FIVE FRESH MONSTERS. THREE OF THEM HAVE CLAWS.

Players become complacent.

They learn which monsters breathe fire, which ones regenerate, which ones conceal themselves as furniture and which varieties of enormous underground predator should be approached from the end containing fewer teeth.

Eventually, they begin to believe they understand the natural order.

Fistful of Foes #3 is here to correct that misunderstanding.

This instalment in the Schlocktoberfest series provides five quick-and-dirty monsters for fifth-edition-compatible fantasy games: three peculiar varieties of Strange Chull, the spectral Yurei and a fresh crop of Fungal Zombies.

No sprawling bestiary.

No extensive lecture on the mating habits of subterranean crustaceans.

Just five new sets of statistics from a twisted imagination, ready to be placed between the adventurers and whatever they mistakenly believe belongs to them.

FIVE NOVEL MONSTERS

STRANGE CHULL: BOXER

Chulls are already considerable armoured nuisances.

The Boxer takes the general principle of a heavily protected, claw-equipped monster and directs it towards the ancient and noble art of hitting people until they stop presenting a problem.

Use the Boxer wherever you need a physical threat with an immediately understandable approach to conflict.

It does not require an elaborate philosophy.

It has claws.

You have a face.

The remaining details can be resolved through initiative.

STRANGE CHULL: SNAPPER

The Snapper is another unusual development of the Chull form, presenting adventurers with a different variety of armoured aggression.

Players who recognise the broad outline may assume they know what they are facing.

Encourage this confidence.

Allow them to make plans.

Then introduce the details.

The Snapper can be placed in caverns, swamps, flooded ruins, subterranean complexes or the laboratory of someone who believed the ordinary Chull insufficiently hostile.

The creature may be a natural mutation, an arcane experiment or merely proof that evolution occasionally has a vindictive sense of humour.

STRANGE CHULL: FIDDLER

The Fiddler completes the trio of Strange Chull variants.

Its asymmetrical crustacean inspiration gives Games Masters another way to make a familiar creature visually and tactically distinctive without requiring players to learn an entirely new family of monsters.

Use the three Chulls separately or place them together as members of the same mutated population.

Perhaps each form occupies a different role within the colony.

Perhaps they have adapted to different environments.

Perhaps an irresponsible wizard simply became fascinated by crabs.

Whatever the explanation, the players are unlikely to care once the claws begin closing.

YUREI

The Yurei brings Japanese-style physical ghosts into your fifth-edition game.

These are not merely vague lights, rattling chains or obligingly transparent people waiting to explain the circumstances of their deaths.

A physical ghost can interact with the world.

More importantly, it can interact with the characters.

Use Yurei to haunt abandoned houses, ruined temples, forgotten battlefields and places marked by betrayal, grief or violent death. They can serve as direct supernatural opponents, manifestations of an old crime or the centre of an investigation whose solution may require more than reducing something to zero hit points.

Why does the spirit remain?

What does it want?

Can it be appeased?

Who benefits from ensuring that it never finds peace?

A ghost is more memorable when it possesses a history as well as a stat block—but the stat block is useful when the negotiations go badly.

FUNGAL ZOMBIES

Ordinary zombies are familiar, reliable and increasingly difficult to persuade players to respect.

Fungal Zombies improve matters by adding infection.

These shambling corpses have been overtaken by some invasive fungal growth, creating an enemy that suggests a threat larger than the individual creature standing before the adventurers.

Where did the infection begin?

How does it spread?

Can it infest the living?

What is growing beneath the village?

Fungal Zombies can be used in crypts, caves, sewers, forests, abandoned settlements and any damp location where death has been left unattended for too long.

One infected corpse is an encounter.

A cluster is an outbreak.

An entire region covered in fruiting bodies is probably the point at which the characters begin reconsidering their travel plans.

VARIATIONS ON THE FAMILIAR

The monsters in Fistful of Foes #3 offer variations upon recognisable fantasy threats.

Chulls, ghosts and zombies are familiar enough for Games Masters to place without extensive explanation, but these versions introduce enough novelty to keep experienced players uncertain.

The collection includes:

• Three distinctive Strange Chull variants

• Japanese-inspired physical ghosts

• Infected fungal undead

• Five creatures ready for fifth-edition play

• Material for combat, horror and supernatural investigation

• New surprises for players who believe they know every monster

Use the creatures individually or connect them within a larger adventure.

Perhaps the fungal infection began in a flooded cavern occupied by Strange Chulls.

Perhaps a dead investigator has returned as a Yurei to warn the characters about what is spreading below.

Perhaps the Chulls are not responsible for the disappearances at all, but are fleeing the same subterranean contamination now approaching the surface.

Five monsters are enough to populate several encounters.

A little connective tissue can turn them into an entire scenario.

Preferably connective tissue not already colonised by fungus.

QUICK, DIRTY AND READY TO USE

Fistful of Foes #3 is designed for Games Masters who need fresh opposition without purchasing an enormous monster manual or preparing a detailed ecosystem every time the adventurers enter another cave.

The creatures can be used as:

• Wandering monsters

• Dungeon inhabitants

• Wilderness threats

• Supernatural mysteries

• Guardians of forgotten places

• Mutated experiments

• The centrepiece of a short adventure

• Unexpected additions to an existing campaign

Drop one into tonight’s game.

Build an encounter around it.

Alter the details to suit your setting.

Use the central idea as the foundation of something larger and considerably more disgusting.

The monsters provide the immediate threat.

What they mean for the wider world is left in your hands.

DESIGNED FOR THE SCREEN

The supplement is presented in a screen-friendly size and format for easy reference from a tablet or laptop during play.

Keep it open beside your notes, select something unpleasant and introduce it at the precise moment when the players have begun complaining that the dungeon seems rather quiet.

This is a PDF electronic download for use with fifth-edition-compatible fantasy role-playing games.

You can find the other Fistful of Foes and fifth-edition supplements here.

Three Chulls.

One angry ghost.

Several mobile fungal colonies.

And the players still insist they do not need to rest before opening the next door.