20 MP
Threat Level 3 Brute Squad Flight
Sorcery Resistance (+5 TN to target with sorcery) Attack: 9k3
Damage: 7
Passive Defense: 20 Active Defense: 9k3
Forest Fiends are vicious, sadistic creatures that lurk in the forests of Montaigne and elsewhere in Theah. They tend to come out at night, but they have been known to attack solitary travelers on forest paths at any time. They swoop down from trees to harass victims and while they are often difficult to hit, their fragile frames often make encounters short and violent.
Ghost
32 MP Brawn 2 Finesse 3 Wits 3 Resolve 3 Panache 3
Possession (Resolve TN 15 to resist) Incorporeal
Average Defense (3 ranks) Fear Rating 2
Sorcerous: Sorte: Black 5 Attack: N/A
Damage: N/A
Passive Defense: 21 (Incorporeal) Active Defense: 6k3
Ghosts are dead souls that carry some unresolved matter in the world. Ghosts will attempt to resolve whatever keeps them chained to the world, but they are not always benevolent toward the living. They are often resentful, or even hateful, toward any hapless heroes that encounter them. Ghosts cannot directly affect the world, so their usual means to resolve their matter is to possess a living host, which a Ghost can do as one action. Possessed characters have white irises and speak in the Ghost’s voice, but are otherwise physically unchanged. The Ghost may use the host’s eyes to read Black fate strands using the Ghost’s Black fate knack. Ghosts may use both the apprentice and adept levels of Sorte for their Black strands (although they rarely possess other fate knacks). Ghosts can leave a possessed body at will, and will usually not willingly leave until their issue is resolved or unless they are tricked or exorcised. Mirrors facing one another can trap a Ghost (even one possessing someone) within one of the mirrors if the Ghost is tricked or forced to walk between them.
Ghoul
15 MP Brawn 3 Finesse 2 Wits 2 Resolve 2 Panache 2
Natural Weapon (Claws) Attack 3 Weak Damage (Claws: 1k1) Average Defense (3 ranks) Immunity to poisons Skilled: Scrounging 2
Attack (Claws): 5k2 Damage (Claws): 4k1 Passive Defense: 18 Active Defense: 5k2
Ghouls are nasty creatures that scavenge corpses of the newly dead or even the unfortunate bodies of the soon-to-be-dead. Ghouls usually come out at night and in small groups, but they will only show themselves if there is food for them, that is to say human flesh. They only eat the dead, but they will carry off knocked out or incapacitated characters to wait for their death and then feast. Ghouls are cowardly, though, and defeating one is likely to chase off any others within sight. That is no guarantee that the survivors won’t return later, though.
Hinde
40 MP Brawn 3 Finesse 6 Wits 2 Resolve 2 Panache 3
Natural Weapon (Antlers) Attack 2 Average Damage (Antlers: 0k2) Iron Defense (5 ranks)
Fast Runner Immune to cold Skilled: Sprinting 5
Sorcerous: Pyeryem: Speak 2 Deft: Charge 3
Attack (Antlers): 8k6 Damage (Antlers): 3k2
Passive Defense: 18 (33 when running) Active Defense: 6k1
Hinde look like massive reindeer that stand taller than the largest horses and glow in moonlight with shifting colors like the aurora borealis. They are surprisingly intelligent and can even speak with other animals to use them as a vast network of informants and allies in the Ussuran steppes. This intelligence and their ability to outrun literally anything in Theah make them exquisite game for Ussuran hunters, and as such Hinde pelts are treasured above all else in Ussuran fashion and finery. It usually takes entire hunting bands a week to hunt a single Hinde, at the conclusion of which is an elaborate ceremony punctuated by a palpable mourning and recognition for the power, grace, and intelligence of the Hinde itself. If left to themselves, Hinde are prey animals and will run away from threats. If they are pressed into combat or if their animal allies call for their help, though, Hinde can make fierce opponents to even very skilled characters.
Horse
20 MP Brawn 4 Finesse 4 Wits 1 Resolve 2 Panache 2
Natural Weapon (Trample) Attack 1 Weak Damage (Trample: 1k1) Strong Defense (4 ranks) Fast Runner
Skilled: Sprinting 4 Attack (Trample): 5k4 Damage (Trample): 5k1
Passive Defense: 15 (24 while running) Active Defense: 5k1
Horses are the beast of burden of choice for most of Theah. Some are bred and raised to ride swiftly, while some are raised for farm labor. Draft horses may have +1 Brawn, while riding horses may have +1 Finesse. The elite Windrunners of the Crescent Empire have +1 Finesse and + 1 Panache.
The statistics given here are for average, middle-of-the-road horses.
Kobold
10 MP
Threat Level 1 Brute Squad Climber
Deft: Pommel Strike 2 Attack (Sharp sticks): 7k1 Attack (Pommel Strike): 8k1 Damage (Sharp sticks): 5 Passive Defense: 10 Active Defense: 6k1
Kobolds are native to the Schwartzen Walden of Eisen but have been known to lurk in other deep forests. They climb trees to leap down on unsuspecting travelers, harassing them and poking them with sharp sticks. In large groups and against small groups of people at the same time, they can pose a legitimate threat, but usually they are merely a nuisance for the travelers of Theah’s deep woods. They are often harbingers of much more dangerous things, though, as their ruckus tends to upset or attract larger monsters also native to the woods, so monster hunters like to dispatch Kobolds quickly and cleanly.
Leviathan
61 MP Brawn 7 Finesse 3 Wits 2 Resolve 6 Panache 2
Natural Weapon (Slam) Attack 4 Brutal Damage (Slam: 0k3) Average Defense (3 ranks) Swimming
Water Breathing
Sorcerous: Laerdom: Elska (increase precipitation) 4 Sorcerous: Laerdom: Kjolig (decrease temperature) 4 Sorcerous: Laerdom: Nod (increase wind severity) 4 Attack (Slam): 7k3
Damage (Slam): 7k3 Passive Defense: 18 Active Defense: 5k2
Leviathans are titanic, intelligent whales that fiercely protect the seas. They appear for unknown reasons, as they have sometimes been encountered in the midst of whaling hunts but sometimes during routine passage across the seas to the Midnight Archipelago. Some uncharted islands seems to be guarded by Leviathans, but these islands are all but unknown since encounters with Leviathans usually kill all aboard any unlucky ship that happens to find such and island. Leviathans have the uncanny ability to control the weather, enough to create a terrible storm severe enough to capsize a ship. They seem to prefer that tactic, but if that fails a Leviathan has a massive body, at least four times the size of any known whale, to throw at a ship. Leviathan attacks and damage can be applied in ship combat rules as well as in standard combat, as their massive size easily qualifies them for damage upon a ship.
Smaller Leviathans exist, and GMs are encouraged to reduce Brawn and/or Resolve for smaller sea monsters, and to remove the Laerdom knacks for more traditional sea serpents and the like.
Siren
22 MP Brawn 3 Finesse 3 Wits 2 Resolve 2 Panache 3
Natural Weapon (Bite) Attack 2 Average Damage (Bite: 0k2)
Average Defense (3 ranks) Swimmer
Water Breathing Skilled: Grapple 3 Skilled: Break 2 Attack (Bite): 5k3 Attack (Grapple): 6k3 Attack (Break): 5k3 Damage (Bite): 3k2
Passive Defense: 18 (6 on land) Active Defense: 5k2
Sirens are insidious beasts who impersonate women out to sea. From afar, they appear to tread water and cry out, or sometimes sing. As a boat or swimmer closes in, they will bob in the water face-down and act as though they are drowning. When a victim approaches up close, the siren will turn over and attack with massive jaws. A typical tactic is to grapple a human and draw them under, subjecting the victim to drowning rules in addition to normal damage. Each dramatic wound dealt to a hero while drowning provokes a fresh, increasingly difficult Resolve check. Use of the bite attack and the break knack in the grapple will assure this if the human does not pry free soon into the combat. Sirens are aquatic creatures, though, so catching or dragging one ashore deprives most of the creature’s
advantages. Some variants of sirens exist in other environments, such as the Snow Maidens of Ussura.
These monsters will sing and dance to lure unwise men into the woods to join in their revelry, only to find themselves soon lost and freezing in the woods. Snow Maidens will ait and torment the victim while he slowly freezes to death, but if need be they also have claws (instead of the siren’s bite) to attack or to defend themselves. Snow Maidens may have several ranks in Glamour or Laerdom knacks in place of the siren’s grapple and break knacks, used to appear more alluring.