The Strange Bestiary
Kro measure their lives in crow coin. When enough coin is taken from a kro by force or theft that it dies, the kro may return as a wrathful entity driven by a need to get revenge against anyone and everyone, starting with those who killed it and branching out from there.
A murder has two forms—a crow-human hybrid armed with long claws and a jagged beak, perfect for taking a foe apart, and a great cloud of ravens that share a single mind. The murder hunts in its second form, spreading far apart, with individual ravens watching for likely targets of vengeance. Once they pick up the trail, the ravens follow their target, monitoring its movements until the prey is alone and vulnerable. That's when the murder reveals itself. The ravens fly together, clumping up to become beaked death.
Motive: Vengeance
Environment (Crow Hollow | Magic or Weird Science): Almost anywhere
Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (3 points)
Movement: Short; long when flying
Modifications: All tasks related to perception as level 5.
Combat: While in loose-cloud form, a murder can distribute its individual ravens across many miles, but in combat it condenses the cloud into a furious blot of flying ravens that fills an area 30 feet (9 m) in diameter. Other creatures can move through the murder while it's condensed, but the difficulty of all tasks increases by one step because of the constant jostling and limited visibility. In addition, while the murder is condensed, it takes half damage from any attack that would ordinarily affect just one target. On its turn, the murder can attack any creature in the cloud or within an immediate distance as a single action. In its hybrid form, the murder deals 3 additional points of damage on a successful attack (6 points of damage total).
In either form, whenever the murder takes damage, it instantly breaks apart into a swirling cloud of birds and gathers itself at a spot it can see within short range without using an action. As much as it craves revenge, the murder is aware enough to know when it is fighting a losing battle, and it will retreat to resume its attack at a later time when it has a greater advantage.
Interaction: Murders relentlessly hunt down their killers and anyone involved in their death. Although they normally ignore other people, they are not above wringing information from others or attacking innocents who stand between a murder and its enemies. When divided into separate ravens, they croak the names of their killers in a horrible litany.
Use: A member of a minor Beak Mafia family has recently acquired an artifact that lets her control a murder haunting the Glittering Market. So far, she uses it to advance her position in her family by eliminating rivals. The more power she gains, the more her ambition grows.
Loot: A murder keeps a hidden lair containing 1d100 x 2 crow coin, 1d6 cyphers, and other shiny bits. When a target is damaged by a murder, an equal amount of crow coin drops at the target's feet. After the murder kills the target, it collects the scattered coin.
GM Intrusion: When a murder breaks apart into a flock, the character is blinded for one round.