Recently in the "Monster Entries" Category

Description
Floating eerily through subterranean caverns and staring out at the world through a single malevolent eye, the voracious maloculus is a truly a terror to behold. Both fiendishly intelligent and borderline insane, it is just as likely to regale adventurers with jovial, self-important tales of its own magnificent deeds as it is to devour them piece by piece. Sometimes it will attempt to do both simultaneously.

The origin of the maloculus is lost to history. Some say it is the result of an ancient wizard's attempt to create a myopic dungeon guardian that would keep its single eye focused on the task assigned to it. Others claim that the first maloculus arrived in the world through a rip in the fabric of reality itself from a plane of pure madness. Regardless of its origin, the Death's Head of the Dark is driven by inscrutable motives and a seemingly boundless appetites.

Being little more than a floating head, the maloculus has an immense brain that possesses tremendous raw psionic power. Fortunately for all other lifeforms on the planet, this raw mental power is held in check by the creature's bestial appetites, which prevent it from reaching its full potential. The fraction of its mental power that it is capable of harnessing is still enough to make it a tremendous threat.

Ecology & Tactics
The maloculus spends much of its time in solitude, conversing with only itself for centuries at a time. In the warped mind of the maloculus, this feeds into its megalomania, as it believes its solitude to be a reflection of its singular importance in the world. Each maloculus literally views itself as the center of the world.

When adventurers encounter a maloculus, there is a 25% chance that the creature has spent at least a century in solitude. If has not been solitary, then the creature is likely (75%) to have a retinue of thralls

Even if the adventurers never encounter the creature, the decor of the lair will make it clear that a maloculus lords over it. Everything from tapestries on the walls to the robes or armor of the thralls will be emblazoned with the sigil of the all-seeing eye. (Maloculi are not known for either humility or subtlety). Every maloculus has a distinctive ocular sigil.

Notes
The creature's tendency to acquire thralls and ostentatious lairs can be used to gradually lead the adventurers towards an encounter with a maloculus. Low-level adventurers could stumble upon clues which lead them to an encounter with maloculus thralls. As the adventurers become more skillful, they can find their way to the main lair and confront the creature itself.

Description
Buried beneath the earth for countless millenia and dormant until inadvertently disturbed by a farmer tilling his field, the Reaper of the Rows is an insectoid alien entity worshipped as a god by the residents of a small village. Whether it is a lone exile or the precursor of an invasion force is unknown, but through a combination of fear, mind control and gradual genetic mutation it maintains absolute control over the village beneath which it sleeps.

The Reaper sleeps beneath the field, ever aware of its surroundings. Through much of the year, the village is the very picture of an idyllic farming community.

During the autumn harvest, however, things take a turn for the sinister as the Reaper awakens. Powerful energy beneath the field causes crops to flatten in orderly, symbolic patterns. The residents of the village begin to behave strangely and become hostile to outsiders. Evil tidings culminate on the autumnal equinox, when several villagers are selected by the Reaper during a midnight ceremony and taken below the earth, never to be seen again.

Ecology & Tactics
The Reaper is not fully adapted to the planet's atmosphere. As a result, it spends much of the year hibernating in its lair out of necessity. This lair might be a spacecraft, hive or catacomb depending upon which is most appropriate for the setting. Despite this, it still maintains awareness of its surroundings and will arise if its lair is discovered. If encountered during harvest time (especially during a blood moon), it will be at full strength and will attack with a deadly combination of melee and psychic attacks.

If the characters enter the lair (whether voluntarily or not), they will discover that the missing villagers have been mutated into pathetic half-insect, half-human hybrid thralls that will fight to the death for the Reaper. This is the fate that awaits them as well in short order should they fail to escape.

Description
The vermincarnate, or putrescent scourge, results when the corpse of a murderous soul is devoured from within by a necrophagic alien parasite. Hailing from a dead world beyond the stars, this putrescent scourge has found a new home in the dark corners of the world; infesting, reanimating and consuming its hosts.

Unable to move far by itself, the vermincarnate relies upon a host cadaver for ambulation. It is easily mistaken for undead at a distance, but is just an animated husk and as such is immune to turning.

Ecology & Tactics
While in the pupal stage, the vermincarnate covers its host corpse in an air-tight film of noxious slime. As it develops, it remains in hiding, gradually overtaking the entire muscular and nervous systems of its deceased host. Only when it fully matures and emerges from its mucus sac is it capable of animating its host cadaver. A vermincarnate has a limited lifespan, as it derives its food primarily from the host. The parasite can remain hidden within the host, revealing itself only when threatened. In its final stage, the vermincarnate appears as a mass of writhing alien worms in the approximate shape of the now devoured host.

While it cannot infest the living yet, a vermincarnate has only one goal once it has successfully animated a host; the procurement of the next one. It attacks with single-minded savagery; lacerating opponents with claws and tendrils, using biotoxins to free up an adversary's body for its own purposes. It is driven by one primal urge: survival. If it does not find a host soon after consuming its current one, it will die.

Notes
This monster was inspired by any of a number of horrific parasites in fiction and film, but is also a homage to death metal cover art. The monster's name sounds so much like a band name that I made a logo for it.

Description
Dolmen wights are the dessicated, animated corpses of bronze age warriors who have been tasked with guarding the tomb of an ancient warlord. In some tribal cultures, eternal guard duty is seen as a high honor and warriors would actually compete to be chosen for the task. In others, warriors were brought to the tomb site under false pretenses, slain and pressed into ceaseless service.

Though their eyes appear sclerotic and their flesh leathery and brittle, dolmen wights are surprisingly observant and agile in combat. Their blades, however pitted and corroded they might appear, are always surprisingly sharp.

Behavior & Tactics
Relentless and fearless, dolmen wights will defend their assigned tomb with fierce tenacity. They use intelligent tactics (albeit ones that were current when they were living), and will coordinate attacks if multiple wights are guarding a site. If benevolently inclined, a wight may issue warnings to would-be tomb robbers, giving them a chance to walk away provided they never return. If evil, they will not hesitate to ambush intruders and slaughter them outright.

The animating force of a dolmen wight is centered in the metal torc about its neck. If this torc is removed (with or without the wight's head), the creature will collapse into a rotted heap.

Notes
Dolmen wights are not always evil. Adventurers might very well encounter wights of the "noble warrior" variety who may provide them with guidance or assistance. The image itself is an old one, but a personal favorite. Most images on this site have been reworked considerably before I post them, but this one has been left exactly as it was drawn in 2004.

Description
Cruel and degenerate survivors of a technologically advanced empire that once covered vast swaths of the surface world, ophidian eviscerators are now relegated to plotting from the shadows.

Some tribes of these alien serpent men retain tenuous connections to their ancient ways; performing brutal rituals whose significance they no longer remember to loathsome primordial gods who no longer care. Others have reverted to bestial barbarism; building lairs in dank caverns, preying on unwary trespassers with cunning and bloodthirsty cruelty.

Behavior & Tactics
It is not known whether these beings are indigenous to this planet or not. They could easily be extraterrestrial or extraplanar in origin. They exhibit qualities of human, insect and reptile in equal and unsettling measure.

The civilized variant typically dwell in remote jungle locales. They maintain vestiges of ancient customs, worshipping loathsome primordial gods with cruelty that matches the ceaseless appetites of their masters. Woe to adventurers who are captured, for their fate will truly be worse than death. Lower ranking civilized eviscerators and their bestial counterparts will charge into battle heedless of their own safety. They are more afraid of the wrath of the temple priests and the foul gods they serve than any mortal enemy.

Notes
Adventurers may spot crumbling stone idols with serpents crawling from the eye sockets or other sights that might lead any locals to issue dire warnings. When encountering such ruins, local guides will invariably be filled with dread, make cryptic mention of some ancient legend (probably involving "armored serpent demons" in their description) and run away, leaving the adventurers to fend for themselves. For the civilized variant, think pulp fantasy serpent men. For the bestial variety, think aliens.

Description
Dessicated flesh and brittle bones tempered in the fires of eternal hate, an undying overlord haunts the ruins of a place it ruled in life. Once the high priest of a temple or iron-fisted ruler of a city now fallen to ruin and desolation, it is now completely bound to its morbid dominion and can never leave. Whether this is due to the intensity of the overlord's connection to its desolate home or a curse placed upon it by long-forgotten enemies is unknown.

The foul magic that animates an overlord slowly gnaws away at its physical form, leaving it at risk of disintegration. To stave off this process, it must bathe regularly in essential oils and embalming fluid. In an otherwise stale ruin, the appearance of an overlord is often presaged by the sickly sweet scent of these emollients.

Behavior & Tactics
There is no typical undying overlord – each one is an individual. Some delight in direct combat with adventurers to alleviate boredom or inflict pain, while others are desirous of secrecy will not reveal themselves unless left with no choice.

Strict geographic constraints do little to prevent it from exerting influence outside its realm. To do this, an undying overlord relies upon indirect tactics and psychic control. An undying overlord will draw visitors to its ruined realm with rumors of vast wealth or forbidden secrets and then attempt to dominate their will through temptation, corruption, or possession.

Notes
It is not unknown for the leading officials in nearby cities to be unwittingly controlled by an overlord or for the very existence of the ruin in which it dwells to be expunged from official records, even if it is mere miles away.

Should an overlord turn to ash, those ashes will blow away in a gust of wind, even in a completely airless chamber.