The Grue

"Long Arm Glided" by Neuville, Alphonse de

It’s limbs wrap around the pillars of the surface. Shaking them to move the earth and seas. It came from black sea or is black sea itself. The moon is it’s shell. The moon is it’s child. The moon is it’s eye.

Purviews.
Earthquakes, Cave-ins, Fissures, Holes, Depths, Darkness, Tsunamis, Sea, Cephalopods, Anti-Magic, Moon, Space, Curse

Known Rituals.
Ward/Invoke Earthquakes
Ward/Invoke Cave-Ins
Ward/Invoke Fissures
Ward/Invoke Holes
Ward/Invoke Tsunamis
Invoke New Moon
Invoke Full Moon
Make Water into Sea Water
Safe/Unsafe Passage Through the Blue Sea
Safe/Unsafe Passage Through the Black Sea
Ward Brain Deterioration
Preserve Brain
Appease Cephalopods
Awaken Psychic Powers
Become a Cephalopod
Protection in Darkness
Ward against Magic
Inflict/Remove Curse
Remove Magic

Worshipers.
Adventurers that frequent the underworld or sea, seaside residents, sailors, miners, those that live where earthquakes are frequent, space travelers, psychics, nocturnals, & cephalopods.

Cephalopods.
They weren’t born from the lovemaking of Mort and Erodo. Nobody really knows how they came about. The only ones most people see are the ones that go to the surface to die. The ones that can barely communicate and resigned themselves to death after passing on their knowledge to their kin. 

World Pillars & Mort
Mort see The Grue as a weird creature that lives in her attic. She doesn’t mind it living there and finds it cute. Has a good laugh seeing it shake the pillars that separate the surface and the underworld, causing earthquakes, fissures, holes, tsunamis, etc. Keeps the roof dwellers on their toes. Babel hates it due to it destroying his architecture and it being unable to speak “normally”. Erodo as usual found it fascinating, one of her work in process projects is a full sketch of it.

Anti-Magic.
Magic relies on written, spoken, and signed language. Cephalopods (and presumably The Grue) use psychic and emphatic connections to communicate with each other. Through this specialization they awaken to more powers, the ability to create curses, and gain an innate resistance to magic. This lack of language is reflected in the rituals of the grue as they only require one to think and visualize in their head in order to complete them.

Deep Silver.
A type of silver that can only be found in the abyss of the sea. A chalky and marble texture that glows pure white. Associated with The Grue due to it’s anti-magic properties. A full plate armor set made of deep silver is said to make you immune to magic. Weapons plated with deep silver can devour any magic it touches. Curses are unaffected due to them being based in raw emotion rather than the imaginary of magic.

Moon.
Some people speculate that moon is made of deep silver due to a visual resemblance. There’s a big perfect circular hole on the surface visible on full moons. Some say it’s an egg The Grue laid to give birth to original cephalopods. Some say it's the remains of the egg that The Grue itself was born from. While more fringed group says it’s the eye of The Grue, implying it might be much much larger than anyone realizes. The more visible the moon is the more powerful psychic powers and curses becomes, while magic gets weaker (and vice versa).

Space.
Black Sea. Darkness. Void. When the observer in the sky rests, the black sea lowers onto the surface. It’s a sea made of air but one that can be swam through by certain means. On full moons, cephalopods migrate between the blue and black seas. Fishers & Sailors who go out on a full moon and never come back are said to have been lost in the black sea.

 

Author's Note.
Another old thing I found. It was an attempt to write up a god/spirit people would worship for a world building project that got abandoned. Rereading it looks like I wanted to do some writing that implies a deeper world. I quite like how it came out.

"Fear of Big Things Underwater" by Jacob Gellar, is where I'm pretty sure I got idea to go with cephalopods. That vid I'm pretty sure talked about how the only giant squids we see on the surface are the ones who are already dying.

Garl Vinland of Demon's Souls Fame and his bitchin armor set was the direct inspiration for Deep Silver. His armor gives a massive defense bonus against magic and his shield can completely negate magic. I also remember one of the merchant lady in the valley of defilement described him as a "squid-headed knight" which played into making connections lel. 

I don't particularity remember why I made curses and magic work that way. Regardless still like it. Always a fan of being able to get psychics into a setting. Should say I'm pretty sure I wrote this before reading anything from Jujutsu Kaisen (Hell think it didn't have any fan TLs were out yet).

Berserker Parasite

A large white centipede-like parasite born when rain falls on a fresh battlefield with a heinous body count. Eggs are formed in the mud, which hatch after a week. Once hatched it’ll attempt to find a human or other similar host.

They must gain permission from their host in order to enter them. Usually done through trickery and temptations of power. Once permission is granted they’ll crawl onto the host’s back and dig inside their spine. The process is oddly pleasant feeling. The parasite can’t be removed once it’s invited in, completely replacing the host’s nervous system.

After a day the host gains the strength of 5 men due to the parasite reweaving their flesh and bones. Whenever adrenaline is created in the host, there’s a 1 in 6 chance the host entering a violent frenzy for 1 hour. The parasite feeds off the psychic energy generated while under the effects of adrenaline.

The parasite can speak via short range telepathy. After fusing they like to keep in touch with their host. Pretending to be their friend in order to subtly goad them into situations that would make more food for it. If the parasite is unable to eat for a week it and the host dies.

There are tales of a version of this parasite that is covered in rusty brown hair. If you accept their deal you gain the strength of 25 men but whenever adrenaline is created you always go into the frenzy.

 

Author's Note.
Another magic item I found looking through old stuff. Stretching the idea of a magic item here, but I really love the concept and the implied body horror. Might have been inspired by this one movie I don't remember the name of. Iirc there were alien parasites that ate and replaced their host's spine so they can feed off their fear?

Edit: It was also probably inspired by the Magatama from SMT Nocturne. Funny little bugs.

3 Magic Items

Boots of Traveler’s Bane

A pair of nice dusty black leather boots. The tongue of the boots show stitching depicting a traveler looking out on a vista about to start their journey. 

The bottom of the soles show an engraving of what looks like the same traveler writhing on the ground in pain as his feet have swollen to massive size. 

A cursed pair of leather boots. Once you put them on they feel very comfortable and keep your feet warm. The boots seem to match your exact size as well.

For every 50ft the wearer walks, a pebble forms insides one of the boots. If there is no more room for pebbles to form, they start forming inside the feet. The wearer isn’t injured by these pebbles.

The boots won’t come off until the curse is removed from the one affected. Another way is to accrue enough pebbles inside your feet that the swelling tears the shoes at the seems. The pebbles inside the feet only disappear if the curse is magically removed.

Nightingale Whistle

A birch wood whistle. Depicts a mustached mouth and closed hands with extended pinkies. The tongue and the tips of the pinkies are between the slightly clenched teeth, creating the fipple.

 A fragile magical whistle. If blown a harsh wind radiates up to 500ft from the blower, strong enough to easily topple and snap trees. It quickly crumbles to dust after blown.

Numb Ring

An iron ring. It’s entire surface is covered in smooth tiny bumps and gaps that feel nice to touch.

A cursed ring that once put on causes your legs to fall asleep as long as you wear the ring. It can’t come off unless the curse is removed from the one wearing the ring.

Author's Note.
Found some old TTRPG stuff and wanted to post it. No real inspirations I can remember for the first and third one. The second is directly inspired by Nightingale the Robber. Who I was first exposed to Along Unknown Paths (1983). Much more comic relief as far as I remember than a threat. 

Looking back on these I think I really like the boots item the most. Particularly the details on the tongue and sole of the boots.

Ghoul

"Hideous Review" by Brion, Gustave

A craven monster that feeds on carrion.

HD: 1
Armor: Leather
Move: Normal
Attack: Weapon or Bite (1d6)
Special: if you're bitten by a ghoul, roll a save. On failure you contract ghoul cheese which fully inoculates in 1d6 days. More under Extra.

Appearance: ghastly emaciated humanoids, no hair, row of sharp teeth, reflective eyes, armed with bones sharpened into weapons.
Voice: quiet breaths, coughs.
Smell: wet dirt, mildew.
Perception: night vision, besides that similar enough senses as humans.

Wants: to devour rotting flesh.
Personality: cautious.
Intellect: more cunning than smart.
Social: small tight knit groups, flat hierarchy.
Plural: a corterie of ghouls.

 

Reason for Fighting: protecting food stores, warding off those that trespass on their territory, hunting for food.

Tactics: sticks to shadows. Will attempt to take out any light their enemies have. Will avoid sunlight at all costs. Divide and conquer. Hit and run. Tries to blind their enemies by throwing dirt (or similar) at their eyes.

Morale: very quick to flee if things aren't in their favor. If one of their number dies they'll all run away. If they are damaged they'll run away. If exposed to sudden bright light they'll run away.

 

Reason for Speaking: If able to speak ghouls will mimic noises to distract humans and lure them into specific locations.

Environment: cave systems, sewers, graveyards, abandoned buildings. Lairs are pretty basic, mainly a place to sleep and store food, trash and bones from their victims are strewn about the place. They'll go out to a nearby secondary location to defecate.

Valuable Parts: ghoul fluids can be used by doctors to create a cure for Ghoul Cheese. 

Extra: ghoul cheese is a bacteria propagated inside the fluid of ghouls. It's used to harden the outside of a creature while breaking down and fermenting the inside into a delicious treat (for ghouls). 

    Symptoms include: coughing blood due to buildup in lungs, dehydration via diarrhea, internal organ necrosis, skin hardening, joints stiffening, bone softening, swelling due to pockets forming within muscles and swelling with blood.

    You become bedridden once it's in full effect and will last 7 days. Every day you must make a poison save, on fail your max HP is reduced by 1d6. After recovering you regain 1 lost max HP per month of rest. 

 

Author's Note.
I really love ghouls, both and concept and just how their name sounds. Nothing quite like it. A lot less paralysis and much more horrible fantasy diseases! I made the choice of giving them that as part of a frustration that it seems like diseases are an element that seems to be barely used in TTRPGs. And I figured the monster known for eating corpses would be the best fit for one.

Hit Dice & Armor Class Scale

Hit Die Scale
All HDs are d8s, except for HD0 which is a d6. The biggest monsters going from this scale are up to 15ft tall and 25ft long. Anything smaller than a child is vermin not worthy being a monster (more worthy of a trap).

HD 0 - Human

HD 1 - Soldier

HD 2 - Wolf

HD 3 - Cow

HD 4 - Big Cat

HD 5 - Brown Bear

HD 6 - Polar Bear

HD 7 - Hippopotamus

HD 8 - Rhinoceros

HD 9 - Elephant

HD 10+ - Dragons & Super Heroes

Armor Class Scale
Uses Lamentations of the Flame Princess as a base.

AC 12 - Naked / Wood

AC 13 - Fur / Chitin

AC 14 - Leather

AC 15 - Thick Hide / Stone

AC 16 - Mail / Scales

AC 17 - Shell / Iron

AC 18 - Plate

AC 19 - Steel

AC 20 - Dragon

Demons

 First-Class Devils by Johannot, Tony

Amorphous otherworldly beings with great powers and magical items. They can only inhabit the human world by possessing a corpse. The most common way a demon is summoned is via sacrificial ritual. 

The ritual first calls the demon closer to our world. Once it's at the border the sacrifice is killed. Allowing the demon to possess it and enter our world. Regardless of how powerful the demon is, the body they inhabits still rots. To counteract it they end up needing to consume similar corpses to rebuild their body. This gets worse as demons highly prefer to possess human bodies over anything else. Leading to more dead human to satiate it.

Demons can also be called directly by specific humans, but it's much more rare. If the human's desires something great enough and the demon is able to grant those desires a connection can be made. The demon will then jump into the nearest corpse it can possess. 

While demons are generally powerful (Min HD of 5), they still wouldn't last that long against the full brunt of humans that put their minds to it. So instead they play the long game, manipulating humans to gain followers and power.

Demons have an intense desire to stay in our world. Nobody is entirely sure why they want to be in our world. Whenever asked they always spout out lies. The most common being they're an angel (or the divine being itself) come to bring prosperity to their followings.

The few rare adventurers that have made contact with multiple demons speculate that they seem to just enjoy living in our world. Newly birthed demons look like they take pleasure in their experiencing mundane sensations. They also have an obsession or two they ruthlessly pursue. If it's not being spent on their own protection, they use of all of their resources into the obsession.

When the first demon appeared in the world, it caused a ripple among the existing monsters. Brand new species of monsters that could speak started appearing. Monsters that couldn't speak before suddenly become able to.

This distortion caused the then stable age of humanity to quickly fall into confusion and ruin. Humans on the whole have yet to fully recover from this, many ruins of previous civilizations now dot the landscape. 

Author's Note.
This might fit better for the definition post, but didn't want to radically change it lel. Very much inspired by "You're Doing Demons All Wrong" by Goblin Punch and "Your Demon Lord Doesn't Need That Many Hit Dice" by Against The Wicked City. 

The part of the first demon causing the other monsters in the world to become more dangerous was directly inspired by Jujutsu Kaisen and how when Gojo was born Cursed Spirits became more dangerous.

Ogre

Landsknecht Ogres by Wargames Atlantic

A demon that wanders the land for battle.

HD: 5
Armor: Variable (Minimum Leather+Shield)
Move: Normal
Attack: Weapon
Special: When bloodied they make 2 weapon attacks each round.

Appearance: A very tall beefy humanoid, red skin, covered in scars, horns, rows of sharp teeth in a big mouth, well used armor and melee weapons.
Voice: low, brutish, incredibly loud when they want to be.
Smell: musk, sweat, iron.
Perception: keen humans. 

Wants: to fight, to become stronger, to gather trophies of worthy enemies (either as scars or actual bits and pieces of said enemy).
Personality: crude, smug, constantly sizing everyone up, deceptively focused.
Intellect: dim on most subjects, experts on combat practices and techniques.
Social: individualistic.
Plural: a company of Ogres.

 

Reason for Fighting: They don't need a reason to fight besides the thrill of it (and sometimes needing to kill something to eat it). Especially agitated ogres will just start fighting with the first character they see.

Tactics: they'll always prefer melee combat to other forms. They'll position themselves to attack the least armored parts of their opponents. Put cover between them and ranged weapons and magic. Pick out magic-user's on sight and attempt to take em out first if able. Push, trip, or grapple the enemy. Ambush their enemies, the sudden attack preempt by a deafening war cry.

Morale: it's always a battle to the death for an Ogre. The only chance you have is to run away and hope they can't catch you before they get bored. 

 

Reason for Speaking: To taunt and intimidate others. Negotiate with humans to be hired as a mercenary in exchange for room and board.

Environment: Ogres don't settle down and travel all over the place. It has to stay somewhere it's always some temporary base. An inn, mercenary camp, clearing in the woods, small cave, etc.

Valuable Parts: Adrenaline glands are used to make pills that cause the imbiber to enter an enhanced state. You become faster, stronger, greater reflexes, higher stamina, and dulls pain. if you over rely on these pills your body and mind will start breaking down, causing permanent ability score decreases.

Extra: Nobody really knows where ogres come from, so a bunch of folk tales fill in the void. Cursed humans that were born on a battlefield grow up into ogres. A mercenary company that made a pact with a demon for power. When a martial artist dies peacefully in their sleep their restless spirit stays in their body and warps it.

 

Author's Note.
Inspired by warhammer fantasy (and dragon quest). Always really loved the idea of the ogres going around being mercenaries and wearing the landsknecht fit. 

The dragon quest inspiration is from DQ10, where one of the playable species are Ogres. Really loved their look, and will forever make me sad it never got localized...

List of monsters & humans

Gnarled Monster by Doré, Gustave
One of my favorite pieces, and the favorite of alot of others too given how much it's used lel.

Monster
Creatures that directly predate humans, or are aggressive to humans in some way. Mundane animals can be called monsters.

Demon
A specific type of monster that is able to speak in order to take advantage of people. Very dangerous predators, especially if they look really similar to other people.

Replicating a baby's cry in order to lure someone into the dark. Tempting humans with deals that ultimately favor the demon. Yelling out for their mother before getting killed to create an opening.

Immortal
A person that was able to separate their soul from their body. Making their body immortal and invincible. Their soul is housed in a specific creature or object that if destroyed will kill the immortal.

Ghost
The lingering will of the dead. To be clear this isn't their soul, their soul has already passed over into the underworld. The will is the echoes of your life, held in place by great emotions. In rare cases a ghost can be deliberately left behind in order to help the living when called upon.

Spirit
Monsters & objects that became human. They're also able to shapeshift on a spectrum, with a human form on one end and their original form on the other. 

Angel
A specific type of Spirit. They are monsters that were made into spirits by a divine being. They typically act as intermediaries between people and said divine beings.

Demigod
An exceedingly rare type of human. Armed with supernatural abilities, ancient knowledge, and a powerful physique. Normally the monarchs of kingdoms where in exchange for worship the Demigod protects their subjects (as long as the citizens don't bring the ire of the Demigod).

Necro
A person's soul stolen from the underworld and placed within a corpse. Done by spellcasters who wish to steal the souls of powerful people to use as slaves. Of course the act of doing so will lead both the Necro and the spellcaster to be targeted by the Mort's angels. Mort being the ruler of the Underworld. 

Mermaids
An uncommon type of human that has adapted to living in the open water. Able to hold their breaths for long periods. Their legs melded into a single tail fin, webbed hands, smooth skin like a whale, row of sharp teeth, only hair remaining is on their head.

 

Author's Note.
To be fully transparent yes I did steal this idea of demons from Frieren at the Funeral (wonderful manga and anime go give it a look).

Immortals were directly inspired by Koshchei the Immortal. Very on the nose I know lel. But as someone who grew up watching soviet media he was one of the first mythological figures I was exposed to as a kid. Specifically his depiction Along Unknown Paths (1983).

Ghosts, specifically the part about them choose to stay in this state to help the living was directly inspire by Hoodoo. More specifically stuff like High John the Conqueror Root. To quote from the wikipedia page.

"In African American folk stories, High John the Conqueror was an African prince who was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved in the United States. He was a trickster, and used his wit and charm to deceive and outsmart his slaveholders. After the American Civil War, before High John the Conqueror returned to Africa, he told the newly freed slaves that if they ever needed his spirit for freedom his spirit would reside in a root they could use."

Only really got exposed to it cause of this great vid, "A Black Women’s History of Hoodoo, Conjure, & Witchcraft" by Intelexual Media. Def look up more of her vids.

Spirits were inspired by how I heard certain East Asian or South East Asian spirits be described as. Probably both Sun Wukong and Tsukumogami. I really wish I had a better memory about this.

Demigod are just directly inspired by the demigod entry in "The Monster Overhaul" by Skeples. Probably also a bit of Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night and the ways Greek gods are depicted in pop culture. 

 

Angels are there due to just currently appreciating the idea of angels. The agents of a god or similar interacting with (and hopefully helping) people just feels comforting. Plus the vague description of angels allows me room to make alot of things into possible angels.

Necro inspired after seeing a boss from Princess Crown who's title was Necro. She is (what I assume to be due to no English TL) a dead person whose body was remade from multiple different bodies. I guess a Frankenstein is a better way to describe, but I think Necro sounds rad so we're going with that.

Mermaids are there cause of a mix of liking the concept of mermaids in general and not wanting them to just be a monster. That latter part is probably due to Dragon Quest and how they depict mermaids rubbing off on me lel.

Dogmen

 

A species of monster that sees humans as a rival to it's spot on the food chain.

HD: 1
Armor: leather
Move: normal
Attack: weapon or bite
Special: n/a

Appearance: a viscous dog stretched over a human form, Looted weapons and patchwork armor.
Voice: barks, howls, growls, panting, sneezes.
Smell: feces, sour meat.
Perception: low light vision, overall better senses than the average human.

Wants: be the top of the food chain, the nice things humans have.
Personality: animalistic, predatory.
Intellect: malicious cunning.
Social: large packs, a majority made up by the young, lead by the most aggressive dogman. 
Plural: a pack of dogmen.

 

Reason for Fighting: A dogman will fight you if you have something they want, you're trespassing in their territory, or they see an opportunity to just kill you. If you look tough or well armed they'll back off and come back with friends.

Tactics: Ambushes, night attacks, capturing monsters to sic on their enemies, smearing feces onto weapons to cause infections, ruining food and water supplies with urine, rotten meat, and feces, barking and howling at night to keep you up, and false attacks. When fighting humans they like to decorate themselves in human body parts as a scare tactics.

Morale: Once in battle it's every dog for themselves. Even if the leader on their side dies the others will still fight. It's only when they have taken heavy damage themselves of feel they're about to be killed do they start to rout.

 

Reason for Speaking: negotiate with humans who don't want to fight them in exchange for tribute. They'll usually demand gear, food, human sacrifices, or information about nearby humans settlements. 

Environment: any kind of wilderness, especially if it's a forest. The perimeter of their territory is marked by urine, bones, flesh piles, and traps. The center of their territory is a warren where they sleep, mate, eat, store their spoils, raise their children, and prepare for raids.

Valuable Parts: curse-users use their organs for rabies curses, and their skull for black dog curses. Eyes are used for low-light vision potions. Their meat can be fed to normal dogs to make them more aggressive.

Extra: The younger a dogman is the more vicious they are. Dogmen babies especially, to the point that even within their own warrens the nursery needs to be cordon off. 

Special Features (d6)

1. Locust. Plants rot and die in their presence.
   
2. Musk. They emit a terrible smell. Forces a poison save on anybody attempting to eat or drink in their presence, on fail they instead throw up and waste their action.
3. Erosion. Any stone they touch melts into mud.
   
4. Cerberus. The dogman has three heads. 360 degree vision and only one head needs to sleep. 5 in 100 chance that they also have two extra sets of limbs to match the new heads.
   
5. Spellcaster. The dogman is a level 1d4 magic-user.
   
6. Demon. Can speak human languages in order to trick or intimidate humans. 

What are the Dogmen doing? (d10)

1. An especially scary dogman is going around taking over the local packs to make a giant pack. 
2. Tracking a monster they want to capture.
   
3. Setting up pit, snare, and bodygrip traps on the perimeter of their territory.
   
4. Marking the perimeter of their territory with corpses and bones.
   
5. Gathering food and drink for the coming winter. 
6. They're mating. Some of the males are fighting each other for the right to mate specific females.
   
7. Cowed into working for a powerful non-dogman entity. The top dogmen are looking for any chance to kill them for this indiscretion.
   
8. Celebrating their latest total victory over a group of humans that were a thorn in their side for far too long. Everyone is incredibly drunk off of the looted alcohol.
   
9. Preparing a raid on a nearby human settlement. The humans are non the wiser. 
10. The leader of the pack let their guard down and was killed. Now the next strongest dogmen in the pack are fighting for position of leader.
    

What happens to the humans captured by Dogmen? (d8)

1. Butchered for meat. 
2. Used as shields against arrow fire. 
3. Fed to captured monsters. 
4. Thrown into a nursery to be eaten alive by dogmen children. 
5. Made into clothing, weapons, and traps. 
6. Forced to fight other captured humans for entertainment. 
7. Tortured for fun and games. 
8. A dogman mage-user turns them into monsters.
   

 

Author's Note.
Hello and welcome! This is my first post on this blog. I'm going to be using this for to dump monsters I come up, as well as promote my own stuff. As a heads up, posting will probably be sparse. Hope ya like what ya read! 

Very heavily inspired by Warhammer Fantasy's Beastmen. I love those funny goat guys and wanted to make my own version. I just don't like and slightly fear dogs, and wanted to channel that for this monster. 

Hope the way I broke down and organized the specific sections make sense. Tried to keep things as concise as possible and the have the more combat related stuff be upfront.