Friday, February 27, 2026

Towards the Hoard of a Hundred Horrors: The Popopo

A tight-lipped smile, a bird's impassive eyes. White hair, white skin, and long, lithe limbs. Her beak stretches up and out of her throat, and there comes that awful sound - half song, half laugh: "Po-po-po" - easy to rhyme.

She is a lonely and envious creature. She takes other's children and makes them hers, brooding in darkling dungeons. In the west she is Mournful Dove. In the east she is the Capon's Cuckoo. In the north she is Winter-Come-Early. In the south she is the daughter of Night and Grief.

Yet across all corners of the world her call is the same - therefore, she is

The Popopo 

HD: 5 AC: 15 ATK: 1d6 peck and 1d6/1d6 claws + Raptorial Claim SAV: 10 MOV: As sprinting human, fly as pelican INT: As smart human ML: 7, 10 in defense of stolen children
No. Appearing: 1

The Popopo is strong enough to fly while carrying a single person. 

Raptorial Claim: An individual marked by the Popopo's claws becomes vulnerable to her magic. For each claw-mark upon them, the Popopo may inflict one of the following effects. Once per night the Popopo may also claw the exterior of a home, and thereby affect everyone inside it at once - and if she does so three nights in a row, on the third night all inhabitants automatically fail the first of their saves:

-Sleep: Save or fall into a deep sleep for 12 hours - if you receive a serious jolt you can save again.

-Glamour: Save or perceive the Popopo as an ordinary, if entrancing, woman - you understand her call as your own language. You can save again if someone not under the Popopo's spell points out what she truly is to you.

-Madness: Save or roll a 1d6 - on a 1-2 do nothing, on a 3-4 flee, on a 5-6 attack the nearest living thing. Save again each round.

Imperfect Scions

HD: 2 AC: 12 or as armour ATK: 1d4/1d4 claws + Swallow Whole or as weapon SAV: MOV: As human, fly as sparrow INT: As human ML: 7
No. Appearing: 1d2

Swallow Whole: Someone hit by both of an imperfect scion's claw attacks in one round must test vs. strength or be swallowed whole by it. They take 1 damage per round, and cannot escape until the thing is cut open.

Glamour: Imperfect as they may be, their glamour is more skillful than the Popopo's. It is always active, with no save possible against it, making them appear as normal people - until they swallow someone whole, or fly, or think they are alone.

To sages and cunning-folk it is known that the Popopo is never satisfied with her brood. She will give them away to those with the rite to call her, shaping them into the caller's idea of a perfect child. Such stories never end well - the children become far less subservient when they mature.

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