Monday, April 29, 2013

Monsters - The Magician



The Magician


Pick a card, any card, and the Magician will answer your wish. The Magician stands on the street corner, traveling city to city, offering a trick for whatever you’re willing to pay. His tricks come with a price. The Magician looks unassuming, just a lanky fellow with a pot belly standing on the corner with his table of tricks.

He doesn't look scary at all. by Jaydot Sloane



The Magician is represented in the Tarot as a diviner - and divine he does, all of your future. He will flip a card or two and tell you what is to come. If you find that your future is unfavorable, he’ll make an offer. He’ll promise to delay your suffering - a few years, a few months, to give you time to prepare and fulfill all of your wishes. His promises, though, cost your soul.


When your time is up, your suffering will come along tenfold, and if you even survive the Magician will keep hold of your future. The moment your life ends is the moment you belong to him - an agent of bad fortune, an enforcer of bad will. The consequence of delaying your fate is no delayed gratification but his.



Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I'd like to see how they work out.

Today's art is by Jaydot Sloan. Thanks to Jaydot for contributing to the Monsters collection!


THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Monsters - Two-Nosed Hounds



Two-Nosed Hounds


When someone is lost in time and space, there is a need for something more than just a standard search party. There is no greater expert in tracking than a Two-Nosed Hound. The hounds are intelligent beasts, but they are easily distracted, hard to control, and aggressive. They can be captured and domesticated to a degree, but once they have a master, they will trust no one else.


Nocturnal by nature, Two-Nosed Hounds only track at night, and will fight against any urging to do anything in daylight. They are able to find the scent of their targets through dimensions, in the mundane and dream worlds, and even can track people hundreds of years out of time, but their communication of the locations and time are limited to shared telepathic images. Not every species is equipped to withstand the mental strain of telepathic communication, so an untrained master of a Two-Nosed Hound may risk a stroke in trying to understand their hound.



Two-Nosed Hounds bounding through dimensional tears. Art by Laura Hamilton.

The hounds have two heads, each with a long snout and a very large nose. Their face is shaped similarly to the mundane Bloodhound. They have very long ears. The beasts are covered in a thick, matted fur. Their fur is resistant to fire, acid, and allows them to survive the most extreme cold, but they are vulnerable to parasites and they have a weak immune system, so they are always at high risk of illness. Two-Nosed Hounds have a howl that echoes beyond the mundane world, and their howl risks drawing attention from monsters in the dream world.



Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I'd like to see how they work out.

Today's art is by Laura Hamilton, finaira on Deviant Art. Thank you to Laura for her donation to the Monsters project! 



THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Monsters - Grabber




Grabber

The world of dreams may be ruled by the Flesh King, but his enforcers and beasts of nightmare are many - and they do not always obey his instruction. One of these beasts is the Grabber. Born of hunger and greed, Grabbers climb up from the grimy muck of perverse cruelty, and live on the sustenance of humanity’s evil.

Grabbers smell, at first, like an overpowering cologne, until they move nearer and it turns to the acrid smell of sweat and rot. Most people are struck with fear or pure revulsion upon seeing the creature scrambling towards them. If a target manages to resist this fear, the Grabbers will become uninterested, and crawl away to find a more frightened meal.

A Grabber about to latch on to it's victim, by Jaydot Sloan.


Grabbers are shaped like a human, but instead of a body, they are a mass of outstretched arms. Each arm has a hand with a gaping mouth in the center of the palm, with small spiny teeth that jut outwards. Grabbers have no difficulty moving on any terrain, and in the world of dreams this is especially valuable. Killing a grabber is very difficult. Once they grab hold of their target, they will not release. They will suck their prey dry of all bodily fluids, the spiny teeth gnawing and shredding through any tissue.




Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I'd like to see how they work out.


Today's art is by Jaydot Sloan. Thank you to Jaydot for this donation to the Monsters project! 








THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Monsters - Dryads



Dryads

A Dryad turning her victim, by Kyrinn S. Eis.

Dryads are creatures of myth, painted by the Greeks as passive beauties of the oak trees. It may be that once, that is how they were. The dryads, with their sisters Meliai of the ash, the Caryatids of apple, the Epimeliad of the walnut, and the hamadryads who sleep in the trees, all protect the earth.


These creatures stand in the earth in the day, and wail when they are cut down and killed by the cruel machines of the modern world. They hold back throughout all of the seasons, but midsummer is when they are freed from their static forms. They step forth, creatures of wood with the slow sap pouring through their veins.

Dryads whisper through their leaves to draw their victims close, almost like Sirens singing, and they do no more than touch the humans who murdered their fellows. Upon the touch, the human is paralyzed, and roots burst forth from their feet, holding them to the ground. Their skin turns to a rough, thick bark, which breaks apart as wood branches tear through their flesh. The Dryads will watch in satisfaction as their victims bones break, and as the blood pouring from them turns to slow, sticky sap. This transformation cannot be stopped, and in the end, the victim is no more than another tree in the forest.

Today's art is by Kyrinn S. Eis, creator of 
. Thank you Kyrinn!



Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I'd like to see how they work out.

Would you like to contribute art for the Monsters collection? Contact me at briesheldon@gmail.com.

Thank you!





THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.