Velvet Hooks: Colour Monster & Corbeau

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HULLO ALL

It's been a while but I'm back with some  sweet, sweet, <default content>

CORBEAU

Poisonous quadruped that dwells (and multiplies) in mirrors

Of the handful of monster that I think needed another pass this is the one that I think needed it the most. It's sort of awkward between being a mystic mirror beast, but not actually being that mystical .  So I'm going to expand on it now , giving 6  new abilities of the Corbeau

1. The Corbeau will stalk its prey via reflective surface. It will appear only in the reflection and not  outside it until it chooses to. It can then appear anywhere that was reflected.  So someone who spots one moving in the reflection will likely look in the surroundings for the creature , rather than the mirror itself.  Subsequently this means no Corbeau casts a shadow unless its another Corbeau. (see number 4 for an expansion of this)

2. The encounter/use the description invokes is that of a mansion abandoned with wild stories about what befouled. Then inside the mansion is a Sallow* of Corbeau stalking the party through multitude of mirror. The wild stories of the Corbeau could make the party over estimate the danger or powers of the Corbeau , but the discovery of the Corbeau as simple ( but cunning) beast might prove anticlimactical, if none of the suggested additional powers are added.

3. One such additional ability is if a Corbeau is lurking in a mirror and the mirror is broken , it multiples the Corbeau into a number equal and proportional to the fragments  resulting.  So if you wish to deny a Corbeau a perch to stalk and spring from , you would best be sure their wasn't a Corbeau hiding in the reflection. Newly created Corbeau are extremely hungry and will have mere hours to find subsequent food before starving to death. They will often turn cannibal on each other if no other food is present. 

Still water doesn't have such a property as it doesn't break into clear shards.

4. A Corbeau can create another Corbeau by looking into a mirror or reflective surface from dawn to dusk.  They will only do so if food seems plentiful enough, so not to risk having a rival or even  a predator.

5 Corbeau cannot break or harm a mirror or reflective surface. In the case of still water this means a Corbeau can walk across it as if it were solid glass and a Corbeau falling into a still pool will result in it being broken across the unmoving surface of the water

6. If a mirror contains a Corbeau and another Corbeau is within reflective range, the Corbeau in the mirror will be compelled to perfectly mimic the Corbeau outside the mirror. Any other Corbeau lurking in the mirror aren't compelled in such a way, but if multiple Corbeau are in reflective range of the mirror then they will. There is also a limit to how many Corbeau can pop into the other side of the reflection, that being one a round. But once the amount of Corbeau outside and in the mirror reach an equilibrium, the compulsion will mean the remaining Corbeau will be trapped in mimicry until one/some reflected Corbeau leave the reflected range.

 Assuming all 6 of these abilities is present here's a quick 6 hooks for them

1. Odd disappearance has lead to Mirror Merchant believing one of his mirrors is cursed but he can't work out which one it is . (one mirror has a Corbeau)

2.Mirror with Corbeau in it as trap, alternates with Mirrors that are dangerous unbroken (these render a viewer paralyzed as they stare at the reflection)

3.Dark gruneous pine forest with multiple pools for Corbeau to lurk from (pretty much in text)

4. Mirror given as a gift , really an assassination tool, a lurking Corbeau in a mirror won't show up as magical.

5.Spy using trained Corbeau to sneak messages.

6.Mansion guarded at night by turning around the paintings. Each has a mirror on the back , and a Corbeau in at least one of them.  Just before the household staff being their morning duties a goat or stray dog is let loose in the hallways for the Corbeau to catch. It will then withdraw into a mirror with its prey and the  staff can safely turn the paintings around again.

*"Sallow" being the collective noun of Corbeau

COLOUR MONSTER

An invisible colour drinker, that is it is an invisible colour and it is a drinker of colour. 

1.Giving them an additional ability of eyes rendered blank from their attacks lose any gaze attacks , so they become weapon against monsters with a gaze attack (Beholders, Medusa) . Then a party in process of making preparations against such monsters , might go off to the swamps festooned in the brightest colours they can source, ready with nets to swing as soon as their garments start bleaching.

2.Chirurgeon who do a lot of amputations could potentially create a market for Colour Monsters. As the area they drink from becomes permanently numb they wouldn't be that suitable for general medical practice. But for an amputation, this matters not. However to keep a Colour Monster might require expensive pigments regularly obtained and it might serve better to commission adventures to source them before a military campaign and then destroy them afterward.

3.Potential City Encounter/event of Colour Monsters obtained for the above purpose getting loose and running amok creating panic as people cover themselves in the blandest garments they can manage. The would-be re-captors of the beasts would need to follow a trail of invisible formerly bright things and/or create bait of the wildest colours they can find.

4. A bizarre fighting style "the Glass Arm" , whose practitioners use long glass blades and render their fighting arm invisible via the Colour Monster. Such a follower could make for a distinctive mercenary, henchman , duelist or assassin.

5. Particular long wet seasons in the Melanic Moors can cause an excess of the brightly coloured flowers the Colour Monster is want to feed upon and subsequently creates an boom of Colour Monsters. If the following season is not as long , the available food runs out and swarms of Colour Monsters roam outside the swarm seeking colour to drink, resulting in a panicked population adorning themselves drably and donning mesh over their eyes. (pretty much in the text)

6. These swarms can result in a creature , as would be encountered on a random encounter table (Crimson Contradodron for example), having been previously attacked, and is now invisible , numb to pain, and likely confused and enraged.

Velvet Hooks : Bog Elf & Swamp Drunks

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Another back up post topic, the creation ( or highlighting) of hooks to use monster from my favourite dead horse Fire On The Velvet Horizon

Bog Elf:

A Subtle tanninic people, from a mirrored world beneath the still dark waters of the mire .

1. A weapon of a hero , who united the warring tribes , was lost when he and his retinue were betrayed in dastardly swamp ambush. But lately a description of that very weapon was told of , in the hands of a weird knight. He and his fellows were sighted making war on the Potempkimen , a campaign that seems to be continue still.  (pretty much in the text)

2.  Speaking of which , if ever one needed an ally against those sneaky bastards the Potempkimen, the Bog Elf are committed adversary, if you can show them a flair for subtle and convoluted scheming  (pretty much in the text)

3. Liquid Shadow is a valuable substance , and the Bog Elves will trade it for metal goods . The trick is finding them , making contact , and getting their trust, then sourcing metal objects to their liking. As their tastes and needs can seem inexplicable. (pretty much in the text)

4.A very favoured ally of the Bog Elves maybe granted access to the shadow realm , of whose borders seep into those of the Elves. They will only lower such an explorer temporarily in the realm. If such an explorer wished to stay longer and cut themselves lose (and elude their guard) the Bog Elves would have to take on a visitor from the shadow realm of equal size and shape to the astray explorer , and this they do not want.

5.One of the alternatives the Bog Elves use in place of metal is ages-wood. This is wood that has spend a number of ages in the bogs, hardened by tannin and the weight of history.  Each age that has past leaves a different mark on the , and will be named either for the age it has spent in dark or the number.

So Fire-age-wood or 4-ages wood. Such wood can make weapons more than equal of any metal weapon and by being not metal they often have a use in cheating curses or piercing wards

6. A procession of bog elves has come before a king wanting a crime addressed. One of their princes has seen a princess and had his heart stolen. Therefore they want a heart of equal quality in return . It is unclear if they want it as a metaphor or literal.

Swamp Drunks

Those who can navigate the mysterious and maddening Melanic Moors, by being near mad themselves

1. The most obvious hook, the players wish to hire a guide through the Melanic Moors. The trick is sifting through the human wreckage in the outer reachs of Jukai to find someone who truely knows their way through the Melanic Moors , and isn't just a lush wanting to have someone buy them drinks while they lead them in a circle. (pretty much in the text)

2. Stories about certain parts of the Melanic Moors are only accessible to exactingly specific kinds of intoxication, and certain brewers recipes are effectively both the key and the map to access secret hordes and lucrative pharmacological gardens

3.The trade between the Swamp Drunks and Jukai is prohibited , thus making the role of middlemen lucrative . Assuming you can avoid the snares of being set up to serve as an offering for the Peace men and their smuggler catching quota, or being unable to discern the esoteric from the worthlesss

(pretty much in the text).

4. Another money earner for the broke , homeless , and heavily armed ; is clearing out some of the watchtowers of former expansion. When these get used by shallow-boat pirates , murder cultists, street gangs or other banes to peaceful business,  it can unclear if they "belong" to the Swamp Drunks , with its unclear semi-state hood. The safest solution is to pay adventurers to clear them out and then arrest them if it turns out the towers occupants had enough family connections to cause unrest.

5. The exact nature of the Melanic Moors is something two very different groups are invested in.

One group is the University of Jukai , specific the House of Epistegeology who will fund missions of discovery and research , that look a lot like  trespassing  , burglary and even kidnapping. The other group is the Jug-Fellows.

"Jug Fellow"is term that is normally used to refer to a temporarily camaraderie formed around the sharing of a 5 gallon jug  . But it also refers to the secret societys that each form around a tense onion layered secrets , analogies, deceptions and bizarre estoeric truths relating to the moors.

Each will teach a new member a truth , then once the member has proven themselves, they will reveal it to be a lie. Then when the fellow discovers the various ways that it being a lie has truth to it, they will reveal the deeper truth to it.

The Jug-fellow-societys are fiercely protective of their mix of knowledge, insight and deception , and while they don't have the deep pockets of the House of Epistegeology, aiding them in keeping the secrets of the Moor secret , will earn valuable allies.

6. Passing through the wrong area of the Melanic Moors (or at the wrong time) could result in a Jug-Fellow band demanding tax (preferable drink, but possibly song or other entertainment) . Refusing will result in the band disappearing with a laugh, and the travellers finding themselves inexplicable lost and the Jug-band show up again after a couple hours to ask about that tax again.