Wendigo

The Wendigo is a malevolent spirit of the cold wastes, driven by purely by hunger. It has no feet, and leaves no tracks on the ground. Sometimes its body turns misty and can't be seen but out of the corner of your eye. You're more likely to hear him that see him, his gibbering laughter sweeping across the empty landscape like with.

So the winner of last week's poll was Middle Eastern / Indian monsters and North American monsters, with an equal amount of votes. I decided to pick North American monsters, since they're under-represented in modern fantasy culture outside the odd shaman, thunderbird and, of course, Wendigo.

Fun fact! Apparently the word Wendigo comes from the proto-Algonquian "wintekowa", possibly meaning "owl". At least according to the internet. Maybe they were freaked out by the hooting of owls at night? Anyway, that's why I decided to give the Wendigo a more rounded head instead of something wolfy or deer-like, like a lot of modern fantasy does.

I decided to play on the description in the D&D books that says they have a Corner of the Eye ability. Whenever a wendigo Wind Walks, they can never been looked at directly, always seeming to appear just out of your field of vision. This was pretty tricky, and I decided to try to employ the Hidden Face illusion trick. I'm not sure how well it worked though, so you guys'll have to tell me.

Man, I'm late this week.

Did a little bit more work with the tags this past week. Monsters are now also orginized by alignment (chaotic, lawful, evil, good, neutral) and whether they're template creatures.

Yakfolk

Yakfolk are a race of heavy-furred bovine men who make their homes in the beautiful verdant valleys between mountain peaks. They stand smaller than a minotaur, but are much more civilized than their brutish counterparts. They dress in fine silks and decorate their horns with silver and tassles. Despite their utopian towns and culture, Yakfolk are brutal slavers and each member of their race usually has many human, elven and dwarf slaves. They're learned in magical arts, with the innate abilities to fuse their bodies with that of another humanoid creature and to control evil genies. Their signature weapons are the falchion and the magical staff.

The winner for last week's poll was high fantasy and diplomatic mission. Originally I was going to do the drow, but matriarchal black elves that live underground and worship an evil spider goddess aren't high fantasy enough. Genie-commanding, body-melding cow-men are high fantasy enough. As for diplomatic mission, you'd probably want to make some sort of treaty with them. I would. Either that or run away.

Special thanks to Joe with helping me figure out an interesting way to set up the layout and style of this image.

Also I think I'm done with all the blend shapes for my goblin. Currently working on the tongue and figuring out how to set up some controls.

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.

Domovoi

Domovoi are fey of the helpful variety. They're normally found near places of civilized activity, homes or campsites. In exchange from some scraps and maybe some milk, these hairy little men will keep your fires live and warm. They're slippery creatures, and prefer not to be seen by the people they're helping. Even if you got your hands on one you'd find it difficult to keep a grip on them; they're covered in a fine layer of soot and ash, making it difficult to keep a grip on them.

"...wants to help me" was the winner for last week's poll. It was pretty close for a while, since "wants to eat me", "is three times bigger than me", "is tiny" and "is surrounded by its minions" where all tied with four votes each before the winner got an extra two clicks. I'd actually found a creature that could fit all four categories. Oh well.

Domovoi are creatures of Russian/Slavic folklore (as if you couldn't tell). They have a slightly more malevolent counterpart called the Dvorovoi. These other little men were in charge of barns and livestock, but could make your cows sick if they were in a bad mood.

The poll for this week is terrains. You can select multiple answers in this one.

Also, more work on the goblin. A friend helped me out by making some suggestions on the hand and clothes modelling. He's also now got teeth. Further crits would be appreciated. I'm probably going to start trying to figure out how to do blend shapes soon and that's the kind of thing where I need to be 100% certain on the model itself.

Mercane

Mercanes are the ultimate salesmen of the universe. They travel across dimensions followed by their entourage of bodyguards and train of merchandise, ready to buy and sell. As completely neutral creatures, they're free to wander where they please. You can find them anywhere from the mortal plane, to the Heavens, to the Abyss.

The winner for last week's which type the monster should be was the outsider. Not exactly surprising, since they're one of the groups with consistently interesting-looking creatures.

The manual describes these creatures as blue-skinned with multi-jointed fingers. Let me tell you, it was really difficult not to make him look like a certain fella from The Thief and the Cobbler.

New poll this week. Hoping to make a regular thing out of this. There's too many cool monsters to pick from.

Xac-Yij

Energons are a srare and elusive species. They are born from the essence of various planes, and take the form of jellyfish-like balls of elemental energy. Energons are likely to be found hovering near dimensional portals, as they're attracted to its magical energy, and curious about what's on the other side. The Xac-Yij is the energon that comes from the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo, and is powered by corrosive acid. All energons are largely harmelss, being incorporeal creatures and possessing no physical strength, but they each have a preferred battle plan should they have to fight. The Xac-Yij prefers attacking the weaker, smaller creatures, and flee from bigger foes.

I've done a little more work on that goblin model from last week. I'm currently learning how to do some basic rigging in this Maya course, so hopefully I should be able to animate something with it. I'm also trying to decide whether I should model the clothes as a seperate object or as part of the monster. Any 3D people out there with opinions?

Also, check out the poll in the top right corner. Go click on it.

Primal Air Elemental

These are the kings of air elementals and one of the more powerful monsters. Their amorphous soft bodies make them largely immune to many spells and damage from all but the most powerful weapons. As neutral creatures, they have no destructive urges, but their low intelligence means that they can easily be tricked.

Oh elementals. You're so difficult to make interesting because you're literally piles of stuff.


Edit: Modelling a goblin in three-dee, y'all.

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.

Wang-Liang

The Wang-Liang are a race of mountain and forest dwelling giants. They used to be one of the dominant races, but that position has been usurped by the human population. As spirit-like creatures, they have a number of invisibility and shape-shifting powers, which they could easily use to dupe humans. Despite their inherent evil and envy of this younger race, they are very honorable creatures.

Oh Oriental Adventures, you are such an interesting setting. I wish to play a campaign in your world.

The Wang-Liang is one of the weakest of the giant race (CR 4), out of all the giants in the D&D books. The weakest "true" giants, as from the monster manual, are CR 9, which means that you have to be pretty high level to be able to take one on. I guess ogres are CR 3, but they're literally just dim-witted monstrous men that beat you with clubs.

Wang-Liang have a lot more flavour-stuff going on with them. They have the aforementioned spell-like abilities, and they also have a high intelligence score (compare the ogre's 6 to the wang-liangs 16. For the reader's not familiar with these numbers, humans only get an average of 10 for intelligence score). Their signature weapons are double-ended bladed staffs, but then they also have retractable claws.

I'm not really sure where wang-liangs come from as a concept. Folklore, especially oriental folklore, is fraught with shape-shifting spirits and demons. I couldn't find a creature out there that had the same name as the wang-liang, so I can only guess that these are based on some kinda especially tricky oni.

Gilin, Invisible Blade

Invisible Blades are unusual fighters (usually of some confidence or flair) who see that the key to success in combat is not always through big muscles, weapons or spells. Wielding only knives and other small, unassuming weapons, an Invisible Blade relishes being underestimated. He boldly takes on foes, unarmoured, eager to take advantage of their overconfidence, then feints to create an opening and guts them before they have a chance to react.

A more common class choice for the smaller, nimbler races, this prestige class (a class only useable when certain skill conditions have been met) seems to have been built to give Rogues the opportunity for a more in-your-face play style. To the common thug, a dagger obviously does a lot less damage than a longsword - however, Rogues who attack their opponents from behind or catch them off guard get a huge "sneak attack" bonus (hahaha). Invisible Blades, as well as being able to add their intelligence bonus to their AC (to help them out with the whole "not wearing armour" thing) get a better feint, which essentially allows them to sneak attack people from the front.

I'm a huge fan of the idea of classes not being cut-and-paste character types - obviously generalising, whilst fairly safe at first, gets boring quickly. I love prestige classes because they help you specialise your character into a real niche. Not all rogues are the same - a player might want to roll a Rogue who can sneak around like a ninja, or who can fight using spectacular acrobatics, or uses his fists like a street brawler; prestige classes give you further bonuses to help you make those play styles viable. Blanca once wrote a really cool NPC Rogue who was dead shot with a bow (ranged sneak attack, anyone? okay okay enough with the tf2 metaphors). So, yeah. If you like your rogues showoffish and bluffy, the Invisible Blade might be for you.

Xylia Glass, Alienist

Alienists are wizards and sorcerers who have delved to deep into the study of aberrations and the chaotic powers of the Far Realm. They follow their science with religious zeal, slowly descending into insanity and physical mutation as they chase immortality and trascendence of normal dimensions. Even the creatures they summon with their spells are of a warped, unnatural appearance.

This is a pretty good prestige class for players who don't want to sacrifice magical power for specific class abilities, the Alienist being a flavour prestige rather than a strategically sound one. As you gains levels, your character literally begins to go insane; you lose points to your Wisdom stat and take penalties to your interaction with normal people and animals. It's kind of balanced out by a handful of extra hit points and a bunch of damage redutions. But you're also crazy. That's the fun of flavour prestige classes.

And what's fantasy without a little HP Lovecraft thrown in the mix?

PS: I've started a new blog that may be useful to any artists out there. It's called Reference Reference, and I'm going to be archiving my collection of reference/inspirational images. Look at it to see some of the references I used for this week's image.

GUEST WEEK: Crypt Thing by Adam Vian

The Crypt Thing is a guardian of sacred places and objects, which sits atop an ancient stone throne. It's a reanimated corpse, brought back by priests, to do away with intruders and thieves in a nonlethal manner. If it ever comes to force, the Crypt Thing will first scatter his opponents with minor teleportation magic. Despite being undead, it's not evil and can be civil with those who don't present a threat to him or his charge.

Round two of guest week comes to a close by an encore image from a previous guest, Adam Vian. He's recently put out a game he did in collaboration with Catherine Unger called From Beyond, which is quite delightful and spooky. And another game which I've always enjoyed and feel the need to bring to your attention is The Arrow Of Time (included: time travel, elemental arrows, a little soldier with a whistle for a head).