Peril and Card Based Statblocks

This post is a sequel to this post, and I think you'll have want to read said prequel post to understand this one.

In my last post, I brought up the concept of peril, a mechanic to represent how scary a monster is. I find that often, methods such as hit die or challenge rating are poor methods of explaining how scary a monster is. Monsters can do incredibly scary things with very few hit die or a low challenge rating, so they feel more like loose guidelines than anything else.

Peril is an attempt to fix that by making it clear: higher peril means the creature takes more actions. A peril 6 creature takes as many actions as 6 peril 1 creatures, thus should be approximately as effective. Truly, I dislike the concept of a creature that is higher danger just having bigger numbers. Is a 10 hit die creature more interesting to fight than a 2 hit die one? Often not. So while a higher peril creature might have higher numbers, it will come at the cost of other things. Peril is meant to be linked to options, rather than raw power (the raw power comes from how many actions it takes).

Other Notes

Hit die are weird. The fact they vary so much means that a hit die can be anything from one quarter of a sword swing to two full sword swings, but on average a hit die is equivalent to one sword swing, ie: if you stab something with 1 hit die with a sword, it should die. 

Let's say in this hypothetical card based TTRPG, that a sword does 3 damage, thus a 1 hit die creature has 3 health.

Also: monsters also get to specialize in a suit, but this should tell you something about the monster. Spades monsters are strong front line fighters, clubs monsters are either squishy ranged skirmishers or fast and high damage melee fighters, hearts monsters are healers or battlefield manipulators, and diamonds monsters are artillery pieces. 

In terms of the statblocks themselves, bolded entries are major actions (only one can be used and only on the creature's turn), and italicized entries are minor actions (can use after any creature's major action). Entries that are neither are simply things passive to the creature.

Peril Descriptions

• A peril 0 creature is a mook. It should go down quickly and easily and be of minimal threat. It should be weaker than a trained human soldier.
• A peril 1 creature is a normal enemy. It should be a fair fight for a trained human soldier.
• A peril 2 creature is superhuman, but not massively so. It should defeat a trained human soldier on average.
• A peril 3 creature is beyond the realms of normal human ability. A trained human soldier should only beat it with specialized equipment and planning. No real world creature is higher than peril 3.
• A peril 4 creature is beyond the limits of any normal animal's ability. It would take a group of trained human soldiers having specialized equipment and planning to beat it.
• A peril 5 creature is powerful, but not all powerful. It should be able to take on a large group of trained human soldiers with some difficulty.
• A peril 6 creature is the most dangerous thing that there can be. It should be able to fight large groups of trained human soldiers with ease.

Peril 0: Goblin

Squeamish and weak, goblins prefer horde tactics and indirect fights.

3 Health, Spades

Horde: Abilities that strike multiple creatures can harm no more than 2 goblins at once. Excess melee damage is dealt to another goblin in the same zone.

Half Rusted Weapon: Melee, 2

Scram!: The goblin instantly moves and then falls flat on its face prone.

Peril 1: Trained Human Soldier

The soldier core of many an empire.

5 Health, Spades

Heavily Armored: Soldiers always play the highest card available for initiative.

Formation: When three or more soldiers are in a zone, they take 1 less damage from all sources.

Swords: Melee, 3

Crossbows: Ranged, 2

Peril 2: Orc

From the barren north, where survival is earned. Fast, lethal, and excellent hunters.

6 Health, Clubs

Feathered Javelin: Melee or Ranged, 3

Sparking Trap: The orc plays a clubs face down until the orc next moves. When a creature attacks the orc, flip the card up. If the card would hit them, they are stunned until their next turn.

Wyvern Venom: The orc plays a clubs to poison their next feather javelin attack.

Peril 3: White Lion

When a lone lion survives for 9 years, it is blessed with pale fur and incredible magics.

9 Health, Hearts

Blessed Presence: At the end of each round, all allied creatures in the lion's zone are healed 1 health.

Blessed Claws: Melee, 2

Guardian Dome: The lion plays a hearts to change the initiative for all allied creatures in its zone to the cards value for the purposes of armor.

Silvered Shift: The lion teleports to one of its allies.

Peril 4: River Devil

Horrid beasts born of the deep abyss, the worst possible combination of crocodile, lion, and hippo.

9 Health, Spades

Rampage: The river devil attacks all creatures in its zone at the same time (including allies).

Ravenous Maw: Melee, 3, If this kills a creature, the river devil swallows it in a single bite.

Stomp: The river devil plays spades to stun all creatures with a greater initiative in its zone (including allies). 

Submerge: If the river devil is in a zone of water, it dives down. It may play another card as a minor action to rise up out of the water and make a free ravenous maw attack using that card.

Peril 5: Manticore

Evil and heinous, with barbed tails and wicked grins.

9 Health, Diamonds

Flying: Manticores are flying.

Barbed Spray: Ranged, 3, hits all creatures in a zone, but cannot be used in the manticore's zone.

Sting and Claw: Melee, 3  

Swoop: The manticore plays clubs to move for free.

Barbed Shower: The manticore plays diamonds to cause its next barbed spray attack to hit all zones except the one the manticore is in.

Peril 6: Dragon 

You know what a dragon is.

 

12 Health, Spades

 

Flying: Dragons are flying.

 

Fire Breath: The dragon plays spades to exhale a flame breath on all other creatures in its zone. Those that are hit take 6 damage. The dragon may only use this ability once per combat.

 

Claws: Melee, 3

 

Tail Whip: The dragon plays royalty to strike a creature in its zone for 3 damage.

 

Cracked Scales: When the dragon is first defeated, its scales are cracked, it gains an additional 12 health, and gains the following abilities: 

Volcanic Maw: Melee, 4, The dragon draws a card

 

Eruption: The dragon plays spades to cause all creatures hit by it in its zone to take 1 damage and be knocked prone.

 

 

Husks, the Azure Dead

The Azure Dead.

There are few places on Neurim where one can find hordes of the mindless dead: the great crater-tomb of Svog, Asuria, and the southern reaches of the continent of Mgamba. A different plague infests the world: husks. Ancient worker constructs made of bismuth and bone, animated by blue astral fire, like gaseous glass.

Husks, also known as the Azure Dead, are not undead, though most anti-undead measures on Neurim are designed to also work on them. They are constructs, animated by magical energy, skeletons reinforced with bismuth armor and forced to move by astral fire, the force of the Dead Star, Gnottis, forcing animation into that which is long dead. 

Husks are ancient, hundreds of thousands of years old. They were the worker constructs of the once rulers of Neurim, known only as the Bodyless Ones. They are connected by a vast mind-network that allows them to communicate in an instant, though this network is in disrepair and husks have a tendency to lay inanimate for millennia, until forced to rise again by the presence of a demiurge or a mage with the knowledge of the arcana of stars.

Armies of the Bismuth Host.

The husks were not built for war. They are service-machines, designed for manual labor and planet re-shaping. Even today, the husks are not designed for combat. They try to kill with sharpened fingers and rocks. Husks are incapable of using weaponry. Their machine minds cannot grasp the concept.

No one knows why the husks gave up on their mission to do war. All that is known by historians (elves alive since that day) is that one day the husks began to tear each other limb from limb. Beautiful violence performed by machines with no idea of how to do violence. Wherever one finds supplies of bismuth, it is a safe assumption that the husks warred there in elder days. The husks that survive today are those that were the victors of their battles.

Modern husks are only animate when in the range of a demiurge or a controlling mage. Better maintained husks can travel further from their source of animation before shutting down, up to 100 miles.

Husks.

Drudges.

The lowest workers. Built of the skeleton of a human or elf, reinforced with bismuth armor. 

HD: 1

Defense: As Chain.

Mobility: As Human.

Tactics: Swarm. Husks are incapable of more complex tactics.

---

Halfling Solidarity: Husks will not attack halflings unless the halfling attacks them first.
Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.

Claws: As sword.

 

Reavers.

Immense harvester husks. Built of the skeletons of ogres or trolls but with their arms replaced with massive bismuth blades. 

HD: 6

Defense: As Plate.

Mobility: As Ogre.

Tactics: Swarm with the drudges.

---

Halfling Solidarity: Husks will not attack halflings unless the halfling attacks them first.

Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.

Reaping Blades: As greatsword times two. Hits all adjacent creatures, including other husks.

Priests.

Repair husks. A humans skeleton hovering a few inches above the ground, with robes of paper-thin bismuth. Their skulls are replaced with bismuth. They move as if puppeted by string.

HD: 4

Defense: As Chain.

Mobility: As Human, but Hovers.

Tactics: Hide behind other husks.

---

Halfling Solidarity: Husks will not attack halflings unless the halfling attacks them first.

Repair Protocol: Another husk is healed for health equal to 1 HD.
Overdrive Protocol: .Another full-health husk takes an immediate turn, then dies.

Hosts.

Formed of the skeletons of a large beast like an elephant. The back has been replaced with a bismuth construct with a number of holes carved in the side. Deploys small workers, formed of smaller beast skeletons, no larger than a dog.

HD: 5
Defense: As Plate.
Mobility: As Human.
Tactics: Hide behind other husks. Deploy lots of workers. When out of workers, flee.
---
Halfling Solidarity: Husks will not attack halflings unless the halfling attacks them first.
Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.
Worker Host: A hosts has 2d20 workers remaining in it. Workers have 1 hit point and deal 1 damage with an attack (no roll to hit). When killed in melee by a trained combatant, the killer gets another attack.
Deploy Worker: The host deploys 1d4+1 workers.

Demiurges.

Husks designed as receptor towers for other husks. Built of the bones of an immense creature, like a dragon or giant, but with bismuth wings.  

HD: 12

Defense: As Plate +2.

Mobility: As Dragon.

Tactics: Use the husks as legion. Only engage when forced.

---

Halfling Solidarity: Husks will not attack halflings unless the halfling attacks them first.
Half-Dead: Effected by all effects that only work on undead, such as turn undead, but do not take damage from being healed.
Emergency Husk Call: Every turn the demiruge calls all nearby husks to its aid. Husks drop all current tasks and move at maximum speed to the Demiurge.

Husk Animator: The presence of a demiurge animates nearby husks. If the demiurge dies, all nearby husks animated by the demiurge cease animation.

Bismuth Claw: As greatsword times three. Makes this attack three times.
Astral Fire Breath: 60' cone, deals damage as fireball.

Oracles.

Oracles are heavily modified drudges, converted from physical labor to remembering machines. Oracles have the knowledge of the ancient days stored in their machine minds, though most of their data has been corrupted over millenia. Oracles are animated of their own will. Unlike all other non-demiurge husks, oracles can move throughout the world, which they do to record data and history.

An oracle has a 50% chance to remember any occurrence in the past century. Every century prior reduces the chance by 5%. A husk has a 1% minimum chance of remembering anything.

Oracles are non-violent, and will not attack unless provoked, even if nearby husks attack. If stats are necessary, use the drudge's.

The Ooze Mastermind

The Ooze Mastermind.

It's body is thoughts. A protoplasmic slime formed of churning memories and half-formed ideas. A single cell with a dozen minds. This is the ooze mastermind.

An ooze is a simple creature. It exists only to eat, creating a slime network across its environment, receptors that activate in the presence of food. When the ooze grows too big, it splits into two identical daughter oozes. It is little more than a single cell.

An ooze mastermind is also a simple creature. It exists only to eat, creating a slime network across its environment, receptors that activate in the presence of food. When the ooze grows too big, it splits into two identical daughter oozes. It is little more than a single cell. Except that a mastermind feeds not on death and detritus, but on the thoughts and memories of intelligent creatures.

Ooze masterminds are intelligent, their entire body acting as a pseudo-brain filled with the thoughts and memories of those they have devoured. They are cunning, able to develop and execute complex plans in order to feed. Masterminds have the ability to create ooze-clones of those they have eaten, a near perfect replica formed by memory, a perfect recreation in all ways except their ooze-like texture. With these clones, a mastermind can infiltrate a society, slowly replacing everyone within with itself, until it is the society. From there, it'll expand like an infestation, daughter masterminds infecting nearby villages until an entire region of the countryside is nothing but ooze-clones.

Young Ooze Mastermind.

An ooze mastermind that has yet to develop the power to create ooze-clones, generally one that is freshly born. Around the size of a small bush. Come in a variety of colors, but most often gray-green.

HD: 1

Defense: As Leather

Mobility: Below average, but can squeeze into tight spaces.

Tactics: Devour the thoughts of sleeping people. Otherwise, hide.

---

Pseudopod: As Dagger, but Bludgeoning

Engulf: Can swallow the head of a target that is unconscious or prone

Devour Thoughts: While engulfing a target, can devour their memories for damage [as sword] to intelligence, or similar effect. If reduces target to 0 intelligence, consumes their mind and grows 1 hit die.

Adult Ooze Mastermind.

An adult ooze mastermind, one that can form clones. Can be as large as a semi-truck. Come in a variety of colors, but most often gray-green.

HD: At least 6, up to 12

Defense: As Leather - 1

Mobility: Below average, but can squeeze into tight spaces.

Tactics: Use ooze-clones to lure prey to it. Otherwise, hide.

---

Pseudopod: As Sword, but Bludgeoning

Engulf: Can swallow a target adjacent to it

Devour Thoughts: While engulfing a target, can devour their memories for damage [as great-sword] to intelligence, or similar effect. If reduces target to 0 intelligence, consumes their mind and grows 1 hit die.
Create Ooze-Clone: Creates an ooze-clone of a creature the ooze mastermind has eaten. Ooze mastermind takes damage equal to health of ooze-clone (it still regains this health over time)

Ooze-Clone.

An ooze-clone formed by an ooze mastermind. Appears as a human but with skin that feels like ooze. They split into cytoplasm when cut open. Capable of using normal equipment.

HD: 1

Defense: As Equipment

Mobility: As Human.

Tactics: Convince others it is human.

---

Pseudopod: As Dagger, but Bludgeoning
Weapon: As Equipment

Conclusion.

The ooze mastermind is a re-imaging of the oblex from the 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons book, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, my favorite original monster from 5e and one of my favorite monsters in general.

It's also an attempt at system neutral monster stats, something I'm not entirely sold on my execution yet, but that should be more helpful than my older method.

You Enter the Forest Deep Part 3: Denizens of the Deep

This is part three of You Enter the Forest Deep. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

These are the 10 factions within the Forest Deep. Each has goals, virtues, and resources. These are all conflicting, which brings these factions into conflict. I have a post on factions and conflict that you can read here.

The Wolves.

Like wolves, but larger and more primal. The platonic ideal of a wolf. They can speak. They prefer their own tongue, but can snarl out human words if demanded. They actually dislike the name wolf, as it is a reminder of their less civilized kin. They prefer to be called Protectors or Guardians.

They are noble and proud. Take a medieval knight and remove any possible angle of corruption. Those are the Wolves, the pure essence of chivalry and nobility. They are the Forest Deep's charged protectors, something they do with pride and grace and joy. In return, the Forest gives them all that they could ask for. A Wolf in good standing never goes hungry.

They are wise, and far smarter than the average human. They build societies, family-clans where the eldest leads, thought they lack the ability to construct homes or tools. They would make fabulous allies, friends of the Forest as they are, but they are slow to trust and impossible to bribe.

Goals: To protect the Forest Deep no matter the cost.

Virtues: Nobility, chivalry, and kindness. They act on an invisible moral code.

Resources: The protection of the Forest Deep. The Wolves and their allies have no fear of the Forest's more dangerous aspects.

To use the Wolves in combat, take a dire wolf and add a hit die. Then, roll a d4 to determine which of these once per battle abilities the Wolf gets:

1. Howl - All enemies that can hear it save or are demoralized (-1 to hit)
2. Rabid Bite - Wolf bites, enemy saves or takes additional damage equal d6's times the Wolves hit die.
3. Go For the Throat - Wolf bites, enemy must save or be pulled prone
4. Skirmish - Wolf bites then leaps back its movement. Another Wolf can move for free.

For elder wolves, add 2 more hit die (adjust other stats as necessary) and roll for abilities twice. 

The Ants.

A perfect working order guided by chemical trails and instinct. They are ants, giant ants. Workers the size of horses and soldiers the size of elephants. They act like normal ants, a perfect biological machine transporting materials back to the hive. The hive must grow. The hive must always grove. Such is the Queen's demand.

They can't communicate with you, not unless you can understand their chemical trails. The only way to communicate with the hive is to follow them back to the their hive. The princesses (and the Queen) can talk. Well, they can communicate through psionic telepathy. They're psions, all of the intelligent Ants. The Ants survive day to day with chemicals, but they can all be ordered instantly through telepathic messages in the chemicals.

They don't understand you. They're Ants. They think of you as female. You'll have to explain things to them. The princesses only know what the other Ants see through the chemical trails. They can learn, and will inscribe this knowledge in the chemical trail. Then, all Ants will know it. They've been all over the Forest. They can find anything, given time.

Goals: The hive must survive. That means more resources, more food, always.

Virtues: Subservience and endless work.

Resources: Manpower. The Ants number in the thousands. You think you've seen a lot when you see them harvesting food. This is nothing compared to the Ants in the hive. Connecting yourself with the chemical network would give you control over the lesser Ants.

Ants come in 5 varieties. Workers are the size of horse. Stat them the same, but give them a low chance of capturing an enemy in their pincers (Around 20%). Soldiers are huge. Stat them like elephants. Princesses are like workers, but with psionic powers of a level equal to their hit die. Male ants are a rarity. They are like workers but winged. The Queen is immense, the size of a castle. She has too many hit die to count.

The Ettercaps.

A thousand thousand years ago a human city sunk into the earth. They worshiped the Eight Eyed Mother. They continued to worship her in their home in the dark world below. She protected them in exchange for secrets. One day they came back up, changed. They had eight eyes, skin like chitin, and could speak to spiders. They were no longer human. They were ettercap.

Ettercaps are a religious cult dedicated to the Eight Eyed Mother, but you wouldn't know this by looking at them. Most are shepherds and hunters, tending to flocks of giant spiders. This itself is an act of worship, a collective secret of their species. They are thieves and assassins and bandits. No one likes them.

The ettercaps do not deal in coin. They deal in secrets. They can trade you many things for a secret, the more horrid the better. The Eight Eyed Mother prefers things unspeakable by a normal voice. They deliver these secrets to their temples in the dark world below. Woah befall you should you stumble into one of their temples.

Goals: To gather secrets for the Eight Eyed Mother.

Virtues: Spiders, for one. The collection of unspeakable knowledge, for another.

Resources: Secrets. Lots of them. They will trade them. Spiders and their products as well. Silk is rare and valuable and the ettercaps have it in droves.

I imagine your game already has stats for ettercaps and giant spiders. They will never fight fair. They prefer to assassinate quietly, with garrotes made of spider silk. Priests can cast spells like a cleric of at least 5th level.

The Aes Sidhe.

The fair folk of the Fair Court. Those that rule the other, more fair, world. These are the Aes Sidhe. These are the fae.

They feed on entertainment. For the fae, to be bored is to starve. They find no entertainment more sweet than that of mortals. It is why they play at mortal ideologies, kings and queens and courts and nobles. They have no need for this, for a fae's place in the court is an objective truth. Titania and Oberon must always rule.

There are many kinds of fae. Spriggans and faeries and sprites and brownies and boggarts. These are all lesser fae, the servants of the Fair Court. They spend much of their time in the mortal world, causing minor problems and annoyances for mortals to feed on their delightful reaction. The true sidhe would remind you of elves. Pale and impossible fair with hair like that of copper wire. They dress like nobles, in flowing silks and linens, and wield needles, fanciful rapiers of enchanted steel. This is not their form, not truly, but is a costume they wear in their eternal play. They rarely step into our world, and when they do it is most often in the Forest Deep.

The Aes Sidhe will never lie. Warp and twist the truth, yes, but the fae will never lie. They are incapable of doing so. At the same time, the fae take every comment as a promise. Any offer, no matter how small or non-genuine, is a full and complete contract that can never be broken.

Goals: To feed on mortal reaction to their pranks.

Virtues: Anything fun! Of course, a fae idea of fun is not a mortal idea of fun. The fae cause chaos. They consider this good.

Resources: Gifts from a more fair world. All cursed for mortals of course. You'll never get a fair deal with the 

Use whatever lesser fae stats you think are fun. For the fae nobles, they have 5 hit die and fight using needles. Needles sap your emotions (consider something like charisma damage). They also have random illusion spells. Whatever sounds funny. They aren't here to kill you, just to feed on your reactions.

The Eoten Moot.

In the Forest Deep, some trees are more than just trees. They are sapient and can move and speak. They were once confused with giants, thus their name.

The lowest of their kind are the dryads, like humans but with skin the color of bark and moss. They are shy, but find humans and their ilk fascinating. Next are the bark ogres, immense golem-like entities made of logs. They walk like gorillas and are impressively dumb. The greatest are the eoten themselves, immense walking trees.

They want peace and quiet for the most part. To relax and pretend to be a plant for decades on end. Every century, they meet in a grand moot to discuss the coming years and cycle places of rest. They do this so that one eoten does not hog the quietest part of the Forest to themself.

Goals: To relax in peace and harmony in a Forest that is healthy.

Virtues: They value friendship and knowledge. Though they wish to relax, they will gladly make a new friend.

Resources: They don't have much other than stories. They spend 90% of their time resting. 

Stat dryads like, well, dryads, and eoten like treants or walking trees or whatever works. Bark ogres are like ogres but resistant to slashing weapons and extra weak to fire.

The Wealden Court.

The druids. It might come as a surprise to know that the Forest Deep dislikes the druids. Many think of the druids as anti-civilization and pro-nature. This is wrong. Druids are pro-civilization and pro-nature. They are priests of nature who believe in harmony between the two halves, and that both are better for the other. There are anti-civilization druids out there, but they are extremists. You may make the Wealden Court anti-civilization. I do not.

The druids of the Deep.are there on behalf of civilization. They hope to find common ground with the Deep. They believe there are places within the Deep that require mortal hands to grow stronger and better. The Deep disagrees. It would rid itself of them if it could, but they are like an infection. The druids and the Wolves are natural enemies. It is no wonder the most common shapeshift of a druid is the bear.

You can hear them singing, if you listen. The great verses of all the druidic knowledge. It is the only way for them to spread their teachings. Druidic knowledge cannot be learned by reading.

Goals: Find common ground with the Forest Deep. Allow civilization to prosper within its bounds.

Virtues: Combining nature and civilization is good. Taking from nature without giving back is bad, as is wasting part of what nature gives.

Resources: Druidic magic. They can heal or resurrect the dead. They are also some of the best at finding their way through the Deep, second only the Wolves.

They are druids. They have the powers of the druid class, be that magic or shapeshifting or summoning or whatever. Pick what you want. Druids are versatile. They travel in small groups, never staying in one place for too long.

The Bolemen.

Yellowed eyes, frantically darting from one shadow to the next. An axe with a handle of gnarled wood and a head stained with blood and sap. A quiet life where all involved have no trust in each other. These are the bolemen. 

The bolemen lost their minds. They are owned by the Forest Deep now. It ignores them, perhaps amused by their state. They are paranoid. Fearful of each rustling leaf and skittering insect. They live in small communities, steadings carved from the Forest Deep. They don't trust outsiders (they don't trust anyone or anything) but can be bargained with. They're still people deep down.

Bolemen logic makes no sense. A family of bolemen could be loving and sweet one day and the next the daughter has murdered her parents because she believed that they were going to turn her into soup. Paranoia is a deadly virus. Their paranoia often represents itself as superstition. The bolemen will believe anything if they think it will protect them. Their homes are covered in trinkets said to ward darkness. They salt their doors and windows at night. To understand the bolemen, find a list of various superstitions. The bolemen believe in all of them.

At times, larger groups of bolemen will form villages. With guidance, they can work together and do great things. An elder boleman, or at times an elf or Wolf or eoten or druid can get them to cooperate, to lay aside their fears. The second this figure of peace is gone, they will rip each other apart. Such is the curse of the bole.

Goals: Survive.

Virtues: Whatever normal humans find virtuous. They're still humans just, a little lost.

Resources: What you'd expect from a homesteader. Food, wood, pelts. Superstitious trinkets designed to ward away evil.

Stat bolemen like bandits, but give them lumberaxes (like a battleaxe or greataxe). An elder gets an extra hit die or two. There are bolemen clerics and wizards, but they only appear in larger boleman villages.

The Elves.

They are the elves of the wood. The elves of the high canopy, haughty and proud, have long since abandoned these woods, and the elves of the roots below, jealous and cruel, have long since descended to the dark world below. Only the wood elves remain. 

Most think them xenophobes. This isn't necessarily true. The wood elves fear outsiders like they fear the Forest. Outsiders are a threat to their guise. The elves are not welcome within the Deep. They survive by hiding from its eyes, sitting at the peripheries of its vision, like blurs on a camera. Outsiders risk this. Outsiders know not of their ways of hiding and sneaking. This is a danger.

Elves build villages and roads through the Deep much like any other species, but they do so in a way that denies their existence. Their homes only appear like homes if you know what you're looking for. Their villages are mirages, their roads an easily denied falsehood. If something made by the elves is obvious then it was made like that on purpose, as a trap. It is not uncommon to walk through an elf village with no idea you were ever in one.

Goals: To stay hidden and stay safe. To tend to their families.

Virtues: Elves love those that are good at stealth (especially their kind) and good hunters.

Resources: Their stealth. Bow and arrows designed to wind through the trees. Ample supplies. Elves have some of the only healing magic in the Deep.

For every 25 elves (a normal village size) there will be 12-14 hunters. They use longbow and spear and have 2 hit die. Another 8-10 will be trappers, who use glaives and traps and also have 2 hit die. Another 2-3 will be shrouds, masters of the elf-illusion that are impossible to find and uses as scouts and spies. They have 5 hit die, use dual short swords, and carry potent poisons  The elf village will be led by a mage (they are equally adept at arcane and divine magic) of 7 hit die, and a swordsmaster elder using an enchanted greatsword of 9 hit die. Some elves train elk to ride, though this is more common in larger villages. The elves do not have young in their villages, for they have not reproduced in any known age.

The Sporelings.

Where there is fungus there are sporelings. They are dumb and slow and short-lived, with stumpy bodies made of fungal chitin. Each sporeling is unique, like a pastiche of a mushroom.  They have eyes, but they barely work. Most navigate via the subtle disturbances in the air as things move. They don't live long. A week at most. When they uproot, they loose their connection to the mycelia network that feeds them. They slowly starve. They're a mobile propagation method. A way of spreading the fungus. They don't know this. They'd hate the knowledge.

Due to their short lives, sporelings learn fast. They can become masters in days what would take others years. Sometimes they fail. They die and their body is absorbed by the fungal network that originally created them. The network absorbs their knowledge, and the next cycle of sporelings is better. This repeats forever. Eventually the fungus could know everything. instict fights this. The sporelings desire to leave their host far behind.

Yet, there are sporelings out there with a grasp on complex topics. Complex language, kingdoms, cities, culture. They are all born of a single fungal super-network: The Ur-Fungus. Every mushroom is an offshoot of the Ur-Fungus. In the end, every mushroom will once again be a part of the Ur-Fungus.

Goals: Grow. Survive. Eat. Propagate.

Virtues: There is no time for morality when you live a week. All is fair in the eyes of the fungus.

Resources: You can eat them. They store things, valuable things, deep in the mycelia. They will trade it for food. Only food. They don't keep knowledge that isn't useful for survival. It's a waste.

The earliest form of the sporeling was the spore pod, a floating ball of toxic spores. They have 1 hit point and explode when hit, and all nearby creatures must save or take light poison damage. This explosion explodes all nearby pods too. When they appear, roll a d6 for how many appear. This dice explodes. It keeps exploding. Let them grow into the thousands. For normal sporelings, use whatever stats your game has for mushroom people. 25% of all sporelings are born of the Ur-Fungus. They are intelligent, use human language, and can have armor and tools and tactics. If you encounter Ur-Fungus sporelings again, they will remember you.

The Owls.

You've seen owls, perched on high branches, ever vigilant in the dark hours of the night. They aren't real. Sure, they have flesh and blood and eat, but they're a lie. They are but scouts and messengers for the Owls.

Take a barn owl. Make it the height of a human with a wingspan to match. They speak in our tongue (they learned it from their lesser ilk). They watch and wait for things to die, so that they might carry them to their next life. You believe Death to be a skeleton? No, death is an Owl, with bone white face and dark wings draped over it like a cloak and claws like a harvesting scythe.

The Owls worship death. The concept of it. They believe that death is pure and blessed and that is a great honor that all are destined to it. This does not mean that they go out of their way to seek death. All things have their time and place. It is, however, a blasphemy to run from it. The entire Canopy is their cathedral, decorated with bones and offerings. Every moment of their lives is worship. Think of the most strict cult possible. Make it stricter. That is the life of the Owl.

Goals: To maintain death.

Virtues: Accepting death is good. Necromancy and prolonging life are horrid sins to be purged.

Resources: Bones. Lots of them. They are master diviners. They keep the magic items of the fallen. They will trade these things for death.

Take the stats of a giant bird. That's an Owl. They can use weapons in their talons, but why would they, they have talons. 50% of Owls can cast spells as a cleric of a level equal to their hit die. When in danger, they will fly into the air, and if necessary pelt those below them with stones and magic and only swoop in for the kill. Some Owls are bishops. They have 7 hit die, are clerics, and use a staff made of entwined wicker. The staff can turn undead 3 times a day.

Zahallas, City of the Mages

Zahallas, City of the Mages.

On a quiet peninsula in the west, on the southern reaches of The Thousand Miles, lays the city of Zahallas, a gray maze of impossible walkways and non-euclidean rooms. It's impossible to recreate. It's architecture disobeys all logic and reason. This betrays the fact that Zahallas doesn't exist.

Zahallas is as much a college as a city. All are permitted within its walls to learn, though the laws of the city are strict. None are permitted to speak within Zahallas' walls. It is said this is to make the casting of any spells obvious. While true, it is not the reason. There is a fear that speaking will remind the city that it does not exist.

Zahallas was not built. It appeared one day, thick with dust as if untouched by time for countless ages. The land surrounding it is gray and lifeless, though foolish creatures do make their home in and around the silent city. There is no sky within a hundred miles of Zahallas. The magic of clerics does not work there. The gods cannot hear you. This is because Zahallas doesn't exist.

The Winedark Hand.

When the city was first discovered, 7 mages found an ancient artifact at its heart: a seven fingered hand colored deep purple. Each mage took a finger, and together formed a council known as the Winedark Hand. The Hand ostensibly rule Zahallas, though most bow to the rules of various colleges and schools rather than the Hand directly.

When combined, the seven fingered hand can distort reality, change the truth of the world. This makes it dangerous. Now separate, the hand is greatly weakened. Each finger is powerful, yes, but nowhere near the truth distorting nature of the full hand. Many have tried to recombine the hand. All have failed.

Each member of the Winedark Hand is known as a finger, first through seventh, and holds the respective finger of the seven fingered hand. Each finger enhances certain forms of magical ability, allowing each mage to perform magical feats of immense power. Each finger also makes the mages decadent and lazy. With the fingers, the Winedark Hand could conquer Neurim. It is lucky that the fingers make this a nigh impossibility.

Navigating Zahallas.

Zahallas is a city of impossible geometry. Navigating it is a learned skill. When halls occupy the same space and buildings are larger on the inside with exits on the opposite side of the city as their entrances, navigation by normal means is impossible.

Attempting to get somewhere in the city without help is basically impossible (5% chance). A navigator can be hired for 10 gold per day. In addition, anyone native to the city or with at least 1 level in an arcane spell casting class can navigate the city with ease. The city is easy to navigate when you ignore physical space and only look at it through magical means.

The Skyless Wilds.

The peninsula Zahallas sits on is a lifeless gray waste. Grass grows, but it is devoid of color and ceases to exist when you look at it closely. Trees appear, but only at the edges of your vision. Sometimes you might feel the touch of the wind of the heat of the sun, but these feelings will fade. After all, Zahallas doesn't exist.

These wilds are scarred by magical experiments. Burnt out craters, illusions like theater screens, and conjured beings that have forgotten how to leave. The wilds are uniquely dangerous unless one sticks to the protected road to Zahallas. Any other route leads to danger and starvation.

Creatures of the Skyless Wilds.

Formless Conjurations.

Many conjurations fail to stop existing within the Skyless Wilds (20% chance). Those that fail to return to magical energy and live on eventually forget what they were, becoming a gray mass of false flesh similar to an ooze. They have no intelligence and are drawn to large sources of magical energy.

Roll a d6. That's how hit dice they have. Conjuring spells can be used to constrain them back in a form and remove their hostility.

Mana Kites.

Like a giant manta ray with leathery brown skin and obvious veins. Wings with a diameter of up to 3 feet, and long spindly bodies. They float 5-10 feet in the air, skimming magical residue. 1 hit die, but can only attack by casting magic missile as a 1st-level caster. They'd rather flee than fight thought.

Lost Dead.

When one dies in the Skyless Lands, they must be returned to the rest of the world within a week or their soul will be stuck in the Skyless Lands forever. These lost souls are incapable of finding an afterlife, which brings them great dissatisfaction. Their only goal is to find peace.

Like a ghost, except all they do is posses people, walk them out of the Skyless Lands, and then use their bodies to commit suicide. Doing this leaves the soul of the body behind, who become one of the lost dead. Any of the seven fingers can be used to destroy lost dead permanently.

Superpositers.

A sagging and round body held up by four spindly legs, like those of a harvestman. Their bodies are bright blue, and they're about the same size as a full grown human. They have massive fangs, nearly a foot long, but the fangs are stored in the body when not in use.

They exist in multiple places at once. They can occupy anywhere within a 10-foot sphere, appearing blurry and shifting constantly. This makes them impossible to hit through sources such as swords or arrows, but fireballs and magic missiles work perfectly. After being hit, their position is known until their next turn, when they go back to being anywhere. They have 3 hit dice, and their fangs do damage like a great axe.

Truly ancient superpositers can reach the size of buildings. At this size, their legs are like spears and their fangs like boulders. You would struggle to fight one. They live underground, sleeping for ages. Their skin and fangs can be used to create superposition armor and weapons respectively. They lie about where you or your weapon really are. Be wary of them. A superposition fighter would be unbeatable.

Gnolls and Bone Magic

 This is part 2 of a series on The Thousand Miles. You can find part 1 here.

Gnolls.

Gnolls were a successful mistake. An ancient alchemist granted sapience to hyenas in the hopes of creating an army. This foolish ambition was predicated on the false belief of hyenas as vicious thieves and grave-robbers but all he created were packs of nomadic hyena-people with the power to make tools and wield weapons.

Like hyenas, gnolls are matriarchal. Their societies are small family groups led by the oldest woman. The other women in her clan her children or grandchildren, and the men all gnolls from other clans. Gnoll clans kick out their adult male children. It is a holdover from their days as hyenas. The specifics of gnoll relationships vary from clan to clan. Some are monogamous. Others keep dozens of drudge-men. Regardless, gnoll men do not hunt. Only the women do that.

Gnolls working with other species have a habit of refusing to work with men. To them, a man in a position of power is clearly unworthy of said position. As a result, most places where gnolls frequent have high ranking women in charge of dealing with gnolls. This behavior can be unlearned, but gnolls do not often live long enough to unlearn it.

Gnolls are nomadic, wandering in search of water and food. Most gnolls maintain specific migration routes which they follow consistently. A gnoll clan knows all the other clans nearby, such is the fate of their intermingling. There are a few permanent gnoll settlements in the Miles, mostly made in caverns or beast burrows. Gnolls have a preference towards spears, clubs, and javelins. Most gnoll tools are made of stone, as gnolls lack the ability to perform complex metallurgy, owing to their nomadic lifestyle.

Gnoll mercenaries are a common sight
on the Tin Road. Around 70%
of all Tin Road guards are gnolls.

Gnolls place great significance on beast pelts. A gnoll hunter is measured by the pelt they wear, which always be the most valuable of their pelts. Lion pelts are the most valuable, followed by elephant, crocodile, and hyena pelts. Some gnoll tribes treat insect chitins like pelts. Gnolls do not deal in coin. They will barter only with pelts, water, or other valuables.

Many have the false assumption that gnolls have domesticated hyenas. This is, of course, false. Hyenas are difficult to tame, let alone domesticate. Gnolls prefer less-intelligent animals fit for carrying such as camels or giant beetles. Large gnoll clans might have a pack of royal hyenas for protecting their matriarch, but these hyenas are tamed through magic.

Gnolls as Enemies.

Most gnoll men are smaller than their counterparts. They have 1 hit die and only their jaws for combat. Drudge gnolls have half a hit die. Gnoll women have 2 hit die and have access to spears, clubs, and/or javelins. Matriarchs have 3 hit die and are marrow speakers (see below). All gnolls have the ability to bite a target below half health for free once per turn.

Gnolls prefer hit and run tactics. They will toss javelins and harry you through the desert until you die of exhaustion. They only engage when their targets are weakened, and only when strictly necessary.

To hear the words of the marrow.

It has secrets long forgotten by time. Photo by Wilmy van Ulft on Unsplash

Gnolls have one form of magic. Sure, they might learn to speak through the wind, or to divine the future in the entrails of the fallen, or in rare cases to practice the arcane craft of mages and sorcerers, but gnolls have one magic that is truly theirs: marrow speaking.

Many see a gnoll clad in furs wrapped in hundreds of bones and think of them as macabre and obsessed with death. This is false. Gnolls are no more obsessed with death than any other mortal species. Gnolls have simply learned to listen to the whispers of bones.

When the body withers away and succumbs to rot and all that remains are bones, it is a fair assumption that there is nothing of value left. Bones are not edible. They make for poor tools. But they remember being alive. They can tell you their secrets, if you know how to listen. And they'd give anything for a few moments of the feeling of life. It is this knowledge the marrow speaker uses.

All matriarchs know how to speak to the bones. Her second in command, often her eldest daughter, will be her apprentice. Larger clans of gnolls might have more marrow speakers, but no more than 1 per 50.

One might be able to convince the gnolls to teach them how to listen to the bones. It'll take time, and they will only teach it to women, but the magically inclined can learn to listen to the stories the bones speak. Lift a bone to your ear. Listen close for the shifting of blood inside, the way the sand in the wind taps against, the subtle changes in the bones weight. These are the words of the bones. Fresh bones are loud. Ancient bones speak with little more than a whisper.

Bones can perform all manor of magical spell by remembering the past. A wizard might create a fireball by causing the air to combust, but a marrow speaker can create a fireball by using a bone that remembers dying in an inferno to recreate that inferno. Mechanically, marrow speakers can cast spells as a wizard of a level equal to their hit die. After being used to cast a spell, the bones fade to dust. Having lived again, there is nothing for them in this world.

Six spells the bones can teach you.

Buoyancy.

The fin bones of ancient fish remember where land was once water. One can use them to swim through the water that once was, at least until the fins disintegrate. Small fins can be destroyed in a minute. Large ones might last hours.

Guard.

Bones marked by ancient and deep scars are more resilient than normal bones. They can be used to absorb a dangerous hit before fading into dust.

Seek.

Fresh bones work best for seeking. Ask the bones to find you something they would remember, then crack them to release the blood stuck in the marrow. It will show you the way. They can always find the rest of their body.

Fuse

Rarely, a marrow speaker might find bones that have fused together. These bones can be used by the marrow speaker to impart their fusion to two inanimate objects, adhering them stronger than any glue.

Animate.

With a whole skeleton, a marrow speaker might convince the bones to move once more. This is temporary. They were not designed for this. They are like a necromancer skeleton, but more brittle, and they fade to dust when they are defeated.

This is not necromancy. Necromancy forces life into bones. A marrow speaker coaxes what life is left out of them.

Tar.

The bones of something that drowned in tar have powerful magic. When a marrow speaker snaps one all nearby creatures (except the marrow speaker) will feel as though they are coated in tar, limiting their movement. This doesn't last long, less than 30 seconds. It fails to work on beings that would be immune to the effects of swimming in tar, like tar elementals.

The Thousand Miles

The Thousand Miles.

Photo by David Wirzba on Unsplash

 

The western reaches of Neurim are dominated by a massive desert known as The Thousand Miles. The region is not one singular desert, but instead a series of biomes related by a lack of rainfall and the blistering sun.

The Stone Forest .

In the center of the Miles is the Stone Forest. Ancient rivers carved this winding canyon, leaving behind great pillars of painted rock. A few rivers remain, but they are stagnant and stained with mud. Still, some plant life remains, clinging to what shade there is and soaking up what water remains from the yearly flood in spring, where melted mountain snow runs through the forest.

Argava.

The forest is home to Argava, the largest permanent settlement in the Miles. It is a network of tunnels and homes carved out of a massive pillar. The lower levels act as a reservoir, holding as much flood water as the town needs to survive each year. Argavians accept coin as currency, but as a measure of water. In the Miles, water is worth more than its weight in gold.

Argava is run by the Tlah, a group of once nomadic water traders. They settled in Argava a long time ago, but they did not build it. The Tlah are technically vassals to the Zetterite Empire, the strongest and largest in the world, though the Tlah ignore Zetterite taxes as long as they keep the Tin Road open. The Tlah are strictly meritocratic. They try to place people in positions they can succeed in, and those who succeed are given power over those who don't.

Tlahlan soldiers use the stats of bandits or guards, whichever you prefer. They use scimitar and shield, and sometimes carry light crossbows. All tlahlan soldiers carry 1d4-1 cactus fans. Tlahlan soldier commanders carry whistles and ride camels. The Tlah can communicate wordlessly using these whistles.

The Tar Marshes.

To the south of the Stone Forest lay the Dune Sea and the tar marshes. Few pass through these lands except to reach the magic city of Zahallas.

Photo by Gilberto Parada on Unsplash

The Dune Sea is a vast and open desert, devoid of life except where there is an oasis. Merchants and nomads are the only who would willingly go there. The Dune Sea has frequent sandstorms. They can last for weeks. At times, they've lasted years.

Past the Dune Sea are the tar marshes, lakes of tar connected by rivers of black sludge. The ground there is nonviable, so soaked with tar as it is. There is great value in fishing bones out of the tar. There is one road through, to Zahallas. It is protected by hundreds of magical wards.

In the center of the marshes is Akrahiel, the Bonepowder Mountain. The name is not a metaphor. It is ruled by Mahkireth, often called the tar-black dragon.

 

The Painted Desert.

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

To the north is the painted desert. The dirt there is glorious colors of red, orange, yellow, and at places blue and purple. Trees can find root in the dirt, as devoid of nutrients as it is. Patches of forests and greenery make home for travelers and beasts alike. There's an old belief that there's gold in the dirt there, and many have tried digging for it. None have been successful yet.

Further to the west is Asuria, land of the ghouls. It weeps of rot.

The Tin Road.

In ancient days, the great kingdom of Asur needed copious amounts of tin to keep itself running. Tin is rare in those lands, and bronze was the best metal they could work, so they made a great trade route to the east to buy tin in exchange for copper. Asur has no more need for tin these days, but the trade route remains open.

This is the Tin Road, the safest route from easy to west. One could be a fool and try to cross the mountains and draw the ire of a giant or dragon, or one could be a fool and try to cross through the Dune Sea and die of thirst long before they ever found an oasis, but wise folk take the Tin Road. 

The Tin Road ends are Argava. It used to go further west, to Asuria, but now ghouls patrol that road. A road extends further south, but the historic Tin Road never went that far.

Creatures of The Thousand Miles.

Tar Elementals.

They're called elementals as a euphemism. Born of necromantic energy animating the bones of a beast that drowned in tar. Their bodies are thick and viscous, with protruding bones. Pseudo-pod like arms drag the creature to its prey. It can always have more bones. They can't be killed with swords or arrows or clubs. They can be trapped (they aren't very wise), healed back to proper death, or disenchanted, but striking one with a sword is asking to lose your sword to the tar. They fight like they have 5 hit dice.

Giant Antlions.

Take an antlion and make it six feet long. They dig pits in the sand and spray super-heated sand at anything that comes near. Like a shotgun crossed with a flamethrower. They have 2 hit dice, can hit multiple enemies at the same time, and hit very hard, but can only attack every other turn. They also have a bite with paralytic poison. This poison can be extracted after their death. It is quite valuable.

No one has ever seen an adult giant antlion. No one wants to see an adult giant antlion.

Stirges.

Giant flying mosquitos. They gather blood and bring it back to their nests, where flightless worker stirges mix it with their excretions to turn into into a thick pulp. Their hives are made of the stuff. It smells like iron and rotting meat for miles around a stirge nest. Blood squeezes out of the floor when you stop on it too. Their grubs live in the walls, feeding on the blood-pulp. Stirges also make "honey" as its called.  It tastes of rotten hopes but it never goes bad and is good at hydrating and that gives it value.

Skullbugs.

Small, scorpion like creatures, but without the stinging tail. They carry around skulls, and sing into them, attracting swarms of scorpions, spiders, beetles, and who knows what else. They use these swarms to kill, then lay their eggs inside the corpse. They hatch once all the meat is gone.

Horn Beetles.

Giant beetles, somewhere between a dog and a horse in size. They skitter about eating cacti and bushes. Their shells are impossible smooth. Swords slight right off. As a result, their shells make excellent shields. They have 1 hit die.

Gnolls.

They get their own post.

Monsters.

Goblins with sandstone gold skin and rocky hide are common in all parts of the Miles. They crawl up at night, being born in small caves below the sand. Mahkireth's brood of tar-black kobolds are common in the marshes of the south.

See this post for monsters in Neurim.

Items of The Thousand Miles. 

Dripcoins.

Small bits of crystallized water make trading and transporting water easier. They look like little blue marbles and revert to normal water when crushed. One dripcoin is equal to one gold. A waterskin is equal to 100 gold. A barrel of water is equal to 10,000 gold.

Needle Fans.

Fans filled with cactus needles used by tlahlan warriors. They can be used to spray a cone of needles up to 15 feet away. Perfect for dealing with skullbug swarms.

Horn Beetle Shield.

Shield made from a horn beetle shell. Impossible smooth, but gets worn down fast without constant maintenance by a beetle. Provides additional defensive benefit, but only for 2d6 hits, then works as a normal shield.

The Horn of the Tlah.

A magical musical horn made from a dragon's, well, horn. The sound travels for miles. Like a horn of blasting but the sound is directable. Anyone the wielder doesn't wish to be harmed will be fine. Currently possessed by the leader of the Tlah in Argava.

The Oasis Pen.

A quill and ink-pot with the ability to draw mirages. Any who are not chosen by the user believe the mirage to be real until it is proven false. The pen can only be used once a day, with the magical ink refilling at midnight. Currently possessed by Mahkireth at the Bonepowder Mountain.