Greetings! I am on the lookout for weird, strange, or obscure monsters - not necessarily "stupid" monster, but stuff you wouldn't normally see in your average dungeon crawl.
I'm running a game where the PCs are exploring a wild, strange new land, and want to stock it with equally strange creatures.
Thank you!
Moss dogs, a very obscure Pacific Northwest horror. a large spirt who forms a body from a deep moss bed (is a moss bed?) The size can vary up to grizzly bearish they follow you after you pass and disturb their homes with almost perfect silence they will attack from behind with unnatural force even against numbers as they don't know fear being impervious to crushing and impaling only fire can drive them off/kill them.
>>43509466
Odradek. It looks like a broken bit of kit, but somehow it's always there when making camp or searching a pack. Just sitting there, always. No matter what treasures you lose, weapons you break, comrades you fail, Odradek is still there. Old, retired, adventurers remember Odradek, and when it plagued them. When the last party member falls, Odradek will be there.
>>43509466
Look up speculative evolution, take some interesting animals and exaggerate their traits.
I watched two documentaries on that topic recently which included stuff like:
>huge, boat-like jellyfish colonies populated by spiders
>elephant-squids living in forests
>basicly sharks with a hive mind
>plant-like creatures that feed by drawing nutrients out of the ground and store them in trees on their back
>Towering giants without hands, mouth, etc. They wander a giant cell colony that replaced the ocean, taking bites out of it with their mouth-feet
These things may not hold up to dragons or the like in raw power, but the strangeness should make them great low/mid level encounters.
>>43509466
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters
>>43510683
I remember that. One of them is "The Future is Wild" but I don't know what the other one is. Got a name?
>Sharks with a hive mind
What kind of monster came up with that?
El cuero, south american folk monster.
Looks like a giant brown stingray with stalk eyes and its made of a leathery material, feeds by hypnotizing people that come near to its lake, then comes out of the water and envelops its prey. Leaving them as bloodless husks.
May also look like a black and white dotted cow skin. Depending on who you ask.
>>43511795
other one is Alien Planet.
Deep Goose
>>43509466
How weird are you looking to go, anon? Off the top of my head three monsters that immediately spring to mind would be the popobawa, tikbalang, and the aswang. Be warned though, the first and third monsters can turn magical realm real quick.
>>43515686
Post 'em
>>43509466
Bunyips: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip
>>43515686
I don't know that there's any good way to use the popobawa without getting into magical realm territory, given that the defining feature that sets it apart from other various shapeshifting evil spirits is its penchant for anal rape.
Aswang are more reasonable to use, though. The "eats unborn fetuses by sucking them out of the sleeping mother's womb with a long proboscis" bit could certainly get magical realmy, but there are plenty of distinguishing features of aswangs besides that. It's not even like unborn fetuses are their sole diet, just one among several grisly things they like to eat.
>>43515762
>>43515686
heh, ass-wang
>>43510628
I don't know what you mean by 'bit of kit' (not a native speaker), but I like the idea of a creature that just 'is there'. An old grey man, or a slender watcher... That just follows the party. It doesn't do anything, it just is, it just watches. If you attempt to pursue it, it will vanish. If you ask someone about it, they claim they don't know what you mean and get slightly uneasy.
Party start getting paranoid, attempts to engage it or get rid of it. It just follows.
>>43509466
>>43510683
>>43511795
I found a website with "speculative evolution" material, it may be of interest. Tricky to go through because it's in russian. Pic related. Google "sivatherium".
I wanted to give you the direct links but I can't post them.
>>43517980
I meant, mainly in russian, there's much english material.
>>43515713
You asked for it. Best buckle the fuck up little Jonny, we're going for a ride.
To start us off we have the Popobawa, a one eyed flying ogre like creature that, as >>43516459 mention, has a thing for anal rape. It only assaults men though, and usually after the deed is done demands the victims let others know what happened under threat of repeated assaults. Great karmic retribution for if you've got a That Guy that gets off on raping npcs or other pcs and you don't want to kick them after issuing a warning.
>>43519138
Next up we've got the Tikbalang, a creature that's said to be the soul of an aborted or otherwise unborn fetus come back from limbo. One of the more dickish monsters in my opinion due to the fact that it doesn't always kill it's victims depending on the lore. It's main MO is to confuse lost travelers so that they either end up back where they started or become even more lost, after which it will proceed to continually slap the shit out of them before disappearing until they find their way, stomp them to death, or flat out eat them. The tikbalang is said to be quite fond of tobacco products, cigars in particular.
>>43512479
Like normal goose ain't scary enough..
>>43519138
>>43519225
And last but not least we've got the Aswang, a particularly nasty creature that' known to devour fetuses from the wombs of sleeping women using a proboscis like tongue with which they pierce the woman's navel. Reputed to be extremely monstrous in appearance and to have inhuman strength at night, but are completely normal looking during the day. Known in the region they hail from as tik-tiks for the sound that they supposedly produce. Again, like >>43516459 mentioned, fetuses aren't the only part of their diet, it just happens to be one of the more gruesome bits.
>>43519262
>>43519304
Some more details on the aswang:
Apart from the unborn, they also like to eat small children outside the womb, as well as recently-deceased corpses laid out for funeral proceedings. Sometimes they will replace their meal with a doppelganger made of wood and other plant matter, which looks and acts identically to the victim. In the case of corpses, the replacement will actually seem to be alive, getting up and returning to their home. These doppelgangers inevitably become sick and die before too long, though.
Because they're nearly indistinguishable, both in appearance and behaviour, from normal humans during the day (and have a tendency to hunt down anyone who does find out their identity), it's not unheard of for people to unknowingly befriend and even marry aswang. Those who marry an aswang become one themselves on the wedding night. Aside from hunting down those who discover their identity, they actually prefer to avoid preying on their neighbors, instead ranging farther afield to avoid drawing attention to their actual location. They still have to live as normal humans during the day, after all.
Ways to tell if someone is an aswang are to look into their eyes (your reflection in their eyes will be upside-down if they're an aswang), bend over and look at them from between your legs (they'll look different from usual in some way if an aswang), and by using a special oil prepared by the medicine men of their native region (which spontaneously boils when an aswang is nearby).
Similar to vampires, aswang are repelled by garlic, salt, and religious artifacts, and can't set foot on holy ground. They also have a peculiar weakness to whips made from a stingray tail, which (along with decapitation) is one of the main ways of killing an aswang, and they're deathly afraid of the sound such a weapon makes when swung.
>>43517049
>bunyipforants.png
I love speculative evolution for monsters. You get the feeling that it could actually fit in an ecosystem, instead of being an encounter like the catwheel
>>43509466
The Grootslang.
>>43520652
What's the origin of this one? Prey on elephants and herders? Don't go into the woods to retrieve an scaped elephant lest you are devoured by it?
Originaly meant for ecological message this thing would make decent... something
Somebody make some fluff for this fucker
>>43520804
The story goes that when the gods were first getting around to that "creating things" business, they didn't entirely know what they were doing. One of the first things they made was the Grootslang, which had tremendous size, strength, and cunning. The gods realized "oh shit, this thing is way OP", so they split up its attributes to make elephants (with the size and strength aspects) and snakes (with the cunning). But one Grootslang escaped, and went on to survive in hiding and breed a lineage of Grootslangs that lurk in the caverns, lakes, and rivers of South Africa to this day.
They do indeed prey on elephants, luring them into their lairs. And they'll eat anything else they can get at too. They covet precious gems though, so if you're attacked by one you might be able to buy it off with gems if you happen to have any (or can convince it that you can go get some and come back).
>>43509466
There's something from the inuit lore, it's called a tupilaq. It's a monster that witches made from many body parts, both human and animal, and used to terrorize the tribes into doing their bidding. Basically an undead chimera, which you sew up whatever you like, people, seals, tigers, cats...
I once used the body of a bear, changed the claws for horns, the top of the head for other mouth, and dozens of bat ears. It used the second mouth to scream, creating snowslides to trap victims.
>>43520884
>Phallic Stalker
Young lovers frequently need to hide their passionate activities from their families. To do so many would at secret places, like the foilage at crossroads or graveyards.
Were any of these couples to copulate near a grave without their union being sanctified by the church, this demon would spawn from that grave. While it may look strange and sluggish, the beast posseses great strength and cunning.
It will follow the couple with help of it's magic eye, waits for them to split and, once the time is right, attack the man. The demon uses it's claws to cut open the man's back and crawl into it. It will now take control of the man's body, even if it deceased during the initial attack. The victim of the Phallic Stalker can be recognised by his deformed genitals, which now look akin to the demon.
The possesed man will now seek out his lover and repeatly copulate with her, using violance if needed. Should the woman survive the contact with the demon, she will likely be pregnant. The child of such an union is a Changeling, a lesser demon.
The pregnancy with a Changeling is indicated by immense, burning pain as the demon's connection to hell draws hellfire into the mortal plane in the mother's womb. This process guarantees death for the mother, as the remaining hellfire will continue to spread after birth now that the child no longer consumes it.
Both demons can be cut out of their hosts with blades heated in holy fire to the point they glow white.
>>43520884
Originally bred from a outdated autonomous dildo swarm by the AI Thaggy, the phallusians are the ultimate life form.
Thaggy purchased a single planet for his experiment, and subjected the biomerchandise to countless cycles of guided evolution, making the finest being of the galaxy. After 300 years stripping all biomass of the local planets, their deep incursion fleets striked three dozen outposts at once, deep into human territory.
After conquering one third of the colonies, their president spit one single statement, which translated to english was "We fucked you back".
Their edge on symbiotic communication with their organic ships and weaponry is unmatched. Each wound, each missile hit, each deep incursion is recompensated by pleasure, making most of their technology addicted to warfare, and their most sucessful designs soon outbreed the less efficient ones.
Currently, of the third wave of human and posthuman refuge ships, only 45% are expected to reach neutral territory.
>>43517990
>>43517980
I'm russian.
Please post a link.
>>43519138
That monster is fantastic, how did I not know about this before?
It's great because its something that attacks a person reputation or social standing as much as it does their body. How fantastic.
>>43521051
so they are basicaly dragons?
How strange that different cultures came up with dragons...
Maybe there was something behind it?
>>43525938
I can't actually post a link because it's flagged as spam, so I'll try to put it in a way that doesn't trigger the block
sivatherium
.narod
.ru/
index
Have fun, I was very curious of the russian "fanon evolved animals" on the site.
>>43509466
El Cucuy; a mix of bugbear and violent demon.
Ran into this in a game of vampire....fucking vampire.
>>43517385
Bit of kit, a bit of camping supplies, or a backpack. It's British English.
>>43521305
Very nice
>>43509466
Lava elemental with a salamander swimming through it, both independently attacking.
Stone giant, of the "the hill sits up and glares at you" variety.
Pixies, with spellcasting ability. Extra-tiny creatures are fun.
>>43509466
>>43537213
>>43537349
>>43537357
>>43537371
>>43537380
>>43537392
>>43537398
>>43537427
>>43537357
a giant moth
>>43537445
>>43537525
>>43537548
>>43537565
>>43537616
>>43537655
>>43537671
>>43537689
