Storm Elemental

Storm elementals are pretty much perky air elementals. They may be slower, but they pack quite a bit of zap, especially when you get to the bigger ones of the bunch. The little fellas can be pretty useful as a summoned ally, since their attacks actually deal sonic and electric damage at the same time. If one bit of hurt can't get through, the other one probably will.

They may well be the reason why airplanes and such never quite took off in fantasy worlds. Magical airships maybe have some kinda magical protection against storm elementals coming along and puncturing their balloons.

I like to think of these guys hanging around blue dragons, thunderbirds and the other big electric beasties of the sky, just hanging around them like remora on a shark.

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Crystalline Troll

Some trolls are described as having especially stone-like skin, and the crystalline troll is this to a particular extreme. Like most other trolls, they're capable of regenerating their injuries, but their crystal structure makes them immune to acid, the standard troll-hunting aid. Of course, this monster isn't without its weakness. Sonic attacks disrupt the healing ability. So if you're going up to the mountains where these guys live, pack a bard.

The description called for crystalline trolls to be more glass-like, but I took inspiration from tourmaline clusters. When I rolled this creature I was a bit disappointed that it was pretty much just a troll made of shiny-stuff. The illustration in the book isn't really that interesting. But I liked the idea of maybe making it so the crystalline troll looks kinda normal (albeit smooth) on the outside, but if you cracked it you'd get these really bright solid gemstone inside. No guts or bones, just solid stone.

Also apparently you can choose these as player characters? But with level adjustment and starting hit dice, you'd only be able to play a 1st level crystalline troll in a 15th level campaign.

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Redcap

The veiled acolytes of the Great Red God of the Deep are a  most unwelcome sight on any lonely road. Known colloquially as "Redcaps" (on account of the great, blood-soaked hoods they adorn themselves with) these creatures are similar in stature to the halfling or the gnome - but should by no means be underestimated on account of their small size. Constantly whispering sing-song adulations to their dread God in a forbidden tongue, they offer praise to It in the slaughter of all living things (an act at which, either through some dark blessing or sheer fervour, they are fearsomely adept). Wielding an enormous crescent-shaped mowing-blade, they are as deadly in combat as they are difficult to kill; it has been said that woven into their hoods is some malign faery-magic that protects them from harm as long as the fabric is kept moistened with blood. If you have no choice but to fight a Redcap, it is recommended you arm yourself with a weapon of Cold Iron, as the metal's touch repels them (as it does most fey).

Finally getting back to creatures again! We actually had a Redcap illustration on the blog from a while ago (Ben Tobitt's wonderfully violent offering - it went up during a guest week) but the campaign I just finished involved a redcap and I wanted to do one that we could put in the second Dungeons & Drawings Book (did we mention? we're doing a second Dungeons & Drawings book!), so here we are. I kind of added the more Lovecraftian elements... you can see the sigil on his hat is the symbol of some kind of Squid-God. Although Redcaps to speak Aklo in Pathfinder, which is the language of the betentacled Elder Gods and such. So it isn't too far of a sidestep.

Despite their traditional depiction arguably not being that scary (short old man with spiky boots and a red hat), Redcaps are actually pretty beastly, stats-wise, for their CR, so I ended up spinning the encounter with more of a horror theme - one that would make the party just want run away from it instantly rather than try to fight it. I was actually pretty pleased with the result! I built him up a bit beforehand - someone examining a tapestry adorned with a throng of planar travellers rolled a high Spot check, so I told them they happen to notice, among the rest of the colourful creatures, one figure that sends an ominous chill down their spine -

And I drew ^this^ on the game mat we use. One of our PCs, Tythis, is an Oracle (another Pathfinder thing - Oracles are to Clerics what Sorcerers are to Wizards) whose backstory involves him being haunted by a strange spirit called Bartleby. I told Tythis that Bartleby (who usually keeps pretty silent unless called on) sees this little black-and-red figure and seems to recognise it, and his reaction is very negative. 

This was framed as kind of an aside, but I think it stuck in the players' heads. Later on, the players come to a strange underground labyryinth. It's pitch black, and the players are working their way through a puzzle involving some teleporters. The tension is ramped up gradually - I think just the idea of being in a pitch black place and having to make your own light makes things quite claustrophobic, and I described the sound of a strange piping in the distance (the Redcap's "singing"). After a few rounds of the singing getting louder and the players maybe starting to worry a bit, I bust him out - the Redcap appears in a doorway and runs at the players! The way I described him was less cartoony than the illustration above... I guess I pictured a sort of Pyramid Head thing (the game, not the movie!).  At the same time, I start playing this music, which is one of my favourite pieces ever: 

AAAAAAAAAA! Seriously, the first time I heard this - wow! How horrifying. It seemed to set off the panic well, and the rest of the encounter was pretty much one big mad dash to solve the puzzle without meeting the Redcap or his scythe on the way. The party seemed pretty terrified of the prospect of meeting him again throughout the rest of the campaign, which felt good.

Overall, it was just a brief horror excursion in a more typical fantasy campaign, but I think that was why it worked so well, like the sudden shift in tone added to the scare. I'm a real fan of genuinely scary stuff, not just blood and guts or jumpscares but creative and effectively-conveyed scares, especially things that seem scary to you without you being able to explain why. The sort of inexplicable fear you feel in dreams, that kind of thing. If you haven't played any Silent Hill games I'd really recommend them - I think videogames have a particular knack for being scary because you're more directly involved in them than you are in a book or a movie. Definitely play SH2 if nothing else - the various Pyramid Head sections are expertly built up and paid off.

anyway, hope y'all found this interesting. Got any stories about trying to DM scary stuff?

- Joe

Cadaver Collector

She had been born an age ago, and she could no longer remember her original purpose. It had changed so often - she found it easier to concentrate on the present. Life was simple. Pick the bodies up. Put them in the baskets. When the baskets are full, take them to the Pit. Start again. Simple. 

She knew the Master appreciated her work, although she would have continued to do it even if he didn't - she had been given a Command, a single compelling instruction, to keep working. Years ago, she remembered, she had found time to wonder what someone would even want with so many bodies, or (come to think of it) why so many bodies were just scattered about among the fields in the first place. But she had lived for so long, and she knew that such complicated thoughts led nowhere. So she concentrated on her work: pick the bodies up. Put them in the baskets. When the baskets are full, take them to the Pit. Start again.

Another of my favourite constructs for y'all. The Cadaver Collector is one of those monsters that actually seems sort of sweet, despite its connections with, y'know, cadavers. Referenced Howl's Moving Castle a lot here, as well as the steampunky robots in the Dinotopia series. I'm not actually that keen on steampunk as a design aesthetic (out of pure snobbery really - a LOT of people like it and it can get a bit style over substance) but it was fun to do something that leans in that direction. Check out the detail shot below, too (the linework stuff I've been doing lately seems to benefit from this).

ALSO I ran the first session of my campaign yesterday, and it seemed to go great! The party enjoyed planning out a freeform route to the actual dungeon (I drew a big map of the region on the table and they basically sat round and planned out exactly how they wanted to get there). They ended up going a way I didn't expect, which was cool. They beat up a group of hobgoblins & bugbears on the way (which an online CR calculator ASSURED me would be a fair fight but the bugbears got stomped. I guess CR calculators don't account for tactics?) and we worked out that the group halfling (an Inquisitor* named Wislo) actually has less STR than Fitz's pet crow.

After they got inside the Keep via a secret passage they had a pretty tense stealth section with the party uncovering a secret armoury. Eventually they ran into a sentry on the upper battlements who was looking out the other way, so our half-orc (a fighter/ninja** named Sev) decided to sneak up on him to take him out silently. Unfortunately for Sev, he rolled a natural 1 on his stealth check*** - an automatic fail - stubbing his foot on a stone and yelping in pain.

At this point the party is pretty screwed, because this guard has a signal horn and there are a good 30 or so soldiers nearby who will come running, completely scuppering the stealth element of the mission. Nevertheless, I roll a cursory perception check*** for the guard, to see what he hears. To everyone's surprise, I also roll a natural 1, also an automatic fail! The guard is somehow completely distracted by something to the extent that he doesn't hear the shout of a disgruntled half-orc not two paces behind him. This works out in Sev's favour and he successfully stealths the rest of the way up to the guard, sneak attacking him with a greataxe. Success! It was pretty cool.

We have our next session in about a month, so stay tuned for more updates. Next time I will take pictures!

- Joe

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* Inquisitor is a base class in Pathfinder! They're sort of like paladins that don't mind getting their hands dirty. You can take it from level one, they get some pretty cool abilities in the cause of stomping HERESY.
** Ninja is an alternate class for Rogue in Pathfinder. They do a lot of the same stuff Rogues do but with a bigger focus on stealth plus some specific ninja-themed abilities (like creating clones to confuse the enemy).
*** One of the nicer little ways that Pathfinder streamlines the game process is by slightly simplifying skills. Spot and Listen are amalgamated into a single Perception check, and Hide and Move Silently are combined into Stealth. It's a small change, but one that really helps to untangle things.

Shimmerling Swarm

An individual shimmerling in a fairly unintelligent, harmless creature. Heck, a shimmerling swarm is a fairly unintelligent, harmless conglomeration of creatures.

Unless they're angry.

At first, the shimmerling swarm seems to be a cloud of pulsating rainbow light that can just about be seen between the trees. The light is strangely alluring. Hypnotic even. And it's not until you find yourself envelopped by that bright blinding light that you feel the sickening hum of vibrating insects wings and the splintery pain of tiny teeth and fingers biting any inch of exposed flesh they can find.

Fortunately, the shimmerlings primarily subsist on pollen. Which is yet another reason to leave the forest alone.

Here is my New Years-themed image, though perhaps you could say its more a wintery, Christmasy kind of image. Inspired by the fireworks, fairy lights (eh? eh?) and wrapping paper. I tried by hand at a tessellating pattern, a la Escher. Needless to say, it's not quite as seamless at the Escher ones, but it'll do.

When I think of the shimmerling swarms, the image that mostly comes to mind is the fairies from Disney's Fantasia, the ones that perform a part of the Nutcracker suite while putting dew on flowers, turning leaves orange and freezing water. Albeit the shimmerlings as statted are probably little more than fairy-shaped bees.

Nathzarune Rakshasa

 While the standard rakshasa is a pretty formidable spellcaster, the Nazathurne rakshasa is a whole different story. It has no spells of its own, but isn't completely devoid of magical ability. Instead, this rakshasa can meld with the shadows and travel through them. Its lack of arcane knowledge is replaced with physical knowledge, which it uses to inflict devastating damage.

D&D has a few different rakshasas. The standard ones are pretty cool and Anthony S. Water's illustration for the 3.5 rakshasa is probably my favourite illustration in the Monster Manual, if not all of D&D illustrations. Other books added further rakshasas with more specific themes. Instead of being a sorcerer like the standard, the nazathurne is a rogue/shadowdancer.

The rakshasas are a set of demons from Indian mythology. Actually, they're more the Indian equivalent to the Japanese oni than European demons. Since both Hindu and Buddhism believe in reincarnation, sometimes rakshasa are the transformed or reincarnated form of a wicked person. The whole tiger-headed thing, though present is South Asian art, is exaggerated a bit by D&D. In mythology, a rakshasa can have the head of different animals or deformed features. Especially strong ones have multiple heads and limbs.

Book suggestionn du jour is The Ultimate Ilustrated Guide to Knives, Swords, Daggers & Blades by Harvey JS Withers and Tobias Capwell. It's a two volume collection filled with images of edged weapons (some polearms, not that many) that's a good resource and fairly compact. It's pretty Euro-centric, but there's still a decent amount of space dedicated to the swords and knives of Africa and Asia. The knife that the rakshasa is wielding in the image is an Indian pichangatti.

Summoning Ooze

Common Oozes are difficult enough creatures to fight; alien in form and movement, often with a host of  more unpleasant qualities to substitute for the effectiveness of teeth and claws - with the Summoning Ooze the problem is compounded somewhat.

Possibly the result of a summoning spell physically manifesting, a Summoning Ooze is a gelatinous mass threaded through with glyphs of calling and binding which swim in chaotic patterns, summoning random creatures which materialise to serve the creature's bidding.

I feel a bit tired of digital painting so here's something a little more on the "graphic" end of the spectrum again. I got a little way into animating this guy (I love animating abstract blobby shapes swirling around) but I thought for the sake of speed for now I'll just post the image. Oozes are, as always, tricky to give some character to - for this guy I went for a weird anemone-style shape, like a many-armed head on a stalk (even if it's obscured a bit by all the stuff going on around it). Make sense to you guys?

- Joe

Petal

Petals are tiny fey creatures who can sometimes prove problematic to adventurers (but rarely intentionally). They inhabit secluded areas in temperate forests, and their chief reaction to travelers of any sort is to sing to them. This would, it has to be said, be less of a problem if the magical voices of Petals didn't put the listener into a drowsy, peaceful sleep.

While this might seem at first mischievous, they consider it in fact an act of utter benevolence - is there any creature alive who doesn't deserve a little more rest in life? Afterwards, they tend to their slumbering "victims" by removing their amour (it can't be comfy to rest in all those silly metal plates!) and weaving them soft garments of leaves, which the hapless adventurers wake up in.

The description of the Petal is so sweet I can't hardly stand it. I struggle a lot with the details on these lately - I want to add lines to define things like the mouth, fingers, but it's hard to make them not jar against the airbrushy shading. I'm pleased with the colours, though.

- Joe

Shrieking Terror

Shrieking Terrors are bizarre hybrids between the many-headed Hydra and the bat-like Vargouille. Their simple, starfish-shaped bodies support a head at the end of each arm with only a pair of leathery wings to hoist the creature aloft for movement. The heads themselves posses many of the same capabilities as an ordinary Vargouille, including a poisonous bite attack and the horrible "Vargouille's Kiss" - a perversely tender gesture by which the Shrieking Terror marks its victim with a curse that causes them to rapidly undergo a monstrous transformation into a Vargouille themselves!

Foes of the Shrieking Terror attack it with caution - its body restores itself quickly in the manner of a hydra, and each head, if severed, will quickly regrow twofold.

Apologies to those who aren't as keen on the more graphic style - it's a little quicker for me to work in and I wanted to catch up so Blanca and I are in sync again (Blanca's currently technically a week ahead!).  I've been reading a book I was bought recently containing Miyazaki's watercolour sketches for Nausicaä (both the movie and the comic), and I guess this is inspired by the tapestries at the start of the movie, the ones depicting the war and the God Warrior in this nice primitive style. I actually quite like the picture of the Shrieking Terror in the MM3, so check it out!

Lumi

The Lumi are a race of beings hailing from the plane of positive energy who are roughly humanoid but for their strange,  luminescent flesh and their heads, which float necklessly above their bodies.  As a society they are essentially good-aligned, but Lumi law is distinguished by its almost religious reverence of Truth, often above all other virtues. To the Lumi, all falsehood (irrespective of scale or consequence) is crime. The Lumi tell no stories, except history. They study magic, but abhor spells of illusion and deception.

The bloody extent of this custom is known to humans - the two races have had amicable contact and trade but in the past humans have been tried and even executed for acts of harmless deceit. Lumi make good if straightforward soldiers (being incapable of things like ambush tactics) and will often join a party of adventurers, but they are easily and instantly offended. Caution is advised.

Necks are kinda hard for me to draw, so the Lumi's anatomy gives me a bit of a break. That said, this took ages for some reason. Right now I'm trying to make things as simple as possible without making them look lazy, or unfinished. Whilst I think the body deisgn/pose of this is a little yawnsworthy, an important part of Lumi anatomy is their glow, which I'm pleased with.

Conflagration Ooze

Conflagration oozes are one of those things where people aren't sure whether they're a magical creation, a natural accident or some kind of mean joke. The fire inside the ooze is an especially painful toxin. Physical contact with the ooze causes the toxin to burn and seep though the skin and causes both fire and Constitution damage. Most oozes are mindless creatures, but this particular ooze (essentially roiling flame barely kept contained by a thin membrane) has malevolent intelligence behind it.

They're as smart as humans, and show strategy when hunting, immobilizing victims with their spell-like abilities before consuming them. Some of them are even imbued with hellish power (called Infernal Conflagrations Oozes), which albeit not more intelligent, are much more deadly.

Arcane Ooze

You know what's hard to design? Oozes. There's only so many ways you can try to design an amoeba. Still, this is a sight better than that catastrophe under the title of Reekmurk. Eegh. I should really redo that particular image.

Some people have a lot of complaints about D&D being really caster-biased. Wizards and such are really squishy early game, when in later levels they gain powers of deific proportions, leaving combat-based classes in the dust. Well, for the sake of balance in the game, you have to break out the occasional mage-killer. The kinda monster where you totally aren't targeting the caster; it just likes to eat magic. If you didn't want to get eaten by a giant magic-eating lime jelly maybe you shoulda rolled a rogue.

This fella's shown up a couple of times now. He doesn't seem to be a very good wizard. I should probably give him a name. Rinceko? Orkwind? I'm sure I'll think of something.

GUEST WEEK: Nycter by Katie Tiedrich

Don't hurt me!

The Nycter are a race of small bat-men that live in close-knit communities in forest caves. They're a peaceful, flimsy bunch, preferring talk to fight. When cornered, they unleash a paralyzing shriek that gives them enough time to escape into the darkness. Their leaders are called Protectors of the Cave, Nycters with class levels in druid.

Despite their bat-like similarity, the Desmodu and the Nycter don't get along. The Nycter fear the Desmodu since they are much bigger and stronger, the way a human looks at a giant. The Desmodu view the smaller race as cowardly and unintelligent (though the Nycter still possesses average human intelligence). The Nycter retain more of their bat-like qualities, being able to fly and having very sensitive ears (to the point that sonic attacks are extra painful for them).

This is a race of creatures that can be used as a player race, should the DM approve. It sounds like quite a neat idea for some kinda subterranean adventure. A way to avoid the whole you have to be either a drow, druegar, svirfneblin or any of the classic human-like underground races.

Image brought to use by Katie Tiedrich of Awkward Zombie and Aikonia. Internet celebrity, wowzers!

Siege Crab

The kuo-toa priests and alchemists were finished. Years of research, prayers and failures had resulted in the ultimate weapon for their sea-floor expansionist war. Tomorrow a high priest with the coral circlet and his bodyguards would crawl through the belly compartment and lead the attack, but tonight the army would dine on their creation's discarded entrails.

The Siege Crab is a half-living tank, forged by the Kuo Toa (or any other evil sea-dwelling race, should you wish) by surgical and magical means. A live giant crab is taken and a chunk of its insides are taken out to create a small transportation area where its handlers can sit. Its carapace is reinforced with runes to give it resistnace to spells and even block the attacks from incorporeal creatures. Its sheer size and powerful pincers make it ideal for destroying fleets and razing cities.

Of course, since its half alive, that means that the death of its controller can result in, at best, a bored crab, or, at worst, a confused and pained rampaging creature. Also, if you happen to down the crab, that's pretty much a guarantee that the people inside it are trapped and will eventually starve, since the crab will almost inevitably land on its belly.

Knell Beetle

The Knell Beetle is yet another creature you can add to the list of the products of bored wizards. Because sometimes you have to merge a bug with a bell.

Only the description in the Monster Manual is a creature with ten legs, claws and a red carapace. That's a crab, dawg, not a beetle. I couldn't decide on what shape to give them, as you can see, because I quickly found out that it's silly. Because knell beetles are tooting lobsters.

Oh and these things are CR 10, as big as cars and move in colonies. So if you feel like finding one to laugh at, you should probably wait a few levels.

Kenku

The Kenku are a race of flightless corvid humanoids that live in cities. They're of evil disposition and are especially prone to theft, which they execute in large groups. The Kenkus small size, ability to mimic sounds and strong sense of cooperation means they're often contracted as thieves, spies and assassins by those who'd rather not implicate themselves in that sort of crime.

I consider kenku in the same family as kobolds and goblins: absurd, cute, pathetic little creatures that are somehow supposed to imply a threat. They're a more dishonorable version of the tengu, a crow-man creature of Japanese mythology known for their mastery of the sword. The Oriental Adventures book has the more faithful version of the monster.

The winner of the poll was city monsters.I'm really late this week because I keep working on the goblin stuff instead. I finished modelling the character itself and all his clothing and have started working on the skeleton. I've also bee working on the blend shapes for his head, which is really fun. I'm going to have to figure out how to stop the teeth from popping out of the cheeks when the face morphs.


Edit: Improved the image some with colours, shading and floury footprints.

Living Blasphemy

Many mysteries surrond the true nature of magic, despite the devotion of extensive resources to its study. One such mystery has been observed to occur in circumstances where high-level spellcasters have (perhaps carelessly) overextended their powers in the casting of a particularly potent spell; over time, the spell can develop in complexity and potency, divorcing itself entirely from its caster and eventually gaining a sort of sentience of its own.

One spell which is lamentably capable of this transformation is the Blasphemy curse. A seventh-level spell favoured by clerics of dark deities such as Nerull or Vecna, Blasphemy affects an area, afflicting all within its boundaries with conditions ranging from dizzied confusion to paralysis or painful death. In the case we see here, a particularly powerful instance of the spell has become sentient, appearing as a twisting, globular pillar of darkness, creeping towards you. Despite its sentience the creature is devoid of any proper intelligence, desiring only death and pain - whoever is struck by its roiling branches suffers the full extent of the spell's original effects.

Sorry for all the delayed posts from me lately, work has been pretty busy for the last few weeks (in addition to me being sort of ill and my computer packing in again). Oh well! I am attempting to catch up.

I do like the idea of sentient spells, I think it's an idea worth applying to more magical abilities. Living Cone of Cold, anyone? I sort of imagine it would be quite cute. Although, if you're feeling brave there are some slightly more epic opportunities if you know where to look.

Alchemical Golem

Alchemical golems are constructs created by wizards with a special talent for potions. They made of several expensive and rare alchemical liquids contained within a tough membrane. These liquids, along with a trapped elemental spirit, are what makes this giant creature lumber forward. It's touch is acidic and piercing its membrane results in the corrosive liquids within spilling out, before the membrane repairs itself. An alchemical golem must cosume vats of alchemical liquids to replace those lost to physical damage.

Guest week soon, fellow watchers.

Grisgol

A Grisgol is a strange construct, made haphazardly but nonetheless dangerous. Its body is comprised of a tattered mass of various magical items, loosely held together by mummy-like bandages of spell scrolls and wards. Its arm might be a sword or staff; its head an enchanted helm, or its insides a clinking stack of alchemical potions - their highly chaotic, magical nature makes them immune to most magical effects. In addition to this, the enchantments usually used to power an ordinary golem are simply too weak to bring Grisgols to life; they are usually powered by a Lich's phylactery - a small trinket such as a jewel or phial containing the soul of a dead sorcerer. This makes them doubly dangerous - not only are their physical bodies corrosive and unstable, their souls are ancient and malicious.

Our second guest week begins tomorrow! As with last time, we'll be updating with a new image every day for a whole week, involving a bunch of different artists with different styles. Check back each day for some new artsy goodness.

Battlebriar

Battlebriars are actually huge plants, magically grown by teams of druids to serve as living siege engines. Galloping along on six muscular legs, they resemble huge, knotted masses of bark and huge thorns, making attacking one in melee combat a treacherous task to say the least (to take no account of the creature's monstrous size). Often proving too wild for their creators to control, many Battlebriars now roam free in the forests of the world, killing indescriminately to feed.

Inspired a lot by horned lizards and by one of my favourite magic cards. I like how you have this stereotype of druids being peaceful hippies - I imagine one day they all just had enough of people ripping on them and thought "fuck it, let's make some CR 15 living siege weapons, that'll teach them to make fun of us". Those craaaaazy druids.