Lords of the Barrows: Monstrous Pages for Shadow of the Demon Lord
Though the First People have vanished from the face of Rûl, their monuments remain. From the Northern Reach to the tangled woodlands of Balgrendia, one can find weathered monoliths scrawled with runes, standing stones arranged in circles, and other ancient markers that hint at the societies that once thrived in these lands. But the darkest and most sinister of these edifices are undoubtedly the barrows, for under these grassy hills sleep the dead. Although these tombs promise riches and relics, they also threaten death, for the dead lie in restless slumber and any intrusion can call their souls back from the Underworld to vex the living in bodies rotted and wrecked. And once roused, these barrow wights remain, eager to punish the living for the crimes of their ancestors.
Lords of the Barrows joins other installments of the Monstrous Pages series and examines the undead most often associated with the First People: the barrow wights and their many horrid minions. In the following pages, you’ll find details on these creatures, their legions, and their lairs. Armed with this resource, Game Masters have everything they need to bring ancient evils to the fore in their games.
Buy the PDF today from DriveThruRPG!
Faeries come in all shapes and sizes, with dispositions that cover the spectrum from friendly to malicious. Best known are the dreaded hags nursing their spite and bitterness in seclusion, the magnificent lords and ladies of the hidden kingdoms, and cruel harpies and dreaded sirens who lure people to their dooms, but their ranks also include a raft of lesser beings of wildly varied form and capability. These minor faeries, sometimes called wee folk, might lend aid to mortals, performing chores and easing suffering in exchange for small gifts and favors. Others are as cruel and malicious as the wickedest devil, and take special pleasure in tormenting the hated mortals on the edges of settled lands. Who can know the minds of these immortals and the whys and hows behind what they do?
They come in the night, the wretched and unclean, an unholy mob intent on murder and plunder. Their white bodies, eyes dark with hate, appear human, but they surrendered their humanity long ago and now are little more than monsters. The troglodytes steal supplies, carry off victims, and butcher everything they leave behind, smearing their bodies with the blood of their kill and lifting their voices into hooting cries to mock the wails of those they make suffer. Time and again, the peoples of the world above have tried to dig out these subterranean dwellers, but no expedition, no matter how well funded or supplied, has ever managed to clear them all away. The troglodytes always return.
Unthinking and uncaring, giants are more forces of nature than villains. Birthed long ago in the time of the Troll King, the consensus among the learned is that giants were enslaved, bred, created, or otherwise spawned to serve as war machines during the Troll Wars. Untouched by the degradations of their former masters, they trudge on, indulging in their base desires.