Temperate Mountain

Among the most majestic of raptors, these predatory birds pluck fish from streams and lakes, drop down on rodents and small mammals in alpine meadows, and have even been known to pull young mountain goats from the assumed safety of their cliffs. These creatures, like all birds of prey, have powerful clawed talons and sharp, hooked beaks perfect for tearing flesh. Their enhanced eyesight allows them to spot prey from great distances, and they typically hunt in wide circling patterns high above the ground. Eagles typically build their massive nests in the tops of tall trees or among the rocky crags of steep cliffs. During breeding season, an eagle lays two eggs, but only one chick normally survives, as the stronger of the two usually kills and eats the weaker. Eagles generally weigh between 8 and 15 pounds, with a wingspan of up to 7 feet, depending on the species.

Tengus are a race of avian humanoids that resemble crows or ravens, and often bear much of the same stigma. Though they frequently choose to live among other races in densely populated cities, their society is tight and closed, and they rarely allow others to see its inner workings. Tengus often band together in small groups to create roosts in vacant warehouses or condemned buildings, and these raucous gathering places are generally assumed to be thieves’ guilds by outsiders—an assumption that’s correct roughly half the time. Like the crows they share physical traits with, tengus are naturally covetous, especially of shiny or colorful items, and prone to bouts of good-natured kleptomania if they don’t carefully keep themselves in check. Vain and prideful creatures, they are easily persuaded with flattery.

These creatures are the result of magical draconic experiments at crossbreeding wyverns and kobolds. Wyvarans are fiercely territorial creatures loyal to their kin and tribe, and allow no interlopers into their lands without good reason or proper tribute. Each defends its personal property, and seeks revenge on any who dare steal from it. Most evil and neutral wyvarans primarily concern themselves with expanding their territory and wealth. Many civilized races dismiss wyvarans as fast, dumb, selfish brutes. However, a creature who respects the wyvarans’ rules about their property finds that they make steadfast and loyal allies. Adventuring wyvarans often view their companions as clutchmates, and are willing to take great risks to protect them.

Rams are mountain-dwelling herd animals noted for their prominent horns. A typical ram stands about 3 feet tall, is 5 feet long, and weighs up to 300 pounds. You can create stats for smaller, similar animals (such as goats) by applying the young creature template to a ram.

The bugbear is the largest of the goblinoid races, a lumbering brute that stands at least a head taller than most humans. They are loners, preferring to live and kill on their own rather than form tribes of their own kind, yet it isn’t uncommon to find small bands of bugbears working together, or dwelling in goblin or hobgoblin tribes where they function as elite guards or executioners. Bugbears do not form large warrens like goblins or nations like hobgoblins; they prefer smaller-scale mayhem that lets them keep their favorite acts (murder and torture) on a more personal level. Humans are a bugbear’s favored prey, and most count the flesh of humanity as a dietary staple. Grisly trophies of ears or fingers are common bugbear decorations. Bugbears, when they turn to religion, favor gods of murder and violence, with various demon lords being favorites. A typical bugbear stands 7 feet in height and weighs 400 pounds.

The Nature of Goblinoid Evil
Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, despite having superficial similarities, each represent a different face of evil. Hobgoblins are ordered and methodical in their evil, forming vast armies, warbands, and despotic nations. Goblins are the primal evil, seeking only cruelty and petty victimization as they can find it, be that among their own kind or against their neighbors. Yet the evil personified by the bugbear may be the most terrifying, for they actively seek to inflict pain and suffering in the most destructive ways possible. When a hobgoblin kills, it’s because of tradition and order. When a goblin kills, it’s for fun. But when a bugbear holds its blade, it kills only when it can be assured that the murder will cause maximum pain and suffering to those its weapon does not touch; to a bugbear, the true goal of murder is to strike not at the victim, but at those who held the victim dear.

Calpinas are strange fey whose bodies have a combination of insectile and humanoid features. They view their victims as little more than sources of nutrition, but remain intensely curious creatures and may sometimes, albeit rarely, interact with other creatures without harmful intentions.  Calpinas make simple nests in hollow, rotting trees or shallow caves in cliff sides at the lower altitudes of mountains. Their social and territorial tendencies change with the seasons. In early spring, calpinas become largely solitary and nomadic, wandering in search of appetizing prey. A few months later, when they lay their eggs, calpinas band together into colonies of their own kind for mutual protection of their young. Once the eggs have hatched, though, calpinas welcome visitors, as their larvae require substantial quantities of food to grow. Small groups of calpinas called eclipses often work together to lure victims into ambushes, draining their egos to the last drop before leaving the comatose victims for the fey’s mindless offspring to eat.  Calpinas are usually just over 3 feet tall, and most weigh only 25 pounds.

CALPINA LARVA  Two weeks after being laid, calpina eggs hatch into caterpillar-like larvae. They grow rapidly, and within a month of incubation, the surviving larvae each weave a cocoon. A few weeks after they enter their cocoons, they emerge as adult calpinas.  The mindless larvae bear little resemblance to the adults of the species except for their eyes and coloration. Unlike adult calpinas, the larvae are carnivorous and need to consume animal tissue before they can pupate and complete their metamorphosis. Adult calpinas take care to ensure these larvae are well protected.  A calpina larva has the statistics of a house centipede except that its type is fey instead of vermin, and it has DR 2/cold iron.    

A typical giant eagle stands about 15 feet tall, has a wingspan of up to 30 feet, and resembles its smaller cousins in nearly every way except size. It weighs 500 pounds. Giant eagles are far more than animals—they possess a supernatural intellect and view themselves as guardians and protectors of their mountain territories. They form lasting friendships with those who respect them and their mountaintop domains.

. The snallygaster is a hideous amalgamation of lizard and bird that preys on unwary travelers. Its claws and beak have an almost metallic sheen to them, hinting at their sharpness and strength. Black stripes run the length of its scaly blue hide all the way to the tip of its long, sinuous tail. The snallygaster’s serpentine neck terminates at a small, birdlike head with a single eye set in the center of the forehead. In place of a tongue, its long throat contains a slobbering mass of tentacles that twist and squirm grotesquely whenever the creature extends them. A typical snallygaster measures 9 feet from the tip of its tail to the point of its beak, with a wingspan of 15 feet and a weight of approximately 200 pounds. The snallygaster is an ambush predator, attacking its prey from above. Once it spots a potential victim, it dives toward its unsuspecting foe, using the fall to build up momentum. Once its foe lies dead or unconscious, the snallygaster uses its tongue-like tentacles to slurp up the victim’s blood. The only thing a snallygaster craves more than blood is alcohol, and it spends much of each autumn scouring its territory for fermenting fruit, on which it gorges itself until thoroughly inebriated. Intoxicated snallygasters are extremely aggressive. Snallygasters prefer to nest in wooded, mountainous regions. They are primarily active during the day, which they spend searching for food or scaring off rivals. Whether or not a female snallygaster finds a mate, it lays one to two eggs per year.

Flame drakes are the degenerate cousins of red dragons, with all of the rage and temper of true red dragons but little of the reason and intelligence. Flame drakes are brutal bullies who terrorize the lands they inhabit. From those they can frighten, flame drakes exact harsh tribute, and they viciously attack any not so easily cowed. Flame drakes gather in small hunting packs called “rampages,” working together easily during raids but often falling prey to squabbling and infighting over the spoils. Males and females form their own packs divided by gender, coming together only during the annual mating season. Flame drakes mate once a year. Males play no part in raising their offspring, and abandon their partners soon after mating. Females lay clutches of two or three eggs in secluded mountain nests, and raise their hatchlings for only 2 years before rejoining their packs and abandoning their offspring to their fates. Flame drakes mature in 5 years, and can live up to 150 years. They generally grow to 12 feet long and weigh 1,500 pounds.

Stone giants prefer thick leather garments, dyed in shades of brown and gray to match the stone around them. Adults are about 12 feet tall, weigh about 1,500 pounds, and can live to be 800 years old. Stone giants fight from a distance whenever possible, but if they can’t avoid melee, they favor gigantic clubs chiseled out of stone. A favorite tactic of stone giants is to stand nearly motionless, blending in with the background, then move forward to throw rocks and surprise their foes. Stone giants prefer living in enormous caves in high altitude, rocky peaks. They rarely live more than a few days’ travel from other bands of stone giants, and even raise shared herds of goats and other livestock between tribes. Older stone giants tend to wander away from the tribe for a significant period of time in their later years, either living in seclusion somewhere or attempting to merge into other humanoid civilizations. After decades of this self-imposed exile, those who return do so as stone giant elders.

STONE GIANT ELDERS
Some stone giants develop special abilities related to their environment. Called elders, these stone giants have Charisma scores of at least 15 and three spell-like abilities (CL 10th). Once per day they can use stone shape, stone tell, and either transmute rock to mud or transmute mud to rock (DC 17). The save DC is Charisma-based. One in 10 elders is a sorcerer, usually of 3rd to 6th level. Stone giant elders add +1 to their CR.

Cloud giants’ skin ranges in color from milky white to powder blue. Adult males are about 18 feet tall and weigh around 5,000 pounds. Females are slightly shorter and lighter. Cloud giants can live to be 400 years old, and dress in the finest clothing and jewelry available. To many, appearance indicates station. The better the clothes and the finer the jewelry, the more important the wearer. They also appreciate music, and most can play one or more instruments (the harp is a favorite). Cloud giants have an unusually wide alignment spread— approximately half are good and half are evil. Good cloud giants build roads from their settlements to connect with other humanoid roads in order to foster trade. It’s not uncommon to see a good cloud giant walking among humans, for example, in a human city near a tall mountain range. Evil cloud giants tend not to bother with permanent settlements and instead live on high peaks in crude shelters, only coming down to raid villages for whatever they might need. These two philosophies often see violent and long-lasting wars erupt between neighboring tribes. Legends abound of magical cloud giant cities nestled in the very clouds themselves that float with the winds and circumnavigate the world. While most cloud giants recognize this as a fantasy, there are some who not only claim to have seen them but have dedicated the entirety of their long lives to finding them again.

Jorogumos are seductive schemers who secret themselves away in isolated mountain valleys where they lure travelers, especially men, to their dooms. Exclusively female, jorogumos must mate with humanoids to produce fertile eggs. After copulation, a jorogumo paralyzes her partner by poisoning him into a coma. She lays a single egg within the father’s body, then cocoons the corpse and hides the victim. Periodic visits to re-poison the victim ensure his coma lasts for the 2d4 days required for the young jorogumo to hatch and feed. Jorogumos are enthusiastic enemies of tengus and attack them on sight—they never take tengus as “mates.”

Of all the dragons, silvers are the most courageous, holding themselves to a chivalrous code to help the weak, defeat evil, and behave in an honorable manner.

The concept of the void is a difficult one for many individuals to grasp, for it encompasses more than just an absence of anything. The concept of “void” as an element also represents the heavens above, the dark places between the stars, the nature of the spiritual world, and even the capacity to create and envision new ideas. The void yai represents all of these possibilities, interpreted in a way that exemplifies the evil of the oni race. Unlike lesser oni, the void yai does not represent any single humanoid race—the closest it comes is perhaps the rune giant, and certainly the void yai superficially resembles monsters of legend, with its dark, heavily muscled body, horns, and fangs. A void yai manifests when the combination of an extremely powerful oni spirt and an overwhelmingly evil location intersect at precisely the right time. Rarely, an eldritch transformation spontaneously elevates an existing yai to the vaunted status of void yai—whispers of vile rituals that an oni can perform to quicken this transformation keep some sages awake at night, for if such rituals existed, then all oni could potentially become void yai—a sobering thought indeed, given the void yai’s daunting capacity for cruelty. As with almost all oni, the void oni’s use of weapons and armor seems like cruel overkill. A void oni is 20 feet tall and weighs 10,000 pounds. Void yai turn toward the Material Plane to satisfy their desires, lording over lesser creatures with the aid of the void. A void yai usually claims a huge territory, bringing much larger creatures to heel as servants. As with fire yai, a void yai makes frequent use of lesser oni as its minions, but prefers to surround itself with whatever giant tribe or society it has conquered. Rarely, a void yai commands kingdoms of smaller humanoids, but since the immense void yai has no ability to assume the shape of such small and insignificant creatures, it often feels awkward and out of place. More so than other yai, void yai are ashamed of their true appearance—their vanity is such that most are masters of using their change shape ability to appear as breathtakingly handsome or beautiful giants, and it is in this form they prefer to live. Only when combat begins does their rage take control, causing them to revert to their true, horrific shapes.

VOIDLORDS
Between the considerable power of the typical void yai and the divine might of the oni daimyos exists a middling category of unique void yai. But to even use the term “middling” in this context is something of a folly, for these unique void yai, known collectively as the voidlords, are among the most powerful creatures to walk the Material Plane. While void yai typically content themselves with ruling nations, voidlords arrive with a greater mission—to control entire worlds and bring all that dwell upon these worlds to their knees. Voidlords are always void yai with additional racial Hit Dice or class levels—levels of fighter, monk, and rogue are favorite choices for voidlords. These powerful outsiders generally eschew spellcasting classes under the opinion that might and the oni’s inborn supernatural abilities are a greater path to conquest than mortal magic. In addition to having the typical void yai abilities, each voidlord possesses an additional number of powers keyed to that voidlord’s particular area of focus. Two sample voidlord foci are listed below, but these represent only a tiny fraction of the total possible.
Martial Arts: A voidlord of martial arts always attacks with unarmed strikes—it is treated as a 20th-level monk with the flurry of blows ability for the purposes of determining its damage and number of attacks per round with its unarmed strikes. This voidlord gains Stunning Fist as a bonus feat, and gains the use of the following spell-like abilities three times per day: forceful hand, grasping hand, and greater shout.
Swordplay: A voidlord of sword fighting always carries a sword of some sort—typically a katana. These voidlords gain the ability to use the following spell-like abilities three times per day: blade barrier, keen edge, and mage’s sword. They are automatically proficient in the use of swords, and any sword they wield is treated as a +5 weapon, in addition to any other magical qualities the weapon might have. A voidlord of swordplay can also permanently transform any magic weapon (save for artifacts) into a sword of any size or type by touch.