Myconid

Myconids are the mushroom-people. Something quite well suited for your Mario-themed D&D game I suppose. They live to about 24 years of age, getting larger and stronger with each passing year until the ruler of a circle of myconids is about 12 feet tall. They do a good many things via spores, the main three being communication (initating a telepathing link with someone), alarm and reproduction. Older myconids can use their spores to pacify and cause hallucinations --essentially drugging the target-- and to briefly reanimate dead bodies as vaguely fungoid puppets. Eventually the eldest mushroom-man is able to produce potions, which I like to think is actually some organically generated goo rather than something from a cauldron.

So I guess if you do want to use these guys for your Mario-themed D&D game, having an older myconid around can really give it more horrifying angle.

I like mushrooms. They're a delicious piece of not-plant. I also like how weird they look; there are some that you could look at and be astounded to find that they are, in fact, a mushroom. All of the myconids in this image take inspiration from different kinds of mushroom, varying in crazy looks and deliciousness.

Medusa

The Medusa is a classic creature (of Greek mythology if you don't know, and if you don't know a classic creature like a medusa from mythology what are you doing liking D&D anyway). Too often I feel that these monster women, which in the myths turn people to stone though an overwhelming mystical ugliness, get portrayed in too sexy a way too often. Like, just a scaly hot chick with snakes for hair that turns you to stone because her eyes are magic or something.

In D&D, their petrification powers do come from their eyes (called petrifying gaze), so I guess you get a free pass for that. But I tried to get the more monstrous aspect of the original Medusa across because having a monster that turns you to stone through sheer ugliness just strikes me as more interesting than magic eyes. That's horror stuff right there. You can't even sneak up and kill her in her sleep because her awful melted, pockmarked, scarred, malformed, sunken, twisted, scaly, oozing face is like right there, man.

And then I up and come with something mildly unsexy but otherwise just a silhouette. I did have something a bit uglier in my sketchbook, but I started doing some silhouettes which just looked nicer. That and if I rendered Medusa's true face at the height of my capabilities I may not have an audience anymore. I do this for your own safety, folks.

The MCM Expo was quite swell, despite me messing up on printing times and being unable to bring new stock. Still, it was nice and I sold out on some of my things and got to talk to some nice people and get a handful of new followers out of the deal. Special hello to the nice girl that recognized me from the internet (always an ego boost). I hope that the rush at the MLP booth wasn't too taxing and that you're enjoying the goofy hippogriff drawing.

Devourer

The Devourer is a giant undead creature, looking like a mummified shambling creature with great claws and an exposed ribcage. There's a little person in the ribcage. This little person is YOU.

Well, not really you. Potentially you. As in it's a full-round save-or-die ability it uses to suck the soul out of you and stick in its chest, slowly being consumed as it uses its magical abilities. This is another creature you should probably stick to using arrows for.

Also, this weekend (26th-27th of May) me and Joe Sparrow will be at the London MCM Expo. I'll be selling a couple of Dungeons & Drawings stickers and prints, and he'll be selling his own original artwork and comic. So drop by and say hi!

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.

Crypt Chanter

The Crypt Chanter is music-themed wraith. They gather together in choirs and orchestras, and using their lyrical powers they overwhelm nearby creatures then slowly begin to drain the life from them. When the victim dies, he rises and becomes another member of the group under the control of a spectral conductor.

Personally, I quite like monsters whose strategy seems a little bit more mysterious than "smack the PCs with my scary-strong attacks". These fellas are incorporeal too so that's... almost like being a slighty invisible shadow? Well, if you fluff them right they can be. Just find a way to block all the exits and the PCs are now stuck in a room with some weird spooky hymns echoing around as wavering shadowy singers float above your heads.

Featured on The Going Last Gaming Podcast's May of the Dead Carnival.

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!

GUEST WEEK: Gravorg by Emmie Bednall

The Gravorg is pretty much just an animal.

A hilarious animal.

Okay, so you're in this cave, right? And all of a sudden you lift off the ground. You go all the way up until you smack into the ceiling. You don't fall again, so you start to stand up on the ceiling. You manage, quite easily in fact. Then you drop again. Then you go up again. Then down again. Smack, smack smack!

That's because the Gravorg is a slow, lazy, sloth-like creature (despite being the size of a horse) and prefers to soften up any prey or enemies by reversing gravity and smacking you around the room until you pass out.

Like I said: hilarious.

Image brought to you by Emmie Bednall. She likes silly animals.

GUEST WEEK: Manscorpion by Oliver Cuthbertson

There's a patrol out on the desert, as you can tell from the dust clouds rising from behind the dune. You ready your weapons, ready for combat. Whoever is on the other side rises over the crest of the sand. It's just a group of men with bows and spears, but as they spot you they dash forward and you see their whole bodies. Skittering legs, a plated body and a curling, sting-capped tail curling greedily towards you.

Another monster for a ya'll to use in your desert campaign.

Though there are scorpion men in 3.5, this little fella's from the Monstrous Manual from AD&D 2nd edition. The artist who did this, Oliver Cuthbertson is a bit of a veteran compared to me. Which is when things were a little bit more hardcore, I think. People today complain about the save-or-die mechanic in 3.5, but the further you go back, the deadlier the game. Manscorpion even come with a number of rounds for convulsions as you slowly succumb to their venom.

Anyway, nice black and white work. Kinda remeniscent of earlier D&D artwork, yes?

GUEST WEEK: Death Knight by Cristian Ortiz Martinez

We all know that sometimes when you die, you don't stay underground like you should. Maybe the right prayers weren't performed, or maybe you're full of hatred that reaches beyond the grave. Or maybe you were chosen by some dark god to become their general for their massive undead army.

That's what a Death Knight is: a warrior of evil disposition who so impressed the forces of darkness that they decided to give him a promotion. They're like evil paladins (a recommended class for these guys tends to be the blackguard class), surrounded by an aura of fear, able to summon hellfire and attracting any undead within a 200 mile radius. That has the potential to be the mass migration of the undead of a smallish country to the spot where this guy is standing.

Also these fellas have turn immunity, so good luck with that strategy, clerics for the forces of good.

This image brought to us by Cristian Ortiz Martínez, a.k.a Crom.

GUEST WEEK: Sahuagin by Chris Cox

The Sahuagin are yet another malevolent race (D&D has a lot of those), this time from deep, deep waters. These fellas are the natural enemies of aquatic elves, and other gentle creatures of the sea. They have bonds with sharks, both by being able to speak with them and by becoming excited by the smell of blood (and going into a rage if its their own blood). Their god is Sekolah, a giant devil shark.

Fortunately for surface dwellers and those who live further up in the ocean, Sahaugin are weak-eyed (especially in sunlight) and water dependant. Unfortunately for those people, they're also mutable creatures. Some sahaugin have an extra set of arms, while others have the appearance of the sea's more benign races. They're ruthless and xenophobic, and while their own society runs relatively smoothly, they believe in the eradication of other races.

Just be careful when you go fishing.

3D models this time! Boy, they's nicely lit. Brought to you by Chris Cox, who's fairly new to the game, but very excited about it.

GUEST WEEK: Forsaken Shell by Tony Comley

Something moves in the corners of your torch light as you enter the room. A piece of fabric? But there's no wind here. It moves again. A bundle of snakes? But it's flesh-coloured and saggy, and as it drags itself closer you see among the twisted skin tangles of boneless fingers and a skull-less human face.

Something for a horror campaign. A Forsaken Shell is an empty skin with imbued unlife, motivated by vengeance. Despite its appearance, it's horribly elastic and agile. Once it gets a horrible flaccid hand on you, it begins to wrap itself around you and squeeze. Perhaps it's some kind of feeble-minded attempt to take over your solid, structured form. In D&D campaign, skin wears you!

And then it kills you and your guts and bones dissolve as you become another awful slithering skin.

Image brought to you by Tony Comley, a director at Sherbet studios. Just lookit how gross this thing is.

GUEST WEEK: Mind Flayer by Antoine Porcheron

Mind Flayers (also known as Illithids) arrived on the world from some unknown place beyond the stars. They live in the stony corrupt darkness, hidden from the light of the surface world. Of the organized creatures to live in the Underdark, these may be the most feared. While most other races simply kill or enslave interlopers, these creatures take it a step further. We're their cattle; we're the second stage of their growth cycle.

Mind Flayer's feed on the brains of their victims, done by boring holes into their skulls using their tentacles. It's partially the solid matter that makes up a brain that they consume, but a good part of their nutrition is made up of the psychic and other mental energy within it. Though they try to cultivate their food using mind control, they find the taste of slave brain unsatisfying (and it's dangerous, since their greatest disaster involved the freedom of the Githzerai and Githyanki, their racial enemies). The brain of a life well-lived and full of knowledge, willpower and excitement is delicious to the Mind Flayer.

The Mind Flayer is also quasi parasitic. That second stage of the growth cycle I mentioned? An Illithid tadpole is taken from the tank of the Elder Brain, and placed inside a facial orifice of some humanoid creture, where it consumed the brain and grows until the physical structure of the host is changed into their final form.

No wonder these guys are a classic D&D monster.

Kicking off this Guest Week with a fabulous ink wash illustration by Antoine Porcheron. Just look at that snazz. Way to make me look bad.