Oculent (Wermspittle)

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"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

Friedrich Nietzsche

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Oculent
No. Enc.: 1d3 (1d6)
Alignment: Neutral (Cruel Tendencies...)
Movement: 90' (Float/Guided Levitation)
Armor Class: 6 (Scalemail)
Hit Dice: 1d4+2 (Some individuals advance as spellcasters)
Attacks: 1 (Area Effect or Ranged with a focus on one target)
Damage: 1d4 or by effect/spell
Save: F4 Except No Save versus magical Fear effects.
Morale: 10 (Extremely susceptible to magical Fear...)

Special: Cast Detect Magic, Read Magic, Detect Invisibility and Telekinesis* at will. Oculent communicate via a limited form of telepathy**. Must succeed on a Save to learn each new spell gained if advancing in level as a spellcaster (failure means loss of spell). They also require double the usual XP to progress in any spellcasting class (Except Cleric). Most Oculents will not or cannot cast Dispel Magic. 

* Oculent Telekinesis is limited to 1/2 pound per HD/Level.
** Oculent Telepathy limited to 10' range and requires a written language known to both parties. They cannot communicate with illiterates...

Oculents will sometimes offer to serve as a Servant/Hireling, Familiar or even Companion Creature, depending upon Reaction Roll, how they are approached/treated, terms offered, any spells used etc.

Rugose and vaguely angular in outline, the Oculent are smallish beings (averaging 1' in diameter per every 3 HD/Levels) with a pronounced innate ability for Detecting and Reading Magic which leads many of them to become spellcasters of one sort or another, but never Clerics.

Oculent tend to be shy and retiring sorts, scholarly introverts who delight in poring over old scrolls, ancient tomes and paging through musty grimoires in the pursuit of magical lore and the chance to attempt to learn another spell, ritual or formula. Unfortunately for them, the Oculent tend to struggle in truly comprehending the things they read oh so easily; despite being capable of clearly reading nearly any magical text, they require a great deal of contemplation, study and practice to learn even the most basic children's cantrip. It is for this reason that some Oculents swallow their pride and take up the responsibilities of an acolyte, disciple or even familiar, depending on the egocentric demands and proclivities of whomever they deem a suitable master, mentor or teacher.

Oculent are ambitious yet patient sorts. Some have lingered in magical service to their 'masters' for decades, serving in placid silence, never revealing the full extent of their abilities or knowledge (or opinions), and unobtrusively learning all they can no matter how minor, worthless or deprecated it might be for their 'masters.'

Not especially brave nor entirely forthright in their dealings, the Oculent are often disregarded as weak, cowardly and nearly useless creatures best suited for use as Familiar (granting their masters the ability to Detect/Read Magic at will and sometimes other abilities determined by negotiation), or as a disciple that pretty much just turns pages on command or who oversees the cataloging and indexing one's scroll collection.

Despite lacking any limbs and having poor depth perception, Oculents hear extremely well and are fairly quick studies when it comes to learning written languages...they just struggle with the process of mastering and imprinting spells upon their weirdly structured brains. One wonders just what might transpire were the Oculent to ever begin to develop their own unique form of spellcasting instead of continuing to struggle with the approaches and canonical corpus everyone else takes for granted...

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Any Oculent who learns Comprehend Languages is not long for anyone else's service...

Valg-Sindril

"By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water."

Aeschylus

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Valg-Sindil
No. Enc.: 1d6 (6d12)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 40' (120') [levitation]
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 1d4 hit points, take half damage from fire.
Attacks: 1 (tail-sting) [limit 3 attacks per day]
Damage: 1d2+Poison (1d4 damage, Save or suffer 50% reduction to Movement and lose all DEX benefits for 1d4 days: Save only applies to Move/DEX effects NOT damage.)
Save: F4
Morale: 11 (nearly fearless)

Special: Most encounters (75%) with the Valg-Sindil are with slime-poisoned water-sources.

These blind, wriggling things with vestigial flippers, writhing palps and venomous spines inhabit damp, dark places and especially love infesting wells and cisterns where they secrete their eggs and introduce their noxious, toxic slime into the water. The slime is non-flammable, but often contaminates water sources, allowing these pests to affect scores of people who've never seen or encountered them.

The toxic slime of the Valg-Sindil persists for 2d4 days after being excreted into a water supply.

A simple Neutralize Poison spell will eliminate the slime's toxicity in the case of a water-source, but will not get rid of the slime itself, which will act to attract more of the nasty little creatures with its scent unless someone actually goes down there and physically scoops up the stuff and disposes of it appropriately, usually by boiling it down into an inert sludge or selling it off to various distillers or alchemists who use the stuff for the basis of various experiments or processes of no real commercial value. Or so they claim...

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Foragers and Scavenger-crews are constantly warned about minor nuisances such as the Valg-Sindil since there doesn't need to be a direct confrontation for the vile pests to play havoc with a group of green recruits or for one mistake to cost a veteran dearly. No one wants to be dealing with toxic slime when their canteens are empty.

Some members of the Sewer Militia started their careers scraping Valg-slime from cistern walls or shoveling the gunk out of wells after the adults drove off the nasty things...usually.

Valg-eggs can be preserved in vinegar and are something of a delicacy in the Winter months, despite the very minor after-effects (50% reduction to Move, No DEX Benefits, for 1d4 hours).

Various tribes (Abhuman and otherwise) have been known to use the slime in trapping prey or against enemies by coating their darts, javelins or arrows in the stuff.

Dekapus [Wermspittle]

“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”

John Lennon

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Dekapus
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' [40'] (Levitation)
Armor Class: Head/Torso 5 (as Chain Mail), Limbs 7 (As Studded Leather)
Hit Dice: 3+1 [Advance as Thieves, Spell-casters, and sometimes Fighters.]
Attacks: 2 (Improves by HD/Level)
Damage: 1d4 (+2 to hit), 1d4 (+2 to hit), or by Spell
Save: F4
Morale: 7 [12 if combating Mucoids]

Special: Affected by all spells that target 'Humans.' Dekapus can opt to convert one of their Attack rolls to a Dodge (Roll as 'To Hit,' and if successful they avoid one incoming attack. They receive double the normal bonus for using bucklers/small shields, but cannot use normal or larger shields. They can only wield Light weapons until achieving 4 or more HD/Levels at which point they can use Medium weapons. It is very rare that a Dekapus would ever wield a Heavy weapon and they would likely require serious augmentation to do so effectively. Dekapus receive double the normal DEX Bonus to all their Thief skills. All Dekapus can cast Blur, Hypnotic Pattern, Obscuring Mist, and Hypnotism once per day and Misdirection up to three times per day.

[Percent Liar: 72%]

The Dekapus is a pseudo-octopoid...these dishonest creatures are actually mammalian, possess ten limbs and claim to be descended from humans. Fierce enemies of the Mucoids and others, the Dekapus are notorious Oneiromancers, Mountebanks, and Thieves skilled in the arts of misdirection and obfuscation alike. Their appendages terminate in a pair of soft-seeming boneless fingerettes that can split into multiple smaller tendrils as needed, granting them a level of close-up finesse much envied by surgeons. For some reason, some claim it is squeamishness, the Dekapusians rarely, if ever enter into any sort of medical profession.

Actors, Performers, Jugglers, Troubadours, Poets (both Accursed and otherwise), Pantomimers, Puppeteers, Artisans, Repairers of Reputations, Insinuationists, Saboteurs, Spies, Observers, Dreamers (Lucid, Deep and otherwise), Reporters...Dekapus have taken on a great many roles throughout Wermspittle, primarily in order to carry on their ages-old conflict with the Mucoids. The mutual antipathy between these two peoples is legendary, fierce and abiding, having persisted across centuries with no clear-cut resolution in sight.

Most commonly Dekapus are Thieves of every sort, but an appreciable number of them become Spell-casters such as Illusionists (including Projectionists), Oneiromancers and Druids with a penchant for the Tulgey Woods, Purple Forest, the White Orchard  and other such Weird Woods.

The few Dekapus that take up the path of Rangers specialize in hunting down and slaughtering Mucoids and have developed a number of peculiar and unique weapons and harmful devices exclusively designed to kill, maim, or incapacitate Mucoids. Their unwavering hatred of the Mucoids is so severe that Dekapus Rangers will also sometimes deign to hunt down Rooftopi, Octoscholars and any other Cephalopodians who resemble Mucoids in even the least bit.

Other Dekapus go to great lengths to ingratiate themselves with all other forms of humanity, no matter how distorted, Infected, teratogenically Afflicted, or aberrantly inclined...just as long as they have no connection to their ancestral enemies...

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"My dreams are of water. And my nightmares..."

Siouxsie Sioux

Candlewerm [Wermspittle]

One of the first creatures one learns to Summon, Call or Bind at the Academy is a Candlewerm. The little beasts make excellent 'first servitors' for those students who've never yet had a pet or gained a Familiar. Besides carrying around candles or torches, these things can be taught simple tricks...like the time a student trained a Candlewerm to wield a wand...with rather mixed results.

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Candlewerm
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 30' (10') [Climb Walls]
Armor Class: 8 [as Leather]
Hit Dice: 1 hit point
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1 point
Save: MU1
Morale: 6 [11 if made a Servitor]

Special: Blind (Immune to visual illusions, Glamers, Figments), Able to climb vertical surfaces, Vague Empathy allows them to mostly understand a few verbal commands.

Candlewerms are among the most common, minor forms of Servitors known in Wermspittle. The little things are not suited to service as Familiar, but they are intensely loyal and surprisingly clever--if one takes the time to train them to do more than just lug around a lit candle or carry a torch in their specialized mouth-parts.

Certain obscure treatises claim that it is possible to enhance minor servitors like the Candlewerms, but few spell-casters ever make that much effort as it is considered a waste of time.

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A spell-caster may choose to invest as much as 10% but no less than 1% of their recently earned XP to enhance their Candlewerm, allowing the creature to gain additional hit dice as if advancing as a magic-user at 10% of the normal XP cost and never gaining the ability to cast spells...unless further measures are taken to elevate the simple wermic-brain of the creature...but this sort of thing is strenuously discouraged on campus...

Edge Creeper [Wermspittle]

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“Intelligence is the ability of a living creature to perform pointless or unnatural acts."

Roadside Picnic,

Arkady Strugatsky​

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Edge Creeper
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 7 (as Studded Leather)
Hit Dice: 2 [Advance as Magic-User/Thief Dual-Class]
Attacks: 1
Damage: (by Spell)
Save: MU2
Morale: 8

Special: See in all directions, Immune to Sleep, Use Detect Invisible at will, Move Silently gains bonus of +10%, Find Traps gains +20% bonus however they cannot remove traps, cannot be back-stabbed, ignore all damage rolls of 1 or 2.

Silent, patient, playful...these beings are as much animal as vegetable and yet not quite either. Their tall, central body mass is very flexible and they easily contort themselves to get into tight spaces. Their sturdy four legs allow them to clamber about through rubble, debris, or uneven terrain with the seemingly effortless grace of a deer. Eyes of several types and sizes form apparently at will or at random all over their main body, allowing the Edge Creepers to see in nearly every direction. They have displayed a deep and abiding interest in discovering and uncovering all manner of concealed doors, secret passages, lingering booby-traps, unexploded bombs, mines, and so on. Sometimes they leave markers or Warning Signs, but other times they seem satisfied with merely leaving a formerly hidden thing exposed. So far the Wall Guard have not been able to enlist their help along the Inner Ramparts or the Outer Precincts.

Little more is known about them, aside from the few encountered so far have all been spell-casters with an intense interest in the Black Zones and the Glow Field. They seem to avoid the White Orchard for some reason, but may have some sort of affinity for or connection to the Cold Roads. It is rumored that the Edge Creepers first appeared in Wermspittle by way of the Cold Roads, though there are some who are convinced that they first entered by way of the Glow Field or the White Orchard...so far no one knows, so there is a potentially lucrative opportunity for someone to go forth and discover the answers so many Experts and Academics are arguing about...

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The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

Carl Jung

Yzel [Wermspittle+]

"Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature."

Albert Camus

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Yzel
No. Enc.: 1d4 (1d6)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' [Levitation]
Armor Class: 3 (as Plate Mail)
Hit Dice: 3+ [Advance as Fighters, 1 in 100 may be a Ranger]
Attacks: 1
Damage: As Weapon
Save: F3+
Morale: 12

Special: Unaffected by Fear, Confusion, Illusions, Charm, or other mind-influencing powers/spells. All thief abilities are reduced by -4 penalty within 30' radius. Unwavering Morale (Never retreat, never surrender...unless ordered). When engaged in conflict become Mindless/Completely Instinctive with +2 on all Initiative rolls.

Gifted calligraphists of high order, the Yzel can only be addressed effectively in their own unique written language which in some ways resembles something alive unto itself. Any spell-caster seeking to learn this language must undertake a very demanding magical retreat lasting no less than one year in order to successfully assimilate and integrate a beginner's level appreciation of the complex whorls, squiggles and intricate diacritical marks involved in this uncanny textual tradition. Those who invest the time find themselves able to converse, after a fashion, with the Yzel and engage their services as guardians or soldiers.

Voiceless, faceless, telepathically muted, the Yzel are deeply intelligent plants from Somewhere
Else who are renowned as being highly civilized beings, despite being almost totally opaque to all forms of magical scrutiny, psychic snoopery or technological intrusion.

The Yzel are never found unarmored save when they first spawn, but so far no one has discovered where they go to get their distinctive body-casques made from multiple alloys of bronze and beryllium. The armor is so cunningly wrought that it cannot be removed from the creature and upon their death the armor crumbles away into an ultra-fine dust, as does the Yzel's body. They are incapable of being resurrected, raised or converted into undead.

When an Yzel enters into conflict they surrender to their instincts in a manner that renders them mindless, but not in the same way that a Berserker enters their rage. The Yzel in battle is a terrifying, implacable opponent that cannot be read, second-guessed or misled--they become focused completely on just the battle at hand...and that could be seen as a flaw of sorts, possibly leading to their downfall against an opponent willing to sacrifice lesser fighters to occupy the Yzel, allowing one to by-pass them altogether.

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"To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead."

Musashi

Bloodfetcher

​

...let us meet,
And question this most bloody piece of work,
To know it further.

Macbeth [II, 3]

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Bloodfetcher
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Evil (Any)
Movement: 150' (50')
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 1
Damage: 2d4 (Blood drain)
Save: F5
Morale: 10 [Incur a -1 penalty to Morale per successful blood-drain attack]

Special:
Invulnerable to silver weapons (including enchanted silver).
Take double damage from salt or fire.
Normal weapons only affect a Bloodfetcher for one hour after it successfully feeds on a victim's blood.
All spells affecting blood have some effect on these things.
All forms of healing cause them damage; Cure Disease destroys them if they fail a Save.
There is a base 10% chance of contracting a blood-born infection from the attack of a Bloodfetcher. 
They usually break-off their attack and flee after only a few successful draining-attacks. 
In those rare instances where they've managed to actually kill someone, that person cannot be raised or resurrected by the usual methods.
In moments of great duress (reduced to 2 or fewer hit points), a Bloodfetcher has a 30% chance to use a form of Planar Transition that gives them access to some dark, inverse realm not immediately recognizable to lay-men and lesser scholars.

First noted during the final years of the Great Purge when the last of the vampires were finally executed or assassinated, the Bloodfetchers are malignant creatures formed from unclean residuum such as tainted blood, rotting bandages, and the more atrocious things cast-off or cut-out during war-time battlefield surgeries. Sordid things, they were little better than tulpas or fyljjas or crude synthetic elemental-things when first created, but their masters deliberately mired them in both literal and psychic filth and bought them forth amidst carnage as weapons in a lost war.

The vampires were said to have some sort of arrangement with the Ungezeifers, leading some to speculate that the Bloodfetchers are related in some way to Cacozombies, but this is according to the testimony of tortured Thysanurian collaborators. Others claim there is a connection of sorts to Scabrous Froth or Sanguinovores, but prevailing doctrine leans more in the other direction--that Sanguinovores are more likely to be twisted versions of Bloodfetchers...but this does rather beg the question of how something already so corrupt and defiled could become further tainted or contaminated. One disturbing line of inquiry and investigation conducted originally behind the scenes and that has only recently been revealed claims that Bloodfetchers are actually a contrived form of geist derived from vampiric test-subjects who were part of a clandestine operation overseen by Colonel Vannerwirth of V5Korps, a notorious Red Ops unit that went rogue during the Bitter Winter during which Brischtof, Valzig, and Preshtomin were all completely emptied of all human life. Conspiracies and fantasies are springing up all the time and no one has been able to offer definitive proof to settle the matter, so the rumors, the theories and crack-pot notions proliferate wildly.

Bloodfetchers avoid bright lights as much as possible, preferring to lurk in shadows and to ambush their victims in dark places and especially wherever blood has been spilled in battle or in pain, such as hospitals, sanitariums, the pits, or the less well-warded arenas.

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It is a curious fact that the Bloodfetchers only feed upon their prey for short time and then seek to flee as best they can. This suggests that Karlov and Grampier may well have been correct in their preliminary summary of the findings of the surgical inquisition led by Malthon just after the end of the Great Purge. They surmised that Bloodfetchers were somehow incomplete, transitional things enslaved and employed by the vampires to collect blood from their enemies and return it to them in a useful condition...but alas they are so filthy and corrupt that not even Lesser Nosferatus can gain any real sustenance from the spoiled blood these things carry. In the words of Malthon herself; 'They appear to be so much rubbish, another failed experiment that lingers long after the initial error that brought them into existence has been expunged. These vile things need to be rooted-out and destroyed before they fester and further degrade into something worse or more hurtful.'

Yellowbelly (Wermspittle)

Blind, snuffling, flabby beasts--they reek of rancid cheese. Disturbingly agile and equipped with suckers at the tips of their boneless fingers, these creatures have captured many who foolishly thought that they might have run far enough, fast enough, and then turned around only to find themselves face-to-face with a Yellowbelly.

Curwen and Kirowan's Yellow Book (Annual, 1172.)

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Yellowbelly
No. Enc.: 4d6
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' (40') [Also can Climb at normal Move rate due to suckers]
Armor Class: 7 (as Studded Leather)
Hit Dice: 2 (advance as Thieves or Spell-casters, but never Clerics)
Attacks: 1 (weapon or bite)
Damage: 1d4+1 (gutting-knife), or 1d4 with a 30% chance to Gore with tusks for additional 1d6.
Save: T2 (or by Level)
Morale: 8 (Suffer -2 penalty when exposed to rich perfumes or other strong scents)

Special: Blind. Navigate entirely by Smell, Taste, Touch and Hearing.

Vicious whuffling and wheezing creatures with an insatiable hunger for fresh meat, Yellowbellies hop and jostle about in darksome places, clamber and cavort wildly in broken spaces and it only takes the merest whiff of blood to set them off on another of their fearsome chases.

Warty, swarthy humanoids with three nostrils, two modestly curving tusks and three overly-flexible tubular fingers or toes on each limb ending in suckers...the Yellowbelly is a strange beast indeed. Though many older texts confidently assert that these creatures were manufactured as some sort of homunculi, we now know that this is incorrect. The Yellowbellies have been traced back to the ancient ruins of no fewer than three dead cities behind the Yellow Veil, and while they probably are not native to those places, these are the first points of contact with their kind that have been reliably reported or recorded.

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Feed them little cakes made with a pinch of lint and some black-peel mixed with a good amount of arsenic and the Yellowbellies will be too busy suffering from sour stomachs to chase you for long enough to get far, far away...if you don't dawdle or linger to watch...

Every Good Child's Guide to Bad Things

Malignant Polar Entity

[Photo currently unavailable]

Is it invisible?
We don't know.

Can it pass through walls?
We cannot say for certain.

Can it fly or leap over obstacles like a Spring-Heeler?
Possibly, but no one really is sure.

Does it have great, nasty teeth? Perhaps.
We do know it has incredibly sharp talons.

Is it fur-bearing or some sort of reptile or vegetable-thing?
This remains a mystery.

Is it intelligent, or is it an unusually clever animal?
That remains to be determined.

Does it have any weakness?
It has been reported on multiple occasions that the beast was driven off by fire.

Why would anyone risk life and limb to hunt this beast down?
There are several competing rewards or bounties on the beast, depending on whether it is recovered alive, dead, wholly intact or in part, as well as simply acquiring definitive evidence of the thing's nature. Bring us this monster, in whatever form or condition and there is a rich pay-day awaiting.

Excerpt from A Very Special Third Anniversary of the Third Expedition Edition

of The Whisperer

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Malignant Polar Entity 
(Currently Unidentified Antarctic Horror)
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral (suspected, but so-far unverified)
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 5 (as Chain Mail)
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 1
Damage: 3d4 (Talons)
Save: F4
Morale: 9 (Decreases by 1 for every 6 points of fire damage taken)

Special: Immune to Charm, Hold, Sleep.
               All creatures within a 20' radius that are susceptible to Cold damage receive 1d4 damage per round.
               On any natural to hit roll of 20 the beast inflicts an additional 2d8 Cold damage.

Boreal Sea Bears, Gray Masses, Giant Albino Penguins, White Beasts and fossilized Polypous-things were not the only specimens brought back from a series of modestly-staffed, poorly equipped and questionably successful South Polar Expeditions launched by the Academy prior to the War. The first expedition claimed to have discovered a bizarre variety of aquatic crinoid and another more vegetative creature still frozen in a block of ice, both of which were apparently lost at sea when their airship was heavily damaged in a freak storm. The second expedition brought back a number of photos, ectographs, rubbings, sketches and maps from a so-far unnamed set of sub-polar ruins deep within an area of heavy volcanism from which they barely escaped when their airship caught on fire. Of the third expedition we know very little other than that they did indeed successfully return only to have their airship destroyed during a bombing attack during the War. Their records and manifest were lost, but it is almost certain that they are responsible for having brought a number of exotic specimens that were then let loose in the turmoil and chaos following the attack. Since then pretty much everyone blames the third expedition for unleashing the White Beasts and hordes of penguins and other such nuisances upon the city.

But out of all the nasty beasts and dangerous creatures removed from the Antarctic regions and dropped willy-nilly into the middle of Wermspittle the worst of the lot has to be the shambling horror that freezes its victims to death even at the height of Summer. At this time there are no pictures of this creature. It was never properly named. The members of the third expedition were all murdered or lost to Black Smoke attacks before any sort of formal report could be made. So a nameless, unseen, horror from the South Polar regions has taken up residence somewhere within Wermspittle and so far no one has managed to capture it, let alone document it...

The one good thing that has been noted about this creature so far is that it appears to go dormant over the Winter, confining its most brutal attacks to a couple of weeks around the Summer Solstice, a fact that has emboldened numerous cranks, con-artists, charlatans and astrologers to speculate wildly about the occult nature of the beast. Theories abound, facts are few; there's quite a lot of fame, perhaps even a good reward for anyone who can manage to discover more actual details about this beast...let alone capture it, or kill it.

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Source of Inspiration: "A malignant entity, or cosmic spirit from the southern pole, which pursues a party of explorers and kills them one by one, leaving on each, even in countries of the tropical or temperate zones (where it has followed them), the marks of frost-bite."
The Thing from the Antarctic, an unfinished synopsis/fragment by Clark Ashton Smith which can be found at the Eldritch Dark website.

Straw Troopers

My life has been so short that I really know nothing whatever. I was only made day before yesterday. What happened in the world before that time is all unknown to me...

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Strohtruppen (Straw Troopers)
[also referred to as Mulltruppen (Junk-Troops)]
No. Enc.: 3d6
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' (40'0
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 (Weapon)
Save: F4
Morale: 12

Strohtruppen, or Straw Troopers, are soft automatons constructed from the uniforms of the fallen, captured regimental banners, bloody bandages, blanket-rolls and then packed with straw, moss, rags, more bloody bandages, tent flaps and anything else that can be scrounged. They are equipped with whatever weapons are to be found, usually pole-arms, bayonets, broken rifles, make-shift clubs and the like. No one expects them to do anything except follow whatever orders they receive without question or hesitation, no matter the danger or the stupidity. They have no true intelligence and can only carry out the simplest of commands and then only if they are delivered at high volume, as these things tend to be hard of hearing. They also cannot see much farther than 200', though they can see as clearly in the dark as they do in the daylight. In addition they are unaffected by Hold, Charm, Sleep, ESP, most forms of glamer or illusion and Fear effects. There are rumors that a specialized form of Hold spell has been developed by the Franzikan Military College, but if this sort of thing does exist, it is not in open circulation at this time.

Straw Troopers are so very similar to the crude Fodder Golems and Corn Dollies crafted by farm communities in the Low Lands that most scholars agree that these things are essentially the militarized, modernized versions of those more humble, rustic forms of soft automatons.

Commandant Zulmer of the the Wall Guard has come under intense criticism for allegedly approving a plan to bolster the units along the Inner Ramparts with an unverified number of Strohtruppen and salvaged Fyters. Some of the most scathing condemnation has come from the ultra-conservative Black Rose Coalition who control nearly a third of the Security Council. Representatives of the Black Rose demand that instead of resorting to such inhuman things as Straw Troopers to reinforce the ranks of the seriously depleted Wall Guard units, that they instead return to the time-honored practice of utilizing undead soldiers...

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Soft Automata include Fodder Golems, Bannerbearers, Leatherim, Corn Dollies, Teerkinder, and others. They lack the inherent toughness of traditional automata and are most often employed in a short-term, disposable manner.

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Source of Inspiration: The Scarecrow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as seen through the lens of Mr. Frazer's The Golden Bough, with a touch of Arthur Machen: "...it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead."

Zinn Soldiers (Combat Automata of Wermspittle)

The Soldier is a splendid manWhen marching on parade,And when he meets the enemyHe never is afraid.He rights the wrongs of nations,His country's flag defends,The foe he'll fight with great delight,But seldom fights his friends...

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Bad translations of the surviving interrogation transcripts leaked by Yellow Journalists during the collapse of the First Pruztian Occupation have led to many inconsistencies and much speculation regarding the origination and derivation of the various forms of combat automata known as 'Zinn Soldiers,' so-called because of their special alloy-plating.

Zinn Soldiers (Conscript Demi-Automata)
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 3 (as Plate Mail)
Hit Dice: 2+
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6, or by weapon
Save: F2+
Morale: 11

Special: Unlike Fyters, Zinn Soldiers gain experience in their respective class(es). Most are Fighters, but some are more specialized and a rare few are dual-classed. Also Zinn-plated portions of these soldiers gain a +4 bonus to all Saves versus acid, corrosion, Black Smoke, Purple Vapors, etc. However Zinn Soldiers still need to breathe, even if their face or head has been reconstructed, thus they remain at risk from poison gas and can drown or suffocate.

Zinn Soldiers are conscripted troops that have been rebuilt from the shattered remains of badly wounded and dismembered soldiers recovered from the battlefield. Originally the process was something of a progressive and aggressive replacement of lost body-parts with cheap zinn-plated prosthetic limbs. Zinn Soldiers usually retain some portions of their original human bodies whereas Fyters never had any experience of the flesh, having been turned out as fully functional automata from the factories.

Those troops, including a few higher echelon officers and the like, that have only received a simple replacement hand, foot, arm or leg were returned to their units with little fanfare. Those unfortunates that required more extensive efforts on the part of the battlefield surgeons lost more than just their human appearance as they were summarily conscripted into special infantry units made-up entirely of survivors like themselves, all of whom were now relegated to permanent service with no chance of release until after the cessation of hostilities, and even then only by special dispensation in recognition of outstanding service. These units, while often small in number, served as shocktroops and kommando units, often being the first ones in and the last ones out, especially if things went badly. Having already been documented and listed as killed in action, these troops were seen as eminently expendable by the High Kommand.

In the last months of the Great War a number of Zinn soldiers refused obviously suicidal orders, opting instead to either desert or rebel against their commanders. As more and more of the Zinn soldiers became troublesome and rebellious, they were replaced by Fyters, combat automata that had never known life of any kind and lacking sort of flesh or remnants of humanity. The introduction of the first Fyters resulted in a majority of Zinn Soldiers withdrawing from the field of battle to either go back to their homelands or to march off in a random direction in search of some place they could claim as their own. Not being at all sympathetic to their once-loyal troops, the Pruztian High Kommand condemned these traitors and set specialized units of Maschine Killers the task of hunting down and destroying disloyal Zinn Soldiers.

It is rumored that many Zinn Soldiers have since found aid and support among the Borderland Keeps and other Pruztian settlements located outside the Imperial City and those enclaves directly connected by Unterrail or other means. A sort of outlawry has arisen along the frontier of the Empire with Zinn Soldiers taking over various Lakeside Manors and other fortified locations and engaging in acts of banditry and subversion against the Nobility and their lawful representatives and agents. Some few are making names for themselves as disciplined units of Freikorps and perhaps they shall one day redeem their reputations and force some sort of reconciliation with the empire. Others wantonly destroy everything in their way as they wander across the wilderness, rootless and aimless and ripe for some well-spoken warlord or other such opportunist to set them to nearly any sort of mischief.

Based upon actual reports from the battlefields and given unofficial sanction by certain highly placed individuals who spoke under condition of anonymity, lurid horror stories concerning a few flawed individual Zinn soldiers, possibly damaged in combat, caught in the attempt to replace portions of their zinn-plated limbs or internal systems with bits of flesh taken from corpses or in some cases still-living victims. Nearly all of those aberrant individuals were summarily executed upon discovery of their hideous acts. Thankfully this seems to be a relatively rare thing, but all manner of macabre rumors and horror stories are in circulation and fill the pages of Nickle Dreadfuls and less reputable scandal sheets.

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Since the end(?) of the War few specialists have the skills or knowledge to construct Zinn-prosthetics or to attach them to still-living human remains. Those few who do possess this specialized knowledge tend to be kept under close watch deep within the most heavily-guarded and fortified sections of the Imperial City or one of the major redoubts used by the High Kommand.

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There are of course numerous rumors of undead Zinn Soldiers, but there has been no verifiable proof of their existence and the High Kommand strenuously denies that any such thing is even possible...

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Zinn is an alloy (98% tin, 2% lead, antimony, and other elements including a trace amount of Green Powder used in the Plattnerizing process) that is highly resistant to acids, poisons, fungi, mold and to some extent even the milder forms of Black Smoke. The exact formulation of Zinn was classified as a state secret by the Pruztian High Chancellery and knowledge of the formula was strictly limited on a need-to-know basis for more than fifty years and zealously guarded by the descendants of the Baumhoffer family until some agent or agents unknown managed to steal the notebooks, records and original test samples from the Baumhoffer family vault. The Prustian Imperial Laboratories have never been able to successfully duplicate the original formula for Zinn, though they have come up with a number of other useful alloys and compounds.

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Inspiration: The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum which is available at Project Gutenberg, Wikisource or at Open Library.

Palegator

"Writing fantasy lets me imagine a great deal more than, say, writing about alligators, and lets me write about places more distant than Florida, but I can tell you things about Florida and alligators, let you make the connection all on your own."

Terry Brooks

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Palegator
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60' (20')
Armor Class: 5 (as Chain Mail)
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 1 (Bite or Tail-slap)
Damage: 1d6+2 (bite), 2d4+2 (tail-slap)
Save: F6
Morale: 6

Special: On a natural to hit roll of 20 the creatures' Bite does half damage but it then locks its jaws and begins to roll or thrash about causing 3d4 automatic damage until it is dislodged. Likewise on a natural 20 to hit with the Tail-slap the target must Save or be knocked flat.

Vicious pernicious predators that slither and skulk in shadows and sewers, the Palegator is one of the more fearsome beasts that the Sewer Militia must face on an all too regular basis. The record for largest Palegator encountered to date is 27' at over 1,800lbs. Larger specimens are believed to lurk within the Middle Deeps or lower regions.

Heavy Leather armor fashioned from Palegator hide is much sought after by non-commissioned officers within the Sewer Militia mostly due to the legends and lies that have grown up around their regular encounters and hunting efforts. Many of them have sustained grievous wounds or injuries in the course of hunting, trapping and killing Palegators and so have taken to wearing the hide as a mark of honor. It is also worth noting that Commissioned Officers who have never actually been involved in one of these hunting expeditions are 'informally banned' from wearing this particular type of armor as it is seen as an insult by most of the rank and file.

A smaller, more agile sub-type of Palegator is to be found exclusively within the White Orchard. These creatures are notorious for ambushing unwary visitors who allow themselves to get dazzled or distracted. A small number of these beasts were recently acquired by a small clique of sorcerers who are rumored to be attempting to breed these things so as to create miniature varieties that might serve as either familiars or servitors. Of course this is all based upon the statements of a group of disgruntled adventurers who claim that they were not adequately compensated for their efforts. The sorcerer's identified in this claim have made no official statement.

There is a thriving market for Palegator eggs, especially in the Autumn and Winter months. Hatchlings are notable for their mottled coloration and while less desirable due to the attendant risks and hassles of handling them will still fetch a modest price year round. However, a hatchling that is nearly devoid of all markings is worth a great deal to some spell-casters, certain cultists and a few collectors of peculiar things. Should one encounter such a thing, it is best to remain discrete lest one tempt some interested party to resort to cheap and quick violence instead of haggling with opportunists...

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Source of Inspiration: "Boys shoveling snow into a manhole discovered a 6-foot gator trying to make his escape from the sewer. The boys lassoed the sickly saurian with a clothesline and dragged him up to street level. Because the gator snapped at the kids (and thus convinced them he could indeed be dangerous), they attacked him with shovels and killed him. Speculation was the gator had fallen off a passing steamer, swum to shore and found the entrance to the sewer."
The New York Times, February 1o, 1933. More such urban gator-tales at Snopes.

Kleinschlosser Bats

"...And on this day was von Hausman hanged from a gibbet in the public square after being convicted on a proven charge of vampirism. and on this same day there did occur the departure of the bats, thousands of horrible creatures which have plagued the city for weeks. And on the night of this same day, February 13 in the year of our lord 1643 was a stake driven through von Hausman's heart and his head cut off with a grave-digger's shovel."

The Town Archives of Kleinschloss

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Kleinschlosser Bats
No. Enc.: 5d20 (10d20)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 15' (5')
         Fly: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 8 [11]
Hit Dice: 
Attacks: 1
Damage: Confuse and Bite (Blood Drain, 1d4 per turn)
Save: F2
Morale: 10 [-4 if confronted by open flame]

Special: for every 5 Kleinschlosser Bats in a swarm, victims suffer a cumulative penalty of -1 on their Save versus Confusion. those affected by this confusion suffer a -2 penalty on all rolls to hit, cannot cast spells above first-level, and have their movement reduced by half.

"I have lifted the veil. I have created life, wrested the secret of life from life. ...  From the lives of those who have gone before, I have created life."

Neimann-Werdegast 

When the last of the vampires were exterminated they did not go quietly. They conspired with a duplicitous defrocked surgeon and his coterie of scientist-acolytes and a few demented Gleiben followers to fashion a weapon of vengeance that would persist long after their demise.

Doktor Neimann-Werdegast  is suspected of using three taxidermied specimens of Ahools stolen from the Medical College in Wermspittle, and working in collaboration with a small sect of Lesser Nosferatus that had escaped detection, and thus destruction, by joining a travelling carnival, as well as copious amounts of his so-called 'Neufleisch,' in the unhallowed manufacture of these horrid, hybrid bat-things.

Vile, unclean beasts that gorge on human blood, the swirling swarms of Kleinschlosser Bats are rarely seen these days. Once they terrorized the countryside, slipping past defenses or window-wards and preying upon the weak, the old, the infirm and anyone else who was vulnerable...and in the winter there are always many who are weakened due to starvation, plague or worse.

Thankfully, the Kleinschlosser Bats are almost all gone now. They proved susceptible to a blight that decimated their numbers and bands of outraged villagers and farm children bricked-up any cave, boarded-over every cellar-window, and burned-down any abandoned property where they believed the bats had established a lair. For a brief season or two it became something of an obsession or a pastime in the Low Lands to go looking for the bats and to spoil their lairs. If the things had been good to eat, it would have only taken one season, probably less, but these bats are vile tasting and completely inedible.

Every now and then a small swarm of the things is discovered in some out of the way spot, and there are rumors that a few survivors of the vampiric purges might be raising swarms of these bats in hidden caverns beneath Urgoldt, Runoz or even Wermspittle...but those are only rumors...

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Excerpt from A Child's Book of Things Good to Burn or Bash;

...sample of yellow-speckled mold and spread it along the top and sides of a window, doorway or entrance to a cave where you've spotted the bats. Make sure you slather it on good and thick, like the best jam across a biscuit. Give it a couple of coats if possible. Leave the stick or brush there. Do Not Take The Mold Back With You. That would be bad. Your entire family could be made sick, or even die if you fail to heed this warning. You wouldn't want that, now would you?

Secondly, gather-up some of your play-mates and friends and invite them help you nail sturdy boards over the window or to block-up the doorway or cave-mouth with heavy rocks, rubble, or bricks. If you can get some concrete to trowel into the cracks, that would be best, but in a pinch a small amount of quiescent Grout will do nicely--as long as you do precisely as we explained in the previous chapter. Gobbling Grout can be dangerous, even lethal, if mis-handled. If you are still unsure what to do, ask an adult for some help...

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Source of Inspiration: The Vampire Bat (1933) which can be seen at Youtube or at the Internet Archives...and a host of vintage Children's Books that just get weirder and creepier over time...

Lemurials

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Plate 236b. Lemurial referred to as 'Tailseeker' in the journals of Avram Draz whose expedition to the Gray Wastes was unsuccessful. 

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Lemurial
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1 (claw, weapon or spell)
Damage: 1d4, or by weapon or spell
Save: F2
Morale: 8

Lemurials are ancient rivals and competitors with the Monikins whom they blame for the loss of their tails. According to Lemurial folklore, they once possessed the most magnificent tails but a wicked cabal of Monikin spell-casters cursed them to become tailless. The Monikins deny this, calling it an obtuse fable with no basis in reality.

Exceptional Lemurials advance as Magic-Users or Thieves.

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Six Minor Boneless Nuisances from Wermspittle

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Not every shuddering mound of loathsomeness and filth is necessarily a chthonic spawn or a the oily remains of some one's Vile Transformation. There are a host of minor amorphous creatures and feral blobs at loose in the environs of Wermspittle and as any Jelly Hunter or Blob-Wrangler can tell you, while some are fierce, dangerous things best left to the professionals, the more common types of Jellies tend to be little more than nuisances...if you know how to handle them...

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1. Blobulent. Festering, boneless blobs of flesh that bulge from between floorboards and sag down from holes in ceilings in search of easy prey, these flabby things extrude many mouths filled with soft, fleshy teeth that might fool a green beginner or someone unprepared for them, but the distinctive sucking noise they make gives them away to a seasoned wrangler...
   

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   Blobulent [Minor Blob; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 48 [11], HD 1+, #AT 1, DG 1d4, SV F1, ML 6, Special: Immune to Sleep spells, but have no Save against Charm. The inner-flesh is dark bruise-purple and highly flammable, but can be used to distill a peculiar, noxious-smelling liquor rumored to make the imbiber able to operate for more than 72 hours without sleep. Blobulent hides can be worked into some very flexible, pliable armor and is worth a fair bit, if it is completely intact--once it has been punctured the stuff is no good to anyone.]

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2. Jiggler / Aspicarian. Translucent, wet blobs of jelly that slowly dribble down walls, windows and stairs. If you listen, you might hear them gibber softly to themselves ...
   

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   Jiggler [Common Lesser Jelly; AL N, MV 30' (10'), AC 8[11], HD 1+, #AT 1, DG 1d6 (acid), SV F1, ML 8 (automatically flees from open flame), Special: Hide in Shadows 67%, but cannot move without making sloshing noises. All organic matter touched by this thing turns sickly yellow-green, but otherwise seems no worse for wear.]

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3. Gellid / Meat-Heap. Crude amalgamations of random chunks of rancid flesh held together by a thick, viscous mucillage-like substance. Cast off and rejected, these things slither about looking for dead things to incorporate into themselves...
   

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   Gellid / Meat Heap [Common Composite Abdead Blob; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 9[10], HD 2+, #AT 1, DG 1d4+2, SV F2, ML 12 (fearless), Special: Can be Turned as a 4HD Undead. Each pound of dead flesh they absorb gives them an additional hit point, but the process takes 2d6 Turns (They are slow eaters and cannot assimilate bones, teeth or chitin). These things often wander mindlessly into a cellar and freeze solid over the winter only to thaw out again next spring. Street Urchins and others will often try to keep track of these things in order to harvest them right before they fully thaw out...but no one will say what they actually do with them, but it might have something to do with White Powder and necromantic alchemy... ]

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4. Offalinger. Piles of offal, blobs of fat, bits of tallow, marrow, and fractured bone-shards, all mingled and immersed within a thick, milky fluid that reeks of spoiled perfume and tainted vinegar...
   

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   Offalinger [Common Composite Blob; AL N, MV 60' (20'), AC 9[10], HD 2+, #AT 2, DG 1d4, 1d4, SV F1, ML 12 (fearless), Special: These unsightly, unfriendly things lob gobs of curdled lard and rancid offal at anyone who disturbs them. They have a range of 10' (plus 1d4' per HD), and they are altogether too clever about using their fatty-residue to spread fires and to make surfaces slippery.]

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5. Ceiling Skimmer. Foragers know to look up every now and then. Those that survive. There are things that skitter and skim along the ceilings of old houses and other places. Nasty things that are just spoiling for a chance to lash out at the unwary...
   

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   Ceiling Skimmer [Minor Amorphic Horror; AL N, MV 90' (30'), AC 7[12], HD 2, #AT 1, DG 1d4+1, SV F1, ML 12 (fearless), Special: Lurk overhead and wait for opportunity to attack with surprise (+4 to hit, plus double damage, as per a Thief's Backstab (see LL p. 12). If their big surprise attack fails to render the victim unconscious or dead, the Skimmer will flee and attempt to find another vantage point from which to hide and await another opportunity to ambush some unsuspecting forager or whatever.]

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6. Fleshpot. Sometimes that suspicious bulge behind a tapestry, or beneath an old rug is not something you want to disturb...
   

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   Fleshpot [Common Lesser Jelly; AL N, MV 45' (15'), AC 9[10], HD 3+, #AT 1, DG 2d4, SV F2, ML 12 (fearless), Special: Touch temporarily liquifies flesh on a successful hit. If the creature is killed, anyone suffering the effects of its touch will find their flesh returning to normal consistency within 3d6 minutes...however, it will retain whatever shape it took on while liquified. A healer or surgeon can mold the flesh back into place with a skill check, otherwise repairing the damage might require surgery or spells. If captured live, these things can fetch a pretty price at the Medical School and from the more reputable healers...as well as among the less scrupulous Grafters or the Comprachicos, if one is foolish enough to attempt to deal with them...]

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Six Things...An Index to the Series

Red Bestiary Index

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