A Phantom Bestiary

Beasts

Things of the wild lands, whose origins none can name, the beasts are not animals, and they are not men. They come in a hundred shapes and sizes, and they are found the world over. Some mix the features of two animals into one, others are a single animal with magical properties. There are no legends that tell of these things origin, and they come in such a dizzying array of types that no one can even say for certain that they represent a single race. If the elemental gods create them they have not spoken of it to their priests, and if the Tuatha-Sidhe made them and sent them out to torment the mortal races, no binding has yet broken past their lies and forced them to say. It may be that the world herself dreamed them up in her slumber. Whatever the tale, aside from the army of a neighboring nation, it is the more common among these beasts who present the most frequent danger to a village or traveling caravan.

• Knowledge (arcana), DC 20
• Knowledge (arcana), DC 25
• Knowledge (arcana), DC 30

Types: Beast, Magical Beast

Examples: Ankheg, Chimera, Naga, Owl Bear, Winter Wolf.

Drakes

Drakes are all that remains of the true dragons upon the face of the world, who were said to be but shadows of The Dragon Himself. Drakes sport an intelligence only slightly above that of an animal, though their instincts for the hunt and the kill are strong, and their life spans can hardly be measured in centuries, as was said of their lost ancestors. Most commonly, Drakes are a dull, lusterless red in color, though they've been seen in shades of green and purple. Twice a man's height at the shoulder and four men long, the average adult Drake is hostile, hungry, and territorial. Many have huge wings for flight, and all have snapping jaws and fierce talons. A number of them breathe fire, but just as many do not, and there seems to be no way of knowing which type one has encountered until the beast opens it mouth and the flames gush forth.

They are most commonly found in Ceumri and Saesony, with the wingless sort appearing mostly in Thrudvang and the Low Countries. The Fenian and even the orcs have reported sightings, as well, but civilization has long cleared them from Estria.

A character knows the following with a successful skill check:

• History DC 20 - The Fire On Blackholme Peak - Far to the Saeson east the charmen return from the dark woods with tales of a lonely cave on a lonely mountain and the largest drake they've ever seen. It has fire, it has wings, it has great claws and teeth; is it an ancient thing, or just closer in blood to The Dragon than most? Many men discount the tales, but Blackholme Peak has been glowing nights of late, and a twelve-strong warband who camped near its foot have yet to return.
• Arcana DC 25 - Birthing a New World - The Dragon sits as the heart of the natural world, like a chick waiting to hatch from its egg, but this was not always the case. Indeed, The Dragon was already waiting, before the world was spawned from the mists of glory, and it was His breath that covered her over with plants and his dreams, when eventually he lay down to sleep, that dotted her with animals. The Dragon may wake again one day, and fly away for other spheres, to create other worlds. Indeed, since the gods come from other worlds themselves, it's possible that He already did, and that Scalgard is not the first world He has hatched.
• Arcana DC 30 - A Heart Consumed By Scales of Lucre - Some love gold not for what it can bring them, but for its own sake. They love the way the way it shines, the coolness against their skin, the way it smells... They count it, again and again and again. And they try, always, to get more. But gold is closer to The Dragon's soul than anything else in Scalgard, and too much love can change a man. Bit by bit, the body is coated in flecks of gold. Piece by piece, the gold is absorbed into the flesh. The body expands, and changes shape. A mouth becomes a snout, hands become claws, and over time, over time, over time, where once there was a man there is only a Drake.

Types: Dragon, Magical Beast

Examples: Dragonspawn, Drake, Hydra, Purple Worm, Wyvern

Elementals

The Elemental Lords grant many boons to those who pledge themselves in service, and the greatest among them are allies called up from their own potent souls. These are the elementals, and each is as one with the temper of its creator. Steel Elementals are not merely formed from steel, but appear as knights in perfectly symmetrical plate armor, carrying greatswords; and Moon elementals are creatures of shifting patterns of hypnotic white light.

Elementals find a home in the realms of Scalgard where their creators hold the most power. So Annwyn's dry, dead realm in the southwest sees many dust elementals wandering the halls as librarians, and Beira's frigid kingdom north of orcheim sees men of ice patrolling the border. Those mortals who would approach the gods must first contend with these most powerful of their servants. As strong as the gods are, though, creating and maintaining such a creature is draining, even for them, and far away from their domains elementals are not often to be found.

A character knows the following with a successful Religion check:

• DC 20 - The Forest For the Trees - The Forest of Ikalda, a week's ride into the heart of Thrudvang, is actually a reserve army of ten thousand Thunder Elementals, petrified into the form of bristling pine trees. Anyone who chops down a tree in Ikalda will go deaf in the resulting explosion. What they're standing in reserve for, nobody but the Duke of Thunder knows.
• DC 25 - Those Who Are One Army - Against Annwyn's will and power, Nefain keeps some righteous heroes, slain before their time, by her side as her Einherjar, her Steel Elementals. The ritual by which she puts mortal souls in metal bodies is still a mystery, but whatever it is it makes her servants unfailing in purpose and loyalty.
• DC 30 -

Types: Constructs, Elementals, Outsiders

Examples: Air Elemental, Ice Archon Frostshaper, Ice Devil (Gelugon), Inevitable (Zelekhut), Iron Golem, Mephit (Dust)

Fir Bolg

Wild and bestial, these feral wolf-men stand just over seven feet tall and have sworn themselves the enemies of mankind. The Fir Bolg were the first mortal inhabitants of the westlands, and have now claimed the wild places and the shadows as their own. They mark their territory with blood. When the races of men moved west, out of Estria and into Ceumri and the Deiran, and began to build towns and cities, they cleared wide stretches of land to farm or graze cattle and unwittingly stole the lands of the Fir Bolg. Over the centuries, the Fir Bolg have frequently bitten back.

Though not naturally inclined towards industry, the Fir Bolg are a people of feral and cunning intellect. They salvage the tools of those they kill, and over the long years on the moors and in the deepest woods, they have learned to wield weapons and wear light armor. They run on four legs almost as easily as on two, and are masters of pack tactics, grouping together to hound a single foe and run it to ground. When they strike, they strike quickly, and fade back into the shadows, safe from assault until they can burst forth again. Of late, these strikes have been growing in frequency...

A character knows the following with a successful History check:

• DC 20 - Old Dogs, New Tricks -
• DC 25 - The Leader of the Pack - The wolf-men of the Deiran have long howled madly at the moon as they race across the moors, but these howls have lately grown in fervor.
• DC 30 - Proud and Bitter Sons - It was Cerithwen made the Fir Bolg, from wolves she found when first she came to Scalgard, but her children failed to hold her interest. While the first dwarves had fosterage from the giants, the Fir Bolg had to succeed, and fail, on their own. Now they seek help from none and their feral hearts scream for their mother's blood and an end to all her works.

Type/Example: Fir Bolg use gnoll statistics

Giants

Even the oldest dwarven thanes speak of the Foimoire with only vague stories. They say that these giant figures walked from the eastern seas and drove away the Tuatha Sidhe. The dwarves call the Foimoire their grandfathers, give them credit for inventing their runic writing and say that the wisest among them knew the languages of the birds and of the earth. They strove with the gods when those Elemental Lords first came to Scalgard, but proved no match for their strange magics and retreated beneath the waves from which they had long ago come.

The truth of these stories may remain in the Foimoire's abandoned castles, whose halls have sunk below the surface of the earth and are too often the home of dangerous monsters, or they may be kept by the Foimoire's few, certain children, the giants. Human in shape and intellect, but between half again and thrice a man's height, they are creatures of incredible strength. What's more, a rare few of their leaders possess a frightening power - knowledge of the Foimoire's ancient runic magic. The giants live in castles of their own, far to the north near Beira's lands or sunk not far from the shore; some have even claimed homes in their forebars' old haunts. Despite their small numbers, the giants passions are just as varied as in the races of men, and their grudges are sized to match their stature. Usually reclusive, a caravan, mining or foresting expedition or fishing trawler that strays too near their haunts is an invitation for a relentless and violent rebuke. Lending credence to claims of cousinage, though, the giants will never initiate an attack against the dwarves, though the mountain folk do not hold themselves with the same restraint.

A character knows the following with a successful skill check:

• DC 20
• DC 25 - Calling Their Fathers' Names -
• DC 30 - Walkers in the Waves -

Types: Giant, Outsider

Examples: Giant (Cloud), Giant (Storm), Titan

Tuatha-Sidhe

These "Children of the Earth" claim that they were dreamed into existence by the living consciousness of the natural world itself, when the land had newly formed from the mists of glory. They strove as knights against the dragons and, later, when Cerithwen came to light the nighttime sky they strode above the Fir Bolg, who only watched and built their nations in the Strange Lords' shadows. It was not until the Foimoire came to the Phantom World, with shadows of their own in giant and dwarf, that the Tuatha-Sidhe quit Scalgard in favor of their ethereal Dream Realm.

They have not quit the plane of man forever, though. They may cross over at barrows and dolmens, where the ties between their world and Scalgard are strong. Some have made tiny kingdoms, in places far from men, but these never last, for the pacts between the Tuatha-Sidhe and the Foimoire forbid it. More strongly, though, they must answer to a mortal wizard's call, for by ancient pact man's magic is the magic of the Tuatha-Sidhe; the Tuatha-Sidhe will serve as a wizard's teachers for this boon and, when he asks, powerful soldiers in his service.

The Tuath-Sidhe come in a wide range of appearances and sizes, from tiny sprites to noble, silver-pelted cat-men, from giant trolls with cloven hooves and mighty thewed arms to strange creatures made entirely of verdage. Each, no matter the kind, is possessed of some mysterious magical ability.

A character knows the following with a successful Arcana check:

• DC 20 - Scions of Dream and Horn - Sometimes known as Half-elves, the Aelfin are changeling children, fathered upon human maids by, or by human men upon, the Tuatha-Sidhe. Born into the society of their mortal mother or left on the doorstep of their father's house, they exhibit some of the characteristics of their immortal parents, having slightly slender and pointed features, a somewhat extended life span, and frequently displaying an odd coloration in the eyes or hair. The Aelfin also have inherited an almost magical quality from their parents, knowledge from the otherworld that can give them strange insights and surprising knowledge beyond their chosen role in the world.
• DC 25 - Poor, Abandoned Soldiers - The Strange Lords left for the Dream Realm, and took their best knights with them, but their bondsmen did not merit such an exalted retreat. No, the goblins were left behind to make their own way in the world, and the memory of what they lost twists in their haunted hearts. There is order to them, civility, but it's a veneer that only poorly apes a half-remembered dream. Perhaps it is that dream that brings the goblins into such frequent service of Aelfin or Fey-pact Warlocks. But perhaps there is no dream at all, and the goblins were never abandoned, and the Tuatha-Sidhe are playing a far more subtle game, and have their hands on far more pawns, than sages have ever credited them with...
• DC 30 - Walking the Never-Trod Path - The doors to the Strange Lords' realm have not closed completely, and cracks in the wall between worlds may grow wider with time. The foot of an abandoned path, the frame of a broken door, a hollow made by two trees entwined, all of these may open to the Dream Realm for he who has the right key. The Tuatha-Sidhe's ancient songs of power are folklore now, passed down and corrupted with time, but a man who can sing their original notes without his voice breaking might step through to the other side and seek his heart's desire. The Strange Lords, of course, know their own songs, but only rarely seem to use them, and none have been willing to say why.

Types: Fey, Giant, Outsider, Magical Beast, Plant

Examples: Cyclops Impaler, Dryad, Eladrin Twilight Incanter, Fomorian Painbringer, Goblin Hexer, Razorclaw Stalker, Treant, Unicorn

Undead

When most men die, their spirits march to the shore, and the black spectral ships that carry them to Annwyn's realm. Some, through misfortune, strength of will or sorcery, are forced to stay behind. There are victims of an undead's own attack, souls marked by the touch of chaos and bound to walk the earth; kings and heroes with deeds undone, whose ghosts rest uneasily in their graves; and, worst of all, those called up by the power of the elemental gods, for even the dead have use as tools. Mannanan sends his storms after Annwyn's black ships, and he claims what souls he sinks for his own, giving them over to his priests or turning them loose as he wills. The Prince of Dust is little better, using the souls he claims in much the same way; though at least his priests have the power to put down what they or others call up. There are few foes worse than the undead; immune to fear, terrible to behold and potentially without number.

A character knows the following with a successful Religion check:

• DC 20 - The War-Prince of Nar Folr - In the bog-barrows that dot the Low Countries lie the remains of those lands' once-proud lords, but not all their souls rest easy in Annwyn's halls. One ancient prince, Draugr, has stirred at the clash of arms overhead, and he prepares to march to war once more. Shepherds have seen his barrow-door stand open to the moon. Farmers have seen, before fleeing in terror, too many of the newly dead, not tied down in the ancient style, crawl their way across the fen to meet him. Villagers in their homes have awakened from black dreams screaming his name. When his host is complete will it be vengeance he seeks, or conquest?
• DC 25 - The Ashen Covenant - In old, decrepit temples throughout Thrudvang and Saesony, a terrible doom awaits the mortal world. A cult of the dead and nearly so, traitors to Annwyn's will, the Ashen Covenant would throw open the gates to the Halls of Dust and let the dead walk beside the living. Such an order is hardly healthy, though, and already through ritual, through sacrifice and through art, the Covenant have shown they are far more concerned with the hearafter than the health of anyone who's yet to cross that line.
• DC 30 - Stilling the Black Ship's Sails - Wise sages know that Annwyn must call the dead to him, lest their souls stay uneasy in Scalgard, but the wisest of the wise have learned that there may be a way to keep his call from reaching your ears. On the night of the new moon, when Cerithwen turns her face from the world; if it is cloudless, and Mannanan does not race through the sky; you would wear a symbol of power and, with blasphemous words, try to bind a god to a circle of black stone stolen from the dwarves. Succeed, and Annwyn's immortal, lich-power may be yours; fail, and he will most certainly have a new soul in his care. There is only one sage wise enough to have heard of the ritual but still fool enough to try. The Raven Queen.

Type: Undead

Examples: Banshee, Ghoul, Skeleton, Wight, Wraith, Zombie

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Legends of the Phantom World