CARRION CRAWLER

CARRION CRAWLER

“Carrion crawlers strongly resemble a cross between a giant green cutworm and a huge cephalopod. They are usually found only in subterranean areas. A carrion crawler moves quite rapidly on its multiple legs despite its bulk, and a wall or ceiling is as easily traveled as a floor, for each of the beast's feet are equipped with sharp claws which hold it fast. The head is equipped with 8 tentacles which flail at prey;”

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual

MONGRELFOLK

MONGRELFOLK

"They are a mixture of many different creatures, each mongrelman having possibly the blood of humans, orcs, gnolls, ogres, dwarves, hobgoblins, bugbears, elves, bullywugs and others flowing through his or her veins."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

CATOBLEPAS

CATOBLEPAS
"This nightmare creature is loathsome beyond description and has no redeeming features. Its body resembles that of a huge, bloated buffalo and gives off an offensive odor. The catoblepas' neck is long and thin, and perched atop it is a big head uglier than that of a warthog. Its legs are thick and stumpy, much like a hippopotamus. The creature's tail is strong and snakey, however, and moves with amazing swiftness to strike enemies. The gaze of the catoblepas is equal to a death ray, extending 6" from the eyes (even into the astral and ethereal planes). Any creature which meets this gaze dies without any chance to save itself."
Gary Gygax, Monster Manual

KOBOLD

KOBOLD

"The hide of kabolds runs from very dark rusty brawn to a rusty black. They have no hair. Their eyes are reddish and their small horns are tan to white. They favor red or orange garb. Kobolds live for up to 135 years."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual

SPIDER-HORSE

SPIDER-HORSE

“Spider-horses, as the name suggests, are magical crossbreeds of a riding horse and a giant spider. The body is primarily horse-like, although a spidery abdomen, complete with spinnerets, sticks out at the end. Four of the spider-horse’s legs are horse-like, down to the hooves, while four more spider-like legs grow out of the horse body. The spider legs are situated between the front and rear horse legs. The head is equine in nature except for the eight eyes which are compound.”

Johnathan M. Richards, Dragon Magazine #243

WOLF-IN-SHEEP'S-CLOTHING

WOLF-IN-SHEEP'S-CLOTHING

"This predator comes from the same planet that the abundant rabbitoids seen all over the level come from. It has developed a fleshy growth atop its body which exactly duplicates one of these harmless herbivores, and it wiggles and displays this bait to lure others of this kind - or creatures which prey upon them - to it. The wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing has likewise adapted its body form to resemble a tree stump, while its mobile and grasping tentacle roots appear to be nothing more than gnarled tree roots, and its eyestalks appear to be vines or plant growths. The rabbitoid lure will seem to look at approaching creatures, and then crouch and “freeze” in order to pass unnoticed. When prey comes to within 8'-10' of the creature, the root tentacles will strike to grab, crush, and draw prey to the maw."

Gary Gygax, Expedition To the Barrier Peaks

THOUGHT EATER

THOUGHT EATER

These monsters are basically unintelligent dwellers in the ether. Their senses, however, extend into the physical plane, and any psionic or psionic-related energy use in either area will attract their attention. The thought eater appears to be something like a sickly grey, skeletal-bodied, enormous headed platypus to those who are able to observe it. Its webbed paws allow it to swim through the ether. It can be attacked only by ethereal creatures. Its only desire is to feed on the mental energy of prey it is attracted to, and if it comes within 6" of any creature in the ethereal or physical planes it will be able to absorb any psionic or spell energy they attempt to use; at a range of 1" the thought eater is able to begin feeding on the actual thoughts of even non-psionic creatures. 
Gary Gygax & Brian Blume, Eldritch Wizardry

EYEWING

EYEWING
"Three hideous creatures soar through the clouds about 100 feet overhead. Their bodies are oval balls of matted black fur about 5 feet wide dominated by a single, bulging 4-foot-wide eyeball. The eyeball is black with a blood-red pupil that continually leaks bluish fluid. Leathery bat wings, each 5 feet long, extend from their bodies. Each wing ends in three razor-sharp talons. An 8-foot rat’s tail hangs limply below. These are eyewings, evil servitors of Artha, scouting the city for victims."
Rick Swan, Dragonlance: Dragon Magic

"Eyewings are loathsome inhabitants of the Abyss. They are obedient, loyal, and dumb -- perfect servitors for the dark gods and their more powerful minions.

An eyewing's body is a fat, egg-shaped ball covered with matted black fur. The 5-foot-wide body is supported by a pair of five-foot-long leathery bat wings. Each wing is tipped with a set of three razor-sharp talons. An 8-foot-long rat's tail dangles from the back of the body. The tail ends in a small, sharp spur. It has no feet and has never been known to land.

The body is dominated by the single, bulging, 4-foot-wide eyeball. The eyeball is black with a blood-red pupil. A vile blue fluid continuously leaks from the eye, soiling its fur. Great leathery eyelids squeeze this fluid out and away from the creature. The stench is unbelievable. It gives off an acidic smell that scorches the sensitive tissues in other creatures' noses and mouths."

Mike Breault & Kim Mohan editors, Monstrous Compendium Volume II

YOCHLOL

 

YOCHLOL

A yochlol must materialize to do physical damage. The form taken can be an amorphous column with 8 pseudopods, the form of a giant spider, or that of a beautiful human or elf. In humanoid form, a yochlol can use its psionic abilities as if it were a 6th-level fighter. In spider form, it conforms in all but armor class and psionics to the specifications of a giant spider. In its natural amorphous form, it can use psionics or attack with its 8 pseudopods, 1 blow from which does 5-8 points of damage, as the strength of a yochlol is effectively equal to 18/50.
Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

GIANT VAMPIRE FROG

GIANT VAMPIRE FROG 

“The giant vampire frog is a particularly noxious reptile which grows to weights of up to thirty pounds. Its bile-green body is covered with mucous and two transluscent membranes of slimy tissue connect its fore and rear limbs, enabling it to glide from treetop perches much as does a flying squirrel. Its forelims are fingered with small claws which enable the vampire frog to climb and to hold prey, and it possesses two large front teeth - each up to three inches long, sharp as needles.” 

Alan Fomorin, Dragon Magazine #50

DHOLE/DOEL/BHOLE

DHOLE/DOEL/BHOLE

 "Below him the ground was festering with gigantic Dholes, and even as he looked, one reared up several hundred feet and leveled a bleached, viscous end at him." 

H. P. Lovecraft & E. Hoffmann Price, Through the Gates of the Silver Key 

"Now Carter knew from a certain source that he was in the vale of Pnath, where crawl and burrow the enormous bholes; but he did not know what to expect, because no one has ever seen a bhole, or even guessed what such a thing may be like. Bholes are known only by dim rumour from the rustling they make amongst mountains of bones and the slimy touch they have when they wriggle past one. They cannot be seen because they creep only in the dark." 

H. P. Lovecraft, Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath

VENUSIAN

 VENUSIAN
"I reached the main landing on Venus March 18, terrestrial time; VI, 9 of the planet’s calendar. Being put in the main group under Miller, I received my equipment—watch tuned to Venus’s slightly quicker rotation—and went through the usual mask drill. After two days I was pronounced fit for duty."

"I doubt if they even have a real language—all the talk about psychological communication through those tentacles down their chests strikes me as bunk. What misleads people is their upright posture; just an accidental physical resemblance to terrestrial man."

"When they drew nearer they seemed less truly reptilian—only the flat head and the green, slimy, frog-like skin carrying out the idea. They walked erect on their odd, thick stumps, and their suction-discs made curious noises in the mud."

H.P. Lovecraft & Kenneth J. Sterling, In the Walls Of Eryx

SPAWN OF CTHULHU

SPAWN OF CTHULHU 

"Another race - a land race of beings shaped like octopi and probably corresponding to fabulous prehuman spawn of Cthulhu - soon began filtering down from cosmic infinity and precipitated a -monstrous war which for a time drove the Old Ones wholly back to the sea - a colossal blow in view of the increasing land settlements." 

H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains Of Madness

VOONITH

VOONITH

"And all through the night a voonith howled distantly from the shore of some hidden pool, but Carter felt no fear of that amphibious terror, since he had been told with certainty that not one of them dares even approach the slope of Ngranek."

H.P. Lovecraft, Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath

CROCODILE-HEADED BEAST

CROCODILE-HEADED BEAST

“And God! The shapes of nightmare that float around in that perpetual daemon twilight! The blasphemies that lurk and leer and hold a Witches’ Sabbat with that woman as a high-priestess! The black shaggy entities that are not quite goats—the crocodile-headed beast with three legs and a dorsal row of tentacles—and the flat-nosed aegipans dancing in a pattern that Egypt’s priests knew and called accursed."

H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, Medusa's Coil

BUBBLE CREATURE

BUBBLE CREATURE
"Two of the less irrelevantly moving things - a rather large congeries of iridescent, prolately spheroidal bubbles and a very much smaller polyhedron of unknown colours and rapidly shifting surface angles - seemed to take notice of him and follow him about or float ahead as he changed position among the titan prisms, labyrinths, cube-and-plane clusters and quasi-buildings"
H.P. Lovecraft, Dreams In the Witch-House

YADDITHIAN

YADDITHIAN

"Without definite intention he was asking the PRESENCE for access to a dim, fantastic world whose five multi-coloured suns, alien constellations, dizzy black crags, clawed, tapir-snouted denizens, bizarre metal towers, unexplained tunnels, and cryptical floating cylinders had intruded again and again upon his slumbers."

"He was, as many a night before, walking amidst throngs of clawed, snouted beings through the streets of a labyrinth of inexplicably fashioned metal under a blaze of diverse solar colour; and as he looked down he saw that his body was like those of the others—rugose, partly squamous, and curiously articulated in a fashion mainly insect-like yet not without a caricaturish resemblance to the human outline. The Silver Key was still in his grasp—though held by a noxious-looking claw."

H.P. Lovecraft & E. Hoffman Price, Through the Gates Of the Silver Key

FUNGUS BEAST

FUNGUS BEAST 
"I seemed to be looking down from an immense height upon a twilit grotto, knee-deep with filth, where a white-bearded daemon swineherd drove about with his staff a flock of fungous, flabby beasts whose appearance filled me with unutterable loathing." 

"No, no, I tell you, I am not that daemon swineherd in the twilit grotto! It was not Edward Norrys’ fat face on that flabby, fungous thing!"
H.P. Lovecraft, The Rats In the Walls

Y'M-BHI

Y'M-BHI
"These, Gll’-Hthaa-Ynn explained, were what men called the y’m-bhi—organisms which had died, but which had been mechanically reanimated for industrial purposes by means of atomic energy and thought-power."

"Those which most repelled Zamacona were those whose mutilations were greatest; for some were wholly headless, while others had suffered singular and seemingly capricious subtractions, distortions, transpositions, and graftings in various places. The Spaniard could not account for this condition, but Gll’-Hthaa-Ynn made it clear that these were slaves who had been used for the amusement of the people in some of the vast arenas."

H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, The Mound

GYAA-YOTHN

GYAA-YOTHN

"As it is, he merely hinted at the shocking morbidity of these great floundering white things, with black fur on their backs, a rudimentary horn in the centre of their foreheads, and an unmistakable trace of human or anthropoid blood in their flat-nosed, bulging-lipped faces."

"The chief ground for such a supposition was the well-known fact that the vanished inhabitants of Yoth had been quadrupedal."

H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop, The Mound

SQUAT MUSCLED THING

SQUAT MUSCLED THING

"It was squat, not quite reaching Yaw's shoulder, but it bristled with muscles, like a perverse rendering of an Enraged Ingonyama. It snarled at Yaw, its thick lips dripping ichor and revealing blunt, crushing teeth." 
Evan Winter, The Rage Of Dragons