Wind howled through the mountain pass, whipping the snow into a flurry and slamming heavily against the quartet of intruders upon the slope. The party stuck close together, huddling for warmth and to support each other against the furious winds that ripped at their furs. At the center of the group stood the stalwart fighter, one of his arms looped around the shoulders of the silver-haired rogue while another hand clasped upon the slight wizard who clutched at her oversized hat. On the elf’s other side, the cleric supported her, urging her onward and occasionally catching her hat when it began to lift away. The elderly rogue chuckled at the shouts traded by her companions before she stiffened, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. At her sudden halt, the rest of the line stumbled to a stop, confused until they followed her gaze. As the whirling snow settled and the wind lessened its rage, a figure became apparent upon an outcropping. Looming over them, the silhouette resembled a wolf with wild fur and an unusual immensity. As its glowing eyes fell upon them, its stance shifted and it began to draw in a deep breath. As it did, its throat and chest began to inflate and the rogue shouted, shoving her companions toward cover before the anemoijera could unleash its fearsome breath.
Art by RedRavenRiot
I'm finally back! I return with an original monster that I have been sitting on at least the concept of for a while. The basis of this creature actually started when I was pondering on the phrase 'howling winds' and built on that. With the wolf-like form, the idea quickly became a reference of the Big Bad Wolf, but I wanted a little bit more than that. As such, I also incorporated some Grecian mythology into it with the Gale Breaths it can unleash being based on the Greek gods of the four cardinal winds, who were known as Anemoi (and serve as the source for the creature's name). Boreas was the god of the north wind, which represented the cold and the season of winter, hence the cold damage of the breath. Zephyrus represented a tropical wind and the coming of spring, so I decided to have that breath encourage plant growth. From the south comes Notus, bringing the desiccating hot winds of midsummer, which influenced the choice to have it deal fire damage. While there is less information on him than the others, Eurus represents the east wind and is known as a wind of storms, leading to the electricity damage and flooding effect.
With that history lesson out of the way, I decided that I wanted the anemoijera to be a creature decently high on the totem pole given its inspirations. I settled on CR 15 and set to work. Its hit points are a little lower than usual for its level, but between its fickle winds reaction to avoid damage and higher than usual AC, that felt fair. Players will need to find a way to lock down the anemoijera or struggle to chase it across the arena, which could lead to a more interesting combat than simply standing in place and fighting. Given that this is a creature associated with the wind, I considered increasing its Speed, but didn't want to get too much higher. I removed a cooldown from gale breath to instead only have it able to be activated after the anemoijera has used its inhale ability as I've had the idea of the anemoijera puffing itself somewhat like a bullfrog since I first dreamt it up. This potentially gives players a chance to counter its ability though it can protect itself somewhat by using the air walk it gains from the effect, which I largely added because I thought it seemed fun. If players aren't able to pop its puffed up air sac in a round, the anemoijera is in a good position to turn into the winds themselves with tailwind rush and bowl through people, setting them up for a gale breath to knock them from their feet. Since tailwind rush can be used as a move action and gives the anemoijera considerable security, I decided to put a cooldown on it though it has a use as an escape tactic even if the anemoijera doesn't have a breath ready. For its feats, I focused on mobility with the Vital Strike also carrying that idea by allowing the anemoijera to make powerful attacks with its standard action while staying mobile - or setting up for a gale breath. As a final note, gale breath ignores the hardness of structures in reference to the Big Bad Wolf and the wreckage he wreaked upon the houses of the Three Little Pigs.
Pathfinder 1e:
After testing out the PF2e anemoijera, I did land on a few new ideas that I incorporated somewhat into the Pathfinder 1e version. Immediately after the test, I added the Swiftness ability to the anemoijera, a power possessed by several air elementals that protected it when it used Fickle Winds because it kept working out that the fighter would trigger the reaction and then just smack the wind wolf with his reaction. Things were not working as intended there, so I simply incorporated Swiftness. Even then, we felt that the anemoijera was a little too fragile without any sort of consistent resistances and so we settled on the Second Wind power, a thematic but limited pick-me-up for the anemoijera that also preps it to unleash a Gale Breath. In my first pass for the creature, I was a little conservative with its Speed before realizing that the similarly leveled adult gold dragon had a 50 foot land Speed and I wasn't about to let just a plain old dragon be faster than a wolf of the winds. So it received a bump to its speed.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Howling Winds: A frontier town positioned upon a mountain has come under assault by a force far beyond their ability to face. It slaughters their livestock, cripples their hunters, and sunders their buildings with nothing more than its breath. Believing that a dragon is besetting his people, the local lord hires the heroes to investigate and put down the threat. However, investigations and reports reveal that it isn’t a threat the heroes are hunting – between patches of fur, footprints, and similar signs, the heroes learn they are facing an anemoijera though they might initially mistake it for merely a giant wolf. The anemoijera is the master of the mountain and has little interest in welcoming intruders to it, but savvy heroes may be able to communicate with the anemoijera and work out a deal with it. Otherwise, they must face it in combat and slay the wind wolf before its wrath grows too great and it wipes out the village and its people.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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