Historical, Novel and Movie monsters of Gothic Earth
Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:35 am
Inspired by the Historical, Novel and Movie characters of Gothic Earth thread, lets start a thread about monsters and other creatures of the night a MotRD DM might find useful.
I will begin with a creature from British folklore, the Boneless. Here is the account of a policeman who was said to have actually encountered one of these things. He was so shaken by the encounter that he was transferred to another district.
"He told her it was darksome over above Putsham Rise and the tide was in far below -- he could hear it plain down two hill fields, and then his lamp lit up a white Summat across the road. It weren't fog. It were alive -- kind of wooly like a cloud or a wet sheep -- and it slid up and all all over him on his bike, and was gone rolling and bowling and stretching out and in up the Perry Farm Road. It was so sudden he didn't fall off -- but he says it was like a wet heavy blanket and so terrible cold and smelled stale."
--From An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures by Katherine Briggs
BONELESS
Large Aberration
Hit Dice: 5d8+15 (37 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (−4 size, +4 Dex, +1 deflection bonus), touch 14, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/ —
Attack: Touch +6 melee (Constitution damage)
Full Attack: Touch +6 melee (Constitution damage)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Constitution damage
Special Qualities: Engulf, fire and sunlight vulnerability, gaseous form
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +4
Abilities: Str — , Dex 18, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 12
Skills: Hide +8, Listen +6, Spot +6, Survival +4
Feats: Alertness, Track
Environment: Any temperate land
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: 6-10 HD (Large), 11-15 (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
A patch of fog is moving against the wind, wafting over the countryside with eerie silence. Eerie tendrils of mist stretch out from all sides of the thing, feeling around hungrily for some source of food.
When a patch of nighttime fog begins to move against the wind, residents in the area barricade themselves into their homes and desperately work to seal all cracks around doors and windows. The patch of fog is no fog at all, but a frightening creature known as a boneless.
A boneless, is a formless thing that closely resembles a coherent blob of gray mist. They are evil creatures, lurking belowground during the day but rising up at night to mingle with normal mist and feast. Although most bonelesses are indiscernible from real mist, some can form floating eyes and mouths from their substance. A boneless that can form a mouth is capable of speech, but it can only say a few words; the rest is gibberish. While on the hunt, a boneless rolls over the hills and moors in the darkness looking for any living thing on which to feed. Bonelesses haunt desolate places like wastelands and swamps, but they are smart enough to know that roadways are frequently traveled and are thus a source of regular food.
A boneless cannot understand or speak any language.
Combat
Bonelesses do not hunt except on misty nights. Using its misty form as camouflage, a boneless seeps up from below and mingles with natural mist. When it detects prey, it rushes forward to envelop it.
Gaseous Form (Su): Can flow through small openings, damage reduction 10/magic, does not need to breathe, cannot enter water or other liquid, can be affected by winds, and requires a DC 15 Spot Check to discern from natural mist.
Engulf (Ex): A boneless tries to engulf its prey as a standard action. It cannot make a touch attack during a round in which it engulfs. The boneless merely has to move over the opponents, affecting as many as it can cover. Opponents can make opportunity attacks against the boneless, but if they do so they are not entitled to a saving throw. Those who do not attempt opportunity attacks must succeed on a DC 16 Reflex save or be engulfed; on a success, they are assumed to have leapt aside as the boneless moves forward. Engulfed creatures must roll to resist its ability score drain every round they remain engulfed, and automatically loose 1 point of temporary Constitution every round even on a success. A creature engulfed by a boneless can only escape by taking a full round action and succeeding on a DC 16 Reflex save. The saving throws are Constitution-based.
Constitution Damage (Su): The touch of a boneless deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage.
Vulnerable to Fire and Sunlight (Ex): Fire forces the boneless to make a Will save or flee. The DC of the save depends on the amount of fire it encounters (a single torch would have a DC of 10, several torches 15, and a raging bonfire 20). Direct sunlight kills a boneless instantly. The spell daylight deals 2d6 damage to a boneless, and fire-based spells that inflict damage do double damage to them.
I will begin with a creature from British folklore, the Boneless. Here is the account of a policeman who was said to have actually encountered one of these things. He was so shaken by the encounter that he was transferred to another district.
"He told her it was darksome over above Putsham Rise and the tide was in far below -- he could hear it plain down two hill fields, and then his lamp lit up a white Summat across the road. It weren't fog. It were alive -- kind of wooly like a cloud or a wet sheep -- and it slid up and all all over him on his bike, and was gone rolling and bowling and stretching out and in up the Perry Farm Road. It was so sudden he didn't fall off -- but he says it was like a wet heavy blanket and so terrible cold and smelled stale."
--From An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures by Katherine Briggs
BONELESS
Large Aberration
Hit Dice: 5d8+15 (37 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (−4 size, +4 Dex, +1 deflection bonus), touch 14, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/ —
Attack: Touch +6 melee (Constitution damage)
Full Attack: Touch +6 melee (Constitution damage)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Constitution damage
Special Qualities: Engulf, fire and sunlight vulnerability, gaseous form
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +4
Abilities: Str — , Dex 18, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 12
Skills: Hide +8, Listen +6, Spot +6, Survival +4
Feats: Alertness, Track
Environment: Any temperate land
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: 6-10 HD (Large), 11-15 (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —
A patch of fog is moving against the wind, wafting over the countryside with eerie silence. Eerie tendrils of mist stretch out from all sides of the thing, feeling around hungrily for some source of food.
When a patch of nighttime fog begins to move against the wind, residents in the area barricade themselves into their homes and desperately work to seal all cracks around doors and windows. The patch of fog is no fog at all, but a frightening creature known as a boneless.
A boneless, is a formless thing that closely resembles a coherent blob of gray mist. They are evil creatures, lurking belowground during the day but rising up at night to mingle with normal mist and feast. Although most bonelesses are indiscernible from real mist, some can form floating eyes and mouths from their substance. A boneless that can form a mouth is capable of speech, but it can only say a few words; the rest is gibberish. While on the hunt, a boneless rolls over the hills and moors in the darkness looking for any living thing on which to feed. Bonelesses haunt desolate places like wastelands and swamps, but they are smart enough to know that roadways are frequently traveled and are thus a source of regular food.
A boneless cannot understand or speak any language.
Combat
Bonelesses do not hunt except on misty nights. Using its misty form as camouflage, a boneless seeps up from below and mingles with natural mist. When it detects prey, it rushes forward to envelop it.
Gaseous Form (Su): Can flow through small openings, damage reduction 10/magic, does not need to breathe, cannot enter water or other liquid, can be affected by winds, and requires a DC 15 Spot Check to discern from natural mist.
Engulf (Ex): A boneless tries to engulf its prey as a standard action. It cannot make a touch attack during a round in which it engulfs. The boneless merely has to move over the opponents, affecting as many as it can cover. Opponents can make opportunity attacks against the boneless, but if they do so they are not entitled to a saving throw. Those who do not attempt opportunity attacks must succeed on a DC 16 Reflex save or be engulfed; on a success, they are assumed to have leapt aside as the boneless moves forward. Engulfed creatures must roll to resist its ability score drain every round they remain engulfed, and automatically loose 1 point of temporary Constitution every round even on a success. A creature engulfed by a boneless can only escape by taking a full round action and succeeding on a DC 16 Reflex save. The saving throws are Constitution-based.
Constitution Damage (Su): The touch of a boneless deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage.
Vulnerable to Fire and Sunlight (Ex): Fire forces the boneless to make a Will save or flee. The DC of the save depends on the amount of fire it encounters (a single torch would have a DC of 10, several torches 15, and a raging bonfire 20). Direct sunlight kills a boneless instantly. The spell daylight deals 2d6 damage to a boneless, and fire-based spells that inflict damage do double damage to them.
