Valkyrja

Arthur Rackham

Awe inspiring, these tall women bear stern expressions hidden beneath helms of brilliant silver. They have many names, Darra or spear bearers, Rooin the red women, and Veurr, which means protectors. Their presence is unsettling. To meet a vakyrja’s gaze is to lay your mortal doubts before her and have them judged wanting.

Valkyrja are the shield maidens of Alfhildr, goddess of war. Women in ornate armor bearing arms and standing beside the throne of Alfhildr is a favorite scene in Vann artwork. Other popular scenes include valkyrja wearing only a helmet while holding a spear and shield, sometimes walking beside white stags, ghostly images of women riding on the wind, and naked spirits fighting alongside men and women in battle.  

These mighty spirits are said to escort the fallen souls of warriors onto the great ship Orn, which gives passage to Vigjaholl, the halls of waiting. In truth, they are slaves to Alfhildr or at least to her current incarnation. It’s not remembered whether Alfhildr was the first of her name or if she simply took up the mantle after she stabbed the last Alfhildr through the heart. It’s only known that the blood remains, uncongealed, spread across the floor surrounding the throne. This crimson pool leaves no mark on those that pass through it. It serves as a grave reminder and perhaps also a trophy to laud over her slaves.

From her seat in the great hall, this tall and terrible goddess wears the gilded teeth of her predecessor around her neck and commands her slaves to serve the lowly warrior spirits of man like the dishonored wretches they are– until she is slain as well and another amongst the Valkyrja takes up her mantle.

Invincible: A valkyrja can only be killed with a thrust through the heart. Once a vakyrja’s Power drops below half its total, she can no longer lose Power through damage. At this point only a critical hit can slay her.

True Sight (M): Valkyrja are able to see creatures and things as if affected by the True Sight spell.

If you're interested, feel free to check out more creatures in the campaign book: The Northern Realm Campaign World.

Goules

Theodor Kittelson

You’ve heard Northrup’s story about the dead man in the fields. You heard what it did to their cow. If only you had seen it coming. If only this were a nightmare and you could wake up. The sound of something being dragged across the ground ceases, giving way to audible sniffs. Its moon cast shadow now darkens the entryway. Fear bubbles up in your gut. Tightening your grip, your knuckles turn white and crack on the shovel handle. The slender beam of light dividing the vestibule dims as the thing steps into the entryway and then across the threshold. You can see it clearly now, but you are entirely unprepared for what stands before you. You forget the mental image of a corpse. The screamed warnings of your subconscious are drowned in a flurry of emotions. It’s your dead brother, drowned because you could not save him. Suddenly you are filled with crippling sorrow. He has a knife in his hands but by the time he reaches you, you are ready for release…

Goules are walking dead, mindless, tireless, the only remarkable feature of a goule is that it was cursed in life. Its mind has left long ago, but its cursed flesh and hopelessness carries on to spread misery. When a cursed creature dies, its flesh lives on, and its soul remains trapped inside. Only a second death can bring it relief. Goules do not see the world as they did in life, acting on strong negative emotions and a warped hatred for life, happiness, and hope. They appear as a person’s worst fear, but not a common fear like darkness or the unknown, it is a sad fear, a regret. In its presence, this regret blooms into a depressing visage of what could have been. Staring too long drags one into a pit of despair and if that doesn’t kill you, its incredible strength will.

Visage (M): Goules appear different to each person. Those who can see it clearly, see a manifestation of their greatest shame and a fear that what could have been was their only chance at contentment. Only children see a goule for what it truly is. There is no way to resist this effect, but if you spend a Luck point you may act freely for 1d6 rounds, otherwise you are unable to move or act (players may roll an Intuition check, but no matter the result, the character is unable to act unless Luck is spent to make a re-roll). This is a mind-affecting ability.
 
Creatures are still undergoing transformations in ways that hopefully make encounters more varied and interesting. I'm taking the approach that creatures, items, and places are there to inspire story/campaign ideas as much as characters are. If you're interested, feel free to check out more creatures in the campaign book: The Northern Realm Campaign World.
 

Unicorns

Arthur Rackham

 

A symbol of royalty, the unicorn is universally recognized. It is a creature of enigma, beauty, and magnificence. Many house crests bear the likeness of a unicorn. It is said that there is only one and that he is the king of Greywood, while others say there are many but only one king sire, or that it is a great mare, a favored shape of the fey queen, it is said– many things.

Unicorns are magic given substance. Sometimes they appear as a horse with a single horn rising from its head; sometimes they are blinding flash of light, and others a deep shadow. Their appearance alters depending on its environment, what’s transpired there, and what past emotions resonate in the fabric of a place.

A glimpse of one is enough to drive a person mad. The good folk tell sad tales about people that have seen one and been broken. The fey are of course unaffected, but they notice the change in us. When a mortal sees a unicorn, they see their entire lives from beginning to end. They see their happiest and saddest moments, most traumatic and memorable. When the vision leaves them, we cannot possibly remember all the moments of our lives, but the memory of death stays with us. The vision of our fate is unavoidable and almost always very near as if proximity to the unicorn has burned away years of life.

There is only one known way to change your fate, kill the unicorn, but how to find one? How to hunt it? No one knows and few have tried. An old story of the vanished king Godric of Storgeard tells of a stag hunt, where he chanced upon a unicorn. Having glimpsed it, he knew his fate, but being strong hearted and stubborn Godric left with a hunting party. This story has many endings, and in all, he never returns. Many say he died, but one says he succeeded and that he still lives, even five hundred years later he walks the forest as an empty, hollowed out creature.

Killing a unicorn rips the fabric of reality, essentially removing its killer from the tapestry of existence and time. The killer becomes immortal, non-dead. The mortal can no longer sleep. He no longer bleeds when stabbed and does not die when chopped into many pieces. Age does not touch him, but he does not heal either. Spells that would mend his body do not work. He can only be fixed. A lost arm can be reattached with a sewing needle and it remains usable. In fact, even unattached he can still control it. What’s more, he sees things in variable states. The emotions of creatures, their shadow selves, past events– all play out before him if he concentrates too long on one thing. It becomes difficult to discern reality from his visions, but the visions can also reveal to him hidden places and mysteries.

When enough time passes he may wish to die. Burns will not heal. Wounds will ever gape without the aid of thread. To die his body must be incinerated, in other words completely destroyed. A spell or violent fire may cleanse him of materiality but every bit of him must be destroyed (damage must exceed his Life total).

Like all magical creatures, a unicorn’s body parts have special properties. Its horn can be used like a wand (all spells cast with it are cast as cantrips). Its hair can be used to produce the most beautiful sounding instrument (song-based spells and abilities are cast without having to spend Power). Its hooves can be ground into powder and added to a potion to make it permanent. Its blood can be used to strengthen an enchantment. And consuming its eyes grants foresight, causing one to permanently glimpse into the future or past at random.

Truth (M): In the presence of a unicorn undead are driven mad. They act as if confused for the remainder of the day. Mindless undead lose animation completely and incorporeal undead fade out of existence. Mortal creatures glimpse the entirety of their lives (as described above). Mindless constructs gain the seed of sentience. Fairy folk and planar creatures are unaffected, but outsiders are struck with an epiphany: killing a unicorn will grant it escape to the Outside.

Creatures

I finished the conversion. Now its level-less and based on a d6. What's nice is I think the creatures are pretty easy to translate to other systems. I tried to make it so each one gives a unique experience (or at least a flavor). Still, there's more editing to do for the Campaign and Handbook , but I think its really getting to where it needs to be. This one has all the creatures, places, some fables, and a campaign.

Try it out, tell me what you think: The Northern Realm Campaign Book

John Bauer

Dryads

While working to convert the Campaign World book over to the d6 system, I thought I'd make some adjustments to the traditional creatures that I left alone in the original. Here's my attempt at a dryad.

Dryad

Resting beneath the giant oak, I lean back, enjoying the respite from the summer sun. Placing my hands behind my head and reclining against the trunk, slowly I drift off to sleep… I wake in darkness, coughing and sputtering wet earth, gasping for air only to let in more dirt. Choking, head throbbing, I again slip from consciousness, catching glimpses of what appears to be a face nose to nose with me.

Dryads live in the deepest, furthest groves. They live under the roots of great gnarled trees and reach up through the woody earth like hands stretching through prison bars. They’re said to seize resting travelers, drawing them below and leaving them in the dirt to suffocate and fertilize their homes.

Born in a womb of hard earth and dense roots, dryads are strange creatures of wood and shadow. When a dryad leaves her home tree, its roots and trunk part. Under its eaves and the shade of the forest, the dryad is nearly imperceptible, like a dark blotch it can dart across the forest floor unseen.

A dryad only becomes visible in sunlight. Otherwise, it moves like the shadows of swaying tree branches. The only indications of its presence are snaking movements in the shadows where patches of sunlight pierce the canopy of the forest.

Dryads rarely leave the safety of their tree burrow but if ever one leaves and crosses into the sunlight, it becomes wholly visible, appearing like an abstract painting, hard to make out details and brushed with dark hues. Their skin is damp and knotted. If it again slips into the shade, its body melds into the shadows and becomes invisible again.

Edmund Dulac

 

The Things That Fill The Space Between

Outsiders 
Outsiders were only accidently allowed into the world. A thousand and five hundred years ago, the Material Plane and the Outside came into contact for an instant, and in that instant, millions of its inhabitants appeared in the world. But then the planes (Shadow Realm and Aether) once again separated the Outside from the Material Plane and they became trapped. For decades outsiders ‘plagued’ the Northern Realm. Their sudden appearance brought chaos and confusion down on all the inhabitants of the world. Now, all but eradicated, a few have escaped to the deep, ancient places under the earth.

Outsiders are as peculiar as they are horrible to behold. They are not native to Rhen. Rare and hidden in inconspicuous places, many take refuge deep underground. Powerful outsiders often reside alone, while other outsiders tend to come together, probably for better protection from the inhabitants of this world that seem to hate them.

The presence of outsiders is discombobulating. The room seems to breathe. The ground fluctuates like thick mud with each step. Sense of self, control over emotions and physical reactions have a complete disconnect from reality. After an experience with an outsider, one could describe it as an overwhelming sense of horror or madness, but only for a complete lack of ability to cope with the sensation.

Environmental Effects: Once in the affected area creatures have a tenuous grasp on their sanity. Creatures forced to make any check risk becoming confused if they fail it. Making a full movement requires an Intuition check.  

·  Outsiders have alien minds; they are unaffected by mind-affecting spells. If a spell or ability attempts to see into the mind of an outsider it necessitates a Will resistance check, DC 10 or it falls unconscious for 1d4 minutes. A successful check leaves the creature dazed for 1 round.

·  The physical laws that govern the Material Plane do not limit outsiders; they can change size at the cost of a movement within one size category of their stated size (for example a Large outsider can become a Huge or Medium sized outsider).

·  Outsiders are immune to temporal effects.

·  Immunity to all conditions and critical hits, except catching fire, falling, and death.

·  Damage reduction/magic.

·  Outsiders have no Luck score.

·  Outsiders have no shadow in the Shadow Realm.

 Art by Magdalena Zwierzchowska

Aspect Thief 
This truly horrible sight creeps and pulsates, summoning limbs, heads, and tails from its grotesque body. It constantly changes appendages as it copies the forms of the creatures it consumes.

Aspect thieves are an amalgamation of horrors. Like an amoeba, its fluid form collapses on itself and spreads across the ground, spontaneously forming legs that push and arms that pull it along. It can form multiple appendages to attack its foe, but most often it attempts to grab its target and draw it into its body. Unlike a chimera, an aspect thief never seems to form a whole body, though it comes close. Its body has the consistency and appearance of inside-out flesh except where it has morphed its body into familiar, albeit misshapen shapes. 

Cave Maw 
Smooth cave walls, dagger-like stalactites, dripping water, nothing gives warning to this creature’s presence until a low rumble just seconds before its attack reveals the true nature of this living geological mimic.

The cave maw is named for its seemingly singular purpose. Hiding in the deep dark, this creature can lie in wait for long years without eating. Cave maws may also be found mimicking cave entrances, the halls of abandoned castles, even underwater tunnels. When opportunity strikes, the cave maw is deadly efficient. The ceiling falls on its prey as if collapsed. As it moves the scraping of its body against the stone emits a peculiar rumble. This is the only warning any of its prey receive before its mass envelopes it. In the event it misses its prey the cave maw can pursue it through the darkness. It is nearly invisible while it moves even in the light. Only by finding a means of marking its body can it be ‘seen’. And though it is slow moving and betrayed by the sound it makes, it is a relentless pursuer, aided by the confusion of navigating in the dark, tight places it resides. Surprisingly, the cave maw is also able to make short quick attacks. A cave maw is able to use parts of its body to quickly strike out at prey at close range.

Chimera
 Head of a wolf and body of a giant spider, wings of a bat or body of a lion, tail of a snake, breathing fire from the goat head rising from its back, or a two-headed horse arising from a long slimy body with no legs, a chimera can be anything, but always an abomination.

The chimera is one of few outsiders that enter into the mythology of several cultures. In the Tegean mythos, chimeras are commonly depicted as monstrous creatures with the body and head of a lion, snake for a tail, and with the head of a goat rising from its back. In the Free Realm, chimeras are depicted in many different ways, in particular there are dozens of old carvings around the Free City depicting a wolf-like creature with two heads and wings of a giant bat. In much art, however, there is no distinct pattern to the chimera’s form. In the greater Free Realm, one particularly famous carving depicts the winged two-headed wolf partnered with a similar creature, but with scales and a spiny ridge on its back. After much debate, the scholars of the Free City Library have determined that it too, is a chimera.

Chimeras like other outsiders are alien to the Material Plane. Their true state is amorphous and mindset inconceivable. Attempting to read its mind is dangerous. In turn, a chimera is able to read the minds of any living being and change its shape in accordance to the shapes familiar to its target. The chimera is almost certainly unable to sort through the thoughts of creatures on this Plane, being a creature of the Outside, but it is able to see into them, resulting in a discombobulated jumble of thoughts. It combines the many creatures’ thoughts taking on aspects of many forms in an attempt to appear more familiar, thereby becoming something quite the opposite. Chimeras have been hunted to near extinction, but some still exist. They are powerful creatures and the few surviving after the Great War and the long years following are a testament to that.

Art by Magdalena Zwierzchowska

Doppelgänger 
Standing as tall as a man, thin, gaunt; or with the appearance of a woman, lovely, buxom; or an aelf, broad and strong; the doppelgänger is anything it wills itself to be. It has no native shape in the Material Realm.

After the Great War, the invading outsiders were hunted, and ultimately wiped out or escaped to hidden places. Only the cleverest, well-hidden outsiders survived. Doppelgängers are the shrewdest, most adaptable of the invaders, hiding amongst the creatures that would hunt them until they were forgotten with time.

Doppelgängers are extraordinarily intelligent. They are creatures of strategy, manipulation, and patience. They are perhaps the most dangerous of the outsiders that came to the Northern Realm. Able to take on the appearance of any humanoid and practically immortal, doppelgängers are not only intelligent, but also experienced in the various crafts, professions, and talents that are required to survive in the Material Plane. And though they thrive in secret, as all outsiders, doppelgängers wish to return to their native environment, the Outside. The means to accomplish this is unknown, the secret having died with the last of the Ancients, but doppelgängers are patient and cunning. They know that someday the secret will be discovered.

Gryre

This beast seems to be made up of mirrors. Its body is plated with countless immaculate reflective surfaces. It has no head, four limbs, and innumerable sharp edges. Its movement is the sound of a thousand mirrors breaking, its assault the source of nightmares.

The gryre was a creature most dreaded during the Great War. The aelfs called it deimos and the dunaelfs, strach. Its appearance struck fear into the hardiest of warriors. Hunted to extinction, gryre were thought long dead until the Aelf War, when one was discovered locked away in the deepest dungeon of Old Mramor. These creatures destroy the flesh with their claws and razor sharp edges, but otherwise stand immobile until sensed by another. Gryre can only "see" if seen, "hear" if heard, otherwise they are immaculate sculptures with no senses. Wizards of the aelfin House of Maleinos discovered that gryre trap the souls of creatures they destroy, somehow imprisoning them within their body. Only by destroying a gryre can the souls of the creatures killed by it be released.

Horror 
An abomination in every sense of the word, it is a churning mass of toothed orifices, plant growths, rocks, groping tendrils, eyes, and shadows; its appearance changing into ever more monstrous forms.

A confused mass of ever-changing organic and inorganic materials, a horror can appear as a groping mound of vines, stumps, and rocks one moment and then erupt into a hoard of what seems like squirrels, skittering across its surface out of a dozen gaps in its body, which then change again into sharp teeth and mouths that clack together as if made from wood. Horrors bear a strong resemblance to aspect thieves, except that a horror is actually a number of organisms clumped together. It’s nearly impossible to tell that they are an amalgamation of creatures, but after great violence a horror will break apart and flee, or feign retreat. One way to tell a horror and aspect thief apart is that a horror does not change forms at rest. It can sit without moving or changing for many weeks before it needs to feed. Another way to tell them apart is the feeling of dread it emits as psychic energy. In fact, this is how it got its name. 

Mimic 
This creature, like other outsiders is able to change its appearance. It is set apart by its knack for mimicking objects. It may appear as large as a treasure chest or as small as an axe. Its victims may not realize a mimic’s true nature until the claws of the beast reach out from the axe pommel, holdfast, and turn on its wielder.

Like doppelgängers, mimics have survived by hiding amongst the population of Rhen. It mimics objects from Small to Large. Its purpose is the same as other outsiders; to survive until it is free to once again roam the infinity of the Outside, with the additional motivation to feed. Mimics lure victims by impersonating objects familiar to them. When a victim comes near to a mimic, it strikes, reaching for its victim with strong appendages and strangling its prey before absorbing it into its body to digest.

  

Demons

The hunters approach the three men. Whispering to one another, each makes a motion to hush. It takes a few moments before they realize neither of them is speaking. It seems some malicious spirit wants to distract them from their quarry, mocking them with sounds identical to their own voices. Discouraged, the hunters look at one another and then start to turn– but at that same moment, the whispers abruptly silence. Then a single raspy voice echoes in their minds, ‘I see you.’ The two men and fire disappear. The other turns and faces them. It peers at the hunters and grows like a shadow, then its maw splits its dark featureless face from end to end. The hunters freeze in place as the eyes of the huge dark form glimmer like lanterns…

Demons have a long history entwined with the creatures and kingdoms of Rhen. The fae refer to them as shadow. Not many know of the relationship between the fae and shadow. They are rarely mentioned in stories, though sometimes they are mentioned cryptically or by other names. The Galdru sometimes call them púca. Outside of the fairy world, those practiced in the arcane arts sometimes elicit a demon's help (at their own peril) usually as a means of acquiring information.

Demons come in all varieties. Like the fae, they are enigmatic, willful, and governed by their own laws, including physical ones. They are very alike. Discerning their motivations and following along is nearly impossible, and as they say, people fear what they do not understand. Do not make the mistake of thinking all demons are evil and motivations malicious. Demons are extraordinarily complex creatures as well as interesting resources. You may never fully understand what drives them but like the fae and their seemingly uniform affinity for riddles, demons are unable to break a promise, at least not directly. One of the oldest stories ever told concerns the Horned King (also called the Demon King). In the long forgotten story, the Demon Hing is banished from the world for fulfilling a promise. Interestingly, the promise was to a mortal man and to fulfill his promise the Horned King had to stay his execution.

Creating a Demon: Demons typically have high Intellect, Intuition, Will, and Luck scores. All demons speak Dalriatan and most also speak Prydian, the language of the fae.

Size and Type: Demons are planar creatures. A demon’s Intellect, Intuition, Will, and Luck ability scores, skills, Resistance Die, and Acumen bonus, regardless of their form. A demon has no true shape. They can change form. Their size and shape changes according to their form; see the special quality, Shapechange below. In the Shadow Realm demons possess additional magical abilities unique to each individual demon.

Speed: Demons have the speed of their shapechanged form. If that creature has a swim or fly speed, the demon gains these capabilities while in that shape.

Armor Class: Demons gain a bonus to natural armor equal to their level.

Attack: When manifested on the Material Plane demons exist in both the Shadow and Material; demons can interact with incorporeal creatures as if they were solid.

Special Attacks: Demons are summoned to the Material Plane in a guise of their choosing. They gain all the special attacks of their chosen form (see Shapechange special quality) and the following attacks.

Spell Drain (M): On a successful attack, demons drain 1d4 Power, no matter its form.

Special Qualities: Demons exist in the Shadow Realm. When summoned to the Material Plane, they are still anchored to the Shadow Realm, existing in both places simultaneously.

Planesvision (M): Demons have vision that spans the planes. Demons see through magical impediments such as magical darkness. When manifested on the Material Plane, they are able to see into the Shadow Realm and the Material Plane simultaneously.

Return (M): Demons are able to spend 1 Power and a movement to return to the Shadow Realm. If a demon voluntarily returns to the Shadow Realm it may not return to the Material Plane, unless summoned again or by some other means. 

Shapechange (M): Demons are shapeshifters. A demon has no true form. It may spend 1 Power and a movement to assume any form of equal or less level. A demon retains its Intellect, Intuition, Will, and Luck ability scores, skills, Resistance Die, and Acumen bonus, and gains the physical attributes of its new form. A demon’s Life does not increase or decrease with its Strength score, but it does gain the magical qualities of its new form. If it dies, it is exiled from the Material Plane and returns to the Shadow Realm in a weakened state. Regardless of a demon’s shape in the Material Plane, it appears cloaked in shadow and fire in the Shadow Realm.

Spells: Demon magic.

 

Melinoe

Melinoe

With a cloak as black as pitch and her hood drawn, she would be indistinguishable from the night, but for the lantern she bears. As she comes closer light spills into the room and everything illuminated becomes filled with dread, but finally, within the lantern's glow, you can see her face, like a shadow outlined with charcoal and eye sockets like windows to the night sky.

Melinoe make no sound. They glide upon the ground, without any apparent stride, upright like aristocrats, with a cloak hiding any evidence of feet. No one knows what they are and where they come from. Experts in the realms beyond, specifically the Shadow Realm, have throughout history come upon mention of these creatures. The old theory was that melinoe are demons, however, the studies of Bartholomew Gray (once the head curator of the Free City Library) revealed that these creatures are not native to the Shadow Realm. In fact, they appear to be creatures from the Aether. For the whole year of 1530 this theory rocked the wizard community of the Free City but since has held true. Melinoe are the only known creatures of the Aether to come to the Shadow Realm (which was previously thought to be impossible). Now the leading theory is that they come to the Shadow Realm to hunt or harvest lost souls. But still, these are only theories. Not much else is known of melinoe as Bartholomew himself proved that coming within their lantern light is extremely dangerous.  

Aura of Madness (M): When within the light of a melinoe’s torch (50-ft. radius), creatures are immediately driven insane. Creatures must make a resistance check or become confused (DC 15).

Snatch Soul (M): A melinoe’s touch drains the target of 1d8 Power. If it drains the target of all its Power, the target becomes comatose and can only be healed with a spell that repairs the mind.

True Seeing (M): A melinoe is able to see anything within the light of its torch (50-ft. radius) as if affected by the True Seeing spell.