A Continent of Banalities

Theistr, the Charnel House Giant Scholars have deduced that giants must have been a mistake by a careless god. While they are not bestial by nature, they need such great amounts of food that they often go cruelly hungry in their formative years. This under-nourishment makes them weak of mind, in addition to being ravenous. Furthermore the giant physique seems a poor fit for this world. They are too large for any real interaction with humans, and animals tend to flee them. Ginats stub their toes on boulders and unknowingly tramples the fences and huts of humans, leading to enmity between them and us. These are the reasons that giants are nearly extunct, and that those who live on have grown twisted in their ways. Theistr is such a giant. He dwells in theValley of the Unfortunate Undead, in one of many charnel houses. Standing up straight he’d be six meters tall, but he is bent and hunched from his cramped living quarters. His face is long with a constant ha...

Zibga, the Coral Fortress (I base this entity on a prompt from Evlyn Moroau's Mythos Entity Generator ) In the western outskirts of Sarkash, Zibga had been sleeping beneah the earth for aeons, when a chance series of events brought it into the light of day, such as it is in that part of the world. A great storm had uprooted trees, leveled cottages, and uncovered Zibga. Several gigantic oaks had grown on top of it, keeping it dormant. Waiting. The entity was slowly waking up under the cold sun, basking in the warmth of animals, when Griel came along. Griel was looking for musrooms after the storm, and never expected to see a wonder like Zibga. Zibga is a multitude of organisms, a colony of tiny polyps building great structures of mineral, when it is awake. The structure it builds is an opulent castle with concentric courtyards, buttresses, spires and balconies. As of yet it has only begun this process, awakened by Griel’s body heat as he explor...

Thaurazz, the Infiltrators From Outside This world is ending and humanity is doomed. This seems to be agreed-upon wisdom of our age. The creatures who call themselves Thaurazz certainly seem to think so. They mingle with the aristocracy in the manor houses and courts of Schleswig, ready to move in when our doom consumes us. They are not above helping things along a little. A Thaurazz is a semi-tranluscent creature, its nternal organs on display like a sargasso of vivid reds and blues. It has no skeleton and drags itself along on eight-digit limbs. Its mouth is a serrated, octopus-like beak. Needless to say when the Thaurazz made their first foray into our world, they were killed by horrified humans. This time our natural inclination toward narrow-mindedness and revulsion steered us right. When next the creatures ventured forth, they had allied themselves with an animal from theior unimaginable home, a symbiont with a gift for imitation. In its natural state this creature looks ...

Marika, the Blue Lady Marika is a ghost which haunts Grift, and has done so for several decades. One story has it that she was the lover of a minor noble, and took her own life when she realized she would never be a wife. Another claims that she was a murderess, hung from the bridge as she cursed the authorities and declared her fidelity to Nechrubel.  Yet another suggests that she was a midwife who died from exposure one cold night between deliveries. Marika is a petite woman with auburn hair and dark eyes which seem sorrowful and tired. Her face is gaunt, and she is always wearing a long blue dress. Misinformation gathers around Marika, and it seems to be her greatest pleasure to add to it. She will often approach newcomers to Grift and beg them to help her find rest. Here follows some of her favorite schemes. 1: “Please help me! My cruel family will not give my moral remains a proper burial!” Marika will lead her marks to a house where a family is mourning over a dea...

Orvea, the Land Engirded by the Hungering Sea The place called Orvea is a dimension which is in alignment with ours once every ten years. It is covered in brambles and gnarled trees which bear little in the way of flowers or fruit. The inhabitable area is about the size of a small nation, and surrounded by what initially seems to be a body of water. The original inhabitants may have been members of the Ælfenben nation which, according to legend, used to lie south of Wästland’s tip.  Throughout the years humans from all over the the world have entered Orvea, and the civilization in Orvea is an amalgam of many ages, ethnicities and cultures. Their tool and inventions seem primitive, with the addition of toccasional innovations brought or remembered by newcomers. There is no native fauna in Orvea, but plenty of plant life. As such the Orveans are vegetarians. The waters surrounding the inhabited land of Orvea is a great entity, a hungering dark mass with something approach...

Skrill, the Dead Inheritors In the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead few wish to set foot. Those who do, possess the right combination of greed, folly and fatalism to ruin it for all of us. Some of these adventurous souls brought things back with them. Chests of silver, rare herbs, cursed fineries and their comrades in slapdash coffins. They also brought the Skrill. Physicks and scholars claim that the Skrill used to be simple cockroaches. Small, hardy and omnivorous, they have taken a bite of the unspeakable, and now the manifold curses of the living dead roil and rumble within the swarms. They look much like a natural cockroach, except slightly larger, and sometimes faintly phosphorescent. They get their name from the sounds they make as they descend upon their prey. What sort of power grows within any given swarm is easy enough to find out. One must simple let them bite! (Roll 1d8) 1: Aow! It merely hurts. 2: Ectoplasmic strands: Their touch drains Strength, Presence a...

Ravat, the Lover of Leaving Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It does not matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come. ― Jelaluddin Rumi Ravat is a demon who has fallen on hard times. Ravat is basically humanoid. Each of its long graceful limbs ends in a sharp point and it walks equally well on all of them on all surfaces. Its face is perfect, like a cut diamond. Its body is silver scales and lithe muscles. Ravat seems to have little regard for gravity or distance. One moment it is a blurred figure on the horizon, the next it is close enough to lick your earlobe. It can get to anywhere it can see in one step, provided it isn’t restrained, but is incapable of standing still. It will fidget, cartwheel lazily, and pirouette on the ceiling, but never be at rest. The Lover of Leaving is a demon of discontent. It as...

The Brass Monkeys (I took a break from monsters yesterday. My apologies) The music had grown louder still, and now the musicians themselves came into view. Hannah wasn't sure if they had come over the hill or simply come into focus, like a view through a looking glass. They were monkeys with brass faces. Their wild unblinking eyes were painted white and yellow, and their wide mouths were daubed with crimson. The paint work was shoddy, almost as if the monkeys had not wanted to stand still for the time it took the painter to do his job. Their instruments were wondrous. One had hands that throbbed with veins and with flaps of skin between the fingers. When he banged them together it sounded like a cymbal. One had no lips, but a fleshy horn seemed to have forced its way from behind his brass face. When he laughed it sounded like a muted trumpet in a wild neighing solo. Further back Hannah thought she saw one with bellows for a torso and a reed in his mouth like a lolling tongue. ...

Rikittkit, the Stylite Baboons It is said that when a follower of Nechrubel reaches the highest mystical understanding of the god’s true nature, they are transformed bodily so that their outside shows their inner nature. They become grinning, red-arsed misbegotten crosses between dogs and monkeys. In Bergen Chrypt thet call the creatures baboons, but scholars note that the Blessed of Nechrubel differ from these creatures in three ways. They always appear atop pillars or pedestals. They have wings like those of a swan. And finally, they have the gift (or curse) of speech. A Stylite Baboon appearswhen a person have lost their way, whether literally or spiritually. It will never bee seen to arrive, but is assumed to wing its way down from the stars. They are limited in their actions, but never quite predictable (roll 1d6) 1: It will ask for freshly slaughtered meat in return for its blessing. 2: It will pose a riddle 3: It will suggest that the lost person is emcumbered unduly...

Valhound, The Fish of Nine Eyes The Valhound looks like a killer whale comprised of rock and iron in various states approaching liquefaction. In place of a tail it has nine eyes on long stalk. The eyes have vertical, white-hot pupils. The creature flats through the air as a fish does in water. It issummned by sorcerers from some deep place where fire and stone comingle. It cannot be controlled, but may be bribed with rare types of wood, tobacco and incense. Anything which produces fragrant smoke as it burns. The Valhound is usually summoned by those with destruction in mind. Either the controlled destruction of stone to createa path, or the chotic destruction of combat. Only the most learned sorcerers know that the creature has a more subtle use. Feeding the Valhound a scrap of any material enables it to glean information about whatever the scrap was taken from. A lock of hair could tell you the secrets of a person. A stone from a castle’s wall may tell of the castle’s inhabi...

The Complete Works of Sewan Sooth the Younger The Works is a being comprised of books. Leather bindings with brass corners formed a ridged back, like that of an exotic lizard. Black alchenical paper form the sinewy limbs, and the great jaws is a copy of “Tears of the Wyvern” thrown open on the centre pages. The creature stalks the great library of the Resolute Custodeans, the only place known to have a complete collection of Sewan Sooth the Younger’s writings. The Resolute Custodeans are tough greybeards who have dedicated themselves to collecting all wisdom for whoever come after us when the world ends as it has been foretold. Onceagain I'm indebted to Evlyn. Support her on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evlynmoreau/ The creature is territorial and a swift ambush predator, at least in behavior. It does not eat those that it kills, but flays them and uses their hides to write on. If the part of the library it considers its turf can be avoided, the Works is harmless eno...

 Dorsht, the Crow-Bear If one leaves Schleswig with its colorful facades and despondent citizens and travel north-west for about three days, one comes to the remnants of a village. The houses are made from sturdy pine and solid clay. The main street is dusty and empty. Not asould is around, and even rats seem to have fled for plackes with richer pickings. This was the village of Dorsht The people of Dorsht begged the Schleswig king for water and relief from tithes as they battled with drought and thirst. The king is said to have been unmoved by their stark plight, or else their messages never reached him. In any case the villagers died of thirst before any help arrived. Perhaps some force from the Valley of Unfortunate Undead reached out to the people of Dorsht even as they died. Perhaps their will and despair was simply strong enough to persist in some strangeway after death. In any case the Crow-Bear takes its name and burning hatred from the village. The first one see...

Csikaal, the End of Words [Inspired by a piece of Evlyn Moreau's art] Csikaal is a creature from the stars. That, at least, is the agreed-upon story. It is either a monster, robbing us of the means communication available to us, or a harbinger of the new way. Csikaal has a spindly body mostly hidden under a colorful robe made of a light shiny fabric. The head is crab-like and seems too large for the body. Its eyes are black like beetles and situated on long segmented stalks. It moves in blurry bursts of speeds or stands still like a statue. By Evlyn Moreau. Sign up to her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evlynmoreau/posts Csikaal has power over words. Any communication, whether verbal or written in a certain radius means whatever the creature wants it to. This includes the speech neccesary to use scrolls, shout orders, declare love or surrender. All in the hands of a creature as alien as the stars themselves. Some people have surrendered themselves to the new way of...

Esseth, the Crawling Shade Of course there are people who play with blood and vampirism in ways that are safe, sane and consensual. Then there are vampiric cults of people with pernicious anemia who are none of those. Then there are the Essath, inhuman creatures who seem to have crawled into our world from some dark underworld An Essath is also known in some texts as an insect shade. It is a slender humanoid creature, about 3 meters in length. It moves by slithering along the ground, and seems incapable of standing entirely upright. It rears up like a cobra when it attacks. Its diet seems to be exclusively blood. An Essath has spiderlike fangs and something like a chitinous shell. It has the ability to turn into a living shadow, becoming effectively invisible in low light. In this form it cannot attack physical beings, nor can it be attacked. When moving in this form it can defy gravity and slither along walls and ceilings, as long as it stays out of the light. It will come ...

Dorzad, the Parasite Redeemer In grim Allians where the wind is ceaseless torment, a hope is growing. A mad hope, but that is the sort one would expect from Allians and from this world The entity called Dorzad lives in a pauper’stemple, and was called here by the people’s lamentations and prayers for release. Indeed it reacts to the human voice, and mutes are safe from its dubious  blessings. Dorzad is invisible, and none has a clear idea of its shape. It has mouths and long-fingered hands, but no legs  or anything like a head. It rarely speaks, but when it does the voice is human. Never the same voice twice though. Dorzad is growing, and has soon outgrown the main body of the temple. Its servant, a naked man with only one arm bare had a corner by thealtar in which to huddle. His name is Adlam, and he will freely tell his story. He was a successful mercenary, and there was always a petty Tveland aristocrat or vindictive Schleswiger warlord to provide well-paid work....

Beatricia, The Swine Witch She shuns Galgenbeck itself, but Beatricia is known from Bergen Chrypt to Allians as a woman of great wealth and greater secrets. She shuns the filth of this world, as anyone with the riches to do so would. In her sedan chair incense is burned at all times in order to drown out the stench of man and beast. If she has to touch bare earth in order to get somewhere, someone will be made to pay for this affront. Beatricia is a tall regal woman with a stark profile and a withering blue gaze. She always wears robes of red silk and black velvet. She is rich in the way one can only daydream about. She can be extravagant and generous one moment, only to be petty and skinflint the next, if it suits or amuses her. On the first week of every month she pays the prize for her wealth.  As per her agreement with the demon Babionge, she transforms into a great grey boar with cracked tusks and burning red eyes, the very image of the demon itself. The boar loves ...

[This is a creature from Chilean folklore which I've altered a bit to suit my diabolical purposes] The colo colo is a creature like a large rat coated with greasy gray feathers in place of fur. Its eyes are black and matted, and its mouth is a beak with serrated bone ridges. It makes a sound that is uncannily like that of a crying baby. It is most commonly found in Sarkash. The colo colo will enter a home quietly, and will proceed to suck the blood from the inhabitants while they sleep, and at the same time inject its own saliva into their bloodstreams. This induces a light kalopsia in the victim (the delusion or hallucination that things are more beautiful than they really are).  The effect is cumulative, and victims will likely have a very skewed view of reality about a week in. The inhabitants of the house will become listless and weak, but will also become increasingly euphoric. That, along with a smell of carrion with no apparent source, are the surest signs of col...

Kallikan, The Ghosts of the Road These creatures are the ghosts who died between their point of departure and destination.In that liminal space no grave is truly hallowed, and the kallikan can neither rest nor reach the destination they sought in life. They are doomed to trudge the roads until the end of days. It might not be long now. The look as though they have slept in ditches and travelled through a rainstorm. Their hair is matted, long and wet. They do not blink quite enough. A kallikan’s clothes have transformed into iron. Woven wool becomes chains, fine silk think and rusty sheets. They are always burdened down with heavy sacks. The kallikan may only rest if they come upon a travelers’ camp and are given leave to join. They will offer up coarse bread and salted meat from their sacks. This food is bland but nourishing. Those who eat of it often (DR12 check against Toughness) feel compelled to join the endless journey within a span of 1-6 days....

Scap & Stern, The Ossuary Boys Tweedle-Dee Dum and Tweedle-Dee Dee They're throwing knives into the tree Two big bags of dead man's bones Got their noses to the grindstone. Bob Dylan - Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum From a distance and at first glance they’re a couple of obese men with round oafish faces. Upon closer examination the illusion breaks. Their skin is sewn together and whatever stuffing is inside seems to shift like sand. At times the grey bone-meal leaks from the seams. If you let on that you have seen through the ruse, expect to be smothered or sliced up. Scap and Stern are essentially great skin- sacks of a roughly human shapes, filled with bone and gravedust. Created by some Galgenbeck necromancer whom they simply call the master, their goal seems to be to collect items needed in his dark experiments, involving the mutable border between life and death. Interestingly, the boys seem to be in a deep state of de...

Votura, the Sea Star The people of Grift know starfish will, The strange five-limbed creatures are often caught in fishermen’s nets. They are quickly dumped back into the ocean, as they are believed to be spawn of Votura. Votura dwells somewhere in the black murk of Grift’s main fishing harbor. Among seaweed and ships that sank centuries ago, when king Aegfrith proclaimed himself Emperor of All the Seas, Votura dreams. In shape it isa starfish twice again thesize of a man. It’s five arms are adorned with mouths of a strangely human cast. The drawn mouth of a Grift fishwife, next to the full lips of a Galgenbeck catamite, next to the filed teeth of a Wästland berserker. And so on. It glows a bioluminescent green when it senses prey in the water. Votura has been there for as long as anyone can remember. Even in the stories of old, when the world had a measure of hope, Votura was hiding in the dark waters. To say that it is worshiped would be wrong. Rather it is placated with sac...