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In Short

The NPCs often fit classic archetypes. The hook hand murderer, the old crone that eats children, the lonely grifter, and more can all be found here. While there are some entities that are truly unique as well, the great benefit of Night Horrors is that it enables the Storyteller to present familiar stories in a new light. Mixing urban legend with gameplay is usually a winning combination, and this book seeks to exploit that whenever possible. The bottom line is that if you want a host of NPCs and plot ideas for your Chronicle then this is an excellent choice, but if you’re just interested in random monsters or something to read then you might want to give this one a pass.

The Good: The blending of urban and ancient legend with the Lost is well done. Storytellers interested in adding flavorful NPCs to their Chronicle, or who want a lot of extra story hooks to play with, will find a lot to enjoy here.

The Bad: Some readers may find that there are just too many Changelings presented. Many of the entities aren’t particularly horrific, or necessarily monstrous, so much as having the potential to work great evil. This makes them much more realistic, but they don’t all inspire the dread that the reader might hope for.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

I split these antagonists into three broad groups. First, some of the entities aren’t good or evil but still fill the role of antagonist. They may have additional aspects attached to them or incidentally wreck havoc. Second, some of the entities are intentionally malicious. These creatures often have a tragic past and now use whatever abilities they have to perform a subtle sort of evil. Finally, some of the entities are hardcore evil things. They’re horror incarnate, True Fae, or otherwise reflect otherworldly evil.

It can be a little difficult to review a book with a format like this. Discussing it generally doesn’t seem to really provide enough of a feel for the book, but talking about every entry is far too much. Let me walk you through three of my favorite entries, which happen to correspond to my above categories, and I’ll point out where the product shines as we go along.

The Bird of Second Chances: Fenghuang is the perfect example of a potentially antagonistic entity that has no evil motivations. This entity is responsible for the classical phoenix myth and appears as a brilliant bird of flame to those who observe it. For some select individuals the bird will alight upon their breast as they die. It offers continued life if the being so wants it, fulfilling a sort of compulsion to offer second chances to select people at the verge of death. If they accept then their injuries are healed and life continues on, perhaps indefinitely in some cases.

What Fenghuang does not know is that it was created through a pact between a True Fae and the primal forces of life and death. Every time Fenghuang returns a being to life a 12 year old girl somewhere in the world falls into the Hedge and is taken by this Fae. This could make for an excellent hook in a variety of ways. It could be a hook for a returning Changeling, with Fenghuang being setup as the reason she disappeared into the hedge. A friend or enemy’s child could go missing, a PC could die and need a convenient save, or even both. The NPC can drive the game forward in several ways, which is why it’s a great addition. While Fenghuang is more likely to be introduced suddenly, let’s look at a potential antagonist that’s best to introduce much earlier in a Chronicle.

The Smothering Mother Figure: Auntie Ally is a Wizened who suffered the joint torments of a nasty stay in Faerie and the loss of her family. This loss had a strong impact on her, eventually causing her to try and take on a mothering role in whatever Freehold she happened to be at. She makes sure the local Changelings are fed and cared for, doing far more than her part. It all sounds quite nice, if tragic, until a character begins to notice how often those under Ally’s care fall ill.

Caring for those that need it isn’t enough for Ally. People don’t get sick often enough, and it’s too hard to make it through life without the attention from making someone better. That’s why Ally regularly poisons people and otherwise creates injury. There’s no point in waiting when she can decide it’s time for someone to need her help, and thanks to her knowledge of herbalism and occasional forays into the Hedge for magical goods she manages to always make the illnesses a little bit different. Cultivating friendships allows her to move on from time to time, when she knows people might become suspicious, and those friendly phone calls result in her immediately being welcomed in her new home.

Auntie Ally isn’t any more supernatural than any player character. She doesn’t consider herself to be evil, instead focused on her loss and feelings of need. She is a villain, though. She spreads pain and misery in order to please herself, and she does it in a very secretive manner. She could make a great antagonist in any game, but especially one where the Storyteller wants a slow brewing horror in the background. So nice and kind initially, this NPC will do an excellent job of making the players squirm when they realize how dark and tragic she actually is.

While Auntie Ally is certainly an antagonist, she’s far more human in nature. The third group of antagonists here have little to do with humanity and are unlikely to encourage any emotional response except fear. Consider, for example, The Horror in the Dark: The Hook. This entity is basically just a classic slasher movie entity. It engages in the murder of the impure, enjoying a spree of terror until its lust is sated. It can’t be bribed, manipulated, intimidated, or otherwise dealt with. Most wounds fade immediately from its form and only the strongest, most well armed champion chances wounding its flesh.

Clearly, the Hook can be introduced in a variety of ways but ultimately is just an evil monsters for the characters to take down. That’s great, though, because as a Storyteller I want some of those to throw in as well. It’s identifiable, but the lore surrounding its existence and how to take it down is interesting. For example, one way to harm it is whenever it spills the blood of a truly innocent person. A devious Changeling might arrange for this to come to pass, tricking the entity to get rid of it at the high cost of a human life. Several other options appear as well, and those characters interested in doing research or exploring urban legends are certain to discover some of the clues that could lead to its downfall.

All three of these entities can be used in a variety of ways, but most importantly they show off the breadth of this book. Each one can fit the needs of the Storyteller in a different manner, and together they could provide several sessions of fun. Each of the twenty six antagonists presented are accompanied by plenty of information for the Storyteller, and they’re memorable enough that few play notes are necessary to retain the vital information about each one of the entities. With full stat blocks, background, description, secrets (for the ST), and rumors (for the players) all you need are characters and the story is already in motion.

My Take

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