"It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped with formidable talons. After it came another paw, and after that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes shone, and the head of the awakened gug sentry, large as a barrel, wabbled into view. The eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded by bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth had great yellow fangs and ran from the top to the bottom of the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally."

-H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"

Gugs are ancient giants that dwell in the dark places of the world, banished there by the Great Old Ones. Their cities in the Dreamlands are vast, terrifying, inhuman even in their architecture. The Tower of Koth in the center of their city has a staircase that leads all the way to the surface, but is locked with a door that no Gug can open. Though nothing keeps the Gugs from ascending that stairway and waiting, silently by the door, waiting for some unwary soul to open the way...

Gem dragons may be "neutral," but they are not to be trifled with.

Among the lowliest of demons, rutterkin are twisted, barely-intelligent baominations.

A smaller type of Beholderkin, the Gauth has fewer eye stalks and fewer eye beams, but is not a pushover by any means. Gauths feed on magic as well as flesh.

Filled to overflowing with chaos energy!

He is older than most civilizations.

Unique among mind flayers, the Pale Illithid is a gifted leader of his kind, a prophet and seer, guiding his people into ever more diabolical schemes.

(Also, he replaced a few light bulbs in his house)

Horned Kalavakus demons are born from the souls of slave drivers, and often keep up their old profession.

Legal proceedings mean that you can't call this guy an "Ent," though he's certainly similar! Treants are guardians of the forest.

You should put your hand in it.

Go ahead, shock it with electricity a little.

Doctors were a little less advanced back in the old days. But this is a modern orc doctor. BEWARE!

It doesn't want to fight. it wants to relax and read poetry, preferably with some lemonade to sip.

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.

This denizen of the Abyss is only distantly related to demons. In fact, ebilith spiders hunt down and devour demons when they find them. Yes, these giant hell spiders are higher up on the food chain than demons. This is not very comforting.

Bahamut is only as large as the mortal dragon!

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These holy creatures shimmer as they glide in the sky. Even merely seeing one is good luck.

My first finished product with knitting Magic the Gathering mana symbols. I was just experimenting originally but I decided to keep going and make myself a little bag to carry my cards to and from our local game store. Thanks to everyone that gave me advice on my blog about knitting with two colors! It really helped!

A bizarre hybrid of Mimic and Roper, they can spit acidic globs of saliva.

Don't be fooled by their docile appearance. Arcanoloths are just as dangerous as any other Yugoloths.

Harsh life in the mountains has trained them to be better-organized than their chaotic, tribal brethren.

Trolls... come in different shapes and sizes.

Horrific among undead and fiends, the Soul Gorger nourishes itself on the spirits of its victims!

Within the Hall of Nightmares, the Pillar sees all.

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.”

Two-headed giants have trouble agreeing on waht to do, but they sure are destructive when they do!

Yes, even elves make ghosts.

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.

Nike Factory Store

7000 Arundel Mills Circle, Suites 384-372A, Arundel Mills, Hanover, MD

This location opened in 2009.

Space 384 was originally Wizards of the Coast, which opened on November 17th, 2000 and closed in the mid 2000s.

Space 372 was originally part of Fuzio Universal Pasta, which opened on December 31st, 2001 and closed in the mid 2000s.

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.

It's sometimes hard to remember that Demogorgon is essentially a kaiju.

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Malevolent spirits of ash smoke and fire, volcano ghosts quietly build up pressure in anticipation of the next violent eruption.

It feds off the terror in your dreams.

Not a Hobbit!

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These creatures, created to destroy gods, reflect back half of the damage of all magic used on them.

It's a two-headed giant shaman!

Chief of the Crookedtoe Goblin tribe, Zusgut loves the theater, strangely enough.

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.

Azer are essentially fiery dwarves. This first mini was the wrong size, had a twisted hammer, and... nice try.

Fire after death.

The Blood War's soldiers are well-armed.

Ever notice how humans don't get subraces the way others do?

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This rendition of Pathfinder trolls looks much different than any other rendition.

Zuhra Aponavicius is no mere Marilith. She is one of the two most powerful warlords of the Worldwound, a land bridging the gap between the world and Hell itself. Brutal and vicious even by Marlith standards, she guards her citadel at Drezen with six iron fists!

The hideous slavers of the universe, Neogi patrol known space to look for more thralls to sell!

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!