Coming up at the end of February, I’ll be launching two cool books for Patrons. These books will be available here on the site as well as FREE in their blog format as usual.
The first book will be an adventure set in the Patron-created world of Wandrossa. While it’s still in the works (and doesn’t have a title yet), it’s a mystery involving fey and aberrations in the Ninth Kingdom of Enombath. I expect this book to have between 15-20 pages.
The second book will be a medium-sized creature code titled Creaturepedia I: Monsters of the Ninth Kingdom Vol 1. This collection will include a number of original monsters created for the setting. I’m projecting that this one will be a bit larger with 30-40 pages.
What monsters will be in the Creaturepedia?
So far, here are the monsters that you can expect. Note that many of the names are placeholders:
- Ethereal Haunter
- Blood Beasts
- Sanguine Apes
- Cutlery Golem
- Sentient Fungus Cloud
- The Eternal Guard of Enombath
- Blackleaf Will-o’-Wisp
- Medusa NPCs and Variants
- Animated Stone Statues
- Blackleaf Trees
- Killer Rabbit
- Giant Ant Lions
- Dimensional Shifter
- Deer/Moose Humanoids
- Bug People (uses pheromones to seduce humanoids)
- Elemental Breathing Pack Dogs
- Gem Elementals
- Harbinger Monster
I’ll be statting up these monsters over the course of the next week or so. So far, these are only CR 0 – 4 creatures. But I’ll probably add in another round of higher CR monsters, too.
First things first, I’ll kick it off with this request from Patron Vesala.
Here is what he suggested:
How about beings from another plane of existence that happens to touch the world of Wandrossa in some places? The trick is that the planes are intercrossing only under certain conditions, like in a certain light, on a certain angle, at a certain time, etc? The beings could be something really alien – like their bodies consisting of several independent sections that aren’t connected to each other on this plane of existence, because their presence here is only partial. Their presence could have had a formative effect on the myths and cultures of the area as well.
Ethereal Haunter
Sightings of the strange ethereal haunters have been recorded since before the First Kingdom. Arcane scholars believe that the haunters touch the True at important astrological and environmental events, phasing in and out of reality as they do. Theologists theorize these creatures may have even had a hand in creating the True itself.
An ethereal haunter appears to be a collection of smooth, floating, marble-like objects that expand and writhe as their form–if one would call it that–touches and enters reality. Each part of the alien being is disconnected from the other, often floating 6 to 18 inches apart. Unable to physically hold things, the creatures interact with their surroundings through telekinesis. To defend itself, it discharges a purple-white bolt of electricity capable of stunning and killing creatures that threaten it.
Haunters have no formal language. Instead, they communicate through telepathy. However, their telepathy is jarring to the uninitiated and can cause severe mental fatigue.
Ethereal Haunter
Medium aberration, neutral
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 26 (4d8 + 8)
Speed 0 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)
Abilities Str 5 (-3), Dex 14 (+2), Con 15 (+2), Int 18 (+4), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 12 (+1)
Saving Throws Wis +3
Skills Perception +3
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison, necrotic
Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Alien Communication. Each round that the ethereal haunter uses its telepathy to communicate with a creature that is not an aberration, the creature must make a DC 14 Intelligence saving throw. On a failed saving throw, the creature takes 2 (1d4) psychic damage and one level of exhaustion. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw, it automatically passes its saving throws against this trait for 24 hours.
Ephemeral. The haunter can’t wear or carry anything.
Innate Spellcasting. The haunter’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). The haunter can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
- At will: detect magic, detect thoughts, mage hand
- 3/day: telekinesis
Magic Resistance. The haunter has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Shock. Ranged spell attack: +6 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d6) lightning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Intelligence saving throw or become stunned until the start of the haunter’s next turn.
Etherealness. The haunter magically enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane or vice versa. Once the haunter uses this feature, it can’t use it again for 1 hour.
More to come!
This is just the first of many monsters to be made this month that will be a part of Creaturepedia 1: Monsters of the Ninth Kingdom.
If you would like to suggest a creature for the Creaturepedia, be sure to head over to my Patron page. It’s $3 to join and not only do you get to become a world-builder and help create Wandrossa, but you also get requests and the majority of the monthly PDFs that come through the site.
Become a DMDave patron, today!
Art by Shutterstock (used with permission).