Wind howls across the tundra and the ranger can hardly tell if the flurry of snow rushing against is her falling the sky or being thrown from the ground. She dutifully staggers forth, holding her lantern high to mark her position for her following comrades. A quick glance backwards ensures they are still following her, but she stops as she notes the distance between her and the cleric. As she gives the rest of her companions a chance to catch up, she stares into the shadows. As her eyes focus, she notices the cleric's lips darkening. In a fluid motion, she safely drops the lantern and draws the bow from her back. The rest of her party barely reacts before she nooks and looses an arrow into the darkness where it impacts with a solid thud. They tense, reaching for their weapons as slowly and soundlessly, a vast, bulky beast emerges from the dark. Resembling an ape with the thick pelt of a polar bear, it wanders into their midst and as the party readies themselves, more step from the darkness.
Illustration by Vildevitus#2346
Here's an original monster that I had an idea for a while back, wanting to explore a monster that consumes heat. Sustaining itself on heat alone, its only visible features are its eyes meant to resemble the grill on a furnace. Its ability to absorb heat is reflected in its heat sink ability, an aura that deals cold damage while inflicting the vorcinnkar with fire damage, which will typically be negated by its fire resistance. If this vorcinnkar takes damage that does surpass its heat resistance, which is more likely when it concentrates its aura with focused chill, it gets to use its vent ability to add fire to its attacks. Akin to the remorhaz, which it shares a few traits with and even occasionally a symbiotic relationship, this can make it difficult to bring a good element to fight it with given the greater sparsity of acid and electricity spells in comparison to cold and fire spells. With its preferred habitat being arctic environments, it navigates using its arctic stride. When facing only a single target, the vorcinnkar prefers to use its rend to shred them to pieces, but will Cleave multiple targets if presented with them.
Pathfinder 1e:
When designing the 2e version of the vorcinnkar, many of its abilities ended up being single-action. I wanted to give it something could do with multiple actions and decided to have its thick, heavy claws, which I envisioned as being similar to those of the megatherium, let it dig up the earth to hurl at foes. I like abilities that can be effective but aren't necessarily just damage abilities, and so I gave it Flinging Snow to potentially blind its foes for a round, which it can follow up with Focus Chill if it wants bigger damage. As is the case with most auras, I went for a more moderate DC, but Focus Chill makes it more potent and can leave a character fatigued. This particular ability is based off of the Focus Gaze power possessed by the medusa to concentrate her aura. I feel as I should've maybe made its fire resistance a bit higher here as it feels like its much more likely to activate Vent. It's an ability I wanted to be a little more sparse, something that mainly occurs when it uses its Focus Chill or is the target of a fire spell. To that extent, I went a little beyond the suggested resistance without going overboard.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Abominable Alliance: The heroes are trekking through a snowy pass in a mountain when they are caught in an avalanche. As they try to dig themselves out or help the allies who were buried by it, the perpetrator behind the avalanche reveals itself to be a remorhaz who strategically melted snow to cause the piled snow above it to come crashing down. As it blocks one end of the pass, its conspirators, a pack of vorcinnkar, close in from the other side. Trapped between an inferno and a cold place, the heroes must navigate the enemies damage types and resistances while dealing with the aftermath of the avalanche. The remorhaz uses its breath weapon generously, not caring if it catches the vorcinnkar in its blast as it can potentially activate their vent ability.
Into the Icebox: After a series of arduous adventures, the heroes have received a free trip to a hot springs located in the mountains. However, when they get there, they discover that the hot spring and the inn around it have been taker over by a yeti druid and his companions, which largely consist of a pack of vorcinnkar. Before the heroes get their chance to relax, they must neutralize the beasts that have taken over the inn, save the staff, and fight off the vorcinnkar that lounge within the hot springs, draining them of their heat.
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Until next time, have a Monstrous Monday!
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