When humans were still young to the Mortal Plane the Ameya (halflings) had been old for many centuries and for centuries the Gentle Folk, as they were known, flourished in the fields and meadows and lands along the slow flowing creeks and streams. But as humanity aged and spread across the Mortal Plane the Ameya were slowly pushed from the meadows and the fields as humanity’s thirst for easy, settled lands knew no bounds. Sometimes humans and Ameya lived in peace side-by-side, but increasingly humans overpowered the Ameya, and the Ameya were pushed out, enslaved, or outright killed. This extermination of the Gentle Folk happened slowly over the centuries, but not so slowly for the gods that created the Ameya to ignore. They saw their children being pushed from their homes, farther and farther out into the wilderness, or having to seek shelter with the elves or dwarves, or becoming strangers in their own former villages now taken over by humans. And of course the Ameyan gods saw the enslavement and murder. These gods discussed amongst themselves what should be done. They had bestowed their children with gifts to defend themselves and encouraged them when necessary to be stout and hardy warriors, but to halt the slow, steady, genocide at the hands of humans the gods of the Ameya saw that their children would have to become hardened, bloody people as the only thing humanity seemed to understand was power. “Is this what we want our children to become, to enjoy and prize the bloodthirst that humanity savors, or do we wish for our children to stay the gentle, joyful folk?” The Ameyan gods decided that they would take their children from the Mortal Plane and fashion a refuge for them in the Demi Plane. There, free of humanity’s constant assault, the Ameya could remain the Gentle Folk that their gods had intended them to be.
So began the Ameyan withdraw from the Mortal Plane. The Ameyan gods sent their agents across the mortal world to make sure that the various clans and tribes of their children would have the opportunity, should they wish so, to leave the Mortal Plane. With the consent of a majority of the gods, and aided by some, the Ameyan gods assisted their children in traveling from the Mortal to the Demi Plane. Most Ameya gladly left the pain of the mortal world behind them, not wishing to be pushed into the wilds just to have a newly, carved-out settlement be taken from them by humans. Some few Ameya wished to stay and fight rather than run, but this was folly and most were quickly wiped away as though they had never been. However, one Ameyan wizard that had witnessed his village overtaken in a spectacularly brutal way decided that he would make humans remember the Ameya for all the ages to come.
This Ameyan wizard, whose name time has forgotten, had long known about what humanity had done to his people. He agreed with his gods that his people should remain the Gentle Folk, but he disagreed with the retreat. “Humans only understand power and pain, and what pain’s humans most is what humans fear.” The Ameyan wizard studied humanity for many years and observed that humans were afraid of many things, and what humans feared most was what they could not control. And humans could not control what they could not see. Of all the races, only humanity cannot naturally see in the dark and because of this humanity fears the dark above all things. Some of humanity’s greatest frightening stories all take place with some fell creature that comes out of the dark to feast upon unawares men and women. Creatures that will pull humans back far into the darkness to do terrible things to them. With this in mind the Ameyan wizard took a mountain lion, an already feared hunter, and magically altered the beast into an even more lethal predator. The wizard made the creature’s front claws more prehensile so that it could more effectively grasp its prey. He changed its jaws to be more powerful and square and gave it stronger muscles in the neck so that when the creature clamped down on its prey it would be as though the unfortunate quarry was caught in a vice, and with a stronger neck rip and wrench that quarry apart more efficiently. The skin was changed to make it reptilian in nature with fine shimmering scales that could act like a chameleon’s so that the creature could change color and blend into whatever environment it was in. He changed its eyes from the cat’s eyes to solid black orbs to give the creature an otherworldly, cold feel. The wizard granted the creature the ability to turn invisible at will. And lastly, and most importantly, the Ameyan wizard made the creature intelligent. Some say as intelligent as the wizard, or that the wizard had put part of his own mind in that of the creature’s. With this intelligence came the thoughts not just to kill human men, women, children, and infants, but to terrorize them. To cause great panic and fear and give them no peace. The creature would never harm Ameya or those that assisted them. Its abiding mission was to sew fear in human populations. It is a thinking creature that strategizes, not just some simple beast that lives off instinct.
Now with his tool of vengeance in tow, the Ameyan wizard traveled back to his former home and set the creature loose. A few decades had passed since humans had taken over this once peaceful place. Some humans that had been responsible for the massacre still resided there. Some in the village were merchants and others simply passing thru. Most, as the village was part of a farming region, were simply poor, farm families that had moved in some years after the Ameya had been killed, these farmers themselves having nothing to do with what terrible events had transpired. This did not matter to the wizard, or to the creature. His people had been slaughtered with indifference and he and his creation would return the favor. The creature, invisible, stalked its way thru the village to the center where those humans that had participated in the massacre and their families resided. By the time the first screams were heard and alarms raised several dozen were already dead. Guards yelled out and scrambled towards the cries, and there they fell. Lights popped on in houses, and suddenly went out. Some few tried to run from their homes, making it partway into the fields, only to be dragged back. By dawn, the creature had completed its task and the village was silent.
A caravan of merchants made their way into the village two weeks later and promptly left, carrying with them images of slaughter unlike anything they had ever seen or heard of. Soldiers were soon sent into the village to ascertain what had happened. Those that stayed the night stayed in the village forever. Those that knew the history of the village said that it must be punishment from the halflings’ gods for what had been done to their children. It was the Halflings’ Revenge. More soldiers were sent and more soldiers never left. Word spread thru the region and any and all sane folk began to give the village a wide berth. Some looters and others went into the village, again those staying thru the night never leaving. The village was declared cursed and people were prohibited from venturing there.
Tales of the village spread, and then new tales. Tales of some large, cat-like creature stalking thru other villages. A creature that hunted humans. It left tracks when it wished, tracks that lead men to their deaths. A creature that could enter homes undetected and kill at its leisure. It could open doors and windows. It could avoid traps set by men and spring its own upon them. It was patient. It was cunning. It did not fear sword, nor spear, nor fire, nor magic. It could break cages and tear its way thru the strongest nets. It broke brave men and drove others mad. It killed the strong first, almost knowing that this would scare the weak more. It made no sound but left a terrible sight. It killed infants in front of their mothers, stout husbands in front of their wives. It could not be placated with offerings – not gold, not meat, not virgin, not firstborn. It knew what Man loved and what Man feared and used both against him. “It’s Man’s Bane”. And always this at night. “The Nightstalker”. Whatever name it was called was said in hushed voices as though the act of speaking of the creature would invite calamity.
The wizard passed away some short while after his home was avenged, his creation lived on traveling far and wide across the Mortal Plane as did its legend – that a large, pale, cat-like creature will come for humans in the dark of night and drag them into the shadows, or kill you in your home. As more centuries passed the bloody tale of Man’s Bane softened and became something of a fairytale that human parents used to scare their children into going to bed and saying their prayers. That if you aren’t nice to halflings the Nightstalker will come for you, so be nice to the Little People, and keep a candle lit in your window.
Many centuries have passed and the village is well grown over. Very little sign of the homes and roads exist. The old stories that the area is cursed still persist and the wise and wary still give the place a wide berth. Only the foolish, destitute, or criminal pass thru that way, and even then none linger too long.
It is said that the creature was eventually killed, or had left this plane after a human cleric asked it and the Ameyan gods for forgiveness for what her race had done, vowing to honor the memory of the Gentle Folk that had fallen and that those that remained in the Mortal Plane would never come to harm by human hands again (thus establishing the Knights of Marburrie Creek, Marburrie Creek being the name of the Ameyan wizard’s village). Some said after it’s task was completed the creature simply faded away. This task not primarily being to kill humans but to force humans to remember the Gentle Folk and Man’s sin against them. This is of course is partly true. Another part being that this is what humans tell themselves so they are not so afraid of the night and what might be waiting in the dark for them. And yet another part is that the Nightstalker, the Halflings’ Revenge, Man’s Bane, still prowls the Mortal Plane causing terror where it can and it will do so until every human vanishes from the world. Just when humans seem to have forgotten their ancestors’ crimes against the Ameya, and these humans have become too comfortable in lands that once belonged to the Gentle Folk, the Nightstalker will return to jog Man’s memory.
Ideas for incorporating aspects of the story into your gameplay.
Some group of humans have been harassing a small, wilderness settlement of Ameya –
deep forest area, maybe the Ameya live in the trees and/or underground and the Nightstalker has been seen and you have been sent to investigate.
A settlement: village or city of mostly humans has reported incidents of some wild animal/creature attacking it’s populace. Glimpses of a pale, large, cat-like creature have been reported. Some say it is the Nightstalker as the locale was originally settled by Ameya some hundreds of years ago. Has a descendant of one of those original Ameya summoned the Nightstalker and is controlling it, or has the creature simply showed up on its own?
You have been asked by the Knights of Marburrie Creek to:
Assist in defending a group of Ameya living in some wilderness community that is now under threat by humans.
Assist in stopping a lord/politician that wants to harass/harm/discriminate against the Ameya in his lands/city by using them as some type of scapegoat or to undermine their political and/or economic stability and make them second-class citizens. Perhaps the noble has already turned the Ameya into second-class citizens and it is the players job to help re-establish the Ameyas’ rights by exposing the noble as corrupt or overthrow the noble, or, if the Ameya have been imprisoned, help them escape.
Some Tactics of the Nightstalker:
Capture infants/children or pregnant woman/women and use them as bait
Leave tracks that lead human(s) to some place where the human(s) can end up easily lost, separated from the group, or caught up in the environment (brush, swamp, rocky crags) and more easily killed
Drag bodies and/or body parts over the ground to create a blood trail for humans to follow that leads the humans exactly where the Nightstalker wants the humans to go
Become visible right before killing, and whenever it wants to be seen
Knocks things over on humans – heavy rocks, furniture, dead trees, lumber, masonry, etc
Kills humans with the fire the humans made to flush out the Nightstalker
Kills the strongest first
Knocks humans off and over things, lets the fall do most of the damage and either that person becomes bait or the Nightstalker kills the injured human later at its leisure
Can manipulate a crossbow and other triggered weapons to some extent
Using its abilities to camouflage and turn invisible, the Nightstalker will let humans pass right by it to observe what they do. Will go into communities and simply observe the activities of the humans there, the humans strengths and weaknesses, and like a general that plans a grand battle uses this information against the humans to the fullest, bloodiest, most terrorizing effect:
Locking/barricading humans in a place of worship on a holy day and setting the house of worship on fire
Attacking on holidays, at parties, at funeral processions, at weddings
Attacking a tavern near the end of the night after a long week of work
