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| Xiuhcoatl sculpture at the British Museum (author's photo) |
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.
Showing posts with label fire monster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fire monster. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2018
Monster Monday: Xiuhcoatl, Aztec Fire Serpent
Today's Monster Monday is the xiuhcoatl, a fire serpent from Aztec mythology. This serpentine dragon has turquoise. Waves of heat ripple around it as it vents steam and breathes fire. When angered, it can charge with lightning speed, striking its target with an explosion of fiery force.
In Aztec mythology, the god Huitzilopochtli used his atlatl to throw xiuhcoatl like lightning-bolt javelin. It was how he killed his sister Coyalxauhqui when she led the Southern Star Gods to war against their pregnant mother. Xiucoatl was also a form of Xiuhtecuhtli - the Turquoise Lord - Aztec god of fire. Xiuhcoatl is the lightning bolt that starts a brushfire in the grasslands, the fire that rains out of a volcanic eruption, and the heat of the sun in the dry season.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Monster Wednesday: Marchosian Hellhound, an Infernal, Flying, Shapeshifting Dog
Today's Monster Wednesday* is the marchosian hellhound, an intelligent flying beast that breathes fire and can shapeshift into an elite infernal soldier.
The beast I have statted up below is loosely based on the demon Marchosias (or Marchocias), the Marquis of Hell. Marchosias comes to us from the great early works of demonology (basically early-modern fanfiction about Hell combined with occult mysticism that some people took too seriously). According to the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, by Johann Weyer in 1577:
The marchosian hellhound has many of the same attributes as Marchosias: lawful evil, canine, winged, serpent-tailed, fire-breathing, shape-changing, etc. These creatures make up Marchosias' thirty legions, and can shift shape back and forth between a heavily-armored infernal legionnaire and a winged hellhound. More powerful than a standard hellhound, more versatile than the giant Nessian hellhound, and far more intelligent than both, the marchosian hellhound naturally makes for a dangerous enemy for any adventuring party.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.
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| Marchosias, from the Dictionnaire Infernal, via Cornell Digital Collections |
Marchocias is a great marquesse, he sheweth himselfe in the shape of a cruell shee woolfe, with a griphens wings, with a serpents taile, and spetting I cannot tell what out of his mouth. When he is in a mans shape, he is an excellent fighter, he answereth all questions trulie, he is faithfull in all the conjurors businesse, he was of the order of dominations, under him are thirtie legions: he hopeth after 1200 yeares to returne to the seventh throne, but he is deceived in that hope.In the Ars Goetia of the Lesser Key of Solomon, a 17th century English grimoire drawing on the Pseudomonarchia as a source, Marchosias is described similarly:
The Thirty-fifth Spirit is Marchosias. He is a Great and Mighty Marquis, appearing at first in the Form of a Wolf having Gryphon’s Wings, and a Serpent’s Tail, and Vomiting Fire out of his mouth. But after a time, at the command of the Exorcist he putteth on the Shape of a Man. And he is a strong fighter. He was of the Order of Dominations. He governeth 30 Legions of Spirits. He told his Chief, who was Solomon, that after 1,200 years he had hopes to return unto the Seventh ThroneMarchosias would certainly be a CR 20+ monster, and given that I have no experience running games at that high of a level (nor do I particularly want to), I decided not to stat that up. Instead, I made a lower-level monster based on Marchosias.
The marchosian hellhound has many of the same attributes as Marchosias: lawful evil, canine, winged, serpent-tailed, fire-breathing, shape-changing, etc. These creatures make up Marchosias' thirty legions, and can shift shape back and forth between a heavily-armored infernal legionnaire and a winged hellhound. More powerful than a standard hellhound, more versatile than the giant Nessian hellhound, and far more intelligent than both, the marchosian hellhound naturally makes for a dangerous enemy for any adventuring party.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.
Monday, January 16, 2017
Monster Monday: Cinder Bat - Wings of Smoke and Fire
"It all started with a sheep, so they say." The old man leaned close to the fire, the flickering orange light throwing his wrinkled visage into stark relief. The children, sensing the beginning of a story, hushed their burbling conversations and turned to face the storyteller. When all they could hear was the crackling of the pine branches in the campfire, the old man continued.
"Farmer Agrup's prize ewe wandered on to Farmer Jenton's land and gave birth to a single little lamb. When Farmer Agrup went a-searching for the ewe the next morning, he saw Jenton leading the ewe back, clutching the newborn lamb to his chest. He said that the lamb rightfully belonged to him, since it was born on his land. Now, this was just another in a long line of disputes between the two farmers. As you may know, when two farmers have plots of land right next to each other, they can find all sorts o' things to fight about. Farmer Agrup took his case to the shire-reeve but he found no justice there. Agrup was known in town as a loner and a drunk - which he was - and a troublemaker - which he... well, he was a bit of that, too. Farmer Jenton, though, had a big family, and was well-liked in town. He often had the shire-reeve over for supper, and so the shire-reeve said that Jenton should keep the lamb.
"That night, Farmer Agrup got very drunk and worked himself into quite a rage. He lit a torch, hopped over the fence, and threw it at Farmer Jenton's house." The old man paused now to throw another log on the fire. Smoke and cinders burst upwards to dance away into the black sky. "When he passed out, it had caught the thatching all ablaze. When he woke up hours later, the whole house was burnt up, Farmer Jenton and his family with it. As he looked on, dumbfounded at what he had done, a charred beam fell into a pile of low embers. It threw up twisting clouds of ash and flame that seemed to take the form of wings.
"Cinder bats! Creatures of smoke and fire, born of arson. When Farmer Agrup cast his torch onto the house, he cast his rage with it. That rage festered in the burning house and mingled with the rage of the dying Farmer Jenton and his family. The ashes gave shape to that rage. Four cinder bats flew across the night sky from the ruins of Farmer Jenton's house to roost in the eaves of Farmer Agrup's. Agrup could only watch as his farm went up in flames. Out of the ashes a dozen more cinder bats burst forth, some flying into the forest, others flying back towards town. The shire-reeve's house. Lucinda's. The Korb family. By morning, they had burnt up half the shire."
A little girl raised her hand to interject. "So, do the cinder bats represent how violence begets violence? Like, the dangers of holding on to anger instead of seeking peaceful conflict resolution?"
The old man shook his head, his eyes never leaving the campfire. "No, my dear, no metaphors here. The cinder bats are very real. I saw them that night."
Today's Monster Monday is the cinder bat, an incorporeal cloud of ash and cinders in the shape of a bat. It breathes fire and sets ablaze everything it touches.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.
"Farmer Agrup's prize ewe wandered on to Farmer Jenton's land and gave birth to a single little lamb. When Farmer Agrup went a-searching for the ewe the next morning, he saw Jenton leading the ewe back, clutching the newborn lamb to his chest. He said that the lamb rightfully belonged to him, since it was born on his land. Now, this was just another in a long line of disputes between the two farmers. As you may know, when two farmers have plots of land right next to each other, they can find all sorts o' things to fight about. Farmer Agrup took his case to the shire-reeve but he found no justice there. Agrup was known in town as a loner and a drunk - which he was - and a troublemaker - which he... well, he was a bit of that, too. Farmer Jenton, though, had a big family, and was well-liked in town. He often had the shire-reeve over for supper, and so the shire-reeve said that Jenton should keep the lamb.
"That night, Farmer Agrup got very drunk and worked himself into quite a rage. He lit a torch, hopped over the fence, and threw it at Farmer Jenton's house." The old man paused now to throw another log on the fire. Smoke and cinders burst upwards to dance away into the black sky. "When he passed out, it had caught the thatching all ablaze. When he woke up hours later, the whole house was burnt up, Farmer Jenton and his family with it. As he looked on, dumbfounded at what he had done, a charred beam fell into a pile of low embers. It threw up twisting clouds of ash and flame that seemed to take the form of wings.
"Cinder bats! Creatures of smoke and fire, born of arson. When Farmer Agrup cast his torch onto the house, he cast his rage with it. That rage festered in the burning house and mingled with the rage of the dying Farmer Jenton and his family. The ashes gave shape to that rage. Four cinder bats flew across the night sky from the ruins of Farmer Jenton's house to roost in the eaves of Farmer Agrup's. Agrup could only watch as his farm went up in flames. Out of the ashes a dozen more cinder bats burst forth, some flying into the forest, others flying back towards town. The shire-reeve's house. Lucinda's. The Korb family. By morning, they had burnt up half the shire."
A little girl raised her hand to interject. "So, do the cinder bats represent how violence begets violence? Like, the dangers of holding on to anger instead of seeking peaceful conflict resolution?"
The old man shook his head, his eyes never leaving the campfire. "No, my dear, no metaphors here. The cinder bats are very real. I saw them that night."
Today's Monster Monday is the cinder bat, an incorporeal cloud of ash and cinders in the shape of a bat. It breathes fire and sets ablaze everything it touches.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Monster Monday: Magmachelon, the Lava Turtle
"There's something! Right there, in the lava lake! Did you see it?" Teleon Ostremachus pointed at where he had seen a mound of rock and glowing orange crystals briefly break the surface of the bubbling lava pool. The other members of the expedition glanced around blankly, trying to see where he was pointing.
"Right there!" he said again, conjuring a glowing pink hand over the molten rock, one finger pointing straight down at the place where the mystery object had breached.
"There's nothing there," said Felten, the expedition's official artist.
"Of course there's nothing there now, but there was!"
"So what are we-" he broke off as the crystaline mound broke the surface again, twenty yards to the left."
"Get it! Getitgetitgetit!"
Gerias, the designated trapper, wove a quick spell, and the thing in the lava was pulled up as if by invisible threads until it hovered five feet or so above the lava's surface. Globs of molten rock ran in slow-motion rivulets down the squirming creature's body, dripping off like thick molasses. When most of the thing's body was free of lava, Gerias encased it in a transparent sphere of force and drew it over to hover in the middle of their makeshift camp. The few straggling drops of lava made a little pool at the bottom of the sphere.
It was Teleon's second research expedition to the Elemental Plane of Fire. His study of the fauna here in the previously ill-documented Black Rock Chaos would make him rich and famous if all went well. So far, he had made contact with a small tribe of azers, observed a subspecies of salamander native to the Chaos, and run afoul of a swarming elemental force he dubbed 'flame sprites'. This creature, though, was entirely unlike anything he had yet read of. Its body was a semi-flattened ovoid with an equatorial ridge, tapering slightly toward the anterior. It seemed covered with a thick, rocky carapace from which protruded glowing orange crystals. Three sets of stiff paddle-like flippers made futile circling motions, searching for purchase, as the beast hung suspended in mid-air. Three chitinous plates at the front served as jaws for a triangular mouth lined with thick, spiky teeth.
Teleon was furiously taking notes in his field journal. "Are you getting all this, Felten?"
The expedition's artist was in a panic. "Umm..." The edges of his sheets of parchment were blackened and curling inwards. "I think I wasn't holding my sketching pages when you cast that protection spell on us."
"Oh figs!" Teleon ripped three pages out of the back of his field journal and thrust them at the artist. "Get drawing!"
"Um, Teleon?" This time it was Gerias, looking worriedly at the sphere of force. The beast was spewing a stream of lava out of its mouth, rapidly filling the force sphere. The molten rock hardened into a black shell on the interior surface of the sphere, obscuring their view of the creature.
Teleon sighed. "Release it, then recapture it. We can't lose this thing!"
Gerias dismissed the capture spells and the semisphere of lava collapsed onto the shelf of pitted black rock. Another jet of lava spewed forth from the creature's mouth, coating Gerias in molten rock. The trapper screamed and fell to the ground, pawing at the patches of sizzling lava clinging to his flesh as the expedition's cleric ran over to aid him. The lava creature glowed brighter, steam venting from its bony plates, then burrowed into the black rock, disappearing from sight.
Teleon swore quietly to himself.
Today's Monster Monday is magmachelon, a turtle-like creature that swims through magma and solid rock and shoots jets of lava out of its mouth.
I made this creature years ago in the game Spore (pictured above), because that game's creature creator was far more entertaining that the actual gameplay. The idea of this lava turtle creature stuck in my head, and now here it is statted up for Pathfinder!
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.
"Right there!" he said again, conjuring a glowing pink hand over the molten rock, one finger pointing straight down at the place where the mystery object had breached.
"There's nothing there," said Felten, the expedition's official artist.
"Of course there's nothing there now, but there was!"
"So what are we-" he broke off as the crystaline mound broke the surface again, twenty yards to the left."
"Get it! Getitgetitgetit!"
Gerias, the designated trapper, wove a quick spell, and the thing in the lava was pulled up as if by invisible threads until it hovered five feet or so above the lava's surface. Globs of molten rock ran in slow-motion rivulets down the squirming creature's body, dripping off like thick molasses. When most of the thing's body was free of lava, Gerias encased it in a transparent sphere of force and drew it over to hover in the middle of their makeshift camp. The few straggling drops of lava made a little pool at the bottom of the sphere.
It was Teleon's second research expedition to the Elemental Plane of Fire. His study of the fauna here in the previously ill-documented Black Rock Chaos would make him rich and famous if all went well. So far, he had made contact with a small tribe of azers, observed a subspecies of salamander native to the Chaos, and run afoul of a swarming elemental force he dubbed 'flame sprites'. This creature, though, was entirely unlike anything he had yet read of. Its body was a semi-flattened ovoid with an equatorial ridge, tapering slightly toward the anterior. It seemed covered with a thick, rocky carapace from which protruded glowing orange crystals. Three sets of stiff paddle-like flippers made futile circling motions, searching for purchase, as the beast hung suspended in mid-air. Three chitinous plates at the front served as jaws for a triangular mouth lined with thick, spiky teeth.
Teleon was furiously taking notes in his field journal. "Are you getting all this, Felten?"
The expedition's artist was in a panic. "Umm..." The edges of his sheets of parchment were blackened and curling inwards. "I think I wasn't holding my sketching pages when you cast that protection spell on us."
"Oh figs!" Teleon ripped three pages out of the back of his field journal and thrust them at the artist. "Get drawing!"
"Um, Teleon?" This time it was Gerias, looking worriedly at the sphere of force. The beast was spewing a stream of lava out of its mouth, rapidly filling the force sphere. The molten rock hardened into a black shell on the interior surface of the sphere, obscuring their view of the creature.
Teleon sighed. "Release it, then recapture it. We can't lose this thing!"
Gerias dismissed the capture spells and the semisphere of lava collapsed onto the shelf of pitted black rock. Another jet of lava spewed forth from the creature's mouth, coating Gerias in molten rock. The trapper screamed and fell to the ground, pawing at the patches of sizzling lava clinging to his flesh as the expedition's cleric ran over to aid him. The lava creature glowed brighter, steam venting from its bony plates, then burrowed into the black rock, disappearing from sight.
Teleon swore quietly to himself.
Today's Monster Monday is magmachelon, a turtle-like creature that swims through magma and solid rock and shoots jets of lava out of its mouth.
I made this creature years ago in the game Spore (pictured above), because that game's creature creator was far more entertaining that the actual gameplay. The idea of this lava turtle creature stuck in my head, and now here it is statted up for Pathfinder!
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Monster Monday: Figgy Pudding - The Holiday Monster that Really Brings It.
'Tis the season for holiday-themed D&D adventures! You've heard of the deadly black pudding, but today's Monster Monday is its lesser-known Christmastime cousin, the Figgy Pudding, a truly terrifying dessert wreathed in alcoholic flames that are sure to fill you with seasonal warmth.
Consider this a preview of next week's post: a short little one-shot Holiday dungeon crawl I'm calling ESCAPE FROM THE LAIR OF THE KRAMPUS!
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2014 Jonah Bomgaars.
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| illustration by Kent Hamilton |
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2014 Jonah Bomgaars.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Monster Monday: Wadjet - Ancient Egyptian Fire Cobra
Last week, d20 Despot received its 10,000th pageview! It was only a few months ago that we got to 5,000 and, as I mentioned in last week's news-post, it was made possible by a reader's post to the RPG section of Reddit. d20 Despot is a labour of love, and I'll keep coming out with new content no matter how many readers I have, but if you want to start seeing illustrated d20 Despot PDFs chock full of bonus content, I'll need a bigger reader-base. And for that, I'm relying on you, my loyal minions! Spread the word all around these glorious interwebs!
Speaking of content, today's Monster Monday entry is the dazzling wadjet, a giant winged cobra straight out of ancient Egyptian legend. Watch out for their poisonous spit and their searing gaze!
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2014 Jonah Bomgaars.
Speaking of content, today's Monster Monday entry is the dazzling wadjet, a giant winged cobra straight out of ancient Egyptian legend. Watch out for their poisonous spit and their searing gaze!
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| via Amentet Neferet |
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