Friday, September 27, 2013

Star Monarch


Coming from the pages of the Inner Sea Bestiary (courtesy of Jason Nelson), the star monarch is a Huge moth sacred to Desna that plies the spaceways and acts as a guardian of dreams.  No matter what deity (if any) it is sacred to in your campaign, the star monarch is an excellent excuse to get your PCs off-planet, as it can travel the solar system in just a couple of days or even hours (though depending on your fantasy physics, any PC riders might need to come up with their own air supply…).  Should PCs have their own voidship, star monarchs might be benevolent guides, discreet protectors, or simply wondrous random encounters along the way.

Drawn by exotic dreams, adventurers come across an iridescent cocoon the size of a house.  They are greeted by the star monarch within, who promises them a boon upon its successful hatching.  Should they remain, they will have to fend off attacks from behirs and a purple worm, but if they do the monarch offers to take them beyond the Hidden Moon.

Servants of Baphomet hate star monarchs for their resistance to maze effects and the hope and succor they offer to dreamers and the lost.  The demonic minotaur lord himself will sometimes send bull-horned fiendish magma dragons to snap up the moths and their charges.

In the asteroid port of Tenstone, a rabble of star monarchs is attacking passersby at random down at the Stardocks.  The star monarchs have been driven mad by psychic grubs courtesy of the Jet Needle, a cabal of night hags who see an opportunity to corner the market on dream travel and space travel in one fell swoop.

Inner Sea Bestiary 50

I should have mentioned yesterday that we covered the squid back when we covered its giant sibling.

In all Monday night’s craziness—Music video! Filmed! My office! Make one for yourself and you could perform in Vegas!—I forgot to upload this week’s radio show.  The file is only good till midnight so listen and download now!  Especially since it’s a triple feature: two hours of Virgin FreeFest artists (especially Vampire Weekend), celebrating the 20th anniversary of Counting Crows’ August and Everything After, and visits from more than 40 years of WMUCalumni.  Check it out.

(If the feed skips, load the file in Firefox or Chrome, Save As an mp3, and enjoy in iTunes or whatever player you like.)

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