Achaierai

Achaierai are large (adults can reach 15 feet in height), flightless, diabolic birds that dwell on the hellish plane of Acheron. They hunt intelligently, with a penchant for sadism only found in the most evil of housecats. They can also belch noxious black clouds which send those who breathe them insane. Delightful!

I guess this is another relatively simple one, but I'm happy with the composition and linework so I'm not going to add any more. Achaierai have actually featured on this blog before in another creature's entry, but I really don't like the drawing in question so I'm not going to link it! Ha! The way I've drawn it sort of hunched over reminds me a little of a xenomorph, or the delightfully-named "deacon" creature in Prometheus.

The description doesn't mention a tail, but I felt that adding one gave it more of a catlike feel. The head is modeled off a recoloured Zebra Finch, which I think is a fine-looking bird. I didn't go crazy detailing the feathers because it feels a bit more smooth and alien this way. Like, this creature is not a bird, it's something much worse that happens to look like one.

- Joe

PS - Bosch, anyone? the guy was definitely fond of torturous man-birds.

Large Earth Elemental

Though perhaps the more adequate term for this particular example would be the large malachite elemental.

Though it's understandable why an earth elemental is normally drawn by making them either made out of soil or grey stone, it's a bit of a shame to ignore all the beautiful different kinds of 'earth' there are in the world.  Malachite is probably my favourite stone just because of it's amazing natural floral green patterns. There are a number of other stones in the world that come in really stunning colours and shapes, before even being touched by man. I have to admit that this looks maybe a bit too much like a water elemental in its colours to properly communicate the earthiness of it, though. Though it would be nice to see a caste system with earth elementals. Maybe especially powerful or ancient elementals are made out of pure diamond?

Earth elementals are probably another creature where you can be quite cruel to your players with. How? Because as an earth elemental it can burrow effortlessly --and sightlessly-- though earth and stone. Bam! The ground you're standing on suddenly has arms.

This is the final of the pure elemental four. Perhaps in the future we'll tackle the paraelementals (lava, lightning, etc)? Probably.

Large Water Elemental

Even moreso than other elementals, the Water Elemental's effectiveness is greatly enhanced by proximity to bodies of water. Whilst a Water Elemental can move its body about across the ground it takes a penalty on its attacks - yet, when it moves through water or even across large puddles, its command over the substance allows it to attack much more effectively. Especially for a non-aquatic race such as humans, encountering an elemental underwater is a near death sentence - roughly equivalent to trying to fight an incredibly quick and strong ooze from the inside. Prepare to be exploded.

More elementals! Me and Blanca thought it would be fun to just do all four of the classic types this week. Again the design is less abstract than is usual - I wanted to focus on the idea that if you're a sentient body of water you're essentially a shapeshifter, so you'd probably be taking forms of various creatures as you move about. The little head/core thing is part Morpha (from Ocarina of Time again, the water temple boss) and part the river spirit from Spirited Away. The body is modeled off various deep-sea creatures, most notably the fantastic Vampire Squid.

Stay tuned for the final element tomorrow!

- Joe

Large Air Elemental

Air Elementals are the fastest of the elementals, faster than their more fiery counterparts, along with not being bound by gravity. While they're the physically weakest of the bunch, they can turn themselves into whirlwinds able to check or fling away smaller creatures. Not so good when you're standing next to, say, a spike-filled pit.

Like Joe said, we're trying to do something a little bit more interesting with our elementals other than 'creature made out of X element' (not that I'm not guilty of that). So I thought of something that was more representatives of currents of air, something that looks like its voice would be high-pitched and whose touch would be cutting. So here's a papery-feathery squid thing. I also really dig the ideas of spirits or deities being visualized with an object that symbolizes them.

Large Fire Elemental

Broadly speaking, "Elemental" is a description that encompasses a range of monsters that are not so much living creatures as manifested forces of nature. These creatures are often almost mindless, or motivated by thoughts so primordial that their actions seem as such. While elementals are as diverse in type as the wide range of forces that give rise to them, perhaps the "classic" four elementals are the best known - Fire, Water, Earth and Air.

Fire Elementals are fearsome creatures of great speed and power, though flighty and erratic by nature. Their bodies burn with perpetual fire, giving their attacks extra damage and punishing adventurers that attack them with natural weapons. Your party monk is probably gonna have a bad time unless he has asbestos hands.

I really want to get back into using lines more! I enjoy actually drawing as opposed to just filling in blocks of colour sometimes. This guy might look a little unlike what you have in your head when you think of an Elemental, but I'm not that big a fan of the usual illustrations of big walking blobs of fire you usually get. I actually really like the elemental type works in MtG, where they appear a bit more like normal (yet weird) creatures, especially in the Lorwyn sets (like this guy, or this guy). You still get the impression they represent primal elemental forces but it's a bit more interesting than "a big buy made of fire/rock/air/water". Plus, you get colours in flame other than red and yellow!

The inspiration for the design is kind of a mix of Flare Dancers from Ocarina of Time and the Susanoo giant-ghost-mecha-things from Naruto. Yes, I still read Naruto. Don't judge me.

- Joe

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

Aranea

 

So these little ladies are about a step away from being werespiders. An aranea is a shapeshifting magical spiders, with a unique humanoid form, one beastly form and a third form being somewhere in between. Though not good, these creatures aren't evil, which is something quite pleasant when it comes to sentient spiders.

I just really dig the idea that the little old lady in the house down the road that makes extra nice sweaters has a bit of a secret. But that doesn't mean she'll eat you. Well, maybe she will. Villagers probably get the ol' torch and pitchfork when they find out about that. They've still got a good bit of poison, spells and sticky webs to gather you up with. So just be a dearie and keep Grammy Spider's secret, okay?

Centaur

Centaurs are a noble race of beast-men who, as in their appearance, straddle a line between humanity and animal savagery. Their trust is hard to earn; their wrath is cheap indeed!

Sorry for the lateness of this! Busy work and busy weekends make Joe a tired boy. Also apologies for the boobs on display here, I just felt like 99% of the fantasy centaurs I see are bare-chested, muscled males and I felt like switching up the gender - the result is something like Walt Disney's (planned) topless centaurs for Fantasia meets Merle from Escaflowne or some other borderline-furry catgirl cheesecake from my youth. I'm not much fond of furry art (to put it lightly), but for some reason centaurs and mermaids seem to avoid my distaste.

In any case, I've been looking at a lot of drawings of girls lately (Chris Sanders, Alex Ahad) and I felt like trying my hand at a pretty girl - I think the hair is a little boring, but I like the face and the rest of it. Maybe I'll change up the hairstyle later - for now, I'll just post it. Feel free to berate me in the comments for my possible idle sexism / corruption of America's youth etc etc. :)

- Joe

PS be sure to look at it full-size! I might put up some detail images tomorrow.

Cursed Cold One (Gelun)

The Cursed Cold Ones may once have been humans. Once. Now they're translucent humanoid creatures entirely dependant on heat. Any temperature below searing hot causes them to freeze into a block of ice and enter an agonizing state of hibernation.

To counter this, they live primarily in hot deserts, where they're guaranteed long days of extreme heat and sunlight. But desert nights are notoriously cold and the Cursed Cold Ones must find a heat source of risk becoming blocks of ice for the next few hours. Because their bodies are natural heat sinks, their touch is much like the attack of an Ice Serpent, freezing their victims as they drain them of their heat. Even their gaze can cause an enemy to reel with sensations of deep cold.

Tried to get some sketchy shading with this image. Sometimes I really like the scratchy dark shadows I do in my sketchbook.

Nashrou

Nashrou are among the many animalian predators that are scattered about the Abyss. Their intelligence is comparable to wolves, as are their pack hierarchy. They're rarely alone, but a solitary nashrou could be a good or bad thing. Good may mean that it's been separated. Or it could mean that they're a scout and the rest of the pack is shortly behind them.

Though fierce, these creatures have a big flaw: they're extremely vulnerable to specific hit. You hit one in an especially vulnerable point (i.e. score a critical hit) and you've got a pretty good chance of killing one instantaneously.

This was a blind monster (name and image blacked out) given to me by Joe. I'm pretty pleased that the image looks nothing like what's in the book, though I do regret that the one has a way more interesting body in an abstact geometry kind of way.

Dretch

Among the demonic hordes of the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, the Dretch is undoubtedly the most pitiful. Small, stinking, blubbery midgets, they are only barely intelligent enough to comprehend speech and cannot approximate it themselves - instead relying on a crude form of telepathy. Which is not to deny that Dretches are cruel, monstrous creatures who seek out murder and destruction for the sheer joy of it; merely that where there is a Dretch, there is also most likely a more powerful demon somewhere behind, goading it into action.

I finally bought a cintiq last week! This makes two entries so far made using a cintiq on this blog - this one and the Rogue Eidolon (which I made at a place where I was working last year). They both have a kind of painterly look, which is something the cintiq helps with. This guy was fun to draw, especially the graphic, simian face. I tried to get a balance between him looking scary/silly, it's a balance I like to straddle. What do you think?

- Joe

Gray Dwarves (Duergar)

Like the drow, the duergar are a cold-hearted subterranean race of dark-skinned humanoids. Unlike the drow, they put on no airs of aristocratic refinement, despite thinking they're better than anybody else.

Duergar are deep believers that life is nothing but thankless, painful work, as the doctrines Laduguer state. The priests of their religion go through agonizing torture in order to prove themselves worthy. The rest of them are all craftsmen, creating beautiful treasure after treasure. However, they don't seem to indulge very much in them. The dress of the duergar is drab, without embellishment, while their works are locked away in deep trap-filled vaults. Life is work, not pleasure, even if it's the pleasure of artistic accomplishment.

Duergar also have a fascinating origin myth. Laduguer created the grey dwarves and taught them to work. And they did. But there was one dwarf, the Lone Craftsman, who would hide away from deific eyes and commit blasphemies: he created life. The Lone Craftsman made all the other races of the world and when Laduguer found out, he cursed him, transforming him into the first derro, another subterranan race made up of psychotic small man incapable of creation due to their small attention spans. So the Duergar see all other races as abominations and insults against their god. They especially hate other dwarves, seeing them as the Lone Craftsman's ultimate heresy. The only race they almost respect are gnomes, since they're almost as single-minded in their craftsmanship as the duergar.

They're tough to fight as well, with innate size-changing and invisibility abilities. I bet a good many adventurer has been smashed by an underground giant not realizing that they were fighting a dwarf.

There need to be more lady dwarves. Also, the lady dwarves need to be as hirsute as their male counterparts.