Category:Common Mist Horror

Descriptive Text

The skald's frightful words of warning, whether intended for our good or his private amusement, proved to be well founded, or nearly so. The swamp that we sought, deep in the south, was as thick with dead trees as any of us had seen and was thicker still with mists. Our every step was laboured, we lost our way repeatedly, sound travelled oddly, the thing that we sought was elusive, and we could not shake the sense of impending doom. Then, as exhaustion set in, the atmosphere seemed to lighten a bit and we paused upon a solid and barren piece of ground. Perhaps we stayed too long. Whatever the case, our surprise was total when the blows of the dead tree, which had not been there when we arrived, fell about our heads. The thing was as massive, twisted, withered, monstrous and dreadful as Lukas had said. It preceded to rush forth, driving those of us that it did not manage to trample, into the fetid muck, where our disadvantage was complete. It had overlooked Ulrich however, who had dosed off and was ever slow to rouse himself. When he had at last collected his senses, his mind refused to credit the sight before his eyes, bard’s tale be damned. Apparently no tree in Lamordia ever mired men in mud and raked them with choking eldritch forces, or indeed anything of the sort. And so the tide began to turn.

-From the last journal entry of Hardian Wordsworth, the work being held in the private collection of Harkon Lukas

Descriptive text contributed by cure to John W. Mangrum's Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror project (posted on the Fraternity of Shadows message board).

The Creature

This section contains canon info from officially published sources

A Common Mist Horror is the standard version of a Mist Horror. It is an embodiment of the Mists that can take any solid shape, usually choosing a form that will terrify its victim. (It can probe the victim's mind to discover the best form to take.) Common Mist Horrors are bound to a small area in the Mists and cannot leave.

This section contains Potential-canon info, revealed by the creators from never-published sources

Mangrum: "Mist Horror: For sake of trivia, I completely rewrote this template from scratch, essentially ignoring everything Denizens of Dread has to say. Just keep in mind that a mist horror is an animate bank of mist that has no "true form"; using the template system, it reaches into its victims' minds and takes the form of their greatest fear -- partly physically, and partly through illusion. (The two "example mist horrors" I provide are "mist horror, kraken form" and "mist horror, drider form.") The mist horror encounter early in Dance of the Dead is a nice example.".^[1]

Mist horrors lurk within the swirling Mists of Ravenloft. These wrathful entities are drawn to any travelers who linger too long in the Misty Border.

In its true form, a mist horror is a vast, shapeless cloud of thin mist. Since they can never leave the Misty Border, mist horrors are nearly undetectable in this form. When they attack, they coalesce into nightmarish forms drawn from the deepest fears of their victims. Thus, if a victim is terrified of snakes, a mist horror might assume the form of a dire snake or monstrous viper. A mist horror’s combat forms are featureless shapes seemingly composed of incredibly dense fog, but it conceals itself within phantasmal facades to complete the illusion.

Countless theories have been presented to explain the origin of mist horrors. For example, many Vistani strongly believe that anyone who is buried on a foggy day is fated to rise as a mist horror. This may not be true, but the Vistani’s belief has lent it great credence among many folk. Another theory holds that mist horrors arise from the slain victims of mist golems (see pg. #). If this is true and former comrades can capture the particular horror, the creature may be restored to life by means of a resurrection or true resurrection spell.

Others believe that mist horrors represent the fate of evil creatures who enter the Misty Border and refuse to leave, either because they are desperately seeking a way out of the Demiplane of Dread or because they hope to avoid some worse fate back in the material world. In the strangely twisting time of the Mists, creatures can survive far longer in the Mists than they should. Eventually, their bodies fade away, but their spirits live on, becoming mist horrors.

The grimmest theory may also be the closest to the truth: That mist horrors represent the final, pathetic fate of evildoers who condemned themselves with their evil deeds but failed to convince the Dark Powers that they deserved their own domains. These damned and discarded souls are exiled to the Mists, each villain imprisoned in its own featureless territory, forever. Long after their bodies die, these wretched spirits live on, slowly merging with the Mists of Ravenloft themselves. Mist horrors are aware that they have been passed over, and their envy of even the most pathetic true darklords drives them to terrorize victims to prove themselves “worthy” of their own domains.

Although mist horrors are technically undead, they have merged so thoroughly with the planar fabric of the Demipane of Dread that little of their undead essence remains.

A mist horror in its true, dispersed form fills a space (10 feet × Hit Dice) to a side. Its vaporous form is weightless.

Mist horrors can communicate telempathically with any creature within 100 feet that has a language. This communication takes the form of impressions and feelings rather than concrete words or concepts. They sometimes try to use this ability to persuade creatures to enter the Misty Border but, due to the range limit, can only do so when the creatures are already on the verge of entering on their own.

Combat Mist horrors lurk in the Misty Border in their mist form, eagerly waiting for travelers to wander through their territory. Once a mist horror detects new victims, it uses its empathic probe first to subtly persuade the creatures to stop and rest, then again to draw a monstrous shape from its victims’ deepest fears. This monstrous shape becomes the base creature used in this template. While its unwitting victims remain in the area, the mist horror uses its alternate form ability to assume the shape of its victims’ nightmares and attacks.

A mist horror remains unseen until it assumes a combat form and attacks, at best visible as an ominous ripple in the omnipresent fog. Once it has assumed a combat form, a mist horror tries to take its victims by surprise, lunging at them from out of the fog. If possible, it may use its empathic probe again to terrify and scatter a group of foes. A mist horror uses its phantasmal façade to try to convince foes that it actually is a creature straight from their nightmares, but usually continues to fight if this façade is shattered. Should the tide of battle turn against a mist horror, it shifts back into its dispersed true form and blends into the Mists of Ravenloft to hide.

Sample Mist Horrors

Mist Horror, Drider Form: Large Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger), CR 8, neutral evil.

Mist Horror, Kraken Form: Gargantuan Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger), CR 13, neutral evil.

The template in a nutshell:

• d8 HD.
• Natural AC replaced by deflection bonus, like ghosts.
• Tentacle rake attacks
• Disruptive aura: spellcasters need to make Concentration checks to cast spells within 30 feet of a mist horror.
• Empathic probe: A mist horror can scan surface thoughts as a standard action. This has two uses: it can improve or worsen a foe's morale, or it can grab a feared mental image and take that form.
• Phantasmal Facade: In a combat form, a mist horror gains none of the base creature's special attacks. However, it can wrap itself in phantasms to complete the illusion of being that creature. This also allows it to use phantasmal versions of the base creature's special attacks (which can be disbelieved). A foe who disbelieves one attack sees through the facade and can't be affected by any of the mist horror's other phantasms for 24 hours.
• Alternate Form: A mist horror can take any form (noting the above), but takes 4d10 minutes to do so.
• Damage reduction 10/magic.
• Mistbound: Can never leave a specific "territory" within the Misty Border (usually about a square mile).
• Mist Form: The mist horror's true form. Gaseous, hard to detect or damage, but can't make any physical attacks.

Mistvision: A new special quality shared by a couple of creatures: It can see twice as far as normal in fog or mist, including obscuring mist.

• Spell resistance 20.
• Has most of the standard undead immunities, but can't be turned.
• Dex +4, Cha +2, if base creature has no Con, then Con equals Cha.
• CR: Base creature +1.

Basically, mist horrors would have been explicitly written into the revised powers check rules -- the result of someone who fails all the powers checks but isn't worthy of becoming a darklord.

References

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Monsterous Compendium I & II - pp38-39 Monsterous Compendium I - "Mist Horror"
		Monsterous Compendium I & II - pp38 Monsterous Compendium I - "Mist Horror"
		Monsterous Compendium I & II - pp38-39 Monsterous Compendium I - "Mist Horror"
		Monsterous Compendium I & II - pp38-39 Monsterous Compendium I - "Mist Horror"
		Mist Horror, Common