The Haugbúar, a Friday the 13th Horror for Under Shadowed Stars (Patreon)

So, what is Under Shadowed Stars? Well, it's my current best idea for a new title for Shadowfinder, since I've been beaten to market for that name and feel it's best not to create customer confusion.

To introduce that new name to the public, and see how folks react to it, AND to celebrate Friday the 13th, I present a new monster for Under Shadowed Stars -- the haugbúar.

An Urban Legend and Revenant

A haugbúar is an undead creature that as a person died in a way strong tied to something of cultural importance to it, and while enraged. This may be a specific location, or death connected to a historic date or important families, or something otherwise locally noteworthy. See Attunement Knowledge, below. In addition to that connection a haugbúar died with a strong sense of having been betrayed. This sense of betrayal need not be justified -- an evil person may feel betrayed because their hometown was always treating them unfairly, even if that treatment was always the reasonable result of the person's own actions.

The combination of rage, sense of betrayal, and cultural linkage causes a haugbúar to become something very similar to a ghost, but in corporeal, normally still humanoid appearance. That appearance often includes striking elements, most commonly some kind of face covering and a simple or apparently improvised weapon (axes, bats, bone saws, box cutters, butcher knives, chains, chainsaws, cleavers, kaiser blades, machetes, power drills, sickles, and sledge hammers are typical examples), though the appearance of the weapon has no impact on the damage it does. When a haugbúar rejuvenates, its iconic appearance also returns.

Because they are tied to things of cultural importance, normally come back if defeated, and are often triggered by interactions with specific families or places or events, haugbúar often become urban legends in a much larger area than their actual typical operating zone.

All haugbúar are corporeal undead, and most use the combatant array. If the haugbúar was originally a creature with a subtype (such as human), it also gains that subtype. Common abilities to select for haugbúar include the brute and extra hit points adjustment arrays, frightful presence (or alien presence or distracting, all with a DC 2 higher than normal if using the combatant array), grab, natural weapons (often slam), tracking, and unflankable. A haugbúar would only have as many of these as normal for its array and CR.

Additionally, a haugbúar has all of the following special abilities in addition to those appropriate for its CR and array.

Attunement Knowledge (Su): A haugbúar is always attuned to something that was meaningful to it in life. This could be a specific location (such as a camp ground, sorority house, or mental asylum), a specific holiday (especially small local holidays, such as Town Founding Day, or the Woodchuck Festival), a specific event (such as a a terrible storm, fog, or drought, a birth or death within a specific bloodline, a specific crime, or the observation of specific rituals or ceremonies), or even a specific creature (either someone it knew in life, someone that reminds them of someone it knew in life, or a member of a specific bloodline or group). This may be combined with specific behavior (such as camp councils being irresponsible, someone stealing from a specific church, a bloodline failing to perform a required ritual, or even just not keeping the haugbúar's grave clean).

The haugbúar is always instinctively aware of the general condition and location of whatever it is attuned to.

Hard to Hurt (Su): A haugbúar is simply unusually difficult to harm. Each time it takes damage, it reduces the damage taken by its CR. At CR 11 level and higher, it reduced this by an additional 5. At CR 20 and higher, it reduces this by an additional 10. Haugbúar do not also have DR or energy resistance, but could be immune to a specific form of damage as one of its normal abilities if appropriate for its array and CR.

Regeneration (Su): When not in combat, a haugbúar regenerates its CR in HP every minute.

Rejuvenation (Su): In most cases, it's difficult to destroy a haugbúar through simple combat: the “destroyed” spirit restores itself eventually. If the haugbúar is attuned to a date, event, or holiday, it mostly likely returns when that comes back around. If attuned to a place, it returns when that place is again disturbed (but at least 30 days later). If it's attuned to a creature... no one knows how to put it down without killing the attuned creature (often the creature ends up destroying the haugbúar when some massive attack designed to overcome the haugbúar's rejuvenation ends up destroying them both). Otherwise, it returns in 1d6 months.

Even the most powerful spells are usually only temporary solutions. The only way to permanently destroy a haugbúar is to determine the reason for its existence and sever its attunement to whatever sparked its rage. The exact means varies with each spirit and may require a good deal of research, and should be created specifically for each different haugbúar by the GM.

Tracking Sense (Su): If a haugbúar has identified a victim, it has an instinctive idea what route it must take to find them. This is not a sense of what direction the victim is in, but what actions must be taken to get them, including the path to reach them, but also things like passcodes, vehicle proficiency, and how to destroy a power panel to shut off electronic locks, though the haugbúar's ability to destroy and interact with equipment is limited to things with an item level no greater than it's CR +4. In general, each step will delay a haugbúar by 1 minutes, regardless of how tough it is.

Unseen Teleportation (Su): When a haugbúar is not being witnessed or monitored, and a creature it is chasing is out of reach, there is a 10% chance per hour that the haugbúar teleports to within 100 feet of the victim, arriving in an unmonitored and unseen location.

Sample Haugbúar: Morfran Fachnan

(Yep. It's an evil undead axe murderer. Run. Art by Jacob Blackmon)

Morfran Fachnan was never kind, caring, or helpful. Born to relative wealth and privilege as the male scion of the Fachnan family--the richest family and a poor county--Morfran saw his life not as one of advantage, but as an unfair burden that he was part of a family only well-regarded locally. Morfran felt he deserved MORE, and went about seeking to get it by killing his younger siblings and cousins to increase the size of his inheritance, and by terrorizing nearby land owners with a hood and an axe so they would sell their land cheaply once he killed his own parents.

The apparent presence of an axe maniac outside of town caused the townfolk to call a meeting and send search parties out to flush out whoever was frightening landowners. Among these parties was a group of young adult amateur detectives (and their dog), who uncovered Morfran's rouse and exposed him to the town. Enraged, Morfran attempted to kill the young detectives during a clifftop battle. Their dog slammed into Morfram during that fight, and the hooded man fell into an old mine shaft and died, becoming a haugbúar. His body was never found.

Morfran is attuned to the mine he died in, a group of 3-to-5 young adults who are friends coming into town, and the townsfolk sending out search parties. When any of those attunements are triggered, he appears in a nearby mine shaft, and begins a killing spree, until the attunement event ends. or the entire town is dead.

Morfram Fachnan -- Haugbúar

CR 5 XP 1,600

CE Medium undead

Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., blindsense 60 ft.; Perception +11

DEFENSE

HP 84

EAC 16; KAC 20; Hard to Hurt (5 points)

Fort +9; Ref +7; Will +4

Immunities Undead immunities

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.

Melee axe +11 (2d6+12 S)

Offensive Abilities frightful presence (30 feet, DC 15)

STATISTICS

Str +5; Dex +3; Con -; Int +0; Wis +2; Cha +0

Skills Athletics +11, Intimidate +16, Stealth +11

Languages Common

Other abilities unliving

Gear axe

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Frightful Presence (Su) Morfram's presence unsettles its foes. It can activate this ability as part of the action of making an attack or as a move action, but it can activate it only once per round. Opponents within the range must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or be shaken for 5d6 rounds unless the ability says otherwise. Once an opponent has been exposed to Morfram's frightful presence (whether or not the opponent succeeds at its saving throw), it cannot be affected by the haugbúar's frightful presence for 24 hours. This is an emotion, fear, mind-affecting, and sense-dependent effect.

Canines are immune to this ability. A person within 30 feet of a canine friendly to them gains a +2 bonus to their Will save against this ability, and are shaken for only half as long.