Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood (Mosquitofolk) (PFRPG)
There’s no such thing as too many monsters! Here Be Monsters brings new monsters and everything you need in order to use them right now in your campaign.
In this book, you’ll discover…
- 9 new monsters—different varieties of mosquitofolk and related creatures.
- The complete ecology of the mosquitofolk.
- A mosquitofolk lair with detailed color map.
- 3 different mini-adventures of varying levels.
- And tons of hooks!
The mosquitofolk want nothing more than your blood—all of it. And they’ll stop at nothing to get it. Some of the creepiest monsters ever imagined, they are fully fleshed out and ready to spring on unsuspecting characters everywhere.
Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood is a perfect monster resource for game masters wanting new monsters for their world or for players wanting to learn about and prepare for the world of their characters. This high quality, web-optimized pdf is compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and contains everything you need to utilize mosquitofolk in your game right now.
Design by Hal Maclean and Scott Gable; Illustration by Ashton Sperry; Cartography by Ted Reed and Liz Courts; Editing by Troy Taylor and Scott Gable.
To be released October 25th.
It's available now from DriveThruRPG, Indie Press Revolution, Kobold Quarterly, Paizo, and RPGNet!
Director of Narrative
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Okay, I’m going to straight-up say that I like Zombie Sky Press, and I like the man behind the madness, Scott Gable. Full disclosure and all. He asked me to do a first reading of this product and I dug it.
It’s a great idea to throw out a monster, give variants, possible modifications, a lair, and a handful of encounter ideas and scenarios. Being a monster guy, I think this approach ensures the critter will get used a lot more often.
While it may seem less important than the material, one of the things Zombie Sky Press does that’s made me really take notice is the graphic design and layout. As a solely PDF publisher, ZKP formats the PDFs for the screen instead of mimicking a hold-in-your-hands book. That may sound weird, but it’s something I immediately noticed when I read their first publication, and I really think it fueled a fair percentage of my opinion of the work as a whole.
Check it out. From what I hear, there’s more on the way in this series.
Thanks, Adam! Monsters are my first love. And yes, there's more in production! This one starts the 5-part arc of jungle-based monsters.
I thought I'd give a more detailed sample, so here's what's in Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood.
9 Monsters:
- Giant mosquito
- Mosquito Swarm
- Mosquitofolk, Hollow (undead bloodbag)
- Mosquitofolk, Blood Jumper (fast attacker, hit and run tactics)
- Mosquitofolk, Secret Sting (sneaky with a nasty poison)
- Mosquitofolk, Blood Blade (armed killer, see below)
- Mosquitofolk, Cage Glider (giant, creepy slaver)
- Mosquitofolk, Swarm Spewer (spits out and controls mosquito swarms)
- Mosquitofolk, Wound Mage (vile mastermind and blood master)
- plus ecology, encounter groups, lore, and more--complete with the wonderful illustrations of Ashton Sperry
(Monsters span CR 1-10)
5 Alchemical Items:
- Blood Lure
- Gag Grass
- Haze Frond Torch
- Reek Sap
- Stonefall Seeds
Blood Meal:
- A cliffside lair, gorgeously mapped by Liz "Lilith" Courts (a keyed version and an unkeyed version) [We've already gotten several compliments on Liz's awesome lair map!]
- 3 simple scenarios with multiple encounters using the lair, usable as sidetreks to insert into your campaign (for 4th, 8th, and 12 th levels)
- Hooks to incorporate the mosqitofolk into your campaign, tips on taking PCs as prisoners, and more
And here's a sample mosquitofolk:
Mosquitofolk, Blood Blade CR 7
This sleek mosquitofolk moves with a sinuous grace that makes the slightly curved, doublebladed spear it holds in its hands seem almost a
part of it.
XP 3,200
NE Medium monstrous humanoid
Init +3; Senses blood scent 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +6 natural)
hp 85 (9d10+36)
Fort +7, Ref +9, Will +7
Immune disease, mind-affecting effects
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (good)
Melee mwk double spear +13/+13/+8/+8 (1d8+5/x3 plus bleed) or bite +14 (1d6+7 plus attach and bleed)
Special Attacks bleed (2d6), blood drain (1d4 Con),
diseased
TACTICS
Before Combat Blood blades charge into combat.
During Combat A stalwart combatant, a blood blade relishes facing opponents head on and despises enemies who try to get around it. It prefers to use its spear in melee and only employs its bite attack when hoping to drain blood.
Morale Mosquitofolk fight to the death against living foes possessing blood or in defense of their nest. Otherwise, they attempt to flee immediately.
STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 11
Base Atk +9; CMB +14 (+22 grapple when attached); CMD 27 (31 vs. trip)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Two-Weapon Fighting, Vital Strike
Skills Climb +23, Fly +17, Perception +12, Stealth +13, Survival +11; Racial Modifiers +8 Climb
Languages Buzz Speak
SQ blood scent
The first review of Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood (Mosquitofolk) is up at The Vorpal Spork:
Three pages in I was nodding my head and grinning. By the time I reached the end I was scheming about how I could drop my group into this buzzing buzz-saw.
... more than just a monster ecology, it also has some pretty kick-ass encounters and excellent M-folk lair map.
The fine folks at Robot Viking certainly seem to be enjoying Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood (Mosquitofolk):
The concept is brilliant — humanoid mosquitos aren’t just unpleasant in a creepy-crawly way. They’ve got a giant proboscis that will probably kill you outright, and if not, it will suck out all of your blood...
It gets better. These man-sized bugs aren’t just one-dimensional baddies with a mysterious past. They’re essentially an evolutionary dead-end. If a mosquitofolk larva is left on its own, and isn’t eaten by predators, it will die anyway. They can’t make it to adulthood without being transmogrified by a mosquitofolk wound mage, who warps the body into a specific “design” suited for a particular task. I love how weird that is, yet still makes a kind of horrible sense. And I didn’t even mention the undead mosquitofolk yet...
The writing in this book is excellent, with rich descriptions evoking the weirdness and horror of these aberrant bloodsuckers. Monster ecologies are a lot of fun, and this one is high quality. I can’t wait to see the rest of the Here Be Monsters series.
Megan Robertson of RPG Resource gives her review of Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood (Mosquitofolk)... and gives it 5/5 stars here at Paizo.com:
This is an excellent example of how to present a new monster - replete with background detail that enables you to embed them into your campaign world, and with a detailed lair designed to accommodate adventure at several levels depending on the strength of the party you have at the time.
Megan Robertson of RPG Resource gives her review of Here Be Monsters: Aching for Blood (Mosquitofolk)... and gives it 5/5 stars here at Paizo.com:
This is an excellent example of how to present a new monster - replete with background detail that enables you to embed them into your campaign world, and with a detailed lair designed to accommodate adventure at several levels depending on the strength of the party you have at the time.
Well deserved. Congratulations!