Bronze Dragon

Bronze dragons seem to occupy a bit of a weird niche in pathfinder 2 - while they are explicitly the most common of the metallic dragons, and the most likely to ally with humanoids, they also seem to have a bit of a lethargic, maybe even misanthropic angle to them, where they won't go out looking for adventure - but if it does come to them, they will gladly accept it.

Llyweth and Thywell are a rare case - two differently coloured dragons who lair together. It is said that together, their knowledge of the Duchy of Antal - on whose outskirts their lair lies - is complete. Llyweth, the bronze, tends to know the scientific and empirical stuff, while Thywell, the brass, knows all of the latest gossip, along with the oral history and folk tales of the region.

The Knights Most Eclectic And Electric are an extended family and an order of knights founded by Sir Montague. The patron formed the order several years ago after returning from a voyage across the Black Ocean. Apparently, on that expedition, the ship's crew almost died of starvation on a deserted island, before a mysterious, tanned stranger appeared out of nowhere with food, water and tents. After saving them, he made sir Montague promise that when his time of need comes, one from the knight's bloodline will answer.
Several generations have passed, and while sailing across the Green Sea, a mighty dragon rises from the water, and demands that one of Sir Montague's heirs come with him...

Hengra is a particularly reclusive young bronze dragon. In her quest to be left alone, she found a way to make her repulsive gas stick around, and coats the entire in it every week.
Unfortunately, Hengra also owns the only remaining issue of an ancient book detailing how to cure lycantrophy, and it recently hit the nearby town of Mosswell. A borderline insane group of teenagers now plans to try and plead with the dragon, hoping to at least see the book, but luck may not be on their side.

Brontosaurus

BIG DINO COOL.

Dr McWheelingston has created a new prototype of mech-suit, this one designed to be supremely durable against kinetic damage. A comprehensive - if obviously insane - way to test their durability would be to agitate one of the planet's many herds of diplodocuses. If their mighty tails are unable to knock down the mechs, then the machines can be deemed battle-ready.

In the lands of Sin Darya, humans have with more or less success tamed almost all species of dinosaurs. However, the mighty sauropods remain too mighty to be tamed by the little folk. On the other hand, a family of especially pacifist great cyclopes has managed to tame at least one herd of brontosauruses, and have used the giant dinos as their main source of food for years.
Recently, a parasitic skin infection has affected the herd. While they learned that the fungal growth can be scrubbed off, the cyclopes are neither perceptive nor careful enough to effectively save all their dinosaurs. Hence, they asked the humans for some help - but are unwilling to guarantee no harm will come to them, given how the brontos get aggressive occasionally.

A group of explorers tried to find an old efreeti said to dwell at the bottom of a dead volcano. They did not find the outsider, but ended up on a wild adventure exploring the hollow interior of their world, finding an ecosystem much unlike the one on the surface, with giant lizards being the dominant species.
After several years of searching, they have finally found a crack in the "ceiling", leading them back to the outside world. While it is quite high up, the druid has an idea - if they can keep one of the long-necked lizard-beings calm, they may be able to climb up it's massive neck.

Brass dragon

Every race with multiple variants comes with a "chaotic good trickster" archetype, and for the dragons, its the brass.

Gentle Genevieve is an an ancient brass dragon known for her skill at gardening. Such were here skill and indeed age, that the tree between worlds, Yggdrassil, was actually one of the very first plants she sowed. As she had multiple majestic plants, gardens, saplings and forests to tend to across the world, many of her favourites had guardians. For Ygdrassil, indeed, she had formed an entire order of knights, sworn to protect it. Alas, when the giants from beyond the stars invaded, Yggrdassil was felled. Genevieve grew violent and bitter, and went on a mad, bloodthirsty hunt to eradicate the Order of The Tree along with their entire bloodlines.

Whimsical Watcher of the Worlds is the title an outgoing, cosmopolitan young brass dragon claims. He trades in secrets with those he deems worthy, gathering info about any potential clients, before inviting them for a try at one of the many games he has collected over the years. In the last century, he most often faced opponents in three-dimensional chess, or tarot bridge. However, his latest fascination is a new game created by a mad minotaur wizard called J'ason. In the game, players create fake personas, and re-enact adventures from the epics, throwing weird, crystalline dice to determine whether they fail or triumph.

An oppressive order of knights known as the Brvtalmarines have conquered what were once halfling lands. As a cruel joke, the knights offer trial by combat as an option instead of judge and jury deciding the fate of the local populace. When the leader of a localized uprising is arrested, it is no surprise that he chooses to try and fight his way to freedom - what is a surprise, though, is him revealing his form as a mighty brass dragon. Opposing him, as a champion of the marines, is an ill-fated double agent who was only there to sabotage the trial in the first place, but convincing the dragon of that will be no easy task.

Brain collector

Woah.
I just want to mention that this post marks a full month of this blog running, and I have to say - I'm enjoying the hell out of it. There's plans for guest writers, maybe for some stat-blocks, and other cute shit... but this format is just so fun to do.
The monster we'll be covering today isn't exactly your standard fantasy beast - hell, it looks like it'd be more at home in starfinder than in pathfinder. But if you want to throw some weird fantasy at your players, or you like that sweet spot between unknowable cosmic horror and this thing can it you in a single bite, this is exactly the creature you want to use.

The crew of the galley "Saint Sandair" find a shipwreck on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. The ship's captain, who appears unharmed, can't seem to remember what happened, and the rest of his shipmates lie around his ship, looking brutalized. When the rescue crew disembarks to take a closer look, the glamour fades - the ship appears as a half metallic-half organic behemoth, while in the place of the old captain, there's a lumbering, scorpion-like monstrosity.

Exploring the worlds beyond, the Gean Exploration Force meets the contemplatives - the giant-brained, shrivelled-boddied monks. The weird psychics embrace them, and a great cultural exchange is born. To top it off, two of the explorers are invited to join the ritual in which seven chosen people are conjoined, becoming a single mind. Unfortunately, the ritual involves the chosen ones' brains being consumed by a blistering monstrosity that arrives from beyond the stars. Refusing the deal might anger the hosts, not to mention the weird beast, but accepting it is not an option.

Maximiliana Van Der Mooth is an alchemist, theologist, arcanist, and philosopher. Her latest discovery is that the so-called Neh-Thalggus are the last remnants of the darkness before creation, and were present when the One Before All shaped the world. She now hypothesizes that the weird whispers that the creatures telepathically emit are indeed a perversion of the Song Of Shaping. If someone were to record such a thing, it may unlock the secrets of what makes gods gods. Of course, finding a neh-thallgu and surviving an encounter with it are great accomplishments alone, so finding someone mad enough to attempt something like this won't be easy.

Boggard

Despite (or maybe because) of their cheesyness and pulpy aesthetic, the wicked frogmen are among my favourite "evil" humanoids. Fighting off a squad of orcs may satisfy my Tolkeinean fantasy needs, but slaying a dozen or so of these weird little buggers skips Tolkien and defaults back to Conan, and that, my friends, is the real deal.

The Arcadian vanguard arrived on the marshy shores of Naq-talya maybe two weeks ago. Looking for the Diamond City their oracles pointed them to, they went straight through the thickest and deepest marshes.
Their first soldier was slain the very first night, his throat cleanly cut. In the days since, they got picked off one or two at a time. Now, when only the final five men remain, a group of a dozen slimy, croaking frogmen jump at them from the trees, obviously not looking to take prisoners.

When the Boggards of the Lastgrasp swamplands meet the knights of the Order of the Willow, tradition demand they smoke a pipe together. Unfortunately, the substance the boggards smoke, while having a mild hallucinogenic and anesthetic on them, brings painful death to most other races - which the swamp-dwelling creatures legitimately didn't know.
With all their seniors dead to poisoning, the testimony of the only surviving knight can mean the difference between a peaceful investigation and all-out war.

The priestess of the dark gods that dwell drowned within the swamp prayed, and the gods answered. The priestess gave birth to the new swamp lord, a mutated boggard that shares many of its features with a froghemoth. The three-eyed warlord quickly united the tribes, but despite now controlling the largest force in that part of the world, he did not go on a raid or conquest. Instead, all his efforts appear to be focused on breaking into the Skytooth, the tower in which the last cyclops dwelt until his death. Unfortunately, this means a group of mages, who have found a way to use the tower's magic to see the future, will not have an easy way getting into it...

Boar

So, basically, the boar comes in two variants - the regular old eurasian boar, and the slightly beefed up daeodon. Now, i tend to like most of the bestiary artwork, i really do... but the boar but its even more boary than a boar art really doesn't do justice to a daeodon. Seriously, do yourself a favour, and go google how that thing looks like, and then come back and read this.

The saviours of Soldier's hill have managed to reconcile the orks and the hobbits of the region, even founding a multi-racial settlement. As one of the saviours' firstborn's birthday comes, the ork shaman asks if a pet would be a worthy present. The hero accepts, expecting a puppy, or maybe one of the raptor birds the orks use in hunting. Alas, what arrives is a daeodon piglet, already voracious and larger than a small child.

The kings has made a proclamation: no civilian can own a scroll of fireball, unless explicitly given permission by the king himself. The self-proclaimed leader of the serfs, old Wilbur McNabeth, comes into the capital, preaching to the masses about how he needs those scrolls to keep his children safe. "A question do i have for ye, those who owneth land beyonde the cittie walles. How doth one slay three to four dozen wilde boars within a twentieth of the bell, if those boars do cometh while one's little ones be out working the fields?"
The king says "arrest him", but some of the guards agree with the old man, and of course, his followers might be carrying scrolls as well, so chaos is bound to erupt. It is the seregant of the city's guard unlucky day, as he is rushed into making a decision.

When old man Wilbur was jailed, the boar population in the countryside has exploded. As he stubbornly refuses the king's offer of amnesty, the monarch looks for a group of heroes willing to face herds consisting of literally hundreds of the beasts.

Blue dragon

Random thought: if you run them as written, there's a decent overlap between what makes a blue dragon encounter (be he a young, adult or ancient) tick and what makes a devil encounter tick - in both cases, you can have a completely civil discussion (or even a full-blown social encounter, with rounds, and skill checks, as the pf2 core rulebook suggests) while everyone involved is planning the demise of the other party.

While all blue dragons desire power, wealth and titles, Bandallagrim has seen enough of the first two in his long lifetime. Titles, though, are what he tends to hoard. Whenever there's an inheritance crisis, a title that can be gained through election, or even a revolution, Bandallagrim is sure to be close by, in one of his many humanoid guises. Although he rarely accepts any responsibilities that come with the ducal, presidential and even kingly positions he claims, he is sure to murder anyone who dares contend with him in cold blood.
The inheritors are a group of descendants of nobles whose titles the ancient dragon usurped several generations prior, and they are sworn to one day defeat him and reclaim their ancestral homes. While they have their suspicions that the next high priest of the theopolis of Nea Romagna is indeed their ancient foe, acting out on it too soon might turn the entire god-sworn city against them.

A mad dryad is known for singing "the blues" deep within the darkest corners of the Feywood. Unfortunately, while her song is indeed as beautiful as the stories describe it, it is also a part of an insidious ritual, and those who hear it become enthralled to the dryad's blue dragon master, unless they have a will of iron.

In the world of Sarpharathia, though they rule their domains alone, blue dragons actually follow a strict hierarchy among themselves. When the mysterious god-emperor of dragonkind disappears without a trace, the world plunges into chaos. After several days, a young blue dragon appears before the city of Porfiria's champions, claiming he knows of a way to crown a human(oid) as leader of the dragons, solving two problems - both renewing stability across the globe, and insuring that humans will be treated with respect and dignity. Of course, that plan of action also conveniently requires the heroes to dispose of some of the dragon's own rivals, and he has yet to explain his own motivation for helping them...


Anyway, blog maintenance time. I'm toying with the idea of actually posting some of the stats for the monsters I implied should be modified from their bestiary entries(the Ghost-Rider aasimar, the myriad exotic treants, the mutated stirges...).
However, as this would consume a bit more of my time than the blog has been so far, I'm not going to do it if it rings on deaf ears. If one of those has particularly piqued your interest, do leave a comment and let me know, I'd like to start off with a more popular one, and see how it goes. Cheers.

Bloodseeker

Despite its low (-1) level and its extremely simple tactics, i actually kinda love using these little things, especially if the players haven't encountered them before. Keep in mind that your players have next to no idea what happens when the critters feed, and describing them as changing colour and becoming bloated can get their creative juices flowing enough to scare them more then they really should be.

The coachman and his illusionist partner have a trick they like to pull on their passengers - as they enter the western swamplands, the coachman loudly exclaims "we can't stop here, this is stirge country" and the illusionist then conjures an image of several of the critters flying in to attack the carriage. Unfortunately, one of the trick's victims really took it to heart, and has now ambushed the carriage, releasing an actual clot of stirges at the two tricksters and their unsuspecting passengers, who may need to take up arms.

In a weird twist of fate, a hive of bloodseekers ended up feeding on a blood ooze. The insectile creatures have apparently since mutated, with reports coming in about them growing clots at an incredible speed to stop their own bleeding, attacking with bloody tentacle-like growths, and even sucking blood from afar, without attaching to the victim. As more and more sheep and cattle end up drained each day, a group of young volunteers heads into the marshes to burn them out.

While a single bloodseeker is no problem, it is often their sheer number that is scary. Tangulin's Wrath (Tangulin being the god of pestilence) is the name given to the largest known flock of the things, estimated at around a thousand individuals. The flock usually migrates between the duchies of Marneeya and Barathorn, but has been known to take many different routes, leading the local population to think it has a will of its own, or even that it is the avatar of the mad god. Those traveling in the region would do well to get informed about the flock's latest motion, or if they are brave or insane, prepare for an encounter with it.

Black Pudding

Oozes, ehh?

The Blambinken Museum of All That Was uses black puddings as a sort of a "living motion sensor". Essentially, when night falls, black puddings, locked in carefully crafted containers that let them attack but not escape are placed tactically around the most critical museum pieces. The museum's officials make this a known fact, as they've grown tired of cleaning the dissolved remains of would-be thieves from the floors. Nevertheless, a newly formed thieves guild has managed to snag a few pieces, and a group of orphans joining it needs to do the same as part of the initiation process.

During the dwarven festivity of Shableirgah, a black pudding is intentionally created from scraps of food discarded during the feast. Namely, a deep pit is dug in the middle of the encampment, and younguns are tasked with going around, picking up any leftover foodstuff (and there tends to be a lot) and pouring it all into the pit. As the festivity draws to a close, older dwarves ritually go over to the pit, shake their beards over it, releasing any food that got entangled in them. Finally, a bog priest arrives, pours fresh mountain goat blood into the pit as well, and then chants to animate the contents of it. The resulting ooze varies in shape, form and smell over the years, but particularly nasty ones are a point of pride for years to come. That is, of course, if the Chieftan-nominated champions manage to defeat it...

The last line of Gargathas the black dragon's sewer for defenses is a long corridor littered with black puddings. While anyone who got that far is certain to survive an encounter with the oozes, it is Gargathas's hope that at least a few swords and spears will be destroyed along the way.

Black dragon

Like all dragons, the black comes to us in three size/age categories: young, adult, and ancient. Quick note, before i dive into the encounters - any crhomatic dragon can become a prepared spellcaster, by merely swapping out some of their physical abilities for an array of spells, which is highly versatile, giving you room to customize a dragon encounter even further.

Unlike most of his kin, Gargathas the black dragon isn't one to follow tradition. Whereas other black dragons claim swamps, marshes and rotten tundras as their homes, Gargathas makes his lair deep within the ancient and labyrinthine sewer system of the city of Kepesh. Since arriving there, he has enslaved five tribes of goblins, along with a rabid pack of goblin dogs, several enclaves of Ootyughs (who don't exactly serve him willingly), an order of mad monks who live in the sewers to punish themselves, and an entire department of college alchemists who happened to be doing research of the foul waters.
As nearly a quarter of the city's population (usually the escaped slaves, and the outright second class citizens) eventually make their way into the massive, unexplored sewers, the dragon is becoming essentially an authority parallel to that of the city's nobles, and dragonslayers are called forth.

Although black dragons don't particularly like any other races, they aren't above using them as a means to an end. An adventurous young black dragon named Nimandrith used to claim a patch of atolls known as Deadreef as his own, but due to their proximity to a volcanic archipelago, a red dragon has forced him out.
Nowdays, Nimandrith goes by the moniker Dread Captain Druzil, leading a small flotilla of pirate ships. The recent surge in recruitment is due to him finally deciding he stands a chance against his rival, but new pirates may not be let in on the secret until it's too late.

Glabadraxia, the ancient black wyrm used to rule empires and cults in times long since forgotten. Over the ages, her temperament has very much softened, and for the past milenium, she has been looking for someone worthy of inheriting the vast (mostly alchemical in nature) treasure she has collected over the years. Due to her newfound (she has been doing it for only a bit over a thousand years) hobby being brewing hot sauces, "worthy heir" means "someone able to swallow a spoonful of her super secret sauce without flinching". While her intentions are indeed well-meaning, as she'd hate for her vast legacy to rot, she cares not much for the occasional death she causes, as she only sees such occurrences as weeding out the weak.

Beetle

Under beetle in the bestiary, we get two critters - the firefly-like flash beetle and the giant (actually only large) stag beetle.

In the old land, part of the celebration of the beginning of a new year was filling a big, colourful tent with flash beetles and food for them. The beetles would go on a ravenous feast, flashing and chirping excitedly, painting the night with their lights.
On the first celebration since they migrated across the sea, though, the gnomes learn how different this new land is - the flash beetles' lights attracts a swarm of beetles the size of horses, who initially feast on their smaller cousins, but noticing the myriad treats laid out for the festivity, they rampage across the settlement.

In The Olde Boglands, the wandering lights can be deceptive. While the swampy region is practically teeming with flash beetles, it also has a significant population of will'o'wisps. Unfortunately, as the beetles are harvested as a source of illumination for the nearby coal mine, encounters with the malevolent will'o'wisps are common.

In the Sequoia Woods, Giant Stag Beetles occasionally cause issues by bringing down the giant trees. While its usually not catastrophic, requiring the already nomadic people of the woods to relocate, they are about to cause the greatest calamity so far. Namely, they have started gnawing at the roots of the Hearttree, the largest tree (and probably largest living organism) in the world, which is surrounded by a massive wooden temple dedicated to the nature spirits. With no other options left, the indigenous people of the woods ask the colonizers for help, and the latter send out a team of architects to find a way to support the tree, along with a squadron of exterminators for the bugs.

Bear

What kind of bear is best?

In pathfinder 2 terms, the answer is really easy - its the cave bear, having the exact same stat block as a grizzly just slightly numerically beefed up. Given that there's no difference to how you can utilize on or the other, in the following three entries i will use bear as a generic term, and if you do decide to use one of the encounters presented, you can just choose the appropriately leveled one.
  
Deep within the Ääkwood there's an ancient oak whose sap has mystical properties. Unfortunately, Lizardfolk of the surrounding villages aren't the only ones that have taken a liking to it - the clearing surrounding the massive tree is almost always littered with sleeping bears, on whom the sap has a torporific effect. While most folk petitioning the lizardfolk shaman and thus needing some of the sap choose to sneak around the bears, others have at times tried to restrain the bears, lure them away, or even engage them in direct combat.

A hunting party chasing after a leprechaun that has taunted them for weeks ends up in the Faewild. While everything is slightly off and nothing is just quite as it seems, the biggest shock is their encounter with the famed bearbearbear, the mythical monster that is half bear, half bear, and half bear.

To avenge a fallen comrade, an elf rogue goes hunting for a great bear and slays it. Tomorrow morning, he finds out he has awoken in a bear's body, separated from the rest of his companions. After several misadventures and learning how to be a bear, he encounters the bear god, who tells him of a way to regain his original form, by conducting ritual on the top of a great mountain.
However, once he arrives there, he finds his original band, who confuse him for the bear he slew, and attack him on sight.


 

Bat

Under "bat", the bestiary gives us two entries - the all-time classic vampire bat swarm and the generic giant bat.

On the floating islands world of Naltraxya, different people use wildly differing methods to get by from island to island. Dwarves have their zeppelinships, orks use enormous ballistae with projectiles connected to chains to make primitive zip lines, and gnomes tame the flying foxes, the local variety of giant bat.
Gnome culture of the isles being nomadic, the taming of your first flying mount is actually considered a rite of passage, with those who fail to return home on the back of a bat being shunned as "landlocked" and treated as simple-minded.

The mad Vampire Maraphlingus wants to fight his equal in both martial prowess and intellect. To that end, he has locked himself deep within a mine, and has created a series of challenges of increasing difficulty that lead up to his personal chambers. The opening chamber is intended to test the potential champion's willingness to sacrifice others on his path to greatness - a large flock of vampire bats make their home there, making up for several swarms, which can easily be dealt with with a few simple area of effect spells or several alchemist bombs. However, the floors, walls and ceiling of the chamber are visibly covered in explosive materials, meaning that anyone within a certain distance stands next to no chance of surviving if anything detonates.

In the Shamadayama jungles, giant bats are extremely rare and are considered sacred. Indeed, legend holds it that they hunt during the night, but retreat into the chambers of a benevolent jungle spirit before the sun rises.
As a plague ravages the surrounding villages, a group of pilgrims decides to try following a bat, leading them into the spirit's abode, where they intend to beg for help.

Basilisk

Markham hills are infested with two different breeds of menace - basilisks and ogres. The latter actually have a tradition where on the summer and winter solstices they go out, slay a basilisk, drag both the beast and its petrified victims to their hillside homes, and then feast on the flesh as it slowly unpetrifies. The locals know not to go out on these days, lest they encounter one of the many ogre hunting bands, but strangers passing through the hillside may be in for a nasty surprise...

The king's son got a ferret as a pet. The pet ferret went out into the woods, and dragged back a basilisk egg. Unfortunately, it appears not to have eaten it, as there have been several reports of petrification in the castle dungeon, but nobody seems to be able to pinpoint the location of the juvenile reptile's lair. Luckily, the king is hosting a group of monster hunters, and it would be quite rude of them to refuse him help in this time of need

The Stone Lady is a powerful medusa noble, whose domain lies between two rival kingdoms. Unfortunately for them, most spies and other such disreputable folk who need to avoid official routes have no choice but to go through the Lady's domain. While she herself isn't necessarily going to murder or petrify any intruders, her lands are littered with all sorts of stone-related monsters, most notably the largest known Basilisk, a monstrous reptile known as Ol' Lockjaw.

Barghest

I tend to treat flavour text in the bestiary as a suggestion, not canon, and I like to feel I've been encouraging the readers of this blog to do the same. If you've actually listened to me and done so before, ignore it now. Paizo just do everything about goblinoids and goblinoid-adjacent rules so goddamn perfectly. While I will try to put at least a bit of a spin on the entries that follow, i feel like you can just rip a page from any Paizo adventure using goblins, hobs, or even the goddamn goblin dogs and snakes, and you'll have a top-tier encounter in your hands.
Also, for god's sake, this stat block practically begs you to modify it, with the random mutation piece of fluff. Please, do yourself and your players a favour and do it.

Most Barghests who become greater Barghests find their morbid hunger under control. With Grax the Glutton it was the opposite. The morbidly obese, fleshy fiend rarely goes into wolf form these days, preferring that of a massive, tumorous bugbear. While the legion of hobgoblins he rules over guard the only bridge leading across the Valga river, preparing a lavish feast for him may be enough to soften him up for negotiations.

While barghests tend to hate "civilized races", their disdain for those pales in comparison to their disdain for other barghests. County Keyldaire is home to two Barghests - a mangy, pathethic thing that alternates between a goblin and a goblin dog form known as Skittermaw, and powerful old Hobgoblin warlord going by the name of Azguul. While Skittermaw is a minor menace at worst, stealing food, breaking into homes, and pulling pranks on the good people of Keyldaire, Azguul and his tribe are essentially in a state of open warfare with the city guard, raiding the surrounding countryside, killing, kidnapping and pillaging.
The location of Azguul's fort has been found, but so far, no-one has dared march against it.
Skittermaw appears in the barracks one day, claiming to know a secret passage that from the surrounding hillside straight into Azgul's private quarters in the fort, but his price for the information is rather unconventional - the right to land the final blow on the warlord, and keep the body "as a trophy" afterwards.

Many barghests end up ruling tribes of goblinoids, but not Skindazzle Fellswoop. He became the leader of a pack of wargs instead, indeed hunting with them for so long that even in his goblin form he retains many canine features.
He is notorious for directing the beasts with brutal precision, letting them focus on the more physical combatants, while he himself goes into the back line, tearing any archers, casters or any such nuisance to shreds.

Barbazu (Bearded Devil)

Minor blog update notice first: we now have a subscribe via e-mail widget, which should be located at the very bottom of the page and so far appears to be working properly.

Anyway, off to our topic for the day.

The Mad Mandrakh's Mausoleum is the only known passageway into the Hellscapes. While it initially appears to be a giant, deserted ruin, it is populated by a small plethora of fiends guarding in, foremost amongst them a legion of bearded devils. While the sly fiends are physical enough to ward off most weaker intruders, their main tactic against enemies of a somewhat higher caliber is to release a gelatinous cube down a hallway, then dimension door into hidden spots along the escape route, ambushing (in game terms - a metric fuckton of attacks of opportunity from stealth) foes as they inevitably retreat from the cube's unyielding advance.

The Demon Hunters of Azure Coast migrated to Kala'dahan with the rest of their people. There, they met their equals - the massive Barbazu population summoned forth by long gone diabolists. While the demon hunters are used to the sheer brutality of their quarry, they aren't used to the cunning and perseverance of barbazus, who will often engage in attrition warfare against the demon hunters, appearing from the darkness to land a hit or two, infecting with their accursed disease, then dimension dooring away. While it may take days or even weeks of tactics like these to bring down mightier enemies, the devils are patient, and will strike only at foes so downtrodden with disease that they can hardly even lift their swords, much less stands against infernal glaives.

While generally serving as rank and file military, bearded devils can and do also deal in contracts with mortals. It is often, but not always, a deal based on the devils' martial prowess. However, as they are notably not the smartest among devilkind - while still in possession of a sound bureaucratic mind, and traversing the myriad rules of contracts with a far deeper understanding then humans of equivalent intellect - many foolish mortals try to outsmart them.
A desperate ghost recently found out that a barbazu he crossed almost a century ago has freed himself from a trap laid by the ghost, back when he was still alive. The foolish young sorcerer made a deal with the devil, agreeing to owe him his soul "until he goes for a final rest", then banished him to chaotic planes beyond the reach of normal magicks. The magician hoped that he would be long gone before the devil comes to collect his fee, but didnt count on undeath doing him dirty.
Now, as eternal fire looms ever closer, he must beg a group of adventurers he has been pestering for months to help him.

Baomal

Reading the stat block for this thing, two things catch my eye
1. Despite being essentially a giant two headed turtle, its not a beast - its an aberration, suggesting ties to the more nefarious breeds of creatures, or even an artificial origin
2. Despite its relatively low intelligence and bestial appearance, it can speak.

The Dread Leviathan is a baomal hunting off the coast of the Inigo archipelago. The Baomal is so adamant in its hunt, that legend goes that no-one has left the islands and their several warring nations three hundred years.
When a group of swashbucklers take it upon themselves to be the saviours of their people, and manage to defeat the mighty beast, they are surprised to hear the ancient thing speak the priest tongue with its dying breath. There and then, it tells the would-be heroes a tale of how the people of the islands have become the carriers of a terrible plague, to which they are immune, but continental people would not be. The Leviathan was, or so it claims, sworn by a mighty dragon to forever keep the plague isolated on the archipelago.
If the heroes believe it to be telling the truth, they must find a way to stem the inevitable wave of explorers wanting to see the world now that the beast lies dead on the bottom of the ocean.

In the Nangaska region, the seasons are measured according to baomal migrations. When the giant monsters migrate south, the people of the region return to their summer homes, and live off fishing for a while. As soon as the dreaded spikes are spotted on the horizon, entire villages return inland, where they live off foraging and hunting gazelles.
One season, only two of the great beasts return, and when they do, they beg the fishermen to come with them to a land on the other side of the world, sailing on their backs.

The elven nations of Al'Cantara have been in perpetual war for as long as anyone can remember. While alliances were made and broken on a daily basis, one thing has been constant - noone ever allied the treacherous drow. That is, until now. The sea-elves, for some unknown reason, accepted an alliance offer from the drow, and within three months of signing a pact, their united forces presented their new weapon - a fleshwarped creature similar to a two-headed dragon turtle, but large enough to snap a capital ship in two with a single bite.
While the creature appears to be an unique experiment for now, knowing the drow, its only a matter of time before they conclude the tests and try to replicate it on a mass scale. Slaying the creature as well as its creator is the only chance the other nations hope to have, lest all ports be forever cut off from the world.

Banshee

A gnome king has been poisoned, but the only cure is the fruit of a tree that grows deep within the Wailwell. The Wailwell is the folk name for an ancient elf underlands colony, whose inhabitants got infected by a plague, and when the Elven King of the time found out, he quarantined it, leaving them all to die. Subsequently, many of the settlement's inhabitants rose as accursed banshees, forever wondering the cave-halls of their lost home.
While meeting the banshees head on is not an option, the king's children who are now rushing to help their father know a certain druid weaver, who is said to produce fabric so fine it can muffle the sound of heartbeats...

Green Eire is in disarray. While the initial revolution is a success, the many factions now vying for power aren't making things easy. Lady Morthaus was a mighty drow sorceress who willingly became a banshee after her death, and is one of the last things keeping things even remotely smooth, as all sides fear both her physical and her political power.
Unfortunately for the moot, though, a drow hero recently managed to enact massive reforms, helping drow society abandon their backwards ways and leading them into a brighter future. While this was generally very well recieved among other races, those who personally know the Lady realize that she now feels that the wrongs that made her what she is have finally been righted, and is now considering retreating to whither away in peace.
An unnamed patron, though, who claims to want only what is best for Eire, is offering vast amounts of gold and complete amnesty to those who find a way to wrong the lady again, keeping her ire working for the greater good.

While Banshees born of elves are by far the most common, any fey can turn into one on death. Legends speak of a terrifying Hamadryad banshee in the depths of Arkenwood, who makes all the trees in the forest cry with her. Others, yet, speak of a lonely Satyr who weeps instead of sings, but tramples anyone who dares interrupt him. But even such tales pale in comparison to those of banshees born of wilder fey, such as the elusive Elananx or even the myriad sorts of gremlins.

Balor (fire demon)

Ok, i'm gonna admit it, despite being a huge fan of non-combat encounters, I kinda felt the good outsider entries we've been covering didnt offer too much to work with if combat DID arise (and lets face it, some of those murder hobos out there are just waiting for it).
And then comes this lad. Hell yeah. Boasting an aura that burns everything and everyone around him, an improved version of an attack of opportunity, a decent array of spells, and a disgusting ability that makes any slashing weapon he wields vorpal, this is one hell of a boss battle.

Most demons approach battle with reckless brutality. Bluudmaw, the general of all demon armies, second only to the deific demonlords, is not like that. His mind is that of a great strategist and master tactician, and when Heaven's champions finally find his lair, hoping to finally end the eternal conflict between good and evil, they learn of his prowess the hard way. His lair is littered with carefully placed flammable materials and explosive concoctions, which trigger easily in the massive heatwave he radiates. His man tactic during the fight is to use his dimension door to teleport to a weak enemy, strike them with his massive sword, and then teleport back behind cover again. If he does start to lose the fight, which isn't exactly likely, his lair does have at least two hidden exits too.

Unlike most gods, who dwell in their extra-dimensional hells and heavens, Gaia, the mother of all, is an entirely physical deity. Despite being the mightiest being in existence, she has a glaring weakness - her heart, said to be the source of all life in the material plane, is hidden somewhere in the depths of the earth. When the forces of anti-life from beyond the veil, guided by a band of traitorous dwarves manage to find the heart, all life in the world is in danger.
When Gaia's Guardians arrive at the scene a few days later, they find several of the Adversaries' negotiators, and a mighty Balor strapped to the heart by giant chains, with a holy dagger to his throat by an underling, threatening to release the eternal flames within the demon if their demands aren't met, slaying both the Balor and the goddess.

In the 23rd century, space travel is nothing new to most races of the multiverse. However, a new ship by the Black Empire has the Humanoid Confederacy worried, as most records indicate it uses no fuel whatsoever to achieve flight.
When a group of spies manage to infiltrate the ship's classified engine room, they find 3 chained and contained balors contained within, and a machine harnessing the unnatural heat they exude apparently powering the ship.
One of the demons stoops so low as to beg for help from the lowly humanoids, but is such a being's word to be trusted?

Balisse (confessor angel)

It seems like every second entry i hit these days is an outsider. Oh well, you know the drill, alignments are a spook, angels can serve the chaotic evil god of hells above and below if it fits the story, yadda yadda.

There are only two deities in the world of Sirpterria, the One Above and the One Below. While their churches disagree on just about every point there is, they both agree that the coming of the Final Human will end the world as it is known, and afterwards the newborn deity will reform the multiverse as it sees fit. When a young boy named Evan is identified as the one who will, once he learns the secrets of his powers and origin, become the Final Human, two Balisse angels are sent to him, each attaching to the boy and choosing to show themselves in a miniature form sitting on the boy's shoulders. Of course, serving two opposed deities, the angels keep giving the poor kid completely opposite sets of advice. As it stands, the kid is starting to lose his mind, and nobody wants a mad god to be in charge. A group of exorcists, perfectly balanced so that none of the two gods get more representation, is called for. While the angels understand the conundrum that they created, and can see the benefit of leaving the boy, none are willing to leave the boy before the other angel does, fearing the consequences of changing the delicate balance of things as they are now.

As times progressed, the heavens progressed with it, embracing novelty. In this new world, Saint Yoanna is a balisse angel using her innate talents to work as a psychotherapist. While she has worked with her current group for a few years, recently she realized there's an information leak, something she would expect from no-one in her new flock. Feeling out of her depth, she calls forth two experienced mortal inquisitors from her church to investigate her clients, and find out who and how may be compromised.

While it was considered unheard of for a Confessor Angel to fall, due to their specific experience, the Winged Crusader is an exception. A completely insane celestial, he has judged the population of an entire city to be sinners. He now randomly appears before people, calling them out on their previous misdeeds, however minor they may be. While a rare few are touched and truly show remorse, and are hence let go, the minority are dumbfounded and will try to argue for themselves. Unfortunately, the Angel considers this an admission of guilt, and will then go into offensive. He has, up until now, killed at least a dozen people, and shows no signs of stopping. A group of diabolists from a neighbouring town are recruited to help out, as they are the only one willing to slay a light-aligned outsider and risk godly wraith.

Azure worm

Woah, guys, this is our last entry under the letter A. Progress, ehh?

An azure worm nicknamed "deep blue" makes its hunting grounds near the dwarven settlement of Drakenholm. The worm is known for leaving strands of lapis lazuli behind itself in the tunnels it makes. While several dwarves have died to the gargantuan beast, it is protected by a decree by the dwarven king - whose palace just so happens to be littered with fine statues made from lapis lazuli. A group of petitioners from the outside world trying to reach the dwarves have been warned of this, but their route leads them directly through the worm's hunting ground, and passing through without confronting it is becoming increasingly difficult.

The underground region of Deep Wetlands has always been infamous for being occasionally flooded due to Crimson Worm migrations. However, several months back, an exceptionally old and feared worm has apparently started to systematically flood one of the largest chambers in the cave system, already creating a small lake, and continuing to work on it. The local duergar hunters dare not attack such a creature on their own, but several tribes make their homes in the close vicinity, and so heroes are chosen to hunt the beast.

The mad elven king Sundullyn oganises a hunt for his regalia every eleven years. While the locations of the items have always been outrageous, none of the challenges presented before were as outright deadly as what he pulled off this year. Apparently, his signet ring, on the finger of an indigestible golem, is currently inside a great purple worm who makes his home in the Boglands. While the challenge of retrieving it is almost certain to kill adventurers-to-be, the one who does bring the ring back to the mighty wizard-king may ask for whatever his heart desires as a prize.

Axiomite

Did i tell you yet how much i hate alignment? Yeah **** alignment. Anyway, here's lawful neural: the race.

In post-awakening Europe, where wild magic roams free and magical realms clash, most axiomites take the likeness of greek philosophers. While the likes of Plato and Pythagoras are welcomed, and indeed, have taught the humans much about the wider world they are now part of, reports speak of an axiomite known to use uncharacteristically chaotic methods to make mortals reconsider what they consider to be truth - one that looks like Diogenes. Some peasants also swear they've seen him in a third form, other than his humanoid and crystalline personas - that of a giant, plucked chicken with the face of a man. When his lectures on the indifference of universe to life start turning violent, a group of olympic medalists is called in to try to reason, or otherwise deal with him.

J-00-k was a perfectly fine axiomite, with a normal, regular, and punctual lifestyle of such a being. An encounter with a mad gnome wizard left him completely broken, though - after the gnome cast reduce person on the axiomite during their fight, the poor thing's sense of scale become fundamentally flawed. Whenever he tries building an inevitable (which is several times per day - after all, that is his job) the constructs come either gigantic or minuscule. As arbiters the size of houses start appearing across the planes, the axiomite seeks the help of mortal summoners and diabolists.

One plane was not enough for the axiomites of Nova Alexandria. When their plane became entirely covered in buildings, all part of their mega-city, they expanded to the material plane. While they are not aggressive, they keep building with no regards to local life nor architecture, creating structures atop the already existing humanoid cities and settlements. Excursions into their home plane reveal that no other outsiders remain - only the axiomites and their inevitable constructs. When questioned about the reasoning behind such a project, they happily talk about the plan but there seems to be no central authority guiding it, which also means that localized resistance is futile - eventually, another team of axiomites just arrives and starts anew.

Astral Deva

Uh. No smartass commentary for this one really. I'll just get straight into it.

Contrary to popular belief, Lucifer's host of angels regained their beauty when they fell. In fact, the very idea that the fallen are malformed, monstrous lot is a ploy propagated by the Lord of Lies himself, helping him sow confusion on every step of the way. While scholars of the faith realize this, it is not common knowledge among the general populace.
When two angels appear on the day of a massive trial, both claiming to bear the message of god, with one saying that the accused is innocent and should be let got and the other that the man of guilty and should be stoned, the king's advisors need to find a way to quickly divulge which is which, before riots erupt.

When the warleader Hunbald Hunblaadi formed the Holy Kingdom of Blaadya in the ruins of the defeated Tyrant's realm, he made a grave mistake - He swore an oath that the kingdom belongs to all the gods of goodness and light, in an attempt to justify his conquest with zealousness. The only problem was - the gods heard him, and now the royal rooms rarely house less than two astral devas of all shapes and sizes, with the requests, orders, and suggestions from the myriad gods, godlings, demigods and ascended heroes who all consider the newly formed kingdom their earthly domain. While this initially granted legitimacy to the Holy Crown, the requests are becoming harder and harder to implement without contradicting. A group of heroes who have each devoted their lives to one of the gods involved have been summoned, and tasked with either finding a compromise, or if that fails, petitioning their patrons for some sort of relief of duty for the King.

While it is not unheard of for angels to fall from grace, most do so violently, becoming monstrous creatures of darkness. This was not the case with Savidar, who simply became a capitalist. Becoming the multiverse's premier planar guide (his own words) he chose to use his god-given power to amass wealth across the realms. When, after millennia of ignoring him, his goddess calls him to heel, he makes an offer to the group of archmages he is currently leading through the gates of madness - help him find a way to hide from the higher order angels hunting him, and before he goes away for good, he can transport them to any point in the place-time continuum free of charge.

Astradaemon

Before i get to this entry, there's something I'd just like to address quickly, and that I maybe should have mentioned back when i covered the arbiter:  this blog and it's relation to the pathfinder2 cosmology. While obviously i can't namedrop Lost Omens planes by name (at least some of them? I'd hazard a guess that names like Nirvana and Abbaddon are probably public domain) i decided to take this blog a step further, and just... Ignore d&d-like cosmology (at least nine planes, each responding to one alignment, +the material plane, +probably some dream and primal/fey planes...) as a whole, sometimes referring to it, sometimes using something a bit but not not exactly like it, and sometimes explicitly having a single plane setting. All as the story demands. I'm sure if you happen to use any of these encounters, you'll be able to find a way to fit them in your story regardless.

Trillbog of Ten Thousand Teeth is an oddity among astradaemons - one who makes his home in the Prime Material Plane. There, he usurped a cult of a minor monstrous deity, convincing the scared cultists he was it's avatar. If any of the many daemonhunters of the region do encounter him outside his dark lair, he is bound to be followed by a dozen cultists. While the cultists make for poor combatants, they are more than willing to die in the service of their god, willingly sacrificing themselves so that Trillbog drains their essence, negating any wound he may have been dealt.

The chthonic gods are not allowed to directly extend their influence outside of Hades. Unfortunately, the river Styx and its lonely ferryman Charon technically fall under the Olympians' jurisdiction. When a weird, serpentine monstrosity appears on the shores of Styx, and starts devouring the souls of the recently departed as they try to make their way to the afterlife, Lord Hades himself has no choice but to release several long dead heroes to deal with it, having no choice but to trust their oaths that they will not go back to the lands of the living after slaying the beast and discerning whence it came from.

Yoglun Borak is a warrior from an ancient time, the Last Hyberian. He has stood guard at the Veiled Gate for millennia, guarding the world from the entities that lurk beyond. When he helps two young knights pass beyond to save their friend's soul, they make an oath to answer when he calls them. Several years later, he does. They are to guard the gate for a hundred and one days, while he goes beyond, on whatever business a demigod like him may have.
They honorably accept, and the first hundred days pass fairly uneventfully - the occasional imp or poltergeist try to break through, but those are easily pushed back. On the last day, though, a Night Hag appears, threatening to pull forward an Astradaemon unless she is given a human soul of pure heart. While the female knight is willing to test her resolve against such an adversary, the young male fears they would not best it, and considers offering his soul to the hag. 

Arboreal

The arboreal entry in the bestiary comes to us with two variants and a third related stat block - namely, the basic warden, then the regent (also known as your classic tolkinean treant) and finally, a stat block used for animated trees.

Brinewood is an ancient forest made entirely of animated trees, known to migrate endlessly across the continent of Gunguska. While its diligent treant shepherds obviously have some sort of agenda, occasionally herding the thousands of trees towards war-torn regions and reviving ecosystems, no-one seems to be able to divine the idea behind the forest forming a dense, almost impassable ring around the trade hub of Blotvensk. The Grand Prince of the city knows better than to send woodcutters out, knowing that they would quickly be cut down by the wood's legendary wardens - but he knows all too well that reaching the heart of the forest, where its fabled regent resides, is no ordinary task. Even if the envoys he sends are granted audience, though, there is no knowing what the timeless master of the woods may ask of them.

Arboreal Regents were instrumental during the Green Revolution of Eire. They and their numerous wardens brought down man-made structures more quickly than any natural magic could, and were initially hailed as the heroes of the new Druidic state. After peace was won, however, and all of the numerous factions created a Grand Moot to decide what comes next, the more humanoid races of the newly created state realized that the treants' slow and deliberate manner, as well as their general lack of interest in the day-to-day operations meant that making any decisions would take literal years. In the first few months of the post-revolution period, it was Master Gerardo, the man who started and lead the revolution, keeping the humans, halflings and elves from turning on the tree-men, but when he finally succumbed to the wounds he got during the battle of Lake Killarney, a motion was put forward to revoke the voting rites of the arboreals, effectively making them second-rate citizens. As distrust grows among the other constituent races, a fairly young (not even a full millennium old) treant puts forward an idea - he will create a group of Leshys, imparting in them some of his knowledge, but none of his race's timeless care, to act as mediators.

While arboreals are clasically depicted as having the characteristics of trees commonly found inland on the continent of Epoure, those with other characteristics also exist. The Peaceful Lady is a treant who dwells in the Southern Olivelands, The Knotted Wiseling resembles a squat baobab, and Greenmane is a palm-like arboreal regent known to gift his own coconuts to those who show him respect. Legends also speak of The Heavenly, possibly the tallest existing living being, an impossibly large specimen resembling a giant Sequoia.
Recently, a team of wizards and druids decided to test whether the chicken or the egg came first - they planted a large number of grafted trees around woods known to be home to a large number of arboreal wardens.
Several days later, the monastery where this team of researchers resided was leveled by an unknown force. Just this morning, a herald of the nature god Malgerufion appeared before his devoted cleric and his trusty compatriot, and in a weeping tone asked them to put down "the bleeding trees", before fading from existence.

Arbiter

So, uh. Just wanted to point out that this is our tenth post and it appears that it will be on schedule. So, I'm taking this thing seriously. Yay me. Anyway, enough  of my sentimentality and on to the arbiter.

A lowly wizard who is also a known gambler, cheat and all-round scumbag, has recently made a series of great investments and amassed a fortune. The fact that he pulled it off by imprisoning an arbiter and torturing it into revealing bits of the cosmic plan is revealed in quite an unsubtle way, though - a minor army of arbiters are now threatening to erase the city from existence. Even if the city's protectors somehow manage to merely murder their way out of the situation, the Sages warn them that such a course of action is inevitable (pun fucking intended) to bring forth more powerful Aeons.

In the Blessed World Bandallallayah, chaos was entirely exterminated. Three milliseconds after that, all of the world's arbiters went haywire. Apparently, self-preservation is located deep within their machine code. Realizing the truth of the fact that once chaos was exterminated, they no longer had a reason to exist, they correctly deduced that it meant they would need to be destroyed. However, as they are technically still acting according to their (and the universe's) coding, the higher-order aeons cant directly deal with them. Strangers from far flung corners of the multiverse are now summoned forth to deal with this predicament.

The shimmering oracle is an arbiter that takes the ideas of duality too seriously even for an aeon. It has come into possession of an artifact that literally erases it from existence for a while. After it has been "existent" for a while, it will phase into nothingness for a while. Though those who have spoken to it claim it has some sort of internal logic deciding when and where it will disappear or reappear, it seems random from an outsider's perspective.
If one does manage to find it, it is more than willing to share cryptic tidbits of the cosmic plan, but it has been know to disappear mid-sentence on several occasions.
Of course, while its oracular prowess is highly sought out, there are also those who are willing to pay a kings ransom for the procurement of the artifact it is using, with no questions asked.