April 25, 2011

Mythic Monsters-Uwan

This is part of the A-Z Blog Challenge. Herein I am presenting a new monster that hopefully has not been seen before in any RPG game. This is drawn from stories and mythologies found in a variety of real-world cultures.


Uwan

Ensis heard nothing. All he could see was the moss covered wall, or rather, the remains of a wall. The ruin looked old. A person could easily see where the weather of ages had worn down the remaining sections of the wall. The rogue gave the signal and moved over the wall. Ensis made sure his arrow was targeted at the wall so he could provide covering fire if the rogue ran back quickly with something on his tail. He felt the weight of his sword at his side in case he had to run forward to get the rogue out of trouble.
Ensis heard nothing. The rogue staggered back over the wall, holding his hands over his ears. Blood seeped through the rogue’s fingers and he collapsed on the other side of the wall. Ensis cursed and drew his sword as he ran forward. He cursed again as he leapt the low wall, not knowing what was on the other side. All he saw on the other side was a vague, nebulous figure. He ran toward it.
Ensis heard the screaming. It came from the figure and sounded like pure rage. The sound pierced like a bolt into his brain. Blood began to trickle from his own ears now. He lost his sense of balance and stumbled.
Ensis heard nothing.

Part of the Japanese Yokai (monsters), the Uwan is a disembodied voice. Largely inhabiting ruins, its main form of attack is its voice, which it uses to screeching effect. One odd part of this voice is that it can only be heard within the ruin it haunts and not outside the building. I should mention that despite my use of the word “haunts” this creature is not in fact any type of undead. Rather, it is a manifestation of an emotion, usually rage.

It is unknown how Uwan come into being but it is speculated they are spontaneously created when there are large amounts of hatred and rage in an area. Further conjecture also suggests that whatever caused the original building to fall into ruin or neglect may also be a contributing factor. Some further theorize the Uwan is actually the building itself crying over its abandonment. Whatever the reasons, they are a serious hazard to adventurers who like to explore old ruins.

Abilities
-Voice: When it yells it can do damage and stun its opponents in an area.
-Disembodied: This is a defensive ability. The Uwan is extremely difficult to hit with weapons. Non-magic attacks do the absolute minimum damage a weapon can do.
-Inner Ear: Combining its Voice and Disembodied, the Uwan enters the ear of its target letting loose a horrendous scream. This does high amounts of damage and can incapacitate or deafen its target.

Adventures
-Bodies have been turning up dead in the city. None of them have any physical signs of what killed them though blood has leaked out of their ears. Also there were no sounds of a struggle though there were witnesses in the next room in some cases. After a fair amount of investigation it is revealed they each had possession of a large fire red opal. The opal is not cursed, but rather, it was once part of the architecture of a temple dedicated to a fire god. When the temple ruin was looted by a group of adventurers the Uwan went along with the opal. Now it kills. The party must recover the opal and return it to the ruin. To complicate the issue, the opal has been stolen by a group of thieves.

-The party is on the track of a group of bandits and the items they stole. They locate their hide-out, but the place is also the home of an Uwan. The Uwan leaves the bandits alone as they are actually working to rebuild (fortify) the ruin. The party must contend with both the bandits and the Uwan if they are to recover the stolen goods.

-A wizard has a ritual to banish Uwan. He wants the party to test its effectiveness at the known ruin of an Uwan. Will the party be able to complete the ritual while dealing with the Uwan? Will the ritual work? Will the party have to fight the Uwan if it fails?

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