October Monster Roster

I really enjoy campaigns with a small selection of monsters. Luke Gearing wrote about this here. Mark Rosewater of Magic: the Gathering often says "Restrictions breed creativity." At least he used to. I haven't followed Magic in a while. That's the whole intro, I think.

It's October, so I wanted to make a small list of spooky monsters, for dungeons which are creepy and/or wet. These are less new monsters and more re-imaginings of pre-existing ones. Here they are:

Deathless Legion

1 Hit Die, AC as Chain.

Desiccated corpses with pale grey flesh, clad in ancient armour. Very tactical and coordinated, communicating to one-another through battle-sign. Make no noise, but their armour clinks and sheds rust particles, which can give them away.

  • Armour is either bronze rusted blue-green, or iron rusted deep orange, depending on the era of the corpse.
  • Each legionnaire has a gold coin under it's dried, black tongue.

Malice Hounds

1 Hit Die, AC as Leather.

Twisted, lanky hounds with short, mangy hair. Skin the colour of a bruise. Bladed protrusions from their lower legs and around the jaw drip with pus.

  • Incredible sense of smell. Can quickly track down intruders within the dungeon.

Urumi Cockatrice

3 Hit Dice, AC as Plate. Foes struck must save or calcify.

A rooster made of knives. Serpentine head with a brilliant red crown. Known to hide, then emerge triumphantly, engulfing victims in a cacophony of bladed feathers, dripping with venom. Hunt prey in packs on the lower levels, like little bastard velociraptors.

Kill-o-pede

3+1 Hit Dice, AC as Leather. Bite causes save vs. paralysis.

Centipedes, up to 6' in length. Burrow into paralyzed bodies, or enter through the mouth, laying their eggs in the rib cage, where they incubate in the warmth of the living flesh. Sometimes victims will survive this, wandering dazed around the dungeon until the children violently emerge.

Mocking Beast

4+1 Hit Dice, AC as Leather. Can mimic almost any sound.

Face like a bloated, ugly dolphin. Body like a smooth, fleshy spider. Mimics sounds to lure in prey. Cries like a baby, then laughs when it tricks you.

Night-Gaunts

6+1 Hit Dice, AC as Leather. Wield iron bidents, coiled like rebar.

The angels of the abyss. Taller then any man. Lanky, smooth grey whale-flesh. Faceless. Can unfurl bat wings and fly.

Saint Ophelia, the Drowned

8 Hit Dice, AC as Plate. Wields a flail.

Burnished black armour, pallid flesh. The ceiling of the dungeon drips like a wound, and then She emerges from the stone.

At full height, she would stand nine feet tall. She crawls, dragging her bloated body. Surprisingly swift in combat.

***

Thanks for reading! If I was planning to use these for an actual project, I would probably add a couple more, though not too many. I really like the idea of a dungeon that's limited to like 8 or so reoccurring monsters + some unique ones.

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