Motes wikiWhat preys on the dead who wash up on the islands, each played by the harness on every deploy.
Each one's numbers on the first island at one candle. Health is what it takes to beat it there (it grows deeper into a voyage), speed how fast it comes on, attacks how many a minute it can make at most, each with its tell, and reach how close its blow hurts from. Each bar is against the most of any monster. A weakness doubles what a spell of that element does (a gust, with no blow of its own, does 2 more), a spell it resists does half, and one it's immune to does nothing. Fire counts any spell that burns, water any that soaks, earth any with stone in it. Flick a card left or right for the next.
A see-through sheet that drifts through anything. It turns solid and shudders, then lunges through the hero. A gust knocks it to the ground, where earth can reach it.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A hero-sized ghost. It's tougher, with the same lunge.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A gumdrop that hops. Up close it squashes flat, then pounces, and the landing hurts.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
Slow and steady. It creeps after the hero, rears up shaking, then lunges head first.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A flier. It circles, then swoops in a zigzag to bite. A gust knocks it down, and earth can't reach it in the air.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
Rooted to the spot. From afar it lobs spore bombs whose landing is marked, and up close it puffs slowing spores. A point-blank gust tears it out of the ground.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
Three stacked boulders. It plods after the hero and slams the ground round it, and only what hurts it moves it.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A ladybird in a hard shell. It plods after the hero, paws the ground, then charges in a straight line. Its shell turns most of a hit from in front, but a gust or a thud of earth flips it onto its back, open to double damage.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A mound running under the ground after the hero. It bulges, then bursts up to bite, stands about a moment and digs back down. Only earth reaches it underground, and digs it up.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A swarm of fireflies, weak and quick and hard to pin down. It balls up, then streams at the hero. Earth can't reach it in the air.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A blob of lava that waddles up, swells and bursts, burning everything round it, monsters too. Beaten or knocked hard into something it bursts at once, but water puts it out.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
A paper lantern that hangs back by the other monsters, threading light to the two nearest and healing them. Alone, it throws slow orbs.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
It lurks in the shallows along a shore. With the hero close it rears up out of the water, then lunges and drags them toward the sea, and hangs there open a moment.
Just a chest, until the hero comes close. Then it snaps open and hops after them, snapping its lid, and backs off after each bite. Beaten, it throws out its loot. In the Deep it lies half buried in the sand, bubbling.
A little fish of the Deep that fins after the hero, then swells up into a ball of spikes that hurt anything close and turn most of a hit.
A fish of the Deep that hangs back behind its glowing lure. It gapes, then darts through the hero, and its bite steals air. After a dart it hangs open for double.
A still bubble of air in the Deep, eyes peeping out of it. It slips aside a time or two, but walked into it flushes pink and bites, stealing air, then hangs open for double.
A cute little skeleton with a sword, from the graveyards. It walks up, draws its sword back shivering, then slashes across its front.
plain, ice, flame, storm, steam, mud, sand, wind, stone
The most seen on a region's first island at the hardest run ramp (elites are twice this).
| monster | Spring | Autumn | Winter | Tropical | Clouds | Underworld | Deep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| angler-move | 28 | ||||||
| bat | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | |||
| boss-pike | 120 | ||||||
| boss-toad | 150 | ||||||
| ghost | 4 | 21 | 28 | 9 | 28 | ||
| lurebubble-move | 16 | ||||||
| mimic-hidden | 22 | 44 | |||||
| mushroom | 12 | ||||||
| slime | 4 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | |
| snail | 7 | 7 | 10 | 10 | |||
| wisp-move | 16 | 16 |
Every boss: its fight from the start, and late on (its health cut, so its later phases show). The hero's casting at it but can't be hurt.
Spring, Winter, the Cloud Isles and the Deep's boss islands (the old boss)
A huge see-through gumdrop in a gold crown that takes the shape of every spell in turn, and adapts: what hurt it becomes its next shape, so the hands have to keep changing. Only a spell holding an element opposite one of its own hurts it; its own heals it. Every hurt splits slimes off it; it hops after the hero and each landing sends out a shockwave and its shape's own attack (a burning zone, a static strike, a wave, a whirl, a rain of stones...).
Autumn, the Tropical Isles and the Underworld's boss islands (the old boss)
A hooded wraith of the rifts. It weaves rifts round it, threaded to its hands, and while any is open it's shielded; sealing them snaps the threads and it opens, cloak spread into moth wings, for a few seconds. Shielded it whips a thread and throws rift bolts that burst into ghosts; later it slips from rift to rift.
The Deep (newer): only ever under the water
A great see-through jellyfish drifting over the arena. Charged, it's shielded: pulses of water rings, tentacle lashes across the arena, rains of droplets that leave slowing puddles, ice slimes, two sweeping beams. Its great pulse spends it: three rings, then it sags to the ground, limp and open, lightning double.
Autumn (newer) and the Underworld (newest)
A huge armoured knight's ghost behind a tower shield that takes every hit from in front, turning slowly after the hero: circle it. Slams, spins, and a charge down a marked lane; missing, it stumbles, open from every side. Lure the charge into a tree or a rock and it's knocked down, dazed a while longer and hurt twice over. Later, graveyard ghosts and fans of ghost bolts.
Autumn (newest)
A great old tree standing alone in a clearing in the woods (always fought by day), its creepers snaking out over the ground from its roots, a face in its bark, two crooked branch arms reaching out under its round crown of leaves. Its roots fight, every one out of the tree's foot: thick roots creep after the hero, slow and easy to forget (each only so far before it's whipped back in), arching in and out of the ground (walk through an arch and you're caught a step), then burst up by it, wrapping it fast if it stood still, else whipping where it stood, then draw back; a spread of them fans out along its foot, seeds rattling down, plant monsters out of its roots, and crows, perched over its leaves and on its twig hands till it's first struck (and again while its bark is open), that no spell can hurt but air knocks out of the sky: pests that keep off while you look at them and dive at you, cawing, when you look away, and all diving in while a root holds it. From phase 2 flowers bloom round the arena and feed it until trampled or burnt. Its bark shrugs off most of a hit; after a round of attacks it splits open round a glowing heartwood, fire double. Beaten, its eyes shut, its leaves fall and it's left standing a bare dead tree.
Winter (newer)
An ice serpent sliding in and out of the snow: frost breath, snaps, tail lashes and icicles on the surface; then it dives, a mound runs at the hero under the snow, and it erupts there, rears and slams its head down, stuck and open.
The Underworld (newer)
A giant of basalt and magma to the waist out of its rubble. Its fists rise over the hero and slam down, sweep the arena, and its waist sends out lava rings; later magma rains and flame slimes. Stone shrugs everything off: a slam's strain tears its chest open, water double. Phase 3: two sweeping beams from its molten core.
The Tropical Isles (newest), on a desert ringed by a sandstorm
A vast worm under the dunes whose face is all teeth. It hunts the hero as a mound moving under the sand, and once it's right under it the sand heaves (a roll's worth of warning; a sinkhole drags in phase 3) and it bursts up and rears over its hole (biting down a marked line, spitting sand), or it dashes: a lane right across the screen streams with sand, then it tears along it under the surface, its maw out in front, flinging aside whoever it catches. Its dashes come in chains, each just to one side of the hero, herding it to one side of the arena, and a long chain ends in its sinkhole: the sand over half the arena pouring in toward its maw. Its desert is ringed by a sandstorm that now and then swells in. Out of the sand it can be hurt; water double.
Spring, the Tropical Isles and the Deep, now and then: an all-sand island
A great octopus round a small sandy island. Its tentacles rise in the shallows and slam down across the land along marked lines, in volleys; after each round its head surfaces to the north, the only time it can be hurt (lightning double). Later ink slicks and a ring wave as it rises.
The Cloud Isles (newer)
A grumpy storm cloud, the rainclouds' mother, scowling over the arena. Charged, spells fizzle off it: it calls bolts down on ringed spots round the hero, sends its raincloud children after it, and puffs its cheeks into a gale that shoves the hero back; later lightning lines across the arena. Air tears its puffs away, and peeled bare it rains itself out, low and pale and open (air double, lightning nothing).
The Spring Isles' Lamplight Isle, from two candles (optional)
A great moth of the underworld drawn to the light of souls, in deep violet and sky blue, its belly a glowing lantern. Its island is a night island of unlit lamps, and it sleeps on a screen of its own off the path, so it can be passed by. Light a lamp with fire and it wakes. Aloft its wings shield it: gusts of wing-beats, spirals of glowing orbs, rings to roll through and dives along marked lines, more of them at a hero holding fire. It comes down on a lit lamp to feed, and anything hurts it then, fire and air most, but it snuffs the lamp as it rises, so light another to bring it down again. Late on its gusts and its flare put the lamps out. Beaten the first time, it leaves a little lantern moth that follows the hero and lights the dark.
Spring, Autumn, Winter and the Tropical Isles, now and then: a treasure island
An island heaped with gold round a great chest, little chests lying about. Open the chest and it bursts open, a giant mimic all teeth and tongue, and the little chests are mimics too. It hops after the hero onto ringed spots, chomps down a marked line and lies dazed after, and sprays coins that burst where they land; later it calls more mimics. Its mouth open, anything hurts it, fire double; shut, it takes a quarter.
The gates' first island (the voyage's end)
A three-headed puppy asleep in his doghouse by the gates, until the hero comes close. He wiggles and pounces onto a ring at the hero (a whole heart if he lands on you, and the thump throws you clear), barks (cones and a ring of sound that blows you back if you're close) and gets the zoomies along a marked lane; after every round his heads squabble with each other, and then anything hurts him in full (his fluffy coat takes half otherwise). Beaten, he rolls over for a belly rub, and from then on his gate swings open onto the road to the next of Hades's household.
The gates' second island: the Furies' Eyrie
Three tiny winged sisters come to audit the crossing: crimson Alecto with her torch, violet Megaera with the ledger, teal Tisiphone with her quill, flying in a bobbing flock (earth can't reach them; they take half). Quill darts, ink lobs that leave slowing slicks, the torch's flame, the audit's lances closing round the hero, swoops along marked lanes, and all three striking together from round it. After each round they land and bicker over the sums, and anything hurts them in full.
The gates' third island: Hypnos's Bower, a cloud under the stars
The sleepy god of sleep on a floating pillow, in a starry nightcap. Lullaby rings, a great yawn (caught in it, the hero nods off), dream bubbles drifting after the hero, pillows thrown onto ringed spots, and counting sheep bounding along marked lanes. After each round he dozes off on his sunken pillow, snoring, and anything hurts him in full until he's woken.
The gates' fourth island: Sisyphus's Hill
Still pushing his boulder, now at you: he's heard there's a job going. Braced behind it he takes half; he heaves it down a marked lane (later it ricochets, then curves after the hero), throws rocks and pounds the ground into lines of cracks. After a roll, or when it jams, he sits down puffed out, mopping his brow, and anything hurts him in full.
The gates' fifth island: Persephone's Garden
Hades's wife, all spring flowers, her fight turning with the seasons. In spring, flowers open round the arena that heal her until trampled or burnt, thorn lines, pomegranate seeds and petal spirals; in winter, frost rings, icicles and an icy field. As the season turns she kneels and anything hurts her in full. In her last phase the arena is both at once, split down the middle.
The gates' last island: the Hall of Hades, over lava
The lord of the dead, small, grumpy and swamped in magnificent robes, come to tell Pell off. Rings of blue fire, lava cracks across the arena, sweeping soul-flame cones, his bident's twin beams and shades; in his last phase the Helm of Darkness, the hall going dark with only three circles of light safe. After his tantrums he's puffed out under the weight of his robes, and anything hurts him in full.
The tide run's frozen wave (its secret)
Freeze the tsunami with frost and two guardians ride out of the ice: an orange crab in one Frost Glove, the sea king riding it in the other. They keep to the sea off both shores: the crab leaps and quakes ice and boulders down on the island, calls up hail and freezes it over; the sea king sends waves that freeze into rolling barrels and casts his twin tides, two beams sweeping in from either side.
Each rift trial ends in its keeper, a Lost Folk wizard in its two elements' robes: volleys of bolts, its own combination, patterns to roll through (spinning beams, rings, lances, a spiral), and its specials: 2 to 7 of them, more the harder the trial and the more candles lit, each at a health or after so many attacks, rolled as it comes down (a split into copies, its doom, monsters called up, links to the standing stones, a stone surging), so no two fights go alike and some never come. The standing stones are cover: its shots stop on them and its beams miss a hero behind one, wearing them down to rubble. Its own elements hurt it half, its own combination not at all.
