Mists of Akuma: Eastern Fantasy Noir Steampunk for 5E
5e
Adeddo-Oni: The Mists of Akuma change people, transforming them into abominations with malevolent dead hearts that beat with a thirst for blood.
Giants, monstrosities, and any creature type other than beast or undead can become adeddo-oni.
Since their reappearance demons and oni have been growing more common, but worse than that is what happens to men or beasts who find themselves exposed to the cursed haze for too long—changing into horrific monsters intent only on bloodlust and violence.
Despite the beasts and slavers in the tunnels the citizens of the poorest districts of the metropolis frequently flee into the city’s sewers rather than face the Mists of Akuma. Dozens or hundreds of people disappear each time the fel haze falls, assumed to have been transformed into adeddo-oni. While some do indeed succumb to such a fate in truth many live on, chained to tasks of industry and worked to the bone by monstrous overseers or scientists though their suffering does not end there—once their usefulness on the production lines reaches its end they often become the fodder for unethical experimentation.
At first the Mists of Akuma only posed an immediate threat against Nagabuki and the other settlements of Ikari, but with every passing year more undead make their way out of the jungles to climb the walls of the city as the corrupting fog rolls in. Lady Wuguan’s bengoshi have focused their efforts on discovering why but so far have not publicly revealed what is going on—and for good reason. Shovels and other digging tools are crudely hidden throughout the jungle, used by the undead to unearth and expose the corpses of warriors fallen long ago; it is these poor souls that are dragged up by the supernatural haze to begin violent unlives assailing the lands they once championed. Panic is sure to set in the instant people know where the adeddo-oni are coming from and that their revered ancestors have been driven by dark powers to seek bloodshed on their kin, and Lady Wuguan’s servants are as busy hiding the truth as they are defending against it.
Misted Condition.
Adeddo-Oni Hunchling: ?
Adeddo-Oni Ninja: ?
Adeddo-Oni Samurai: ?
Adeddo-Oni Mage: ?
Bake-Kujira, Bakekujira: While the colossal monstrosities were once rare and few with the return of the Mists of Akuma they have become a far more common occurrence and are now cited as the cause of many a coastal town’s curse—even the poor souls who merely witness its passing are said to be doomed to an early, gruesome demise.
Gaki: Greedy and avaricious souls that fail to find peace in the afterlife never truly leave Soburin, their spirits instead transforming into insatiable oni.
Gashadokuro: Famine has long been a common hardship in Soburin—particularly in remote areas—and when it claims many lives their hunger continues even beyond death. Said to be formed from the bones of those who died of starvation, gashadokuro roam the countryside after midnight always seeking to sate their hunger by biting off the heads of hapless travelers and drinking their blood.
Harianago, Harionao: When an innocent young lover is tragically murdered—especially by their beloved—the harionago is the horrific result. Twisted by the injustice of their death these oni wander the countryside looking for revenge, driven by a rage so strong that even if destroyed they can rise again, never to rest until their murderer is dead.
Jiang-Shi: Jiang-shi are the reanimated corpses of the dishonored dead—those who were not buried properly or whose graves have gone untended for many years—or of men and women who dishonored themselves in life through foolhardy actions. They were once a rare occurrence, rising only from the grievously wronged or when a worldly soul had been truly dedicated to mischief and foolishness, but with the reappearance of the Mists of Akuma they have been seen more and more often in bodies not interred deep enough (or not entombed at all).
Onryo: When a person dies feeling wronged—such as from a spouse’s infidelity or the disinheritance of a relative—their bodies may rise up to correct the injustice done to them.
Greater Onryo, Stronger Onryo: ?
Necroji, Skeleton Infused With Fragments of Nine Souls: Ropaeo knew no shame for their part of the War of Kaiyo, utilizing a foul and now-lost art called necroscience to raise the dead from their graves. Transformed from skeletons into powerful soldiers to bolster Ropaeo’s armies, legions of necroji once walked the battlefields across the edge of the world and wrought chaos on the forces of Ceramia.
Cursed by their descendants with an unlife that can only be cut short through a violent end, these walking abominations of foreign ancestry are as much a mystery to the people of Soburin as they are yet another heretical horror left by their defeated enemies.
It is immediately apparent what necroji are when seen in the light of day or within a lightning lantern’s radiance—undead empowered by science and infused with technology that animates their skeletal form.
Formerly human (though there is some debate on that matter), necroji are about as tall as they were in life and though far thinner weigh more due to the technology woven throughout their bodies.
It is difficult to mistake necroji for simple skeletons; in addition to cables and wiring snaking through their bones, magical runes inscribed on their skulls lock away the souls enabling the machinery that animates them.
Every necroji is an amalgamation of its ancestors, a skeleton infused with fragments of nine souls that each carry a partial recollection of their former lives. All of these memories coalesce into one personality that incorporates the traditions and rites of its constituent parts, making their sense of culture a pastiche of a foreign past.
It is a rare thing for a necroji to embrace anything but maliciousness; most of their ropaeo ancestors eschewed kindness and the very nature of the necroscience that animates them is predicated towards evil.
Children-Turned-Adeddo-Oni: ?
Abomination With a Malevolent Dead Heart That Beats With a Thirst for Blood: ?
Insatiable Oni: ?
Cunning Predator: ?
Invisible Gashadokuro: ?
Deadly Gashadokuro, Massive Skeleton, Gigantic Monster, Titan, Immense Skeleton: ?
Gashadokuro, Something Massive, Huge Ochre-Yellow Form, Towering Undead, Monstrosity, Titanic Skeleton: ?
Oni: ?
Reanimated Corpse of the Dishonored Dead: ?
Reanimated Corpse of a Man Who Dishonored Themself in Life Through Foolhardy Actions: ?
Reanimated Corpse of a Woman Who Dishonored Themself in Life Through Foolhardy Actions: ?
Kanden, Necroji, Skeletal Form: ?
Undead: Seiya’s remains are kept at the Graveyard of the Damned, a remote cemetery where the cremated corpses of murderers, madmen, and others believed to be at higher risk of rising as undead are kept—if Fujioka has returned from the dead, the priest would almost certainly know.
Undead Fish: ?
Undead Sea Bird: ?
Undead Titan: ?
Undead Abomination: ?
Undead Empowered by Science and Infused With Technology That Animates Their Skeletal Form: ?
Undead Automaton: ?
Undead Samurai: ?
Undead Ninja: ?
Ichizo Ando, The Pale Master, The Man-Flayer Mage, Sorcerer of the Dead, The Foul One, Malevolent Specter, Disembodied Specter, Foul Undead Mage: Ichizo Ando—vicious and cruel, both feared and hated by samurai and commoner alike—ruled Kizaki and the surrounding lands for decades before being slain. He murdered his family in order to obtain power, was known to eat the flesh of captured enemies, and flayed any servants or subordinates that displeased him. These stories and others (detailing all manner of macabre practices) were whispered among his subjects and beyond but despite the horrible nature of the tales they paled in comparison to the truth. Trained by a demonologist that spread his practices under the guise of an itinerant teacher, Ichizo developed an insatiable lust for power that sped him along the descent into darkness. As he aged and his mastery grew he began to lust after immortality, delving into necromancy, and from the Crimson Keep he sought out forbidden secrets and cast fell rituals that demanded blood sacrifice on an appalling scale. Ichizo’s evil and gradual necromantic transformation eventually garnered him the moniker “the Pale Master” by his remaining subordinates, a name spoken with utter dread.
Eventually knowledge of Ichizo’s blasphemous quest for immortality made its way to the ears of those capable of challenging him and a trio of famous adventurers were sought out in secret by a young nobleman named Shinzo Kitamura to free his land from the Pale Master’s monstrous rule. These three—a potent yamabushi named Maru Okita, the famous samurai duelist Ukiyo Machi, and a mage of great skill named Takanibu Imai—made their way to the Crimson Keep with Shinzo and attacked Ichizo while he was performing a great magical rite. They killed him but not before he transformed into a disembodied specter, twisted by the disrupted energies, and in an attempt to constrain his evil Maru invoked a great sutra that required the blood of all three heroes, anchoring the Pale Master’s soul to the seat of his rule before it could drift free and leaving him nearly powerless.
Ghost: ?
Ghoul: ?
Shinzo the Eater, Ghost, Spectral Form of an Older Man, Spectral Attacker, Spirit: The ghost of a cannibalistic murderer descendant of Shinzo Kitamura that lurks in the Kizaki Graveyard, brought to madness and despair before rising once more.
Unfortunately one of the cemetery’s most vicious inhabitants, a serial killer named Shinzo the Eater that was recently interred after being killed by the watch, has burst forth from the grave. A tragic victim of a conflict of which he was an unwilling participant and fated by his name to a dreadful end, as a child Shinzo found himself the only survivor of a Hakaisuru raid on the small town where his family ran a traveller’s inn. When the attack occurred they took shelter in the cellar where a stray cannonball collapsed the building atop them, killing everyone except for Shinzo and trapping him in the rubble with only the corpse of his sister Haruka for company. Days passed and his mind broke—drawing the attentions of the Pale Master. Having been named after his ancestor (Shinzo Kitamura, founder of the Crimson Vigil), the necromancer saw an opportunity to forever dishonor the name and touched the already shattered youth’s psyche. Driven by hunger and corrupted by the ancient evil, Shinzo resorted to eating her corpse, trapped in the dark and sobbing even as he forced her flesh down his throat.
Days later he was rescued and eventually placed in an orphanage but he never truly escaped those terrible days in the dark; constantly tormented by dreams of fire, darkness, and the terrible taste of flesh. When he finally came of age and was released he found work in another inn before eventually succumbing to the terrible hunger that had been born within him. By the time he was caught Shinzo had murdered and devoured nine young women, each of them resembling his sister. His torments in the hells below have distilled his madness and hunger—separating it from the broken child that first spawned it and giving it a life of its own—and the preparations for the Pale Master’s ritual have provided that fragment with the means to drag itself back into the world of the living.
Hungry Ghost: ?
Skeleton, Simple Skeleton: ?
Massive Skeleton: ?
Powerful Soldier: ?
Specter: ?
Spirit of the Dead: ?
Ancestral Spirit: ?
Foul Spirit: ?
The Corrupted: ?
Kiyoshi Muraoka, Vampire, Immortal Blood Drinking Monster, Inhuman Monster: ?
Vampire Spawn: ?
New Condition: Misted
Misted is measured in eight levels. An effect can give a creature one or more levels of misted, as specified in the effect’s description. Creatures always have a minimum number of levels of misted condition equal to their Haitoku modifier. Kami, oni, and tsukumogami are immune to the misted condition.
Table: Misted Effects
Level Effect
1 Mild auditory effect
2 Mild visual effect
3 Speed +10 feet during combat; Disadvantage on Dignity ability checks
4 Severe auditory effect
5 Severe visual effect
6 Visible physical mutation, providing +1 to two attributes, –1 to one attribute; Disadvantage on Dignity saving throws and you gain the hated condition
7 Ignore the first 3 points of damage from each attack or spell
8 Death and transformation into adeddo-oni
Auditory and visual effects are not perpetual but they are frequent and obvious when they occur. Some example effects are:
Mild Auditory Effect. A disembodied voice repeats everything you say in a barely audible whisper.
Mild Visual Effect. Your hands and feet smolder with red energy during your katas, in battle or out.
Severe Auditory Effect. Whenever you draw your weapon a clap of thunder echoes around you.
Severe Visual Effect. Whenever your ire is raised (even slightly), your image stretches and distorts to make you appear look much larger and more demonic than you are.
