Shuddering Forms in Ancient Tomb Depths (Basic Undead for King of Kings)

Given that tomorrow is Halloween (and with roughly another month having passed since my last post... sigh, I really need to get back on blogging and back on running D&D games again, but I keep on meeting roadblocks and annoying hurdles (some my own fault, some not)), I figured it'd be as good a time as any to write about one of my favorite creepy types of D&D monsters: the UNDEAD! I've already written about the undead in King of Kings in a few different places: salt mummies, parrot-fiends, false prophets, and rusalki (not to mention various types of undead dinosaurs in session reports) have rounded out the kinds of dead things now walking in the world of the Enlightened Empire. So check those out if any of them catch your eye! Here, I wanted to make some original, King of Kings-ified versions of classic D&D undead, riffing on Gus L.'s Monster Archaeology posts from years back (a huuuuuge influence on me and my thinking about D&D), namely his post on Lesser Undead in OD&D (please PLEASE check it out !!)

 

The Reanimated

Number Encountered: N/A  

Hit Dice: 1  

Attacks: 1 claw (1d6) or weapon  

Armor: Unarmored (0)  

Morale: 6*  

Puppeteered: The reanimated are controlled by some outside force or being. If that control is severed or destroyed, the reanimated instantly collapse to the ground.  

Undead: Immune to poison, disease, mind effects, etc.  

Unfeeling: Do not react to being harmed. Do not make morale checks unless forced to (such as due to a dispelling or turning).

 

The dead are a tool, one that can be used to very effective ends in the right hands. Whatever their origin, condition, or the mode of their animation, these reanimated cadavers form the backbone of the art of necromancy.

 

Types of Reanimated

Fresh

In Good Condition: +1 to hit points.

Bloated

Buoyant: Floats in water.

Fetid Gas: A successful hit causes the corpse to release stinking gases. Save vs. stench or begin to vomit.

Rotting

Disease: The claws of a rotting corpse carry disease.

Horrifying Countenance: Rotting corpses are disgusting to behold. Save vs. disgust or take a -1 penalty to all rolls while you can see the corpse.

Pickled

Edible: Although it likely tastes poor, the pickled corpse is technically edible.

Preserved: The pickled corpse has advantage on saving throws against effects that would damage or disintegrate its body.

Skeletal

Fleshless: Skeletons are immune to cold effects and take half damage from fire.

Fragile: Skeletons take double damage from bludgeons.

 

There's practically innumerable ways for a corpse to be reanimated: a necromancer animating dead muscle with chthonic magic, a ghul's chilly touch bringing the body under thrall (keep an eye out for a post on ghuls that I keep procrastinating on), a nefarious carnivorous plant wrapping its vines around the limbs like a marionette, baleful rays from purple moon-rocks throbbing in the joints, or fished out of the pickling jars of some mad sorcerer. There is no one way to counteract all types of reanimation (although turning, given the influence of Truth over all things, can be effective against all types of reanimated).

 

[This is basically just my attempt at combining all possible types of "dead body controlled by a necromancer" into one statblock with little modular bits connected. Zombies and skeletons are already this type of undead in OD&D and Basic, so this is more or less a broadening from that original mold! Also, the note that they can be forced to do morale checks is my first clumsy attempt at integrating various ways of "turning" undead that first got introduced in the post on parrot-fiends, since the Unceasingly Useful Dermestid Box provides a secular alternative to undead-turning.]

 

While reanimated corpses lack all agency, being little more than hunks of flesh puppeteered by an outside actor, there are those of the living dead which cling to independence and whose shuddering mockery of life sneers at Truth. Two such willful bodies are worth touching upon here.

 

Barrow Body

Number Encountered: 1d6

Hit Dice: 3+1

Attacks: 1 touch (energy drain)

Armor: as chain (2)

Morale: 10*

Energy Drain: The touch of a barrow body drains a full experience level upon a successful hit. The victim loses one hit die's worth of HP, corresponding to-hit bonuses, and any class abilities gained from the level they lost. A character brought to level 0 by a barrow body dies and becomes a barrow body.

Invulnerability: Barrow bodies take no damage from non-magical missiles. While melee attacks can damage the body's... body, the daeva inhabiting it does not "die" until dispelled (i.e., the barrow body can be rendered immobile by melee damage, but it will still be "alive").

Paralyze with Terror: Anyone seeing a barrow body must save or be paralyzed with terror. Paralysis is broken if the barrow body attacks, goes out of sight, or if the victim is shaken out of it via smelling salts etc.

Undead: Immune to poison, disease, mind effects, etc.

Unfeeling: Do not react to being harmed. Do not make morale checks unless forced to (such as due to a dispelling or turning).

The death of a good, honest person is a victory for deceit, and thus corpses not properly protected (by a watchful dog (their mean gaze shielding from unclean spirits) or ritual fires) are vulnerable to possession by the invisible deceitful daeva Nasrusht. Nasrusht has no body, and thus hungers after bodies, for even feeling dulled by death and decay is more than the nothingness that is its normal existence. In the western satrapies at the core of the Enlightened Empire, Nasrusht is kept at bay by ritual excarnation, placing the body atop a tower of silence and leaving it open to be picked apart by carrion birds and dogs, before the bones are safely removed and ensconced in the tomb. Such towers are a more recent appearance here in the eastern satrapies. Instead, the locals since time immemorial are more accustomed to heretical burial practices: constructing barrow mounds to bury their heroes, or ensconcing them beneath great stone kurgans, flesh still on bone when set into the earth. Thus, for centuries generations of good, honest folk have been left open to rapacious Nasrusht, leaving an uncanny barrow body in many tombs. Some temple exorcists of the True Religion have made it a mission to wander the countryside and expel the Nasrusht-cursed corpses from their crypts, despite the protestations of villagers and tribesmen disgusted that their ancestors are being defiled so insultingly.

 

Corpses of good people are ritually unclean due to Nasrusht's influence, whether reanimated as a barrow body or otherwise. The only exception to this are ancient relics of saints, begrudgingly made clean by temple functionaries disappointed at the popularity of such local cults. Thus, victims of Nasrusht's touch, which makes the skin pallid and the face languid and drains the victim of the will to live and of their connection to their very selves as they become more alike to the dead than the living, will not be ministered to by temple priests until they are ritually washed and atoned. Their accursed half-life can only be dispelled by a high-ranking mobad, and not just any high-ranking mobad but one who has specialized in the art of forgiveness for uncleanliness via star-magic. Such mobads are rare, and likely to request very particular favors in exchange for their services (it is said that one such mobad-doctor, Behzad Marzbani, occasionally makes his appearance in Humakuyun when he isn't on his dhow in the Sea of Giants).

 

[For more on Nasrusht and burial practices in historic Iran, read the page on corpses in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Also note that IRL, the type of burial practice involving exposing the body to the elements actually originated in eastern Iran, not in the west, as I have it here, but I kinda flipped it for the purposes of the game.]

 

Yes, I maybe cleaved a bit too close to the look of the ringwraiths with this drawing but they look cool so

Rove-Wraith

Number Encountered: 1d6

Hit Dice: 4+1

Attacks: 1 weapon (1d6 + energy drain)

Armor: as chain+shield (2+shield)

Morale: 11*

Energy Drain: The sword of a rove-wraith drains a full experience level upon a successful hit. The victim loses one hit die's worth of HP, corresponding to-hit bonuses, and any class abilities gained from the level they lost. A character brought to level 0 by a rove-wraith dies and becomes a barrow body.

Invulnerability: Rove-wraiths take no damage from non-magical weapons, and half damage from silver weapons.

Mount: Rove-wraiths ride upon steeds made from smoke or congealed blood.

Paralyze with Terror: Anyone seeing a rove-wraith must save or be paralyzed with terror. Paralysis is broken if the rove-wraith attacks, goes out of sight, or if the victim is shaken out of it via smelling salts etc.

Undead: Immune to poison, disease, mind effects, etc.

Unfeeling: Does not react to being harmed. Does not make morale checks unless forced to (such as due to a dispelling or turning).

While good, honest corpses are left open to nefarious Nasrusht, the corpses of especially cruel and evil-hearted men, those most motivated toward deceit and destruction in life, are made unclean by their own conduct and can maintain willfulness after death. Most often, these are the corpses of rapacious conquerors, warlords, and tyrants, although especially cruel torturers and sorcerers are present among their number as well. They are called rove-wraiths because, in their desperate restlessness as they hunger after the pleasures of life, they wander about the wildernesses and palace complexes they once ruled over, never comfortable staying in one place (rather unlike the buried bodies held by Nasrusht, or ghuls cursed forever to a single spot). They become fixated on some object of their obsession in life, or on some cruel mission they never succeeded in following through to fruition, which they seek after in their wanderings (even if the mission was as simple as not feeling they had brought enough villages to heel). They are, however, thankfully rather solitary creatures, banding together into small and short-lived alliances of evil, and thus their forces are kept from overwhelming the world of living men.

 

1d12 Rove-Wraiths of the East and their Cruel Fixations

1.  Yarga the Bloodthirsty: Barbarian tyrant of northern Numistan in ancient times, who once delighted in the lamentations of women. Now a blind and deaf mummy stiff under layers of clay with an uncanny drunken ability to dodge blows. Seeks a way to hear his favorite sound again.
2. The Decapitatrix: The cruelest of amazon queens, who decapitated the victims of her raids, and then her own tribeswomen, until she herself came under the blade. A shuddering headlessness under dripping deer hides. Desperate for her own head, now lost.
3. Dog-headed Dyan the Dreadful: The only known wraith of the dog-headed men, who are already known for their demon-haunted cruelty. He was known for injustices done unto babies and mothers. Just wants to taste succulent childflesh again, but for his burnt-out tongue.
4. The Ringseeker: Eunuch advisor to an ancient tyrant, arch-liar and arch-torturer, whose foul tongue wormed its way into his liege's worst neuroses. Ashamed of himself, he seeks after a golden ring of his tyrant's seal, which he coveted from the ruler's heir.
5. Shameful Once-Prince: Wraith of the ruling house of the Enlightened Empire, passed over for the throne due to his evilness, leading to uprising and civil war. Disfigured, scarred, and perpetually sobbing, he wanders after his insistent birthright.
6. Farahnaz the Ferocious: Warrior woman tyrant of the mountain fastnesses, now ghastly and bent over like a dessicated monkey, sword in hand. Wanders the mountains searching for the dragon (now long-dead) that she abandoned her kingdom to starvation for.
7. Skazzadraxx of Tandurstan: Ancient dino-wraith king, whose palace (now half-buried and rotten) was a circus maximus of gore, wherein the now-decrepit thunder lizard mockingly murdered human slaves for the delight of reptile masters. Seeks after rivers of blood once again.
8. The Star-Blind: Selfish sorcerer who sought to spy on all souls in the world through meditations on the north star as an aspect of many-eyed Mihr. Empty eye sockets glowing with starlight, skin bursting with a thousand betrayed secrets, he wanders just wanting to finally die but Mihr won't let him.
9. Filth-Festerer: Mother of a dozen diseases, she was a selfish chthonic sorcerer who bred daevas in her bloodstream and had sex with feces-covered false prophets. Her skin sloughs off like a loose robe as clouds of flies festoon her. She seeks the ancient evil known as the Red Death.
10. Queen Naghme: Poisoner of two dozen husbands and suitors, now given over to spiders and snakes. Her pallid skin bulges with the venomous things crawling beneath the surface, wrapped in her black rag. She seeks after the tomb of her son, in order to marry him.
11. Nameless Betrayer: Eunuch of an ancient tyranny whose betrayal was so rank that his name was expunged from all records, all monuments, and all speech. Shamefully shuddering in a ragged rug clutching a curved dagger, he seeks after his own name, surely still recorded somewhere.
12. [ ]: Sorcerer who sought to bring about the Deluge anew, putting his ear to the ground to listen to the whispers of the caged false stars below. Killed a hundred or more in rituals mocking the sun, but never sought his own immortality, instead being magically suicidal. Cursed by Truth to spit brine when he attempts to speak, he knows his name but it is anathema to be spoken. Seeks out the salt desert, so he may finally dry.

[Yes, these are just wights and wraiths... BUT my hope is that they're at the very least an interesting take on wights and wraiths, that tie them more into the setting :) Thank you for reading and have a happy Halloween!] 

Wasserdämonen des Landes der Dunkelheit (Three Monsters (and Two Lairs) for King of Kings)

Lake Blut, nestled in the northern foothills of the World's Edge Mountains, is a dangerous body of water. The northern barbarians that dwell on its shore warn their children to steer clear of the water, lest they be snatched and eaten by Der Blutschink, an unclean spirit of the lake that thrives on blood. Even adults are wary whenever they must venture across the fog-shrouded waters to fish or attend to the shrine on the other side. The Land of Darkness is home to many terrible things, and in this corner of it, that means this bloody demon of the water.

 

Der Blutschink

Number Encountered: 1

Hit Dice: 8

Attacks: 2 claw (1d6) + 1 bite (1d8)

Armor: as leather + shield

Morale: 9

Bloodsucking: The Blutschink thrives on the blood of lively humans. If a claw attack and bite attack successfully hit the same target, he grabs hold of them and latches his sharp teeth onto their body to suck their blood. He continues to hold onto them, draining 1d6 HP per round, until the victim is pulled out of his grasp. While sucking the victim's blood, the Blutschink can only make 1 claw attack to any other target. The Blutschink will never suck the blood of anyone that is currently ill or the victim of a curse, or any Froglings or Elves. He loves sucking the blood of children.

Collection: The Blutschink collects together the bones and baubles of his victims in a pile hidden in the vicinity of his lake. He often constructs elaborate towers out of the bones.

Resistances: The Blutschink is immune to damage from mundane weapons. He is only harmed by magical weapons and weapons made from gold. 

Swallow: If the Blutschink brings an opponent down to 1 HP by sucking their blood, the next attack (if it successfully hits) instead results in the Blutschink crushing them into a condensed shape and swallowing them whole.

Trap-Setting: The Blutschink sets traps made from vines and roots around the edge of his lake to ensnare any victims who venture too close to the shore. 

 

Der Blutschink appears as a dark-furred bear with snaggly mismatched fangs, long arms that hang at his sides, and human legs constantly dripping with blood. His snout, buried deep in the guts of his victims, is always caked with blood, dripping down onto his chest and arms. Der Blutschink's presence is always apparent from the slowly spreading swirls of blood that seep through the water of Lake Blut as he wades through. He can speak, but he is a child-eating water demon of few words, mostly growling, grunting, and pitifully mewling. And, ultimately, he cannot be pacified or placated; at certain points in the history of Bairglyana, town on the shores of Lake Blut, frenzied prophets have begun programs of regular child-sacrifice to stave off the beast, but, like, well, a bear getting used to human food and venturing further into civilization, this only made him hunger more (and so, such schemes were abandoned). For as long as anyone can remember, Der Blutschink has haunted the lake and devoured the occasional child or fisherman that ventured just far enough away from the lights of the village.

 

That is, until now.

 

Vodyanoy in three of his forms

In recent days, another water demon has taken residence in Lake Blut, and seems poised to evict the lake's longtime residence entirely. Vodyanoy, "He from the Water," the many-bodied but of one mind amphibious shapeshifter whose presence is steadily expanding across the many lakes, rivers, and streams of the Land of Darkness, has arrived. In his base form, Vodyanoy appears as a fleshy frog-like humanoid with long drooping facial hair, usually wearing a wide-brimmed hat made from sedges and clothing made of algae and water lilies. When he arrives in a new body of water, the deepest hole in the bottom of the lake becomes a doorway to his half-sunken home, where him and his wife Vodyanitsa collect the souls of drowning victims in clay jars. A wannabe lesser god, Vodyanoy (who is himself subject to Tir, also known as the star Sirius, the god of rain) sets up shop in a new lake or river and makes a nuisance of himself, dragging sheep and cows and children beneath the waves and blocking up waterwheels to pressure the locals to make offerings of butter and honeycomb (his two favorite foods). He upholds his end of the bargain, though; as the owner of all the freshwater fishes, he provides for bounteous catches, and even exerts some influence on the beehives to keep the flow of honey going. And it would seem that Vodyanoy, that selfish godling, and his wife Vodyanitsa have set their sights on Bairglyana to expand their sphere of influence. And Der Blutschink is in the way; can't have two water demons haunting the same lake, now can you?

 

Vodyanoy 

Number Encountered: 1

Hit Dice: 6+1

Attacks: 2 attacks of varying type (see below) (1d6)

Armor: as leather

Morale: 9
Catfish Mount: The Vodyanoy often rides upon an oversized wels catfish (2 HD, 1 bite attack (1d6), armor as leather, can't move on land).

Drowning: Vodyanoy will attempt to drown targets if they get too close to the water. A target must make a save vs. paralysis or be dragged under the water and drown within 1d8 combat rounds. 

Many Instances: There is only one Vodyanoy, but he appears in many instances across many lakes and rivers in the Land of Darkness. The only way to kill Vodyanoy would be to eliminate all of his instances, but there are too many to count. At best, he can only be dispelled from a given body of water.

Offerings: Vodyanoy is placated by offerings of melted butter, cooking oil, honey and honeycombs, and live sheep or cattle.

Owner of Fish: All fish and other freshwater animals in the Land of Darkness are understood to be "owned" by Vodyanoy. He has uncanny influence over them, and can call forth up to 20 HD of freshwater animals per day. He especially favors eels, catfish, and frogs.

Resistances and Weaknesses: Vodyanoy is immune to damage from mundane weapons. He is only harmed by magical weapons and weapons made from gold. He is afraid of fire; all fire effects deal +1 damage. He is also dissuaded by the sign of Par (the god Truth as misunderstood by the northern forest-dwelling barbarians).

Shapeshifting: The Vodyanoy can take on a variety of forms. These include: his base, frog-like humanoid form; a soaking wet fat peasant man; a large freshwater fish; a floating log; or a floating tree trunk with wings that allows him to fly short distances. The mode of his attack changes with his form (so in his peasant form he attacks with farm tools, slams against his target in his log form, etc.). 

 

Vodyanitsa, Vodyanoy's wife, is a rusalka, the lingering presence of a young woman who drowned herself because of an unhappy marriage (or, in some cases, was drowned by her conniving husband-widower). Rusalki look like pallid young women with long, wild, unbraided hair flowing down from their heads, wide eyes and lips the color of drowning. Their heads are oft adorned with sedges and wilted roses. They linger on lakeshores and clamber up in the trees, becoming undying spirits of the waters of the forests. Not all rusalki are murderers, but many are; and, as spirits of the gentle waters, they kill mostly indirectly, with exhaustion and suffocation. The most vengeful rusalki call men (mostly men) out into the waters to drown them. A rusalka will dissipate if her hateful husband is killed (or, if he is already dead, if his grave is at least desecrated), but most take too much delight in their new un-lives to want that resolution. And there is, of course, always the risk that with the rusalka of a given river dispelled, the river itself will trickle away to nothing. The kindest rusalki often watch over the rivers that feed cities of thousands; and it would be a truly evil design to get justice for these souls.

 

Vodyanitsa is much happier with her new husband than she ever was while she was alive. Unlike Vodyanoy, there is only one Vodyanitsa (in mind and in body), and whenever she leaves their subaquatic home for a specific lake or river her husband inhabits, that Vodyanitsa is the real one.

I just really wanted to find a place for this illustration of a nix, more or less the German equivalent of a rusalka. One of my favorite pictures ever!!

Rusalka

Number Encountered: 1d12

Hit Dice: 3+1

Attacks: 1 forced dance OR 1 tickle OR 1 drown (see below)

Armor: none

Morale: 8

Drowning: When in water, a rusalka will attempt to draw her victim out and then drag them below, tying up their legs in her long hair. A target must make a save vs. paralysis or be dragged under the water and drown within 1d8 combat rounds.

Forced Dancing: When outside of water, a rusalka can point at a target and force them to begin dancing on a failed save. They will keep dancing until either they collapse from exhaustion or a spell frees them from her grasp.

Tickling: A rusalka can tickle someone to death. The target must save or succumb to laughter and be unable to act that turn; three failed saves and the victim's heart gives out and they die. A target who has collapsed from exhaustion (see above) dies immediately if a rusalka tickles them.

Turning: As undead, rusalki can be turned by priests of Truth. However, during the festival of roses (a week in the month of Thaigrasihr), they are immune to turning. During that time, they are especially bold.

 

Der Blutschink's island

While Der Blutschink does not sleep, he does have a lair, a little island where he collects together the refuse from his devouring and where he goes to just mope. Recently, especially with Vodyanoy's arrival (which Der Blutschink is well aware of), he has been very morose and hopeless. He still hunts for children to suck the blood of and eat, but he just doesn't feel with it anymore. It seems to him that the writing is on the wall, and the era of Der Blutschink may genuinely be at an end. When he is encountered, a reaction roll, rather than providing a range of results from hostile to friendly, is instead from whether he is angry and lashing out to moping and despondent. During the day, there is a 4-in-6 chance that Der Blutschink is in his island lair; at night, a 2-in-6 chance. His lair is covered with elaborate towers made from human bones and pieces of clothing, including some treasure. There is a 2-in-6 chance of a tower having a bauble or piece of jewelry worth 1d6x20 drachmae on it (these aren't an especially rich people). If Der Blutschink is angry while in his lair, he will lash out and knock over these towers, scattering their contents everywhere. Der Blutschink, despite his communication difficulties and thirst for blood, would greatly appreciate any attempt to remove Vodyanoy from Lake Blut. He has never been offered help before.

 

Vodyanoy and Vodyanitsa's apartment. 1: Entrance chamber, 2: Main room, 3: Collection of souls in clay jars, 4: Pantry.

Vodyanoy and Vodyanitsa's underwater apartment can be found at the bottom of a whirlpool on the eastern side of the lake. There is a 2-in-6 chance at any time that Vodyanoy is in the apartment, and a 4-in-6 chance that Vodyanitsa is. Entering the lair is simple: allow yourself to get sucked down the whirlpool. However, if one or both of the pair of water demons are in the apartment when you enter, they will immediately know. The safest bet would be waiting until you know that both of them are lurking on the lake; Vodyanoy is the harder to spot of the two, but Vodyanitsa sings a plaintive song. 

 

Their apartment is comparatively small, with walls directly carved out of rock and dirt, water dripping and roots hanging from the ceiling. The main room has a large rug in Shahanistani style (now long watterlogged) on the floor, and several sitting/sleeping cushions stuffed with leaves along with a low-lying table or workbench. The walls are festooned with racks of kitchen utensils and household tools, as well as a shelf of twine and pieces of forest plants. A side room has walls lined with shelves holding clay jars with the souls of drowning victims (a few are actually the souls of drowned animals!). These jars are labeled with a name and their date of death. If the jar is opened or broken apart, the soul will release itself and its ghostly presence will, for one time only, assist the one who freed it. A large pantry next to the soul-room holds jars of honey and butter and crusts of bread.

 

Vodyanoy and Vodyanitsa would be greatly appreciative of any assistance in ousting Der Blutschink from the lake. They are rather self-important, but they understand when a deal must be struck; unlike Der Blutschink, they have experience in doing deals with mortals. Vodyanoy will promise gifts of items imbued with his power to those who promise to help him. These will primarily take the form of simple things woven from sedges that have control over freshwater animals. He can also provide gold coins, but these will reveal themselves to be river rocks when back in civilization.

 

Lake Blut and environs. The star is the town of Bairglyana, the triangle is a shrine to a local hunter-god, the tower is Der Blutschink's island lair, and the spiral is the whirlpool that leads to Vodyanoy's apartment.

-------------

 

The Blutschink was featured in the classic D&D hobbyist publication All the Worlds' Monsters, put out by Chaosium. The first volume even came out before the Monster Manual, making AtWM the first dedicated D&D monster book if you don't count Vol. 2: Monsters & Treasure! However, the version of the Blutschink in AtWM left something to be desired:

 

Just tacking on a bloodsucking mechanic onto the preexisting bear hug rules makes a lot of sense, but that's basically all this has going on, and its appearance is just "Looks exactly like a bear." I tried to do some more research into the folkloric background of the Blutschink, which was honestly kinda difficult because it doesn't seem that there's been any academic or even popular writing on it in English! But the name does imply the most interesting aspect of its appearance, which AtWM misses: the human legs (Blutschink means "blood ham," comparing human thighs to a ham hock). And, well, the rest of this post just flowed from me wanting to put this weird piece of Tyrolean folklore somewhere in King of Kings! The Vodyanoy is another monster from real world folklore that I've loved for quite some time, so it seemed like a no-brainer to use this as an opportunity to write up a very folkloric-style Vodyanoy for King of Kings and other old school games. Anyway, hope any of y'all can get any use out of this scenario/location or the monsters inhabiting it! Thanks for reading!

 

Also here's this side profile sketch of Der Blutschink from when I was first sketching him out. I liked how he looks in profile :)

 

False Prophets (A Monster for King of Kings)

Onkelos then went and raised Jesus the Nazarene from the grave through necromancy... Onkelos said to him: What is the punishment of that man, a euphemism for Jesus himself, in the next world? Jesus said to him: He is punished with boiling excrement. As the Master said: Anyone who mocks the words of the Sages will be sentenced to boiling excrement. And this was his sin, as he mocked the words of the Sages.

-Gittin 57a, Bavli Talmud

In Gehenna there are certain places and grades called "Boiling Filth" [Tzoah Rotachat], where the filth of the souls that have been polluted by the filth of this world accumulates... There are certain sinners who pollute themselves over and over again by their own sins and are never purified. They die without repentance, having sinned themselves and caused others to sin, being stiff-necked and never showing contrition before the Lord while in this world; these are they who are condemned to remain for ever in this "boiling filth" and never leave it. Those who have corrupted their ways upon earth and recked not of the honour of their Lord in this world are condemned to remain there for all generations.

 -Terumah 41, Zohar

I can't find any artistic depictions of Tzoah Rotachat, but this painting of a Buddhist hell (Naraka) gets the boiling across pretty well.

False Prophet

Number encountered: 1

Hit Dice: 3+1

Attacks: 1 inveighing OR 1 exhortation OR 1 spell

Armor: as leather

Morale: 8

Daeva-summoned: Deceitful daevas summon false prophets as thralls to do their bidding.
Followers: False prophets are accompanied by 2d4 sycophantic followers, most often 1 HD undead sinners.

Foul Stench: Those engaged in melee or grappling with a false prophet have disadvantage on rolls due to the foul stench, unless they block their sense of smell in some way.

Inveigh: False prophets have the deceitful power to inveigh against some immorality and insidiously bind others against it. When inveighing, the false prophet declares some specific action (i.e. slashing with a sword, casting a healing spell, jumping, etc.) to be anathema, stopping completely any attempt to perform the specific action. Only one action can be inveighed against at a given time; when the false prophet inveighs against something else, it overrides the earlier inveighing. Spells such as remove curse or dispel evil will counteract an inveighing. 

Exhort: False prophets can exhort their followers to their greater mission. An exhortation gives the false prophet's followers advantage on morale checks and can (if declared after an inveighing) carve out an exception in an inveighing for the false prophet's followers and allies. 

Spells: Instead of an inveighing or motivation, a false prophet can choose to cast a spell. False prophets know spells such as darkness, cause fear, cause light wounds, insect plague, although the specific spell list will vary.

 

On the underside of the world, pools of boiling filth and waste hold the writhing bodies of false prophets, the most deceitful of men and women, those who inveighed against Truth and led others toward Deceit. Truth places them there, keeping them as far as possible from the light of the sun, in the company of chaos-loving daevas and other underside-dwellers. After centuries of upside-down boiling torment, false prophets have become accustomed to the pain, although the comparative euphoria of simply not being immersed in their fetid pits even for just a moment is something they can never pass up. These priests of treachery, boiling away on the bottom of the world, are sometimes dragged out to their delight by daevas and sorcerers to use their unwholesome influence, answer forbidden questions, or simply do dirty work perfect for their already soiled hands.

 

Since false prophets (of the long-dead sort) are only ever on the surface world at the behest of terrible powers, they are never encountered alone. Gibbering sycophants crowd around them and hold them aloft, ignorant of the slimy filth dripping off their bodies. Uncanny daevas, walking upside-down on ceilings and causing disease, give them orders (some even holding an excrement-encrusted false prophet on a bejeweled leash), while pale eyeless things adapted to the deep depths between the underside of the world and the surface crawl along with the entourage, caught up in the movement of it all. Sea Tyrants and their servants, unfortunate bedfellows of the daevas, look down on false prophets as failed upstarts, barely tolerated presences kept only so long as they are useful.

 

a Not false prophet: Horace Vernet's Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem (I just really liked this painting and wanted to put it somewhere)

10 of the Most Perfidious False Prophets

• Abonoteichos the Wrong: Condemned for passing himself off as an oracle, mocking divination with the writhing of serpents and his made-up god Glukos, cannibal snake-god of bread.
• Shekh el-Mal of the First City: Frogling prophet condemned for attempting to make a god out of money.
• Yusuf bar Kham: Condemned for leading ten thousand of his own followers to leap from Mount Garza to their deaths when his rebellion failed.
• Myops the Annoyance: Condemned for leading the children of his city-state astray, causing the collapse of the city walls.
• Amamba Rhos: Mythic ancestor of the Gnostic Elves, declared retroactively condemned by the priesthood for the sins of her descendants (the Elves, of course, dispute this).
• Ugarza the Betrayer: Frogling prophet infamous for seizing control of an ancient city and casting down the stone stelae of the law codes, shattering them upon the ground.
• Sajah bint Haytham: Condemned for demanding that Truth in the sky pay taxes to her and her desert kingdom.
• Fravarti of Guoxes: Condemned for whipping up the people into a frenzy against a Truthful prophet, who was hanged from an elm tree.
• Babak Nokh the Perverse: Condemned for establishing an impure commune that advocated sex with crocodiles and the eating of cats.
• Khura the Star-Eraser: Condemned for roping his followers into a scheme to climb into the sky and erase certain stars he felt were distasteful.

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 15 (Shocker to Symbiotic Jelly)

Back at it again! Here's the last entry in this series, here's a link to the first post, etc. etc., time to pick back up where we last left off!

 

 

 

To begin with, however, I'd like to make some notes of a couple monsters that I accidentally missed had original versions in Fiend Factory! First, my overwhelming favorite from the last entry, the SHEET PHANTOM!!! You can't imagine my delight when I was scrolling through my pdf of the Factory column and saw this delightful illustration of the undead fabric that I had somehow completely missed. Content-wise, the Factory sheet phantom is just a simpler presentation of the phantom and ghoul in the Folio; I really appreciate the economy of language on display. For instance, the sheet ghoul is just one sentence rather than a whole separate entry. I could learn a thing or two from that!

On top of that (literally), it turned out that the berbalang, a Malay vampire that we covered much earlier in this series (like four years ago, embarrassingly enough), was also first present in Fiend Factory! I really like the way they rendered the name, with those cool bat wings on either side; and while the Russ Nicholson illustration in the Folio is distinctive, this one is pretty good too! The description is very similar to the Folio berbalang, so I don't really have anything to add there. Just wanted to make sure to note it!

Shocker

★★☆☆☆

Not the... worst monster I've seen, it's definitely very usable and I think there could be something interesting here, but the way its presented here leaves a Lot to be desired. Basically, its a hazy humanoid crackling with energy that has an electrical shock attack. That's about it; the only other interesting detail is that there are 1d4 gemstones within the shocker's body that will become apparent when it attacks; I quite like that, it feels kinda videogamey in a good way. Everything else is either incredibly basic and boring or just unnecessary. The entire first paragraph is a waste of ink, taking up almost half the creature's description just to say "we don't know where it comes from, maybe this plane, maybe that plane, who knows." Boring! Just commit to something interesting, please. Would be 1 star except I do think I'd use an electricity monster with gems inside, I just would want it to be more interesting than this.

 

Skeleton Warrior

★★★★☆

At first glance, this one looks really generic, typical of the overly taxonomic listings of various undead types in AD&D manuals; it's basically just a fighter class equivalent of the lich. While a fighter-lich might have some abstract value for gameplay, what I find more interesting and more compelling here is the tragic quality implicit in the skeleton warrior's description. They are "clad in the rich, but faded and rotting trappings of a powerful warrior," and are constantly in search of golden circlets which hold their soul similar to a lich's phylactery. Unlike the lich, the skeleton warrior doesn't necessarily know where this circlet is, and if one puts the circlet on their head and is within 240 feet of the skeleton warrior, they control the skeleton warrior's movements and actions. If the skeleton warrior is more than 240 feet away, or one takes off the circlet, the control goes away; and if the circlet is still in the possession of the skeleton warrior's former controller, they will rush at their former controller and attempt to kill them and take the circlet for themselves; for when they put the golden circlet on their head, they immediately die, and the circlet collapses into worthless dust. It also mentions that skeleton warriors will become aware of you the moment you acquire one such golden circlet even if you don't know how it works and seek you out too. This is amazing stuff! The implicit narrative here, of a long dead once-great warrior forced to cling to a pitiful existence while constantly at risk of being turned into little more than a puppet, violently seeking out his own destruction by seizing the golden circlet from its current owner at the first chance he gets, is incredibly compelling! I think that element alone makes me interested in putting a skeleton warrior in my game, although I'd probably make it somewhat unique rather than a whole "type" of undead; and maybe he will plead for the adventurers' mercy, begging to be allowed to collapse into dust, while being controlled by one of the players. 

Skulk

★★★☆☆

Just neat! Apparently, a people group known for cowardice can eventually evolve to develop chameleon-like camouflage powers (only a 10% chance of sighting one when they're not moving!). Who knew! They sneak and skulk (hehehe) around, stealing stuff to survive, using their heightened camouflage to blend into their surroundings. The note that these were once normal human beings who evolved chameleon-like powers makes them much more interesting than if they were just another demihuman race. The description is overwrought but that's to be expected I guess.

 

The five types of slaadi: clockwise from top left, Blue, Green, Red, Grey, and Death Slaadi

SLAAD

★★★★☆

The slaadi might be one of the best, most enduring, most distinctive and fun of the "races" of entities created for the Fiend Folio. I can't help but love an army of extradimensional color-coded frog-men, drawn in Russ Nicholson's delightfully grotty style each sporting somewhere between a shit-eating grin and a toothy grimace. While they dwell in the outer plane of Limbo along with the githzerai (who I explored the implications of in this previous installment), they can also be found "roaming the Prime Material Plane on missions of woe." MISSIONS OF WOE!!!! I love missions of woe!!

 

Even though there are five different types of slaadi, I'm bundling them all together because they're all basically the same. This is where I struggle; while I like the kind of videogamey color-coding of the ranks of malignant slaad, they take up just about two full pages of text to basically just say that this slaad has access to this spell list while this other kind has a this other spell list. It's incredibly unnecessary, and I think could be done in a much more succinct way. All slaadi have a gemstone-like symbol embedded in their skull which, when possessed, allows the holder to give the slaad three commands (although they must be rightfully rewarded for performing the commanded actions or else they'll kill you!). In addition, blue slaadi have sharp blades embedded in the backs of their hands that give them extra attacks, death slaadi are extra powerful (only four are known to exist), green slaadi reincarnate as blue slaadi if their bodies are destroyed but their symbol isn't (weird?), grey slaadi are the Executioners sent to the material plane to do the bidding of slaad leaders, and red slaadi have toxic pellets they inject when they attack that kill the target in 3-36 hours (weird range) on a failed save. Some of these are more distinctive than others; I'm docking one point mostly for the kinda annoying over-taxonomization of it all, but in general, as a concept I love the slaad... and that concept is only strengthened by the entities that lead this merry band of atrocious amphibians.

 

WOE BETIDE BEFORE SSENDAM

Ssendam - Lord of the Insane

★★★★★

The first of the two slaad lords is SSENDAM, a shapeshifter (the more powerful slaadi have the ability to shapeshift between their frog-like form and a human form) that appears either as a human with an accursed black sword or as a golden amoeba with a human brain instead of a nucleus. DUDE!!! That's SICK!!! In actuality, Ssendam's original form is just a golden frog-slaad unconscious in the plane of Limbo while his amoeboid form is in the Prime Material Plane, which I think is much more boring than if he was just a brain-amoeba all the time, but I gotta hand it to them for the amazing image of a shimmering slimy amoeba with a human brain floating at its center commanding an army of devil-frogs. I just love it!! He attacks with corrosive pseudopods, casts a lot of powerful spells, can summon any of the five types of slaadi, and regenerates 3 hp per round in combat, so he's a hefty opponent! Also: "When encountered, Ssendam always gives his true name, though woe betide he who tries to use it." I don't often get to the level of play where my players would be facing off against a creature as powerful as Ssendam, but in terms of high level monsters, this is a great one; I think I'd just make it so he's always in amoeba form (ooh or maybe he can shape his amoeba body into a vaguely humanoid silhouette rather than being able to shapeshift perfectly into a human).

 

COWER BEFORE "DEATH" IN THE CLAWS OF YGORL

Ygorl - Lord of Entropy

★★★★★

It's ya gorl! Just like with Ssendam, Ygorl is a slaad lord with a delightfully incongruent design: a pitch black, skeletal, bat-winged figure wielding a large scythe on the side of which is inscribed the word "DEATH", riding on an ancient brass dragon which the description informs us is named Shkiv. Ygorl doesn't change his form, unlike Ssendam, and nobody has seen his original frog-like form in Limbo (though the description includes speculation that it is a large black-colored slaad; again, I'd much rather Ygorl just always be the dark skeletal figure atop the dragon). Ygorl's death-scythe kills instantly on a failed save, and he attacks with it twice per round (in addition to Shkiv's presumed dragon-breath), as well as having a whole litany of spells and once-per-day powers (including power word: kill; maybe a bit overboard when your scythe already does basically the same thing!). Facing off against either Ssendam or Ygorl would be incredibly difficult, with all the various powers afforded them and their ability to summon other slaadi. I'd like to think that Ssendam and Ygorl are rivals; perhaps their interminable conflict (and whatever annoyance comes from the clone-like githzerai) is the only thing stopping the slaadi from completely overrunning the world; getting caught up in a space-faring extradimensional demon-frog cold war (with the gith as a wild card element) would make for an interesting higher level game!

Snyad (aka Pestie)

★☆☆☆☆

Mischievous and violent small humanoid #1589459. The description even notes that they're a cousin of the mite, which makes it even more obvious just how similar the two are! Not even the two grotty Russ Nicholson drawings featured alongside it can save this one. They dwell in tunnels dug into the sides of corridors that are really well hidden and only emerge to steal from adventuring parties, and never attack; they sometimes work with mites to lay traps, and have no spoken language yet somehow work together. Please just use a goblin.

 

Son of Kyuss

★★★★★

YEAHHH!!! The Son of Kyuss always stuck out to me, like some of the really iconic and distinctly "fiend folio" monsters from toward the beginning of the book. A staggering, shuddering walking corpse, animated by some evil priest long ago whose name still clings to them, with great big green worms writhing around in their eye sockets, nose hole, and mouth. It's an incredibly striking visual!! Just the simple addition of the worms takes this from Yet Another Undead to a unique type of undead that has its own distinctive associations. Mechanically, they're relatively simple yet distinct; they attack primarily by just flailing around their rotten fists which is so unsettling and gross, feeling less like an actual calculated attack and more like them just forcing their dead bulk on you, and there's a chance that the worms in their face-holes can jump out at a target and burrow into their flesh, beelining for the brain in 1d4 rounds. The worms end up feeling like they have more agency than the corpses themselves! On top of that, the Son of Kyuss's unfeeling fists cause LEPROSY. What's not to love! I think that the Sons of Kyuss would fit perfectly in the world of King of Kings, alongside my leprosy-causing assassin-geckos and parrot-fiends.

 

 

Hobbitses (aka silly little guys) are constantly in danger of being in the dungeon

Stunjelly

★★★☆☆

A relative of the gelatinous cube that trades the cube's transparent hallway-filling slime for a translucent surface that visually imitates the look of a stone wall. A lesser-known entrant into the "every single surface and object in the dungeon can and will kill you" genre! I personally find this less fun and evocative than the kinda weirder lurker above or trapper, but I guess it fills the space between those two! Paralyzes targets with a touch before trying to engulf and digest them. It's okay! 

 

Sussurus

★★★★★

The sussurus (taking its name from susurration, a term for a murmuring, whispering sound) is another Fiend Folio classic, a weird headless ape-thing made out of knotted thorny matter (it looks like a plant but the description doesn't say it is), criss-crossed with hollow tunnels that produce a droning sound when air moves through them. The sussurus "sees" through vibrations, feeds on the air, and is rendered briefly immobile by strong enough wind surging through its passageways. The "drone song" of the sussurus causes undead creatures to become placid, to enter a "sleep of the dead" where they stand there listlessly, only breaking out of it when attacked. Additionally, it hates fire; not because it is susceptible to burning, but because fire burns away oxygen! I just love how weird all of the various elements of the sussurus are, yet they feel just right all together, and mysterious enough to prompt interesting questions from the hypothetical players: where did these things come from, and why does the droning sound of their breathing cause undead to fall into a peaceful standing-sleep? I'd also recommend checking out this really great article over at Bogleech.com all about the various forms the sussurus has taken across the different editions of D&D!

 

Svirfneblin (aka Deep Gnome)

★★☆☆☆

Please Gary... no more demihuman races... there's too many of them... Svirfneblin first appear in the original series of adventure modules that first introduced the Underdark, the same origin point as the Drow and Kuo-Toa. Perhaps this is just due to my inclination toward weird evil things but the Svirfneblin feel like the weakest of the new subterranean races introduced in that line of modules. And yet, the Folio takes almost a page and a half to describe Deep Gnome powers and abilities, the weapons they carry, the makeup of their parties, etc. etc. It's a lot like the overwrought description for the Kuo-Toa honestly. Notably, they can summon earth elementals, and when the going gets tough they flee into tunnels carved exactly to their size (so I guess the players wouldn't be able to follow after... unless they were halflings or gnomes themselves?), and they'll only assist the players for a fee. The Russ Nicholson illustration does have a Jim Henson's Labyrinth quality to it which I like, but Svirfneblin are kinda meh... kinda like the name though! I think I'd just prefer something more like folkloric kobolds than yet-another-gnome-variant.

 

Symbiotic Jelly

★☆☆☆☆

Ahh... the furtive symbiotic jelly, so easily forgotten... and for good reason! I love weird slimes and oozes, I love monsters with very particular niches and lifestyles, but there is just Too Much going on with this monster in terms of what it does. The description itself isn't particularly long, but it proscribes such a particular mode of behavior for the jelly that I can't imagine ever actually putting it into a game. In basic terms, the symbiotic jelly has to feed on a carnivorous creature at the same time as the carnivore is feeding; weird, but alright. What it does to ensure this happens is, it hangs around in a monster's lair, and when the monster returns, it charms the creature and makes it attack whatever enters the lair afterward, and then uses a magical illusion power to make the carnivorous monster look weaker than it really is, and make the lair look like its filled with treasure when it isn't. I guess, to trick players into going into the lair because it'll seem like treasure that they can easily grab without having to worry about the monster. What is even the point of this. Moreso than the stunjelly or the lurker above or whatever, this monster seems like it only exists to fuck with the players. 

 

...strangely enough though, this player-fucking-with monster is actually our only creature in this post (not counting the ones I missed previously at the top) that has an original from the Fiend Factory; and the original name is So much better.

The CHAOTICUS SYMBIOTICUS??? I kinda really love the illustration here actually; the description is, as expected, much simpler, but basically hits the same notes as the Folio description. Don Turnbull loved this thing apparently:

Cheerio Fred! Perhaps his suggestion of only one per dungeon is a good one; I for one would only want one of these per campaign, if at all!

Now that was way more monsters than I originally planned on covering, but I didn't want to cut S into even smaller chunks. Sorry about that! I hope it's still interesting and fun to read :) Stay tuned next time for even more weirdos, starting with the letter T!

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 14 (Retriever to Sheet Phantom)

Alright, back to reviewing every monster in the Fiend Folio, a classic series on this blog that... jeeze louise, the last time I posted one of these was more than a year ago! Uh, my bad. I already talked about why I wasn't so active on the blog in a post back in May, but like, all that goes double for just never getting around to reviewing the FF again. Anyway, here's the first installment in the Goin' Through the Fiend Folio series, here's the last installment, etc etc, let's pick up where we left off!

Retriever

★★★☆☆

Nasty, bloody, and real effective, the retriever is a certified Fiend Folio classic! Six-eyed (with four different eye-rays that cast fire, cold, lightning, and a transmutation spell!) and four-bladed spider-things, constructed by the demon-lord Demogorgon, built in such a way that they "strike maximum terror into their victims." In this description, Demogorgon comes out sounding like a mad scientist of some sort, like a Dr. Frankenstein or a Yakub, except instead of making the white devil race, he made a bunch of evil robot spiders. Or, well, me calling them robots is maybe projecting back onto them somewhat. You see, I was first introduced to the retriever in the 4e Monster Manual 2, the very first D&D book I ever owned, before I even knew what D&D really was! I think I've mentioned this on the blog before, albeit briefly; I basically treated it as a bestiary that communicated an implied setting all its own, with no connection to anything else. And I loved the retriever in the MM2. 

 

You won't hear me say this often, but I actually prefer the version of the monster in 4e than I do here in the AD&D Fiend Folio. This is doubly shocking to me because the FF retriever has art by my favorite Russ Nicholson, with his grotty style bringing a slimy hairy vibe to the original retriever's illustration. And I love grotty, slimy, hairy beasties; but the sleek, explicitly robotic design on the 4e retriever stands out so starkly against monster other demonic entities, giving it a quality almost similar to the smooth slicked-back look of Giger's xenomorph design. Mechanically, the two aren't actually that different; both have four eye rays (though the 4e retriever has each ray pairing a damage type and a lasting effect, so an acid spray that also blinds the target, a thunder-ray (whatever that is) that stuns the target, etc.), both have bladed claws they make melee attacks with, etc.; the major differences are that the AD&D retriever has a fear effect that causes all characters of level 5 or less, or all monsters of HD 6 or less, to save or flee, and that the 4e retriever has a self-healing ability, a "retrieve" ability that grabs a target on a failed save, and "Unerring Accuracy," which allows it to TELEPORT to the approximate location of a given target. That is so cool, and means that the retriever actually, y'know, retrieves; it is a creation given a particular target to teleport to, grab, and then disappear (tho there's a "cooldown" on its unerring accuracy ability). I don't like 4e mechanically, but this retriever that actually retrieves is a much more compelling creature than Dr. Demogorgon's fucked up and evil spider (as much as I love Dr. Demogorgon's creation; one of the more boring elements of the 4e retriever is that it isn't related to any particular demon, but just to "the primordials" in general).

 

 

The 4e MM2 retriever

The revenant in COMBAT

Revenant

★★☆☆☆

This creature has pretty much the same problem as the penanngalan from our last entry: a way too long description that prescribes one particular narrative arc of dealing with it. The revenant (another example of AD&D statting up every single synonym for an undead monster as its own separate entity) takes up a full page and some change to more or less just describe an animated corpse motivated by vengeance against whoever killed it, ceaselessly seeking out its murderer and their associates; on top of that, it cannot be killed by any means except fire, and its limbs will continue to attack even after being severed, and will reattach themselves if they are able to. There you go! Doesn't need a full page of description! But, of course, they have to go into what specific ability scores someone must have to become a revenant when killed, the fact that its immune to turn undead (for the reason that it isn't evil but instead is neutral? Didn't know a cleric's turn undead only works against evil undead, apparently), the fact that it will only attack by strangulation not with weapons, its immunities, eye-based fear ability, when it will hunt down the killer's associates, and how it doesn't even have to be the body of the person killed (very weird and arbitrary decision). This is pretty clearly intended to be a punishment for murder-happy players, unceasingly hunting down the party but with abilities that counteract most strategies players would use to combat the undead. A murder victim hunting down their killer from beyond the grave is incredibly compelling, but the execution here is clunky and overwrought. Love the two Russ Nicholson illustrations they gave it though.

Rothé

★★☆☆☆

Shaggy-furred bovines that live underground. That's about it. They're smaller (only 4 feet tall), presumably as an adaptation for their subterranean environs, but other than that they are little more than cows or yaks. I like the image of underground bovines, but I think I would rather just use normal cows or some kind of explicitly troglobitic cow, rather than this bespoke fictional species. Just kinda meh. 

 

Sandman
★★★☆☆
"The sandman's name describes it exactly"-- I have to appreciate a monster description that opens with that! Mysterious humanoids made from sand that make all who come within 20 feet (or who touch them) very very sleepy. They aren't hostile, only acting to forcibly remove someone asleep under their power if they happen to be in the sandman's lair. Simple but effective! I think I would want one more incongruous weird element to add some depth; as it is right now, the sandman is little more than a word-association game between the fairy tale sandman and literal sand. 

The sandman is our first Fiend Factory creature in this post! The original Factory sandman is more or less the same, just left a bit vaguer in terms of mechanics; though it is also noted that the sandman will attack players at least until they fall asleep, whereas the Folio description doesn't mention attacks on players (though perhaps its assumed). Don Turnbull, in his note on the monster, remarks that the sleep effect means defenseless players left open to wandering monster checks! That's such a good thing to point out; a generally non-hostile creature that incapacitates the players and leaves them open to wandering monsters is always a good thing to have in the dungeon. He also asks why the AC is so high, and y'know thats a good question, I hadn't noticed that: both the Factory and Folio versions of the sandman have AC 3, one point less than plate and shield. Also, the illustration is different, the Factory sandman being much more indistinct, leaning over into a crumbling limp, with "hair" caught in the wind, while the Folio sandman is just a frowning dude done in a stippled style.

Scarecrow
★★★☆☆
It's a scarecrow! The opening line to the sandman's description could work just as well here. Everybody loves a good spooky scarecrow. These are magical constructs that "always... appear evil and of malign intent," and they have turnips and (based on the illustration) gourds for heads. The one weird thing is that the scarecrow has a charm effect that causes the viewer to be stand shock still, as if under the effect of a hold person spell, out of "fascination." Don't know how I feel about that effect, its pretty basic and incongruous but not really in an interesting way. Nothing much else to say, although gotta shout out another great Russ Nicholson illustration!

Screaming Devilkin
★★★☆☆
Despite appearances, not actually a demon or devil, but simply a mundane creature that looks like one. The description specifically compares screaming devilkin to mephits, although its illustration is much more like a chubby little devil baby than the more gremlinesque mephits. Always hostile, always attacks (boring!!), although it attacks with a barbed tail which is always fun. More notably, the screaming devilkin, well, screams! It will constantly scream in the presence of other living creatures, and its screaming is so loud that conversations can't be heard through it and all those in the range of the screaming have to make a save to even just attack or cast a spell. Not the worst power to have, although it's more or less the same thing that the classic Monster Manual monster the shrieker has; I definitely prefer weird screaming mushrooms to weird screaming devil babies.

Shadow Demon
★☆☆☆☆
Incredibly boring. Maybe doesn't quite deserve a 1 star, because it is honestly usable mechanics-wise, but conceptually and mechanically its just boring. "The essence of a demon imprisoned in the form of a shadow," whatever that means; ultimately, it just means that its a souped up alternative to the shadow from the Monster Manual, with a more typical sorta-edgy demon silhouette complete with bat wings and an evil glare. It is more powerful in darkness and weaker in light (yawn! who could've seen that coming!), can cast the darkness spell, has a strong jump because of its wings but can't fly, etc. And it takes up half a page of description to basically say everything that someone would just guess from "shadow but with more magic powers." Very low conceptual density!

Sheet Phantom and Sheet Ghoul
★★★★★
YEAH I'M GIVING THE SHEET PHANTOM FIVE STARS SO WHAT!!! This is one of those classic Fiend Folio monsters that everyone loves to crack jokes about and say is stupid, but that's because everyone hates IMAGINATION and the horror that can come from something incongruous or somewhat goofy. These two monsters are actually listed in reverse order from how I have them here, just due to the alphabetical order, but the sheet phantom is the more important of the two. Sheet phantoms are wraithlike undead that appear as rectangular pieces of cloth (translucent and ghostly? The exact appearance of the rectangle is unclear in the text, just the measurement) and crawl up onto ceilings to drop down on their victims, suffocating them until they perish and rise anew as a sheet ghoul. The description for the sheet ghoul doesn't mention that the sheet phantom hangs on the ghoul, but many later illustrations (see below) depict it that way. Sheet ghouls don't have the paralysis powers of the ghoul, but in exchange they can shoot acid from their nostrils!!!! I love that so much!! Why does the wraithlike sheet phantom cause its undead thralls to snort acid? It feels so gnarly, and like maybe it would slowly corrode and destroy the sheet ghoul as it uses the attack; maybe a sheet ghoul under a sheet phantom's thrall for long enough has a dripping, melting hole in the center of its face where its nose once was, corroded away by its acidic snot. The imagery of the sheet phantom's suffocating attack is also delightfully horrid; I can't help but love the pathetic horror of someone flailing on the ground as they are choked to death by a piece of cloth. I love every single thing about the sheet phantom, this is a sleeper hit!!! The description does note how similar the sheet phantom is to some of AD&D's similar drop-attacking monsters, namely the Lurker Above, a similarly maligned creature from the Monster Manual that I just love (and recently mentioned in the description for my Man-Mimic Lizard!); it even notes the possibility that the sheet phantom is in fact an undead Lurker Above, which is pretty thought-provoking (although I don't know how much it adds to the funny creepiness of the sheet phantom itself).

Here's the illustration from the 2e Monstrous Manual Compendium Fiend Folio; I think the sheet phantom ought to be bigger than that, but I love the image of it hanging on the sheet ghoul's head like that.

That's all for now! The letter S also just so happens to be one of the most monsterful letters in the Folio, so we will be picking up where we left off next time, with the Shocker and, more notably, all the types of Slaad! Stay tuned!