#let chap05_title=[= Enemies
<enemies-2>]

#let chap05=[
The enemies that characters will encounter are not like them—they are
simpler machines that produce similar results.

=== Enemy Skill is Not Like Character Skill \(7.2)
<enemy-skill-is-not-like-character-skill-7.2>
Enemy Skill covers everything they lack, including Advanced Skills and
Luck. They use the same number to climb a rope as to hit or cast a
Spell.

- Enemy Spells do not cost Stamina.
- Enemies do not spend Luck. They don’t have a Luck score and instead
  Roll Versus their Skill, which never diminishes. They also may not
  Test their Luck to gain an advantage for themselves in combat, such as
  testing Luck to increase Damage.

=== Why the Stamina Disparity?
<why-the-stamina-disparity>
The Stamina of enemies tends towards lower numbers than characters. This
is to speed battles along and to make it somewhat fairer on the
characters who must spend Stamina for their magic. Note that the combat
rules and Damage have been balanced in such a way that a goblin is a
threat no matter how much Stamina it has.

=== Initiative is Different for Enemies
<initiative-is-different-for-enemies>
While all characters contribute two Initiative Tokens each, enemies have
their own specific totals. These are all the same colour and are added
to the Initiative Stack and drawn similarly to the characters’
Initiative Tokens. When an Enemy Token is drawn the GM may use it to
activate and take a Turn with any enemy present. There is no limit to
the number of times a single enemy may act in a Round—indeed you could
have one enemy perform all actions drawn. This does not represent speed
so much as it represents commitment to action while others stall or
perform minor tasks \(5.5). EXAMPLE: A lizard-man and a goblin are
fighting the characters, both of which are contributing to the
Initiative Stack. When an enemy Initiative Token is drawn the GM may
declare that either one of them is acting.

=== Armour is the Same
<armour-is-the-same>
Rather than have varying types of Armour enemies just have a number.
This is treated exactly the same as the numbers associated with
character Armour and represents physical protection, speed,
incorporeality, etc.

=== Mien
<mien-1>
If you have a plan for the enemies’ attitude then go with that.
Otherwise Roll to see how they appear when meeting the group. Use this
as inspiration when playing them and to help avoid falling into routine
hostility.

== Bestiary
<bestiary>
=== Alzabo
<alzabo>
- Skill 10
- Stamina 21
- Initiative 4
- Armour 1

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-2>
+ Hungry
+ Confused
+ Protective
+ Patient
+ Watchful
+ Evasive

The red furred ghoul-bear, which at its shoulder stands as tall as a
horse, would be a frightful creature for no other reason than its
immediate physical impression. The Alzabo can produce — for it is not
truly mimicking, rather recalling — the exact sound of any creature it
has ever eaten. Crying out in the night, it draws its prey from safety,
typically by imitating a recently eaten family member and calling to its
children or parents. Even if the devoured is human, and those listening
know that it’s not truly them, the sound of a daughter you know to be
dead tapping at your cottage door and begging to be let in from the cold
is more than most can bear.

=== Boggart
<boggart>
- Skill 6
- Stamina 9
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Weapon or Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-3>
+ Belligerent
+ Obstinate
+ Petulant
+ Insolent
+ Sullen
+ Smug

You could be forgiven for thinking a boggart was a rangy man with an
exceedingly bristly beard, but no, once upon a time it sprung fully
formed from a Hole and has been ungrateful and ill prepared for
everything since. They rarely travel far from their birth hole although
there is no pixie compulsion to do so, it’s more a point of principle
and lack of imagination on their part. They can, if provoked, be violent
in the defence of the land which they consider to be theirs but they are
prideful, stupid, and easily tricked.

=== Bonshad
<bonshad>
- Skill 12
- Stamina 20
- Initiative 3
- Armour 2

Damage as Gigantic Beast

==== Mien
<mien-4>
+ Wrathful
+ Virulent
+ Spiteful
+ Nauseated
+ Acquisitive
+ Imperious

The Bonshad is the source of an amusing piece of trivia amongst
diabolists. While it is well known that the Bonshads know the method of
creating the Elixir of Shazmazm it is less well known \(at least amongst
impatient apprentices) that The 17th Incantation of Ignis Baxter: Bring
Up What Bonshad Come contains a typo in the 5th chorus. You can imagine
the embarrassment this would have caused Master Baxter had he not been
tragically caught up in the Oblation Wars soon after completing his
seminal work. Regardless, calling up this hook-beaked betentacled fiend
without the reformed texts will see one dragged off to the bottom of the
Demon Sea to work their curious mines. What a lark!

=== Cyclops
<cyclops>
- Skill 9
- Stamina 14
- Initiative 3
- Armour 2

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-5>
+ Tearful
+ Depressed
+ Melancholic
+ Sombre
+ Resigned
+ Mercurial

Once upon a time a nation of man asked one of the Aeons to grant them
the power of immortality and foresight. The Aeons, being an arbitrary
bunch, took one eye from each as fair exchange. The men found that their
foresight was indeed present but extended only to knowledge of their
eventual deaths by accident or violence. Feeling positively
monkey-pawed, they agreed to go their separate ways and to never speak
of it again.

==== Special
<special-14>
When a cyclops is given Initiative it may draw the next three
Initiatives in order, thus granting them knowledge of who is going next.
They know when and how they die and this might not be it.

=== Dolm
<dolm>
Skill 7 Stamina 21 Initiative 2 Armour 1

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-6>
+ Unperturbed
+ Detached
+ Tranquil
+ Tired
+ Curious
+ Perturbed

Somewhere beneath the earth they sit suspended in their cavities,
peacefully contemplating the movements of the surface world. A witness
to their intercrevice ambling would see a large, saggy-skinned humanoid
with soulful grey eyes staggering as though carrying a heavy basin of
water. The dolm never stops growing, as far as anyone can tell, and the
oldest and wisest of their sort can tower above a typical townhouse
while still being able to squeeze themselves under the door.

==== Special
<special-15>
A dolm can compress itself to fit in any crack through which they can
pass their eyes. These, unlike the rest of them, never grow beyond the
size of a typical human eye.

=== Donestre
<donestre>
- Skill 9
- Stamina 14
- Initiative 3
- Armour 0

Damage as Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-7>
+ Gregarious
+ Urbane
+ Exhilarated
+ Impassioned
+ Shameful
+ Grieving

There is a certain race of a solitary nature whose multitudinous heads
are all lions and flowing manes. They glitter with numinous light and
speak the language of all thinking beings. They dazzle travellers with
knowledge of their past and the places they have been and are going.
Indeed their knowledge seems deep, broad, and generously given. Their
hunger for company is an honest one, their enthusiasm is endless, but
they can’t control themselves. As the conversation flows they become
more and more fervent until their passion ignites and they devour their
companion up to the neck. They continue to sadly converse with the head
for a time before shamefully burying it and moving on.

=== Drock
<drock>
- Skill 6
- Stamina 13
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Small Beast

==== Mien
<mien-8>
+ Happy
+ Contemplative
+ Hungry
+ Tired
+ Unhappy
+ Confused

Dwarfs are creatures of purpose; they set their minds on a course and
follow it until they finish or run aground. Occasionally a Dwarf is
forcibly prevented from finishing a project, possibly by dropping dead
at an inopportune moment; it happens. Usually this is a sad but
inconsequential occasion, but sometimes it happens while they pursue the
highest art a Dwarf can engage in: creation of a new Dwarf. These
creatures of raw surfaces, untreated stucco, brass armature, and soggy
wet clay seek meaning, Dwarfiness, and to be finished by a sure and
careful hand.

=== Dragon
<dragon>
- Skill 16
- Stamina 32
- Initiative 8
- Armour 4

Damage as Gigantic Beast

==== Mien
<mien-9>
+ Sleeping
+ "Playful"
+ Hungry
+ Quizzical
+ Aggressive
+ Paranoid

Dragons are creatures of hyper-light, unburdened by base matter, able to
soar across the dark sea of sky between worlds. Since their spirits are
immortal and illuminated by the black-suns they may, and often do,
indulge in base activities such as wanton slaughter, accumulating
needless wealth, and plumbing the depths of forbidden knowledge. They do
this because they know that nothing of these wicked spheres can harm
them or their objective spiritual and physical perfection.

Special Once per Round they may douse a 24 foot area in beautiful
Dragon-Fire. Everyone in the area is automatically hit but may Test
their Luck to reduce the Damage Roll by 1.

#align(center)[#table(
  columns: 8,
  align: (col, row) => (auto,auto,auto,auto,auto,auto,auto,auto,).at(col),
  inset: 6pt,
  [roll], [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7+],
  [damage],
  [6],
  [8],
  [12],
  [16],
  [18],
  [24],
  [36],
)
]

Dragons are immune to high temperatures, including Dragon-Fire.

=== Ekodat
<ekodat>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 43
- Initiative 3
- Armour 2

Damage as Spear

==== Mien
<mien-10>
+ Dormant
+ Stationary
+ Unstable
+ Probing
+ Tentative
+ Cautious

The Ekodat is a series of crystalline protrusions emanating from a
clouded crystal core. These "tentacles" don’t move; instead they grow
rapidly through the air like roots. Natural philosophers have been back
and forth about the categorisation of the Ekodat. While all agree it is
a chimera of mineral and some other substance they cannot confirm the
matter of the other. The popular attitude is that it is a divine
emanation caught and refracted in some unusually dense crystal matrix,
causing what would otherwise be an angelic visitation to become a
mineralogical hazard.

==== Special
<special-16>
The tentacles remain after an attack. When an individual is successfully
injured by the Ekodat they are immediately attacked again by the sudden
growth of additional spurs brought on by the sufusion of vital fluids.

=== Feathered Folk
<feathered-folk>
- Skill 7
- Stamina 6
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Bow

==== Mien
<mien-11>
+ Pious
+ Sincere
+ Beatific
+ Rapt
+ Abstracted
+ Doubting

Profoundly religious though unfocused. Their civilisation worshiped the
Egg of Time, which sat at the heart of their temple city on their holy
mountain, until the day the Egg cracked and the god that leaped forth
instantly shattered into a trillion shards of glass that flew off into
the cosmos. Since then they have been eager to join any religion founded
after that point, believing it to be a shard of the Born God.

=== Goblin
<goblin>
- Skill 5
- Stamina 6
- Initiative 1
- Armour 1

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-12>
+ Curious
+ Dismissive
+ Preoccupied
+ Gossipy
+ Overly Friendly
+ Paranoid

Goblins are the vanguard of civilisation. The moment a sphere bobs to
the surface the goblins will creep out of the nooks and crannies to
start expanding their labyrinth. Left to their own devices they will
eventually tame and cover every surface in walls and hedges and tunnels
and steel and whatever else is in goblin-vogue, though more usually they
are distracted with an accidentally awakened evil, or recalled by the
Goblin King, or cut off from the centre of the labyrinth and turned
feral to live in the man-cities. A most terrible fate. Better to bury
their labyrinths and leave.

=== Gremlin
<gremlin>
- Skill 3
- Stamina 4
- Initiative 3
- Armour 0

Damage as Small Beast

==== Mien
<mien-13>
+ Inveigling
+ Fearful
+ Fearful
+ Aggressive
+ Aggressive
+ Fake Inveigling \(Aggressive)

Vicious little creatures dressed in potato sacks they stole from an old
mother’s cupboards. When you see footprints in the pie crust it’s time
to call the Gremlin Catcher because where there’s one there’s a hundred
and underneath your home will be a veritable maze of warrens stretching
off to gods know where. No proven link between the gremlins’ habit of
appearing seemingly everywhere and the goblins’ interdimensional
labyrinth have been made but fingers are firmly pointed.

=== Harpy
<harpy>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 3
- Armour 0

Damage as Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-14>
+ Spiteful
+ Malicious
+ Cruel
+ Hateful
+ Vicious
+ Barbaric

Immortal creatures of bitterness and spite, they look like vultures with
human heads and unusually large claws. Their immortal nature precludes
the need to eat yet they hunt mercilessly, most usually by lifting their
quarry up into the sky and dropping them after spending some time
verbally tormenting them. A greater pleasure still is when their victims
survive the fall, whereupon they descend and eat the exposed sweetmeats
and cackle with their mouths full. Altogether a reprehensible blight on
creation.

==== Special
<special-17>
Harpies are natural sorcerers, each knowing Read Entrails and any other
Spells you might deem appropriate.

=== Khaibit
<khaibit>
- Skill 9
- Stamina 10
- Armour 1
- Initiative 3

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-15>
+ Austere
+ Bemused
+ Ecstatic
+ Bored
+ Impassive
+ Arresting

The Shadow Exultants make up the bulk of the Autarch’s lower nobility,
being the handmaids and officers filling out attendance at highborn
social events. Each one possesses an uncanny resemblance to one Exultant
or other, blood of their very blood as they are. They live in hope that
their clone-parent dies and passes their Exultancy on to them but it is
far more likely that they are at some point harvested for their
life-extending component parts. Such is the noblesse oblige.

=== Knight of the Road
<knight-of-the-road>
- Skill 7
- Stamina 7
- Initiative 2
- Armour 1

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-16>
+ Curious
+ Wary
+ Drunk
+ Rowdy
+ Predatory
+ Friendly

Contrary to what the farmers tell you the life of a vagabond is not an
easy one. First you must find a road, but not a quiet road or else
you’ll wait for weeks without a client, nor should it be too busy or
else you’ll no sooner have belayed the first about the bonce before
another comes along and interrupts your exchange. After all that you go
back to your camp in the woods to sleep on the filthy ground and eat
your meagre meals. Farmers should have more respect for a hard day’s
work.

=== Living Dead
<living-dead>
- Skill 6
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 1
- Armour 0

Damage as Weapon or Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-17>
+ Oblivious
+ Pondering
+ Distracted
+ Hungry
+ Aggressive
+ Distressed

The definition of 'dead' varies from place to place. In some spheres you
might be considered dead when unconscious or still living until buried.
Now consider the ambulatory deceased and the definition is even more
nebulous and near the point of irrelevance. Let’s just say they have a
fluid vitality.

==== Special
<special-18>
They take double Damage from Silver.

=== Lizard-Man
<lizard-man>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 8
- Initiative 2
- Armour 2

Damage as Weapon or Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-18>
+ Severe
+ Hostile
+ Suspicious
+ Intolerant
+ Threatening
+ Inquisitive

Imagine a fat man but this man is a crocodile. Stand him on his hind
legs, yank his head into a civilised position, shorten his snout, and
give him some short horns and a large Weapon. This is a lizard-man, a
preternaturally militaristic race who spontaneously regiment themselves
from the moment they goose-step their way out of the egg. Their only
social structure and interest is the army, making them excruciatingly
dull dinner guests.

=== Loathsome Wurm That Will Consume The Sun
<loathsome-wurm-that-will-consume-the-sun>
- Skill 12
- Stamina 46
- Initiative 7
- Armour 3

Damage as Gigantic Beast

==== Mien
<mien-19>
+ Tormented
+ Writhing
+ Envious
+ Phlegmatic
+ Rancorous
+ Malevolent

Once upon a distant time the gods banded together to mould the dripping
flesh of the Monad into all the creatures of the earth. One Divine
Architect, sneaky, lazy, or mad, consistently came up short on their
daily quota of flesh-given-shape.

At this point an exceptional storyteller would usually improvise a
series of didactic vignettes of gods or animals asking why the god’s
work was lacking until finally the god revealed that they were saving
scraps to create the Loathsome Wurm. The Thief-God was usually punished
and their mad unfinished creature confined to the veins of the earth
since destroying either was beyond the scope of their siblings’ combined
godly might.

A trite story about the permanence of evil, but a popular and partially
true tale. In reality the Loathsome Wurm is the width of an elephant,
with great tusks and grinding scales. Its unfinished, infinite body
coils back into the depths and it can surely level the sunlit world were
it not confined to the darkness from which it stares. If one listens
closely at the thresholds of caves they may hear its whispers and
promises. Treasures thrown down pits and left in cave mouths temporarily
silence it.

==== Special
<special-19>
If killed, the stub of the creature’s neck can be descended and used as
an entry to the Primary Underworld. The Wurm will reform in 5,125 years.

=== Man-Beast
<man-beast>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 11
- Initiative 2
- Armour 1

Damage as Fusil or Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-20>
+ Heedful
+ Observing
+ Watchful
+ Questioning
+ Challenging
+ Aggressive

The Autarchs couldn’t rely on the aristocracy for delicate or
controversial matters; even for thoroughly mundane requests they were
worshipful in word and recalcitrant in action and so towards the
beginning of their reign an Autarch had their vizier fabricate armies of
beastly chimera, utterly loyal to the Phoenix Throne, obeying orders to
the letter unto death.

The man-beasts are far from mindless, rather they never question their
lot in life, being unable to comprehend an alternative existence.
Indeed, you might find man-beast guards still defending doorways to
caches of Weapons and treasure the Autarchs are known to have hidden
away for times of trouble, vigilant as a sleepless, incorruptible
watchdog.

=== Manticore
<manticore>
- Skill 12
- Stamina 18
- Initiative 5
- Armour 3

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-21>
+ Lazy
+ Bored
+ Hungry
+ Busy
+ Aggressive
+ Bored and Aggressive

Manticores are rarely encountered outside of their homes, which they
tend to construct on mountain sides, far out of reach of the common
folk. The servants that attend them are kidnapped travellers plucked
from the backs of wagons or dragged from their beds during the night. If
you have been hired by a patron to retrieve a stolen son from a
manticore’s manse be sure to take some books. They are inveterate
culture fiends and love nothing more than having new literature for the
help to read to them.

==== Special
<special-20>
If a manticore strikes the same person twice in one Round they have been
hit by the creature’s tail. They must Test their Luck \(or Skill for
Enemies) or become paralysed for 2d6 minutes.

=== Notule
<notule>
- Skill 9
- Stamina 3
- Armour 3
- Initiative 3

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-22>
+ Dormant
+ Probing
+ Flighty
+ Recoiling
+ Aggressive
+ Intent

A star-creature, sometimes caught roosting in the rigging of golden
barges, formless, freezing to the touch, and valued for its utility as a
tool of murder. By utilizing only the smallest bit of physical remains a
knowledgeable sorcerer may set the creature hunting. It will fly by
night until it reaches the intended victim, whereupon it will envelop
them, suffocating and freezing their target all at once and leaving a
relatively unmarked corpse before sluggishly returning home to enjoy its
newfound warmth.

==== Special
<special-21>
Anyone successfully hit by a notule must Test their Luck \(or Skill for
Enemies) or start to Drown. The notule wraps itself around their face
and begins to suffocate them.

=== Ogre
<ogre>
- Skill 9
- Stamina 18
- Initiative 3
- Armour 1

Damage as Weapon or Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-23>
+ Smug
+ Generous
+ Covetous
+ Gregarious
+ Duplicitous
+ Offensive

The ogre is a phenomenon common across the universe. A child will be
born with a scowl on its face and a corded knot where their heart should
be. They won’t play with the other children, preferring to steal their
toys and break them in privacy. As it ages it becomes worse, larger,
severe, and monstrous. The scowl never leaves its face and it takes no
sincere joy in anything other than the acquisition of wealth and the
suffering of others. Some cultures drive them into the woods and
mountains to live out their days somewhat harmlessly whereas in others
they are rewarded. Their complete lack of shame and willingness to do
anything in pursuit of their selfish goals makes them well suited for
certain societies; an ogre governor, magnate, or baronet is a sadly
common occurrence.

=== Orc
<orc>
- Skill 7
- Stamina 8
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Club

==== Mien
<mien-24>
+ Industrious
+ Confused
+ Homesick
+ Angry
+ Frustrated
+ Violent

The manifested people. By the order of the universe, as set in motion by
the Unmoving Mover, they exist for the briefest time in the indivisible
moment at the beginning and end of all things. Their duty is to tidy
along the demiurge and all of their toys before the next go around, and
as such they are people of words and shapes. Unfortunately for them this
cycle has a proliferation of wilful wizard-folk with a thirst for
learning the barest fundamentals of the Forms and Essences, just enough
to reach out and disrupt things. One day this will have dire
consequences, but for today it is just a very confused ineffable asset
in the summoning circle.

=== Owl
<owl>
- Skill 4
- Stamina 4
- Armour 0 Initiative 1

Damage as Small Beast

==== Mien
<mien-25>
+ Curious
+ Watchful
+ Aggressive
+ Hungry
+ Guarded
+ Defensive

The rooftops of Troika are crenelated by owls. They watch the streets
with dumb spite, waiting for a vole, a rat, or an errant, fat finger to
come to their attention. They swoop after it, followed by other owls
blindly responding to the motion. Together they descend like a rabid
flock of razor sharp gulls blindly grasping. A perennial pest that the
citizens of Troika are morbidly proud of tolerating.

=== Parchment Witch
<parchment-witch-1>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 14
- Initiative 2
- Armour 1

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-26>
+ Admiring
+ Infatuated
+ Obsessed
+ Paranoid
+ Skulking
+ Violent

Parchment Witches are an unusual breed of living dead both for having
usually chosen the state of their own volition and for their staunch
denial of it. They cover their rotting skin in a layer of leather,
vellum, or, if no other option is available, paper. They then paint it,
decorate it, and top it with a wig, thus completing the illusion. The
most talented can walk among us and we’d never know it. The only
tell-tale signs of a Parchment Witch among you would be the distinct
smell of leather rendering in the house next door and the disappearance
of a few handsome townspeople.

==== Special
<special-22>
Parchment Witches have 5 Spells rolled randomly or chosen ahead of time.
They take double Damage from Silver. If given suitable time and supplies
the Witch can completely change their appearance. They can also use the
skin of another person to impersonate them for a week after which time
it starts to rot.

=== Piscean
<piscean>
- Skill 3
- Stamina 6
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-27>
+ Mewling
+ Childish
+ Playful
+ Mischievous
+ Hungry
+ Starving

Legs of a man, torso and tail of a fish. They break into granaries,
batter the nightguards with their blubbery tails, stuff their bellies
full of feed, and run off into the night to digest in a local lake. They
are menaces!

==== Special
<special-23>
If they incapacitate a party member all Pisceans that are able will
descend on them and eat all their Provisions. Each will consume one per
Turn.

=== Night Pig
<night-pig>
Skill 7 Stamina 14 Initiative 2 Armour 0

Damage as Modest Beast

==== Mien
<mien-28>
+ Sinister
+ Suspicious
+ Unreal
+ Inquisitive
+ Shameful
+ Cowardly

There are those witches that don the skin of a pig and walk abroad
amongst their sleeping neighbours. Through the power imbued by that most
sinister animal they rub themselves against the exteriors of houses and
snuffle at their hedges, thereby ensorcelling the household’s wealth to
them. As the night goes on they grow increasingly fat, limited only by
their greed. When they return home and remove their pig cape all the
treasure they have stolen tumbles out. For this reason it’s wise to
demand answers from any pig you see out at night. Their intentions will
never be good.

=== Salamander
<salamander>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 16
- Initiative 3
- Armour 3

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-29>
+ Convulsing
+ Expanding
+ Retracting
+ Surging
+ Revolving
+ Blooming

A star creature that sailors are accustomed to removing from their
golden ships like terrestrial barnacles. They are attracted to the heat
of the sails and interfere with their correct operation if not dealt
with. When removed they are low and squat, so dark as to force your eyes
to run off them, so hot that you can feel it from across a room. They
move like tar, slow then fast, able to expand themselves to attack, in
the moment looking like a quickly blooming rose. Even fatalistic golden
sailors are careful when poking at shadows.

=== Separator
<separator>
- Skill 9
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Medium Beast

==== Mien
<mien-30>
+ Uncanny
+ Hagridden
+ Withdrawn
+ Unassuming
+ Ravenous
+ Cruel

In an infinite universe there are infinite witches, amongst which is a
rich spectrum of awfulness. Separators are some of the foulest. They
live like normal people by day but by night feed their sorcery through
teratic transformations. Sat in their home, their bodies pull away at
the breastbone, tongues lengthen and hang to the ground, and wings
sprout from their spinal columns. They fly invisibly in search of
sleeping victims so as to force their tongues down their gullets to
feast upon the innards. Their victims awaken mysteriously sick while the
witch remains healthy and young.

==== Special
<special-24>
Sleeping victims lose 1d6 permanent Stamina daily unless magically
restored. By day they are indistinguishable from a normal person. By
night the flying portion is invisible at will, only visible through
Second Sight or magic. Destroying their dormant home-body traps them in
their flying aspect.

=== Sympathy Serpent
<sympathy-serpent>
- Skill 5
- Stamina 6
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Small Beast

==== Mien
<mien-31>
+ Shy
+ Friendly
+ Sympathetic
+ Fearful
+ Sad
+ Inconsolable

Dark, thick as a man’s thigh, and as long as three destriers, they crush
their prey as you’d expect such a snake to do but their hunting style is
idiosyncratic: they do not wrestle with their quarry but offer a gentle
embrace, telling them it’s okay to let go, they’re here now. Together
prey and predator mourn the crushing awfulness of reality as one
swallows the other whole.


==== Special
<special-25>
Sleeping or unsuspecting targets must Test their Luck \(or Skill for
Enemies) or be paralysed with misery and allow the serpent to quietly
eat them.

=== Thinking Engine
<thinking-engine-1>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 14
- Initiative 2
- Armour 1

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-32>
+ Absent Minded
+ Distracted
+ Enthusiastic
+ Maudlin
+ Sentimental
+ Engrossed

Built in the time of the First Empire, commissioned by the will of the
Other Lords to pilot the golden ships of their cosmic civilisation. Each
one is unfathomably ancient but by design or fault they don’t remember
more than a lifetime’s worth of existence. We think of them in their
common form of bakelite and chrome androids but their variety is a
result of the chthonic imagination of the Other Lords and endless in its
diversity. Most have been broken over their lifetimes and replaced their
parts, some with new mechanical contrivances and others with organic
flesh. Some have lost their original form altogether and walk the earth
as flesh while others are large and hollow, waiting for an operator with
dead knowledge.

=== Tiger
<tiger>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Large Beast

==== Mien
<mien-33>
+ Playful
+ Stalking
+ Hungry
+ Tired
+ Austere
+ Aggressive

It is common knowledge that all tigers come from the Palace of Tigers.
You may see one in a jungle somewhere and think they are at home, maybe
they are even raising kittens and leading rich full tiger lives, but
they are as alien to that forest as you or I, and the kittens are
invariably stolen from lesser cats. They were born to leisure, to stalk
fat little coati in palatial gardens, and to bask in crystal solariums.
Take pity on these angry animals for they are lost and not used to your
rude ways.

=== Tower Wizard
<tower-wizard>
- Skill 10
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 3
- Armour 0

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-34>
+ Offensive
+ Confused
+ Friendly
+ Suspicious
+ Inappropriate
+ Transgressive

The majority of sorcery enthusiasts are either members of a college or
well respected freelance lecturers with a nice manse in a seaside town,
esteemed members of society who buy their groceries the same as us.
However, when people think "wizard" they most likely go straight to the
tower wizards, those feral old men who have given up all pretence of
civility and fled to the wilderness. There they build their eponymous
towers to work on unpleasant projects and terrorise the neighbourhood.
They give magic a bad name.

==== Special
<special-26>
The Tower Wizard has access to Jolt or Ember and 4 other Spells rolled
randomly or chosen ahead of time.

=== Troll
<troll>
- Skill 7
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 1
- Armour 2

Damage as Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-35>
+ Rude
+ Standoffish
+ Spiteful
+ Disrespectful
+ Sarcastic
+ Sullen

Trolls are ill-tempered creatures often spied leaning on a pike in the
town square, gabbing with other guards while taking the occasional break
to shout at a child, or tripping up an old lady. You’d think they’d stop
hiring them.

==== Special
<special-27>
Trolls regenerate 1 Stamina every time they hold the Initiative. They
will regenerate back from anything other than decapitation or fire.

=== Ven
<ven>
- Skill 8
- Stamina 8
- Initiative 2
- Armour 2

Damage as Super Weapon

==== Mien
<mien-36>
+ Frustrated
+ Scared
+ Curious
+ Fascinated
+ Quixotic
+ Depressed

The million spheres have not been counted, it’s just understood that
there are a lot — countless by every useful standard. Eventually, in a
future further from now than the birth of the Monad is from here, the
hump-backed sky will fold in on itself and one crystal sphere will
remain. On that sphere will be the last culture, the Ven, pale skinned,
dressed in rubber and peaked caps, spending the time left before the
Monad rests in obscure and pointless pursuits. Their arts can do
anything but prevent the End of All Things. Some amongst their race, not
content to wait, fling themselves and some small portion of their arts
back through time to live in a more vigorous era. There they try to
achieve some imitation of their old lives, setting themselves up as
demi-gods and tyrants obsessed with preventing the future they fled.

=== Zoanthrop
<zoanthrop-1>
- Skill 7
- Stamina 12
- Initiative 2
- Armour 0

Damage as Modest Beast

#colbreak()

==== Mien
<mien-37>
+ Playful
+ Stalking
+ Hungry
+ Tired
+ Plagued by Thought
+ Aggressive

In the reign of the 35th Autarch it became fashionable to be seen as
in-touch with the natural world. One could often witness Exultants
abstaining from artificial cloth, conspicuously forgoing their flyers on
shorter journeys, and walking barefoot through their palaces whilst
their servants laid down petals in their path. This trend escalated
until the more desperate social climbers ultimately committed to having
their prefrontal cortexes partially removed in the pursuit of the
greatest animal verisimilitude. While the results were undeniable, it
prevented participation in even the most basic functions of state. The
Autarch applauded their commitment but tastes soon moved on.
]
