Ecology of fearsome critters: axehandle hound

Fearsome critters are beasts that inhabit the frontier wilderness of fantasyland. While in reality they were tall tales told among American lumberjacks, in fantasyland they are very real.

Ecology of the basilisk and cockatrice, revisited

The basilisk and the cockatrice originate from ancient mythology. D&D depicts them as being a natural part of the fantasy ecology, engaging in foraging and courtship like any other lizard or bird. In this post, I will be exploring their bizarre mythological origins.

Banshees are fairy women of the hills

In folklore the banshee was a fairy woman who attached herself to a long-lived family and foretold whenever a member would die. In D&D, this was mangled: now she is the restless shade of a betrayed elf who goes around killing with her voice; they are also known as "groaning spirits."

Chaos versus Discord, or, why Chaos is not chaotic

My cosmology replaces the traditional alignment system with four allegiances to primeval forces of Chaos, Cosmos, Discord, and Order. (Basically, I just fold neutrality and good into Cosmos because I find it stupid to segregate them.) Chaos and Discord are two separate forces and have a history with one another.

Sources for 5e conversions

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/dicefreaks/kain-s-5e-monstrous-manual-t561.html
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/Syh7y7EHW
http://tomeofhorrors.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/7nfe9n/5e_epic_monster_updates_v9/

The Vallorians

The Vallorians are like a cross between the Drow, Githyanki and the Daelkyr, or maybe the Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars.

Legacy of the Dragons,copyright 2004 Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved
"Playing Vallorians " ©2004 Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.
"Vallorian Living Weapons and Armor" ©2004 Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.
"Vallorian Society and Culture" ©2004 Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.

The living airship ... https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/58480/The-Living-Airship

https://web.archive.org/web/20120308120040/http://www.montecook.com/arch_stuff68.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20120308125107/http://www.montecook.com/arch_stuff69.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20120308112431/http://www.montecook.com/arch_stuff70.html

Revisiting the Lamia

The lamia in the MM is pretty generic. Let's spice it up a bit: my lamia is not limited to the female sex, nor to the body of lions. UPDATED 4/2/2018

In Greek myth the lamia, along with the empusa and mormo, is part of a class of ghosts, vampires and general bogeymen that prey upon unsuspecting victims and tales of which were told to frighten children into behaving. There are at least three lamiae named in the myths, including the famous queen of Libya.

Ecology of Hivers

Grendelspawn, Urban Arcana

Nomenclature: abeil, dromite, formian, grendelspawn, ittakken, kreen, hivebrood, swarm drone, thriae, verminoid
Description: giant intelligent insects with humanoid features that live in massive colonies where every member serves a purpose

The CR's glass ceiling

One of the sillier parts of the D&D rules is that monsters are arbitrarily limited to specific challenge ratings. For example, almost all demons except imps are at least double digit CR, almost all humanoids are single digit CR, etc. I am tossing that out the window. In my cosmology, every family of monsters has representatives at every CR bracket. There are low level demons and mid level demons, mid level and high level goblins, etc. Sure it is a pain to make those statistics myself, but I refuse to be forced to throw in random monsters just to maintain CR parity. Since 5e has that whole bounded accuracy thing borrowed from AD&D, I only need a few entries for low level (1-4), mid level (5-9) and high level (10+). The vast majority of campaigns never reach high level anyway, so high level monsters are kind of pointless.

Life on the elemental planes

I find it easier to keep track of my ideas if I take the time to sit down and write them. As I mentioned in a very old post, I prefer to reimagine the elemental planes as interesting places to visit. They have geography, wildlife and civilizations just like the material plane does.

History of Gorgons, part 1: Topsell's "gorgon"

This shall be the first in a series of articles examining the gorgon and related monsters. In this part, I trace the origin of the gorgon. The gorgon as depicted in the monster manuals owes its origin to Greek mythology, medieval bestiaries, and scribal errors. The specific sources, I believe, are the gorgon Aex, the catoblepas, the bronze bull, and Edward Topsell.

Variations of the American Ice Cannibal, aka Wendigo

The Wendigo monster as portrayed in Fiend Folio 3e and Pathfinder Bestiary 2 actually has almost nothing to do with the Wendigo of Algonquin folklore except for being a cannibal. The part about flying and lacking feet comes from an Algernon Blackwood short story and the horns originate from an illustration in the June 1944 edition of Famous Fantastic Mysteries.

Ecology of the Barnacle Goose Tree

Medieval writers believed in the strangest things. Once upon a time people believed that barnacles grew from trees and hatched into geese. In fantasy land, this is true!