Hack & Slash: Ecology

Showing posts with label Ecology. Show all posts

On the Ecology of the Lammasu and Lamia

"The offer she makes you seems like a good idea, but so does the worm on the hook to a fish" - Aldervile, Neo-Imperian Speaker

Nomenclature: Lammasu, Lamia, Manticores, Nagas, Sphinx, Shedu, Lilith, Empusa

Description: Creatures that have the head of a human and the body of a lion, goat, deer or snake, said to eat children

Things that are known:

Human are their prey
They are intelligent and have powers of illusion
They like to live in arid desolate places
They have the heads and/or torso's of humans, with animal lower bodies
They can see in darkness
They bait and trap men, using them for sex, sport, and supper

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

They aren't evil monsters, just superior beings who view our children as a delicious source of tender veal
Their morality is complex, beyond human understanding. Amashotep's seminal works, Beyond Good and Evil, Also Sprach Lammathustra, Ecce Lammia, and Antilamia address the vast subject
It is a well kept secret that there is no separate species as lamia, it is the curse of all human females one night a month to become one
They are fond of associating with various other half-breeds, such as harpies and centaur. Whether this is due to distant relations or some other reason is unknown
They aren't any special - lions are just super horny and have no problem mating with human females. Lucky to survive, this rape is rarely mentioned. Lots of half-lion monsters though
The gods dream secrets, and these secrets slip into the world. They find a feline form, because those receive and transmit secrets. The forcefulness and power of the secret can sometimes mutate and warp the feline.
Were a mortal to unravel the secrets of the leonine dreams, then immortality, even godhood, may be within reach. Two gods in the pantheon ascended in this way, and a secret order of questers pursues this murderous quest.
They are actually Zensunni post-buddhists, explaining their preference for arid, dune-filled environments

Art Adams

They keep dustworms as pets, from which they harvest mysture, a substance used to make lions and snakes grow human-like faces and intellects.
All lions are inherently evil. They lust after human flesh, and when they consume enough, they become a monster. Manticores come from the flesh of old men, young women produce lamias. Kings produce Sphinxes.
They are a species that breeds true, and they suffer no defects from incest. The meaning of this is uncertain
Demons don't just tempt men, sometimes noble lions fall prey, and the demonic corruption causes this horrific change
The Lamia-kind are neither good, nor evil, being beyond such matters. Some follow chaos and others law. Mortals try to ascribe morality to their actions, but they are simply angelic messengers of the balance, disinterested in the fate of men
A lamassotto is an underdark version of a lammassu
That Which Prowls stalks the trade routes, and celebrates melding the creatures of the wasteland and the humans who trespass into it. Some of the survivors swear loyalty to That Which Prowls and assist in playing out the long, incomprehensible, sadistic game of cat and mouse with humanity that may end in the elevation or destruction of the world.
They are truly vegetarians and child-like playful beasts. Guarding wastelands and other desolate places, however, poses them as a threat to the Lords of Law. The end result is that they are portrayed as a vicious, bloodthirsty, childnibbling beast.
A male Lamia is called a Lamio. Rare creatures with silvery hides and prodigious. . . manes. The lammassu is a protector of Lamia
The Goddess of Trees was struck ill, and barely managed to escape the battle of the gods, stumbling into civilization. There, she was cared for by the awed and ignorant human savages. She saw their lives up close; the way they turned to meat and away from the energy of the sun and the plants. She saw how they kept cats to eat meat that threatened what they wanted to protect. And, as we all know, the war of the gods caught up to the village and the terrified villagers betrayed the Goddess of Trees to the Master of Forges. Her dying curse was that humanity would become the mice, and their hunters would bear the cruelty of their faces.
They are not half-lion, all of these creatures are simply torsos on swarms of countless insects, each representing the soul of a living creature
Simply another form of an aberration of chaos, like satyrs, centaurs, minotaurs and platypi
The spectacular orgies of the Arch Magus Wyvaria tended to focus on reptiles. Lilariasha tended to use shape changing (mercifully) or just gear (best not to think about it) for coupling with spiders. But Vashtoor... he had a thing for lions. There's a reason we've killed all the wizards we could catch.
The Kingdom of Farragut does a spectacular trade in lamia sized slippers. They are fascinated by wearing soft, woolen booties while at home
Their internal organs are suffused with magic - their guts can be used to make magical bowstrings +2 of distance and deceit
They are not actually lion-headed creatures. They are Penanggalan, which many people believe are vampires but are actually a type of sky demon. If they feast on the flesh of men, a body eventually grows to support them. This body if feline. If they feast on other creatures, they become other creatures. Horses and steeds become centaur, felines and cats become Manticores, etc.
Lamias have no digestive systems, in fact their bodies are purely mechanical support systems for their heads. Their heads are the last remnants of an ancient empire that depended on machinery for survival. They were cursed by the gods for the misuse of their physical bodies and now suffer, eternally
Lamias and Lammasu can remove their own eyes. When they do so, they loudly utter prophecies. No one knows the accuracy of these prophecies, it's hard to listen after you've just seen something rip out its own eyes
They are difficult to perceive and viewing such creatures is difficult on the mind, draining sanity or wisdom
No matter their form, they detest combat. Much better through spell, word, or deed to have lower forms do their fighting for them
Each is violent and aggressive because when they tear themselves into existence a dark shadow is created at the same time. This shadow form hunts them to destruction
Each is a different manifestation of a pure emotionally ideal, Lammasu's are intelligence, Lamia's jealousy, Manticores are anger, etc.
All of these are in fact guardians of thresholds, doorways, and portals. It is impossible to cross one without being within their vision. This is the root of their knowledge and power.
They are all just different lineages of Rakasta bloodlines
It is the name for a female vampire. Their powers of mentalism are so strong, that the only memories are those of a beautiful woman crossed with a deadly predator
They are actually enlightened ascetic beings who have chosen to remain behind in earthly form
House cats were ordered to play nice with humans so that they could serve as a spy network, funneling truth about humans and witness of their deeds to the dark judges that await them. When enough intelligence about humans reaches them, these strange leonines transform in a more human direction, shaped by the nature of the insights the cats send them about what humans really are.
The leonines are assigned by the cosmic to shepherd the human race, but they chose servants of the wrong temperament. They were unable to agree on how best to handle humanity. Those that insisted on control, pushing, and goading humanity to achieve its destiny became male. Those who preferred seduction, trickery, and thinning the herd became female. Their task is a failure and the dissapointment of the cosmic is palpable.
Leonines once ruled the world. Humans could only ascend by wielding chaos magic, and crushing human frailties into the animal perfection of the world's rulers. By forcing human flaw and personality in to permanently shatter the balance of these once-regal beasts, they destroyed their ability to work together.
At the end, the heroes faced Gozer, who insisted they choose the form of their destruction. All Rae could think about was Mr. Mittens, his innocent and wise house cat. Since then, the leonine form of the destroyer has gained in power and aggression in the corners of the world, as a millennial-long agenda of destruction unfolds.
The foundation of the world is not stone, but secrets. The leonine guardians of the world are tasked with protecting it. However, their society is matriarchal. The men dislike their servitude and the discrimination against them. Some slipped out of their enclaves (a man's place is at the hearth) and try to support and encourage the seekers of secrets, the faster to erode the world's underpinnings so they can transcend to the next world. Meanwhile, the ladies seek out the races that are addicted to riddles and puzzles, and finish them off as cruelly as they can--still, they cannot quench the thirst for mystery that humans stole from the cats long, long ago.
The priests of the Rakasta are gifted by their feline goddess with more and more leonine features as they are infused with more and more cosmic and divine energy, eventually becoming immortal. Therefore, when slain, they must contextualize and motivate their existence as they re-exist. They go insane a little, but the better they manage their obsessions, the more lucid they remain.

The ecology series is a crowdsourced series of articles, and contributors can be found on google+ under the hashtag #crowdecology. They are limited posts, but following me on G+ will allow you to see them. All artwork is credited where the artist could be found. Classic ecology articles from Dragon magazine are used both for reference and inspiration; the whole impetus of the idea was to create 'classic' ecology articles that are actually useful. Let's Read the Monster Manual by Noisms is also a source of inspiration.

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On the Ecology of Elementals

"The earth itself stood against us. Fire walked. What can we do against such enormity?" -Cadrene Sergeant Allanso Illon, shortly before his execution.

Nomenclature: Elementals, Mephits, Primordials, Weirds, Furies, atronaches, Daedra, Genie, Reactionals, Eternals

Description: Raw motive elemental energy

Things that are known:

They are made entirely of their elemental material
Except when they are not
When summoned they may turn on their creators
They are immune to their own element and resistant to all but enchanted weapons
They may be kept at bay using magical circles of protections
They do not eat, sleep, or breath; or not at least as we understand it

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

There are core planes. They are Wood, Water, Fire, Metal, and Earth. The para-elemental planes are Flowers, Mirrors, Liquor, and Paper.
That isn't true. The core planes are obviously Earth, Water, Air, Fire, with para-elemental planes of Mud, Dust, Smoke, and Magma, and the quasi-elemental planes of Lightning, Steam, Radiance, Mineral, Vacuum, Salts, Ash, and Dust
The elemental realms are far-off and inhospitable places in the material world
Elementals come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and types, from animal forms to alien dukes, princes and kings.
Elemental spirits can be summoned to bring the elements in question to motive life. They are bound by ancient pacts they long to be free from
Elementals can control the substance of their element. Fire can be cool or many different colors, or it can be solid. Earth can be transparent or liquid.

The elements are suits that extra-dimensional spirits wear
Elements are before us, and remember themselves from that time. It is matter that is enlightened and understands itself
All elementals come from a single contiguous source that touches our plane in different places, but it all comes to our realm from the same place
Fire and Earth are allied. Earth shelters fire and fire allows earth to move
Water and air are allied, creating weather. They only allied in response to the alliance between air and earth
Gnomes are actually the element of earth that has decided to live, walking the earth as wizened stooped things
Salamanders are the form fire takes when it wishes to live
Sylphs are the spirits of wind and Undines are the spirits of water
Air and water were stymied, unable to take form due to how fluid they were. Until they stole dust from the earth and heat from fire and together crafted flesh
Elementals affect your humors, making you sanguine (Air or Blood), choleric (Fire or Yellow Bile), melancholic (Earth, or Black Bile) or phlegmatic (Water or Phlegm)
The 4 planes are integrated in some byzantine complex cycle of renewal linking them all together. Although incomprehensible, it does mean that each elemental plane is not purely made up of only its element
Earthquakes, volcanoes tornadoes and tsunamis are actually powerful elemental creatures that come to the material plane to retrieve what they need to reproduce.
They are aliens from another planet known as elementron. They have visited our planet and taken the form of the elements that they found. Now they battle for an esoteric energy source known as elementergon that only they can understand and use. They only desire to collect it, return to elementron and continue the only thing they care about, their endless war
Aliens from elementron are sometimes known as deceptimentals and autorocks.
Planes overlap. Under certain circumstances, you might find yourself shifted between them
The elements create certain feelings in people. Fire generates all consuming hunger; Water is fatigue, exhaustion and a wearing away; Earth feels like growth, tingling crystalline growth; Air feels like a chaotic place of sound and motion
The elementals personify those characteristics
They are alien and their motivations are impossible to parse
Elemental planes don't exist. Magical energy is invisible and casters clothe them in an elemental to provide functionality. Like a prisim splits light, they take the energy of magic and split out an element
Djinn and efreet are adventurers from elemental planes exploring ours
The planes are the divine cosmic energy, split from the world by the gods. They were expelled in all directions, if the world were healed the prime would again be whole
The elementals are "hired" out to spellcasters, because each elemental on the prime material plane serves as an anchor. If enough of a certain type of elementals existed on the prime, perhaps a single elemental realm could remerge
A single elemental realm re-merging would be a disaster of incalculable proportions
Elementals are actually animus spirits that inhabit all objects
The gods before were slain by trickster demons. The current gods are quite vigilant against their return. To avoid their pogom, the trickster demons split themselves among many small shards at a time, placing a tiny sliver inside an elemental. Every time an elemental is summoned or used a small piece is left behind. The tricksters are smuggling their way into the prime, one small shard at a time
The elementals are physical manifestation of the unraveling in the world
Elementals are the ghosts of dragons
Elementals are the pure creative divine energy of a dead god
Upon death, your soul diffuses into the world. Casters strip out slips of your soul and animate them ahead of schedule
Proto-creatures unable to wait until the world was finished entered it too early. Spell-casters attempt to snatch them up and re-purpose them until the lazy gods finish the leftovers. This may damage the overall pattern.
Elements vary on local culture, based on what people believe the world consists of. They are made of various conflicting groups.

Mutare (Change/Birth/Rebirth)
Continuitas (Tradition/Unlife/Death)
Mentem (Dark/Mind/Knowledge)
Puera (Feminine/Cunning/Beauty)
Lumen (Light/Joy/Physicality)
Vir (Masculine/Directness/Utility)

Elementals are the spirits of men who have died from those elements, suffocation, burning, drowning or being buried
Real elementals take a shape and stick to it, Hellhounds, Djinn, Mephits. Those elementals that wizards summon are just unformed raw material known as hipster elementals, who were raw material before it was cool.
Mages thin the boundary. Firmament, raw creation, enters our realm and lives. This creates both elementals and undead
Elementals are from certain types more frequently because pure sources are easier to draw magic from
Weak mages who thin the boundary indiscriminately create trash, sewer, or blade elementals. Rural sorcerers might conjure ents or shambling mounds.
Necromancers do this intentionally to raise the dead, however few are as skilled as they believe. They downplay the numbers slain by uncontrolled undead.
Strange elementals formed from the space between what is and could-be are sometimes formed, being smarter and more unique then their siblings
Dragons will kill all those who weaken boundaries between worlds
Elementals are the organs of dead gods. Air comes from lungs, stone comes from bone, water comes from blood and fire comes from nerves
Elementals that retain their form eventually grow in sentience
Elemental planes are actually just demi-planes created by creative pseudo-mortal gods who were masters of wizardry What you summon may not be what you expect, a horned snake with bark scales with eyes that beam moonlight or an organic mechanical hybrid that shudders in its movements and bleeds oily black ichor
They have no souls, its soul and body form one singular unit
There are also elemental planes of good and evil, meaning that demons and angles are nothing more then elementals of those planes
This means that there are no fewer than 16 different combinations, good and evil interacting with each plane. (Fire, earth, air, and water; cold, mud, magma and dust; barren, pain, darkness and endings; light, pleasure, fertility and beginnings
Elemental planes are just like material planes but rich in material and magic
Elementals are the foundations of the universe, the building blocks of reality itself
Elementals only exist for what states matter can take. Earth is solid, water liquid, air gas, and fire plasma
Elementals are the constraints on infinity itself. Without elementals home planes belonging to the inner, infinity becomes troublesome, loses definition and you find yourself simply one among uncountable billions of billions
Known alignments are not the only kinds. There are elemental alignments, held by animals and raw elementals

Air alignments travel, leaving when things no longer suit. Herd animals are examples
Earth alignments wait, patiently out-waiting whatever trial assults them. Hibernating animals and animals that trap or ambush their prey are examples
Fire alignments consume, devouring and using all they can reach. Lions and wolves are examples. They are also prone to anger and rage
Water alignments hoard and steal. Rats, crows, and small monkeys are examples of creatures with a water alignment

They have a hankering for currency, but not of the material sort. . .
The plane of air is said to be filled with a Djinn Sultinate, huge airships, and piracy among the floating isles
The plane of earth is filled with slaves who endlessly toil in mines for their masters. These factions are in constant, endless war. In these lawless lands, coin is to be made among old mining towns, forgotten cathedrals, or lawless freeholds
An endless desert filled with sultanates of brass, fire, sand and steel, the plane of fire is a realm filled with obsidian planes, silt seas, and the deadly forces of the sultanate
The undersea city of glass is a mecca in which all that matters in the plane of water transpires. Guilds, factions, whole cities and betrayals lie within its walls
There are archomentals, known as the princes of evil

Cryonax, Ice
Imix, Fire
Ogrémoch, Earth
Olhydra, Water
Yan-C-Bin, Air
Uzrith, Earth
Alyolvoy, Water
Behn-Hadar, Water
Chan, Air
Entemoch, Earth
Sunnis, Earth
Zaaman Rul, Fire
Bwimb, Ooze
Chlimbia, Magma
Ehkahk, Smoke

Extremely powerful wizards can summon swarms of elementals
Some elementals are amalgamates, mixtures of two types a burning tornado, or a freezing earthen beast
In fact, the basic types are only the basic ones in the broadest types. There are actually thousands of different types.

Air: Blizzard, zephyr, storm, south wind, pestilence, fog, howling, gust
Earth: Plains, dirt, desert, mud, graveyard, dungeon, sand, mountain, crystal, metal
Fire: cinder, lava, forge, pyre, tinder, hearth, flare
Water: ice, bog, river, sweetwater, blood, whirlpool, sewer, geyser, bile
Wood: thorn, forest, fungal, rose, gallows, moss, vine, rot

There are four classes of elementals

Lesser (Summoned by Staff): 8HD, AC 2, 1d8 damage
Greater (Summoned by Devices): 12 HD, AC 0, 2d8 damage
True (Summoned by Spells): 16 HD, AC -2, 3d8 damage
Legendary (Summoned by Ritual): 20 HD, AC -4, 4d8 damage

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On the Ecology of the Doppelganger

"But you see, I'm not the Duke of southern Ostland at all." -Last words heard by the knight Fineous, as replayed by the crypt necropticon

Nomenclature: double goer, doppelgänger, etiäinen, vardøger, Ankou, Ka, metamorph, skin-walker, mimic, therianthrope
Description: metamorphs

Things that are known:

They are shapeshifters that infiltrate humanoid societies.
They are bipedal, probably.
They can read minds

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

They derive ecstasy from the emotions of fear and confusion. They thrive on disrupting intimate relationships
They start their lives by taking over tribes of small dumb humanoids, before moving on to larger more complicated power structures
They are humans who receive training from a rare akashic clan. They are trained from birth, given strange potions all in service to their clan. They are the ultimate ninja
Prestige among their races is dictated by the complexity of their schemes. The most powerful of them simultaneously impersonate dozens of separate individuals
Master doppelgangers can emulate any forms: fire, fog, any organic or non-organic substance
There are no doppelgangers. They are actually you, located in another place or time
They dwell in a place called the black lodge, where they are trapped, until released by a demon, or the entrance of a naïve humanoid
They have no shadow or reflection
They are actually born of rare human children, having no race or culture of their own
They are actually elven children switched with human children. There is no such thing as an elf, just a face the doppelganger chooses to show us
In combat, they can change in a dazzling burst, making the opponents uncertain which is the dopple and which is real
Doppelgangers all suffer from amnesia, they don't know who they are or what they are doing. They are just doing what comes instinctually and seems like a good idea at the time
They are actually extraplanar, and are summoned and bound by wizards
That isn't true, the wizards create them like homunculi, and claim they are from the outer plains
They bargain with states and other socio-political entities, asking for strange deliveries and indebting themselves to work as spies for short periods
All rulers of men have been replaced by doppelgangers. They live among us
They have a compulsion to impersonate and believe they are who they impersonate. They will become hostile and kill anyone who attempts to make them confront their delusion
No doppelganger ever dies. When killed their consciousness is reborn in a new body
They can't actually survive in civilization for very long because they are just too alien. They lose their forms both mentally and physically
They detest others of their own kind
Doppelgangers are actually very timid creatures having no sense of worth, believing themselves to be a non-entity. They take other forms in a desperate attempt to please others and escape their emotional turmoil
A long time ago, they made an ancient pact with an otherworldly intelligence. They serve this great outer power in exchange for their abilities
Doppelgangers may come from any place at any time. They all exist as transient, detached, driftwood through the corridors of time
The outer intelligence that controls them stores all their souls in an ever changing box
Doppelgangers are actually magical plants created by wizards. They grow in pods that hang from vines where they ripen like fruit
They are social parasites, stealing identities to give themselves purpose and meaning
Doppelgangers gain more pleasure from mental pursuits then physical ones
Doppelgangers view humanoids with contempt, seeing them as agressive and egocentric creatures who will never truly know each other
They are stunted elemental creatures. They steal forms and identities to experience life. In their own form the world is grey and lifeless
Doppelgangers follow certain people, watching their thoughts like television. They get caught up in their lives and make sure to follow all their favorite characters
Shapeshifting is their religion and they will ascend once they have assumed every perfect shape
Doppelgangers often live in the wilds as animals
They all live in a great link, a giant pool where they all exist together in liquid form
They can only hold their shape for 18 hours before they must revert to liquid form
Doppelgangers are mentally unstable. They quickly adopt any odd habits or beliefs picked up by anyone they contact, which then quickly spread back to their conclave
In fact, doppelgangers that infiltrate non-doppelganger society for a long time eventually adopt the culture and mannerisms of the locals, they forget they're a doppelganger. They either are the subject of a raid from a doppelganger clan or have an emotional breakdown when they discover they are a monster
Some of these doppelgangers see the mental instability as a mirror to their physical malleability. They isolate living aesthetic lives trying to quell their inner turmoil by rejecting their ability to shape shift
What is beauty to the formless? They only find beauty in their own form, when they are isolated from all other races. They wear their disguises with disgust. With no home to go to, they have to wander, disgusted by their forms, terrified by exposure
When they mate with each other, they produce a doppelganger. When they mate with humans they produce changelings
They are thought forms made from concentrated hate and frustrated desires of one or more people, and aimed at an individual which is an object of loathing, fear, unrequited lust or one that you wish to subjugate
They are the double of this person in particular (or more rarely a tribe, corporation, or idea), the master of its face. It is created with the sole purpose of destroying, humiliating, or replacing that master
But the doppelganger is filled with complexity and incoherence. It creates a double that is self-directed and strongly willed. It borrows features from its hate-donors, shifting faces freely on the way to meeting its master. It pursues its own bizarre agendas as long as they don't conflict with the inevitable showdown
Once the master is destroyed and its mission complete? The funny thing about hate and lust and loathing is that they don't just disappear. It is now free to explore the meaning of its existence. Very often, it seeks out those who created it, its wrathful parents
They are actually from elsewhere, visiting humanoids and capturing them for study
Doppelgangers are like honeybees, led by a queen. The personality of the hive is based on the personalities the queen has copied
They were originally humans, modified by wizards to be concubines and spies. At some point, the goose got away from the gander
Doppelgangers are actually an advanced ooze that has recently picked itself up and left the dungeon. They just can't seem to maintain their humanoid form, so they borrow it from others to prevent returning to an ooze like state
This has caused a rift in doppelganger society, some wish to pursue a hedonistic lifestyle, while others become morose and philosophical, becoming violent and loving to inflict pain on those weaker then themselves
They are a strongly secretly religious culture. They perform rituals in private to help remind them of who they truly are
They are not just men. Werewolves, mimics, trappers, cloakers, all are doppelgangers in different stages of their life cycle
They stole the source of true names and fled where only the damned go. They have returned, paying another price; their own visage. They imprinted the book on each of their souls, allowing them to take any form. You may have them do a task for you, but you must give your name to the book, allowing them the right to use your own face
They are violently territorial sociopaths. They do not experience guilt or remorse. They are driven to succeed and control everything, driven by their utter solitude
Doppelgangers don't burn
They pool them memories in clansmen who become memory wells
These memory wells allow doppelgangers to take on the skills and knowledge of those people's minds contained within
When unconscious they revert back to their natural form
Certain elder doppelgangers can consume the brain of a creature, gaining access to the memories and personality of the victim
Doppelgangers believe that the world and everything in it is alive and all existence is a competition, a test of physical and mental superiority
They are failed alchemical creations, the detritus of attempts to create artificial life
Their origin is human, undeniably. Altered by magic, alchemy, or surgery in some bizarre fashion
Blood from a doppelganger exhibits life-like traits. It ripples and avoids hazards, oozing away from them
Doppelgangers eventually replace every building, person, and object in a city with one of their kind
They do not sweat or produce other skin excretions
They are the liquid sea-formed soldiers of chaos, walking among the stone of the land to destroy law and all its stable forms. That war never ended
They often collect rubbish. Small rocks, bits of string, screws, pieces of metal
Their natural skin appears greasy, but is actually dry to the touch and feels leathery
Doppelgangers are able to alter their voice to reproduce any sound
They are immune to charm and their ability to detect thoughts operates constantly
After death, their natural form quickly petrifies
They evolved in a dungeon environment to take advantage of large groups of unorganized men. A party with more hirelings then it can keep its eye on at once is particularly prone to a doppelganger infestation
They lust and desire the wealth of humans, wealth they are unable or unwilling to create themselves
They can only reproduce with the aid of humans and leave their children among human children as the cuckoo does
Part of their superiority in combat comes from their mental abilities. Against opponents with protected minds (psionics, etc.) they are considered to have a much lower armor class and fight much worse, hitting much less often and doing reduced damage
They do not sleep
They form their clothing and weapons from their own mass
They are the stuff of life that first came forth, protean and ever-shifting. Originally it took on the many varied forms, learning to be born, hold a shape, and die. Now it has appeared again, perhaps to herald the end of the race of men
Doppelganger society if founded on honesty and truth, being unable to lie to each other
Doppelgangers actually avoid each other because they are the only race they can't read, leading to severe distrust
When they age, the take the form of large structures, forest glens, or other giant permanent structures and become powerful psionic beacons containing repositories of memories
This large structure then will birth new doppelgangers
They respond to their targets, always displaying what each expects to see
They are each born without a face of their own. They either break off and worship their own lack of identity, or as is more often the case, just steal one
They are creatures without a conscious. They just kill and replace people on a whim, not from malice, but simply from habit and temperament
Their natural form is non-viable. They must change form to breed
The doppelganger isn't a separate creature, but your own dark side, released. It kills your mind, in a very real sense taking over your body and becoming the evil that lurks inside you manifest
Doppelgangers exist only as a curse. They do and accomplish what the original desires, yet cannot accomplish himself
They are creatures of balance. When a creature, perhaps descended from the divine, drifts from its nature, a doppelganger appears and reasserts the balance by their actions. This always ends in misery and the balancing creature can only be killed by destroying the original creature
A religious order is the source of all doppelgangers. Once sought, the god curses the joiner. They must seek out, defeat, and re-assimilate the doppelganger to be inducted. Often they die or fail. Once a great many had, they bound together and brought down the order that created them. They now seek to bring down the god himself
They are robotic killers from the future to kill those who will disadvantage their creator
They are servants of the gods who kill those who interfere with worship and their god's divine supremacy
They are dreams that survive their dreamer's death

Thus it appeared, I say, but it was not. It was my antagonist - it was Wilson, who then stood before me in the agonies of his dissolution. His mask and cloak lay, where he had thrown then, upon the floor. Not a thread in all his raiment - not a line in all the marked and singular lineaments of his face which was not, even in the most absolute identity, mine own!- Edgar Allan Poe, “William Wilson”

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On the Ecology of the Cockatrice

"Those are stone hens up in that den. You'll be a work of art coming out." -Ophid, Country rustic

Nomenclature: Cockatrice, Stone Hen, Rockbird, Cocatris, Calcatrix, Ichneumon, Basilicok, Basilikos, Cocatriz, Velchukruk ("lil peckers" in Stone Giant), Skoffin

Description: Advanced reptillian arcane hen

Things that are known:

Their gaze or touch can petrify people, even after death
They can fly short distances
It is immune to poison
A cockatrice has the head and body of a rooster, bat wings, and the long tail of a lizard.
A male has wattles and a comb like a rooster
The much rarer female appear the same, lacking wattles and a comb only
It has red or black eyes
It is about the size of a goose or turkey
They lay eggs

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

A cockatrice is actually a dragon, possibly born from a dragon mating with something other than a pure dragon
Once it has caught the sent of prey, it can unerringly track
Any toad or snake incubating an cock egg will produce a cockatrice
The weasel is immune to their petrifaction

The sound of a roosters crow will kill a cockatrice dead.
A mirror will not stone a cockatrice, but they will violently attack the reflection (or any other live cockatrice) until dead or exhausted
Its hiss can route all serpents, reptiles, and vipers
It doesn't actually petrify, but withers plants, scotches grass, and bursts stone from heat and its deadly breath
Its blood is poison that spreads when struck, up the weapon into the body of the person holding it
The bite doesn't kill, but passes on hydrophobia to the victim.
They are impossible to kill by stabbing. Perhaps this is due to poison or perhaps their skin is resistance to piercing weapons
The beak and claws of a cockatrice are made of iron
A cockatrice has three tails, not a single snakes tail
It is the mortal enemy of the crocodile
They are filthy, stupid, and vicious animals
If in a city, they can kill many with their poison breath. A cockatrice that has done so, can only be ousted with the power of the gods
The cockatrice doesn't actually turn anyone or thing into stone. It has venom that causes calcium to multiply and crystallize, replacing flesh. The stoning that results from this causes a porous appearance versus the statue-like look caused by a medusa or gogon. It is this calcium that they eat
The crowing of a cockatrice will curdle the milk inside a cow
A pregnant sow will birth deaf piglets if exposed to the crow of a cockatrice
The feathers are quite magical, and useful for arrows, quills, bu they must be used quickly
The cockatrice is actually a passive grazing animal and not a predator at all. Their deadly gaze is for insects, not man
A cockatrice grinds the stone it eats using hard diamonds stored in its stomach.
Sometimes called the "excuse bird" it is often credited with ills it did not cause. They have never been known to eat homework or cause a late snow or poor harvest
This name offends them and they retreat into their study of geology, hiding in caves
Cockatrices are actually very wise and know many profound and secret thoughts of the origin of things, learned from the earth itself
They often correspond with wizards under the guise of being a geothaumatologist or ignohistorian. They pay for their research by providing the locations of gems and raw magic.
These locations are the subject of many treasure maps
They are not natural creatures, they are created from a rooster of superior chickens and a still living snake plucked from the head of a medusa
They don't actually consume stone, but eat it in order to help them digest food. They don't eat rocks like a reasonable animal because they have very tiny brains
It is actually a being of extra-dimensional origin. It is a normal hunter and scavenger on its home plane, but on ours it is deadly. It has a envenomed beak and its feathers contain toxic material. It petrifies organic matter, leaving behind crystallized salts
Cockatrices are quite fecund, but poisoned easily by toxins in this planar environment Those that survive all learned to bury their crystalline eggs underground
They have a particular vulnerability to strong acids, sonic vibrations and metal poisoning
It has a strong affinity for natural forces
Cocksatroises was once widely accepted as the plural of cockatrice, now there is debate that it refers to an intelligent breed of cockatrice whose eggs were incubated by tortoises
Victims do not turn to stone, but are nearly instantaneously fossilized. The tap from the beak pulls the victim out of sync with its time frame, stealing all the motion from the targets life. This motion is lost to the universe, funneled into another somehow

The result of this is every time a victim is refleshed and recovered, that is stealing energy from another dimension. Do that enough and you might be noticed
They are used to herd stone giant children and keep them safe
They were designed by the wizard Vora Elgath, a wizard and friend of the stone giants who found them peaceful company
A cockatrice is not a separate creature, but is in actuality an infected chicken This mutated form can only survive on venom, kept on hand by their stone giant keepers
They are actually the cursed offspring of Ur Kardar, a dragon foolish enough to attack a god. He lost and his eggs were all turned to chicken eggs. A trickster god coaxed the dragonish to the surface by changing how they hatched, becoming his favorite assassins
That trickster god's clerics can attune to the cockatrice and command its actions; possessing it for a time and petrifying their foes
The flesh of a cockatrice is quite delicious

They are vain, bullying creatures and constantly battle for status among themselves
Females lay 1 to 2 eggs a month at the waxing of the moon. The eggs are brownish-red, flecked with rust-red speckles and have hard brittle shells. They hatch in 11-19 days.
They love to line their nests with shiny sparkly items. The more shiny their nest, the higher the status among cockatrices
Cockatrice have the option of petrifying, it does not automatically petrify by touch.
The feathers of a cockatrice can turn creatures to stone for a long time after their removal or the death of the cockatrice
The females keep a harem of males and kick their young out at six weeks
They are the damned combination of a basilisk and its mortal enemy, the rooster.
They grow a crowstone inside their vestigial gizzards ranging in size from a grain of sand to marble size. This cloudy colorless gem is a potent cure for poisons and venom Swallowing the rank tasting stone is the most effective application. The larger the crowstone the more effective it will be
Cockatrice feathers are useful as magical quills because of their durability against caustic substances
Cockatrice do not always turn you to stone. Some turn you to gold, disintegrate you, liquefy your bones, or turn you into a thrall. Some change your alignment, or polymorph you
Cockatrice flesh is a delicacy
The saliva of a cockatrice can turn stone back to flesh

Variations

Pyrolisk is a cockatrice that causes opponents to burst into flame

Cyrolisk is a cockatrice that freezes opponents solid

Aqualisk is an aquatic cockatrice that eats coral and breaths water

Perfidalisk is a cockatrice that causes wounds that do not heal

Regalisk is cockatrice the size of an elephant

Bicockatrice, a cockatrice with two heads

Somnolisk causes a deathless sleep

Miasmalisk breaths a killer venom that spreads out like a fog

On Ecology, Cyclops

"It's not an eye, it's a time-sphincter" -Olabuk, mad mage

Nomenclature: One Eye, Cyclops, Logos-bound, Tartaro, Siklops, psyclops, Kyklopes or Kuklopes

Description: Giant men with a singular eye

Things that are known:

Giants that have one eye

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

Their primary food source is man
They forge bolts of lightning
They act as host to annelids, until their lifecycle advances enough to be able to feed from humans. At this point, the cyclops discharges them through their eye into unwilling human hosts
Cyclopes have vestigial eye sockets with their eye in the center of their head. This is because in order to become a cyclops, one must remove their eyes
Cyclopes have white marble orbs in place of eyes. These are quite valuable and stealing one from a living cyclops is a feat of great daring
The eye of the cyclops is unique in that it isn't covered by a lid. It rests as a sphere in the center of the forehead, hence the meaning of the name 'round-eye'
Cyclops are excellent engineers, working and constructing factories which produce tekno-steam marvels. They name themselves after elements and machines: bright, thundering, forge, etc.
They build extremely sturdy walls alternating stacking bricks to produce solid, impenetrable barriers. This brick stacking method is known as cyclopean
Their creativity spills over into agricultural areas, cyclopes being the first beings to develop agriculture. Legend says that every time they taught it to men, the men slew them
Cyclops can control the weather causing winds to bring them ships and dash them against rocks below to feast on the human corpses
Cyclops are noted teetotalers, becoming enraged at the thought of drunkards or dipsomaniacs
Cyclops cleanse their lands of all other life, having firm and immutable borders that they defend vigorously
Cyclopes are, at best, as intelligent as a well-behaved dog
The single eye grants all cyclopes great mental powers, not the least of which is prognostication, allowing them to see and change the future.
The cyclops is no man-like creature, but instead manifests as a stormy sky, and when approached, it reveals a malign milky sphere, a great eye; to witness the destruction it brings
Cyclops are bound by sorceries of the Pythagoreans, doomed to live 216 years backwards

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On the Ecology of the Yeti

Daniel R. Horne

"She had those damned crazy eyes. I don't got nothin' else to say about her or any of 'em." - Zauzikhoo Khalimas

Nomenclature: Yeti, Frost monkey, Ice ape, White death, Hunters, Snow Giants, Abominable snowmen, The horror that walks the mountain

Description: A white, furred, giant, ape-like creature

Things that are known:

They live in cold, arctic, climes
Their gaze leaves men not what they once were

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

Some things are lost in the mountains what a man does what he must to survive. Many will not pay that cost, and they freeze to death. Those that do are transformed in both shape and spirit, possessing only rage and pure madness.
The emotions of a Yeti are so strong that they are contagious. Meeting their gaze is glimpsing the deepest, obfuscated, recesses of your soul. Apart from the terror, it causes your human nature to traumatically rebel against your animal flesh.
The fear that results from gazing into a Yeti's eyes, is the realization that each yeti is in fact their far future selves, returned and sent to slay themselves before the horror of their transformation into the yeti occurs. Sadly, this does not cause the yeti to cease to exist.
Yeti fur is actually a wiry red-orange, yet invisible in the snow. Nearby tribes will often have colors considered strange by foreigners. However bright orange huts are a sure sign you are in yeti territory.
The urine of a Yeti is thick and viscous and warm. It turns snow into hardened ice, melting it, and the water refreezing in the cold. This is why their are so many deadly slick traps near yeti lairs

When the lost, spiritual, or weak willed die in the mountains, they dream they are a beast, walking the land as a Yeti. If you gaze into the eye of a yeti you can see the dreamer, but also their dream reflection of you in their eyes. This is knowledge forbidden, and those that see it can lose their minds, becoming mad forevermore
Yetis do not have brains. They all worship Ithaqua and Wendigo and madness, chaos, and an icy hear lurk behind their eyes, and it is this you see that drives you mad
Yeti are bailiffs of terrible evils frozen and hidden in the mountains. They try to prevent people from visiting their prisons by yelling, throwing things, and scaring people away, but no one ever listens
The yeti and the abominable snowman are two sides of the same species. During interglacial periods, men turn into yeti. Except in rare peaks, where the torturous elements conspire to create and awaken an abomination. When the winter comes and the cold descends, the yeti are subject to this cold and become abominations themselves.
Yeti, although as intelligent as a normal man, able to speak and reason and act as any creature can, is touched by the fae realms and lives only in the moment, unthinking of the future or the past
They yeti are not as intelligent as their abominable snowmen cousins, and have none of their psychic powers, save one. Their blue, blue, paralyzing eyes are the only psionic power they possess
The yeti is adapt at swimming in arctic waters, and dives deep feeding off the plankton filtered through it's fur
Yeti are not creatures. They are the parasitic spawn of the elder kind who sleep beyond the universe, burning with the fire of infinite darkness. Their eyes are portals to their masters, and to look upon them is to lose ones self. Those who die from this gaze are drawn through the portal to suffer eternally at the hand of the darkness in the universe
The glare in the eye of the yeti is lust. The hugs are a prelude to something horrible and it is that thought that drives men mad
Yeti are 4 feet tall, and very angry for short people
Yeti are not of average intelligence. They are hyper-intelligent, smarter than any other living creature. They act like beasts, because they take the minimum effort to survive, maximizing every ounce of brainpower on greater cosmic mysteries. They care for no other creatures, and not even themselves, convinced this world is just an illusion attempting to distract them from greater cosmic mysteries. It is this - this otherworldly intelligence far beyond that of mortals or even gods, that is seen when one gazes into their eyes.
Yeti don't naturally live in frozen wastes. Their life their is a choice to separate themselves from worldly things.
A yeti is winter manifest. It is the cold embrace of winter. Those that fear the frozen cold are frightened of its spirit, and the cold chills of fear grant the yeti power over them
Yeti theater is melodramatic and wildly sentimental. It features long, tragic, repetitive musical interludes which are absolutely not songs and which are never woven into the narrative

Yeti shamans make a trade, they lose a portion of their boundless fury in exchange for an understanding of the spirits. Their 'damned crazy eyes' only deal 3-18 damage and they can cast Faerie Fire, Speak with Dead, and Preserve Manflesh once per day each.
Yeti are thoughts of a peculiar intensity, wandering the mountains high. They are hallucinations brought on by oxygen deprivation. Possibly they are the self, cast out by the mind and made flesh

If the character looks into the yeti's eyes, then the full weight and significance of the revelation grips them. It is a calling and a geas. Save versus spells or get another class at level 1. Roll 3d6:
3: Barbarian - you have seen the wild and it is you. No more shoes
4-5: Ranger. You can keep your shoes
6-9: Druid. The wild has shown you things
10-12: Monk. Duh, mountaintop
13-16: Cleric. You must bring the word to the people
17: Thief. But they can't hear it while they're distracted by fripperies
18: Yeti. You can't come down from the mountain until you've passed the vastation on to someone else
What the nature of the revelation is left to the Dungeon Master and player to disscuss, but it must be heretical, troublesome, and right

Yeti are beasts that only live during the ages of ice. They estevate for millenia, frozen in glaciers, polar caps, far beneath the ice. They wait for the intense hot period that occurs briefly before the ice age starts

When the yeti come down the mountain, things are about to get much worse

Yeti are fire spirits, trapped in cold places lest they set fire to the earth and sky. Their fur is sooty smoke or pale mist. "Eyes" are holes in the smoky covering, through which primal fire, maddening to mortals, projects

Yeti is a pasta shape associated with the cannibal tribes of high Dolomites
There are beach yetis, marsh yetis, and perhaps others, each a tyrant of it's own territory

There are rumors of sewer Yetis, but no man has ever seen one

Yetis are bundles of sticks and fur, animated by rage spirits
Yeti have a propensity to rip your arms out of your sockets if they lose in a game
Yetis are the wandering, tortured souls of extinct volcanoes. As such, they are immune to fire, and disintegrate into ash when slain.
Yetis will guide travelers through frozen mountain passes if approached with the gift of a mirror and hairbrush

Perhaps their anger is due only to bad hair days

Yetis have a mortal phobia of mirrors and hairbrushes, blasting out the call of the yeti if confronted with them. The yodel causes all within 100' to save versus magic spells or become forever warped by the haunting trills and falsetto growls of the yeti yodel.
All yeti's are functional hermaphrodites
Yetis are obsessed with salt
Yetis worship Cryonax, their progenitor and evil para-elemental lord of the ice realm. Without this holy worship, they lose powers of ice and cold and are less aggressive.

Some are blessed with tentacles like their lord

Yeti's are the harbingers of snowstorms and blizzards
They are accomplished abstract snow sculptures, focusing on the abstractions of good and evil
Yeti refer to themselves as "Ch'rrawr'grrah'hwtech", which in the yeti tongue roughly translates to "the true folk".
Yeti are self-absorbed liars.

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On the Ecology of the Chimera

"A disease of the mind, perhaps a bit of indigestion. A fancy for fools" -Ilx, Naif Merchant

Nomenclature: Chimera, Triaeon, Dewmist,

Description: A rumor of an imaginary beast, one of the mind

Things that are known:

It has the head, mane and legs of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

A mountain in the ancient land of Lycia had a volcano at the peak which nourished lions, a pasture on its cliffs that is attractive to goats, and the wild grasses and rocks at the bottom were infested with serpents. From this mountain comes all Chimera
Chimera are especially vulnerable to arrows unable to avoid any launched from the air.
Sometimes black dark magics merging the flesh of life produce a horrible heresy which manifests as a terrible beast, who's only weakness is time. This is the Chimera
The wise Yang Chu tells us that there are four chimera that prevent the soul from rest: Age, Rank, Reputation, Riches. Those possessed by these desires are followed by the four Chimera. The Chimera of life to death brings ghosts, the Chimera of power and rank brings killing men, the Chimera of integrity bringing light and fire, and the Chimera of wealth bringing chains and punishment
Chimera are the manifest creations of the astral. They are star-forms sent into the world to penetrate it, and enlighten and align the world to the order dictated by the stars.
Chimera attack with phantoms and dreams, distorting countenance of creatures, and causing visitation by etheric ghastly visions
A chimera is a substance that is separate and distinct from reality, eternal, and anathema to gods
The Chimera sits at the end of every universe and is either the first or final cause
The Chimera is actually a three legged bird-lizard, the goat and serpent heads are simply effective camouflage to scare away predators.
A chimera is a machine woven with silken spider webs by intelligent spiders that they ride within
Chimeras are a hidden disease, upon slaying a dragon, the corpse bursts open, and from within a lion attacks. When the lion is killed, his corpse in turn bursts open, and in the interior is the demonic chimera. With its suits of flesh ruined, it attacks with frenzied fury
Daydreamers, manifest their creations as Chimera, lugubrious beasts they attack the dreamer for daring to make them manifest
Echidna had nothing left but pieces when she went to forge the chimera
The Chimera is the sister of the hydra, they are two breeds of the same creature
Chimeras are secretly people who have been infected by other variations of itself, turning into creatures much more terrifying then a lion with a snake and goat head
Chimera are serpents with two front legs and a whip like tail
Chimera are all immortal and cannot die from natural causes
The breath of a chimera is so hot that it melts all arrowheads and sets all arrows aflame
All chimera are female
The chimera is just a word unknowing primitive creatures applied to a working forge
The chimera is representative of seasons of growth, harvest, and death
Tales of chimera with goat heads and snake heads are just the ramblings of fools, who mistake the chimeras wings for a goat head, and its lionized tail for a snake
Why would one fear a goat? The lion and the dragon are there to protect and shield the goat head from harm
The chimera is a pale sickly beast, barely able to breath and reliant on the kindness of other creatures for survival

Variants

The winged lion This chimera is a lion with wings, it does not breath fire.

Valuable Resources

All parts of the chimera, bone, teeth, claw, and fur, are useful for illusions and dream magics

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On the Ecology of the Bugbear

"In the dark, in the forest, lies death that stalks man"
-Slive, entrepreneur

Nomenclature: Bugbear, Boogerbear, Bogeyman, Budy, Bugaboo, Bugge, Bogill

Description: Large, stealthy, furred, creature

Things that are known:

They are squat, man-sized or larger creatures covered in fur
They have large greenish eyes with no pupils
They have wedge-shaped ears on their heads
Their hides range in color from light yellow to yellow-brown, and fur from brown to brick red
Their mouths are filled with needle sharp teeth
They have preternatural skills at stealth and observation
They travel alone or in packs
They have an exceptional sense of smell

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

Bugbears will consume food, but they don't need it to live. They actually survive off the emotions of fear or terror
Bugbears record their history in scars on their body
The skin and fur of a bugbear can change color to match their surroundings
That isn't true, their fur absorbs light like a polar bears and where there is little or no light their coloration becomes pitch black
Sometimes after stealing a family member, they leave severed fingers or teeth to be found
Bugbears live in nomadic communities
They collect mementos of their hunts
Bugbear is not actually a specific type of creature, it's actually an elder hobgoblin. Goblins grow into hobgoblins and hobgoblins grow into bugbears
This is especially disturbing considering bugbears have a ravenous appetite and will eat anything nearby. Including goblins
They are known to worship various dark gods: Hruggek the morningstar, of violence and death; Grankhul two open eyes in darkness, of hunting and surprise; and Skiggaret the black claw, god of fear and despair
Some people say that if you get close enough, bugbear eyes do have tiny pinpoint red pupils
Some bugbears in winter regions are said to have blue or white fur
Bugbears have an unnatural ability to use weapons much larger than another creature their size could wield
They are excellent climbers, with an astounding grip. In fact, it is unknown for anyone to ever be able to remove anything from the hands of a bugbear
They are actually humanoids who have been corrupted by their bestial nature. Instead of a werewolf, they struggle constantly against the beast in their monstrous form
This is because they were rejected by god(s) and in revenge they seek to strangle the faithful and civilized
When they stand still and silent, the faintest breeze can cause their fur to rub together, causing a sound like bugs skittering across a floor, hence their name. This is often what people pass the noise off as, until they are surprised by a bugbear
Their fur is actually bugs. Thousands of bugs
Bugbears actually use some sort of pheremone or psionic invisibility that allows them to walk around and right in front of other creatures
It's actually much worse than that. Only clumsy or surprised bugbears are ever seen. The most skilled are so adapt at hiding that they operate freely in human and demi-human society. They adopt a single human to bedevil, continually reminding the human of some petty vexation or minor enemy, until by degrees the human blames that for all their life problems. They then reveal themselves and feed as the human dies from the sight from an apoplectic fit. The bugbear then eats the person and adopts their identity, appearing as a monomaniacal grouchy old man or woman
Elves are immune to this, being whimsical sociopaths. For this same reason they never mention anything about the bugbear to anyone who can't see them
They are at home in the wilds, needing no roof or bed for comfort

They love to construct ambushes, but not from a distance. They want to spring out, choke and smash
Wet bugbears look like wet cats. They are only so imposing because their hair is so poofy
Bugbears are actually a peaceful forest loving race that once really pissed-off a gnomish PR firm
Bugbears are the offspring of goblins raped by ogres and giants. They are born clawing their way out of the goblin mother. They are all evil creatures, because it takes a pretty degenerate giant to screw a goblin
Bugbears are actually ogre corpses animated by the spirits of dead goblins
They actually come from the friction between the underworld and the overworld, spawned by the friction between them. They are tasked with scaring everyone away from the underworld
They will not do anything in combat to save their allies, even though they attack in a coordinated manner. They believe that the strong will survive and those that survive are strong
Though strong, they are lazy. Who better to work for them but slaves?
They are often referred to as having a 'strange gait'. It is true. This is the result of the fact that they have an extra pair of ethereal legs that they use which is the key to their stealth. Watching them move at full speed without making a sound makes them appear to have a very strange gait indeed
Their feet are nothing so supernatural, just plain padded soft underfeet. When they hunt, they do so on all fours like all silent large predators
Bugbears are often misrepresented. They are actually half-insect half-bear and they are quiet because their feet are the silent scurrying feet of insects
That's wrong too. Bugbears actually have giant pumpkins for heads (not pumpkin-shaped heads)
And inside those pumpkin-shaped heads are seeds. . .
The bugbear is actually an insect torso on a bear's lower body, like some twisted centaur
They are the creepy uncles of goblin-kind. All of their kin find them disquieting

Bugbear: These large, hairy, goblin-like humanoids are stealthier than their size would suggest, almost always getting the chance to surprise even alert opponents with a roll of 1-3 on a d6 (50%).

HD 3+1; AC 5[14]; Atk 1 bite (2d4) or weapon (1d8+1); Move 9; Save 14; CL 3; XP 120; Special: Surprise opponents, 50% chance.

License: Monster Compendium 0e OGL

Variants:

Kardan: Bugbears with dark-grey fur that silent as death. They possess the ability to appear as any object, a clock, a stand, anything.
Wikkawak: A local name for the arctic breed of bugbear
Murd: A swamp variety of bugbear. Their redneck cousins are fearful of reptiles and it has the ability to turn into a viscous tar
Stalker: A variety of bugbear that thrives in cities and towns
Koblak: A stillborn bugbear that lives. Their eyes are huge even by bugbear standards and they can see through doors, stone, and earth. They are immortal and undead. They are very resistant to any sort of attack, unless the weapon is coated in fresh grave dirt. Children and men slain by such a beast soon rise again as a malicious spirit

Classic Bugbear Entry

SRD Bugbear Entry

Pathfinder Bugbear Entry

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On the Ecology of the Aboleth

"We give a name to a thing, and the name limits it. There are creatures before names. We are foolish to think they are limited."
-Obadiah, Taurian speaker

Nomenclature: Aboleth, Uobilyth, spawn of Piscathces, Agnathans, Pleco

Description: Aquatic resperating, psionic, fish-people

Things that are known:

They do not display emotion or empathy
They resemble large (20' long and 3 tons or so) rubbery blue green fish possessing only caudal (tail) fins
Their mucus allows air-breathers to extract oxygen from water. It also prevents them from extrating it from the air
It has three slit-like eyes, stacked vertically, each a solid color
It has 2 pairs of tentacles. Two thin ones that are 10' long and resemble a mustache, and 2 broader, flatter tentacles that resemble pectoral fins. Outside of water, they literally use these to drag themselves around.
It has tube-like orifices along it's body that secrete slime
They have powers of illusion and mind, able to trick and dominate other creatures
They are assumed to take slaves, though what is done with living captives is unknown
Their mouth appears as a giant sucker on the outside
From corpses it has been discovered that all Aboleth are hermaphroditic
They can breath both air and water
Their purposes and reasoning are inscrutable even to the hyper-intelligent

Rumors and other whispers in the dark:

Secrecy is of the utmost importance to the Aboleth. It is a biological imperative on the order of breeding in mammals
All written language descends from ancient elder Aboleth glyphs. If an aboleth were to become angry and erase the root glyphs to protect them from lesser minds, then language based on those glyphs would corrospondingly vanish
No one has ever killed an Aboleth ever. Those who claim to have killed one have fallen victim to an illusion
The description we have of an Aboleth is an illusion. To see their true form would drive the viewer mad
All knowledge of encountered Aboleth comes from the weakest members of the tribe, expelled for being too weak to even survive mental interaction with an average Aboleth
They are long lived, the weak living 1,000 years and the oldest perhaps being immortal
What they use slaves for is unknown, some possibilities have been raised from reports

They are used in constructing grand cities
They live on the shore and fight each other endlessly for an unknown purpose
They keep slaves because slaves are for eating. If we weren't meant to be slaves, why would we taste so delicious
Bonding with slaves improves their own abilities. A strong slave makes them stronger
They need mental fields in addition to physical substance which is why they take slaves
Slaves are subject to deranged biological experimentation

They pursue the ancient art of super-science, eschewing magic in all its forms
Aboleth slime is a potent narcotic and they treat their slaves much better then their previous life. This has proven to be a surprise for more than one 'rescuer'
They do not track time by days and nights, for the sun does not penetrate so far beneath the earth. They instead track time by tidal cycles and patterns, a method poorly understood by land creatures
Their power with mental powers and illusion magics stem from not waning hordes of crazed, loving, degenerate drug addicts bothering them. It's a defense mechanism developed to protect them
An Aboleth is selected to be a Ruler, which is in contact with all Aboleth of the city at once. His mind knows what they know and increases in size to match
They are said to be magic resistant
They are worshiped as god-kings by many of the lesser sea creatures like tritons and sahuagin.
Their eyes are actual physical manifestations of a pineal gland that acts as a light-sensor. This is actually where the strength of their psionic powers comes from
They do not come from a single world, but instead raid many worlds across all dimensions. This means that there is only one Aboleth culture
The Aboleth are able to inscribe Glyphs that contain eldritch energies.
The Aboleth were the first creatures that existed from all else. They know this because every Aboleth remembers it
They exude their toxic slime via both their tentacles and their large abdominal tubes
They are not actually creatures, but simply biological robots doing the bidding of a secret oceanic society
They aren't simply biological robots, but an out of control weapon granted to a foolish race bargaining with the Crossroad God of Unsatisfying Bargains. Once they received their psionic, mind-controlling, amphibious, armored, magical bio-weapon, they couldn't control it, leading to their own demise
Greed actually is the source of their creation. The desire for wealth, capitalism itself, is not just an idea. Societies that used capitalism discovered it had actual physical form. Once a society accepts capitalism, Aboleths became freed from their cage on the Platonic Plane of Ideal Forms
They are actually just tapeworms feeding on the gut we all inhabit. This theory is in general discredit because it comes from the seers of Kashgar, a kingdom far from the sea
They were once human who desired to extend their lives. The enlargement of their organs was the only way to accomplish this and eventually it drove them into the sea. This was long ago and the depths have changed them, made their thoughts and minds grow stranger and stranger, hating the light and land denied them, filled with the desire to eradicate every hint from their past biology.
They are living fossils
Their flesh is prized by dragons
They can easily control anomalocaris and other invertebrates, but the control of vertebrates is more difficult. Chordates have some inborn resistance. They are frustrated at the rise in dominance of vertebrates, because it has reduced the pool of available subjects and size of the invertebrate thrall species.
They are a race of degenerate aesthetes who enslaved people they thought had the ability to make great art
They are followed by skinless men who babble insane poetry. If they speak to you, it drives you mad and you attempt to unscrew your own head
They are immune to death and disease because they can psioncially control bacteria, viruses, and even the cells in their own body
They permanently dominate thralls by absorbing them into their body completely taking over their circulatory fun and birthing them 3 days later with their psyche completely destroyed
Aboleth possess racial memory, back to the earliest member of their race
Aboleth are immortal, and the world they were born to inhabit is no longer the world they exist in, leading to the decline of their dominance
Some Aboleth are amphibious or can fly
They actually evolved from frogs and their jelly has developed from a way to stun prey with goo. Suggesting this to an Aboleth would be a unique way to commit suicide!
Aboleths are actually a small group of leeches that fed from they body of a god. In thanks, they work tirelessly to bring her back to life
Their psionic powers evolved from their ability to control simple fish to protect their lair
Some Aboleth are said to enter a deadly death frenzy near death or have their bite adapted to be used in combat
They are very wary of Illithids, because they have no memory of their existence. One day they simply were when they were not before. This gives Illithids the singular distinction of having the ability to make an Aboleth nervous.
Actually, Aboleth are a dying race. They have created the Illithids with the best they they are to take their place. They are a new vibrant race created from the Aboleth themselves
Neither of those are true, the Aboleth and Illithid meet and immediately fight for superiority
The Illithids are from the end of time, beings created by the Aboleth. Upon discovering that the Illithids are part themselves, they decide that they refuse to be eclipsed. They seek alliances suddenly with other races for this reason, to assist them in the war against the far future
Aboleths are related to the Illithid (Psionic, 4 tenticles, intelligent, slimy skin, underground, Lawful Evil)
The Aboleth are the pregentator of many monsters. Cloakers, mimics and other bizzare creatures under the ground
Aboleth are said to absorb the memories of everyone they eat. This defines their culture
They come from Piscathces, the blood queen. She no longer cares for her creations. The Aboleth possess this knowledge and it liberates them
They were created by a god to protect his tomb while he rested waiting for the surface to wipe itself out. Being good servants, Aboleth have taken steps to make this happen
The Aboleth have been asleep, and are really bothered by this terrible monkey infestation that happened while they were asleep
Aboleth ruled all the world until man created gods. They strive to reconqer the world and will stop at nothing less then the destruction of all gods
They have no religion and such, but exposure to the elder evils causes them to respect their force in daily life

Bolothamogg (Him who watches from beyond the stars): They leave gaps and space in their architecture to respect him. He is also known as Yog-Sothoth
Holashner (Hunger below): They construct protrusions and use the black bile of the world in their construction. He is also known as Shudde M'ell or Tsathoggua
Piscaethces (Blood queen): Red domed windows of red crystal show their respect. She is also known as Cthulhu or Shub-Niggurath
Shothotugg (Eater of Worlds): Pools are added, filled with magical, multi-colored liquids heavier than water. Swirls and vortex patterns adorn the floor. He is also known as Azathoth
Y'chak (The Violet Flame): Pillars of violet flame that burn underwater are created. These are used to pass information between the members of the city. He is also known as Nyarlathotep or Hastur

Aboleth are not actually ancient or long lived. They are only recent creations, the function of hyper-evolution. They are literal living cancer
Icebergs do not drift. They are ice vehicles constructed for the transport of Aboleth cities
Again, they are not immoral. They are in the process of de-evolution and regression. Now they can only walk on the land with difficulty, and each generation is less bright then the one before. They continue to keep slaves because they always have, but no longer grow. It is the last grasp of a society trying to maintain power before they become nothing but simple, albeit delicious, fish
They are actually the creation of all races. Expelling us onto the surface was for the sole purpose of producing a better slave. We "rule" the surface, in the same way a pig "rules" a pen.
They no longer take all their slaves, leaving some in communities to recruit new slaves.
Aboleth Mucus can be kept, stored, and sold as an alchemical grenade

The Aboleth

The Aboleth is a revolting fishlike amphibian, primarily subterranean, roughly the size of a killer whale. It vaguely resembles a catfish, but has four long tentacles and four orifices along its belly. The tentacles can be used to drag its bulk across dry land. These horrid abominations are extremely intelligent: an Aboleth can cast charm monster three times per day, and create a phantasmal force three times per day. In the water, an Aboleth surrounds itself with a cloud of mucus that requires anyone inhaling it to make a saving throw or become unable to breathe air for 3 hours. Finally, the slime on an Aboleth’s tentacles causes disease if a saving throw fails. Those afflicted suffer a change to their skin, which must be immersed in water every hour, or the victim suffers 1d6 points of damage.

Aboleth: HD 9; AC 3 [16]; Atk 4 tentacles (1d6 + slime); Save 6; Move 9 (swim 12); CL 12; XP 2000; Special: Charm monster (3/day), Phantasmal force (3/day), Mucus cloud in water (save or cannot breathe air for 3 hours), special disease upon successful hit (save or must be immersed in water every hour).

License: Monster Compendium 0e OGL

SRD Aboleth Entry, Psionic Version
Pathfinder Aboleth Entry
Classic Aboleth Entry

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