Planar Bestiary
Harrow troopers are the tips of an invasion force from another dimension. Little is known about the invaders; even the name "harrow" is just what the first humans who encountered troopers called them. Wherever harrows come from, they are clearly interested in pushing into new cosmological territory, the troopers only an initial exploratory probe to gather intel.
The constantly twitching tendrils hanging from a harrow trooper's mouth sample the air for scents, vibrations, and possibly even light in spectrums beyond a normal creature's ability to perceive.
Motive: Capture standard humanoids for experimentation and research, gather intelligence
Environment: Anywhere in the multiverse in groups of six to twelve
Health: 6
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (4 points)
Armor: 1
Movement: Short
Modifications: Perception as level 5; resists attempts to escape being grabbed as level 4
Combat: The harrow trooper can attack with their sword or their weaponized gauntlet. In addition to dealing damage, the gauntlets have special locking mechanisms that grab a hit target. All the grabbed target's tasks are hindered, and the crushing grip automatically deals damage each round until the target can escape with a successful level 4 Might task as their action.
A harrow trooper's attacks are eased if at least one other harrow trooper is within immediate range of the same target.
Five harrow troopers acting in concert can make a single attack roll as one level 6 creature, inflicting 9 points of damage. On a successful hit, only one of the troopers is grabbing the creature.
About once each day, a harrow trooper can step across the planes to a tiny artificial demiplane in the Ethereal containing a harrow outpost. A grabbed target that succeeds on a difficulty 4 Intellect defense task resists the transfer, escapes the grab, and does not make the trip. A grabbed target who fails the Intellect defense task is trapped in the harrow base until they can escape, allies can affect a rescue, or the harrow cull the captive for their experiments.
Interaction: A trooper's sensing cilia also allow for communication with other troopers, releasing complex, sequenced bursts of subtle scents that nearby troopers can instantly understand and respond to. Creatures like humans have no easy way to tell what troopers are saying, at least not without some practice.
Use: Harrow troopers are tasked with capturing humanoids like dwarves, elves, humans, and others, transferring them to secret demiplane outposts in the Ethereal, and experimenting on them. It is theorized that those who command harrow troopers are looking for weaknesses for the coming war.
Loot: A rare few harrow trooper swords are artifacts that, when activated as part of an attack action, ignore a target's Armor for one minute (level 5; depletion: 1 in 1d20).
GM Intrusion: The harrow trooper's sword flares with otherworldly energy; all attacks the trooper makes with it against a character ignore Armor.
A typical harrow outpost is a keep with two to eight chambers containing about ten harrow troopers. Among other oddities, the base includes a device that can selectively open portals to one or two fixed planar locations. Without these devices, a harrow trooper couldn't make the dimensional jump back to the base. The base usually includes a stockade holding 1d6 other humanoid captives.