Best Left Buried - Hunter's Guide To Monsters

Published by SoulMuppet Publishing
www.soulmuppet.com
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Writing by: Zachary Cox (@JellyMuppet) and

Nicholas Spence (@NickSpence1)
Editing by: Vi Huntsman (@ImmaWaffleBunny) MRC,

Fiona Maeve Giest (@coilingoracle) MRC and
James M Hewitt (@needycatgames)
Layout by: Dave Cox (@dastardlydave)
Art by: Ben Brown (@IllustratorBB)
Maps by: Patrick Eyler (@Mountain_Foot)
Thanks to: Luke Gearing, Ben Milton, Alex Hill, Ben Warren,
James Lader, Harrison Swift, Sam Sleney, Abigail LaLonde,
Josh Davenport, Perrtu Vedenoja, Luka Rejec,
Michael Lombardi, Connagh Doohan, Huw Williams,
Michael Bacon
The Hunter’s Guide to
Best Left Buried is often a game of survival horror—not just of

surviving once, but continually. Over time, your Grip is
shredded, your body gathers Injuries and Afflictions as you
repeatedly delve the Crypt. Confronting and mastering horror
before descending into the dark to discover another.
In Best Left Buried, the most common horror is the monster,

this is your Monster Manual.
Welcome to the Hunter’s Guide to Monsters.

Table of Contents
Creating and Running Monsters 6

Mainstay Monsters 14
Returning Monsters
Brigands 16
Cultists 20
Goblins 28
Great Beasts 32
Undead 36
Wizards 40
Monster Mythology
Beyonders 44
Celestials 48
Cinderbeasts 52
Fae 56
Mechanists 60
Void Hearted 64
A Menagerie of Moods 68
Adaptation Library 78
Beasts of the Crypt 88
Misshapen Magic 114
Monster Crafting 122
5
Creating and Running
Difficulty in Best Left Buried

Survival horror games face two conflicting goals:
• Difficult challenges prevent success in the Crypt.
• Solutions are possible, otherwise it’s not fun.
The costs of survival are most interesting when overcoming

horror is difficult but not excessively so. This balance is
different for every group. As with all RPG matters, discuss it
collectively determining the best solution.
The Purpose
Monsters in Best Left Buried exist for a reason—either for the
gameplay, a result of the Doomsayer's rationale, or for the
narrative, a result of the game world's canon. The best
monsters combine these two approaches organically.
Monsters are worldbuilding, so when creating a monster ask

why it exists and for what purpose? Boring monsters exist only
to kill or be killed by Cryptdiggers. A monster you stumble
across in a dark labyrinth is not as scary as one holding the
local village in a choking grip of fear.
Imagining Monsters
Imagining Monsters
One of the most effort-efficient methods of Crypt stocking is modifying monsters
you know. vFind unexplored angles, by asking yourself how can you make it fresh
and unexpected. If you know everything about a monster, it is not as threatening.
When subverting expectations, foreshadow it, presenting a scenario seeded with

clues. Your players may draw erroneous conclusions so when the rug is pulled out
beneath them revealing the situation’s horrendous truth, it feels earned.
“Gotcha” situations are rarely a win for players. Guessing part of the mystery is
skilled play, and should be rewarded! So while the Doomsayer can create these
moments at will, an antagonistic gameplay experience is not encouraged.
Consider
From a gameplay perspective: From a narrative perspective:
• What fear or horror do you want this • What is the Crypt’s apex predator?
monster to explore? How does it maintain dominance?
• What kind of challenge does • What new arrivals infest the Crypt?
it present? How have they altered its balance?
• Have you imagined a cool visual? • Which physical attributes are

necessary to dwelling here?
• Is there some new way to ravage
the Cryptdiggers? • Who might use this place as a base,
or exploit its resources?
• Is there a scenario you want to see
played out? • What learned behaviours are
adaptive here?
7
Imagining Monsters
The Visuals
Find ways to cosmetically demonstrate a monster's theme.
Visuals are a reflection of character and capabilities, not
simply set dressing. These clues reward intelligent play. If a
monster drips acid players might realise it can damage
equipment (Acidic Adaptation). A monster wearing a necklace
of severed heads, clearly doesn’t value mercy.
Also consider what traces this monster leaves behind, whether

tracks, pieces of itself, or discarded victims. Use the Omens by
Mood table (pg 68) for inspiration.
The Actions
Consider which actions will narratively and mechanically
reinforce the monster's theme.
In addition to routine dungeon behavior, consider its narrative

or situational locale. A monster’s presence should affect the
wider environment. A monster who hunts in darkness
carefully extinguishes and blocks lights. A monster ruling a
Crypt will cause local creatures to run screeching
when approaching.
Designing monsters
Selecting Adaptations Reskinning and
Tweaking Adaptations
Choose adaptations for your
monsters which:
If creating new adaptations is daunting
1. Provide an interesting
or one doesn’t quite meet your needs,
play experience.
bend an existing adaptation. The rules
2. Reflect the monster's narrative are not written in stone. The text is
or image. yours to do with as you
see fit.
Keep them succinct and reasonable. If
they can’t fit in your head all in one go, If you think the Undead adaptation fits
consider if every ability is. An unused your Plant monster needs use it noting
ability is identical to not having one. altered wording.
Creating Adaptations For an example of a monster

Craft, adaptations to provide maximum
utilizing slightly altered and
impact using:
reflavoured Adaptations, see the
• Abilities that change or even Vermin Collector (pg 110).
recontextualise the battle’s flow.
• Stat Checks only where necessary. If

it never gets to do its cool thing
because it got unlucky, it may as well
have never had it.
• Adaptations that are impactful and

likely triggered. Remember most
combats only last 2-3 rounds.
• Combat abilities that prompt tactical

decisions. Cryptdiggers are fragile and
monsters generally do not need help
killing them. Complicate the situation
instead of relying on damage
amplification or repeated invalidation
of the players’ main tools.
9
Using Monsters
Why use a Further, consider
Monster at all? 1. How does its place in the Crypt’s food

chain affect its behaviour? Is it an
In Best Left Buried, the Monster
apex predator, prey, or something in
embodies the Crypt’s danger, the places
the between?
into which none are meant to trespass.
Monsters show that this is not 2. How does it fulfil basic needs such as
for people. food, shelter, and companionship?
Does it even possess these needs?
Monsters are also animal and human
Crypt inhabitants, reacting differently 3. Does it actively pursue any
to Cryptdigger intrusion whether with long-term goals?
suspicion, fear, or outright anger—
4. How does it react to other
above all, their needs and desires
Crypt denizens?
determine their actions and reactions.
Consider what a monster gains fighting
Alternatively stated, Monsters are the
the party. Without something to gain,
Cryptdiggers’ opposite. While Crypts are
it avoids or de-escalates conflict. Some
a foreign and uncanny place, it is
fight to defend food, treasures or
normal for monsters. Their response
territory. Others for pleasure. The
may be analogous to ours if a monster
reasoning and methods will be
busts down our door.
different for every monster.
A consistent psychology makes a

Monster Psychology monster feel more real. This doesn’t
It is tempting to imagine monsters as mean they always act identically but
being akin to video game enemies, that they react predictably, allowing
mindlessly attacking until dead. players to plan around monster
behaviour, and fight, trap, lure or
Conversely, Best Left Buried’s monsters
avoid it.
should aim to be indistinguishable from
an actual, living creatures.
When using a monster, consider its

primary motivations: wants and fears.
10
Using Monsters
Tools for Running the
Monster Consistently
Omens
These are signs and traces the monster leaves around and
within the Crypt—its lasting environmental impact granting it
a sense of place.
To be used and interpreted by clever parties to gain insight

into the monster’s nature and capabilities.
Moods
These are a generalised expression of what the monster is
feeling or doing.
Also demonstrating not all monster encounters begin or end

with violence. Indeed, multiple encounters without violence
may heighten the tension when violence breaks out.
Adaptations
These mechanically express a monster’s narrative
capabilities—not simply combat abilities but tools used to
survive and thrive.
A monster with Spider Climb traverses the Crypt differently

than an Ethereal monster, as one with a with Petrifying Gaze
defends itself differently than one with Fire-Breathing.
Consider how adaptations affect a monster's behaviour, how it

might engage with prey, what obstacles it bypasses, and those
it lacks tools to deal with.
Spicing Up Monsters
The Monster...
1/1. has an additional (and deadly) 3/1. cannot die without meeting a
hidden limb specific and esoteric requirement
1/2. has symbiotic creatures living on 3/2. must observe some curious and
it that aids it in battle ineffable ritual
1/3. has a non-obvious method of 3/3. is forbidden from entering a

locomotion (e.g. flying or specific kind of area
burrowing)
3/4. knows when and where someone
1/4. sheds its flesh into a second more says its true name
deadly form when heavily
3/5. inflicts wounds that shine like
damaged
torches
1/5. is actually a highly coordinated
3/6. causes divination within a league
swarm of tiny creatures
to go appallingly wrong
1/6. misrepresents its intelligence
4/1. deforms or feasts on its victims
level
4/2. performs the same routine daily
2/1. causes a lot of collateral damage
in battle 4/3. prioritises a certain type of prey
2/2. has a prominent facial feature 4/4. always initiates battle in the same
made of an unusual substance manner
2/3. apparent blend of two distinct 4/5. deliberately leaves signs of its
creatures passage
2/4. produces its voice in a very 4/6. announces its presence well in
unusual way (such as bodily advance
vents)
5/1. was once a person, twisted by
2/5. moves as if suspended in water magic into their current form
rather than air
5/2. was born from some awful sin
2/6. makes the air feel extremely thick locals perpetrated
and heavy
5/3. is from beyond the stars and the
world as we understand it
12
Spicing Up Monsters
The Monster Cont...
5/4. is the creation of an alchemist
who meddled with energies
beyond their control
5/5. is the creation of a Holy power, a

punishment set upon the world
5/6. was once a Cryptdigger that the

Crypt warped beyond recognition
6/1. despises a particular element or

object and won’t approach it
6/2. almost always falls for decoys,

disguises and dummy people
6/3. has no concept of its own size or

weight, often trapping itself on
terrain
6/4. overconfident and willingly dives

headfirst into traps
6/5. is well documented in lore
6/6. has a deadly rivalry with another

local monster
Mainstay
Monsters
In the Crypt, there are some types of foe that appear again and
again. If poorly managed, these classic enemies can become
tiring, risking becoming a horde of expendable enemies or
cookie cutter stereotypes. The tools in this chapter provide
some random tables and fresh stat blocks to present
interesting and varied versions of these timeless adversaries.
Brigands, Fighters, and Thieves
Throughout the lands, there are always those willing to use

violence to achieve their aims. Driven by any number of
principles (or lack thereof) they may be found lurking in the
woods, skulking the hills or just off the well-beaten path.
While they typically rely on their numbers to discourage

resistance, there may be one among them who always holds out
some hope for a sudden outbreak of violence...
1D6 Brigand Moods 1D6 Omens

1. Pilferer 4. Nimble 1. Scattered bodies, caught by surprise or
2. Knife from the 5. Ambusher mercilessly killed
Shadows 6. Morale Issues
2. Well trodden wilderness paths,
3. Shadowclad
none on the roads
1D6 Suggested 3. Empty bottles of alcohol, spatters of

blood, battle detritus
Adaptations 4. Yells, laughter, hob-nailed boots in
1. Pilferer
scattered rhythm
2. Knife from the Shadows
3. Shadowclad 5. Sweat, booze, blood. Horse-stink and
4. Nimble leather pushed to the brink
5. Ambusher
6. Tree-houses, bivouacs, the towers of
6. Morale Issues
Robber-barons, wooden palisades
16
Brigands
1D12 Brigand
Band Names
1. Scourge of Elkenwode
2. Keene Reavers
3. The Gelde’n Bastards
4. Calmyn Knaves
5. Abbey of the Heathen
6. The Flagellators
7. Mistweaver’s Phantoms
8. Skyclaimer’s Spooks
9. The Knife Disciples
10. The Pauper’s Pickers
11. The Taker’s Men
12. The Butcher’s Band
1D6 Brigand Band Goals

1. Get rich and kill trying
2. Take the easy pickings
3. Bring down the local tyrant
4. Finance the leader’s project
5. Disrupt an enemy lord
6. Fill the lord’s coffers
Brigands
1D6 Mainstays
1. Grunts 2. Lurkers
Armour 8 | Vigour 6 | Grip 2 Armour 7 | Vigor 6 | Grip 2
BRAWN 1 | WIT 0 | WILL 0 BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL 0
Hand Weapon | Basic Armour Ranged Weapon | Light Weapon
Morale Issues Nimble
3. Foecleaver 4. Duelist
Armour 9 | Vigour 9 | Grip 3 Armour 8 | Vigour 30 | Grip 3
Heavy Weapon | Plate Armour Light Weapon | Basic Armour
Leaping Slash | Barrelling Charge | Redirect | Escape Tactics |

Cleaving Blows Focused Defence
5. Phalanx 6. Grandmaster
Hand Weapon | Shield | Hand Weapon | Shield |

Heavy Armour Basic Armour
Phalanx | Defender Weaponmaster | Commander
18
Brigands
1D6 Specialist Troops
1. Cutpurse 2. Assassin
Light Weapon | Thrown Weapon | Light Weapon | Thrown Weapon |

Basic Armour Basic Armour
Pilferer | Knife from the Shadows Knife from the Shadows |

Toxic Blade | Umbral Dash
3. Berserker 4. Alchemist
BRAWN 2 | WIT 0 | WILL 1 BRAWN -1 | WIT 1 | WILL 0
Heavy Weapon Light Weapon | Basic Armour
Battle Frenzy | Unstoppable Concoctionist | Toxic Blade
5. Sharpshooter 6. Monster Eater

Light Weapon | Ranged Weapon | Hand Weapon (vicious claws)

Basic Armour
Bloodthirsty | Flesh-gorging |
Set-Up Shot | Wind-Up Strike Wound-Knitting
19
Cultists Wizards, Priests, Acolytes
1D6 Cultist Moods 1D6 Omens

1. Enraptured 4. Deceptive 1. Bodies marked with esoteric sigils cut
2. Suspicious 5. Ensorcelled into the skin, ritual disfigurement
3. Paranoid 6. Violent 2. A careful mob, moving with singular
purpose
3. Occult sigils, splashes of unearthly
1D6 Adaptations liquids, dropped iconography

4. Low chanting, firebrand preaching,
1. Disorganised
arcane incantations
5. Unusual spices and perfumes, blood,
3. Toxic Blade
ancient tomes
4. Censure
6. Surprisingly extensive cellars,
5. I See Truth in the Stars
forgotten temples, among the citizenry
6. Fire and Lightning Strange
1D6 Cultists
1. Acolyte 2. Zealot
Hand Weapon OR Basic Armour Basic Armour | Light Weapon
Disorganised Knife from the Shadows |

Battle Frenzy
The rank and file congregation:
chanters, hooded masses, knife-wavers, These few proved their worth to the cult
blood-letters and witnesses—the saved and continue to. The Cult is all that they
and the damned. live for, allowing a desperate cunning to
worm its way into their psyches,
20
bearing foul fruit.
SPECIAL ADAPTATION
Revelation: When reduced to
Cultists
0 Grip, the monster receives a
revelation: immediately
regaining D6 Vigour, D3 Grip
and a Power from their Cult List.
3. Corpsemonger 4. Dreadblade
Basic Armour | Light Weapon Radiant Blade | 1 from Cult List
Spirits of the Beyond | Heavy Weapon | Heavy Armour

1 from Cult List
For the most part Cults prefer to stay in
The one thing that almost all cults leave the shadows and act in secret, which is
behind is a bitter legacy of corpses. Thus a problem for when violence is the most
it’s sensible some learn the expedient solution. The Dreadblades are
comparatively mundane art of the chosen few who execute these
animating cadavers for routine and destructive goals.
brute-force requirements.
5. High Speaker 6. Transcended

Armour 8 | Vigour 12 | Grip 9 Armour 6+D3 | Vigour 6D6 | Grip 0
BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL 2 BRAWN D3 | WIT D3 | WILL D3
Basic Armour | Light Weapon Hand Weapon (Claws/

hands/appendages)
Fire and Lightning Strange |
2 from Cult List Spirits of the Beyond |
1 from Cult List
The cult leaders inducted into the most
esoteric mysteries. The most secretive of There are truths and mysteries beyond
the lot, they are content delving deeper our quivering forms and thoughts—webs
into the unknown, subtly advancing and strands coruscating with
their cause. That said, their power is unfathomable sublimity. Bearing witness
formidable. changes you: lesser than what you
witnessed, but far greater than before.
Cultists
1D6 Cults and their Powers
1. Disciples
of the Great Hunger
Hunger exists in many forms; the Disciples embrace

them all, and none more than cannibalism. They can be
brutal and animalistic, tearing giblets with their teeth
and guzzling from burst arteries like new-born pups.
They can be genteel, refined, demurely slicing away
tender morsels with surgical precision.
This hunger burns behind their eyes, an endless

requirement, bare as a void. It clawing from within,
desperate to be slaked. Powers
1. Hunger Pangs
They adore and fear it in equal measure; it grants
2. Ferocious Charge
desperate, adrenal strength yet demands ceaseless
3. Chase them Down
feeding, an infinite desire. Even as they throw
4. Flesh-Gorging
themselves ecstatically into its yawning embrace, they
5. Soul Feast
dread hitting bottom, and are consumed themselves
6. Devour
in turn.
The Hook: Sometimes, when hope flickers and dies, there is

no escape save eating forbidden things.
The Mysteries: The hunger begins as a strength, an

adrenaline rush, a gateway to new, exotic delicacies.
The Sting: The relentless hunger is omnipresent, gnawing and

clawing at your belly.
The Trap: The Cult can find things that assuage the hunger.
They are the only ones capable of helping or understanding
The Hope: You keep the hunger in check, resisting your

animal urges.
22
Cultists
2. Ardents
of the Brimstone Circles
Beyond our simple reality, there are wicked, humanity

devouring creatures hailing from the abominable
nightmare-world of Letha, where the seas are flame,
clouds of ash fill the skies and the very ground is sown
with bones and crystalised misery.
And yet…this wicked place's denizens come to us, palms

outstretched, bearing gifts and promises. Their
appearance is nothing to worry about, they say, they
bring gifts—perhaps to exchange for some tokens, some Powers
trifles. The over-zealous clergy’s stories demonise what 1. Weakness (Holy)
they don’t understand or can’t control. 2. Final Revenge
3. The Evil Eye
Come, let us show you what the Cinderbeasts have
4. Cursling Blades
to offer...
5. Flame-Wreathed
6. Fire-Breathing
The Hook: Look, maybe they are wicked things from
beyond our world, but they grant true power.
The Mysteries: The first few favours are cheap but

quite addictive, however...
The Sting: As you crave more the favours become more

potent, the high yet higher, the costs yet dearer.
The Trap: Should you fail to keep up with increasing

demands, Cinderbeasts possess your body directly
exacting their will upon the world.
The Hope: The favours continue and you eternally

outrun the consequences.
23
Cultists
3. Cultivators
of Decay
There are all manner of things which are not strictly

‘alive’ which thrive when symbiotically linked to a living
(often a human). Cultivators of Decay nurture such
relationships with a grand plethora of ‘Guests’,which
share their bodies and infest their minds.
The Guests are not despots—in all things a Cultivator and

Guests form a hive-mind. Their symbiotic bond provides,
the Guests provide health, vitality and exceedingl
Powers
long life.
1. Weakness (Fire)
In exchange, the host submits to the Consensus, greatly 2. Toxic Blade
outnumbered as they are, and seeks out further hosts, 3. Your Limbs
willing or not, to harbor their own Guests. Like Lead
4. Marsh-Borne
5. Falling to Bits
The Hook: All life can be nurtured to grow together,
6. Violent End
competition need not underlie survival.
The Mysteries: Early Symbiosis has benefits: potency,

relative health, a hive-mind’s comfort. A small
discomfort is a small price, is it not?
The Sting: The more Guests you bring in, the less and
less your will matters in Consensus. The more alive you
remain, the less agency you retain.
The Trap: Without Symbiosis, your flesh would slough

from your bones. If you disobey the Consensus, your
future existence will be certainly unpleasant.
The Hope: Taking on further Guests can allay

discomforts, perhaps buying enough time to
escape dependency.
Cultists
4. Apostles
of the New Flesh
For the hedonists of old, a time came without new

extravagences, breakable boundaries or tresspassable
taboos. This grew their ennui and deepened their
despondency.
When revelation came, their joy overflowed: the

Ineffable Flesh promised deliverance beyond the most
vivid dreamer’s wildest acid-nightmares.
Their senses were wider than the sky. Their experiences Powers
deepened, beyond what even they could plumb. Their 1. Delicious
flesh twisted, into shapes undreamt by nature. Suffering
2. Bloodscent
Perhaps, in their heart of hearts, they fear what they are
3. Wound-Knitting
becoming, the extremity they witnessed, but how can
4. Gelatinous Grip
they cope without their New Flesh?
5. Bloodthirsty
6. Amorphous
The Hook: The cult is privy to all manner of greater
and deeper extravagances.
The Mysteries: The reality is so much more wonderful

than promised! Or maybe your comprehension grew...
The Sting: The more intense sensations you

experience, the less human you become and the duller
reality seems.
The Trap: Eventually, only the Cult’s sensations and

experiences provide any satisfaction.
The Hope: Eventually, we may permanently shed our

humanity for something greater.
25
Cultists
5. Seekers
of Life-Eternal
In the end, all withers and dies, such is the cruel law of
Entropy. The Seekers recoil from flesh’s inevitable
failings and strive to transcend their frail forms
subverting death’s cosmic laws.
Smaller and more academic than most cults, including

many magical scholars. Some reckon their dour
laboratories bore witness to the first Liches. All manner
of travesty is blamed on the Seekers and their depraved
experiments. Villages slaughtered, corpses defiled with
Powers
occult sigils, tombs desecrated and befouled.
1. Undead
For the Seekers, no cost is too great, no method is too 2. Will it Never Die?
abhorrent and their devotion is limitless. 3. Resurrectionist
4. Sworn Foe (Holy)
5. Wound-Knitting
The Hook: Death is a cruel tyrant, together we can
6. Beetle-Flesh
conquer it.
The Mysteries: Some methods can extend life, the Cult

helps achieve them.
The Sting: While short-term methods are benign,

living soon requires becoming more distasteful and,
eventually, monstrous.
The Trap: There can only be awful, awful things

awaiting those subverting life and death’s
natural order.
The Hope: The discovery of undying life.
26
Cultists
6. Scholars
of the Demon-Sultan
Some believe that the earth we stand on, sustaining us,

is somehow the centre of everything. Fools.
Others believe short-lived man—or perhaps the fickle

Elves or dour Dwarves—is the great chain of being’s
pinnacle! Pathetic!
The unilluminated believe history has some final

purpose or grand plan. They know nothing!
Powers
The universe’s veins beat to a single drum, dancing to an 1. Untrue Visions
orderless cacophony of flutings around eternity's 2. Violent End
fulminating heart the Throne of the Demon-Sultan! 3. Call of the Faithful
4. Arcane Volley
The Hook: Modern magic and scholarship are limited,
5. Otherworldly Gaze
they can’t see the truth. The cult has insight into the
6. Petrifying Gaze
universe’s deepest secrets.
The Mysteries: To begin, the cult’s methods reveal

many wondrous things...
The Sting: ...but eventually, the Demon-Sultan’s truth

is uncovered, clarifying reality’s purpose.
The Trap: The knowledge is unforgettable—too primal

and true to unlearn.
The Hope: Perhaps delving further reveals some last

hope. No means are too taboo, no end unjustified.
27
Goblins
Mood: Hunter-Gatherer
The world is unkind to Goblins. Born
1D6 Gadgets
1. Glass Wire: Applied to a Restrained
when a halfling succumbs to base
target as an action. When moving a
instincts to endlessly feed after being
Zone or taking an action, the target
left after an uncaring world left them
loses 1 Vigour. Removing the wire
only the merest scraps.
takes an action and costs 1 Vigour.
Wretched as they are, they make the
2. Muck Pockets: As an action, can dip
most of it, which is quite a lot with a
their weapon in the muck granting
Goblin’s ingenuity...
their Attacks the Venomous
Adaptation.
1D6 Hybrids 3. Bug-Infested Armour: As Infested.

1. Spider Eaters: Petrifying Gaze
4. Man Prods: A Light Weapon.
(entangles the target in webs) |
Instead of damage, targets must
Spiderclimbing.
make a Brawn or Will Check (their
2. Beetle-Skinned: Acidic | +2 Armour. choice) or be Incapacitated until
woken by an action.
3. Eel-Faced: Bloodthirsty | Aquatic.
5. Grinding Engine: Can be ground as
4. Muck-Fleshed: Wound-Knitting |
an action, producing a noise grating
Gelatinous Grip.
Characters’ bones and inner ear,
5. Bat-Speakers: Echolocation | forcing a Grip Check.
Flying.
6. Majick Destabliser: As Sworn Foe
6. Rat-Chewers: Septic Strikes | (Arcane), works 3 times.
Compressible.
28
Goblins
1D6 Majicks
The spells bestow the adaptation in
parenthesis or, if cast in a month-long
ritual, inflict the listed localized effect.
1. Fungal Growth (Shape the Land):

Plant life is replaced with fungal
growths, sickening the land and its
inhabitants.
2. Vomit Smoke (Brume Blast): The air

thickens and clouds, sunlight is scarce.
3. Mischief (Iron Whisperer): Small

mechanisms operate themselves,
leading to small disasters.
4. Sweat Oil (Slicken): Everything is

covered in thin, oily gunk. Fires blaze
out of control.
5. Goblin Blessing (Hex-Spewer):

Everything always goes wrong in small
but aggravating ways.
6. Sneek (Pass Unnoticed): Slowly

things begin disappearing, then
people. They're still there, you just
can't see them.
29
Goblins
1D6 Goblins
1. Anklebiter 2. Roach-Knight
BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL -1 BRAWN 1 | WIT 1 | WILL -1
Hand Weapon OR Ranged Weapon Basic Armour | Hand Weapon
Disorganised | Pilferer | 1-in-6 Fighting Retreat | Sprinter

chance of a Goblin Gadget (while mounted)
The bog-standard goblin. Their There aren’t many choices of steed in

strength is being numerous and, the Goblin’s bleak pits. While most
practicing unfairness in an would scoff, the Dire-Roach is, in a
unfair world. word, invincible. Not very dangerous
mind you—that’s what the rider is for.
3. Majishuns 4. Junk-Miser
BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL 2 BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL -1
Basic Armour | Light Weapon Light Weapon | Heavy Armour
2 from the Goblin Majiks Table 2 from the Goblin Gadgets Table
Their spelling may not be ideal, nor Ingenious among their fellows, these
their sigils expertly crafted, nor their goblins cobble together mechanisms
book binding even approaching and machines unfettered by the
acceptable—but their power is unreasonable claims of physics, logic
undeniable. Even more so than other and common decency.
wizards, their magic seeps into the
land, and spreading..
30
Goblins
5. Fight-King! 6. Hybrid
BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL -1 BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL -1
Basic Armour | Light Weapon 1 set from the Goblin Hybrids Table
Commander | Inspiring Presence | Goblins are born survivors and

Fighting Retreat extremely adaptable. So much so that
some, pushed to the brink and beyond,
Everyone knows Goblins are weak,
develop traits of what they devour,
cowardly and chaotic. Everyone is also
becoming strange and uncanny hybrids.
wrong, as survivors who engaged a
Goblin unit led by a Fight-King
would attest.
Great Beasts
Mood: Great Beast
Legendary monsters are not unlikely encounters in a Crypt’s
depths. While Great Beasts are presumably innumerable with
unlimited shape, these are the most infamous.
1D6 Adaptations 1D6 Omens

1. Flying 1. Bodies effortlessly torn apart and
2. Terrifying Roar. scattered to the wind
3. Hideous Strength.
2. Huge footprints smashed into any and
4. Sweeping Attacks
every surface
5. Barrelling Charge.
6. Hulking 3. Floor and walls incidentally gouged
from the beast’s passing
4. Deep predatory rumbles, deafening

roars, shuddering thunderous steps
5. Blood and meat, leather and bone
6. Towering caverns, craters, coiled in the

roots of titanic trees, in fallen castle's
hollow shells
32
Great Beasts
1D12 Rumours
It is up to the Doomsayer whether any rolled rumours are
actually true.
1. A child with a curious birthmark is 7. The Beast attacks people with a

born, destined to fight the Beast. particular appearance.
2. Ruined farmsteads, blackened and 8. The Beast has attacked at the same
burned, torn to pieces. time of day for a couple of weeks.
3. Three caravans of wagons went 9. The Beast’s lair is in a place nigh

missing in the forest recently. inaccessible to mortals.
4. An earthquake announced the 10. The Beast’s teeth are gold and its
Beast’s arrival. nails are silver!
5. A half-dozen soldiers sent to 11. The Beast ate a demon, who now
dispatch the Beast were made into a dwells in its stomach causing
grisly display. its wrath!
6. A local temple declares the Beast to 12. The Beast was kept in secret by a
be a punishment for mankind’s sins! village child while growing to its
current size.
33
Great Beasts
1D6 Beasts
1. Basilisk 2. Troll
BRAWN 2 | WIT 0 | WILL -1 BRAWN 2 | WIT 0 | WILL 0
Petrifying Gaze | 1 from Monstrous Wound-Knitting (fire or acid disables)

Aspect Table | 1 from Monstrous Aspect Table
3. Giant 4. Chimera
Hulking | Hideous Strength | 3 from Monstrous Aspect Table

Inevitable | 1 from Monstrous
Aspect Table
5. Phoenix 6. Drake
Flamewreathed | Flying | Beetleflesh Fire-Breathing | Flying | Rampage |

(as a pile of Ashes) | 1 from Monstrous 1 from Monstrous Aspect Table
Aspect Table
34
Great Beasts
1D66 Aspects
Reroll any Adaptations the Beast
already has.
1\1. Acidic 4\1. Myopic

1\2. Aquatic 4\2. Nimble
1\3. Barrelling Charge 4\3. Sensitive Hearing
1\4. Bloodscent 4\4. Sensitive Vision
1\5. Chase them Down 4\5. Spew Flame
1\6. Compressible 4\6. Spider Climb
2\1. Devour 5\1. Sundering
2\2. Echosense 5\2. Sweeping Attacks
2\3. Falling to Bits 5\3. Terrifying Roar
2\4. Final Revenge 5\4. Thunderous Blows
2\5. Fire-Breathing 5\5. Tide of Teeth
2\6. Flurry of Claws 5\6. Toxic Blood
3\1. Flying 6\1. Unstoppable
3\2. Gelatinous Grip 6\2. Venomous
3\3. Hideous Strength 6\3. Vulnerable Point
3\4. Hulking 6\4. Weakness (damage type)
3\5. Hunger Pangs 6\5. Wind-Up Smash
3\6. Impaler 6\6. You Can’t Run
Undead
Mood: Void-Hearted or as controller
A horrifying pretense of life with an invariably cold disregard,
even outright hatred, of the living. Most commonly created by a
Necromancer, sometimes some powerful force tethers a soul.
They congregate in Crypts in great numbers, far from the sun’s

burning gaze, waiting to snuff out another life.
1D6 Adaptations 2D6 The Species

1. Cacophonous of the Dead
2. Clumsy Movements
2. Divine Corpse
3. Ironclad
3-4. Dwarf
4. Inevitable
5. Monster
5. Unstoppable
6. Elf
6. Unreadable Power
7-8. Human
9. Halfling
1D6 Spirit 10. Hybrid (natural)

11-12. Hybrid (unnatural)
Power Table
2. Corpsemover
3. The Evil Eye
4. A Dark Mirror
5. Breath-Stealer
6. Disguise (as a living person)
36
Undead
1D12 Ancient Riches 1D6/1D3Reasons to

Clinging to the Dead Return from the Dead
1. Tarnished War Medals
1. To Take Revenge on:
2. Rune-Stitched Funeral Shroud
1. A Treacherous Lover/Friend
3. Jewelled Protection Amulet
2. Their Country
4. Ceremonial Blade
3. Their Slayer
5. A Coin beneath the Tongue
6. A Replacement, Ruby Heart 2. To Eternally Guard:
7. Golden Teeth and Glass Eyes 1. Their Ruler
8. A Gilded Stake through the Chest 2. Sacred Grounds
9. Silver, Amber-Studded Bangles 3. The Site of an Atrocity
10. Ivory Scrimshaw Sewn into Gloves
3. To Fulfill:
11. Copper Chain Body Bindings
1. Their Dying Wish
12. A Tattered, Once-Luxurious Cloak
2. A Criminal Sentence
3. An Impossible Quest
4. Cursed By:
1. Trespassing upon a Holy Site
2. A Powerful Wizard
3. A Cruel Twist of Fate
5. Possessed By:
1. A Lich’s Scattered Mind
2. A Desperate Cinderbeast
3. A Trickster Spirit
6. Unwillingly Animated by:

1. An Ambitious Necromancer
2. A Scheming Cryptdigger
3. A Cursed Location
37
Undead
1D6 Undead
1. Zombie 2. Skeleton
Armour 7 | Vigour 9 Armour 8 | Vigour 6
BRAWN 1 | WIT -1 | WILL -1 BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL -1
Hand Weapon Basic Armour | Light Weapon
Clumsy Movements | Disorganised | Resistance (Piercing) |

Will it Never Die? Weakness (Bludgeoning)
The most basic risen dead, a corpse with Much like the Zombie, a menial
magic's merest mote driving its un-life. labourer and passable combatant
They respond to only the clearest, whose lack of flesh makes them
simplest instructions and created by any somewhat more nimble—
fool with a spellbook. and unnerving.
3. Spirit 4. Death Knight

BRAWN -1 | WIT 1 | WILL 2 BRAWN 2 | WIT 1 | WILL 1
Basic Armour | Light Weapon Heavy Weapon | Heavy Armour
Ethereal | 1 from the Spirit Power Table Weapon Master | Radiant Blade |
My Shining Armour Gleams | Sworn
Skilled Necromancers can even bind
Enemy (Martial)
souls. These incorporeal undead
struggle to affect the material world Killing has a power all its own, the
directly but their spirit energies wreck worst kind of magic. The most lethal
havoc on mortals. warriors discover this as they cut short
innumerable lives, accumulating this
energy like filth, staining their souls.
When they finally succumb to death’s
cold touch, their body goes on, this
baleful power forming a pseudo-soul of
38
its own: the Death Knight!
Undead
5. Lich
Armour 8 | Vigour 15 | Grip 9
BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL 2
Basic Armour | Light Weapon
Fire and Lightning Strange |

Beetleflesh | Spirits of the Beyond |
2 other Arcane Advancements OR rolls
on the Spirit Power Table
All fear death’s touch, few can sunder

its shackles. Using esoteric rites, mages
bind their soul to a vessel, tethering
them to the living world. Functionally
immortal, all a Lich fears are eternity's
burdens.
6. Unmartyred
Censure | Sworn Enemy (Holy) |

Resurrectionist | Falling to Bits |
2 Other Holy Advancements
Not all fear death, some deities promise

eternal rest, or rebirth in a new world.
Unmartyred are these servants, caged in
rotting bodies, denied their promised
reward. Their old powers and authority
subverted to some dreadful end, they
are left only able to hate 39
Wizards
Mood: Arcane
While many wizards start as Cryptdiggers, few professional
wizards stay for long. They replace the long, cold journeys into
the dark with decades of experimentation and study. Few fail to
capitalize on their power for personal gain: selling their services
or utilizing their magical might.
1D3 Wizards
1. Apprentice 2. Wizard
One of their type’s Advancements. Two of their type’s Advancements, and

another Journeyman Advancement.
3. Archmage
BRAWN -1 | WIT 1 | WILL 3
All of their type’s Advancements, and

two more Journeyman Advancements.
40
Wizards
1D6 Types
1. Necromancer 2. Locomancer
Animative Execution | Shadow Mangle Space | Dreadful Word |
Glamours | Spirits of the Beyond Petrifying Gaze
The arcane community’s boogie-men, Locomancers are, as a rule, extremely

many mothers cautions their children to pompous and egotistical since, as they
avoid cemeteries lest the ‘dead-come- love to explain, "We hold the strings of
living’ drag them to an unspeakable reality and causality at our fingertips!".
fate. Almost everyone wants their Their magics permit them to willfully
services for one last chance to speak to bend space and time—to a degree. Their
the departed. numbers are few, however, as their
gallivanting with nature’s laws often
attracts undue extra-planar attention...
3. Hex-Tongued 4. Catastrophist
Hex Spewer | Evil Eye | Luck Eater Charging Blast | Spew Flame |
Fire and Lightning Strange
There are many reasons people seek
curses: spite, revenge, justice—in the The arcane arts are useful for all manner
end the Hex-Tongued rarely care so of things: creating beautiful objects or
long as their terms are agreed to. All effects, defending the persecuted and
manner of hexes, from the tiniest discovering untold knowledge.
un-luck to bloodline fouling curses can
Catastrophists are quite proficient at
be made with the right rings of words,
using magic to destroy. People,
the perfect piece of the target, just a tiny
buildings, villages, monsters,
touch of magic...
Cryptdiggers, animals, landmarks; it's
all very much the same to their bolts of
arcane fire.
Wizards
1D6 Types
5. Spook 6. Elementalist
Face-Taker | Iron Whisperer | Flame-Wreathed | Shunt |
Umbral Dash Shape the Earth
More urbane wizards utilize their These wizards study the natural world
talents to act as spies and agents, and its composite separable and
treading the thin line between arcanist inseparable parts. They can throw
and shadowjack. Replacing their morals flame, shift the earth and call upon the
with magic, they walk unseen through winds to obey. While some mistake
crowds, charm locks open and coat them for druids, Elementalists are not
targets in supernatural gloom. bound to respect the natural world as
Druids are...
1D6 Wizard Treasures

1. Spellbook: Contains their spells, 4. A Poison: As per the
written in idiosyncratic ciphers and Toxic Blade Advancement.
short-hand. Mages can learn the
5. Forgotten Idol: The owner only
contained Adaptations
needs 6 Experience to take the
as Advancements.
Eldritch Pact Advancement.
2. 1D3 Witch-Stones: Each can be
6. Lich-Token: The next time the
consumed in place of 1 Grip for
owner dies, they lose 2D3 Grip and
Arcane Advancements.
survive with 1 Vigour instead.
3. A Potion: As per the
Concoctionist Advancement.
42
Wizards
Beyonders Things from Beyond SPACE and TIME
SPECIAL ADAPTATION
Mindshatter: Once per Turn, the monster can spend EITHER 2 points of an
enemy’s Grip to power an Advancement or Adaptation OR 1 point of an
enemy’s Grip to fuel Exertion.
Beyonders
Incomprehensible beings from Distant Realms at the very edges
of real space, Beyonders do not resemble any living creature,
speak languages or obey masters and lack observable culture.
Scholars debate if they are individuals aspects of larger beings
or, even, a single greater organism’s quasi-cellular components.
Their (plausible) sentience is rarely observed—the only constant
is their corrupting nature, inhuman form and insatiable hunger.
Any communications with their followers are wordless, found in

vague symbolic visions and feasting dreams. Their cultists
attempt to augur their message's intent, resulting in mixed
interpretations and uncoordinated groups.
Their followers speak of the Dreaming Ancients: impossible,

reality shattering entities of impossible size that, if awakened,
could corrupt, destroy and assimilate the entire Prime Material.
1D6 Moods 1D6 Omens

1. Scraps of flesh in impossible shapes and
1. Argumentative 4. Unaware
materials, mangled beyond recognition
2. Plundering 5. Curious
3. Resting 6. Violent 2. Strangled weeds that shift in oscillating
patterns, scars of warped stone
1D6 Suggested 3. Colours that hurt, slime reflecting
Adaptations galaxies, mist the deep black of night
4. High pitched whining, curious fluting,

1. Mangle Space
the titan-rumbling of the utter void
3. Hexaddled 5. Ozone, sweet floral scents, the charnel
4. Unreadable house, spoiled wine
5. Reality Betrays You
6. Otherworldly places unlike other lairs,
6. Terrifying Roar
splatters of alien weeds
45
Beyonders
1D12 Dreaming 1D12 Creature
Ancients Impossibilities
1. The Thousand Eyed Giant 1. It seeps through cracked walls and
2. The Primordial Ooze runs through brickwork.
3. That Which Sees Compressible
4. The Vast One
2. Its limbs seep poison, painful to
5. They That Lurk In Dreams
the touch. Toxic Blades
6. The Fathomless Eternity
7. The King of Horizons 3. It flickers in and out of existence.
8. The Crowned with Eyes Ethereal
9. The Deplorable Deeps
4. Its mass is black as night and
10. The Truth Riddled with Thorns
barely visible in shadow.
11. The Ever-Slain
Shadowclad
12. It Blossoms with Teeth
5. Its touch melts flesh and bone,
metal fares little better. Acidic
6. It incorporates the dead’s organic

mass. Flesh-Gorging
7. It takes human form, barely a

monster until too late. Disguise
8. It is incredibly fast, blink and

you’ll miss it. Blistering Speed
9. Its skin runs slick, slippery to the

touch. Slippery
10. When destroyed, it explodes in a

blast of ichor. Violent End
11. Its limbs are lined with tiny suction

pods, granting a horrific grip.
Spiderclimb
12. Its very touch saps foes’ life.

Lifedrinker
Beyonders
1D6 Beyonders
1. Glutton 2. Teethling
BRAWN 2 | WIT -1 | WILL 2 BRAWN 1 | WIT 2 | WILL 2
Ravenous Maw (Heavy) Endless Teeth (Light)

Bladed Tongue (Light)
Ironshelled (Encased in Teeth) |
Blind | Clumsy Movements | Mindshatter | Nimble |
Inevitable | Mindshatter Rampage | Tide of Teeth
Woundknitting
3. Lurker 4. Leech
Serrated Flesh (Light) Tentacles (Long)
Ambusher | Mindleech | Feeds On Misfortune |

Mindshatter | Pass Unnoticed Gelatinous Grip | Mindshatter |
Reality Betrays You!
5. Displacer 6. Valley of Eyes

Slicken | Mangle Space | Mindshatter Gaping Maw (Heavy)

| Redirection
A Dark Mirror | Devour | Hulking |
Needle Darts (Throwing) Mindshatter | Powers of the Magi |
Bladed Tongue (Light) Toxic Blood | Untrue Visions |
Woundknitting
47
Celestials
Angels, Saints, Creatures of
Supernatural Good or Law
Celestials
Envoys and soldiers of the Old Gods with direct lines to divinity.
Although legion in number, they only visit the Prime Material in
small numbers, descending on comets or appearing in their
followers' visions.
The Old Gods rule from the Star Tree of Xytok, a distant nebulae,
and care little for mortal affairs. Their servants, however, attend
to deeds of Celestial importance: purging heretics, waging of
grand religious wars and prophesying.
Heralds are slender humanoid creatures with cold skin like

worked stone. They are fierce, beautiful and all powerful,
holding the adoration of cults that inevitably surround them.
Alongside them are the Godsent, lesser Godlings sent to assist in

the Prime Material. While resembling true Heralds in
appearance, their form is lesser and tasks more singular. Each
has a specific mission—once completed its physical form decays
and its spirit returns to the Star Tree.
Despite their origins, Heralds are not incorruptible. Tales are

filled with Heralds fallen from holy grace, still powerful but far
less noble.
1D6 Moods Godsent

1. Judging 4. Blessing
Mood: Celestial
2. Forgiving 5. Dooming
3. Questing 6. Prophesying
Special Advancement:
1D6 Adaptations Divine Gifts: Choose the Godsent’s

God. They gain the rules in the entry on
1. Otherworldly 4. Resurrectionist
the table below.
Gaze 5. Dreadful Word
2. Luminescent 6. Inspiring
3. Flamewreathed Presence
49
Celestials
Herald
Armour 9 | Vigour 32 | Grip 8 Cruel Halberd (Heavy), Consume
BRAWN 2 | WIT 3 | WILL 3 Power, Flamewreathed (Chosen
Element), Resistance (Chosen
Fearsome | Flying | Inspiring Presence
Element), Fire and Lightning
| Lay on Hands
Strange (Chosen Element)
Special Adaptation
Special Advancement
Font of Belief: When a worshipper of
Chosen Element: Unlike lesser
their God, the Herald has an additional
elementals, each turn Barakiel’s
2 Grip at their disposal each Round.
Heralds can choose a new element
Divine Gifts: Choose the Herald’s God. for its Chosen Element
They gain the rules in the entry on the Advancements: Fire, Water, Earth or
table below. Lightning.
1. Vaul The Maker, God of Craft 3. Ados the Drake, God of Purity
and Wisdom and Riches
Vaul is the Chief of the Old Gods. Their
Ados’ greatest enemies are witches and
Heralds forge powerful magic items,
the unfaithful. As master of Dragons,
wisely rule their demesnes, and cherish
many of Ados’ faithful take on a
battling their enemies, particularly the
draconic aspect such as scales, flaming
Beyonders and Dreaming Ancients.
breath and love of gold. Their talonic
Spear (Long) | Artisan of Magic | Wrymspears dance with
Blind | Echosense | Censure | holy light.
Titan Slayer
Wyrmspear (Long), Fire-Breathing,
2. Barakiel, the Allfather, God of the My Shining Armour Gleams,
Four Elements Radiant Blade,
Barakiel is Earthshaper, Firemaker, Sworn Foe (Arcane)
Stormcaller and Tidebringer, and their
Heralds are the most emotive. They crave
human sacrifice and protect their
Master’s elementals by shifting their
form between the elements, to suit the
tide of battle.
Celestials
4. Freyal the Heartkeeper, God of 6. Keelathi, the Seer, God of Secrets

Family and Honour and Magic
Heralds of Freyal are perhaps the least Keelathi’s Heralds are shadowy figures
likely to appear. They are called as and powerful seers—shrouded in
arbiters of legal disputes or as wardens mystery, only glimpsed by the holiest
for Freyal’s greatest servants, the of Godsmen. They often travel in
Knightly Order of the Blessed Rose. secret, concealing their Godhood
during their divine missions.
Longsword (Hand), Shield,
Blessing of the Ancients, Censure, Staff of Otherwordly Gaze (Long),
Lead From The Front Blood of the Magi, Disguise,
Manawrath, I See Future In The
5. Hannar, the Giver, God of Nature
Stars, Unreadable
and Healing
7. Narak Y Karan, God of Duality
Hannar’s Heralds are less warlike,
often presiding over sacred groves, Steeped in duplicity, Narak Y Karan’s
mountaintops, or other sacred sites, Heralds act as roguish spymasters
but remain daunting combatants. rather than Godly manifestations.
Longbow (Ranged), Cage of Twin Daggers (Light), Ambusher,

Thorns, Flesh Made Anew, Assassinate, Shadow Glamours,
Gelatinous Grip (Vines) Master of Deceit
8. Vashni, the Slayer, God of War

and Death
Vashni’s Heralds are Xytok’s finest

warriors, sent to oversee battlefields,
preside over funerals and purge the
world of Vashni’s greatest foes:
the Undead.
Curved Sword (Heavy), Sworn Foe

(Martial), Cleaving Blows, Censure
(Targets Undead Only)
51
Cinderbeasts
Demons, Devils, Creatures of
Supernatural Evil or Chaos
Cinderbeasts
Cinderbeasts are terrifying creatures from the Pit of Letha, a
sulphurous demiplane of burning heat the Archfiend
Akatesh rules.
Within the Cinderlands is a mighty city—the Spires of Akatesh—

stinking of rust and screams, where tortured souls scratch
against the boundaries of their cells. Time flows like treacle
within the city’s walls; days on the Prime Material become years
of suffering.
Their society consists of stratas, each more evil than the last.
Cinderbeast Cultists blessed with bestial attributes, are

frequently the quarry of Witch Hunters who promptly execute
anyone with Cinderbeast Aspects.
Radical academics claim that the Cinderbeasts predate the Prime

Material’s animals and our ecosystem is the Cinderlands’ pale
imitation. This is of course heterodox, heretical nonsense.
1D6 Moods 1D6 Adaptations

1. Soulfeast
1. Scheming 4. Placating
2. Fire-Breathing
2. Raging 5. Insulting
3. Weakness (Holy)
3. Welcoming 6. Brooding
4. Evil Eye
5. Breath Stealer
6. Sworn Foe (Holy)
53
Cinderbeasts
1D6 Omens
1. All the demented signs of rampant,
unapologetic torture
2. Black scorch marks, ice scars, puddles

of toxic muck
3. Wicked runes writ in flame, despoiled

icons, the holy upheaved
4. Chains, fire, screams, pitiful cries for

mercy, tearing, chewing, battle
5. Brimstone and meat, rust

and excrement
6. Sulphurous crevices, depraved torture

chambers, citadels of brass
1D66 Cinderbeast Aspects

1/1. Toad - Gelatinous Grip (Tongue) 4/1. Spider - Spiderclimb
1/2. Goat - You Can’t Run 4/2. Beetle - Beetleflesh
1/3. Hawk - Eyes of the Hawk 4/3. Moth - Luminescent
1/4. Cat - Flurry of Claws 4/4. Horse - Chase Them Down
1/5. Wolf - Bloodscent 4/5. Bull - Rampage
1/6. Crab - Ironshelled 4/6. Ape - Hideous Strength
2/1. Weasel - Blistering Speed 5/1. Snake - Toxic Blades
2/2. Eagle - Flying 5/2. Shark - Bloodthirsty
2/3. Rat - Ambusher 5/3. Racoon - Nimble
2/4. Mouse - Compressible 5/4. Fox - Quick Reflexes
2/5. Porcupine - Spined/Retaliation 5/5. Bat - Echosense
2/6. Lizard - Septic Strikes 5/6. Dog - Nose of the Dog
3/1. Pig - Flesh-Gorging 6/1. Moose - Impaler
3/2. Hound - Nose of the Dog 6/2. Sloth - Hulking
3/3. Chameleon - Disguise 6/3. Lion - Fearsome
3/4. Stork - Devour 6/4. Bear - Cleaving Blows
3/5. Owl - Ears of the Owl 6/5. Panther - Razorclawed
3/6. Cow - Cacophonous 6/6. Shrew - Feeds on Misfortune
Cinderbeasts
1D6 CinderBeasts
1-3. Brute 4-5. Petty Nobility
Hand Weapon OR Heavy Weapon Light Weapon
Rampage | Bloodthirsty | Silver Tongue | Otherworldly Gaze |

1 Cinderbeast Aspect 2 Cinderbeast Aspects
Letha’s base creatures are the Brutes, While less violent, the Petty Nobility
colossal humanoids with Cinderbeast are far more insidious, possessing at
Aspects: bull horns, moth eyes or crab least two Cinderbeast Aspects.
claws. Unintelligent and incredibly Reaching into the Prime Material, they
violent, they desire only to kill and tempt mortals with offerings of sorcery,
consume. In the Prime Material, they riches and power. They are cruel,
usually carve a terrifying, destructive manipulative and possess a sharp legal
path until stopped by Knights, Wizards wit, capturing many a tempted mortal
or Cryptdiggers. in contracts damning them to eternal
imprisonment in Letha.
6. Peer
Hand Weapon OR Heavy Weapon
Otherworldly Gaze | Reality Betrays You

| 3 Cinderbeast Aspects
The most terrifying Cinderbeasts are

Peers. These powerful and accursed
creatures each possess a personal
entourage of Petty Nobility and Brutes.
55
Fae
Faeries, Spirits, Creatures of
Supernatural Nature
Fae
Folk tell tales; those who linger too long amongst the trees learn
the song of Wode and can hear Their screams. These ancient
forests are an ocean of leaves and boughs, deep and unexplored.
Shrines litter the arbour, untouched by sunlight for centuries.
Scholars debate what these creatures are — certainly of the

Prime Material, deeply connected to nature’s wildest and most
untamed places. Are they Gods? They are feared more than
worshipped, without temples or priests to speak of. Are they
some greater power's servants? Are they simply natural
creatures grown powerful across many millenia? Normal folk
hold a simpler view—the Fae are demons of the trees.
The most powerful align themselves into Courts whose domain is

a part or aspect of the forest. Courts and their capricious Fae
Lords are obsessed with political squabbles, holding millenia
long grudges against each other. Rarely, their power struggles
are set aside for pressing worldly threats. A unified court is a
fearsome force.
1D6 Moods 1D6 Omens

1. People frozen as porcelain, embalmed in
1. Cavorting 4. Stalking
vines, cut into pieces and hung on thorns
2. Gamboling 5. Misbehaving
3. Frolicking 6. Coveting 2. Trails of grass and flowers, a mushroom
ring, dancelike steps
3. Improbable elements; frozen flames,

1D6 Adaptations gaseous mirrors, liquid stones
1. Blinking 4. Shape the Land
4. Ethereal piping, distant singing or
2. Hex-Proof 5. Cage of Thorns
whispers, shouts of joy, animal shrieks
3. Ethereal 6. Fascinating Gaze
5. Flowers, sweet nectar, the freshness of
rain, the clod of the earth
6. Fairy rings, baroque castle, dark towers,

gargantuan flowers and trees
57
Fae
1D6 Courts of Lendal
Many Courts gather in the wildlands of Lendal, and the
greatest are the subject of grand tales and florid rumours.
Fae are capricious. When rolling a Fae’s mood, roll once on the
Fae Mood Table, and once on the mood table indicated by
their Courtly allegiance. Either choose from or combine the
two results. Fae creatures also each gain one Suggested
Advancement from their Court’s list. Courtlings and Nobles
gain two.
1. Antlered Court - Masters of the 4.Falen Court - In the Northlands past

Linwode, allies of the Elves of the Lasthome, dwell the Falen Court's
Marble City. They bicker fiercely Fae. The lost Duchess of Lasthome
amongst themselves with no unified holds court here among the snow and
with no unified voice but for their pines. Glacial Mood
great hunger for flesh and blood.
5. Fecundite Court - Deep beneath the
Hungering Mood
earth in some titanic beast’s vast
2. Brazen Court - Fae of the old corpse, the fungal courts sit
Kharawode, the Iron Halls' Dwarves contentedly in quiet collective
felled and burnt their trees. The symbiosis. They desire only to grow
remaining Fae are vengeful, holding and, when roused to defend
grudges longer than even their themselves, rise and act as one.
Dwarven enemies. Igneous Mood Earthen Moods
3. Darklin Court - Hold dominion over 6. Torran Court - The swamp Fae of
Islesmere’s forests, banished by the Torre are built to mirror Torrian
ancient Skail but returning to the society. At their best they are
world. Otherworlder Mood amicable philosophers and builders,
and at their worst they are bitter and
petty creatures who resent Torrian
society’s fall. Aquatic Moods
58
Fae
1D6 Fae
1. Sapling Sprite 2. Ashen Knight
Armour 8 | Vigour 9 Armour 10 | Vigour 17 | Grip 3
BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL 1 BRAWN 3 | WIT -1 | WILL 1
Shortbow (Ranged) | Dagger (Light) Cold Iron Sword (Hard) | Shield
Ambusher | Blinking | Flying My Shining Armour Gleams (Mossy

Plate) | Oath of Courage |
Sworn Foe (Martial)
3. Questing Tree 4. Bloodcurdled Beast

Branches (Heavy) Claws and Teeth (Hand)
Cleaving Blows | Hulking | Bloodscent | Bloodthirsty |

Rampage | Weakness Nose of the Dog
(Cutting Weapons and Fire)
5. Courtling 6. Noble
BRAWN 1 | WIT 3 | WILL 2 BRAWN D3 | WIT D3 | WILL D3
Rapier (Light) Spear (Long) | Longbow (Ranged)
Disguise OR Ethereal | Feeds on Misfortune |

Fascinating Gaze | Mangle Space | Fire and Lightning Strange |
Arcane Wards OR Weapon Master Petrifying Gaze (Turns target into
a Tree) | Shape the Land
59
Mechanists
Intelligent machines, creatures of
absolute Law or Logic
Mechanists
On a bleak and bitter world of red dust, empty mines and desolate
railways, sits the greatest city ever built—the City of Brass. It rises
above the rusty dunes: streaming silver spires, sculpted brass halls
and golden palaces, molten yet eternal.
The Engine Minds claim to have transcended their once frail

flesh's needs. Presently living as patterns within metal, thoughts
propagated through endless mechanical processes.
Each Engine-Mind is a vast construct of staggering craftsmanship,

built of endless arrays and mechanisms of gears, cogs and hard-
data storage centers. Killing one requires utterly demolishing the
palace of being.
They are beings of the purest Law and Logic. They calculate and
evaluate. To outsiders, they seem very generous indeed, said to
grant mortals wishes of staggering power, but often misinterpret
the true desire through a lens of hyperlogic.
1D6 Moods 1D6 Omens

1. Careful and precise punctures,
1. Calculating 4. Deconstructing
regular rows of slashes
2. Evaluating 5. Experimenting
3. Constructing 6. Cleansing 2. Scattered patterns of sand, mess
organised into neat piles, metal scraps
and filings
1D6 Adaptations 3. Elaborately penned and signed contracts

1. Clumsy Movements and licenses, delicate metal filigree
2. Hexproof sculptures
3. Iron-Whisperer
4. Grinding metal, ticking clockwork,
4. Guardian Winds
whirring engines
5. Elementally Conductive
6. Matter over Mind 5. Rust, alcohol, thick oil, dried parchment,
sand
6. Spires of woven metal, machine-shops,

laboratories of winding glass pipes
61
Mechanists
Automata Palanquins
Brass Hands (Hand Weapon) Brass Limbs (Heavy Weapon)
Construct (as Undead) Cacophonous, Construct (as Undead),

Thunderous Blows
Special Adaptation
Special Adaptation
Automata Modules: Choose 1 option
Palanquin Modules: Choose one
appropriate to the situation,
option appropriate to the situation
changeable at the start of its Turn.
changeable at the start of its Turn.
1. +1 Armour
1. +1 Armour
2. +4 Vigour
2. +8 Vigour
3. +1 Brawn
3. +1 Brawn
4. +1 Wit
4. +1 Wit
5. Spider Climb
5. Flying
6. Gelatinous Grip
6. Cage of Thorns (as metal chains)
7. Flame Wreathed
7. Barrelling Charge
8. Disguise (as metal objects)
8. Fire and Lightning Strange
9. Hex-Proof
(Scintillating Energy)
10. Violent End
9. Hex-Proof
11. Compressible
10. Resistance (metal weapons)
12. Iron Whisperer
11. Not Cacophonous
The most numerous occupants of the 12. Spirits of the Beyond (fallen
Brass City are the relatively simple Automata only)
Automata, menial mindless machines.
Mighty metal contraptions that
Simple creatures by construction,
represent the Engine Minds in the
instructions are required from their
physical world. They have many forms;
Engine Mind.
scuttling crab-like tripods, humanoid
metal titans or whirling clockwork
clouds like swirls of sand.
62
Mechanists
the Engine Minds:
Ostentatious, artful, and exacting in the extreme; the masters of the
Brass City defy mortal convention in every way. Their names are best
described in mathematical formulae, but they will deign to suffer long,
run-on descriptors.
Names of the Engine Minds

To create a title in the mortal tongue befitting an Engine Mind,
roll once on each table, reading the results as;
[Result 1] - [Result 2] in [Result 3]
For example, a result of 1, 3, then 6 should read as “Parabola-

Intersect in Automatic Quartz”
Read the name as: [A] - [B] in [C].

1D6 [a]
1. Parabola 4. Procedural
2. Tangential 5. Negative
3. Integral 6. Azimuth
1D6 [B]
1. Cognition 4. Conditional
2. Pendulum 5. Imperative
3. Intersect 6. Operation
1D6 [C]
1. Dazzling Radiance 4. Vast Detail

2. Resplendent Order 5. Spiral Torsion
3. Robust Arrays 6. Automatic Quartz
63
Void Hearted
The Grimm, the Accursed,
Creatures of Dark OR Death
Void-Hearted
Behind this world's veil is another, colder one. Not quite a pale
shadow, perhaps a hollow twin.
The name of this dead otherworld died uncountable aeons ago,

already forgotten on the lips of a god whose heart never started.
This land is dying, always a hair’s breadth from the edge.
The dying world's most numerous denizens are the Forsaken,

humanoid creatures eking warmth from the branches of
carbonised trees.
Preying on the Forsaken are the Dread Captains, avatars of the

Grimm—the ruling dread powers. Many take the shapes of
inhuman monsters but some wear human faces.
The masters of the Dying World are the Grimm drifting through
an eternal existence, despondently trying to squeeze some
measure of joy from their lessers’ suffering. Their monuments
decay and fall to ruin before completion, their cities run rancid
with plague and sin.
Powerful as they are, hateful as they are, they are still prisoners.
The Dying World's magnetism always pulls them back.
That said, on a lonely isle on the edge of nowhere, a tiny hole to

Nothingness broke open. On the event horizon of this cosmic
wound, a tiny sliver of the Dying World leaked into the Prime
Material, infecting the local humans and creating a novel Grimm
Power: the Hungers of the Pit.
1D6 Moods 1D6 Adaptations

1. Shadowclad
1. Brooding 4. Raging
2. Fear of the Light
2. Plotting 5. Slumbering
3. Lifedrinker
3. Self-Consuming 6. Wallowing
4. Animative Execution
5. Falling to Bits
6. Hex Spewer
65
Void-Hearted
1D6 Omens The Grimm
1. Horrendously mutilated bodies,
unfortunately still alive Armour 9 | Vigour 32 | Grip 8
2. Withered plants, cracked stones,
corroded buildings Special Adaptation
Grand Aspect of Dread: Choose a
3. Smears of blood, dire prophecies
Dread Power and gain all the
gouged into stone, wailing
Adaptations in its entry on the
and weeping
table below.
4. Low thunder, creaking and rumbling, 1D6 Dread Powers
dirge chants 1. The Thirst: Its victims are drained
and left painfully close to death,
5. Dust, bones, bitter blood and
ragged punctures on their chests,
far-off ash
necks, faces. Some say it has no body
6. Deep caves, dour cemeteries, dead and is a parasitic wind which pulls
forests, the depths of the ocean the blood from your flesh.
2. The Huntsman: Fashions arrows

from those he ensnares bones. He
Dread Captain stalks the petrified forests with a

baying pack of Dread Captains at his
Armour 8 | Vigour 17 | Grip 8 heels, blazing eyes raking the
BRAWN 2 | WIT 1 | WILL 1 shadows for signs of prey. His
territory’s Forsaken never rest, the
Special Adaptation
hounds are not the dark woods' only
Aspect of Dread: Choose a Dread
terror.
Power and gain two of the Adaptations
Adaptations: Shadowclad,
in its entry on the table below.
Terrifying Roar, Ambusher,
Cage of Thorns
66
Void-Hearted
3. The Shadow-Drowned: A mile-long 6. The Crow King: A cloak of sable
serpent with whorling stone scales feathers, a long and crooked beak, 6
and a dozen ragged pits for eyes. She cruelly curved claws. It holds
dwells in a lake’s turgid, sludgy dolorous court at the peak of a vast,
depths, occasionally rising to snap mile-tall blackened stone tree over
up a boatful of Forsaken fleeing the cawing and preening Dread
shore’s stalking Dread Captains. Captains, occasionally casting
Adaptations: Aquatic, Devour Forsaken from the branches.
(whole), Deeper Darkness, Adaptations: Flying, Leaping Slam,
Hideous Strength Fighting Retreat, Breath Stealer
4. The Grave-Titan: A mountain of

pallid meat attempting a human
form, tending a vast field of
countless graves, each containing a
doomed Forsaken. Dread Captains
force escapees back into the dirt.
Adaptations: Corpsemover, Falling
to Bits, Will it Never Die?,
Shape the Earth
5. The Lord of Worms: At the bottom

of a vast gulch, the soil runs thick
with roiling worms that constantly
threaten to consume its Forsaken
denizens. The fitful sleep of the Lord
of Worms far beneath sends
destructive tremors through the
gulch’s worm-strata..
Adaptations: Flesh-gorging,
Compressible, Infested (swarm of
maggots), Animative Execution
(worm-infested flesh!)
Moods
A Menagerie
of Moods
Not every monsterattacks on sight--Best Left Buried is too
lethal then. For ideas, assign a monster one of the following
categories, and roll for its mood or activity when first
encountered. This idea borrows heavily from “Troika!”, which
rocks.
These, even more than other random tables, are guidelines not
rules. If a roll doesn't make sense, re-roll or replace it. We
have also included a D6 table of Adaptations and
Advancements in case you need to quickly add some
mechanical abilities to creatures of that Moods. Finally, we
also added some Omens to use with these creatures, so you can
impart even more personality on their surroundings.
General Moods
1. Helpful 4. Wary
2. Friendly 5. Unfriendly
3. Indifferent 6. Hostile
68
Moods
Abomination Moods Aethereal Moods
Horrors, Demons, or Elementals Creatures of the Sky and
1. Skulking 4. Sleeping Elemental Air
2. Gibbering 5. Hungry 1. Billowing 4. Gliding
3. Feeding 6. Aggressive 2. Zephyrous 5. Sweltering
3. Howling 6. Cutting
Suggested Adaptations:
1. Acidic 4. Mindspike Suggested Adaptations:
2. Compressible 5. Fearsome Elemental (Air)
3. Mangle Space 6. Consume Power 1. Flying 4. Guardian Wind
2. Nimble 5. Sprinter
1D6 Omens:
3. Disorganised 6. Brume Blast
1. Horrifically and bizarrely mangled
bodies, wounds in curious shapes 1D6 Omens:
and patterns 1. Fallen as if from a great height, sliced
to pieces, or asphyxiated
2. Shifting bulk that moulds and squirms
in unlikely patterns 2. Very little apart from scattered objects
and a gentle but constant breeze
3. The environment twisted and
deformed, caustic slime scars, 3. Wind-ripped fabrics and all surfaces
improbable insect hives scoured of dust
4. Distorted animal screeches, the 4. The whistling of wind, gentle piping,

twinging and grinding of arcane the tinkling of glass
machinery
5. The cold motion of a gale, the
5. Pus, ichor, bruises, rot, oil, smoke, burgeoning tension of storm on
acidic stinging the horizon
6. Spaces that have been melted out, 6. The air itself, palaces of cloud,
arcane laboratories, chambers of great size and
extra-dimensional spaces quality acoustics
69
Moods
Aqueous Moods Arcane Moods
Creatures of the Sea and Wizards, Sages, Monks
Elemental Water 1. Ritualistic 4. Focused
1. Boiling 4. Whirling 2. Calculated 5. Overwhelmed
2. Condensing 5. Pooling 3. Distracted 6. Exhausted
3. Evaporating 6. Putrefying
Suggested Adaptations: 1. Fire and 3. Concoctionist
Elemental (Water) Lightning 4. Magic Reflector
1. Gelatinous Grip 4. Toxic Blood Strange 5. Charging Blast
2. Aquatic 5. Shunt 2. Arcane Wards 6. Slicken
3. Amorphous 6. Slicken
1D6 Omens:
1D6 Omens: 1. Twisted, burned and encased in all
1. Drenched and drowned, frozen in manner of bizarre and impossible ways
place, or partially dissolved
2. Intermittent shuffling, bursts of speed,
2. Puddles, trails of slime, slightly a distracted tangent
softened floor and acid-scarred objects
3. Books perused, esoterica examined,
3. Drenched objects, damp air, stagnant the environment magic-scarred
puddles gently drying
4. Mumblings and utterings, the grating
4. Sloshing, wave crashes, soft drip, screech of magic, arcane intonations
drip, drip
5. Curious herbs, perfumes and potent
5. The freshness of rain, the salty tang of inks, dried parchment
the sea
6. Geometry defying shelters, lonely
6. Bodies of water of all sizes, towers, gates of arcane power
containers, clouds
70
Moods
Construct Moods Critter Moods
Rats, Goblins, or Birds
Skeletons, Fungonids, Golems
1. Distracted 4. Opportunistic
1. Oblivious 4. Defensive
2. Inquisitive 5. Hungry
2. Confused 5. Implacable
3. Skittish 6. Playful
3. Indifferent 6. Enraged
1. Fragile 5. Disguise (as
1. Cacophonous 4. Inevitable
2. Spider Climb another animal
2. Clumsy 5. Unstoppable
3. Leaping Attack or plant)
Movements 6. Unreadable
4. Ambusher 6. Escape Cloud
3. Ironclad Power
1D6 Omens:
1D6 Omens:
1. Viciously nibbled extremities, bones
1. Bodies broken and bent, torn rather
unbroken but stripped of flesh
than sliced
2. Winding columns of innumerable
2. Heavy, deep impressions, each step
followers, or the random wanderings
settled into before moving on
of an aimless loner
3. A trail of clumsy carnage,
3. Small scratches, slime trails, teeth
objects scattered
marks, droppings, shed scales
4. Grinding stones, thumping footsteps,
4. Grunts and chittering, chirps and song,
the crashes of knocked over furniture
buzzing and creaking scales
5. Coal-dust, baked clay, oil, the sting of
5. Animal musk, damp fur, dust and mud,
alcohol polishes
fish-stench
6. Esoteric workshops, a sigil-laden dais,
6. Burrows in the dirt, webs, nooks in
an uncanny doll-house imitation of a
trees, abandoned buildings, skeletons
home
71
Moods
Devious Moods Earthen Moods
Thieves, Dastards and Worse Creatures of the Caverns and
1. Observant 4. Predatory Elemental Earth
2. Paranoid 5. Vicious 1. Abiding 4. Avalanching
3. Distrustful 6. Restless 2. Grinding 5. Eroding
3. Melting 6. Condensing
1. Knife from 4. Iron Whisperer Suggested Adaptations:
the Shadows 5. Ambusher Elemental (Earth)
2. Toxic Blade 6. Shadow-Coated 1. Ironshelled 4. Sundering
3. Nimble Dodge 2. Hulking 5. You Can’t Run
3. Compressible 6. Shape the Land
1D6 Omens:
1. A single, small puncture leaking 1D6 Omens:
incredible amounts of blood, bloated 1. Brutally bludgeoned, buried alive, or
and sickly wounds. petrified
2. Almost none, careful and deliberate, 2. Holes bored in stone, objects flung or
broken and misleading smashed out of the way
3. Almost none, the slightest shift of a 3. Stone scoured and misshapen at the
carpet, an open lock, an monster’s passing, scattered soil
extinguished torch
4. Bass tones of tectonic grinding, an
4. Very few, soft padded steps, the avalanche’s thunder, creaking of
drawing of a whispering blade, the immense weight
slightest creak of rope
5. The stench of sod, old and bitter dust,
5. Oiled leather, if anything at all, the the cold freshness of caves
merest hint of soot or chalk
6. The earth itself, caverns of all shapes
6. Secret rooms, dingy basements, and sizes, huge crystals, sandbanks
distasteful taverns
72
Moods
Glacial Moods Holy Moods
Creatures of the Cold and Priests, Paladins, Zealots
Elemental Ice 1. Mournful 4. Superiour
1. Billowing 4. Seeping 2. Zealous 5. Contemplative
2. Biting 5. Calculating 3. Respectful 6. Tempted
3. Flurrying 6. Gouging
Suggested Adaptations: 1. Lay on Hands 4. Resurrectionist
Elemental (Air) 2. Radiant Blade 5. Censure
1. Brittleskinned 4. Slicken 3. Holy Song of 6. Inspiring
2. Razorclawed 5. Aura of War Presence
3. Aquatic Exhaustion
1D6 Omens:
6. Petrifying Gaze
1. Brutally dispatched, but anointed and
1D6 Omens: respected in death
1. Frozen in place, impaled with slowly
2. Slow and deliberate march in
melting icicles, or twitching and blue
impractical formation
with frostbite
3. Traces of blessed unguents, holy icons,
2. Frozen footsteps, chilled air, ice blocks
hastily traced symbols
in sealed bottles
4. Deep rhythmic chanting, whispered
3. Ice-scars on the wall, nooks speckled
prayers, belted hymns slightly off tune
with frost, water hard as iron,
hoarfrost 5. Sacred smoke, perfumed vestments,
spilled wine
4. Deep glacier rumbles and creaking,
distant shattering of ice 6. Elaborate pavilions, shrines and
temples, well-appointed manors
5. The cruel crispness of winter, withered
plants
6. Castles of ice, unending blizzards,

arctic climes
73
Moods
Guard Moods Hungering Moods
Soldiers, Orcs, or Bandits
Werewolves, Ghouls, the
1. Skulking 4. Sleeping
Supernaturally Hungry
2. Gibbering 5. Sleeping
1. Unfulfilled 4. Fixated
3. Feeding 6. Aggressive
2. Thirsty 5. Satiated
Suggested Adaptations: 3. Disquieted 6. Ravenous
1. Distracted 4. Corruptible
2. Tenacious 5. Arguing
1. Fleshgorging 4. Chase them
3. Lazy 6. Alert
2. Bloodscent Down
1D6 Omens: 3. Bloodthirsty 5. Hunger Pangs
1. Clean efficient kills, or as a violent mob 6. Wind-Up Smash
2. Well structured marches in formation, 1D6 Omens:

many treads stamping down in the 1. Relentlessly chewed, torn, shredded
same footprints and pulled to pieces
3. Kicked in doors, scoured buildings, 2. Lurking shuffling, bursts of

summary justice desperate sprinting
4. Barked orders, tramping boots, shouts 3. Bite marks, chewed objects, spit stains,
and yells any scrap of food is utterly gone,
spit stains
5. Damp leather, sweat, the leavings of
violence 4. Chewing and tearing of food,
otherwise gentle panting and
6. Town walls, grimey bunk-houses,
hungry moans
wagon-camps
5. The old copper scent of blood, dried
leather, pungent spittle
6. Bone-strewn hollows, blood-

drenched holes
74
Moods
Hunter-Gatherer Igneous Moods
Moods Creatures of the Heat and
Goblins, Bullywugs, and Ratfolk Elemental Flame
1. Cautious 4. Playful 1. Blazing 4. Combusting
2. Unobservant 5. Lurking 2. Smoldering 5. Consumptive
3. Friendly 6. Scheming 3. Crackling 6. Extinguishing
Suggested Adaptations: Suggested Adaptations:

1. Battle Frenzy 4. Disguise (as Elemental (Fire)
2. Knife from the natural feature) 1. Fire-Breathing 4. Spew Flame
Shadows 5. Escape Tactics 2. Flamewreathed 5. Sunder
3. Shadowclad 6. Titan-Slayer 3. Violent End 6. Brume Blast
1D6 Omens: 1D6 Omens:

1. Struck suddenly and without warning, 1. Charred and ruined, scalded, or twisted
pin-prick darts in fleshy necks and melting
2. Broken plants, strips of disturbed dust, 2. Burn marks, scorched scenery, smoke
a careful single file to hide numbers on the horizon or leaking from under a
door
3. Totems and icons, warnings or
welcomings, trampled paths 3. Charred furniture, piles of ash, molten
and deformed glass
4. Animal calls, communal song, the
chitter-chatter of daily life 4. The low crackle of gentle flames, an
inferno’s roar, the crackle of lightning
5. Animal-musk, drying meats, roasting
food, distilled fruits and aging cheese 5. The angry, acrid sting of smoke, the
blunt and dull scent of ash
6. Villages of all shapes, sizes,
and decoration 6. Furnaces, wildfires, thunderstorms,
Brass cities
75
Moods
Martial Moods Nobility Moods
Soldiers, Warriors, Knights Lords, the Gentry, the Powerful
1. Aggressive 4. Relaxed 1. Diplomatic 4. Devious
2. Vindictive 5. Sore 2. Intrigued 5. Self-Righteous
3. Smug 6. Wary 3. Belligerent 6. Spiteful
Suggested Adaptations: Suggested Adaptations:

1. Weapon 3. Battle Frenzy 1. Rallying Shout 4. Cringer
Master 4. Phalanx 2. Weapon Master 5. Sworn Foe
2. My Shining 5. Titan-Slayer 3. Knife from the (Devious)
Armour 6. Cleaving Blows Shadows 6. Commander
Gleams
1D6 Omens:
1D6 Omens: 1. A ragged wound above the heart,
1. Surgically butchered with careful decapitated or worse
strikes, or rampantly mutilated
2. Scattered rubbish of fine foods, parallel
2. Overlapping steps, scattered or palanquin bearer steps
single file
3. The coat of arms of the Lord or Lady,
3. Blusterous searching, objects tossed pilfered goods and art, careless eating
aside, doors kicked in
4. Respectful grovelling, barked orders,
4. Barked orders, low grunts, cheering disdainful sneers
mobs, screams of rage
5. The finest perfumes, gentle silks, a
5. Sweat and steel, alcohol and dried food copious feast’s crumbs
6. Rough-stone barracks, regimented 6. Castles, palaces, smart

army camps townhouses, palanquins
76
Moods
Otherworlder Moods Unthinking Moods
Imps, Elementals, or Poltergeists Mindless Creatures, Machines
1. Nattering 4. Deceitful 1. Idling 4. Completing
2. Ethereal 5. Furious 2. Wandering Routines
3. Destructive 6. Dispassionate 3. Focusing 5. Complying
6. Refusing
1. Otherworldly 5. Fire and Suggested Adaptations:
Gaze Lightning 1. Hexaddled 4. Unreadable
2. Blinking Strange 2. Fear of the 5. Will it Never Die?
3. Disguise 6. Mangle Space Light 6. Unobservant
4. Reality Betrays 3. Unstoppable
You
1D6 Omens:
1D6 Omens: 1. Ragged and ruined in
1. Messily obliterated, strategically unpredictable places
dissected, runes of tribute carved
2. Slow and steady plods in straight lines
into victims
forming a muddled path
2. Gentle scorch marks, rows of strange
3. Accidental damages, toppled objects,
growths, floor and walls ‘twisted’ out
busted doors
of the way
4. None, or heavy thuds of foot steps, the
3. Disassembled and discarded objects
occasional crash of objects
4. Oscillating throbs, the squeaking of
5. All kinds of scents picked up from
twisted wood, metal-stress
aimless travel
5. Ozone tang, sulphurous vapours,
6. Any old space that provides even a
sweet nectar
modicum of shelter from the elements,
6. Dimensional retreats, castles of poison scattered all about with junk
glass, palaces of liquid colour, caves
hollowed out of the night, star-spun
ships, the dark hidden in the heart
of a fire
77
Adaptations
Adaptation
Library
In addition to the 44 Adaptations included in the
Cryptdigger’s Guide to Survival, here are 100 Adaptations to
bless your terrifying monstrous creations.
Remember, for some monsters, it may make sense to use

Advancements as well or instead of Adaptations.
78
Adaptations
1. Adaptive Defence: The monster 7. Barrelling Charge: As an action,
adapts to opponent’s attacks. Each the monster can move to another
creature’s first Attack against it Zone. Creatures in Zones the
has the Upper Hand but its monster moves through or into
following Attacks are Against must pass a Wit Check or take D3
the Odds. damage and cannot Attack the
monster because of this movement.
2. A Dark Mirror: When a visible
creature uses an Advancement, 8. Blistering Speed: The monster can
spend 1 Grip to gain a one-use take two different actions on
copy of the Advancement. When its Turn.
used, the usual costs of the
9. Breath-Stealer: As an action, the
Advancement must be fulfilled.
monster plucks the breath from a
3. Ambusher: The monster’s Attacks Restrained creature, rendering
on the first combat Turn have the them Incapacitated. With another
Upper Hand and, if they hit, action, the monster can devour the
targets are also Restrained until breath of the Incapacitated
their next Turn ends. creature to regain D6+1 Vigour or
D3+1 Grip, and the target regains
4. Animative Execution: When the
their breath.
monster successfully uses Finish
Him!, it tears out the target’s 10. Brume-Blast: As an action, the
skeleton, and animates it as with monster can unleash a gout of
Spirits of the Beyond. smoke or obscuring gas into its
Zone or an adjacent one. Until
5. Appalling Violence: The
dispersed, all creatures in the Zone
monster’s Attacks that deal 4+
are Blinded.
damage trigger a Grip Check
for viewers. 11. Cacophonous: The monster
lumbers around without the
6. Aura of Exhaustion: Stat Checks
lightest pretension of stealth.
and Attacks made in the monster’s
Observation Checks to detect its
Zone are Against the Odds.
presence are Trivial and all its
Omens roughly indicate its
current position.
79
Adaptations
12. Cage of Thorns: As an action, 16. Cleaving Blows: When damaging an
spend 2 Grip for the monster to enemy with an Attack, other
make a special Ranged Weapon enemies with less Armour in the
Attack. If it hits, the target is also same Zone as the target take damage
Restrained by thorns, taking D3 equal to the monster’s Brawn.
damage for every action including
17. Clumsy Movements: The monster’s
removing the vines. Other
actions are lumbering and clumsy,
creatures can remove the vines
requiring significant wind up. At the
without damaging the target.
start of each Round before anyone
13. Censure: As an action, the acts, the Doomsayer declares what
monster can spend 3 Grip to raise a the monster will do each Turn.
holy symbol, unleash a secret Minor deviations are permitted if the
signal or produce a psionic blast, original plan is impossible (e.g. the
repelling certain creatures. monster may Attack another
Creatures the monster chooses creature in range if the original
can’t enter the monster’s Zone for target moved out of range).
10 minutes or until combat ends,
18. Commander: As an action, the
whichever applies.
monster can spend 3 Grip to
14. Charging Blast: As an action, the command an allied creature, who
monster can spend 2 Grip to place immediately takes an additional
a slowly growing orb of energy in a Turn.
visible Zone. At the start of its next
19. Consume Power: As an action, the
turn it detonates, dealing D6 + Will
monster can partially consume
damage to all creatures in the
another monster’s corpse in its
Zone.
Zone, absorbing D3 Vigour and one
15. Chase Them Down: When a of its Adaptations for 24 hours.
creature successfully Escapes from
20. Coordinated Take Down: When
the monster’s Zone, the monster
Ganging Up, the monster can forgo
can spend 2 Grip to follow them
the Upper Hand to inflict Stunned
one Zone.
on a successful hit.
80
Adaptations
21. Cursling Blades: The monster’s 28. Echosense: The monster has the
Attacks treat targets as Upper Hand on Observation
unarmoured (Armour 7), unless Checks involving hearing and
wearing magical armour. cannot be Blinded as long as it
can hear.
22. Deeper Darkness: The monster
projects an aura of shadow 29. Elemental Fear: To Attack a
withering all light sources within creature that can use a chosen
100’ of it, which are reduced to element, the monster must roll a
illuminating their Zone. Grip Check or waste the Attack.
23. Defender: On the monster’s Turn, 30. Elementally Conductive: Effects or

it may defend any number of Attacks of a chosen element(s) do
creatures in its Zone so Attacks not affect the monster and are
against them are Against The redirected to a creature in the same
Odds until the monster’s next Zone if available.
Turn unless it is slain.
31. Escape Cloud: If the monster
24. Desperate Strength: At 0 Grip, the successfully Escapes, creatures in
monster’s Attacks have the its Zone must roll a Brawn Check,
Upper Hand. taking D3 damage if they fail.
25. Dopple-Monster: After taking 32. Escape Tactics: When the monster
damage, the monster splits into is damaged, it may spend 1 Grip to
two copies of itself. Escape to an adjacent Zone.
26. Dreadful Word: As an action, the 33. Evil Eye: As an action, the monster
monster can spend 3 Grip to utter a may force a target to roll a Will
deplorable and abominable word, Check. If they fail, the target gains a
battering the minds of mortals. All Growing Affliction, or one worsens
listening creatures with a Grip one step.
score must make a Brawn Check or
34. Face-Taker: The monster can
be Stunned until their next Turn
spend 2 Grip to take a recently dead
ends.
human’s face and transform into a
27. Easily Dismayed: When an Attack, physically perfect copy of them. Any
Adaptation or Advancement deals harm, even a pin-prick, breaks the
5+ damage to the monster, it loses transformation. The monster gains
1 Grip. none of the target’s knowledge or81
special abilities.
Adaptations
35. Fascinating Gaze: As an action, the 41. Focused Defence: The monster’s
monster can focus on a creature to defence is reactive, and quickly
force an Against the Odds Will slows down. The first Attack
Check. If they fail, the target’s against the monster each Turn is
actions can only target the monster Against the Odds. Following
or its Zone. Attacks have the Upper Hand.
36. Falling to Bits: If the monster takes 42. Fragile Defences: As an action,
4+ damage, part of its body falls off players can roll a Brawn Check
and animates with the following against the monster to crack open
Stats: its defences, reducing its Armour
by 2. This also occurs when a
Animated Extremity bludgeoning attack deals 4+
BRAWN 1 | WIT 0 | WILL -1
damage to it. Its Armour can only
Armour 7 | Vigour 3
be reduced this way once.
Hand Weapon
43. Frail: The monster suffers an
Disorganised | Undead Injury on a damage roll of 5 or 6
or, with Heavy Weapons, on a 4, 5,
37. Feeds on Misfortune: When a
or 6.
visible creature makes any roll
Against the Odds, the monster 44. Guardian Winds: Ranged Attacks
gains the Upper Hand for any roll against the monster are Against
that day. the Odds.
38. Fighting Retreat: When the 45. Hex-Spewer: As an action, the

monster Attacks a creature, any Wit monster cries out in a foul tongue,
Checks it makes to Escape that turn cursing those around them. All
are Trivial. listening creatures roll an Against
the Odds Will Check. Those that
39. Final Revenge: When reduced to 0
fail are cursed to lose 1 Vigour
Vigour the monster may make an
when any 1s are rolled for an
Attack before dying.
Attack or Stat Check. The curse
40. Flurry of Claws: If the monster hits ends when the monster dies.
with its Attack, it can make an
Against The Odds Attack against a
different target. The monster can’t
82 Attack the same target twice a Turn.
Adaptations
46. Hideous Strength: Can use a 51. Infested: Upon death, a Swarm
Restrained creature as a Thrown emerges from the monster’s body.
Weapon. On a hit, both creatures
52. Inspiring Presence: When rolling
take the Attack’s damage. On
Initiative, the monster’s allies gain
a miss, the thrown creature
1 Grip they can only spend on
takes damage equal to the
Exertion. If they see the monster
monster’s Brawn.
die, they roll a Grip Check.
47. Hunger Pangs: The ever-clawing
53. Invulnerability: Choose a type of
need to eat tears at this beast’s
damage (e.g. fire, acid, slashing,
psyche. Each Turn it must Attack
piercing). The monster always
or lose 1 Grip. At 0 Grip, it must
passes Stat Checks resisting this
recklessly do anything it can to kill
damage and Attacks of this type
something. If it kills a creature, it
are Impossible.
spends the next action eating its
corpse, regaining D3 Grip. 54. Iron Whisperer: As an action, the
monster can spend 1 Grip to operate
48. Impaler: Creatures damaged by the
or disrupt small mechanisms it can
monster’s Attacks or Adaptations
see such as locks, traps,
must roll a Wit Check. If they fail,
mechanisms or crossbows.
they are Immobilised until another
creature takes an action to free 55. Leaping Slam: The monster can
them. When the monster’s Attacks spend 2 Grip to leap forward and
cause an Injury, the Wit Check Attack a target up to 3 Zones away.
is Impossible.
56. Magic Reflector: When a magical
49. Incendiary: Upon taking fire effect or Attack fails or misses, the
damage or being exposed to fire, monster rolls an identical Attack
the monster gains the Flame- against the attacker or reflects the
Wreathed and Violent End effect at its originator.
Adaptations.
57. Mangle Space: Spend 2 Grip on your
50. Inevitable: Nothing can slow the Turn to swap two creature’s places.
monster’s movement. It cannot be
58. Matter Over Mind: The monster can
Restrained, and can use its action
force visible creatures to lose Vigour
to bulldoze a path through
instead of Grip.
Impassable Zones with a
successful Brawn Check. 83
Adaptations
59. Mind Leech: Gain 1 Grip when a 68. Powers of the Magi: The monster
creature in the same Zone can use an action and an
spends Grip. Advancement or Adaptation each
Turn.
60. Mind Over Matter: The monster
can force visible creatures to lose 69. Reality Betrays You!: Stat Checks
Grip instead of Vigour. made in the same or an adjacent
Zone require a D3 roll determining
61. Mind Spike: The monster may
which Stat the Check uses:,
replace Vigour damage it deals
1. Brawn, 2. Wit, 3. Will.
with ½ damage (rounded down) to
the target’s Grip. 70. Redirection: If an Attack misses
the monster, spend 1 Grip to
62. Morale Issues: At 0 Grip, the
redirect it, rerolling the Attack’s
monster’s Attacks are Against
lowest die and resolving it against
the Odds.
another target the monster
63. Myopic: The monster is Blind to chooses.
anything outside of its Zone.
71. Resurrectionist: As an action,
64. Pass Unnoticed: Characters must spend D6 Vigour and D3 Grip to
roll and fail a Grip Check to see the resurrect a dead creature in the
monster. Losing Grip from any same Zone. The target has
source or taking damage from the Vigour and Grip equal to the
monster allows characters to make amount spent.
the Check again.
72. Sapping Touch: Choose Brawn,
65. Phalanx: The monster gains +1 Wit or Will. Spend 2 Grip after a
Armour when sharing a Zone with successful Attack to force a Check
2+ friendly creatures. of that Stat. If they fail, reduce the
target’s Stat by 1, and increase the
66. Pilferer: When the monster’s
monster’s Stat by 1 until the next
Attacks deal damage, you can
sunrise or until the monster is
forgo damage to steal an object the
slain. If the target is slain first, the
target is holding.
change is permanent.
67. Power Through Pain: The monster
can spend 1 Vigour in place of
1 Grip.
84
Adaptations
73. Sensitive Hearing: When the 77. Shunt: As an action, the monster
monster is exposed to loud noises, can spend 2 Grip to unleash a blast
roll a Grip Check. If they fail, they of water, air or arcane force in a
are Stunned until their next Zone, forcing creatures into an
Turn ends. adjacent Zone. If they pass a Wit
Check they choose the Zone, if they
74. Sensitive Vision: When the
fail the monster chooses.
monster is exposed to bright light,
roll a Grip Check. If they fail, they 78. Slicken: As an action, the monster
are Stunned until their next can spend 2 Grip to unleash a flood
Turn ends. of oily liquid or freeze a Zone’s
surface. Creatures traversing the
75. Shadow-Coated: When moving
Zone must pass a Wit Check or
from an unlit Zone into a well-lit
become Stunned in that Zone for
Zone, their next Attack this Turn
that turn.
has the Upper Hand and deals an
additional D3 Grip damage. 79. Spew Flame: As an action, the
monster can expel a great gout of
76. Shape the Land: As an action,
burning oil, coating a Zone.
spend 3 Grip to change the nature
Creatures within it roll a Wit Check
of a visible Zone making it
or take D3 damage. Any creature
Impassable, Inescapable or
that ends their Turn in that Zone
removing a terrain feature.
takes D3 damage.
Creatures in an Impassable Zone
must roll a Wit Check and move a 80. Spined: Melee Attacks made in the
Zone. On a failure, you choose monster’s Zone are Against
where they move. the Odds.
81. Sprinter: Can move 2 Zones and

Inescapable: Creatures in an
take an action each Turn.
Inescapable Zone must pass an
Against the Odds Brawn or Wits 82. Sundering: Upon causing an
Check to move out of it. Failure Injury, the monster may destroy
wastes that movement. the target’s weapon, shield or
armour instead of rolling an Injury.
85
Adaptations
83. Swarm: A group of tiny creatures 89. Toxic Blood: Deal D3 damage to
large enough to pose a threat to a Attackers making slashing or
person. Successful non-magical piercing Weapon Attacks in short
Weapon Attacks only deal 1 or melee range.
damage. Other sources or
90. Unobservant: The monster is
innovative plans may deal more.
Against the Odds on all
Conventional Grappling is
Observation Checks.
Impossible. At 50% Vigour, its
Attacks, Brawn and Wit Checks 91. Unreadable: Creatures can’t use
are Against the Odds. Otherwise Exertion responding to the
treat it as a single monster. monster’s actions.
84. Sworn Foe: Choose a type of 92. Untrue Visions: The monster’s
Advancement (i.e. Martial, Arcane, perception is partially misaligned
Devious or Holy). When any with our reality. Each Turn roll a
creature uses that type of D6: On 6 it hallucinates badly,
Advancement, double the losing its Turn.
Grip cost.
93. Venomous: Choose one: Blinded,
85. Terrifying Roar: As an action, the Stunned or D3 Damage. When the
monster can issue a blood- monster’s Attacks deal damage,
curdling, gut-cramping cry. the target must roll a Brawn Check
Creatures who hear the roar must or suffer the chosen effect. Blinded
make a Grip Check. and Stunned creatures recover at
the end of their next Turn.
86. Thunderous Blows: The monster’s
Attacks knock targets prone and 94. Vulnerable Point: With exact
Stun them until their next Turn knowledge of a Vulnerable Point, a
ends. successful Attack against the
monster voluntarily made Against
87. Tide of Teeth: Attacks against
the Odds hits it with an automatic
targets the monster damaged last
6 on the damage die without
Turn have the Upper Hand.
causing an Injury.
88. Titan-Slayer: Attacks against
95. Will it Never Die?: When the
creatures with more Vigour have
monster’s Vigour is reduced to 0 it
the Upper Hand.
becomes 1 instead, and Brawn is
86 reduced by 1, to a minimum of -1.
Adaptations
96. Wind-Up Smash: The monster can
voluntarily roll an Attack with
Against The Odds, dealing double
damage if it hits.
97. Wyrd Thirst: When the monster

kills a creature, it recovers D3 Grip.
98. You Can’t Run: The very earth

softens and festers around the
monster. Any Zone it is in becomes
Inescapable to all but the monster.
99. Your Limbs Like Lead: Creatures

must roll a Brawn Check to move
into or out of the monster’s Zone.
If they fail, they do not move,
wasting their movement.
100. Your Weapons Fail You: When an

Attack against the monster
returns 2+ results of 1, the
weapon or ammunition breaks. If
unarmed, the attacker suffers D3
damage.
87
Beasts of the Crypt
Beasts of
the Crypt
Simple Foes, powerful enemies
Within are 18/24 new monsters to use in your games. Some are
simple foes, others powerful enemies worth building entire
Crypts around.
88
Bestiary
Bog Troll
Mood: Commoner Sometimes witches spawn.
Armour 8 | Vigour 18 | Grip 6 Occasionally, these unwanted
BRAWN 2 | WIT 1 | WILL 1 children are tossed in the Bog.
Sometimes growing up to become
Grubby Claws (Heavy) OR
Bog-Trolls.
Other Weapon
Broad shouldered and pot-bellied,
Woundknitting, Hexproof
with long lumpy muscled limbs and
Special Adaptations lupine legs. They scamper about like
Arcane Rage: When an Arcane 8’ tall apes covered in thick muck,
Advancement is audible or visible to a their leather-scaled skin pulled taut
Bog-Troll, roll a Will Check. If it fails, around jutting bone spurs.
the Bog-Troll is enraged, gaining
They are usually quite reasonable. If
Razorclawed and Bloodscent. It must
solitary life suits them, they happily
Attack creatures with Arcane
haunt marshes parents warn their
Advancements, particularly ‘Witches’.
children never to roam. Otherwise,
The Arcane Rage ends when nothing
they retreat deeper into the wetlands,
visible is alive or when the Bog-Troll is
forming small conclaves of their kind.
reduced to 0 Vigour.
The only thing they unconditionally
The Flesh Undying: When reduced to 0
despise, fairly and unsurprisingly,
Vigour, the Bog-Troll is merely
are witches.
catatonic for D3 hours plus 1 hour for
each additional damage while
catatonic. When this ends, it awakens
with 1 Vigour. To permanently kill a
Bog-Troll, burn its heart and return its
body to the Bog.
89
Bestiaryof the Crypt
Beasts
Chaos-Enforcer Corpse-Drake
Mood: Otherworlder Mood: Great Beast
Slim and Wicked Knife (Light) Claws and Jaws (Heavy)
Deeper Darkness | Shape the Land Corpsemover | Fearsome |

Fleshgorging | Rampage
Special Adaptations
Unwanted Transposition: When the Special Adaptations
Chaos-Enforcer’s Attacks hit, they can Eyes of the Dead: The Drake sees
forgo damage forcing the target to roll through corpses’ eyes and is Blind
an Against the Odds Wit Check. If they when targeting or targeted by a
fail, they are teleported 1-2 Zones creature in a Zone without an intact
away, visible or not. The destination skull.
must have space for the target or this
Vomit Corpse: As an action it can
fails. It enjoys using this to teleport
vomit a corpse into its Zone.
creatures into pit traps, cages or other
monsters’ lairs. Animative Urges: Each Turn, in
addition to its move and action, the
Corpse-Drake may prepare one of the
In the dark of the Crypt, reality runs
following Windup Actions to occur at
thin and pliable. The Chaos-Enforcers
the start of the Drake’s next Turn.
see themselves as the anti-auditors of
the Crypt’s stygian chaos, delightedly • Putrefying Sludge
undoing law and order. Wind-Up: The Drake spasms,
its throat bulging.
Their appearance is blurry and
Action: It regurgitates a
indistinct, voices like flowing dialtone
Putrefaction Ooze.
static. Their face constantly melts,
flows, dissolves. • Danse Macabre:
Wind-Up: Green mist seeps from the
When striking, they can cut their target
Drake’s cracked skin, absorbing into
out of reality and place them elsewhere.
nearby corpses.
The more panic it sows doing this, the
Action: All corpses in its Zone and
greater its ringing, distorted laughter.
90 adjacent ones are animated (as
Spirits of the Beyond).
Beasts of the
Bestiary
Crypt
• Voices of the Dead:

Wind-Up: The Drake speaks in a
Putrefaction Ooze
Mood: Earthen
cacophonous crescendo of long
Armour 6 | Vigour 12
vanished voices.
BRAWN 1 | WIT -1 | WILL 0
Action: All creatures who can hear this
must roll a Grip Check or cover their Putrid Pseudopods (Hand)
ears (Stunned) until their next Turn
Special Adaptations
ends.
Appalling Stench: Creatures sharing a
Take a Wyvern or similar draconic-beast, Zone with the Ooze (or adjacent with
strip it of scale, skin and meat. Then, with Nose of the Dog) gain no benefit from
a corpse pile’s rotten bodies, mould a new positive Brawn scores.
body over the skeleton-armature like
Rotten Slime: The first time the Ooze
clay. Squidge and squeeze the corpse-
damages a creature, they roll a
flesh all over until the Drake is Rebuilt.
Grip Check.
It breathes putrefying fumes, speaks with
A pulsating mass of rotten flesh and
the long-dead’s voices and hates itself—
greasy, reeking sludge, oozing and
an abominable affront to the natural
slopping forwards to dissolve its prey
order. It sees through the surrounding
with its acidic insides. Bones are visibly
dead’s hollow sockets, seeing itself for
jutting from the surface of its bulk.
exactly what it is.
And yet it cannot destroy itself: dragon-

pride forbids it.
So it lurks, gorging on rotten meat in

secret, skull and corpse strewn hideaways.
91
Bestiary
Druids of the Deep
Mood: Earthen They are not inherently hostile to
Armour 8 | Vigour 8 | Grip 3 interlopers from above. Such things
BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL 0 happen so they contentedly stalk and
watch, so long as balance is
Pick one set:
maintained. Respectful trespass
Huntsman: Chase them Down |
is permitted.
Cursling Blades | Hand and Ranged
Weapon | +1 Brawn However, those breaking the Druid’s
innumerable and unfathomable laws
Stalker: Set-Up Shot | Disguise |
find retribution sudden, swift and final.
Light and Ranged Weapon | +1 Wit
Shaper: Shape the Land | Cage of

Thorns | Light Weapon | +1 Will
The Replete: Animative Execution |

Infested | Hand Weapon
Wendigo: Bloodthristy |
Fleshgorging | Hand Weapon
Voice of the Deeps: Terrifying Roar |

Hex-Spewer | Unarmed
Just as there are Druids of the surface,

so too are there Druids of the dark
spaces below.
It is not nearly as cold and dead as most

think. The life found in the Dark is
unique and strange. Groves of obsidian
trees, ravines brimming with fungal
growths, fields of scree drinking from
buried rivers. The Druids of the Deep
tend to them and maintain nature’s
balance in that frigid world.
92
Bestiary
Grandmaster of the Deeps
Mood: Earthen • Vicious Fury
Armour 8 | Vigour 20 | Grip 9 Wind-Up: The eyes of a nearby animal
BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL 2 blaze burning red as it thrashes and
foams at the mouth.
Special Adaptation:
Action: The thrashing ceases as it
Grandmaster of the Deeps: On its
furiously leaps into the fray,
Turn, in addition to its move and
undaunted as an Enraged Beast,
action the Grandmaster of the Deep
relentlessly attacking until
may prepare one of the following
everything is dead.
Windup Actions to occur at the start of
the Grandmaster’s next Turn.
Enraged Beast
• Upheaval Mood: Enraged
Wind-Up: The Grandmaster stamps as Armour 7 | Vigour 6 | Grip 1
ripples spread through their Zone BRAWN 1 | WIT 1 | WILL -1
and adjacent Zones, which rumble
Vicious Claws (Hand)
and shake.
Action: The rumbling Zones are Hunger Pangs | Spider Climb
upturned in a sudden quake,
becoming Inescapable. All creatures
within roll a Wit Check or take D3
damage.
• Thorn Surge
Wind-Up: The Grandmaster points a
wizened finger at a Zone, where thick
thorny brambles begin creeping from
the ground.
Action: The brambles surge up,
Restraining all creatures in that
Zone. To escape, spend 1 Vigour and
your action to roll a Brawn or
Wit Check.
93
Bestiary
Firumhazal, She Of Charred Wing
Mood: Special Wyrm of Legend: Each Turn, in
Armour 9 | Vigour 80 | Grip 9 addition to its move and action,
BRAWN 0 | WIT 1 | WILL 0 Firumhazal may prepare one of the
Cleaving Blows | Devour |
the start of her next Turn.
Hideous Strength | Hulking |
Inevitable | Ironshelled | • Gout of Flames
Nose of the Dog | Violent End (3D6) Wind-Up: Firumzahal breathes in and
smoke brims from her nostrils.
Special Advancements:
Action: Her nostrils spurt fire. Every
Dragon-Gaze: Dragons have poor
creature in a Zone within short range
vision but clearly see worked metal and
must pass a Wit Check or take
precious gems. To Attack or notice a
2D6 damage.
creature, Firumhazal must make an
Observation Check. The Check is • Dragonflight
Against The Odds for any creature not Wind-Up: Firumzahal unfurls her
wearing metal but Trivial for those in wings and rises onto her hind limbs,
Plate Mail. gaining Fragile Defences as her soft
belly is exposed.
Fickle-Minded: Dragons are all
Action: Firumzahal beats her wings.
fiercely intelligent with vastly varying
All creatures in her Zone must pass a
temperaments. Firumhazal has 1 Wit
Brawn Check or be knocked off their
for physical agility and 3 Wit for
feet and Stunned for one turn. For the
mental agility.
next three turns, Firumzahal gains
In addition, upon meeting Flying and Fragile Defences.
Firumhazal roll 1D6 to determine
• Cacophonous Roar
her mood:
Wind-Up: Bright frills extend from
1-2. Igneous
Firumzahal’s open maw.
3-4. Great Beast
Action: Firumzahal’s roar shakes the
5-6. Devious
very earth. All creatures who can hear
must:
- Pass a Grip Check or lose D3 Grip.
- Pass a Brawn Check or be Deafened.
94
Bestiary
The Crypts of Lendal are filled with

Drakes, lizardlike creatures of scale
and claw that slay Cryptdiggers with
elemental breath. These feral
creatures are mere beasts compared to
true Dragonkind.
Dragons are singular, ancient creatures

of almost godlike power. Torsos like
galleons and wings like unfurled sails,
they are found only in the uttermost
reaches of the deepest Crypts. Their
hoards contain Lendal’s finest treasures
and their memories stretch further than
recorded history. Their numbers slowly
dwindled since ancient days and any
adventurer powerful enough to slay one
will surely pass into legend.
Deep within the Warrens upon a bed of

kingly coins, Firumhazal rests amidst
inert hallucinogenic fumes. She claims
to see the future within the haze, and
none dare call her a liar. Surprisingly
conversational, she loves philosophical
and fashionable conversation, but
despises law and history. She is quick to
gossip, but if displeased or faced with
thieves or dragonslayers is quick
blasting them with dragonfire.
95
Bestiary
Knight of Tumours
Mood: Holy 1. Zone Subduction: The Titan gains
Armour 8 | Vigour 36 | Grip 2 2D6 Vigour as its flesh bubbles and
BRAWN 3 | WIT -1 | WILL 1 judders, expanding to fill an adjacent
Zone. Any creatures in that Zone roll
Corroded Greatsword (Hand)
a Brawn or Wit Check or become
Weakness (Fire) Restrained within the Titan. Escape
requires spending 1 minute hacking
Special Adaptations:
at the Titan’s flesh, and rolling a Wit
Slow Mending: At the start of the Check to avoid accidentally dealing
Knight’s Turns, if it can, it loses 1 Grip D3 damage to its captive.
and regains D3 Vigour.
2. Thrashing Capillaries: Coiled and
Glorious Pain: When taking damage ropey veins thrash and stab at
the Knight of Tumours gains 1 Grip. anything nearby. The Titan rolls a
Heavy Weapon Attack against all
Behold the Mighty Flesh!: If the
creatures in an adjacent Zone.
Knight of Tumours has 7+ Grip at the
start of its Turn, it emits a great burst 3. Liquid Purge: The Titan shudders
of meaty fluid and transforms into a and cringes inwards, before releasing
Titan of the Ineffable Flesh. a horrifying slurry that quickly
spreads underfoot. All creatures in
Titan of the Ineffable Flesh adjacent Zones roll a Brawn or Will
Mood: Unthinking Check or, they spend their next
Armour 6 | Vigour 36 | Grip 8 action Immobilised and vomiting.
BRAWN 1 | WIT - | WILL 2
Multi-Zone Monster: The Titan is
No Weapons vast, and ever growing, filling (at least)
an entire Zone; no creature can share
Hulking | Unstoppable |
its Zone. Adjacent Zones count as being
Wound-Knitting
in its Zone for weapon ranges. If it fills
Special Adaptations: additional Zones, it may move out of
1D3 The Unstoppable Tide: The Titan one Zone and into another so long as
knows only growth and consumption. all its Zones remain contiguous.
On its Turn, roll a D3 to determine
96 action:
its
Bestiary
Long ago, disciples found what they

thought to be an Angel or Herald,
though wounded and dying. They
tended to it and offered their prayers,
mending its shattered body with careful
faith. In gratitude, the inhuman thing
blessed their flesh as they had blessed it
and departed.
However, the blessing was twisted and

warped and the disciples transformed
into the first Knights of Tumours.
The stench is appalling; pus drips from

its armoured joints, its weapon is
scabbed over, bulges of aching necrotic
flesh achingly bend and burst through
armour plates. Their screams are
prayers with spilled blood for
communion.
Pain brings rapture; the ecstasy of

ascension.
97
Bestiary
The Lion Hydra
Mood: Great Beast Wind-Up: The Hydra’s heads slobber,
Armour 7 | Vigour 60 | Grip 4 snapping their jaws, straining away
BRAWN 3 | WIT 1 | WILL 1 to escape its body’s flesh.
Action: In a storm of violence,
Vicious Teeth (Heavy)
the Hydra makes an Against the Odds
Fearsome | Hulking Menagerie of Attack against all creatures in its
Heads: The Lion Hydra begins with Zone and all adjacent Zones.
2D6 heads. Attacks dealing 5+ damage
• Gibbering Cacophony
sever a head. At the start of its next
Wind-Up: The Hydra breathes in
Turn, D3 replacements sprout — fire
through its many, many mouths.
damage prevents this. Ifreduced to 0
Action: All its heads roar, growl and
heads, it dies. It gaining heads grants
gurgle at once. Listeners roll a Grip
Adaptations, as below:
Check or are Stunned.
1 - 5 Heads. None
6 - 10 Heads. Rampage • AutoCannibalism
11 - 15 Heads. Rampage | Flurry Wind-Up: The Lion Hydra tears into
of Claws itself, ripping off chunks of meat,
16+ Heads. Rampage | Flurry of heads swallowing their duplicates’
Claws | Razor Clawed ragged remains.
Action: The Hydra loses D6 heads,
Special Adaptations:
regaining equal Vigour. This can
Fell-Beast of Legend: Each Turn, in
(fatally) reduce it to 0 heads. This
does not regenerate any heads with
Lion Hydra may prepare one of the
Menagerie of Heads.
the start of the Hydra’s next Turn.
• Hurricane of Fangs
98
Bestiary
A catastrophic and incomprehensible Never seen in the Duchies of Lendal,

nightmare cascade of lion-faces, horrified rumours propagate of its
subducted and fused together at every rampage in uncharted Northern lands.
angle, erupting from a great mane on Stories of Oracles who, asking of the
an elephant-sized leonine creature. Lion Hydra, begin choking out a dire
Every single eye burns with a vicious warning of its inevitable arrival in the
fury, thoughtless and uncoordinated. Duchies while collapsing and
convulsing, before their head erupts in
Unstoppable—the more you hack at
a tide of blossoming heads.
its heads, the more devouring
replacements erupt snapping at your All firmly deny that the Lion Hydra
friends — even each other. Meat could ever come to the Duchies. Some
invigorates the beast who surges on, deludedly believe it.
inflicting further cataclysms.
99
Bestiary
The Pale Piper
of Harrenwold
Mood: Aberration It has too many hands, insufficient eyes

Armour 2 | Vigour 18 | Grip 8 (or other facial features for that
BRAWN -1 | WIT 2 | WILL 2 matter), and infinite fingers sensuously
crossing its bizarrely branching pipe
Trembling Fists (Hand)
playing an impossible almost-tune.
Nimble | Otherworldly Gaze
The Duke’s men came to Harrenwold
Special Adaptations: trailing reports of wide-scale butchery,
The Dance of Unknown Spaces: If an yet found no victims, only eye-stinging
Attack misses the Pale Piper, reality runes drawn in peculiar tan clay.
warps to redirect it; reroll the lowest
The Pale Piper is always followed by
die and resolve the Attack against a
3D3 Children of the Demon-Sultan,
legal target the Piper chooses.
dancing graceful, geometrically
The Demon Piping: Any creature who deranged swirls and steps. They would
can hear the Piper’s music when their die protecting the music, blossoming
Turn starts makes a Grip Check. If this into flesh-ravaging spectrums.
causes an Affliction, consider the
Music of Creation Special Affliction. Children
of the Demon-Sultan
Special Afflication:
Mood: Aberration
The Music of Creation: The character
Armour 7 | Vigour 4
is always on the lookout for the hidden
BRAWN -1 | WIT 2 | WILL -1
beats and tempo underlying creation,
the secret melodies and chords Delicate Nails (Light)
resounding in the quiet. When rolling a
Nimbl | Quick Reflexes | Violent End
12 on a Stat or Observation Check,
spend 1 Grip or do nothing, enthralled Special Adaptations:
by the Demon- Sultan’s Songs. The Uncanny Dance: The Children are
first time this happens daily they gain extensions of the Piper. If the Piper is
1 Experience. Stunned, Immobilised or afflicted by
Mind-Affecting effects, the Children
are too.
100
Bestiary
Phthartid Worm The Raw Folk
Mood: Hungering Mood: Great Beast
A Thousand Thousand Mouths (Heavy) Brutal Tools (Heavy)
Devour | Hulking | Tide of Teeth | Appalling Violence | Chase them Down

Vulnerable Point (soft mouth-tentacles)
Special Adaptations
Special Adaptations Pain Beyond Pain: The Raw Folk loses
The Vast Worm: The Worm fills an 1 Grip when damaged.
entire Zone, no other creature can share
Fury Beyond Fury: When the Raw Folk
its Zone. Creatures whose Zone the
has 0 Grip, it has the Razorclawed and
Worm moves into suffer D3 damage and
Rampage Adaptations.
move into an adjacent Zone. Adjacent
Zones count as the Worm’s Zone for Their bodies are flensed, bloody and
weapon range purposes. raw with a wildfire burning deep in
their blackened sockets and knotted
At a least a 100’ long and thick as a bull.
hair hanging greasily to their shoulders.
The front end is covered in festering
Most drag heavy, crude iron tools (axes,
slits like stab wounds, which bulge open
hammers, the odd plow blade) scraping
to release long tentacles of soft pink
the stone floors.
flesh, tipped with toothy lamprey maws.
Their origin has many explanations;
They tunnel frantically through the
flayed by avenging angels for an
underworld in a desperate frenzy for
ancient sin or cursed for failing a
food, accompanied by earthquakes and
wicked deity. All that is certain is their
sink-holes.
miserable existence.
When the Worm finds food, it is
In battle, they swing with careless
unstoppable and insatiable. Even when
disregard for their safety. As battle
its prey is utterly consumed, it may
shreds their bodies, they become
scream and gnaw at the earth to scour
increasingly reckless and wrathful—
even the merest dreg of blood.
they have nothing to lose.
101
Bestiary
Saint of the Demon Flame
Mood: Holy begin swelling and can be attacked
Armour 8 | Vigour 27 | Grip 9 (7 Armour, 1 Vigour).
BRAWN 0 | WIT 2 | WILL 3 Action: Surviving shadows combust
dramatically into Void-Imps.
Staff of the Demon-Flame (Long)
Wearing the armoured vestments of a
Sworn Enemy (Holy) | Hex-Proof |
holy man it clutches a censer-staff in
Censure
its spindly hands. A sacred silver mask
Special Adaptations: hides its face but it holds itself with
The Demon-Flame: Each Turn, in the surety of faith.
The censer burns mauve with Demon-
Saint may prepare one of the following
Flame, sucking the air into a void
Windup Actions which occurs at the
which coruscates and consumes. The
start of the Saint’s next Turn.
Saint is not its master, their bond is
• Burst of Void-Flame deeper than that.
Wind-Up: A vacuum opens within the
The corpses of slain enemies are fed to
censer, howling as it sucks in air.
the Demon-Flame. They kneel next to
Action: An eruption of mauve-flame
the corpse, perhaps in prayer, as the
engulfs all creatures in adjacent
censer spills eager, devouring flame
Zones for D3+1 damage and 1 Grip.
which leaves only a smear of purest
• Death of Light white ash.
Wind-Up: Pure white smoke, matte,
uncannily flat, and painful to behold.
Action: The entire space the Saint
Void Imps
occupies is filled with a great, opaque Mood: Infernal
whiteness and Blinding every Armour 6 | Vigour 6 | Grip 2
creature except the Saint. BRAWN -1 | WIT 1 | WILL 0
• Imp-Cinders Mauve-Flame Claws (Light)

Wind-Up: D3 flickering, deep mauve
Fear of the Light | Knife in the Dark |
imp-figures leap from the censer,
Nimble | Shadowclad
skittering to adjacent Zones. They
102
Bestiary
103
Bestiary
Sodslime Town-Gutter
Mood: Unthinking Mood: Brigand
Armour 7 | Vigour 12 Armour 8 | Vigour 8 | Grip 3
Splattery Fists (Hand) Splattery Fists (Hand)
Gelatinous Grip Pick one set:

The Heroic Sacrifice, Returned:
Special Adaptations
Rampage | Sworn Foe (Martial) |
Splatter: When the Sodslime’s Attack
Wound-Knitting
hits, it loses 1 Vigour and the target is
encumbered with one Inventory Slot of Victim of the Hideous Machine:
Muck. Removing 1 Slot requires 10 mins Falling to Bits | Feeds on Misfortune |
cleaning. Character’s with more Slots Iron-Whisperer
than their Brawn Stat begin
Once-Lost-In-The-Dark:
Suffocating.
Deeper Darkness | Shadow-Coated |
A pile of cloddy brown muck, Spiderclimb
slopping from the walls and ceiling.
The Greed-Eaten: Pilferer |
Rearing up, drenching its target.
Shadowclad | Sworn Foe (Devious)
Weighed by their new burden, even the
strongest Cryptdiggers quickly find Their Veins are Poison: Toxic Blood |
themselves buried under the Toxic Blades | Violent End
ever-growing burden of tenacious
The Visited By Dread Revelation:
clinging mud.
A Dark Mirror | Otherworldly Gaze |
Reality Betrays You!
These twisted, hateful creatures crawl

up from the Crypts. Some suspect they
are born of Cryptdiggers who died far
from the sun’s light, and many reflect
their deaths: knights in rent mail,
rogues chewed up by traps, wizards
scorched with arcane fire.
104
Bestiary
Types of Vampires
The nature of Vampires is a matter of
Young Vampires: some contention.
Gelatinous Grip | One Power Many lazy academics theorize Vampires
are merely an evolved Undead, grown
Old Vampires: fat on carrion. This is partly true.
Some radical scholars claim that
Gelatinous Grip | Two Powers
Vampires are cannibalistic Elves, but
that does not explain their varieties.
Ancient Vampires:
Armour 9 | Vigour 30 | Grip 10 A few desperate scholars fleeing agents
Gelatinous Grip | Three Powers of more respectable universities, trade
pamphlets alleging the first Vampires
Special Adaptations
were influenced by the Dying World of
Vampiric: The Vampire cannot be
the Grimm. The Dying World lets no-
targeted by mind-altering magics and
one escape forever though, so what
does not need to sleep or breathe. Each
could it be?
also has a specific hunger which they
must regularly indulge. Each day they Uncontroversially, Vampires are
do not, they lose D3 Vigour and 1 Grip, predators, mercifully limited in number
which cannot be recovered until their as all predators are, lest their hunger
hunger is satisfied. outgrow their prey.
105
Bestiary
Vampire, Choleric
Mood: Hungering Choleric Vassals
BRAWN 3 | WIT 2 | WILL 1 Mood: Hungering
As Weapon
BRAWN -1 | WIT 1 | WILL 0
Rampage | Devour | Wound-Knitting
Broken Nails (Hand)
(disabled by fire) | Vampiric
Gelatinous Grip
Special Adaptations
1D6 Choleric Vampire Powers Choleric thralls are loose skins, filled
(Roll Twice): with their master’s rotten meaty vomit.
1. Berserk Frenzy Their pack loyalty means they may
2. Ferocious Charge sacrifice themselves for
3. Razorclawed their Vampire.
4. Sprinter
There is little difference between
5. Flurry of Claws
Choleric Vampires and their Vassals; full
6. Adaptive Defence
Vampires simply wear a skinned corpse.
Living suits of skin bonded onto flayed For this reason, Choleric Vampires are
corpses, Choleric Vampires are strong very protective of their kills and struggle
and confident, depending on no-one. for dominance.
The corpse adopts a new form; limbs

exaggerated and quadrupedal, teeth
lengthened into fangs, nails viciously
extended.
They prefer to lead a pack of Vassals on

hunts through wilds, villages and
towns, never staying put.
They hunger for muscles and flesh to

shore up their slowly softening innards.
This cannot be held off indefinitely, so
Vampire must constantly seek new
bodies to skin for it and its brood.
106
Bestiary
Vampire, Melancholic
Mood: Arcane They live alone with a few trusted Vassals as
BRAWN 1 | WIT 3 | WILL 2 research assistants.
As Weapon When feeding, a lacquered chitinous

proboscis emerges an arm’s length from
Devour | Mindspike (Proboscis) |
their throat. Lucky victims have this pushed
Wound-Knitting (disabled by alcohol)
through their ears, the unlucky through the
| Shadow Glamours | Vampiric
eye or nose, as the Vampire drinks their
Special Adaptations thoughts and minds.
1D6 Melancholic Vampire Powers
(Roll Twice): Melancholic Vassals
1. Mind Sap The Vampire’s proboscis Mood: As Their Master
tastes the surface thoughts and Armour 8 | Vigour 8
histories of creatures losing Grip, BRAWN 1 | WIT 1 | WILL -1
in greater detail with further Grip
Hand Weapon
damage.
2. Arcane Wards Clumsy Movements
3. Arcane Volley
Thoughtless servants whose minds were
4. Umbral Dash
irreversibly devoured. All but dead, their
5. The Evil Eye
every act is deftly controlled by the
6. Pass Unnoticed
Vampire’s subconscious.
The Melancholic Vampire is intelligent
If granted a mind again (with a complex
in the extreme and untroubled by
ritual), they mature into a Melancholic
emotions or empathy. They often pursue
Vampire. Master Vampires don’t want
the Arcane arts or esoteric Natural
to waste their time with such matters,
Philosophy using troubling (at best)
so most Vassals remain as they are for
methods—ends always justify the
the rest of their existence.
means.
Their bodies are thin and gaunt, barely

more than a bag of bones, and their
eyes are multi-faceted jet black orbs.
107
Bestiary
Vampire, Phlegmatic
Mood: Holy Phlegmatic Vassals
BRAWN 2 | WIT 1 | WILL 3 Mood: Holy
As Weapon
Compressible | Devour |
Bludgeoning Fists (Hand)
Wound-Knitting (disabled by toxins) |
Vampiric Flesh-Gorging
Special Adaptations The thralls of a Phlegmatic Vampire are

1D6 Phlegmatic Vampire Powers hollowed out corpses implanted with a
(Roll Twice): child-maggot. It grows, fed carrion by
1. Spirits of the Beyond its parent-Vampire until it can control
2. Beetle-Flesh its necrotic vessel, becoming a full
3. Mageshape Phlegmatic Vampire. Of all vampires,
4. You Can’t Run Phlegmatic are the least concerned by
5. Falling to Bits their vassals outgrowing them,
6. Shape the Land disconcerting for nearby settlements...
Almost healthy looking for their kind,

save for their clammy complexion. Caught
unawares and you might see something
squirm underneath their skin…
The true Vampire is a Worm, long as a

dog, pallid and fat. Its host’s stomach
furtively bulges from its burden. The most
sentimental vampires, their twisted love
for their Vassals can drive them to do
terrible things.
They feed by inverting their semi-

vestigial throat out of their mouth, which
reaches down the victim’s throat to
gobble up the soft, semi-digested food.
108
Bestiary
Vampire, Sanguine
Mood: Noble Dangerously beautiful, their skin but a
BRAWN 2 | WILL 1 | WIT 3 shade above deathly, and their muscles
thin yet taut. Their most fascinating
As Weapon
feature is their eyes, stunningly vibrant
Wound-Knitting (disabled by silver) | and almost hypnotising...
Bloodscent | Vampiric
They prefer hiding among nobility,
Special Adaptations concealed within lairs matching the
1D6 Sanguine Vampire Powers station they believe
(Roll Twice): they deserve.
1. Swarm Form: As an action, the
They feed through their teeth, draining
Vampire can spend 3 Grip to
blood in greedy, rapturous gulps.
transform into a swarm of Bats, Rats,
Flies or a Misty Cloud. It cannot
Attack, but can fly and takes half Sanguine Vassals
damage from non-magical weapons. Mood: Noble
2. Serpent’s Words: Any creature who Armour 8 | Grip 2 | Vigor 8
is not a character will generally BRAWN 0 | WILL -1 | WIT 1
believe anything the Vampire says,
As Weapon
and must be shown incontrovertible
evidence to disbelieve. Vampiric | Bloodscent
Those with whom the Sanguine Vampire
has shared their utterly addictive blood,
5. Bloodthirsty
Thralls act as hangers-on and
6. Echosense
sycophants boosting their standing.
To those holding their favour or
If a Sanguine Vassal totally drains a
interest, the Sanguine Vampire is
person’s blood, they mature into a
desirable and confident, charismatic yet
Sanguine Vampire. For this reason, their
brooding. They are also ruthless and
masters closely control feedings.
calculating, with no qualms about
manipulation and abuse to achieve
their ends, even if they do like you. To
them, you are cattle.
109
Bestiary
Vermin Collector
Mood: Abomination
Swarm of Insects
Mood: Critter
Armour 6 | Vigour 12
Gnarled Staff (Hand) BRAWN 0 | WIT -1 | WILL -1
Rampage (as Vermin Retaliation) | Thrashing Horde (Light)

Flamewreathed (as Cloud of Flies)
Swarm | Venomous
Special Adaptations
A Basketful of Vermin: On the Vermin Pack of Rats
Collector’s Turn, roll a D3 for what Mood: Critter
slops out of the basket. Armour 6 | Vigour 12
1. Swarm of Insects BRAWN 0 | WIT 0 | WILL -1
2. Pack of Rats
Thrashing Horde (Light)
3. A Huge Centipede
Swarm | Fleshgorging
Tall and gaunt, they look like people in
ratty garments crawling with fleas and
lice until you approach and see their
Huge Centipede
Mood: Critter
sunken eyes steadily dripping thick, oily
Armour 6 | Vigour 8
sludge. They lean heavily on a gnarled
staff, hunched and staring from beneath
a great wicker basket. Their basket is Gnashing Mandibles (Hand)
the true horror—impossibly full of
Spider Climb | Nimble
perpetually spilling over vermin, insects
and small, filthy creatures.
Some conjecture they are

manifestations of filth and disease come
to unleash pox and plague, others claim
they are witches blessed by demonic
powers or, even, simply people with a
desperately unhealthy obsession.
110
Bestiary
The Wise Old Woods-Walker
Mood: Cultist
The Woods-Walker can bestow the Eldritch
Pact Advancement with an hour-long ritual.
This Pact is earned with an exchange of
Crushing Hooves and Goring favours or following a lengthy tutelage. It
Horns (Heavy) manipulates deals to heavily favour itself.
Pressured to ‘repay their debts,’ students
Thunderous Blows | Arcane Volley |
help weave esoteric rites and abhorrent
Shadow Glamours | Any other Arcane
rituals, twisting the landscape and
Advancements.
inhabitants to unspeakable ends.
Special Adaptations
When the Woods-Walker is done with a
Crimson Sacrament: When sharing a
village, it is long gone before
Zone with a corpse or willing creature,
anyone investigates.
the Woods-Walker can magically
consume it rather than pay any Grip to
use Arcane Advancements.
The Red Goat of the Woods, who

dispenses wisdom to witches and
crushes villages beneath its hooves. It
haunts forests like a demon-wind,
marking its chosen with bloody rings,
blessing crops with corpse-mushroom
infestations and twisting people into
gory idols of magical potency.
The first signs of its arrival in your

forest are subtle. It is watching and
learning, perhaps as a bird or goat. It
finds those on the periphery with little
to lose, twisting them into willing tools.
111
Bestiary
Witch-Knight
Mood: Void-Hearted Armour and weapons feed on blood,
Armour 9 | Vigour 20 | Grip 3 iron calls out to its distant kin. Their
BRAWN 3 | WIT 0 | WILL 1 dormant spirits can be awakened by
sorcery, revealing their desire: To
Hex-Proof
drench themselves in spilled blood.
Special Adaptations
Imprison a warrior in their armour and
Living Armour: While the armour is
awaken it constructing a Witch-Knight.
worn the Witch-Knight lives, its
Vigour representing its current body's They begat tales of armoured knights
integrity. At 0 Vigour the body inside is whose rampages were only stopped by
destroyed, but if replaced, restores the complete butchery. No matter the
Witch Knight’s Vigour. Destroying the wearer, they inevitably fall into
Armour itself is far harder, requiring unstoppable bloodlust and must be
its creator’s consent or potent magic. butchered themselves. No one ever
suspects the armour or blade, which
Children of Violence: The Witch
contentedly awaits another
Knight gains Adaptations and
foolish wielder.
Advancements based on its weapon:
• Hand Weapon
Swarm of Steel | Rampage
[ex. Longsword]
• Heavy Weapon
Battle Frenzy | Lifedrinker
[ex. Greatsword]
• Long Weapon
Umbral Dash | Nimble
[ex. Glaive]
• Throwing Weapon
Viscous Shadow | Spider Climb
[ex. Wicked Knives]
112
Bestiary
113
Beasts of the Crypt
Misshapen
Magic
The life of a Cryptdigger is not a happy one, and in the darkest
and most hellish reaches of the Crypt, even the tools and
abilities that the Cryptdiggers wield can turn against their
masters.
Do not use these tools often, and where possible foreshadow

or imply the possibility of this happening ahead of time.
Alternatively they could be used as the results of NPCs losing
control of their abilities.
Overall, these are another tool for you to use to help reinforce
the idea that, down in the Crypt, characters are never
totally safe...
114
Misshapen Magic
Arcanoclastic Flow Bloodshedder
Mood: Aethereal Mood: Martial
Armour 7 | Vigour 18 | Grip 9 (roll twice and choose the most violent option)
BRAWN -1 | WIT 1 | WILL 2 Armour 9 | Vigour 24 | Grip 8
BRAWN 2 | WIT -1 | WILL -1
No Weapons
Bloodstained Blade (Hand)
Ethereal | Fire and Lightning Strange
| Spellwrath | Violent End Bloodscent | Hex Addled
Special Adaptations Special Adaptations

Living Magic: At the start of Call of the Blood: When the
Arcanoclastic Flow’s Turn, it loses 1 Bloodshedder uses Exertion on a
Grip, dying if it starts its Turn with successful Attack, choose one:
0 Grip. • Regain the spent Grip.
• Gain the Flurry of Claws
Absorb Power: When a creature spends
Adaptation this Turn.
Grip on a Holy or Arcane Advancement
• The Attack benefits from the
in the Flow’s Zone or an adjacent Zone,
Impaler Adaptation.
the Flow gains twice the Grip.
Sometimes the toils of war and
Magic is a raw material, and can run
slaughter cease to be a burden and turn
amok like when unleashed by Fire and
into something darkly nurturing. The
Lightning Strange or Manawrath. The
Bloodshedder's Curse can warp
more destructive the attack, the more
Cryptdiggers with Advancements such
likely it self-replicates or, in the worst
as Battle Frenzy and Storm of Steel
cases, awakens.
into this wretched state.
In a wildly coruscating tide of light it
They become animalistic , with hunched
scorches the earth with arcing magical
gait and grizzled flesh, until
lightning bolts. Its purified magic
approaching full of bloodlust.
“surface” is semi-physical, scabbing
over with shards of mundane reality.
Eventually it burns itself out but can do

quite a bit of damage in the meantime.
115
Misshapen Magic
Bone Thief
Mood: Aberration The Spirits of the Beyond
Armour 8 | Vigour 12 | Grip 4 Advancement creates undead servants
BRAWN 1 | WIT -1 | WILL 0 from bodies and bones. If these tiny
animating sparks are severed from their
Vicious Claws (Hand)
master by death or other means, the
Fleshgorging (the Bone-Thief scoffs spark of life may blaze forth, securing
down the corpse’s bones) | any means of survival. This is especially
Fear of the Light | Undead probable where many dead lie, like
cemeteries or battlefields.
Special Adaptations
Bone Theft: The Bone Thief can steal a The Thief’s main engine of survival, and
bone from a Restrained creature, its namesake, is its appalling power to
incorporating it and gaining D3 Vigour. reach through a victim’s doughy flesh
Roll for the stolen bone and an pulling out bones. It stashes these stolen
additional effect: bones in itself before scurrying into
the night...
1. Rib: Lose D3 Vigour, which the Bone
Thief gains.
2. Arm/Hand: Can’t use that limb (as
Injury), the Bone Thief’s Vicious
Claws become a Heavy Weapon.
3. Leg/Foot: Can’t use that limb (as
Injury), the Bone Thief gains +1
Initiative.
4. Spine Fragment: Lose 1 Brawn,
which the Bone Thief gains.
5. Set of Knuckles: Lose 1 Wit, which
the Bone Thief gains.
6. Skull: You are dead. Bad luck. The
Bone Thief gains 1 of their
Advancements.
A truly skilled surgeon could replace
the bones, reversing the effects
(except death).
116
Misshapen Magic
Glamoured Shadow Possession by the Shadow
Mood: Aberration The Glamoured Shadow’s host shares
Armour - | Vigour - | Grip 7 its Fear of the Light Adaptation. Each
BRAWN - | WIT 2 | WILL 1 kill made in the dark grants the
Shadow 1 Grip. It can spend 1 Grip to
No Weapons
grant its host a use of one the following
Fear of the Light Advancements and Adaptations:
Special Adaptations 1. Otherworldly Gaze

Shadow Creature: With no physical 2. Knife from the Shadows
form, it cannot affect or be affected by 3. Shadow Glamours
physical things. Bright light deals D6
Characters trained in Holy or Arcane
Grip damage — Magic or other non-
arts can communicate with the
physical effects damage its Grip at the
shadow. If permitted to remain where
Doomspeaker’s discretion. The Shadow
it is, the Shadow is reasonable, and
is destroyed when reduced to 0 Grip.
quite happy to symbiotically share
Dark Possession: The Shadow can slip its power.
inside a creature in its Zone's body, Exorcising the Shadow requires the
nestling in their dark insides, skills of a Godsman or Wizard. A
Possessing them (see right). Godsman can exorcise and
immediately destroy it, while Wizards
The Shadow Glamours and Viscous
can only transfer it to a new vessel
Shadow Advancements magically
like another creature or a prepared
impart control over darkness. With a
ritual container.
measure too much magic, it could
In either case, exorcisms are mentally
rebuke its new master—particularly in
taxing and the host and exorcist lose
places never touched by natural light.
D3 Grip.
Glamoured Shadows are immaterial
things which perish in light, so they
seek bleak, lightless places often lying
unbothered for centuries. Sometimes
Cryptdiggers disturb them, not realising
the pristine darknesses Glamoured
Shadows love lurk within them.
117
Misshapen Magic
Misshapen Mage
1D3 Moods: 1. Abomination | 2. Great They act like normal animals except
Beast | 3. Critter their animal form regularly changes,
Armour 8 | Vigour 15 | Grip 3 sometimes occupying many places in
BRAWN 1 | WIT 1 | WILL -1 the local food-chain in a day.
Mutating Claws (Hand) The tiny, muling wretch found cowering

in the corner an hour ago and the
Flesh-Gorging | Unstoppable
screaming, roiling whirlwind-creature
Special Adaptations tearing into you now could be the same
Roiling Flesh: At the start of each thing.
Turn, roll below to determine this
turn’s benefit:
1. +1 Armour
2. +2 Brawn
3. Its Attacks have Short Range
4. It can move an additional Zone
5. It is Ironshelled
6. It is Razorclawed
Sometimes, the Mageshape

Advancement proceeds at an
uncontrolled and exponential rate.
Within minutes, the Mage is an
unrecognisable mess of animal aspects,
a raging, confused, desperate beast with
no concept of its own abilities.
This happens particularly in areas

where nature’s spirits hold reign.
118
Misshapen Magic
Venerat Flesh
Mood: Holy a new person, their hands and knees
Armour 8 | Vigour 15 | Grip 3 fused in permanent prayer.
This happens particularly in holy spaces.
No Weapon
The resultant creature is serene and
Special Adaptations calm, politely but firmly requesting aid
Divine Retribution: If the Venerat Flesh in achieving true transcendence.
wishes, any creature who touches it Cryptdiggers with Holy Advancements
must make a Grip Check. Creatures who hear the Flesh's gentle chorus in
dare attack it are cursed, and cannot use their minds.
or benefit from Holy Advancements
Unattended, the Venerat Flesh attracts a
until making Divine amends or atoning.
cult, perhaps offering one of the Cult
The Saint’s Progress: The Venerat Philosophies (pg 20).
Flesh demands gifts and offerings from
its followers. Creatures can offer it the Nascent Deity
treasures, granting the Flesh any This is the precipice of Godhood. To
resulting Experience. complete its divine ascension, it and its
followers must complete a long and
Offering 8 Experience of treasure
esoteric ritual requiring heavy sacrifices
grants the Venerat Flesh D6 maximum
and esoteric conditions. Once begun, the
Vigour, D3 Grip, and an Advancement
ritual can only end with the Nascent
or Adaptation it desires.
Diety’s ascension or death.
After gaining 6 Advancements and If successful, the devastation of a deity
Adaptations, it transforms into a incarnating into the world, even for
Nascent Deity. only a brief moment, is wide-reaching
and catastrophic.
Sometimes, the Flesh Made Anew
Advancement is subverted, a curse
unwittingly inflicted by the itinerant
priest for some sublime infraction. The
restored flesh bubbles beyond its
intended shape before budding off into
119
Beasts of the Crypt
the Venerat Cult

If you are running a Venerat Flesh not being supported by a
group of Cryptdiggers, use the following procedure. At the end of
each adventuring day, roll a D6. If the number rolled is greater
than the Flesh’s current number of Advancements, it gains a
new Advancement and the cult grows as per the table below.
Once the Flesh has 6 Adaptations or Advancements, it becomes

a Nascent Deity as normal.
Use whatever time-scale best suits your purposes if daily checks

interfere with your campaign.
120
Misshapen Magic
Level of Flesh
0 Adaptations/Advancements 1 Adaptations/Advancements
Needed Trasure: 8 XP Needed Trasure: 16 XP

Knife-Wavers: D3 Knife-Wavers: D6
Zealots: - Zealots: -
Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: - Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: -
High Priests: - High Priests: -

Knife-Wavers: 2D6 Knife-Wavers: 3D6
Zealots: 1D3 Zealots: 2D3
Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: - Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: -
High Priests: - High Priests: -

Knife-Wavers: 4D6 Knife-Wavers: 5D6
Zealots: 3D3 Zealots: 4D3
Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: 1D3 Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: 1D6
High Priests: 1 High Priests: 1
6 Adaptations/Advancements
Needed Trasure: Ritual Only

Knife-Wavers: 6D6
Zealots: 6D3
Dread-Blades/Corpse-Mongers: 2D6
High Priests: D3
121
Crafting
Monster
Crafting
Simple Foes, powerful enemies
Cryptdiggers can carve choice pieces from beasts they slay for
use in Potions, Poisons and even Monstrous Treasures.
There are three stages:

1. Investigate the monster’s remains for Monster Materials.
2. Research and refine Monster Materials into

Adaptation Components.
3. Craft Components into Items.
4. Determine if the Item was Cursed during creation.
122
Crafting
Step 1: Investigation Examples
Identifying a Dragon’s Fire-Breathing
First, remove a Monster Material with glands is Direct, as the Adaptation is
an hour’s work and a Grip Check. in its Stat block. However if the player
wants an Ironshelled Component
Successful or not, the Character
(which the Dragon did not have), the
extracts a Monster Material.
Doomsayer might grant it is Adjacent
Most monstrous remains can only have given the Dragon’s high Armour value.
1 Monster Material removed but If a player also wished to remove a
powerful monsters with many Razorclawed Component from the
Adaptations may contain more at the same Dragon, the Doomsayer might
Doomsayer’s discretion. rule that even though it didn’t have
that specific Adaptation, its high
Brawn score means that it is at least
Step 2: Research Adjacent.
Once removed, a Monstrous Material While the terrifying, incorporeal

requires a Night’s Work and a Grip Banshee can tear souls free from their
Check for research and identification. bodies with their scream, a player
wishes to identify an Otherworldly
The player suggests what kind of
Gaze Component from one. The
Adaptation their character desires a
Doomsayer rules that it is Adjacent
Component for.
because while it isn’t in the monster’s
The Doomsayer then decides if this is Stat block, it is thematically related to
Direct (viable), or Adjacent (potentially the Banshee’s powers.
viable).
A Soldier might have My Shining
Typically, Direct Adaptations appear in Armour Gleams, but it is the result of
the monster’s Stat block and Adjacent training, not biology or magic, so it is
Adaptations don’t, but are not feasible for identification at all.
thematically linked.
123
Crafting
Step 3: Creation
Turning a Component into a Monstrous Crafting Resources
Item requires a Night’s Work and a Each of the following constitutes 1
Grip Check. Decide the item you want Resource for Monster Crafting
to create and consult the list below to purposes:
determine how many crafting • 3 Experience worth of Gold
resources are required: • 3 Grip
• D3 Additional Days of Work
Type of Item - Cost in Resources • An Additional Monster Material
• Consumable: 2
Roll a Brawn or Wit Check
• Weapon or Staff: D3+3
(Doomsayer’s discretion) to determine
• Basic Armour or Shield: D3+1
success. Checks to craft Consumables
• Plate Armour: D3+3
have the Upper Hand.
• Trinket: D3+3
Success means the crafting went well
Consumables (Potions, Scrolls,
and the player expends the allotted
Totems or Icons broken to use,
resources.
Grenades, etc.) are destroyed upon use.
Failure means the crafting requires
Weapons and Armour are as defined in
more materials than initially thought.
the Equipment Chapter.
The player must expend the allotted
Trinkets are any other item that could resources and an additional
be held or worn when used, such as D3 resources.
amulets, rings, prayer beads, charms
tied to the hilts of swords, etc.
124
Crafting
Step 4: Potency and Curses
Apply the final touches and awaken the Monstrous Item’s
power with a Night’s Work and a Grip Check.
Decide the item’s Potency:

• Passive Trigger
• Active Trigger
• Passive Property
Consumables cannot have a Passive Property.
Potencies
If applicable, an Adaptation with a Grip or Vigour cost must
be used to create an Item with an Active Trigger. The cost to
activate it is determined during creation if the Adaptation
doesn’t have one.
Items with a Passive Trigger are the easiest to create, but only
their specific trigger activates the Adaptation, regardless of
its wielder’s intent.
An Item with a Passive Property always applies its Adaptation

to its user.
Roll a Will Check to determine if the item comes out as

intended or with an unintended side-effect.
• If the Item’s potency is a Passive Trigger, the Check has

the Upper Hand.
• If the Item’s potency is an Active Trigger, the Check is

made normally.
• If the Item’s potency is a Passive Property, the Check is

Against the Odds.
Success means the Item is not Cursed.
Failure means the Item is Cursed and the Doomsayer should

roll or choose a result from the Curse table. 125
Monster Crafting
1D3/1D6 Curse Table
1 2 3
1. The Wielder has 1. The Wielder has 1. The Wielder has
an Affliction while an Affliction while an Affliction while
using the item. using the item. using the item.

the Hunger Pangs the Sensitive Vision the Sensitive
Adaptation during Adaptation. Hearing Adaptation.
Combat.

the Weakness the Easily Dismayed the Cacophonous
Adaptation to an Adaptation. Adaptation.
appropriate damage
type if possible.
4. Holy 4. The Wielder has 4. When the wielder

Advancements can’t the Hex-Addled uses one of their
provide you any Adaptation. Archetype features,
benefit while using they must roll a Grip
the item. Check.
5. When 5. Using the item 5. The Wielder can’t

encountering a forces a Grip Check gain Experience
creature, roll its on witnesses, but from passing Grip
Mood twice and pick not the user. Checks.
the worse result.
6. While holding the 6. Each time the 6. Monsters and

item, animals won’t Wielder uses the item, beasts of the Crypt
abide the Wielder’s their appearance perceive the Wielder
presence, and attack becomes more as unclean, and
126
if forced near them. monstrous. target them more.
Crafting
Suggested Passive Suggested Active
Triggers Triggers
1. Triggers when its Wielder suffers 1. Vigour: D3 for most Adaptations, D6
involuntary Vigour loss, such as for particularly powerful ones.
from Combat or Traps but not from
2. Grip: 1 for most Adaptations, D3 for
self-inflicted Vigour loss.
particularly powerful ones.
2. Triggers when its Wielder suffers
3. Experience Debt: 1 for most
involuntary Grip loss, such as from
Adaptations, D3 for particularly
Grip Checks or Adaptations, but
powerful ones.
not from spending Grip
on Advancements. 4. A Binding Oath: An oath pertaining
to the current circumstances is
3. Triggers when whet with the
suitable for most Adaptations but
lifeblood of a specific creature (i.e.
one pertaining to an entire dungeon,
undead, constructs, elves, etc).
type of creature, or some aspect of
4. Triggers when exposed to a specific life for the next month might be
element (i.e. bathed in fire, needed for more powerful
submerged in water, in total Adaptations.
darkness, etc).
5. A Temporary Affliction: No longer
5. Triggers when Arcane than an hour-long Affliction for
Advancements or Adaptations are most Adaptations, but could last for
used in the same or an a day or even up to a week for more
adjacent Zone. powerful Adaptations. Afflictions
that pertain to Recovery (such as
6. Triggers when Holy Advancements
Feasting Dreams) affect one night’s
or Adaptations are used in the same
rest per use.
or an adjacent Zone.
6. Triggers when Holy Advancements
or Adaptations are used in the same
or an adjacent Zone.
127
Crafting
Example 1
Arigal defeated a vast serpent with Two days later, Arigal must make a
veins of anti-magic stone running Check to determine how the initial
through its scales. Arigal has been crafting went. He’s using blacksmith’s
struggling with magic recently and tools to craft his shield , so the
wants to extract the anti-magic ore. Doomsayer calls for a Brawn Check.
It’s not a Consumable item, so he
The Monster Material is removed after
makes the Check as normal, but fails!
an hour of work and a Grip Check, so
He must now spend D3 more resources
it’s time to research it.
and rolls a 3. Running a little low on
Back in the Cryptdigger’s compound, gold, Arigal decides to bite the bullet
Arigal researches the Monster and spend further resources as follows:
Material, which takes a Night’s Work
1. 3 more points of Grip
and another Grip Check. He wants the
2. D3 more days of work (rolls a 1)
Hex-Proof Adaptation. The Serpent
3. D3 further days of work (rolls a 2)
had that Adaptation, so the Doomsayer
tells him to roll a normal Wit Check to Three days later, having completed the
refine the component. He passes, and item, the final rites turn his item into
receives a Hex-Proof Component. its Monstrous form. After one more
Night’s Work and taking one last Grip
With his new Component, Arigal
Check, Arigal chooses a Potency. While
begins crafting the item. To start, he
having Hexproof as a Passive Property
spends another Night’s Work and
would be excellent, Arigal doesn’t want
makes his third Grip Check. Being a
to risk getting a Curse, and settles on
frontline fighter type, he wants a shield
an Active Trigger.
that deflects magic. Shields require
D3+1 crafting resources, so Arigal rolls He rolls a normal Will Check and
and determines he needs 3 resources to passes; the Shield is not cursed. He
create it. Being in relatively even shape rolls a D6 to determine the trigger, and
and having some spare time, Arigal gets a 2 so he must spend D3 Grip
spends his resources as follows: activating it.
1. 3 Experience worth of Gold

2. 3 points of Grip
3. D3 days of work (rolls a 2)
128
Crafting
Example 2
Herrowine is a brash young Six days and a lot of Grip later,
necromancer who, along with her Herrowine rolls a Wit Check to
party, slew a potent Beyonder. Taking determine if her arcane rites went well.
an hour and a Grip Check to retrieve a Successful on the Check, she emerges
Monster Material, she scurries home with her staff.
to refine it.
Preparing the final rituals over a
She desires a staff of Reality Betrays Night’s Work and a Grip Check,
You! to sow chaos among her enemies. Herrowine brashly declares she wishes
The adaptation is not in the Beyonder’s to make her Mangle Space Component
Stat block, but is a good thematic fit, a Passive Property, so she can use it at
so the Doomsayer grants that it is her leisure. Making her Will Check
Adjacent and Herrowine rolls her Against the Odds for a Passive
Wit Check. Property, disaster strikes again! She
fails, and the Item is Cursed.
In a stroke of misfortune, she fails! A
roll on the Beyonder Mood suggested The Doomsayer resists saying “I told
Adaptation table determines the you so!” and rolls on the Curse table,
Adaptation Component is for Mangle determining that nearby animals are
Space. Pleased with this unexpected hostile to the wielder. Herrowine
result, Herrowine plots her next move. shrugs, proudly displaying the fruits of
her labour.
Planning takes a night and a Grip
Check, which barely bothers her. She
desires a Staff, so she rolls D3+3 to
determine how many materials she
requires, and gets a 5. Being care-free
with her Grip and low on money, she
spends resources as follows:
1. 3 points of Grip
2. 3 points of Grip
3. 3 points of Grip
4. D3 days of work, (rolls a 3)
5. D3 days of work (also a 3)
129

Best Left Buried - Hunter's Guide To Monsters

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Best Left Buried - Hunter's Guide To Monsters

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Published by SoulMuppet Publishing

Writing by: Zachary Cox (@JellyMuppet) and

Editing by: Vi Huntsman (@ImmaWaffleBunny) MRC,

Layout by: Dave Cox (@dastardlydave)

Art by: Ben Brown (@IllustratorBB)

Maps by: Patrick Eyler (@Mountain_Foot)

Best Left Buried is often a game of survival horror—not just of

In Best Left Buried, the most common horror is the monster,

Welcome to the Hunter’s Guide to Monsters.

Creating and Running Monsters 6

Difficulty in Best Left Buried

The costs of survival are most interesting when overcoming

Monsters are worldbuilding, so when creating a monster ask

When subverting expectations, foreshadow it, presenting a scenario seeded with

• Have you imagined a cool visual? • Which physical attributes are

Also consider what traces this monster leaves behind, whether

In addition to routine dungeon behavior, consider its narrative

Creating Adaptations For an example of a monster

• Stat Checks only where necessary. If

• Adaptations that are impactful and

• Combat abilities that prompt tactical

Monster at all? 1. How does its place in the Crypt’s food

A consistent psychology makes a

When using a monster, consider its

To be used and interpreted by clever parties to gain insight

Also demonstrating not all monster encounters begin or end

A monster with Spider Climb traverses the Crypt differently

Consider how adaptations affect a monster's behaviour, how it

1/3. has a non-obvious method of 3/3. is forbidden from entering a

5/5. is the creation of a Holy power, a

5/6. was once a Cryptdigger that the

6/1. despises a particular element or

6/2. almost always falls for decoys,

6/3. has no concept of its own size or

6/4. overconfident and willingly dives

6/5. is well documented in lore

6/6. has a deadly rivalry with another

Throughout the lands, there are always those willing to use

While they typically rely on their numbers to discourage

1D6 Brigand Moods 1D6 Omens

1D6 Suggested 3. Empty bottles of alcohol, spatters of

1D6 Brigand Band Goals

Hand Weapon | Basic Armour Ranged Weapon | Light Weapon

Morale Issues Nimble

Heavy Weapon | Plate Armour Light Weapon | Basic Armour

Leaping Slash | Barrelling Charge | Redirect | Escape Tactics |

Hand Weapon | Shield | Hand Weapon | Shield |

Phalanx | Defender Weaponmaster | Commander

Light Weapon | Thrown Weapon | Light Weapon | Thrown Weapon |

Pilferer | Knife from the Shadows Knife from the Shadows |

Heavy Weapon Light Weapon | Basic Armour

Battle Frenzy | Unstoppable Concoctionist | Toxic Blade

5. Sharpshooter 6. Monster Eater

Light Weapon | Ranged Weapon | Hand Weapon (vicious claws)

1D6 Cultist Moods 1D6 Omens

1D6 Adaptations liquids, dropped iconography

Hand Weapon OR Basic Armour Basic Armour | Light Weapon

Disorganised Knife from the Shadows |

Basic Armour | Light Weapon Radiant Blade | 1 from Cult List