Magical Creatures#
If it talks, don't answer. If it sings, run. If it's beautiful, run faster.
Older than people
Magical creatures came to Urd in the Age of Peace, long before mankind, and they’ve outlasted the gods who were there to see them arrive. They can’t be tamed: they’re too clever, or what they want isn’t anything you can give them. Each is fed by an element, and the ground that feeds it is where you’ll meet it.
In a fight a creature’s AC is its Defense, and it adds a fifth of its level to hit. Running a Fight has the rest.
Reading a magical creature#
Each creature gives its size, rank and level, its health, armor class and bite, and how many come together. Fights as is the class whose abilities it uses, so a priest-like creature heals and a headhunter-like one goes for the throat. The bars show its power in each element and what it resists: a full bar of resistance means that element can’t hurt it, and a bar pointing the other way means it’s weak to it.
By element#
A magical creature lives wherever the ground feeds its strongest element.
Legends#
Creatures nobody has seen in living memory. They’re in the old songs, the old bones and the occasional drunk’s story, and as far as anyone can prove, they’re gone.
- Griffin
Health 85 · AC 15 · Bite 1d10 · Group 1-2 · XP x2
Griffins had the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, and stood about half the size of a roc. None has been seen since the War of Souls, and they're a legend now. You'll still find one on half the coats of arms in Tharsis, because nothing says old blood like an animal nobody can check on.
resists air and spirit.
- Ziz
Health 90 · AC 15 · Bite 1d10 · Group 1 · XP x2.5
The ziz was a great griffin-like bird whose wings spread so wide they could block out the sun, though the body between them was no bigger than a horse's. They were good-hearted creatures, and in the old ages people relied on them to guard livestock from worse things. None has been seen since the War of Souls, and the ziz is a legend now.
resists air.
- Abaddon
Health 150 · AC 18 · Bite 1d12 · Group 1 · XP x4
Abaddon is Narsik for ruin, and it is also the name of Dekkashraen's palace. The stories make it king of a swarm of locust-things with men's faces and scorpion tails, whose wings sound like cavalry charging. Nobody has ever seen one, and the rumor that some wait deep in the Bleak is only a rumor. It's a legend now, and everyone would like it to stay one.
immune to fire; resists spirit; weak to air.
- Echeneis
Health 200 · AC 14 · Bite 1d12 · Group 1 · XP x3
The echeneis is a tall tale from before the War of Souls, told by ship captains in Crecia, the Port of Doonan and other harbors. The fish was said to latch onto a hull and hold the ship back however hard the wind blew. Nobody has seen one in living memory, and if they ever lived, they are gone now.
immune to fire and water; weak to air.
- Thunderbird
Health 150 · AC 16 · Bite 1d12 · Group 1 · XP x3.5
Thunderbirds were enormous birds whose wingbeats made thunder and stirred up storms, and they were said to bring the rain. They were big enough to hunt small whales on their own, and the rocs descend from them. Nobody has seen one in living memory and they're a legend now, though every Amari farmer still looks up when thunder comes out of a clear sky.
immune to air; resists water.
- Krakkan
Health 240 · AC 17 · Bite 1d20 · Group 1 · XP x4
The krakkan is a sailor's legend: an octopus big enough to drag a ship under, said to have lived in the deep water east of Crecia. Old sailors spoke of it as something their grandfathers saw, and nobody has seen one since, so it's a legend now. The dockside taverns of Crecia still sell a krakkan's beak every few years, and it's never the same size twice.
immune to water; resists fire, air and earth.
