Three Fears of Man

"Three fears of man: the uncanny, the unknown, and the self. This creature is without a doubt a putrid chimera of these traits. When one plays god a devil is born."—Toma Koshiro, Leader of the Ark Project

The above is flavor text about a new type of aberration monster I created for Asteria Rising. That last monster I showed was the Vile-Horn, but here is a more disturbed creature. The below will give a picture of the monster, background, and statistics. Next week will be a new page on monster creation.

Three Fears of Man

There isn't much on the flavor text for this monster; however, I will give what little I have. First is that the monster is meant to be the ultimate example of the Ark Project's malfunction. The creature is meant to be barely held together because of this background.

It has very slow movement, despite the many legs, because it was crafted not evolved. A lot of mental function from the various brains of the three heads need to go into moving its many limbs. The Head of the Uncanny [distorted man] is where all the pain receptors go, meaning it is in perpetual agony. That is why the woman's head [the Head of Self] appears so tranquil. The Head of Unknown [hooded skull] is meant to be the dominant head where most cognitive processes are kept.

The Ark Project was prepared to recreate humans in an emergency; it had a plethora of imprinted memories and ideas to place within the heads of the new humans to avoid the race starting completely from scratch. This allows the monster to have a very high intelligence, a be a huge source of knowledge on Earth history. It also gives reasons for players to track down the monster beyond killing it.

The reaction system for the monster is the main way to make it dangerous. It is understandable that for the more native race of the world that this creature would be something worth fearing, while for the players they could try to keep a distance from the large and slow moving beast. I also imagine there being a finite amount of these creatures and they simply have an abnormally long life. If the chances of meeting one are low, than a fight against it must be memorable.

The idea of this monster is simply that it is hard to kill and dangerous if you get too close to it. This makes it more dangerous for close range characters [like the soldier class] due to its reactions, as well as classes that have very little mobility [Agent Sniper sub class]. The wail ability also ensures that the creature has a chance in a battle of attrition by slowly witling down the party's health 1d4 at a time.

Three Fears of Man

Large aberration

Armor Class 10 (natural armor)

Hit Points 939 [Each head has 313 hit points]

Speed 20 yards

STR    DEX    CON    INT   WIS   CHA

16(+3) 10(0) 18(+4) 19(+4) 10(0) 1(-5)

Skills perception +5, Lore [History] +9

Senses passive perception 15

Languages – All human languages

Challenge 

Three Heads. This monster has Advantage against all abilities or items that disorient, blind, deafen, and mute.

Reactive. Whenever a melee attack/ability is done to this target, it can use one of its actions against the attacker.

Actions

Bite. Melee Attack, one target, Attack Bonus +8. The tailed mouth of this creature bites a target causing 2d8 poison damage. An additional 1d6 poison damage is caused at the start of the target’s next turn.

Grapple. Target must roll a Dexterity Saving Throw of D.C. 14. On a successful save the target isn’t grabbed and allowed to move up to 5 yards in any direction. On a failed save the target is grabbed by one of the arms of the creature, is unable to move, and has disadvantage [-5] on all actions except Dexterity Saving Throws to escape the grapple on its turn.

Strike. Melee attack, one target, Attack Bonus +3. The creature attacks with its large clawed arm causing 1d20 physical damage on hit.

Swipe. Melee Attack. The many eyed tail of the monster swings in defense causing 1d12 damage to all in a 10-yard cone behind the creature. Targets make a Dexterity Saving Throw of D.C. 10. A successful save results in half damage, a failed save is full damage.

Wail. All creatures within hearing range of the monster must make a Constitution Saving Throw of D.C. 14. On a successful save nothing happens, on a failed save they take 1d4 physical damage. The action involves the monster letting out a blood curdling scream from the Head of Uncanny.