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• Sep 24, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Mekillot

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  The Lore

  These hill-sized cutie pies are a kind of drake, but they differ enough from their elementally aligned relatives that they deserve their own entry. In the wild, these giant armored beasts roam the wastes in small herds, eating plants and the occasional small animal and laying their eggs near oases.

  Mekillots are not voracious predators other drakes, but they’re still aggressive and stubborn in the same way a real-life large herbivore like a rhino or hippo can be. While their size and armor makes them prime beasts of burden and war, they need to either be trained for these roles from birth or be kept under tight psychic control at all times.

  Some sorcerer-kings and other defilers think the mekillot’s natural size and aggressiveness isn’t lethal enough, and perform bioengineering rituals on their unhatched eggs to make the resulting creature even bigger and stronger.

  The Numbers

  Mekillots are Natural Beasts with the Reptile and Mount tags. They have no special senses or vulnerabilities. Everything else varies per stat block, and we get two here.

  Mekillot

  The typical member of the species is Huge, and has a ground speed of 7. It’s a Level 10 Soldier with 108 HP. Its basic attack is a Reach 1 bite that deals extra damage to grabbed targets. It can grab them with a Reach 3 Tongue Lash, which attacks Fortitude. On a hit it pulls the target 2 squares, damages and grabs them. The mekillot can only have one target grabbed like this, but it can keep biting them for increased damage as described above while the grab lasts.

  Mekillots used as mounts are trained to perform a Checking Charge. This lets them perform a charge that can go through enemy spaces, and each time they do so they automatically push the enemy 1 square and knock them prone. At the end of the charge, in addition to the usual attack from the mekillot, its rider can also make a melee basic attack as a free action. This is an excellent fight opener, since the push-and-knock-prone effect doesn’t require an attack. It lets the mekillot and its rider go straight to the PC squishies in the back line.

  Mekillot Dirk

  This is probably a mekillot mutated by defiling magic to be even bigger. It’s Gargantuan in size, a little slower at Speed 6, and a Level 22 Elite Soldier with 418 HP.

  The dirk is big enough to have Threatening Reach 2, as well as a Wide Body that lets other creatures enter and end their move in its space. This means they’re standing on its back – and that the slope is gentle enough to not require climbing checks.

  The dirk’s bite works just like that of the standard mekillot, though its numbers are of course bigger. It can also attack with Reach 2 Claws, which target 1 or 2 creatures. On a hit they deal damage, pull the target 1 square, and knock it prone. Its Tongue Lash has been upgraded to a Reach 4 Tongue Chomp, which works identically but also allows the creature to make a free bite attack against the target after pulling it to an adjacent square. This effectively makes this maneuver a double attack. The text says the tongue only pulls the victim 1 square, but I think that’s an error: it should be 3.

  Checking Charge upgrades to Trample, which doesn’t require a rider. This lets the mekillot shift twice its speed, enter enemy spaces during the move, and make free claw attacks against any enemy whose space it enters in this way. So it’s not guaranteed to knock the whole PC party prone any more, but those it does knock prone will be worse off.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  You’re either going to meet a small herd of wild mekillot, 2-3 of them being used as war mounts by humanoid soliers or brutes, or a mekillot dirk being used as an armored personal carrier by epic-level artillery and controller villains.

  Their mechanics are workable enough, but what really endears mekillots to me is this illustration. They look like marketable plushies even though they’re likely to trample you to death.

• Sep 17, 2025

  The Guns of Wolfenstein, Part 03: The New Order

  In Part 2 of this series, we took a look at the guns that appear on Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, whose timeline I named “Wolfenstein-2” for ease of reference. The timeline from the 2001 game, whose guns I talked about [here][2], was Wolfenstein-1.

  Here, we will take a look at the weapons that appear in Wolfenstein: The New Order, a game that was published before The Old Blood (2014) but whose stories starts right when The Old Blood ends. We’ll also make some mentions to the last game in the trilogy, The New Colossus (from 2017) but the weapons that make their debut in that game will be presented in a future post.

  The New Order Plot Overview (Contains Spoilers)

  Though this game was launched a year earlier, its story starts off right after The Old Blood ends, in 1946. After B. J. Blaskowicz returns to the Allies with the location of General Deathshead’s secret hideout, they mount a massive attack on that island fortress. This is a higher-budget version of the final chapters of the 2001 game, which ended with Deathshead’s defeat, but things don’t that well here.

  The attack is a disaster. Deathshead kills most of B.J.’s unit and leaves the rest of them to die in a deathtrap. The survivors manage to escape just as the room they’re in explodes, but the explosion buries a large piece of shrapnel in Blazko’s brain. He washes ashore somewhere in Poland, catatonic, and since no one knows who he is, gets sent to an asylum. He spends the next 14 years there slowly recovering, with nearly no motor function, slipping in and out of comas.

  A Nazi attack on the asylum in 1960 gives him the impulse he needs to complete his recovery, and the first actual level of the game is escaping that situation with a nurse named Anna, the other survivor of the place. They reach Anna’s grandparents, where Blazko learns that the Nazis won the war in 1948, and that as far as everyone knows the last members of the resistance had been captured and sent to an “inescapable” prison in Berlin.

  The rest of the game is about freeing these prisoners, rebuilding the resistance, and striking back at Deathshead through a series of daring heists. These start with the rescue of good-guy super-scientist Seth Roth¹, and proceed with the the capture of a giant enemy submarine, the recovery of its nuclear launch codes from a Nazi base on the Moon, and finally an attack on Deathshead’s fortress.

  Blazko manages to kill Deathshead during the second attack on his fortress, though the asshole manages to detonate a grenade as he dies. The game ends as B. J., too wounded to evacuate, gives his allies the all-clear to launch the nuke that will destroy this fortress for good.

  The Guns

  The vast majority of the guns here are, again, captured Nazi hardware. And those, in turn, are “new and improved” versions of the guns we saw in The Old Blood.

  Their actual mechanics and list of available weapons changes a bit between this game and its sequel in ways that can be better explained by changes in artistic and gameplay direction than by in-setting developments. The weapons presented here are based partially on a melding of their two versions, and partially on what I’d think would be more interesting for a GURPS Action game.

  This post focuses on the weapons that make their first appearance in The New Order. The next one will present the ones that first appear in The New Colossus, using the same adaptation strategy.

  I’m omitting price information as usual. In a Wolfenstein-inspired game, PCs will be picking these up from the corpses of their enemies. In other games, the GM can figure out a price based on the prices of similar real-world weapons.

  Pistols

  Pistol Model 1960

  A direct descendant of the 1946 model, this one has a more futuristic look, a double-stacked 20-round magazine, and the ability to fire 3-round bursts. It still takes the same cinematic silencer. As before, it adds -1 to Bulk, makes the gun cinematically silent, and also makes it only able to fire in semi-auto mode (RoF 3).

  If using standard GURPS skills, you need Guns (Pistol) to fire in semi-auto mode, and Guns (SMG) to fire bursts. If using the optional skills from Pyramid #3/65, you need Guns (Pistol), with the Burst-Fire technique for firing bursts.

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  8	Pistol 1960	2d+2 pi	2	160/1800	1.4kg/0.5kg	9	20+1(3)	10	-2	2

  Long Arms

  In the standard system, use the Guns skill that corresponds to their description (SMG, Shotgun, Rifle).

  If you’re using the alternate skills from Pyramid #3/65, they all use Guns (Long Arm), of course. The Burst-Fire technique helps fire weapons at a RoF greater than 3 without penalty.

  American Submachine Gun

  This is pretty much a historical Thompson M1A1, described in p. HT122. The Allies mostly didn’t have access to superscience in this timeline and were limited to historical equipment.

  Allied soldiers are armed with this during the 1946 assault on Deathshead’s compound, and the game expects you to use them for the handful of minutes between the start of gameplay and the moment when you first grab an enemy weapon.

  Assault Rifle Model 1960

  An evolution of the 1946 model, it’s lighter and uses a double-stacked 45 round magazine, but still fires the same round. The biggest change here is an underbarrel accessory rail that can take a mini-rocket launcher, which appears as an upgrade midway through the game. This is detailed in the Launchers section.

  Marksman Rifle 1960

  This semi-automatic rifle is about the same length as the AR, but fires a heftier round (likely 7.92x57mm) from a 10-round magazine. It has an integral scope. It’s a relatively rare find both in the hands of enemies and as loot. Clearly the Nazis are bigger fans of the spray-and-pray approach to marksmanship.

  An extended 30-round magazine is available: Shots 30+1(3), Weight becomes 6.2kg/1.05kg. The gun can also fire APHC rounds: Dam 6d+2(2) pi-.

  Shockhammer Model 1960

  Another descendant of the gun from The Old Blood, this one uses a “snail drum” magazine and a single barrel to achieve better performance than its predecessor. The most commonly available shells for the weapon are standard buckshot, and “shrapnel”.

  Shrapnel shells fire red-hot fragments that ricochet off walls in a very video-gamey way, allowing the player to hit enemies behind cover or around corners by bouncing the shrapnel off the wall behind them. The shotgun can only fire in semi-auto mode while using these shells.

  For the GURPS version below, I’m treating shrapnel as Multi-Flechette shells (High-Tech p. 174) with an incendiary effect. Damage becomes 1d+1 pi- inc; Range becomes 100/1200; RoF becomes 3x20. GMs who wish to replicate the ricochet effect can reduce the penalty for firing at targets behind cover when there are suitable surfaces nearby.

  At the GM’s discretion, any special shells listed in High Tech and Ultra-Tech might also be available for this shotgun.

  Long Arms Table

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  7	Thompson M1A1	2d+1 pi+	3	170/1900	6.1kg/0.8kg	11	30+1(3)	10†	-5	2
  7	MP-61	4d pi-	4	170/1900	3.1kg/0.4kg	13	45+1(3)	8†	-4*	2
  8	Assault Rifle	5d pi	5	500/3100	5.5kg/1kg	12	45+1(3)	9†	-5	2
  8	Marksman Rifle	6d+2 pi	5	850/3750	5.5kg/0.35kg	3	10+1(3)	10†	-5	2
  8	Shockhammer	1d+1 pi	3	40/800	7.1kg/1.05kg	6x9	20(5)	11†	-5	1/7

  Energy Weapons

  There is a surprising amount of energy weapons in both games. All of these use Beam Weapons (Rifle) unless noted otherwise.

  Laser weapons in this setting draw power from internal batteries that can’t be removed without disassembling the weapon. The usual method of reloading them is by using one of the highly dangerous industrial power outlets that seem to be everywhere in Nazi-dominated cities and facilities.

  In The New Order, these use short-ranged wireless power transfer. In The New Colossus, they use a thick cable with a plug that resembles a gas station pump. I suggest picking an aesthethic and sticking to it.

  Wireless Charging: The wielder must stay within 2 meters of the outlet during the process, which causes lightning to arc between the outlet and the weapon’s power receptors. Doing anything with the weapon other than holding it steady will interrupt the recharge.

  Wired Charging: The wielder must plug the cable into the weapon (1 Ready Action), and then stay within 1 meter of the outlet. The weapon cannot be used while charging. Once charging is done, it takes another Ready maneuver to unplug it.

  Recharge time is listed for each weapon, and has more to do with the weapon’s ability to absorb incoming power than with the outlet’s ability to provide it! The later seems to be effectively limitless, at least on a personal scale. Yes, these things are extremely unsafe. What happens if you stab someone with the wired plug or intercept them with the arc of the wireless charger is left as an exercise for the GM.

  In some places you can also find portable batteries that can be used to top up a weapon through a similar process. The GM will say how many shots from a weapon an individual battery can recharge.

  Lunar Laser Rifle

  On the Moonbase level of The New Order, everyone carries a laser weapon with the same external appearance as the Marksman Rifle. It lacks a scope, and can fire in full-auto mode. Its performance seems to be about on par with the assault rifle, though it is a lot better at dealing with heavily-armored enemies. Industrial outlets recharge it at 3 shots per second.

  Despite being a laser weapon based on the Marksman Rifle, Nazi soldiers don’t usually use Aim maneuvers with it, so they are no more accurate than usual when wielding it.

  It doesn’t exist in The New Colossus, not even on Venus. Maybe it was a pet project of Deathshead’s for the moon base, and got phased out when he died.

  Marksman Rifle (Combined)

  When you return to Earth after the Moonbase level, B.J.’s Marksman Rifle becomes a combination gadget of sorts, with the scope on a hinged mount. With the mount closed and the scope in place, it fires bullets as before. With the scope folded away, it behaves like the Moonbase laser rifle.

  This design is probably more of a video game quality of life decision than something feasible in setting, but if you want to include it in your campaigns you can treat it as a Combination Gadget per the rules on Ultra-Tech p. 16.

  Under those rules, Weight becomes 8kg/0.35kg (or 8.7/1.05 with the extended mag). Switching modes requires a Ready maneuver, and the weapon uses the Damage, Acc, Range, RoF, Shots and ST of whatever version is the currently active one. Keep track of both ammo counts separately!

  Laserkraftwerk

  This is an experimental laser weapon that B. J. “liberates” from a lab early in The New Order. It’s about carbine-sized, and fires shots that are more powerful than those of the lunar laser rifle.

  The LKW also has an alternate “laser cutter” module that’s useful for quietly severing chains and cutting through chain-link fences and thin metal walls. This does 2d(2) burn and can run continuously for half an hour on a full battery, if it matters.

  Over the course of the game, the player can find several upgrades for the LKW, including a scope, a double-capacity battery, and new internal parts that allow it to fire more often or to fire a more powerful “charged” shot that’s better at dealing with large and heavily armored opponents.

  In the Weapon Table below, you get stats both for the baseline version and the fully-upgraded one.

  Industrial outlets recharge the weapon at a rate of 1 shot per second with the standard battery, or 2 shots per second with the expanded one. The final upgrade in The New Order is an “ancient supertech” portable reactor that recharges the weapon at a rate of 1 shot per 2 seconds whenever it’s not being fired, regardless of its battery size.

  Energy Weapon Table

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  8+2^	Marskman Rifle (Laser)	5d(2) burn	12	500/1500	5.5kg	5	28*	7†	-5	1
  8+2^	LKW (baseline)	6d(2) burn	12	700/2100	4.5kg	3	10*	7†	-4	1
  8+2^	LKW (fully upgraded)	6d(2) burn sur	12+2	700/2100	5.5kg	5	20*	7†	-4	1
  	charged shot	6dx3(3) burn sur				1	**

  *: See description for recharge time.

  **: Drains power equivalent to 5 shots from the battery.

  Grenades and Launchers

  Enemy soldiers are enthusiastic about using hand grenades in the The New Order, and only a little less so in The New Colossus. Launcher weapons are much rarer.

  In The New Order, enemies use the same Hand Grenade from the previous post in the 1946 prologue. By 1960 they’ve switched to using Tesla grenades exclusively.

  Tesla Grenade

  This looks like a modernized version of the Stick Hand Grenade used back in 1946. Its explosive power is equivalent, but also releases an electromagnetic pulse that can “stun” robotic and cybernetic enemies in a 4-meter radius from the epicenter of the explosion. They must make a HT-8(2) roll or be knocked out of action for seconds equal to their margin of failure. That (2) means that any electromagnetic shielding that would provide a bonus to this roll only works at half effectiveness.

  This also applies to battery-powered weapons of any kind, which usually have HT 12.

  Underbarrel Rocket Launcher

  An accessory compatible with the 1960 Assault Rifle, this launcher fires 40mm anti-armor rockets from a removable cylinder with a 4-round capacity. It’s issued to soldiers that are expected to go against heavily-armored opposition, and who are usually heavily-armored themselves.

  The launcher can only be used if it’s attached to another weapon. By default that’s the assault rifle, which has the rails to receive it, but players might decide to get creative with their jury-rigging. It adds its weight to the overall weight of the other weapon and worsens its Bulk by -1.

  In the standard skill system, this uses the Guns (LAW) skill. In the alternate one, it’s Guns (Long Arm) aided by the Payload Warhead technique.

  Hand Grenade Table

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Weight	Fuse	Bulk
  8+1	Tesla Grenade	7d cr ex	0.7kg	4-5	-3
  	linked	HT-8(2) aff

  Rocket Launcher Table

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  8+1	Underbarrel Rocket Launcher	5dx2(10) cr ex	2	1900	2kg/1kg	1	4(5)	9†	–	2
  	linked	2d cr ex [1d-1]

  Heavy Weapons

  Laser Machine Gun

  The old Venom machine gun from the war has been replaced with this energy weapon in the Sixties. Like its predecessor, the Laser MG is found in fixed mounts, in the hands of cybernetic supersoldiers, and mounted on the many models of giant robot stomping around. It can fire for quite a bit before running dry. This can look like either a sequence of rapid pulses or a continuous beam, but either version uses the same stats. Enemies don’t like to aim with it either, improving the players’ chances of survival when facing it. It’s heavy and bulky enough to be only a “sometimes” gun for the player, used when found and quickly discarded when empty.

  Industrial outlets reload it at a rate of 20 shots per second. When attached to a fixed mount, the weapon’s Acc improves to 18, and it’s recharged as if connected to an outlet when not firing. Attaching or detaching it takes 2 Ready maneuvers. The weapon uses the Gunner (Beams) skill even when detached.

  Heavy Weapon Table

  TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
  8+2^	Laser MG	6d(2) burn	12	700/2100	25kg	10	200*	15M	-8	1

  *: See description for recharge time.

  1. Seth belongs to the Da’at Yichud, an ancient society of engineers that had been building superscience devices as a form of worship since before the rest of humanity had organized religion. Deathshead’s inventions are all copied from one of their vaults, which he found in the 40s. I’ve seen the concept described as kinda problematic despite the designers’ best intentions. ↩

• Sep 8, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Megapede

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  The Lore

  The Lore of the Megapede is fairly uncomplicated. They’re the logical endpoint of the Giant Centipede Arms Race. The largest, strongest, Darkest and Sunniest giant centipedes on Athas. And they’re also psychic, because of course they are.

  Megapedes lair underground, in burrows or natural caves where they lay their eggs. They hunt by tunneling through the sand, erupting from beneath their prey, and fighting a battle of attrition they will likely win with their venomous bite, hundreds of flailing legs, and corrosive psionics. Sometimes unlucky travelers taking shelter in a cave might find it’s already occupied by a megapede when it drops down from the ceiling on top of them.

  Sometimes, they’ll share their lair with a couple of wild cilopses, who are their distant cousins, but they tend to just eat anything else, and no one has ever managed to tame them.

  The Numbers

  Megapedes are Huge Natural Beasts and Level 15 Elite Brutes with 368 HP. They have Darkvision, a ground speed of 8, a burrow speed of 6 in loose earth, and a climb speed of 8. Their overall power level is on par with that of an Athasian drake.

  Their basic bite attack has Reach 2 and does a potent blend of physical and poison damage. Their most common at-will attack will be Legs of the Megapede, which attacks all enemies in a Close Burst 2 for similar damage and lets the megapede bite someone for free as an effect. Its Lashing Body (recharge 5+) works as a minor-action melee attack that does a little less damage than the Legs.

  As mentioned above, the monster is also psychic! Once per encounter it can use Psionic Erosion to attack the Fortitude of enemies in a Close Blast 5. On a hit, this deals immediate and ongoing psychic damage, which starts at 10 and decreases to 5 after the first successful save. On a miss, it deals half damage. Slightly more often, it can cause a Psionic Detonation on an Area 1 Burst Within 5, which deals “psychic and force” damage and slides targets 3 squares. This recharges when it’s first bloodied.

  Finally, when it hits with either of its single-target physical attacks, the megapede can use Psionic Augmentation to deal extra psychic damage on the attack. This also recharges when it’s first bloodied.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  As mentioned above, the most likely megapede encounters are against a mated pair or against one of them plus 2-3 leveled-up cilopses.

  Lore-wise this is basically a Giant-er Centipede, so I’m not all that excited about them. If that’s your bag, tough, they’re awesome. Mechanically, you can use a megapede anywhere you’d use an Athasian Drake - they’re about as powerful and arguably a lot more common. You could also reskin their stat block as a drake or other suitable giant creature.

• Aug 28, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Kirre

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  The Lore

  Kirres manage to feel like exotic alien creatures both to us in the real world and to characters in Athas. To us, it’s because they have eight legs and a pair of horns. To Athasians, it’s because they’re fur-covered mammals.

  These felines live in Athas’ rare forests and jungles, such as the Crescent Forest and the same Forest Ridge where halflings live. They gather in small prides, and are clever and cautious hunters.

  Instead of simply charging in, a kirre who isn’t desperately hungry will stalk its prey for hours to evaluate its capabilities and behavior, and will adapt its tactics to ensure their success. With some, they might be extra-sneaky and attack when the prey’s guard is down. With others, they might harass and make noises to scare the prey into making a foolish mistake.

  The book entry mentions that kirres are only one of several species descended from ancient great cats. Other names mentioned are tigones and “the reptilian lirr”, though these two aren’t present in the book.

  The Numbers

  We only have one stat block here.

  Kirre

  The kirre is a Large Natural Magical Beast, and a Level 13 Skirmisher with 131 HP. It has a Speed of 8.

  It has two basic attacks: a bite and a slightly weaker claw that slows for a turn on a hit. The Double Attack at-will ability lets it make two claw attacks in one action.

  Springing Pounce lets the kirre bite, shift 4 squares, and bite again. This becomes a nice fight opener when combined with the Scattering Leap move-action encounter power, which lets the beast jump 6 squares, push adjacent enemies at the destination 2 squares, and then shift 2 squares to follow one of those enemies. The Pounce recharges when the creature is bloodied, which also makes it useful for escaping a dicey situation.

  Once per encounter it can also use a Forceful Roar that attacks the Fortitude of enemies in a Close Blast 3. On a hit it deals force damage, pushes 2 squares, and knocks prone.

  When an enemy moves to a square where it flanks the kirre, it can use its Barbed Tail to fend then off, making a Reach 2 melee attack that knocks prone and inflicts 10 ongoing damage (save ends) on a hit.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  Kirres are smart enough to ally with creatures of other species, though they demand that their allies be at least as smart as themselves. Those who aren’t will be treated as prey instead. This is a low bar for other sapient creatures to clear, which means they will sometimes even accept humanoids as pack mates. They can be most often found in the company of halflings, though goliaths and giths that live in greener areas are also known to ally with kirres.

  They’re regular monsters, but their spread of abilities means they fight like elites! An encounter featuring a pair of kirres and a handful of humanoid allies will give PCs quite a fight.

• Aug 22, 2025

  Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Kestrekel

  

  This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  The Lore

  Kestrekels are not to be confused with kestrels, which might not even exist in Athas. They’re basically Darker and Sunnier vultures, with a habit of gathering around creatures that are about to die in the wastes. They’re a lot more enthusiastic about hurrying the process along than their mundane counterpart, and while a single kestrekel isn’t much of a threat a whole flock of them can be very dangerous.

  Those who want to turn the tables and hunt the birds instead might be able to draw them closer by feigning injury, but this rarely works - they’re a bit too clever for that tactic.

  The Numbers

  Kestrekels are Tiny Natural Beasts with a ground speed of 2 and a flight speed of 6. We get two stat blocks here.

  Kestrekel Carrion Eater

  This one represents a single individual. It’s drawn to movement, so even a traveller who isn’t wounded or dying might find one or three of these staring at them from a distance, and following them for a while.

  The kestrekel is a Level 1 Minion Skirmisher. Its claw attack is stronger against bloodied targets, and its Darting Rake at-will ability lets it shift 3 squares and make a claw attack.

  Kestrekel Blood Flock

  You might get a whole flock like this one on battlefields and similar places, where carrion abounds and its smell carries great distances. This is a Medium swarm of kestrekels, counting as a Level 2 Controller with 35 HP.

  The flock has all standard swarm traits: half damage from melee and ranged attacks, vulnerable 5 to close and area attacks, can occupy enemy spaces, can squeeze past any opening large enough for a Tiny creature.

  Its Swarm Attack aura (1) deals a bit of physical damage to enemies caught inside, and also slows them for a turn when that happens. Its basic attack is a swarm of Scrabbling Claws, which does standard physical damage with a small bonus against bloodied targets.

  The flock’s sheer bloodlust is also a weapon: the Loathsome Feast ability is a psychic attack that can be used if the flock is adjacent to a bloodied enemy. It attacks enemy Will in a close burst 3, deals psychic damage, and pushes each target hit a number of squares equal to their speed.

  Encounters and Final Impressions

  Whether you’re dealing with a few individuals or a whole flock, kestrekels are very opportunistic. They’ll stay away and watch until they see their victim is injured, sick, or dying. Then they dive in. Spilled blood also drives them into a frenzy, so they’re sure to join in on any fight that they see starting, intent on eating the combatants.

  These things don’t exactly spark joy in me, but it feels like they’re an interesting addition to any battlefield, where they’d be a constant hazard.

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