Things that go bump in the AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH WHAT IS THAT???

OK, so part of the fantasy genre is monsters and the killing thereof. Part of the Arthurian genre is monsters and the questing to kill them. Part of Slavic folklore is monsters and their doing with heroes. So, I pretty much need to do some stuff with monsters in this game.

However, what I don't want is just another fantasy hackfest where orc corpses get piled up by the score and the PCs make jerkoff motions as they say, "Oh yeah, another dragon. Big whoop." What I want to shoot for instead is the feel of both Arthurian and Slavic legend where monsters exist, but each one is extremely dangerous, each one is unique, and each one is legendary. If a PC is involved in killing even a single monster over the course of his career, I want it to be such an achievement that people point him out in the street and tell his story again and again. So monsters need to be tough -- extremely so -- since defeating one is probably the highlight of a character's career. But more than that, a monster can't just be a collection of stats and treasure. A monster has its own story, its own meaning, and its own reasons for existence.

I've taken a stab at coming up with some monsters to place around the lands of Hala Sokol, where the play will start, and I've detailed them below with the information most PCs would have or be able to obtain easily. Let me know if I've hit my mark here.

Bohdan Polegli (Bohdan the Fallen)

According to legend, the fell and evil creature known as Bohdan Polegli began his life as Bohdan, a simple Poreian monk of Kroviyan extraction. Some time in the century after the Thegan conquest of southern Kroviy, Bohdan entered the newly established Poreian monastery of Sw. Ulesz at Chormnow, where the Leonikov flows into the Lotny. The majority of the monks were Thegans and there was considerable resentment of a Kroviyan in the holy order, especially given that Bohdan evidenced such holiness and understanding of the creed, and that he advanced so quickly. On or around the year 900 he was murdered, apparently by jealous monks; the killing was never solved, and indeed was hushed up or ignored by the Poreian leaders of the monastery. Shortly thereafter Bohdan’s ghost made its first appearance, a mournful but harmless reminder of the crime (according to legend the ghost would merely appear in the Poreaium, walk into the courtyard and then fall and vanish, apparently re-enacting Bohdan’s last minutes), and it made repeated appearances over the next two hundred years. However, in 1203, for unknown reasons the ghost of Bohdan turned violent, and in a single night it slaughtered every monk in the monastery who could not flee its wrath. The monastery was abandoned and has remained haunted by the vicious revenant in spite of repeated attempts to banish the spirit; these attempted banishings tend to end with the dismemberment of the priest conducting the ceremony as well as any others Bohdan Polegli can catch. It is believed that there is considerable wealth still remaining in the ruined abbey on the lonely hill above Chormnow, but none who have ventured after it have returned.

Bohdan Polegli is a ghost of terrible and malign power, capable of killing a man at a stroke. Normal weapons appear not to harm it whatsoever, and the one attempt to destroy it by magical weapon (Pan Alekszin’s fabled sword Obronca) resulted only in the momentary disruption of the spirit; it quickly reformed, and Alekszin was lucky to escape with his life. Bohdan the Fallen is thought to wield dark magics in addition to its strength, for its eerie cry can cause terror in man and beast and the wounds it inflicts, even when not immediately fatal, tend to fester and rot in such a way as to kill the victim later after much suffering. It is described as a black shade, vaguely man-shaped and sized, wrapped in rotting monk’s robes.

Ciocia Czerdusza (Auntie Blackheart)

Ciocia Czerdusza is a cruel and powerful water spirit who inhabits the northern branch of the Greater Wolny delta near where it is joined by the Plawa. She has inhabited the spot for several hundred years at least and perhaps longer; the area has always had a wicked reputation among fishermen and Ciocia Czerdusza’s presence might explain that. She is known to create sudden whirlpools, eddies and currents that drag boats and swimmers to their doom, as well as shredding nets, scaring off fish, and generally making a nuisance of herself. The local fisherfolk venerate her as a minor goddess, hoping by sacrifices to ward off her wrath; this has no apparent effect, but the fisherfolk swear things would be much worse if they didn’t make the sacrifices. It is worth noting that she doesn’t discriminate in her rages – an Aahtel raiding fleet moving through the area for a descent on Hala Sokol in 1449 was sunk almost to the last boat, and few of the barbarians escaped with their lives.

On the rare occasions where she has been spotted directly, Ciocia Czerdusza has been described as a beautiful but dangerous-looking woman with pale blue skin and flowing green hair. She seems to possess vast stores of water-magic.

Czlek-Pistulka (The Man-Shrike)

Deep in the Mapla Forest lurks an enormous bird called Czlek-Pistulka. Referred to in very early Kroviyan legends, the Man-Shrike appears to have been a resident of the deep woods since time immemorial. In spite of this, little is known of the nature of the creature because of the extreme vigilance with which it defends its territory. It streaks down from the sky on any human who would dare trespass, catching them up in its claws and impaling them upon broken tree branches to rot. The motivation for this is unknown, since it does not return to eat its prey like a normal shrike, but scholars speculate that the bird is some sort of mystical guardian of some unknown thing in the forest. This theory is buttressed by the fact that the bird’s feathers, which may occasionally be brought back to civilization by foolhardy woodsmen, display remarkable magical properties.

Czlek-Pistulka is an enormous raptor with a wingspan in excess of 35’, a wickedly hooked bill, and terrible claws. It is colored in a pattern of gold and dazzling blue, and its feathers have a metallic sheen. It is unknown whether it is intelligent, and it does not appear to use magic.

Ludojad and his Family

The Ludojad Forest is named after this horrible creature who has lived in the woodland since shortly before the Thegans withdrew from Kroviy in 1330. No one knows where he came from – he simply appeared from the heart of the forest one day and slaughtered and devoured a camp of loggers, then withdrew into the heart of the woods, and once every couple of years since then he reappears to raid nearby villages and kidnap women; it is known that Ludojad eats many of the women he takes, but some he keeps for less describable purposes. Several determined attempts to locate and destroy Ludojad have come to naught, as the monster knows the deepest forest intimately and uses his knowledge to lure his would-be hunters to their doom. Periodically Luojad appears with what seem to be his children – offspring, probably, of the ogre and the unlucky women he doesn’t devour. Many of these “children” have been slain, but there are always more to replace them.

Ludojad is a hideously ugly ogre some 11’ tall and massively muscled. He has skin the color and consistency of tree-bark, and his teeth are enormous fangs. He is tremendously strong and wields a fire-hardened tree branch as a club; sometimes he drives captured swords through it to make a crude morning-star. His skin is as hard as iron; however, he can be injured, and grievously so – however, he apparently has high regenerative abilities, as he has regrown lost limbs. He is not known to use magic, but he is extremely clever and cunning and knows a vast amount of wood lore. His children appear as smaller versions of Ludojad, usually between six and nine feet tall, and are considerably less dangerous than their father.

Mruczecy Milja (Grumbling Milja)

Mruczecy Milja is a malign water spirit who inhabits the dangerous tidewater marshes south of the Narjew River. She has lived there for as long as anyone knows, occasionally killing venturesome peasants who have sought after the rich bounty of that treacherous area. She was largely ignored by the Thegan military, though several rycerz during the Kroviy Mir period quested to kill her; none returned. One of them, Joris Polinar of Lisch, carried a magical shield that presumably would be with his bones, or in Milja’s watery lair, now.

Like most water spirits Mruczecy Milja has a fluid form, but most reports put her appearance as a humanoid-shaped congealing of water and muck between seven and ten feet tall. It is thought that she fights by attempting to drown her opponents, and she probably also can manipulate water and mud to do her bidding.

Obolynski Lajdak (The Hound of the Obolyn)

This fell beast occupies the Obolyn Wood, a small but thick wilderness between Walim and Chutsze. It was first reported just nine years ago, during the Civil War, when it mauled a caravan on the Walim-Chutsze road and killed nine persons and more than a dozen beasts. Since then it has terrorized the countryside, killing cattle and sheep and the occasional peasant. Repeated attempts to track the beast and destroy it have proven entirely fruitless, for it seems that Obolynski Lajdak can avoid being discovered when it wishes.

Descriptions of the Hound of Obolyn are of a jet-black dog or wolf some six feet at the shoulder with glowing red eyes and a reek of sulfur on its breath. It is described as being astonishingly strong and fast with deadly teeth, and it is also said that it can disappear in any shadow. It is not known whether Obolynski Lajdak is intelligent or capable of using magic.

Siwy Myscha (Gray Myscha)

In the Srebro Gol, in the triangle made by the Lotny and Luko Rivers, is an abandoned mine of considerable depth, and at the foot of the hill the ruined town of Grawa Gorny. Between 1296 and 1431 Grawa Gorny was one of the richest mines in all of Kroviy, bringing first the Thegan Empire and then the Ksiaze of Sokol a fortune in rubies and spinels. However, in 1431 the miners fled the pits, screaming that a terrible creature of living rock had killed several of their number. A pair of expeditions led by rycerz failed to return from the depths of the mine, and thereafter the mine was closed and the town died. The Ksiaze was planning a third, much larger expedition to hunt Siwy Myscha for the summer of 1441, but the outbreak of the Kroviyan Civil War upended that scheme and none have ventured into the pits since.

Accounts from the miners were necessarily muddled, but as best as can be determined Siwy Myscha is a vaguely humanoid creature slightly taller than a man but much thicker, with a huge maw filled with jagged stone teeth. Some miners claimed that it could also change shape as it passed through tiny mine corridors.

Stary Swiekra (Old Mother-in-Law)

Stary Swiekra is a hag who has lived in a cave in the Cienisty Wood area of the Srebro Gol for at least two hundred years. The land for some miles around her lair is difficult in the extreme, with sheer crevasses and nigh-impassable forest, and Stary Swiekra never ventures out of it, so her existence would be harmless were it not for the fact that many believe there to be a rich deposit of silver in the area. Stary Swiekra dislikes intruders, and at least two dozen prospectors and woodsmen have disappeared in the area over the year. Local legend holds that the skulls of those she had killed stand on posts around her lair, and have been enchanted to give her warning when strangers approach.

Stary Swiekra is said to be a nine-foot-tall crone with skin made of living stone, hair made of leaves and twigs, and eyes like opals. She is known to be strong enough to tear a horse in two, and her magic is such that she can make the forbidding terrain near her cave “come alive” and do her will.