IX. MONSTERS AND HORRORS

If a player wishes for his character to be such a creature, great. He will have no tribe or homeland to go to for help, however. He will be virtually unique in the world. While it is not impossible that some others of his race also travelled to this world and set up a colony somewhere, such activities are difficult and rare, and any such places would need to be well hidden to protect themselves from humankind.

For example: if a player wants his character to be creature known as a "dwelf," then that is fine. He should construct the character as he would any other. The player may argue that dwelves should get a bonus to strength or dexterity or something, but this is unnecessary - if dwelves are supposed to be stronger or faster or smarter than human beings, the player just needs to put more of his points into these stats than he would have otherwise. If the player thinks that dwelves should fly and have infrared vision and regenerate wounds, the Bastard can feel free to tell the player to go to Hell. If he wishes to allow it, however, he can simply require an amount of points that seems fitting for the level of advantage granted by the power, with the promise to revise it upward if the power seems to give more of an advantage than initially thought.

Whether any particular breed of monster is native or alien is up to the discretion of the Bastard.

When creating monsters, the Bastard should not feel restrained by the character creation rules. Monsters and horrors are often far larger and more powerful than the heroes, and there is no reason why otherworldly creatures cannot have powers unavailable to the players.

Below are some pointers for creating interesting monsters.

Normal player characters are considered to be human, or at least vaguely so. The size and density of monsters is measured relative to this standard, with humans being of Size 1 and Density 1.

Monsters, on the other hand, are often very big and tough. This makes the monsters more frightening to the players, which is a good thing.

Size is used to reflect the fact that having great strength does not necessarily make one any less vulnerable to harm - an elephant may be very strong, but can still be chopped into small pieces if hit with an axe enough times. Strength is multiplied by Size for purposes of lifting or doing damage, but not for purposes of enduring damage.

Note that Size is a measure of volume, not height. A creature twice as tall as a human would have roughly eight times the mass, assuming similar density. Such a creature would be a size 8, not a size 2.

Example: The bastard creates a giant that is human in most respects, only twice as tall. This giant should have roughly eight times the mass of a normal human, and thus eight times the strength. The Bastard assigns a strength of 2 and a size of 8. The giant has a strength of 16 for lifting or doing damage, but only a 2 for enduring damage.

Sometimes a monster is made of sterner stuff than humans. A stone golem could be the same size as a normal human, yet made of rock and thus far stronger and tougher. Increased density is usually represented simply by making a monster with massive strength without taking any sort of size modifier.

Some creatures have tough outer shells, while others are tough through and through. If the Bastard wishes to create a monster that can take damage even better than it can dish it out, he can make armor a natural part of its anatomy. This is effectively the opposite of spending points on size. The level of armor should cost the same as a skill, the level squared.

There is no reason why extraplanar horrors need to be limited to two arms, two legs, and one head. Use your imagination. Nothing wrong with making your players fight an otherworldly octopus monster with eight heads and sixty-four tentacles. How this translates into game terms (such as improved dexterity and multiple attacks per round) is up to you.

There is no reason why monsters have to be limited to normal human sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. Monsters could very well see infrared light, "see" via ultrasonic waves (like a bat), or even have some sort of supernatural spatial awareness. A thing that cannot be blinded has a great advantage over things that can.

Monsters need not be earthbound like the heroes. A monster could have great wings that allow it to glide or fly, or it could levitate via unknown forces.

The rate at which monsters age is also up to the Bastard. He could even rule that certain creatures are virtually immortal.

Monsters and horrors may have rates of recovery far superior to the natural healing of a human. Instead of recovering an amount of health equal to its constitution for one day of rest, a monster could recover the same amount in one round of rest - or even without rest. This makes monsters harder to kill, which makes them more frightening to the players (which is a good thing).

There is no reason why monsters need to be limited to the same magics as humans. While some monsters may indeed have Mahasu or Nekelmu powers, some might also have special abilities such as shapeshifting, invisibility, or mind control. Some monsters may even be immune to physical or magical attacks (but not both, unless the Bastard wants a monster to be literally unbeatable).

For that matter, there are supernatural arts appropriate for human antagonists that are not listed in the chapter on sorcery. This is because these skills are not available to player characters. It may seem unfair that npcs can have magical abilities that players cannot, but the fact is that certain activities are not well-suited for adventure roleplaying. Skills such as alchemy and necromancy are classic fantasy fare, but are usually the province of strange cults or hermetic mages working feverishly in isolation for weeks and months at a time. This fact makes them better suited as skills for foes or plot devices than as skills for player characters.

It is fine for the Bastard to make use of golems, undead, potions, and the like - players simply should not be able to make them. In a way, this puts the mystery back in Sorcery, as players don't know quite how these things are done.

Example: The Bastard wishes for his players to be attacked by a horde of undead terrors. These creatures are immune to reason or passion and obey orders without question.

He decides on two types: ghosts and skeletons. Ghosts are immune to physical attacks, and attack the players by draining Health and Stamina. Skeletons are immune to sorcery, and attack the players with rusted swords and armor. Both ghosts and skeletons can be driven away or destroyed by the Seheru skill, which affects undead much like Mahasu does the living.

The spirit world is not a separate realm, but rather a metaphor for that subset of the physical world that is hidden from the perceptions of normal humans. The restless ghosts of dead beings travel within our world alongside other, more exotic nonphysical entities. Some of these spirits can manifest themselves in the physical world to communicate with the living, while others cannot be contacted without the aid of Nabu sorcery.

Spirits are not constrained by walls or borders, and so can often obtain information unavailable to the living. Getting this information from them, however, can be a daunting task. Aside from the difficulty in communication, there is no reliable way to determine the identity or honesty of any particular spirit. One must take them at their word.

Faerie is a world much like our own, only brighter. It is home to all manner of elves, goblins, sprites, giants, and other creatures of folk tales. Some of these creatures are kind and generous, others are mischievous, and still others are malevolent. All are of an alien character to humanity.

Some faeries are willing to travel to our world out of curiosity or spite, while others would prefer to lure humans into their realm for their own purposes.

Faerie is not so distant from our world. The challenge level required for sorcerers to open a portal to Faerie should be around 50.

Hell is a hot and barren realm, dimly lit by a huge red sun that takes up a third of the violet sky. The air here is thick and dry, and the rocky deserts are inhabited by some of the most savage creatures in existence. Brutal demons, cruel devils, immense dragons, and hordes of strange, vicious beasts roam about in this infernal prison.

Those who have intelligence are often willing to take any opportunity to leave. Such creatures are known to make deals with sorcerers in exchange for their freedom, though this means setting their evil loose upon the world.

Hell is not close to our world. The challenge level required for sorcerers to open a portal to Hell should be around 100.

The Abyss is a black void at the very edge of creation. Cold, slimy things slither here in wet darkness lit only by faint stars. The creatures of the Abyss, called "horrors" by sages, are powerful and alien beyond comprehension. There is no communicating with such things - they take no more notice of humans than humans do of insects or germs.

Only fools and madmen attempt to bring creatures of The Abyss into the world. Fortunately for humanity, this is a very difficult task. Horrors are so immense that it is almost impossible to create a portal large enough to allow the passage of more than a fraction of one. Even this, however, can be grave - a single appendage of a horror can wreak vast destruction upon an area.

There are rare lunatic cults that dedicate their lives to bringing Horrors into the world.

The Abyss is far from our world. The challenge level required to open a portal to the Abyss should be around 200.

Humans are not the only creatures who can use sorcery to travel between worlds. Some monsters encountered may have come to this world of their own ability, rather than having been summoned. A monster who travels to this world by its own power is the most frightening of opponents - it is alien, it understands sorcery, and it has its own reasons for being here.