Zakkarii Aarlen

I have once again sat myself down to worldbuild for my Legends of Akeroth game instead of the setting I mentioned way back in Week 1's post. Oh well. Today, I was tired after unexpectedly expending a lot of physical energy and after a great LoA session. To make things easier on myself, I decided to create an enemy. Because I was tired, I didn't make any images or graphics for this, sorry.

The Plot Connection

I wasn't making a random enemy tonight. In a recent session, my character Kadlen came upon the den of a predator. Whatever it was had moved on, leaving behind signs that it was a messy eater, with half-eaten and unidentifiable corpses. Kadlen didn't go near enough to determine if the bodies were animals of the forest or something else; he was just glad whatever it was, it wasn't nearby.

Additionally, in my first session, Kadlen had met an innkeeper named Lira. While I was rolling for some details about her, I determined that she was abrupt and a little rude to Kadlen because she was worried about someone close to her. This person was going to commune with a monster. While Kadlen didn't learn this detail, I filed it away in the NPC's file as a possible future quest.

When I started rolling details about this creature I was making, the first detail was that it was a "magical" entity. In Akeroth, Voidcraft magic is essentially "the bad magic", the dark stuff that no one likes. In a mental blink of the eye, I recalled Lira's plight and decided that this creature happens to be the monster that is being communed with.

Creating the Hollow Eater

To make this creature, I utilized two sets of generators: the monster oracle from the Legends of Akeroth playtest copy, and The Elegant Fantasy Creature Generator. I used the LoA oracle for its mechanics, though I mostly used it as guidelines and didn't roll for much. I used the EFCG for some visual details and flavor.

The result is the Hollow Eater.

In LoA mechanics, this is a Threat Level 2 enemy, which means that a party with the average level of 2 should be able to manage it. In theory, at least. It's a huge size, taking up a 3x3 space on a grid, and it's immune to shadow and fire damage. Its action table consists of an arcane attack, a physical swipe attack, and two debuff moves. It's topped off with a potential killer special move that combines a bite attack with +1 HP regen and a check to see if the target becomes Weakened.

For visual flavor, dice helped me determine that this is a humanoid creature, albeit a large one. Born of twisted Voidcraft magic, its body is mostly featureless, without defined musculature or skeleton, except for a single horn atop its head and a large, gaping maw with lots of teeth. It's covered in gray skin that's translucent in areas, revealing a network of dark veins. It also has a halo of pure magic energy. I am considering the halo as being a potential weakness.

Besides its loot table, which has a potential drop of either coins, a potion, or a resistance tonic, I decided that it will drop the horn as a monster part. I'm not sure what kind of properties the horn will have. I can decide that later.

Tying It Together

The Hollow Eater was named such because Voidcraft magic is described in the Drakonym rulebook—which shares the Akeroth setting—as having relation to the Hollow King. This is a Big Bad Evil Guy that was mentioned elsewhere in the Drakonym book. Since this creature was operating on instinct, but is a magical entity, I decided that it eats but doesn't need to. And that's why it leaves its meals unfinished, because it isn't actually hungry, but feels a hollow emptiness inside. "Hollow Eater" felt like a good nod to both the Hollow King and its eternal greed.

After Kadlen found its den, he and his companion also heard rhythmic thumps deeper in the forest. I've decided that there is a cult that either helped create the Hollow Eater on purpose or by accident; perhaps it was originally one or more members, warped into this evil, mindless entity. Either way, this cult now serves it in some fashion. The person Lira is worried about has potentially fallen in with this cult, or may be at risk of joining them.

I won't bring the Hollow Eater into play just yet. Kadlen is level 1; though he's about to level up, I think I want some more experience with combat before I tackle this thing. I will at least bring along two Waymates as party members. It could also become a dungeon if I decide to tackle both the Hollow Eater and the cult; the Hollow Eater could be a final boss of the dungeon.

We'll see where the dice take me as I continue to play!