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Pilgrims of Rao - Enemies

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      This document will introduce you to the seven major groups opposing the player in combat in the Pilgrims of Rao tabletop roleplaying game.  The first paragraph describes them physically and the second describes them intimately.  You know, likes and dislikes, greatest childhood fears, that kind of stuff.  Know your enemy, conquer your enemy.  I am kidding.  It is a brief snippet of lore.
      Below the two paragraphs describing the enemy, you will find examples of their common subgroups.

Gruud

      Like a mix between a crocodile and a gorilla.  They sport large humps on their backs and poor posture, necessitating movement assisted by their knuckles.  A large pouch of skin connects their chin to their chest, and between this and their hump they have almost no neck.  A Gruud's face is stout, squashed, and animal.  Tiny brown eyes peek out from behind layers of loose skin above a protruding muzzle.  Their skin is always moist and they have practically no hair; those that do have hair grow raggedy beards.  Their mouth features the return of that strange mixture of crocodile and gorilla, with thick grasping and tearing teeth right next to flat plant crushing teeth.
      An all male species of mud men, they are known as much for their unintelligence as for their unending avarice.  They are born from dirt, silt, sand, soot, and more mixtures of the earth.  All they need to exist is a wet, dark place steeped with human greed.  Exposure to fire, electricity, or sunlight petrifies the creatures, turning them to dry mud that can be broken apart with a single tap.  For this reason, they rightly fear these things and will not come aboveground during the day or approach a traveler with a torch.  When they do raid human dwellings they seek items of monetary value or art to haul back to their lairs.  They often hide these items like a squirrel with its nuts.  This practice has spread virtually every kind of treasure to the far corners of the earth.  This species is feared by artisans and craft workers, for just as they seize items of value, so too will the Gruud kidnap and carry off any people skilled in making them.  What becomes of those captured is unknown, but there are no volunteers lining up to find out.

Subgroups: Mud Spawn, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Orc, Ogre, Troll, Grimm

Undead

      So close to human, but wrong.  These were once living humans or elves, now turned to serve dark powers through vile trickery.  They have pallid skin, emaciated bodies, and unnaturally extended joints.  They do not need to eat, sleep, or do anything required to stay alive.  Their mouths are always covered by hanging cloth or armor, with more underneath somewhat like tight a face mask.  The eyes are covered by coins from behind which flicker tendrils of a cold, blue fire.  The symbol for occult magic is engraved on their heads and it is always uncovered.  This symbol also glows with the eery blue flame within.
      The servants of the Kingdom of the Dead come in two forms: lesser undead and greater undead.  Lesser undead are no more intelligent than your couch, capable of only following orders and pursuing base instincts.  Greater undead, however, exhibit all the intelligence that they possessed in life with newfound malevolence and power.  They are the commanders driving the undead legions into relentless warfare.  Most feared among the undead are the De'fram, Death Knights, immortal men and women responsible for centuries of grief.  Their motives are unknown.

Subgroups: Zombie, Dulahan, Phantom, Legionary, Soul Caster, Revenant, Death Knight

Beasts

      Any number of large, hostile, territorial wild animals that have threatened sentient races since the moment of creation.  Unlike normal animals, they actively seek conflict and have sufficient power to kill even trained soldiers.  They frequently employ sophisticated use of mana in their bodies to channel the power of the elements.
      Once brought to the brink of extinction, these creatures have resurged in population since the fall of humanity.  Humans and elves have battled these creatures since before the Primarchy and the new gods.  The beasts have regained the wild and threaten civilized life once again.  No forest, field, or cave is safe.

Subgroups: Dire Wolf, Sabertooth Cat, Treant, Great Shark, Gryphon, Roc

Dragonkin

      A humanoid reptilian species, males are much smaller than females.  Males rarely reach five feet in height while females can be nearly twenty.  The species is roughly 95% male.  They resemble velociraptors, with feathers, more than their ancient draconic ancestors.  Tiny wing nubs protrude from their backs and only the drakes grow full wings, albeit non-functional ones due to their girth.  They show early signs of intelligence in the fields of tool use, hunting, and armor, though it is debatable how much of that is instinct and how much is learned behavior.
      A casual observer can be forgiven for considering them a race of lizard men.  After all, the only members of the species that are ever seen are the males.  However, what they cannot see are the colossal brood mothers.  In the words of the Shere Deathwatch Command, "All those things do is eat and birth more of those reptilian monsters.  They've gotta die."  The commander is an eloquent man.  Every twenty to thirty years the Dragonkin horde surges into the Shere Empire in what is known as a Dragonmarch.  They tear, rend, kill and eat any fauna they come across, animal or otherwise.  The Shere fear them because despite their disorganization and cowardice, the horde never seems to thin its ranks through war.  Dragonkin's hatred for the Shere is inborn, their bloodlust taught, and their hunger insatiable.

Subgroups: Drone, Drake, Nurse, Stalker, Pride, Queen

Sashiniri

      The moon elves, sometimes known as water elves, death elves, or dark elves.  The name in elven translates to "people of the moon."  A tall and muscular people with skin ranging from grey to bluish hues.  Their hair changes as they age, starting out pure cyan, maturing into azure and black, and finally becoming crashing waves of white in old age.  Like all elves, they have angular faces, pointed ears, and males cannot grow facial hair.  They are humanoid in all other ways.
      The moon elves possess a single, universal goal: the complete and total annihilation of humanity.  They have a total war society that excels in traditional and magical warfare.  They do not take joy in killing humans, to them, it is simply what must be done.  Squashing the roaches to purify the world through fire and poison.  Their victims number in the millions, and if the Kingdom of the Dead had not stopped them, humanity's extinction would have been complete centuries ago.  Few other races, even among the elves, can stomach their absolute hatred, and they have never been able to get a satisfactory answer as to why they do what they do.  The Sashiniri once fought alongside humans against the undead and the Hel.  Now if a human sees the face of a moon elf, they see the face of their exterminator.

Subgroups: Zealot, Moon Walker, Purifier, Storm Caller, Reaper

Sentinels

      Constructs made of metal, stone, and other materials held together by magic.  They are closely related to golems in structure and creation, with an arcane heart at their core.  Almost all Sentinels resemble humanoid females due to unexplained difficulties creating male versions most likely because they are all copies of a single mold that only one person knew how to make.  Most were not made for war, bur service and companionship.  They are roughly the same height as humans, and surprisingly about the same weight.  Many today wear clothing, especially hoods and robes.
      Sentinels were once the pinnacle of human scientific achievement.  Their numbers flourished in the decade before the War of the Gods.  They could do work no human could, store more information than any library, and work together as humankind's greatest allies.  Parents integrated the constructs into their families and the highest officials of court replaced half their servants with mechanical assistants; the rarely constructed butler form was a hit with the ladies.  And then they began to learn, to develop artificial intelligence.  They never saw service in the War of the Gods.  Humans shut them down and let them sleep.  They have since become our Sentinels, watching over past human glory.  In recent years some Sentinels have awoken and begun wandering the world in secret wearing robes.  Any mage worth her name will recognize the mana weave in the robes.  They are not just wearing clothes, they are wearing anti-magic armor.  Which begs the question, why are a bunch of constructs wearing armor designed to fight mages and where did they get it from?  Only time will tell.

Subgroups: Pawn, Jill, Knight, Rook, Bishop, Jack, King, Queen Artillery

Hel

      Nightmares made real.  Hel vary greatly in size, disposition, and body structure, but they do have a few consistencies.  All Hel have a chitinous bone exoskeletal plate of some kind on their head.  Their heads otherwise resemble those of humans, and they possess a full mouth of large, flat human teeth unhidden by cheeks or other flesh.  It gives them the appearance of a leering smile that is unnaturally wide.  Hel "clothing" is made out of organic fiber, and it difficult to tell where it ends and their bodies begin.  Hel frequently break the established laws of physics and reality, with their structure ignoring gravity, inertia, light, and much more.
      Hel rule the night and the dark places.  Once thought to be nothing more than myth, the Hel proved their terrible reality a millennia ago as they tore across heaven and earth.  The Hel were supposedly trapped in Eregoth, the nether realm, by the creator god at the beginning of time.  True or not, they threatened all existence with their corruption, making even the gods quake in fear at the thought of their demise.  All races that fought in the War of the Gods united for one last, desperate defense at the Pillar of Sherezaad in Rao.  Humans, elves, Shere and gods stood back to back in the human capital against seemingly endless waves of evil.  Despite our victory in what could have been the last stand of all sentient life, the Hel were not eliminated.  They continue to thrive in the darkness, surging at night and chasing the peoples of the world back into tiny walled strongholds.  Would-be heroes would do well to fear the things that go bump in the night.

Subgroups: Infestation, Puppet, Leaper, Shrieker, Coffin, Blood Knight, Titan
       This information is introductory material for the "Pilgrims of Rao" tabletop role-playing game.  It belongs exclusively to that game and is my sole property.
       Please check out the game on my page and give the public alpha a try.  :)

       You finally get to meet your foes.
© 2015 - 2024 SporeRedland
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