What we believe will kill us. What we believe will eat us alive and spit our bones into the metaphorical dust and in the land of the newly dead who knows what that might mean. Are these the beasts that took Eesha away from us? Do they come from Heaven? From Hell? From some place stranger still, crafted by the dream-prayers of entities that we cannot yet comprehend? What beautiful crystalline structures make them up, what brilliantly impossible angles. Instinct: to colonize the land of the dead with cosmic ideologies

• exude energies of another place
• change a thought, just one
• know that which must not be known

Some rare heroes (or villains) can, when they die, achieve a sort of celebrity in the badlands where the dead await their final reward. These folk carry their body, or a form something like it, into the darkness when they go, and carry all the weight of legend and myth on their backs. As you might imagine, this makes them cranky and expectant of a sort of respect when they're approached. Particularly, they desire the approval and memories of the living. If you can remember (and tell entertainingly) their own personal mythology, you might just be able to befriend one. Otherwise, expect to become another victory in their already infamous lists. Instinct: to demand respect and attention

• block passage

Where there's one, there's another. Where there's two, there's ten. A hundred then, before you can blink and a sea of these displaced souls all gnash their teeth and moan and weep for all they've lost. They can smell the life on you. Lick the vapours of the living lands from your skin while they debase themselves, desperate for a way back to the sweet delicious warmth you carry in your blood. Maybe if they ask again, louder yet, maybe promises will encourage you to take them home with you. If not, maybe a sharp knife of ghost-stuff slipped between your ribs would let that warmth out. Instinct: to find a way out of this horrible place

• Clamour for aid or succour from the living
• promise something that cannot be delivered
• draw attention to the flickering heat of life

Where one might see a true hound, flanks dark and teeth sharp another might spy a hunting-hawk, circling overhead. Whatever their shape, it comes from the beholder, not the beholden beast itself. These things are Death's harrowing-crew, the spirits bound to Death to stalk the after-lands looking for ghosts who might have gotten away from the great queue that leads to the Gates and to their final rest. Those lost or escaped souls find themselves stalked by the beasts and, if caught, either carried back or torn apart, as depends the ferocity of the creatures. Instinct: to hunt and capture

• scent out an escaped soul

The phase spider lies in wait just on the edge of reality until prey ventures too close to it. Once in range, the spire will 'phase' into our world and bite before 'phasing' back into nothing. The problem with the phase spider, however, is not it's bite but the poison in injects. The poison shuts down the creature's organs one by one until they die. Then, while the body is still warm, the spider returns to claim its prize. Instinct: to feed

• phase in to bite
• Phase out of reality
• Poison
• Organize attack

"A large burly goblin sent out from the Sheqlands to engage in raids against the lands around Bryntyrion they roam throughout the Bryn and encroach upon the Southlands, it is not unusual for travellers to be set upon by roaming bands of these creatures" Instinct: To Burn, Pillage and Steal

• Relishes combat
• Blows warhorn

"What happened to him? The prince, I mean?" "Oh, the other boy turned out to be a Dark Mist. It got inside the prince and possessed him. He started killing people and casting bad, bad spells on them so they would die, leaving perfect places for other Mists to grow. Once everyone in the village died-except me, I escaped-the Mist killed him, and corrupted his soul- thus creating a Dark Mist out of the prince." "Are they real?" "Very real indeed- but I'll keep you safe. "Thank you." Created by Zola Instinct: to corrupt

• Take a physical form
• Trick somebody into betraying their allies
• Creat enchanted darkness that takes over someone's mind
• Kill somebody that is in its control

"The Bound Man is the spectral form of Baston Aufford was a knight who came from the South, filled with pride and holy conviction he set out to smite the dark creatures of the Deep Wood. Baston died there. There are many tales of his end, many overblown and inaccurate. His body was moved to the Bryn woods and a funeral barrow built with a colossal statue in his honour to serve as a lasting symbol of his desire to purge evil from the Bryn. His servants and retainers were also buried in the barrow. One day a woman arrived at the Barrow and had a team of slaves open the sepulchre, slipping inside she made her way to the burial chamber. She was Fria Aufford, who had married Baston before he journeyed north, and who had been left behind waiting for his return for years. It was not until she arrived at Bryntyrion that she heard of Baston's death, casting herself onto his Sarcophagus in grief she cursed him saying "Let his heart not stop until he has suffered for as long as I." She then drove a dagger into her heart, being a place of inherent magical potency, coupled with her blood sacrifice bound Baston's spirit to the tomb where he suffers still for Fria suffered much more pain than the ten years she was abandoned would suggest." Instinct: Seek release

• Appeals to visitors
• Will attempt to get visitors to release him from his bonds, by telling them the story of his imprisonment
• Will attack should his request be refused

"Swarms of disease ridden rats that will fight at the behest of their king and to defend their nests." Instinct: Defend Territory, Obey Their King

• Swarm
• chance of infecting with a pestilence

"Boiko was cast out of the Sheqlands and his tribe, without companionship and scorned by his species he crawled into the Knight's Barrow and waited to die. Death never came however, instead Boiko discovered the rats. They brought him food and he found he could use his magic to control them, for the first time Boiko found acceptance and so too the rats found a host, they swarm over Boiko to the point where it is difficult to tell where he ends and they begin." Instinct: Defend territory

• Controls the Swarm
• Summons necrotic fog
• Every round roll 1d10 on a success call forth 1d4 rat swarms