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| Kora |
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 2
Move: 9'
Hit Dice: 2
No. Attacks: 2 Pincers
Damage Attacks: 1d6
Intelligence: Animal
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M
Special: +3 to surprise underwater
Blink Tiger
Cenarachs are a product of the blending cubes and mixing vats of the Sorcerer Lords. They are a horrifying blend of human and arachnid. Their human form is bent over backwards. From the base of its spine, eight spider's legs emerge. The top of their head opens into a spidery maw, and above it are set eight small black eyes. Although they can breath comfortably in both land and water, they cannot swim, and can only travel on the seabed like crabs. They are filled with a hatred towards the unmarred human form. Their lairs are filled with aquatic webs, in which nestle the white pods that hold the corpses serving as food for their implanted eggs.
Cerebral Malice
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 4
Move: 18'
Hit Dice: 6
No. Attacks: 2
Damage Attacks: 1d8 or domination
Intelligence: Very
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: M (size of a large dog)
These creatures are great hunters, able to follow the psychic signature of an individual who has passed through any terrain up to one week. They receive their sustenance by absorbing the brain matter and psyches of intelligent creatures. When they do so, for d6 hours they acquire the ability to speak, taking on the voice and memories of the one consumed. Their method of attack is most disconcerting. In addition to their vicious claws, they are able to dominate the minds of men. Once per round, they may attempt to seize control of a victim who must save vs. magic at -2. If dominated, the individual will follow their every command. They can control up to four victims at once. They are not native to the earth, hailing from the bleak corners of space.
Compass Worm
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 6
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 3+1
THACO: 16
No. Attacks: 1 Bite (2 in frenzy)
Damage Attacks: 2d4+1 + Blood frenzy
Intelligence: Low
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: M
Special: As soon as any of the worms tastes blood (does damage), all worms in a 30' radius enter a wild, thrashing frenzy, receiving an additional attack per round.
Compass Worms are five feet in length. Their otherwise featureless head ends in a maw ringed by sharp teeth. They are filled with a hatred of sapient life and an uncontrollable lust for blood. They have an unerring sense of direction, and potent alien senses that allow the worm to “see” in darkness, and detect invisible or hidden creatures. Compass Worms are valued for their frightful force as guardians, and also by all those sorcerers who have reason to tread in twisting labyrinths or the dark places beneath the earth. Compass Worms dwell in a place the Book of Six Circles refers to as “The Sightless Labyrinth”. Although the text is vague, it seems to be a place of claustrophobic darkness, in which cramped and twisting passages are laid out in a non-euclidean geometry.
Dismemberer
Frequency: Unique
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 4
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 8 (40)
THACO: 12
No. Attacks: Claw/Claw+ichor grab, or breath weapon
Damage Attacks: 1d8
Intelligence: Medium
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: M
Special attacks: Once per day ichor spray doing 3d6 to everyone in a 10' cone, save vs. breath weapon for half. When striking with his claws, on a natural 20 the Dismemberer will pull a victim's head into his weeping ichor for 2d6 additional damage.
In ages past, the Dismemberer was a master architect. He raised for the sorcerer lords mansions to suit their whims, constructed like puzzle boxes, with secret gardens, jeweled libraries, and glittering towers. But in his arrogance, he slighted Sarpedon the Shaper, and so entered his protein bathes and blending chamber. He no longer remembers why he builds, but build he must. So he fashions a cathedral to his long dead master from rude materials, fastened with an ichor secreted from the weeping surface where his face once was. Embedded within the walls are the tanned limbs of his victims. From the walls of the nave, a choir of tortured faces peer, and the entryway is decorated by torsos from which spring a bewildering farrago of limbs. He dwells on the Island that is his namesake, one of the Shattered Isles.
Ctenophoric Maiden
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 6
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 2
THACO: 17
Attacks: 1 Stinging tentacles (10' radius) or psionics
Damage Attacks: 1d10
Intelligence: Very High
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M
Special: The Ctenophoric Maiden may use the following mind powers once per hour: (1) Levitate, (2) Hold Person, (3) Magic Missile (2d4+2).
Ctenophoric Maidens are beautiful women from the nose down. Immediately above the nose, their face ends, bulging into something resembling the medusa jellyfish from which they were originally spawned. They are possessed of a cold and calculating intelligence, and wield fierce mental powers in the service of their strange ends. They may also attack with their writhing tentacles that carry deadly stings, which they may focus either on a single target, or use as an area effect weapon (10'). Ctenophoric Maidens were originally spawned in Sarpdon the Shaper's vats during the twilight of the Sorcerer Lords. They enjoyed a brief period of popularity during which they were in great demand. But the fad among that jaded crowd quickly passed to other curiosities and aberrations. Most of the Ctenophoric Maidens were thoughtlessly destroyed or casually sent into exile. It is rumored that a community of Ctenophoric Maidens has survived into the present day, hidden among the shattered isles. If so, it is a highly secretive enclave.
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 1-3 depending on size
THACO: 18
Attacks: Tentacles + poison
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + save or lose 1d4 con
Intelligence: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small
Luminous Jellies are shaped as beautiful transparent bells, within which luminous geometrical patterns emit a phosphorescent glow. Their stinging tentacles are dangerous, and they may attack moving entities, especially if they come close. Luminous jellies feed off magical energy and are usually found clustered around some magical artifact or depository of power. If someone should be unfortunate enough to cast a spell, or employ a magical object within 100' of a colony of Luminous Jellies, they will all swarm hungrily to the new source of nourishment in shining, deadly waves.
Jelly, Muscle
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: Variable (4-12)
THACO: 15
Attacks: 1 Slam
Damage Attacks: 1d8
Intelligence: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small to Large
Special: For every HD over 8 add 1 to damage. Victims struck by such large Muscle Jellies must save vs. paralysis or be stunned for 1 round.
Lunar Spawn
No. Appearing: 1d20
Armor Class: 6
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 1+1
THACO: 18
Attacks: 1 painful touch
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + cumulative -1 on all rolls for 24 hours
Intelligence: Low
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M
Lunar Spawn are lunar entities. To the human eye, they appear as billowing, incandescent clouds, coalescing momentarily into membranous wings and cerebral appendages. To the ear, the beating of their wings is the cracking of frozen panes of glass, their cry the chiming of bells. They bring with them the cold of empty voids, and the desolation of crystalline spires, rising without life or purpose from blasted lunar expanses into a perpetually black sky. They care little about the ways of man, although they are drawn like moths to the warmth of our life force and the integrity of our psyches. Unfortunately, the brush of their wings and the touch of their dangling appendages are deadly to the human psyche.
Nervous Engine
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 9
Move: 10' (See below)
Hit Dice: 100 hp total
No. of Attacks: 3 per node (See below)
Damage Attack: 1-10/1-10/1-10
Special Attack: Spell
Special Defense: No
Intelligence: High
Size: See below
A Nervous Engine is a complex network of nerve fibers running from a cerebral crown, consisting of a fleshy ring of fused heads. These nerve fibers terminate in spatially distant nodes. Each node is a cluster of sense organs and dangling ganglia. These organs cluster in corners, and can be hidden behind fixtures if desired. The nodes may be installed within a 1000' radius of the crown, although nerve fibers must be run from the crown to the site of each node. The total hit points of the nervous engine is divided between crown and nods. Up to nine nodes may be installed. Each node possesses 10 hp of the total, with the crown possessing the remaining amount (minimum 10 hp). Should the fibers connecting any node to the crown be cut, that node automatically dies.
Only a specially prepared subject may don the crown. To do so, a ring of removable flesh plugs must be installed in the wearer's skull. When the wearer removes the plugs and dons the crown, its tendrils make direct contact with his brain. This enables him to sense through the organs of all nodes. He may also direct the dangling ganglia to attack, which can extend 30' from the sense organ cluster. They attack by transmitting agonizing electrical pulses into the nerve fibers of the victim. Finally, the user may cast mind affecting spells through the organ cluster targeting any perceived victim. If a node is destroyed while a user wears the crown, he must save vs. death magic or suffer 10 hp damage as well.
The creation of a Nervous Engine is a ghastly affair. Like, the Sanguinary, they are generated through the 7th level vivimancer spell Create Organ Golem, found in the second part of The Hidden Metamorphoses. This requires a working laboratory of at least 3000gp value. Five victims must be procured and placed into long term deep slumber, usually through use of the 3rd level vivimancer spell Slumber. The victims must be arranged in a circle, with their heads dangling into a protoplasmic bath infused with the royal jelly of giant bees. Through painless surgical incisions, the brain casing of the subjects are exposed to the fluid. Within two weeks, a tough and fleshy growth will sprout form within their skull cavity, beginning to fuse the heads. At this point, their bodies will begin to rapidly waste away, sloughing off in two more weeks. In the process, all their hair is shed, and cauliflowers of neural matter sprout from every orifice. When the heads are fully fused into the cerebral crown, the neural fibers may be drawn out, and the distal nodes cultivated. The whole process of growth takes two months of active tending.
Q
Quiet One
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 5
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 4+1
THACO: 15
Attacks: 3 claws
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + special poison
Intelligence: Medium
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: M
Special: Owing to their unnerving silence, they are at +2 to surprise rolls. Anyone struck by their claws must save vs. poison or be rendered silent as if struck by a silence spell.
The Quiet Ones appear on our plane as long tangles of segmented legs and joints, ending in wicked hooks. They only come when summoned, entering our reality by unfolding their twisted limbs and pulling themselves rapidly from the mouth of the summoner. Their name is doubly earned. For they move, strike and die utterly without sound. But their hooks are also covered in potent venom that is at once excruciating and simultaneously renders the victim silent as though subject to a silence spell. Their psychology is strange. At times, Quiet Ones seem to delight in rending flesh, although at other times they are stubbornly impassive, and move into battle only with goading. Owing to their superficial similarity to the Tessellated Carvers of the Archivists, some have speculated that Quiet Ones are one of their servitor races. What silent realm of agony they hail from is not known. They are favored by all those who seek to kill their enemies in silence, and are often mastered by those searching for a potent weapon to employ in a duel against other sorcerers.
R
S
Sanguinary
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 7
Move: 12
Hit Dice: Variable
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage Attack: 2-12/2-12
Special Attack: Blood Drain
Special Defense: No
Intelligence: Semi
Size: Variable
A Sanguinary is a swaying, pulsating, web of arteries and capillaries, roughly humanoid in shape. Its spoor is a rust-colored dappled pattern of droplets it leaves on everything it touches. Sanguinaries vary in size, beginning with 1/2 the hp of their former host. They attacks by pressing their twisting and writhing capillaries against the flesh of a living victim, which drill beneath the skin in search of blood. When it scores a hit, it adds any hp it deals in damage to its own total up to a maximum of twice its starting total. It may continue to drain blood after this point, which pours in spurts from its engorged tendrils.
Sanguinaries are ruled by their ceaseless thirst. They required 5 pints of blood per day, and without blood perish within 3 days. For this reason, they willingly serve any master who provides (and withholds) their gruesome sustenance. They are created through the 7th level vivimancer spell Create Organ Golem. This spell is contained in the second part of The Hidden Metamorphoses. It requires a working laboratory of at least 2000gp value, a living victim, a tub of elemental earth, and a pint of aboleth semen. The technique involves first liberating the intact cardiovascular system from the living victim. Needless to say, this process involves terrible life sustaining magics, and requires mastery of anatomy, surgical precision, and an iron stomach. Once the cardiovascular system has been removed, the bleeding heart along with its veinous root system must be carefully buried in the elemental earth that has been fertilized in advance with the potent semen from the Aboleth. If the heart bulb is properly tended for a month, it will sprout a strange growth, blossoming within a fortnight into a Sanguinary ripe for the harvesting.
Sapless One
No. Appearing: 1d8
Armor Class: 7
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 3+3
THACO: 17 (incorporeal touch ignores all armor)
Attacks: 1 touch
Damage Attacks: 1d4+1 + energy drain
Intelligence: Medium
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Size: M
Special: If they succeed on a to hit roll, the victim must save vs. death or lose a level and suffer partial permanent amnesia. At night or in shadowy places Sapless Ones receive +4 to surprise rolls.
The Sapless Ones are the shades of those who died alone and forgotten, left to rot without proper burial and funeral rites. Those who were cunning in life eventually win passage through the Verdigris Gate into Ushanpor, the great city of the Brass Sepulcher. There they slip from doorway to doorway, past desecrated temples, rank gardens, and silent bazaars to congregate listlessly with their kind in filthy courtyards, where they find brief solace in company with those who share their plight. Over time their memories fade, and with them their dreams, hopes, and personality. They remember only that they do not remember, and driven mad by a dull aching lack, long for whatever would fill it. They lack substance, and although they are filled with an envious hatred of the living, they are desperate to serve those who can provide it.
Slaver Squid
No. Appearing:
Armor Class: 2
Move: 12' (fly)
Hit Dice: 6
THACO: 14
Attacks: 3 tentacle or special
Damage Attacks: 1d10
Intelligence: Genius
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Size: L
Special: Every other round they may forgo other attacks to unleash waves of agony. Everyone in 100' must save vs. spells or take 3d6 damage and suffer paralysis for 1d4 rounds. Once per day they may also cast darkness 15' by injecting their black ink into the fabric of spacetime.
Slaver Squids are lunar cephalopods whose skin is colored like the starry night's sky. They have a mind that cuts like razors and believe that all lesser species--such as man--are fit only for servitude. Their alien culture is organized through a cruel and byzantine hierarchy. They work tirelessly to build an army of slaves from the many worlds, using them to erect a pearly ziggurat as a great memorial to their dead god, Kalipash-Or. The Slaver Squid will try to enslave any humanoids it encounters and transport them to the Ziggurat.
Still Prelate
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 2
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 7
THACO: 13
Attacks: By spell
Intelligence: Exceptional
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Size: M
Spells per day: Darkness (x2), Cause Fear, Silence 15' Radius, Hold Person, Blindness (x2), Dispel Magic, Insect Plague, and Monster Summoning II (summons 1d6 Compass Worms).
Still Prelates are gaunt figures. In the place of a face, a dense manuscript is set, supported by an elaborate iron cage drilled into their skull. They are silent and malicious figures, who revel in pain and suffering. When they cast spells, their manuscript flips open to the relevant page, and the runes inscribed thereupon glow green. Little is known about these strange figures. They are denizens of the Sightless Labyrinth, and are able to command the entities that reside there. Perhaps they are spiritual leaders of the religion that prevails in its non-euclidean corridors; perhaps they are manifestations of the maze's hatred for life; or perhaps they are what remains of those who were banished there from the earth in earlier times, when men still knew how to open the ways to many worlds. Should they be slain, the manuscript may be extracted from their head. It contains the spells listed above, plus the ritual that binds Compass Worms. However, to consult this text, one risks madness.
T
Tentacled Guardian
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 2
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 8
THACO: 12
Attacks: Spear/Tentacle/Tentacle
Damage: 1d6+2/1d4+2/1d4+2
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L
Special: On a successful tentacle strike, the victim make a dex check or be constricted and recieve automatic damage until dropped.
The tentacled guardians were among the most fearsome of Sarpedon the Shaper's blended monstrosities. They are cowled figures rising from a mass of think tentacles that supports them as a throne. They may rear up to 12' tall, and are capable of condensing themselves to pass through narrow apertures through which a slender man could fit. They are usually bound by fearsome magics to permanently guard a particular place, and serve as faithful and relentless guardians. They are often equipped with ancient magical weapons and arcane items.
Threnody Crows
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 5
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 6
THACO: 14
Attacks: By spell
Intelligence: Genius
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Size: M
Spells: The Threnody Crow may cast at will: Invisibility, Darkness, Charm Person, Suggestion, Sleep, Improved Phantasmal Force, Confusion, and Fear. Once per day he may cast: Phantasmal Killer, Hallucinatory Terrain, Mass Suggestion, Mass Confusion.
Although it is found on no map, there is a land that borders all the waking worlds. It goes by diverse names: The Half-Remembered Kingdoms, Juxtaposition, The Unbidden Shores, Wishery, and countless others in tongues no man has ever heard. Within its perplexing and shifting geography, there are some places more than others where nightmares roost. The sand strewn isles of the Sea of Palimpsests is such a place. It is here that one may find the Threnody Crows that the Fourth Circle binds.
U
V
Vothak
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1-2
Armor Class: 1
Move: 20'
Hit Dice: 8
THACO: 11
Attacks: Claw/Claw/Claw/Claw/Bite
Damage: 1d8/1d8/1d8/1d8/1d12
Intelligence: Animal
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: L
Special: If their bite hits by 4 more than needed, they will swallow whole a creature of man size or smaller. The harsh stomach acids of this fiend will do 3d12 damage per round, automatically. From within the stomach, one may only attack with medium sized weapons (longswords and smaller), but one need not roll to hit.
These pale, leathery horror hail from the lush white bowers of the Dangling Jungle in Wishery. The offspring of Martian nightmares, these eyeless hunters are well suited to their inverted home. Their sucker covered feat allow them to climb any surface, and they are comfortable in any orientation. They move with a brutal speed, and attack with four razor sharp claws. Most terrible of all is the bite of their massive maw, filled with needle like teeth. They appetite is limitless and they strike without mercy. Only a superior show of force can turn them aside from chosen prey.
W
X
Y
Z
Apparition shrimp are massive shellfish (4' long) that have been changed by feeding on the mutagen infused carcasses of Luminous Jellies. They are usually found near the underwater wreckage of ancient magical sites. They have translucent, ghostly blue shells, and long wicked razored appendages. Owing to their transparency, they are difficult to spot underwater, and frequently are able to surprise their prey. They often travel in packs and can be aggressive.
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| John Blanche |
No. Appearing: 1-3
Armor Class: 2
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 5+5
No. Attacks: 3 Claw/Claw/Bite
Damage Attacks: 1d6/1d6/1d10
Intelligence: Animal
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L
Special: They blink every round making it difficult to strike them (hence hte low AC). Each round, on 1-3 on a d6 they strike from the rear at +4
Blink Tigers are fearsome predators of the Screaming Hyena Jungles. They are great cats, with a lustrous black coat and yellow stripes, must prized by nobles throughout the Wilderlands. They constantly flicker in and out of existence, moving in a disorienting mayhem of shifting locations. Like other great cats, they are lazy but cruel hunters, considering themselves kings of the jungle.
Special: They blink every round making it difficult to strike them (hence hte low AC). Each round, on 1-3 on a d6 they strike from the rear at +4
Blink Tigers are fearsome predators of the Screaming Hyena Jungles. They are great cats, with a lustrous black coat and yellow stripes, must prized by nobles throughout the Wilderlands. They constantly flicker in and out of existence, moving in a disorienting mayhem of shifting locations. Like other great cats, they are lazy but cruel hunters, considering themselves kings of the jungle.
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| Alberto Carrera Avila |
Cenarach
No. Appearing: 1-3
Armor Class: 6
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 3+3
No. Attacks: 1
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + poison (save or die)
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: L (5' high spiders)
Cenarachs are a product of the blending cubes and mixing vats of the Sorcerer Lords. They are a horrifying blend of human and arachnid. Their human form is bent over backwards. From the base of its spine, eight spider's legs emerge. The top of their head opens into a spidery maw, and above it are set eight small black eyes. Although they can breath comfortably in both land and water, they cannot swim, and can only travel on the seabed like crabs. They are filled with a hatred towards the unmarred human form. Their lairs are filled with aquatic webs, in which nestle the white pods that hold the corpses serving as food for their implanted eggs.
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| David A. Trampier |
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 4
Move: 18'
Hit Dice: 6
No. Attacks: 2
Damage Attacks: 1d8 or domination
Intelligence: Very
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: M (size of a large dog)
These creatures are great hunters, able to follow the psychic signature of an individual who has passed through any terrain up to one week. They receive their sustenance by absorbing the brain matter and psyches of intelligent creatures. When they do so, for d6 hours they acquire the ability to speak, taking on the voice and memories of the one consumed. Their method of attack is most disconcerting. In addition to their vicious claws, they are able to dominate the minds of men. Once per round, they may attempt to seize control of a victim who must save vs. magic at -2. If dominated, the individual will follow their every command. They can control up to four victims at once. They are not native to the earth, hailing from the bleak corners of space.
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 6
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 3+1
THACO: 16
No. Attacks: 1 Bite (2 in frenzy)
Damage Attacks: 2d4+1 + Blood frenzy
Intelligence: Low
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: M
Special: As soon as any of the worms tastes blood (does damage), all worms in a 30' radius enter a wild, thrashing frenzy, receiving an additional attack per round.
Compass Worms are five feet in length. Their otherwise featureless head ends in a maw ringed by sharp teeth. They are filled with a hatred of sapient life and an uncontrollable lust for blood. They have an unerring sense of direction, and potent alien senses that allow the worm to “see” in darkness, and detect invisible or hidden creatures. Compass Worms are valued for their frightful force as guardians, and also by all those sorcerers who have reason to tread in twisting labyrinths or the dark places beneath the earth. Compass Worms dwell in a place the Book of Six Circles refers to as “The Sightless Labyrinth”. Although the text is vague, it seems to be a place of claustrophobic darkness, in which cramped and twisting passages are laid out in a non-euclidean geometry.
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| Stillenacht |
Frequency: Unique
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 4
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 8 (40)
THACO: 12
No. Attacks: Claw/Claw+ichor grab, or breath weapon
Damage Attacks: 1d8
Intelligence: Medium
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: M
Special attacks: Once per day ichor spray doing 3d6 to everyone in a 10' cone, save vs. breath weapon for half. When striking with his claws, on a natural 20 the Dismemberer will pull a victim's head into his weeping ichor for 2d6 additional damage.
In ages past, the Dismemberer was a master architect. He raised for the sorcerer lords mansions to suit their whims, constructed like puzzle boxes, with secret gardens, jeweled libraries, and glittering towers. But in his arrogance, he slighted Sarpedon the Shaper, and so entered his protein bathes and blending chamber. He no longer remembers why he builds, but build he must. So he fashions a cathedral to his long dead master from rude materials, fastened with an ichor secreted from the weeping surface where his face once was. Embedded within the walls are the tanned limbs of his victims. From the walls of the nave, a choir of tortured faces peer, and the entryway is decorated by torsos from which spring a bewildering farrago of limbs. He dwells on the Island that is his namesake, one of the Shattered Isles.
Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 6
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 2
THACO: 17
Attacks: 1 Stinging tentacles (10' radius) or psionics
Damage Attacks: 1d10
Intelligence: Very High
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M
Special: The Ctenophoric Maiden may use the following mind powers once per hour: (1) Levitate, (2) Hold Person, (3) Magic Missile (2d4+2).
Ctenophoric Maidens are beautiful women from the nose down. Immediately above the nose, their face ends, bulging into something resembling the medusa jellyfish from which they were originally spawned. They are possessed of a cold and calculating intelligence, and wield fierce mental powers in the service of their strange ends. They may also attack with their writhing tentacles that carry deadly stings, which they may focus either on a single target, or use as an area effect weapon (10'). Ctenophoric Maidens were originally spawned in Sarpdon the Shaper's vats during the twilight of the Sorcerer Lords. They enjoyed a brief period of popularity during which they were in great demand. But the fad among that jaded crowd quickly passed to other curiosities and aberrations. Most of the Ctenophoric Maidens were thoughtlessly destroyed or casually sent into exile. It is rumored that a community of Ctenophoric Maidens has survived into the present day, hidden among the shattered isles. If so, it is a highly secretive enclave.
Jelly, Luminous
No. Appearing: 10-60
Armor Class: 8Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 1-3 depending on size
THACO: 18
Attacks: Tentacles + poison
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + save or lose 1d4 con
Intelligence: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small
Luminous Jellies are shaped as beautiful transparent bells, within which luminous geometrical patterns emit a phosphorescent glow. Their stinging tentacles are dangerous, and they may attack moving entities, especially if they come close. Luminous jellies feed off magical energy and are usually found clustered around some magical artifact or depository of power. If someone should be unfortunate enough to cast a spell, or employ a magical object within 100' of a colony of Luminous Jellies, they will all swarm hungrily to the new source of nourishment in shining, deadly waves.
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| Janjetov |
Jelly, Muscle
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 10Move: 12'
Hit Dice: Variable (4-12)
THACO: 15
Attacks: 1 Slam
Damage Attacks: 1d8
Intelligence: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small to Large
Special: For every HD over 8 add 1 to damage. Victims struck by such large Muscle Jellies must save vs. paralysis or be stunned for 1 round.
Muscle Jellies are the byproducts of abandoned muscle culture vats used by the practitioners of bio-occult science. When these vile vats of perpetually roiling muscle fibers are allowed to stew for months unattended, they will coalesce into mindless and aggressive Muscle Jellies. The longer they are left unattended, the larger they will grow, reaching their maximum size at 12 HD. They move and attack by growing powerful pseudo-pods. On the plus side, they are delicious when grilled. During the age of the Sorcerer Lords, especially tender Muscle Jellies were intentionally grown for consumption at huge feasts. This gave rise to a short-lived profession of gladiatorial butchers.
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| Gary Chalk |
No. Appearing: 1d20
Armor Class: 6
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 1+1
THACO: 18
Attacks: 1 painful touch
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + cumulative -1 on all rolls for 24 hours
Intelligence: Low
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M
Lunar Spawn are lunar entities. To the human eye, they appear as billowing, incandescent clouds, coalescing momentarily into membranous wings and cerebral appendages. To the ear, the beating of their wings is the cracking of frozen panes of glass, their cry the chiming of bells. They bring with them the cold of empty voids, and the desolation of crystalline spires, rising without life or purpose from blasted lunar expanses into a perpetually black sky. They care little about the ways of man, although they are drawn like moths to the warmth of our life force and the integrity of our psyches. Unfortunately, the brush of their wings and the touch of their dangling appendages are deadly to the human psyche.
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 9
Move: 10' (See below)
Hit Dice: 100 hp total
No. of Attacks: 3 per node (See below)
Damage Attack: 1-10/1-10/1-10
Special Attack: Spell
Special Defense: No
Intelligence: High
Size: See below
A Nervous Engine is a complex network of nerve fibers running from a cerebral crown, consisting of a fleshy ring of fused heads. These nerve fibers terminate in spatially distant nodes. Each node is a cluster of sense organs and dangling ganglia. These organs cluster in corners, and can be hidden behind fixtures if desired. The nodes may be installed within a 1000' radius of the crown, although nerve fibers must be run from the crown to the site of each node. The total hit points of the nervous engine is divided between crown and nods. Up to nine nodes may be installed. Each node possesses 10 hp of the total, with the crown possessing the remaining amount (minimum 10 hp). Should the fibers connecting any node to the crown be cut, that node automatically dies.
Only a specially prepared subject may don the crown. To do so, a ring of removable flesh plugs must be installed in the wearer's skull. When the wearer removes the plugs and dons the crown, its tendrils make direct contact with his brain. This enables him to sense through the organs of all nodes. He may also direct the dangling ganglia to attack, which can extend 30' from the sense organ cluster. They attack by transmitting agonizing electrical pulses into the nerve fibers of the victim. Finally, the user may cast mind affecting spells through the organ cluster targeting any perceived victim. If a node is destroyed while a user wears the crown, he must save vs. death magic or suffer 10 hp damage as well.
The creation of a Nervous Engine is a ghastly affair. Like, the Sanguinary, they are generated through the 7th level vivimancer spell Create Organ Golem, found in the second part of The Hidden Metamorphoses. This requires a working laboratory of at least 3000gp value. Five victims must be procured and placed into long term deep slumber, usually through use of the 3rd level vivimancer spell Slumber. The victims must be arranged in a circle, with their heads dangling into a protoplasmic bath infused with the royal jelly of giant bees. Through painless surgical incisions, the brain casing of the subjects are exposed to the fluid. Within two weeks, a tough and fleshy growth will sprout form within their skull cavity, beginning to fuse the heads. At this point, their bodies will begin to rapidly waste away, sloughing off in two more weeks. In the process, all their hair is shed, and cauliflowers of neural matter sprout from every orifice. When the heads are fully fused into the cerebral crown, the neural fibers may be drawn out, and the distal nodes cultivated. The whole process of growth takes two months of active tending.
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| Russ Nicholson |
No. Appearing: 1d6
Armor Class: 5
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 4+1
THACO: 15
Attacks: 3 claws
Damage Attacks: 1d6 + special poison
Intelligence: Medium
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: M
Special: Owing to their unnerving silence, they are at +2 to surprise rolls. Anyone struck by their claws must save vs. poison or be rendered silent as if struck by a silence spell.
The Quiet Ones appear on our plane as long tangles of segmented legs and joints, ending in wicked hooks. They only come when summoned, entering our reality by unfolding their twisted limbs and pulling themselves rapidly from the mouth of the summoner. Their name is doubly earned. For they move, strike and die utterly without sound. But their hooks are also covered in potent venom that is at once excruciating and simultaneously renders the victim silent as though subject to a silence spell. Their psychology is strange. At times, Quiet Ones seem to delight in rending flesh, although at other times they are stubbornly impassive, and move into battle only with goading. Owing to their superficial similarity to the Tessellated Carvers of the Archivists, some have speculated that Quiet Ones are one of their servitor races. What silent realm of agony they hail from is not known. They are favored by all those who seek to kill their enemies in silence, and are often mastered by those searching for a potent weapon to employ in a duel against other sorcerers.
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| Walter Oltmann |
Sanguinary
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 7
Move: 12
Hit Dice: Variable
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage Attack: 2-12/2-12
Special Attack: Blood Drain
Special Defense: No
Intelligence: Semi
Size: Variable
A Sanguinary is a swaying, pulsating, web of arteries and capillaries, roughly humanoid in shape. Its spoor is a rust-colored dappled pattern of droplets it leaves on everything it touches. Sanguinaries vary in size, beginning with 1/2 the hp of their former host. They attacks by pressing their twisting and writhing capillaries against the flesh of a living victim, which drill beneath the skin in search of blood. When it scores a hit, it adds any hp it deals in damage to its own total up to a maximum of twice its starting total. It may continue to drain blood after this point, which pours in spurts from its engorged tendrils.
Sanguinaries are ruled by their ceaseless thirst. They required 5 pints of blood per day, and without blood perish within 3 days. For this reason, they willingly serve any master who provides (and withholds) their gruesome sustenance. They are created through the 7th level vivimancer spell Create Organ Golem. This spell is contained in the second part of The Hidden Metamorphoses. It requires a working laboratory of at least 2000gp value, a living victim, a tub of elemental earth, and a pint of aboleth semen. The technique involves first liberating the intact cardiovascular system from the living victim. Needless to say, this process involves terrible life sustaining magics, and requires mastery of anatomy, surgical precision, and an iron stomach. Once the cardiovascular system has been removed, the bleeding heart along with its veinous root system must be carefully buried in the elemental earth that has been fertilized in advance with the potent semen from the Aboleth. If the heart bulb is properly tended for a month, it will sprout a strange growth, blossoming within a fortnight into a Sanguinary ripe for the harvesting.
Sapless OneNo. Appearing: 1d8
Armor Class: 7
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 3+3
THACO: 17 (incorporeal touch ignores all armor)
Attacks: 1 touch
Damage Attacks: 1d4+1 + energy drain
Intelligence: Medium
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Size: M
Special: If they succeed on a to hit roll, the victim must save vs. death or lose a level and suffer partial permanent amnesia. At night or in shadowy places Sapless Ones receive +4 to surprise rolls.
The Sapless Ones are the shades of those who died alone and forgotten, left to rot without proper burial and funeral rites. Those who were cunning in life eventually win passage through the Verdigris Gate into Ushanpor, the great city of the Brass Sepulcher. There they slip from doorway to doorway, past desecrated temples, rank gardens, and silent bazaars to congregate listlessly with their kind in filthy courtyards, where they find brief solace in company with those who share their plight. Over time their memories fade, and with them their dreams, hopes, and personality. They remember only that they do not remember, and driven mad by a dull aching lack, long for whatever would fill it. They lack substance, and although they are filled with an envious hatred of the living, they are desperate to serve those who can provide it.
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| Delano-Laramie |
No. Appearing:
Armor Class: 2
Move: 12' (fly)
Hit Dice: 6
THACO: 14
Attacks: 3 tentacle or special
Damage Attacks: 1d10
Intelligence: Genius
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Size: L
Special: Every other round they may forgo other attacks to unleash waves of agony. Everyone in 100' must save vs. spells or take 3d6 damage and suffer paralysis for 1d4 rounds. Once per day they may also cast darkness 15' by injecting their black ink into the fabric of spacetime.
Slaver Squids are lunar cephalopods whose skin is colored like the starry night's sky. They have a mind that cuts like razors and believe that all lesser species--such as man--are fit only for servitude. Their alien culture is organized through a cruel and byzantine hierarchy. They work tirelessly to build an army of slaves from the many worlds, using them to erect a pearly ziggurat as a great memorial to their dead god, Kalipash-Or. The Slaver Squid will try to enslave any humanoids it encounters and transport them to the Ziggurat.
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| Stillenacht |
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 2
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 7
THACO: 13
Attacks: By spell
Intelligence: Exceptional
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Size: M
Spells per day: Darkness (x2), Cause Fear, Silence 15' Radius, Hold Person, Blindness (x2), Dispel Magic, Insect Plague, and Monster Summoning II (summons 1d6 Compass Worms).
Still Prelates are gaunt figures. In the place of a face, a dense manuscript is set, supported by an elaborate iron cage drilled into their skull. They are silent and malicious figures, who revel in pain and suffering. When they cast spells, their manuscript flips open to the relevant page, and the runes inscribed thereupon glow green. Little is known about these strange figures. They are denizens of the Sightless Labyrinth, and are able to command the entities that reside there. Perhaps they are spiritual leaders of the religion that prevails in its non-euclidean corridors; perhaps they are manifestations of the maze's hatred for life; or perhaps they are what remains of those who were banished there from the earth in earlier times, when men still knew how to open the ways to many worlds. Should they be slain, the manuscript may be extracted from their head. It contains the spells listed above, plus the ritual that binds Compass Worms. However, to consult this text, one risks madness.
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| Chris Burdett |
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 2
Move: 15'
Hit Dice: 8
THACO: 12
Attacks: Spear/Tentacle/Tentacle
Damage: 1d6+2/1d4+2/1d4+2
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L
Special: On a successful tentacle strike, the victim make a dex check or be constricted and recieve automatic damage until dropped.
The tentacled guardians were among the most fearsome of Sarpedon the Shaper's blended monstrosities. They are cowled figures rising from a mass of think tentacles that supports them as a throne. They may rear up to 12' tall, and are capable of condensing themselves to pass through narrow apertures through which a slender man could fit. They are usually bound by fearsome magics to permanently guard a particular place, and serve as faithful and relentless guardians. They are often equipped with ancient magical weapons and arcane items.
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| Kora |
Threnody Crows
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 5
Move: 12'
Hit Dice: 6
THACO: 14
Attacks: By spell
Intelligence: Genius
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Size: M
Spells: The Threnody Crow may cast at will: Invisibility, Darkness, Charm Person, Suggestion, Sleep, Improved Phantasmal Force, Confusion, and Fear. Once per day he may cast: Phantasmal Killer, Hallucinatory Terrain, Mass Suggestion, Mass Confusion.
Although it is found on no map, there is a land that borders all the waking worlds. It goes by diverse names: The Half-Remembered Kingdoms, Juxtaposition, The Unbidden Shores, Wishery, and countless others in tongues no man has ever heard. Within its perplexing and shifting geography, there are some places more than others where nightmares roost. The sand strewn isles of the Sea of Palimpsests is such a place. It is here that one may find the Threnody Crows that the Fourth Circle binds.
Threnody Crows are beautiful in the wrong way, with pearly white eyes, feathers black as midnight velvet, and the head of a crow. They wear rotting finery, and carry ornate instruments, usually stringed. They are great singers, for they have as many mouths as hopes they have betrayed, and their every note is thus a harmony. They are themselves formidable sorcerers, weaving great illusions through their dark threnodies that maze the minds of men and give substance to our nightmares. They are wise but fickle, and could never be bound, except that they rejoice in the novel sights of the waking worlds, and in sewing destruction and misery.
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Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1-2
Armor Class: 1
Move: 20'
Hit Dice: 8
THACO: 11
Attacks: Claw/Claw/Claw/Claw/Bite
Damage: 1d8/1d8/1d8/1d8/1d12
Intelligence: Animal
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: L
Special: If their bite hits by 4 more than needed, they will swallow whole a creature of man size or smaller. The harsh stomach acids of this fiend will do 3d12 damage per round, automatically. From within the stomach, one may only attack with medium sized weapons (longswords and smaller), but one need not roll to hit.
These pale, leathery horror hail from the lush white bowers of the Dangling Jungle in Wishery. The offspring of Martian nightmares, these eyeless hunters are well suited to their inverted home. Their sucker covered feat allow them to climb any surface, and they are comfortable in any orientation. They move with a brutal speed, and attack with four razor sharp claws. Most terrible of all is the bite of their massive maw, filled with needle like teeth. They appetite is limitless and they strike without mercy. Only a superior show of force can turn them aside from chosen prey.
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These are excellent. I especially like the nervous engine.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletejust came across this blog today, some really cool stuff here. really liked this bestiary so I converted it to a pdf format for my own personal use. There's a link if you're interested.
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7j2TVuHurRmNmt3OWk3TWpVWEk
This is off the chain.
ReplyDeleteThanks Max Sellers
DeleteJust purchased “From the Vats” on pdf, and it has some of these awesome creatures. I’m loving the module so far, and am planning on running it using a modified version of “Knave”, where all of the PCs are clones of the same vivimancer.
ReplyDelete