Mist Horror

A mist horror is sensed long before it is seen: a ripple in the fog, a feeling of being watched. When it finally shows itself its body is always vapor, about man-sized, in whatever form it has read from its victim's emotions as most terrifying; someone who fears wolves might face a six-foot wolf of churning fog.

It can touch the emotions of anyone in the mists, sending dread to the prey it stalks or slowly kindling, in people outside, a curiosity about the fog that grows into a need to walk into it. Its messages are feelings, never words.

Forming a body takes 1d4 turns, and it is confined to a tiny area, so travelers who keep walking are safe. It therefore soothes them into feeling secure enough to rest, then strikes. Hidden in fog it counts as invisible and nearly always catches foes off guard. Once it takes shape it is easy to see, but it can dissolve back into the mist at will, becoming untouchable and invisible, needing another 1d4 turns to reform. Whatever its shape, it makes exactly two attacks per round for 2d6 each.

Only +2 or better weapons hit it. Its 50% magic resistance extends as a field 20 feet around it that gives every spell cast inside the same chance to fail. Because the field confuses casters rather than magic, items work normally: the fireball spell may fizzle but a wand of fireballs does not, and ongoing effects like infravision persist. A spell aimed at the horror from inside must beat both the field and its resistance.

High-level priests and paladins turn it as a special undead. Undead-affecting spells such as negative plane protection do nothing to it, nor does holy water; it cannot be charmed or controlled, and spells that need a body, such as cause light wounds or cause blindness, fail.

These are the souls of evil folk whose crimes caught the eye of the dark powers of the realm but fell short of earning a domain. Folk say a misty-day burial creates one, and the wandering seers agree. Each is bound to one small area, envies even the pettiest domain lord, and grows more spiteful with time. It targets the wounded and helpless first, hoping their deaths will shatter the group's morale. The seers claim the realm itself depends on these spirits.

A horror that causes enough suffering may rise to become a rarer wandering horror, free to roam the mists. It is a dark, heat-shimmer shape fixed in a form that mirrors its worst crime: a baron who beheaded rivals drifts headless, a lover-poisoner becomes a giant black widow.

Stalking, it is 75% undetectable and imposes -3 on the surprise rolls of anyone who has not spotted it; once it attacks it is fully visible, but it may slip back into the fog with a 75% chance. It fights like a mist horror (two attacks of 2d6, +2 weapons to hit) but its spell-disrupting field spans 30 feet. Once a day within 120 feet it can plant a suggestion, and once a day it can force every creature within that range to make a fear check, which it always does in the first round (second, if it surprised them). It is turned as a special undead, but a failed attempt forces the turner into a fear check at -2. It shares the mist horror's immunities.

Crueler still, they hope enough evil will win them a domain.

Many things met in the mists are simply lost monsters that stumbled through one-way portals, which tend to open near evil beings. Most are spectral, such as ghosts, wraiths and shadow fiends, though ghouls, vampires and mind reavers appear too. Roughly 85% are evil.