Witness sketch by Barbara Perry and Sally Chapman
“It was like a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man. The eyes were red and glowing. At first, I thought that it was someone dressed up, playing a joke, trying to scare us. I laughed at it, we both did, then it went up in the air and we both screamed. When it went up you could see its feet were like pincers…It was horrible, a nasty owl-face with big ears and big red eyes. It was covered with grey feathers. The claws on its feet were black. It just flew up and disappeared in the trees.” – Witnesses Barbara Perry and Sally Chapman, 1976.
The Sumerians carried charms and preyed to terrible gods in hopes of warding away a night-goddess, bearing the wings and claws of an owl, lest it come to snatch their children away. Superstitious Europeans held the owl to be a harbinger of death. According to the folklore of some American Indian nations, the owl embodied the spirits of the deceased. These are among many examples of feeble human attempts to explain encounters with the fearsome Owlmen.
Owlmen are predators not native to Earth, though plenty have made a home here. Among occult scholars the origin of the monsters is subject to speculation and debate. Sometimes they will appear when gates to other worlds are opened, indicating they have infested great portions of the universe. Whether the Owlmen are brought through by accident or if it is intentional on their part is unknown. On Earth, the Owlmen stalk places of ancient power, the intersection of ley-lines, locations rumored to be haunted or scared by psychic trauma, and where the space-time fabric threatens to tear. Near these places the Owlmen will hunt anything they can carry away in their talons, be they animals or people, children in particular. What the Owlmen do not consume they use to build their hidden roosts. These nests are held together by bone and spit, scalps used as bedding.
Given the Owlman tendency to gravitate to places of power, mythos cults will attempt to strike bargains with the monsters to act as guardians. With their limited intelligence, it is doubtful Owlmen understand any such bargain, and are only being placated, in danger of turning if fresh sacrifices fail to be provided. There do exist spells that allow cults to bind Owlmen as servants, though woe to the cult if the binding is broken. Some Great Old Ones will use the Owlmen are stand-ins; many an ignorant cult as mistaken the Owlmen as their god.
Owlmen, Guardians of the Gates
char – rolls – avg
STR 3d6+6 19-20
CON 3d6 10-11
SIZ 3d6 10-11
INT 2d6 7
POW 4d6 10-11
DEX 3d6+6 19-20
Mov 8 / 12 flying – HP 15
Av. Damage Bonus: +1d6
Weapons: Talons 40% damage 1d6 + db
Snatch 40%, damage 1d6 + held to carry away or for beak attack.
Beak 40% (75% if held), damage 2d6 + db.
Armor: None, but normal weapons do only minimum damage to Owlmen, due to their otherworldly origin.
Spell: None
Skills: Intimidate (in the form of clicking and hissing, or a terrifying shriek) 75%, Sneak 80%, Spot Hidden 80%
Sanity Loss: 1/1d10 to see an Owlman.
Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast
