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Bestiary

General

Creatures not associated with, or unique to, any particular locale.

Dire eagle

Animal

Like other dire animals, the dire eagle is a larger, more ferocious, more territorial version of its more common cousins.

Spirit of dust?

Elemental

The Cumans? and other tribes of the steppes call these creatures "living dust". They are spirits of the land, omnipresent, manifesting themselves when faced with threats to the natural order. In their corporeal form, they resemble a strange cross between air and earth elementals. They can fly as easily as the desert wind and are able to transform themselves into whirlwinds of sand, yet are as solid as densely packed earth, and just as resilient and strong. Thanks to their mystical ties to the natural world, living dust also possess various magical powers over the elemental forces of the steppes: earth, air, and sand.

While preparing to battle Jyrgal Abdul Qadir?, Sven learned (from his old mentor, Ilmarinen?) how to call up these guardians of nature. This requires a ritual which is is essentially a druidic version of the greater planar ally spell, usable only in the southern steppes region.

Elemental monoliths

Elemental

These mighty beings are summoned with the summon elemental monolith spell.

The Pripet Marshes

Creatures found in the Pripet Marshes?. Followers of the Dark Devourer and other creatures associated with the lizardfolk. Much less likely to be encountered now, after the Dark Devourer's defeat and the collapse of the lizardfolk's empire.

Drowned

Undead

This is a drowned, an undead formed from the corpses of drowning victims that are for one reason or another imbued with an evil malevolence. Their most deadly threat, other than their unusual toughness for undead of their size, is their aura of drowning... And indeed, as this drowned shambles forth, the air around you is filled with a watery glint.

A very nasty critter if the aura of drowning can't be countered, but otherwise just a nuisance that can take a solid beating.

Sess’indarg

Demon

The creature before you looks like somewhat like a ten foot tall crocodile standing on its hind legs, covered in dull black plate-like scales. It has an elongated snout full of sharp, needle-like teeth, and four sets of arms along its torso, each ending in wicked-looking claws that glow faintly with pinpricks of greenish light. Its rear limbs are stout and muscular, and a thick, powerful tail helps to support the creature's weight. Its eyes, small and red, stare at you with a predatory malevolence.

Snake demon (yadrizu)

Demon

5-headed snake followers of the Dark Devourer.

This serpentine creature, which undulates hypnotically as it rises from the muck before you, looks like an insidious mockery of a giant snake. Instead of a single head, its body splits into five necks, each of which ends in a cobra-hooded snake head; the heads appear to act independently of each other, gyrating in different directions as the monster coils and slithers forward. Each head opens its mouth to reveal oversized fangs dripping with boiling poison, and in its ten orange eyes smolders a sinister magic.

Hezrou

Demon

Fiendsnake swarm

Demon

Mosquito swarm

Vermin

Affected by the presence of the Dark Devourer and his minions, the mosquitoes of the Pripet Marshes? have been endowed with the powers of insanity and chaos. These swarms, with their mind-numbing drone, are still encountered throughout the swamplands of Pripet, even after the Dark Devourer's defeat (and likely will be for a long time).

Crocolisk

Undead

Prehistoric six-legged crocodiles, once native to the Pripet Marshes?, raised as undead beasts of war by servants of the Dark Devourer. Basically just like crocodiles, except that they're undead and their bite inflicts mummy rot.

Lizardfolk

Monstrous humanoids

A race of reptilian humanoids that includes a variety of specific kinds. Blackscale guards are Large and very strong, powerful melee fighters. The priests and acolytes are Medium-sized, and have cleric powers as well as supernatural special abilities. Dracotaurs (four-legged draconic-lizard hybrids) spit fire and have barbarian-like abilities. Small-sized lizardfolk are archers, scouts, and sneaky ambushers.

The Shadow Realm

Monsters encountered in the Shadow Realm?.

Dusk Beast

Outsider

In Nikolai's words, scrubs. These creatures might perhaps be incorporeal on the Material plane, but in the Shadow Realm, they're quite painless. Though they have reach 10, much of their AC (if any) is Dexterity based. Attack rolls of 15 were hitting their flatfooted ACs. Perhaps unfortunately, we did not get to experience them attacking us... despite their hugenormous Hide checks.

Nightcrawler (magic eater)

Undead

A nightcrawler is a massive behemoth similar to a purple worm, though utterly black in color. Nightcrawlers are a kind of nightshade, creatures composed of equal parts darkness and absolute evil. This variant of the nightcrawler lacks a poison sting and most of the array of spell-like abilities which the more common variant possesses. Instead, magic-eater nightcrawlers can sense magic auras and the use of spells, and feeds on magical effects; consuming magic also heals the monster.

The Mountain of Ultimate Winter

Creatures encountered in and around the Mountain of Ultimate Winter?, former home of Ivan Kerensky and now home to his recently returned older sister, Saira?.

Imbued Storm Giant Statues

Golem

You both recognize these constructs as the work of storm giants. Nikolai, however, also recalls that unlike most golems, which are mindless, these are partially endowed with the personality of the person in whose image they're made. Sort of the essence of the person's personality, and as such, they can be reasoned with, to an extent. You can't carry on conversations with them or anything, but they do have a sort of "memory" of the basic motivations of the original. Like such a statue made in the image of a crusader for Good will remember that basic motivation.

These statues are immune to magic for the most part, but they are susceptible to certain kinds of spells that target the specific creature type of the original person; i.e. a statue of a human will be susceptible to, say, hold person; but not, say, fireball. (It's actually a little more complicated than that but you don't know details.)

Goblin Lands

The forests to the south of Kiev are populated by goblins, and (courtesy of Siran's legacy), are infested with undead (though less so, now that Siran and her minions have been defeated).

Blackwings

Undead

Large semi-skeletal black birds.

Siran’s vultures

Magical beast

A highly corrupted vulture thing... comes back as a zombie instantaneously if it dies.

Devourer (variant)

Undead

Devourers are undead creatures that dwell on the Ethereal Plane, and consume the souls of living creatures. This variant form of devourer has been encountered in Siran's former stronghold in the goblin city of Nightscree; it is not known whether they live anywhere else.

Devourers of this type lack most of the spell-like abilities of the more common kind; instead, they have the ability to separate their hands from their bodies when they manifest on the Material plane, and the touch of these spectral hands can deliver various of their powers, including level drain, ghoul touch; the devourers can also reach into a victim's head and grasp his brain with both spectral hands, which induces confusion.

When such a devourer's claws touch flesh, they become corporeal, allowing the creature to grapple with opponents, yet still ignore their armor. (Fleshless creatures, such as certain constructs, cannot be grappled by a devourer.) Corporeal foes attempting to grapple the devourer can only attempt to escape; they can't deal damage or pin the monster. If a devourer pins a living creature, it enters the creature's body and begins trying to consume its soul. (The victim is paralyzed while this takes place.)

Deathbringer

Undead

Powerful undead, created by Siran using necromantic knowledge gleaned from the Book of Bones. Created from the corpses of ogre mages and other giants with spellcasting ability. Only a handful of deathbringers were ever created; after Siran’s death, a group of six of these creatures assumed command of the undead (and goblin) forces of Nightscree. All six were destroyed when the Kievan Guard? (with the help of allies of Kiev, including the player characters) assaulted and took the city. It is not known whether any deathbringers remain.

Deathbringers are hulking brutes of humanoid shape and (usually) Large size. They are melee combatants who wield flails of bone, which they use to disarm and trip opponents. They also have an area-effect negative energy burst ability. In addition to the damage it deals, the negative burst also acts as a greater dispel magic effect (area version), with a caster level of 20. A death ward or similar effect protects a target from both the damage and the dispelling, but the negative burst has a chance to dispel the death ward effect itself.

Spell weaver base

A dungeon inside Mount Elbrus, apparently operated by the enigmatic spell weavers?. Many strange creatures have been encountered within.

Vivisectors

Aberration

Asgard

The realm of Asgard? was once the home of the Aesir?, the Norse gods. Their fortress of Valhalla? stands there still.

Lavawight

Undead

(image)

A lavawight is an undead horror that is the remnant of a humanoid creature slain by extremely powerful fire, usually fire that is wielded or created by something itself evil (for example, humanoids killed by Surtur?'s burning sword often rose as lavawights).

They have some limited spell-like abilities (some variants of "make fire" and also your good old dimension jump). Their molten-rock skin makes them tough to damage with any material. They have an aura of fire damage. They also have spell resistance. Worst, if they injure you with their claws, they infect you with a horrible thing called blazefire, which can permanently drain your hit points.

One such creature lurks in the prison within Nikolai's (formerly Odin?'s) sanctum in Valhalla.

Children of Fire and Storm

The many offspring of Zmei Gromovoi, who was called the Demon of Fire and Storm. This numerous and quite diverse group of creatures shares certain characteristics:

Jyrgal Abdul Qadir

Dragon/Elemental

Jyrgal Abdul Qadir?, a very powerful half-dragon fire giant, was the most fearsome offspring of Zmei Gromovoi. He was the primary driving force behind the plan to bring about his father's resurrection. Jyrgal's interactions with the player characters, and his eventual defeat, are described on his own page?.

In his fire giant form, Jyrgal was a straightforward (though formidable) melee combatant. He could also assume a much more powerful elemental form, infused with the pure elemental essence of fire and lightning. In that form, he gained devastating elemental powers.

Acheron

Creatures native to the plane of Acheron.

Steel predator

Outsider

At first glance, this monster resembles an iron-muscled great cat. Its slick, rounded head boasts a pair of crushing jaws, and its talons look sharp enough to tear metal. The creature is wreathed in a cloak of shadow-stuff, wispy strands of which curl around its steel joints and rise from the fins on its back.

Steel predators are monsters native to Acheron. A small population of these creatures made their home on the cube into which the Skidbladnir crashed. Drawn to the vast magical output of the great ship’s Shadow-powered planar drive, they feasted on the energy; this accelerated the drive’s breakdown, and altered the cube’s course through space-time. Meanwhile, the planar drive’s Shadow-magic altered the steel predators, imbuing them with strange new powers.

Categories: Monsters · Rules