Aberration Threats

AX.GHW.13.02 - Aberration Threats

Aberrations are entities that do not belong to this reality layer. They are not supernatural in the way that fae, demons, or undead are supernatural; those categories evolved within or adjacent to the same metaphysical substrate as human existence. Aberrations come from somewhere else entirely: dimensional spaces, void-adjacent realities, the spaces between the Liminal and whatever lies beneath it, or configurations of existence so foreign that human cognition cannot fully process them.

The defining quality of an Aberration is wrongness. Not malevolence, some Aberrations have no apparent goals that could be called malevolent. What they share is a relationship to physical and cognitive reality that is incompatible with human presence. Standing near an Aberration produces symptoms that resemble nothing else in the threat compendium: sensory distortion, false memories, involuntary pattern-seeking, and in severe cases a persistent alteration of the affected person's relationship to reality.

Why Aberrations Are Different

Every other threat category can, in principle, be addressed through understanding. Fae have motivations that can be engaged. Demons have hierarchies and contracts. Undead have unfinished business. Cryptids have territorial behaviors. Even the most alien-seeming threat in the other categories operates on recognizable logic once the hidden-world framework is applied.

Aberrations resist this. Their motivations (when they have them) are not mappable to human frameworks of want, need, or purpose. Their behavior does not follow consistent enough patterns for tactical exploitation. Their presence in this reality may be incidental, they drifted here through a boundary weakness, or purposeful in some sense that no existing tradition can fully articulate.

This has two practical implications:

1. Standard tradition countermeasures have limited effectiveness. Cold iron, blessed weapons, salt; these work on entities whose nature is adjacent to the human reality layer. Aberrations are not adjacent to it. Effectiveness varies widely (see individual entries), and high-threshold Mediumship or Force tradition abilities are generally more effective than material bane weapons.

2. Sanity cost is real. Sustained exposure to Aberrations produces a condition the hidden world calls Veil Fracture, a progressive destabilization of the individual's perceptual baseline. Mechanically: every scene in which a character takes Aberration ability damage or is directly affected by an Aberration presence effect, they take 1 persistent Wit damage that recovers only through a Long Rest in a completely normal environment. Characters reduced to 0 Wit by Veil Fracture are effectively non-functional until recovered.

The Boundary Problem

Aberrations are in this reality because something let them in. Hunting an Aberration without addressing the boundary weakness that allowed its entry is incomplete, the Aberration may be banished, but something else will come through the same gap. The full solution always involves both destroying or banishing the specific Aberration and closing the entry point.

Entry points are called Breaches. Breaches manifest as locations where reality is thin, spaces where Aberrations enter, where physics behaves inconsistently, where time seems discontinuous. Breaches range in size from doorway-scale (small Breaches admitting Minion-class entities) to building-scale (large Breaches admitting Champion or Legendary-class entities). Closing a Breach requires a Mediumship practitioner (Wit + Mediumship vs Threshold equal to the Breach's scale: 1–5) and takes 10 minutes minimum. An open Breach continues producing Aberrations and Veil Fracture effects in the area until closed.

Tradition Interactions

• Mediumship: Most effective against Aberrations. The Liminal layer is not the same as the void-spaces Aberrations come from, but it sits closer to those spaces than ordinary reality does. Mediumship practitioners can sense Aberrations at Near range without rolls, detect Breaches at Far range, and attack Aberrations using Mediumship tradition abilities with full effectiveness.
• Sacred Fire / Hollow Pact: Force traditions affect Aberrations at reduced effectiveness, attacks deal normal damage but healing, suppression, and banishment abilities are at -1D (these abilities work by invoking metaphysical authority within the human reality layer; Aberrations are not subject to that authority in the same way).
• Glamourist: Generally ineffective. Glamourist tradition operates on perception and Liminal resonance, Aberrations interact with perception in ways that make Glamourist abilities unpredictable against them. The GM may rule specific Glamourist applications work (True Sight reading an Aberration's true nature) but combat applications are not reliable.
• Pact-Shifting: No special effect. A shifted Skinchanger fights an Aberration the same way they'd fight anything else.
• Blessed/Silver/Cold Iron: No special effect on most Aberrations. See individual entries for exceptions.

Threat Entries

Dimensional Spawn

Type: Aberration, Minion Power Package: Minion (4D) Veil Risk: Moderate, appearance is disturbing and physically impossible; witnesses describe something no animal taxonomy covers

Size: Small (roughly cat-sized, geometry inconsistent, appears different dimensions from different viewing angles)
Attributes: Body 2D · Speed 2D · Wit 1D
Talents: Athletics 2D · Stealth 1D
Health: 27 (20 + 2 + 5)
Defense: 2 (1 + (2+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 3D · Speed 3D · Wit 2D

Attacks - Phase Bite (Primary Action): Speed + Athletics vs Defense, 3 damage; the bite partially phases through armor (reduce armor value by 1 for this attack only) - Scatter (Reaction): When struck, the Spawn phases briefly, the attacking character must succeed on a Wit Save (Threshold 2) or their next attack targets the wrong space (misses automatically, as the Spawn is no longer there)

Special Abilities - Inconsistent Geometry: The Spawn's physical form does not occupy three-dimensional space consistently. It appears larger or smaller depending on the angle of observation, and it can move through gaps smaller than its apparent size. Effectively: it cannot be contained by any physical barrier without cold iron or dimensional sealing (see Breach Closure). - Presence Flicker: Being within Close range of a Dimensional Spawn produces mild Veil Fracture symptoms, not the full 1 persistent Wit damage, but Disadvantage on Wit-based Notice rolls while in Close range. This clears immediately when the Spawn is destroyed or moves away. - Breach Tether: Dimensional Spawns cannot survive more than Far range from the Breach that produced them. If forced beyond Far range (by driven pursuit or deliberate repositioning), they destabilize and dissolve within 1 round. They cannot be permanently destroyed away from their Breach.

Tactics Spawns are not predators, they are byproducts. A Breach produces them as a function of the boundary instability, not because something is sending them. They move toward heat and biological activity out of some basic navigation instinct. They cluster near the Breach, which makes approaching the Breach to close it dangerous, a small Breach might produce 3–6 Spawns that must be managed while the Mediumship practitioner works on closure. They do not coordinate; they just swarm.

Destruction/Banishment Spawns dissolve if forced beyond Far range of their Breach. Within Breach range, they must be destroyed. Conventional weapons work at normal effectiveness. Mediumship attacks destroy them reliably. Closing the Breach eliminates all active Spawns in the area simultaneously, the priority is always the Breach, not the Spawns.

Scene Materials Investigation: localized physics anomalies (objects not where they were left, sound traveling wrong), animals in the area behaving as though tracking something invisible, Mediumship practitioners experiencing intrusive Liminal impressions without actively using their tradition. Breach location: typically a confined space, basement, server room, industrial site, old building.

Stalker from Beyond

Type: Aberration, Standard Power Package: Standard (6D) Veil Risk: High, its transit creates physically impossible evidence: footprints in sealed rooms, security footage gaps, structural damage consistent with no known animal

Size: Medium (roughly human-sized, but proportions shift, limbs too long, joints wrong)
Attributes: Body 3D · Speed 3D · Wit 1D
Talents: Athletics 2D · Notice 2D · Stealth 2D
Health: 33 (20 + 3 + 10)
Defense: 2 (1 + (3+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 5D · Speed 4D · Wit 2D

Attacks - Rending Strike (Primary Action): Body + Athletics vs Defense, 5 damage; causes bleeding (target takes 1 damage at start of each of their turns until the wound is addressed, Speed action to apply pressure) - Phase Transit (Free Action, 1×/round): The Stalker moves up to Near range, passing through any non-iron solid barrier in the process. This movement does not trigger opportunity attacks.

Special Abilities - Dimensional Tracking: Once the Stalker has located a living target, it can track them across dimensional and physical barriers. It knows the general direction of its target at all times. Losing a Stalker requires either destroying it or closing the Breach it came through, evasion is temporary. - Reality Drag: The Stalker's presence warps local physics slightly. All characters within Near range experience a subtle wrongness, sounds arrive slightly delayed, peripheral vision shows things that aren't there when looked at directly. Mechanical effect: all Notice and Wit + Lore rolls within Near range of an active Stalker take -1D from the perceptual distortion. - Veil Fracture (Minor): Characters who take damage from a Stalker's Rending Strike take 1 persistent Wit damage (Veil Fracture) in addition to the physical damage. This is the contact effect of a Stalker's physical touch on human cognition. - Slow Dissolution: Stalkers that are significantly damaged (below half Health) begin dissolving, their geometry becomes increasingly inconsistent, Phase Transit becomes involuntary, and they may partially phase into walls before fully dissolving. At 0 Health, they dissolve completely. They leave no physical remains.

Tactics Stalkers hunt. They do not swarm, they do not communicate with other Aberrations, and they are not producing anything; they found a target through the Breach and are pursuing it. The target may be someone who touched the Breach site, someone who attracted attention from the other side for unknown reasons, or a completely random victim. The lack of discernible targeting logic is itself disorienting.

Stalkers do not retreat. They do not respond to threat displays. They continue approaching their target until destroyed. If the target is separated from the group, the Stalker will wait in an adjacent space (phased through a wall) until it can get the target alone.

Destruction/Banishment Conventional weapons work but the Stalker's Phase Transit means melee engagement is difficult to maintain; it keeps repositioning. Mediumship attacks are highly effective and prevent Phase Transit (a Stalker hit by a Mediumship attack cannot use Phase Transit on its next turn). Blessed weapons deal +1 damage (minor metaphysical effect from their reality-anchoring quality). Closing the Breach from which the Stalker emerged banishes it regardless of its current distance from the Breach.

Scene Materials Investigation: targeting, someone has been singled out; establish who and why (or accept that there may not be a why). Evidence: impossible entry points, wounds that the victim cannot explain, the target's increasing anxiety before any character interaction. Combat: the Stalker does not fight conventionally; it phases through cover, approaches its target specifically, and ignores other characters unless they physically block it.

Reality Fracture

Type: Aberration, Standard Power Package: Standard (5D) Veil Risk: Extreme, a Reality Fracture does not hide and cannot be explained by any conventional framework; its mere presence is a Veil crisis

Size: Large (a spatial anomaly approximately 6–10 feet across; not a creature in the conventional sense)
Attributes: Body 1D · Speed 0D (stationary) · Wit 3D
Talents: Lore 2D · Resonance 2D (Breach resonance, not a tradition)
Health: 31 (20 + 1 + 10; damage represents Breach integrity loss)
Defense: 1 (1 + (0+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 2D · Speed 0D · Wit 5D

Design note: A Reality Fracture is not a creature; it is a spatial anomaly with an animating intelligence or semi-autonomous behavior. It does not move but it extends influence. "Destroying" it means closing the Fracture, not killing a body.

Attacks - Gravitational Pulse (Primary Action): Wit + Resonance vs Speed Save, target within Near range is pulled to Close range of the Fracture and takes 3 damage from the transit distortion - Extrusion (Primary Action): Wit + Resonance vs Wit Save, a portion of the Fracture extends a temporary pseudopod into the local space; 4 damage on a hit; target takes 1 persistent Wit damage (Veil Fracture) - Reality Ripple (Free Action, 1×/round): All characters within Near range make Wit Saves (Threshold 2) or experience a momentary sensory displacement; they briefly perceive a different location, different time, or different version of the current space. No damage, but Disadvantage on their next action roll from disorientation

Special Abilities - Ambient Veil Fracture: Any character who spends more than 1 round within Near range of a Reality Fracture (not just those attacked) takes 1 persistent Wit damage per round. This is ambient; there is no save. Characters with Mediumship tradition access take this damage at half rate (rounded down; so every 2 rounds instead of every round) due to their partial acclimation to Liminal-adjacent space. - Object Displacement: Physical objects within Close range of the Fracture may be displaced, appearing elsewhere in the space, arriving at wrong angles, or briefly vanishing and returning. This is environmental, not tactical, but creates significant logistical chaos (characters may find equipment moved, doors blocked by displaced furniture, etc.). - Dimensional Window: Looking directly into the Reality Fracture shows somewhere else, not a reflection, a genuine view of a different location, sometimes a different time. The view is not consistent; it changes. Characters who spend a Primary Action studying the view may gain fragmentary information (Wit + Lore vs Threshold 3 to extract something useful), but take 1 persistent Wit damage from the extended direct perception. - Self-Reinforcing: Every round the Fracture remains active, it grows, increasing its Near-range ambient Veil Fracture area by 5 feet (approximately Close range additional each 3 rounds). After 10 minutes without closure, it reaches a scale that begins producing Dimensional Spawns as well.

Tactics Reality Fractures do not have tactics; they have physics. The Gravitational Pulse and Extrusion represent semi-autonomous extensions of the Fracture's destabilizing effect rather than deliberate attacks. Combat against a Reality Fracture is combat against an environmental hazard as much as an entity. The immediate priority is: keep characters out of Near range to prevent ambient Veil Fracture damage, and get a Mediumship practitioner to the Fracture for closure as fast as possible.

Destruction/Banishment The Reality Fracture cannot be killed, it has no body. It must be closed. A Mediumship practitioner makes a Wit + Mediumship roll against Threshold 3 (Basic Fracture) to Threshold 5 (Major Fracture, one that has been open for more than an hour or has begun producing Spawns). Closure takes a Full Round Action and requires the practitioner to be within Close range, inside the ambient damage zone. Multiple practitioners can assist (cooperative rolls, each additional practitioner adds +1D to the roll, max +3D).

Force tradition attacks (Sacred Fire, Hollow Pact) can temporarily suppress the Fracture, reducing its ambient damage area for 1 round and preventing Gravitational Pulse and Extrusion for that round, without closing it. Useful for buying time.

Scene Materials Veil crisis: a Reality Fracture in any accessible location is immediate maximum-priority Veil management. Investigation: what opened it (deliberate, accidental, external pressure from the other side), what is coming through, and how long it has been open. The characters' arrival at the scene may already be too late for quiet resolution.

Mind Feeder

Type: Aberration, Elite Power Package: Elite (8D) Veil Risk: Moderate-High, leaves living victims in catatonic states; patterns of catatonia cluster around a location and do attract medical and investigative attention

Size: Medium (appears roughly humanoid at first glance; on closer examination, features are incorrect, too smooth, too symmetric, eyes positioned wrong)
Attributes: Body 2D · Speed 3D · Wit 4D
Talents: Athletics 1D · Deceive 2D · Notice 2D · Resonance 3D (feeding resonance)
Health: 37 (20 + 2 + 15)
Defense: 2 (1 + (3+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 3D · Speed 5D · Wit 7D

Attacks - Cognitive Drain (Primary Action): Wit + Resonance vs Wit Save, 5 damage; target also takes 2 persistent Wit damage (Veil Fracture). This is the Mind Feeder's feeding mechanism. - False Familiarity (Primary Action): Wit + Deceive vs Wit Save, target believes they recognize the Mind Feeder as a trusted person (friend, colleague, family member, the Feeder borrows from the target's accessible memories). Effect lasts until the target takes damage from the Feeder or succeeds on a Wit Save at the start of their turn. While the effect holds, the target cannot make attack rolls against the Feeder. - Psychic Scream (Primary Action, 1×/scene): Wit + Resonance vs Wit Save, all targets in Near range take 4 damage and 1 persistent Wit damage. Targets who fail the save by 2+ successes are Stunned for 1 round (lose all actions).

Special Abilities - Memory Harvest: The Mind Feeder feeds on cognitive content, memories, knowledge, personality architecture. After successfully using Cognitive Drain on a target, it has access to the surface content of that target's recent memory (last 24 hours). A second successful Drain in the same scene allows access to deeper memory (significant events, relationships, professional knowledge). This information is used to power False Familiarity and to navigate social environments. - Sensory Camouflage: The Mind Feeder does not appear alien to casual observation; it appears as a normal human. The wrongness only registers on close examination or with appropriate tradition sensing (Mediumship Liminal Sight, Faeborn True Seeing). Characters without these abilities must succeed on a Wit + Notice roll (Threshold 4) to detect that something is wrong with this person. - Veil Fracture Accumulation: Characters who have been successfully Cognitively Drained by the same Mind Feeder more than once accumulate Veil Fracture faster, each subsequent Drain deals +1 persistent Wit damage (so: 2 on second successful Drain, 3 on third, etc.). - Feeding Coma: If a target is reduced to 0 Wit (total, including Veil Fracture accumulation) by a Mind Feeder, they enter a catatonic state rather than dying. They are alive but unresponsive. A Mediumship practitioner can attempt restoration (Wit + Mediumship vs Threshold 3), taking 10 minutes. Without treatment, the coma persists indefinitely, the victim is alive but not present.

Tactics Mind Feeders prefer isolation over confrontation. They use Sensory Camouflage to integrate into a social environment (workplace, residential building, community center), identify vulnerable targets, and feed gradually, multiple small Cognitive Drains over days or weeks rather than one dramatic attack. They are discovered when the pattern of catatonia becomes noticeable.

In a direct confrontation, they use False Familiarity to neutralize the most dangerous character, then feed on the others. Psychic Scream is used when cornered or to buy escape time. They will flee from a Mediumship practitioner who has identified them; they cannot maintain Sensory Camouflage against Liminal Sight and they know it.

Destruction/Banishment The Mind Feeder is a physical entity; it can be killed. Its Body is low and it is not a combat specialist. The challenge is reaching it through False Familiarity and its social camouflage. Mediumship attacks bypass its Sensory Camouflage and deal full damage. Force tradition attacks are at -1D effectiveness (per category overview). Restoring Veil-Fractured victims requires Mediumship treatment after the Feeder is destroyed.

Scene Materials Investigation: cluster of catatonia cases in a specific area, all cases involving otherwise-healthy individuals with no medical cause, a new person who arrived in the affected community around when the catatonia began. The Mind Feeder has integrated; it may be the building superintendent, a new coworker, a neighbor who moved in recently.

The Hollow

Type: Aberration, Elite Power Package: Elite (10D) Veil Risk: Extreme, The Hollow consumes locations; the physical damage it causes is impossible to explain and impossible to miss

Size: Huge (an ambulatory spatial collapse, roughly building-section sized; no discrete body)
Attributes: Body 5D · Speed 1D · Wit 2D
Talents: Athletics 2D · Notice 1D · Resonance 3D (consumption resonance)
Health: 60 (20 + 5 + 15, Elite modifier; Huge size warrants elevated Health)
Defense: 2 (1 + (1+0)÷3, minimum 1)
Saves: Body 7D · Speed 2D · Wit 5D

Attacks - Consumption Wave (Primary Action): Body + Resonance vs Body Save, 6 damage; all targets in Close range; destroyed physical matter within Close range is permanently consumed (walls, floors, objects, not living beings, but their cover and environment) - Pull (Primary Action): Body + Athletics vs Speed Save, all targets in Near range; failed save = pulled to Close range and take 2 damage from the transit. The Pull represents the spatial compression The Hollow generates. - Void Touch (Primary Action): Body + Resonance vs Body Save, single target in Close range; 8 damage; if the target is reduced to 0 Health by Void Touch, their body is consumed, no remains, no resurrection possible, no Mediumship contact with their spirit (they are simply gone)

Special Abilities - Structural Consumption: The Hollow consumes physical matter passively, every round it is active, the structure of its immediate environment degrades. Floors become unstable, walls develop gaps, ceilings crack. After 3 rounds in any location, the area within Near range has significant structural damage; after 10 rounds, it begins to collapse. The Hollow cannot be fought in a fixed position, it must be driven out or banished. - Conventional Weapon Resistance: Physical attacks deal half damage to The Hollow, it has no coherent body to injure. Mediumship tradition attacks deal full damage. Force tradition attacks deal normal damage (not reduced). Cold iron, blessed weapons, silver, no special effect. - Ambient Veil Fracture (Major): All characters within Near range of The Hollow take 2 persistent Wit damage per round (not 1 as with most Aberrations). Mediumship practitioners reduce this to 1 per round. - No Communication: The Hollow has no discernible intelligence above basic orientation toward matter to consume. It cannot be negotiated with, reasoned with, or redirected through social means. It moves toward the highest concentration of physical mass and biological activity.

Tactics The Hollow moves slowly (Speed 1D) but creates an environment that forces characters toward it, Pull compresses the space, Structural Consumption eliminates cover, Consumption Wave clears obstacles. The only tactical response is to stay at Near or Far range, use ranged attacks, and work toward banishment. Characters who close to melee are inside the Consumption Wave radius and facing Void Touch range.

The Hollow does not care about individual combatants. It does not change targeting based on damage taken. It advances.

Destruction/Banishment The Hollow cannot be killed conventionally. Mediumship practitioners must perform a Breach Closure on The Hollow itself; it is less a creature than a self-ambulatory Breach. The Closure requires Wit + Mediumship vs Threshold 4 and a Full Round Action from within Close range. The practitioner takes full ambient Veil Fracture damage while doing this. A second Mediumship practitioner supporting the primary (cooperative roll) is strongly recommended.

Alternatively, Force tradition attacks can suppress The Hollow, preventing movement and Consumption Wave for 1 round per successful hit (Threshold 3), which buys the Mediumship practitioner time to work. Full destruction requires the Breach Closure.

Scene Materials Veil crisis: The Hollow in any urban area is a catastrophic Veil event. Investigation: initial reports of "structural anomalies" or "gas explosion" will be the civilian cover story, but the physical evidence is unlike any explosion or structural failure. The characters likely need to move faster than conventional emergency response to get there first.

Voidwalker

Type: Aberration, Champion Power Package: Champion (12D) Veil Risk: Extreme, a Voidwalker's presence produces documented reality distortion over an area of several city blocks; containment is a BUA and Vanguard emergency response event

Size: Large (appears to shift between Large and Huge depending on ambient light; its exact dimensions are unclear to direct observation)
Attributes: Body 4D · Speed 3D · Wit 4D
Talents: Athletics 3D · Lore 2D · Notice 3D · Resonance 4D
Health: 49 (20 + 4 + 25)
Defense: 3 (1 + (3+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 7D · Speed 5D · Wit 8D

Attacks - Void Strike (Primary Action): Body + Athletics vs Defense, 7 damage; the hit carries void resonance, target makes a Wit Save (Threshold 3) or takes 2 persistent Wit damage (Veil Fracture) - Reality Unwrite (Primary Action): Wit + Resonance vs Wit Save, 6 damage; target experiences a momentary erasure of one recent memory (the last 1 minute, GM's discretion on which). The memory is gone, not suppressed, not confused, gone. This is recoverable only through Mediumship memory reconstruction (10 minutes, Threshold 3) or natural return over days. - Dimensional Tear (Primary Action, 1×/scene): Wit + Resonance vs Threshold 3, the Voidwalker opens a small Breach within Near range, immediately producing 2 Dimensional Spawns. The Breach persists until closed and continues producing Spawns every 3 rounds. - Void Pulse (Primary Action, 1×/combat): Wit + Resonance, all targets in Far range; each makes a Wit Save (Threshold 3) or takes 4 damage and 2 persistent Wit damage. Characters reduced to 0 Wit by this pulse enter a catatonic trance (as Mind Feeder Feeding Coma) rather than dying from the Wit damage.

Special Abilities - Void Sight: The Voidwalker perceives all living beings within Far range regardless of light conditions, cover, or concealment. Stealth does not work against it. It always knows exactly where all characters are. - Conventional Resistance: Physical attacks deal half damage. Mediumship attacks deal full damage and suppress one active ability for 1 round on a successful hit. Force tradition attacks deal full damage. Cold iron, blessed weapons, silver, no special effect. - Ambient Veil Fracture (Severe): All characters within Far range of the Voidwalker take 1 persistent Wit damage per round. Near range: 2 per round. The Voidwalker's full presence in this reality produces ongoing cognitive harm by proximity alone. - Partial Extradimensionality: The Voidwalker exists partially outside this reality at all times. The first time each round it would take damage, it instead makes a Body Save (Threshold 3), on a success, the damage is reduced by half (the attack partially passed through the extradimensional component). This is not a reaction and does not cost an action; it is automatic. - Intelligence: Unlike most Aberrations, the Voidwalker has something that functions like intelligence. It responds to patterns, learns from encounters, and adapts tactically across rounds. It will identify the Mediumship practitioner quickly and prioritize them. It will use Dimensional Tear to divide attention. It will not make the same tactical mistake twice in the same combat.

Tactics The Voidwalker is the most tactically capable Aberration in this compendium short of The Unwritten. Void Sight means it always knows character positions. It opens with Void Pulse if characters are grouped, uses Dimensional Tear to split attention, targets the Mediumship practitioner with Reality Unwrite (erasing their knowledge of the closure procedure is tactically devastating), and uses Void Strike to maintain pressure on anyone who approaches.

Characters fighting a Voidwalker need: a Mediumship practitioner capable of Breach Closure, support characters who can suppress the Voidwalker with Force tradition attacks, and a contingency for if the Mediumship practitioner is incapacitated. A Voidwalker encounter without a Mediumship practitioner present is survivable (it can be killed through sustained attacks overcoming Conventional Resistance and Partial Extradimensionality) but extremely costly.

Destruction/Banishment The Voidwalker can be truly killed, unlike The Hollow, it has discrete physical existence. Mediumship attacks are required for full effectiveness plus sustained Force tradition and physical attacks to overcome its defenses. Alternatively, a Breach Closure performed on the Voidwalker (Wit + Mediumship vs Threshold 4, as if it were a large Breach) banishes it, this is the preferred approach if full destruction proves too costly. Banished, it does not return unless something admits it again. Any Breach it opened (via Dimensional Tear) must also be closed or Spawns continue indefinitely.

Scene Materials Investigation: several-block area of reality distortion (clocks running wrong, animals fleeing, unusual electromagnetic readings), BUA emergency protocols already active, missing persons from within the distortion zone (catatonic or fled). The characters need to move through the distortion zone, locate the Voidwalker, handle the Spawns from any Dimensional Tears, and perform a Closure, with a BUA containment team potentially arriving before they finish.

The Unwritten

Type: Aberration, Legendary Power Package: Legendary (15D+) Veil Risk: Catastrophic, The Unwritten's presence produces Veil Fracture effects at city-scale; the Veil does not survive contact with a fully-manifested Unwritten entity

Size: Colossal (size is inconsistent and not fully perceivable; occupies an indeterminate space)
Attributes: Body 6D · Speed 2D · Wit 6D
Talents: Athletics 3D · Lore 5D · Notice 4D · Resonance 6D
Health: 96 (20 + 6 + 50, Legendary modifier; treated as essentially inexhaustible in a single session)
Defense: 3 (1 + (2+0)÷3)
Saves: Body 9D · Speed 4D · Wit 12D

Attacks - Unmake (Primary Action): Wit + Resonance vs Wit Save, 10 damage; target loses one talent they have (GM chooses, the knowledge does not return without Mediumship reconstruction, Threshold 4, requires a Long Rest minimum) - Existence Pressure (Passive): All characters within Far range take 3 persistent Wit damage per round. Near range: 5 per round. This is not an attack; it is the effect of being near something that is fundamentally incompatible with human cognition. - Void Cascade (Primary Action, 1×/scene): Wit + Resonance, all characters in Far range make Wit Saves (Threshold 4); failed save = 8 damage + 3 persistent Wit damage; success = 4 damage + 1 persistent Wit damage. No save avoids all effect. - Manifest (The Entrance): When The Unwritten fully enters this reality layer, it automatically opens 1d6 Breaches within Far range as part of the entry process. Each Breach begins producing Dimensional Spawns immediately.

Special Abilities - Conventional Immunity: Physical attacks deal no damage to The Unwritten. It has no surface that physical matter can meaningfully injure. Only Mediumship tradition attacks and Force tradition attacks at Threshold 4+ deal damage. - Partial Comprehension: Characters who attempt to look directly at The Unwritten and understand what they're seeing must succeed on a Wit Save (Threshold 4) or take 2 persistent Wit damage from the incomprehensible perception. Faeborn True Seeing does not help here, True Seeing reveals what is actually there; what is actually there cannot be processed. - Reality Rewrite Resistance: All attempts to close The Unwritten via Breach Closure mechanics require Threshold 5 and a full minute (not 10 minutes, this is an accelerated closure against a single entity, not a stationary Breach). The closure process must be maintained continuously, if the practitioner is interrupted (takes damage, loses concentration), the closure fails and must restart. Multiple Mediumship practitioners (up to 3) can maintain the closure cooperatively. - Cannot Be Killed: The Unwritten cannot be reduced to 0 Health by damage alone. At 0 Health, it phases to its extradimensional origin, then returns in 1d6 rounds unless the Breach it used for re-entry is closed first. Permanent resolution requires Closure, not destruction. - The Exit Condition: The Unwritten entered this reality through a specific Breach. Closing that original Breach while The Unwritten is present forces it back through the diminishing aperture and closes the entry permanently (Wit + Mediumship vs Threshold 5, cooperative, 1 full minute, with The Unwritten actively contesting, the practitioner and supporting characters are under full attack from The Unwritten and its produced Spawns throughout). This is the only permanent solution.

Tactics The Unwritten does not have tactics in any recognizable sense. It has behavior; it maintains its presence in this reality layer, it reacts to threats to its presence, it does not pursue fleeing characters (it cannot move quickly). The primary behavior pattern: move toward the highest concentration of reality-anchoring elements (locations with long human habitation, significant tradition activity, large populations) and unmake them.

Against characters who are attempting Closure, it directs its attention toward the Mediumship practitioners, Unmake targeting their tradition talents is the most effective counter. Characters who can sustain the Closure process while others maintain the distraction are fighting the correct battle.

Running The Unwritten The Unwritten is a campaign-ending encounter, the resolution of an arc, not a random encounter. Characters should arrive with: - At least 2 Mediumship practitioners (one primary, one backup) - Support characters capable of Force tradition attacks at Threshold 4 - Intelligence on the entry Breach location (from prior investigation) - Preparation for extended combat while the Closure team works - Acceptance that character health and Wit will be severely depleted

The Existence Pressure alone makes this encounter a race. Every round the Closure is delayed costs the characters Wit. At the speed The Unwritten depletes Wit, a fully prepared party has approximately 4–6 rounds before characters begin reaching 0 Wit. The Closure must succeed within that window or characters must retreat and regroup, losing ground on The Unwritten's progress toward populated areas.

Scene Materials This is the campaign finale. The investigation that led here should have established: what The Unwritten is (through fragmentary Lore research, Threshold 3–4), where its entry Breach is located, and what has been done to delay its full manifestation (there is usually a containment measure in place that is failing, bought time is the reason the characters have any chance at all). The opening scene of the finale encounter should communicate scale: the Veil is already broken in the immediate area, civilians are in crisis, and every hidden-world organization the characters know is either responding or gone dark.

Variant Rules

Graduated Veil Fracture Recovery

Standard: Persistent Wit damage from Veil Fracture recovers on a Long Rest in a normal environment. Slow Recovery: Veil Fracture recovers at 1 point per Long Rest, not all at once. This creates a lasting consequence for Aberration exposure that compounds across multiple encounters. A character who has fought three Aberration encounters in quick succession may carry significant Wit impairment through the rest of the arc. Trauma Track: Veil Fracture above 3 persistent Wit damage creates a lasting behavioral consequence (specific phobia, compulsive pattern, intrusive perception) that does not clear with rest and requires active treatment (a Mediumship practitioner's Threshold 3 therapeutic intervention, representing days of work). This variant is appropriate for horror-forward campaigns.

Breach Geography

Optional: The GM maps Breaches as persistent locations rather than encounter-specific phenomena. A Breach that is closed by one party may reopen weeks later if the underlying dimensional pressure has not been resolved. Characters may discover that an area has a deep Breach history, multiple closures over decades, each requiring more effort than the last as the boundary weakens. This variant supports long-form campaign structure with Aberrations as an ongoing environmental threat rather than individual encounters.

The Unwritten as Environmental Pressure

Optional Alternative: Rather than deploying The Unwritten as a single climactic encounter, the GM uses it as environmental pressure throughout an arc, signs of its approach, partial manifestations that produce localized effects, the race to find and close the entry Breach before full manifestation. In this variant, the characters never face The Unwritten directly; they solve the problem by closing the Breach before it fully arrives. This works well for groups that prefer investigation-resolution over combat-resolution at scale.

Plot Hooks

The Basement: A residential building in the city has been producing complaints for two months, unexplained sounds, objects moving, residents leaving without notice. Maintenance found something in the basement that nobody can describe clearly. Investigation reveals a stationary Reality Fracture in the utility sub-level, open for approximately six weeks, currently at Threshold 3 closure difficulty and growing. The building has 47 occupied units. The Veil management challenge: a building full of witnesses who have all been experiencing Ambient Veil Fracture symptoms. The practical challenge: closure requires getting a Mediumship practitioner into Close range of the Fracture while it is actively damaging them.

The Consultant: A research team at the Aldersham Institute has been using experimental equipment to study "dimensional boundary phenomena"; they thought they were doing theoretical physics. Three weeks ago something started following one of the researchers home. The researcher has been sleeping in their office. The Stalker has been in the building for two weeks, feeding on the researcher's isolation. The complication: the researcher's equipment is still running, and it is generating a low-level Breach signal that the Stalker is tethered to. Destroying the equipment closes the Breach but the researcher has three weeks of research they're not willing to lose.

The New Neighbor: A Mind Feeder has been in a medium-density residential neighborhood for four months. Twelve residents are in medically unexplained catatonic states. The Feeder has been careful, spreading its feeding across a large enough population that no individual has been drained to the point of complete coma, maintaining its social integration as a resident. The characters arrive after the twelfth catatonia case draws a Grimoire Compact field researcher's attention. The Feeder is now aware that investigators are present and has begun planning its departure, but it will feed one more time before leaving. The characters have one scene to identify which of thirty-plus residents the Feeder is.

The Countdown: A classified BUA file has been accessed by an unknown party. The file contained documented evidence of a deep Breach in an industrial area outside the city, a Breach that has been partially sealed for forty years, held in check by a standing Mediumship ward that requires renewal every five years. The renewal was due three months ago. The BUA team assigned to renewal disappeared. The characters are either hired to find the team or find the file independently. When they reach the site, the ward is failing and the Breach is expanding. The Hollow has begun to emerge. They have approximately forty minutes before it reaches the surrounding civilian area.

Breach Closure Quick Reference

Breach Type	Threshold	Time Required	Practitioners Needed	Notes
Minor (Spawns only)	1–2	10 minutes	1 Mediumship	Spawns dissolve on closure
Standard	3	10 minutes	1 Mediumship (+1D assist available)	Most common field scenario
Major (Spawns + active entity)	4	10 minutes	1–2 Mediumship	Active entity may contest
Voidwalker-level	4	Full Round (in combat)	1–2 Mediumship	Voidwalker contests actively
The Hollow	4	Full Round (in combat)	1–2 Mediumship	Structural damage accelerates
The Unwritten entry	5	1 full minute (in combat)	2–3 Mediumship	Unwritten actively contests; Void Cascade during closure

Force tradition attacks (Sacred Fire, Hollow Pact) can suppress active entities for 1 round per hit, buying closure time. Suppressed entities cannot contest Breach Closure for that round.