Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: C is for Chilling

[Mangrum]

Blurbs still needed for the letter C (Take II):

Done! Cadaver collector* [Monster Manual III]
Done! Caller in darkness [Expanded Psionics Handbook]
Done! Cerebral symbiont: psionic sinew [Fiend Folio]
Done! Changeling (kin) [Denizens of Dread]
Charnel hound* [Monster Manual III]
Done! Chiang-shi (oriental vampire) [Denizens of Dread]
Cinder swarm [Monster Manual III]
Cloaker, dread, outlander** [Monster Manual]
Done! Cloaker, dread, resplendent [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Cloaker, dread, shadow [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Cloaker, dread, tattered [Denizens of Dread]
Composite walking dead [Van Richten’s Guide to the Walking Dead]
Done! Corpse candle [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Corpse rat swarm [Libris Mortis]
Done! Crawling claw [Monsters of Faerûn]
Crimson death [Monster Manual II]
Crypt chanter [Libris Mortis]
Crypt warden, dread*** [Book of Exalted Deeds]

* In Ravenloft, these originated as Vecna's creations for use on the battlefield. Rare examples may escape/survive the Burning Peaks via the Mists, however, emerging anywhere else.

** The standard MM monster.

*** Ancient dead (deathless), not undead.

And the leftovers from B:

Bat, sentinel bat [RL MC I]
Blackskate [Stormwrack]
Blaspheme [Libris Mortis]
Bog imp [Heroes of Horror]
Bogeyman, Alligator Lenny [Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends ]
Bogeyman, the Bad Thing [DT&DL]
Done! Bogeyman, Monsieur Croquemitaine [DT&DL]
Done! Bogeyman, Madame Croquemitaine [DT&DL]
Done! Bogeyman, the Scissorman [DT&DL]
Done! Boneclaw [Monster Manual III]
Done! Bonedrinker [Monster Manual III]
Bony hands [VRG to the Walking Dead]
Breathdrinker [Monster Manual II]
Done! Broken one [Denizens of Dread]

[Nathan of the FoS]

Carrionette [Denizens of Dread]

No sooner had we laid the unfortunate girl-child on the table than we heard a thumping overhead, as if something fairly heavy had been cast to the floor. "The cat?" Despadon asked. Shrugging, I took up the lantern and went upstairs to look.

There in the hallway lay a child's doll--doubtless the toy of the comatose young girl we had left upstairs. It was a delicate thing, with a cherubic face of white porcelain in a flood of gold hair, so cunning made that the eyes seemed to open and close in the flickering lantern light.

Marietta, from Twelve Tales of the Macabre, Jean Lafolie


Cockatrice [Monster Manual]

Ianna looked in the henhouse and saw there a great fat toad, seated on a strange speckled egg--an egg the size of a goose's, or bigger.

"Granny, Granny," she said, "such a strange nest-mother you have for your little chickens!"

"All my little chickens have such a nest-mother, my sweet," the bean chailleach replied, smiling to show her iron teeth. "It makes them grow strong and fat."

Ianna and the Bad Hen, traditional Tepestani

Animated object [Monster Manual]

I still say it takes a real sick son-of-a-gun of a wizard to kill people with cabinetry.

Attributed to Geddar Ironheart

Barghest [Monster Manual]

"Did silver work?
"No."
"Cold iron?"
"No."
"Gold?"
"No."
"Platinum?"
"We don't have any."
"Wood? Stone?"
"No."

The door shuddered again, and a long vertical crack appeared in it as the wolf-thing flung itself at the door again.

"Do we have something else?"
"Well...no."

From the journal of Matthew Swiftsinger of Skald

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Crawling Apocalypse

"One wonders how such barren earth can harbor a powerful thing so fertile in men's fears. The priests say it is but myth, but I dare say now that I have seen it with my own eyes, perhaps fortunate that I witnessed its emergence from a safe distance. It was after dusk when it heaved from the sands outside the city, a wretched gargantuan mass of onyx bone and tentacle, a terrible nightmare that transcends the boundaries of time. Wreathed in the barrenness of the wastes it let out a cry not unlike a chorus of trumpets. It seemed to fear the setting sun, and fell back into the earthly hell it had come from. Where it receded no hole could be seen--it was as if the earth itself gave succor to its primeval slumber."

-- Gustav diMuelikki, caravan trader of G'Henna

[Jakob]

Carrion crawler

We were dragged by those horrible, dessiccated corpses, to a great room with a circular pit in the middle. The air was full with the smell of death, and I and Silvana started praying aloud for the mercy of our two godesses. Then we saw him.
Tomtadet, the dreaded Tomtadet, was standing there, on the edge of the pit. He laughed at us, dragged in chains before him, and opened his purple silk cape, as if greeting us. He showed us a tattoo on his bare back.
"This, my arch-enemies, is my new tattoo. This tattoo is called "Victory". I think you can guess why I had it made as soon as my servants captured the two of you alive." He laughed again. We could not reply, since a gag was in our mouths, clearly to prevent our spellcasting.

Tomtadet grasped my hair and made me look in the pit. Three aberrations of nature were in there, three monster so horrible I could not even describe them now. They were part centipede, part caterpillar, part snail... With tentacles near mouths filled with pointed teeth... Slithering on the bottom of the pit, slowly but voraciously consuming the body of young Artu, the Rashemani guide that accompanied us in Ramulai.
"These" the desplicable wizard continued "are creations of great magick, granted to me by His Most Great Stupidity Hazlik... A gift for someone who is now his greatest enemy! Hah!" He laughed again, his voice booming in the cellar.
I prayed Hala he didn't suspect our plan...

From "Lord of the Ensonmmark", third and last book from the "Trilogy of the Two Clerics" serie by Sir Julius Renaut (published in Mordent, Richemulot, Dementlieu and Martira Bay. Banned in Borca, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa for heresy and public insult of Divine Lord Hazlik).

[Jakob]

Caller form the Deeps

I was staring at the black night sea from atop the Valiant, [the ship Silvana's father lent to Marco and Silvana to reach Vechor at the end of the first book of the saga] when I saw it. Or rather, I felt it. The sea had become much more dark, so dark that even the stars of that beautiful summer night were no more reflecting on its surface. The sea was so beautiful, that night... It was calling my very soul. I could remember the long swim with my dear Julia at night... The passionate love that followed our night swim, when we still lived in our pacific hut on the Jagged Shore...
The sea was calling me. I could feel it. Julia was somewhere in there, I was sure.
I was about to jump, when Silvana grabbed my cape and dragged my far from the railing. "Wake up, Marco, you cretin!" she yelled at me.
Only then I saw the amorphous blot of ink covering the light of the stars.
Silvana clutched her pendant, showing the symbol of Ezra, and whispered "It seems that, if you don't go to the sea, the sea comes to you..." I said nothing, ashamed, and grabbed my dagger...

From "The Stormy Sea", second book from the "Trilogy of the Two Clerics" serie by Sir Julius Renaut (published in Mordent, Richemulot, Dementlieu and Martira Bay. Banned in Borca, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa for heresy and scabrous contents).

[Jakob]

Animated Object

"That Ezra-damned thief!" screamed Silvana.
The heavy furnishing of her room, where we tried to catch the thief who terrorized Mordentshire, was animating as soon as the man, his face covered by a black scarf, hit it with a magical mallet.
Hadn't it be a tragic situation, I'd be laughing hard, as two pointed riding boot were kicking my fellow cleric in her back. I started to unleash a spell aimed to bind the man, but one of Silvana's nighgowns flew over my head, covering my eyes and preventing me from casting my spell.
"Don't you DARE use your dagger!" Silvana yelled at me, while fending off her old boots' attacks "that nightgown is made of Rokuma silk!"

From "Beginnings", first book from the "Trilogy of the Two Clerics" serie by Sir Julius Renaut (published in Mordent, Richemulot, Dementlieu and Martira Bay. Banned in Borca, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa for heresy and showing living nightgowns).

PS: Guys, this topic is soooooo fun.

[Jakob]

Crypt Cat

The first was Professor deMeran. I found his body in the small hut he used in his staying in Har'Akir. Flies were all over him, feasting in his blood. In his hand, a small golden scarab we found in the tomb, not yet catalogued. His throath was slit by four claws on a small paw.
The second was Ifi, our beautiful guide. She wasted slowly, her wounds festering and sore. Every night, a small claw wounding her some more.
Tonight I'll be the last. May Ezra guide my soul. The feline scream at my window - claws rasping on th

From the last entry of the diary of Doctor McDarmon of Mordentshire, Mordent (naturalized Akiri).

[Nathan of the FoS]

Centipede, monstrous [Monster Manual]

In that very first moment we thought it was a snake; when Geddar had dispatched it, I measured it at three feet from head to tail. Our guide noted it was "just a baby"; when I asked him just how big the centipedes get in that part of the world, he shrugged and spread his arms to their full width, then made a little fillip with his fingers as if to say, "There's really no limit."

At the time I suspected him of pulling my leg.

Unpublished notes on the first expedition to Har'Akir, Rudolph van Richten


Crimson bones [Denizens of Dread]

As Harespex cleaved the second blood-drenched skeleton's head from its shoulders, a fine spray of red droplets coated his hands and arms. The thing fell, but even as it did so Harespex dropped his sword, turning frightened eyes toward me. "The blood," he whispered. "It's burning me, Mac Laren."

Bertram Mac Laren, Sixty Nights in Tepest


Crab, monstrous [Stormwrack]

7.10.738 Caught and killed crab today, feast for all hands. At one time we mt. have scrupled to eat a creat. wh. had made itself fat on dead men's flesh (inc. pr Bartree, Ez. rest him), but no longer; esp. as so many have been tempted (& mr than tempted, in truth) to make the exp. of eating men's flesh direct. Measured the beast as four cubits across the shell.

Ship's log of the Stormrake, Captain Elias Blackburn, recovered from Saragoss in 749

[Nathan of the FoS]

Construct, dread (construct of obsession) [Denizens of Dread]

Bollenbach proposes that this procedure actually imbues the body with a "soul" capable of distinguishing right and wrong, which is manifestly ridiculous on the evidence. I never heard of any such creature with any moral understanding whatsoever; and surely we need not posit that every animating force inhabiting a physical body be, ipso facto, a moral actor?

marginal notes on Van Richten's Guide to the Created, Erik van Rijn


Crawling ivy [Denizens of Dread]

Handsome large dark-green leaves with magenta veins, flourishes in semi-shaded areas and does not require rich soil. Available as clipping, unusual transport requirements double normal delivery price.

N.B. Tends to be invasive & can be intractable without careful handling. NOT RECOMMENDED for the casual enthusiast.

Beauraix' Commercial Catalogue of Flora


Bloodroot [Denizens of Dread]

We were, as we thought, prepared for every eventuality, being well equipped against every creature of the night, silver, holy water and so forth at the ready; but there was a creature of the daylight with which we had not reckoned, and as we passed beneath it into the moldering tomb below, it assaulted us with its thousand dagger-like roots. One does not normally number courage among the vegetative virtues, and yet it seems to me that the bloodroot (for so they call it in this place) was a right puissant and even an ill-tempered foe.

Reginald St. Jacques, Remarks upon An Expedition in Souragne

[Joël of the FoS]

Bog hound [Howls in the Night]

We were traveling the road from Mordent to Dementlieu when we heard these terrible howling. Me and Peter are experimented soldiers, but these “wolves” really gave us the creeps, believe me! And we realized with dread there were no trees to climb to if these howling creatures attacked. Thankfully, we walked with a quicker pace and we have the strange feeling they “let us pass”. For you see, these were not natural creatures: when I saw their large mastiff shape in the shadows, calmly watching us, their eyes reflected no light …

- An often heard tale in Chateaunoir

[Joël of the FoS]

Bloodrot [Heroes of Horror]

When we returned to the Angel of Decay summoning place, three days after, the smell of rot was overwhelming. Jezebel and Erik’s corpse were found horribly liquefied into pools of reddish liquid matter. But while we were busy searching the place for the necromantic book used by Jezebel, as our superiors requested, the pools coalesced into a wave-like thing that attacked us! We were able to flee this horrible place in the forest, but Kev found strange ooze-like liquids on his doorstep this morning? Advice needed.

- Jorane Amos, Letter to her superiors

[Joël of the FoS]

Bat, bonebat [Monsters of Faerun]

(…) Also, do not send your messages anymore via this large skeleton bat. I understand you want to show off your minor arcane skills to me, but this unordinary messenger sent everybody in town running for cover. Our law officers had many request from the masses about this creature. As reliable as it seems to be, it is really out of place in here: you are not in Thay anymore. I sometimes wonder how you are thinking.

- Postscript by Hazlik to an anonymous wizard in Nova Vaasa.

[Jakob]

Cerebral Symbiont - Cerebral leech

Tomtadet was dead. Silvana was barely standing, and my arm was severely burned. We were victorious, by Hala and Ezra's twin blessings.
It was then: I saw it. Slowly crawling out of the dead wizard's neck, was a small creature, similiar to a worm ora a leech, colored of a reddish purple, slithering as if possessing an innate intelligence. As it moved toward me, I could feel a voice in the back of my head: it was the creature, begging to be pick up and placed on my own neck!
The horrible creature ended its pathetic life under my boots. Was it the source of much of Tomtadet powers?

From "Lord of the Ensonmmark", third and last book from the "Trilogy of the Two Clerics" serie by Sir Julius Renaut (published in Mordent, Richemulot, Dementlieu and Martira Bay. Banned in Borca, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa for heresy and references to the "By The Lawgiver's Holy And Powerful Decree Best Forgotten And Lost Realm Of Unholiness Named Bluetspur, May It Be Lost In The Mists Forever").

[Jakob]

Bhut

One, two, three and four
He is entering the corpse
five, six, seven, eight,
he is exiting the grave
nine, ten, eleven, twelve
he is gazing from the road
run as faster as you can
he is out to... get... you!

From a Rajian children's count (translated in Mordentish by Giorgio Satagi of Lechberg, Borcan explorer, now fakir)

I sometimes wonder how you are thinking.

I think I laughed for a good fifteen minutes after reading this.

[Jakob]

Buso

[...]it was then, after spending a night inside the old kami temple, besieged by those aberration that, until sunset, were normal commoners, that our Noble and pure Shujin [...] Heaven-blessed Yami-sama, gave us the order to burn the village of Three Points to the ground, to slay every villager and to burn their corpses on pyres blessed by a kami-guided shaman of the mountain.
The search for the one-eyed abomination that caused their death, my old friend, is left to you and your sons and your servants.
I hope the kami will guide you in your quest.

Excerpts from a letter from Most Honored General Taro to Most Honorable Yakisuke-sama, clanlord of White Crane Clan, of Minami-no-Kashaku.