Bestiary

Astorea

Bloodstalk

Jungles and thicker wooded areas are plagued by carnivorous plants of all shapes and sizes. One of the few lethal to larger creatures, including humanoids, is the Bloodstalk.

When motionless it blends perfectly with other kinds of vines, but upon sensing the movement of prey it blindly lashes out much like a snake to strike with a venomous “mouth” at the end of its body. The bright red flower-like mouth is lined with venomous thorns that cause paralysis.

Size	Medium
Type	Carnivorous plant
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Ensnare – The vines wrap around a foe, much like a large constrictor, and attempt to strangle or crush their prey.

Orc

Warbands and hunting parties of orcs were not a common sight until recent times, but their activity grows throughout the forests of Astorea. These green, gray, or brown-skinned humanoids are masterful fighters and adept survivalists. Despite their lumbering size, they show a surprising skill for stealth in wooded areas giving their ambushes great lethality. Orcs encountered in Astorea show no interest in peace or negotiations, focused solely on their raids. Common ranks of orcs encountered are warriors, trappers, warchiefs, and the occasional shaman.

Size	Medium
Type	Humanoid
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Berserk – Orcs are capable fighters, but the more damage they take the more dangerous they become. Rage fuels their speed and damage with every bit of damage suffered.

Specter

Astorea is full of ruins and ruins are places full of secrets, both good and bad. Not everyone in the past had a happy ending and the ghosts of those full of resentment or slain through great violence linger in the rubble. Specters appear as transparent versions of who they were in life, often still showing injuries that killed them. They retain their minds and personalities, but have been driven mad by a hatred and jealousy of the living. Some seek to kill the living so they may join them in suffering while others seek to possess them to feel alive once more.

Size	Small – Medium
Type	Undead
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Incorporeal – Specters cannot be harmed by non-magical means. Weapons without any magical enchantment or buffs phase right through them as easily as these ghosts move through objects to ambush their targets.

Brisshals

Dire Beasts

Due to ceaseless hunting both from Falderen hunters and players spawning in, the wildlife in Brisshal is incredibly out of balance. Even herbivores have turned much more aggressive out of defense. This has caused an increase in Dire versions of normal beasts. Larger and more powerful, these highly aggressive variants will unflinchingly attack anything that crosses their path. The most common of these are dire wolves, dire boars, dire bears, and dire stags.

Size	Medium – Large
Type	Beast
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Dire versions of animals rarely have extra abilities, though they are all stronger. Some animals present with berserker modes upon hitting half or quarter health.

Slime

While there are certainly more dangerous varieties of oozes, the typical Slimes of Brisshal are small in size with a variety of effects depending on the color of their bodies. The small blobs of can cause anywhere from burning to electric damage, but the most common are the green acidic kind. They generally have little health and don’t deal much damage with their striking pseudopods so long as an enemy isn’t sucked into their main body.

Size	Small
Type	Ooze
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Each colored slime has a different ability. Red slimes can appear like molten drops, dealing severe burns. The black slimes have tar-like bodies that trap foes to them. The rare clear slimes paralyze the prey caught inside of their bodies, as if stopping time. There are countless types of these enemies and despite their low danger level, it is suggested adventurers use caution.

Livestone

While slimes are common throughout Brisshal, the livestone is an incredibly rare creature found only in Brisshal’s caves, including the Starter Dungeon. It appears to be a regular boulder until it senses a meal nearby. The creature can create from one to four pseudopods, which it strikes out with or spins around the cave to knock prey prone or unconscious. Because of its sensitivity to light, it will remain hardened and passive when exposed to sunlight or bright light.

Size	Medium – Large
Type	Ooze
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Stoneskin – A livestone can harden its entire body to be as tough as rock, negating all damage but bludgeoning and geomancy during the ability. However, it cannot move while hardened and must end the ability to attack.

Crystallized Zalra

Crystallized Creatures

Crystallized Zalra is blighted by an odd disease that turns organic matter into solid crystal. Both flora and fauna of the region are at risk of being turned entirely into it, but life thrives here all the same. Though it is painful while still growing, the infection is not lethal and many animals and monsters have adapted to flourish in the environment alongside their new flesh. Almost all livings things encountered in this region will have anywhere from a single tooth to their entire body turned into quartz, gemstones, and the like.

Size	Any
Type	Any
Behavior	Any
Ability	All crystallized beasts and monsters retain their intelligence and their abilities. Most kinds of crystal however are much stronger than flesh and many kinds of fighters can find themselves struggling to damage their hardened bodies.

Moonstone Werewolves

Wolves, dire wolves, and werewolves are dangerous creatures to face, but the moonstone werewolves offer a far more lethal enemy. Their flesh has hardened into solid moonstone, their fur now shattered shards of crystal. They are difficult to harm and require no food, water, or rest. Whoever they were before they are now trapped in their bestial forms, forever roaming portions of Zalra that they have claimed for their own hunting grounds. Survivors claim they are capable of speech, but refuse to talk directly to their prey. Instead they speak to themselves of their mother moon and argue over who eats what organ.

Size	Medium
Type	Humanoid
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Zalrisis – The bite of members of this pack does not transmit lycanthropy. Instead, a bite left untreated runs the risk of blighting the victim with Zalra’s infamous crystal infection, Zalrisis.

Shardborn

Most dangerous in the region are obviously crystallized creatures moving in the crystal plantlife, but one creature does not hide its unnatural nature with familiar shapes. The shardborn are assumed to be some form of elemental, but what plane they could come from is unknown. These entities are all vaguely humanoid with bodies entirely made out of floating shards of crystal bound together with a magical force. They range from lightning fast versions that almost resemble humans and boasting large crystal blades for arms to massive golems the sizes of buildings who care fire spears of crystal at distant foes. The most dangerous are capable of casting their own magic, often crippling the mind with psychic blasts.

Size	Medium – Large
Type	Elemental
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Psionics – Regular Shardborn are limited to physical fighting, but the floating casters of their kind are able to unleash a variety of spells that target the mind. They can charm, deceive, sedate, confuse, and mentally harm those fool enough to get in range.

Druuk

Flying Snapbeak

The shorelines, sandbars, and reefs around coastal areas are plagued by a tough and surly beast. Snapbeaks appear like ordinary snapping turtles. Or would, if they weren't twice the size with a shell that can split into two armored wings. They cannot fly due to their weight, but are able to launch themselves out of water and across short distances on land. They are careful about this due to the soft flesh of their unprotected back being exposed while their wings are spread. The barnacled, shelled beasts are luckily very lazy and so long as an enemy gains enough distance they soon give up the fight. A famous pirate captain was said to have used the carved off wing of a Snapbeak as a shield and many stories tell of her breaking even a leviathan's teeth upon the hard, jagged material.

Size	Medium
Type	Amphibious
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Shellshock – A flying snapbeak lunges from the water or nearby land to attack an enemy, stunning them with a heavy hit.

Hydra

Easily twice the size of your average horse, these multi-headed reptilians are as deadly in water as on land. Hydras can have anywhere from a singular neck and head to well over ten. Each head removed generates two more, creating a flurry of attacks that are near impossible to block and dodge as the number of heads grows. They primarily hunt in the water and eat large amounts of fish, but maliciously enjoy fighting smarter prey like humans closer inland.

Size	Large
Type	Reptile
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Flurry of Fangs – As a hydra gains more and more heads it becomes more and more deadly. Each head is capable of striking and thinking independently, but not with enough intelligence to fight for dominance with each other. Instead, they coordinate incredibly fast strikes meant to force their enemies into the bite of another head.

Pormont

Gnoll

Pormont is stalked by a large number of hyena-like humanoids known as gnolls. Semi-nomadic, matriarchal by nature, and prone to high levels of aggression, the Gnolls are a dangerous enemy when in decent numbers. A lone gnoll will flee rather than fight, but once in the company of its packmates the tides turn quickly. Their culture is often criticized as savage and primitive, but very few people have lived long enough to make it into a pack's camp or witness their interactions when not at war. Common varieties of this enemy are hunter and berserker class gnolls. In massive raids or warparties one may find themselves facing down the terrifying gnoll felmancers or the gnoll matriarch of the pack.

Size	Medium
Type	Humanoid
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Strength of the Pack – The more there are, the stronger they are. These hyenamen provide each other buffs in combat in the form of war cries and howls.

Norfova

Bloodcursed Beasts

Animals of all shapes and sizes that once flourished in Norfova have been corrupted by the curse of blood magic that has leached into the very soil of the region. These Bloodcursed versions of normal animals are often somewhat larger than their smaller cousins, much like Dire versions of beasts.

They all share maddened minds, twisted instincts, bloodlust, and physical corruption that is often in the form of disgusting growths, emaciation, partially rotted bodies, or mutations such as extra limbs or eyes. All give off a faint magical presence. The most commonly encountered are bloodcursed wolves.

Size	Small – Large
Type	Beast
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Most of these corrupted animals retain the same skill set as their normal and dire versions. However, the rarest of these creatures have passive hemomancy skills or spells.

Garuda

High above the mountains, mesas, and cliffs of the Norfova wasteland are massive eagles the size of horses casting far larger shadows on the world below. These large birds boast ruddy orange and red plumage with dizzying white patterns on the undersides of their wings. Their talons are easily a foot long each on average, but are made more for clinging to rock than hunting.

Garuda are often scavengers and passive, save a curious nature, toward intruders in their territories. Grow too close to a nest, however, and prepare for the fury of the parents.

Size	Large
Type	Avian
Behavior	Neutral
Ability	Thundurus Shriek – A garuda's cry can shatter eardrums, the sound echoing for miles across the wasteland that will often summon others of its kind to aid it. Or to join the feast.

Inkwing Wasp

The vague shapes of humanoids trapped in a black hive-like mass of secretions can occasionally be spotted in clusters throughout the wastes. These are the corpses-turned-nests of the inkwing wasps. A subspecies of giant wasp native only to Norfova, these vicious creatures are roughly the size of your average hawk. Their bodies are so deep a red it appears black until the harsh sun above Norfova hits them, turning them a bright scarlet.

The wasp's name comes from the black wings that buzz a warning to travelers and the black ink substance they fire at their foes. They have a nasty habit of turning enemies into nests and laying eggs in them. Tread carefully.

Size	Large
Type	Insectoid
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Ink Spray – The wasps, as there is rarely just one, spray a black ichor from their stingers that hardens almost immediately. When an enemy has been incapacitated in the cement-like casing, and all other threats are neutralized, they begin to build a new nest around the body to feed their offspring.

Giant Leech

Water is a precious resource in the cursed region and, while most creatures act peacefully around it to be able to drink their fill, some take advantage. Giant leeches, possible having moved and adapted from wetter jungle climates, have invaded some bodies of water throughout Norfova.

These leeches have a pale white body that is nearly see-through and grow roughly to arm-length. When well-fed, their bloated and blood-filled stomachs are visible through their fragile skin.

Size	Small
Type	Aquatic
Behavior	Aggressive
Ability	Bloodletting – A leech bite, even without it active attached and drinking, can be incredibly dangerous. Their saliva prevents blood clotting and resists magical healing.

Harpy

These half-human, half-bird creatures are an intelligent race of hunters. Their societies are secretive and often considered savage, like the gnoll packs of Pormont, but are often left alone because of their reclusive nature. A harpy and her flock do not attack unless their territory or sisters are in danger. Harpies can be mixed with any kind of bird, though flocks are often similar to one another, and use a variety of ranged weaponry.

When harpies are drawn in for a close fight, they make use of their wicked talons. Some flocks have tamed garudas that fight, hunt, and nest with them in their homes in the high caves of cliffsides.

Size	Medium
Type	Humanoid
Behavior	Neutral
Ability	Serenade – The song of a harpy is enchanting, luring in those with weak wills and putting them under the control of the harpy flock. The charm can be broken by magical interference, a strong willpower, or by walking into the harpy's grasp. When close to one, the song becomes a blood-curdling shriek like nails on a chalkboard as the illusion breaks.