Approximate time to read: 3 minutes.
On the battlefields of Alberetor, the forces of Queen Korinthia faced the armies of an unnatural enemy. Soldier battled soldier in what felt like an eternal embrace of steel and sinew. In time, it became clear to scholar and commander that the enemy did not simply reinforce, it recycled. The warriors in service to the darkness arose from the wash of bone and gore anew – a little less human, ever hateful, always thirsting.
Even when nothing remained but scraps of skin and slivers of cartilage, the enemy endured. A roiling mass of congealed blood and grinding bone fragments, striking out like an animal with lashing claws of viscera. The Blood Host knows no end…
Blood Host
Race Undead
Resistance Challenging
Traits Natural Weapons (III), Survival Instinct (I), Swarm (III), Undead (I)
Accurate 11 (−1), Cunning 9 (+1), Discreet 10 (0), Persuasive 5 (+5), Quick 15 (−5), Resolute 7 (+3), Strong 10 (0), Vigilant 13 (−3)
Abilities Herculean (novice)
Weapons Lash 5 (long)
Armor 0, but takes only 1/2 damage from any attack
Defense –5
Toughness 15 Pain Threshold —
Equipment None
Shadow Dark red swirled with dark brown like old blood pooled beneath hanging meat (thoroughly corrupt)
Tactics The Blood Host swarms and lashes at its target, expanding and contracting like a thundering heart. Where multiple hosts gather, they surround and envelope their victims, seeking to blind and flank their adversary.
Feat of Strength (novice)
Passive. The character can withstand more punishment than others and benefits from Toughness calculated as [Strong +5]. This has no effect on the calculation of Pain Threshold, which remains the same as before, Strong / 2.
Variant Swarm (III)
A Blood Host has Swarm (III) and possesses all the associated advantages of this, but takes 1/2 damage instead 1/4 damage from all attacks. Instead, the volume of a Host means it can see an enemy through presence alone and does not suffer from blindness under any circumstances. In addition, anyone engaged with, or engaging, the Blood Host fights as if blinded – as the liquid gore of the creature surrounds and coats them.
Appearance A Blood Host appears as a billowing cloud of blood and bone, a seething vortex of viscera across an area roughly 5 meters in diameter. From a distance, with a [Vigilant – 5] test, the Blood Host sounds like a swarm of angry hornets, a low buzzing hum that grates at the edge of hearing.
Environs Blood Hosts can be found across the blackened battlefields of Alberetor or the southern reaches of the Titans.
Blood Hosts do not travel, seemingly tied to the point or locale of their creation. They enter a state of hibernation when no living target exists within range, but their senses raise them from this slumber when potential victims close within 500 meters. If they have a language or culture, no one has lived to tell the tale or record the findings of their studies.
Predation and Treasure A Blood Host does not hunt. A Blood Hunt survives by beating and hammering a foe, drawing upon the blood that leaks and seeps from their wounds. Like all Undead, the creature can only heal and sustain itself by consuming the life-force of the living. A gnawing chill fills the victim as the Host feasts on their decline, like the sensation of losing blood to a mortal wound.
A Blood Host has no value for treasures or personal possessions. A character entering the locale of the creature will, however, find the area scattered with bloodless corpses and their gear. You may wish to use the Curiosities table in Adventure Pack 1 to generate unusual items found amongst the carnage; otherwise, characters can find 3D6+10 thalers worth of armor and weapons with 3D6 thalers of loose valuables and potentially saleworthy debris.
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