Monster, Outer One for Shadowdark

Monsters for my H. P. Lovecraft pastiche (or rip-off).

Outer One

All Outer Ones have the following traits:

Horror. DC 12 Horror Check upon first seeing an Outer One.

Resistant to Missiles. Non-magical arrows, bolts, and bullets do minimum damage. On a critical hit they do double minimum damage.

Darkvision. Can see without light.

Grapple and Drop. Grapples a victim, climbs slowly up to arbitrary height, and drop a victim.

Flight. Can fly to the edge of space, then accelerate to spaceship speeds, In vacuum can tear holes in reality to cross interstellar distances. Immune to vacuum and hard radiation.

Thoughtspeech. Outer Ones communicate with telepathy augmented by color changes in their head cilia.

Outer One Agent

A man in too-big clothes with a curious buzzing voice.

AC 11, HP 18, ATK 4 pincers (1d4) or 1 grapple and drop, MV near or near × 2 (wings), S +0, D +0, C +0, I +1, W +1, Ch +3, AL C, LV 4

Voice. DC 12 CHA save or agree with everything the Outer One says.

Masquerade. Assumes human disguise using voluminous clothes and prostheses made from human remains. DC 15 Horror Check to see the prostheses or the Outer One shedding them.

Outer One Drone

Winged man-sized arthropod with a glowing, ciliated head.

AC 11, HP 9, ATK 4 pincers (1d4) or 1 grapple and drop, MV near or near × 2 (wings), S +0, D +0, C +0, I +1, W +1, Ch -1, AL C, LV 2

Outer One Surgeon

Winged man-sized arthropod with a glowing, ciliated head and articulated hands in place of pincers.

AC 14, HP 18, ATK 2 pincers (1d4) or 1 grapple and drop, MV near or near × 2 (wings), S +0, D +3, C +0, I +3, W +1, Ch +1, AL C, LV 4

Jar Brain. Can create a Brain Jar.

Outer One Warrior

Winged, bulky man-sized arthropod with a glowing, ciliated ghead.

AC 15, HP 22, ATK 4 pincers (1d6) or 1 weapon or 1 grapple and drop, MV near or near × 2 (wings), S +2, D +2, C +2, I +0, W +0, Ch -2, AL C, LV 2

Outer One Technology

Armor Web

A web of sticky material that hardens into a second carapace.

Benefit. AC 15

Curse. Requires Outer One physiology.

Brain Jar

A canister half the size of a head with three sockets on one side.

Benefit. Stores a human brain, alive if you could call this living. The brain will sleep when not in use.

Benefit. When connected to a special apparatus, the brain will awaken, see, hear, and converse with interlocutors.

Curse. Requires an Outer One surgeon.

Curse. Irreversible.

Weapons

Outer Ones can use any one-handed weapon they can scavenge. Anatomy prevents them from using two-handed weapons or versatile weapons two-handed.

Darkness. Obscures cube up to Near size with total darkness.

Depletion. After every use, roll the indicated die. If a number after the colon come up, the weapon is out of energy

Mist. Expels a cloud of mist that fills a Near space. All those in the mist take 1d4 cold damage per combat round in the mist. The mist obscures vision; Disadvantage on all attacks as if in total darkness.

Stun. Subject must make a DC 15 CON save or be incapacitated for 1d6 turns.

Appendix: Sources

Inspiration comes from the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu RPG, 7th edition, by diverse hands, Battlefield Press’s Eldritch Skies by John Snead, The Whisperer in Darkness (movie) by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and Charles Stross’s Laundry Files series (and the RPG based on them).

All quotes below copyrighted by whoever owns the rights to The Whisperer in Darkness these days.

Mi-Go

They were pinkish things about five feet long; with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membraneous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head would ordinarily be.

– “The Whisperer in Darkness”, H. P. Lovecraft.