Bestiary

Encounter Tables
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The Isle of Evenoria is home to many creatures fantastic and banal.  Most of the wildlife is similar to that of ancient Eurasia.  A few of the more remarkable creatures, however, include:

Dragon:  In the Age of Myth, there was no race more feared or fearsome than the dragons.  It is said that, while Scáth created the Lyndwyrm as servants, it created the dragons as rulers to stand in its stead.  Indeed, the eldest of the dragons were nearly godlike in the scope of their minds and powers.  Fortunately, many of these creatures were slain by the gods Pereun, Moranya, and Khloantya.  However, legends whisper that a few survive even today in secret lairs, served by Lyndwyrm, wicked men, and worse.  As dragons are immortal and only grow more powerful with age, these ancient beasts must be dangerous indeed.

Dwarf:  Created by Pereun to guard the treasures of the world-beneath-the-world, the dwarves are fierce warriors and masters of metal, stone, and gem.  They make their homes in vast underground kingdoms which they have carved, generation after generation, from the living bones of the mountains.  Suspicious and isolationist by nature, they rarely deal with men or elves unless it is to trade for goods from the wider world.  Dwarves are not immortal, but may live for hundreds of years.  Their memories--of both favors and injuries--are long.

Elf:  The Elves are the eldest people upon Evenoria and the only beings to have had direct contact with the divine Sister Goddesses.  Proud but noble, the immortal children of the forest have close ties to nature and the unseen world of magic.








Fyaltroll:

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Lyndwyrm (sing. & pl.): a race of cold-blooded, lizardlike creatures, the Children of Scáth.  The lyndwyrm walk upright or dart through the trees and underbrush on strong, sharp claws.  Their bodies are covered in an armor of thick scales, though they have been known to dress in coarse robes or bits of armor to provide extra protection and warm their already-cold bodies.  The lyndwyrm are of human height but are significantly stronger and more dextrous.  Their faces feature wide-set, blood-red eyes and beakish mouths full of razor sharp teeth.  Lyndwyrm have their own tongue of hisses, clicks, and rattles but may speak the languages of other races, albeit in thin, raspy tones.


Wyvern:  Larger than men but smaller than dragons, wyvern are unusual because, unlike most of the other Children of Scáth, they are not always hostile to other races.  Rather, the attentions of most wyvern are normally directed inward, because theirs is the gift (or curse) of Sight Beyond Time.  The wyvern--and there are only a handful known to exist--see the threads of fate which bind all creatures.  They can follow these threads before or after the present moment, and often know the destinies of those they encounter.  For this reason, most wyvern live in seclusion, far from any creatures who would exploit them.



Zombie, Pestilence:  Unlike "true" zombies, these poor creatures are not actually undead.  Rather, they are normal men and women who have been infected by the larvae of the Bloodrot Fly, a tiny insect.  Once the fly bites a person, it injects its eggs into the victim's bloodstream, where they eventually are deposited in the brain.  Over the course of 48 hours, the eggs hatch into larvae, which in turn mature within a couple of days.  During this time, the larvae feed on the brain tissue of the host, causing extreme agitation, hallucination, violent and mindless bloodlust, and eventual death.  When the "zombie" is killed (or dies of eventual brain damage), the adult flies bust forth en masse from its neck and cranial orifices, seeking their next host/meal.  As the zombie is literally crawling with larvae, anyone scratched or bitten by it must make a CON check (DC 10) or be infected him/herself.