Fantasy Monster: Lumberhack

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Lumberhack

A pallid, wretched thing with mad eyes, dead flesh, missing jaw, and hatchets stitched where his hands should be.

CR 3; XP 800
NE Medium Undead

Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +1

Defense
AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +3 natural)
hp 33 (6d8+6); fast healing 3
Fort +3; Ref +4; Will +6

Defensive Qualities channel resistance +2, undying; DR 5/magic or silver; Immune undead traits

Offense
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.

Melee 2 hatchet-arms +6 (1d6+2, ×3)

Special Attacks pounce, wood-bane

Statistics
Str 14, Dex 14, Con —, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 13
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 17

Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Nimble Moves

Skills Climb +10, Perception +1, Profession (lumberjack) +7

Ecology
Environment forest, ruins
Organization solitary, pack (2–12)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Undying (Su) A lumberhack reduced to 0 hit points drops incapacitated but isn't destroyed unless it is burned, decapitated, or exposed to direct sunlight. It remains inert until fully healed by its fast healing ability. If an incapacitated lumberhack is carefully pierced through and stuck to the ground with a long piece of wood or metal, it remains pinned and can't remove it on its own.

Wood-Bane (Su) A lumberhack attacks gain +2 enhancement bonus and inflict 2d6 points of extra damage against plants, plant creatures, wooden objects, and constructs made of wood and similar plant materials. They also count as cold iron.

More than zombies, but not quite ghouls, wights, or vampire spawn, lumberhacks are semi-feral undead lumberjacks.

Originally, they were mundane lumberjacks that came to serve a vampire baron who lorded over a thoroughly forested vale, enticed by the pay he promised to those who would work his lands. When he sent them to clear the heart of the forest, they fell to the charms and phantasms invoked by the fey of the land, and were sent back, without fulfilling their orders three time, with each time the wrath of their master growing. Finally, he trapped those who returned in the crypts of his castle, starving and tormenting them, slowly turning the last few of them into animalistic monstrosities whose only instinct was lashing against the forest and its denizens.

Lumberhacks roam the forests, alone or in small groups, trying to chop particularly old or beautiful living trees, those that move on their own, or those that are splashed with blood. They also lash at anyone and anything that interferes with their duties.

Fantasy Monster: Last Rays Of The Deep Sun

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Last Rays Of The Deep Sun

A bright white radiant shard crowns this pillar of brass. The whole construction is covered with glyphs and pictograms, and walks on four spidery legs.

CR 6; XP 2,400
N Large Construct

Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +3

Aura deep sun (300 ft./600 ft.)

Defense
AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+5 Dex, +5 natural, –1 size)
hp 74 (8d10+30)
Fort +2; Ref +7; Will +5

Defensive Qualities all-around vision, half damage from light effects, hardness 10; Immune construct traits

Offense
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

Melee 2 claws +12 (2d4+5)

Ranged focused light +12 ray (6d6, 19–20/×3 plus blindness for 1d4 rounds)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Statistics
Str 20, Dex 20, Con —, Int —, Wis 17, Cha 1
Base Atk +8; CMB +13; CMD 29 (33 vs. trip)

Feats Improved Critical (ray)^B, Point-Blank Shot^B, Weapon Focus (ray)^B

Skills Climb +12, Perception +3, Stealth +0

SQ climbing claws

Ecology
Environment underground, urban
Organization solitary, pair, or alley (3–10)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Climbing Claws (Ex) Last rays of the deep sun have claws strong enough to attach it to walls at any angle, including hanging upside down from the ceiling, as long as the ceiling itself is strong enough to support the construct's considerable (even if parts of the pillar and its legs are hollow) weight. It seems that hanging from the ceiling of huge caverns, or sticking horizontally from the walls was one of the intended uses of these devices.

Deep Sun Aura (Su) Last rays of the deep sun emanates intense radiance, providing bright illumination within 300 feet, and increasing illumination level within another 300 feet by one step. This light is capable of fully sustaining vegetation deep underground, though sunbathing in it doesn't seem to give an actual tan to humans.

Focused Light (Su) Last rays of the deep sun can focus its light into a powerful ray with 300 feet range that sears creatures and objects struck dealing 6d6 points of damage. On a confirmed critical hit it deals triple damage and causes blindness for 1d4 rounds.

Last rays of the deep sun were made long ago by an ancient empire that lived deep underground to provide them with sunlight they were missing. If the glyphs that can be found on the recovered frames were deciphered correctly, they had their own divine Deep Sun, providing them with light and warmth they needed to sustain their civilization. When it apparently died, or maybe was extinguished in a cataclysm (or was that war? sabotage? assassination? the glyphs are unclear and the accompanying pictograms seem very allegoric, some suggest that the Deep Sun was a deity, a person, or a machine, or all of those and more), they salvaged its embers, embedding them into pylons of enchanted brass and turned into walking lanterns.

The original creators might be long gone, but last rays of the deep sun stayed behind, initially following long forgotten paths underneath the earth—winding tunnels, vast caverns, alleys of the magnificent chambers, and underground gardens. As the times passed, tunnels collapsed, stone walls shifted, the paths scrambled. Without ancient priest-technicians supervising the last rays, these light-bringing constructs veered from their prescribed paths and spread across the deep lands underneath the roots of mountains.

Last rays of the deep sun are of great interest to students of both ancient lore and the arts of construct crafting. The former desire to learn more of the lost civilization that made them, the later want to understand their construction and replicate their creation process. And there are always those who simply want to find the ancient cities and scavenge their riches for themselves. Following one of the roaming last rays in hope that its path is intact enough for it to finally return home is one of the possibilities for successful achievement of one or more of those goals.

And then, there is the mystery behind the color of the light emanated by those devices. Is there are reason why a few of them have different hue than the blueish-white common among the others?

Fantasy Monster: Bonsai Treant

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Bonsai Treant

A little anthropomorphic tree, all vibrant green and brown, with a little bow tied at the top.

CR 1; XP 400
N Tiny Plant

Init +0; Senses low-light vision, sense water 60 ft.; Perception +8

Defense
AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+1 natural, +2 size)
hp 15 (2d8+6)
Fort +6; Ref +1; Will +4

Immune plant traits

Offense
Speed 20 ft., climb 10 ft.

Melee 2 slam +3 (1d3)

Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 2nd, concentration +2)

1/day—goodberry (grown on its own branches)

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB –1; CMD 9

Feats Run

Skills Climb +8, Perception +8, Stealth +13

Language understands Sylvan

SQ plant feel

Ecology
Environment forests
Organization solitary, pair, or nursery (5–20)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Plant Feel (Su) A bonsai treant unconsciously connects with nearby vegetation that form a coherently and meaningfully continuous patch—such as a field, a grove, or even a thickly grown forest, and its own mood and behavior reflects the mood and state of the place, as felt by the plants.

Sense Water (Ex) A bonsai treant can sense presence of water within 60 feet. By concentrating for a round it can discern between fresh, brackish, and salt water, and determine general direction toward the largest source of water nearby.

Bonsai treants are grown from cuttings taken from actual treants, and then carefully tended to by a skilled gardener until they naturally awaken to their inherent child-like sapience.

Individual bonsai treants have varied personalities, but they are all sensitive to the state of local vegetation, both physical and spiritual, often sensing the mood of a place before it can be estimated by actual observations. They are more lively in places of life and fertility and morose where life is diminished or corrupted. They get confused or scared where life and death mix.

Small flocks of bonsai treants might tend to places of natural power, magical groves, and otherworldly glades.

Growing a bonsai treant familiar for oneself requires a cutting of a treant taken with the entity's permission, Improved Familiar feat, and 5 ranks of Profession (gardening), though an unconfirmed story mentions a wizard finding a long forgotten nursery of wild treant saplings.