I feel that L5R 5th lacks a Monster Manual. Sure, the play-style isn't dungeon-crawling like in other systems, but I always liked having a manual with an interesting creature or two to inspire a short sidequest. Ravenloft excelled at that, with creatures that were both interesting and complex enough to keep a group occupied for an evening.

Especially Emerald Empires let me down in this regard, with over a dozen creatures spelled out in all details, but all of them simple human NPCs. I can easily improvise a human NPC, something more uncommon would have been much more useful. Shadowlands offered a number of good creatures, but of course, most are confined to the Shadowlands.

So I thought we could design and share some here, as inspiration and help for other gamemasters.

I'll start it off with a few creatures, inspired from different sources and ideas (no warrantry that that is how the official creature would look, or that it is true to ancient folk traditions).

Since printing out web pages is a headache, I also compiled all my monster into a single PDF document, with some GM remarks and adventure ideas each. I'll update the PDF whenever I design a new one. Of course, I will also post them down-thread:

Strange Creatures of Rokugan.pdf

HERE THERE BE MONSTERS:

- the undead ninjas called Akikage

- The Con-Tinh, a beautiful princess alone in the woods, which somehow does not behave like a princess at all.

- the Head Hunter, the most horrifying moster of the old D&D Ravenloft Denizens of Darkness:

- the terrible Hopping Vampire, mainstay of Hongkong Wuxia cinema

- the Jinmenju , or Death-Head Tree:

- the Jorōgumo, a spider-woman that enchants its victims (details inspired by the Rising Sun boardgame creature )

Details on the Jorogumo:

The Jorōgumo doesn't just go around charming anyone and then ask them to kill their family.

It will choose a solitary person, a woodcutter or boy collecting firewood. It will charm him from hiding, reavealing herself afterwards, and the person sees an otherworldly beauty that tells him she is a messanger fromn the Fortunes or the Kami, sent to gather a few humans to save from the imminent catastrophe. She will show him a vision of the catastrophe (with False Realm of the Fox Spirits), as well as a vision of the near-paradise that awaits him and his family - if they prove themselves worthy of the new world. To trest that, she will have to ask him to do a few things, that will surely hurt her more than him, but are necessary to prove his devotion to the Fortunes, the Kami, and her.

The first few things she asks for a small transgressions, without logic or rhyme - steal a broom or a comb from that woman, tell everybody that that woman is an evil witch... and of course do not talk about me. Only later become the demands worse, all with the intention of getting the family to go into the woods, alone or in groups of two, into the protected paradise. What awaits them, of course, is a spider cocoon and an egg, to feed the next generation of Jorōgumo.

Even if the PCs quickly find out that the affected is charmed by a creature, he only knows that she is a beautiful woman, and where he saw her in the woods. Actually finding her and getting her to stand and fight is not easy for a creature that can run up trees.

In battle, if the charmed person is there, she will order him (not an action) to kill her attackers. If he does not do that on his turn, it will cause him 3 Strife for defying his ninjo. The jorogumo will try to avoid attacking him, but attack others in Fire stance und use Opportunities to cause him 2 Strife, driving him towards unmasking.

It is a crafty and smart opponent that will use its abilities to greatest effect: sitting on a ceiling, cliff or tree and pulling foes up, only to drop them, pushing foes into traps, over edges or into damaging terrain, covering pitfalls with False Realm of the Fox Spirits, turning invisible with Cloak of Night and attacking from hiding... A Jorogumo should not be underestimated.

- the water yokai Kappa

- the Komainu , or Lion Dog, guarding shrines (and chinese restaurents). Also a Rising Sun boardgame monster.

Komainu adventure idea: the PCs could be called to a local shrine because the resident kami seems to be unhappy, throwing stuff around every now and then.

Investigating, the PCs might find out that a group of burglers tried to rob the shrine a few weeks back, but were chased off when the komainu activated (their claw marks can still be seen near the front steps). Unnoticed, the spirit of a recently deceased local woman entered the shrine at the same time, with the wards down, and became trapped inside when the Komainu returned. It is her spirit that has caused the recent commotion.

The PCs will have to activate the Komainu long enough for her to leave without destroying them, as they are parts of the shrine. Aand, for bonus points, find out what keeps the spirit in this world, and solve that problem.

- The Living Blade, a deadly remnant of a bloodthirsty killer:

- the Long dragon, creature of legend and myth. Not really a PC adversary, but any Far-Eastern RPG should have it available.

- a transfer from KanThaiPan, the far-eastern setting of Germany's oldest RPG "Midgard": The Metal-Eating Rabbit PeiTju.

- The fearsome Tengu Swordmaster. Many young samurai dream of seeking one out in his mountaintop refuge and becoming his pupil, but those that actually do often come to regret the decision.

- The venerable Terracotta Soldier:

- the Ubume, a sad woman only wanting to share her burden

- The White-Haired Witch, another Hongkong Cinema mainstay:

I think this is pretty super. Can you share the program you used to make these nice stat blocks?

35 minutes ago, BrickSteelhead said:

I think this is pretty super. Can you share the program you used to make these nice stat blocks?

I just made them using Photoshop. Using the file, you can just change the text of the layers to make a new monster, but you'll need Adobe Photoshop, of course.

The file size is 1 MB, too much to attach here. You can download the zipped file at this URL .

I have two more, but it seems I can only upload a total of 500 kb of pictures here. Is that a daily limit? Or how do I share more pictures?

These look great, and the yokai look fun to use!

If requests are welcomed: How about the creature with the tongue that Isawa Tadaka met in the Phoenix story?

An interesting old L5R book that could be used as inspiration, if not directly steal some of its flavour text, is the D20 book Creatures of Rokugan. One such creature is the bakeneko. Well I'm not good with photoshop, so I'll contribute with text:

Bakeneko (Human form)
Conflict rank : battle 1, social 2.
Flavour text : (from Yokai.com) When cats live to an old age, they begin develop supernatural powers and transform into yokai. bakeneko begin their supernatural life looking almost identical to an ordinary housecat. Soon they begin to walk about at on their hind legs. As they age and their powers increase, they can grow to be very large, sometimes as big as a full-grown human.
(From Creature of Rokugan) They are fascinated by humans and their strange ways, particularly that most somber and stern of individuals, the duelist. The bakeneko, like their ancient rivals the kenku, enjoy seeking out and testing the skills of duelist, often playing humiliating tricks and pranks to prove the human that life is not as serious as they would believe.
Rings: Earth 1, Fire 2, Water 1, Air 4, Void 3.
Honor 10, Glory 15, Status 0, Endurance 6, Composure 9, Focus 7, Vigilance 4.
Skills: Artisan 0, Martial 2, Scholar 1, Social 0, Trade 0.
Advantages: Bluff (Air, Scholar), Spirit qualities (Void, Martial).
Disadvantages: Quickly distracted (Water, Social), Feeling unwelcome (Fire, Trade).
Weapons: Improvised claws (transforming its nails back to a cat claws) Range 0, Damage 1, Deadliness 2, Concealable and Razor-Edged.
Gear: Peasants outfit (rags, cloth headband, simple cloths).
Ability: Shapeshift:
A bakeneko can transform into a cat at will, gaining the size and natural attack possibilities of cat (use the Cat profile). They have learned much from their previous masters, they can only act as good as a peasants what previous owner has shown in their presence when they were still cats.

In one of my beginning adventures I came up with dog size spiders. They used to be normal spiders, but due to a local curse they have grown to dog size spiders with strange behaviours.
Village cursed spiders
Conflict rank : battle 1, social 1.
Flavour text : They have grown from normal size spiders to dog size spider. They will attack humans and like to hide human objects by spinning a dome over that object. The creatures often hide in bushes, ready to strike human and human-like creatures.
Rings: Earth 3, Fire 2, Water 1, Air 1, Void 1.
Endurance 4, Composure 3, Focus 4, Vigilance 5.
Skills: Artisan 0, Martial 1, Scholar 0, Social 0, Trade 0.
Advantages: Well hidden (Air, Scholar)
Disadvantages: Human dislike (Fire, Social.
Weapons: Bite Range 0, Damage 2, Deadliness 2, Snaring.
Gear: Skin (physical 2)
Ability: Little command:
They developed the ability to commanding enormous a groups of normal sizes spiders, to attack or spin a web around objects.

9 hours ago, Miwt said:

How about the creature with the tongue that Isawa Tadaka met in the Phoenix story?

That'd be an interesting one.

• It would probably need to have a natural ability somewhat similar to the Ninjitsu technique Skulk . It may not have been unobserved by the Shujenga, but it clearly thought it was.
• It's clearly not especially smart; it appears to be more bestial than anything
• It's described as having very spindly limbs with big claws, as well as the long tongue.
• Since it 'can only be truly killed when it feeds' and the protective talisman is made from its tongue, I would suggest that killing it requires severing the tongue (maybe add a unique effect that does that?) - on any other critical strike it can 'bampf' back into the shadows as a reaction for on its fitness check - so it can be wounded, but it's almost impossible to kill it if it wasn't feeding.
• If it's lurking in an area hidden (presumably a bigger/smarter/stronger one might be able to lurk without being seen by PCs who are not going to be a match for Tadaka and Yori), then living things have nightmares, age and become ill. Making people afflicted and adding a continuous influx of strife would work, I guess?

Ok, here are three new ones:

- The venerable Terracotta Soldier:

- The Living Blade, a deadly remnant of a bloodthirsty killer:

- And the Head Hunter, the most horrifying moster of the old D&D Ravenloft Denizens of Darkness:

11 hours ago, Kiso said:

One such creature is the bakeneko.
In one of my beginning adventures I came up with dog size spiders.

Those both sound cool. But I would advise against foes with a damage of 1-2 and deadliness of 2. They have trouble getting through even Travelling Clothes, so the fight will probably not be very challenging. Dog-sized spiders should be horrifying, you should not be able to let them chew on your leg for a bit while you do something else.

- For the Bakeneko, she could either have more damaging claws, or use human weapons.

- The spiders could have noxious poison in their mandibles. That would give them low damage but quite high deadliness (noxious poison is Deadliness+4), so if they penetrate the armor, the character is in trouble.

2 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

All you need for Ceramic Soldier (other than stating it's otherworldly) is to say that its armour "cannot gain the Damaged or Destroyed qualities". Making 5 points do 1 point of damage but damage the blade is a very think margin and most people would probably still 'pull' the blow. An alternative might be a knock-off version of The Body Is An Anvil .

2 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

How does its endurance work if you're not explicitly attacking the weapon? Yes, I need to beat TN5 to land a strike on it, but if I do, it seems weird that I cause fatigue if I'm attacking.....nothing.

I would suggest giving it Thunderclap Strike as an ability, not a weapon. Otherwise I can have the 'weapon' become damaged and Thunderclap Strike still work to full effect.

2 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

Rather than listing Katana, I would use "gear: when using the Puppeteer ability, it will use weapons appropriate to the body inhabited."

And a magical Giant Octopus - because why not?

Akkorokamui

Conflict rank : battle 6, social 4.
Flavour text : (from Wikipedia.com) While Akkorokamui is often presented as a benevolent kami with powers to heal and bestow knowledge, it is fickle and has the propensity to do harm. Akkorokamui's nature as an octopus means that it is persistent and it is near impossible to escape its grasp without permission. Akkorokamui enjoys the sea and offerings which reflect this: fish, crab, mollusks, and the like are particular favorites of Akkorokamui, which give back that which it gave. Akkorokamui is characteristically described with the ability to self-amputate, like several octopus species, and regenerate limbs. Consequently, it is believed that giving offerings to Akkorokamui will heal ailments of the body, in particular, disfigurements and broken limbs
Rings: Earth 1, Fire 1, Water 6, Air 2, Void 2.
Endurance 12, Composure 10, Focus 7, Vigilance 3.
Skills: Artisan 2, Martial 2, Scholar 3, Social 3, Trade 1.
Advantages: Many-Limbed Grasp (Water, Artisan, Martial, Trade)
Disadvantages: Fickle And Spiteful (Earth, Artisan, Social)
Weapons: Tentacles Range 0-2, Damage 6, Deadliness 2, Snaring, Deals Supernatural Damage
Gear: Thick Hide (Physical 3, Supernatural 4).
Abilities:

Creature of the Deep:
Akkorokamui is a silhouette 4 Otherworldly being which treats all dry land as Dangerous Terrain. Once per scene as an action of the appropriate type(s), Akkorokamui may perform any one Water invocation other than Rise, Water. It counts as succeeding with 3 bonus successes and 2 .

Countless Tentacles:

Akkorokamui always treats its targets as having a vigilance of 1 for the purposes of the Snaring quality.

Akkorokamui's Blessing:

As a downtime action, Akkorokamui may remove a Scar disadvantage from itself or an ally

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

How does its endurance work if you're not explicitly attacking the weapon? Yes, I need to beat TN5 to land a strike on it, but if I do, it seems weird that I cause fatigue if I'm attacking.....nothing.

There is no Endurance: If you try to attack the invisible wielder, you either feel like you missed him, or you feel like you really should have hit him, making clear that there is no-one there. The amount of damage you do to someone not there is irrelevant.
Edit: I rephrased it to make it clearer and got rid of Thunderclap Strike.
I also followed your advise with the wording og damaging the Terracotta Soldier and Gear of the Head Hunter. I kept the "damaging razor-edged at 5 damage"-part, as I felt resistance 5 would be too much for a minion, but it should feel tougher than a regular guy in armor. As the creature has few other special abilities, I think that is ok for the GM to handle.

Regarding the octopus, your text still references the Manifest Water Kami. I believe you must replace it with Akkorokamui.

And a few more entries:

- the Long dragon, creature of legend and myth. Not really a PC adversary, but any Far-Eastern RPG should have it available.

- The White-Haired Witch, another Hongkong Cinema mainstay:

- And finally, a transfer from KanThaiPan, the far-eastern setting of Germany's oldest RPG "Midgard": The Metal-Eating Rabbit PeiTju.

I can totally see the White-haired witch passing herself off as a Crane clan Shugenja. After all, who is going to question someone's white hair if their are wearing the robes and mon of a Crane Samurai?

On 1/6/2020 at 9:24 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

That'd be an interesting one.

• It would probably need to have a natural ability somewhat similar to the Ninjitsu technique Skulk . It may not have been unobserved by the Shujenga, but it clearly thought it was.
• It's clearly not especially smart; it appears to be more bestial than anything
• It's described as having very spindly limbs with big claws, as well as the long tongue.
• Since it 'can only be truly killed when it feeds' and the protective talisman is made from its tongue, I would suggest that killing it requires severing the tongue (maybe add a unique effect that does that?) - on any other critical strike it can 'bampf' back into the shadows as a reaction for on its fitness check - so it can be wounded, but it's almost impossible to kill it if it wasn't feeding.
• If it's lurking in an area hidden (presumably a bigger/smarter/stronger one might be able to lurk without being seen by PCs who are not going to be a match for Tadaka and Yori), then living things have nightmares, age and become ill. Making people afflicted and adding a continuous influx of strife would work, I guess?

For those not knowing: The story we are talking about.

The problem with that creature is that we do not really know why Tadaka acted the way he did. He let the old woman die slowly over days. When she finally poisoned herself, the creature emerged to lap up the blood, which is when he smote it with probably Jade Strike.

If it is a creature that just lusts for blood, simply spilling (her or someone elses) blood would have been sufficient. It is rather unclear why he had to let it feed on her dreams beforehand for days.
A theory would be that it is a very smart creature, and that it would have found something amiss if its prey had died earlier than it expected based on the suffering it inflicted. That it only emerges when everything fits, why he had to play his role. But that would contradict your observation that it is only of bestial intelligence.

My understanding is that the dusty corner is an area of shadow, and that the creature didn't really sit there, but travelled there through the shadow itself. Destroying the shadow area would have banished it from the shrine and led to the woman's recovery, but as Yori said, would only have meant it would attack somewhere else. It would be like closing a window through which the creature entered again and again.

If so, we have a creature that

- can travel through shadows, or at least sit in shadow in a two-dimensional form, as it would have been bigger than the corner implied.

- can send nightmares into sleeping people that drain their energy and makes them sick and miserable

- has a long tongue with teeth on it that it can only use after leaving its shadow portal to drink spilled blood. It has some magical/alchemistical properties, but it does not seem to be its primary way of feeding, the mental nightmares are. Possibly it isn't really a fighter, as he seems to have blasted it to death with one spell.

As such, it is more a story hook than a creature: The entire point is how to draw it out of its hiding place. The fight itself is barely described in the story, so its stats when it emerged might be of secondary importance and can be improvised from other creatures.

Anybody willing to create L5R stat blocks for the various monsters/demons/creatures from the Rising Sun boardgame? https://cmon.com/product/rising-sun/rising-sun

(for those of us who would like to use minis! 😎 )

Thanks!

6 hours ago, jrvk777 said:

Anybody willing to create L5R stat blocks for the various monsters/demons/creatures from the Rising Sun boardgame? https://cmon.com/product/rising-sun/rising-sun

(for those of us who would like to use minis! 😎 )

Thanks!

I'll see what I can do. Will take a few days, though.

To all: I'll move all my monsters into the first post und also update that if I post new ones. Makes it easier to use them if they are not spread out across the thread.

I thought about creating a Jorogumo (independent of it being a monster from Rising Sun) a few days ago, as it is a classicsal japanese monster of legend.

It is a spider-woman that can throw spider nets or strings, is strong enough to pull a tree from the ground, roots and all, but also can make men fall in love with it enough that they ignore a very plain risk of dying.

The problem is that L5R RPG has NO mechanism for charm or domination etc. Unlike most RPGs, the control of a character is never taken away from you. I believe that to be a conscious design decision: As the intentions and consequences of actions is a major issue for the RPG, with Honor and Glory and Ninjo etc, free will is more important. PCs choose to do good or bad.

As such, I would not want to design a "you've fallen in love with a spider-woman and have to do what she says"-mechanism.

I'm thinking of doing it by way of "acting against the orders or interests of the one that charmed you causes Strife", with a forced way of unmasking (Bend principles). The cursed items from Shadowlands do the latter, too, so there is precedent.

Ok, here is my, perhaps controversial, take on the Jorogumo (details inspired by the Rising Sun boardgame creature ) :

The idea is that it is a Solo monster: A powerful adversary fit to fight a group of 4 PCs of Rank 2-3 that want to free its victim.

The problem with strong single monsters is that it is very hard to compensate for the actions of 4 PCs when you only act once. If the PCs know what they are doing, the monster gets to only act once or twice, which means two of the PCs aren't even being attacked in the fight. The regular way to go about this is to group the monster with minions that draw some of the attacks and get in a few hits themselves. But as a Jorogumo should be solitary and not be a boss of some group, I tried to to give it more actions, and give it attacks that can be used creatively for a memorable fight: Pushing PCs off ledges or into entangling terrain (or off a waterfall), sitting on a ceiling, rock wall or tree and pulling a PC up, just to drop him down, covering up pitfalls with False Realms of the Fox Spirits, being invisible and striking from hiding...

31 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

Ok, here is my, perhaps controversial, take on the Jorogumo:

The idea is that it is a Solo monster: A powerful adversary fit to fight a group of 4 PCs of Rank 2-3 that want to free its victim.

The problem with strong single monsters is that it is very hard to compensate for the actions of 4 PCs when you only act once. If the PCs know what they are doing, the monster gets to only act once or twice, which means two of the PCs aren't even being attacked in the fight. The regular way to go about this is to group the monster with minions that draw some of the attacks and get in a few hits themselves. But as a Jorogumo should be solitary and not be a boss of some group, I tried to to give it more actions, and give it attacks that can be used creatively for a memorable fight: Pushing PCs off ledges or into entangling terrain (or off a waterfall), sitting on a ceiling, rock wall or tree and pulling a PC up, just to drop him down, covering up pitfalls with False Realms of the Fox Spirits, being invisible and striking from hiding...

I like it.

The forced Void check is a bit weird, since in combat (especially) you should roll your stance. (and the only instance in the whole game that forces a ring for a resist check is Suffocation, which is most probably an errata).

I would also remove the clause that you cannot remove strife in any other way than unmasking. That is a bit weird, gameplay wise. Especially since you say it is only "this" strife.
I still leave that any unmasking would cause you to do the bend principle action of the monster's choice though.

I would also add that if the monster unmask itself, it drops all "charm" targets, ending the effects immediately.

Interesting design! Better than almost everything we have seen in the books so far.

And you should move this post in the houserule section, find a way to organize it. It's pretty neat stuff.

14 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

I like it.

The forced Void check is a bit weird, since in combat (especially) you should roll your stance. (and the only instance in the whole game that forces a ring for a resist check is Suffocation, which is most probably an errata).

I would also remove the clause that you cannot remove strife in any other way than unmasking. That is a bit weird, gameplay wise. Especially since you say it is only "this" strife.
I still leave that any unmasking would cause you to do the bend principle action of the monster's choice though.

I would also add that if the monster unmask itself, it drops all "charm" targets, ending the effects immediately.

Interesting design! Better than almost everything we have seen in the books so far.

The charm effect is not primarily supposed to be a combat ability. My concept was that it is either used on an NPC, and the PCs have to find out what is wrong with that young dude/gal that seems to have a secret, gets weaker by the day and, as they find out sooner or later, does bad stuff, even though all say he/she has a good heart. Or it is used on a PC in story mode without telling the others, to similar effect. That's why Void Rings should not be so problematic, and I thought mystical insight and resting within yourself is the best defense against being charmed.

The idea behind not being able to remove the Strife is that the need to follow the commands becomes worse and worse. There are a number of Strife-removal-mechanics, so just being Water-focused would otherwise mean that NOT doing the bad deed called for is easily compensated. If the Strife cannot easily be removed, the affected still decides himself whether to do the deed or not - but sooner or later it will make him Compromised and keep him Compromised, as The Command presses on him harder and harder.

I like the idea of turning the tables and making the monster unmask to break the effect, I'll include that.

6 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

The charm effect is not primarily supposed to be a combat ability. My concept was that it is either used on an NPC, and the PCs have to find out what is wrong with that young dude/gal that seems to have a secret, gets weaker by the day and, as they find out sooner or later, does bad stuff, even though all say he/she has a good heart. Or it is used on a PC in story mode without telling the others, to similar effect. That's why Void Rings should not be so problematic, and I thought mystical insight and resting within yourself is the best defense against being charmed.

The idea behind not being able to remove the Strife is that the need to follow the commands becomes worse and worse. There are a number of Strife-removal-mechanics, so just being Water-focused would otherwise mean that NOT doing the bad deed called for is easily compensated. If the Strife cannot easily be removed, the affected still decides himself whether to do the deed or not - but sooner or later it will make him Compromised and keep him Compromised, as The Command presses on him harder and harder.

I like the idea of turning the tables and making the monster unmask to break the effect, I'll include that.

Yeah, strife management is iffy.. because of water stance. But if it targets an npc, it doesnt matter. If it is in combat, oh well, water stance is good against it. Raise the strife to 4, maybe, and make it healeable. To keep it streamlined. If it is on a pc, in a narrative scene it shouldnt really happen, it would probably turn in an intrigue or skirmish right away.

Void check, sure, it is not as per standard conflict rules, but it also doesn't really break anything to impose ot either.

The Jorōgumo doesn't just go around charming anyone and then ask them to kill their family.

It will choose a solitary person, a woodcutter or boy collecting firewood. It will charm him from hiding, reavealing herself afterwards, and the person sees an otherworldly beauty that tells him she is a messanger fromn the Fortunes or the Kami, sent to gather a few humans to save from the imminent catastrophe. She will show him a vision of the catastrophe (with False Realm of the Fox Spirits), as well as a vision of the near-paradise that awaits him and his family - if they prove themselves worthy of the new world. To trest that, she will have to ask him to do a few things, that will surely hurt her more than him, but are necessary to prove his devotion to the Fortunes, the Kami, and her.

The first few things she asks for a small transgressions, without logic or rhyme - steal a broom or a comb from that woman, tell everybody that that woman is an evil witch... and of course do not talk about me. Only later become the demands worse, all with the intention of getting the family to go into the woods, alone or in groups of two, into the protected paradise. What awaits them, of course, is a spider cocoon and an egg, to feed the next generation of Jorōgumo.

Even if the PCs quickly find out that the affected is charmed by a creature, he only knows that she is a beautiful woman, and where he saw her in the woods. Actually finding her and getting her to stand and fight is not easy for a creature that can run up trees.

16 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

The Jorōgumo doesn't just go around charming anyone and then ask them to kill their family.

It will choose a solitary person, a woodcutter or boy collecting firewood. It will charm him from hiding, reavealing herself afterwards, and the person sees an otherworldly beauty that tells him she is a messanger fromn the Fortunes or the Kami, sent to gather a few humans to save from the imminent catastrophe. She will show him a vision of the catastrophe (with False Realm of the Fox Spirits), as well as a vision of the near-paradise that awaits him and his family - if they prove themselves worthy of the new world. To trest that, she will have to ask him to do a few things, that will surely hurt her more than him, but are necessary to prove his devotion to the Fortunes, the Kami, and her.

The first few things she asks for a small transgressions, without logic or rhyme - steal a broom or a comb from that woman, tell everybody that that woman is an evil witch... and of course do not talk about me. Only later become the demands worse, all with the intention of getting the family to go into the woods, alone or in groups of two, into the protected paradise. What awaits them, of course, is a spider cocoon and an egg, to feed the next generation of Jorōgumo.

Even if the PCs quickly find out that the affected is charmed by a creature, he only knows that she is a beautiful woman, and where he saw her in the woods. Actually finding her and getting her to stand and fight is not easy for a creature that can run up trees.

All cool. You misunderstood me.

If the monster targets an NPC: You do not even need to check their strife or make a resist check! So the mechanics are relatively irrelevant as you will probably control the NPC like a puppet, as much as you want or feel to.

I am talking PC-Monster interaction.
If the monster use this charm ability on a PC: You're asking for a resist check, and then telling the player they cannot heal strife. So I guess at this point the player will know whats the cause of that. I can assure you a conflict (intrigue or skirmish) will happen. Or what? the monster goes away and the PC just can't heal strife forever, ever?
I do not think you need to have the "cannot heal this strife" clause in there. It creates weird and unwanted mechanics. So, the suggestion is to bump the strife it causes to 4 (if you want) but let the player heal it normally. This will only happen in conflicts anyway, never in narrative scenes.

Thx for your narrative explanation though. But I'm strictly thinking in terms of how this ability interacts with the game's mechanic. To make it safe for publication. You cannot have "cannot heal this strife" in there without a way to "stop" this effect aside from killing the monster (which might or might not/never happen!).