Since you guys have scorched your way through the backlog, it's time to unveil the letter M:
M
Done! Maddening flea [Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium III, Adam’s Wrath]
Marikith (shadow killer), hunter [Denizens of Dread]
Marikith (shadow killer), queen [Denizens of Dread]
Marzanna* [Frostburn] Pic
Meazel [Monsters of Faerûn] Pic
Mechanical serpent, bronze serpent [Monster Manual II] Pic
Mechanical serpent, iron cobra [Fiend Folio] Pic
Done! Mechanical serpent, the Shadow Serpent [Book of Souls]
Done! Medusa* [Monster Manual] Pic
Meenlock* [Monster Manual II] Pic
Done! Midnight cat [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Mimic [Monster Manual] Pic
Done! Mind flayer, illithid* [Monster Manual] Pic
Done! Mind flayer, alhoon (illithilich) [Lords of Madness]
Mind flayer, larval flayer* [Complete Psionic] Pic
Done! Mind flayer, neothelid* [Expanded Psionics Handbook]
Mind flayer, ulitharid* [Lords of Madness] Pic
Done! Mind flayer, vampiric [Lords of Madness] Pic
Done! Mist ferryman [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Mist horror* [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Mob* [Dungeon Master’s Guide II]
Done! Mohrg [Monster Manual] Pic
Mongrelfolk [Fiend Folio] Pic
Moonbeast [Monster Manual II] Pic
Done! Moonrat [Monster Manual II] Pic
Moorfolk [Denizens of Dread]
Morkoth [Monster Manual II] Pic
Done! Mummified creature* [Libris Mortis] Pic
Done! Mummy* [Monster Manual] Pic
Murk [Libris Mortis] Pic
Ravenloft Context
Marzanna: "In Vorostokov, the scheming sisters of Gregor Zolnik were transformed into marzannas after their brother became darklord and slew their treacherous mother. They haunt the wilds to this day, preying upon the populace and plotting against their hated brother and his wolfen kind."
Medusa: Included mainly for the sake of Althea, darklord of Demise.
Meenlock: These creatures are primarily the result of illithid fleshcrafting, and as such are generally found in Bluetspur.
Mind Flayer: Not that it matters much for these blurbs, but just for the sake of trivia, I'm using the psionic versions of these creatures as the default.
Mist Horror: For sake of trivia, I completely rewrote this template from scratch, essentially ignoring everything Denizens of Dread has to say. Just keep in mind that a mist horror is an animate bank of mist that has no "true form"; using the template system, it reaches into its victims' minds and takes the form of their greatest fear -- partly physically, and partly through illusion. (The two "example mist horrors" I provide are "mist horror, kraken form" and "mist horror, drider form.") The mist horror encounter early in Dance of the Dead is a nice example.
Mob: I cooked up three example mobs for the entry:
Riot (Mob of Humans): This example uses a 1st-level human warrior as the base creature. These mobs often form as the result of social uprisings or entire villages pouring out of their homes with torches and pitchforks to hunt down some despised monster plaguing their community.
Shambling Horde (Mob of Zombies): This example uses a human warrior zombie as the base creature. An unbroken line of shambling hordes like this one, two mobs deep, forms along Darkon’s borders whenever Azalin closes the domain’s borders. If one such shambling horde is dispersed, its neighbors move over on their next turn to close the gap.
Stampede (Mob of Horses): This example uses a horse as the base creature. The herds of wilds horses that roam Nova Vaasa are easily spooked, particularly if startled by a creature canny enough to send them trampling through a group of its opponents.
Mongrelfolk: "Mongrelfolk, hideous creatures descended from generations of crossbreeding among the worst examples of many species, exhibit few redeeming qualities. The darklord of G’Henna, Yagno Petrovna, possesses the ability to transform those who have failed his god Zhakata into mongrelfolk. Many folk believe, perhaps not wrongly, that these wretched creatures are merely a particularly twisted form of caliban."
Moonbeast: "In sunless Bleutspur, moonbeasts' activity cycles are somewhat reversed; they emerge from their subterranean niches to prowl the shattered plains during the lightless 'day,' retreating into the earth as the first bolts of lightning strike the mountain peaks to mark the coming of 'night.'"
On Moonstones: "The illithids of Bluetspur are aware of the connection between moonbeasts and moonstones and sometimes turn it to their advantage, scheming to slip a moonstone into the hands of an elusive rival or dissident. The illithids then sit back and wait, patiently waiting for the roused moonbeast to eliminate the marked foe for them.
"A moonbeast cannot sense the location of its moonstone across a planar boundary (including the Misty Border), but it can sense its moonstone anywhere within the same Mist-bound cluster. A moonbeast that cannot sense its moonstone rampages blindly, wandering at random and attacking any creatures it encounters. Such a rampaging moonbeast may enter the Misty Border, emerging in another domain. "
Mummified Creature and Mummy: These creatures are undead (walking dead), rather than deathless (ancient dead). The rationale is that their origins lie in twisted necromantic attempts to replicate the nature of the ancient dead.
Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: M is for Malevolent!
Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: M is for Malevolent!
Last edited by Mangrum on Sat Nov 04, 2006 3:51 am, edited 20 times in total.
-
Jasper
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 562
- Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2003 7:10 pm
- Location: A cultural wasteland known as WV.
Mist Ferryman
Ferryman, Ferryman what do you charge?
One for the small, two for the large
Ferryman, Ferryman where do we tread?
Across the river and past the dead
Ferryman, Ferryman what shall we see?
The rolling mists and the hanging tree
Ferryman, Ferryman we cannot pay!
You shall not see the light of day
Darkonian childrens rhyme
Ferryman, Ferryman what do you charge?
One for the small, two for the large
Ferryman, Ferryman where do we tread?
Across the river and past the dead
Ferryman, Ferryman what shall we see?
The rolling mists and the hanging tree
Ferryman, Ferryman we cannot pay!
You shall not see the light of day
Darkonian childrens rhyme
"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish it's source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."
Anais Nin
Anais Nin
Mob, riot
MOB, RIOT
What world worn and weary travellers were we when we reached the village, with a horde of goblins, Marbh-Cathair, and Dargal Pass behind us. But civilization was no salvation. I was tried and, in due course, found innocent, by reason of enchantment, of consorting with fey. And Ellana was spared the torment of being burnt alive. For not a moment was lost by the rabble that had been gathered against us in bending its pitch-forks and blunting its scythes in the task of reducing her lithe form to an unrecognisable pulp. The crime was instigated by a man possessed of a silver tongue, more so than any agent of the Kargat, and a terrible cruelty, for at trial he took up my defence and imposed upon me the sentence of life without her.
-Hatred Cannot Be Defeated with Hatred’s Weapons, autobiography of Cato August
What world worn and weary travellers were we when we reached the village, with a horde of goblins, Marbh-Cathair, and Dargal Pass behind us. But civilization was no salvation. I was tried and, in due course, found innocent, by reason of enchantment, of consorting with fey. And Ellana was spared the torment of being burnt alive. For not a moment was lost by the rabble that had been gathered against us in bending its pitch-forks and blunting its scythes in the task of reducing her lithe form to an unrecognisable pulp. The crime was instigated by a man possessed of a silver tongue, more so than any agent of the Kargat, and a terrible cruelty, for at trial he took up my defence and imposed upon me the sentence of life without her.
-Hatred Cannot Be Defeated with Hatred’s Weapons, autobiography of Cato August
The cure for what ails you
Mist Horror
Mist horrors lurk within the swirling Mists of Ravenloft. These wrathful entities are drawn to any travelers who linger too long in the Misty Border.
In its true form, a mist horror is a vast, shapeless cloud of thin mist. Since they can never leave the Misty Border, mist horrors are nearly undetectable in this form. When they attack, they coalesce into nightmarish forms drawn from the deepest fears of their victims. Thus, if a victim is terrified of snakes, a mist horror might assume the form of a dire snake or monstrous viper. A mist horror’s combat forms are featureless shapes seemingly composed of incredibly dense fog, but it conceals itself within phantasmal facades to complete the illusion.
Countless theories have been presented to explain the origin of mist horrors. For example, many Vistani strongly believe that anyone who is buried on a foggy day is fated to rise as a mist horror. This may not be true, but the Vistani’s belief has lent it great credence among many folk.
Another theory holds that mist horrors arise from the slain victims of mist golems (see pg. #). If this is true and former comrades can capture the particular horror, the creature may be restored to life by means of a resurrection or true resurrection spell.
Others believe that mist horrors represent the fate of evil creatures who enter the Misty Border and refuse to leave, either because they are desperately seeking a way out of the Demiplane of Dread or because they hope to avoid some worse fate back in the material world. In the strangely twisting time of the Mists, creatures can survive far longer in the Mists than they should. Eventually, their bodies fade away, but their spirits live on, becoming mist horrors.
The grimmest theory may also be the closest to the truth: That mist horrors represent the final, pathetic fate of evildoers who condemned themselves with their evil deeds but failed to convince the Dark Powers that they deserved their own domains. These damned and discarded souls are exiled to the Mists, each villain imprisoned in its own featureless territory, forever. Long after their bodies die, these wretched spirits live on, slowly merging with the Mists of Ravenloft themselves. Mist horrors are aware that they have been passed over, and their envy of even the most pathetic true darklords drives them to terrorize victims to prove themselves “worthy” of their own domains.
Although mist horrors are technically undead, they have merged so thoroughly with the planar fabric of the Demipane of Dread that little of their undead essence remains.
A mist horror in its true, dispersed form fills a space (10 feet × Hit Dice) to a side. Its vaporous form is weightless.
Mist horrors can communicate telempathically with any creature within 100 feet that has a language. This communication takes the form of impressions and feelings rather than concrete words or concepts. They sometimes try to use this ability to persuade creatures to enter the Misty Border but, due to the range limit, can only do so when the creatures are already on the verge of entering on their own.
Combat
Mist horrors lurk in the Misty Border in their mist form, eagerly waiting for travelers to wander through their territory. Once a mist horror detects new victims, it uses its empathic probe first to subtly persuade the creatures to stop and rest, then again to draw a monstrous shape from its victims’ deepest fears. This monstrous shape becomes the base creature used in this template. While its unwitting victims remain in the area, the mist horror uses its alternate form ability to assume the shape of its victims’ nightmares and attacks.
A mist horror remains unseen until it assumes a combat form and attacks, at best visible as an ominous ripple in the omnipresent fog. Once it has assumed a combat form, a mist horror tries to take its victims by surprise, lunging at them from out of the fog. If possible, it may use its empathic probe again to terrify and scatter a group of foes. A mist horror uses its phantasmal façade to try to convince foes that it actually is a creature straight from their nightmares, but usually continues to fight if this façade is shattered. Should the tide of battle turn against a mist horror, it shifts back into its dispersed true form and blends into the Mists of Ravenloft to hide.
Sample Mist Horrors
Mist Horror, Drider Form: Large Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger), CR 8, neutral evil.
Mist Horror, Kraken Form: Gargantuan Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger), CR 13, neutral evil.
The template in a nutshell:
* d8 HD.
* Natural AC replaced by deflection bonus, like ghosts.
* Tentacle rake attacks
* Disruptive aura: spellcasters need to make Concentration checks to cast spells within 30 feet of a mist horror.
* Empathic probe: A mist horror can scan surface thoughts as a standard action. This has two uses: it can improve or worsen a foe's morale, or it can grab a feared mental image and take that form.
* Phantasmal Facade: In a combat form, a mist horror gains none of the base creature's special attacks. However, it can wrap itself in phantasms to complete the illusion of being that creature. This also allows it to use phantasmal versions of the base creature's special attacks (which can be disbelieved). A foe who disbelieves one attack sees through the facade and can't be affected by any of the mist horror's other phantasms for 24 hours.
* Alternate Form: A mist horror can take any form (noting the above), but takes 4d10 minutes to do so.
* Damage reduction 10/magic.
* Mistbound: Can never leave a specific "territory" within the Misty Border (usually about a square mile).
* Mist Form: The mist horror's true form. Gaseous, hard to detect or damage, but can't make any physical attacks.
Mistvision: A new special quality shared by a couple of creatures: It can see twice as far as normal in fog or mist, including obscuring mist.
* Spell resistance 20.
* Has most of the standard undead immunities, but can't be turned.
* Dex +4, Cha +2, if base creature has no Con, then Con equals Cha.
* CR: Base creature +1.
Basically, mist horrors would have been explicitly written into the revised powers check rules -- the result of someone who fails all the powers checks but isn't worthy of becoming a darklord.
Mist horrors lurk within the swirling Mists of Ravenloft. These wrathful entities are drawn to any travelers who linger too long in the Misty Border.
In its true form, a mist horror is a vast, shapeless cloud of thin mist. Since they can never leave the Misty Border, mist horrors are nearly undetectable in this form. When they attack, they coalesce into nightmarish forms drawn from the deepest fears of their victims. Thus, if a victim is terrified of snakes, a mist horror might assume the form of a dire snake or monstrous viper. A mist horror’s combat forms are featureless shapes seemingly composed of incredibly dense fog, but it conceals itself within phantasmal facades to complete the illusion.
Countless theories have been presented to explain the origin of mist horrors. For example, many Vistani strongly believe that anyone who is buried on a foggy day is fated to rise as a mist horror. This may not be true, but the Vistani’s belief has lent it great credence among many folk.
Another theory holds that mist horrors arise from the slain victims of mist golems (see pg. #). If this is true and former comrades can capture the particular horror, the creature may be restored to life by means of a resurrection or true resurrection spell.
Others believe that mist horrors represent the fate of evil creatures who enter the Misty Border and refuse to leave, either because they are desperately seeking a way out of the Demiplane of Dread or because they hope to avoid some worse fate back in the material world. In the strangely twisting time of the Mists, creatures can survive far longer in the Mists than they should. Eventually, their bodies fade away, but their spirits live on, becoming mist horrors.
The grimmest theory may also be the closest to the truth: That mist horrors represent the final, pathetic fate of evildoers who condemned themselves with their evil deeds but failed to convince the Dark Powers that they deserved their own domains. These damned and discarded souls are exiled to the Mists, each villain imprisoned in its own featureless territory, forever. Long after their bodies die, these wretched spirits live on, slowly merging with the Mists of Ravenloft themselves. Mist horrors are aware that they have been passed over, and their envy of even the most pathetic true darklords drives them to terrorize victims to prove themselves “worthy” of their own domains.
Although mist horrors are technically undead, they have merged so thoroughly with the planar fabric of the Demipane of Dread that little of their undead essence remains.
A mist horror in its true, dispersed form fills a space (10 feet × Hit Dice) to a side. Its vaporous form is weightless.
Mist horrors can communicate telempathically with any creature within 100 feet that has a language. This communication takes the form of impressions and feelings rather than concrete words or concepts. They sometimes try to use this ability to persuade creatures to enter the Misty Border but, due to the range limit, can only do so when the creatures are already on the verge of entering on their own.
Combat
Mist horrors lurk in the Misty Border in their mist form, eagerly waiting for travelers to wander through their territory. Once a mist horror detects new victims, it uses its empathic probe first to subtly persuade the creatures to stop and rest, then again to draw a monstrous shape from its victims’ deepest fears. This monstrous shape becomes the base creature used in this template. While its unwitting victims remain in the area, the mist horror uses its alternate form ability to assume the shape of its victims’ nightmares and attacks.
A mist horror remains unseen until it assumes a combat form and attacks, at best visible as an ominous ripple in the omnipresent fog. Once it has assumed a combat form, a mist horror tries to take its victims by surprise, lunging at them from out of the fog. If possible, it may use its empathic probe again to terrify and scatter a group of foes. A mist horror uses its phantasmal façade to try to convince foes that it actually is a creature straight from their nightmares, but usually continues to fight if this façade is shattered. Should the tide of battle turn against a mist horror, it shifts back into its dispersed true form and blends into the Mists of Ravenloft to hide.
Sample Mist Horrors
Mist Horror, Drider Form: Large Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger), CR 8, neutral evil.
Mist Horror, Kraken Form: Gargantuan Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger), CR 13, neutral evil.
The template in a nutshell:
* d8 HD.
* Natural AC replaced by deflection bonus, like ghosts.
* Tentacle rake attacks
* Disruptive aura: spellcasters need to make Concentration checks to cast spells within 30 feet of a mist horror.
* Empathic probe: A mist horror can scan surface thoughts as a standard action. This has two uses: it can improve or worsen a foe's morale, or it can grab a feared mental image and take that form.
* Phantasmal Facade: In a combat form, a mist horror gains none of the base creature's special attacks. However, it can wrap itself in phantasms to complete the illusion of being that creature. This also allows it to use phantasmal versions of the base creature's special attacks (which can be disbelieved). A foe who disbelieves one attack sees through the facade and can't be affected by any of the mist horror's other phantasms for 24 hours.
* Alternate Form: A mist horror can take any form (noting the above), but takes 4d10 minutes to do so.
* Damage reduction 10/magic.
* Mistbound: Can never leave a specific "territory" within the Misty Border (usually about a square mile).
* Mist Form: The mist horror's true form. Gaseous, hard to detect or damage, but can't make any physical attacks.
Mistvision: A new special quality shared by a couple of creatures: It can see twice as far as normal in fog or mist, including obscuring mist.
* Spell resistance 20.
* Has most of the standard undead immunities, but can't be turned.
* Dex +4, Cha +2, if base creature has no Con, then Con equals Cha.
* CR: Base creature +1.
Basically, mist horrors would have been explicitly written into the revised powers check rules -- the result of someone who fails all the powers checks but isn't worthy of becoming a darklord.
-
ChrisNichols
- Arch-villain
- Posts: 174
- Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:45 pm
- Location: Shawnee, OK
Mind flayer, neothelid [Expanded Psionics Handbook]
XXVIII. The Tree of the Hydra
In a place, deep below
the lightning-wracked skies,
there is a vast cavern.
In the cavern,
grows a tree
that sings.
The tree is
crystal,
branching,
branching.
In the branches,
in the leaves,
dance visions,
near and far,
was and will be.
Beneath the tree,
pinned by roots,
sleeps the Hydra.
The Hydra,
the mad worm,
with its head
of lashing whips.
Crystal roots
grow through
its hide.
The Hydra sleeps
and dreams,
one day
to awaken
and rise
and consume
the world.
-from Aark'tluch Thaan, Eleventh of the Thirteen Texts of Thaan
XXVIII. The Tree of the Hydra
In a place, deep below
the lightning-wracked skies,
there is a vast cavern.
In the cavern,
grows a tree
that sings.
The tree is
crystal,
branching,
branching.
In the branches,
in the leaves,
dance visions,
near and far,
was and will be.
Beneath the tree,
pinned by roots,
sleeps the Hydra.
The Hydra,
the mad worm,
with its head
of lashing whips.
Crystal roots
grow through
its hide.
The Hydra sleeps
and dreams,
one day
to awaken
and rise
and consume
the world.
-from Aark'tluch Thaan, Eleventh of the Thirteen Texts of Thaan
John,
As you stated at the beginning of the project, providing to the community the Ravenloft monster manual that you are compiling would be impossible for reasons of copyright.
Fair enough.
Could you, however, provide a complete file of all the teeny tiny tales of terror?
First, no thread is forever here in the message board. (A fatal design flaw to my eye.) Second, the Fraternity itself might not be forever either. (We have experience with this.) Third, it would be a tremendous waste of time for each of us to compile for himself/herself what you are already compiling.
Thanx,
cure
As you stated at the beginning of the project, providing to the community the Ravenloft monster manual that you are compiling would be impossible for reasons of copyright.
Fair enough.
Could you, however, provide a complete file of all the teeny tiny tales of terror?
First, no thread is forever here in the message board. (A fatal design flaw to my eye.) Second, the Fraternity itself might not be forever either. (We have experience with this.) Third, it would be a tremendous waste of time for each of us to compile for himself/herself what you are already compiling.
Thanx,
cure
The cure for what ails you
Here are capsule descriptions for the remaining “M” monsters.
Maddening Flea: Fine Vermin, CR 1/4, neutral. Maddening flea swarm: Fine Vermin (Swarm), CR 3, neutral. Otherwise normal fleas that spread a supernatural disease with their bite, causing madness. [Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium III, Adam’s Wrath]
Marikith (Shadow Killer): Ravenloft’s answer to Aliens. These aberrations inhabit the domain of Timor, located beneath the sewers of Paridon. They feed on fear.
Marikith Hunter: Black, humanoid creatures that attack in swarms. They can squeeze their bodies through impossibly tight spaces. [Denizens of Dread]
Marikith Queen: The massive, spider-like queen of a marikith hive. (Note, the Hive Queen is an advanced marikith queen; the DoD entry doesn’t represent her directly.) [Denizens of Dread]
Marzanna: Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Cold), CR 6, chaotic evil. A 5-to-8-ft. hag dressed in white furs. Native to frozen regions, they possess several cold- and weather-based spell-like abilities, can tear foes apart with their claws, and can panic creatures with their gaze. [Frostburn]
Meazel: Medium Monstrous Humanoid, CR 4, chaotic evil. Diseased-looking humanoids that act as malevolent killers. They have roguish abilities and spread their skin disease with their claws. [Monsters of Faerûn]
Mechanical Serpent (all): Golem-like constructs modeled on snakes.
Bronze Serpent: Huge Construct, CR 10, neutral. A massive bronze snake that can constrict and electrify foes. Electricity repairs damage it has taken. [Monster Manual II]
Iron Cobra: Small Construct, CR 2, neutral. A cobra constructed of iron bands, capable of tracking down targets and delivering a poisonous bite. [Fiend Folio]
The Shadow Serpent: Medium Construct, CR 5, neutral evil. A unique, major artifact version of the iron cobra. Can merge with shadows and deliver shadow-based effects with its poisonous bite. [Book of Souls]
Medusa: Medium Monstrous Humanoid, CR 7, lawful evil. Female, reptilian-looking humanoids with snakes for hair and an appearance so repulsive, their gaze turns living creatures to stone. [Monster Manual]
Meenlock: Tiny Aberration, CR 3, lawful evil. Pitiful, wretched creatures, the product of normal humanoids subjected to torturous illithid fleshcrafting. Covered in spines, and have vaguely insect-like features. They can invade their foes’ minds, causing fear and paranoia. They can also paralyze with a touch and, given time, transform captured humanoids into more of their kind. [Monster Manual II]
Midnight Cat: Tiny Magical Beast, CR 3, neutral evil. Black cats, easily mistaken for housecats, which are supposedly descended from Unseelie fey. They feed on life force by stealing the breath of living creatures, and they are the masters of curses, able to deliver or remove them at will. [Denizens of Dread]
Mimic: Large Aberration (Shapechanger), CR 4, neutral. An amorphous ambush hunter that takes the form of inanimate objects, such as chests or furniture, waiting for victims to wander up and fall prey to its adhesive touch. [Monster Manual]
Mind flayer (all): Various life stages and subspecies of mind flayers, the fleshcrafting rulers of Bluetspur. Intensely alien creatures.
Illithid: Medium Aberration (Psionic), CR 8, lawful evil. Human-shaped horrors with powerful psionic abilities and heads like cuttlefish. They see humanoids as nothing more than chattel. [Monster Manual]
Larval Flayer: Tiny Aberration (Psionic), CR 2, chaotic evil. The larval form of illithids, just after they’re too old to be implanted in a humanoid’s brain. Resembles a 2-ft.-long, eyeless octopus with four tentacles. Possesses a few psi-like abilities which help it sneak up on prey, and can consume brains. Dimly intelligent. [Complete Psionic]
Ulitharid: Large Aberration (Psionic), CR 12, lawful evi. A larger, more powerful variety of illithid with six face tentacles. They are quite rare compared to illithids, and not even the mind flayers themselves can predict which tadpoles will develop into ulitharids. Leaders of the mind flayer race. [Lords of Madness]
Mind Flayer, Alhoon (Illithilich): Template Undead. An undead mind illithid or ulitharid that, for whatever strange reasons, chooses to become a lich rather than join the elder brain in death. Has various lich-like powers. [Lords of Madness]
Mind Flayer, Vampiric: Medium Aberration (Vampire), CR 9, chaotic evil. The product of a failed experiment combining Lyssa von Zarovich’s necromancy with the fleshcrafting of an ulitharid, these insane mind flayers extract brains and drain blood. [Lords of Madness]
Mist Horror: Template Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger). See above; mist horrors are the final form of creatures that failed enough powers checks to become darklords, but didn’t interest the Dark Powers enough to earn one. Entry also includes the wandering horror variant. [Denizens of Dread]
Mohrg: Medium Undead, CR 8, chaotic evil. The animated corpses of mass murderers. Though nearly skeletal, they have long, prehensile tongues that can paralyze their foes. Slain victims spawn more mohrgs. [Monster Manual]
Mongrelfolk: Medium Humanoid (Mongrelfolk), CR 1/2 (1st-level warrior), lawful neutral. Hideously deformed humanoids created by generations of interbreeding between disparate humanoid creatures. Yagno Petrovna can transform humanoids into mongrelfolk with a special rite. Considered a form of caliban. Excellent mimics. [Fiend Folio]
Moonbeast: Huge Aberration, CR 16, chaotic evil. A massive, nocturnal cylinder of flesh covered in writhing tentacles. It’s surrounded by a fear aura, can crush foes, and possesses lethal numerous spell-like abilities. They excrete pearl-like moonstones, which they usually ignore, but cannot stand to have in the possession of other creatures. Moonbeasts have a mystical bond with their moonstones and relentlessly hunt down those who carry them. More Bluetpsur fauna. [Monster Manual II]
Moonrat: Tiny Magical Beast, CR 1/4, any evil. Otherwise normal rats that gain up to human-level intelligence under the light of the moon, growing stronger and smarter as the moon waxes. [Monster Manual II]
Moorfolk: Medium Humanoid (Moorfolk), CR 3, chaotic evil. Pale, hairless human-like creatures with outsized eyes. They hunt in swamps and moors, and decorate their bodies with magic symbols that grant them special abilities. [Denizens of Dread]
Morkoth: Medium Aberration (Aquatic), CR5, chaotic evil. Highly intelligent sea monsters resembling a cross between a deep sea fish and an octopus. Their spell resistance actually reflects spells at their casters, and they construct winding, hypnotic mazes for lair, which they use to lure, trap, and disorient prey. [Monster Manual II]
Mummified creature: Template Undead. A mummified version of just about any creature. (The sample creature is an ogre.) [Libris Mortis]
Mummy: Medium Undead, CR 5, lawful evil. Desiccated humanoids that are resistant to damage and spread supernatural disease with their touch. An undead version of the ancient dead. [Monster Manual]
Murk: Medium Undead (Incorporeal), CR 3, chaotic evil. A blot of undead essence with a sliver of sentience. Appears as a humanoid silhouette. Its touch deals Wisdom damage, which upgrades to negative levels once the victim loses all Wisdom. Slain victims spawn more murks. [Libris Mortis]
Maddening Flea: Fine Vermin, CR 1/4, neutral. Maddening flea swarm: Fine Vermin (Swarm), CR 3, neutral. Otherwise normal fleas that spread a supernatural disease with their bite, causing madness. [Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium III, Adam’s Wrath]
Marikith (Shadow Killer): Ravenloft’s answer to Aliens. These aberrations inhabit the domain of Timor, located beneath the sewers of Paridon. They feed on fear.
Marikith Hunter: Black, humanoid creatures that attack in swarms. They can squeeze their bodies through impossibly tight spaces. [Denizens of Dread]
Marikith Queen: The massive, spider-like queen of a marikith hive. (Note, the Hive Queen is an advanced marikith queen; the DoD entry doesn’t represent her directly.) [Denizens of Dread]
Marzanna: Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Cold), CR 6, chaotic evil. A 5-to-8-ft. hag dressed in white furs. Native to frozen regions, they possess several cold- and weather-based spell-like abilities, can tear foes apart with their claws, and can panic creatures with their gaze. [Frostburn]
Meazel: Medium Monstrous Humanoid, CR 4, chaotic evil. Diseased-looking humanoids that act as malevolent killers. They have roguish abilities and spread their skin disease with their claws. [Monsters of Faerûn]
Mechanical Serpent (all): Golem-like constructs modeled on snakes.
Bronze Serpent: Huge Construct, CR 10, neutral. A massive bronze snake that can constrict and electrify foes. Electricity repairs damage it has taken. [Monster Manual II]
Iron Cobra: Small Construct, CR 2, neutral. A cobra constructed of iron bands, capable of tracking down targets and delivering a poisonous bite. [Fiend Folio]
The Shadow Serpent: Medium Construct, CR 5, neutral evil. A unique, major artifact version of the iron cobra. Can merge with shadows and deliver shadow-based effects with its poisonous bite. [Book of Souls]
Medusa: Medium Monstrous Humanoid, CR 7, lawful evil. Female, reptilian-looking humanoids with snakes for hair and an appearance so repulsive, their gaze turns living creatures to stone. [Monster Manual]
Meenlock: Tiny Aberration, CR 3, lawful evil. Pitiful, wretched creatures, the product of normal humanoids subjected to torturous illithid fleshcrafting. Covered in spines, and have vaguely insect-like features. They can invade their foes’ minds, causing fear and paranoia. They can also paralyze with a touch and, given time, transform captured humanoids into more of their kind. [Monster Manual II]
Midnight Cat: Tiny Magical Beast, CR 3, neutral evil. Black cats, easily mistaken for housecats, which are supposedly descended from Unseelie fey. They feed on life force by stealing the breath of living creatures, and they are the masters of curses, able to deliver or remove them at will. [Denizens of Dread]
Mimic: Large Aberration (Shapechanger), CR 4, neutral. An amorphous ambush hunter that takes the form of inanimate objects, such as chests or furniture, waiting for victims to wander up and fall prey to its adhesive touch. [Monster Manual]
Mind flayer (all): Various life stages and subspecies of mind flayers, the fleshcrafting rulers of Bluetspur. Intensely alien creatures.
Illithid: Medium Aberration (Psionic), CR 8, lawful evil. Human-shaped horrors with powerful psionic abilities and heads like cuttlefish. They see humanoids as nothing more than chattel. [Monster Manual]
Larval Flayer: Tiny Aberration (Psionic), CR 2, chaotic evil. The larval form of illithids, just after they’re too old to be implanted in a humanoid’s brain. Resembles a 2-ft.-long, eyeless octopus with four tentacles. Possesses a few psi-like abilities which help it sneak up on prey, and can consume brains. Dimly intelligent. [Complete Psionic]
Ulitharid: Large Aberration (Psionic), CR 12, lawful evi. A larger, more powerful variety of illithid with six face tentacles. They are quite rare compared to illithids, and not even the mind flayers themselves can predict which tadpoles will develop into ulitharids. Leaders of the mind flayer race. [Lords of Madness]
Mind Flayer, Alhoon (Illithilich): Template Undead. An undead mind illithid or ulitharid that, for whatever strange reasons, chooses to become a lich rather than join the elder brain in death. Has various lich-like powers. [Lords of Madness]
Mind Flayer, Vampiric: Medium Aberration (Vampire), CR 9, chaotic evil. The product of a failed experiment combining Lyssa von Zarovich’s necromancy with the fleshcrafting of an ulitharid, these insane mind flayers extract brains and drain blood. [Lords of Madness]
Mist Horror: Template Outsider (Incorporeal, Mists, Shapechanger). See above; mist horrors are the final form of creatures that failed enough powers checks to become darklords, but didn’t interest the Dark Powers enough to earn one. Entry also includes the wandering horror variant. [Denizens of Dread]
Mohrg: Medium Undead, CR 8, chaotic evil. The animated corpses of mass murderers. Though nearly skeletal, they have long, prehensile tongues that can paralyze their foes. Slain victims spawn more mohrgs. [Monster Manual]
Mongrelfolk: Medium Humanoid (Mongrelfolk), CR 1/2 (1st-level warrior), lawful neutral. Hideously deformed humanoids created by generations of interbreeding between disparate humanoid creatures. Yagno Petrovna can transform humanoids into mongrelfolk with a special rite. Considered a form of caliban. Excellent mimics. [Fiend Folio]
Moonbeast: Huge Aberration, CR 16, chaotic evil. A massive, nocturnal cylinder of flesh covered in writhing tentacles. It’s surrounded by a fear aura, can crush foes, and possesses lethal numerous spell-like abilities. They excrete pearl-like moonstones, which they usually ignore, but cannot stand to have in the possession of other creatures. Moonbeasts have a mystical bond with their moonstones and relentlessly hunt down those who carry them. More Bluetpsur fauna. [Monster Manual II]
Moonrat: Tiny Magical Beast, CR 1/4, any evil. Otherwise normal rats that gain up to human-level intelligence under the light of the moon, growing stronger and smarter as the moon waxes. [Monster Manual II]
Moorfolk: Medium Humanoid (Moorfolk), CR 3, chaotic evil. Pale, hairless human-like creatures with outsized eyes. They hunt in swamps and moors, and decorate their bodies with magic symbols that grant them special abilities. [Denizens of Dread]
Morkoth: Medium Aberration (Aquatic), CR5, chaotic evil. Highly intelligent sea monsters resembling a cross between a deep sea fish and an octopus. Their spell resistance actually reflects spells at their casters, and they construct winding, hypnotic mazes for lair, which they use to lure, trap, and disorient prey. [Monster Manual II]
Mummified creature: Template Undead. A mummified version of just about any creature. (The sample creature is an ogre.) [Libris Mortis]
Mummy: Medium Undead, CR 5, lawful evil. Desiccated humanoids that are resistant to damage and spread supernatural disease with their touch. An undead version of the ancient dead. [Monster Manual]
Murk: Medium Undead (Incorporeal), CR 3, chaotic evil. A blot of undead essence with a sliver of sentience. Appears as a humanoid silhouette. Its touch deals Wisdom damage, which upgrades to negative levels once the victim loses all Wisdom. Slain victims spawn more murks. [Libris Mortis]
Mind Flayer, vampiric
MIND FLAYER, VAMPIRIC
Take a beautiful and rebellious blood sucker, naturally a von Zarovich, who gains in a few moments, by way of a tussle with a ghost and former lover, power that rivals that of the most venerable vampire. Add a daring, would be usurper from a race of cuttlefish-headed, brain eating, telepathic humanoids who are all thralls of omniscient fused grey matter afloat in a vat. Stir blood sucking and brain eating together in an ill-advised, indeed unspeakable, abomination, so that Count Strahd and, for want of a better title, Lord Brine, and indeed the sun itself might shake with fear. Toss in a dash of the Apparatus for extra terror. And serve. A recipe that not only beggars belief, but that invites suspicion. What party has put it into my hands, thinking me fool enough to publish it and thereby discredit myself and my work?
-Working note, Van Ritchen’s Guide to Vampires
Take a beautiful and rebellious blood sucker, naturally a von Zarovich, who gains in a few moments, by way of a tussle with a ghost and former lover, power that rivals that of the most venerable vampire. Add a daring, would be usurper from a race of cuttlefish-headed, brain eating, telepathic humanoids who are all thralls of omniscient fused grey matter afloat in a vat. Stir blood sucking and brain eating together in an ill-advised, indeed unspeakable, abomination, so that Count Strahd and, for want of a better title, Lord Brine, and indeed the sun itself might shake with fear. Toss in a dash of the Apparatus for extra terror. And serve. A recipe that not only beggars belief, but that invites suspicion. What party has put it into my hands, thinking me fool enough to publish it and thereby discredit myself and my work?
-Working note, Van Ritchen’s Guide to Vampires
The cure for what ails you
Re: Mind Flayer, vampiric
I'm going to have to veto this one on a trifling matter -- at the time that Van Richten published VRGtVampires (735 BC), it would be another four years before Lyssa von Zarovich and the High Master Illithid created vampiric mind flayers (739 BC).cure wrote:MIND FLAYER, VAMPIRIC
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DeepShadow of FoS
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 2916
- Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 1:43 pm
- Location: Heinfroth's Asylum
Re: Mind Flayer, vampiric
Your call, but the Mists could do it. After all, the Vistani delivered a copy of VRGtWerebeasts to the library of the Societe de Legerdemain before it was even published!Mangrum wrote:I'm going to have to veto this one on a trifling matter -- at the time that Van Richten published VRGtVampires (735 BC), it would be another four years before Lyssa von Zarovich and the High Master Illithid created vampiric mind flayers (739 BC).cure wrote:MIND FLAYER, VAMPIRIC
The Avariel has borrowed wings,
The Puppeteer must cut the strings
The Orphan Queen must take the throne
The Queen of Orphans calls them home
The Puppeteer must cut the strings
The Orphan Queen must take the throne
The Queen of Orphans calls them home
-
Rotipher of the FoS
- Thieving Crow
- Posts: 4683
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:18 pm
MIMIC
The guards' change-of-shift drew nearer, but Clive would not be rushed in his work. Heavy gloves protected his hands as he probed the brasswork decorating the oaken chest, seeking a hidden catch or keyhole. All too conscious of how soon the sorcerer's goblyn minions would discover their companions' demise, I would have chided him for such overcaution ... until I recalled the story of the Carnivorous Coffer.
Glancing up at my expression, Clive chuckled -- now, I knew why he'd told me that old thieves' legend -- and then bared his right hand, to better feel the tumblers shifting in the lock he'd found. The rogue's skills proved their worth, yet again; the chest's heavy lid swung open with nary a creak. Inside, the medallion we'd come to liberate lay cushioned upon rich, baled silk, its gleam untarnished by the foulness of the fiend-marked villain who'd hoarded it.
"Easy as cloudberry pie," my companion murmured smugly. He reached for the medallion, careful not to let his skin brush against the mystical -- and dangerous -- gem inset within it.
Alas, it was the rolled-up silk beneath our prize he should have taken equal pains not to touch....
-- Exerpt from The Sorcerer And The Succubus, adventure-romance novel by Mrs. Felicity Henry
The guards' change-of-shift drew nearer, but Clive would not be rushed in his work. Heavy gloves protected his hands as he probed the brasswork decorating the oaken chest, seeking a hidden catch or keyhole. All too conscious of how soon the sorcerer's goblyn minions would discover their companions' demise, I would have chided him for such overcaution ... until I recalled the story of the Carnivorous Coffer.
Glancing up at my expression, Clive chuckled -- now, I knew why he'd told me that old thieves' legend -- and then bared his right hand, to better feel the tumblers shifting in the lock he'd found. The rogue's skills proved their worth, yet again; the chest's heavy lid swung open with nary a creak. Inside, the medallion we'd come to liberate lay cushioned upon rich, baled silk, its gleam untarnished by the foulness of the fiend-marked villain who'd hoarded it.
"Easy as cloudberry pie," my companion murmured smugly. He reached for the medallion, careful not to let his skin brush against the mystical -- and dangerous -- gem inset within it.
Alas, it was the rolled-up silk beneath our prize he should have taken equal pains not to touch....
-- Exerpt from The Sorcerer And The Succubus, adventure-romance novel by Mrs. Felicity Henry
"Who [u]cares[/u] what the Dark Powers are? They're [i]bastards![/i] That's all I need to know of them." -- Crow
Re: Mind Flayer, vampiric
Yes, but why would they bother? I'm not fond of using "the Mists can do anything" to spackle over continuity errors -- especially before the error is put into play.DeepShadow wrote:Your call, but the Mists could do it.
Basically, with the vampiric illithids, I'd like less emphasis on their continuity-heavy origins (since that's covered in the text immediately following the blurb), and more on an atmospheric encounter with them. (That generally goes for any creature as well, of course.)