Rise of the Old Gods - Bestiary

Form for the Rise of the Old Gods mod, currently in development by jbouley (Jeff Bouley)
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Rise of the Old Gods - Bestiary

Post by jbouley » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:50 pm

OK, time to start rolling out info on some of the monsters/enemies in the mod:

Skin Thieves
These foul undead creatures are thought to spawn from the remains of decayed flesh golems or spent creatures that had previously been revived through necromantic arts. They are small and pale, but their claws are both incredibly sharp and able to partly phase through solid matter, meaning they have extremely high attack ratings and deal a rather large amount of damage for a creature of their size. They are not, however, very hardy, and so killing them isn’t very hard if you can keep from being raked by their talons or you can catch them as they run and leap. Skin thieves get their name from the fact that they steal the skin of the living to clothe their rotted, skeletal bodies. What makes this practice particularly loathsome is that they don’t always kill their victims in the process but sometimes will pin them down and simply peel large patches of flesh away and then leave the person writhing in agony.

Dragons, Fire
It had long been thought by the residents of Sanctuary that dragons were solitary, and perhaps even extinct. When the Old Gods reappeared though, both theories went by the wayside. Flame-breathing dragons, at least, seem to have exploded in numbers in recent years and they hunt mostly in groups. Scholars felt obliged to come up with a name for such groups, a “convocation” of dragons (just as lion groups are prides, wolves are packs, etc.). All well and good for the scholars to add to the textbooks, until they discovered that these groups of two or three dragons were not the worst of it. Even larger groups—sometimes 10 or more—existed, giving rise to the term a “grandiose” of dragons. All well and good to have names to call your coming doom, eh? Fire dragons are not particularly smart and are sometimes easily distracted, but when they work together, they can be quite crafty, taking different attack roles. This happens particular often in the case of a grandiose of dragons, whereby about half the group breathes fire while the other half engages the enemy in hand-to-hand combat so that they cannot escape the searing flames. Dragons are very hard to hit, owing to their scaly hides, but if you can get through those scales, you will find that dealing them physical damage is often more effective than attempting elemental or poison attacks.

Dragons, Frost
While fire dragons are pack hunters, and not always the brightest of creatures, frost dragons are very intelligent and either live alone or in small groups. They don’t have a breath attack like fire dragons, but they can cast spells as well as rip opponents apart—and they are physically tougher—so in many ways they are a much deadlier enemy.

Sin Slaves / Cenobites
Some people wallow in sin and reject virtue entirely. It amuses some of the Old Gods to capture such as these just before death and corrupt them completely. Sin Slaves get their name from the fact that they devoted themselves to the “Seven Deadly Sins” in life and now in their half-lives—lust, gluttony, greed, envy, sloth, pride and wrath. In fact, their very appearance and behavior mirrors their dedication to sin above all else. Their wrath drives their vicious attacks, but at the same time, victims have said that Sin Slaves have actually tried to grope and kiss them while trying to kill them, showing their lust as well. They are slothful and gluttonous, hence their pale, bloated bodies. But in battle, their laziness is counterbalanced by their prideful natures, which will not allow them to give up against a foe they consider lesser than themselves. Also, their secret envy at those who are truly alive and vital—and not half-dead and damned like themselves—also fuels their attacks against you. Their greed can be found in the way that they will loot corpses and sometimes use the gems and baubles from their victims to bedeck the gleaming leather straps with which they adorn their grotesque bodies.

Cenobites are much like Sin Slaves, but because of their loyalty in service to the Old Gods, they have been given more power and slightly more freedom to act. They sometimes appear amongst groups of Sin Slaves to command their actions in battle.

Multimorphs (Mutate species)
The Prime Mechanists, in the days before the Mechanist-Vampire Wars, worked not only technological marvels but also genetic ones, and created or altered various creatures to their own ends—and sometimes just for obscene amusement. Generations later, these creatures have evolved and interbred to create various humanoid (and a few non-humanoid) races that are, collectively, known as Mutates.

Multimorphs are a particularly nasty sub-species of Mutates that go through several stages in life, from Larval Multimorph (dumb, brutish worm) to Tier 1 Multimorph (a fast, clawing creature) to Tier 2 Multimorph (an even faster creature with a charging attack) and then to Tier 3 Multimorph (beast with heavy chitinous hide and tentacles that extend through the ground). What make these already deadly creatures even more deadly is that when you kill any Multimorph that is beyond the larval stage, they don’t truly die, but instead revert back to their earlier life stage. This means that a Tier 3 Multimorph, for example, will have to be killed four times in total to truly destroy it. Rumors exist of a fourth tier of multimorph called a Prime Multimorph (said to be huge and nearly invulnerable), though there is no hard evidence to support this in the scholarly journals as yet.

Rancors (Mutate species)
Another Mutate species is the Rancor, an eyeless, muscular creature with a stunning attack. They are stupid and slow and not nearly as deadly as the higher-tier Multimorphs, but the fact they hunt in packs makes them something to be quite wary of.

Chemorads (Mutate species)
This particular breed of mutate is a walking chemical and radioactive soup. Its hooklike claws allow it to inflict poisonous wounds and when its skin is split by attacks against it, it releases devastating bursts of energy into the air.

Ferals (Mutate species)
Having originally been created with genes spliced together from humans, trolls, wolves, scorpions, squids and who knows what else, Ferals are both hideous and mentally unbalanced—and very effective at killing.

Lamias
These snake-women deal out huge damage with their six arms and multiple weapons. Worse yet, the elite ranks of the Lamia, the Mariliths and Kali, are said to have spells at their disposal.


Last edited by jbouley on Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:14 am, edited 3 times in total.
-Jeff Bouley
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