Expanded Worlds
What’s the tale behind the one lone shoe? If you’re lucky, the other shoe got kicked under the bed. If you’re unlucky, a shoe thief has infested your home. You’ll know it’s the latter if other things begin to go missing, too. Small things at first, like single socks, pens, and paperclips. But single shoe thieves may become many. That’s when larger stuff begins to go missing, like books, money, pets, and your little brother. Shoe thieves, only about 1 foot (30 cm) tall, appear like animate accumulations of lint, dust balls, matted hair, and teeth. Shoe thief infestations can be traced back to dark cubbies in a home or nearby shack, littered with what they’ve stolen. Particularly well-established cubbies lead by crooked basement paths to a fey realm where things even more dangerous than shoe thieves stalk.
Motive: Accumulate “treasure” and food
Environment: Anywhere dark
Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (3 points)
Movement: Short; immediate when phasing through solid walls, floors or ceilings.
Modifications: Speed defense as level 4 due to small size; deception and trickery as level 2.
Combat: A shoe thief’s fierce bite is, like a cat’s, liable to get infected. In addition to 3 points of damage inflicted from the bite, a victim who fails a Might defense roll becomes dazed within the hour from the feeling of sickness, and finds the difficulty of all tasks increased by one step. Infected victims don’t get better unless their wound is healed with magic, a faerie salve, or some similar unusual intervention. Four or more shoe thieves can attack together as a swarm, making a single attack as a level 5 creature that inflicts a moderate wound (5 points). Shoe thieves regain 1 point of health per round while their health is above 0 unless they’ve been damaged with a silvered or cold iron weapon.
Interaction: Shoe thieves have the wit and language skills of five-year-old children. Evil and greedy fiveyear- olds, granted, but they can be tricked.
Use: Shoe thieves might infest an old apartment building, an abandoned well, a junkyard, a run-down keep, or the basement of the school.
Loot: Amidst the litter of trash, single shoes, keys, books, bones, and dirt, items people value can usually be discovered in a shoe thief burrow, including coins, equipment, and even a few cyphers.
GM Intrusion: The shoe thief ’s bite is not only infectious, but it’s also venomous. If the character is bitten, they must succeed on a Might defense task or immediately move one step down the damage track.