The artwork used as this posts featured image is by the incredibly talented Romanian artist Mircea Nicula and all rights belong to them. Please support them by visiting their official channels; ArtStation, Instagram.
“When the campfire quenches without warning, and the darkness of the night denies you vision, run. For the Hilt Stalkers come and bring with them terror and death.”
– Grimhildr, Lord Huntress of Úlfdalir
Physical Traits
Hilt Stalkers are long, wispy snake-like creatures with loose, shredded, grey fabric-like skin. They can grow anywhere from 13 to 24 feet, with the largest species exceeding hundreds of feet long. Wide, fanged jaws and beady, functionless eyes create a shadowy visage, reminiscent of that of a deep-sea eel.
As they magically fly through the darkness of the night sky, they could easily be mistaken for a large piece of ragged fabric blowing through the wind.
The Inspiration for Horror
A tell-tale sign that a Hilt Stalker is nearby is the sudden and unexpected extinguishing of light sources. The Hilt Stalkers thrive in darkness and have the magical ability to destroy light, even that of the magical variety. It takes high-level magic to overpower this demand for darkness. This power also extends to denying those with darkvision the ability to see them.
They also have the power to inherently sense those that are alone and know their exact location. They will stalk these lonesome travellers, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
A final horrifying talent the Hilt Stalkers possess is the ability to teleport to the blind spot of a creature and appear from an impossible space. Many foolish adventurers have felt the chill of cold and dreaded their final moments as a shadowy form slithered out from behind them.
Villains of the Valkyrie
In the vertical city of Úlfdalir, the Valkyrie have little to fear. The monster and dragons and wars that rage across the Hammerlands are far below them and usually pose little threat to them. However, high up on the peak of the hilt, the Valkyrie’s stay ever watchful for the terrifying encroaching peril of Hilt Stalkers.
Throughout the history of the Hammerlands, the Hilt Stalkers have caused near-constant strife for the Valkyrie. They are the single highest cause of death among the heroes of Valkyrie-kind and the only creature able to actively assault Úlfdalir.
Aberrations of the Peak
They live among the craggy mountains and dark thunderclouds of Mjolnir’s Peak, waiting for the comfort of twilight to fly forth in search of lonely wanderers to hunt and feed upon. That is not to say you’ll never see a hungry Hilt Stalker delve below to terrorise the races that live upon the main landmass.
Hilt Stalker Stat Blocks
In this blog, I have four variations of the Hilt Stalker. Each has its own abilities and strengths which are detailed below.
Hilt Stalker Shadowmind
The Shadowmind is a terrifying variety of Hilt Stalker that feels as though it was born straight from the depths of humanity’s fears. Like all Hilt Stalkers, it magically denies the existence of light but what makes the Shadowmind worse is the contagious, mentally scarring fear it causes in its victims. By mentally overpowering its foes it can turn the creatures terror into reality, causing a genuine “it’s right behind me isn’t it?” moment.
The Shadowmind is a heavy-hitting, mobile enemy that will cause confusion and uncertainty in your players. It has more than one ability that will send your party into a panic as they realise what is happening. For the best results, open the encounter by blasting the party with a Psychic Storm from the shadows and stay hidden from sight. Once you’re ready to fully engage, use your bonus action to close the gap to one of the squishy back-line characters and use your multiattack to damage and restrain them. As the other party members rush closer to help, the Infectious Terror feature will spread and limit the help they can offer. From here, drag away the grappled target and use hit and run tactics via the teleport to ensure the entire party is under the frightened condition.
Hilt Stalker Collector
Collectors begin life as comparably weak Hilt Stalkers. They get their strength from the collection of souls of the recently slain. The more they kill, the stronger they get. This can make them especially fearsome in densely populated areas, as if they are left unchecked, they will murder and feed upon the easy prey. They are also relentless in their hunt, weakening and badgering their prey in an unescapable pursuit.
The Hilt Stalker Collector is best utilised in a crowded space with lots of squishy NPCs such as a town or city. They rely on killing weak creatures to buff themselves, so if facing off against just the party, it’s unlikely they’ll ever be more than an easy kill. When the battle starts, the Collector should dive towards the nearest common villager or hapless pet and immediately begin tearing through them, receiving as much of its Soul Armour as possible before the party turns their attention to it. Once it feels adequately buffed, it should fly directly into the largest clump of characters that is available and hit them with its once-a-day Mental Scream. From there, pick a target and stay with them. If they disengage and run, use Stalk to stay right behind them. The Collector is a creature that chooses a target and focuses on them until they are dead. This means it’s a creature that will absolutely finish off a player character if it downs them, all for that tempting Soul Armour buff.
Hilt Stalker Propagator
The Propagator is the ‘Queen’ of the Hilt Stalkers. Reaching hundreds of feet in length, burning the light away at an increased radius, and birthing fresh swarms of Hilt Stalker, the Propagator is a threat on par with a natural disaster. Many fledgling villages have been snuffed out by the sudden and haunting arrival of a Hilt Stalker Propagator and its hoard.
The Hilt Stalker Propagator is a powerful, threatening creature that comes with all the strength of a legendary creature. It has ways to sustain itself, deal heavy damage, has incredible reach, causes fear just to be around it, and can even temporarily blink all of its kind out of existence to allow its children to set up ambushes mid-fight. It’s truly an intimidating threat. There is little reason to delay combat for the Propagator. Unless it is taken entirely off-guard it should already have Hilt Stalker Swarms summoned and be prepared to charge into melee combat with the most threatening character it see’s, letting its children deal with the squishier foes. The Propagator is a highly intelligent creature and will use this to its advantage. It will stall the strongest enemies and then suddenly use its incredible reach to finish off a nearby weakened foe that thought it was safe. If the battle seems to be going poorly and the Hilt Stalkers need time to adjust, it will use its Silence action to allow its children time to reposition and prepare for fresh assaults.
Hilt Stalker Swarm
When first birthed, Hilt Stalkers stay huddled together for protection. This doesn’t mean they aren’t a threat, however. A swarm of young Hilt Stalkers can tear the flesh from a victim in seconds or writhe over their prey causing irreversible mental damage.
A Hilt Stalker swarm will most commonly be seen along with a Hilt Stalker Propagator, although it’s not uncommon to see them operating on their own or alongside others of their kind. In combat, the swarm will try to enter the space of a vulnerable creature and teleport them away to an isolated spot, where they can bully and kill them. Their Torturous Touch ability means they don’t need to be actively attacking to deal damage and can focus on multiple foes. They should take the place of the ‘minions’ of a Hilt Stalker encounter.
Group Tactics, Encounters & Lore Checks
Hilt Stalkers all use different strategies in battle and it will be difficult for each variant to achieve the ideal setup. Due to this, you should consider which creatures should attempt the ideal strategy and have a few whose goal is to stall the party at the expense of being perfectly utilised.
Nearly all Hilt Stalkers benefit from getting a target alone and several have ways of doing this. Try sending in a few swarms to teleport the party to isolated positions and then use the Shadowminds teleportation bonus action to begin a true assault. While this is happening, keep your Collectors out of the way of the party and have them begin to kill weak NPCs and creatures to buff themselves, ready to engage the party directly. If you have a Propagator in the encounter, the party will probably try to focus it down. Try not to let them do this. Use your swarms and the Shadowminds Infectious Terror to force the party to split up.
Some possible encounter groups could be:
Level 8 Encounter:
- 1 Hilt Stalker Shadowmind
- 2 Hilt Stalker Swarms
Level 4 Short Adventure Boss:
- 1 Hilt Stalker Collector
Level 14 Encounter:
- 1 Hilt Stalker Propagator
- 2 Hilt Stalker Shadowmind
- 6 Hilt Stalker Collectors
- 4 Hilt Stalker Swarms
Hilt Stalker Lore:
| Arcana Check | Lore Learned |
|---|---|
| DC 14 | Hilt Stalkers are a source of nightmares and horror stories told across the Hammerlands. Most people don’t believe they even exist. |
| DC 20 | Hilt Stalkers are nocturnal predators and have an other-worldly connection to the dark. They can snuff out light through their presence alone. |
| DC 25 | No one knows where the first Hilt Stalkers came from, but they are not birthed. Rather, the largest specimens manifest their children using fear and other negative emotions. They are not natural creatures of the world, and as such, they can behave in ways that don’t keep to the natural order of the world. |
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading until the end! I hope you enjoyed discovering the terrifying Hilt Stalkers and will consider using them in your own games, or even just borrowing some ideas for your own homebrew monsters! If you do run these guys in an encounter, I’d love to hear how it goes either in the comments or in my community discord! Like the majority of the content on this blog, these creatures were created on my Twitch streams. Please come and join in the fun!
Have a great day everyone, and as always, may your next session be filled with glory!!
Veneon Reforged 
Leave a comment