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The first Vrock mini (plastic, pre-painted) was from all the way back in 2004! And it was on all fours, reflecting the demon's bestial nature. It also had some interesting, stretched proportions, making it look more like a nightmare than a strict vulture.
The polar opposite of the Fire Archon (hahahaha), Ice Archons are pretty good with those hammers of theirs. As far as elemental rank-and-file troops go, they have the advantage of an actual solid body! It's between them or earth archons for that role, really. This is also the second elemental archon figure we got after the fire one.
The original eye tyrant, the Beholder monster was invented in 1975 by Terry Kuntz for a module, and has since then become THE iconic face of Dungeons & Dragons.
A Beholder is a vicious, evil, cruel, intelligent aberrant monster. Its central eye cancels all opposing magic, and its tiny eyes each fire a different type of ray - it might burn, petrify, wither, or disintegrate you with just a glance! Every Beholder looks different, as some are leathery, some are armor plated, some are lumpy... but each and every one thinks that it looks perfect, and all others are inferior. Beholders don't get along very well.
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“D’ye ken the tale o’ Whalebone Pilk? They say he took the whaler Belle Dame to sea from Magnimar. Sich was his success tha’ they called ‘im Whalebone fer leavin’ naught else behind, an’ they called ‘is ship th’ Bell, fer the way he rang it with such furor ever’ time ‘e seen a whale’s spout. Pilk chased a pod o’ bowheads off th’ shoulder o’Hermea, headin’ south. Beat ‘is knuckles bloody ringin’ that bell, chased ‘em out t’ sea an’ away from th’ world, ‘til th’ crew mutinied. Ol’ Pilk had th’ ringleader tied t’ th’ mast an’ ordered th’ mate t’ lash ‘im s’long’s the Cap’n kept ringin’ th’ bell. The mate’s arm gave out afore Pilk’s did. Once the mutineer was dead, Pilk had ‘im skinned an’ rendered inna try-pot, an’ nailed ‘is skull t’ th’ mainmast as a warnin’. Weren’t long after when a huge bull bowhead rammed th’ ship an breached ‘er hull. Pilk cursed th’ whales and cursed ‘is men and kept right on ringin’ that bell all the way down ter the sea bottom, two thousand miles from land. They say ‘e kin ne’er rest ‘til e’s taken th’ skulls o’ a thousand victims.”
Celestial rivals of angels listed in D&D's Book of Exalted Deeds ("for mature audiences only," for some reason. Must be all that rampant religion.), the Asura behave kind of like traditional Greek Erinyes - they seek out and fulfill debts or chase down fugitives, burning pretty much everything in their wake. Hilariously, the art shows them as blue, the mini is blue... and the description in the book says white skin. I'll go with blue, it clashes with orange nicely.
Malevolent spirits of ash smoke and fire, volcano ghosts quietly build up pressure in anticipation of the next violent eruption.
the Dragonlance setting (world of Krynn) did a lot of thigns differently from standard D&D. Clerical magic was a rarity, dragons no longer had certain defining physical characteristics, there were no orcs... and draconians were everywhere! Evil dragon-man hybrids (predating those Dragonborn), each kind of Draconian has its own specialty and silly way of dying (like turning to stone or exploding). Sivaks are BIG, and can change their shape - when they die, they either turn into their killer, or burst into flames depending on whether they are male or female.
Hilariously (and maybe coincidentally, maybe not), this figure looks exactly like one of the stage bosses in the Capcom arcade beat 'em up, The King of Dragons (The "Ancient Dragonian"). Even got the same sword.
The indisputed king of evil chromatic dragons, Red Dragons are classic money-hoarding fire-breathers, and the most "normal" of D&D dragons. And they are vicious. really vicious.
The Dark Young of Shub Nig... Shub-Nigg.... Shub-ni... Shub.... GAAAAAH! Okay, 'll just say it.
Shub-Niggurath.
See? It's not spelled like the bad word! Don't LOOK at me like that! Yes, I know H. P. Lovecraft had some ethnicity issues, but really, he had issues with everybody (including his own white folks), and I don't think this one was a direct slur. It's just an unfortunate name.
Anyway, this is the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath. There are thousands of them. I'm going to quote Robert Bloch on this one:
"Something black in the road, something that wasn't a tree. Something big and black and ropy, just squatting there, waiting, with ropy arms squirming and reaching... It came crawling up the hillside... and it was the black thing of my dreams -- that black, ropy, slimy jelly tree-thing out of the woods. It crawled up and it flowed up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms."
-Robert Bloch, "Notebook Found in a Deserted House"
Vicious holy avengers, Asura work as a strike force from heaven - they come down in a glorious blaze, scorch evil, and leave just as quickly as they came!
Of the various kinds of were-beasts out there, Weresharks are the best-suited for life on the high seas. They are dangerous both above the water and below!
Sahuagin, or Sea Devils, are a vicious race of fish-men! And I think they're awesome... but you don't want to meet one.
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After a while, you might fall under the mistaken impression that ogres are goofy and not to be taken seriously. That impression will be rectified.
I've already written tons of stuff about Oni. But in DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS...
...Oni were originally just called Oni, but then de-asianized into "ogre Mages" for most of D&D's history, even though they are not really ogres. Then 4th Edition brought them back to their roots by calling them Oni... and making more types based on different kinds of Oni and yokai. The vanilla type is now an Oni Mage or an Oni Ogre Mage, to try to stem confusion a little bit.
Also, this guy is a better-looking Blue Oni than the pic I labelled as such. Crazy world, isn't it?
Many of D&D's greatest villains are liches, and it's no wonder why - when a sorcerer is so obsessed with staying alive that he is willing to become an undead abomination to do so, then what ELSE could he be capable of?
Nothics are CRAAAAZY!
Weird little one-eyed aberration-things from the depths of who-knows-where, Nothics specialize in a surprising variety of gaze attacks with that one eye of theirs. They can hurt ya by looking at ya! Some Nothics eventually graduate to work for Vecna, of all people, which seems to imply a tiny bit more intelligence than one would expect.
Oh yeah, ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: The paint for their eyes scratches and scuffs REALLY EASILY. If you get one of these minis, treat it with care. Or paint a glaze over the eye. It is the most-scuffable piece of paint that I know of.
Naztharune Rakshasas are the rogues and assassins of their race, resembling panthers more than tigers. They have their own agendas, and thankfully look DIFFERENT from the other breeds of Rakshasa. And they are playable.
Before D&D minis, there were... oh, wait. D&D had minis since the 1970s. OKAY. Before the D&D minis I've been photographing, there was a toyline from LJN toys! The Roper, a monster resembling a stalagmite with tentacles, instead became kind of a bug-worm monster. When I was little, I'd flatten out his limbs and pretend like he was a key of some sort. A MONSTER key!
Yeah, I've had this guy for a while now. Long before I even knew what D&D was (And even then, I didn't know this was a D&D monster until about 2002 or so)!
Here, enjoy three select readings from The Dunwich Horror:
***
There was a pandemonium of questioning, and only Henry Wheeler thought to rescue the fallen telescope and wipe it clean of mud. Curtis was past all coherence, and even isolated replies were almost too much for him.
'Bigger'n a barn... all made o' squirmin' ropes... hull thing sort o' shaped like a hen's egg bigger'n anything with dozens o' legs like hogs-heads that haff shut up when they step... nothin' solid abaout it - all like jelly, an' made o' sep'rit wrigglin' ropes pushed clost together... great bulgin' eyes all over it... ten or twenty maouths or trunks a-stickin' aout all along the sides, big as stove-pipes an all a-tossin' an openin' an' shuttin'... all grey, with kinder blue or purple rings... an' Gawd it Heaven - that haff face on top...'
This final memory, whatever it was, proved too much for poor Curtis; and he collapsed completely before he could say more.
***
'The thing has gone for ever,' Armitage said. 'It has been split up into what it was originally made of, and can never exist again. It was an impossibility in a normal world. Only the least fraction was really matter in any sense we know. It was like its father - and most of it has gone back to him in some vague realm or dimension outside our material universe; some vague abyss out of which only the most accursed rites of human blasphemy could ever have called him for a moment on the hills.'
There was a brief silence, and in that pause the scattered senses of poor Curtis Whateley began to knit back into a sort of continuity; so that he put his hands to his head with a moan. Memory seemed to pick itself up where it had left off, and the horror of the sight that had prostrated him burst in upon him again.
'Oh, oh, my Gawd, that haff face - that haff face on top of it... that face with the red eyes an' crinkly albino hair, an' no chin, like the Whateleys... It was a octopus, centipede, spider kind o' thing, but they was a haff-shaped man's face on top of it, an' it looked like Wizard Whateley's, only it was yards an' yards acrost....'
***
Armitage chose his words very carefully.
'It was - well, it was mostly a kind of force that doesn't belong in our part of space; a kind of force that acts and grows and shapes itself by other laws than those of our sort of Nature. We have no business calling in such things from outside, and only very wicked people and very wicked cults ever try to. There was some of it in Wilbur Whateley himself - enough to make a devil and a precocious monster of him, and to make his passing out a pretty terrible sight. I'm going to burn his accursed diary, and if you men are wise you'll dynamite that altar-stone up there, and pull down all the rings of standing stones on the other hills. Things like that brought down the beings those Whateleys were so fond of - the beings they were going to let in tangibly to wipe out the human race and drag the earth off to some nameless place for some nameless purpose.
'But as to this thing we've just sent back - the Whateleys raised it for a terrible part in the doings that were to come. It grew fast and big from the same reason that Wilbur grew fast and big - but it beat him because it had a greater share of the outsideness in it. You needn't ask how Wilbur called it out of the air. He didn't call it out. It was his twin brother, but it looked more like the father than he did.'
Count Strahd von Zarovich is D&D's Dracula. Ruler of Barovia, he owns and resides in part of Ravenloft, a plane of doom and horror (D&D's horror setting!). He has starred in novels, fought in crossovers (including against Lord Soth), and a painting of him got adapted into Castlevania art. So yeah, he's kind of a big deal as far as D&D villains go.
Rudolf von Richten is D&D's Abraham van Helsing. Although since this is D&D, he's not an old professor-mentor, he's an old professor-mentor who can kick ass! His background is needlessly convoluted, but it can be summarized as such: Bad things happened ot him, so he wrote the book on vampire hunting. And he's gonna take down Strahd somehow. Someday.
For my final Halloween post, let's look at the OTHER most famous lich D&D villain, Acererak.
Remember my little take on the Tomb of Horrors? If not, then read this: www.flickr.com/photos/74529773@N07/7987254648/
Acererak is the demilich who created the Tomb. This is the guy with the worst sense of humor ever. This is the monster responsible for more D&D deaths than anything else. HERE HE IS, READY TO STEAL YOUR SOUL!
Some fun info on Acererak - in two editions, he has twice had schemes to create new planes, rule planes, or become a god. Hey, he's a Vecna fanboy, what can I say? Actually, wait, he used to work for Vecna, so yes, yes he is. BUT ANYWAY.
He's a cambion - his dad was actually a Balor! Acererak has been a pretty significant baddie for long before he became undead, and in fact one module has the heroic party time-travelling to stop one of his ancient schemes. And inadvertantly helping him become a lich. oops!
Most recently, you can find some direct 4th Edition conversions of the Tomb of Horrors (the one my group went through was hilariously fun and lethal), but there's also an extra-special SUPERADVENTURE set after the Tomb is "defeated." In that one, you find other shrines, corrupted sites, and temples influenced by a certain demilich - all linked together into a massive scheme to sap the power of dead gods (including Nerull, the murdered god of murder) and become one himself in a new, massive "God-Golem" body. And if he is beaten then, a final showdown takes place in the ruins of the old Tomb, complete with artifacts of the spent and broken traps...
...But ya know, I still love his classic old self, just sitting on a shelf and waiting for idiots to try to touch him.
(And I think the next time I make one, I'm gonna use pins to anchor those tooth-diamonds in place.)
(Psssst... five minutes with those skulls from Walgreens, rhinestones, and superglue)
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I love it when D&D co-opts something from ancient mythology, and keeps it close enough for me to babble on about!
Marids were present in pre and post-islamic Arabia, as incredibly powerful aquatic djinni. Yes, they can provide wishes, but they are very hard to catch, especially since they live in the seas and oceans.
In D&D, Marids are aquatic djinni. Same deal, just game-ized! And yes, ladies, enjoy the view. Sexy, sexy extraplanar aquatic aliens.
(By the way, I need some good water terrain. The log and puddle just doesn't do it for some of these guys.)
Drowned corpses sometimes return as intelligent aquatic ghouls. An Elder Brykolakas is especially dangerous.
Wisest and most noble among dragons, an Elder Gold will spend his life protecting the innocent and punishing the wicked. Of course, this means that you've got to be innocent, otherwise he just might fry you...
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The Nightgaunts attack from the shadows, using their barbed tails to "Tickle" victims into submission. And by tickle, I mean murder. And by submission, I mean death.
Medieval Fantasy has robots. Deal with it. Although this guy looks perfect for Eberron, Corpheus was in fact created for the Mage Knight game. A rogue creation of the Atlantis guild, this golem has RANGE. Bounding back and forth, spewing flaming death on the battlefield, he combines the fiercest aspects of Atlantean magical technology and the Black Powder Rebels, as well.
Originally a special one-of-a-kind dragon-man, Kuyutha got absorbed into the Dragonborn race recently (though he's twice their size and has wings). Bahamut's most loyal servant, Kuyutha is beyond any priest or paladin, a holy general in the dragon-god's war against evil.
The first Umber Hulk mini was aprt of the first D&D miniatures set, and thus cost a hilariously large amount on the secondary market. Until they remade it, of course.
It's Halloween, so how does a house-sized werewolf sound to you?
I think it'll take more than one silver bullet to bring this monster down...
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These odd constructs are created using unearthly metals and the shattered souls of elemental spiris. They are insane, and often share one consciousness among three bodies.
When a Green Dragon grows up, it gains quite a bit of size and ferocity, soon beginning to resemble a classic dragon of yore.
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.
It's only logical. Scimitar-wielding skeletons are wizard-standard since The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, so somebody was bound to find a way to improve on the design! The four-armed skeletal Tomb Guardians are less like swordfighting guards and more like bony blenders, though. You don't want to duel one without help or ranged support.
This is technically a Drider... actually, no, it's worse. Her,e let me explain this: You've got Drow, the dark elves. Sometimes Drow get mutated into Driders, which are half-spider. Something else that Drow do is breed Draegloths - horrible half-fiend mutant abominations spawned from a union between a Drow female and a Glabrezu demon. When you combine all of those, you get a Draegloth Abomination - a titanic monster combining spider and Draegloth. It's mean, it's savage, and it's the size of an elephant.
Some people selectively breed dogs into poodles. Others do this.
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And here is a monster who goes limp and fools adventurers into thinking that he is a cloak, so he can eat them when they try to wear him.
Evidently, most adventurers are blind.
The biggest, baddest, and toughest of the Devils, Pit Fiends ruthless commanders, magical powerhouses, physical juggernauts, and tactical geniuses. You won't just get torn apart or burned with hellfire when you face, one, he'll out-think your every move and show you just what Hell is.
Lord of the Fire Giants, King Snurre Ironbelly rules with his qife, Queen Frumpy, and was one of the first big major named baddies in Dungeons & Dragons, hailing from the Against the Giants module. This adventure ultimately led to the first appearance of the drow, too!
There isn't much more to Snurre than that, though it earned him a mini!
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-"Ozymandias," Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818
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Originally shapeshifting snake-people from Hindu mythology, D&D nagas ended up as one of many snake-type creatures. SO, to make it unique, it's a snake with a person's face. most are neutral, many are good and holy, and a few are rather evil or dangerous. I think this one is supposed to be friendly.
A cruel sub-race of dwarves that once made a deal with devils, Duergar are ashy gray or coal-black, and their beards vary from white to red. Some of them who exhibit more of an infernal heritage actually grow quills in their beards. They live underground in groups ranging from tribes to cities, often only emerging on the surface world to find more slaves. Their relationships with other Underdark races, such as the Drow, are kind of so-so. Sometimes they get along, but most often there is WAR.
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The skull does not make this phantom any more solid than its brethren. only creepier.
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