Howdy.

Does anyone have some ideas about how to stat up a 'boss' for a dark denizen adventure?

The image in my head is of a dark flowing mist that's can encircle and confuse its enemies, with a dead/hateful spirit inside attacking....

Supposed to be a real challenge for 3-4 characters, and maybe running away would be a sensible option as fighting it should be very difficult and not straightforward.

Any hints on starting it up?

Thanks in advance.

I remember an old school D&D creature called a "vampiric mist". That would be wicked.

Of course IMO unlike many generic world based D&D games, M-e needs to have a good ecology and purpose for such creatures.

Statting it would be difficult, but I find if you write the story first about what exactly it is - and why and how......statting it up will prove easier as you'll be able to add rule mechanics to your thematic creature.

I have not read the original Tolkien writings on the subject, so you will have to wait for Tolwen or Eluadin. They're usually up on the lore. But you have two options that I know of:

• Feaa(?): A dead Elf's spirit remains in Middle-earth instead of moving on. This is probably the better option. No spirits of Man, not sure about Dwarves.
• Maiar: Vastly over-simplifying here, but they're basically a mix of minor Elemental and Angel. The Wizards (Istari) including Gandalf are in this group. Also Sauron, Melian, etc. Possibly overpowered for your needs.
• Vampire: Just thought of this one. Tolkien's got Vampires in Silmarillion. If you add the ability to generate an oppressive fog or smoke centered around himself, and always give him initiative that might work. Although making him do less damage might be necessary so he doesn't end up killing the characters.

My comments assume you are trying to stay within the lore as much as possible, You can, of course, chuck that aside and do whatever you want in your campaign.

The Balrog in Moria is described as a spirit of flame and shadow. "What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and a terror seemed to be in it and to go before it." It has a streaming mane which kindles as it leaps the firey croaks, a blade like a stabbing younger of fire and a whip of many thongs. "The dark figure streaming with fire"..."the firey shadow"..."the shadow Bout it reached out like two vast wings"..."Fire came from its nostrils."..."the fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew....it drew itself up to a great height, and it's wings we're spread from wall to wall...from out of the shadow a reed sword leaped gleaming.". "Right at the Balrog's feet it broke...with a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow plunged down and vanished.". Later in describing his battle with the Balrog Gandalf describes it as a thing of flame and then a creature of slime after the plunge into the waters.

To my mind this is the way Middle Earth monsters should be described, especially supernatural ones. Not everything cabe reduced to hard numbers and dry statistics. A vampiric Black Mist that drains the life and energy from characters caught within it seems fitting if described this way.

While I agree that things should be a bit mysterious - and I totally intend to do that to my players - it doesn't help when trying to plan a challenging encounter to 4 players...

The "special abilities" i'm intending to give are:
Craven - when its out of hate it leaves
Denizen of the Dark -
Fear of fire / Hate sunlight. - any light hurts it.
Bewilder - the mist that swirls around it like a thing alive.
Seize Victim - the mist wraps around and lifts one of the players... allows the following
Dreadful Spell - makes you weary 1st time, then adds a wound each following (ie, kills you in a couple of turns)

It is effectively of "Great Size" and will leave the field (flee) when it has received 2 wounds - but has no endurance to be hurt.

Garn's suggestion of a vampire gave me the idea I probably use the stats from the loremaster's book for "Secret shadow"(p85) but take away the bite attack, and change the special abilities to the above

i _think_ it should be "killable", but more importantly it should be survivable where it can be corralled and then run away from...

too strong/too weak for 4 players (basically 2 dalesmen and 2 woodsmen)

The Denizen of the Dark gives it a very useful and exploitable weakness. If the party can somehow make a light/fire or introduce one to the area where the Mist is they should gain a significant advantage. This gives an encounter potential survivability.

If they chose to stay and try to fight it to the finish they may well die, but that will be a consequence of their choice.

This has great potential for an evocative creature. Play it right and your players will never look at shadows the same wey again. I like it.

Dang, apparently something foo-barred my post yesterday as it's not here.

Anyway, as I recall yesterday's missing post, I mentioned that a character wielding a light source will probably be a priority for the Black Mist to attack. The attack might destroy / snuff out a light source (depends on encounter time & setting, as well as type of light).

To prevent characters fighting in pitch darkness from killing each other with wild swings, which is a perfect tactic for the Black Mist to use against the characters, you could add an almost imperceptible degree of physical contact. Any character would have to make an Awareness check to notice the effect during combat. Outside of combat it might be more noticeable. Failure means the character think they're afraid and getting chills / goosebumps.

The contact I'm talking about can be demonstrated. Just run a finger over the hair on your arm - don't touch the skin! - just keep your finger where it is barely brushing the tip of your body hair. The result should be a slight ticklish sensation and a kind of "somethings touching, but NOT touching, me!"

As to being survivable, besides the above suggestion, using this creature where it can be affected by moonlight at LM's whim might be a good idea. So if in some ruins, make a point of mentioning if their is a window, or that their are chinks in the roofing, whatever. Then, if the encounter is going poorly, you can say something like: For just a moment, you can see! The clouds, which had been passing before the moon, have shifted allowing beams of moonlight to filter through the holes in the walls of the ruin. Winding around all of you, shrinking back from the beams of moonlight, is a black mist that moves as nothing aught. Just as you realize what you are seeing, the clouds thicken in front of the moon, and darkness envelopes you.

Alright, I just re-read your post and I'm confused by why the Great Size and no Endurance. Please explain?

OK, what i mean is that there is a something in the mist that is solid... but its tenuous and hard to find/see.

Attacking the mist itself does next to nothing (no endurance). Its like attacking the ocean, you slash and hack and stuff splashes everywhere, but there is no effect really.

Its only the core, the shreds of cloth/bone/flesh that the mist surounds that can be hurt. You need a called shot/lucky strike to actually hit it.

So the mist itself is impervious to harm.. you can scare it away /weaken it, but until you actually hit the thing directing it, nothing happens really.

hence you need to actually wound it (i'd say that any called shot would work) to drive it away.

Alright since you mentioned you were basing this on Secret Shadows along with some of your intended alterations, I thought we might as well post a draft write-up for the creature. Particularly since I kept having to go back and look up the creature abilities.

To me, this is a viable creature in an world with few monsters. A proper creature write-up would benefit everyone. To allow further development of the creature as well as sharing with anyone who might want to include this creature in their own campaigns. Feel free to change anything that is wrong. Anything which is altered from the standard Secret Shadow stats has been changed to red text.

I must admit I am not sure if the following is correct. I had dropped the undead creature at the Black Mist's heart, assuming you were trying for a type of ghost. I'm not sure if you did though. You might be doing something more like a vampire transformed into mist. Or just a vampire surrounded by mist. Perhaps I've completely misunderstood you.

The only thing I'm worried about is that this creature is immortal. There is no way to kill it. Even for those creatures that could not be killed in a normal manner, an alternate means of defeating them existed. Stone Trolls turn to stone, Wights disintegrate in sunlight, Sauron has jewelry issues.


Black Mist
Type: Undead, Spirit or Elemental [Added to account for "vs <creatue type>" spells, weapons, or situations (ie, Sting). Choose one - depending on how you see this creature.]
Attribute Level: 5
Endurance: 0 (see Great Size, below), Hate: 6, Parry: 7, Armor: 3d

Skills
Personality: 2, Survival: 3,
Movement: 3, Custom: 2,
Perception: 3, Vocation: 2

Weapon Skills
Choke: 1

Special Abilities
Bewilder: The arms of the Black Mist swirl in several directions at once making it impossible to know its next target.
Craven: Without Hatred the creature will flee from battle.
Denizen of the Dark
Great Size: Creature fights until wounded twice; thereafter it will flee.
Sieze Victim: The character is yanked off his feet and into the air.
Susceptible to Light: The creature loses one point of Hate at the end of the each round of combat fought while exposed to any form of light. If kept within light for 3 consecutive rounds, it will break off all actions to flee in terror. Note this means it will stay around for +1 round then you stated. [New Ability. Variant on Hates Sunlight, Fear of Fire]
Dreadful Spell: Breathless: The mist wraps around the throat of the character, depriving them of air. First successful attack against an opponent makes them Weary. Subsequent attacks add +1 wound.
Fell Speed: This ability seems appropriate to the creature as I understand it. You might want to consider adding it.

These evil manifestations are not well understood. They appear as a roiling black mist, moving independent of the wind, and in any direction - including up, down, diagonal or through openings. In a high wind, it could climb straight up the outer wall of a tower and enter a third-story window through a crack. The mist has no smell, nor does it make any noise. The size, thickness and shape of the creature depends on its own whim, but does not seem to exceed a 10' square area, 2 inches thick. They are only found in places where little or no light is ever encountered as they seem to be afraid of all light sources.


And having nothing to do with nothing. Shouldn't Werewolves, Wights and Stone Trolls have a Special Ability like: Forced Transformation: Under condition <x> this creature changes into <y>?

Edited to highlight in red additional changes from standard Secret Shadow.

I had envisaged this as a ghost that exhibits certain vampirie like abilities.

The Fell spirit that s the 'Black Mist' is completely intangible and immune to physical attacks. By the same token, it can only manifest to make physical attacks by spending Hate points.

I would say that it might be susceptible to all forms of light, perhaps being 'wearied' in firelight/torchlight or moonlight and destroyed by exposure to sunlight.

Chill Touch-I reckon that it's attacks should not normally be in the form of physical battering but a chill, clammy touch that gradually saps the endurance of it's victim. Only in extremis might it exhibit a poltergeist like ability to physically attack it's victim. Perhaps a called shot- Heart stopping Fear(need to think of some rules for that though).

That the creature is 'craven' is also a good idea. Needing to spend hate to attack means that a group of Heroes can potentially survive an initial encounter, despite it seeming invulnerability.

Dionysus,
Alright, if that is how you see things, my posted version of the Black Mist differs from your intent. It may not change any of the stats, but the description is wrong to some degree.

Alternately, you might want to re-consider your vision of this creature. The way you are describing this creature, it could be multiple creatures. One is an aggressive, but mindless, mist/ghost like creature. Another creature, a semi-corporeal ghost/wight, controls and directs the mist creatures. This might operate better in play because by having the mist as a separate creature it can be forced to run away while the controller is still fighting.

It all depends on how you see the creature though, so give it some thought.


Halbarad,
I was thinking, visually, that the Black Mist appeared as a 'vampire in mist form' but considered it to be a ghost (maybe a wight). So in that respect I haven't considered vampirism and am not sure how Tolkien sees vampires within Middle-earth. (Got to read Luthien.)

Heck, sirs... I was skeptic about this whole mist thing, but you got me convinced.
Chapeau, a very interesting opponent

In particular I like that it's deadly, but without Hate cannot inflict damage.
A pc with high Wisdom can resist it long enough to drive it back!