Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: D is for Dread

[Jakob]

Guys, I have no idea for the cloaker, really...
I always found it a rather silly monster.

[ewancummins]

I am writing one for the cloaker. Will post it tomorrow. Cloakers rule!

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Dire raven* [Ravenloft Gazetteer I]

Another example is the corvus barovicus, a breed of raven distinguished by its enormous size, with the largest recorded example of this subspecie measuring 3'6" from beak to tail. Like its brethren, the corvus barovicus is omnivorous, consuming fruits, grains, insects and carrion though this subspecie is more likely than the others to actively hunt small animals, aided by a beak proportionally thinner than the common corvus corax. This tendency has ensured its dominance in the food chain and allowed this breed to spread through the southern forested realms such as Barovia, Invidia and Kartakass. Folklore of the area also grants to these ravens the power of speech and higher cognition, inspiring some naturalists to call for the creation of a new subspecie, corvus sapiens, but my own research has found that such myths are purely that.

--- Struggle and Victory in the Animal Kingdom by Inard Milhavet.
(Book name taken from a reference in GazIII, p86)

[ewancummins]

CLOAKER, DREAD, OUTLANDER [MONSTER MANUAL]


They say the air went bad, and that made me imagine what happened after the cave-in. It isn't so! The collapse sealed us in, but it opened up a deeper tunnel. Good air came through the gap, but not only air. It let THEM in. Gods! It all happened so fast. They hit the lantern bearers first, so we didn't have a good look at 'em 'fore the lights went dark. I just saw these flat shapes moving along the stone walls, hard to make out against the stone. The colors seemed to blend in, like a rock lizard will do. There was this queer noise, like clothes rustling in a draughty hall closet. Then it was all pitch black, and all I could hear were the screams of my mates. I hid under a mine cart. Was still there, three days later, when the rescue crew broke through to us. To me, since all the others were vanished. That gap had been closed up, too. Those things must have done it. That's why I had to quit the mines. Cannot stand to be shut in, or left in the dark. And those things are still down there....

- a story told by an old man in Bergovitsa, likely a lie to excite the sympathy of strangers-[/

[Jakob]

Wow.
That's sooooo good.
I can finally think of the cloakers as something scary.

PS: I think you'd better label your post with the name of the monster...

[Mortavius]

Bogeyman, The Bad Thing

"Adon continued to dig his spade into the earth with each stroke, while his mind played over the events of the previous night. How did it happen? How could it happen? His Lorenz was such a gentle child. But lately he had been struck by a mood, a temper which darkened his features. And the bags under his eyes. The boy wasn't sleeping well. But why did he do it? And why lie about it? He loved that dog; he ought to; they were both young together, and were inseprable since their first meeting. What made him go for the hatchet last night? And why did he keep insisting that it wasn't him, that it was the Bad Thing?"

[cure]

DREAM SPAWN, ENNUI

The murmuring water relaxed the Falkovnian and wore away his wariness.
Sleep crept over him. He was snatched up into a dream. In it he saw himself from the outside. He was desperate to wake himself but could not. His perspective widened. He was being hunted by the methodical and astute captain of the Vistin militia, the thread of his very thoughts being tracked where there were no prints to follow. Then he was seized violently out of his sleep, pinned face down to the ground, silenced with a razor blade pulling at his mouth like a bridle, and bound at the wrists. Next he was dragged to his feet, held from behind, menaced with a second razor blade, and asked softly, "Do you wish to confess your sins?" When he gave no sign the voice whispered, "Let us begin."

-Gustov Petroff, hawksman and horse smuggler, wanted for desertion from the Falkovnian army, recalling the nightmare that would preoccupy his final hours

[Nathan of the FoS]

Now on page 4, so let's recap the list of undescribed monsters:

D

Darkenbeast [Monsters of Faerûn]
Death dog* [Fiend Folio]
Death engine* [Die Vecna Die]
Deathbringer* [Monster Manual II]
Deathlock* [Libris Mortis]
Deep hound [Races of Stone]
Demodand, shator* [Fiend Folio]
Demon, mane [Monster Manual]
Demon, quasit [Monster Manual]
Devil, bearded (barbazu)* [Monster Manual]
Devil, Styx (amnizu)* [Monster Manual II]
Devil, imp, assassin imp [Denizens of Dread]
Dharculus* [Planar Handbook]
DONE! Dire elephant* [Monster Manual II]
DONE! Dire elk* [Monster Manual II]
Dire hippopotamus* [Sandstorm]
Dire puma* [Sandstorm]
Dire rhinoceros* [Fiend Folio]
Dire snake* [Monster Manual II]
Dire tiger* [Monster Manual]
Dire toad* [Monster Manual II]
Dire tortoise* [Sandstorm]
DONE! Dire vulture* [Sandstorm]
DONE! Dire weasel* [Monster Manual]
Dire wolverine* [Monster Manual]
Dire animal, smilodon (saber-toothed tiger)* [Frostburn]
Dokufu (mountain spider) [Oriental Adventures]
Doom guard* [Fiend Folio]
DONE! Doppelganger, greater [Monsters of Faerûn]
Doppelganger plant, podling [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Dragon, shadow* [Monsters of Faerûn]
Dread warrior [Monsters of Faerûn]
Dream spawn, gray morph [Denizens of Dread]
Dream spawn, pale morph [new]
Dream spawn, shadow morph [Denizens of Dread]
Dream vestige* [Libris Mortis]
Drownling [Denizens of Dread]
Dryad [Monster Manual]
Dustblight [Sandstorm]
Dustform creature [Sandstorm]
DONE! Dwarf [Monster Manual]

B
DONE! Bogeyman, Alligator Lenny [Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends]
DONE! Breathdrinker [Monster Manual II]

C

Finished!

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Why not just use the rhyme from CotN: Vampires for Alligator Lenny? I think it works well.

For those who can't remember or don't have the book, it's:

Whispered sounds behind you,
Gurgle underfoot,
No one ever to find you,
No one dares to look,
Alligator Lenny
Gags you with his stink,
Plucks your every penny,
Drowns you in the drink

-Children's Jumprope rhyme

[Joël of the FoS]

Breathdrinker [Monster Manual II]

This repulsive air-based creature feeds on the polluted air contained by human lungs. How superbly disgusting to feed on these pitiable humans’ exhalations! It tried to fool me by becoming invisible but of course I was able to put it back in the glass container where it came from. I shall watch its thirst in the next months, unless of course I grow bored with it.

- from a lich’s bestiary notes

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Dwarf

"...In our travels, we saw many places. In some, I was the one who receieved the cold shoulder, the startled stares, or the whispered gossip. There are, of course, such places where we humans are the anomaly. Why, in the deserts of Har'Akir, some even mistook him for their god, Bes. But in most of those lands, it was he, my dear friend, who bore the brunt of the predjudice, fear, and ignorance. Called an animal, an evil spirit, halfman, freak, Hill-man, monster, but he withstood it all, with a grace that belied his stocky frame, and a single-minded devotion to rid the world of the evils that plagued the very people who hated him. He was a stalwart companion, a fierce warrior, a friendly barkeep, and a good friend. We will miss him."

-- Eulogy of Geddar Ironheart, as given by Dr. Rudolph Van Richten

[Joël of the FoS]

Doppelganger, greater [Monsters of Faerûn]

Dear journal,

I’m writing this in a state of confusion. I’m exhausted and this might be the cause of my trouble. Everything will be clearer tomorrow, I hope.

Late afternoon today, we had a report of a body floating near the southern docks. I retrieved it tonight with my men and to my immense surprise, the body, bloated by water, is a copy of Inspector Wilderton! How can it be, since Wilderton works at a desk near me? I saw him again this morning, and he was as witty as usual!

There were some rocks remaining in his pockets as if someone threw the body in the water with the intention of drowning it forever. But the fabric was later ruptured by the water and the rocks fell off and the body floated.

Also, strangely, a large hole has been punctured in the back of his head, and his brain is missing. I assume that fishes in the canal thought it was a delicacy while the body was held at the bottom.

Tomorrow, I will show this puzzling discovery to Wilderton, in the hope he might have an explanation for this weird case.

- Last entry in Constable Van Horne’ private journal, shown as possible clue to the investigation of the nearly simultaneous disappearance of Inspector Wilderton and Constable Van Horne, in Martyra Bay

[Nathan of the FoS]

Dire elephant* [Monster Manual II]

“In this place you shall be judged neither by man nor by man’s justice, but by the Law of the Jungle! Now abase yourself, for you come into the presence of your judges.”

I was hurled forward, falling to my knees; raising my head, I saw so fearful a sight that it might shake the heart of any man. I knelt before three great oliphaunts, greatest of all jungle beasts. If one can imagine a bull twice the height and ten times the bulk of the largest of cattle, but with tusks jutting downward from the upper lip rather than horns, and a snout longer than a man is tall, snaky and sinuous with muscle yet able to pick up a blade of grass with its tip, one has some idea of their nature; but no word can convey the awful majesty of their presence.

In the Wildlands, Captain John Smith

Dire elk* [Monster Manual II]

Even the deer of the high peaks are frightening—not so much because of their aggressive nature, or animosity to man, but because they too are sized beyond the human scale. The wapiti, or forest elk, grow there to be taller than the tallest man at the shoulder, and their belling on an autumn morning is like the sounding of the deep war horns of Darkon; it makes the very earth to tremble.

Adventures of a Wanderer, Larraby Quift

[Nathan of the FoS]

Dire vulture* [Sandstorm]

“Old Kebros, king of the air, he comes,” our guide muttered. “Best not to be here when he arrives.” He gestured quickly toward the sky, where the wheeling carrion-eaters could already be seen.

“Surely they wouldn’t attack a group of living, healthy men,” I argued. “I would think we could take as long as we need for the analysis.”

Our guide shook his head and pointed mutely to the sky. Looking up again, I saw the reason for his concern. Among the many smaller vultures glided two monstrous forms, four times the wingspan of their compatriots.

“I take your point,” I told him. “Let’s go.”

Rudolf van Richten, unpublished notes on an expedition to Har’Akir

Dire weasel* [Monster Manual]

Ki-naga, snake-body, snake killer!
Neck-biter, blood drinker!
Red-eye, bloody mouth, the fearless one,
Shadowdancer, shadowed slayer!

Song of the Mongoose, traditional Rajian, trans. Malcolm Hopper

[Jakob]

Dryad

Today, we will be one. All those days, spying on her, looking at her singing, naked, to the tree... All those nights of fever, my body aching for her perfect figure...
This day we will be one.
This day I will travel to her, for she granted me the pleasure of sharing her embrace. Yesterday, we travelled through her tree, and our bodies merged, sweetest bliss, the like I never felt with you, my dear Lenora.
This is why I must go.
I love both you and Stefan, but I cannot deny my body, and the pleasure of my soul.

With eternal love,
Kristoph

Last letter of the fey-stolen Kristoph Lamani of Immol