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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 7453049" data-attributes="member: 2209">Monster Vault Threats to the Nentir Vale<a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/158948/Monster-Vault-Threats-to-the-Nentir-Vale-4e?affiliate_id=17596" target="_blank">Monster Vault Threats to the Nentir Vale</a>4eBarrowhaunts: The Barrowhaunts are a group of five former adventurers bound to the lands surrounding the Sword Barrow. Their deeds in life are seldom recollected, and no one is truly sure why their spirits have never been laid to rest. Now they savagely attack any who enter the lands of their trust. Many rumors exist about the exact nature of their curse; one common legend suggests that they sought to plunder the Sword Barrow and evoked the wrath of a warlord entombed within. The warlord’s spirit called to the native hill folk in the area, who marched to the Sword Barrow to confront the adventurers and reclaim the warlord’s treasures. The adventurers, rather than relinquish their trove, slaughtered the hill folk. A dying elder placed a curse on the adventurers’ souls, binding them to the land for all of eternity.At first, the elder’s curse seemed empty and hollow, but every time the adventurers left the Gray Downs to sell their hard-won loot, they could not help but return to the hills in search of even greater treasures. Eventually, their greed surpassed their skill. Descending deeper into the Sword Barrow than they’d ever gone before, the adventurers fell prey, one by one, to horrid monsters and insidious traps. Though cursed to haunt the Gray Downs and guard “their” barrows from other would-be pillagers, they still seek out treasures and relics for themselves. The spoils of their exploits are stashed in an ancient crypt deep within the Sword Barrow. Their motive for collecting such worldly possessions isn’t clear, but some believe they are forced to sate their everlasting yearning for adventure and exploration.Barrowhaunt Uthelyn the Mad: ?Barrowhaunt Lingering Spirit Warrior: Traveling and fighting alongside the Barrowhaunts are the spirits of the creatures they have slain—intelligent monsters, slaughtered tomb robbers, and ancient hill folk.Barrowhaunt Adrian Icehaunt Reginold: ?Barrowhaunt Joplin the Sly: ?Barrowhaunt Baldos Grimehammer: ?Barrowhaunt Cassian d’Cherevan: ?Gray Company Fallen Hero: ?Hound of Ill Omen: Once the loyal companions of the hill clans, who now rest beneath the barrows of the Gray Downs, the hounds of ill omen howl to awaken and avenge their long-dead masters.Ghosts of Long Ago: The Gray Downs were once inhabited by indigenous hill clan people reputed far and wide for their fierce hunting hounds. But when the empire of Nerath began to bloom, greedy generals sought to expand the empire into the Nentir Vale and across the hill clans’ territory. The clans resisted.Hopelessly outnumbered, they stood with their faithful hounds against the mighty armies of Nerath, even as the Tigerclaw barbarians and other native tribes abandoned the vale and retreated far into the northern wilderness. Although the hill clans fought bravely, they were annihilated in a final desperate battle upon the downs.Long after the battle, the hounds of the hill clans prowled the battlefields, howling over the corpses of their masters and refusing to leave their sides. The Nerathans built a great barrow in honor of the warriors that fought and died—and after the last of their bodies was interred, the hounds vanished.But on dark nights when the fog rises, it is said that the hounds can still be seen coursing across the downs, their ghostly forms pining for their lost masters. The common folk call them the “hounds of ill omen,” because calamity and misfortune follow in the wake of their fearsome howls.Harbingers of Death: As legend would have it, on nights when the skull-white moon hangs low and the downs are silent as a corpse’s dream, the ghost hounds come forth to hunt mortals. Who sends the hounds and for what purpose, none can tell.Hound of Ill Omen Bregga: It’s said that Bregga was the first hound, having lived on the downs since before the hill clans arrived.Hound of Ill Omen Hill Clan Apparition: When Bregga’s hounds sound their lonely howls for the hill clans, the spectral apparitions of their dead masters—cold and black as the grave—rise again from their barrows.Penanggalan: According to legend, the first penanggalan was a young baroness of Harkenwold, plain of face and scant of suitors. But what she lacked in beauty she made up for in wit, and the maiden discovered arcane texts of Bael Turath in the vaults of her father’s estate. She invoked the rituals therein and conjured a devil, which promised her matchless beauty and eternal life if only she would serve it forever.The devil’s bargain was not so glorious as it had appeared, for such was the maiden’s beauty that armies clashed for her hand, and her father was forced to lock her away in a tower to protect her. Alone in her wretched beauty, the maiden begged the gods to forgive her vain folly, and she swore to do penance before them.But the devil had other plans. It whispered the secret of the maiden’s unlikely beauty into the ear of the high priest, and before she could do her penance, the maiden was seized from her tower and hanged as a devil worshiper.The maiden’s body dangled from the gallows until midnight, at which time it slid to the ground, leaving her head behind in the noose, gory intestines dangling beneath. Then the maiden opened her eyes and saw what her vanity had created.Each penanggalan’s origin involves a female who bargains with devils for immortal beauty and tries to renege, but perishes before she can complete her penance.Penanggalan Head Swarm: ?Penanggalan Bodiless Head: Unless her maiden’s body has been destroyed (causing the creature to become a bodiless head permanently), a penanggalan’s monstrous form does not manifest by light of day.Phantom Brigade: Many of the knights of this order died during the chaotic time of the collapse of the empire. Some perished trying to defend the empire and prevent the onrushing disaster. Others met a more ignoble end. Of those who died in the pursuit of duty, a significant number found that death was not the end. Some mysterious magical effect or unknown curse turned the dead and dying Imperial Knights into undead guardians. They were suspended in an existence that tied them to the empire forever.Phantom Brigade Knight-Commader: ?Phantom Brigade Squire: ?Phantom Brigade Armiger: ?Phantom Brigade Justiciar: ?Phantom Brigade Banneret: ?Phantom Brigade Templar: ?Ragewind: Also called sword spirits, ragewinds are the embodied wrath of dead warriors who perished in battle.The Nentir Vale is strewn with ancient battlefields where the armies of Nerath once clashed with orcs, primitive hill folk, and barbarian tribes, and where the tieflings of Bael Turath fought the dragonborn legions of Arkhosia. Among the ruins of these bygone conflicts lurk creatures of lingering malice—the spirits of despondent soldiers whose lives were thrown away for no satisfying purpose. These spirits can muster enough will to animate their ancient weapons and strike back at the living, whom they both envy and despise.Vampiric Mist: These sanguine mists, the remains of a secret coven of vampires, prowl the Witchlight Fens in search of blood.Long ago, a coven of vampires claimed the marshy expanse known as the Witchlight Fens as their secluded demesne, wherein was hidden the phylactery of their dark liege—a powerful lich whose name has been forgotten. If the old stories are true, the phylactery still lies somewhere in the swamp, well removed from more traveled areas of the region. The lich’s whereabouts are unknown, and its presence has not been felt for generations. As for the vampires in the lich’s employ, their corporeal bodies were consumed long ago, yet they linger still as deadly clouds of mist that turn crimson when flush with the blood of their victims.One of the lich’s many enemies, a powerful hag, came to the Witchlight Fens in search of the phylactery and performed a ritual to destroy the vampire coven. The ritual did not yield the expected results. The vampires’ bodies were destroyed, but their evil essence lingered. The nine vampire lords who led the coven transformed into a single force of pure hatred and malice called a crimson deathmist. The lesser vampires of the coven were reduced to roaming clouds of mist having an insatiable hunger for life.Any vampire that becomes trapped in gaseous form (usually as a result of losing its sacred resting place) can transform into a vampiric mist by sheer force of will.Vampiric Mist Corruptor: ?Vampiric Mist Crimson Deathmist: One of the lich’s many enemies, a powerful hag, came to the Witchlight Fens in search of the phylactery and performed a ritual to destroy the vampire coven. The ritual did not yield the expected results. The vampires’ bodies were destroyed, but their evil essence lingered. The nine vampire lords who led the coven transformed into a single force of pure hatred and malice called a crimson deathmist. The lesser vampires of the coven were reduced to roaming clouds of mist having an insatiable hunger for life.Vampiric Mist Chillborn Vampiric Mist: ?</blockquote>

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