Blightling

Not many creatures are as feared as those that carry disease, infection, or plague. To the people of Valtyr, such maladies can lay waste to entire villages and spread into epidemics that sweep the lands. It is no wonder then that the putrescent creatures known as blightlings are one of the most dreaded monsters a person can ever face.

The origin of the blightling comes from the shattered rocks of the Thelen Kor in southern T’zarak. A group of cultists that revered Vegra, goddess of death and decay, created a ritual to allow them to pervert their captives into disease-spreading humanoids that could be bound to their will. Drawing upon the dark power of their goddess, the cultists warped the flesh of their subjects with this ritual and infused the host with a potent, infectious slime that caused sickness and rampant disease if exposed to the bloodstream. Through dark magic, they stole away any vestige of humanity from the target of the spell and instead left behind a gibbering, primordial ooze creature filled with malice and hate.

The cultists set the first of the blightlings loose on the towns of Semurcha and Last Gate, reveling in the wide spread panic and death that the tainted beings delivered. Dozens died by the blightlings infectious touch alone, but hundreds more succumbed to death after a disease was loosed into the water sources from the creatures’ horrible slime. It took nearly a season of Brotherhood monks spending their time purifying the area to purge the lands of the disease afterwards.

Seeing success, the cultists were preparing to create even more blightlings and head further south to add more souls to the Black Matron’s clutches when a sudden attack on their temple by Isulk-hai hunters decimated their forces. The cultists scattered in a panic and left the blightlings to fend for themselves. Most of the diseased creatures were put down in the raid, but a few escaped into the blasted rock canyons of the Kor.

Since that day, the tale of the blightling has spread far and wide. Every once in a while, one shows up in some backwater area of the world, wreaking destruction and seeding disease wherever it goes. A sighting of a blightling is cause for great alarm, as it is a known fact now that it creates more of its infected spawn by consuming those it defeats. A single blightling can create a duplicate of itself after ingesting four infected bodies. If left unchecked, they can become an epidemic themselves, and so they are ruthlessly hunted by organizations like the Din’tarra and the Champions of the Dawn.

A blightling stands roughly 6 feet tall and possess two ropy tendrils instead of arms. Yellowed suckers ringed in small teeth line the underside of the tentacles. Their lower halves drip away into a disgusting ooze of bubbling and decaying matter and they possess a horrible stench whenever nearby. Their faces are misshapen lumps of flesh and their entire bodies are covered in puss, slime and seeping sores.

Although not technically one of the Shadowfold, blightlings are certainly a spawn of evil that deserves as much attention as their dreaded undead cousins.

Blightling……(level 3)
Battle: 10
Damage: 1D6+2
Evasion: 4 (SR 1)
Resistance: 5 (SR 1)
Health: 35

Passive Powers:
Immune: disease, poison, status effects

Infection: if the blightling causes wounds, the target must make a Fortitude skill check (SR 3) or their wounds become infected.

Stench: targets are weakened and stunned in the blightling’s presence (Fortitude (SR 2) resists for a round)

Vulnerable: fire

Active Powers:
Blight: blightlings can belch a thick oozing liquid that can infect a target with a contagious disease that causes a loss of -1 to their Brawn and Fortitude per day until cured (Fortitude (SR 3) resists). In addition, those affected by the Blight do not add their level to their Battle, Evasion, Arcane, or Resistance stats.