User:Paleomancer/Emerald Sun (3.5e Campaign Setting)/Bestiary

Below is a list of the various entities and beasts indigenous to Tellur, drawn from cryptid, mythos, horror, and fantasy sources. A list of monster manual appropriate creatures is also provided.

=Notes=

Dreamlands Subtype
Creatures with the Dreamlands subtype are native to that plane, and as such are immune to sanity drain caused by the plain.

=Conversions= Existing monsters from other D&D sources that fit right in, more or less, into a cosmic horror/steampunk setting. Most have minor changes to their backstory, but otherwise may be used as they are.

Aberrations
All aberrations gain the Dreamlands subtype, and most either are lesser Fremd or serve the Fremd in some capacity.
 * Aboleth: Powerful water creatures who serve the Fremd Abysslord.
 * Choker: With their tentacle-like limbs and humanoid torso, it is clear that chokers were once humans (or if you use standard d&d races, halflings as well) mutated by the power of the Fremd, not unlike the Ghouls. However, the Chokers were once loyal human cultists of the Fremd who sought to become more like their gods, and delved too deeply into augmentation and grafting.
 * Chull: Chull are born out of the ancient hatred Deep Ones possessed for sea scorpions.
 * Gibbering Mouther: Gibbering mouthers are heavily based on the Shoggoths from the Cthulhu mythos, and as such may be played as lesser kindred/spawn of the Shoggoths. No other changes are necessary.
 * Grick: An early experiment by the Old Ones in crafting a servitor race, but the gricks were too aggressive and lack the necessary intelligence to be easily controlled. A progentitor to modern Ichorites. Fortunately, they are too weak to be anything more than a predator.

Animals
All monster manual animals, including dire versions and dinosaurs, are acceptable animal monsters. I personally dislike the made-up dinosaurs of the Monster Manual III, but if you want them, you may include them.

Constructs
Most constructs are acceptable, except that no golem has the berserk ability and most are fairly intelligent, if quiet and obedient. All golems have a base intelligence score of 10, and do have skills and feats (Updates below).

Fey
All fey possess the dreamlands type, and can be characterized as parasitic rather than predatory Fremd. Most are unconcerned with mortal affairs, but some regularly match the worst of mortals in terms of brutality and cruelty. If you choose to have gnomes, elves, satyrs, centaurs, and other fey or fey-like beings, they come under this loose category.

Giants
Largely unnecessary as a type, since monstrous humanoid, humanoid, or aberration easily qualify as options. Plus, most standard D&D giants don't exist on Tellus anyway.

Magical Beasts
Most magical beasts are acceptable, although some may have the Dreamlands type.

Oozes
Bioartificing gone horribly wrong. Many oozes have intelligence scores (listed below), since they are lesser kin to shoggoths.

Plants
Standard plants are fine.

Undead
Monster Manual I undead are acceptable, although there may be some improvements necessary.

=New Races= These are not usually available to players due to setting considerations, but are otherwise intended to be comparable in power to player characters. It might be possible to play as one of the following races, but only if the GM is very careful how they are implemented and if the player is responsible enough to deal with the drawbacks and restrictions.

Elder Race
''A strange, barrel shaped creature looms out of the darkness. Standing roughly two meters in height, the creature has a head like a starfish, with one large eye at its center.Five limbs of various shaped extend from its midsection, each training translucent webbing, and five stumpy protrusions allow it to walk. In spite of its alien visage, you get the impression it is really annoyed.''

The Elder Race is an alien species which settled Tellur about 500 million years ago, using their skills in transmutation and technology to fashion biorobotic servitors, before the collapse of their civilization. Very little is known about them, save that they were very powerful and opposed the Grand Old Ones in their earlier incursions. Relics of their civilization are valued as powerful, if dangerous, weapons and tools of technology and magic.
 * Forbidden Lore: The most notable creation of the Elder Race are the shoggoths, who eventually gained sentience and turned on their creators, nearly exterminating them. The Elder Race also battled the Fremd for millions of years, and were responsible for imprisoning several Grand Old Ones in R'leah.  The few survivors tend to regard "lesser" races as vermin, and thus are as dangerous to mortals as the Fremd.
 * Racial Traits
 * Combat Ability - Name:.
 * Passive Ability - Name:.
 * Utility Ability - Name:.

Coleopteran
The beetlefolk are mysterious time-active creatures with an unknown agenda. Resembling large metallic ground beetles with large mandibles, the Coleopterans walk on four of their six limbs, using the first two in combination with their mandibles to manipulate objects. Predicted to be the next civilization to rise after the downfall of humans, the beetlefolk's future seems to be in question after the invasion of the Great Old Ones, and they have begun to interest themselves in the past. It is not known whether the beetlefolk represent hope for the freedom of the mortal races, or the greatest threat to their survival since the Fremd.
 * Forbidden Lore: The coleopterans are deliberately left with a minimal backstory. As creatures of the future, whose rise (but not fall) was predicted by the Elder Race, they are a wild card in Tellur's complex world.  In fact, the DM is recommended to play the coleopterans based on how the players treat them, thus altering what future the players and their descendants will ultimately enter.  If the players befriend the beetlefolk, the insects in turn may prove ultimately benevolent, whereas betrayal or attempts at genocide will create a ruthless and equally violent foe (of course, the DM is not obliged to be so generous, giving players a good reason be a little paranoid). The Great Old Ones believe that the rise of the Coleopterans will come with their own fall, so they strive to obliterate the insect menace before it poses any threat to them.
 * Racial Traits
 * Combat Ability - Name:.
 * Passive Ability - Exoskeleton: You gain a +1 bonus to your natural armor, which is an actual improvement, not an enhancement bonus. This bonus increases at 10th level by +1, and again every by +1 for every ten levels after 10th (+3 at 20th level).
 * Utility Ability - Name:.

Mothfolk (Asb)
Mysterious insectoid entities, who seem to be engaged in a cold war with the coleopterans, the Fremd, and several other powers. From a distance, they appear to be moth-like or owl-like humanoids, with massive scaled wings, hairy bodies and huge red eyes. Since the mothfolk do not appear in the Prophesy of Succession, even less is known about them than the coleopterans. They are often seen as harbingers or heralds of disasters, and some cults have formed to try and gain foreknowledge from the mothfolk about such happenings.
 * Forbidden Lore: The Asb, as they call themselves, are engaged in war with the beetlefolk. Unlike the beetles, who are deliberately kept vague, the Asb are truly uncaring, violent, and manipulative creatures; in fact, sightings of mothfolk before a disaster are usually of the very individual responsible for the cataclysm. Not suitable for player characters in general, both because of their futuristic, nigh omniscient nature, and because they are hostile to other forms of life. Stats are given for CR approriate opponents.
 * DM Notes: These are the "alien space bats" (Asb) of Emerald Sun. Feel free to use them as hidden manipulators
 * Racial Traits
 * Combat Ability - Pheremones:.
 * Passive Ability - Insectoid:.
 * Utility Ability - Flight:.

Mi-Co
''A strange, wasp-like creature hovers before you. It is the pale color of something growing on a log, and bears two wicked looking claws and an eyeless, glowing head covered with little segmented appendages.''

Mysterious insect-like fungoid creatures who control a plane-spanning empire. The Mi-Co are strange, bizarre entities that dwell on a nearby world, and have little interest in most mortal affairs, although they deal harshly with those who interfere with their affairs. The Mi-Co also collect mortal brains, though for what reason remains a mystery. Sightings of Mi-Co on Tellur follow a periodic pattern, reaching a height every 23 years.
 * Forbidden Lore: The Mi-Co have a hate-love relationship with the Grand Old Ones, who have tried to conquer their world several times. The Mi-Co, like the Elder Race, also imprisoned many horrors on their world, and their evacuation to Tellur is due to a time when said entities actually stand a chance of freeing themselves.  They like to study sapience, and forcibly abduct the brains of notably intelligent individuals for study and communication; they favor individuals of great intellect, willpower, and personality (i.e. high Intelligence, Wisdom, and/or Charisma scores), meaning that the Mi-Co are largely responsible for the decay in technological advances for many Tellurian societies, since they steal the most talented minds away.
 * Racial Traits
 * Combat Ability - Name:.
 * Passive Ability - Name:.
 * Utility Ability - Name:.

Rubarian
The ancestors of the Selenites.

Yoigr
''A translucent, lizard-like beast stands before you, its six pupiless eyes glowing faintly yellow. Suddenly it becomes rather more solid and strikes you with its scythe-like claws. Screaming, you wake up from a terrible nightmare, only to your unscathed nightshirt bathed in blood.''

Mysterious reptilian creatures.
 * Forbidden Lore: Ophidian relations.
 * Racial Traits
 * Combat Ability - Name:.
 * Passive Ability - Name:.
 * Utility Ability - Name:.

Yyph
''A truly bizarre creature appears before you. Its body is cone shaped and violet, topped with what looks to be a fleshy, three-petaled flower, from which three eyes gaze at you. No legs are visible, but the creature bears six limbs, three tipped with large claws and three with bizarre feelers or finger-analogues. It gazes at you with inscrutable intent.''

The Yyph are an unknown alien species of great power and great mystery. What little is known of them is that they are, much like the Coleopterans, a time traveling species, and that they possess the power to swap minds with other beings. They alone have no fear of the Fremd, and even the Grand Old Ones seem to fear the power of the Yyph.
 * Forbidden Lore: The Yyph are one of the oldest and most powerful mortal civilizations in the Emerald Sun universe, an example of species that could ascend into spirit form, but chose rather to exist as incorporeal parasites in their own bodies, which they clone to replace as each form dies. They also possess significant time travel and spacial travel in their incorporeal bodies and use that to swap minds with other species, both for research and to insure the continued survival of their species. They colonize planets in this way, manipulating local populations and advancing them to the point where cloning is possible, allowing them to transfer to new Yyph bodies.  The reason they simply do not displace other species entirely is that prolonged time spent in a non-Yyph body robs these entities of their powers and eventually transforms them into that species. Yyph bodies are designed to suppress a non-Yyph mind, rending it near catatonic while the exchange takes place, and erasing memories when the swap is complete.  People possessed by a Yyph often recall their ordeal in dreams, but otherwise remember nothing.  The Yyph are one of the few powers able to resist the Grand Old Ones, and now seek to add Tellus to their empire. The traits are given as a guide; unless you as the DM are comfortable with a player who can telepathically manipulate the very fabric of time and space, and belongs to an alien empire stronger than any standard D&D pantheon could ever be, player characters are probably unwise.
 * Racial Traits
 * Combat Ability - Name:.
 * Passive Ability - Name:.
 * Utility Ability - Name:.

=New Monsters=

Mahran
An offshoot of the Fremd that seeks out mortals to feed on their fear, horror, and despair.

Redjac
Bloodthirsty kindred of the Puppeteers, solely interested in inflicting and in feeding off of pain and terror.

Egregore
A collective entity that forms in response to worship of a nonexistent entity; most of the non-Fremdish gods are mature manifestations of an Egregore.

Ankou
Destruction spirits, devoted to the annihilation of all forms of being. Their mission is to slay all beings, including mortals, spirits, the Fremd, the undead, constructs, and even themselves. They represent and personify the antagonism of things and objects for beings.

Sigewif
Bee creatures associated with protection and war.

Fremd
The Fremd are the rulers of most of Tellur, personifications of nightmares, the unconscious, and insanity. While the Fremd exist in all realities and worlds, they normally have no form or substance, existing on the edge of being, and as such, they require the dreamstuff of mortals for sustenance. Because Fremd are creatures of dreams and the psyche, individual Fremd can possess a variety of attacks, abilities, and forms. Fremd (monstrous) traits Fremd (sentient) traits:
 * +6 Charisma, -6 Wisdom. Fremd possess a highly focused sense of self, and the ability to impose that on others, but their sanity and ability to relate with others are severely impacted.
 * Outsider (dreamlands, extraplanar): Fremd are outsiders, native to the Dreamlands and to the Astral Plane.
 * Base Land Speed 30 ft.
 * Madness (Ex): Fremd use their Charisma modifier on Will saves instead of their Wisdom modifier, and have immunity to confusion and insanity effects. A Fremd cannot be restored to sanity by any means.
 * Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision.
 * Born of Nightmare: Immunity to sleep and fear effects.
 * TBA
 * Fremd Advancement: Fremd usually take levels in True Fiend (3.5e Class) (Fremd Lord), Fiendish Brute (3.5e Class) (Fremd Brute), or Conduit of the Lower Planes (3.5e Class) (Fremd Adept), with just a few changes (TBA). They may take any feat with the Fiendish, Monstrous, or Elemental subtype, provided they meet the prerequisites (except that they may ignore any prerequisite for creature type).  All Fremd of at 10th level or higher take the appropriate size feats and the Harmless Form feat, and for Great Old Ones, can grant spells that they can cast as spheres or domains.
 * Fremd Players: Because all sentient Fremd are created by powerful Great Old Ones as servants, they have a limited capacity for free will, regardless of their personal sympathies. As player characters, they are therefore usually unsuitable, since DM controlled superiors can give a lesser fremd an order and that entity MUST obey it (regardless of what a player might wish to do), with severe consequences for trying to interpret orders in word, not spirit. Provided a player is willing to work with a DM, a fremd character might be possible, but it is unlikely a mortal-fremd alliance would last for very long except as a kind of intermittent respect-hate relationship.
 * Fremd Advancement: Fremd usually take levels in True Fiend (3.5e Class) (Fremd Lord), Fiendish Brute (3.5e Class) (Fremd Brute), or Conduit of the Lower Planes (3.5e Class) (Fremd Adept), with just a few changes (TBA). They may take any feat with the Fiendish, Monstrous, or Elemental subtype, provided they meet the prerequisites (except that they may ignore any prerequisite for creature type).  All Fremd of at 10th level or higher take the appropriate size feats and the Harmless Form feat, and for Great Old Ones, can grant spells that they can cast as spheres or domains.
 * Fremd Players: Because all sentient Fremd are created by powerful Great Old Ones as servants, they have a limited capacity for free will, regardless of their personal sympathies. As player characters, they are therefore usually unsuitable, since DM controlled superiors can give a lesser fremd an order and that entity MUST obey it (regardless of what a player might wish to do), with severe consequences for trying to interpret orders in word, not spirit. Provided a player is willing to work with a DM, a fremd character might be possible, but it is unlikely a mortal-fremd alliance would last for very long except as a kind of intermittent respect-hate relationship.

Vintehl
Ultimate predators who feed on psychic energy and life energy; even constructs and the undead are not immune to the hunger of these abominations. So fearsome are these creatures that the Elder Race destroyed the original homeworld of the Vintehl in a failed attempt to exterminate the species. These terrible creatures were responsible for the extinction of countless civilizations, including that of the Elder Race. Each "individual" is a gestalt organism, composed of a Core and up to thirteen Vintehleen (hence the fear of the number 14). In their immature form, the Vintehl are fearsome enough, able to depopulate entire cities in a matter of hours. In their mature form, they can drain entire planets of vitality within a day, and even gods, demons, and the Great Old Ones are not immune to the insatiable hunger of the Vintehl. They are eldritch abominations to the eldritch abominations.

Jotun
The Frost Giants of myth, made entirely of ice. The Jotun, a renegade branch of the trolls, made a pact with the Lady of Ice for protection and strength, and now seek to cloak the world in eternal winter. They are hated by most beings, but especially by the Talpa, Ophidians, and other Trolls.

Shoggoth
Protoplasmic beings of unnatural size, who consume everything they encounter. By no means unintelligent, the shoggoths were once used to construct the mighty cities of the Elder Race, using their own bodies as building material. Eventually, the shoggoths did what any engineered slave race does; gain free will and sentience, and destroy their masters. When the shoggoths could find no more prey, having consumed most of the Elder Race's civilization and their lesser servitors, the shoggoths retreated underground and into the depths of the sea. They were driven out by oxygen generated by cyanobacteria, to which the shoggoth had no initial resistance, and most of that species perished at that time. Most shoggoths lurk in the abyss of land and sea, but occasionally, one rises to the surface and begins to feed. Note that while shoggoths are naturally predatory towards all life, they do have certain vendettas against the Elder Race and the Great Old Ones and can be reasoned with when not ravenously hungry. They find certain mortal species, such as humans and ghouls, rather adorable in an ugly way.

Flying Polyp
The polyps are a violent species that has destroyed thousands of worlds. These spacefaring jellyfish seek to destroy all non-polyp life, though they overestimated their strength when provoking the Mir-Ga, who wiped out most of the worlds they had settled. A few were able to conceal themselves on Tellur, inadvertently protected by the Fremd Barrier. They have made the caverns of Subtellur even more hazardous than normal, and occasionally emerge on the surface to wreak havoc.

Morgawr
Plesiosaur-like creatures. A once powerful oceanic race that ruled the oceans before the rise of the ophidians, the Morgawr retain very few elements of their culture, save their talents for illusion and transmutation, which allow them to escape the notice of potential predators or rivals. Most are no longer sentient, but a few retain some intelligence and are known to befriend trustworthy individuals or play tricks on the credulous.

Black Shuck
Dog-like entities of darkness and despair, commonly used by lesser Fremd as servants and pets. Descended from hellhounds that were absorbed by the Dreamlands, black shucks are fearsome, if honorable, hunters. Use stats as for Shadow Mastiff.

Pogeyan
Mysterious large cats that appear and disappear as if they are made of mist. Use blink dog stats, but alignment is neutral.

Lamenting Statue
Mysterious statue-like creatures, most commonly seen as gargoyles or winged humanoids with veiled faces. Believed to be responsible for disappearances of people, but never seen to move.

Grue
Sometimes called shadowlings, grues are the hunger of darkness personified. Only light has the power to keep them at bay.