Redcap

The creature resembles a tough, elderly gnome around 3 to 4 feet tall. It has a hunched back, wiry muscles, leathery tan skin, and an evil smile filled with wickedly sharp, protruding teeth. It wears heavy iron boots, leather pants, and bright-red leather pointed caps soaked in fresh blood.

Background Information

A redcap is a homicidal fey creature born of blood lust. Redcaps, although small, have formidable strength, which they use to hunt and kill without hesitation or regret.
Blood Lust Personified. In the Feywild, or where that plane touches the world at a fey crossing, if a sentient creature acts on an intense desire for bloodshed, one or more redcaps might appear where the blood of a slain person soaks the ground. At first, new red caps look like tiny bloodstained mushrooms just pushing their caps out of the soil. When moonlight shines on one of these caps, a creature that looks like a wizened and undersized gnome with a hunched back and a sinewy frame springs from the earth. The creature has a pointed leather cap, pants of similar material, heavy iron boots, and a heavy bladed weapon. From the moment it awakens, a redcap desires only murder and carnage, and it sets out to satisfy these cravings.
Redcaps lack subtlety. They live for direct confrontation and the mayhem of mortal combat. Even if a redcap wanted to be stealthy, its iron boots force it to take ponderous, thunderous steps. When a redcap is near to potential prey, though, it can close the distance quickly and get in a vicious swing of its weapon before the target can react.
Also, some redcaps can sense the being whose murderous acts led to their birth. A redcap might use this innate connection to find its creator and make that creature its first victim. Others seek out their maker to enjoy proximity to a kindred spirit. An individual responsible for the creation of multiple redcaps at the same site could attract the entire group to serve as cohorts, emulating that creature's murderous handiwork.
In any case, if a redcap works with another being, the redcap demands to be paid in victims. A patron who tries to stifle a redcap's natural and necessary urge for blood risks becoming the redcap's next target.

As subtle as a flung battleaxe.
-Volo

Steeped in Slaughter. To sustain its unnatural existence, a redcap has to soak its hat in the fresh blood of its victims. When a redcap is born, its hat is coated with wet blood, and it knows that if the blood isn't replenished at least once every three days, the redcap vanishes as if it had never been. A redcap's desire to slay is rooted in its will to survive.
Bloodthirsty Mercenaries. Redcaps don't usually operate in groups, but in some circumstances they might be fond in the employ of hags and dark mages that know methods to call redcaps out of the Feywild and put them to work as grisly servants.

Basic Information

Ecology and Habitats

Environment: Forest, Hill, Swamp

Additional Information

Uses, Products & Exploitation

DC	Item	Description	Value	Weight	Exp	Crafting
10	Redcap Blood (vial)	A redcap's blood is infused with dark fey energy. The blood is dark red, almost black. The blood can be used in potions and summonings, but is especially valued by anyone studying the connection between the feywild and the prime material plane.	10 gp	1 lb.	2 days	-
15	Redcap Hat	The hat is regularly soaked in the fresh blood of a redcap's victims, and the hat retains a vivid red color (not drying, or crusting). The dark fey magic that courses through the hat can be modified by artificers and spellcasters. When the blood is wringed from the hat, its has trace amounts of magical energy that alchemists can tap into.	30 gp	2 lb.	none	Cap of Aggression (HHH2)

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Favored Climate: Temperate
Favored Terrain: Hills

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Vision: Darkvision, Low-light vision

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Feys

Lifespan

up to 150 years

Average Height

3-4 ft (0.91-1.2 m)

Average Weight

50 lb. (23 kg)

Related Ethnicities

• Fey Creatures