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Yet another beholder variant (reusing an earlier sculpt!!!), the Eye of Shadow is from the shadow realm, and can turn invisible. And teleport. As if Beholders weren't nasty enough already! You know, I wish they made the Eye of Chaos variant, but ah, well...
People who know what this is already will either laugh or point out inaccuracies. For people who don't...
This is a mostly-accurate reconstruction of the final chamber, i.e. the "boss room" of the INFAMOUS 1970s D&D module, The Tomb of Horrors (it gets remade every edition, BTW). It is EXTREMELY FAMOUS, and also EXTREMELY INFAMOUS as possibly the most brutal module ever released. Y'see, the Tomb is owned by Acererak, a Demilich - a lich so old and powerful that all hat remains of his body is his skull, with jewels set in the eyes and teeth (I know, I know - but that tiny gold skull is the only skull I had in this scale. It's actually TO SCALE with D&D minis). Acererak wants to be left alone, is very intelligent, very devious, and has a sense of humor. So here's a rundown of SOME of the traps you will face in the Tomb of horrors. SOME. Not all:
-There are two entrances. Walk in the wrong entrance, and get sealed in tthe chamber forever. Walk in the right one, and the ceiling might squish you.
-There is a gigantic stone gargoyle face with a door-sized open mouth. It looks so inviting... but anything that goes inside is instantly destroyed by the Sphere of Annihilation in the mouth, just out of sight.
-One room is a big chapel, lined with pews (with hinges, hmmm!), with an altar at the end (radiating a good aura!), and a glowing mist-filled portal archway. If you open the pews, you find gold (it'[s fake gold, worth nothing), and the pews spray poison gas everywhere. Touch the altar, and the good aura goes away, and it shoots a lightning bolt down the aisle. Go into the portal, and it steals all your clothes and gear, swaps your gender, and spits you back out in a berserker rage until your friends beat the rage out of you. The solution is to find a hidden ring-sized slot in the wall and sacrifice a magic ring to open the door. If you lack a ring, one is provided for you in another room, in a treasure chest filled with poisonous vipers.
-Three levers. Tilt them all up, and you might escape. Tilt them down, and everybody dies.
-This room has a long spike pit. You have to clinb down and tiptoe between the spikes to proceed. But the last five feet oir so is a spring-loaded trap with MOAR SPIKES.
-In one room, there is a secret door in the wall. W hen you find it and pick the lock and open it, it turns out to be a spring-loaded spear trap.
-One room has several spiked pits. You can jump over them. But the space just past the last pit is a trap door, dropping you onto more spikes.
-Walk into a room, everybody breathes sleep gas and is knocked out. Then the steamroller comes a-rollin' in...
-This one room is filled with broken debris, and has some nice, sturdy tapestries on the walls. The room shakes like an earthquake, tossing you around. You can steady yourself by grabbing the tapestries, only it turns out that they are disguised green slimes, and will kill you. The only way out is behind a tapestry.
-In one room, a powerful lich declares himself to be Acererak and attacks. Turns out he's a zombie in disguise. A special holy staff in the room can kill him... though it's not really holy, just a joke. If you kill him, EVERYTHING COLLAPSES AND EXPLODES AND THERE ARE ALARMS... no it doesn't, it's just a joke again. Ha-ha.
-Finally, there is a door with a big lock in it. If you insert the correct key (the wrong one will zap you), and turn it... nothing happens. Turn the key three times. And then there is a five-second countdown - see, that wasn't a door, just a keyhole and switch. The final chamber will rise up from the floor beneath you, so get out of there in five seconds or get smooshed.
-Acererak is just a skull on the shelf. He won't bother you if you don't bother him. But if you DO bother him in any way, he can isntantly steal your soul and store it in a gem. And then eat it (though people can still be resurrected somehow, after). Breaking the skull is nearly impossible, and more of a puzzle than a fight (except in 4th Edition, at which point it is an INSANELY difficult fight with Mister Instakill).
So yes, this is a picture of one of D&D's most dangerous villains ever. A tiny little skull on a shelf. Who built his home based on troll logic.
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In his house at R'yleh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming...
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The "Elder Things" from H. P. Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness" are one of the very first Ancient Aliens/Astronauts to show up in literature!
Long before the human race even began to evolve, the Elder Things travelled from a distant star to our planet. They built an amazing civilization, with ruins that could withstand even a billion years of emptiness. Within their massive, ornate cities, they also created the amorphous Shoggoths as a race of slaves, servile creatures to do their bidding.
The Elder Things ruled in eace until Cthulhu and its Star-Spawn invaded, setting off the first major war in Earth's history. Amazingly, they were able to fight off Cthulhu, until the ancient One retreated to sleep beneath the waves in his city of R'yleh. The Elder Things then came into conflict with the Mi-Go and even the Great Race of Yith, still surviving each conflict until they were finally at peace again. But this, too, did not last, as the Shoggoths gained minds of their own, and soon rebelled against their masters. The civil war with the Shoggoths was the most brutal one yet, and the Elder Things nearly destroyed themselves in order to subdue their Shoggoths again. And yet, after surviving so many wars, their time was running out - the first great Ice Age came, and this spelled the doom of the Elder Things. Survivors had to flee their great cities or die, with a few remnants settling beneath the ocean, in an environment that could sustain them. But soon, even their cities were overrun by rebelling Shoggoths.
There are hints that the race is not entirely extinct in the Cthulhu Mythos, and at least some survived frozen long enough to be revived (temporarily) in At The Mountains of Madness. But for the most part, the Elder Race is long gone, leaving only a few scattered ruins and the monster Shoggoths as evidence of their once-great society.
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Drowning Devils, or Sarglagons, guard Hell's waterways, drowning or poisoning any who attempt to pass by.
Even half-demon cyclopean harpies can be hot, too!
Also, I really have to ask just what Imerta is. And who's the other parent.
If religious faith actually turned you into a shining holy warrior, robed in light and a beacon in the darkness, churches would have more people.
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James Sowerby: English Botany
3rd Editition, around 1864
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Botany
The plant has a different Latin name today.
LA: Limonium bellidifolium
EN: Matted Sea-Lavender
DE: Gänseblümchenblättriger Strandflieder
HU: Sóvirág (nem találtam a pontos magyar nevét)
Limonium plants do have nothing in common with lavender, only their colors.
They are to be found mainly in the Mediterranean regions of Europe. Common characteristic of the plants of genus Limonium is that they can tolerate salty (sea) water or salty marshes and meadows.
The matted sea-lavender is an evergreen sub-shrub. It is at home in the Mediterranean areas, in Turkey and in Central-Asia. Can be found mainly on salt meadows or marshes.
Also known as the "Star Vampire," the titular creature appeared in a 1935 story by Robert Bloch (better known for writing Psycho). Bloch and Lovecraft were friends, and Lovecraft gave Bloch express permission to "portray, murder, annihilate, disintegrate, transfigure, metamorphose, or otherwise manhandle the undersigned in the tale entitled The Shambler From The Stars."
And so, in the story:
A horror author (who happened to resemble H. P. Lovecraft) happened to find De Vermis Mysteriis - "The Secret of the Worm" - in a used book store. And in his eagerness to finally see the true mysteries behind the cosmos, the shadowy things that he had only dared write about! The young man first tried to summon a familiar, a creature from beyond the stars to help him. What came instead was a nightmare.
The Shambler, an invisible monstrosity of teeth and tentacles, announced its presence with a manic, tittering laugh. And then it latched onto its would-be summonier, sucking the blood from his body and devouring him. It was then, and only then that the creature could be seen by the naked eye. Because once it feasts, the invisible creature cannot cover up the vermillion fluid now running through its horrific body.
And yes, this is the "Shambler" in Scribblenauts.
A creation of Clark Ashton Smith, Abhoth is the source of all corruption and abomination - the Old One itself is a featureless gray mass, a blob the size of a flood, and it resides deep under the earth. Creatures continually spawn from Abhoth's body - this one is a chaotic mass of ooze, teeth, and eyes, but in truth no two Children of Abhoth are alike. Some resemble monstrous humans, some severed but living body parts, others deformed abominations, and still more blobs or formless beasts of chaos. Abhoth's realm is where the laws of nature go to be devoured.
Never bring up what you can't put down.
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James Sowerby: English Botany
3rd Editition, around 1864
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Botany
The plant has a different Latin name today.
LA: Limonium bellidifolium
EN: Matted Sea-Lavender
DE: Gänseblümchenblättriger Strandflieder
HU: Sóvirág (nem találtam a pontos magyar nevét)
Limonium plants do have nothing in common with lavender, only their colors.
They are to be found mainly in the Mediterranean regions of Europe. Common characteristic of the plants of genus Limonium is that they can tolerate salty (sea) water or salty marshes and meadows.
The matted sea-lavender is an evergreen sub-shrub. It is at home in the Mediterranean areas, in Turkey and in Central-Asia. Can be found mainly on salt meadows or marshes.
James Sowerby: English Botany
3rd Editition, around 1864
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Botany
The plant has a different Latin name today.
LA: Limonium bellidifolium
EN: Matted Sea-Lavender
DE: Gänseblümchenblättriger Strandflieder
HU: Sóvirág (nem találtam a pontos magyar nevét)
Limonium plants do have nothing in common with lavender, only their colors.
They are to be found mainly in the Mediterranean regions of Europe. Common characteristic of the plants of genus Limonium is that they can tolerate salty (sea) water or salty marshes and meadows.
The matted sea-lavender is an evergreen sub-shrub. It is at home in the Mediterranean areas, in Turkey and in Central-Asia. Can be found mainly in salt meadow or marshes.
Some of the more obscure creatures in Lovecraft's writings, Dholes are tremendous, slimy, mindless subterranean worms. They live in the darkest places beneath the earth, and are slowly devouring the planet from within. Absolutely nothing else is known about them, which adds to another detail I like in the Cthulhu Mythos - not everything is a sapient elder god-demon. Sometimes there are strange, unexplainable monsters that just exist.
Wal-mart's got something special! You know how the unreal chinasaurs that aren't actual dinosaurs (and became D&D monsters) are usually missing from assortments? Well, THIS one has the armadillo one!
Brace yourself... this Mythos monster wasn't invented by H. P. Lovecraft! And it's from the 1960s!!!!
Cthonians are immense, squidlike subterranean worms that live for thousands of years. Although they can travel unseen under the earth, a chanting sound accompanies each one, which is often your only warning before it strikes...
Billions of years ago, the Great Race of Yith were earth's dominant species. They built great cities with their advanced technology, and even learned how to travel through time by projecting their minds across the aeons into the bodies of others. In time, they saw their eventual extinction at the hands of the flying Polyps, and so transported themselves far into the future, to a time when the Polys no longer existed.
Built to clean up battlefields, Cadaver Collectors stroll through areas of carnage, picking up corpses and body parts and hanging them on the many spikes that adorn their bodies. Battlefield cleanup is very important, after all.
Also known as "The Beast" or "The Sphinx," The Faceless God is one of Nyarlathotep's masks. He takes the form of a sphinx with no face, only the endless void of the cosmos.
While some of Nyatlathotep's masks are designed to put people into false ease, or terrify them into madness, this one was a god worshipped by the ancient egyptians, and instrumental in forming their civilization. Legend has it that it returned in the fourteenth century, calling itself "The Beast," and inspiring its cult once more.
The rare servants of good-aligned Drow gods, followers of EIlistraee often go nude... except when they're fighting, because not wearing armor would be stupid.
King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, Skalmad is a particularly intelligent and powerful troll, having managed to unite his rubbery kin. He also obtained an enchanted eye from the Fomorians (long story), and has replaced one of his own with it, giving him incredible powers. Well, that eye, and another, more ancient evil that seems to have Skalmad's back.
Speaking of Skalmad's eye, check out my other pic of him.
Once in a while, a Sea Devil is born with four arms. They have a special role in Sahuagin society, often acting as noblemen or martial champions.
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Fighting an Ancient Red Dragon is an exercise in blind faith, courage, and stupidity... This Ain't Granamyr!
I don't own the MOTUC Granamyr, but seeing it reminded me of my roughly-the-same-size D&D Icons Colossal Red Dragon. This thing is HUGE, and solid PVC!
And... it cost me $75 when they were new. Apparently now they go for $350 or more. HOLY CRAPWOW. AND THIS WAS SITTING IN MY ATTIC?!?!?!?!? ARRGH GOTTA DUST HIM MORE YOU ARE GETTING SHELF SPACE, MY FRIEND!
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Ha ha, Mr. Wendigo! Your little bro wants to tag along on your cannibal conquests! But don't worry, I'm SURE he won't get in the way!
This is it! The biggest of the big, a "miniature" only because what it emulates is so massive, it's WOT'c largest D&D mini ever! The Colossal Red Dragon stands at over a foot in height, emulating the fact that an actual Ancient Red Dragon would be as big as a three-storey house. You know, I have to question the logic of fighting something like this with swords, ya know?
OOGABOOGABOO!
Carrion Crawlers are way oldschool - my guess is that Gary Gygax bought a rubber centipede or something, and used it. Carrion Crawlers are natural scavengers, preferring to eat things that are dead. Of course, that doesn't stop them from killing you and eating you later, just saying. But they can be tamed, and lots of people love using them as pets, mounts, garbage disposal, or what-have-you. Just watch out for the paralyzing venom in their tentacles.
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From James Sowerby's English Botany, 3rd edition, around 1864.
This edition saw the use of lithography printing, still hand-colored.
The plant name here reads:
"Poterium muricatum - Muricated Salad Burnet"
Today it is called:
LA: Sanguisorba minor
EN: Salad burnet / Small burnet
DE: Kleiner Wiesenkopf
HU: CsabaÃre / Kis vérfü
The name "Lloigor" originally came from an August Derleth story, and applied to a typical betentacled Elder God. The name was dropped until 1969, when Colin Wilson wrote "The Return of the Lloigor," and redefined the name.
The Lloigor are a species of alien energy beings from the Andromeda galaxy. They can possess people or take nearly any form, but most often prefer to appear as giant reptilian monstrosities - in fact, they are the source of many of our legends about dragons. But when given free reign, Lloigor are more monstrous than any dragon, and serve the will of the dreaded Ghatanathoa, spawn of Cthulhu.
You know, it sounds goofy on paper (like a ducksnake), but think about how vicious owls are for a moment.
Owlbears were originally invented by an insane mage, only to break free and breed until they became part of the ecosystem. They are one of D&D's most classic monsters, and apparently came from another of those weird knockoff dinosaurs, only one that you almost never see.
This isn't just a Troll, he's a Troll's Troll. He's so huge that he can even be mistaken for a Mountain Troll! And he's fierce, too. Knows what he's doing.
"So at length Carter crawled through endless burrows with three helpful ghouls bearing the slate gravestone of Col. Nepemiah Derby, obit 1719, from the Charter Street Burying Ground in Salem. When they came again into open twilight they were in a forest of vast lichened monoliths reaching nearly as high as the eye could see and forming the modest gravestones of the Gugs. On the right of the hole out of which they wriggled, and seen through aisles of monoliths, was a stupendous vista of cyclopean round towers mounting up illimitable into the grey air of inner earth. This was the great city of the Gugs, whose doorways are thirty feet high. Ghouls come here often, for a buried Gug will feed a community for almost a year, and even with the added peril it is better to burrow for Gugs than to bother with the graves of men. Carter now understood the occasional titan bones he had felt beneath him in the vale of Pnoth."
-H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"
Seeing as how D&D cribbed its material from everything in the world, it's no surprise that it got sued from time to time. For example, J. R. R. Tolkien's estate sued TSR over a few intellectual property rights. And although they managed to prove that "Orc" was not a unique word to Tolkien (Warcraft thanks you!), there were a few issues necessitating change, such as:
-Hobbits became Halflings
-Ents became Treants
-And Balrogs became Balor Demons.
The Mythical Balor was king of the Fomorians (proto-fae giants). D&D Balor is a type of demon. A BIG type of demon. These guys are the biggest, baddest, toughest dudes beneath the Demon Lords, and they know it. Wielding flaming whips and vorpal swords, Balors command armies, but certainly arent afraid to mix it up in the front lines. Besides, if one dies, it explodes, anyway, so why not?
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Taller and more slender than their relatives, War Trolls are intelligent mercenaries, learned in combat, who offer their services to the highest bidder. Hilariously, this means that War Trolls are sometimes heroes.
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Many millennia ago, Xin ruled the ancient empire of Thassilon. The wizard emperor created the Runelords, who ruled beneath him - but also plotted against him. Toward the end of his life, Xin grew paranoid, and constructed a massive metal monstrosity, the Clockwork Reliquary, to house his mortal remains and bring him back to life if he perished. Xin was unable to activate it before the Runelords killed him, but his spirit lived on, now corrupted.
Fast-forward to the "Present" day in the Pathfinder setting, where, in the Shattered Star adventure path, the heroes get to reassemble the Shattered Star artifact originally made by Xin, which itself was an awesome accomplishment. But witht he artifact's reassembly, all of Xin's old magics activated again, including the Reliquary. Now corrupted and insane, Xin's spirit uses his reliquary and ruined castle to attempt to rebuild his former empire, and shape it in his image. The very last part of the Shattered Star adventure involves going into Xin's citadel, and taking on the Reliquary and his spirit in combat, with the fate of the known world at stake.
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Despite being horrible creatures that live in filth, Otyughs perform a valuable service by eating dung and refuse. Of course, they also eat live prey, such as people, but that's something you just have to deal with.
The legions of heaven's army are populated byt he fiery Angels of Valor, whose wrathful justice burn across the land.
Something lives in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. What is it?
Sightings of the Jersey Devil are honestly more common than Bigfoot, but they are so strange and surreal that they defy all explanation!
The Crawling Chaos, the God of a Thousand Forms, Nyarlathotep is the most...personable... of the Great Old Ones. He has many names and many masks, some chaotic, some totally human, One of the shapes that straddles this line is "The Black Man." Don't take it as racism! The Black Man's skin isn't African, it's as dark as coal (this figure was apparently made by colorblind people), and his features do not match. He also has the feet of a goat, and appears often to worshippers - it's not an entirely human form liek the Pharoah or Mr. Skin.
Nyarlathotep actively enjoys serving and causing chaos, making him almost a Trickster or a devil character. He ultimately serves Azathoth, the greatest, oldest, and worst of the Outer Gods, but often Nyarlathotep's schemes seem to be entirely his own.
He calls forth the living flame.
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I know they look just like orangutans, but Bar-Lguras are demons that are nearly as mean as the average orangutan! Bar-Lguras are also known as "Abduction demons" becaus ekidnapping is their favorite activity - either through teleportation magic or just by grabbin' someone and swinging away!
You know, sometimes I think D&D designers got a little lazy. But then I enjoy the monsters anyway.
Some undead monsters make you question your sanity.
Boneclaws are more than mere undead - these gigantic dessicated corpses are intelligent, and have claws that can extend for up to twenty feet. Moreso, when you reconcile their various pieces of lore in D&D canon... they are natural. A natural mutation, or perhaps evolution of undead creatures. Necromancers have managed to replicate the effect and create their own, but... Boneclaws are a natural occurance. Be terrified.
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