Yeti

The yeti shouldn’t be an interesting monster.  In fact, it hasn’t been, if you look at its role-playing game history—typically it’s portrayed as just another alpine/boreal savage.  But—synthesis being their specialty—the Pathfinder authors have pulled off a neat trick.  By tying the yeti to the Cthulhu Mythos (as Lovecraft himself did), they’ve given it a purpose in the game world (guarding against otherworldy aberrations), given a rationale for encounters vs. yetis (linger too near dark realms and you risk being corrupted by them), and reframed the way we see the very mountains themselves (suddenly a mountain is not a summit in and of itself at all—rather it is an axis mundi to a vile and dangerous realm of nightmares).  As I said, that’s a pretty neat trick.  When your PCs encounter yetis, even your players won’t know for certain whether to draw steel or parley…because you never know if you’re going to get the shaggy sage or a truly abominable snowman.  And either way, if you see a yeti, there’s a good chance that there’s something worse at the top of the mountain…assuming words like “top” even mean anything at the crown of the world where reality breaks down…

Yetis and villagers have lived in harmony on Mount Roc for years.  But after a series of attacks, villagers are clamoring to drive out the abominable snowmen once and for all.  In truth only one mad yeti is to blame, along with the cohort of wikkawaks who feed off the fear he causes.

The Alpine Road promised to connect Boldheim and Silvanas.  But while travelers on foot arrive unmolested, no mail cart or wagon has ever survived the journey.  Investigators find smashed wheels, bloody claw marks, huge footprints, and the occasional frostbitten and terrified messenger who speaks nonsense about shaggy white bear-demons.

The mysterious mi-go buzz to and from their home planet through a rift above the Thimmel Range.  Only the Thimmel yetis stand against their colonization efforts, uprooting the fungal insects as best they can.  If adventurers play their cards right, they might get the yetis’ aid in traveling to the mi-go homeworld—assuming they are willing to trust the yetis’ ancient and rather rickety-looking hang-gliders.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 287

The hang-gliding yetis above are a tribute to Norworld’s hang-gliding yeti from the classic D&D box set Dawn of the Emperors by Aaron Allston.

Look for more yeti in Pathfinder #6: Spires of Xin-Shalast and Pathfinder Adventure Path #51: The Hungry Storm.

Edit: Thanks for your patience with this post.  Confidential to ward358: Too soon, man.  Too soon.  ;-)  Original entry: Okay, so no post today—wasn’t able to write on the flight (emergency row seat) and have been on the go since I landed.  I’ll cover the yeti ASAP in the next 2–3 days.