공포

Horrors are supernatural entities. In the Old World, they were superstition and legend. Here, they are nightmares made real. The Ironlands is fertile ground for darkness and evil to take hold, spawning these undead beings of pure vengeance or mindless hate.

Many horrors can be temporarily defeated through physical attacks, but cannot be killed. They are beyond death.

To determine the role of horrors in your setting, see page 129.

• Rank: Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm)
• Features: • Skeletal corpse • Yellowed bones • Tattered remains of clothing and armor
• Drives: • Destroy life
• Tactics: • Rush with unexpected speed • Attack with the weapons they bore in life • Grasp and claw

Bonewalkers are human remains given unnatural life. The source of the dark energy animating them is a mystery. Some say it is the will of dark gods. Others say an ancient evil permeates this land and seeps into porous bones of the dead. Or, perhaps it is the work of corrupt mystics.

Bonewalkers usually roam the location of their final resting place—a burial site, a cursed battlefield, or a settlement blighted by disease or violence. Nothing remains of their previous selves. They are soulless monsters driven only to destroy the living.

Quest Starter: A horde of bonewalkers marches relentlessly towards the Havens. What dark force has gathered this army of the undead? How will you stop them?

• Rank: Extreme (2 ticks per harm; inflicts 4 harm)
• Features: • Shambling mass of dead creatures and offal • Rotting stench
• Drives: • Insatiable hunger
• Tactics: • Horrifying wail • Relentless assault • Claw, bite and rend

A chimera is the corrupted form of dead animal flesh given horrible life. Its body is a collection of various creatures, fused together into a twisted, massive entity which knows only pain and hunger. When a dozen blood-tinged eyes focus on you, when its gibbering mouths open at once to scream, your only hope is a quick death.

Quest Starter: Multiple chimera have spawned from the heart of a deep wood. What evil is at work there?

• Rank: Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm)
• Features: • Mummified, desiccated flesh • Frozen blue eyes • A sorrowful, hollow scream
• Drives: • Absorb the warmth of the living
• Tactics: • Sense heat • Life-draining grasp

Some who fall prey to the long winters or the wild storms of the northern regions are given a horrible new life as the frostbound. These animated corpses are cursed to forever seek out the warmth their death took from them.

Quest Starter: A group of frostbound lurk along a mountain trail. This path is the only safe route to the lowlands from a mining village.

• Rank: Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm)
• Features: • Subtle, unsettling manifestations • Appear as they did in life • Lay bare the ravages of death • Stench of the grave
• Drives: • Torment the living • Find rest
• Tactics: • Vanish and reappear • Horrifying visage • Unleash chaos

Haunts are restless spirits bound to this world by a traumatic or unjust death. They may be tied to a location, an object, or even a person.

A haunt who manifests as a physical being can be dispelled by overcoming them in a fight, but only temporarily. They will only be at peace when their death is avenged or resolved. Some say a haunt can be banished through a ritual, but few possess the knowledge.

Quest Starter: You are plagued by a haunt. Who is it? What do they want of you?

• Rank: Extreme (2 ticks per harm; inflicts 4 harm)
• Features: • Vaguely humanoid shape formed of earth, plants, and insects • Empty black eyes behind an elven mask • Smells of wet soil and dead things
• Drives: • See justice done
• Tactics: • Bash with savage strength • Draw in a whirlwind of materials to reform and enlarge • Envelop and suffocate

It is said that elves who die an unjust death or have cause to seek retribution can rise as a hollow. Their form is a rippling mass of dead leaves, plants, soil, carrion, and insects. They move with a nightmarish, shambling gait. Their face is the wooden mask they wore in life. Their voice is the rattle of the wind through dry leaves.

As with haunts, they can be temporarily defeated but cannot be killed by physical means. They are a relentless force, bound to this world by a singular motivation—vengeance.

Quest Starter: A hollow terrorizes an Ironlander village. What does it seek? What will you do to stop it?

• Rank: Extreme (2 ticks per harm; inflicts 4 harm)
• Features: • Empty, patchwork shell of armor and other hunks of metal • Wielding iron weapons • A low, reverberating voice
• Drives: • Fulfill the vow • Destroy any who stand in their way
• Tactics: • Steadfast attacks • Pull in iron with an unyielding, magnetic force

Some vows are held so fiercely that they survive even after death. An iron revenant is an incorporeal force of furious resolve, the unfinished vow of an Ironsworn given horrible form as a construct of metal.

Attacks may slow them down or temporarily break apart their armored form, but they have no flesh to pierce and cannot be killed. An iron revenant won’t stop until their vow is fulfilled.

Quest Starter: Someone you knew has taken form as an iron revenant. Who is it? What is their vow?

• Rank: Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm)
• Features: • Milky eyes • Mottled flesh
• Drives: • Drown the living
• Tactics: • Draw victims to the water • Grab and scratch with jagged claws • Chilling embrace • Drag into the depths

A sodden is the restless spirit of someone who drowned or was put to rest in water. They can appear in seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, or marshes. Their loneliness and grief compels them to draw living victims into their watery lairs.

A sodden is not confined to its resting place. In fact, some believe that surviving an encounter with a sodden leaves you vulnerable around any body of water until the spirit finishes its work.

Quest Starter: Someone you know died and appears to you as a sodden. Who are they? Can anything be done to put them to rest?