:
Pieces of the golem may contain valuable gemstones or magical essences.
- Intrusions:
One of the golem's attacks strikes a structural weak point, causing part of the ceiling to collapse and creating hazardous terrain that could entrap the unwary.
- Source Book:
These beings are the guardians of ancient forests, carved from living wood and animated by the spirits of nature. Towering figures that blend seamlessly with the trees, Wood Golems patrol their wooded realms with an eerie silence. Creaking softly, the subtle groan of bending boughs accompanies their every move, and moss/ferns coat their humanoid forms, sometimes sprouting small flowers or fungi depending on their age and the environment. Their limbs are gnarled and tough, like the trunks of ancient oaks, and their eyes glow with a soft green light that flickers like candle flames in the dark.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Protecting their forest home from desecration
- Environment:
Forests, ancient groves, and druidic sanctuaries (Forest)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Might as level 6 due to sturdy construction
- Combat:
Wood Golems use their massive size and strength to pulverize foes with crushing blows. They can slam the ground to create a shockwave, forcing those within immediate range to make a Speed defense roll or be knocked prone and dazed for one round. Hitting a prone opponent is one step easier for the golem. Entangling Roots: Wood Golems can cause roots to erupt from the ground in a 10 foot radius at will, hindering the movement of their foes and making escape difficult.
- Interactions:
Wood Golems are not inherently hostile unless their domain is threatened. They may react indifferently to creatures that respect the forest, but aggressors will find no empathy in these wooden protectors.
- Uses:
Druids and other guardians of nature may use Wood Golems as sentinels, or they may be relics from an era long past, continuing their eternal watch.
- Loot:
Rare herbs, seeds of magical plants, or druidic charms may be found embedded within the golem's body.
- Intrusions:
As a Wood Golem takes damage, it releases a cloud of choking pollen in a short radius, causing all creatures to make a Might defense roll or spend their next action coughing and sputtering.
- Source Book:
Statues littering the grounds outside a ruin are meant to deter savvy robbers and explorers. The statues, ranging in size from birds to warriors astride steeds, all depict creatures in states of fright and pain, the final image of death. These pieces are not the work of a fevered mind, but the fates of those who braved a gorgon's lair. Gorgons were humans once. After they offended the gods with their vanity, they were transformed into hideous monsters. A gorgon has the upper body of a human of perfect form and physique, but the lower body of a giant serpent, complete with rattling tail. One who dares look at a gorgon's face can see traces of the old beauty beneath a weary veneer, darkened by hatred. Instead of hair, serpents crown a gorgon's head, snapping and hissing at anyone who draws near. Yet the most terrible aspect of a gorgon is its gaze, which can turn any creature to stone.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Isolation, defense
- Environment:
Alone, sequestered in the isolated ruins of old cities and castles (Wilderness)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short
- Combat:
A gorgon has a long-range bow attack. Since creatures that see the gorgon often turn to stone, it must take down its prey at long range so it can get fresh meat. In close combat, a gorgon lashes out with a long dagger or, rarely, a sword. As part of the action the gorgon uses to attack, the serpents on its head can also attack one target within immediate distance. A target that fails its Speed defense roll takes 2 points of damage from the bite and must immediately make a Might defense roll to resist the poison (which deals 4 additional points of Speed damage that ignores Armor).
Anyone within short range of a gorgon who meets its gaze and fails a Might defense roll turns to stone. In combat, when a character within short distance attacks the gorgon, they must avert their gaze (which hinders the attack by two steps) or make a Might defense roll. On a failure, they take 5 points of ambient damage as their flesh partly mineralizes. If the character is killed by this damage, they are turned to stone.
Some gorgons carry a couple of cyphers and perhaps an artifact that they can use in combat.
- Interactions:
Bitterness consumes gorgons. They lead lonely lives, cut off from everyone they have loved. Negotiating with one would be something of a feat.
- Uses:
A gorgon's head retains its power to petrify for several days after being cut from the creature. The PCs might brave the gorgon so they can use its head to defeat an even more powerful foe.
- Loot:
A gorgon typically has a few cyphers and may have an artifact as well.
- Intrusions:
A character glimpses a gorgon's eyes, and a sheen of stone covers their body for one minute, during which time they gain +1 to Armor but can't move farther than an immediate distance in one round.
- Source Book:
Grainne is the Fairy Queen of Hope and Despair, sometimes also called the Wayward Daughter, the Winter Queen, and Dark One. Grainne is to the dark what Aine is to the light. This doesn't mean that Grainne is evil, just that she represents what is good and bad in the world that is hidden in shadows, buried beneath the ground, and revealed at night. She has her own moral code, one that can work in the favor of those who are cunning and willing to look at the darkness of their own hearts.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Motive:
To honor the darkness, to protect her realm
- Environment:
She shares a fairy realm with her sister, where she rules in winter. In the summer, she sleeps in the Sorrows, a belowground realm out of time and space. (Other)
- Health:
99
- Damage:
12 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Combat:
Grainne is a talented combatant, and seems to revel in having a foe who is a challenge to her. She carries a dark green crystal staff that emits a dark coil of reddish energy, which inflicts 12 points of damage. Alternatively, she can send out a cloud of black smoke that deals 9 points of damage to all creatures in a short area. She also wears the Tiara of Pailis, a griffin-shaped tiara that allows her to fly. Grainne has a variety of magical abilities at her disposal, including the following:
Animal Communication: Grainne has a special affinity with badgers and can ask them for help. When she calls them (as an action), a cete of eight large badgers appears. They act as two level 4 creatures; attacked beings must also succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be shapeshifted into a badger for one round.
Oneirokinesis: Grainne can infiltrate people's dreams to converse with them. As such, she might implant an idea in their heads (such as "I'm going to die tonight" or "I should go back home"). When the character wakes, they must succeed on a level 6 Intellect defense roll to shake the idea. Otherwise, they feel a strong need to act on it, and are hindered in any tasks that go against the idea (this lasts until they make their next recovery roll).
Shadowmelding: Grainne merges with shadows, making her nearly intangible. In this form, she cannot be injured by physical attacks, and her attacks inflict 8 points of Intellect damage on anyone whose body is darkened by her shadow.
- Interactions:
For those who don't mind a little darkness and moral ambiguity, Grainne makes a powerful ally.
- Uses:
The characters stumble into a fairy realm, only to be met by its just-woken guardian. Grieving characters may find the solutions and solace they seek in Grainne's magic and power.
- Loot:
Tiara of Pailis Tiara of Pailis (artifact): level 7; allows the wearer to fly a long distance each round (as an action). The wearer can control their speed, direction, and height. Depletion: 1 in 1d20
- Intrusions:
A character's companion animal or mount is affected by Grainne's animal affinity and falls under her power.
- Source Book:
Greys are enigmatic creatures born of alien stars (or dimensions) who have learned to move across the vast distances that bridge neighboring star systems. The creatures descend through the atmosphere under the cover of night to abduct specimens for study and return the victims later after a thorough examination. Returned abductees are usually befuddled and confused, and they retain little memory of what happened to them. Victims of the greys' examination frequently sport strange marks on their flesh, oddly shaped wounds, gaps where teeth used to be, and strange or unknown metal lodged somewhere under the skin.
A grey stands 3 feet (1 m) tall. It has a narrow body with skinny limbs and a large, bulbous head. Two large black eyes, almond shaped, dominate a face that has only a suggestion of a nose and a narrow mouth. Greys wear skintight uniforms, carry numerous instruments to study their environments, and keep a weapon or two for protection.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Knowledge
- Environment:
Greys land their spacecraft in remote areas, where they have minimal risk of discovery. (Wilderness)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
All tasks related to knowledge as level 6; Speed defense as level 5 due to size and quickness
- Combat:
A grey carries a powerful ray emitter that can burn holes through solid steel. The grey can use the emitter to attack targets within long range. Against dangerous opponents, a grey can use an action to activate a personal shield that encapsulates it in a bubble of force. The shield gives it +3 to Armor, but while the shield is active, the grey can't fire its ray emitter.
Greys are scientists, but cautious ones. Leaving a trail of corpses as evidence of their existence isn't their preferred mode of operation. For this reason, one grey in every group has a memory eraser. When this grey activates the device, each target other than a grey within short range must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or become stunned for one minute, taking no action (unless attacked, which snaps the victim out of the condition). When the effect wears off naturally, the target has no recollection of encountering little grey creatures.
- Interactions:
Greys are curious about the places they visit but reluctant to move or act in the open. Secretive and mysterious, they prefer to observe creatures from afar and, on occasion, pick them up for closer inspection. Someone who offers a grey true knowledge might be treated as an equal rather than a lab animal.
- Uses:
The PCs are called to investigate a series of disappearances of animals and people. One by one, the abductees return, usually in odd places, and always bearing physical markings that suggest they were subjected to invasive procedures. To protect others from a similar fate, the PCs must catch the abductors in the act.
- Loot:
A grey has one or two cyphers and might have a memory eraser that works as described under Combat (depletion roll of 1-2 on a 1d10).
- Intrusions:
A grey's ray emitter suffers a terrible mishap and explodes. The device kills the grey and destroys its body completely. For the next day, creatures that come within a short distance of where the grey died take 4 points of ambient damage from the psychic radiation each round they remain there.
Griffons are majestic creatures with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Their proud bearing and thunderous approach are enough to instill awe and fear in equal measure. Their beaks and talons can tear through the toughest armor, and their feline grace allows them to maneuver with deadly precision. Griffons build their nests high atop mountainous terrains, protecting their territory with zealous fervor. The eyes of a Griffon shimmer with a piercing golden hue that conveys both its regal nature and a keen awareness of all that transpires in its realm. They shine particularly bright when the creature is stirred to wrath or standing guard over its young.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Defending its territory, hunting for food
- Environment:
Mountain peaks, rugged terrain (Mountains)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when walking, long when flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6; Speed defense as level 6 due to agility
- Combat:
Upon spotting its prey, a griffon lets out a piercing screech to disorient opponents, imposing a one-round debuff where all enemy actions are hindered by one step. This is followed by a swift dive with its talons extended to snatch or tear at its target, inflicting severe damage and potentially carrying away smaller foes. Piercing Screech: A powerful screech that debuffs enemies. Skyward Lifter: Can snatch smaller creatures or objects and carry them away, potentially dropping them from great heights. Regal Mantle: Their thick, feathered mantle can deflect blows, giving them 2 points of Armor.
- Interactions:
Griffons are intelligent and proud creatures, capable of understanding complex emotional states but they are difficult to befriend or negotiate with due to their aggressive and territorial nature.
- Uses:
A griffon's nest contains rare treasures and powerful eggs sought after by brave or foolish alchemists and warriors seeking to harness their power.
- Loot:
Griffon feathers (valuable for their magical properties). Griffon talons (used in potent alchemical concoctions)
- Intrusions:
As a player is locked in combat with a griffon, the mighty beast beats its powerful wings, sending a gust that knocks the character off balance and prone, giving the griffon an opportunity to seize the advantage.
- Source Book:
Hags are evil magical creatures distantly related to the fey. They resemble withered ancient humans with obvious inhuman features-dead eyes, green or purple skin, metal teeth, webbed fingers, and seaweed-like hair are common traits. They love corrupting pure and innocent things, and feast on the dreams and flesh of their victims.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Power, treachery
- Environment:
Forests, swamps, mountains, and unpleasant natural locations (Forest)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Lying, haggling, magical lore, mimicking voices, and Intellect defense as level 7
- Combat:
Hags can attack with their iron-hard claws and teeth, but often rely on their magic abilities in combat. Hags can breathe water, and usually have three or more of the following abilities:
- Arcane blast: Use magical energy to blast one foe within short range and inflict 6 points of damage, or divide this energy (and damage) among several foes as the hag sees fit (each foe makes their own Speed defense roll against this attack).
- Change shape: Transform into a humanoid or common animal, or return to their own form.
- Curse: Curse a creature within long range, hindering all physical actions by two steps.
- Fear: Terrify all creatures within short range who look upon them, causing the creatures to flee for one minute if they fail an Intellect defense roll.
- Illusion: Create an illusion affecting a small area that includes light, sound, and smell. They can use this to disguise themselves as any humanoid creature (such as a human, dwarf, or elf). Changing or maintaining the illusion is not an action.
- Invisibility: Turn invisible for ten minutes. When invisible, they are specialized in stealth and Speed defense tasks.
- Murderous glare: Glare at one opponent, causing bloody wounds that inflict 6 points of damage if the creature is within short range (3 points if within long range).
- Question: Get an answer to a very simple, general question about a creature or place within 1 mile (1.5 km).
- Scrying eye: View any familiar location within 1 mile as if they were observing it directly.
- Sleep: Make a creature fall asleep for one minute. Damage or loud noises will wake the creature.
Three or more allied hags form a coven, which allows them to use each other's magical abilities, and usually grants the coven (when working together) one or two additional abilities.
- Interactions:
Hags are evil, greedy, hateful, and cruel. They rarely do things for others unless they benefit in some way, and they like to trick fools into dangerous tasks that end up profiting the hag instead of anyone else. If shown proper respect and bribed or paid, a hag can be a valuable source of lore.
- Uses:
The smell of cakes lures children to a mysterious woodland shack. The hag of the swamp is said to kill anyone who enters their territory without carrying a specific gift.
- Loot:
In addition to coins and jewels, a hag usually has several scrolls or potions and may have an artifact.
- Intrusions:
A creature becomes afraid and reluctant to oppose the hag, hindering all actions against the hag by two steps for one day.
- Source Book:
A harpy is a hideous, filthy creature with the body of a large vulture and the neck and head of an ugly human. Their breath reeks of decay, their wings and talons drip with an unpleasant oil, and their eyes shed acrid tears. They love to torment people and lure them to their deaths.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh, causing anguish
- Environment:
Coastline, forest, and mountains (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
Perception and Speed defense as level 4
- Combat:
Harpies are fast and strong, capable of carrying off a light adult human. They attack with their long talons.
Anything a harpy touches becomes fouled with their smelly fluids, and one harpy energetically flapping their wings is enough to contaminate an immediate area. Their fluids are repulsive but not directly harmful, and the smell persists even after a casual washing. Any food touched by harpy filth is inedible to anyone but a harpy. Creatures with a sensitive sense of smell (such as dogs and wolves) are hindered when within a short distance of a harpy. It is common for a group of harpies to attack a campsite or festival, spread their stink over everything, and fly away with whatever food they can carry.
A harpy can sing a weird, entrancing song that hypnotizes whoever hears it. Anyone within long range who hears the song must make an Intellect defense roll or stop whatever they are doing and attempt to approach the harpy. If the creature comes within an immediate distance of a singing harpy, they stand there dumbly even as the harpy attacks them. The creature can make another attempt to break free each round on its turn, and taking damage from anything other than a singing harpy allows them another attempt to break free. Five or more harpies can work together on the same song (treat as a level 5 effect). Harpies are cruel and have been known to lead an entranced creature into a pit, off a cliff, or over the railing of a ship.
- Interactions:
Other than their singing, harpies do not usually speak with other creatures. They are more likely to jeer and screech at people like an angry bird than try to communicate.
- Uses:
A flock of harpies torments a village during its harvest festival, ruining the celebration and some of the food set aside for the winter. Sailors speak of a lonely island where an old, blind king starves because harpies steal or foul any food set out for him.
- Loot:
A harpy nest may have one or two cyphers or other valuables, but the items will smell disgusting unless carefully washed.
- Intrusions:
A harpy snatches something a character is wearing or carrying on a failed Speed defense roll. The harpy throws away or flees with the stolen item
- Source Book:
Hellhounds are malevolent canine entities wreathed in billowing flames and with smoldering embers for eyes. Their bodies are jet black, save for the streaks of fire tracing their ribs and spine, giving the appearance of a creature forged in the heart of a volcano. Their howls resonate with the pain of the damned, chilling the hearts of those who hear it. They are often found guarding forbidden realms or serving as pets for powerful infernal beings.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
To hunt and guard infernal domains
- Environment:
Volcanic regions, haunted wastelands, or any location with a strong connection to the underworld (Mountains)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Tracking as level 6; Stealth and Speed defense as level 6 due to agility and flame form; Resisting fire-based attacks as level 7
- Combat:
A Hellhound's bite engulfs their prey in infernal flames, inflicting additional 2 points of ambient fire damage to any creature hit by its attack. This burning persists for one round after the initial bite. Hellhounds can also exhale a gout of dark fire in a short cone, forcing all within the area to make a Speed defense roll or take 5 points of fire damage.
- Interactions:
Driven by a deep-seated malice and faithfully obedient to their infernal masters, hellhounds are exceedingly difficult to reason with. They understand Infernal and can communicate in barks and growls.
- Uses:
As guardians of a cursed crypt, hunting monsters unleashed by a chaotic sorcerer, or pets of a dark lord challenging adventurers at his gates.
- Intrusions:
As a PC attacks, the hellhound bursts into an intense flare, singeing weapons and possibly causing the PC to drop their weapon due to the sudden heat.
- Source Book:
Born from the union of a mare and a griffin, hippogriffs are majestic creatures with the head, wings, and talons of a raptor and the body of a horse. These noble creatures command the winds, often found nesting atop high mountains or circling the skies, surveying the lands below for threats or prey. Their coat shimmers like polished metal, and their intelligent eyes reflect a deep understanding of the world.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Defending territory, seeking food, nurturing young
- Environment:
Mountain peaks, open skies, high-altitude meadows (Mountains)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short when walking, Long when flying
- Modifications:
Attacks as level 5 due to speed and aerial agility
- Combat:
With a swift dive, the hippogriff can snatch up unsuspecting prey, inflicting 5 points of damage and lifting it into the sky. The victim must succeed on a Might defense roll or be carried off. Each round the victim is held, they must attempt a new Might-based task to break free or suffer an additional 5 points of damage from the hippogriff's talons and beak. Falling from a great height can add additional harm.
- Interactions:
These creatures are fiercely territorial but exhibit an intellect that can be appealed to. With patience and displays of respect, they can sometimes be negotiated with.
- Uses:
An item the characters need is in a nest atop a seemingly unreachable spire. Alternatively, a chaotic mage seeks a hippogriff's feather for a powerful wind spell.
- Loot:
Hippogriff feathers are highly sought after for their magical properties. A single feather can fetch a hefty sum or be used in potent wind-based enchantments.
- Intrusions:
As the characters engage or observe the hippogriff, its piercing shriek calls forth its mate or offspring, complicating the encounter with additional threats or turning the tide against the characters.
- Source Book:
A hivemind family is a scouting expedition of part-alien creatures sent to study and infiltrate human society, either out of scientific curiosity or as a long-term plan for world domination or human extinction. Some entities might intercept human astronauts, reprogramming their DNA or attaching a parasite to their mind or soul. Others might send a machine to an isolated community, remotely impregnating some of the inhabitants to gestate and give birth at the same time. The end result is a group of hivemind children who have a psychic link, unusual powers, and loyalty to their inhuman creators.
Hivemind children often have a very similar appearance even if they have different parents--they might all have pale blond hair, unusually wide-set eyes, six fingers on one hand, or an odd posture. They eerily match each other's expressions and movements. They think and speak as children years older than they appear. Their emotional responses are muted to an almost sociopathic extent.
Depending on their origin, the weird children may be mentored or protected by an altered adult, or by human parents in denial about the monsters they care for.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Conquest, exploration, infiltration
- Environment:
Human settlements (Urban)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Mental attacks and Intellect defense as level 3; defend against attacks from living creatures as level 3 due to mind reading; perception and scientific knowledge as level 4
- Combat:
Individually, hivemind children are physically no stronger or more durable than a typical human. Their true strength is in their ability to read and control minds. Their telepathic link means that if one of them knows something, all of them within long range automatically know it.
Hivemind children can automatically read the surface thoughts of anyone they can see within short range, even if the target is unwilling. As an action, they can force an intelligent living creature within short range to take a physical action, including something that would cause the target harm, such as forcing a target to stick their hand into boiling water, steer a moving car off a cliff, or shoot themselves with a pistol (if used as an attack, this inflicts damage equal to the hivemind child's level or the controlled creature's level, whichever is greater).
Two hivemind children within short range of each other automatically augment each other's mental powers, allowing them to read or control minds of two targets at once as a level 4 creature. Four within short range of each other can read or control minds of four targets at once as a level 5 creature, and eight or more can work together to read or control minds of eight people as a level 6 creature.
- Interactions:
Hivemind children want to protect themselves and observe humans and will try to do so until they appear as old as adults. Their long-term goals are unclear but probably don't have humanity's best interests in mind.
- Uses:
Children born after a scientific expedition are strange and different. Multiple small villages all over the world experience births of children with weird abilities.
- Loot:
Hivemind children may have no useful items or one weird science device they've built with their inhuman knowledge.
- Intrusions:
A group of hivemind children briefly manifest a teleportation or telekinesis ability at the same level as their mind control. The injury or death of one hivemind child angers the rest, increasing their level and damage by +2 for one round.
- Source Book:
Dressed in tattered robes that seem to merge with the shadows, the hobgoblin is a devious fae creature with a twisted sense of humor. These creatures have elongated, emaciated limbs and glowing red eyes that pierce through darkness. While they are relatively weak in physical strength, their cunning nature and mastery of dark magic make them fearsome opponents. They are often found pulling strings in the political underbelly of the world, manipulating others to achieve their complex agendas.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Sowing chaos and collecting arcane knowledge
- Environment:
Forests, abandoned ruins, and shadowy alleyways, often near centers of power (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intellect defense as level 5; Stealth as level 5; Deception and manipulation as level 6
- Combat:
Hobgoblins can cast shadows to disorient their opponents, making their attacks and Speed defense tasks one step harder. They prefer hit-and-run tactics, using their magic to trap and incapacitate foes. Once per combat, they can cast a spell to 'blink' between shadows, effectively teleporting anywhere within short range as an action. Shadow Cast: Can create an area of magical darkness for one minute. Within this area, all creatures except the hobgoblin have an asset to Stealth tasks and a hindrance to tasks that rely on sight. Blinking Strike: Teleports and makes an immediate melee attack dealing an additional 2 points of damage. This ability can be used once every two rounds. Hex: With a cackle, the hobgoblin can curse a target within sight. The target must succeed on an Intellect defense task or suffer one hindered action per round, chosen by the GM, for the next three rounds.
- Interactions:
Hobgoblins are conniving and prefer to deal in bargains, if they see potential in manipulating someone to further their own goals. However, they are quick to turn hostile if they feel threatened or if their plans are interrupted.
- Uses:
A hobgoblin may serve as a twisted mentor for arcane knowledge, a dealer of cursed items, or the main antagonist, pulling the political strings in a city.
- Loot:
Often in possession of arcane tomes, potions of dubious nature, and sometimes enchanted trinkets or coins.
- Intrusions:
The hobgoblin's laughter echoes unsettlingly, throwing off a character's concentration. Any action they take is hindered for their next turn as the hobgoblin mocks or hexes them, potentially causing a slight but mysterious misfortune.
- Source Book:
North of the Phalan Archipelago, there are lone city states that fear the fall and spring seasons. These times when winter either threatens to cover everything with its icy grip or is leaving as the Ocean ice begins to thaw. It also the times that the creatures that call themselves Hobgoblins come in with the night time fog and systematically raid for supplies and slaves with brutal efficacy.
One assumes by the looks of their long furs, tattoos and scarred faces that these creatures are barbarians. On a second glance, though, the furs hide excellent leather craftsmanship, the tattoos are quite complex designs and the scars have patterns.
The creatures still raze villages and leave nothing behind, but they only attack opportune targets and avoid forces larger than their own. Their small, long boats are fast and quiet needing many less oarsmen than Naphtha craft do. Some tacticians think that is no segregation of crew that each Hobgoblin is sailor, warrior and oarsman, which explains how they can slip and out from midnight raids before help can arrive.
When these creatures are cornered, they often fight to the death, expecting and giving no quarter. While they seem to only use armor and weapons salvaged the spoils of their raids, all of the gear has been maintained and cared for.
Even though the tallest Hobgoblin is five feet, most are much wider than a human of the same height. Their Forest green skin and dyed black furs make them almost invisible at night. It's said that they might keep individual goblins as mascots. If that's true, the goblins are not telling.
No one knows where these creatures come from or if they even have a home port.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Environment:
Further north in the colder stretches of ocean. (Ocean)
- Health:
7
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 3 when carrying shield and sword.
- Combat:
Hobgoblins make use of any weapons they salvage. Letting no sharp point or steel edge to waste. A lucky crew will carry at least several Medium and Heavy weapons along with medium bows and every Hobgoblin will know how to use them. Bowmen will attack at long range and do 4 damage. Using Medium and Heavy weapons will bestow their damage values.
Bruiser: A rare Hobgoblin will be over five feet tall and able to lug a shield with a Heavy weapon. They will have 10 extra health. These aren't typically leader types though.
Scout: These are usually shorter hobgoblins whose faces resemble their smaller kin, the goblins. They do Stealth, trickery and deceit tasks at level 5.
Thane: The captain of a raiding party is quick both on her feet and her wits. A captain has 8 extra health and their weapon mastery gives them an additional +2 damage and Speed Defense of 4.
- Interactions:
Small fishing villages have been systematically attacks and burnt to the ground. Resources are stretched thing between increased patrols and helping the survivors. Your team has been tasked solely with hunting down the mystery invaders.
- Uses:
A Hobgoblin force is good choice when you want to run a smart raiding force as compared to the usual chaos of a an orcish force.
- Loot:
A raiding clan may have anything from expensive items made of gold, foodstuff or 1 to 2 cyphers.
- Intrusions:
One of the current hobgoblins in the fight gives a piercing, short whistle. Seven more Hobgoblins come striding in as they unsling their weapons and ready for the fight.
- Source Book:
In haunted castles and among the armies mustered by those with power over life and death, sometimes walk hollow knights. These animated suits of armor move just like living people, and many who encounter these dread revenants mistake them for living foes only to realize in horror that there's nothing inside except for the memory of the warrior that once donned the suit. Brought into being by binding the spirit of a dead warrior to its panoply, hollow knights behave in much the same way they did in life-disciplined, loyal, and battle ready. Clad head to toe in full plate armor, with battered shields strapped to their arms and rusty swords gripped in lobster gauntlets, the knights stand ready to face any foe, heedless of the danger, driven to serve the necromancer that made them. Hollow knights might ride on the backs of skeletal steeds and wield lances.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Obedience to its master
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short; long while mounted on a skeletal steed Skeletal steed: level 4
- Modifications:
Resists fear and intimidation as level 10
- Combat:
A hollow knight usually fights with a sword or mace.
When mounted on a steed, a hollow knight charges its enemies whenever possible. As an action, its steed moves a short distance, and the hollow knight can make a single attack at any point during this movement. When attacking in this way, the knight inflicts 7 points of damage.
A hollow knight is fearless and fights until destroyed or ordered to pull back. The magic animating its armor is slow to fade, so armor components may continue to twitch and jerk even after the knight has fallen. Usually, when defeated, the suit of armor falls apart, and wisps of grey smoke curl up from the remains.
- Interactions:
Hollow knights cannot speak. They obey any orders given to them by their creators.
- Uses:
The necromancer or other magician that binds the spirit to the armor also imbues the armor with specific commands-tasks the knight must carry out until destroyed. Some knights may stand guard at citadels or mansions, keeping a vigil until their armor finally falls apart. Others are more active and may function as the core of a dark wizard's army.
- Intrusions:
When a hollow knight is destroyed, a gauntlet flies up, grabs a character, and won't let go. A difficulty 7 Might task is required to pry it loose
- Source Book:
Hungry hazes are found in regions where the fundamental laws of physics have been eroded or are weak. They are named for how they appear as distortions of sight, like areas of heat haze, that shimmer in the air. These colorless hazes rapidly advance when they sense prey, taking on a "hungry" orange-red hue as they cling to the bodies of whatever they attempt to feed on next.
Victims being fed upon by a hungry haze sometimes hallucinate, seeing a physically manifest monster instead of formless vapor.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Alone or in groups of three to five, usually in areas of strained space-time. Immune to the effects of vacuum. (Space)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Flies an immediate distance each round
- Modifications:
Stealth tasks as level 5
- Combat:
A hungry haze breaks down the flesh of all living creatures within immediate range, inflicting 5 points of damage. As an insubstantial haze, only attacks that affect an area have a chance to inflict full damage on them; other successful attacks only inflict 1 point of damage, regardless of the amount indicated. If a hungry haze successfully feeds, it gains 1 point of health, even if the increase puts it above its maximum health. If a hungry haze is reduced to zero health, a smooth thumb-sized egg of unknown material is left behind.
- Interactions:
A hungry haze does not speak or seem to have language. But it is not mindless; it can learn from its experiences and figure out creative solutions to problems.
- Uses:
After a research station on Mercury is abandoned for unspecified issues, salvagers show up looking for easy pickings. But a strange haze seems to hang over the station.
- Loot:
People (or AI) interested in strange manifestations would probably pay for the remains of a hungry haze in an amount equal to the expensive price category.
- Intrusions:
The character's Armor rating is reduced by 1; the hungry haze apparently can eat more than just flesh.
- Source Book:
This mythological reptile has five writhing serpent heads, each of which constantly exhales a venomous plume. Well over 20 feet (6 m) long from the tip of its longest head to its thrashing tail, the toxic beast's most discomfiting feature is its magical ability to sprout new heads when it's wounded. Some hydras dwell on land, others in water. Most seem to have been set as guardians of important places by higher powers, which is probably why they're so difficult to kill.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh, defend a location
- Environment:
Swamps, coasts, and forests (Forest)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short when walking or swimming
- Modifications:
Perception as level 8 due to its many heads; Speed defense as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
Even approaching a hydra is dangerous; the air around it is poisoned by its venomous breath. Each round a creature is within immediate range of a hydra, they must succeed on a Might defense task or take 1 point of Speed damage (ignores Armor).
All five of a hydra's heads can simultaneously bite foes in immediate range. If three or more heads coordinate their attack, the heads make one attack as a single level 9 creature dealing 9 points of damage. A target bitten by the venomous hydra must also succeed on a Might defense task or take an additional 2 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor).
Whenever the hydra takes 4 or more points of damage from a single attack, a healing pulse surges through the creature a round later. The pulse returns the health just subtracted due to the attack and triggers the immediate growth of two additional heads that sprout from the creature. (The same thing happens if one of the creature's snakelike heads is decapitated.) The new heads are just as effective as the original ones in a fight. Fire, electrical, and other extreme energy attacks do not trigger the healing pulse and head genesis.
- Interactions:
A hydra is a cunning predator, but not intelligent. It can't bargain or negotiate.
- Uses:
The PCs investigate an ancient ruin hoping to find artifacts of the gods. A hydra saw them enter and trails them through the crumbling structure at a considerable distance, waiting for them to take a rest or become otherwise distracted before attacking.
- Loot:
Hydras sometimes collect cyphers and artifacts in their lair, or failing that, they guard something of value.
- Intrusions:
The character reacts poorly to the poison in the air or a bite and goes into helpless convulsions for one round if they fail a Might defense task.
- Source Book:
Ichthysians are thought to be aquatic evolutionary offshoots of hominids or the result of experiments trying to fuse human and amphibian or fish DNA. They are physically similar to humans standing fully upright, with webbed hands, claws, froglike or fishlike features, gills, and strong muscles from a lifetime of swimming. They live in the water but are comfortable with extended forays onto land. Their intelligence is between that of a smart animal and a human; they can use simple tools such as rocks and sticks, and may build dams to modify waterways in their territory.
Some ichthysians are reputed to have the ability to heal others, and local villages may worship these beings as gods.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Hunger for flesh, curiosity, solitude
- Environment:
Anywhere near bodies of fresh water (Ocean)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short on land; long in the water
- Modifications:
Strength-based tasks and swimming as level 6; defense against poison as level 3
- Combat:
Ichthysians attack with their powerful claws. They are less mobile on land and prefer to attack from the water. If overmatched, they would rather flee to deep, dark water than fight to the death.
An ichthysian regenerates 2 points of health each round as long as it starts the round with at least 0 health. This regeneration greatly extends their lifespan, and it is common for them to live to be more than two hundred years old.
Ichthysians are prone to mutation, especially in response to pollutants and other chemicals. These mutations might be physical deformities, but could be as strange as transparent flesh, poisonous skin, extra eyes with enhanced senses, or extra limbs.
- Interactions:
Ichthysians are not aggressive but will retaliate with full force against anything that attacks them, and one can remember specific enemy humans from its past.
- Uses:
A cryptid fish-person has been spotted in the vicinity of a deforested area adjacent to a mighty river. Villagers tell stories of an ancient water god that heals sickness and grants wishes.
- Loot:
An ichthysian's lair might have a strange relic or device that works like a cypher or artifact.
- Intrusions:
A slain ichthysian suddenly regenerates 5 health and immediately attacks or tries to flee. The ichthysian suddenly mutates in response to an attack, thereafter gaining +2 Armor or +2 levels in defense against that type of attack.
- Source Book:
Entities of information with an affinity for technology, infovores are nothing but stored information without a bit of mechanism to inhabit. But once one gains control of a device, computer system, or other powered item, it self-assembles over the course of a few rounds, becoming stronger and more dangerous as each second passes. Luckily, an infovore seems unable to hold this form for long, and whether defeated or not, it eventually falls back into so much scattered junk. But in one of those objects, the core of the infovore remains, waiting to come into close enough proximity to another fresh mechanism to begin the rebirth process again.
Infovores have also been called ghost fabricators and aterics
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hungers for information
- Environment:
Anywhere powered devices are found (Other)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3-10 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Attacks and defends at an ever-escalating level
- Combat:
A newly animate infovore (level 3) has a rough but articulated form that it uses to batter and cut targets who carry powered devices on them. Unless destroyed, on each subsequent round it draws nearby inert mechanisms, unattended metallic and synthetic matter, and ambient energy, and its effective level increases by one. This level advancement completely heals all previous damage it has taken and advances it to the amount of health consistent with a creature of the next higher level. Damage, attacks, and defense continue to ramp up as well, continuing each round until the creature is either destroyed or it reaches level 10. After being active for one round at level 10, it spontaneously disassembles, falling back into so many scattered pieces of junk. Finding the "seed" device amid this junk is a difficulty 6 Intellect-based task.
- Interactions:
Infovores are fractured, fragmented beings. Characters who can talk to machines might be able to keep one from "spinning up" to become a threat and learn something valuable, but only for a short period.
- Uses:
Among the devices collected from trade, salvage, archeological dig, or some other unique source, one was actually an inactive infovore, quiescent until plugged in or scanned.
- Loot:
An infovore that has undergone spontaneous disassembly leaves one or two manifest cyphers; however, there's a chance that one of those cyphers is actually the infovore seed.
- Intrusions:
The character must succeed on a Speed defense task or lose a powered piece of equipment (an artifact) or a manifest cypher as it's pulledinto the self-assembling infovore. The infovore gains an additional attack each round.
- Source Book:
Inquisitors are aliens who call themselves "inquisitors" when they contact new species. Their preferred method of interaction is to study a given area for its flora and fauna, and attempt to collect a representative sample of any intelligent species they find (such as humans). Collected subjects may be gone for good, but other times they wake with little or no recollection of the experience save for bruises, missing digits or teeth, scabbed-over circular head wounds, and a gap of three or more days in their memory. Instead of arms, inquisitors sprout three sets of three tentacles like those of a squid, each of which branches into a smaller and finer set of manipulator tendrils. They can manipulate complex machines in a way that a regular human could never hope to. In most settings, inquisitors possess a level of technology and advancement well above that enjoyed by humans.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Knowledge
- Environment:
In groups of three to twelve (Other)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Short; short when climbing
- Modifications:
Knowledge-related tasks as level 8
- Combat:
Inquisitors can batter and squeeze foes with their tentacles, but they prefer to use advanced items that they always carry, including long-range energy weapons that can inflict damage or, with a flipped setting, induce deep sleep for an hour or more if the victim fails a Might defense task. Usually, inquisitors attempt to cause as little damage as possible to potential subjects, so the sleep setting is used most often. They also carry defensive items, including manifest cyphers that can grant +4 to Armor for a few minutes or throw up a level 8 force field barrier. In case a specimen collection mission goes badly, at least one inquisitor carries a manifest cypher that creates a short-lived teleportation portal for instant transport to a distant and hidden base (which might be a spacecraft or a transdimensional redoubt).
- Interactions:
Inquisitors are always eager to "talk," though they usually end up wanting to know a lot more than characters are willing to divulge.
- Uses:
An entire freehold on Mars goes missing. Left-behind clues point to inquisitors.
- Loot:
Most inquisitors carry a couple of manifest cyphers that have offensive and defensive capabilities.
- Intrusions:
The character (or characters) wake after a long rest, only to realize that more than ten hours have passed. They all have strange marks and wounds, but no one remembers why. One character-an NPC or follower-might even be missing.
- Source Book:
The Jelly, Black, often referred to as a Black Pudding, is a sinister amorphous blob with a glossy, tar-like surface. It consumes everything in its path through a process of acidic dissolution. This creature thrives in dark, damp environments, often hiding in the nooks of ancient underground structures waiting for unsuspecting prey. Its undulating mass can squeeze through the smallest of cracks, making containment nearly impossible.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
To dissolve and absorb organic materials
- Environment:
Dungeons, caves, and abandoned buildings (Underground)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6 due to amorphous shape; Resists cutting or piercing damage as level 6
- Combat:
The Black Pudding attacks by engulfing prey, dealing acid damage and potentially trapping creatures within its mass. Victims trapped inside must make a Might defense roll to escape, suffering 5 points of damage each round they remain. Escape is hindered by two steps due to the viscosity of the jelly. It cannot be harmed by slashing or piercing attacks, which cause it to split into two smaller, equally dangerous puddings. Acidic Dissolution: Anything organic that the Black Pudding touches begins to corrode. Armor is degraded by 1 point per round of contact. Amorphous Form: Due to its lack of a solid structure, the Black Pudding can move through openings as small as 1 inch in diameter. Splitting: When the Black Pudding is hit by slashing or piercing damage, it splits into two smaller puddings that attack independently.
- Interactions:
Lacking intelligence or the ability to communicate, the Black Pudding's interactions are limited to predatory instincts. It cannot be reasoned with or intimidated.
- Uses:
As a trap-like encounter in a dungeon or as a guardian to a long-lost artifact in an abandoned ruin.
- Loot:
Resistant material scraps and spent adventuring gear from previous victims that did not dissolve.
- Intrusions:
A part of the Black Pudding that was thought to be dead lashes out, trapping a character's limb and attempting to drag them back into its corrosive embrace.
- Source Book:
The Glass Jelly is a near-invisible predator, a perfect cube of gelatinous ooze that roams ancient ruins and forgotten dungeons. Silent and almost undetectable, it engulfs creatures whole to digest them over time. Veins of shimmering bioluminescent threads within its transparent mass give the only hint of its presence, like the refraction of light through cracked glass.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Consumes organic material to grow
- Environment:
Ancient ruins, deep dungeons, subterranean caverns (Underground)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6 because of transparency; Might defense as level 5 due to its gelatinous form
- Combat:
The Glass Jelly engulfs its prey, encasing them in its acidic body. A caught prey must make a Might defense roll each round or take 5 points of damage from digestion. If the prey fails the initial Might defense to avoid engulfment, they are also trapped inside the Jelly, needing a successful Speed-based task to escape, hindering other actions by two steps. : Due to its nearly invisible nature, the first attack of the Glass Jelly is treated as a surprise attack against creatures not actively searching for it. : The Glass Jelly can absorb unattended objects and debris smaller than itself, creating a maze of false walls and blockades to confuse and funnel prey. : Can squeeze through any crack or hole at least one inch wide without any loss of movement or speed.
- Interactions:
Lacking sentience, the Glass Jelly cannot be reasoned with or bargained for. It moves and feeds purely on instinct.
- Uses:
A powerful wizard's sanctum is said to be guarded by these invisible guardians. Only the clever and observant can hope to retrieve the arcane secrets without being consumed.
- Intrusions:
As a character narrowly avoids being engulfed, they step back right into the path of another unseen Glass Jelly, triggering an immediate engulfment attempt.
- Source Book:
The gray ooze is a silent predator, a quivering glob of semi-transparent gelatinous matter that can cling to any surface or seep through tiny cracks. Its amorphous body can change shape, helping it ambush unsuspecting prey. Gray oozes consume anything organic, swiftly dissolving flesh and bone with potent digestive enzymes.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Consumes organic matter for sustenance
- Environment:
Damp, dark places like underground caves or abandoned cellars (Underground)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5; Resisting poison and disease as level 6
- Combat:
The gray ooze attacks by enveloping its prey, restricting their movement and beginning to digest them. When it hits a victim, besides the initial damage, the victim must succeed on a Speed defense roll or be partially engulfed, suffering an additional 4 points of acid damage per round until they break free with a Might-based task. Amorphous Body: The gray ooze can move through openings as small as one inch in diameter without squeezing. Acidic Touch: Any non-living organic material in contact with the ooze starts to dissolve. Unprotected items such as clothing and wooden shields take 1 point of damage per round of contact. Corrosive Spray: Once every three rounds, the ooze can expel a spray of corrosive enzymes up to a short distance, targeting up to two creatures within range for 4 points of damage each.
- Interactions:
The gray ooze doesn't have a mind as such; it's an instinct-driven predator. It won't negotiate and it can't be intimidated or reasoned with.
- Uses:
As adventurers navigate through the musty corridors of an ancient ruin, they must be wary of the acidic embrace of the gray oozes lurking in unseen crannies.
- Intrusions:
As a character steps on what seems like solid ground, their foot sinks into an undetected gray ooze, triggering an attack from this amorphous creature.
- Source Book:
The Jelly, Green, commonly known as the Green Slime, is a quivering amorphous creature that dwells in dark, damp environments.
Its translucent body pulses with an eerie inner glow, casting ghostly light on its surroundings. The slime is capable of clinging to walls and ceilings, often dropping on unsuspecting prey below. It secretes a corrosive substance that dissolves organic material for digestion.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Consumes organic material for sustenance
- Environment:
Dank caverns, abandoned sewers, and other moist areas (Underground)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5; Attacks as level 5 because of its corrosive touch; Resisting physical attacks as level 6 due to amorphous body
- Combat:
The Green Slime tries to envelop its prey, suffocating and dissolving them. Prey must make a Speed defense roll to avoid being enveloped. On failure, they take 5 points of damage and an additional 4 points of ongoing damage per round until they escape. Escaping the grasp requires a Might-based task. Attacks with edged or piercing weapons deal 1 less damage to the slime, reflecting its amorphous nature.
- Interactions:
Non-sentient, the Jelly, Green reacts only to the presence of food and light. It recoils from intense heat or brightness.
- Uses:
An alchemist experimenting with bioluminescent substances inadvertently creates a Green Slime, unleashing it into the city's underbelly.
- Loot:
Bits of partially dissolved metal or glass within the slime might be valuable to the right buyer.
- Intrusions:
Upon injuring the Green Slime, it splits into two smaller, still dangerous entities that continue to attack, potentially overwhelming the party with numbers.
- Source Book:
Amorphous blobs with a translucent ochre hue, these gelatinous creatures lurk in damp caves and shadowy grottos. Capable of squeezing through tiny cracks, the Jelly, Ochre engulfs and dissolves anything organic with relentless precision. Its body is interspersed with particles of luminous minerals, causing it to glow faintly in the dark gloom of its habitat.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
To absorb organic materials and grow in size
- Environment:
Damp, dark underground locations such as caves and abandoned mines (Underground)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5 due to being nearly invisible when still; attacks as level 5 because its acidic nature is hard to defend against
- Combat:
The Jelly, Ochre can envelop creatures up to its own size, immobilizing and beginning to digest them. An enveloped victim must make an immediate Might defense roll each round to break free or take 5 points of acidic damage. The difficulty of this task is increased by one step due to the slick, adhesive nature of the Jelly's membrane. Acidic Digestion: Any organic material in contact with the Jelly, Ochre begins to dissolve, dealing 5 points of damage per round. Luminous Lure: The glowing particles in the Jelly's body can flare up to momentarily dazzle prey, hindering the target's next action by one step. Amorphous Form: The Jelly can squeeze through spaces as small as 1 inch in diameter, allowing it to bypass obstacles and escape or ambush unwary victims.
- Interactions:
The Jelly, Ochre is mindless and only driven by instinctual need to feed and expand. Attempts to communicate or negotiate with it are futile.
- Uses:
A group of miners accidentally unearths an ancient cavern, unknowingly releasing hungry Jellies into their mine shafts.
- Loot:
Victims might find partially digested gear within a defeated Jelly—an odd treasure trove encased in semi-solid goo.
- Intrusions:
As a player attacks, they slip and their weapon is stuck, beginning to dissolve in the Jelly, Ochre's exterior. Recovering it requires a Might-based task.
- Source Book:
Fire jotunns are often called fire giants. Their skin is coal-grey or black; their hair is red or gold and may be metal or actual flames. They prefer hot mountainous climates (particularly volcanoes), wear plate armor, and use greatswords that glow with the natural heat of their bodies.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Destruction, hungers for flesh, honor
- Environment:
Hot mountains, volcanic areas, supernatural fires (Mountains)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
6 points plus 3 points from fire
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size; breaks and throws objects as level 8
- Combat:
A fire jotunn uses weapons appropriate to its size (which would be two-handed for a human but can be wielded one-handed by the giant), inflicting 6 points of damage plus another 3 points of ambient fire damage conducted from the jotunn's body. Jotunns throw boulders up to very long range, inflicting 6 points of damage plus 3 points of fire damage.
A jotunn can inflict 1 point of fire damage with a touch, and anyone touching it without protection against fire takes damage as if the jotunn had touched them. A slain fire jotunn and its equipment are too hot to safely touch for several minutes.
Fire jotunns are immune to fire damage, but take additional damage from cold (equal to the attack's normal damage, up to a maximum of 5 additional points of cold damage).
Fire jotunn leaders sometimes have magical powers, usually related to earth and fire.
- Interactions:
Fire jotunns tend to be hostile, but they may agree to a nonlethal challenge to allow visitors to pass through their land or join them for a feast.
- Uses:
A fire jotunn decides to cause trouble for intruders in its territory. A clan of jotunns wages war against a fortified village or town, hurling boulders, starting fires, and stealing livestock.
- Loot:
Jotunns like fine things, and their homes usually have utensils, plates, weapons, and trophies made of precious metals and decorated with gems. They may have cyphers, and a leader may carry an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The jotunn's attack inflicts a serious burn, making a limb useless for an hour or until healed.
- Source Book:
Frost jotunns are often called frost giants or ice giants. Their skin is pale white, pink, or blue, and their hair is usually white, pale blond, or actual ice. They prefer cold mountains and tundra, wear chainmail and furs, and use metal axes that channel powerful cold from their bodies.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Destruction, hungers for flesh, honor
- Environment:
Cold mountains and plains (Mountains)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
6 points plus 3 points from cold
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; long when skiing
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size; breaks and throws objects as level 8
- Combat:
A frost jotunn uses weapons appropriate to its size (which would be two-handed for a human but can be wielded one-handed by the giant), inflicting 6 points of damage plus another 3 points of ambient cold damage conducted from the jotunn's body. Jotunns throw boulders or chunks of ice up to very long range, inflicting 6 points of damage plus 3 points of cold damage.
A jotunn can inflict 1 point of cold damage with a touch, and anyone touching it without protection against cold takes damage as if the jotunn had touched them. A slain frost jotunn and its equipment are too cold to safely touch for several minutes.
Frost jotunns are immune to cold damage, but take additional damage from fire (equal to the attack's normal damage, up to a maximum of 5 additional points of fire damage).
Frost jotunn leaders sometimes have magical powers, usually related to illusions and weather.
- Interactions:
Frost jotunns tend to be hostile, but if in a generous mood, they may allow visitors to dine with them or rest in their halls. Once they grant someone hospitality, they are loath to break it unless they are attacked, robbed, or tricked.
- Uses:
A frost jotunn throws a boulder just to be threatening. A clever jotunn offers to share a story in exchange for food and conversation. A clan of jotunns uses the cover of a storm to raid a village.
- Loot:
Jotunns like fine things, and their homes usually have utensils, plates, weapons, and trophies made of precious materials and decorated with gems. They may have cyphers, and a leader may carry an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The jotunn's attack numbs one of the character's limbs, hindering all actions with it by two steps until it is healed.
- Source Book:
Kaiju come in a variety of shapes, but all share one difficult-to-ignore quality: mind-blowing size. Appearances of these colossal creatures are rare events that usually don't last for more than a few days. In that sense, they're akin to hundred-year storms and at least as destructive. When they emerge, they're attracted by artificial structures, the more densely situated and elaborate the better, which they set to smashing with a vengeance. It's hard to judge the size of things so far outside normal scale, but good estimates put most kaiju at over 300 feet (90 m) in height.
Kaiju rely primarily on their strength and mass, but many have some additional trick or ability that sets them apart from their kin, which usually translates into even more devastation.
The other quality all kaiju share is the talent of hiding after a rampage by diving into a nearby sea or burrowing deep into the earth. Sometimes the same kaiju will appear again days, months, years, or decades later, attacking the same location or someplace entirely new.
- Level:
10 (30)
- Motive:
Destruction
- Environment:
Usually near communities containing many high structures (Urban)
- Health:
140
- Damage:
18 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 8 due to size
- Combat:
A kaiju can punch, kick, or deliver a tail or tentacle lash at something within long range. Damage is inflicted on the target and everything within short range of the target, and even those that succeed on a Speed defense roll take 7 points of damage.
Kaiju heal quickly, usually at a rate of 2 points per round.
Kaiju are rare and devastating enough that most are dubbed with a unique identifier by survivors. The entry for each creature below notes only where it varies from the base creature described above.
Rampagion: This kaiju has been estimated to be almost 1,000 feet (300 m) high. Once per day, it can make a charging trample attack, dealing its damage in a line 300 feet (90 m) wide and 2 miles (3 km) long. Rampagion has 10 Armor and deals 20 points of damage with a physical attack (or 8 points if a victim makes a successful Speed defense roll).
Suneko: This kaiju's body, which resembles a cross between a lion and a lizard, is so hot that its skin glows like red coals, its mane like the sun's corona, and its eyes like beaming searchlights. Suneko automatically deals 10 points of damage to everyone within immediate range. The creature can emit twin rays of plasma from its eyes in a focused beam that can reach as far as the horizon, which from Suneko's height above the ground is about 22 miles (35 km). When it makes its eyebeam attack, it stops emitting killing heat in immediate range for about one minute.
- Interactions:
Most PCs can't directly interact with a kaiju unless they have some special device or association allowing them to get the attention of one of the massive creatures. Doing so could give the characters a chance to trick or lure the beast, or maybe even persuade one kaiju to fight another.
- Uses:
After seeing the devastation caused by a kaiju, the PCs might decide (or be asked) to find a way to stop a projected future appearance by the same creature.
- Intrusions:
The character gains the direct attention of the kaiju. If the kaiju attacks the character, They are awarded 5 XP, only 1 of which they have to give to a friend.
A sinister aquatic creature that takes the shape of a grey horse or white pony, the kelpie lures unsuspecting passersby and attempts to drown them in a nearby body of water.
Some kelpies look just like horses. Others look as if they're created from elements of the swamp--maybe its tail is algae, its mane cattails, its eyes glowing pebbles or miniature moons. Maybe eels and snails and other creatures are its teeth or tongue. One thing about kelpies is always true: their manes are always dripping and their hooves are always inverted.
If someone knows a kelpie's name and says it aloud, the kelpie loses all its power over that person and retreats to the depths of the water.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Unknown
- Environment:
Near or in rivers, streams, lakes, and other bodies of running or still water. Modern settings might find them near public or private swimming pools, koi ponds, and reservoirs. (Ocean)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Very long when running
- Combat:
When a passerby approaches, the kelpie might appear tame, a little lost, injured, or otherwise friendly and in need. Or, if the passerby appears weary or sad, the kelpie will offer a ride upon their back. The kelpie's sticky skin traps the rider (level 7 Might task to break free). Once the rider is seated, the kelpie may attempt to drown them in the lake, run so fast that the rider takes 5 points of Intellect damage from fright, or roll over on them, inflicting 4 points of damage (ignores Armor).
- Interactions:
Not all kelpies are malevolent. Some were once "tamed" by someone who learned their names and loved them. These kelpies actively seek out human contact, attempting to find someone to replace the one they loved.
- Uses:
In the gloom, a large black horse appears, wearing beautiful tack and acting as if lost. It offers one of the weary characters a ride upon its back.
- Intrusions:
While dealing with something else, the characters come upon a kelpie in the process of drowning someone.
- Source Book:
A clown-whether it's a doll or what seems to be a person wearing clown makeup-could be entirely benign. But if you see one sitting alone in a dark room, lying under your bed, or gazing up at you through the sewer grate in the street, it might be a killer clown. Killer clowns might be evil spirits possessing someone or an insane person living out a homicidal fantasy. Either way, they're as dangerous as anything you'll ever likely meet. If you see a clown, run. Because it might be a killer.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Homicide
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Detecting falsehoods, deception, and persuasion as level 7
- Combat:
A killer clown attempts to deceive its victim into believing that the clown is a friend. In fact, the clown is setting up an ambush where the victim can be strangled to death in private. When a killer clown successfully attacks, it inflicts 5 points of damage and locks its hands around the victim's neck. In each round that the victim does not escape, it suffers 5 points of damage from being strangled.
Some killer clowns know tricks that border on the supernatural. Such a clown may do one of the following as its action during combat.
- Interactions:
A killer clown is all jokes, magic tricks, and juggling, until it decides it's time to strike.
- Uses:
The creepy circus that just pulled into town is guarded by a killer clown, as late-night investigators soon learn.
- Loot:
A killer clown might have one or two cyphers in the form of a joy buzzer, cards, and cheap trinkets.
- Intrusions:
The clown snatches a weapon, cypher, or other object from the character's hand as a level 6 attack, and if successful, immediately uses it on the character.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reveal a secret that one character is keeping from one or more of their allies. |
| 2 | Poke target in the eyes as a level 6 attack, blinding target for one minute. |
| 3 | Activate a trapdoor beneath victim that drops them 20 feet (6 m) into a cellar or basement. |
| 4 | Disappear into secret door or hatch and reappear somewhere hidden within short range. |
| 5 | Jab target in the throat as a level 6 attack; resulting coughing fit causes target to lose next action. |
| 6 | Down an elixir or energy drink that heals the killer clown of all damage sustained. |
A killing white light isn't a subtle hunter. At a distance, the creature is an eye-watering point of brilliance. When it closes in, it is nothing less than blinding, though its emanation isn't warm. Despite the blazing intensity, a killing white light is as cold as starlight on a December night, sapping heat and life from living things caught in its radiance.
By day, a killing white light is usually inactive. During this period, the creature hibernates in darkened areas, as if unwilling or unable to compete against the sun.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Eliminate organic life
- Environment:
Almost anywhere dark (Urban)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short when flying
- Combat:
An active (glowing) killing white light can attack one target within immediate range each round with a pulse of its brilliant nimbus. A character who fails a Speed defense roll against the attack takes damage and experiences a cooling numbness. A victim killed by the creature is rendered into so much blowing ash, though their clothing and equipment are unharmed.
As it attacks, a killing white light emits a blinding nimbus of illumination that affects all creatures within short range. Targets in the area must succeed on a Might defense roll each round or be blinded for one round. A character in the area can avert their eyes when fighting a killing white light to avoid being blinded, but attacks and defenses are hindered for those who do so.
A killing white light is vulnerable to strong sources of light other than its own. If exposed to daylight or caught in a high-intensity beam of light (such as a spotlight), the killing white light falters and takes no action for one round, after which it can act normally. However, if the competing light persists for more than three or four rounds, the creature usually retreats to a darkened place of safety.
- Interactions:
A killing white light is too alien for interaction and may not be intelligent in a way humans can understand.
- Uses:
An inactive killing white light (which looks something like an albino lump of volcanic glass) is sometimes mistaken for a cypher whose properties can't quite be identified-until the creature becomes active, at which point its true nature is revealed.
- Intrusions:
Normally resistant to interaction, a killing white light uses its blazing nimbus to burn an alien glyph of uncertain meaning in the character's flesh before the creature fades like a light bulb switched off.
Kobolds are small, reptilian creatures with a cunning intelligence and a penchant for traps and group tactics. They have a knack for mining and are often found in subterranean lairs. They are adept at laying ambushes, with gleaming yellow eyes that reel victims into false security. Their scaly skin comes in earthen tones that help them blend into their rocky environments. Kobolds lay cunning traps and use guerrilla tactics. They will often feign retreat to lure adventurers deeper into their traps and prepared ambush points.
- Level:
1 (3)
- Motive:
Protection of lair, acquisition of treasure
- Environment:
Underground warrens, ancient ruins, and forsaken mines (Underground)
- Health:
3
- Damage:
1 point
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4; Setting and disarming traps as level 4; Initiative as level 3 due to their alertness
- Combat:
Kobolds are not strong, but they are clever and work well in groups. They prefer to avoid direct confrontation. When they must fight, they do so by setting traps and attacking with hordes of their kin, often throwing nets to entangle their prey before moving in for the kill. A kobold's quick attack with a short blade deals 3 points of damage. Trap Mastery: Once per combat, a kobold can trigger a hidden trap that targets up to two characters within an immediate distance, dealing 4 points of damage or causing immobilization for one round. Pack Tactics: When a kobold attacks a target that one of its allies is adjacent to, it deals an extra 1 point of damage and reduces the difficulty of its attack by one step.
- Interactions:
Cowardly when alone but bold in groups, kobolds are open to negotiation if it means keeping their numbers intact. However, they typically seek to mislead and cheat others.
- Uses:
A peaceful village sits atop an unknown network of kobold-inhabited tunnels, and the kobolds believe the surface dwellers are infringing on their territory.
- Loot:
Kobolds often hoard stolen jewels, coins, and occasionally magic items in their lairs.
- Intrusions:
A kobold that the characters ignored or deemed unimportant reveals itself as the tribe's trap master, triggering a series of calamitous traps they have hitherto avoided.
- Source Book:
An oversized leech, about the size of a large dog, with a dark, slimy body and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. It can extend and retract its body to surprising lengths, allowing it to reach prey from a distance and latch on tightly. The creature's skin oozes a numbing secretion that aids in its feeding, making its presence known only when it's too late to easily remove it.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Feeds on the blood of living creatures
- Environment:
Swamps, marshes, and dark, wet places (Wilderness)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short when leeching, Immediate otherwise
- Modifications:
Resists poisons and diseases as level 3 due to its hardy nature
- Combat:
A Giant Leech can attach itself to a victim with a successful attack. Once attached, it deals 5 points of ongoing damage each round as it siphons blood. Removing the leech requires a difficulty 5 Might task. The leech's numbing secretion adds a level of difficulty to notice it upon initial contact, and while attached, all actions by the victim related to detecting or removing the leech are hindered by one step. : After dealing damage for two consecutive rounds, the Giant Leech becomes engorged, increasing its health by an amount equal to the damage dealt. : If it is about to be detached or killed while engorged, the leech can regurgitate some of its meal to apply a slippery coat over its body, adding +2 to its defense for that round.
- Interactions:
The leech has no sentience to speak of and acts purely on instinct; it's not possible to reason or communicate with it in any meaningful way.
- Uses:
The characters might need a sample of the leech's anesthetic slime for a local healer, or a swamp might be overrun by these creatures, threatening the nearby villages.
- Intrusions:
While engaged with one giant leech, another has silently approached from behind or below the murky waters, catching the character by surprise as it attempts to latch on.
- Source Book:
A lich is a powerful wizard or priest who has used their knowledge of necromancy to bind their soul in a magical object called a phylactery, making them immortal and undead unless their soul object is found and destroyed. Having corrupted its own life energy in an obscene ritual, a lich can pursue its other magical goals, usually the acquisition of more wealth, magic, and power. A newly made lich may look like a recent corpse, but maintaining its physical vessel becomes less of a priority as the centuries pass, so over time they tend to look withered or even skeletal. Liches often work with or command other undead, such as wraiths, skeletons, vampires, and zombies.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Magic, immortality, power
- Environment:
Wherever they can remain hidden and work undisturbed (Other)
- Health:
45
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intellect defense and magical lore as level 10
- Combat:
A lich can shoot blasts of necromantic energy that inflict 8 points of damage on a target and 4 points on any creature within immediate range of the target. A lich knows many spells, such as the following:
- Animate guards: Animate ten corpses as skeletons or zombies, which obey the lich for one hour before turning back into corpses.
- Armor: Gain +5 Armor for one hour.
- Death: Inflict 8 points of damage on a creature within short range; if the creature fails a Might defense roll, it also moves two steps down the damage track.
- Fly: For one hour, move through the air as effortlessly as walking.
- Paralyze: One target within short range is held motionless for two rounds, unable to take any physical actions.
- Polymorph: Transform a creature within short range into a harmless creature like a fish or frog for one minute.
- Scrying eye: View any familiar location within 1 mile (1.5 km) as if the lich was observing it directly.
- Teleport: Move instantly up to 1 mile. A lich also likely carries several cyphers useful in combat. Liches are undead, and therefore immune to anything that affects only living creatures, such as disease and poison. Unless its well-hidden phylactery is destroyed, a lich that is killed reforms a new body near its phylactery over the next week or so, returning at full health and with all of its abilities and memories.
- Interactions:
Liches hate being interrupted and have more important things to do than answer questions from mortal weaklings. A lich may be convinced to teach a character a spell, especially if given a spell, cypher, or artifact in trade.
- Uses:
A lich is planning a ritual to raise an army of skeletons or zombies to attack the kingdom. A lich has made a pact with a demon to unleash a plague in exchange for obscure magical knowledge.
- Loot:
- Intrusions:
The lich casts a spell in addition to taking other actions on its turn. The lich uses a cypher, spell, or other ability to nullify an attack that otherwise would have affected it.
- Source Book:
A swirling mass of crackling energy, the Lighting Elemental embodies the wild and unpredictable nature of a thunderstorm. With an ever-shifting form, it illuminates the environment with intermittent flashes, its core pulsing like the heart of a storm. The air around it tastes of ozone, and the hair of those nearby stands on end as static fills the atmosphere.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
To discharge accumulated energy
- Environment:
Found in areas prone to electrical storms, on high mountaintops, or near ancient, mystical conductors (Other)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to its intangible and erratic movements; Resisting electrical attacks at level 7
- Combat:
The Lightning Elemental attacks by sending out tendril-like bolts of electricity at its foes, which not only cause damage but can also stun a target on a failed Might defense roll. While engaged in combat, it can move with blinding speed, teleporting short distances as if riding the current from one bolt to the next. Electric Discharge: Once every two rounds, the Elemental can release an AoE burst of lightning that forces all within immediate range to succeed on a Speed defense roll or take 4 points of electrical damage and move one step down the Damage Track. Stunning Shock: Any creature struck by the Elemental's attack must succeed on an additional Might defense roll or be stunned for one round, losing their next turn. Electrical Teleportation: The Elemental can teleport to any spot within short range that it can see once per round, often to facilitate an unexpected attack or evade an oncoming strike.
- Interactions:
As a being of pure energy, the Lightning Elemental has no desire for parley and cannot be reasoned with. It responds to threats and disturbances by lashing out with violent arcs of electricity.
- Uses:
An ancient relic has begun to malfunction, drawing Lightning Elementals to a once-peaceful town. Adventurers must deactivate the relic before the town is destroyed.
- Intrusions:
As a player attacks, the creature suddenly splits, creating an identical, though temporary, Lightning Elemental next to another character, catching them off-guard with a surge of electrical energy.
- Source Book:
Crafted by an ancient civilization and infused with arcane energy, this crystal statue is an elegant, humanoid shape shimmering with internal light. Though it remains motionless for centuries, it animates to defend its territory or pursue objectives programmed eons ago. Its body refracts light, casting prism-like beams across the ground surrounding it. It's as beautiful as it is deadly.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Guarding ancient places, following long-lost commands
- Environment:
Ancient ruins, mystical sites (Underground)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 7 due to its reflective surface causing light distortion.; Intellect defense tasks as level 2 due to its narrowly defined objectives and programming.
- Combat:
The Living Statue, Crystal discharges a beam of focused light to attack, which inflicts its standard damage and can blind its victim for one round if they fail a Might defense roll. When engaging in melee, its crystalline touch can resonate with a foe's body, causing severe pain and potential stunning for a round.
- Interactions:
Almost impervious to reasoning or influencing, it follows an age-old protocol that is difficult to comprehend, making conversations or negotiations moot.
- Uses:
Adventurers seeking the secrets of the ancients must contend with these silent guardians, whose mere presence complicates the delving into forgotten lore.
- Loot:
If defeated, the core of the Living Statue is a high-quality crystal that may hold arcane significance or scientific value.
- Intrusions:
The Living Statue unexpectedly shifts its form, separating into smaller, moving crystal facets that swarm the characters, making it difficult to concentrate and causing confusion in the ranks.
- Source Book:
Crafted through arcane means and enforced by ancient rites, the Living Statue, Iron is a sentinel standing eternal watch. It is typically found guarding forgotten tombs or abandoned atriums, motionless and indistinguishable from a regular statue until it senses trespassers.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
To guard its designated area
- Environment:
Dungeons, temples, ruins (Underground)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Resists being knocked down or moved as level 7 due to weight and stability; Intimidation as level 7 due to unyielding presence
- Combat:
The Living Statue, Iron strikes with mighty blows of its stone fists. If it hits a character, that character must pass a Speed defense roll or be knocked prone from the sheer force. Furthermore, each consecutive round it sustains an attack from the same target, it gains +1 to Armor (to a maximum of 5) as it learns and adapts to the combat style. : Once per combat, the Living Statue can unleash a petrifying glare targeting one creature it sees within short range. The target must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be stunned, losing their next turn as they struggle against the paralyzing fear. : The Living Statue can repair itself once activated, regaining 5 points of health each round for 2 rounds whenever its health drops below 10 points for the first time in an encounter.
- Interactions:
The Living Statue, Iron may not speak or showcase typical signs of intelligence, but it can understand several languages and may recognize ancient symbols or gestures of peace, allowing canny adventurers to pass unharmed—if they know the correct signs.
- Uses:
The statue could be guarding a crucial plot item or serving as a test for heroes to prove their worth. Perhaps it stands before the entrance to a secret chamber that hasn't been opened for centuries.
- Loot:
Shards of the Living Statue, Iron can be forged into weapons or armor, imbuing them with magical properties.
- Intrusions:
A sudden tremor emanates from the Living Statue. It repairs a visible crack on its surface, restoring part of its health or perhaps splitting into two smaller, albeit less powerful, statues that continue the attack.
- Source Book:
Sculpted from the densest stone, these enigmatic constructs stand motionless, indistinguishable from ordinary statues to the untrained eye. Animated by ancient magics or technological marvels, they guard long-forgotten ruins and sacred places, springing to life with startling speed to attack when trespassers encroach upon their domain.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Guarding secrets and locations
- Environment:
Ancient ruins, temples, and arcane vaults (Underground)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when still, short when in motion
- Modifications:
Tasks involving stealth and remaining motionless as level 6; Resistance to piercing and slashing damage due to stone form
- Combat:
The Living Statue, Stone can make two slam attacks as a single action, each one dealing 5 points of damage. It can also enter a defensive stance as an action, increasing its armor by 1 until the beginning of its next turn. Stony Grasp: On a successful hit, the statue can attempt to grapple its opponent, hindering the caught creature's actions by two steps until it breaks free. Shatter Shock: Once per combat, it can slam the ground, causing a localized earthquake that forces all within short range to pass a Might defense roll or fall prone.
- Interactions:
These constructs do not communicate; they are single-minded in their pursuit to deter or eliminate trespassers.
- Uses:
As sentinels for areas meant to remain undisturbed, living statues can provide a surprise encounter for players attempting to infiltrate protected places or can serve as the last line of defense for a treasure or boss character.
- Intrusions:
Upon rolling a 1, the character's attack inadvertently activates a hidden mechanism within the Living Statue, causing it to emit a shockwave that stuns all characters within immediate range for one round.
- Source Book:
This overgrown arboreal predator has vibrant and iridescent skin that seems to shimmer and shift in the light, showcasing a surreal spectrum of colors. Despite its size, it moves with surprising stealth, thanks to its specialized toe pads that allow it to climb almost any surface with ease. The Giant Gecko is known not only for its remarkable climbing abilities but also for its rapid and unexpected attacks from above, snatching prey with its powerful jaws.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hunting for food and defending its territory
- Environment:
Tropical and sub-tropical forests, often found in ancient ruins or near sources of water (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate when climbing; short otherwise
- Modifications:
Climbing and Stealth tasks as level 5; Attacks and Speed defense when climbing as level 5 due to agility and surprise
- Combat:
A Giant Gecko can attack from above without notice, making a surprise pounce that inflicts an extra 2 points of damage (total 7) and might knock the target prone requiring a Speed defense roll to avoid. If successful, the gecko latches onto its victim and can continue to gnaw for 5 points of damage each round until shaken off with a successful Might-based task (difficulty level of the gecko). Sticky Feet: The Gecko can move across any surface at its normal movement rate without needing to roll for climbing tasks; even seemingly smooth, vertical, or inverted surfaces pose no challenge. Camouflage: The Giant Gecko can blend into its surroundings. While stationary, it is treated as one level higher for stealth tasks, making it difficult to spot among the foliage and ruins it calls home. Precision Strike: Once per combat, the Giant Gecko can target a vital area if attacking from stealth, inflicting an additional 3 points of damage and potentially impairing the victim for one round.
- Interactions:
Generally solitary and territorial, Giant Geckos may be cautiously curious about intruders before attacking. They can be distracted by things that pique their interest, often shiny objects or quick movements.
- Uses:
Adventurers might be tasked to retrieve lost items or eggs from a nest situated high on a seemingly unscalable cliff, only to discover the domain is fiercely guarded by a Giant Gecko.
- Intrusions:
As a player scales a vertical surface, a misplaced hand finds not rock, but the camouflaged flesh of a sleeping Giant Gecko. Startled awake, it reacts with a ferocious counter-attack or a scrambling escape that dislodges rocks and debris onto the characters below.
- Source Book:
Standing on its hind legs, a Werebear towers over most other creatures, with thick fur matted in places by the remnants of past battles. Menacing eyes reflect a tortured soul caught between man and beast. On a full moon night, an afflicted individual loses their humanity and becomes this formidable predator with superhuman strength. As a Werebear, they gain a hulking stature and the natural weapons of a wild bear combined with a human's cunning.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Protection of its territory and sating its hunger during transformation
- Environment:
Forests, mountains, and sometimes caves close to human settlements (Urban)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Smelling and tracking as level 7; Might defense as level 7 due to robust build; Deception as level 3 when interacting with humans in its humanoid form
- Combat:
A Werebear uses its immense strength to overpower foes, swiping with its massive paws or biting with its strong jaws. It automatically inflicts 2 additional points of damage with any successful attack due to its ferocious strength. If a victim is struck by the Werebear's swipe, they must make a Might defense roll or be knocked prone and suffer a disadvantage on their next action.
- Interactions:
Intelligent but feral, a Werebear in its beast form is driven more by instinct than by reason. It might be possible to communicate with it in its humanoid form, but during transformation, it is beyond reach, driven by insatiable hunger and territorial instinct.
- Uses:
A string of brutal attacks on the edge of the forest leads adventurers to the trail of a Werebear, which must be dealt with before it threatens more lives—be it through cure, containment, or combat.
- Loot:
A Werebear might carry trinkets or items from its human life, potentially valuable to those who understand its origin.
- Intrusions:
The growl that the team thought came from the Werebear in front of them was actually a clever distraction; the creature's mate is behind them, ready to attack.
- Source Book:
The Lycanthrope Wereboar is a fearsome hybrid with a humanoid structure and the shaggy fur, tusks, and muscle of a wild boar. Its eyes smolder with untamed ferocity, and its gruff snorts send chills down the spines of those who hear them. At home in dense forests, these lycanthropes revel in their raw power and the primal thrill of the hunt.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Dominance and Hunger
- Environment:
Forested regions and shadowy groves (Forest)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Tracking as level 6; Might defense as level 6 due to tough hide; Speed defense as level 3 due to bulk
- Combat:
The wereboar employs its brute strength and lethal tusks to gore opponents, inflicting severe trauma. Victims struck by the wereboar's goring attack must succeed on a Might defense roll or be knocked prone and suffer an additional 2 points of damage from being trampled if they remain adjacent to the creature. Ferocious Charge: Once per encounter, the wereboar can charge a significant distance (up to its full movement) straight at a target to deliver a powerful goring attack with a +2 damage bonus. Tough Hide: The wereboar's thick hide serves as natural armor, making it resistant to physical damage. Infectious Bite: If the wereboar manages to bite its prey, the victim must succeed on a challenging Might defense roll or risk contracting lycanthropy.
- Interactions:
While wereboars can exhibit cunning, their bestial natures often overwhelm any reason or diplomacy. They are confrontational and may respond to perceived challenges to their dominion with violence.
- Uses:
An afflicted villager succumbs to the lycanthropic curse during a full moon, becoming a menace to the countryside.
- Loot:
Claws, bristles, and tusks of a wereboar are often sought after for their magical properties.
- Intrusions:
The wereboar's terrifying roar echoes through the forest, stirring its kin. The pack is not far behind, and soon the character is not only facing one wereboar but potentially an entire rampaging contingent.
- Source Book:
Wererats are the cunning lycanthropes with the ability to shift from human to a humanoid rat form. No mere rodents, they're devious beings that lurk in the shadows of civilization. Often found in urban environments, they are masters of stealth and subterfuge. Their sharp incisors are as effective at gnawing through obstacles as they are at spreading the lycanthropic curse.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
To spread lycanthropy and amass personal power
- Environment:
Urban areas, sewers, and abandoned buildings (Urban)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5; Attacks as level 5 due to agility; Speed defense as level 5 when in rat form
- Combat:
Wererats attack with wickedly sharp teeth and claws, dealing 5 points of damage. A victim bitten by a Wererat must succeed on a Might defense roll or risk contracting lycanthropy. They also employ hit-and-run tactics, disappearing into tiny crevices or shadows only to reemerge for another strike. A Wererat can also summon a swarm of rats once per day to harry and distract opponents, hindering them by two steps for two rounds.
- Interactions:
Clever and opportunistic, Wererats will bargain if it benefits them but are fundamentally untrustworthy. They can be found leading thieves' guilds or other underground organizations.
- Uses:
An epidemic of lycanthropy threatens the city as Wererats infiltrate and undermine the society. Are they trying to overtake the town, or is something even more nefarious afoot?
- Loot:
Wererats often carry trinkets from their victims or valuables from their lairs, including small gems, coins, and occasionally a potion or two.
- Intrusions:
Just when the players think they have cornered the Wererat, it merges with a shadow on the wall, entering the ethereal plane and evading capture or turning the tables by attacking from an unexpected angle.
- Source Book:
A fierce combination of humanoid intelligence and predatory power, the weretiger is often cloaked in the guise of a wanderer until the moon's call unleashes the beast within. With eyes that gleam with a preternatural golden hue, this lycanthrope morphs into a massive, bipedal tiger, striped fur shimmering like quicksilver. The creature moves with a silent grace and brutal strength, equally at home in the shadowy urban alley as it is in the densest jungle.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Driven by primal hunger and territorial instincts
- Environment:
Urban and natural environments, particularly in areas with jungle or thick vegetation (Urban)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when stalking; short when attacking
- Modifications:
Stealth actions as level 7; Attacks and Speed defense as level 7 due to agility; Resisting transformation control as level 4
- Combat:
In combat, a weretiger roars to stun prey, which forces enemies to make an Intellect defense roll. Failure results in the victim losing their next turn. It then leaps into the fray, claws extended for rending. If prey seems particularly dangerous or elusive, the weretiger employs guerilla tactics, striking from the shadows before disappearing into the environment. Stunning Roar: Emits a thunderous roar in a short radius, forcing all who hear to resist being stunned. Shadow Pounce: Can leap from cover, attack with surprise, and return to stealth in a single fluid motion. Regeneration: Able to heal rapidly, regaining health each round unless wounded by silver.
- Interactions:
Outside of their lycanthropic trance, weretigers can be suave and charming, often misleading others about their true nature. However, under the sway of their transformation, they favor dominance and territory over any sophisticated interaction.
- Uses:
In the heart of a teeming city, a series of gruesome murders reveal an untamed predator among the populace. Alternatively, the party may require the aid or favor of a weretiger, forcing them to barter with the beast for its assistance or treasure.
- Intrusions:
At the apex of battle, under the full moon's glow, the weretiger's wounds begin to close, regenerating health at the expense of the party's progress. Alternatively, the weretiger's roar dislodges precarious objects above, threatening to crush friend and foe alike.
- Source Book:
Victims of an ancient curse, these beings transform into ferocious wolf-like creatures under the full moon. The transformation is dramatic: bones morph, muscles expand, and before long, a humanoid wolf stands, howling at the eerie night sky. The werewolf's fur is a matted gray-brown, its eyes glow an unsettling yellow, and saliva drips from its unnaturally large fangs as it craves the hunt.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Driven by primal hunger and rage
- Environment:
Forests, caves, and remote human settlements during the full moon (Forest)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to agility; Intimidation as level 6; Stealth tasks as level 5 when hunting
- Combat:
A werewolf's bite not only tears through flesh inflicting severe damage but can also transmit the lycanthropic curse. Victims bitten by a werewolf must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or risk starting their own path towards lycanthropy. When hunting in packs, werewolves attempt to encircle and isolate their prey, using their howl to confuse and instill fear, which hinders all tasks of their prey by one step for two rounds.
- Interactions:
Outside of its beastly form, a werewolf might plead for assistance or exploit empathy, only to betray those attempting to aid it. In beast form, however, it displays no mercy or human emotion, driven only by the curse's fury.
- Uses:
A string of grisly attacks leads adventurers to the terrible secret haunting a cursed village. They must break the curse or ultimately face the rise of a werewolf pack.
- Intrusions:
The character notices too late that the werewolf's attacks are a feint, and the rest of the pack is now flanking the party, emerging from the shadows for a surprise assault.
- Source Book:
There are very rare automatons that achieve sentience, and among them there is an even rarer type that has not only mastered magic but also the naph mixture within them. With this dual mastery, they access even greater powers.
Some of them try to find ways to hide in civilization by playing the role of mysterious sorcerer, others feel the pull to Jìmò Wánjù.
Most of them are under no illusions that they are fighting for their life and freedom before somebody claims them as property or destroys them as an experiment.
Thus many of them will be ruthless in their fighting out of fear that their deaths will be long and protracted as compared to the quick, clean death by a sword.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
To survive at all costs.
- Environment:
(Other)
- Health:
20
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intellect and Might Defenses are level 6. Intellect Attack is at 7.
- Combat:
The last ditch move of Clockwork Mage is to take a wild swing as a Might attack that does 5 damage. But most times, they would rather engage at a distance with several spells that focus on fire, oil and gears.
Oil Slick: Long range spell that affects up to three targets in immediate range of each other. If they fail a Speed Task, they fall down taking 4 damage and are now prone until their next turn.
Firespit: A victim within long range is attacked with a bolt of fire that does 7 damage.
Gear song: All non-sentiment Alchemy automatons within long range are under her control for 1d6 rounds.
Bolt down: Three times a day, a Clockwork mage can fortify herself with +1 armor for one turn. This is a free action to initiate.
- Interactions:
A rival human sorcerer begins to suspect something is odd about their competition and has pulled strings to have the PCs skulk about and conspire to discover the hidden clockwork mages true identity.
- Uses:
Clockwork mages can be formal opponents able to cast spells and enjoy a lot more punishment than a regular wizard would.
- Loot:
1d6 Cyphers
- Intrusions:
A spell backfire conjures an oil spill across the whole floor for one combat round.
- Source Book:
This purely malefic program has aggressive machine learning capabilities, allowing it to accomplish truly innovative and nasty tricks. Fatal malware may have originated as a simple virus or spyware coded for a specific purpose, but corruption and lightning-quick electronic evolution has turned it into something that exists purely to infect orderly electronic systems, spacecraft, space stations, smart weapons, and anything else with an operating system. Infected objects turn against living people. An instance often has the form of the system it's infected, but occasionally fatal malware physically manifests as a metallic "cancer" of wires and self-assembling circuits hanging like a tumor across a server room, shipmind core, or data center, having perverted the original machine's self-repair functions. Sometimes 4D printers are also compromised.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Corruption and destruction
- Environment:
Any electronic system able to run code can host one or more instances (Other)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
As the system it infects
- Modifications:
Knowledge tasks related to computers and other electronic systems as level 6
- Combat:
An instance of fatal malware that physically touches (or electrically connects with) a powered device of up to level 6 can attempt to seize control of it. It can then use that device to attack living targets. If the controlled system is a computer, smartphone, AR glasses, or some other piece of equipment that doesn't have any intrinsic movement, the malware attempts to electrocute a user, or if a smart weapon, cause some kind of fatal accident with it. A compromised computer or shipmind voice can dangerously mislead victims. Fatal malware duplicates itself, creating many instances, and those that survive are usually slightly better at avoiding being erased than the previous generations.
- Interactions:
Fatal malware isn't really sentient and thus can't really be negotiated with; some instances could mimic intelligence to draw humans into a trap.
- Uses:
An instance of fatal malware has gotten into a shipmind, which is making the normally trustworthy AI act out in unexpectedly dangerous ways. The shipmind itself doesn't know it's infected.
- Intrusions:
The fatal malware divides into a second instance and attempts to override and control another piece of equipment carried by the character, especially a character with cybernetic implants.
- Source Book:
A manticore is a fearsome predator that resembles a maned red lion with a human head and a scorpion's tail. The head is bearded and has three rows of teeth in the upper and lower jaws, like a shark. The scorpion tail is covered in multiple barbs, and the creature can flick its tail to hurl these barbs at its prey. Manticores eat all of their prey, including the bones, clothing, and equipment, leaving nothing but a bloodstain as evidence of their hunting.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh (especially human flesh)
- Environment:
Mountains and plains (Mountains)
- Health:
22
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Ranged attacks as level 5
- Combat:
Manticores attack with their powerful bite, seeking to incapacitate or kill one opponent quickly so they can eat. Some are content to attack and consume a single target, but a large, hungry manticore prefers to wait until two or three creatures are nearby before attacking. A manticore has powerful legs and can leap up to a short distance in any direction, and often surprises its prey by leaping from concealment.
Instead of biting, a manticore can use its poisonous scorpion-like tail to strike one creature in melee with a cluster of barbs, inflicting 4 points of damage (plus 4 additional points of Speed damage if the target fails a Might defense roll). With a flick of its tail, it can hurl up to four barbs up to a short distance away, striking one or more creatures in an immediate area. Each barb inflicts 1 point of damage, and the target must succeed on a Might defense roll or take 1 additional point of Speed damage.
- Interactions:
Manticores can make trumpet-like noises that resemble speech, but this seems to be a trick to lure prey. Most of them are not intelligent enough to know how to speak human languages.
- Uses:
Weird musical noises resembling speech are heard from the nearby hills. People have been disappearing in fields and on the road, with only bloodstains on the ground suggesting that they were harmed.
- Loot:
A manticore's stomach might contain a piece of treasure or a cypher from a recent meal, and its lair may have one or two small objects it was unable to digest.
- Intrusions:
The manticore attacks with its bite, then spins around to lash its opponent with its barbed tail.
Clockwork automatons powered by steam, these mechanical men patrol about and guard locations of importance to their makers. Lanky and awkward in their movements, these quasi-humanoid automatons stand almost 8 feet (2 m) tall. In their three-fingered hands, they wield a variety of weapons.
A few people have wondered if a gear-driven soldier could ever truly attain sentience. Most scoff at the suggestion, but is that a gleam in the glass lens of its eye?
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Incomprehensible
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually in groups of three to eight (Other)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Perception as level 5; leaps, runs, and balances as level 3
- Combat:
Mechanical soldiers attack in groups using well-organized tactics. Although they can speak, they transmit information to one another silently and instantly within a 100-mile (160 km) range via wireless radio transmissions.
Soldiers armed with advanced weaponry typically carry rifle-like guns that can fire multiple rapid shots without reloading. The soldiers fire at up to three targets (all next to one another) at once. For each target after the first, defense rolls are eased.
In addition, one in four soldiers carries a back-mounted device that hurls bombs at long range with deadly accuracy. They explode in immediate range for 4 points of damage. Each device holds 1d6 such bombs.
A mechanical soldier that has lost its original weaponry scavenges whatever is available.
Certain frequencies of sound confuse these clockwork soldiers, hindering all their actions by two steps, and other frequencies prevent them from acting at all for 1d6 + 1 rounds.
- Interactions:
On their own, mechanical soldiers act on prior orders. Otherwise, they listen to and obey their creator-and only their creator.
- Uses:
An enterprising bandit has captured and repurposed a number of mechanical soldiers, probably using sound. These soldiers remember nothing of their former duties and work for their new master as high-tech brigands and pirates. The bandit has no idea how to repair them if they are damaged, much less make new soldiers.
- Loot:
A determined scientist might scavenge the body of one of these automatons to find a cypher.
- Intrusions:
The destroyed soldier explodes in a gout of flame, black smoke, and steam, inflicting 6 points of damage to all within immediate range.
The Medusa is a serpent-haired monstrosity whose gaze can petrify the unwary. This aberrant creature was once beautiful, but now exudes a malevolent grace. Scales glitter amidst the writhing serpents atop her head, and her eyes glimmer with eldritch energy. The Medusa holds grudges like old coins, counting and recounting them as she lies in wait within her accursed lair.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
To punish and petrify those who wrong her, intentionally or not
- Environment:
Secluded ruins, caves, and ancient temples filled with stone statues of the unfortunate (Underground)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6; Deception and Speed defense as level 6; Intellect defense as level 6 due to cunning nature
- Combat:
The Medusa attempts to deceive adventurers into looking into her eyes, engaging in a deadly dance of avoidance and misdirection. A successful Intellect attack that beats the target's defense causes the victim to become petrified, turning to stone over the course of a few rounds unless they succeed on a Might defense roll each round to resist the transformation. Gaze of Petrification: Witnessing the Medusa's direct gaze requires an immediate Intellect defense roll to avoid the petrifying effect. Serpent Strike: The living serpents on the Medusa's head can extend to strike, causing 4 points of damage and potentially injecting a paralyzing venom. Shard Shatter: The Medusa can target stone statues in the area, especially those of former victims, to shatter and send sharp fragments flying, dealing 3 points of damage in an immediate area and possibly creating a cloud of obscuring dust.
- Interactions:
The Medusa is a cunning negotiator, using her voice to lure or mislead. She may bargain with those who can provide her something she desires, but always with a sinister agenda.
- Uses:
An ancient curse has awakened the Medusa, whose wrath now threatens to spill out into neighboring lands unless brave souls confront her.
- Loot:
Victims of the Medusa often carry treasure or valuable information, now entombed within their stony forms.
- Intrusions:
As a character avoids the Medusa's gaze, they step back onto a loose stone tile, triggering a cascade of noise that echoes through the chamber—alerting the Medusa or her minions to their exact location.
- Source Book:
Merfolk are intelligent creatures with humanlike bodies from the waist up and scaly fish bodies from the waist down. They are able to breathe air or water but prefer the sea for its beauty and their better mobility. Merfolk have great underwater cities ruled by a king or queen, but most land-walking species interact only with the common or soldier merfolk who visit the ocean surface and coastlines. Merfolk societies are much like those of surface humans; their inability to use fire limits them in some ways (such as blacksmithing), but they have compensated for this with water magic and other skills.
Merfolk skin ranges from all human colors to green, blue, and grey. Some have small fins on their heads and elbows or webs between their fingers. They dress for comfort and wear jewelry made of shells, coral, pearls, polished gemstones, and metals they can salvage or trade for. Most of them are content to be hunters or cultivators of kelp and other aquatic plants, but some are curious about land-walkers (and their sunken ships) or fiercely territorial about protecting their waters against outsiders.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defense, entertainment
- Environment:
Oceans, seas, and coasts (Ocean)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate; short when swimming
- Modifications:
Perception as level 4 while in water
- Combat:
Merfolk use spears, tridents, daggers, and other stabbing weapons that are effective underwater. They may create traps using nets to confine or direct foes into an ambush. A few lucky or clever ones have acquired or adapted light crossbows designed to fire underwater up to a short distance away.
About once every ten minutes, a merperson can swim a short distance as their action and still make a melee attack, or swim up to a long distance as their action.
About one in ten merfolk have the magical ability to harden water until it is as strong and durable as wood, taking about an hour to make a spear or similar tool that lasts for several days. Some noble merfolk can create short-range bolts of electricity as an action and make limited alterations to the weather (stilling, increasing, or dispersing wind and clouds in a very long area) by concentrating for several minutes.
- Interactions:
Merfolk react according to their role in merfolk society-farmer, rancher, guard, explorer, noble, and so on. Some merfolk are more aggressive or hostile and dislike the presence of land-walkers in their territory. Most merfolk are amiable to conversation and trade with people who treat them with fairness and respect.
- Uses:
Merfolk are often seen sunning themselves on a small island off the coast. Merfolk warriors accompanied by trained large fish have been harassing boats and ships that stray too far from the shallows and shores. Trained large fish: level 2, attacks as level 3; swims a long distance each round
- Loot:
In addition to several small pieces of jewelry, a group of merfolk might have a manifest cypher. A noble or royal merperson usually has a cypher and might have an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The merfolk's weapon injects poison, inflicting 5 points of Speed damage if the character fails a Might defense task. Another merperson or an allied aquatic creature arrives and joins the fight against the character.
- Source Book:
Sirens of the deep sea, mermaids are humanoid from the waist up, with resplendent scales from the waist down ending in powerful fins. Their bewitching songs can lure seafarers off course, leading them into treacherous waters or to a watery grave. While often depicted as beautiful and alluring, a mermaid's visage can become monstrous when their anger is drawn, revealing sharp, predatory teeth and a fierce, predatory glare.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
To protect their underwater realm, sustain themselves, and occasionally seduce or trick travelers for entertainment or malevolence
- Environment:
Underwater locations, from shallow coastal lagoons to deep oceanic trenches (Ocean)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short on land, long in water
- Modifications:
Charm as level 5; Speed defense as level 5 when underwater; Intellect defense as level 4 when resisting magical effects
- Combat:
Mermaids fight with a combination of enchanting song and physical prowess. They can emit a haunting melody requiring those who hear it to succeed on an Intellect defense roll or become charmed for several minutes, during which the mermaid can give the affected beings simple commands. Physically, their strong tails can be used to deliver powerful constricting attacks or to propel themselves at high speed to avoid attacks.
- Interactions:
Mermaids can be deceptively charming, using their graceful appearance and harmonious voices to coax information or assistance from travelers. However, they can quickly resort to violence if they feel threatened or insulted.
- Uses:
Mermaids could be the guardians of a sunken crypt, the deceivers behind luring ships onto sharp rocks, or reluctant allies if convinced their ocean is in imminent danger.
- Loot:
Sparkling treasures from sunken ships, ancient undersea artifacts, or a mermaid's comb which may hold sea magic within.
- Intrusions:
As a character is influenced by the mermaid's Siren Song, they find themselves walking towards the water, entranced, not noticing the predatory creatures lurking beneath the surface awaiting the mermaid's signal.
- Source Book:
A hulking behemoth with a shimmering body made entirely of intertwining metals, the Metal Elemental is a force of pure metallic might. It can reflect light to dazzle its opponents and is drawn to areas with high concentrations of metal, which it consumes to grow stronger. Its form constantly shifts and changes, with edges becoming blades and appendages turning into hammers as it adapts to its combat needs.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Consumes metals, seeks to integrate complex metal alloys into its form
- Environment:
Ruins of ancient civilizations, metal-rich mines, and any place with abundant metal resources (Underground)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Might defense as level 7 due to its heavy metallic body; Resists energy and physical attacks at one level higher due to armor; Intellect defense as level 4 because of its simplistic elemental intelligence
- Combat:
The Metal Elemental can deliver devastating hammer-like strikes with limbs forged in an instant from its own body. Additionally, once per battle, it can send a shockwave through the ground, requiring all targets within immediate range to make a Speed defense roll or be knocked prone and take damage from flying metal debris. predate_tactics: Reflective Flash: Once per encounter, the Metal Elemental can reflect light in a dazzling display with its metallic surfaces, potentially blinding foes for one round. rend_metal: Metal Rend: When in contact with metal objects or constructs, including armored foes, the Metal Elemental can attempt to fuse with and tear away pieces of metal, weakening or damaging equipment and reducing enemy armor by 1 for the duration of the combat. metal_meld: Metal Meld: The Elemental can phase through metallic objects or structures as though they were insubstantial, allowing it to surprise foes by emerging from metal walls, floors, or ceilings.
- Interactions:
Its simplistic elemental nature makes it indifferent to political and emotional pleas, focusing only on its insatiable hunger for metal in any form.
- Uses:
The characters might need to stop the Metal Elemental from consuming a revered cultural monument or to harness its metal manipulation abilities for some greater good—or perhaps a grave misstep.
- Loot:
Chunks of rare and precious metals can be harvested from its remains, often magically imbued with curious properties.
- Intrusions:
The Metal Elemental suddenly assimilates a significant piece of metal from a player's equipment or nearby environment, transforming it into a part of its armored body or a weapon to use against them.
- Source Book:
These extraterrestrial creatures are known as the Fungi from Yuggoth or the Abominable Ones. They are a bizarre amalgam of insect and fungal entity, with many limbs and wings that can carry them aloft. They sometimes enslave humans to work for them in strange factories, mines, or other labor-intensive capacities.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Knowledge and power
- Environment:
Usually cold or temperate hills or mountains (Mountains)
- Health:
19
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
All knowledge tasks as level 6
- Combat:
Mi-go defend themselves with pincers and claws but are more likely to use technological devices as weapons. Assume that a mi-go has one of the following abilities from a device:
Project a blast of electricity at long range that inflicts 6 points of damage
Emit poison gas in a cloud that fills to short range and inflicts 4 points of Intellect damage if the victim fails a Might defense roll (the mi-go is immune)
Project a holographic image of itself to one side that hinders attacks aimed at the real mi-go by two steps
Project a sonic field that provides +2 to Armor
Mi-go have access to other devices as well, including translators, cylinders that can preserve a human's brain without its body, sophisticated tools, collars that control the actions of their wearers, and weird vehicles. Mi-go suffer no damage from cold and do not need to breathe.
- Interactions:
Although very few mi-go speak human languages, peaceful interaction with these creatures is not impossible. It's just very difficult (level 7), as they see most humans as little more than animals.
- Uses:
The characters are attacked by mi-go intent on capturing and enslaving them. If caught, the PCs are sent to scavenge through primordial ruins for disturbing technological relics.
- Loot:
Mi-go always have 1d6 cyphers as well as many curious objects that have no obvious human function.
- Intrusions:
Fungal spores from the mi-go's body overcome the character, who must succeed at a Might defense roll or lose their next turn. The character faces this risk each round they are within immediate distance of the creature.
Minotaurs are aggressive bull-humanoids who enjoy human flesh. Some legends say the first minotaur was the result of a curse from a god, and others suggest it was created by a demon, but the truth is lost to antiquity. Minotaurs care little about history or their origin, preferring to hunt for meat and spar with each other for dominance and trophies. Minotaurs live in small tribes of up to a dozen adults. Solitary minotaurs are exiles, last survivors of their tribe, or younger individuals claiming their own territory.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Caves, plains, and labyrinths (Wilderness)
- Health:
19
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Hunting and tracking as level 5
- Combat:
Minotaurs attack with their horns or use large weapons. A minotaur can charge up to a short distance and then make an attack, which inflicts an additional 3 points of damage.
Minotaurs are interested in mazes and mazelike spaces and like to wander within them, memorizing the paths and finding good places to stage ambushes. They leave out piles of equipment and useless treasures from previous victims to lure people into the maze and give the minotaur time to corner their prey. Sometimes one minotaur in a tribe develops simple magic powers and is able to create illusions of smoke or mist in an area a short distance across, turn invisible for a few moments, or enchant weapons to inflict bleeding wounds.
- Interactions:
Minotaurs can speak, usually in their own language or another crude humanoid language. However, they typically choose not to speak to weaker creatures (such as humans).
- Uses:
A wandering gang of minotaurs has been stealing livestock from a local village and is ready to start hunting humans. A minotaur gladiator escaped from a secret underground arena and is stalking prey in the city. Something lurks in a corn maze, leaving nothing but bones and bloodstains.
- Loot:
Minotaurs don't have much use for coins but keep a few small trophies, such as ivory dice, gems, or simple jewelry. The most powerful minotaur in the tribe may have a cypher or even a mastercraft weapon.
- Intrusions:
A minotaur smashes a nearby wall, causing part of the ceiling to collapse on one or more characters, inflicting 6 points of damage and trapping them until they can escape from the rubble. A minotaur grabs a character, who can resist with a Might or Speed defense roll; if they fail, the minotaur takes them up to a short distance away and disappears (behind an obstacle, into a maze, or in some other hiding spot)
- Source Book:
The most famous minotaur is the Minotaur, the singular beast from which all lesser minotaur myths descend. The product of a god-cursed union between human and bull, the Minotaur is monstrous, and only the flesh of people can nourish it. It is usually lost in a labyrinth created to contain it. But it occasionally gets free to hunt the wider world before the labyrinth pulls it back. Some demigods claim to have slain the Minotaur, but the Minotaur always returns.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Usually in mythological labyrinths, but sometimes metaphorical ones (Other)
- Health:
33
- Damage:
10 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Breaking through barriers as level 9
- Combat:
The Minotaur attacks by goring foes on its horns, inflicting 10 points of damage on a successful attack. If the Minotaur charges a short distance, it can attack as part of the same action and inflict an additional 5 points of damage.
The Minotaur is trapped by the labyrinth, but also part of it. Whenever a character attacks the Minotaur, they must succeed on an Intellect defense task or be claimed by the labyrinth themselves until they can escape with a successful difficulty 7 Intellect task. Those claimed by the labyrinth seem to disappear and find themselves wandering a dark maze. Once a character successfully escapes, they are no longer subject to being claimed by the labyrinth for several days.
If killed, the Minotaur's body is claimed by the labyrinth. Thirty-three days later, the Minotaur is resuscitated.
- Interactions:
The Minotaur can speak, but usually chooses not to. It is belligerent and cruel, and always hungry.
- Uses:
The Minotaur has escaped the labyrinth and now wanders the narrow streets of a metropolis, treating the winding alleys and twisting roads as its new maze.
- Intrusions:
The Minotaur smashes into the wall, causing a section of the tunnel or hallway to collapse on the character(s), inflicting 10 points of damage and trapping them until they can escape the rubble
- Source Book:
Artificial life can be created by selective breeding, synthetic and genetic engineering, or by accidental miscalculation in some unrelated high-energy or food-research program. When artificial life takes a wrong turn, the results run the gamut from disappointing to dangerous. If an artificial entity starts out benign, it's difficult to know if a hidden or slowly developing flaw will tip it over the edge into dangerous dysfunction-or if it just acts oddly because it doesn't know the social cues. Should synthetic beings be treated as people, pets, or monsters to be stamped out and destroyed? That's the eternal question and one that's usually answered by those most afraid of potential dangers that might accompany the creation of something no one intended.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defense or destruction
- Environment:
Usually in secluded locations alone unless hiding in unused storage rooms of a large facility (Urban)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Combat:
A mock organism can release an electrical discharge against a target at short range. In melee, a mock organism's poisoned claws inflict damage and require the target to succeed on a Might defense task, or the poison induces a coma-like slumber in the target. Each round the target fails to rouse-an Intellect task-they take 3 points of ambient damage.
- Interactions:
A mock organism is intelligent and can sometimes be swayed by reason. It might be passive, but if disturbed in a place it thought was secure against intrusion, it could grow belligerent and even murderous. Once so roused, a mock organism might still be calmed, but all such attempts are hindered.
- Uses:
A scientist's ruined lab contains several unexpected surprises, including a mock organism that yet grieves over the loss of its creator.
- Loot:
A mock organism requires many parts. Salvage from a destroyed mock organism could result in a manifest cypher or two and another item that, with a bit of jury-rigging, works as an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The character hit by the mock organism's melee attack doesn't take normal damage. Instead, the mock organism drops onto the character. The PC is pinned until they can succeed on a difficulty 6 Might-based task to escape. While pinned, the creation whispers mad utterances into the target's ear.
- Source Book:
Mokuren are usually no larger than a cat, but they possess the ability to swell until they're the size of a bus (if only briefly). That ability, combined with their flashy pyrokinetic tails, make these creatures a particular favorite with children, at least in stories and picture books. Given that mokuren can "burrow" into paintings and other two-dimensional art, it's possible that some mokuren images are more than simple representations.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Play
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, usually as static images on walls or in storybooks (Other)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points, unless enlarged; see Combat
- Movement:
Short; long if flying
- Modifications:
Defends as level 5 due to size, unless enlarged; see Combat
- Combat:
A mokuren exists in three states: as an image, as a cat-sized creature, and as a bus-sized behemoth.
As an image, a mokuren can't be harmed. Even if the image is defaced, the mokuren merely "burrows" away and reappears like graffiti on a new flat space within a few miles.
Alternatively, it could emerge from the image and become a physical cat-sized creature as a move. In this form, a mokuren can attack with its claws or bite. It can also direct a stream of fire from its glowing tail at a target within long range. (When a mokuren flies, it's by using its tail to create a jet that rockets it skyward.)
Finally, it can make an enlarged attack, in which it swells to the size of a bus and swipes at, bites, or lands on a target as part of the same action. When enlarged, the mokuren gains +5 to Armor and makes and defends against all attacks as a level 7 creature. On a hit, the enlarged mokuren deals 7 points of damage. However, a mokuren can remain enlarged for a total of only four rounds during any twenty-four-hour period, so it uses this ability sparingly or only when enraged.
- Interactions:
To see an active mokuren is considered good luck, unless you manage to get on the wrong side of one. Then an offering of sweets must be made to the offended creature. A mokuren can't talk, but it can understand the languages where it lives about as well as a trained courser or hound can.
- Uses:
A mokuren can lead characters into unexplored areas, helping them find places they may have overlooked or skipped. It can also lead PCs into danger, but it usually does so only to bring aid (the characters) to someone else in trouble.
- Intrusions:
The character hit by the mokuren doesn't take damage. Instead, they must succeed on a Might defense roll or be pulled into the nearest wall, floor, or book with the creature, becoming a two-dimensional image. In this state, the victim is in stasis until the mokuren pulls them free, another creature "pries" them loose, or a day passes and the effect ends naturally.
Morgan le Fay (also known as Morgen, Margain, Morgant, and various other names) is a powerful sorceress from the legends of King Arthur. She has an unpredictable duality to her nature, with the potential for great good and great evil.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Combat:
Attacks with a variety of weapons, including a sword and staff. She also can use any of the following abilities: charm, enchant, glamour, heal, invisible, persuasion, protect, revive, seduce, and shrivel.
- Interactions:
Morgan le Fay is fickle and enigmatic, and rarely reveals her purposes. If she agrees to help the characters in some way, it's absolutely because she has a higher goal in mind.
- Uses:
The characters are stopped by a beautiful woman in the woods, who asks them to help her accomplish a great task. A powerful foe has brought Morgan le Fay into his confidence, and she is helping him against the PCs.
- Source Book:
Morlocks are degenerate, blind cannibal humanoids that avoid light. They have prominent teeth, piglike eyes, loose skin, and stooped postures. They avoid bright daylight and prefer to hunt and forage when it is dark out (or at least under the twilight-like canopy of a heavy forest). Morlocks eat any sort of meat, even carrion and their own dead. Morlocks build piles of stones to mark their territory. On nights of the new moon, they create unnerving music by playing simple drums made out of skulls and logs. They lack the foresight to store food for lean times, so they range farther from home in winter and times of famine. They are sometimes enslaved by more powerful creatures such as ogres or a vampire.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh, defense
- Environment:
Caves, forests, hills, and underground (Wilderness)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Movement:
Short; short when climbing
- Modifications:
Stealth and tracking as level 4
- Combat:
Morlocks fight with their nails and teeth, but sometimes they use simple weapons like clubs, stone knives, spears, and javelins if they have observed other humanoids doing so. Some tribes dig simple pit traps and chase prey into them.
Morlocks dislike strong light but are not harmed by it. Their hearing and sense of smell is strong enough that they can "see" in dim or very dim light as if it were normal light. They can track scents as well as a trained dog.
- Interactions:
Morlocks have a simple language of hoots, howls, and growls that communicate basic concepts like food, fire, danger, and cold. If enslaved by a more powerful creature, some of them can manage to learn a few words in that creature's language.
- Uses:
Town elders warn that the drums and near-human howls on dark nights are signs of morlocks who'll steal away foolish children. Stacked piles of stones are found in the forest, each surrounded by bare humanoid footprints.
- Loot:
Morlocks don't value what they can't eat, but their lair may have a cypher or two from a recent victim.
- Intrusions:
An unnoticed morlock drags away an unconscious character or animal to be eaten once they're out of sight.
- Source Book:
Mummies are intelligent undead, usually royalty or members of the priesthood, risen from their burial places to destroy those who disturbed their rest. Many seek to undo wrongs against them from ages past or re-establish themselves in their former high stations.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Vengeance, love, power
- Environment:
Regions where mummification was common (Other)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climb, stealth, ancient history, and ancient religion as level 8
- Combat:
Mummies are strong, capable of lifting an adult human with one hand and throwing the person across a room. They attack with weapons that were buried with them or use their fists. A mummy usually has one or more of the following abilities:
Curse: Anyone who disturbs a mummy's tomb must make an Intellect defense roll or become cursed, which hinders their actions by two steps (forever, or until cured).
Disease: The mummy's attacks carry a rotting disease. The target must make a level 5 Might defense roll every twelve hours or take 5 points of ambient damage.
Lifelike appearance: A mummy can repair its body to assume a fully human appearance. This usually requires time and the flesh of several people, often those who awakened it.
Magic: Once per hour, the mummy can cast a spell from the Minor Wish character ability.
Minion: Animate up to four mummified bodies as mindless lesser mummies or skeletons (depending on how well the bodies are preserved), lasting for one day. Lesser mummy: level 3, climb and stealth as level 4; health 12; Armor 1
Swarm: Call a swarm of bugs (usually scarab beetles or scorpions) to attack a foe or obscure vision. Swarm of bugs: level 3
- Interactions:
Mummies want to destroy anyone who disturbs their burial places. Ambitious mummies might choose living beings to be their spies and servants, bribing them with funereal treasures or threatening them into submission.
- Uses:
Villagers whisper that a tomb has been opened and a mummy's curse will strike down anyone who gets in the creature's way.
- Loot:
Mummies usually have treasures equivalent to three or four expensive items and perhaps a handful of magical manifest cyphers or even a magical artifact.
- Intrusions:
A dying mummy speaks a curse upon those who killed it, hindering all their actions by two steps (forever, or until cured). What was overlooked as a fake or a prop turns out to be an actual mummy and attacks a character.
- Source Book:
Also called Drop Bears or Parana Monkeys, these vicious little [beep]-ers will hunt down anything warm-blooded. They excel in ambush tactics. One minute a target is walking down a quiet path, the next they are covered in howling, screaming fur filled with sharp teeth.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
To find something to eat before cannibalism sets in.
- Environment:
Any regular environment from the Arctic to the Tropical (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climb and Hide as level 6.
- Combat:
The Munch Munch Mob often hides in several trees and drops down on their targets. Most mobs have between 8 to 12 individual members and their numbers drop as the mob's health decreases.
- Interactions:
A farmer in the next town (or planet) keeps losing sheep to something in the forest, the evidence are the skeletons, picked clean.
- Uses:
A seemingly safe, sunny path can become a nightmare in broad daylight for low Tier parties.
- Loot:
A magically adept PC could salvage 1 cypher from the remains of such a creature.
- Intrusions:
The bad luck never stops. Rain begins to pour down on the scene, cutting visibility down. All ranged combat is cut down to the next category shorter.
- Source Book:
Genetically engineered to live in the water oceans discovered beneath the ice crusts of various solar moons, natathim (Homo aquus) have human ancestors, but barely look it. Survival in the frigid, lightless depths of extraterrestrial oceans required extreme adaptation. Predominantly dark blue, their undersides countershade to pure white. Though humanoid, their physiology is streamlined, giving their heads a somewhat fish-like shape, complete with gills and large eyes to collect light in the depths. Their bodies are adorned with fins and frills, including a long shark-like tail, and they have webbed extremities with retractable claws.
Depending on the setting, natathim are either human allies with the same (or even more advanced) tech, enemies with the same or more advanced tech, or genetic anomalies treated like laboratory rats burning with genocidal fury at what's been done to them. Alternatively, natathim could be discovered in Earth's deepest oceans, their origin mysterious, but able to interbreed with humans as a method for maintaining their line.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Just as with humans, natathim have many and varied motivations and drives.
- Environment:
Anywhere in or near water, or in suits/craft with marine environments, in schools of three to twelve. Natathim can act normally in air for up to twenty-four hours before they must return to water. (Ocean)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short on land; long in the water
- Modifications:
Swims as level 6
- Combat:
Natathim attack with their retractable claws or, if available, technological weapons. Some have a magnetoreception ability that allows them to see into frequencies other creatures can't, or even stranger abilities to interact magnetically with their surroundings, though this is little understood.
- Interactions:
Natathim can be sympathetic to humans, partners in space exploration, or consider humans to be bitter foes for having created their species in the first place, depending on the setting.
- Uses:
The PCs find evidence of an illegal gene tailoring experiment, with evidence pointing to research being done somewhere in the Opulence of Outer Planets.
- Loot:
- Intrusions:
The natathim spontaneously magnetizes the character's possessions, which hold them helpless against the nearest wall or floor (if also metallic). The PC can take no actions other than attempt to escape.
- Source Book:
The ability to influence, command, and call up the dead is an impressive power, given how many more people are dead than living. Since the only thing separating a living person from a dead one is a well-aimed knife or death spell, the number of dead always rises.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Magical power, mastery over death
- Environment:
In places where dead are interred, usually with some number of undead servitors (Other)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to shroud of undead protective spirits
- Combat:
Necromancers can blast a foe within long range with the cold of the grave or flesh-decaying magic.
A necromancer can cast a death spell on a foe within short range once every minute; the victim must succeed on a Might defense roll or move down one step on the damage track. This ability could be an innate power or come from an artifact.
A necromancer who isn't already accompanied by undead spirits or shambling, spirit-inhabited corpses under their command can call up a spirit as an action. A necromancer can command up to five spirits (or newly allied undead, as described below) at a time.
A necromancer can attempt to take command of a spirit or undead creature within short range. They automatically succeed against an unaligned undead target of level 4 or less. If a targeted spirit is already allied with or in service to a PC, the PC must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or lose control of the spirit to the necromancer's will for one minute.
Spirit: level 3; flesh-decaying touch inflicts 3 points of damage
- Interactions:
Necromancers are feared for their nonchalant attitudes toward life, especially the life of normal people (such as peasants and city folk). They will negotiate but usually don't have the capacity to care about another person's well-being; they're sociopathic.
- Uses:
A character has died, and their allies must find a necromancer to help retrieve their spirit. Of course, the necromancer wants something in return for this aid-perhaps an artifact pilfered from whatever underworld or hell the dead character is imprisoned within.
- Loot:
Necromancers have one or two expensive items, a cypher, and possibly an artifact.
- Intrusions:
A bony hand erupts from the ground at the character's feet. On a failed Speed defense roll, they are held in place until they can succeed on a Might task to escape. Each round the character fails to escape, the hand squeezes them for 3 points of damage.
- Source Book:
In a time before the Divine Age's written history, the gods used the Nephilim as front line soldiers and bodyguards. They served faithfully for centuries, but they grew sentient over time and began to question some of the orders they were given. Eventually this precipitated into The Great Exchange, where numerous Nephilim changed their allegiances to masters who better matched their dispositions.
Many gods found this not to their liking and thus commissioned both mortal and divine forgers to create a new class of servitors. The end result were the Seraph who were tougher, more loyal, and could fly.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
To serve a being that agrees with their own values
- Environment:
Ancient ruins (Urban)
- Health:
8
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
- Combat:
Most Nephilim employ heavy weapons with a shield. They cannot be stunned or dazed. They are immune to most poisons and disease, and the 1 point of Armor protects against ambient damage.
A Nephilim regains health at a rate of 1 point per round if in the presence of a divine being (either a NPC demigod or PC) who is in command of it. Its parts are immune to corrosion and erosion. If it can be repaired, it will function despite its age.
- Interactions:
A scholar has a piece of a Nephilim in their collection. They offer to pay the party to find the other pieces.
- Uses:
A scattered Nephilim can be part of a MacGuffin that leads PCs across the scarred Afterworld to discover the wonders and terrors of a godless world.
- Source Book:
A nightgaunt's hands and feet have no opposable digits. All its fingers and toes can grasp with firm but unpleasant boneless strength. Hungry nightgaunts swoop out of the night, grab prey, and fly off into darkness. The creatures sometimes "work" for other agencies, though often enough, their goals are obscure.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Unknowable
- Environment:
Anywhere dark, usually in groups of four to seven (Urban)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate; long when flying (short when flying with a victim) Modifications: Perception and Speed defense as level 4; stealth as level 7
- Combat:
A nightgaunt can attack with its barbed tail. To catch a foe, a nightgaunt dives through the air from just outside of short range. When it does, it moves 100 feet (30 m) in a round and attempts to grab a victim near the midpoint of its movement. A target who fails a Speed defense roll (and who isn't more than twice the size of the nightgaunt) is jerked into the creature's boneless clutches and carried upward, finding themselves dangling from a height of 50 feet (15 m). The nightgaunt automatically tickles grabbed victims with its barbed tail. This subtle form of torture hinders all the victim's actions by two steps.
- Interactions:
Nightgaunts never speak, and they ignore anyone who attempts to interact with them, whether the communication takes the form of commanding, beseeching, or frantically pleading. Such is the way of nightgaunts.
- Uses:
Someone who bears one or more of the PCs a grudge discovers a tome of spells and summons a flight of nightgaunts, which set off in search of their prey.
- Loot:
One in three nightgaunts has a valuable souvenir from a past victim, which might be an expensive watch, a ring, an amulet, or sometimes a cypher.
- Intrusions:
The character is startled by the nightgaunt and suffers the risk of temporary dementia. On a failed Intellect defense roll, the character shrieks and faints (or, at the GM's option, babbles, drools, laughs, and so on). The character can attempt a new Intellect defense roll each round to return to normal.
- Source Book:
The ethereal Nixie is an aquatic fey creature that appears as an alluring humanoid, with long, flowing hair that shimmers like the sunlit sea. Its translucent skin seems to waver between shades of blue and green. Nixies dwell in freshwater environments, often near enchanted springs or hidden lakes, where they enchant the waters with their mystical songs.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
To protect their watery realm and entrance trespassers
- Environment:
Rivers, lakes, and springs in mystical forests or hidden glades (Ocean)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short, can swim up to long distance
- Modifications:
Charm effects as level 5 due to beguiling presence; Speed defense as level 5 when in water
- Combat:
Nixies often use their alluring song to charm individuals, luring them into their aquatic homes. Once charmed, a victim must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be compelled to follow the Nixie into the water, potentially drowning if they cannot swim. Charming song aside, a Nixie can solidify water into sharp icicles, hurling them with deadly accuracy, or forming them into shields to deflect attacks.
- Interactions:
Nixies are capricious and may be amenable to parley if intrigued or offered tribute, but can become fiercely wrathful if their waters are threatened or polluted. They can communicate with any creature that speaks a language, often using cryptic riddles.
- Uses:
A Nixie could be the guardian of a vital water source, a mischievous trickster that misleads travelers, or a magical ally providing aid in exchange for the cleansing of its home waters.
- Intrusions:
The entranced character, captivated by the Nixie's melody, begins to fill their lungs with water as they uncontrollably inhale, mistaking the liquid for air in their charmed state.
- Source Book:
Whether noble or ignoble, some knights achieve an amazing mastery over weapons, combat, and courtly graces, eclipsing lesser warriors and champions. The quests of some noble knights can lead them far across the land into strange new territories where they encounter and defeat various magical creatures.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Accomplish noble (or ignoble) deeds
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, often alone, sometimes with followers (Other)
- Health:
50
- Damage:
10 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
All tasks related to heraldic lore and chivalry as level 8; Speed defense as level 8 while holding shield
- Combat:
Noble knights are armed with massive weapons they can wield in one hand, which means they can also hold a shield. They are skilled with melee weapons (such as a battleaxe, broadsword, or mace) and inflict lethal damage on a hit.
Noble knights can also rely on a magic artifact or two to aid them, and possibly a noble steed (Noble steed: level 5; moves a long distance each round). The artifact might be the very weapon a knight wields in combat and could grant them one or more of the following additional abilities:
Legendary Strength. The noble knight can call upon the artifact to grant them great strength or fortitude to accomplish a particular physical task (such as breaking down a door, lifting a boulder, or knocking down pillars holding up a structure), which they attempt as if they were level 10.
Regeneration. The noble knight regenerates 2 points of health per round while the weapon is drawn.
Resistance. The noble knight is immune to effects that would influence their mind, charm them, or put them to sleep.
- Interactions:
Flowery language and impeccable manners show a knight's noble background. Those who negotiate with one in good faith are likely to come away with something of value. However, sometimes a noble knight is corrupt and betrays trusts.
- Uses:
A noble knight has decided that they must guard a bridge against any who would cross it.
- Loot:
Noble knights carry weapons, heavy armor, and perhaps a cypher or even an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The character damaged by a noble knight's attack must succeed on a Might defense roll or be knocked off a mount, a bridge, or a cliff, or, if nothing suffices, they are knocked to the ground and out of immediate range of the knight.
- Source Book:
Nuppeppos are animated lumps of human flesh that walk on vaguely defined limbs. They smell of decay and death. They're spotted in graveyards, battlefields, coroner's offices, and other places where the dead are kept or interred. When witnessed in other places, nuppeppos seem to wander streets aimlessly, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, and sometimes following a living person who'd rather be left alone.
Information about these creatures is scarce. They might be the unintended consequence of a reanimation attempt, one that's able to catalyze its animation in similarly dead tissue to form more nuppeppos. On the other hand, they could be particularly gruesome spirits of the dead.
A nuppeppo sometimes follows a living individual around like a silent, smelly pet that shows no affection. No one knows why.
(If a nuppeppo begins to follow a character, interaction tasks by that character and their allies are hindered. Most other creatures are put off by a lump of animate human flesh hanging around nearby.)
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Wander, graze on dead flesh
- Environment:
Near places of death at night, alone or in groups of up to eight (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Combat:
A nuppeppo can smash a foe with one of its lumpy limbs. If a nuppeppo is touched or struck in melee, the attacker's weapon (or hand) becomes stuck to the nuppeppo and can be pulled free only with a difficulty 5 Might roll.
A victim of a nuppeppo's attack (or someone who touches a nuppeppo) begins to decay at a rate of 1 point of Speed damage (ignores Armor) per round, starting in the round following contact. To stop the spread of the decay, the victim can cut off the layer of affected flesh, which deals 4 points of damage (ignores Armor).
- Interactions:
If approached, a nuppeppo turns to "face" its interlocutor, but it doesn't respond to questions or orders. However, it may begin to follow its interlocutor from that point forward unless physically prevented-at which point the nuppeppo becomes violent.
- Uses:
The PCs open a grave, a coffin, or a sealed research lab, and several nuppeppos spill out. Unless stopped, the creatures attempt to "adopt" their discoverers.
- Intrusions:
The character who allowed the nuppeppo to follow them around like a pet (or who has been unable to prevent it) wakes to find that the creature has settled upon them in the night and is using its touch-decay abilities to feed. In fact, the character might already be incapacitated by the time they wake.
This colossal cephalopod lurks in the depths of the ocean, its eight tentacles undulating with terrifying grace. The giant octopus is an eerie sight, with skin that shimmers and shifts color to match its surroundings, allowing for near-perfect camouflage. When hunting, the giant octopus uses its intelligent gaze to study prey and uses the environment to its advantage, creating whirlpools or manipulating debris to trap or confuse targets before closing in.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Driven by curiosity and hunger
- Environment:
Deep ocean waters, occasionally near coastlines searching for food (Ocean)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5
- Combat:
The giant octopus attacks by ensnaring its victims with its strong tentacles, dragging them underwater or smashing them against hard surfaces. Each tentacle strike has a chance to grapple; upon a successful hit, the victim must pass a Might defense roll or be held fast (immobilized). While grappled, they take an additional 4 points of crushing damage per round until they escape. Escaping the grapple is a difficulty 5 Might task.
- Interactions:
While not actively seeking dialogue with surface dwellers, the giant octopus is of high intellect and might show curiosity towards unusual creatures or objects, inadvertently leading to dangerous interactions for the unprepared.
- Uses:
Treasure seekers may find that the glint of gold in a sunken ship catches more than just their eyes; it's also favored by the cunning giant octopus. Local legends might speak of the 'Kraken's Cousin' that protects the cursed treasure at the ocean's floor.
- Loot:
Rare pearls, ancient sunken treasures occasionally found among its lair
- Intrusions:
As the character evades or strikes a seemingly isolated tentacle, multiple camouflaged limbs reveal themselves, launching a coordinated surprise attack from all directions.
- Source Book:
A bestial brute, the ogre is a sadistic, 8-foot (2 m) tall, cannibalistic fiend that preys upon other creatures in the woods, mountains, or other wilderness areas. This often pits them against sylvan beings like elves and fey. Ogres dwelling in more civilized lands are also the enemy of humans, but these ogres usually come no closer to civilization than its very fringes.
Ogres typically dress in ragged, piecemeal clothing or nothing at all.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh, sadistic
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually alone or (rarely) in a band of three or four (Wilderness)
- Health:
20
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Feats of raw strength as level 6; Intellect defense and seeing through deception as level 3; Speed defense as level 3 due to size
- Combat:
Ogres usually use clubs or large, two-handed weapons with great power. Since they are accustomed to fighting smaller creatures, they are adept at using their size and strength to their advantage. If an ogre strikes a foe smaller than itself, either the victim is knocked back up to 5 feet (1.5 m), or it is dazed, which hinders its next action.
Ogres can also swing their huge weapons in wide arcs, attacking all foes within close range. Defending against this attack is hindered and the attack inflicts 5 points of damage.
Ogres rarely flee from a fight, and only a foe of overwhelming power can force them to surrender.
- Interactions:
Ogres are stupid and cruel. They speak whatever language is most common in the area in which they live, but their vocabulary is extremely limited. They don't like conversation, even with their own kind. Reasoning with them is difficult at best, but sometimes they can be fooled.
- Uses:
A solitary ogre is an excellent encounter for a group of first-tier characters. A number of ogres, particularly well-equipped and well-trained warriors, make excellent troops or guards in the service of a powerful master. Evil wizards and warlords like to enslave ogres and place them at the forefront of their armies. In these cases, the ogres are typically bribed, ensorcelled, or intimidated by great force.
- Loot:
Some ogres hoard gold or other valuables in their lairs, but they rarely have use for magic or cyphers.
- Intrusions:
The ogre's mighty blow (whether it strikes a foe or not) hits the ground or the wall, causing major structural damage and a possible collapse, cave-in, or landslide. It might also expose a hidden underground cave or chamber.
Among the many stories passed down the space lanes, a few stand out for their grandiosity. Take the tales of omworwar sightings in the empty voids between stars, or even more unexpectedly, flashing through the abnormal space during FTL travel. Scientists speculate that these creatures, if actually real, might very well be extant instances of ancient ultras, not extinct as everyone believes, or at least not completely. In almost every case so far recorded, omworwars have little interest in human spacecraft. (They're called omworwar after the sound disrupted communication devices make in their presence.) Each one is several kilometers long, a dark inner slug-like core surrounded by gauzy layers of translucent, glowing, nebula-like tissue. Whale-like eyes surmount the dorsal surface, each seeming to contain a tiny galaxy all their own. Wharn interceptors have been seen accompanying single omworwars, indicating an association, and is why some people refer to these beings as wharn cogitators.
- Level:
10 (30)
- Motive:
Unpredictable
- Environment:
Almost anywhere in space, alone or accompanied by one or two wharn interceptors (Space)
- Health:
42
- Damage:
12 points
- Armor:
10
- Movement:
Flies a very long distance each round; can maneuver like an autonomous level 7 spacecraft if using extended vehicular combat rules. FTL capable.
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 7 due to size
- Combat:
An omworwar can manipulate and fold gravity (and space-time), allowing them to accomplish near-miraculous tasks including communication, creating or destroying matter, and propulsion via "falling" through the universe at FTL speeds from the perspective of an outside observer. Which means one can rend a spacecraft, send a spacecraft spinning through the galaxy, or create asteroid-sized chunks of space-matter for any number of purposes if it spends several rounds in deep concentration.
- Interactions:
Omworwar disregard most other creatures, because from the omworwar's perspective, they're like mayflies, here and then gone again in an eyeblink of their existence. However, one may give a moment to someone who has discovered an ancient ultra secret or artifact, pass on information that might otherwise never be known, or even provide a useful manifest cypher.
- Uses:
A reflective object composed of unknown material was found at the core of an unexpectedly destroyed space station. Those who managed to flee in lifeboats report having seen what might have been an omworwar, bleeding energy and eyes going dark, colliding with the station. The resultant lump might just be its corpse, or maybe its protective chrysalis.
- Loot:
Four level 10 manifest cyphers.
- Intrusions:
The character discovers that one of their manifest cyphers has formed a tiny eye, but an eye that seems to contain a galaxy.
- Source Book:
Born into squalor and fear, the orc species is composed of miserable, misbegotten humanoids that seem destined to serve as fodder for more powerful evil overlords. When left to their own devices, these loathsome creatures turn on each other, the strongest oppressing the next weakest (and so on down the line) with cruel barbs, gruesome jokes, and physical beatings. When these creatures have no masters to hate, they hate themselves.
No two orcs look exactly alike, but all have a mean, ugly, and shambolic facade. Never clean and often spattered with the remains of recent meals, orcs have a mouthful of sharp, broken teeth that can develop into true fangs. Adults range in height from no larger than a human child to massive specimens larger than a strapping man. Whether big or small, nearly all orcs have stooped backs and crooked legs. The hue of their skin is hard to ascertain, because they are covered by the sediment of years, not to mention the iron armor every orc constantly wears from the moment it's able to lift a weapon.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Make others more miserable than itself
- Environment:
Anywhere near, on, or under mountains, usually in groups of four to six, or in tribes dozens to hundreds strong (Mountains)
- Health:
7
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 3 when carrying a shield; pleasant interactions as level 1
- Combat:
Most orcs have bows able to target foes within long range. Some carry a shield and wield a medium axe, sword, or mace that inflicts 4 points of damage. Other orcs (usually those that are larger than their fellows) dispense with shields and wield heavy two-handed mauls and hammers that inflict 6 points of damage.
Orcs live short, brutish lives. The few that survive for years do so because of some special advantage; they're sneakier, stronger, tougher, or meaner than average. These have the following modifications, respectively:
- Stealth tasks as level 5
- Deal 2 additional points of damage with melee weapons
- +10 health
- Tasks related to trickery and deceit as level 5
- Interactions:
An orc would stab its own mother if it thought doing so would give it another hour of life in a desperate situation. That said, most orcs have been conditioned, through beatings and torture, to fear the evil master they serve (if any). Characters attempting to negotiate with an orc through intimidation find that short-term success is followed by medium-term betrayal.
- Uses:
A band of orcs fires on the PCs from the edge of the forest. However, these orcs are crafty, and characters who rush directly into combat might fall victim to a hidden pit trap or other prepared ambush.
- Loot:
Orcs carry a lot of garbage. Amid this dross, a band of orcs might have currency equivalent to a moderately priced item among them.
- Intrusions:
With a scream of savage glee, five more orcs rush to join the fight.
It is perhaps the greatest feat the Wizard of Oz ever pulled off to make everyone believe that he was not a sorcerer at all, but merely a ventriloquist and balloonist from some faraway land. He is, in fact, far more powerful than that, but prefers that no one were ever to know. For if they did, they would expect things of him, and that makes him anxious.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Combat:
Oz does not fight, but instead sends his army of green-whiskered soldiers forth.
He may also use an artifact or spell to protect himself, hide himself, or flee. He can use the following abilities: enchant, invisible, persuasion.
Green-whiskered soldiers: level 4; Armor 2; unloaded rifles deal 4 points of damage
- Interactions:
Curmudgeonly and a bit of a humbug, but rarely with evil intent, Oz is likely to help those who ask, although he often fumbles things just to make a point.
- Uses:
The characters set off to meet the powerful ruler of a strange land. Or they encounter someone they believe is just a humble, simple man, but who instead turns out to be incredibly powerful.
- Loot:
Oz has at least one artifact, as well as 1d6 cyphers.
- Source Book:
This magnificent winged horse glides through the air with a mythical grace. Its feathers shimmer with celestial energy, and its eyes are as deep as the night sky. The Pegasus is a serene and intelligent creature, often sought after by heroes and villains alike for its prowess in flight and its rare, almost supernatural presence.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Seeking freedom and aiding the pure of heart
- Environment:
Sky islands, mountainous regions, and secluded mystical groves (Mountains)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate when walking, Long when flying
- Modifications:
Perception and Speed defense as level 6 due to aerial agility; Interacting with those of pure heart as level 4
- Combat:
While not innately aggressive, the Pegasus can deliver powerful kicks and bite when necessary. The creature prefers to stay at a distance, using its superior mobility to avoid conflicts. If engaged in battle, the Pegasus can unleash a coruscating wave of energy from its wings, requiring a successful Speed defense roll or inflicting 4 points of intellect damage (ignores armor) as it overwhelms foes' senses with awe. : Once per battle, as a reaction, the Pegasus can perform an instantaneous short-range teleport to avoid an attack or reposition itself, leaving behind a trail of shimmering light. : Once per day, the Pegasus can create a gust of wind that shields it and up to one ally within immediate range, granting an asset to Speed defense tasks for one minute.
- Interactions:
The Pegasus communicates through empathic bonds and is drawn to individuals with noble intentions. It may assist in quests that align with its incorruptible nature, but will take flight if it senses corruption or evil.
- Uses:
A majestic Pegasus may be the guardian of a sacred place, the companion of a lost hero, or an omen of an impending divine event.
- Intrusions:
The awe-inspiring radiance of the Pegasus' aerial maneuvers blinds a character temporarily or the character is caught off-guard as the Pegasus takes flight, requiring a Might defense roll to avoid being knocked prone.
- Source Book:
Hard-light technology, which creates pseudo-matter from modified photons, has made possible all kinds of structures and devices that wouldn't otherwise exist. One of those, unfortunately, are self-sustaining photonic matter creatures. Sometimes, photonomorphs are enforcers created by much more powerful beings; other times they are the result of some person or AI attempting to ascend into a new state of being. But whatever their origin, photonomorphs are dangerous beings that can create matter from light, granting them an arbitrarily wide swathe of abilities. That includes their own glowing bodies, which they can change with only a little effort. This variability of form, coupled with their vast power, may be why many seem slightly mad.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Varies
- Environment:
Anywhere, alone or attended by three to five servitors appearing as hovering red spheres Servitor: level 4; flies a long distance each round (Other)
- Health:
22
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Reconstitutes itself anywhere light can reach within long range as part of another action
- Modifications:
Knowledge tasks as level 8
- Combat:
Photonomorphs draw upon their own light to manifest effects equal to their level. Effects include the ability to attack creatures at long range with laser-like blasts, create glowing walls (or spheres) of force within an area up to 6 m (20 feet) on a side, become invisible, change its appearance, and create simple objects and devices out of hard light that last for about a minute (unless the photonomorph bleeds a few points of its health into the object to make it last until destroyed).
A photonomorph regains 2 points of health each round in areas of bright light. It is hindered in all actions if the only source of light is itself or objects it has created.
- Interactions:
Photonomorphs are intelligent and paranoid, but not automatically hostile. They have their own self-serving agendas, which often involve elaborate schemes.
- Uses:
A photonomorph appears, claiming to be a herald of some vastly more powerful cosmic entity or approaching alien vessel.
- Intrusions:
The photonomorph uses its ability to create a hard- light object or effect that is perfect for aiding it for the situation at hand.
- Source Book:
Pixies are tiny, mischievous fae creatures with shimmering wings like those of a dragonfly. They love to play tricks on unwary travelers and are known for their glowing aura that illuminates the darker corners of the forests they inhabit. With a sprinkle of their pixie dust, they can cause delightful illusions or, in some cases, induce confusing and befuddling effects.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Delight in mischief and games, curious about visitors
- Environment:
Forests, meadows, and other places rich in nature (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4 due to size and agility; Interacting with nature as level 4
- Combat:
Pixies rarely engage in direct combat. Instead, they use their abilities to disorient their opponents. Any creature that starts its turn within immediate range of a pixie must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or become dazed, granting disadvantage on their next action. Pixie Dust Illusion: Once per encounter, a pixie can unleash a cloud of dust in a short range, forcing all creatures who see it to make an Intellect defense roll. On a failure, they perceive illusions that hinder their actions for the next two rounds. Invisibility: Pixies can turn invisible at will, popping in and out of sight to confound their foes. While invisible, all attacks against them have disadvantage. Healing Touch: Once per day, a pixie can touch a living creature and heal it for 1d6 points of damage. Pixies may use this ability to aid those they deem pure of heart or in dire need.
- Interactions:
Pixies are highly social among their own kind, but they can be wary of others. They may communicate with outsiders if they feel it's safe or entertaining, often speaking in riddles.
- Uses:
The PCs might need to seek out the pixies to acquire some of their magical pixie dust for a spell, or the pixies themselves might need assistance against a more malevolent forest presence.
- Loot:
Pixie dust, which may have magical properties. Glowing trinkets and tiny tools made to scale with the pixies' size
- Intrusions:
The misdirected attack of a player causes a cascade of vibrant, blinding light to erupt from a pixie, hindering all actions for the blinded character for one turn.
- Source Book:
Rather than evolving naturally, posthumans advance via a directed jump, designed with smart tools and AI surgeons. With all the advances fantastic technology brings to their genetic upgrade, posthumans are beings whose basic capacities radically exceed regular people. They can't really be considered human any longer; they've transcended humanity, which is why they're also sometimes called transhumans. They're often involved in large-scale projects, such as creating bigger-than-world habitats or spacecraft, or possibly even researching how they might ascend to some still-higher realm of consciousness or being.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Variable
- Environment:
Alone or in small groups or communities in orbital colonies or other designed locations (Space)
- Health:
50
- Damage:
9 points
- Armor:
4
- Movement:
Short; flies a long distance
- Modifications:
Knowledge tasks as level 9
- Combat:
Posthumans can selectively attack foes up to a very long distance away with bolts of directed plasma that deal 9 points of damage. A posthuman can dial up the level of destruction if they wish, so instead of affecting only one target, a bolt deals 7 points of damage to all targets within short range of the primary target, and 1 point even if the targets caught in the conflagration succeed on a Speed defense roll.
Posthumans can also call on a variety of other abilities, either by small manipulations of the quantum field or by deploying nanotechnology. Essentially, a posthuman can mimic the ability of any subtle cypher of level 5 or less as an action.
Posthumans automatically regain 2 points of health per round while its health is above 0.
- Interactions:
Posthumans are so physically and mentally powerful that they are almost godlike to unmodified people, and either ignore, care for, or pity them. Knowing what a posthuman actually wants is hard to pin down because their motivations are complex and many-layered.
- Uses:
A rogue posthuman is researching a method whereby they might portal into the "quantum" realm of dark energy underlying the known universe of normal matter. Despite the revealed risk of antagonistic post-singularity AIs roaming that realm escaping, the posthuman continues their work.
- Loot:
The body of a posthuman is riddled with unrecognizable technologies fused seamlessly with residual organic material-or at least material that grows like organic material used to. Amid this, it might be possible to salvage a few manifest cyphers and an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The posthuman allows acts out of turn, or takes control of a device that the character is about to use against the posthuman.
- Source Book:
Fey nobility are as numberless as cottonwood seeds on the June breeze. But that doesn't mean each isn't unique, with a quirky personality and a specific role to play in the mysterious Court of Summer. Demonstrating life, vigor, predation, growth, and competition, the princesses and princes of summer are beings of warmth and generosity, usually. But catch them during the change of the season, and they can be deadly adversaries just as easily. Fey nobles dress in costly diaphanous and flowing garments, and often wear some sign of their noble lineage, such as a circlet or diadem.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Unpredictable; defend fey territory and prerogatives
- Environment:
Almost any wilderness region alone or commanding a small group of lesser faerie creatures (Wilderness)
- Health:
22
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; short when gliding on the wind
- Modifications:
Tasks related to deception, disguise, courtly manners, and positive interactions as level 7
- Combat:
Most fey princesses and princes are armed with an elegant sword and possibly a bow carved of silverwood. Also, each knows one or more faerie spells. Faerie spells include the following.
Brilliant Smile: Target must succeed on an Intellect defense task or do the fey creature's will for up to one minute.
Golden Mead: Allies who drink from the fey's flask gain an asset to all defense tasks for ten hours.
Night's Reward: Target suffers 5 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and must make an Intellect defense roll or fall asleep for up to one minute.
Summer Confidence: Selected targets in short range have an asset on tasks related to resisting fear and acting boldly.
Thorns: Target suffers 5 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) and must succeed on a Might defense task or lose their next turn entangled in rapidly grown thorny vines.
Princes and princesses of summer regain 2 points of health per round while their health is above 0 unless they've been damaged with a silvered or cold iron weapon.
- Interactions:
Most fey are willing to talk, and those of the Summer Court are especially eager to make deals. However, people who bargain with fey nobles should take care to avoid being tricked.
- Uses:
The characters find a fey noble wounded and in need of aid.
- Loot:
In addition to fine clothing, fine equipment, and a considerable sum of currency, a prince or princess of summer might carry a few cyphers and even a faerie artifact.
- Intrusions:
The character is blinded for up to one minute by a shaft of brilliant sunlight unless they succeed on a Might defense task.
A puppet tree is a 25-foot (8 m) tall, spiky, orange and blue tree surrounded by a large area of red reeds that tremble and wave enticingly even when no wind is present. Humanoid figures are often gathered around it, but these rotted, overgrown corpses are the tree's victims, dead but serving as fleshy puppets to the tree's will.
Victims drained of knowledge and life are used as lures to draw in yet more victims, at least until the bodies rot away. When not used as lures, the corpse puppets are sent to scout nearby areas.
(Corpse puppet: level 2; struck targets must also succeed on a Might defense task or be grabbed until they can escape; all tasks attempted by the grabbed target are hindered; free-roaming puppets remain animate for one day)
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for fresh bodies
- Environment:
On hilltops, isolated from other plant life (Other)
- Health:
33
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
None
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size and immobility; deception and disguise (puppeteering corpses to act in a lifelike manner) as level 7
- Combat:
Some of the red reeds surrounding a puppet tree end in a hard, sharp crystal spike. When a living creature comes within short range of the tree, the reeds rise behind the target and try to skewer them through the head or neck with the spike. If a target is killed by these attacks, the puppet tree controls the body as a corpse puppet, using it to enact its plans. Over time these humanoids rot and are overgrown by the biology of the plant, losing utility for the tree. Most trees have about five corpse puppets active, which can be simultaneously animated to attack foes.
A puppet tree is vulnerable to fire. All fire attacks against the tree inflict 2 additional points of damage and ignore Armor. The puppet tree will always attempt to stop a fire, or target the source of flame during combat.
A corpse puppet can be detached and sent roaming; however, it retains only about a day's worth of animation, after which it collapses and molders like a normal corpse. Sometimes, however, a sapling puppet tree blooms from the remains.
- Interactions:
Puppet trees are highly intelligent, but malevolent. Even if communication can be opened via telepathy or some other means, the tree will always attempt to double-cross the PCs.
- Uses:
The PCs spy a group of "people" having a picnic under a strange-looking tree in the middle of nowhere.
- Loot:
Possessions of former victims can be found in the red reeds, usually including a moderate amount of currency and various bits of gear. Devices of victims (if any) are collected by the corpse puppets and cobbled together into a strange machine, its purpose inexplicable.
- Intrusions:
Two corpse puppets, unseen in the red reeds, rise and seize a character in an attempt to hold them still for a crystal spike attack. The character must make a difficulty 4 Speed or Might task to shake free.
This colossal worm, with mucus-coated purple scales, tunnels through the earth with terrifying ease. It devours everything in its path, using its massive, gaping maw lined with rows of jagged teeth. The creature's immense size and appetite make it a natural disaster when it surfaces. Despite its name, an adult purple worm is a riot of colors due to the various soils it's consumed and absorbed into its scales over its lifetime.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Insatiable hunger, territorial dominance
- Environment:
Underground lairs, sometimes surfacing in desolate places (Underground)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Immediate when burrowing, short when on the surface
- Modifications:
Climbing and tunneling as level 9; Attacks and Might defense as level 9 due to size and strength
- Combat:
The purple worm attacks primarily by biting, but it can also slam its body into opponents for the same damage. Victims struck by the bite must make a Might defense roll. On a failure, the creature swallows the victim whole, inflicting an automatic 10 points of damage per round due to digestive acids until the victim escapes or the worm is slain. The worm can have up to two medium-sized creatures in its gullet at the same time.
- Interactions:
The purple worm is not intelligent and cannot be reasoned with. Its primary drive is to consume organic matter, which sometimes includes unfortunate adventurers.
- Uses:
A mining operation has unearthed a dormant purple worm. As it awakens, it wreaks havoc on the surrounding settlement, a danger the miners are ill-equipped to handle.
- Loot:
Adventurers brave enough to cut their way out of the beast—or dissect it afterward—might find precious metals and gemstones among the undigested rubble in its gullet.
- Intrusions:
As a player character narrowly avoids a bite, the ground beneath them gives way, revealing another tunnel in the worm's vast network— possibly filled with hazardous gases, or worse, more purple worms.
- Source Book:
Ah, the Evil Queen. Ruler of the land, watcher in the mirror. Full of magic, utterly merciless, and sharp of tongue. Evil and wicked queens abound in fairy tales, from those who have no names and are remembered only for their evil deeds, to those whose names will never be forgotten: Queen Grimhilde, Maleficent, the Queen of Hearts, and the White Witch. These queens seek power for power's sake, not caring what destruction lies in their wake.
Of course, not all queens are evil--just the ones you hear about most often. But they are all powerful in their own way, even if they are forced to hide it by their circumstances. While they too crave power, they seek it in order to protect their lands, their people, and their loved ones.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Power
- Environment:
Anywhere, but typically in cities and towns, where there are people to admire and fear them (Urban)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short
- Combat:
Queens almost always carry an artifact of great power, such as a staff, crown, mirror, or sword, that grants them unique abilities and skills.
Queens often have familiars, such as ravens, who fight for or beside them. Most familiars can do 4 points of damage with an attack.
Some queens may also be witches or fey creatures, and thus have the ability to use one or two spells and curses that witches and fey also use.
- Source Book:
Perhaps best known for her attempts to kill Snow White through magic and poison, Grimhilde has other passions and talents as well. She seeks ways to make all beings obey her commands, starting with the huntsman who so stupidly and willfully deceived her so long ago.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Environment:
One of her many castles, the woods (Forest)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Combat:
Her vulture familiars swirl about all foes in short range, knocking them prone and inflicting 4 points of damage. She can use the following witch abilities: glamour, imprison, and seduce.
Vulture familiars: level 4
- Interactions:
Grimhilde is cunning and devious, always hatching plans against those who harm her, who threaten to overshadow her, or who have caught her eye in some way.
- Uses:
The characters enter an area that is under Grimhilde's power and must face her wrath.
- Loot:
She has a mirror mirror artifact, as well as 1d6 cyphers (often poison).
- Source Book:
A ravage bear is a hideous predator that hunts entirely by sense of smell. It is blind and nearly deaf, but it still tracks and senses prey easily. It is very protective of its young, and if hungry, it is extremely dangerous. Otherwise, it gives most creatures a wide berth.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Alone or in pairs (usually with a few cubs) in wooded, rocky, or mountainous areas, typically in cold or temperate climes (Forest)
- Health:
20
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Makes Might defense rolls as level 6; runs, climbs, and jumps as level 7
- Combat:
A ravage bear grabs foes with its powerful arms, holds them fast, and then squeezes and tears at them until they are dead. It can hold only one creature at a time. While a ravage bear is holding a creature, it can attack only the held creature. In each round that a held creature does not escape, it suffers 4 points of damage in addition to damage from attacks made against it.
A ravage bear can move very quickly in short sprints. In combat, it can go into an insane fury and will fight to the death. If it takes 10 or more points of damage, its defenses are hindered, but its attacks are eased.
Ravage bears are immune to visual effects, such as illusions. However, olfactory effects can confuse and "blind" them temporarily.
- Interactions:
Ravage bears are animals and act like animals.
- Uses:
Ravage bears are likely chance encounters in the wilderness for unlucky travelers.
- Intrusions:
In its rage, the ravage bear makes an extra attack that does 2 additional points of damage.
A reanimated is a humanoid creature patched together from corpses (or crafted directly from muscle, nerves, and sinew), then returned to life through a hard-to-duplicate series of electromagnetic induction events. Though made of flesh, a reanimated's return to consciousness and mobility is marked by a substantial increase in hardiness, resistance to injury, and longevity. On the other hand, the process usually obliterates whatever mind was once encoded in the donor's brain, giving rise to a creature of monstrous rage and childlike credulity. Sometimes the reanimated is bound to its creator in service, but such ties are fragile and could be snapped by an ill-timed fit of fury.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Defense, unpredictable
- Environment:
Anywhere in service to a mad scientist, or driven to the edges of civilization (Other)
- Health:
70
- Damage:
7 points
- Movement:
Short; long when jumping
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 4; interaction as level 2; feats of strength and toughness as level 8
- Combat:
A reanimated attacks foes with its hands. Any time a foe inflicts 7 or more points of damage on the reanimated with a single melee attack, the creature immediately lashes out in reactive rage and makes an additional attack in the same round on the foe who injured it.
If the reanimated begins combat within long range of foes but outside of short range, it can bridge the distance with an amazing leap that concludes with an attack as a single action. The attack inflicts 4 points of damage on all targets within immediate range of the spot where the reanimated lands.
Some reanimated are psychologically vulnerable to fire, and they fear it. When these reanimated attack or defend against a foe wielding fire, their attacks and defenses are hindered by two steps.
If struck by electricity, a reanimated regains a number of points of health equal to the damage the electricity would normally inflict.
- Interactions:
Fear and food motivate a reanimated, though sometimes beautiful music or innocence can stay its fists.
- Uses:
Depending on where a reanimated falls along its moral and psychological development, it could be a primary foe for the PCs, a secondary guardian to deal with, or a forlorn beast in need of aid.
- Intrusions:
The character's attack bounces harmlessly off the stitched, hardened flesh of the reanimated.
- Source Book:
Redivi spend most of their lives-uncounted millennia-hurtling through space. Most never encounter anything, but some few impact other worlds, are captured by alien spacecraft, or otherwise intercepted. Their traveling form resembles rocky space rubble the size of a small spacecraft-until they unfurl glowing magnetic plasma wings, revealing themselves as strange creatures of living mineral. Redivi can interact with almost any electronic system and manipulate electromagnetic fields. Redivi are searchers, all sent forth by the Great Mother, billions upon billions of them (they say), looking for the seed of the next great cosmic expansion. Thus, most redivi are consumed with finding out more, finding other redivi, and eventually, finding their "universal seed."
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Knowledge
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, searching (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
4
- Movement:
Flies (magnetically levitates) a short distance each round
- Combat:
The stone carapace of a redivus makes a huge "club" when it rams into foes. However, it can also control metal within short range, causing it to flex, animate, crush, or smash. For instance, targets wearing metal space suits are in trouble when that metal begins to unravel. Alternatively, a redivus can use nearby metal to wrap around a target and constrict it, inflicting 5 points of damage (ignores Armor) each round until the target can escape.
- Interactions:
If any kind of radio or similar communication is in use, these creatures can commandeer it and speak through it, learning a new language seemingly over the course of minutes. Redivi will cooperate with reasonable requests and negotiate, especially if there's a chance they'll find out something new.
- Uses:
A redivi pod smashes into the side of the spacecraft, and might at first seem like some kind of attack or boarding action of something truly terrible.
- Intrusions:
The character's metal- containing equipment is stripped away, then used as ammunition against that PC or an ally.
- Source Book:
Virtually identical to adult humans, these biosculpted androids are stronger, faster, and potentially smarter. However, because they are manufactured beings with grafted memories, replicants rarely feel true human emotion, be that love, sadness, or empathy, though those who live long enough to lay down their own memories can develop the capacity to do so.
However, few replicants gain the opportunity because they are created for a purpose, which could be to serve as police or guards, as soldiers in a distant war, or as impostors shaped to blend in with people so they can explore on behalf of an alien intelligence or a bootstrapped AI. In most of these cases, these purposes lead to a relatively short span of existence, which usually ends when the replicant chooses to detonate itself rather than be captured.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Go unnoticed; stamp out (or replace) any who learn of their existence
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
18
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Tasks related to pleasant social interaction, understanding human social norms, and deception as level 2
- Combat:
Replicants blend in and prefer not to enter combat. Since destruction is not usually their principal goal, they avoid confrontation. If, however, something threatens their mission, they defend themselves to the best of their ability. Replicants might use weaponry but are adept in using their limbs to batter foes into submission.
A replicant poses the greatest danger when its physical form begins to fail through violence or natural degradation (many seem to have a natural "life" span of just a few years). When reduced to 0 points of health, the replicant explodes, inflicting 10 points of damage to everything in long range.
- Interactions:
Replicants are designed to look human and, at least during a casual interaction, pass as human. But extended conversation trips up a replicant more often than not. Eventually, a replicant gets something wrong and says inappropriate things or exhibits strange mannerisms.
- Uses:
A contact of one of the characters is secretly a replicant. It has survived longer than expected, and its connection to whatever created it has weakened enough that it has gained some independence and made strong emotional connections to the PC. It knows its time is running out and may turn to the character for help.
- Intrusions:
The character struck by the replicant is smashed into the wall so hard that the surrounding structure begins to collapse on them.
Mythical colossal birds, Rocs rule the skies with their majestic and terrible presence. Their wingspan dwarfs trees and their talons can snatch up whole horses. With feathers as hard as steel and eyes sparkling with intelligence, they are not just predators but forces of nature.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Dominating the skies, collecting shiny treasures for their nest
- Environment:
Mountain peaks, high cliffs (Mountains)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Perception as level 8
- Combat:
A Roc swoops down from the sky, clutching at its prey with sharp talons. On a successful hit, not only does the victim take damage but must also succeed on a Might defense roll or be snatched up into the air, where the Roc can drop them for additional fall damage. Victims held by the Roc are hindered in all tasks to escape its grasp by two steps.
- Interactions:
Rocs are intelligent but reclusive. They might be persuaded to communicate or bargain if offered shiny valuables or if their nests or young are in peril.
- Uses:
Perhaps the Roc has grabbed something or someone important, or its nest is located in a place that the characters need to reach, such as a mountain pass or ancient ruin.
- Loot:
A Roc's nest is likely to contain valuable objects, from magic items to pieces of pure gold, attracted by their gleam.
- Intrusions:
The Roc, once thought to be retreating, circles back and creates a gust of wind with its mighty wings, knocking the character off their feet or off balance, imposing a disadvantage for their next action.
- Source Book:
Resembling a sleek salamander sheathed in dancing flames, the Flame Salamander is a creature born from the heart of volcanoes. Its body thrives on heat, and it leaves a trail of smoldering ash in its wake. These creatures prefer to stay near natural heat sources but venture outward when driven by hunger or territorial instincts.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Seeking heat and consuming flammable materials
- Environment:
Volcanic regions, hot springs, and occasionally wandering into human settlements (Mountains)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6 when near heat sources; Speed defense as level 6 due to its swift, flowing movements
- Combat:
The Flame Salamander can breathe out a cone of fire, dealing 5 points of damage to all within immediate range. Affected creatures must make a Speed defense roll or catch fire, taking an additional 2 points of damage per round until they spend an action to extinguish the flames. The salamander prefers to stay close to heat sources where it gains an asset to all Speed defense rolls. Fiery Embrace: Upon a successful attack, the Flame Salamander can grapple its prey, dealing 3 additional points of fire damage due to its burning body. Infernal Regeneration: For every round the Flame Salamander remains in contact with a significant heat source, it regains 2 points of health.
- Interactions:
The Flame Salamander communicates through a series of crackles and hisses. It can understand basic desires and can sometimes be bartered with using sources of heat or flammable items as offerings.
- Uses:
A village built too close to a volcano has disturbed a nest of Flame Salamanders, leading to fiery skirmishes between the villagers and the incendiary creatures.
- Loot:
Heat-hardened scales that can be used as fire-resistant material
- Intrusions:
A player's close attack causes the volatile mineral deposits on the Flame Salamander's back to explode, dealing damage to everyone within immediate range and stunning them for one round.
- Source Book:
A chilling presence in many ice-bound lands, the Frost Salamander is a deceptive being that imbues the cold of its environment. With a crystalline body that sparkles like a statue made of ice, these creatures blend seamlessly with their surroundings. Thriving in the frigid habitat, the Frost Salamanders are patient predators, using the ice and snow to ambush unsuspecting travelers.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Predatory Ambush
- Environment:
Frozen tundras, icy caves, and glacial regions (Wilderness)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6 due to its icy camouflage; Attacks as level 6 because of precision; Resisting cold-based attacks at level 6
- Combat:
The Frost Salamander strikes with icicle-sharp claws that not only deal damage but also slow its prey due to the numbing cold. A target hit by the claws must succeed on a Speed defense roll or have their movement reduced by one step for two rounds. Its frost breath can create slippery patches of ice in an immediate radius—those who fail on a Speed-based task fall prone and are hindered in movement-related tasks for one round. Icy Camouflage: The Frost Salamander blends with its ice-covered environment, granting an asset to its stealth tasks. Chill to the Bone: The claws of a Frost Salamander are so cold that they may lower a target's Might Pool by 2 points for the duration of the encounter, unless they succeed on a Might defense task. Frost Breath: Once every three rounds, the Frost Salamander can exhale a cone of chilling frost in an immediate distance in front of it, potentially freezing targets and hindering movement for those who fail Speed defense rolls.
- Interactions:
Frost Salamanders are not intelligent in the traditional sense but possess a bestial cunning that makes them formidable predators. They rarely engage in behaviors other than stalking and attacking prey.
- Uses:
A Frost Salamander's lair might contain treasures frozen within the walls or victims preserved in ice, potentially holding valuable clues or equipment.
- Intrusions:
As a character attacks or maneuvers around the Frost Salamander, they inadvertently crack the ice beneath them, causing a sudden shift in the terrain or plunging them into freezing water.
- Source Book:
The Lightning Salamander is a shockingly fast amphibian, its sleek blue-black body crackling with electrical energy. When it moves, it leaves a faint trail of ozone and static, giving a constant sizzle in the air. Its electrified touch can numb limbs and stop hearts with an overload of voltage.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Protecting its territory, seeking sources of electrical energy
- Environment:
Moist habitats rich in electrical currents, such as storm-ravaged forests or power stations (Other)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate; can teleport between electrical sources within Short range
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to quickness; Stealth as level 6 in electrically charged areas
- Combat:
The Lightning Salamander can generate an electric burst that stuns and damages creatures within Immediate range. Affected targets must succeed on a Might defense roll to resist being stunned and losing their next turn. It can also channel electricity into focused arcs, striking with pinpoint accuracy at a distance. Electrical Discharge: When engaged in melee, can emit a burst of electricity harming all within Immediate range. Victims stunned unless they pass a Might defense task. Teleport: The Lightning Salamander can instantly teleport between two electrical sources within Short range once every two rounds, avoiding attacks or appearing beside a foe. Focused Arc Strike: Charges and releases a high-voltage electric arc at a target within Long range as a precise, powerful attack.
- Interactions:
The salamander communicates through electrical pulses and may be curious about creatures generating electrical signals, such as those using electronic devices, but it is mostly reclusive.
- Uses:
A mysterious energy fluctuation is traced to a nest of these rare creatures nesting within the city's power grid, causing blackouts.
- Loot:
Rarely, a crystallized shard of pure electric essence may be harvested from its core, sought after by artificers and tech-crafters.
- Intrusions:
Upon being touched or struck with metal, the salamander reflexively discharges a powerful electric shock which leaps from creature to creature, potentially hitting allies in addition to the attacker.
- Source Book:
The elusive Sand Salamander is a creature of duality; its slick, iridescent skin mirroring the hues of the desert at sunset. Adapting to the harsh environment, it developed the ability to manipulate sand to hide, hunt, and harness the desert's fury. Its elongated body ripples through the sands, leaving only a whisper of movement on the surface as it seeks out its next meal or curious traveler to bewilder.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Predatory drive and territory protection
- Environment:
Deserts, sandy plains, and dune-filled wastelands (Wilderness)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short, or immediate when burrowing in sand
- Modifications:
Stealth actions as level 5 when in sandy environments; Attacks as level 5 when initiating combat from beneath the sand
- Combat:
A Sand Salamander's primary attack is to emerge swiftly from the sand, latching onto its prey with sharp teeth before dragging it under. Prey must succeed on a Speed defense roll or be pulled beneath the sands, suffering an additional 2 points of damage per round due to suffocation and crushing pressures as they are buried alive. Sand Surge: Once per battle, the Sand Salamander can send a crashing wave of sand in a line up to long range to bury and disorient foes, creating a zone of difficult terrain and forcing targets to make a Might defense roll or be restrained by the heavy sands. Thermal Mirage: The Sand Salamander can create illusions that mimic the heat hazes of the desert. These mirages can be used to distract, conceal movement, or lead enemies into traps or hazardous areas. Onlookers must make an Intellect defense roll to see through the deception.
- Interactions:
Usually solitary creatures, Sand Salamanders show territorial behavior. They are intelligent enough to be curious about non-threatening beings, but their predatory instincts often take over when provoked.
- Uses:
Adventurers might encounter a Sand Salamander while searching for lost ruins or during a trek across the desert. Its ability to navigate through sand effortlessly could also be harnessed by clever characters for information or transport.
- Intrusions:
The Sand Salamander creates a sudden sand whirlpool beneath the character's feet, requiring an immediate Speed defense roll to avoid being sucked in and buried.
- Source Book:
Guardians of the wood, sapient trees stand eternally vigilant, often on the outskirts of their grove or forest to keep out those who might seek to do them-or other, ordinary trees- harm. They look like normal trees until they reveal their true nature, with limb-like branches and faces in the bark of their trunk. They don't always move, but with effort, they can uproot themselves and walk about. However, they usually do so only when no one is looking. The origin and temperament of sapient trees varies; they might be haunted trees possessed by spirits, trees animated by magic spells, or ancient mythical beings. Some are peaceful and noble, but others are downright wicked and cruel.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Defense
- Environment:
Found in groves or copses of five to twenty (Forest)
- Health:
16
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Initiative as level 4; Speed defense as level 2 due to size
- Combat:
When a sapient tree attacks, it often does so with surprise because it looks like a normal tree at first. If a character about to be attacked fails an Intellect defense roll, they do not perceive the attack in time, and the tree's attack is eased.
If a tree strikes in combat with one of its branch-arms, it can choose to grab the foe (rather than inflict damage) and toss them an immediate distance away, inflicting 2 points of ambient damage if they hit the ground or another solid object. If they are tossed at another creature, that second creature must make a successful Speed defense roll or also take this damage.
Sometimes, a sapient tree that bears fruit will hurl its fruit up to short range, inflicting 4 points of damage.
- Interactions:
Sapient trees are generally unfriendly and indignant toward animal life. They are fearful and assume that any creature not native to their forest is a threat. They are likely to attack first rather than speak, although they can speak eloquently, if sometimes slowly.
- Uses:
These trees populate magic forests. They can be used to surprise characters with an attack from an unexpected direction.
- Intrusions:
The tree grabs the character and holds them fast, shaking them. They take 4 points of damage each round and can do nothing but attempt to escape (the task is hindered by two steps because of the shaking).
- Source Book:
These muscular humanoids sport long curved horns and furry, hooved legs. They are self-centered, greedy, and sybaritic creatures, dedicated to food, drink, and other pleasures. They rob and steal from others as it pleases them, often relying on tricks and lies, or alluring music they play on pipes.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Play tricks, gather treasure, fulfill desires
- Environment:
Woodlands, hills, and plains (Forest)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Tasks related to persuasion and deception as level 7; resists mental attacks as level 7
- Combat:
Satyrs usually carry spears that they can use in melee and against foes within short range. They can also create magical effects by playing their pipes as an action, which can either bolster allies or harm enemies:
Dance of the Leaping Stag: Foes within short range who fail an Intellect defense task lose their next turn to dancing and leaping. Attacks made against affected targets are eased.
Feral Overture: An ally within short range is infused with magic, and one attack it makes on its next turn is eased; if it hits, it inflicts +3 damage.
Tune of the Clouded Mind: A foe within short range who fails an Intellect defense task spends its next turn attacking one of its allies.
- Interactions:
Satyrs are inveterate mercenaries. They gladly work for strong drink and other treasures, and they ally with almost any creature capable of meeting their price. A satyr is always willing to start negotiations, but is prone to lying and exaggeration. Offering excessive libation, food, and other rewards is the only way to ensure that a satyr remains honest, and then for only a short period.
- Uses:
Strange piping music in the forest lures away young people from a nearby community. Community elders say a charismatic cult leader has set up in the woods and clouds the minds of all who come near.
- Loot:
- Intrusions:
A mental effect makes the character view the satyr as a good friend for up to one minute unless they succeed at an Intellect defense task.
The Giant Scorpion towers over the sands it crawls upon, its dark chitinous exoskeleton glistening under the unforgiving sun. With a massive, barbed stinger rising and ready to strike, and pincers that can crush bones and armor alike, this colossal arachnid is a nightmare sprung from the deepest, darkest crevices of the earth. The giant scorpion's multifaceted eyes glint with a sinister intelligence, allowing it to track and hunt its prey with terrifying precision.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Territorial predator defending its area
- Environment:
Deserts, caves, and ruins (Wilderness)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climbing as level 5; Stealth as level 5 due to its natural camouflage; Might defense as level 5 because of its thick armored exoskeleton
- Combat:
The Giant Scorpion strikes with its tail, delivering venom that inflicts 5 points of initial damage and requires the victim to succeed at a Speed defense roll or become paralyzed (unable to move or act) for two rounds. At the same time, it can attack with its pincers, trying to grapple its prey. A grappled target must succeed at a Might-based task to break free or suffer an additional 4 points of damage per round from being crushed.
- Interactions:
The Giant Scorpion has no interest in negotiation or interaction beyond assessing threats and feeding opportunities. Its primitive but effective instincts drive it to react aggressively to intrusions.
- Uses:
A desert caravan comes across ruins rumoured to contain powerful artifacts, but must deal with the Giant Scorpions that have made the place their lair.
- Loot:
Giant Scorpion venom sacs can be harvested if carefully extracted; desirable for powerful paralytic poisons.
- Intrusions:
The Giant Scorpion's stinger gets lodged in the ground after a violent swipe, leaving it vulnerable for a moment but also unleashing a spray of venomous mist in all directions that risks blinding or poisoning nearby characters.
- Source Book:
The Sea Serpent is an elusive titan of the deep. With scales that shimmer with the colors of the ocean, it moves with surprising grace despite its monstrous size. A necklace of bioluminescent orbs dangles from its neck, luring curious prey closer in the dark abyss. Its songs resonate through the water, hypnotically drawing sailors and creatures alike into its domain.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Guardian of the depths, driven to protect its territory
- Environment:
Deep oceans and remote coastal areas (Ocean)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
- Combat:
The Sea Serpent can attack with its massive jaws or by constriction. Prey held in its coils is crushed, suffering an additional 5 points of damage (ignoring Armor) per round unless they succeed on a Might-based task to escape. Its bioluminescent orbs can also hypnotize victims, causing them to lose their next turn unless they make a successful Intellect defense roll.
- Interactions:
An ancient intelligence gleams in the eyes of the Sea Serpent. It may choose to communicate with those it deems worthy or those who pose a significant threat to its dominion, often testing their intentions before deciding to engage or negotiate.
- Uses:
A mysterious song resonates through the hull of seafaring vessels, leading brave or foolhardy adventurers to seek the source of the haunting melody and uncover the secrets of the depths—or face the wrath of the Serpent for intruding upon its realm.
- Loot:
Bioluminescent orbs can be harvested for rare alchemical ingredients.. Serpent scales are prized in the creation of powerful armor.
- Intrusions:
Just as the Sea Serpent seems to retreat, it creates a whirlpool, pulling the characters downward into the oceanic abyss, separating them or causing them to lose precious equipment.
- Source Book:
Depending on the sci-fi setting, sentinel trees are mutated trees that grow near radioactive craters dimpling the landscape, alien plant-life that evolved in a different biosphere (or dimension), or the result of intensive gene-tailoring, possibly of the illegal sort. Regardless of their provenance, sentinel trees resemble thorny masses of knotted vines. Razor-sharp glass-like leaves flex like claws, and vibrating pods glisten, ready to detonate if thrown. If cultivated, they may take on a shape designed to further frighten-or at least warn away- those who see one. Sentinel trees are mobile, aggressive, and feed on almost any sort of organic matter. Once it brings down prey, it sinks barbed roots in the body for feeding and decomposition.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Feed
- Environment:
In groves of three to six, able to tolerate most atmospheres (even thin ones, like on Mars) but not vacuum (Forest)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate
- Combat:
Sentinel trees can fling a vibrating pod at a target within long range, which detonates on impact, inflicting 3 points of damage on all targets within immediate range of the blast. Targets must also succeed on a Might defense roll or be poisoned for 3 points of damage, plus 3 points again each subsequent round until a Might task is successful. A sentinel tree can also lash out with its barbed vines at a target within immediate range, inflicting 3 points of damage. Melee targets must also succeed on a Might defense roll or become entangled and unable to take physical actions until they can break free on their turn.
- Interactions:
Sentinel trees are about as smart as well-trained guard dogs. They can't speak, but can understand some words and gestures.
- Uses:
A grove of sentinel trees guard a compound that the characters need to break into.
- Intrusions:
The character caught in the detonation is blinded with tiny black seeds until they use a recovery roll to remove the condition. (The recovery use doesn't return points to a Pool.)
- Source Book:
Shadows are semi-intelligent patches of darkness roughly in the shape of a humanoid creature's silhouette. They creep along walls, floors, and ceilings, blending in with actual shadows, peeling themselves free only when they're ready to clutch at a victim with their cold claws.
- Level:
1 (3)
- Motive:
Hunger for life energy
- Environment:
Anywhere that shadows can occur (Other)
- Health:
3
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 3
- Combat:
Shadows attack with their claws, which feel like a cold breeze and drain 2 points of Might from their target with each hit. They can barely interact with physical objects, and even something as simple as moving a pebble an immediate distance or knocking over a candle takes intense concentration.
A group of five shadows can act as a swarm, focusing on one target to make one attack as a single level 3 creature, inflicting 4 points of damage. In an area of complete darkness with no illumination at all, shadows are effectively powerless-they cannot attack and all their actions are hindered. If suddenly deprived of light, they slink about menacingly for a few minutes but lose interest if it seems like their prey won't be bringing back the light.
Shadows are flat rather than insubstantial, but attacks that harm phased, ghostly, or similar creatures are fully effective against them. They can easily pass through narrow spaces such as the gap under a door or between the bars of a cell, but cannot move through solid objects.
- Interactions:
Shadows never speak, but they can make rustling noises like a gently moving curtain. If controlled or prevented from attacking, they can communicate with simple pantomimes and seem to understand some pieces of language.
- Uses:
The flickering shadows from a campfire bend strangely and begin to creep toward a nearby character. A person appears to have two shadows just before they feel icy coldness slide along their flesh.
- Intrusions:
The shadow attaches itself to a character and begins to take over as their shadow, automatically inflicting damage every round until the character uses an action to tear it off of them.
- Source Book:
Elves who faded from the surface to escape the justice of their fey cousins for crimes uncounted are sometimes called shadow elves, dark elves, or simply trow. It's widely assumed that shadow elves fled to new realms deep below the ground, and indeed, the routes that lead to their true abodes are mostly subterranean and include many grand underground keeps. However, the heart of the shadow elf kingdom lies in the colorless dimension of Shadow itself, where all things exist as a dim reflection of the real world.
Sometimes shadow elves appear on the surface, spilling from dark tunnels or, in some cases, from the shadows themselves. They raid for plunder, fresh slaves, and sacrifices. The sacrifices are made to their godqueen, a monstrously sized black widow spider that schemes in darkness.
When a shadow elf returns to the world of light, it can choose to appear as a silhouette only: a slender humanoid outline lurking as if at the nadir of a well.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Tortures for pleasure, serve the shadow elf godqueen
- Environment:
Almost anywhere dimly lit, singly or in groups of up to four (Urban)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth and perception as level 6; Speed defense as level 6 due to shadowy nature
- Combat:
Shadow elves attack with short blades, knives, and crossbow quarrels of steel-hard shadow. They can see in dim light and absolute darkness as if it were daylight.
Some shadow elves can cast spells, including the following. Each spell requires an action to cast.
If subject to full daylight, a shadow elf loses its modifications to stealth, perception, and Speed defense, and is likely to retreat.
- Interactions:
Shadow elves may negotiate and even ally with other creatures for a time. But they do so only until the best opportunity for a betrayal presents itself.
- Uses:
Shadow elves have overrun an outlying keep, and even in broad daylight, the castle is shrouded in darkness and webs of shadow. The treasures said to lie in the keep's coffers may already be in the hands of the dark fey.
- Loot:
A shadow elf carries currency equivalent to an expensive item, in addition to weapons, light armor, and a cypher or two. Shadow elf leaders may carry an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The shadow elf casts a spell that charms a character on a failed Intellect defense roll. The character fights on the side of the shadow elf for up to one minute, though they can make another Intellect defense roll each round to try to break the influence.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Enchant weapon to inflict 3 additional points of damage (8 total) |
| 2 | Enchant weapon to inflict 1 additional point of Speed damage (poison, ignores Armor), plus 2 points of Speed damage each additional round until victim succeeds on a Might defense roll |
| 3 | Fly a long range each round for ten minutes |
| 4 | Gain +2 to Armor (total of 3 Armor) for ten minutes |
| 5 | Long-range spell renders subject blind for ten minutes on failed Might defense roll |
| 6 | Long-range spell targets up to three creatures next to each other; holds them motionless in a shadow web for one minute on failed Speed defense rolls |
Shepherd Wasps are a giant wasp species with a unique double gland delivery system attached to their stingers.
While one gland can deliver a standard painful poison, the other gland is powerful psychotropic that encourages lower function animals and humanoids to guard the nest. The wasps are not truly intelligent, but through instinct and environment are able to target and control the largest meat-eaters in the nearby area.
After a time, the former predators protect the nest at the expense of their own health as they stop eating. Sometimes the corpses of the starved beasts become a fleshy bed for new generation of larva that will create their own nest. One nest can be local nuisance. Several nests can start to imbalance the local ecology and travel risky as deranged beasts attack anything in their territory.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Acquire more predators for protection and breeding hosts.
- Environment:
Temperate to Tropical outdoor locations (Wilderness)
- Health:
10
- Damage:
2-4 points See Combat
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Area attacks are more lethal, dropping its Defense to level 3.
- Combat:
The individual wasps only do 2 points of damage as a level 2 creature. An agitated nest is a wasp swarm that fills the air when anyone gets into close range. The protective swarm can do 4 points of ambient damage to targets that don't have enclosed protective clothing. Regular combat armor doesn't count as the proper clothing in this case.
Shepherd Wasp Nest Protectors
Lion: level 4, Health 16, attacks as level 5
Leopard: level 3, Speed defense as level 5
Wolf: level 3, attacks as level 5
Allosaurus: level 6, Health 40, Speed defense as level 4 due to size.
- Interactions:
Villagers are asking for help since packs of random predators, lions running with wolves and leopards have made travel unsafe
- Uses:
The nest is a chance to present a mystery as the heroes examine the bizarre predator behavior and the only clues they find are wasp stings.
- Intrusions:
The target suffers an allergy attack and takes 4 points of Speed Damage.
- Source Book:
Some alien beings abandoned their physical forms millennia ago, becoming entities of free-floating energy and pure consciousness. They travel the galaxies, exploring the endless permutations of matter, space-time, cosmic phenomena, dark energy, and life. They are endlessly fascinated with the permutations they discover. They sometimes appear as a silhouette of gently glowing light, in a form like to the alien species they wish to observe. Under circumstances where a shining one is moved to more directly interact, one can actually convert itself into matter once more, again taking on the biology and form of the species it wishes to interact with. But generally, shining ones observe and learn; they try not to interfere or interact. Every few thousand years, shining ones gather at a predetermined location on the edge of a convenient galaxy and share the most interesting and beautiful bits of imagery, music, poetry, and lore they've gleaned.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Knowledge
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually alone (Wilderness)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Instantly moves to anywhere it can see at the speed of light as part of its action once per round
- Modifications:
All tasks related to knowledge as level 8
- Combat:
As immaterial beings of energy, shining ones only take damage from energy attacks. And even then, there is a chance that the energy heals a damaged shining one rather than harming it if the attack roll was an odd number. Usually a shining one doesn't fight back if attacked, but instead leaves. If somehow prevented from leaving, a shining one fights for its existence with energy blasts inflicting 6 points of damage on up to two different targets within very long range (or the same target twice).
Alternatively, a shining one may attempt to discorporate a target, turning it into a being something like itself. In this case, each time a target is hit by an energy blast, it must also succeed on an Intellect defense roll. On a failed roll, it loses 6 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor). If the target's Intellect Pool is emptied, it becomes a freefloating ball of energy unable to take any actions other than observe for a few minutes before suddenly converting back to its original form with an explosive pop.
- Interactions:
Shining ones can manipulate their environment to communicate with other species, using sound, light, puffs of odiferous complex chemicals in place of words, and so on. If approached with respect, they freely exchange information with others, seeking to grow their knowledge and that of those they meet.
- Uses:
A shining one is sharing knowledge to a warlike xenophobic species that could allow them to rapidly advance their ability to consolidate power. Something must be done before it's too late.
- Intrusions:
A character hit by the shining one's energy blast catches on fire. They take 3 points of damage each round until they spend an action patting, rolling, or smothering the flames.
- Source Book:
Shoggoths vary in size, but the smallest are usually at least 10 feet (3 m) across. They are the product of incredibly advanced bioengineering by some strange species in the distant past. They are angry, vicious predators feared by any who have ever heard of these rare creatures (or who have encountered them and somehow survived to tell the tale). They were created by the elder things but overthrew their masters and now roam the vast, ancient cities they have claimed for themselves.
Rumors abound of a few very rare, particularly intelligent shoggoths that intentionally reduce their own mass and learn to take on the forms of humans so they can integrate themselves into society (and prey upon humans at their leisure).
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
35
- Damage:
10 points
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 6 due to size; Armor 10 against fire, cold, and electricity
- Combat:
Shoggoths sprout tendrils and mouths and spread their wide, amorphous forms, allowing them to attack all foes within immediate range. Those struck by a shoggoth's attack are grabbed and engulfed by the thing's gelatinous body and suffer damage each round until they manage to pull themselves free (engulfed creatures can take no other physical actions while they are caught). Each round of entrapment, one object in the victim's possession is destroyed by the foul juices of the amorphous horror.
Shoggoths regenerate 5 points of health each round. They have protection against fire, cold, and electricity.
- Interactions:
A shoggoth can't be reasoned with.
- Uses:
The PCs find an ancient structure of metal and stone. Wandering through it, they note that every surface is clear of dirt and debris. Soon they discover why--a shoggoth squirms through the halls, absorbing everything it comes upon (and it fills the passages it moves down, floor to ceiling, wall to wall).
- Loot:
A shoggoth's interior might contain a cypher.
- Intrusions:
The character is engulfed in the shoggoth, their gear scattered throughout the thing's undulating form, and their body turned upside down so that escape attempts are hindered.
- Source Book:
This oversized variant of the common shrew is as voracious as it is large, sporting a body the size of a small bear and quivering whiskers that can detect the slightest vibrations. Its salivary glands produce a venom that paralyzes prey, allowing the creature to store food for lean times. These solitary hunters are known for their territorial nature and impressive digging skills, able to create extensive tunnel systems overnight.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Constant hunger drives it to relentlessly pursue food
- Environment:
Forests, grasslands, and underground burrows (Forest)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate when burrowing, Short above ground
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 3 due to burrowing ability; Perception and initiative as level 4 because of keen senses
- Combat:
Giant Shrews attack using their enormous incisors to deliver a venomous bite. A victim hit by the bite must succeed on a Might defense roll or be paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to the shrew's level. While paralyzed, the prey cannot take actions and is vulnerable to being dragged into the shrew's burrow for later consumption. Venom Bite: The Giant Shrew's bite injects venom, requiring affected targets to make a Might defense roll against paralysis. Seismic Sense: Thanks to its hypersensitive whiskers, the Giant Shrew can detect movements on the surface while below ground and can ambush its prey by burrowing up and attacking unexpectedly. Burrower: The Giant Shrew can move through its tunnels with immediate speed, allowing it to escape or attack from unexpected angles.
- Interactions:
The Giant Shrew is usually not interested in interaction unless it involves potential prey. They have been known to attack without provocation out of sheer hunger.
- Uses:
A small village has been suffering from livestock disappearing without a trace. The culprit may be this underground fiend, which has intruded upon human territory.
- Loot:
Giant Shrew venom glands are sought after by alchemists for their paralytic properties.
- Intrusions:
Just as the party relaxes its guard, the ground beneath them gives way, dropping them in the path of an irate Giant Shrew in its burrow.
- Source Book:
Shriekers are ghastly entities composed of translucent, whisper-thin tendrils that tremble with the echoes of the damned. They float through areas thick with psychic residue from great tragedies. Their mournful wails ripple the air, causing unease and dread in those who hear them. Shriekers are drawn to fear and suffering, feeding off the psychic energy generated by terrified victims.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Feeds on fear and psychic distress
- Environment:
Haunted locations, ancient battlefields, sites of mass sorrow (Underground)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short when floating, immediate when phasing
- Modifications:
Will defense as level 5; Stealth as level 6 when phasing, undetectable by normal vision; Intimidation as level 5 due to eerie presence
- Combat:
A Shrieker's main form of attack is its Piercing Wail. Every other round, it can release a shrill cry that forces all targets within immediate range to make an Intellect defense roll. Those who fail lose their next action from disorientation and take 5 points of Intellect damage (ignores armor). Piercing Wail: Can be used every other round to potentially stun and deal Intellect damage to all targets within immediate range. Phasing: Can move through solid objects and appear/disappear at will, making it hard to target with anything other than area effects. Echoes of the Damned: Once per encounter, a Shrieker can cause one target who fails their Intellect defense roll against Piercing Wail to be overwhelmed with the echoes of others' past agonies, inflicting a long-term debilitating effect (GM's discretion) until sufficiently recovered or treated.
- Interactions:
Shriekers rarely communicate and seem to focus purely on instilling and absorbing terror. Attempts to reason or connect with them typically fall flat, lost amidst their haunting screams.
- Uses:
A cataclysmic event has left a veil between worlds torn, and Shriekers slip through, turning a once peaceful village into a nexus of horror.
- Intrusions:
The Shrieker's wail resonates with the character's past fears, paralyzing them with vivid hallucinations of their worst nightmares for one round.
- Source Book:
These tiny silvery insect-like creatures range in size from a sub-millimeter to up to 30 cm (1 foot) in diameter, emitting short pulses of violet-colored laser light to sense and sample their environment. Composed of organic silicon wires and wafers, and self-assembled or evolved in some unnamed lab or spacecraft wreck, silicon parasites are vermin that working space stations and spacecraft have learned to hate. Despite taking steps to avoid transfer, a ship may only learn they have silicon parasites when a swarm boils up from a crack in the cabling or seam in the deck plating after being agitated by a high-G maneuver or some other disturbance. If that disturbance is combat or some other dire emergency, silicon parasites thrown into the situation makes everything worse.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Defense, harvest electronic materials necessary to self-replicate.
- Environment:
Usually on spacecraft and space stations in groups of up to twenty (Space)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short; climbs a short distance each round
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 4 due to size.
- Combat:
Only "large" silicon parasites are a danger to most creatures. When four or more parasites coordinate their attacks, treat the attack as that made by a single level 4 creature that inflicts 5 points of damage, and on a failed difficulty 4 Might defense roll, an attack that holds the target in place until it can successfully escape. A held target automatically takes 5 points of damage each round, or even more if other silicon parasites in the area pile on. Silicon parasites can operate in complete vacuum without harm.
- Interactions:
By and large, silicon parasites behave like social insects, though some claim that large numbers of them have acted with greater intelligence and forethought than mere unthinking insects can manage.
- Uses:
A swarm of silicon parasites floods into the hold and makes off with an important device, dragging it into the crevices and walls of the spacecraft or station. Loot: Swarm nests often contain a few valuable manifest cyphers or working pieces of equipment.
- Intrusions:
The silicon parasite flashes its sensory laser directly into the character's eyes, blinding the character until they succeed on a difficulty 4 Might-based roll as their action.
- Source Book:
Skeletons are animated bones without much sense of self-preservation. They enjoy a crucial advantage over living creatures in one important and often exploited area: skeletons are dead shots with ranged weapons. They have no breath, no heartbeat, and no shaking hands to contend with as they release a shot, which means that skeletons armed with ranged weapons are something to be feared.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Defense or offense
- Environment:
Nearly anywhere, in formations of four to ten (Other)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
3 points (claw) or 5 points (ranged weapon)
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Ranged attacks as level 5; Speed defense against most ranged attacks as level 5; resist trickery as level 1
- Combat:
Skeletons can attack with a bony claw if they have no other weapon, but most attack with a long-range weapon. If a skeleton can see any portion of its target, the target loses any benefits of cover it might have otherwise enjoyed.
When in formation, a group of four or more skeletons with ranged weapons can focus their attacks on one target and make one attack roll as a single level 7 creature, dealing 7 points of damage.
Skeletons can see in the dark.
Reanimators: Some skeletons were created by a curse, and simply battering them into a pile of bones isn't enough to end their existence. Two rounds after reanimator skeletons are "killed," they regain full health in a flash of magical illumination. This regeneration can be prevented if the linchpin of the animating curse is separated from the skeleton after it falls. Such an item is usually obvious and might take the form of a lead spike through the skull, an ebony amulet, a dull sword through the ribs, a crown, and so on.
- Interactions:
A skeleton usually interacts only by attacking. Unless animated by a sapient spirit able to communicate via magic, skeletons lack the mechanisms for speech. However, they can hear and see the world around them just fine.
- Uses:
Skeletons make ideal units in armies, especially when archery or artillery is required. A formation of four or more skeletons with ranged weapons atop a tower provides a surprisingly robust defense.
- Loot:
Sometimes the linchpin item required to create a reanimator skeleton is valuable.
- Intrusions:
A skeleton destroyed by a melee attack explodes like a grenade. The bone shrapnel inflicts 5 points of damage to every creature in immediate range.
Looming from the underbrush with scales shimmering in the shadows, the Giant Rattlesnake is a fearsome apex predator. Ominously, its echoing rattle instills dread in those who hear it. This colossal serpent strikes with deadly precision, injecting venom into its unfortunate targets before coiling around them to apply bone-crushing force.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Territorial dominator and hungry predator
- Environment:
Deserts, forests, and in the ruins of old buildings (Wilderness)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5; Attack and Speed defense as level 4 due to quick reflexes
- Combat:
If the Giant Rattlesnake hits its target with a strike, the victim takes damage and must succeed on a Might defense roll to resist the venom. On failing, they take an additional 3 points of damage each round for three rounds from the venom. It can also constrict a grabbed victim for 6 points of Might damage per round, immobilizing them unless they can break free with a challenging Might task. Venomous Bite: Inflicts ongoing poison damage over time after a successful strike. Coil and Crush: Can grapple and constrict a victim after a successful bite, dealing significant damage until the victim can break free. Rattle Warning: Before attacking, the Giant Rattlesnake can use its rattle to cause hesitation or fear, which hinders the first defense roll against its strike.
- Interactions:
The Giant Rattlesnake is not intelligent in a human sense, but it possesses an animal cunning and a self-preserving instinct that could make it negotiate with prey if outmatched.
- Uses:
Perhaps the Giant Rattlesnake guards a treasure in a ruined temple, or it has made its lair in an area the players must traverse.
- Loot:
Venom sacs that could be used for potent poisons or medicines, valuable to the right buyer.
- Intrusions:
The Giant Rattlesnake's rattle triggers a landslide or causes a rickety structure to collapse, separating the group or exposing them to new dangers.
- Source Book:
The snark is unimaginable. It is a Boojum, you see. An agony in eight fits. Part snail and shark and bark and snake and snarl. It has feathers that bite, claws that catch, and jaws that snatch. It softly and suddenly vanishes away, never to be met with again. It smells of the will-o-wisp, sleeps late in the day, and breathes fire when it finds something funny (which is nearly never).
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Unfathomable
- Environment:
Upon islands filled with chasms and crags, near bathing machines, and around those whose coats are too tight in the waist (Other)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short when moving perpendicular; long when moving sideways
- Modifications:
Invisibility, shapeshifting, confusion, and mimsy as level 8
- Combat:
Inflicts 5 points of damage with biting feathers, catching claws, and snatching jaws. Also blows out a stream of fire that can light a match or inflict 3 points of damage to everyone in close range.
- Interactions:
Not recommended.
- Uses:
The characters are given the impossible task of hunting a snark. Whether or not they actually find one, they have grand adventures along the way.
- Loot:
The frabjous joy of catching the impossible, improbable, unimaginable snark.
- Intrusions:
Everything about the snark is a GM intrusion.
- Source Book:
A soul eater is the animate head of a powerful wizard who shuffled off this mortal coil to become an undead creature without ethics, feelings, or a sense of morality. Also called dread skulls, these creatures maintain their existence by occasionally absorbing the spirit or mind of living victims. An absorbed "soul" is burned away, which is why dread skulls are wreathed in flame; it's the by-product of the creature's previous meal.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Hungers for souls
- Environment:
Usually at the center of tombs (Other)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long when flying
- Modifications:
Resists mental attacks and deception as level 7; Speed defense as level 7 due to size and quickness; knowledge of arcane methodologies and rituals as level 8
- Combat:
A soul eater has a library of magic abilities it can draw upon, including long-range attacks of fire or cold against all targets within immediate range of each other, the ability to read the mind of a victim within short range on a failed Intellect defense roll, and the ability to cloak itself in the illusion of a normal human for up to an hour at a time.
In addition, a dread skull can draw out a victim's consciousness and absorb it in a blaze of supernatural fire. To do so, the creature must bite a target, which inflicts 5 points of damage; the target must then succeed on an Intellect defense roll or take an additional 5 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor).
If a dread skull drains a character's Intellect Pool to 0 through repeated bites, the character's soul is sucked into the skull, and the body falls limp. Once absorbed into the skull, a victim's essence is trapped and slowly consumed over the next twenty-four hours. During this period, the skull regenerates 1 point of health per round.
If a dread skull isn't destroyed within twenty-four hours of eating a soul, the victim's essence is fully consumed. If the soul eater is defeated and its skull is shattered before then, all unconsumed souls are returned to their bodies.
- Interactions:
Dread skulls are slightly insane but hellishly smart, which means that sometimes they will negotiate to get what they want.
- Uses:
Soul eaters remember a little bit of the knowledge of every creature's essence they consume. The PCs need to learn the command word of an artifact they've found, but the only one who knew it was consumed by a dread skull.
- Loot:
Sometimes dread skulls keep treasures as trophies of past victories, consisting of 1d6 cyphers and maybe an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The character who uses a cypher against the dread skull must make an Intellect defense roll. On a failed roll, the cypher begins to burn with flame, dealing the character 5 points of damage and destroying the cypher in the process.
- Source Book:
Yeah, rats made it to space. And against all expectations, one strain evolved in the harsh radiation and zero-G environments that would kill humans not protected by medical intervention. Space rats are furless, about two feet long, sport a truly prehensile tail, and can quickly change their shade of their skin to blend in to their surroundings. They can also drop into a state of extreme torpor that allows them to survive stints of vacuum exposure lasting several days.
Space rats are vermin, and any spacecraft or space station that hosts a nest must deal with constant issues from the rats burrowing into systems, stealing food and water, and causing systems to break down, even critical ones. They're also vicious when cornered.
- Level:
1 (3)
- Motive:
Defense, reproduction
- Environment:
Anywhere humans live in space (Space)
- Health:
5
- Damage:
3 points
- Movement:
Short; short when climbing or gliding through zero G
- Modifications:
Stealth and perception as level 5
- Combat:
Space rats flee combat unless cornered or one of their burrows is invaded. Then they attack in packs of three or more, and from an ambush if possible. One space rat pack attacks the victim as a level 3 creature inflicting 5 points of damage with claws, while another pack helps the first, or attempts to steal a food item or shiny object from the character being attacked. To resist theft while being attacked on two fronts, a target must succeed on a Speed defense roll hindered by two steps.
- Interactions:
Space rats are slightly more intelligent than their Earth-bound cousins, though true interaction is not possible. On the other hand, sometimes their behavior seems spookily sapient.
- Uses:
Space rats assemble crude nests in out-of-the-way supply closets or in hard-to-reach system interiors, but often enough, end up shorting out weapons or life support. Sometimes, they get into the hold and eat anything edible in the cargo.
- Loot:
Some percent of valuable equipment stolen on the spacecraft or station finds its way to space rat nests.
- Intrusions:
Another rat unexpectedly pops out of panel on the wall or ceiling and screeches so loudly the PC must succeed on an Intellect defense roll hindered by two steps or be dazed until the end of their next turn from the surprise. Dazed creatures are hindered on all tasks.
- Source Book:
Ethereal beings trapped between life and death, Spectres are sorrowful echoes of a person's dark past and unresolved emotions. They can be identified by a faint luminous glow and an unsettling chill. Announcing their presence with a melancholy wail, they drift through walls and objects effortlessly, ignoring most physical barriers.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
To cause despair and drain life energy
- Environment:
Haunted locations, graveyards, and ancient battlefields (Underground)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 8 due to incorporeal nature; Intimidation and mental effects as level 8; Detecting living creatures as level 8
- Combat:
A Spectre's touch drains the warmth and vitality from living beings, causing not only physical harm but also casting a pall of despair on the victim. On a failed Intellect defense roll (difficulty 4), the Spectre's touch causes its victim to gain an asset on their next attack due to the surge of fear and desperation. Soul Siphon: Upon a successful touch attack, the Spectre can also choose to heal by 2 points, representing the life force it siphons from its victim. Phase: The Spectre can move through solid objects as though they are not there. This can be used once every two rounds to either avoid an attack or to move to an advantageous position. Wail of the Forsaken: As an action, the Spectre lets out a horrifying wail that affects all creatures within short range. Affected targets must succeed an Intellect defense roll (difficulty 4) or be stunned for one round.
- Interactions:
Spectres are often drawn to individuals who show strong emotions. Some can be bargained with if a character discerns their unresolved earthly business, but most are beyond reason or respite.
- Uses:
A desperate scholar has unwittingly summoned a Spectre in his quest for forbidden knowledge, now it haunts the halls of his library, seeking to quench all life within its reach.
- Loot:
Spectres sometimes leave behind a wisp of their essence, which can be used by the wise or the foolhardy to commune with the dead or empower necromantic rituals.
- Intrusions:
As a character attacks, the Spectre momentarily takes on the appearance of a loved one from the character's past, causing the character to hesitate and miss their next turn due to emotional conflict.
- Source Book:
A sphinx is a magical creature with a large lionlike body, feathered wings, and a head that is like that of a human or some kind of animal (typically a hawk or ram). Wise and fierce, sphinxes have a connection to the divine and are often found guarding temples or persons of great interest to the gods (although whether they serve good or evil depends on the individual sphinx). No matter what their head looks like, a sphinx can devour creatures as easily and quickly as a lion.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Defense, riddles
- Environment:
Deserts, plains, and mountains (Mountains)
- Health:
25
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
Intellect defense and magical lore as level 8
- Combat:
A sphinx attacks with its lion claws, making two swipes as its action. A sphinx also has the following magical abilities:
- Curse: Curse a creature within long range, hindering all their physical actions by two steps until some other magic lifts the curse.
- Heal: Restore 10 health to an NPC, or allow a PC to use their next action to make a recovery roll that does not count toward their normal allotment. Can be used three times per day.
- Riddle: A creature within long range must make an Intellect defense roll to answer a difficult riddle; failure means the creature stands confused for one minute even if they are attacked.
- Spellbreaker: End an ongoing magical effect within short range, such as a curse or protective spell. If there are multiple effects, the sphinx chooses which one to end. It can target an immediate area instead of a specific effect (such as an area where it suspects an invisible enemy is hiding).
- Teleport: Instantaneously move a very long distance. Can be used once per day.
- Interactions:
Sphinxes are very intelligent and speak several languages (including at least one ancient or obscure language). If their demands are met (such as by answering a riddle or performing a service), they can be quite talkative, if arrogant.
- Uses:
A sphinx guards the main road into the city, killing anyone who fails to answer its riddle. A sphinx approaches, offering secret lore if the characters can direct it to a suitable mate or an abandoned temple it can restore and guard.
- Loot:
A sphinx usually has one or two cyphers and perhaps a small artifact it can wear and use.
- Intrusions:
The sphinx leaps onto its opponent, attacking with all four claws as its action.
- Source Book:
This monstrous arachnid is the epitome of nightmares for those who fear spiders. Its bulbous black body glistens with a sinister red hourglass marking, and its thick, barbed legs span the length of a grown human. Lurking in the shadows of caves and forests, the Giant Black Widow weaves webs of unnaturally strong silk to capture its unsuspecting prey.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Instinct to feed and protect its territory
- Environment:
Dark and isolated places, usually forests or caves (Wilderness)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short, can climb on any surface
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6; Climbing as level 5; Attacks as level 5 due to potent venom and Speed defense as level 5 when in its web
- Combat:
The Giant Black Widow strikes with its fangs, injecting a potent venom that inflicts 5 points of damage and paralyzes its victim. The victim must make a Might defense roll to resist the paralysis. Failure results in being unable to move for ten minutes, during which time the creature can wrap the victim in silk. Each round the victim remains wrapped, they suffer an additional 2 points of damage as the spider's digestive enzymes begin to liquefy their insides. Ensnare: The spider can attempt to trap a target in its web at long range, immobilizing them unless they succeed on a Might task to break free. Venom Spray: Once per encounter, the spider can spray venom in a short cone, requiring all in the area to make a Speed defense roll or suffer damage and potential paralysis. Silk Sprint: If the spider must retreat or pursue prey, it can move a long distance in one round by creating a silk line to swing from or rappel down.
- Interactions:
This spider acts purely on instinct and has no capacity for negotiation or mercy. Its interaction with other creatures is limited to hunting, trapping, and occasionally defending itself or its nest.
- Uses:
A druid has tampered with the balance of a local ecosystem, resulting in overgrown and aggressive wildlife, with the Giant Black Widow at the top of the new food chain.
- Loot:
Spider silk of exceptional strength and value if harvested carefully; venom sacs useful for potent alchemical concoctions.
- Intrusions:
While avoiding a Giant Black Widow, a character accidentally steps into a nearly invisible web, getting stuck and alerting the creature to their presence.
- Source Book:
Looming shadows within the dense forests often belong to the Giant Tarantula, a colossal arachnid with fangs dripping in venom. The hairs on its legs can detect the slightest vibrations, and its body is covered in barbed bristles, which it can shoot at threats. Its eight eyes give it an almost unparalleled field of vision, seeing movement with chilling precision.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
To feed and to protect its territory
- Environment:
Dense forests and cave systems (Forest)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5; Climbing as level 5
- Combat:
The Giant Tarantula paralyzes its prey with a venomous bite; the victim must make a Might defense roll or be unable to move for ten minutes. While paralyzed, the target is helpless against the tarantula's deadly embrace. If the creature has a previous round of surprise or from stealth, it may shoot its barbed bristles causing immediate 1 point of damage and hindering any action by one step due to pain and irritation if a Speed defense roll is failed. Ensnaring Webs: Once per battle, it can shoot a web to ensnare a victim. If a target fails a Speed defense roll, they are immobilized until they succeed on a Might-based task to break free. Frightening Presence: The sheer size and menacing presence of the Giant Tarantula can provoke fear. Once per encounter, as an action, it can attempt to intimidate opponents. Affected characters must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be unable to approach closer for two rounds. Barbed Bristle Burst: Once per encounter, the Giant Tarantula can shoot its barbed bristles in a wide arc, potentially striking all within short range. Each target must make a Speed defense roll or suffer 2 points of damage and a one-step penalty to all actions for one round due to pain and irritation.
- Interactions:
A Giant Tarantula may sometimes be distracted by setting fires, creating vibrations, or offering it meat, but due to its territorial nature, it will attack if it feels threatened or if its environment is intruded upon.
- Uses:
An alchemist seeks the venom of the Giant Tarantula, promising rewards for those brave enough to extract it. Meanwhile, an innocent settlement unknowingly encroaching on tarantula territory may soon fall victim to its wrath.
- Loot:
Giant Tarantula venom can be harvested if the creature is safely subdued or killed, potentially serving as a powerful but risky component in alchemy or for coating weapons.
- Intrusions:
As a character steps too close to the creature's lair, they accidentally disturb its egg sac, releasing dozens of smaller but still dangerous tarantulas.
- Source Book:
Sprites are ethereal beings that shimmer gently with an inner radiance. Each sprite is no larger than a human's thumb, but what they lack in size, they make up for in supernatural grace. With wings akin to those of a dragonfly, they move in unpredictable patterns, leaving a trail of soft luminescent particles that bewitch the onlookers.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Seek harmony in nature, protect their domain
- Environment:
Enchanted forests, ancient groves, and mystical clearings (Forest)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4; Deception and illusion-related tasks as level 3; Flee or pursue as level 4 due to swift flight
- Combat:
Sprites prefer to avoid direct combat. Instead, they cast illusions and use their innate magic to confuse and disorient aggressors. If forced to fight, they strike quickly and dart away before the enemy can react. A sprite can unleash a 'Glitterdust' attack once per encounter, forcing a target to make an Intellect defense roll or be blinded for one round, hindering any task requiring sight. Glitterdust: A mesmerizing cloud of glowing particles that hinder visual-based tasks for one round. Illusory Escape: Once per encounter, when the sprite would be hit by an attack, it can make an illusion of itself being struck while it shifts slightly to an adjacent location, avoiding the attack entirely. Nature's Ally: Sprites can call upon plants and animals in the vicinity to mildly impede their foes, such as roots tripping a character or a sudden swarm of insects providing a distraction.
- Interactions:
Sprites are capricious and curious, often willing to engage in conversation with those who respect nature. However, they tend to be distrustful of larger creatures and will react defensively if they sense ill intentions.
- Uses:
As the adventurers move through the enchanted forest, sprites may appear either to guide or to hinder them, depending on how the group treats their surroundings.
- Loot:
A pinch of sprite dust, valuable to alchemists and enchanters.
- Intrusions:
The sprite's laughter is enticing, leading a character to become ensnared in ethereal webs that require an Intellect task to escape as the rest of the sprite band prepares a mischievous prank.
- Source Book:
This behemoth of the deep sea glides silently through dark waters with its long, undulating tentacles trailing behind. The giant squid's eyes, large as dinner plates, search tirelessly for its next meal. Its body pulses with bioluminescence, a haunting light show deep beneath the waves. Each of its eight arms and two tentacles are lined with powerful suction cups and sharp hooks, ready to ensnare any creature unfortunate enough to cross its path.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Driven by hunger and territory defense
- Environment:
Deep ocean waters, occasionally surfacing near coastlines during feeding times (Ocean)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long when swimming
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6 due to its silent movement; Attacks as level 6 when using tentacles
- Combat:
The giant squid strikes with a tentacle, on a successful hit, the target is grabbed and must succeed on a Might defense roll each round to escape. On a failure, the squid reels the grabbed creature in, automatically dealing 6 points of damage and possibly drowning if underwater. Above water, the giant squid can sweep many opponents with its tentacles, inflicting damage to all within immediate range. Ink Cloud: Once per battle, the squid can emit a cloud of ink, making it difficult for the prey to see and escape. All physical tasks within an immediate area are hindered for 1 round. Crushing Coils: With a powerful constriction of its tentacles, the giant squid can crush the life out of its prey. Once grappled, the creature deals an additional 2 points of damage each round to a held opponent. Deep Dive: If engaged in combat in water, the giant squid can attempt to pull an ensnared opponent into the depths, automatically moving one range step farther away from the surface each round, increasing the difficulty of escape and the risk of drowning.
- Interactions:
The giant squid is not intelligent by human standards, but it has an uncanny knack for anticipating prey movements. It normally avoids ships and human divers, but if provoked, it can be quite relentless.
- Uses:
The mysterious and rarely seen beast could be the source of sailor's tales, or a new frightening discovery for researchers working on a deep-sea station.
- Loot:
Potentially valuable squid ink, parts for alchemical components, or bioluminescent cells for study.
- Intrusions:
The squid releases a cloud of dark ink, creating an area of obscured vision. All actions related to sight within immediate range are hindered by two steps, and the squid uses this opportunity to prepare a devastating attack or to escape unnoticed.
- Source Book:
Towering statues carved from stone or cast in metal are sometimes more than humans rendered in moments of triumph, celebration, or suffering. Sometimes a statue moves, usually in service to some ancient geas or command that animated it in the first place.
Most animate statues are vessels imprisoning the mind of a sentient creature. Such entrapment usually tumbles the spirits into the abyss of insanity, though most rest in a dormant state, their minds lost in whatever memories they retain. Disturbing animate statues can cause them to awaken, usually with disastrous results.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Release from imprisonment; guard an area
- Environment:
In out-of-the-way places, especially ancient ruins (Urban)
- Health:
33
- Damage:
9 points
- Armor:
4
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
All tasks involving balance as level 2; Might defense as level 8; Speed defense as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
An animate statue towers over most foes, and it can smash or stomp a target within short range as a melee attack. The statue's massive size and the material of its body means it can walk through nearly any obstacle, smashing through walls of solid rock, buildings, and trees. When walking, it pays no attention to what it steps on. Anything in its path is likely flattened. A character who is stepped on must make a Speed defense roll to dodge or be knocked down and take 9 points of damage. Animate statues are strong and hard to hurt, but they are often top-heavy. If one falls or is knocked over, it takes a few rounds to rise and resume whatever it was doing.
- Interactions:
Statues spend years immobilized and insensate, their minds lost in half-remembered experiences and hallucinations. Rousing a statue has unpredictable results. Some might rampage. Others laugh, cry, or scream streams of nonsense. Regardless, if one has been commanded to guard an area or entrance, it also likely lashes out.
- Uses:
An animate statue holds a treasure trove of knowledge. If the characters can keep it focused or knocked down long enough, they might coax from it the information they seek.
- Intrusions:
The animate statue strikes a character so hard that the victim flies a long distance and lands in a heap, possibly dropping gear and weapons along the way.
The Stirge is a flying pest with a nightmarish blend of bat and mosquito features. It has a leathery body, spindly legs, and a long, needle-like proboscis used to sap the lifeblood from its victims. With beady eyes that reflect a haunting red in the dim light, this small but sinister creature moves silently through the night. When it latches onto prey, it's often only noticed when the draining sensation begins.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Feeds on blood
- Environment:
Marshlands, forests, and dark caves (Wilderness)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Movement:
Short when flying, immediate when latching onto a target
- Modifications:
Attacks as level 3 due to precision; Speed defense as level 3 when airborne
- Combat:
The Stirge silently dives onto its target to attach its proboscis. Once attached, the Stirge can be difficult to remove. A character with an attached Stirge takes 2 points of damage per round as it continues to feed. A successful Might-based task is required to remove or kill the creature; failure means the Stirge remains in place. Latch On: If the Stirge hits with an attack, it latches onto its prey. While latched on, it inflicts 2 additional points of damage each round and is harder to hit, improving its effective Speed defense level by 1. Blood Drain: Each round the Stirge remains attached to its victim, it drains a small amount of blood, healing itself for 1 point and causing the victim to suffer 1 level of Fatigue (cumulative) until they can rest and recover.
- Interactions:
The Stirge avoids direct confrontation and relies on surprise and stealth to feed.
- Uses:
Adventurers resting in the wilderness may find themselves as hosts to these nocturnal feeders, complicating their quest for respite.
- Loot:
A Stirge's body may contain valuable alchemical components if delivered to a skilled apothecary.
- Intrusions:
While attempting to detach a feeding Stirge, a character inadvertently flings it onto a fellow companion, making the situation worse.
- Source Book:
The storm marine creed is an oft-repeated mantra, "I will never quit, knowing full well that I might die in service to the cause." Wearing advanced battlesuits, hyped up on a cocktail of experimental military drugs, and able to draw on a suite of cybernetic and network-connected drone guns, few things can stand before a storm marine fireteam. Storm marines usually work for nation-states, conglomerates, and similar entities. They mercilessly conduct their mission, even if that mission is to wipe out a rival. Storm marines that question their orders are quickly dispatched by their fellows.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Achieve mission goals
- Environment:
Alone in or in fireteams of three, anywhere nation-states or similar entities have a financial or military interest (Urban)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
4
- Movement:
Long; flies a long distance each round
- Modifications:
Perception as level 6; attacks as level 5 due to combat targeting neuro-wetware.
- Combat:
Thanks to their battlesuit, a storm marine has many options in combat. They can deploy an electrified blade to attack every foe in immediate range as a single action, or use a long-range heavy energy rifle that inflicts 6 points of damage.
A storm marine can deploy two level 3 gun drones that fire energy rays at two different targets up to 800 m (2,600 feet) away, inflicting 6 points of damage. If the drones focus on a single target, a successful hit deals 9 points of damage and moves the target one step down the damage track. The drones can attack only once or twice before returning to their cradles in the storm marine's suit for several rounds to recharge.
- Interactions:
A storm marine might negotiate, but getting one to act against their mission is difficult.
- Uses:
A fireteam of storm marines are sent to eliminate the PCs or someone the PCs know on suspicion of being radical elements that need to be dealt with.
- Loot:
Though bio-locked to each storm marine, someone who succeeds on a difficulty 8 Intellect task to reprogram the suit could gain a battlesuit of their own, minus the drones (which fly off or detonate).
- Intrusions:
A character targeting a gun drone rather than the storm marine hits the drone, but the drone reacts by darting to the character and exploding, inflicting 6 points of damage to the character and anyone standing within immediate range.
- Source Book:
Half humanoid and half-dragonfly, supernals are beautiful entities, though certainly alien. Each supernal possesses a unique wing pattern and coloration and, to some extent, body shape. These patterns and colors may signify where in the hierarchy a particular supernal stands among its kind, but for those who do not speak the language of supernals (which is telepathic), the complexity of their social structure is overwhelming. Whether they are agents of some unknown alien civilization or seek their own aims, supernals are mysterious and cryptic. Most fear contact with them, because they have a penchant for stealing away other life forms, who are rarely seen again.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Capture humans and similar life forms, and bring them somewhere unknown.
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
23
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Short; flies a long distance (even through airless vacuum); can teleport to any known location once per ten hours as an action
- Modifications:
All knowledge tasks as level 6; stealth tasks as level 7 while invisible
- Combat:
Supernals usually only enter combat when they wish, because they bide their time in a phased, invisible state. But when one attacks with the touch of its wing, it draws the life force directly out of the target, inflicting 6 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor).
A supernal can summon a swarm of tiny machines that resemble regular dragonflies made of golden metal. The swarm either serves as a fashion accessory as they crawl over the supernal's body, or as components in a piece of living art.
Supernals regain 1 point of health per round (even in an airless vacuum, which they can survive without issue), unless they've been damaged with psychic attacks. They can teleport to any location they know as an action once every ten hours.
Supernals often carry manifest cyphers useful in combat, as well as an artifact.
Dragonfly swarm: level 2; flies a long distance each round; eases physical tasks, including attacks or defense
- Interactions:
Although supernals only speak telepathically, peaceful interaction with these creatures is not impossible. It's just very difficult, as they see most other creatures as something to be collected and taken to some undisclosed location, for unknown reasons.
- Uses:
A character is followed by a supernal intent on collecting them. Loot: A supernal usually has a few manifest cyphers, and possibly an artifact.
- Intrusions:
The supernal grabs the character and flies up and away, unless and until the character escapes the grab.
- Source Book:
Synthetic people have been called many things, including simply synths, androids, robot mimics, and, depending on how they act, killer robots. Their origins are varied. In some cases, they're the result of corporate research into "products" that would serve humanity as assistants and companions, but later gained sentience. In other cases, synthetic people are the result of a state-sponsored program to develop war machines or automated assassins that looked like regular people. Another origin for synthetic people is through the design of awakened (and inimical) AIs as part of an effort to kill off all regular biological people. Now they roam their environment looking like anyone else. Some synths try to fit into whatever kind of society they can find. Some may not even know that they are not human. Others are bitter, homicidal, or still retain their programming to kill. Some of these may have even shed some or all of their synthetic skins to reveal the alloyed mechanisms beneath.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Varies
- Environment:
Nearly anywhere, out in plain sight or disguised as a human alone, or in gangs of three to four (Other)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Disguise and one knowledge task as level 6
- Combat:
A punch from a synthetic person can break bones. In addition, some synths (especially of the killer variety) can generate a red-hot plasma sphere once every other round and throw it at a target within long range. The target and all other creatures within immediate range of the target must succeed on a Speed defense task or take 7 points of damage.
A synth can take a repair action and regain 10 points of health. A synthetic person at 0 health can't repair itself thusly, but unless the creature is completely dismembered, one may spontaneously reanimate 1d10 hours later with 4 points of health.
- Interactions:
Synthetic people that pretend to be (or think that they are) human interact like normal people. But an enraged one or one that's been programmed to kill is unreasoning and fights to the end.
- Uses:
A group of refugees who need help turn out to include (or be entirely made up of) synthetic people. Whether or not any of them harbor programs that require that they kill humans is entirely up to the GM.
- Loot:
One or two manifest cyphers could be salvaged from a synth's inactive form.
- Intrusions:
The character is blinded for one or two rounds after being struck by the synth's searing plasma ball.
- Source Book:
The Blind Witch is skinny and always hungry. She lives deep in the forest in a house made of confectionery, which allows her to catch, fatten, and eventually eat any children unlucky enough to get caught in her trap.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Modifications:
Cooking as level 6, deception and trickery as level 7, seeing through deception and trickery as level 4
- Combat:
She can use the following abilities: charm, protect, and vitality. She is immune to visual effects, including hallucinations.
- Interactions:
The Blind Witch can appear sweet and charming, and might play up her blindness and apparent frailty for sympathy.
- Uses:
Characters wandering the woods might come upon a candy house, and woe to them should they take a bite. A rescue mission could lead here.
- Loot:
She usually has at least one magical animal in a cage, along with various children and even adults. Two or three cyphers can be found in her kitchen, along with her magic oven, which bakes children into gingerbread.
- Source Book:
The Red Queen has never once yelled "Off with her head!" In fact, she has never yelled. It's horrible manners, and besides, when you know how to wield power, you don't need all that noise and chaos. You need only whisper and be still, and everyone will politely fall quiet and listen.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
Polite dinner parties and social gatherings (Wilderness)
- Armor:
1
- Combat:
Prefers verbal sparring over the physical sort, and inflicts 3 points of damage with a single cutting remark or sharp-tongued retort.
- Interactions:
The Red Queen is quite proper and chatty, the perfect host and the perfect guest. The only time she ever grows irate is when the subject of her sister, the Queen of Hearts, comes up.
- Uses:
While attending a party to steal something, the characters are caught by the Red Queen
- Source Book:
Living in the darkest depths of the sea, the Sea Witch is dangerous, wily, persuasive, and scheming. She is best known for brewing up life options--for a price. If you want what she's got (and she's got everything), you bring her what she wants. It might be your voice, your hair, or your firstborn. Or all three. Surely you won't miss them . . .
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Modifications:
Persuasion, intimidation, coercion, and swimming as level 8
- Combat:
She can use the following abilities: charm, familiar (water snakes), glamour, imprison, protect, seduce, and shrivel.
- Interactions:
The Sea Witch will always make a bargain, take a bet, gamble all she's got on the downtrodden and woe-be-gotten. Not because her heart is big, but because she makes sure that the house--that's her--always wins.
- Uses:
The characters need a potion, a spell, a curse, or any other bit of magic, large or small, and the Sea Witch will find a way to put it in their hands and let them walk away thinking they've come out ahead. At least until she comes to collect.
- Loot:
A chest full of gifts and winnings from lovers, fawners, and those who should have known better, including 1d6 cyphers and two artifacts.
- Source Book:
The Snow Queen rules over the "snow bees"--snowflakes that look like bees. She keeps an ornate palace surrounded by gardens in the lands of permafrost, but she can be seen elsewhere in the world where snowflakes cluster. Most say she is cold, and they would be right. She has been part of the snow for so long that it's possible she no longer remembers warmth or kindness or love.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Environment:
Anywhere there is snow, ice, or winter (Mountains)
- Armor:
2
- Combat:
Creates a snowstorm that blinds all foes in long range for three rounds; ice shards rain down upon all foes in long range, inflicting 2 points of damage; reindeer familiar inflicts 5 points of damage with her horns.
- Interactions:
The Snow Queen is not evil--she just has forgotten what it means to be human, with human needs and human hearts (not that she was ever truly human, but that's a story for another time). She is willing to bargain if she understands what she gets out of it.
- Uses:
The Snow Queen guards the entrance to a place the characters need to enter.
- Source Book:
The West Wind has no master, no shackles, no chains. She goes where she will, and woe to those who try to capture or hold her. When she's not blowing through the sky, she takes the shape of a human woman dressed in a sparkling blue tuxedo, her short silver hair pushed back from her face.
Not all winds are living creatures. Sometimes the wind is just the wind. But you won't know which is which until you try to talk with it.
- Level:
9 (27)
- Motive:
To stave off boredom by playing tricks, traveling, stirring up trouble, and helping others
- Environment:
Anywhere she wants to be (Other)
- Health:
40
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Very long
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 10; sees through and resists trickery, lies, deceit, and intimidation as level 10
- Combat:
Inflicts 6 points of damage to every creature and object she chooses within a very long distance, and knocks them prone.
- Interactions:
Some say the West Wind is cold, but she's really just an introvert and prefers to spend most of her time traveling alone. However, she's actually very warm hearted and is likely to help those in need. She does not respond well to trickery, traps, or attempts to force her hand (unless they're terribly clever or smart, and then she admits grudging respect for the perpetrators).
- Uses:
The characters need the West Wind's help to travel somewhere, knock something down, or retrieve something from a hidden place. Someone needs an elegant date to a royal ball or a fairy festival.
- Loot:
Sometimes the West Wind picks up interesting things on her travels. She may gift allies these items, including cyphers, artifacts, and even creatures.
- Intrusions:
The West Wind lifts a character high in the air and threatens to let them fall.
- Source Book:
With her three pigtails and diminutive stature, it would be easy to write off the Wicked Witch of the West as a nobody--and many have--but her power lies in the creatures that work for her and in her vast and growing collection of magical footwear.
She can see up to 2 miles (3 km) away with her single eye, and wears galoshes that give her +2 Armor against water and liquid of all kinds.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Modifications:
Tasks involving water and the dark as level 3
- Combat:
She carries an umbrella that acts as a heavy weapon, and she can use the following abilities: familiar (pack of wolves, swarm of bees, flock of crows, and an army of flying monkeys), hexbolt, imprison, protect, and shrivel.
- Interactions:
She is volatile in nature and quick to anger. However, she can also be a bit cowardly, and will likely back down in a confrontation (only to send her hordes of magical animals out afterward to do her dirty work).
- Uses:
The characters need to find galoshes of fortune and decide to steal a pair from the Wicked Witch of the West. Perhaps they need to make it through the land she presides over and must find a way to get her approval.
- Loot:
Whatever shoes she's wearing (which are very likely an artifact).
- Source Book:
When life is found on other worlds, it's sometimes large and dangerous, such as the aptly named thundering behemoth. A thundering behemoth might be found on any number of alien planets that feature forests and/or swamps. Towering to treelike heights, these fearless predators are powerful and dangerous hunters, even for those armed with advanced or fantastic weaponry. Behemoths use color-changing frills to help them appear like tall trees while they stand in wait for prey, as still as mighty hardwood trunks, until they break cover and spring an ambush. Behemoths can produce extraordinarily loud noises, sometimes simply roaring, but often replicating the stuttering scream of an attacking spacecraft. They use their strange "roars" to confuse, lead astray, and, if possible, stampede prey into killing grounds such as regions of soft sand, off cliff tops, or as often as not, into the waiting mouth of another behemoth.
In the sci-fi setting of Numenera, similar creatures are called rumbling dasipelts.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Fresh meat
- Environment:
Forests, alone or in a hunting group (known as a "crash") of two or three (Forest)
- Health:
35
- Damage:
9 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Disguise (as trees) as level 8 when unmoving. Deception (sounding as if an attacking spacecraft) as level 8. Speed defense as level 3 due to size.
- Combat:
A thundering behemoth can attack a group of creatures (within an immediate area of each other) with a single massive bite. Thanks to its long neck, it can make that attack up to 9 m (30 feet) away. One victim must further succeed on a Might defense task or be caught in the creature's maw, taking 9 additional points of damage each round until it can escape.
A thundering behemoth's ability to replicate threatening noises is often used deceptively at a distance, but the creature can use it to stun all targets within immediate range so they lose their next turn on a failed Might defense roll.
- Interactions:
Behemoths have a complex communication system among themselves, using their color-changing frills and modulation of the thunder they produce. They think of humans and most other creatures as food.
- Uses:
The sound of fighting spacecraft has repeatedly spooked human colonists on an alien planet, though they have rarely seen destructive beams or actual spacecraft. Worried that that will soon change, the residents ask the PCs to investigate.
- Intrusions:
The character avoids being bitten but is batted away by the behemoth'sattack, tumbling a short distance (and taking 5 points of damage).
- Source Book:
The mighty Treant, a sentient tree-like being, looms tall within the forest. Its bark-like skin is hard as stone, and within its wooden chest beats a heart of sap. Decorated with moss and leaves, its limbs twist and turn, giving it a majestic yet somewhat eerie presence. Treants are protectors of the forest, often mistaken for ordinary trees until they reveal themselves to those who threaten their home.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Protects the forest and its inhabitants
- Environment:
Ancient forests and druidic groves (Forest)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Might defense as level 8 due to sturdy form
- Combat:
With powerful limbs, a Treant can strike at interlopers or hurl large rocks and uprooted trees. Whenever it hits with a limb attack, the target is knocked prone unless they succeed on a Might defense roll. Additionally, a Treant may root itself to the ground, granting it an additional Armor point but reducing its movement to an immediate area. Entangling Roots: The Treant can cause roots to shoot up from the ground to hinder its foes' movement. Characters trapped by roots must succeed on a Difficulty 4 Speed or Might task to move from their current position. Barkskin: When rooted to the ground, the Treant's armor increases by 1 point, providing extra protection from physical attacks. Shriek of the Sentinel: Once per battle, the Treant emits a piercing shriek, calling woodland creatures to its aid. The shriek causes an immediate action by all allies within earshot.
- Interactions:
Treants are slow to trust but can be allies if convinced the characters' intentions are pure. They communicate through deep rumbles and rustling leaves, which can be understood by those attuned to nature.
- Uses:
The characters have inadvertently injured the forest, awakening the Treants' wrath, or they must seek a Treant's wisdom to solve an ecological disaster.
- Loot:
Ancient amber, rare herbs, and possibly enchanted wood
- Intrusions:
A character's attack gets their weapon stuck in the Treant's thick bark, which may also disarm them if they fail a Might-based task.
- Source Book:
With luminescent fungi sprouting from their crusty skin, the troglodytes are subterranean beings that have evolved in the dark, damp caves. Their blind, milky white eyes can detect movement and heat, making sight in the traditional sense nearly irrelevant. They communicate with a series of guttural clicks and hisses, echoing through the underground. Their elongated limbs end in sharp, rock-hard claws used for both burrowing and combat.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Defending territory and satisfying a ravenous hunger
- Environment:
Underground cave systems and ancient ruins (Underground)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climbing as level 5; Attacks and Speed defense as level 4 due to agility
- Combat:
Troglodytes revel in close quarters combat, using their clawed hands for rending flesh and ripping through armor as easily as they tunnel through the earth. Every successful claw attack forces the opponent to make a Might defense roll. On a failure, the troglodyte grabs and viciously mauls its target, causing an automatic additional 4 points of damage next round unless the victim succeeds in a Might-based task to escape. Subterranean Ambush: Once per battle, the troglodyte can burst from the ground or walls, catching its prey by surprise and gaining an asset on its initial attack. Fungus Cloud: Once per battle, a troglodyte can release a cloud of paralyzing spores in an immediate area, forcing those who fail a Might defense roll to lose their next turn.
- Interactions:
While not inherently evil, troglodytes are fiercely territorial and show little hesitation in attacking intruders. They perceive the world through their own cultural lens, making diplomacy a complex and challenging endeavor, most often defaulting to a 'might makes right' philosophy.
- Uses:
The characters need a crystal found only in caves known to be inhabited by troglodytes, or are traveling through tunnels where these creatures are the apex predators.
- Loot:
Rare subterranean herbs or crystals, possible ancient artifacts lost to the above-ground civilizations.
- Intrusions:
A troglodyte's claw attack unexpectedly releases a burst of spores from a bulbous growth on its back, temporarily disorienting anyone nearby and imposing a disadvantage on all actions for one round.
- Source Book:
A troll is a hideous humanoid standing at least 10 feet (3 m) tall that hunts more by smell than by sight. They are dangerous but not particularly intelligent. Always ravenous, trolls eat anything, and rarely take the time to cook a meal. Usually, they distend their mouths and throats and swallow subdued prey whole.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Nearly anywhere, hunting alone or in pairs (Wilderness)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 5 due to size; Might defense as level 7; sees through deception as level 4
- Combat:
The troll attacks with its claws. If it hits, it grabs a foe tightly, then squeezes and bites until the victim is dead or it releases that victim to attack another creature. Each round that a held creature does not escape, they take 10 points of damage.
Trolls regain 3 points of health per round. If a troll suffers a particularly egregious wound (10 or more points of damage in one round), rather than regain health in that round (and instead of taking any other action), the troll divides into two level 4 trolls that are 3 feet (1 m) tall. Spawned trolls that survive the battle and have access to food grow into full-power trolls within a few weeks.
- Interactions:
Trolls speak their own simple language, but a few know a little bit of a local human language. Most prefer to attack and eat other creatures, but might be bargained with after a successful show of force. Spawned troll: level 4, Might defense as level 5; health 15; Armor 1; claws inflict 5 points of damage; grabbed victim suffers 5 points of damage each round held by troll
- Uses:
Trolls may be chance encounters in the wilderness for unlucky travelers. Sometimes captured trolls are used by slavers, armies, and powerful wizards as guards and warriors.
- Intrusions:
The struck troll divides into two separate trolls that immediately attack the character in the same action.
- Source Book:
The short arms of a tyrannosaurus have been much parodied in Earth social media circles, but the arms aren't really important when a hunting tyrannosaurus is after you. It's more the soul-shivering roar, designed to freeze prey in place, and a skull and mouth so enormous that the entire creature is cantilevered by a massive tail that itself can be used as a powerful weapon.
As vicious as tyrannosauruses likely were 66 million years ago, the versions still hunting today could be even more dangerous. That's because the ones with a taste for humans have learned to adapt to human defenses and to use their roar to terrorize prey as they hunt.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Tyrannosauruses hunt solo or in pairs; they're drawn to loud, unfamiliar noises (like motor engines). (Wilderness)
- Health:
50
- Damage:
10 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Perception as level 5; Speed defense as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
A tyrannosaurus attacks with its massive bite. Not only does it deal damage, but the target must also make a Might defense roll to pull free or be shaken like a rat in the mouth of a pit bull for 3 additional points of Speed damage (ignores Armor). The shaking recurs each subsequent round in which the target fails a Might-based task to pull free.
A tyrannosaurus can also make a trampling attack if it can charge from just outside of short range. When it does, it moves 50 feet (15 m) in a round, and anything that comes within immediate range is attacked. Even those who make a successful Speed defense roll take 2 points of damage.
Finally, a tyrannosaurus can roar. The first time creatures within short range hear the roar on any given day, they must succeed on a difficulty 2 Intellect defense roll or stand frozen in fear for a round. Attacks against them are eased by two steps in the attacker's favor and deal 2 additional points of damage.
For all their power, tyrannosauruses are not above self-preservation. They never fight to the death if they are outclassed, and they usually break off if they take more than 30 points of damage in a conflict.
- Interactions:
Tyrannosauruses are animals, but they're clever hunters, too. When they hunt in pairs, they work to keep prey penned between them.
- Uses:
Something is killing big game in a forest preserve. Poachers are suspected at first, but when they are also found dead, it's clear that something else is to blame.
- Intrusions:
The tyrannosaurus's tail swings around and knocks the character tumbling out of short range and possibly into dangerous terrain.
Shrouded in mystery and splendor, the Unicorn is a symbol of purity, its silvery mane and tail shimmering with an ethereal light. Grace personified, it moves with a serene elegance, and its singular, twisted horn gleams with an inner magic. They are solitary by nature, preferring the cover of enchanted forests or mystical glades. Despite their calm demeanor, unicorns will fiercely protect their domain and those they deem innocent.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Preservation of purity and defense of the mystical domain
- Environment:
Enchanted forests and mystical glades (Forest)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Intimidation and persuasion as level 6; Speed defense as level 7 due to agility
- Combat:
When angered, the Unicorn's horn glows brightly, and it charges with precision. Its horn can pierce through illusions and magical protections, neutralizing enchantment effects on its target. If the Unicorn targets a foe with a malign intent, the opponent must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or be stunned for a round, overwhelmed by the purity of the Unicorn. Charge of Purity: Once per battle, the Unicorn charges an opponent, inflicting an additional 3 points of damage and potentially dispelling illusions or magical effects on impact. Healing Presence: Once per day, the Unicorn can heal a wounded creature by touching it with its horn, restoring up to 6 points of health. Mystic Shield: The Unicorn can activate a magical shield around one chosen ally or itself, granting an asset to Speed defense tasks for the next three rounds.
- Interactions:
Unicorns can sense the nature of beings, showing affinity to the pure of heart. While often avoiding contact, they may aid or communicate telepathically with those they find worthy.
- Uses:
The presence of a Unicorn in a once-cursed forest is a sign of restoration. It is the guardian of rebirth for natural splendor lost to darkness.
- Loot:
A Unicorn's mane contains strands that can be woven into enchantments, while its horn has potent alchemical properties if one could ever be obtained.
- Intrusions:
The glowing horn of the Unicorn unexpectedly unleashes a burst of purifying energy, causing harmful flora or fauna concealed nearby to recoil or even wither.
- Source Book:
Vacuum fungus is sometimes found as a greenish ooze on the exterior of spacecraft or space stations, growing in fine lines through the ice of frozen moons, and infesting the center of small asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs). Though able to survive in vacuum, the fungus takes on new morphology when sufficient spores find their way into habitable zero-G spaces. Then they fuse together and grow into a bulbous, emerald-hued fruiting body, typically reaching about 1 m (3 feet) in rough diameter, though individuals can grow much larger if not discovered. Sticky and soft to the touch, they are able to grow undetected in the dark corners of cargo holds, in ductworks, hanging from the ceiling of unused crew quarters, and so on.
Vacuum fungus may be proof that extra-terrestrial life exists, but that triumph of scientific discovery may seem less important to those who find a clump, because they are incredibly toxic to living creatures.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Reproduction
- Environment:
Anywhere in zero G, as an unreactive ooze in vacuum, or as a fruiting body in atmosphere, alone or in a cluster of three to five (Space)
- Health:
22
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Climbs (adheres) an immediate distance each round
- Combat:
A fruiting body can selectively detonate spore pods along its surface once per round. When a pod detonates, green fluid sprays everywhere within immediate range. Living creatures who fail a Speed defense roll take 6 points of damage from the clinging fluid. An affected target must also succeed on a Might defense roll. On a failure, an affected section of flesh rapidly swells, becoming a bilious green lump, and explodes one round later, having the same effect as a detonating pod.
- Interactions:
No real interaction with vacuum fungus is possible.
- Uses:
Scientists are incredibly excited to discover that the strange ooze they've noticed staining the exterior of their research domes is actually a variety of fungal life. They will likely become less excited when they discover the large growths secretly growing in the cavity beneath the floor of their research dome in a little-used storage closet.
- Intrusions:
Striking the vacuum fungus clump causes one of the spore pods to detonate immediately, even though it's out of turn.
- Source Book:
Vampires are undead creatures, risen from the grave to drink blood. Their very nature and essence are evil and anti-life, even as they revel in their own endless existence. Most vampires are vain, arrogant, sadistic, lustful, and domineering. Their powers allow them to manipulate others, and they frequently toy with their prey before feeding. Vampires come out only at night, as the sun's rays will destroy them.
The bite of a vampire over three nights (in which it exchanges a bit of its own blood) ensures that the victim will rise as a vampire under the thrall of the one that killed it. While vampires are careful not to create too many of their kind (which amount to competition), each thrall conveys a bit more supernatural power to a vampire.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Thirsts for blood
- Environment:
Usually solitary, on the edges of civilization (Wilderness)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
7 points
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Climb, stealth, and perception as level 8; Speed defense as level 7 due to fast movement
- Combat:
Vampires are strong and fast. They have impressive fangs, but these are usually used in feeding, not in battle. They typically fight with their fists or hands (which basically become claws) but sometimes use weapons.
A vampire can change into a bat or a wolf. This transformation does not change its stats or abilities except that, as a bat, it can fly. Vampires can also transform into shadow or mist, and in these forms they can't be harmed by anything (but also can't affect the physical world).
Vampires possess an unholy charisma and can mesmerize victims within immediate distance so that they stand motionless for one round. In subsequent rounds, the victim will not forcibly resist the vampire, and the vampire can suggest actions to the victim (even actions that will cause the victim to harm themselves or others they care about). Each round, the victim can attempt a new Intellect defense roll to break free.
Vampires are notoriously difficult to hurt. Unless a weapon is very special (blessed by a saint, has specific magical enchantments against vampires, or the like), no physical attack harms a vampire. They simply don't take the damage. Exceptions include the following:
Fire: Vampires burn, though the damage doesn't kill them. It only causes pain, and a vampire regains all health lost to fire damage within a day.
Running water: Complete immersion inflicts 10 points of damage per round. If not destroyed, the vampire can use a single action to regain all health lost in this way.
Holy water: This inflicts 4 points of damage and affects a vampire exactly like fire.
Sunlight: Exposure to sunlight inflicts 10 points of damage per round. If not destroyed, the vampire regains all health lost to exposure within a day.
Wooden stake: This weapon inflicts 25 points of damage, effectively destroying the vampire in one blow. However, if the vampire is aware and able to move, this attack is hindered as the vampire does everything it can to evade.
Further, vampires have the following special weaknesses:
Garlic: Significant amounts of garlic within immediate distance hinder a vampire's tasks.
Cross, holy symbol, or mirror: Presenting any of these objects forcefully stuns a vampire, causing it to lose its next action. While the object is brandished and the vampire is within immediate range, its tasks are hindered by two steps.
Eventually, a vampire with a multitude under its command becomes the new vampire lord. The vampire lord is the most powerful vampire in the world and is often (but not always) the most ancient of its kind. It has many vampires under its control, and even those that it did not create pay it respect and homage.
- Interactions:
Most vampires look upon humans as cattle upon which to feed. They rarely have respect for anything but other vampires, and they often hate other supernatural creatures that they cannot enslave.
- Uses:
Strange stories of shadows in the night, people disappearing from their beds, and graves missing their former occupants could portend the arrival of a vampire in the region.
- Intrusions:
The character struck by the vampire is caught fast in its powerful grip. If the character doesn't escape immediately, the vampire bites them automatically.
When humans are "visited upon" (bitten) by a vampire, they might be killed, or they might be left alive to begin a slow transformation into a creature of the night. If victims are bitten three times, they become a vampire forever under the control of the one that bit them. From the time of the first bite until their complete transformation after the third bite, they are transitional vampires. Ways to return transitional vampires to normal include using special ancient rituals or destroying the vampire that bit them in the first place.
Transitional vampires usually serve as guardians, consorts, or spies for their masters.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Thirsts for blood
- Environment:
Anywhere, usually solitary but sometimes in groups of two or three (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Climb and stealth as level 4
- Combat:
Transitional vampires can maintain a human existence during the day without any of a vampire's powers or weaknesses. However, they have a disdain for garlic and the sun. At night they take on all the characteristics of a vampire, and if confronted by any of the traditional vampiric weaknesses (a wooden stake, a cross, and so on), they flee unless their master is present.
- Interactions:
Transitional vampires are utterly devoted to their master.
- Uses:
Transitional vampires lie in the intersection of foe and victim. A loved one or trusted companion who has been turned into a transitional vampire will try to betray, defeat, and kill the PCs, but the characters are motivated to save them rather than destroy them.
Vat rejects come into being when clone vats meant to produce clone soldiers or similar mass-produced entities are corrupted. How the carefully controlled process becomes compromised varies, but possibilities include yeast contamination, sunspot activity, nanovirus evolution, or purposeful meddling with control parameters. Unskilled operators experimenting with derelict cloning equipment can also produce a vat of rejects.
Vat rejects fear nothing and welcome death, except that their existential rage requires an outlet other than immediate suicide. Their warped forms mean that most are in constant pain, and they somehow understand that this was artificially stamped into them by their creators. Revenge is their only possible redemption.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Self-destruction through endless aggression
- Environment:
Anywhere in lost and lonely places (Urban)
- Health:
9
- Damage:
3 points
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 4 due to frenzied alacrity
- Combat:
Vat rejects charge into battle with berserk speed, hindering defenses against their initial attack. All vat rejects are able to inflict damage directly by cutting, bashing, or biting a victim, depending on their particular morphology. Some also have additional abilities; roll on the table below for each reject.
- Interactions:
Vat rejects are usually always enraged, making interaction nearly impossible. However, some may negotiate if offered a reasonable hope of salvation through extreme surgery or other transformation.
- Uses:
A long-missing derelict ship, famous for carrying a load of planet-buster superweapons, is found. However, salvagers discover it to be overrun by vat rejects. No one knows if the rejects plan to use the superweapons, if they have been released by someone else as a distraction, or if they are part of a mutated ship defense system.
- Intrusions:
The vat reject also has a radioactive sting. On a failed Might defense roll, the character struck by the reject descends one step on the damage track.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reject deals +3 damage in melee (6 points total) |
| 2 | Reject has short-range acid spit attack that inflicts 2 points of damage, plus 2 points of damage each additional round until victim succeeds on a Might defense roll |
| 3 | Reject can fly a long distance as an action |
| 4 | Reject has 2 Armor |
| 5 | Reject has long-range destructive eye ray attack that inflicts 6 points of damage |
| 6 | When struck by an attack, reject detonates in an immediate radius, inflicting 6 points of damage in a radioactive explosion (and 1 point even on a successful Speed defense roll) |
The most renowned of all the poet-sorcerers, Virgilius studies and uses the power of the written word to enhance his magical abilities. He keeps a black book, which is the source of his spells, and creates copper creatures to protect and defend him. He has a love of challenges, such as magician's battles, and seeks them out.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Environment:
(Other)
- Combat:
Can use the following abilities: animate, blood to stone, enchant, endless passage.
- Interactions:
Virgilius is quick thinking, wily, and full of interesting schemes. Those who entertain him for longer than a moment might find him a very useful ally. However, he is also driven toward revenge, particularly on those who attempt to publicly humiliate or shame him.
- Uses:
The characters enter into a battle of wits or wills, only to discover they're competing with Virgilius.
- Loot:
Carries a black book. Black book (artifact): level 6; allows the user to cast animate, blood to stone, enchant, or endless passage. Casting a spell from the black book costs 2 Intellect points and is an action. Depletion: 1 in 1d6
- Source Book:
When star troopers need heavy support, they sometimes bring in wardroids. These fearsome robots, standing about 8 feet (2 m) tall, are ruthless even by trooper standards and are known to kill innocent bystanders as often as they kill foes. It is said that when wardroids are unleashed, wise troopers fall back and take cover.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Maintain control, crush, kill, destroy
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
3
- Movement:
Short; some models can fly a short distance each round
- Modifications:
Attacks as level 7
- Combat:
A wardroid's main weapon is a bank of laser blasters that it can use to attack up to three foes standing next to each other as one action. When damaged, a wardroid regains 1 point of health each round. Furthermore, each wardroid has one additional capability:
- Interactions:
Interaction is difficult for those not authorized to communicate with a wardroid.
- Uses:
Wardroids are often deployed in groups of two or three to guard a vault or the entrance to a spacecraft, or to track down intruders aboard a space station.
- Loot:
The remains of a wardroid can yield one or two cyphers to someone adept at salvage.
- Intrusions:
When defeated, the wardroid detonates, inflicting 8 points of damage on all creatures within immediate range.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Emit poison gas that inflicts 5 points of damage on organic beings in immediate range |
| 2 | Project grenades up to long distance that detonate in an immediate radius, inflicting 5 points of damage |
| 3 | Fire a beam that stuns an organic being for one round, during which it cannot take actions |
| 4 | Emit a field that disrupts machines; technological devices and machine creatures in immediate range cannot function for one round |
| 5 | Fire a piercing projectile up to long range that inflicts 6 points of damage that ignores physical armor (but not necessarily other Armor) |
| 6 | Spray a corrosive that inflicts 5 points of damage on everything in immediate range |
Imagine a normal weasel, but grown to the height of a tall man, with sinewy, elongated bodies and voracious appetites. Giant Weasels exhibit fur that ranges from rust-red to snowy white, and their eyes gleam with a cunning intelligence. They are both predators and scavengers, often targeting weak or injured creatures with their keen sense of smell.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Driven by hunger and territorial instincts
- Environment:
Dense forests and underground lairs (Forest)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Sneak and stealth as level 5; Climbing and initiative as level 5 due to agile nature
- Combat:
Giant Weasels are stealthy hunters, often ambushing prey from a hidden position. They bite with sharp teeth and will attempt to grapple smaller enemies, squeezing relentlessly. A victim grappled by a Giant Weasel suffers an automatic 4 points of damage each round until escaping by winning a Might-based task against the Giant Weasel. Blood Frenzy: If a Giant Weasel senses that a creature is at half health or less, it gains an additional immediate attack due to its frenzy for blood. Crushing Grip: When a Giant Weasel succeeds in grappling an opponent, it may initiate a crushing grip dealing an additional 2 points of damage as it squeezes the life out of its victim.
- Interactions:
Although primarily driven by instinct, Giant Weasels can sometimes be distracted or dissuaded by offerings of food or shiny objects that pique their curiosity.
- Uses:
The Giant Weasels may guard something valuable in their lair or be the pests in an area that local farmers need to be dealt with.
- Loot:
Giant Weasel pelts are highly valued for their warmth and beauty, fetching a handsome price in any market.
- Intrusions:
As the players are engaged with one weasel, another silently circles around to attack from an unexpected angle.
- Source Book:
The curse of lycanthropy begins as nightmares about being chased or, somehow more terrifying, chasing someone else. As the dreams grow more fierce and each night's sleep provides less rest, victims begin to wonder about the bloodstains on their clothing, the strange claw marks in their homes, and eventually, the mutilated bodies they find buried in their backyards.
When not transformed, many who suffer the curse seem like completely normal people, if emotionally traumatized by the fact that most of their friends and family have been brutally slaughtered over the preceding months. Some few, however, realize the truth of their condition, and depending on their natures, they either kill themselves before their next transformation or learn to revel in the butchery.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Slaughter when transformed; searching for answers when human
- Environment:
Anywhere dark, usually alone but sometimes as part of a small pack of two to five (Urban)
- Health:
24
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short; long when in wolf form
- Modifications:
Attacks as level 6 when half lupine; Speed defense as level 6 when full lupine; perception as level 7 when half or full lupine
- Combat:
In normal human form, a werewolf has no natural attacks, though it may use a weapon. It also lacks the abilities described below; its only power is to transform into a half-lupine form or full-lupine form, which takes 1d6 agonizing rounds. A handful of werewolves can control their transformation, but most change at night in response to moon-related cues.
Half Lupine: A half-lupine werewolf is part humanoid and part wolf, but completely terrifying. It attacks with its claws.
Full Lupine: A full-lupine werewolf is a particularly large and vicious-looking wolf. It normally bites foes and deals 2 additional points of damage (7 points total) but can also use its claws.
Half and Full Lupine: Half-lupine and full-lupine werewolves both enjoy enhanced senses and regain 2 points of health per round. However, a werewolf that takes damage from a silver weapon or bullet stops regenerating for several minutes.
- Interactions:
In human form, werewolves have the goals and aspirations of normal people, and they often don't recall what they did while transformed or even realize that they suffer the curse of lycanthropy. In half- or full-lupine form, there's no negotiating with one.
- Uses:
When the moon is full, werewolves hunt
- Intrusions:
A PC who moves down one step on the damage track due to damage inflicted by a werewolf must succeed on a Might defense roll or be afflicted with the curse of lycanthropy.
Wharn interceptors are void-adapted behemoths, several hundred meters in length. It's hypothesized that they are living battle automatons devised by ancient ultras, though against what long-vanished enemy isn't clear. Now, a handful (hopefully no more) glide through the depths of space like dormant seeds, seeming for all the galaxy like some strangely whorled asteroid or planetesimal. Who knows how many millennia they passed in this apparently hibernating state? But when that hibernation ends, maybe because some ancient countdown is nearing its end, or because an asteroid miner tried to extract a sample, they open eyes burning with deadly energy, and flex claws of particle-beam fury. Wharn interceptors may be related in some fashion omworwars, so much so that humans sometimes call the latter "wharn cogitators." However, it's impossible that omworwars simply "appropriate" any wharn interceptors they encounter.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Defense
- Environment:
Anywhere floating through the void (Space)
- Health:
53
- Damage:
15 points
- Armor:
5
- Movement:
Flies a very long distance each round; can maneuver like an autonomous level 5 spacecraft if using extended vehicular combat rules. FTL capable.
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 3 due to size.
- Combat:
Most of the time, wharns are inactive and might look like tumbling rocks. In this state, space voyagers may be able to partly wake one in an attempt to negotiate. However, if a wharn is damaged, or if the passive senses deep in its body wake it for reasons of its own, it becomes aggressive. A wharn's main weapons are its claws, which can extend in an instant, becoming exotic-matter beams able to reach a target up to a light-second away. Unless a target is protected by some kind of force field, the 15 points of damage inflicted ignores Armor. A wharn's eyes can pierce most forms of camouflage, cloaking effects, and cover that is less than about 200 m (650 feet) thick.
- Interactions:
In spite of their ferocious aspect and war-machine heritage, wharn interceptors do not destroy every spacecraft (and void-adapted creature) they come across, or even most. Indeed, sometimes a wharn may attempt to initiate communication via various machine channels. But what comes across are usually nonsense sounds and tones, and sometimes mathematical formulas.
- Uses:
The PCs, attempting to enter an abandoned space station or spacecraft, are distracted when a wharn attempts to destroy the very same object.
- Intrusions:
The wharn moves unexpectedly, striking the vehicle the PCs are traveling in, inflicting 8 points of damage to everyone on board.
- Source Book:
Wraith-like beings, Wights are the tormented souls of the deceased trapped between life and death, hungering for the warmth and essence of the living. Cloaked in tattered funeral shrouds and emanating a chilling mist, their eyes glow with a haunting blue light that freezes the heart of their prey. These spectral entities glide silently, phasing through physical barriers with ease, ever in search of life force to sate their eternal hunger.
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Draining life force
- Environment:
Ancient burial sites, cursed grounds, forsaken ruins (Underground)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 6 due to being spectral; Speed defense as level 6 because of insubstantial form
- Combat:
A Wight's touch is chilling both physically and spiritually. Each successful touch drains 5 points from a target's Might pool and heals the wight for half the amount drained. Life Leech: The wight can use its action to make an intensified draining touch that deals 6 points of damage and forces the target to succeed on an Intellect defense roll or lose one action on their next turn. Phase Through: Once per battle, the wight can become incorporeal, gaining an asset to defense rolls for one round, as it phases through attacks. Spectral Chill: When a target is hit by the wight's touch, they must succeed on a Might defense roll or become hindered for two rounds, as an unnatural frost slows their movements.
- Interactions:
Wights are consumed by their hunger and malice. They are incapable of reason or mercy and will pursue potential sources of life force with relentless intent.
- Uses:
A long-forgotten graveyard has ripened with spiritual essence, and a Wight has awakened, haunting the nearby village at night and terrifying its residents.
- Loot:
Occasionally, wights possess valuable burial items from their past life that can be reclaimed upon their defeat.
- Intrusions:
As a character fends off a Wight's chilling touch, they stumble upon an unseen gravestone, momentarily falling prone and becoming an easy target for the Wight's life-draining grasp.
- Source Book:
The children of the wind cannot be measured in known numbers, for they are here and there and everywhere. They are not born, so much as borne, by weather patterns, wishes, and wants. Dust devils, gales, and zephyrs are all wind children.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
See everything, know everything
- Environment:
Everywhere there is weather, real or magic-made (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Long
- Combat:
Inflicts 4 points of damage with an exhale. Alternatively, can knock a character prone for one round.
- Interactions:
Interacting with wind children is a bit like interacting with a group of mischievous, precocious, and spoiled kids. However, they know many things, having been all over the world, and will often share what they know in exchange for new secrets or knowledge.
- Uses:
One of the PCs seeks information about a person, place, or thing. The characters need a surreptitious spy to gather information for them.
- Loot:
Information, secrets, and possibly a cypher or two picked up during their travels.
- Intrusions:
The wind children grab something precious from one of the characters and start to play a game of "keep away" with it.
- Source Book:
Witches are complex beings of myriad personalities, desires, and abilities. Sometimes they're the stuff of nightmares, with tales of their exploits keeping children safe in their beds during the darkest hours. Other times they're wise helpers--at least for a little while, or possibly for a price. Often, they're a little of everything, taking on no end of roles throughout their lifetime. They may isolate themselves deep in the dark woods, falsify their way into a royal family, or reside in the middle of town, hiding their identity.
But one thing they are, always, is dangerous, for they carry within their hearts and heads knowledge, power, and magic--and a willingness to use all of them when necessary. Motive: Domination of others, power, knowledge, eternal life or beauty, hunger, revenge Environment: Almost anywhere, although most often alone in unique dwellings in the forest, in civilization as healers, or having infiltrated royal families
- Level:
5 (15)
- Motive:
Domination of others, knowledge
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, usually alone, but sometimes as part of a coven of three to seven witches (Other)
- Health:
21
- Damage:
5 points
- Movement:
Short; long if flying
- Combat:
In addition to inflicting damage with their weapon of choice (often a staff or long, curved blade), witches can curse their enemies. They also have a number of spells and abilities at their disposal. These include the Following:
Familiar: When attacked, a witch relies on the aid of their familiar to improve their Speed defense. The familiar could be a large black cat, an owl, a big snake, or some other creature. Killing a witch's familiar is so shocking to a witch that their attacks and Speed defense are hindered for a few days. It's also a way to ensure that the witch never forgives their foe or grants mercy. (Familiar: level 3; health 9; Armor 1)
Glamour: Glamour is an illusion that the witch creates. It may let them look like someone else, appear to be a tree or a bird, or even make them invisible. Seeing through the glamour is a level 8 Intellect task. A failed attempt inflicts 2 points of Intellect damage. Once a character sees through the glamour, they cannot unsee it.
Heal: The witch touches another creature and heals them for 6 points of damage. Some witches must pull health from another living being in long range in order to use this ability. Pulling health from a living being inflicts 2 points of damage on that being.
Imprison: The witch creates a prison within long range and captures a foe inside it as a single action. The prison might be physical (a tower, a cage, a trap, a binding around the body) or mental (they can't move, their muscles are no longer under their control, they are afraid to move). Resisting being caught is a level 5 defense task (Might, Speed, or Intellect, depending on the type of imprisonment). If a character is caught, breaking free is a level 5 task (of the appropriate stat).
Protect: Places a confinement spell to keep someone from going in or out of a location, building, or room. Those who attempt to pass through the spell but fail take 3 points of Intellect damage and are knocked back. Once the spell activates, it disappears.
Revive: This rare and costly ability allows a witch to bring someone back to life, as long as they haven't been dead for more than a year. In order to accomplish this, the witch needs all or part of the body of the dead, a beloved object of the dead's, and the willingness of someone else to take on a curse that results from the magical working (roll on the Curse table to determine the resulting curse). Revive takes ten minutes to cast, and the character returns to life with 1 point in all of their Pools.
Seduce: Creatures within short range who fail an Intellect defense roll become enamored of the witch. Resisting the witch's persuasion attempts is hindered by two steps until the victim succeeds on an Intellect defense roll; each time they fail to resist the persuasion attempt, the witch's next persuasion attempt is eased by an additional step.
Additional abilities: Witches might also have access to the witch abilities in the Cypher System Rulebook. These are charm, hexbolt, shrivel, and vitality. Some witches might have other magical abilities similar to those of enchanters.
Charm: Victims within short range who fail an Intellect defense roll are enslaved. Victims turn on their allies or take some other action described by their new master. The curse lasts for one minute, or until the victims succeed on an Intellect defense roll; each time they fail a roll, the next roll is hindered by one additional step.
Hexbolt: A victim within long range is attacked with fire, cold, or psychic bolts, as the witch chooses. Psychic bolts deal 3 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor).
Shrivel: A victim within long range and up to two creatures next to the victim must succeed on a Might defense roll or take 3 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor). In each subsequent round, a victim who failed the previous roll must make another Might defense roll with the same outcome on failure.
Vitality: The witch regains 11 points of health and gains +3 to Armor for one minute. Multiple uses don't further improve Armor.
- Interactions:
Most witches are deceptive and conniving, though a few work against the stereotype. All witches are willing to negotiate, though the devious ones usually do so in bad faith.
- Uses:
The PCs need an old book to continue their investigation. Word is that the old woman who lives on the edge of the woods has the only copy.
- Loot:
A witch usually has an artifact or two on their person, possibly including a flying broom (which has a depletion roll of 1 in 1d10).
- Intrusions:
The witch's familiar joins the fray, tripping up characters and hindering their actions. Something startles the witch and they cast a curse or spell as an automatic response. The witch pulls out an artifact or cypher and prepares to use it. After a character succeeds on a defense roll against one of the witch's ongoing curse effects, the witch immediately tosses a hexbolt at them. If the character is hit, the ongoing curse effect also continues.
The Big Bad Wolf (just call him the Wolf, for he is truly the only one worthy of that title) is a beast of near immortality, kept alive by the legends that swirl around him, the constant stream of terrorizing tales. Once the stalker of the woods, now he stalks the streets and towns, no longer staying to the shadows, no longer merely hunting girls and grandmothers. As his reputation has grown, so has his appetite. He hungers. He swallows worlds. He will not be contained.
- Level:
8 (24)
- Motive:
Hunger
- Environment:
Woods, cities, behind you (Forest)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
8 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Long
- Modifications:
Hunting, seeking, and sneaking as level 9
- Combat:
The Wolf 's bite does 8 points of damage. Additionally, he has a variety of abilities that he may use.
What Big Ears You Have: Can track and hear his prey up to a mile away. Tracking ignores all cloaking abilities, including magical ones.
What Big Eyes You Have: Mesmerizes his victims for two rounds, convincing them that he is a friend and that they should do what he suggests.
What Big Teeth You Have: Swallows his victim whole, holding them in his belly. It's a level 8 Speed or Might defense task to avoid being eaten whole. Captured characters can attempt to cut themselves free, which requires three successful attacks.
Huff and Puff: Exhale creates a wind so strong it can knock over foes, trees, and even houses. Inflicts 6 points of damage to everything within long distance, and knocks most things prone. Once the Wolf uses this ability, he can't use it again for three rounds.
- Interactions:
Despite his constant hunger and his gnawing need to swallow the world, the Wolf makes an interesting ally (provided that he's well fed at the time) for he is smart and cunning, and has myriad tricks for moving through the world.
- Uses:
The Big Bad Wolf is a great character to introduce into a modern fairy tale game. Imagine his new iteration as an urban legend, spreading through the internet.
- Intrusions:
The Wolf makes a great leap, knocking down foes. The Wolf already has someone swallowed in his belly, and that person calls for help from out of the Wolf's mouth.
- Source Book:
This sodden, leather-wrapped humanoid smells of the sea. It moves effortlessly through the air, levitating above the ground while its damp wrappings writhe and squirm as if infested with thousands of worms-because they are. Each worm that walks is a mass of psionic grubs squirming through a slush of salty ooze. Individually the grubs are harmless vermin, but together they're a sentient entity, a single psionic mind formed of thousands of tiny, maggot-like pupae. The tightly wound leather straps covering a worm that walks are just as important for hiding its true nature as for adhesion. Despite being fully encased, the worm that walks senses its environment with a hard-to-fool sixth sense.
- Level:
7 (21)
- Motive:
Domination of other creatures, hunger
- Environment:
Almost anywhere (Other)
- Health:
30
- Damage:
7 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Immediate; short when flying
- Modifications:
Perception as level 8; Speed defense as level 5 due to slow nature
- Combat:
A worm that walks can strike a single target in immediate range with a leather-wrapped "fist" as its action. When it hits and deals damage, several grubs spill out and attach to the victim (getting under most armor unless it's hermetically sealed or behind a force field), who must make a Might defense roll to shake them loose. On a failure, the grubs begin to feed, and the target takes 5 points of damage (ignores Armor).
If a victim is killed while in immediate range of a worm that walks, the worms automatically engulf the body through a wide opening in their wrappings. The grubs go into a feeding frenzy, reducing the remains to nothing within minutes. During the frenzy, the worm that walks regenerates 2 points of health per round. A victim's equipment is retained for later study.
A worm that walks can also emit a psychic burst that can target up to three creatures in short range as its action. On a failed Intellect defense roll, a victim suffers 4 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and is unable to take actions on their subsequent turn. If the victim is attacked while so stunned, their defenses are hindered by two steps.
- Interactions:
A worm that walks can communicate telepathically with characters within short range. It negotiates only with those strong enough to harm it; otherwise, it tries to eat whoever it runs across. Even if the worm that walks makes a deal, it eventually reneges if it senses any advantage for doing so.
- Uses:
A worm that walks has been active in a small rural community for weeks, apparently in preparation for something it calls "the Great Hatching." If that refers to the hatching of more psychic grubs, it could spell trouble for a much larger region.
- Loot:
A worm that walks might have one or two cyphers, though during combat it will use any devices that could help it in the fight.
- Intrusions:
A character struck by the worm that walks notices that they weren't able to shake off all the grubs that spilled out. If they fail a Speed defense roll, a grub dives into their flesh and travels through their body, its route visible beneath their skin. The character is distracted (all tasks hindered) until the grub dies one minute later or is otherwise extracted
- Source Book:
When a spirit of a dead creature fails to find its way to the afterworld, escapes the same, or is summoned forth by a necromancer, it may become a wraith: a bodiless spirit of rage and loss. A wraith appears as a shadowy or misty figure that can resemble the humanoid figure it once was, though wraiths tend to swarm together, making it difficult to distinguish them from each other. Wraiths are often mindless, consumed by their condition. But on occasion, a wraith not too far gone still remembers its life and may respond to questions or seek to locate its loved ones or enemies. A wraith may even attempt to finish a task it started in life. But in time, even the strongest-willed spirit's mind erodes without physical substance to renew it, and it becomes an almost mindless monster of destruction.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Destruction
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, singly or in groups of six to ten (Other)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
3 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short while flying
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 5
- Combat:
A wraith attacks with its touch, which rots flesh and drains life.
A wraith can become fully insubstantial. After it does so, the creature can't change state again until its next turn. While insubstantial, it can't affect or be affected by anything (except for weapons and attacks that specifically affect undead or phased creatures), and it can pass through solid matter without hindrance, but even simple magical wards can keep it at bay. While partly insubstantial (its normal state), a wraith can affect and be affected by others normally.
A group of five wraiths can act as a swarm, focusing on one target to make one attack roll as a single level 4 creature dealing 5 points of damage.
- Interactions:
Most wraiths moan and scream in rage. The rare few that retain reason can speak in a sepulchral voice, and they may even negotiate. Any alliance with a wraith is usually short-lived, since the creature eventually forgets itself and descends fully into rage and the desire to spread destruction.
- Uses:
The PCs are attacked while attending a burial, or they happen to pass close to or camp near a graveyard. Another swarm of wraiths appears in a location where an earlier group was destroyed (indicating a necromancer is summoning them).
- Intrusions:
The wraith screams out, summoning 1d6 more wraiths from the afterworld.
- Source Book:
Wraiths (Homo vacuus) are genetically engineered to live in the vacuum of space by directly metabolizing high-energy charged particles abundant in the void. Though derived from human stock, wraiths are alien in body, sometimes concealing themselves in layers of shroud-like tissue, other times revealing themselves as wispy, elongated things of glowing red plasma. In some settings, wraiths are partners with humans, working in locations where humans would find difficult. In other settings, wraiths went their own way generations earlier, and rediscovering them would be a first contact scenario. Alternatively, wraiths might be a threat to humans, hating humans for having created a species forced to spend its existence in the dark void of space.
- Level:
4 (12)
- Motive:
Varies with individual or setting
- Environment:
Anywhere in vacuum, though usually with access to some kind of enriched radiation source. Environments with 1 G or higher eventually kill wraiths. (Space)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
6 points
- Movement:
Short when flying in zero and low G
- Modifications:
Perception and stealth tasks as level 7
- Combat:
Wraiths can unfold from their concealing shrouds and attack with radioactive limbs for 6 points of Speed damage from ionizing radiation (ignores most Armor), or if available, technological weapons. Some can direct ionizing radiation as long-distance attacks, though doing so costs the wraith 1 point of health. Wraiths are immune to radiation, and attacks using radiation heal a wraith's lost health by the amount of damage the attack would have otherwise afflicted. Gravity of 1 G or greater hinders all wraith actions.
- Interactions:
Wraiths communicate by radio. They react to outsiders as dictated by their place in the setting.
- Uses:
A distant space station stops all communication. Investigators are dispatched to find out what happened. Once aboard, they unravel clues that suggest wraiths may have been responsible.
- Loot:
Some wraiths carry valuable items and equipment.
- Intrusions:
The attacked character must also succeed on a Might defense, or they take an additional 3 points of ambient damage and contract radiation sickness.
- Source Book:
Wyverns are aggressive lesser cousins of dragons. Their bodies are about the size of a heavy horse but their wingspan makes them seem much larger. Lacking a dragon's fiery breath or other magical abilities, wyverns rely on their strong flight and deadly stinger to catch and kill their prey, typically humanoids or large animals. Wyverns have four limbs- two legs used for clumsy walking and two arm-wings used for flight and balance.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Mountains, hills, and plains where large prey is plentiful (Mountains)
- Health:
35
- Damage:
5 points
- Armor:
1
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
Perception as level 7; Speed defense as level 5 due to size
- Combat:
Wyverns prefer to attack from the air, moving up to a short distance and making three attacks (bite, venomous stinger, claws) as their action. If a wyvern has to fight on the ground, it can attack only with its bite and stinger on its turn.
The stinger injects poison, dealing an additional 5 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) if the opponent fails a Might defense roll. Because the wyvern hunts primarily out of hunger, it usually focuses its attacks on one creature, weakening the prey so the wyvern can carry it away and eat in peace.
- Interactions:
Wyverns lack the intelligence of true dragons. They are relatively smart animals (on par with large reptiles such as crocodiles) but can be distracted by easy prey. Allowing one to catch a pig, pony, or riding horse can give characters enough time to get safely away.
- Uses:
Hungry wyverns are known to swoop in and carry off livestock and travelers near a particular road or field. A gang of crafty bandits has managed to train a couple of wyverns as mounts and use them as flying cavalry for their troops on the ground.
- Loot:
Wyverns do not collect treasure, but their nest might have a few cyphers from previous victims. If carefully extracted, an intact venom gland from a dead wyvern can be used to poison one weapon (if sold, it is the equivalent of an expensive item).
- Intrusions:
As part of its attack, the wyvern grabs hold of the character and flies a short distance away. The character can escape with a Might or Speed defense roll (which probably means they fall to the ground and land prone). The wyvern uses a wing or its tail to slam a character so they are thrown a short distance away and land prone.
- Source Book:
This alien creature exists only to eat and reproduce. In doing so, it also destroys every form of life it encounters. Xenoparasites are not technological but were likely engineered by a species with advanced biological super-science. Xenoparasites don't travel between star systems on their own; they were presumably spread across an area of space by their creators to serve as a broad-spectrum bioweapon. What has become of the original maker species is unknown, but given the fecundity and ferocity of the xenoparasite, it's likely they were consumed by their own creation.
Xenoparasites use ovipositors to lay thousands of microscopic eggs in victims. The implanted eggs, like tiny biological labs, detect the particular biology of the new host, adapt accordingly, and use it to fertilize themselves. Within a day or two, victims who haven't already been consumed by adult xenoparasites (which are human sized) give explosive birth to multiple vicious juveniles (which are the size of cats). These juvenile xenoparasites have an edge in dealing with the particular species of creature they hatched from.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Eat and reproduce
- Environment:
Hunts alone or in small groups (Other)
- Health:
28
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short; long when flying
- Modifications:
All stealth actions as level 8
- Combat:
A xenoparasite bites with its mandibles and stings one victim with its ovipositor as a single action. The bite inflicts 6 points of damage, and the ovipositor inflicts 3 points of damage and injects thousands of microscopic eggs if the victim fails a Might defense roll.
Once every other round, an adult can fly at least a short distance to build terrifying velocity and then make a flying attack with its mandibles, dealing 12 points of damage. Defenses against this attack are hindered.
An egg host requires the attention of someone skilled in medicine (and a successful difficulty 7 Intellect-based roll) to sterilize all the eggs in the victim's blood before they hatch twenty or more hours after being deposited, which kills the host and releases 1d6 juvenile xenoparasites. Juveniles are level 2 creatures, but they attack the species of the host they were hatched from as if level 4. After just a few days of feeding, they grow to full adult size.
Xenoparasites can survive at crushing ocean and gas giant pressures, as well as in the vacuum of space. They can encrust abandoned spacecraft and desolate moons for millennia in extended hibernation, only to become active again when vibrations alert them to potential new food sources.
- Interactions:
These creatures are built to consume,not negotiate.
- Uses:
Xenoparasites are tough aliens. A colony of them would be a challenge even for PCs normally accustomed to stiff opposition. A single xenoparasite introduced into an inhabited area could turn the entire place into an infested hive within a week.
- Intrusions:
An NPC shrieks, bursts, and births 1d6 juvenile xenoparasites.
This insidious fungal organism thrives in the damp darkness, spreading across surfaces with a sickly yellow hue. Its appearance is deceptive; it looks like a patch of discolored moss but is dangerous when disturbed. Yellow Mold releases toxic spores into the air to defend its territory and infect new hosts. Travelers beware: where there's Yellow Mold, the air is seldom safe to breathe.
- Level:
2 (6)
- Motive:
Spread and consume organic materials
- Environment:
Damp, dimly lit areas such as dungeons, caves, and rotten forests (Underground)
- Health:
6
- Damage:
2 points
- Movement:
Does not move
- Modifications:
Stealth as level 4 because it is often overlooked or mistaken for harmless moss; Resistance to physical damage as level 3 due to spongy structure
- Combat:
When disturbed, either by proximity or touch, Yellow Mold releases a burst of toxic spores in an immediate radius. Creatures within the burst must make a Might defense roll or suffer damage and become infected with spores. The infection causes the creature to take 1 point of damage each round until cured or until they leave the contaminated area. Spore Burst: When a creature comes within immediate range, Yellow Mold automatically releases a burst of spores, requiring a Might defense roll from all nearby creatures. Infection: Creatures taking damage from the spores become infected, continuing to take 1 point of Might damage each round until the infection is treated or they exit the spore-contaminated area. Mycelial Regrowth: After taking damage, the Yellow Mold slowly regenerates, recovering 1 point of health per hour. Fire and intense cold halt its regrowth temporarily.
- Interactions:
Yellow Mold cannot be reasoned with or intimidated. It reacts purely on instinct to spread and survive.
- Uses:
Yellow Mold is often encountered in areas that haven't been disturbed for a long time, serving as a deterrent to treasure seekers and a sign of environmental neglect or ruin.
- Intrusions:
The disturbed Yellow Mold triggers a chain reaction, causing nearby patches of mold to also release their spores, rapidly escalating the hazard in the area.
- Source Book:
The yithians (also known as the Great Race of Yith) were immense wrinkly cones 10 feet (3 m) high, with a head, four limbs, and other organs spreading from the top of their body. They communicated by making noises with their hands and claws, and they moved by gliding their lower surface across a layer of slime, like a slug. Their civilization was destroyed a billion years before the present day, but they transported their minds into new bodies far in the future and may still be encountered observing the past (our present) by telepathically inhabiting human bodies.
- Level:
6 (18)
- Motive:
Knowledge
- Environment:
Anywhere (Other)
- Health:
22
- Damage:
6 points
- Armor:
2
- Movement:
Short
- Modifications:
All knowledge as level 8; Intellect defense as level 7; Speed defense as level 5 due to size and speed
- Combat:
Although large and hardy, members of the Great Race are ill-suited to physical combat. If they must engage in melee, they use pincer-like claws. They almost always wield artifacts and cyphers, however, which makes them dangerous opponents. Assume that a yithian has one or more of the following abilities arising from advanced technology devices:
- Force field that grants them +3 Armor
- Mental field that gives them +4 Armor against any mental attack
- Ray emitter that inflicts 7 points of damage up to long range
- Cloaking field that renders them invisible for up to ten minutes
- Stun weapon with short range that makes the target fall unconscious for ten minutes
Yithians have the ability to transfer their consciousness backward or forward through time, swapping minds with a creature native to the era they wish to observe. A yithian inhabiting the body of another creature is in complete control of that body. A creature trapped in the body of a yithian must attempt Intellect-based tasks each time it wishes to exert control. For the most part, it is trapped in the yithian's body and is merely along for the ride.
It's worth noting that the bodies the yithians use are not their original bodies, but instead the bodies of supremely ancient creatures that they inhabit. The Great Race hails originally from some extraterrestrial world.
- Interactions:
Yithians are not malicious, but they are quite focused and relatively uncaring about other races, such as humans.
- Uses:
A yithian projects its mind across the aeons, swapping consciousnesses with the character. While controlling the character's body, the yithian is there mainly to learn and observe, and rarely takes any violent actions.
- Loot:
A yithian encountered in the flesh will have 1d6 manifest cyphers and very likely a technological artifact.
- Intrusions:
The yithian produces a cypher that has a function that is perfect for its current situation: a teleporter to get away, a protective field against precisely the kind of attack being used against it, or a weapon that exploits a weakness of the character's.
- Source Book:
Temporary violations of conservation of energy mean that "virtual particles" constantly and seemingly randomly pop out of nothing, briefly interact with normal matter, then disappear. Zero-point phantoms are collections of such particles, taking the form of a very large, almost spider-like entity of many legs, stalks, and arms. What they're doing when they're not manifest is unknown; are they entombed in nearby solids, phased into another dimension, or do they simply not exist until they are called into being by some random cosmic event? Whatever the case, zero-point phantoms seem to prefer unlit or dimly lit areas in spacecraft and stations far from any planet, when they seem to struggle out of solid surfaces, raising a cloud of shadow.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hungers for flesh
- Environment:
Anywhere dark (Urban)
- Health:
15
- Damage:
4 points
- Movement:
Short; short when climbing
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 4 due to a cloud of shadows surrounding a zero-point phantom
- Combat:
A zero-point phantom attacks with needlelike leg and tentacle tips. A victim that takes damage must succeed on a Might defense task, or become poisoned, the effect of which is to drop them one step on the damage track. The victim must keep fighting off the poison until they succeed or drop three steps on the damage track; however, those who fall to the third step on the damage track from a phantom's poison are not dead. They are paralyzed and can't move for about a minute. If a phantom isn't otherwise occupied, it can grab a paralyzed victim and phase back into non-existence. Most victims phased away in this fashion are never seen again.
Zero-point phantoms can stutter in and out of existence on their turn once every few minutes. When they do, they return with full health.
- Interactions:
Zero-point phantoms are about as intelligent as predators like wolves.
- Uses:
The abandoned spacecraft is weirdly empty of any bodies whatsoever. It's as if everyone just disappeared. There are signs of a struggle, though with what isn't clear,
- Intrusions:
Nearby light sources fail. Attacks and defenses against the zero- point phantoms are hindered by two steps for characters unable to see in the dark.
- Source Book:
Humans transformed into aggressive, hard-to-kill serial killers with no memory of their former existence are called zombies. Depending on a zombie's origin, the reason for its transformation varies. A zombie might arise from an undead curse, a psychic possession, an AI meatware overwrite, a viral infection, a drug overdose, or something else. Regardless of how the transformation happened, the result is much the same: a creature whose humanity has been burned out and replaced with unquenchable hunger.
Zombies aren't intelligent, but enough of them together sometimes exhibit emergent behavior, just as ants can coordinate activities across a colony. Thus, zombies alone or in small groups aren't an overwhelming threat for someone who has a baseball bat or can get away. But it's never wise to laugh off a zombie horde.
- Level:
3 (9)
- Motive:
Hunger (for flesh, cerebrospinal fluid, certain human hormones, and so on)
- Environment:
Almost anywhere, in groups of five to seven, or in hordes of tens to hundreds (Other)
- Health:
12
- Damage:
3 points
- Movement:
Immediate
- Modifications:
Speed defense as level 2
- Combat:
Zombies never turn away from a conflict.
They fight on, no matter the odds, usually attacking by biting, but sometimes by tearing with hands made into claws by the erosion of skin over their finger bones.
When zombies attack in groups of five to seven individuals, they can make a single attack roll against one target as one level 5 creature, inflicting 5 points of damage.
Zombies are hard to finish off. If an attack would reduce a zombie's health to 0, it does so only if the number rolled in the attack was an even number; otherwise, the zombie is reduced to 1 point of health instead. This might result in a dismembered, gruesomely damaged zombie that is still moving. Zombies can see in the dark at short range.
"Fresh" zombies are vulnerable to electricity. The first time a zombie takes 5 or more points of damage from an electrical attack, it falls limp and unmoving. Assuming nothing interferes with the process, the zombie arises minutes or hours later without the vulnerability.
Some zombies are infectious. Their bites spread a level 8 disease that moves a victim down one step on the damage track each day a Might defense roll is failed. Victims killed by the disease later animate as zombies.
- Interactions:
Zombies groan when they see something that looks tasty. They do not reason, cannot speak, and never stop pursuing something they've identified as a potential meal, unless something else edible comes closer.
- Uses:
The characters are asked to clear out a space that once served as an old military depot. The appearance of zombies sealed in the area comes as an unpleasant surprise.
- Intrusions:
When the character fails to kill a zombie by rolling an odd number on an attack that otherwise would have been successful, in addition to the normal effect, the zombie's arm comes free and animates as a separate level 2 zombie.