Planejammer Forever! – Creatures of the Planes

A Book of Monsters? A good choice!  Zam’dul is happy to bestow such a tome upon you.  The cost is effective too, for you invest in knowledge!  Even with such knowledge, be quite careful.  The planes themselves are very unforgiving and care not for visitors. – Zam’dul, planar merchant.

As you might have guessed, I love the multiverse created by AD&D 2nd Edition and tend to have a bias in favor of it in some capacity.  By all means, you are correct….  Not that there’s anything wrong with my favoritism, of course!  Anyway, I wanted to convert over a few more creatures featured in Spelljammer and Planescape before I hop over to other things.  That said, there are a fair number of D&D-adjacent things outside of both of those settings that would be fun to tackle.  So, I’ll probably consider some of that too.

In the meantime, I wanted to bring back some other favorite creatures of mine.  As always a healthy mix of aberrations, constructs, undead and the like.  Don’t worry, no fiends this time.

Author’s Note: I’ve covered the whole Planar theme for a while.  I might do a few more things before I switch gears.  Personally, I’m feeling a return to either Gothic or something else entirely soon.  Who knows?  I certainly don’t!  I just pull ideas either out of my brain or out of my bum and go from there.  If I actually had a plan, I’d probably have a production studio by now…

Highway to Hell – Things of the Lower Planes

I’m on my way to the promised land!

The campaign pushed into the Grey Wastes themselves.  We were readied for countless fiends, all battling in the name of their dastardly causes.  We even were readied to control the sinister magics of the Night Hag.  But, something unexpected and foul caught many by surprise…  Aberrations formed and mutated through necromancy.  Surely, these beasts weren’t native to the plane, but something brought them there.  Something perfected them.  The casualties within my own legions became astronomical, even with pushing the abominations back long enough. –  Lucien, an angel-blooded aasimar paladin, captain of The Indefatigable.

My series of planar monsters continues with a healthy mixture of folklore, pop culture and crazy custom creatures.  This time, a post devoted to horrible things to crawl up from the Lower Planes!  Fiends, hellish constructs, necromantic mind flayers, cursed souls and more!

Author’s Note:  In addition to some more planar threats, I wanted to ramp things up a bit with some more out there experiments.  Also, shout out to Brynvalk for inspiring one of the scariest things I’ve ever heard of.  Also, I’m back to bringing in a fair number of fiends to horrify my mini-bestiaries!  I love making fiends!  Also, pardon the classic rock references.  But, it wouldn’t be my first time.

The Eldritch Unity – Amalgamated Horrors from Powers Beyond

JOIN US!

Unification.  Usually, this concept is seen as a positive.  Coming together for a common cause.  However, not all things use it for the betterment of all life.  Some use it for the betterment of themselves, sometimes to literally propagate themselves; an all out cosmic domination campaign.  For survivors sane enough to resist its curse, they will recant tales of an entity more than capable of unraveling all reality… and rebuilding it in a gruesome image.

Despite hailing from some alien dimension, accessed through planar loopholes and demiplanes, this entity is not driven by chaos or randomness, as we might assume.  Scholars believe that this thing has taken interest in our takes on law, order and of course unity.  However, it strives to perfect it.  To material plane minds, the result is a sickening perversion that inspires madness and revulsion.

Author’s Note: The culmination of all sorts of cosmic and body horror.  Here are a few powerful creatures that could make for some truly horrifying end game baddies, short of an elder god itself.  Mix a little Dark Souls, Halo, Innistrad and Warhammer 40K and you have these abominations.  Also, I realized that my homage to Hanweir is quite similar to Kor-Artificer’s.  Great minds think alike, I guess.  Either way, I can certainly say that I’ve created one of he most horrifying things I can imagine.  All for a part of the Unity!

Monsters of Reality – Yes, Even More Planar Creatures!

“Give ya the dark for some good jink! I know tons, lots of things about distant sights and travels. Don’t let the grungy look dissuade you, I know all about the realms beyond the cage!” – Lanky, Ultroloth-blooded Tiefling Rogue/Planar Fighter, The Hive of Sigil

I’m back at it once more, bringing in some more classic monsters of the Planescape Campaign Setting. While Wizards might eventually port all of these over, I thought I’d bring my take here in the meantime. While I’ve made a reference to the current layout, I should note that my take on Planescape looks back to the AD&D take on it, mostly ignoring any newer creations (such as Post-Spellplague Forgotten Realms, new cosmology elements a la Shadowfell and Feywild, newer takes on races like Tieflings and the like) outside of respective settings such as the Nentir Vale. But, I’ve tried to make that apparent as much as possible in previous posts.

Author’s Note: December is Planescape Month, I guess? Why? Because I love Planescape, that’s why! Also, I noticed I haven’t really tackled enough lawful monsters, so here’s some more from planes of law. Plus, I wanted the squeeze in the Hellcat and the Bladeling in last time, but ran out of time. Also, I wanted to convert a creature from the Dungeon Adventure, “Deep Freeze” (again). Enjoy! Happy Crimbo!

It Came From Another World – More Planar Creatures

There are a lot more strange planar creatures where that came from.  In fact, we’ve only just scratched the surface.  From technomagical bioweapons to distant watchers to strange experiments, the planes offers many mysteries.

Author’s Note: Last week had all Planescape stuff…. and this one has a couple that, well, aren’t.  I dunno what prompted me to convert an obscure Pathfinder monster from Reign of Winter adventure path, but it’s in there too.  Likewise, I added a jokey monster my sister came up with.  Enjoy!

The Road (Thankfully) Less Traveled – Terrors on the Road

“Take me home, country roads!”

Just beyond the veil of reality exists an entire bestiary worth of wretched things.  These monsters and entities lie beyond our grasp, waiting for the right moment to strike.  Many of these creatures are quite similar to the everyday and mundane aspects of life we take for granted, while others are incomprehensibly alien.  While in the comfort of our homes, we take much for granted.  But, on the road?  We are much more vulnerable.  The elements, wildlife and even fellow people can prove to be potential hazards.  But, even more troubling is the strange and supernatural sights that we all hope to never encounter…

Author’s Note: If there’s one thing I love in a ghost story, it’s encounters on the road; when you’re traveling, far away from home and quite vulnerable.  And worse yet?  Many of the things stalking you take up the guise of something far from insidious at all.  While some predators will fight head on, others are bit more crafty.  And some?  They’re just quasi-mindless masses of hunger.

Also, special thanks to Ian for helping to create the Haunting Traveler.  I shall inform you on how many people it kills, I promise!

Diseases and Plagues – Sinister Sickness for D&D 5th Edition

EDIT: So, I might clean this up as part of a DM’s Guild post in the near future.  Also, be sure to check out the various creepy creations I’ve made besides this by clicking here.  Please check out my newer content, it’s better!  I assure you!

Journal Entry 183

Illness.  A force capable of wiping out an entire city, if not civilization, if left unchecked.  My superiors theorize that it is the result of the machinations of the lower planes.  I know better though, I’m well aware that life so evil need not come from other planes, but from our prime material.  Sicknesses come from small germ-like creatures, accidentally bred through hosts and environments, but that’s as far as I can gather on my research.  By all means, I’m sure fiends can create their own diseases though… and I shudder at the thought.

That said, I will never rule out an element of the supernatural in plagues.  I’ve witnessed many things while acting as a physician: pustules emitting acidic vapor, coughing fits leading to burning alive, previously rotting and wasting victims returning as the undead, demonic incubation.  The list continues onward.  In fact, some of these cases I plan on covering more in depth, in addition to some new discoveries I’ve made.  I must go back into plagued lands to dive deeper.  However, one can’t venture into these dark depths without proper protection.  As unnerving as it may be to the public, the plague suit has proved quite effective.  Aromatic contents treated with protective wards is helpful enough, after all.  Now, I ready myself for travel throughout the planes, in hopes of understanding disease throughout all realities.

Author’s Note:  My avatar on many of my pages tends to be a plague doctor.  So, what could be more appropriate than analyzing diseases with such a character.  Also, I guess this marks a return to planar and sci-fi content, right?  Plus, one of the things that inspired this was Russet’s Mold and Vegepygmies from Expedition to Barrier Peaks… a module I had previously converted!

Also, be warned!  If you do not like Body Horror or other forms of Medical Horror, I do not recommend continuing.  While I don’t go into grotesque detail, I’ve still tried to capture both to the best of my ability.  And even then, many of the diseases here are quite deadly and have the capability to kill an entire party.  As such, use them sparingly.

Also, please pardon the lateness of this post.  I’ve been under immense stress for the past month and a half.  Things haven’t been going too well for me and I’m doing my best to manage.  That said, things are getting better and I’m trying to make things go back to normal.  As always, thanks for understanding.

Expedition to Barrier Peaks – D&D 5th Edition Conversion (PART 3) – Mutants and Monstrosities

“Two of our party members died, but check out this shiny ray gun!”

“It looked like some sort of badger-like animal, until I noticed the eight legs!  Each of them had barb-like claws attached.  As the creature faced us, its jaws dettached and let out the most horrid of shrieks.  It pounced upon and tore apart the bardic minstrel in moments before we managed to put it down.  What other twisted beasts dwell here?”

-A survivor’s brief encounter with the Aurumvorax

Beyond machines and flora, countless species of fauna populate the strange wreckage.  Whether they’re organic forms from realms unknown or mutated experiments gone horribly wrong, their alien nature and ferocious abilities make them formidable foes to fight off.

Author’s Note: Beyond some easy to convert monsters using the monster manual, here’s a helping of monsters and beasts that roam the downed ship.  Some of these were pretty easy to tackle, considering many of them had been ported over to other systems (beyond the Next playtest) such as Pathfinder.  Stay tuned for my take on pre existing monsters as well as adding new monsters to the ship!