The Specternomicon — don't leave home without it!
From the pen of agent, Matt Goetz
Agents, the Strangelight Workshop will furnish you with a host of different weapons. As your trainer, I’ll show you the ropes to ensure you demonstrate competency with each of them by the end of your training. But with the weapon I’m about to introduce, I hope you’ll achieve mastery—for all our sakes.
Inside your desk, you’ll find a book. The fancy folks in the Research Department call it whatever fussy name is printed on the cover. Don’t bother with that. Every field agent knows it as the “Specternomicon”. It is the culmination of everything we’ve learned, unlearned, and relearned about the paranormal entities we have encountered over the course of decades of fieldwork.
Your copy should always be on you, especially in the field. You might notice that your predecessors have left their own marginalia in your copy. Trust me: pay attention to what they have to say, and make your own notes too.
The Specternomicon catalogs the diverse range of different paranormal entities a team of field agents might encounter during their careers. Packed with reality-defying grymkin, born out of twisted morality tales, the ranks of the undead—both physical and incorporeal—and the soul-hungry infernals of the outer abyss and their grisly creations, the Specternomicon includes monsters for all tiers of play.
This bestiary can provide a team of Strangelight agents with unusual encounters spanning the entirety of their careers. Whether they’re green agents performing as exterminators for a gremlin-infested foundry, or seasoned veterans facing down an infernal executor, the perils within the Specternomicon are ready for you.
Not every monster the Workshop encounters is a malevolent entity. Some are tragic figures, which persist in the world due to some great personal tragedy, some unfulfilled need which tethers them to the land of the living. Helping these spirits pass on to the afterlife isn’t a battle to be won, it’s a mercy to be given to those who exist in suffering.
Despite its effort to catalog and study all things supernatural, there are some things which defy even the Strangelight Workshop’s understanding. These entities exist at the far extremities of supernatural study, representing ancient curses going back centuries, and the agents of the gods themselves.
The Specternomicon also includes a roster of NPC profiles detailing the allies (and rivals) who field agents of the Workshop might encounter during the course of their investigations. Running the gamut from holy warriors in service of the church to the worst of back-alley thugs, these NPCs allow you to populate your agents’ investigations with colorful figures to help or hinder the team.
The Specternomicon also includes a useful tool for Game Masters looking to add variety to an encounter in the form of Haunts. These are minor effects similar to Lair Actions which can be added to an encounter to represent the unusual effect the creatures can have on the world around them.
Happy haunting!
Pre-order the Strangelight Workshop now and prepare for your first assignment.
Join other eager agents over in the Steamforged Discord.
