Mythic Eberron by Steve Fidler (@vorpaldicepress), Bryan Holmes (@FallenWyvern), Anne Gregersen (@AnneofManyNames)
WARNING: Body Horror, Gore, Madness, Eyes
Team Mythic are back with another serving of ridiculously epic foes and ludicrously awesome encounters that make being torn apart by zombie dinosaurs or thrown from the highest tower in Sharn in anti-magic concrete shoes by a halfling Wiseguy look like a walk in the park. This is a seriously awesome supplement full of awesome ideas, mechanics, creatures, items and spells to bring the mythic to Eberron and beyond!
The introduction provides everything you need to know about the who, what, why, where and when of mythic traits, actions, encounters and rewards, as well as the how to make your own mythically monstrous moments.
If this is your first experience of mythic creatures, you might be wondering what they are:
“Mythic traits are the fuel that creates a mythic encounter. The mixture is: one part storyline-focused event, one part two-phase battle, and a dash of introducing a whole new way of battling your foe.
When a creature with a mythic trait is reduced to 0 hit points, it is instead reduced to 1 hit point. Then, it typically either regains all its hit points or gains temporary hit points equal to its maximum number of hit points. In some cases, a new goal for the fight appears, such as an exposed heart or other objective that must be cleared before the battle is truly over.
After activating its mythic trait, the creature gains access to mythic actions, and might also gain temporary passive benefits (as listed in its mythic trait). This mythic trait lasts until the creature completes a short or long rest (or is defeated), unless otherwise specified in the mythic trait text.”
Each entry comes with extensive background and lore, personality traits, references for further reading, truly gorgeous artwork from some of the most talented artists working in TTRPGs, let alone the Guild, the encounter as a mythic encounter with description and box text, lair actions and regional effects, statblock and any additional statblocks and maps where appropriate, and suggested rewards.
Arkus
“The warforged colossi were the ultimate weapon in the Last War. Created by House Cannith artificers, these massive creations were deployed and wreaked unimaginable havoc across Cyre. The destruction of the colossi was only matched—and eventually stopped—by the Day of Mourning”
Arkus, also known as Colossus WX-11, is one of the few of these gargantuan constructs to survive the Day of Mourning and the dismantling following the Treaty of Thronehold. This particular package of pulverising pow was scooped up by everybody’s favourite spiky, homicidal fan of fleshies, the Lord of Blades, from the Glowing Chasm. With the Blady Buddy guiding this most mythic of magical machine mates, they are sure to make friends and incinerate people.
Rather than having a lair in the traditional sense, Arkus IS the lair! Opening invitingly at the original defeat, a whole new battle awaits within colossus, beautifully brought to life by Saga (@pyxistyxGWJ) map of the interior. I Cannot say enough good things about the gorgeousness of the poster and cross-sections style map! It’s truly a thing of beauty! The Creation Forge, which allows them to create warforged titans, within Arkus continues to function for one hour (lifetimes of initiative time) and must be discovered and neutralised from within, all while the wonder warforged manufactures, moves, maintains and mashes its enemies with its bionic babies and does their best to crush, burn and electrify them with lair actions! One of the truly terrifying mythic actions allows Arkus to recompile or recycle their titanic children into a great many swarms of flying drones, which is horrifying prospect for the party who whittle a titan down, only to be faced by a nest of swarms!
The warforged titans and swarm of flying drones statblocks are included, with the former being a huge CR 8 siege vehicle that does smashing smashingly and can be ‘ridden’ by two medium or smaller, while the latter is a flying swarm of drones (it’s in the name) that smush together with other damaged swarms to heal up.
Belashyrra
CONTENT WARNING: EYES, Body Horror, Madness
“As one of the six known daelkyr on Eberron, Belashyrra goes by many titles other than its given name. The Lord of Eyes, the All-Seer, and the Glorious Eye are just some of the many monikers granted to this entity’s endless gaze”
I could have gotten lost in the creepy cool write up on this horrocular visionary who resides in the Citadel of Lidless Eyes, “a site that appears to have been molded from molten stone, chitin, and flesh”, which is flesh-crawlingly icky. Their regional effects and lair actions all centre on paranoia, voyeurism and madness with a supplementary Madness of Belashyrra table to the one provided in Rising from the Last
War
A horror in every sense of the word in their ‘regular’ form Belashyrra, has the inspired and evil ability to both see and use its Eye Rays from any creature within a wide radius, already living up to their place as the beauty in the beholder’s eyedol, but when things get mythic...
“Eyes, thousands of eyes, swirl in a mass of all-seeing horror. The spaces between the floating irises are filled with shadowy claws, reaching for you as the huge swarm of eyes rises before you, a thousand-fold gaze of madness staring you down as the fight begins anew.”
Possibly too much awesome! I need eyescream. Irisk coming across as cornea, but lens be fair, I’m dilated with joy. I’m sorry, it’s just my vitreous humour. OK take me to prism...I don’t regretina-ything!
Belashyrra’s ultimate mythic ability, A Thousand Unspeakable Horrors, is such a traumatic psychic and mental assault that, along with the damage and other effects, unless saved against right away is the victim is rendered permanently blind!
The statblock for a spectator is also included for the unfortunate who fall foul of Bel’s Psyche-Reconstruction Ray.
Dyrrn
WARNING: Body Horror, Gore, Madness
“Known as one of the mightiest daelkyr, Dyrrn is credited with warping and shaping many horrific creatures that still threaten the world today. Its typical appearance is that of a masculine humanoid with sharp, handsome features. It often wears an outfit composed of alien materials and strips of shifting leather”
This is the truly disturbing and wrong that I cannot explain but love dearly. This is the Optimay of awful awesome!
Dwelling in their Palace of Sinew in which “engravings appear to breathe, the doors move by thick tendons and muscles, while windows are closed with a thin flap of skin”. Drynn make skin craw, literally and figuratively with tentacles and full on Lovercraftian madness, with their own supplementary madness table and Daelkyr Modifications to show the insidious effects of the daelkyrr on local flora and fauna.
In many ways the Handsome Squidworth Illithid God, Dyrrn displays the apotheosis of brain munch, mind blasting and “regurgitating” their unique Dyrrn’s intellect devourer with variable features chosen or rolled for when spawned.
Becoming the gibbering moutherwhen going mythic:“Dyrrn becomes a large creature made entirely of snapping beaks or jaws and whipping tentacles” with the ability to tentacle slap their enemies into aberrations of their choosing!
The statblock for dyrrn’s new leggy brain bois Is also included.
Lady Illmarrow
“The eldest and possibly most powerful necromancer to ever have existed in Eberron, the Queen of the Dead plots from her icy castle in the Lhazaar Principalities. Controlling the Order of the Emerald Claw, it’s clear she’s moving her pawns on the board, playing a game of chess that has unfolded for centuries.”
“From her castle of Ice and Bone, Lady Illmarrow is said to keep an army of undead” and this is backed up by the dead that wander her region and answer the call of her lair actions, which also include countless hidden runes of prepared spells that cover her domain.
Lady Illmarrow is a heckin’ mighty lichy witchy in her rotten dragonborn form, but when things get mythic...
“Like a chick erupting from an egg, a horrific ebony dragon begins tearing through Illmarrow’s body. Claws explode through her hands, bones twist and knit as her body grows, and a long sinuous neck slips upward, a new dragon head staring down with the same twisted look of hatred.”
Gargantuan gruesomely glorious and her new necrotic breath weapon causes wights to rise from the earth!
The zombie and wight statblocks are included.
Prince Jurian ir’Wynarn
“Queen Aurala of Aundair’s second son, Prince Jurian ir’Wynarn lived a life of luxury and prestige. He grew up eating the finest foods and drinking the finest wine… and learned swordplay under the finest tutors. A veritable genius with a rapier, it was rumored that the prince could etch a poem in his opponent’s chest with the tip of his blade during a duel...” Until he was exiled for partaking in the forbiddem honour duels and sent away, floating around as “a spy, a member of the Royal Eyes of Aundair, and his rakish persona is a ruse that allows him access to foreign nobles and influential dragonmarked scions.”
This noble fighter with a charming je ne sais quoi and a certain savoir-faire is a lower level mythic creature coming in at CR 9 (two CR 9 with mythic), which along with his sneaky, dashing presence make him a wonderful quest giver- turned enemy with a stunning double-cross when the party can handle it. In that situation you get both the shock of the betrayal and the insult to injury of the subtlest, but incredibly effective change to mythic that can be the result of disarming as well as reducing HP: “He flips his rapier from his righthand into his left, announcing “Sorry, friends. I never said I was right-handed.” You instantly realize you have made a dire miscalculation.” Bloody briliant!
Rak Khatesh
“Wherever anger and violent impulses fester in the hearts of mortals, it secretly feeds power to Rak Tulkhesh, the Rage of War. As his power and influence swells, Rak Tulkhesh can infiltrate the minds of the violent and in turn drive them to further rage.”
Rage fills the places touch by Rak Tulkhesh. He uses this to his own ends, whipping up conflict and blind hatred that sets his enemies upon one another, regardless of alliance or Comity. This is reflected in the mechanics, as well as his will over the weapons of war themselves, which he can wrest from adventurer’s hands.
The mutable fiendish dragon centaur Horned Prince is no slouch on their own coming in a CR 28 with a multiattack of four with whatever weapons he wishes to conjure and a form just as changeable, but when going mythic you get to remind the player’s that he hasn’t made a single sound in response to pain and seems to be gaining strength from this confrontation itself becoming a terrifying dervish of blades seeming to be able to hit all within his sight at once and blotting out magic in favour of a more raw conflict.
“Rak Tulkhesh has no physical form” but Lluis Abadias giver him body ody ody. Calls into question who wore it better when it comes to blades? Though I don’t think Rak could pull of Lordy B’s sweet armour plating.
Sul Khatesh
“The Queen of Shadows is the literal figment of magic and myth. Her cadre of warlocks and wizards use deadly arcane powers and seek her revelation of dark knowledge not meant for mortals... She can naturally shapeshift into nearly any form, although she is always accompanied by a black smoke, mist, and shadows that seem to surround her unless she wills it to become invisible.”
Sul Khatesh is the antithesis of Rak Tulkhesh, preferring subtly and spell over brute force. One with shadow and spell the realm around her becomes clouded and covered in arcane graffiti, while the dead rise as her shadow demons and she can open portals to bring more of her dark minions to her.
The mythic switch has some beautiful boxtext:
“A moment, a heartbeat, a breath. Without a corpse, it’s difficult to tell if the day has been won. And then it happens: the very fabric of reality shatters, falling like a broken mirror...”
Bringing the fight to a specially prepared warded domain where she can unleash torrents of magical energy and use her insidious tendrils of darkness to steal arcane potential and secrets, leaving her foes vulnerable.
The shadow demon statblock is provided.
The Forest Queen
“The Forest Queen is the personified story of the mysterious primal forest and the power that watches it. She lives within the Endless Weald in Thelanis, tending to the creatures and forests of the weald...”
The layer of Thelanis known as the Endless Weald is the Forest Queen’s wild and verdant lair. Here the flora and fauna obey her whims and repel her enemies, binding or pacifying them with throned vines and choking pollen. Metal is unnatural to this place and carries added weight for the trespass, while the boughs of trees protect their queen with strength to shatter blades.
When becoming mythic:
“... Her form is replaced with an icy statue, as if she’d been frozen in place. A loud crack noise is heard, and shards of ice break from the statue and fall to the ground, clattering like glass...”
The forest queen exchanges her laurel wreath for a tiara of icicles. The ice in her heart spread through her domain and her enemies find themselves impeded by frigid cold. The unlucky become frozen statues of permafrost in the glacial glades for all time.
The Forgotten Prince
“As a fey ruler of Thelanis, the truth of the Forgotten Prince is not well known... a lost boy, forgotten in the shadow of his siblings, determined to gather the unappreciated and punish the undeserving.”
“The Prince calls the Castle of Forgotten Things his home.” His oubliette palace lays on the tip of the tongue as memories and knowledge leech from those who wander his realm, which aids his theft of items and the very life force of his enemies.
When going mythic the Trickster Prince becomes a mischievous shadow able to make casters forget their spells and can shunt his enemies into their own demiplane of their own, where they can still see everything, but cannot touch.
The Lord of Blades
“The Lord of Blades is a powerful warforged who leads his followers from an unknown location within the Mournland. To some, the Lord of Blades is described as a teacher and protector of living constructs, while others see him as a warlord who considers the common races of Eberron weaklings in need of extermination.”
The warforged who really emphasises the war aspect makes their lair in military camps surounded by spikes and metal shards that drag themselves up from the earth, calling swarms of homunculi to harass his foes and bark orders that spur his allies on with zeal.
The Lord of Blades is a marvel of armour, spikes and blades with every aspect of him designed to cut, rend and destroy. Going mythic makes them bigger, scarier, more blades, truly becoming a burning edge of eviceration!
“His shoulders widen, his blades grow longer, and the wings on his back expand to four times their original size. As a mirage-like haze of heat engulfs his body, the Lord of Blades looks at you with eyes that burn like embers. As his reforged armor cools and solidifies, he raises his blades to continue the fight.”
Valaara
Content Warning: Insects and Worms
“Known as the Crawling Queen and the Keeper of Worms among other titles, Valaara is one of the daelkyr and master of insects. Its form, though decisively alien, is often depicted as a female humanoid with parts of its body appearing more like chitin than flesh. Insects flutter and crawl around on its body, acting both as a wriggling, buzzing type of clothing and as an extension of its insectoid appearance.”
Dwelling in the “Deepest Hive, a demiplane connected to Khyber as her insectoid servants have burrowed tunnels through the fabric of reality”, Valaara uses her “absolute control over worms and insects” to her advantage, summoning swarms and having her writhing army fight for her, even fashioning large monstrosities by fusing fistfuls of worms and bugs together.
When becoming mythic her children cover her fallen form making something new and even more dangerous and creepy:
“Under the weight of its writhing servants, Valaara stands reformed by its army of insects. It reaches out its arms, a brief cry escaping its worm-filled mouth before the sound is drowned out by the buzzing of its insectoid reinforcements.” In this form she can summon whole walls of worms and sending swarms of insects to overwhelm and suffocate her foes.
Valaara also has her own supplementary tables for rolling insects swarms and her unique madness. The carrion crawler stablock is also included.
Appendix: Spells
Eight new level nine mythic spells are included with full table for the classes able to prepare them. These are phenomenally powerful spells reflecting the creatures that cast them, able to do immense amounts of damage, take control of or create powerful beings, create the ultimate berserker, see every angle of a situation, and more. These are seriously exciting and terrifying!
Appendix: Magic Items
A huge treasure trove of more than twenty mythic magic items that can be given as rewards for slaying these indomitable foes, as well as adding to your store of awesome items for your games. These are provided with a full table referencing which creature they relate to.
This is a seriously awesome supplement full of awesome ideas, mechanics, creatures, items and spells to bring the mythic to Eberron and beyond!
Absolutely filled with ridiculously gorgeous artwork from a variety of truly marvellous artists, as well as possibly my favourite piece of cartography of all time! I want a huge wall sized Arkus map!!!
The thought and quality that goes into every aspect of writing from the lore to the mythic transformation, incorporating and expanding on what we know and their realms and lairs. All of this is filtered through to the statblock and mythic mechanics in such brilliant and diligent matter.
All involved have been producing work of a breath-taking quality for a long time now, but this Mythic series, is something else entirely. This is the absolute pinnacle of TTRPG production and quality as far as I’m concerned. If you want the whole package to come together on song to express the epic and literally mythic nature of the subject this is it. This is what can be produced when talented folx come together and each do their thing wonderfully, and the result is grand and joyous!
My Affiliate Link: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/329253/Mythic-Eberron?affiliate_id=1507682
Credits
Designers: Steve Fidler (@vorpaldicepress), Bryan Holmes (@FallenWyvern), Anne Gregersen (@AnneofManyNames)
Editor: E. R. F. Jordan Prince Jurian ir'Wynarn
Design: Anthony Turco
Art Direction and Graphic Design: Steve Fidler
Assistant Art Director: Laura Hirsbrunner
Layout: Steve Fidler (based on the InDesign template by Nathanaël Roux) Eberron Lore Consultant: Laura Hirsbrunner
Cover Art: Marcel Budde
Interior Art: Marcel Budde, Lluis Abadias, Steve Fidler, Luca Bancone, Dmitry Dalnev, Dante Ezio Cifaldi, Rick Hershey, Bob Greyvenstein, Adobe Stock (warmtail, Алексей Иванов, svetlanarib79, Roman, Maxim B, liuzishan, okalinichenko, thanawong)
Cartography: Saga Mackenzie
Progenitors logo used by permission of KB Presents Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rick Hershey / Fat Goblin Games
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