Fortnightly Fiends: The Brelkhaddar

It's been a while, for which I apologise: I've been spending much of my time providing COVID cover - too much, really - at work, then getting a thoroughly evil gastro virus myself, but hopefully things are back on track. This is a new feature for the blog: every two weeks (more or less), I'll introduce a monster, statted for Blood & Treasure (and possibly some other systems as well. Possibilities include: Advanced Olde Swords Reign, Pathfinder 1e, Fantastic Heroes &Witchery, OSRIC, For Gold & Glory, Labyrinth Lord, my own nascent Tales of the New Kingdoms system, & RM, perhaps. I'll probably surprise myself and choose one system at random each time). The creature will usually be a "new" one, but there will be converted and reimagined monsters as well (where such are not already found in the B&T bestiaries). I say "new" because I will no doubt rediscover ideas that are already out there that I'm currently unfamiliar with. In any case, this fortnight, our Fiend of Note is the desert-dwelling Brelkhaddar (pronounced brell-kih-daah).

Of old there was Verukarsis, the son of the Firelord Tulkan and Adorhyll, the Lady of Broken Mirrors. Verukarsis took full share of the natures of both his parents, their joy in destruction and rage against those who esteem enlightenment and lore,and was thus one of the most potent champions of the Wilder Gods during the Godwars. However, after the final defeat of the Wilder Gods, Verukarsis retreated into the lands that later became the Great Desert, nursing his resentments and terrorizing those unfortunates who strayed into his bleak domain. 

One such encounter led directly to the creation of the Brelkhaddar: a Torch Nymph (sworn to serve Yelith) came seeking Verukarsis for some kind of boon, believing - erroneously - that Verukarsis would lend her aid out of a sense of allegiance. After many torments, the scornful Verukarsis slew the Torch Nymph, capturing her undead essence and fusing it with that of his Salamander and Sandman minions, and most importantly, his own malign spirit. 

The result exceeded even his own vile expectations: a creature wholly new, a tall, reptilian female, with dun-coloured scales, fuming eyes of orange, capable of taking the form of a dust devil, attacking their foes with a fear-inducing howl of woe and rage and granted the power to flay the flesh from bone with a cone of wind-driven sand, whose claws can erode an individual's confidence, reason and will.

Verukarsis failed in one respect, however: the Brelkhaddar were unable to breed. Verukarsis was not content with one such creature, seeing in them the potential for renewed war upon those who served the Jurenaic Gods. He sent out his servants to capture Torch Nymphs wherever they could be found (incidentally earning himself the eternal ire of Yelith), and had soon created two score and one of the terrifying creatures. 

It was at this point that Verukarsis realised that, in imparting his own vitality and spirit to the Brelkhaddar, he had weakened himself to the point that he was unable to resist their inevitable rebellion. The Brelkhaddar united - briefly - to cast him down, before falling upon each other in their own horrendous internecine strife. Verukarsis fled to the Para-elemental Plane of Ash, a miserable wraith shorn of all but the merest vestige of his divine might. The Brelkhaddar - of whom twelve have perished - now make war upon each other, usually through proxy armies of desert tribes, corrupted Xeph, Gnolls, Scorpion Men and Janni. One or more Brelkhaddar sometimes attempt to expand beyond their homeland in the heart of the Great Desert, in the hope of securing resources and troops. Such incursions are crushed as quickly as possible by those whose lands border the Brelkhaddar homeland, but there remains the disturbing possibility that one of the various potentates who currently guard against the Brelkhaddar will attempt to create an alliance - or be forced to do so.