**Creatures of the Dark – Inhabitants of Hexa’s Shadows** --- ### **Overview** [[Hexa Landing]] is not merely a haven for vampires. Beneath its red-lit spires and beyond the reach of the [[Vein Law]], darker things crawl. Some were drawn by the city’s sanguine gravity; others were born in its foundations — older than the Queen, deeper than the leyline. This document catalogs the known and whispered dark entities that prowl [[Hexa Landing]]’s alleys, undercrypts, and forgotten chambers. These creatures are drawn from the traditional D&D Monster Manual but carry unique cultural roles and reputations within the Hexa setting. They are rarely part of the court structure, but they are part of the city’s living fear. --- ### **Hexa Culture and Horror Creatures** In [[Hexa Landing]], monsters are not just enemies — they are urban myths, political weapons, forbidden allies, and shadows in the architecture. Hexa society is steeped in paranoia, ritualism, and the constant push-pull of hierarchy and hunger. Horror creatures are categorized in whispered lore by their use, symbolism, or danger level. Citizens speak of them in euphemism, and nobles invoke their names in curses or bargains. **Creature Themes Common to [[Hexa Landing]]:** - **Hags**: Urban witches and black-market miracle workers who weave curses into lullabies and favors. - **Werewolves (Lycanthropes)**: Afflicted enforcers, wildblood mercenaries, or rogue revolutionaries. - **Shadows and Wraiths**: Used as deterrents, often blamed for unexplained disappearances. - **Ghosts and Poltergeists**: Occupy condemned manors and Red Ink memory vaults. - **Night Hags**: Midwives for vampire births and pact-makers in dreamspace. - **Ghouls and Ghasts**: Employed as corpse-pickers or sewer scavengers. - **Mimics**: Hidden in noble estates, sometimes trained to act as guardians. - **Doppelgangers**: Hired by [[The Harpies of Hexa Landing|Harpies]] or criminals for espionage and impersonation. - **Oozes and Slimes**: Considered alchemical waste — found in old labs and cursed canals. - **Vampiric Mists**: Natural hazards in old districts where leyline blood has soured. Hexa does not exterminate all monsters. It categorizes them, uses them, and fears them. These beings serve as a metaphor for the decaying soul of the city: powerful, beautiful, and monstrous. --- ### **Moondread Clades – The Moonbound Cursebearers** (_Werewolves, RAW_) Not all lycanthropes are feral beasts. In [[Hexa Landing]], those afflicted by the Moon Curse who survive long enough become part of the **Moondread Clades** — cursed nobles who wear their beastform like a title. Neither fully man nor wolf, they form secret clans beneath the cobbled districts. - **Notables**: House Grimclaw, the Moondread Pact. - **Abilities**: Lunar shapeshifting, moonbite infection, regenerative mauling. - **Role**: Mercenaries, extortionists, or anti-vampire saboteurs. - **Queen’s Decree**: Declared illegal but secretly used by nobles to break [[Vein Law]] with plausible deniability. ### **Hollowmothers – Urban Hags of the Cradle Lanes** (_Green/Annis/Night Hags, RAW_) Hexa hags do not live in swamps. They dwell in narrow attic-breaches, behind nursery walls, or below abandoned manors. The **Hollowmothers** trade in unborn futures, cursed lullabies, and memories of children who were never born. - **Types**: Wombhags, Dreammothers, Cordweavers. - **Abilities**: Memory stitching, fetal mimicry, spectral seduction. - **Role**: Cursed advisors, grief-mongers, occasionally midwives for vampire offspring. - **Current Status**: Officially exiled. Unofficially tolerated by [[The Harpies of Hexa Landing|Harpies]] for secret deals. --- ### **Soulbinders – Possessed Constructs and Forgotten Armor** (_Helmed Horrors, Animated Armors, RAW_) Animated not by necromancy but by unconsumed grief, **Soulbinders** are armors, dolls, or objects haunted by the souls of those who died under contract or [[Vein Law]]. They do not serve willingly. They exist in pain. - **Behavior**: Often silent unless provoked. Vengeful toward the Red Ink Guild. - **Locations**: War museums, cursed estate halls, execution squares. - **Abilities**: Weapon possession, binding touch, cursed echoes. --- ### **Bloodleeches – Sentient Parasites of the Deep Veins** (_Leech Swarms, Hybrid with Intellect Devourers_) Grown in the same leyline channels that nourish vampires, **Bloodleeches** are worms of magic and hunger. Some are symbiotic — whispering power into the ears of hosts — others are monstrous, able to reduce vampires to husks. - **Notable Entity**: The Scarlet Coil, a swarm-intelligence worshiped by blood cults. - **Abilities**: Psychic communion, blood mimicry, host override. - **Status**: Banned by [[Vein Law]]. Used by Apostates. --- ### **Gloam Revenants – Spirits of the Misremembered Dead** (_Ghosts, Specters, RAW_) [[The Guild of Red Ink]] sometimes fails. Those who were erased — either intentionally or accidentally — may rise again as **Gloam Revenants**, phantoms seeking to be remembered, feared, or heard. - **Traits**: Whispers of forgotten names, cracked face masks, fear of silence. - **Abilities**: Temporal haunting, memory theft, scream of unbirth. - **Danger Level**: Variable. Some are harmless. Others warp time itself. --- ### **Crawlers in the Iron Veins** (_Oozes, Chokers, Gibbering Mouthers, RAW_) In the foundries and underworks of Hexa’s ancient iron pipes, malformed horrors crawl. Alchemical accidents, interplanar leakage, or something older — the **Crawlers** are never seen clearly. Their limbs are too many, their eyes too few. - **Theories**: Constructs, feyborn rejects. - **Abilities**: Heat vision, metallic webbing, bloodforge corrosion. - **Known Sightings**: Rare, often dismissed. Only the Artificer’s Guild dares investigate. --- ### **Usage in Campaign** - These creatures can be used as **urban encounters**, faction allies, forbidden bargains, or supernatural adversaries. - Each type reflects a **different fear**: parenthood, memory loss, predation, decay. - Players may seek them for power, or find themselves hunted instead. Let me know if you'd like stat blocks, named variants, or mythic versions of any of the above.