Hollow Creatures¶
"Brumal Wolves are natives of the Abyssal black tundra, a very cold and dark place." — lore of the Abyssal creatures (S138)
The Hollows are demi-planes between the Material and the Abyss where "The Abyssal creatures associated to the Hollow can manifest and gain power from consuming the Ethereal energy" (S146). What lives in a Hollow is of three kinds: Abyssal life that crosses from the biome of the Abyss the Hollow is tied to, hybrid life born where that biome meets a Fae domain, and the Hollowed beasts of the Material plane twisted into the Hollowlord's service. The Hollows themselves are described under Cosmology; the Devils who rule them are under Devils.
Abyssal biome and Fae domain¶
"The properties of every Hollow can be determined from a combination of the Abyssal Terrain and Fae domain that it is associated to. For complex and large Hollows, this frequently changes the same way terrain does" (S156). The Abyssal biomes are named: the Scalding Sea, Sulfuric Ocean and Putrid Waves among the liquids; the Pale Night ("Dim light, Dusty, Empty, Sleepy, Shadows and Nightmares"), Black Tundra ("Very cold, black snow"), Oozing Plains, Xanthous Morass ("Land of a Thousand Eyes - hot, infested yellowed jungles and swamps, living wood") and Steaming Fen among the plains; and the Iron Wastes, Brimstone, Wormblood ("Blood red vegetation, jungles, seas of blood"), Crystal Bog, Creeping Fungus, Slime Pits, Plague Hives and Ashlands among the rocky lands (S156).
The Hollow-types table pairs each Fae realm with its biomes and names the life found there (S156, S132):
| Fae realm | Hollow | Abyssal life | Hybrid life | Death transition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light | Deathly, Anxious, Prismatic | Nightstalker, Beholder, Bogwump | Starwraith | |
| Sun | Desolate, Blistering, Foggy | Plague Wasps, Death Stingers, Blight Flies | Fire Hornets | Sun Shade |
| Fauna | Buzzing, Swarming | Plague Wasps, Death Stingers, Blight Flies | Ghouling | |
| Forge | Shattering | Bogwump | ||
| Rock | Tremor, Bleeding | Hellhound, Bloodworms, Bloodrot | ||
| Ruin | Withering, Oozing, Jagged | Hellhound | ||
| Acrid | Noxious | Hellhound | Bloater, Cloakwraith | Black Ooze |
| Flora | Verdant, Crimson, Steaming | Tanglewood | Thornwalker | |
| Pool | Reeking, Marshy, Scalding | Drowned Dead | ||
| Rot | Fungal, Rancid, Slimy | Rotwalker | ||
| Ice | Glacial, Crystalline, Frozen | Bogwump | ||
| Night | Shambling, Dark | |||
| Shadow | Shrouded, Shifting | Manifest Anxiety | ||
| Wind | Howling | Banshee | ||
| Moon | Stygian, Misty | Stuporweed | Will-O-Wisp | |
| Storms | Misty, Biting, Stormy | Mistwraith | ||
| Spectre | Spectral, Ghostly | Plague Wasps, Death Stingers, Blight Flies | Haunting Host, Spectral Hornets | Ghost |
| Flame | Burning | Hellhound | Cindertree |
The "death transition" column records what the dead of a Hollow become: a Starwraith under Hollow Light, a Rotwalker in a fungal Hollow, the Drowned Dead of a watery one, a Mistwraith where boiling rain falls. The table is half-filled, and most of the names on it are never described beyond their place in it. An earlier draft of the table placed the Starwraith and Will-O-Wisp as the creatures of their Hollows rather than as death transitions, and listed the Drowned Dead as "Drowned Zombie" (S132).
Gap
Nightstalkers, Starwraiths, Bogwumps, Plague Wasps, Bloodworms, Bloaters, Cloakwraiths, Tanglewood, Thornwalkers, the Drowned Dead, Mistwraiths, Cindertrees, Rotwalkers, Manifest Anxiety and Stuporweed are names in a design table. No source says what any of them looks like or does.
What the Hollowing does to living things¶
"Normal creatures inside the Hollows become tainted and then hollowed over time. Living things decay from the inside out and are often corrupted and driven insane... A fully hollowed individual is nothing more than a willing vessel to be possessed by demons" (S146). Among the manifestations of a Hollow, "Non-intelligent living things can be twisted and controlled by the Hollowlord once hollowed" (S146). A Hollowed body shows it: "they may have grown boney protrustions, their bones may have twisted and deformed and blood and pus may be oozing from open sores"; a Hollowed mind "may have vacant or glowing eyes and may be entirely insane and driven by the needs of the Hollowlord" (S325). Once fully Abyssal, "The object or creature no longer bears any resemblance to its original form and now is purely associated to the Abyssal Plane. It can also no longer resist possession" (S126). A Hollowlord of the lesser Hollows keeps Hollowed Thralls, "extra bodies should any of he or his devils need them" (S145).
The icy Hollow of Hal'Gamesh¶
The Hollow that swallowed the village of Harwith overnight, surrounding it with "a 30' wall of Ice", was ruled by the horned brown devil Hal'Gamesh, "a master of Cold and Ice magic and natural denizen of the abyssal black tundra". Its creatures were twelve invisible Frostfire Imps and two greater imps, a dire yeti, frost hares and snow owls as scouts, a pack of winter wolves, and the Brumal Wargs: "A large but gaunt wolf-like beast the size of a horse. It radiates with a faint bluish-white glow and has burning azure eyes. It has a coat of think black fur with occasional silvery thorns protruding from its coat." The lore of the Abyssal creatures says of them: "Brumal Wolves are natives of the Abyssal black tundra, a very cold and dark place. They organize into packs led by the strongest (alpha)"; they are vulnerable to fire and radiance, and "will almost always flee if their alpha is killed". A Hollowlock necromancer there was assembling a Patchwork Abomination, "trying to make a living vessel large enough for a greater demon" (S138).
The earth-and-brimstone Hollow of Hez'Vandros¶
An earlier design of the same village, called Hearnst, set it under an Earth and Stone Hollow ruled by the devil Hez'Vandros, and gives the fullest picture of Hollowed beasts. In that Hollow the ground "is soft and broken with a sulfurous smell, liquids are yellow-acidic", and the somatic hollowing turned trees to stone while "Creatures enlarge, hardened with stony scales and often have burning green eyes. Also, often covered with black rock-like tusks, spines or horns. Some tusks and horns drip acid. Some creatures have concentrated acid for blood." Far-gone creatures gained the Hollow's powers: tremors, spat acid, a trail of acid that "will eat thru most shoes and flesh", walls of stone (S145).
Its denizens were sorted by use. Sentries: Rabsogh, "Hairless rabbits with wet yellow tusks (acid+toxin) and protruding bony spurs and spikes. They attack in packs or as part of a larger group. Not very dangerous alone (they will run away), their toxin can be quite deadly to larger creatures when it stacks high enough"; the Devil Bird, "large black bird with a piercing and painful/dazing screech. It's presence and screech predicts death"; Rocksnakes; and Rockravens, "great for tracking visitors to the Hollow". Soldiers: Rockdeer, a herd of twelve with two stags "amplified with sharper horns and spines"; Rockwolves, left "mostly with fur to allow for their speed"; and Rockbulls, which the devil "captured... to mess around with them for fun. He added tusks and more horns. They are very big and pretty tanky", ridden like horses by his devils and Hollowlocks. The designer's own note on them survives: "these are too FAE'ISH. More demonic. Need to combine Elements with Abyss!" (S145).
Earlier accounts¶
The Hearnst scenario (S145) was reworked into Harwith (S138) with a new devil and a new Hollow; the rock-beasts appear only in the older draft. Both are kept here as examples of what a Hollow of each kind breeds.
Hollowing Vortexes and other manifestations¶
In the greater Hollows the Hollowlord can summon a Hollowing Vortex: "a vortex of Hollowing energies... They appear as swirling black and smokey storm with red and orange light emanating from the center. They also range is size from a house to a child" (S126). The fungal mega-Hollow of Alghert spread "demonic spores" from the fungal demonlord Adramycos: "'The Infected'... these are people who have been infected by demonic spores... Orange pustules", purple ooze from the trees, spore demons and a spore fiend "(energy creature)", and an infection that reached into the Shadow Realm itself (S181). Beneath Kilmarn the brimstone Hollow of the slug-demon Urk'maggo fielded "six-legged medium brimstone hound[s]. Black, gaunt dogs with six legs and yellow glowing eyes and yellowish ooze emanating from breaks in their skin", squat Sulfuron Manes, horned orangutan Eigora, and Sulfuron Scourges, "slow moving clumpy acidic yellow puddings that burp acid" (S163); these are demons rather than hollowed beasts and belong under Demonic Forms. A goblin cavern city in the deep Underdark sits in the Wormblood biome of a minor Hollow (S167).