Bestiary

Creatures and Monsters

The adventurers have met a few creatures from myths and legend so far. Up until the adventurers 'discovered' them they were still seen as creatures of myth by all except a few major NPCs (maybe Burne, Rufus, Y'Dey, Otis and a few other community leader and adventurer types). I will list each monster as they are encountered and then add explanations once the characters find out what they are and how they tick...


Summoned from the Abyss...
These creatures are summoned by mages associated with the Temple (and the Cthonic religion). It requires a Monster Summoning spell of the correct level to draw these humanoids from the Abyss...

Bugbears - large 7' tall hairy humanoids
Gnolls - large 7' tall dog-headed humanoid 
Goblins - small grey-green humanoids that are spiteful and take joy from harming others
Kobolds - small dog-headed reptile-like creatures
Mara - large 9-10' tall humanoid with a penchant for sheep and small children
Minotaur - powerfully built bull-headed ogres that are slightly more intelligent than their cousins
Ogres - large 10-12' tall heavilly built, particularly stupid humanoids that eat anything 
Trolls -  large 9'+ grey-green humanoids of an especially evil demeanour. They can regenerate from the most grievous of wounds, so must be destroyed by fire or acid to stop them rising again

Undead and other nasties...
Undead creatures can be brought to un-life by sufficiently high level evil clerics, but the grey ooze can also be used to create zombies...

Babau Demon - summoned from the Abyss to carry out the bidding of their superiors
Ban Sidhe - the tormented soul of a woman wronged haunts the place of her death. Her scream instills fear in all but the hardiest of those who hear it and her icy talons bring death to those that remain. The scream of the banshee can also be seen as the harbinger of death in other circumstances
Basidirond - a multi-stemmed fungoid monster that ejects spores to cause dangerous hallucinations unpon its victims
Bone Devil - evil beings drawn from the Abyss to inflict pain upon the world of man
Demons - the demoness Zuggtmoy and her legions are known from rumours and pictures on friezes
Ghouls - these 'undead' creatures were once men, but have been turned into carrion eating fiends
Green Slime - usually found in patches that slowly dissolve everything around them. Green slime does not move so relies on its victims to spread. It cannot dissolve stone or rock but any wood, metal or cloth will dissolve very rapidly, turning into more slime in a matter of minutes. Flesh takes a while to dissolve (thus allowing the slime to spread more rapidly) and will cause a lot of discomfort as it slowly mutates its victim. Fire destroys it utterly, and amputation or cauterisation is the best cure if a person or livestock is contaminated. Magic could also be used if caught in time.
Gray Ooze - like green slime, this amoeba-like goo will dissolve any metal, wood or flesh that happens to fall within it. Unlike green slime it is able to hunt its prey, albeit slowly, and is able to stun its victim by extending pseudopods to use as club-like weapons.
Grey Ooze - not really a creature but a fungus-like 'thing'. Its life cycle goes from ooze, to very slowly moving blob with lichen-like top layer, to that top layer producing buds and bursting spores everywhere to continue the life-cycle. It can be destroyed completely by fire. If an intelligent being ingests, or has wounds infected by the ooze, the being dies over a period of days and its corpse reanimates after a few hours. If a recently dead (within 24 hours) intelligent being is subsequently infected by the ooze, the corpse reanimates after a period of about 12-24 hours - any post-mortem rot does not take hold as the ooze keeps it relatively 'fresh' and nature sees the cadaver as still alive.. However, if an animal ingests it or dies with infected wounds then the ooze changes the animal or carcass to ooze.
Mimic - a strange creature that is able to mimic wood and stone perfectly. They then use this disguise to ambush its unwary prey
Pudding, Black - a conglomeration of large single-celled flesh digesting amoebae that act in concert to slowly track down prey and absorb it
Quasit - An imp-like creaure used by evil mages to supplement their diabolical powers
Skeleton - Ancient tombs and graveyards are desecrated by followers of the Cthonic gods and demons. The remnants of warriors from the ancient past are reanimated and the empty husks are then inhabited with the malicious dark energy of unsettled souls from beyond death
Zombies - These are the reanimated corpses of people or humanoids infected by the grey ooze (see above). They are classed as undead for game purposes, so can be turned by good clerics.

Giant-sized Critters...
These creatures are changed by using the Druidic spell Animal Growth but with additional dweomers to make the growth permanent. They look and act just like their smaller cousins but are much larger, braver and hungrier. They are ideal for using as guards due to the fear they invoke but as they are still 'natural' creatures they can breed and spread.

Crayfish, Giant - These critters would most certainly not fit into a cooking pot!
Frog, Giant - Bigger specimens can weigh up to 200kgs. They will eat anything in their path as long as they can swallow it. Their bite is quite deadly and they can swallow smaller animals/peopleif they strike successfully with their long, sticky tongues
Lamprey, Giant - Giant bloodsucking waterborne nasties
Lizard, Giant - These can be grown to the size of crocodiles
Rat, Giant - About the size of a small dog, these nasty rodents can spread disease with their bites
Raven, Giant - These enormous carrion birds guard crumbling ruins and dark outposts of evil
Snake, Giant - Everyday snakes can be grown to a huge size. Their bites and poison become deadly
Spider, Giant - Eevryday hunting spiders grown to huge sizes. Their bites and webs are deadly
Tick, Giant - Grown to the size of small wine barrel, these nasty critters can drain a person of blood

Fay Creatures and other ancient denizens of Doggerland...
These beings exist from the distant past when the original denizens of Doggerland stood mighty. They are linked to the land and the elements, being creatures of nature rather than from the domains of men and demons. Druids still pay homage and worhip these beings of the super-natural world

Basilisk - A large eight-legged lizard whose gaze will turn to stone anyone that meets its eyes
Dryad - Fay beings that inhabit the great forested areas of Doggerland. They are part of the spirit of the great oak trees
Earth Elemental - Extra-planar beings that inhabit a coagulated volume of earth, stone and rock. They are summoned from the planes of earth to perform specific tasks by their summoners
Golem - Large magical constructs  used primarily for guarding people, places and things
Salamander - Large elementals drawn from the planes of fire. On this plane they make their homes in lava flows and volcanic vents
Stirge - large bat-like critters that attach themselves to their victims via a proboscis and then suck their blood until satiated 

Natural 'monsters'...
These creatures are natural to Doggerland but come from parts other than Vannin; but everyone has heard of them.

Bears (normal, cave and dire)
Cats, Sabre-toothed (from the frozen north)
Lions, Cave (from the frozen north)
Mammoths (from the frozen north)
Rhinos, Woolly (from the frozen north)
Wolves (normal and dire)
Wargs (larger dire wolves from the frozen north)

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