The Common Store of Monsters

 I am slowly grinding my way through the re-writes for Veins of the Earth. As part of the re-write I have re-organised the ‘Pariahs of the Earth’ monsters section into a list of sixty creatures, expanding some concepts and re-doing others. Some of these are ‘Re-Skins’ or re-conceptions of common D&D monsters, some are descriptions of whole cultures.

The current list;

• AntiPhoenix
• Arachnopolis Rex
• Archeans
• Atomic Bees
• Blackfoot Tapper
• Calcinated Cancer Bear
• Cambrimen
• Castilian Caddis Larvae
• Chaos Goblins
• Cholerids
• Civilopede
• Cromagnogolem
• Dead-Eyed Dwarves
• Deep Janeen
• dErO
• Egg Dead (PseudoOolites)
• Eigengrau
• Fossil Vampire
• Fungal Ambassodile
• Funginid Slaves
• Gegenschein
• Gilgamash
• Igneous Wrath
• Ignimbrite Mite
• Knotsmen
• Lamenters
• Mantis Shrimp
• Meanderthals
• Mondmilch
• Olm
• Once-Men
• Oneirocetacean
• Opal-Winged Chiropterae
• Panic Attack Jack
• Phantom Hand of Gargas
• Psychomycosis Megaspores
• Pyroclastic Ghouls
• Radiolarian
• RayMen
• The Rapture
• ScissoFish
• Silichominids
• Exploration
• Substratals
• Soft-Heads
• Sonic Pigs
• Spectre of the Brocken
• Splinterlads
• Spotlight Dogs
• Still-Tor-Men
• Stormsheep
• Tachyon Troll
• Tetracharcarodron
• TitanSkull Hermit Crab
• ToRaptoise
• Trilobite-Knight
• Trogloraptor
• Ultraviolet Butterfly
• Zombie Coral

Encounters

A major part of the re-write is a focus on usability and part of that will include encounter tables. And part of that will be a discussion and instruction on just how encounter tables can work, with a very basic workshop for anyone who doesn’t already know about them describing, for instance;

• The way combined-dice rolls can produce probability curves and how you can use those to produce pseudo-natural encounter tables that might simulate the more interesting elements of an imagined environment - something that is carrying on without the PCs and which they happen to be going through.
• How you can make very ‘big’ tables of this kind for large volumes to give them a kind of identity, but also smaller ones for different more local environments
• Straight-roll single-die graphs of various sizes and how those produce a generally different tone of reality, something a little more ‘event focused’, and how and where in the game you can use those, and how often and where you can re-use them, based on what they are doing.

The aim here is to give people the tools to create their own ‘family’ or ‘toolbox’ of tables, ones they make themselves to suit their own style of game and a simple ‘starter list’ of encounter tables and similar, to go with the map-making and world-populating sections. I imagine the reader building and populating their map, making notes on it on another piece of paper, and creating a small, efficient, handful of tables to go with them.

COMMON MONSTERS

The question then becomes; is it reasonable for me to tell the reader about other common D&D monsters? And if so, how much of a description should I give?

I have taken out any creatures where I have basically done my own version and only included ones in the SRD

NOT IN THE SRD, DO NOT USE

Beholder - a big loss, can I steal ‘Eye Tyrant’ from someone?

• Mind Flayer - Have ‘Soft Heads’ so fine.
• Umber Hulk - I will learn to live without you.
• Kuo-toa - I am sorry guys you are dull plus I have Olm.
• Githyanki - Too Planescape
• Githzerai - Too Planescape
• Slaad - Very cool but can live without them, also not very ‘Underworld-specific’
• Displacer Beast - as above
• Yuan-Ti - guys you are less interesting than you sound
• Carrion Crawler - Carrion Crawler I will miss you bro but must build a life without you

Is there an own-brand numbers-filed Eye Stalk Bite Globe guy I can use?

General Humanoids

We need these guys! They are the meat and potatoes of encounters! (Though I still took out ‘Orcs’ and their general family as I felt in an environment with big dangerous intelligent humanoids they don’t really have a strong identity in the underworld.)

• Grimlock - Blind humanoids. ‘Savage’. Have a really good illustration in the 3.5 Underdark book. Feel like these guys are a winner.
• Kobold - Petty lizard-dog things. Kind of boring and I’m not sure there’s any reason they should exist but they do. Famous trap-users allegedly. I suppose they can go in? Every paracosm needs something specifically lame as fuck I guess.
• Troglodyte - Colour changing, dumb as bricks super-stinky Lizard-people? I have never seen these in a game. At least slightly more interesting than normal Lizard people. Alive or dead they smell REALLY BAD. Very dumb. I think I like these guys?

Boring Fauna

Fire Beetle, Giant Centipede, Giant Bat - I mean fine.

Ambush Monsters

• Ettercap - dull, hangs out with Spiders
• Giant Spider & Giant Wolf Spider - The Wolf Spider will get off the web at least so there is that.
• Gibbering Mouther - honestly pretty cool, I may have mis-categorised this one but no-idea where else to put them except in ‘Weird Guys’.
• Otyugh - vital recycling, probably someone will complain if you kill this. Static I guess. More of a location.
• Phase Spider - annoying but interesting to fight.

Burrowers

Literally built for it.

• Ankheg - meant to burrow through soil so not fully appropriate but good to keep around for old times sake maybe? Will he be lonely without the Umber Hulk?
• Bulette - presumably having a great time underground.
• Purple Worm - technically a burrower but honestly deserves its own thing. A good Big Dangerous Monster.
• Xorn - kind of basically like meeting a guy really? Just a guy who eats gems.

Dead and Dry

There are too many of these and many are dungeon-specific. I did imagine a lot of undead underground but also imagined them semi-civilised, part of society and subject to law in a way they are not usually and able to converse.

• Bodak - deadly gaze, ok?
• Crypt Thing - the ‘teleports everyone’ guy, but basically a skeleton, very Gygaxian, surely this guy would have an actual job in the Veins?
• Demilich - jewelled skull, no worse than meeting a millionaire underground.
• Huecuva — ‘The undead remains of a faithless priest, cloaked by illusion to appear a living, robed cleric’ I guess we can have this guy. Is he still doing the predatory false priest thing down here?
• Lich - Classic. Again, just like meeting a Mayor or something.
• Mummy - classic, more like meeting a person than a monster.
• Revenant - Revenge-based murdered corpse, possibly wet, but if in the Veins, maybe in some kind of existential mission, maybe more like meeting a weird guy.
• Skeleton - classic, in the Veins, should be like meeting a guy.
• Winterwight - what even is this? Is this new? A cold Skeleton I guess.

Dead and Wet

Feel like there would be proportionately less of these underground as they are made of valuable meat.

• Coffer Corpse — “A drowned or grave-cheated corpse that strangles the living; it collapses as if destroyed, then rises moments later to renew the attack.” Surely too annoying to have in the Veins. Feels wrong.
• Ghoul - I kind of have Pyroclastic Ghouls already, also, in the Veins, probably more like meeting a guy, if they are smart enough to last this long.
• Mohrg — “The animated corpse of a mass murderer, its exposed organs bound in rotted sinew; a lashing tongue paralyses prey for its raking claws.” Very cool and weird but probably no, not unless in special environments or circumstances.
• Penanggalan - As above, cool but probably no.
• Wight — Cool enough to probably go in the ‘dry’ list. Also like meeting a guy.
• Zombie - a poor fit this deep down, also I have ‘Cholerids’ already.
• Vampires! - Already have these. Definitely like meeting a guy.

Dead and Not There

• Caller in Darkness — “A roiling mass of death-agony born where many people died together in terror; it assaults the mind directly, drowning victims in others’ final moments.” Honestly very cool but I already have the Panic Attack Jack which is essentially this but the caving version plus corpses. So, maybe?
• Ghost - Classic. With living and dead communities being more integrated this will be just a dude who isn’t there.
• Mohrg — “The animated corpse of a mass murderer, its exposed organs bound in rotted sinew; a lashing tongue paralyses prey for its raking claws.” Knarly. Nearly wet. Probably a ‘No’ or ‘Nearly never’.
• Poltergeist — Not as bad as the Mohrg but limited use for you, sorry.
• Shadow - Honestly fine if they have some personality and reason for being there.
• Spectre - freezy touch, generic, absorb into ‘Ghost’, along with Poltergeist.
• Will-o’-Wisp - A classic but probably semi-tamed or at least negotiated with underground.
• Wraith - A super-ghost? Ghost boss? Lets just say this guy is the other Ghosts boss.

Dead and What the Fuck

• Atropal — “A stillborn godling risen as undead — a bloated, cosmic-scale horror whose touch withers and whose gaze slays.” What the actual shit I have never even heard of this. Keep I guess? Sounds fun.
• Devourer - “A gaunt, towering undead with a smaller trapped soul writhing in its ribcage; it consumes the spirits of the slain to fuel dark spells.” Never heard of them. Too wet and specific for General but might be fun to keep around.
• Nightshades (Nightcrawler, Nightwalker, Nightwing) - I don’t know anything about these guys! I guess they can stay? I am too scared to throw them out.

Fucking Annoying Lurking Trap Things

Cave Fisher, Cloaker, Darkmantle, Grick, Mimic, Piercer, Roper - fine fine fine. I think I kind of hate these things. They are traps not encounters really for me, but some are classics and they have A place, even if I don’t like them. I don’t think most should be on an encounter table but putting them in a place in a dungeon-equivalent map or something is fine. Can anyone explain how the fuck the Cloaker and Darkmantle both exist and are they materially different in any meaningful way?

Slime and Oozes

I kind of slightly hate these guys too but less than the weird trap things. They have their place.

• Black Pudding - corrodes metal, splits, fine.
• Gelatinous Cube - Classic. Keep. The best of the slimes.
• Gray Ooze - hidden, acidic, eats metal, sounds shit. Ok, keep.
• Ochre Jelly - bright yellow, acidic, divides, flows, ok?
• Shrieker - not a classic but a familiar type. Static, put with weird trap things.
• Violet Fungus - the shrieker but worse. Static, put with weird trap things.

Big Cool Main Monsters

• Aboleth - I can’t believe this guy is in the SRD! Thank you Wizards of the Coast!
• Basilisk - not very underground-coded but sure I can find a use for you.
• Behir - I have to confess, I do not find you very interesting but I am reluctant to throw you out.
• Chuul - Chuul you have no real identity for me but I will give you a chance.
• Drider - I reskinned Drow but I WotC is willing to hand you out, you are too cool to let go.

So!

What do you think of my scheme here? Is it reasonable?

Did I miss any actually-good and Veins-appropriate monsters (that are in the SRD)?

Should I go back through all my own books and make another list of my (and Scraps) own monsters? Or is that cringe?

Should I put in monsters from other independent creators books? (single-line descriptions with references to the books); probably still no, sounds shady & cringe. But if someone has done a really good one is it bad for me to say ‘check out the so-and-so from such and such a book?’ (Still probably a bad idea))

Did I miss any publicly available and good, Underdark monsters?