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FÖLK-LORE: Fiends, Freaks, & Foes

A collection of entries to the FÖLK-LORE Jam

Humbaba

Concept: “‘Humbaba, whose shout is the flood weapon, whose utterance is Fire and whose breath is Death’”
Content:
An ancient Mesopotamian monster adapted to Mörk Borg
Writing:
Purely mechanics; some flavor text on the product page
Art/design:
Layout is a bit top-heavy but not detrimentally so
Usability:
Some specific death conditions could make this a recurring antagonist

Inte Rådjur

Concept: “Clearly not a deer; it is not from here.”
Content: An anti-magic anti-deer
Writing:
Descriptive and mechanical text both serve to establish a compelling character
Art/design:
Likewise, depiction in silhouette establishes a form but allows the GM to customize the details
Usability:
Ups the ante on arcane risks and consequences

Jack in Irons

Concept: “Covered in chains from which his victim’s heads dangle”
Content:
A powerful, elusive enemy
Writing:
Descriptive text definitely paints a picture, and the mechanics back it up with strength and maneuverability
Art/design:
Metonymic; let your imagination run wild
Usability:
Area attacks and the ability to disappear up the challenge for PCs

Kh’akh’Awin

Concept: “Bad tempered wisdom seeker bipolar Sea-wolf of Lake Onda”
Content:
Includes lore, narrative for Reaction temperament, and a random loot table
Writing:
Delivers the lore in an engaging second-person narrative
Art/design:
Designs capture the petroglyphic inspiration highlighted with plenty of Borgy colors
Usability:
Simple to use as a monster but has lots of narrative potential

Knomes

Concept: “KNOMES are a beloved feature of any nobles’ garden. They feed on the blood of would-be thieves and vagabonds.”
Content:
; additional lore and options on product page
Writing:
Covers behavior, preferred haunts, and mechanics
Art/design:
Layout and design work to guide and direct the reader’s attention
Usability:
Requires only slightly more effort than a regular garden gnome

Likho

Concept: “‘Likho-one-eyed’ appears in the form of a one-eyed skinny ogress.”
Content:
A beefy combat monster that feeds on negative emotions or flesh—whichever’s handy
Writing:
A concise stat block and a full description of behavior, including non-mechanical features and effects
Art/design:
Graphic and stats presented on a single page with additional lore and information on subsequent pages
Usability:
GMs will need to implement mechanics for special abilities as they see fit; blackletter text may slow reading a bit

Mbói Tu’i

Concept: “Second son of Kerana and Tau. It patrols the swamps and wetlands, protecting amphibians and waterdwellers.”
Content:
A middleweight monster fit for amphibious adventures
Writing:
Efficient stats and a dash of flavor text (with more on the product page)
Art/design:
Color choices and arrangement make text easily readable without obscuring the gritty, Borgy illustration
Usability:
Includes an ongoing fear effect; take note, GMs

Pandafeche

Concept: “Never sleep like the dead do or you’ll attract malevolent spirits.”
Content:
A malicious entity that targets characters at their most vulnerable
Writing:
Split between descriptive and mechanical text
Art/design:
Perfectly illustrated by Fuseli’s Nightmare
Usability:
Complex enough to have depth without being complicated or difficult to use

Perytion

Concept: “These half-stag, half-eagle abominations fly above the fell trees of Graven-Tosk, swooping down to kill unwary travelers below.”
Content:
A Borged-derived monster with a strange, supernatural motive
Writing:
Concise and to the point
Art/design:
A sensible layout oriented around the illustration
Usability:
Not to be confused with a peryton

The Beast of Bremen

Concept: “A tangled mass of darkness and flesh—a cock on a cat on a cur on an ass—united by stitches and witches.”
Content:
A strange, tenebrous monster based on a 12th-century German folktale
Writing:
Descriptive text is playful and clever; mechanics are clear and concise
Art/design:
Silhouette illustrates the concept while contrasting nicely with pink and yellow
Usability:
Requires a few rolls each turn—but what GM doesn’t love playing with dice?

The Birdmen of Mount King

Concept: “Their king obsessed with making his mountains touch the very skies, he invented a new species of creature, obsessed with construction and architecture.”
Content:
A race of labyrinth-building bird-people
Writing:
Includes a description of their history and purpose alongside stats
Art/design:
Appropriately creepy depictions of the subject and their lair
Usability:
Easy to use, and its monster-summoning Special makes for difficult, escalating encounters

The Bunnyman

Concept: “Have you fvckers got my eggs?”
Content:
A crazed, skin-suit wearing axe murderer
Writing:
All mechanics, with a table of curses for whoever kills hem
Art/design:
Putrid, visceral graphics in line with the concept
Usability:
Escalating attack damage will require a bit more attention from GMs; small script may be challenging to read in print

The Dyer Lich

Concept: “One hand frozen to the rock face, the other raised in defiance of her own death, Moll Dyer was blessed by Nechrubel with the undying spark of anti-life.”
Content:
A persecuted witch bent on vengeance
Writing:
Includes a prose-poetic description in addition to stats for lich and her rock
Art/design:
Layout creates a strong visual flow, and the colors reinforce the integral sensatiosn of heat and cold
Usability:
Not only very useable but also very compelling

The Hull House Devil Baby

Concept: “You’ve heard that everyone abandoned the house except for the baby. Or was it because of the baby?”
Content:
A floating, telekinetic devil baby replete with horns and hooves
Writing:
Provides concrete mechanics but leaves the lore and details ambiguous
Art/design:
Easy-to-navigate layout, colors add emphasis and facilitate quick reference, and damn if that isn’t one seriously evil devil-baby head
Usability:
Lots of room for GMs to adapt situation to their needs

The Magic Table, the Golden Donkey, and the Club in the Sack

Concept: “A loose sequel to ‘The Magic Table, the Golden Donkey, and the Club in the Sack’”
Content:
A versatile encounter carrying potential benefit or detriment to PCs
Writing:
Includes some poetic lore, stats, and table for random outcomes
Art/design:
Appropriately Mörky art and layout
Usability:
Easy to insert and deploy in an ongoing adventure or campaign

The Mangalok

Concept: “A close Filipino cousin to the penanggalan viscera-sucker of Indonesia”
Content:
A covert vampiric monstrosity that goes heavy on the body horror
Writing:
Provides fairly detailed descriptions of general, hunting, and combat behavior
Art/design:
An efficient layout with some atmospheric images
Usability:
Killing it will likely present a challenge to players unfamiliar with the folklore

The Mothman

Concept: “A nocturnal wanderer of the shattered world, a vile thing, seeking to snuff out any light that may be remaining.”
Content:
A malicious take on the mothman of Point Pleasant
Writing:
Clear stat block with concise bits of flavor text
Art/design:
Layout & aesthetic capture the dynamic of moths flitting around a flame
Usability:
The functional mechanics are split on the page and not well differentiated from the descriptive text, but it’s a small concession to the overall excellence of the visual design

The Servant Girl Annihilator

Concept: “Murderous and conniving, the Servant Girl Annihilator preys upon the weak.”
Content:
A covert, nocturnal axe-wielding demi-monster
Writing:
Deftly describes appearance and behavior with touches of humor
Art/design:
Color serves to hierarchize and emphasize text segments while integrating them and the illustration into the gestalt
Usability:
Straightforward mechanics that may prove challenging for unprepared (and even prepared) PCs

The Tarasque

Concept: “The scourge of Nerluc, devourer of man & beast”
Content:
A monster inspired by medieval Occitan tales
Writing:
Predominantly devoted to mechanics with some extra flavor mixed in
Art/design:
The opposite of printer-friendly
Usability:
Sideways text is dumb but sometimes necessary (or at least easy)

The Tenacious Tupilaq

Concept: “Mismatched effigies made out of animal and human parts given life by shamans of Kergüs, heretics, who seek revenge against the ones who wronged them.”
Content:
A highly variable monster type
Writing:
Includes a general description of origin and motives along with 4 tables for generation head, legs, arms, and torso types
Art/design:
Achieves expressive visual character without sacrificing efficiency
Usability:
More rolling than your average monster, but not prohibitive

The Thirteenth Damned Son

Concept:  “When Mother Leeds heard she was due for a thirteenth child she cursed The Two-Headed Basilisk and the child, and demanded HE take what belonged to HIM.”
Content:
An abomination inspired by the Jersey Devil but skillfully adapted to the setting; includes a  sleek randomized crawl through the frozen lands of Kergüs
Writing:
Short but flavorful description and a healthy stat block; a beautifully written hook with a table of random encounters that keep the PCs moving toward the climax
Art/design:
Fits right into Mörk Borg on every count
Usability:
Verbally and visually economical

The Triangular

Concept: “Three sides. Two dimensions. One daemon.”
Content:
A just-plain-weird entity that stupefies people and animates objects (before stealing them)
Writing:
Emphasizes the concept’s humor and existential absurdity and punctuates it with eternal horror
Art/design:
Relatively conservative but no less strange and creepy
Usability:
“This is a monster for use with MÖRK BORG”

The Wicker God

Concept: “From the forest it emerges, taller than the trees, its body a writhing, shifting mass of woven roots and branches. […] Faintly, you hear screams from behind its prison of living branches.”
Content:
An enormous monster that eats characters and monsters alive before immolating itself
Writing:
Concise but descriptive with well-placed humor
Art/design:
Typography and purely graphic components all contribute to an overall woven, vegetable texture
Usability:
Selective regeneration makes a bit more math for the GM; defeating it without killing consumed allies creates a tactical challenge for the PCs

There Was an Old Lady

Concept: “Bilious beasts from a rotten maw!”
Content:
A fun inversion of the classic nursery rhyme
Writing:
Contains stats for the title character and all the animals she’s swallowed/vomits at PCs
Art/design:
On-brand layout and graphics with some distinctive, noxious green for extra character
Usability:
A potentially gross, absurd, and diverse challenge for players

Vanvetter: Water Wights

Concept: “Nordic folk tales have told stories of Vannvetter for as long as we can remember. This publication details three.”
Content:
A trio of aquatic antagonists
Writing:
Provides background lore and hooks for the PCs
Art/design:
Straightforward, easily navigable layouts arranged around evocative illustrations
Usability:
Simple on the GM side; creatures pose various threats and consequences for PCs

Vildvittra

Concept: “They are cruel and fierce, always in search of prey.”
Content:
A haryp-esque monster
Writing:
Includes a brief description of behavior and ecology
Art/design:
Mörk bird
Usability:
Don’t let your PCs get carried away. (That joke will make sense when you read the Special.)
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