New Fiend - The Thing On The Moor (Inspired by Solomon Kane)

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serleran
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New Fiend - The Thing On The Moor (Inspired by Solomon Kane)

Post by serleran »

The Thing On The Moor

No. Encountered: 1
Size: Medium
HD: 5+ (d8)
Move: 40 feet (fly)
AC: 15+
Attack: Claws x 2 (2d6 + Paralysis)
Special: Paralysis, Rend, Laugh, Weapon Immunity, Darkvision 120 feet
Saves: P and M
Int: Low - Average
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Type: Fiend (Possessor, Superior)
Treasure: --
XP Value: Monsters and Treasure, page 6

The Thing On The Moor is a dread curse made real, the depraved remains of a sibling slain, murdered out of feigned kindness. In life, The Thing was likely insane or perceived insane; in very rare circumstances, perhaps even possessed. They are not undead but the fell possession by demonic fury of a cadaver, a semblance of vengeance against all that lives – a Thing On The Moor seeks a specific victim but will content itself with whatever comes to its cold, unyielding, grasp.

Appearing as a carcass wreathed in an otherworldly chill, a hair-rising peal precedes its every move. The ground itself seems repelled, The Thing unmolested by impairments such as rock, branch or bush – these are of no consequence, passed through as if they did not exist.

When presented with an offering, a Thing will cackle in gleeful mirth as it reveals its presence, the unfortunate frozen in terror, flesh and bone sundered leaving the victim unrecognizable even as something that once breathed. After a slaying, a Thing retreats for the night, satisfied in the moment – until it can bring forth its revenge, each attack grows more grotesque and macabre, chilling even the most ardent with the terrible ferocity evident on the remaining corpse.

They are active for but five nights in a thirty, those closest and on the New Moon; this encourages misconception of The Thing On The Moor as an unusual form of undead.

Despite the name, a Thing On The Moor is not confined to a swampland or morass, though the clime is renowned for the first reported encounter. Any location with a steady population is as likely as another; however, being toys of abyssal evil, a center of religious order is preferred.

Combat: A Thing On The Moor approaches combat with jollity wanting nothing else but the cessation of life, using its enormously powerful claws to strangle out breath, followed by mutilation of the body. They do not appear to be bothered, or even recognize, weapon strikes made against them, making The Thing a true nightmare for all but the mightiest of champions. Before it attacks, a Thing laughs, this causing both panic and immobility; the weak-hearted die on the spot.

Paralysis: The touch of a Thing On The Moor is numbing, causing limbs and mind to abate then fail, remaining so until death. The grace of a deity represented through a granted Wisdom save safeguards the unfortunate. Alternatively, a Thing can simply bring its gaze with a living victim and immobilize them; Castle Keepers are encouraged to modify the save as deemed necessary – what is important is that the effect is broken if The Thing On The Moor shifts focus or otherwise is unable to maintain the fixation.

Rend: A Thing On The Moor which successfully injures its target with both of its claw attacks follows it immediately with a flesh-and-bone-rending barrage dealing vast damage – the effect is similar to the loss of one (1) level of experience (or Hit Die) but is purely physical with scars and other obvious injury easily visible.

Laugh: Madness is natural to a Thing On The Moor and it will happily giggle and guffaw especially before and during an attack. The first time any given individual is subjected to this, they are entitled to a Charisma save – failure results in immediate death. Those that survive the initial shock are still distracted and find the incessant humor contagious, manifesting as a penalty of -2 on initiative rolls.

Weapon Immunity: The physical form of a Thing On The Moor is simply a vessel, a shell to use and discard as needed until ultimate release is brought by getting its revenge. Because of this, damage from a physical weapon such as a bow, an axe, or a sword is ignored, reduced to zero, regardless of magical modifiers or abilities. Attacks of a purely magical nature, such as that created by the spiritual weapon or magic missile spells deal their minimum damage. Use of a blessed weapon allows the weapon to have minimal impact. Unarmed attacks are unaffected.

Fiend, Superior: As a creature of the Fiend type, a Thing On The Moor also possesses various supernatural abilities, most of which it will not use. Innate spell resistance, which functions normally against arcane energy but offers no protection against divine spells, has a value of 8. They are immune to elemental damage from fire, cold, or electricity. Furthermore, because a Thing On The Moor is a superior fiend, saves made against its attacks and effects are not considered Prime; if the attribute in question is not Prime without this ability, penalize the save by three (3.)

Possessor: Destroying or killing the body of a Thing On The Moor does not end the threat it poses, as it can flee its husk and assume a dark tendrillar, semigaseous form, in which it remains unaffected and essentially invulnerable for a maximum of thirty (30) days; if it has been unable to locate a suitable host, it returns to its netherworld. Once driven from its current form, a Thing On The Moor can attempt to occupy any lifeless body it can discover -- Castle Keepers should decide based on their campaign needs how easily this is achieved. A Thing On The Moor can be exorcised from its current body without need to “kill” it, but this process should be rather difficult – one guaranteed method is to present the target of its vengeance as a sacrifice resulting in the death of both victim and Thing, not to mention probably shifting alignment toward Evil.

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Omote
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Re: New Fiend - The Thing On The Moor (Inspired by Solomon K

Post by Omote »

Execellent creature!

Why is the AC listed as 15+? Though, there is not much use in AC for this creature at all, it could be useful for those first few misaligned attempts to hit it with weapons.

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serleran
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Re: New Fiend - The Thing On The Moor (Inspired by Solomon K

Post by serleran »

Unarmed attacks, such as those delivered by a monk, and various attack-based spells which can be attempted, require some idea of what the Armor Class is in order to resolve the action. Ultimately, it does not really matter as the Thing will probably simply flee its current host to find another, but players do like to believe they have had some sort of impact... and, if the Thing assumes a weaker form, perhaps inhabiting an ancient, brittle, corpse, it may be easier to defeat the next time. And, technically, it is not completely immune to weapons; some can hurt it, just not for the amount one might hope.

I will also note that this could make an interesting variation on beings such as Grendel. In that case, I would remove the Possessor ability and likely also not have it be a Fiend, though retain the spell resistance (perhaps allowing it to function equally well against both types.)

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