Ghost Nets
Every year a shit ton of animals are killed by nets abandoned at sea. In fantasyland, this becomes an issue that fights back. A roiling cacophony of desperate enraged perpetually drowning marine life, held in vile shape by taut and taunting rotting rope.
~
A halo of ragged undead birds dart around a massive looming form, necks snapped. It takes a ragged step forward. The boat tips precariously.
An animal's spirit is a little thing, like a fish, and what do fish hate more than a net? When enough life is dragged down and drowned by a net errantly cut loose, a dull and throbbing singular thought moves through the spirits of the dead. They swim together.
A thousand writhing glassy eyed fish stare at you gasping. Its strangely quiet, raised fists glistening in the moonlight
A pain becomes an anger, an anger a desire. Swim up. Swim up and don't stop. A creature's spirit is like a little fish.
The knowing eyes of a porpoise pierce you, squinting past its own bloat. The fist snaps the mast like so many little bones.
What would they do when they hate?
Ghost Net
HD 7/AC Chain/Damage 2d6 (smash) or as dart (undead bird)
DIS: Aggressive, Cowardly, Confused MOR 10
WANTS: To drown fishermen, sink boats, tear down lighthouses
NEEDS: To be freed, to be cut loose, to rot
AVOIDS: The day, the tide, the depths
DESIRES: To stop the tides, to reach the moon, to quell a fear it doesn't understand
Eelmen
Some people have orcs. I have eelmen. If orcs and trolls are strong and dim, then eelmen are fast and cunning. The Venn diagram of all three has "vicious" at the center.
I like linking them to weather tables. They attack during thunderstorms, compelled by the changing air pressure to raid, when rivers flood and they can stay moist. They only need to submerge once a day, they're quite terrestrial, their lakeside camps flooded and full of craft-eels. Crossbows and nets are a favorite. They always prefer to ambush and always in greater numbers or tactics. They do not have legs but slither like cobras.
They're very clever, like traps and have effective caravans, full of great slimy cauldrons. Dear god what's in them.
~
Tidepool crawler. Beach comber. Man renderer. Feed all the parts to a pit of eels under a full moon and spread thin the fat of the sacrifice. What is left in the morning is man's pride and drive and eel's cunning and savagery and the viciousness of both. It is handed a hooked ax and slithers off, confident.
Eelman
HD 1+1/AC as armor/Damage as weapon
DIS: Cruel, Stalker, Prudent/MOR 7
WANTS: to abduct, to propagate
NEEDS: to eat, to stay damp, to attack during thunderstorms
AVOIDS: aridity, greater numbers
DESIRES: to feel rain on their skin, to feel superior
Retributive Bite. When critically struck or reduced to 0 hp, it may reactively bite a foe and latch on. A STR check with a -4 can unhinge the eelman's jaws, but its pharyngeal jaws bite all the while, automatically dealing 1 damage each round it is not removed. They often do this before they die, locking the jaw as a final act of defiance, -8 to unhinge. Dragging an eelman corpse around, halves your speed and hurts.
Trip. Skilled with polearms they may trip for half damage on a successful hit. Prone foes take triple damage. There's a reason "he fell" is synonymous with death.
The Lady-in-Waiting
dedicated to my beloved
 |
| A stonefish |
The knight has travelled weeks back to the Lady of the Cave. This task was the most arduous of all, quarry hanging heavy on his horse, heavier on his heart. His footsteps are slower now, the newly earned limp his only companion besides the horse. But its ok, because the Lady will fix him. She always does.
The cave entrance is jagged, uneven, hardly befitting of one so wise as her he thinks, one so knowledgeable. One who would, he recalled the words, come to "encompass him," in eternal glory and wisdom he knew. The Lady was kind. She was transcendent. She had to be, as desperate men often decided. The horse's ears twitched.
He no longer entered nervously as has he had so many times before. Cautious he had been, but this was his final quest. She would give him sight beyond sight as the holy men had said. Something to help home. The horse chuffed nervously.
She floated there above his head, all warm light and honeysuckle, her attendants floating lazily around her. He idly wondered why such a perfect being chose such a dank place to dispense wisdom but under the warm cave-sun the stone might have well been pheasant-down to him. He dropped the quarry at his feet, hunted to exhaustion only slightly more than him. He avoided the vacant glassy eyes. It hurt his heart. The light intensified and he smiled the smile of a boy long since gone. His aches faded.
"You have succeeded." The voice was raw and unearthly.
"For you, my Lady. My pledge drove me on." He was met with only silence. He only looked up when his horse took a nervous step back. Then the light began to fade away, and with it the warmth that blanketed his wounds. "My Lady, long I have trekked, much of you to others have I spoken. Many at home count on me as I have on you. Forgive my terseness but the wisdom please."
"How many?" The voice was thicker now and quicker, as if panting. "How many have you told of me and this place?"
"All in every town between here and the distant peak you sent me to."
"Good." The voice was thicker still, resonant. The glowing attendants moved faster now, agitated. They flit like so many minnows sensing the shadow of an ibis overhead. "More will come then." The horse reared in a panic, the attendants winking out in rapid succession and the Lady faded away.
And two glassy black eyes replaced them.
Knight and horse together were swallowed up before his hand could reach his sword.
The Lady-in-Waiting, or the Land Angler Fish
(L)Angler Fish
HD 5/AC as Leather/Damage 1d6
DIS. Cruel, Cunning, Honeyed/MOR 6
WANTS: to appear divine, to be worshipped
NEEDS: to satiate a monstrous appetite
Special. Its lure takes the form of a glowing celestial, different for all, but one deemed comforting, wise and angelic. While the light glows, the rest of the creature cannot, and indeed has not, been seen. In fact, it is not truly there, hiding just out of reach in a nearby dimension or plane, only the lure physically present. Those who bask in its presence are healed 1 HP per hour and wounds and sickness mend and cure themselves at a rapid rate and indeed the (L)Angler encourages this.
Vacuum. Once per fight, the Langler Fish open its vacuum sealed maw from the dimension it hides in. All Close creatures must make a difficult Test of Strength or be swallowed.
Suitors, glowing brightly
HP 1/AC as Plate (speed)/Damage as dart
DIS. Doting, fanatic, starving/MOR 11
WANTS: to breed
NEEDS: to be patient
AVOIDS: being devoured
Special. They flit to and fro between Lady and foe in a fight, healing her the damage they do, a living blood transfuser.
