One of the things I would have liked to see more of in the core rules is an expanded roster of NPC foes for the knights to battle, so I'm making it a priority to add homebrew enemies as the inspiration takes me. I'm using the "average foe stats" table on p.66 as a guideline, but it mostly comes down to gut feelings and comparisons to published foes when deciding on traits and actions.
First up are a trio of new oghdra statblocks, since they're the Big Bads of the setting and responsible for shattering Eskhara in the first place anyway. While the modern day oghdra remnants are a pale imitation of their might at the height of the Hive Wars, even the dregs of that ancient swarm remain a real menace. Aetheric knights are often called upon to purge oghdra infestations before they grow to numbers sufficient to despoil and corrupt entire Fragments as they did in the past. Each of these new foes is meant to fill a perceived gap in the existing oghdra forces and offer the players a different tactical conundrum.
JUGGERNAUT
Armored brute escorting scuttlers into battle
| Stone | Flux | Aether | Hearth |
| +2 | +0 | +0 | +1 |
| Energy | Damage | Threat |
| 40 | +2 | Moderate |
TRAITS
Mobile Shelter: Scuttlers engaged with this foe are fortified
Shared Senses: This foe is shaken unless there are Scuttlers engaged with it
ACTIVATIONS
Dig In: This foe becomes fortified until the start of its next turn
MANEUVERS
Scuttling Onslaught: This foe moves into an adjacent span; one engaged Scuttlers foe may move along with it for free, ignoring opportune attacks when doing so
STRIKES
Crushing Mandibles: Stone - 1 target - melee - 1d8 damage and become rooted
Juggernauts are monstrosities the size of a Bastion frame, their low-slung bodies overhung by a wide dorsal armor plate and borne steadily forward on 4 to 8 massively armored crab-like legs. They sport a pair of enormous jutting mandibles, but they've been bred to bear a more insidious threat. Entire swarms of scuttlers cling to the underside of a juggernaut's armored form, carried safely and at speed through enemy fire until they reach the enemy and clamber off in a wave of claws and jaws. The bond between the two breeds is a close one, as the blank-faced juggernauts entirely lack sensory organs of their own and rely on the hive link to their smaller riders for guidance in battle.
Mechanically, these things give some actual mobility to the basic scuttlers, making them more than a static minefield of thrashing claws as well as protecting them against ranged attacks. Without juggernaut transport the only way to deliver scuttlers is a lucky gate roll a gatekeeper, and including a mythic tier threat just isn't appropriate all that often. The players have a choice to make when facing a jugger-scuttler combo; do they concentrate on the bigger target to strand the swarm so they can be shot to death from a distance later, or do they try to quickly kill the scuttlers and "blind" the juggernaut to make it less of a threat while they chew through its high Energy and tough defenses?
SKY-BLIGHT SWARM
A cloud of expendable horrors, filled to bursting with corrosive ichor
| Stone | Flux | Aether | Hearth |
| -1 | +0 | +0 | +0 |
| Energy | Damage | Threat |
| 10 | -1 | Minor |
TRAITS
Invasive Swarm: This foe can enter confined spaces but cannot shift unless it is aloft
MANEUVERS
Flying Swarm: This foe becomes aloft as long as it is not in a confined space; land as a Maneuver
STRIKES
Feeble Claws: Stone - 1 target - melee - 1d4 damage
Sacrificial Burst: Flux - 1 target - melee - deal damage equal to this foe's remaining Energy +1, then destroy this foe
A single sky-blight is a bloated sac of swollen bruise-colored flesh about the size of your average Cloven, borne aloft by a quartet of gauzy wings or scrabbling along on a set of undersized insectile limbs. By itself the ungainly thing is little threat to an armed and wary kin, much less a knight's Apparatus. But sky-blights don't operate alone, they travel in buzzing swarms that can darken the skies, overwhelming victims with a storm of sacrificial detonations that spatter their victims with corrosive internal juices. Against hard targets they simply rush in to ram and die, but they're also notorious for squeezing their disturbingly flexible bodies into buildings, fortifications and skyships, seeking the most vulnerable places to detonate themselves.
These things give the GM a self-mobile minor-tier threat that can still threaten confined spaces. They're useful for providing a weak but numerous airborne threat during skyvaults, and can menace a skyship with boarding actions that seek to get to get below decks to endanger key locations and individuals. They don't always launch a Sacrificial Burst attack at the first opportunity, although their usual response to taking any serious damage is to burst before their damage is too badly degraded by leaks. Tactically, players really want to knock a sky-blight swarm down quickly and from a safe distance, but the damage being thrown their way is damage not hitting longer-lasting threats like shrikes and vicars.
STALKERS
Swift and stealthy, if you see one of these deadly hunters there are sure to be more in hiding nearby
| Stone | Flux | Aether | Hearth |
| +1 | +1 | +1 | +0 |
| Energy | Damage | Threat |
| 25 | +1 | Moderate |
TRAITS
Brood Tactics: While this foe has a Legion Die, whenever it takes damage it must roll that die to reduce the damage
Phase Stride: This foe ignores opportune attacks
INTERACTIONS
* Hidden Ambushers: Gain a d6 Legion Die; this foe cannot take this action again during this battle (charge-up 5-6; can only be used once per battle)
MANEUVERS
Dark Stalker: Move to an adjacent span; if you are not engaged with a knight after moving, ranged attacks against you are hindered until the start of your next turn
STRIKES
Barbed Darts: Flux - 1 target - ranged - 1d6 damage
Impaling Forelimbs: Stone - 2 targets - melee - 1d6 damage
Stalkers are spindly, long-legged oghdra about half the size of an Apparatus, well-equipped with natural weaponry for both ranged and melee combat. They act as specialized scouts and infiltrators for the hive, exuding a shrouding aura of corrupted aether that makes them hard to detect and lets them slip past sentries with ease. Stalkers invariably hunt in small, tight-knit broods, and when you see one of them it's a guarantee there are more lurking nearby in ambush. Swift, decisive action can sometimes drive them off before their broodmates can reach a position to attack, but aggressive action can easily led to falling into a carefully-laid trap as well.
This foe introduces the concept of a once/battle action, which is combined with a cooldown roll and the Legion Die mechanic to reflect the fact that there's only a limited number of other stalkers out there as backups and that they may not be immediately available to help. The Brood Tactics trait adds defensive utility to this foe's Legion Die (representing the thing's broodmates taking some incoming attacks for it) instead of being purely offensive like most foe's Legion Dice are (since they lack an Armor Die to to roll it alongside of). Like the sky-blight swarm above, stalkers put time pressure on the players and encourage aggressive play. If a stalker lives long enough to roll that 5-6 cooldown to use Hidden Ambushers it very nearly doubles in combat effectiveness, at least until the Legion Die downgrades into oblivion. Conservative, evasive play while awaiting that 5-6 will make your stalkers much more dangerous, but staying out of melee reduces their damage output as well.
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