We have reached the final component of an adventure, the Monster. In BEOWULF: Age of Heroes, the capital-m Monster is special and has a fundamental part to play in the story of the adventure. It is likely that when the Monster is first met that it is undefeatable, the Hero can only do minimal damage to it.
As part of the adventure, the Hero discovers what weapon or situation makes the Monster vulnerable and then they have a hope of defeating it. It might also chance that defeating the Monster is undesirable. Sometimes the Monster is normally a desirable feature of the location and setting other things right will turn it from destruction to protection.
We list common origins for Monsters: an irredeemable absolute evil, transformed by gaining strange powers, twisted by nature into something strange and new, or the unresting dead who seek vengeance on the living. We also cover the standard components of a statblock and give a glossary for Monsters covering in the included bestiary. We also cover the possibility of using other resources for Monsters and how to adapt them to the world of BEOWULF.
We then talk about how to present the Monster, from seeing the consequences of a Monster attack, discovering evidence of its passage or lair and then finally confront the Monster directly. We also suggest some options for Monster lore, its history and lair locations. Random charts in the appendix allow to quickly generate some suggestions for the GM. We finally cover some options for a Monster’s defeat and the possibility of more than one Monster during an adventure.
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