Fantastic Musings

I promise musings of flights of fantasy, not quality.

[probablybadrpgideas]

Merge 5e and GURPS mechanics

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Somewhere, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy just sneezed.

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Zombyre

And so we come to the end of this road, the last monster I’m covering from the Tome of Horrors series. It’s been a long journey – several years and hundreds of monsters – but we’re finally here, the zombyre. Appropriately, it’s one of my favorite types – a lower-end corporeal undead with some interesting powers and mechanics to riff on – and just as appropriately, it has ties to one of the themes among these monsters, in this case the River Styx. The Styx is a common theme, taken as a river running through the Lower Planes, and has mythological roots in Greece, with headwaters in ancient Arcadia. The sheer symbolism of a river in the underworld, be it the lands of the (possibly dishonored) dead, an abode of demons, or some other dark, forbidden place is powerful, and the zombyre is the revenant of someone unfortunate enough to drown in those waters. Slow and lumbering much of the time, zombyres don’t seem that threatening at first. But they’re more dangerous than mere zombies, able to think (somewhat) independently and significantly tougher. Their bite can inflict a disease that withers the body and intellect, sometimes creating more of their kind, and they nauseate those nearby. In general, they like to ambush victims, dragging them into the water to drown and perpetuating the grisly curse that animates them. Zombyres may not be that powerful individually but with this kind of pedigree and a few unique touches, they’re an interesting sort of “advanced zombie” and can serve as a blueprint for customizing other sorts of bespoke zombies.

Where the Styx washes up on mortal shores, tragedy and horror often follow in its wake. Drownings are particularly common, many the fault of the rusalkas often cavort the waters, taking on an even more predatory – and fiendish – mien than usual. Many of these drowned souls rise as shambling, bloated horrors under the vague control and guidance of the foul fey that lured them to their doom. The rusalkas use them as muscle to sate their various desires or let them loose to spread fear in areas nearby.

Hoping for revelations of truths denied, a cult of Geryon has taken to dragging victims – sometimes willing sacrifices, more often beguiled fools unaware of their coming fate – into the waters, drowning them in a blasphemous ritual. The bloated, rotting corpses that emerge groan in strange, inhuman tongues when the stars are right and the cultists have spend years and fortunes trying to decipher the oracular truths within their babble. But some among the faithful begin to doubt there’s any meaning at all, and so heresy is nurtured even among heretics.

Working an occult ritual, the aboleth known as the Pall of Dread cast a curse across the coast of Amuin. Now the shores are haunted by the dead, wailing shadows of forgotten tragedies and zombyres eager to drag more victims into the water. Occasionally one of the aboleth’s skum sergeants gathers up a makeshift squad of the brutes, leading them inland on raids to wear down the kingdom for the next phase of its master’s plan.

- Tome of Horrors 4 257

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Zombie Horde

We’re coming to the end of the road here, monster fans. I’ve got one more post after this one, then the Tome of Horrors is complete, or at least the parts I’m planning to cover. It’s been a long ride and honestly, I need a break.  I might come back and take a run at the Creature Collection sometime but for now, I’m going dark for a bit, maybe resurfacing to follow a couple of other excellent Tumblrs like @dailycharacteroption and @dailybestiary.

But onto our monster! This entry is a staple of horror films, the zombie horde, because let’s be honest. One zombie? Your average level 1 party will deal with that problem just fine. A pack of zombies? That’s a different story, at least until the barbarian assembles a Great Cleave combo and starts singing “I’m A Lumberjack” in the key of rage. Or the cleric turns them. Or the wizard remembers the scroll of fireball the party

No, you need a bunch of zombies to make parties take notice. A horde of zombies.

Mechanically, the horde leverages much of the same mechanics as the swarm, although the implementation is different from the troop mechanic Paizo rolled out. The upshot is that they hit more or less automatically, battering and hammering away at foes, but take normal damage from most weapons and 50% more from area effect spells. What makes the hordes threatening isn’t just their damage. Zombie hordes are tough, requiring a fair bit of effort to bring them down, and even once they go down, there’s a few zombies left over. The zombies aren’t much of a threat but they’ll slow down the party, meaning that if anything else shows up – and that many zombies groans “Braaaaain!” is going to make plenty of noise – the party has enemies in their way.

Narratively, the zombie horde emphasizes the unstoppable tide of undeath and the sheer power of whatever animated these beings, hurling the dead at the living in such a number and sheer density. Zombie hordes don’t arise normally. Someone or something is very wrong, interfering with the natural order of life and death, and these hordes are such a threat that they demand heroes respond.

Hoping to destroy the besieging armies gathered around the walled city of Maran, the circle of necromancers comprising the highest ranks of the Solomonarie wrought an eldritch ritual of terrible power. Although its cost was high in lives and arcane power alike, to say nothing of the monsters left where once there were men, many of the soldiers were dead by the end of the ghastly night that followed. Still bearing their rusted weapons and wearing parodies of their armor, hordes of the soldiers still roam outside the walls of Maran, barely controllable by the handful of master necromancers that remain bound to the Magister’s Tower, and one legion is eternally aflame after a master evoker attempted to burn away the walking dead.

Hoping to displace the umbral dragon known to the world as the Shadowfury Ravager, a duke sent several companies of armed soldiers to confront the creature. After slaughtering them, raising some of their officers as greater shadows, the dragon took a perverse joy in stitching the wailing souls of the dead back into rotting corpses with an occult ritual. Still disciplined, the rotting remains prowl the dragon’s territory, the maddened shades hurling blasphemies as they urge the groaning dead toward their foe in the hope that this murderous rampage will finally earn them some respite from their torment.

After the end of a long quest to retrieve the stolen bones of a hero of the War of Seven Oaths, a group of xia undertake a pilgrimage to restore them to the sprawling tomb erected for the faithful dead by a grateful emperor. But when they arrive, they find many of the dead have risen, aggrieved by the dishonor – or worse, the corpses coerced by foul sorceries, suggesting that the plot goes much farther than animating the corpse of one venerated warrior-saint.

- Tome of Horrors 4 131

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Yhakkor

Twisted and bestial monsters made by foul experiments, yhakkor are in many ways just a step or two removed from the mortics that showed up toward the end of Pathfinder 1st Edition. “Necromantic rites” infuse unfortunate victims with ghoulish essences, creating a monster that’s not dead but forever rotting. (I’d add negative energy affinity to their abilities, by the way.) Somehow, yhakkors are still alive but their bones poke through and the flesh is putrid, leaving a dreadful stench around them and being struck by their claws invites disease. Less intelligent and independent than ghouls but chaotic by nature, yhakkors find little use beyond guards and menial labor. They also make effective shock troops, fearless of death. These are monsters, no question about it, and as they’re less intelligent and capable in many ways than humans are ghouls, they speak to the cruelty and perverse curiosity of their makers.

For both his ghoulish minions and the conquered, the yhakkors created by the wizard Olamorn are a grim warning. Both see a terrible fate in the yhakkors, a debased, feral existence as little more than brute labor and savoring beasts. For the more erudite and intelligent ghouls, it’s more than they dare contemplate, and a few of them are suggesting the unthinkable: An alliance with their prey to destroy Olamorn as he continues his research into lichdom.

Monstrous, ape-like horrors, half-alive and half-dead, roam the wilderness beyond Redhall. Always a dangerous area, the new monsters make many wonder what could have unleashed them. A long-ago prophecy concocted by a sage who went mad after an expedition of the depths speaks of a bound titan and the howling monsters that worship him despite being blasphemies to his sight. Could it be coming true?

When an eldritch weapon –created by one or another of the archmages in the long-ago War of Seventy – is unleashed by foolish ambition, the fractious city of Grimehallow is turned into a blasted horror. Many of the people of the city, souls torn and tattered, now roam the city as packs of feral yhakkors. Even worse things have crawled up from the depths, either created or drawn by the dreadful magics, and the survivors, at one another’s throats the day before, have banded together, human, tiefling, half-orc, and kobold alike, trying desperately to hold on and cut their way out of the devastated city.

- Tome of Horrors 4 255

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Yeti

Making their homes at the top of the world, the yeti are some of the most mysterious and reclusive creatures, not least because most adventurers spend their time trying to go down, not climbing mountains. Drawing from the real world myths and legends of ape-men in the Himalayas and other high mountains, yeti are depicted as strange and reclusive, with little contact with the outside world. But that’s how they like it. The stories of rapine and slaughter have more to do with outcasts from their society or the influence of strange places accessible where air and the boundaries of reality both grow thin, though, and most yeti simply prefer to drive off lowlanders with trickery rather than kill them. These are some of the best cryptids – mysterious and possibly savage but also shy and reclusive, a combination that’s landed them in many editions all the way from the very first Monster Manual. Whether you’re doing horror, survival, or just alpine adventurers, yeti fit in well from low levels to high ones, either as villains, possible allies, or bystanders to the plots of others.

Though dwarves mine the lower depths, few dare the brave the peaks of the mountains known as the Frost Dragon’s Maw.  The frost giants rarely ascend past the mid-level of the highest mountains, preferring to avoid the haunting nightmares that plague their dreams. Only the yeti and the eldest white dragons dare the heights, and many attribute the dragons’ rage and cryptic obsessions to the bizarre things that lurk on “the other side” of the mountains… and wonder what secrets the yeti hold that drive them to their mad rages.

Making camp on the northern slope of the mountain known as the Hungry Ogre, adventurers are startled when a yeti comes out of the woods. Even as they go for their weapons, the monstrous-looking figure staggers into the circle of light cast by the campfire, toppling at their feet. Bleeding from many swollen wounds, the yeti can explain the problem if treated and coaxed – urhags have descended on the mountain, and if they’re not checked, they may boil down into the valley below.

Alternately dealing with and shunning outsiders, the yeti of the Yorakata Mountains are as enigmatic as most of their kin for all that they’re far more accessible. Anyone seeking to contact them is well advised to consult the handful of vanara mystics who maintain high monasteries and have dealt with the yeti for centuries. They conduct their affairs according to a strange, esoteric spirit calendar, worshiping a reclusive mountain kami and protecting her sacred peak, though they offer up little about their faith to lowlanders, even their distant cousins the orang-pendek. At certain times, when the spirits demand it, they refuse all contact, leaving nothing but blood-stained snow and mysteries behind.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 657 and Bestiary 1 287

@dailybestiary had a fun article on these guys.

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Yellow Musk Creeper

One of the older monsters in the game, the yellow musk creeper and the plant-like zombies it creates have been around since the old Fiend Folio, finally getting a promotion to the big time in Pathfinder’s Bestiary. No number, mind you – it’s right at the back of the first bestiary for the game, with a stop in the Third Edition’s Fiend Folio in between. Along the way, it hasn’t changed that much, although the details of exactly how their powers work differ here and there. These are primarily vines that cling and climb along the ground, cliffs, or overgrown buildings. Pathfinder’s versio adds in a creepy preference for “haunted graveyards, grisly battlefields, and other places where death hangs heavy in the soil.” When victims come close – yellow musk creepers are anything but fast – they lash out with tendrils or spray pollen to entrance creatures. A lot of the work gets done by the zombies.

Wait, zombies? Well, no, not really zombies – they’re not undead nor are they vulnerable to positive energy, they’re plants – but they might as well be. Bodies reanimated by the fell power of the plant and they like to stick around for a few days to help, so that’s going to be a problem. Eventually, the zombies scatter, creating more yellow vine creepers where they finally stop moving, so once you deal with one, you need to locate the nearby zombies to make sure they’re gone. Worse, some of them are difficult to kill – you have to rip up the roots and burn it or hack it up. So it’s like kudzu, evil, zombie-animating kudzu. The vine that ate Baldur’s Gate, anyone?

Sent to reclaim an abandoned shrine, the first problem for the acolytes and the sellswords accompanying them is the way nature has tried to reclaim the site for its own. A bear lairs in the cellar, yellow vine creeper has overgrown the north face, and giant rats are lurking in the tattered sleeping quarters. Worse, the reason the roof shows signs of shoddy repairs. Bands of goblins like to shelter from the storms, even making half-hearted attempts at maintenance occasionally, and the sneaky raiders object to someone honing in on their turf.

Seduced by the whispers of a bound daemon, a kodama kami has begun nurturing a yellow musk creeper infestation in the woods of Torada. Already home to many monstrous spiders, vicious mites, and mischievous monkey goblins, the forest has grown steadily more dangerous, the corrupted kami nurturing the creepers with the bodies of those it encounters. With goblins barely enough to sustain new growth, the kami hopes to lure travelers close to create larger zombies. Desperate mites are eagerly assisting to avoid a similarly grisly fate, using their spiders to create web traps, but if wandering xia cut their way free, the mites may turn to them for help.

Planning to celebrate surviving their first adventure, a group of neophyte adventurers head to the nearest tavern. Over a pint, the sheepish tavern owner admits there’s a problem with one of his cellars – yellow musk creeper has gotten in, and several pests have been turned into zombies. Worse, it came from the local graveyard, as tracing the tracks backward will reveal, and the gravedigger’s assistant hasn’t been seen in a day or two…

- Tome of Horrors Complete 654, Bestiary 285, Third Edition Fiend Folio 190-193

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Xothoak

Considered savages by many of the civilized races, xothoaks earn that title most for their habit of raiding, dragging whatever captives they can take back to serve as slaves until the time comes for them to perform one last service, either as a sacrifice to hungry gods or as meals for their captors. This, far more than their sometimes-primitive living conditions and tools, earns them the title of “savage”, for few like to contemplate ending up in the stew pot or having their life’s blood dribbled out on a god’s altar. Tribes range from small groups scratching out an existence in huts to stone cities rising up out of cleared land in the jungle, though little of the community can be described as “planned” beyond the collection of religious edifices near the center. Say what you will about their foreign relations, the xothoaks believe in maintaining a positive relationship with their gods, a relationship built on sacrifice. In lean times, even tribes not bound directly by the blood of their leaders could find themselves on the wrong end of a raid. Xothoaks have a fear of arcane spellcasting that means none of them practice such things; their spellcasters are probably likely to be bloody-clawed druids or raving clerics, so plan your tactics accordingly… assuming you get a warning and their propensity for blending into the background doesn’t lead you into a false sense of security.

Leader of a brutal and secretive sect, the xothoak druid Agakorak expounds on a philosophy taken from a rapacious god whose favorite animal is the jaguar. Counting rogues, rangers, and shifters among their number, the xothoak cult of the Spotted Lord are rapacious savages who disdain civilization’s hedonistic comforts and soft, easily-murdered members. They prefer to hunt from the trees in brutal ambushes, especially hunting the saltbeard dwarves of Kassember when they go forth to trade with the forest enclaves, taking the dwarves’ legendarily sturdy weapons as their own.

Known up and down the great Anothri River, the xothoaks of the jungles and hills that lie near it have taken up the practice of building primitive-looking but capable boats. A critical flow of information and trade makes its way along the Anothri but few dare to remain on the water when the xothoak horns sound, retreating to fortified docks with high walls and ballistae to repel the raiders.

Driven visions of blood and hunger, an entire tribe of xothoaks is on the march to the north from the isolated wilderness they inhabit. In addition to the forest goblins they’ve displaced, fearful of being eaten and resentful of the big folk they see as little different from humans, the xothoaks themselves intend to sate their monstrous god’s appetite with the sacrifice of an entire village, and their own by putting another in their cooking pots.

- Tome of Horrors 4 254

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Xaphan

It’s time for the last unique on the list if my records are right and we’re going out with a sizzle. Xaphan is an old name but compared to the likes of Moloch or Lilith, he’s gone under the radar. His stats fit him to a T, though – this is a fallen angel who had the bright idea to burn all the Heavens and the righteous host with them. He hasn’t given up on that infernal fire thing in all the time sense, despite following Lucifer out of Hell following his defeat by Asmodeus, and he bosses around pit fiends. Entire companies of pit fiends. This is a seriously bad dude, able to call up pit fiends several times a day and with a range of spells that center around burning you alive, doing horrible things to the area around you, and incidentally raising your corpse to serve his will. I’m not going to go through the spells and spell-like abilities. Instead, let’s take a step back and look at what motivates Xaphan. Although he has the smarts and power for it, Xaphan is not really a manipulator at heart. That’s what his minions are for. This is someone who wants to watch the universe burn, to soak it in fuel and turn it to ash that Hell might rebuild all reality in its own tyrannical image. This is a being who destroys because he enjoys destruction, one who’s shackled that urge to Lucifer’s grim purpose. Woe be to those who come before him for they shall know fire’s true fury.

Xaphan’s favorite followers are the immolation devils, and he is said to be the one whose image they were cast in. Brutal generals with a preference for direct action, immolation devils mirror Xaphan in many ways and several are among his closest advisors, guiding the armies of Infernus as they check Hell’s moves in the greater multiverse or leading bloody, violent raids against the Abyss or the outer reaches of Hell to seize souls to power Lucifer’s war machine. All of these strategies reinforce Xaphan’s position as the general of Infernus, for he intends to stand at Lucifer’s side when the King-in-Exile returns to hurl down the upstart traitor Asmodeus.

Delving deep into the mysteries of hellfire, Xaphan has unknowingly provoked a showdown with Mephistopheles. The Son of Hell refuses to share such deep knowledge as Xaphan is intent on mastering and the coming clash between the two of them is likely to see one of them burnt a cinder, even a devil’s fire immunity hurled aside… but Mephistopheles is not without his enemies, and many might prefer Xaphan’s relatively direct manner over the Son of Hell’s cryptic mysticism.

Not one of the great mages of Hell, Xaphan is not without certain accomplishments in that arena, nor followers of that persuasion. Some ascribe the first creation of burning skeletons by mortals to his malign influence; others count him as a patron of intelligent fiery undead. Witchfires in particular sometimes call to him, especially those who prefer outright destruction to the subtle plots of more traditional patrons of witches and hags. For his part, Xaphan welcomes these followers, putting them to good use either supporting the plots of his fellows for political favor or in his own destructive, fiery agenda, and few of his followers have any doubt that the world must burn in the end.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 217-218

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Xacon

We’re not out of the woods yet, monster fans. The xacon is a comparatively minor threat compared to the last few monsters we’ve seen at CR 2.  As I’ve noted before, that may just make them much more useful and accessible, as there’s probably a lot more low-level games out there than high-level ones. By themselves, these humanoid-esque creatures are not evil, but they’re reasonably strong, a bit creepy looking, and as plants, are probably pretty detached from human concerns. Those who threaten nature often find themselves facing xacons and as they only understand Sylvan, convincing them you’re not a problem may be difficult without a druid or other student of primal lore to present your case. And then there are those times where simple misunderstanding isn’t the cause, where xacons have decided you’re the problem and they’re the solution, or when malevolence has sunk deep into the roots. Their alien, plant-like appearance and ability to meld into trees provides plenty of fodder for horror.

Mistaken for monsters, a pack of xacons have taken the blame for recent disappearances of children playing in the woods. They’re innocent but if approached carefully rather than with axe and torch, they have an idea who the true villain is – the sickly-looking green hag Rastana, who considers the xacons to be pathetic things far beneath her notice.

Severed from the plane of Faerie by the cruel whimsy of one of the fey Eldest long ago, the xacons of Pollaner are scattered and bitter. Hiding in the forested places in the world, they are forever looking for some way to go home with what little power remains to them. Unlike many plant creatures, who abhor mages’ experiments, the Pollani xacons eagerly follow rumors of wizards or arcanists nearby, hoping to find one who can trade them some new bit of eldritch lore in exchange for the exotic plants they cultivate in their forest retreats.

A wicked and brutal acolyte of a nature feral, hungry, and red of tooth and claw, the xacon druid known to those few who have come across it as Thornbeard for the vines it wears almost like a tabard has gathered a cruel following. Leading its acolytes in reshaping the forest, Thornbeard hopes to murder the local foresters and charcoal gatherers, leaving the nearby villages to freeze in the winter, and he has driven much of the game away from the nearby edge of the woods.

- Tome of Horrors 4 253

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Wrath Dragon

Dragons are symbols of power even in the real world. In places touched – actually shaped – by the power and fury of true dragons, their legacy lives on beyond death. Wrath dragons are one such legacy, the spirits of slain good dragons given purpose and power by righteous gods to serve as their agents in the world. Most of then, they’re expressions of divine wrath, sent singly or with a  handful of boon companions. Often this is to give voice to divine wrath but other, more constructive possibilities exist for something with access to much of the cleric spell list. Wrath dragons are proud and stubborn, rarely if ever working for anyone but the god that elevated them to such a lofty perch, much as dragons rarely do more than look down on those so unfortunate as not to be born into the ranks of dragon-blooded beings. Their powers and capabilities demand a certain forethought to use well and don’t forget to customize them with small touches like swapping a spell or two out and maybe changing domains. Because of their sheer power and divine ties, wrath dragons are rarely seen, and one’s appearance is an explicit sign of divine interests and often their wrath.

After the theft of a divine relic by the mythic trickster known as Illusion’s Gift, the wrath dragon Krovondiss is sent to retrieve it. But not all is as it seems and Illusion’s Gift has such a touch for sly manipulations enhanced by subtle magics that even a dragon touched by the power of a god can be led astray, following a web of false trails that point at innocents.

As the creations of the gods, wrath dragons reflect their creators for good or ill. Some are benevolent and restrained, and the dragon Notaci is so withdrawn and contemplative that she’s inspired hermits for seven generations after a few profound suggestions of the value of prayer. Others are violent and destructive, the face of righteous wrath, such as Neshigaren the Warblaze, a being whose “justice” is so harsh many paladins quail at the sound of the name.

Given orders to defend a sacred spring in a far northern forest unto death without exceptions, a wrath dragon is apologetic but has no choice but to harshly deal with intruders. Meant to preserve the balance of the world against those who would try to steal mythic power, the orders mean that people suffering from a terrible plague must die, and adventurers are asked to intervene. Can they defeat the dragon or strike some bargain to gain access to the blessed waters?

- Tome of Horrors Complete 234

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Woolly Rhinoceros

For a moment, just a moment, you might make the mistake of assuming that the woolly rhinoceros somehow isn’t worthy of being in a book of monsters. And then you remember that these may be herbivores but they’re also just plain big, easily around two tons, and their living kin have a well-earned reputation as dangerous, ornery animals known for occasionally charging and trampling other, lesser creatures. I somehow doubt that dealing with the often scarce food, harsh winters, and generally larger predators of the Pleistocene made the woolly rhinoceros any more serene and pleasant than their cousins, although their closest living cousins, the Sumatran rhinoceros, may not be as bellicose, and those creatures still have more hair than other species, living at higher altitudes. Regardless of demeanor, provoking them is anything but safe, as their gore attack will fell an ogre in one tremendous blow, spitting the brute.

Although it belongs to a different subfamily, Elasmotherium looks similar in some ways except for the spectacularly massive horn. Some have suggested that these creatures’ depiction in caves may have inspired the legend of a unicorn but nothing of that legendarily kind-hearted creature’s disposition is here. Instead, they’re probably no less aggressive than other rhinos, and as the largest of the entirely family, they’ve got plenty of strength to back it up and are tough enough that bringing one down is going to take a lot of effort, leaving it time to back off and charge again. That’s a terrifying creature to face down.

Forced to trek through the open steppe to reach the remote alpine town of Grimmount, not far from the tomb of a famed dwarven hero, a group of adventurers trying to retrieve the Srengrel Vokreg’s thundering axe are forced to take caution. The woolhorns are dangerous at any time of year but during mating season, the ill-tempered males are inclined to charge anything they might see as a rival, and their eye sight is bad enough they assume most things are rivals.

Raised as hunters and nomads, the taiga giants of the Ekashi steppes must prove themselves before they can take the mantle of adulthood. One of the final tests is stalking and subduing one of the massive elasmotherium that roam the steppe. Stealth and ambush is popular among hunters, while shamans often charm the beasts into submission. For some, though, sheer strength and endurance is the determining factor, wrestling the beast into submission and exhausting it before parading it before the tribe.

Nomadic and harsh, the steppe orcs keep herds of woolly, horned beasts just as bellicose and fierce as the orcs themselves, a breed few other races have even attempted to control. As beasts of burden and ferocious war beasts, they are formidable, and help the nomadic orcs maintain their way of life as raiders and marauders, moving on to fresher pastures after their herd grazes much of the available grass. With their dependence on these beasts, though, a credible enough threat to take or slay their herd can force the orcs to back down lest their livelihoods be destroyed.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 688

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Woodwose

Have you ever been in the woods and been convinced something was watching you? Maybe it was a trick of the light. Maybe it was a passing fear from our evolutionary past. Maybe there’s a sparrow who’s annoyed you’re harshing his buzz while he’s practicing his song. Or maybe it was a woodwose, glaring menacingly from the thickets.

No, it can’t have been. After all, you’re still here to read this post, and to a woodwose, there are two kinds of intruders, those buried in shallow forest graves and those they haven’t gotten their hands on yet. With a druid’s spell list, a range of spell-like abilities that include the ability to pass without trace or speak with trees at will, as well as an at-will entangle, and a selection of more limited spells like wall of thorns and blight. These are fey who dislike people and have plenty of options for expressing that dislike in violent ways, every inch of their gnarled, bark-covered forms and vine-like hair. Few other fey associate with woodwoses but the ones that do, like redcaps or quicklings – or your more rural sort of bogeyman, possibly, or maybe a rusalka with a fondness for forest views.

Intent on driving the settlers from the Komark Hills, a woodwose has concocted a plot to do far more than just secure its woodland home. Delving into dark lore and tapping secrets of the fell shadow realm, the woodwose has begun brewing a terrible plague, planning to introduce it into the water supply at the edge of the fey being’s lands, all the better to taint and weaken the “civilized” folk before a wave of brambles and vines reclaims the land they’ve stolen from the woods.

Having taken on a woodwose as an “advisor” on the places and lands surrounding its primal-touched home, a zomok has been slowly taking on more of the sinister, poisonous advice. Once a guarantor of prosperity and renewal that created the bounty of the woodlands, the zomok has begun to turn against the nearby communities, shaping the forest and and the land itself against the humanoids that wander into the wild.

Though many boats pass by the wooded island in between the two forks of the Great River that travels from the Dragon’s Talons to the Steaming Sea, few dare to land. Any who come close have an unnerving sense of profound and deadly wrath and of the handful of riverboats that drop anchor, whether out of a misplaced sense of adventure or to take shelter in the storm-ridden summers, many are never heard from again, victims of the nameless fey imprisoned there by ancient gray elves.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 653

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Wood Golem

Sturdy and capable constructs, wood golems are a sometimes-overlooked member of the golem family. Though they’re fashioned from wood (typically exotic varieties) rather than more durable materials, these constructs are still hardy, with immunity to many spells, and are difficult to break. The Tome of Horrors Complete differs somewhat from Paizo’s interpretation, opting for immunity to cold and electricity instead of the broader magic immunity golems have, and has the ability to let out a powerful alarm effect instead of the deadly shower of splinters.  @dailybestiary suggested they might be journeyman’s work thanks to their often crude, unfinished appearance. He has a point but you shouldn’t limit yourself. The Tome of Horrors Complete posits a different idea, with the wood golems as creations meant to be cheaper than other golems but still durable enough to serve as capable defenders. It’s an interesting idea, one worth exploring!

Though druids typically eschew constructs, preferring the primal power of elementals or charmed plants for their purses, wood golems are sometimes an exception when a more durable – or less intelligent – guardian than an elemental is needed, created using secret rituals and woods from primal forests.

Signature creations of the master artisans known only as the Maestri, a series of wood golems crafted as resonant musical instruments are the defining trait of the music of Hai Gali. Each golem is tuned to specific notes, either using magic and hydraulics to draw in air or strung with various types of strings, and the masked wizards left few notes to guide anyone on reproducing their unique creations. Only a handful have ever performed at one place, their control amulets jealously guarded by feuding nobles, but over time their signature songs have given each a reputation and personality, one that suggests a troubling independence might be growing…

Rather than dominating the local tribes of the Tariak Forest, the green dragon Ketige prefers to craft her closest servants from the rare woods and exotic plants she cultivates with the aid of carefully recruited wyrwoods. These golems are the most common outward sign of Ketige’s power, attracting much ire, but so far demolishing them has been so difficult that few have dared the green dragon’s ire to make the attempt.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 344 and Bestiary 164

[wanderingmoonsword]

Wood Giant

I’m indebted, as ever, to The Daily Bestiary’s excellent coverage of the wood giant. One of the only good giants, wood giants are definitely on the low end of the giant power scale – Paizo’s are a bit tougher but not much, and neither can outmatch a hill giant in straight strength – but their preference for stealth, wisdom, and common sense tends to make them more dangerous than people assume. Players facing giants expect brute force. Hit-and-run stealth tactics performed by someone with the mindset and skills of a ranger and the physical power of an ogre before they wade in to chop up the survivors with swords and enough size to go one-on-one with a frost giant? That’s something different, and tactics is the least of it. By default, wood giants are bigger, tougher elves, on good terms with fey and wood elves, etc. You don’t have to do that, though – they’re flexible, and if you want to play up the darkness of the woods and nature’s aspect as red of tooth and claw, wood giants are up for that. Break out the unusual classes – druids, shamans, oracles, witches – and bring the giant animals driven to a frenzied rage by magic.

Bound by ancient customs and a venerated chieftain’s promise to an erlking, the forest giants of Hadaltague have suddenly begun barring their entry to outsiders. They hope to prevent a conflict between their tribal oaths to guard the erlking’s privacy and the debts of honor they owe to the adventurers that have helped them on multiple occasions.

The forest giants of Therinbach are caught between the bustling settlements of the young, bustling Gruthian Dynasty and the aggressive, expansionist frost giants of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains and the Gallanian tundra beyond. Squeezed on both their frontiers, the forest giants have become increasingly desperate, with many of the younger members advocating more forceful confrontations of their kin and the small folk

Wood giant bloodragers and sorcerers stalk the Spirit Woods, wielding eldritch power and demanding high prices of anyone who trespasses. Legends claim that they were smaller once upon a time, either a less urban offshoot of the elves of Yennar or a tribe of humans, but they long ago entered a pact with the primeval forest dragon Huapan. Even today they serve her many kin, advancing draconic greed and inhuman agendas, driving back anyone who dares to enter territory claimed by the giants or their masters, which they regard as much the same.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 324 and Bestiary 2 132

[wanderingmoonsword]

Wood Elemental

Your usual elementals are a range of sizes and power levels, finally ranging up to a huge elder elemental that’s still honestly not too bright. Wood elementals are just a bit different. For one thing, they’re all generally large and in charge at size Huge and CR 16, and at Int 14, they’re no dummies. Worse, these elementals are ferociously powerful, with massive strength and toughness, plus the ability to turn fleshy creatures to wood. Primeval defenders of the woods, these beings are powerful and disinterested in the outside world, looking only to protect their homes and spending most of their time in a “euphoric slumber” until roused by a threat. Woe to those who force a wood elemental to stir from those dreams, then, for the doom that comes to them will be merciless.

Stretching across northwestern Iaphath, the great jungle known as the Ulatha is home to several wood elementals. But though they agree on the defense of their lands, little else is cause for anything but conflict between them, including clashes over territory, philosophy, and the squabbling tribes that have adopted the creeds of one or more of the great elementals.

When seen from a distance, the Abnodanwald seems like a peaceful primeval wilderness but those whose visit is more than fleeting discover the gauntlet of predators, carnivorous plants, and strange haunts that are often the end of would-be visiotrs or savior. In older days, the wood elemental Sannan would have hunted the dark fey responsible, driving them from the Abnodanwald, but the elemental was their first and mightiest victim. Tormented by dark fey and kept in a nightmarish twilight, Sannan is unable to wake up, leaving its forest nearly defenseless to the otherworldly marauders and the twisted,  hungry denizens of the woodland those fey have created or seeded.

Dreaming in formulae and eldritch lore, the wood elemental Assolath is a formidable wizard, with its spellbook stitched in patterns of bark and veins of wood across its massive body. Though it spends much of its time in dream-like arcane contemplation, Assolath occasionally initiates a student into the practice of halcyon arcana, guiding them along its paths, and is one of the few masters of the intersection between arcane power and the eldritch lore of nature itself.

- Tome of Horrors 4 91

In that third seed, Assolath is intended as a possible source of initiation and training into the Magaambyan arcanist prestige class (Adventurer’s Guide 118-119, Paths of Prestige 34-35).

[wanderingmoonsword]

Wolf-Spider

Not to be confused with the widespread and successful wolf spiders of the family Lycosidae, wolf-spiders are far more monstrous creatures, bizarre hybrids of wolves and spiders. Their heads are largely lupine, though with arachnid pedipalps (those small limbs next to the jaws). Beyond the skull, the body is a shaggy spider’s. It’s not just the appearance, or even the poison, though, it’s the malicious intelligence. Wolf-spiders are fairly smart at Int 8, much more so than a normal beast, and it’s more than smart enough to coordinate with other creatures using Common or Goblin, or just to torment their victims with a voice they can’t pin down. Like their smaller cousins, wolf-spiders are active and agile predators, faster than many humanoids but slow enough they need some level of head start to catch many faster herbivores such as deer or horses, encouraging ambush tactics. They’re smart enough to recognize the need to treat armed groups with care, too, and likely won’t engage unless they see an advantage or have some overwhelming reason (possibly including a compulsive need to defend their territory).

Separated into several distinct ecological zones by the sheer height of the great trees within, Teronvar Forest’s most well-known predators are the wolf-spiders. Intelligent and operating in small, close-knit packs, the eldritch beasts move between the regions in pursuit of prey, scrambling along the heavy branches in the heights before descending to snatch up a morsel toward the ground. They retreat when the greatest beasts come out at the new moon, though, not daring to confront the umbral terrors that .

Although they often resent the request, much to the chagrin of the goblins who made it, wolf-spiders sometimes serve as mounts for goblins, either willingly (often bribed) or subdued by some combination of threats, bribery, and the occasional spell cast by a talented witch doctor or shaman. They’re not as fast as some choices but wolf-spiders’ size, strength, and ability to climb at least as well as a goblin make them prestigious, useful mounts, even if there’s a chance the mount might devour the rider, especially when they’re injured.

Haunted by fey, ghosts, and hags in the poplar, the depths of the black-barked forest known as the Shadow Stand are rarely visited by wolf-spiders. Instead the monstrous, hairy wolf-spiders lurk in the periphery, abducting lone wolf tactics in favor of coordinated assaults by colonies determined to bring down much larger prey to feed the colony and the young.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 652

[wanderingmoonsword]

Wolf-in-Sheep’s-Clothing

Bizarre, aberrant predators are nothing new in the lands of dungeon fantasy, but the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing lives up to its name in a less literal way by the use of lures. Looking like a harmless stump, these beings seem to have nothing to do with plants, sprouting tentacles that lash out to grab and rend the living, holding them close so the creature to implant it with a parasitic seed, thereby breeding. Once the being is subdued, the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing can use it as a lure, propping it up and disguising it with unnatural skill as a still-living creature, exuding filaments into the unfortunate remains that even let it use the lure as a puppet, though the complexity of what it does is limited. Intelligent, predatory, and vicious, the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing looks relatively harmless, and it did earn itself a place in infamy from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks to Misfit Monsters Redeemed, but these creatures are deadly predators if not escaped, ready and eager to devour anything that comes near to spread their vile get across the land.

Over the past few months, peasants hunting in the local woods – poachers, by the law, though many are simply catching a bit of meat and take care not to overly irritate the local manors – have begun to disappear. Reluctant to approach the authorities, they instead turn to adventurers passing through. The nobles are rarely troubled because they ignore the small game the peasants seek, meaning they seldom investigate closely enough to be assaulted by the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing.

The forest monkeys of Aecane are thought to be holy, but of late have gained a reputation as demon-tainted. The cause are the pair of wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing lurking within the woods, using the curious, easily-baited monkeys as lures to draw in those seeking to pet or feed the often-adorable, relatively tame monkeys, and if the situation isn’t dealt with soon, paranoia and sectarian tensions could flare.

The sight of an ogre or hill giant resting on a stump is threatening enough, but with a stupendously large variety of wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing in the redwood forests of Vorath, the giant may be the least of the problem, with offspring the size and capability of the adult lesser wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing that hunt other regions.

- Tome of Horrors Complete 651, Mistfit Monsters Redeemed 58-63, and Bestiary 3 285