Let's Finish a Monster: the Messenger
Time to finish the Messenger we made last time. His Majesty the Worm is relatively simple when it comes to monstrous mechanics so this likely won't be as long of a post. I will be writing the post without thoroughly explaining how things work in His Majesty the Worm, so if you are unfamiliar with the game most of this may not make much sense to you. I might do some deep dives into how the game works at some point down the line.
First we start with a monster theme. Of which HMtW has 6. Beast, Elemental, Man, Sorcerous, Spirit and Undead. These mostly serve as starting points for designing your own creatures and come with some mechanical implications that I'm gonna treat as mostly optional. First of all our dear Messenger is most certainly a Sorcerous creature, which is a catch-all term for "a wizard did it" kind of monstrosities but it should work for eldritch horrors too I think.
Likes and Hates
I suppose we already started defining these a bit last time but lets go a bit further in defining the Messenger's preferences.
Likes: Eyeballs, Hunting, Completing its Mission
Hates: The Light of Cordelia, Stagnation, Confinement, Going Hungry, Harsh Lights
Being a creation of Bestia, the Messenger has an affinity for eyeballs and hunting and an aversion to hunger and any form of stagnation or idleness. These are fairly simple, they are simply its nature and are somewhat easy to explain. The Light of Cordelia is a little more complicated. It is the source of most life and magic within the known world and its source is the Goddess Cordelia. All other gods have an ongoing eternal feud with Cordelia who rose to power and made it impossible for all others to make their vision of the shape the world should take a reality. Because of this the creation of other gods are unwelcome on Cordelia's world, and her light which periodically washes over it is harmful to such creatures. This same light is present in all people, so the creature isn't going to like them much.
The creature type also comes with some Notes which for Sorcerous creatures look like this:
Smell Magic. The creature can smell magical effects. They can identify who is and isn’t a sorcerer by scent.
Strange Body. (Optional) Many sorcerous creatures are invulnerable to a certain type of harm (fire, weapons, acid, blunt force trauma, etc.). At the same time, they are explicitly vulnerable from another common type of harm and take 2 Wounds instead of 1 from this source (electricity, cold temperatures, poison, etc.).
I think these are mostly fine. For the setting I'll change Smell Magic to Detect Light and for Strange body the no brainier elements would also be invulnerability from Acid and vulnerability to Light.
Role
Next we determine the role of the creature. In HMtW most fall into one of 5 categories, though I could fairly easily see ways of expanding on this. The list is: Minion, Brute, Strategist, Elite, Dungeon Lord. I considered making it the Dungeon Lord of the dungeon but it doesn't really have a close enough connection to it for that to be satisfying and I would like to keep it more of an optional challenge if possible. Thus Elite it is!
This gives the creature the starting Attributes:
Swords 4| Pentacles 4| Cups 4| Wands 4 a good starting above average in everything but doesn't look quite right. I think I'll modify it a bit and lower cups and wands to increase swords and pentacles. It is supposed to be a pretty savage and agile beast after all.
The template also determines the Messenger's HD (Health/Defense) which is 12/0, this overall seems reasonably high for a single creature and would take players at least a few turns most likely to wear down.
Beyond this we can pick some Notes and Greater Dooms from the template. I quite like the Retributive ability combined with the Potence and maybe the Regenerate Greater Dooms. Retributive in general makes the creature rather deadly to melee fighters which I think fits well with the acid cloud feature we had before. Potence allows the creature to automatically cause an effect to creatures in the same zone as it, which Notch should be perfect for. For the finish I will also add in a note and maybe a lesser doom or two to define how it fights a little better.
The Messenger
Attribures: Swords 5| Pentacles 5| Cups 2| Wands 3
Health/Defense: 12/0
Likes: Eyeballs, Hunting, Completing its Mission
Hates: The Light of Cordelia, Stagnation, Confinement, Going Hungry, Harsh Lights
Notes
- Long and Watchful. The Messenger is incredibly long, capable of spreading itself across multiple rooms if needed. Thanks to its numerous eyes it can also perceive its surroundings no matter what part if its body is present. It is immune to being Roughhoused and can spread itself across three adjacent zones.
- Detect Light. The creature can feel the presence magical effects and creatures with high amounts of light within them such as sorcerers.
- Blessings of Bestia. Immune to Acid, but vulnerable to the Light of Cordelia taking 2 wounds anything the successfully weaponizes it.
- Acidic Cloud. Any creature engaged with the Messenger automatically takes 1 Wound at the start of their turn.
Lesser Dooms
- Tangle of Tentacles. Once per turn attempt to Roughhouse all adventurers that share a zone with the Messenger. A successful attempt causes the target to become Engaged. This action does not count towards the one card per turn limit.
Greater Dooms
- Corrosive Gas. Discard a Greater Doom card to Notch a wielded weapon or worn armor for each adventurer. Adventurer's choice which. This action does not count towards the one card per turn limit.
- Recycle Matter. When the Messenger attacks discard a Greater Doom card to attempt to break down some of the target's flesh. If the attack is successful it deals 2 Wounds and Heals 2 Wounds for the Messenger.