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Invent new monsters and/or revamp preexisting ones

Jordisk said:
Dude, the difference between the original-lore Fae and Lovecraft's Great Old Ones is that the Fae are older stories.
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Adding onto this.
Eldrich is said to be derived from from old english elfriche or in other words the elf kingdom. And given that the 'Elf' is used instead of Fae in some langauges...
 
Bubbles (Extra-terrestial invaders + Bubble Horror)

1) "Bubbles" in actuality is the viscous secretions of an alien species. The species which will be unnamed for now has a near semi-liquid "biology" that enables it to be soaked up by porous material. The individual specimens are small enough to hide within the extremely small pours within concrete, wood, and other types of traditional building materials. The sole exception being solid sheets of metal. Let's just say it has something to do with metal being a suboptimal breeding environment for "Bubbles". Individual specimens can not be detected unless by microscope. However, the colonies formed after several generations of breeding can easily give away their location. These colonies' secretions slowly rise up out of the surfaces of materials, the "bubble" of a colony. These aliens spread out by having an outside force rupturing the "bubble" sending individual specimens outward. However, this is not good for the place they make the colony at, something about the aliens weakening the durability of the material on a microscopic level. This causes the eventual collapse of any structures they infest. Another thing to note is if there is a suitable trigger, it can cause multiple colonies to enter a state of rapid expansion.

2) Imagine a cheap horror movie, one of those old ones were premise is kind of ridiculous.
The first scene is where humans first encounter the "Bubbles". Maybe it's a tunnel inspection crew or a pack of teenagers. So anyway, the humans wander into a infested tunnel system to investigate a recent cave in. What they do not realize is that that was the ground zero of the first "Bubbles" colony on planet Earth. What collapsed was just the first section of a mega colony reaching critical mass, and the rest of the tunnels are not that far off. The movie will continue with the humans slowly realizing that the seemingly random cave-ins is not really all that random. A few minutes later they happen to come across a section filled with "Bubbles" at first they are simply bewildered by the sight. However, one of the group aka the coward, accidentally steps on one of the "Bubbles". It pops with a unusual amount of sound and force causing the coward to freak out. In an mad rush to the exit, while rupturing even more "Bubbles", the structural integrity of the section the rest of the group was standing on to give out. This splits the party into 2-3 groups as they must continue to navigate an abandoned subway system to eventually escape to the surface. Unfortunately, the sound of the coward freaking out seems to have been a signal for all the dormant colonies to go into maximum production. Rapidly accelerating the destabilization of the tunnels. I am also imagining a scene where the coward gets his payback. Where he reaches the entrance only to find that particular section already collapsed, and the camera shifts towards where the coward came, to show a tunnel absolutely covered in the "Bubbles".

The rest of the movie will feature the strength of mankind under pressure (holding up a collapsing roof), the necessity of cooperation (human bridge across partially collapsed tunnel sections), and the dangers of falling rocks. The sequel hook of this hypothetical movie franchise is inspired by my childhood trauma of playing with bubble wands only to get some of the solution in the eyes after the bubbles pop. Midway through the movie, one of the cast gets some of the "Bubble" fluid in their eyes/on their body. The thing is that the humans do not know that the "Bubbles" are aliens, they only know that popping a "Bubble" causes that section to break for some reason. So at the end of the movie unnoticed by the humans, the injured one starts crying bubbles. Essentially, the aliens making the "Bubbles" realized that infecting living hosts can drastically improve the radius of where the they can spread. I imagine the sequel movies lean more into body horror and the psychological trauma caused by the "Bubbles" coming out of your skin.

There is a possible way to survive being infected with the "Bubbles". That is to stick the place where the infection started into boiling water or another source of high heat for a long amount of time. Basically it is a twisted version of "washing your hands". However, sometimes the infection goes too deep or maybe it is in a inconvenient spot on your body, in that case it's game over.
 
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archerofthestars said:
The fae. Historically, and in folklore, they are absolutely terrifying. While they tend to be watered down into almost tinkerbell-esque creatures in most modern depictions, I would love to read a monster story where the protagonist goes against the fae in some way. A lot of them are also scary as hell, so you have ample opportunity to mess around with designs while still staying true to the folklore.
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I think you'd like Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies.

"Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad."
 
Niches in ecosystems are fantastic and I like to think about them even when no one will care about the details.

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FowlWeaver spider

The Araneae Anas also known as the FowlWeaver spider are a recently discovered family of spider species responsible for webbing the feet of birds in the Anatidae family, a family that contains waterfowl like Ducks, Geese and Swans. These spiders have also been observed on the feet of Platypus, but research is still ongoing to determine whether mammalian Weaver spiders belong to the same family as the FowlWeaver

These spiders have long been theorized to be closely related to the spiders Acari Amphibia also known as the Frogfoot spider, but recent genetic testing has cast doubt on this Hypothesis. As the Lineages that have developed their symbiosis with ducks seem to be more closely related to Orbweavers than the species related to the Amphibians that are technically mites that have independently evolved the ability to weave silk in order to web their hosts feet.

In exchange for the privilege of living between the feathers of their host the Fowl Weaver will use it's silk to make warm socks for their hosts that keep the water out and keep help them regulate their temperatures when at freezing temperatures.

The FowlWeaver Spiders have also been observed to have a a different diet from FrogFoot.
FowlWeaver doesn't live on it's hosts blood in contrast to the FrogFoot. Instead they have taken to farming Yeasts and water-fleas in droplets they maintain between the feathers of their hosts and the occasional invasions from other species of Fowlweavers.
The Colour of their hosts coat is largely dependent on the produce that they are farming, The natural collours of Waterfowl would be gray or yellow without these spiders.
There are a rare few instances that farm the FrogFoot spiders these spiders these species almost exclusively live on the more aggressive males who are more likely to hunt frogs. The farmed Frogfoot spiders are the main reason for the iconic green heads of the common Mallard.

Most waterfowl acquire their first FowlWeavers through aggressively cuddling with older members of their species in their teenage years and spend a lot of their preening time to take care of their Symbionts by smearing their urine and feces over their feathers in order to fertilize the FowlWeaver's farms.
 
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Some weird monsters

Fezzlefomps
Giant floating heads missing the top of the scalp, revealing it to be hollow and speckled with lights inside, they do not consume with the mouth on their face but with hole in their head, there is a dark liquid resembling a night sky inside, sloshing around, it occasionally transforms into a mist and conceals the creature when it flies at night
Hanging from where their neck should be are many-jointed long arms with seven fingers, which will pick up prey from below to consume, they can stretch for miles

Reskirs
Small rodents resembling rats with green fur and long pointy ears, they have six insectoid legs, they're weakest when alone
A single Reskir makes small musical squeaks that make people irritable but not violent towards the Reskir, well that's because their vocal cords are magically influencing the minds that hear them
A single Reskir is a harmless annoyance that'll just make you slightly more likely to give someone annoying a insulting remark
A fuck ton of Reskirs will make you murder your family for the slightest annoyance
They're opportunistic, too weak to hunt for themselves, so they make the food prepare itself, having them off eachother feast on the losers

The Jebbit
A creature born from an unholy matrimony between the concept of death and a forest, they made love in a way that I still confused and disgusted by, seriously, it was like watching a rorschach picture made skulls make out with a rorschach picture made of trees
Anyway the Jebbit resembles a grey humanoid with their head replaced with a dying tree, from said tree multiple small animals hang from little nooses
It creates mock-ecosystems out of dead things using its incredible necromantic power, rivers of flowing black rot, bone-beasts killing lesser bone-beasts to add their parts to their body, undead plants producing black light from their bodies using the withered pseudo-souls inside, keeping the other things I listed alive with a strange form of photosynthesis
 
Syringe Gnat

It is a large (index finger size) mosquito-like insect. Its elongated transparent body gives the impression of a syringe made of organic material with a sharp proboscis curved into a spiral. These insects fly almost silently and find their targets via sensing specific electromagnetic field around living organisms, characteristic sounds of breathing and heartbeats. Upon finding a suitable target, usually asleep or otherwise unconscious, they land on the victim head. The proboscis opens, turning into something like a needle. This tool easily enters the head like a ghost, without causing any harm to soft tissues, or the bones of the skull, or the brain itself. At this point, the victim's sleep deepens greatly and the metabolism slows down slightly. Gnats syringe-like body slowly fills with a silver mist that looks like liquid. These are liquid memories. This insect draws out the last memories, keeping their condensate in its body.

When the victim wakes up, their last memories will be hazy, lacking some detail and harder to remember than usual. Typically, a single Syringe Gnat is able to draw up to twenty-four hours of memories from its target within a few minutes before it fills up completely. But the number may be less if the last memories are very vivid or complex. The stolen memories are kept intact for some time, but after a few days they begin to rapidly disintegrate and are absorbed by the mosquito's body as an energy source. A few mosquitoes can completely erase a victim's last memories. Enough of these creatures can begin to exude memories that are days or weeks old. However, their quality will deteriorate and brain damage may occur. It is impossible to draw out too old memories. But with the right tools, the memories taken by mosquitoes can be viewed by someone else.

These magical organisms were created artificially. Therefore, they cannot survive and reproduce on their own in the wild. At least that's how it was thought. Because there was a precedent when an unknown magical effect created a mutated type of these creatures, capable of independently providing themselves with physical food and multiplying.​
Fishtail Parasite

This is a big (almost human sized) aquatic inhabitant, resembling an eyeless fish with a huge round mouth and many tongues inside. It preys primarily on humans, grabbing them by the legs. The creature paralyzes the victim and eats the legs, taking their place. Long tongues permeate the body, connect to the spinal cord and brain stem, provides tissues with oxygen. After a few days, the tail finally fuses with the human body and takes control of it. In the end, a pseudo mermaid is obtained, imitating human behavior and thus luring more people to eat them and feed the parasite. Over time, the body that the parasite attaches to can wear out, become sick, or accumulate injuries. Then the parasite completely eats it up and starts looking for a new host. The creature also can exist on its own, eating small fish.​
Magekiller Chimera

This creature looks like a long big lizard with three pairs of legs, sparse thick bristles between soft scales and a long tongue. The creature is able to crawl along walls, spit poisonous saliva and strike with a long, pointed tongue like a spear or whip. The bristles on the body of the creature react to air currents and vibrations, allowing it to navigate in complete darkness and find targets by the slightest fluctuations in the air. But the most dangerous thing about it is the ability to transfigure one's own body in response to changes in environmental conditions. A chimera is able to instantly acquire metal armor to nullify electric current, or turn scales into stone fur to protect against fire, and many other reactions are available to this creature. No attack can successfully wound the creature twice in the same battle. Together with resistance to direct magical influences, cunning instincts and great speed, this creature turns into a real nightmare to fight. However, one who is cunning enough may find something unintended by defensive transfiguration or switch between different damage types quickly enough to gain an advantage. Or just overwhelm any defense with enough raw power.​
Burping Wyvern

It is a type of dracon the size of a large horse with hard scales of dark wood shades. Forelimbs of this creature are transformed into wings, and there is a drop-down hood on the head. In case of danger or while expressing aggression, the creature opens its hood and hisses loudly, like a snake. Unique feature of this creature can be considered its digestion, which is closely related to hunting and protecting for them. Their stomach is able to transfigure its contents into a gaseous form in order to better mix and digest things that have been eaten. This usually happens in short bursts once a day, during which one can notice a significant increase in the volume of the creature's belly.

However, when threatened or hunting big game, these creatures can regurgitate torrents gaseous food from their stomach. Transformed into gas solids and liquids are well held together as a cloud and quickly return to normal, when a gust of wind or other attempt is made to disperse the cloud. Inhaling the gas is also considered an attempt to disperse the cloud. Therefore, getting into the lungs, the gas quickly turns into what was eaten by the wyvern earlier. The lungs are instantly filled with a mixture of gastric juice, meat, viscera and bits of bone. These creatures love to swallow small bones while eating by the way.​
Shatter Bug

This is a large (half the size of a palm) beautiful beetle with a shade of bone and pearl-shiny shell. The insect is very similar to the scarab and generally not dangerous unless you try to crush it. Immediately upon death, this beetle transfigures nearby living flesh into brittle glass for a few moments. And an object that has received such properties usually has time to break into pieces before turning back into flesh. For example, if one try to crush such a beetle with a stomp, then part of the foot will turn into glass for a moment and then, most likely, it will break on impact. There will be a serious injury afterwards.​
 
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WallFlower said:
Niches in ecosystems are fantastic and I like to think about them even when no one will care about the details.

___
FowlWeaver spider

The Araneae Anas also known as the FowlWeaver spider are a recently discovered family of spider species responsible for webbing the feet of birds in the Anatidae family, a family that contains waterfowl like Ducks, Geese and Swans. These spiders have also been observed on the feet of Platypus, but research is still ongoing to determine whether mammalian Weaver spiders belong to the same family as the FowlWeaver

These spiders have long been theorized to be closely related to the spiders Acari Amphibia also known as the Frogfoot spider, but recent genetic testing has cast doubt on this Hypothesis. As the Lineages that have developed their symbiosis with ducks seem to be more closely related to Orbweavers than the species related to the Amphibians that are technically mites that have independently evolved the ability to weave silk in order to web their hosts feet.

In exchange for the privilege of living between the feathers of their host the Fowl Weaver will use it's silk to make warm socks for their hosts that keep the water out and keep help them regulate their temperatures when at freezing temperatures.

The FowlWeaver Spiders have also been observed to have a a different diet from FrogFoot.
FowlWeaver doesn't live on it's hosts blood in contrast to the FrogFoot. Instead they have taken to farming Yeasts and water-fleas in droplets they maintain between the feathers of their hosts and the occasional invasions from other species of Fowlweavers.
The Colour of their hosts coat is largely dependent on the produce that they are farming, The natural collours of Waterfowl would be gray or yellow without these spiders.
There are a rare few instances that farm the FrogFoot spiders these spiders these species almost exclusively live on the more aggressive males who are more likely to hunt frogs. The farmed Frogfoot spiders are the main reason for the iconic green heads of the common Mallard.

Most waterfowl acquire their first FowlWeavers through aggressively cuddling with older members of their species in their teenage years and spend a lot of their preening time to take care of their Symbionts by smearing their urine and feces over their feathers in order to fertilize the FowlWeaver's farms.
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I don't know that 'the spiders that web the feet of ducks' really fits the brief of this thread, but I am amused by it nonetheless. Very Hitherby Dragons.
 
Parasitic Weave

Separately, this creature looks like a tangled woolen thread. However, it is extremely rare for a given creature to be found separate from some other fiber. This parasite is able to change its color and shape to fit into the structure of fibrous materials. Usually this creature sticks to the thick wool of sheep, merges with it and feeds on the blood of its victim. However, it can also fit well into man-made clothing, replacing some of the fibers and camouflaging itself. The creature will draw out some blood on contact and slowly recycle nearby textile into its own body. Periodically, the creature reproduces via many tiny capsules that easily stick to wool and other fibers. The activity of the parasite causes itching, irritation on skin, and can lead to anemia, immune problems, and even death. Check your woolen clothes, blankets and livestock attentively. These parasites can be very covert and the consequences of their vital activity are extremely unpleasant.​
 
WallFlower said:
This looks interesting, I'm adding it to my reading reading list.
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Glad to be of service!
Andre Chaos said:
Parasitic Weave

Separately, this creature looks like a tangled woolen thread. However, it is extremely rare for a given creature to be found separate from some other fiber. This parasite is able to change its color and shape to fit into the structure of fibrous materials. Usually this creature sticks to the thick wool of sheep, merges with it and feeds on the blood of its victim. However, it can also fit well into man-made clothing, replacing some of the fibers and camouflaging itself. The creature will draw out some blood on contact and slowly recycle nearby textile into its own body. Periodically, the creature reproduces via many tiny capsules that easily stick to wool and other fibers. The activity of the parasite causes itching, irritation on skin, and can lead to anemia, immune problems, and even death. Check your woolen clothes, blankets and livestock attentively. These parasites can be very covert and the consequences of their vital activity are extremely unpleasant.​
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So... boil, bleach, freeze, or just leave to starve for a couple weeks? Alternately, breed a domesticated strain that acts as self-repairing clothing in exchange for feeding it when you wash it.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
So... boil, bleach, freeze, or just leave to starve for a couple weeks? Alternately, breed a domesticated strain that acts as self-repairing clothing in exchange for feeding it when you wash it.
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This creature will not die in a few weeks, much less freeze. It is an immobile parasite. It can live without food for months easily, which isn't all that surprising, really. It is best to boil the infected fibers for a couple of minutes. And also clean it well, because the capsules with which they multiply are much more resistant to environmental influences. However, not every fabric can be boiled without damaging its structure.

Not sure about domesticated strain, but it sounds like an interesting project. I got this idea when I was wearing a wool sweater. Itched a little out of habit.​
 
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Beskernats
The creations of a mad sorceress, their torsos are a furnace, filled with purple fire, said purple has many lizard eyes floating within, their long arms and legs are made of charred twigs
They hunt down holy things and burn them, raiding churches and gatherings, there have been 3 cases where they ate a messiah during a highly organized siege of an afterlife
They can scan things with their burning lizard eyes to determine how holy they are, based on belief, piety according to that belief, and their importance to the deity or whatever force governs said belief
Beskernats are also great at making sloppy joes, that was just a last minute feature added by the sorceress' apprentice

Presi-pirbs
Singing avians with the heads of dead leaders from another world, they're territorial creatures who can erect structures out of nearby material by making complex movements with their claws, you can tell you're at a Presi-pirb nest if you encounter a bunch of small American monuments forming some kind of giant stone nest
Their mostly eat livestock from villages when they're hungry, preferring the taste of cows, pigs, and other domesticated animals, they always leave some of their own behind to guard the nest when hunting of course, meaning many farmers that unfortunately live near these creatures wake up to find their cows impaled by tiny Washington Monuments and gnawed at by Presi-pirbs
They make great guard-animals when domesticated, though it is recommended to train to them to only use specific rocks you should place around the premises as their materials, to avoid lady-liberties sticking out of your walls

Alkon Elkon and Olkon
These 3 siblings are large lizards with 6 eyes, born from the ancient city of Calgora, from the sins of its overly hedonistic inhabitants, born of monstrous and twisted desires
Alkon is purple, and the largest of the siblings, a crown of white fire floats above his head and nailed into his skin are the bejeweled skulls of sorcerer kings who dare not swear fealty to him, he breathes dominance, those that are hit by it will feel weak and utterly powerless, born from Calgora's desire to make all submit
Elkon is yellow, and the smartest of the siblings, some of the scales on his skin were ripped out and replaced with stone tablets of forbidden and his eyes have been modified with Calgorite runes to see in multiple planes at once, he breathes secrets, whispering facts that'll make you bleed from every orifice for hearing them, born from Calgora's desire to learn the secrets of existence, even the worst ones
Olkon is many colours, and the strongest of the siblings, she has grand wings with mesmerizing images upon them of epic fights, and the patterns on her scales change all the time telling many a strange and or wonderful tale, her breathe is katanas, just lots of katanas, so many katanas, born from Calgora's worst sin Anime
 
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Andre Chaos said:
This creature will not die in a few weeks, much less freeze. It is an immobile parasite. It can live without food for months easily, which isn't all that surprising, really. It is best to boil the infected fibers for a couple of minutes. And also clean it well, because the capsules with which they multiply are much more resistant to environmental influences. However, not every fabric can be boiled without damaging its structure.

Not sure about domesticated strain, but it sounds like an interesting project. I got this idea when I was wearing a wool sweater. Itched a little out of habit.​
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It kinda has to be somewhat mobile, or it couldn't spread - and I was basing its' lifespan before starvation on scabies, which die in 48-72 hours. If it can also consume fabric for food, that massively increases its' digestive complexity. Still, it's interesting.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
snip
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For reproduction tiny light capsules are mainly used. In another way, it can spread by giving itself a structure close to fluff and flying with the wind. These creatures are fibrous. The life expectancy I based on bedbugs, which can live without food for very long time. More than a year in the best case scenario. They partially use the fabric in their structure, they can devour it. I'm sure there is some clever way to digest these fibers without complicating digestion too much. Biology is capable of almost anything. Especially speculative one. However, it is worth clarifying that not all fibers can be digested by these creatures. Something made of wool is easy. But some synthetics is another question.

Edit: But I do not really want to delve into the structure of this fictional creature. This idea is for something else. Like, conquerors of the north, who at some point discover that their jackets are out for blood!​
 
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There were a couple monsters I created for a collaborative project a few years back that never got off the ground, but it seems like it might fit here. The writing might be a little overly prose since it was meant to be part of a collection of (fictional) folklore with recurring researchers and regions.

Tiger Lily
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At night, the tiger lily stalks the jungles in the form of a large predatory feline. But when the sun rises, it falls asleep in the form of a field of seemingly ordinary flowers.

In Hinni folklore, the tiger lily is associated with duplicity, playing the villain in many tales. In The Ballad of Brandywine the Brave, Brandywine "cleft [a tiger lily] in twain, revealing a gnarled and knotted bramble beneath it's hauntingly beautiful visage". In modern parlance, a woman may be called a tiger lily if she has a beautiful appearance but a terrible personality.

According to Wizard Willow, it is nearly impossible to determine how many tiger lilies compose a single pride, as their fields often overlap considerably and their mobile forms can vary wildly in size. In traditional Hinni folklore, the first tiger lily was born when the blood of a divine being was spilled across a bed of lilies both imbuing them with life and giving them their distinctive crimson streaks. That same night, the first tiger woke, towering over the trees at night and blanketing the jungle during the day.

A tiger lily's petals may be collected during the day at little risk and are a popular cure-all for a variety of ailments. However, tradition asks for care when harvesting the flowers; in his Meditations, Sage Sidd details the legend of a young man who, overtaken by greed, collected a thousand petals at once. The tiger lily promptly woke up, killed him, and ate him.
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Binaural Squirrel
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The binaural squirrel is a small marsupial which is unfailingly born as a set of twins. Each pair is magically linked and can hear, and will often repeat, sounds heard by its sibling. Aristrangle lauded its usefulness in his History of Animals.

"Truly, there are but few creatures which possess a skill so useful in its simplicity as the cleofian skiouros [an archaic regional name for the binaural squirrel]. Of even temperament and sociable disposition, the creatures are easily tamed and raised by even a child. To hear the voice of a long estranged friend off the tongue of a beast is at first unsettling, but soon becomes a welcome sound.

It's one failing, perhaps, is that it speaks of its own accord, repeating what its brother hears at random, not unlike like a parrot whose ears and mouth are separated by many leagues, though I suspect some degree of training may be applied. In terms of usefulness to the Empire, it may one day rival even that of the sheep and bumbersnout."

As Aristrangle predicted, the binaural squirrel became instrumental to pre-industrial civilization, most notably in warfare and during the Expansionist era.

Their usefulness, however, was brought to a sudden and abrupt halt in the fourth century when the early geneticists discovered that through selective inbreeding, one could produce binaural squirrels which could overhear messages from other members of their bloodline beyond their immediate twins. Within fifty years, espionage attempts and unsanctioned crossbreeding programs had led to a generation so irreparably interconnected that it became a herculean effort to find a pair which were free from the tangled web of sound, and thus their usage fell out of favor.

Recent years, however, have shown a resurgence in the creatures' popularity with small groups of hobbyists who delight in holding cross-country conversations with strangers, even knowing that their discourses are more than likely being repeated countless times throughout forests and the homes of other hobbyists.
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Raalbast
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Through different names, the Raalbast (as named in pre-unification lore) appears in the legends and mythologies of nearly every advanced civilization. Dismissing regional variation, nearly all the legends share the same few recurring features: that the creature is very long, very fast, and never stops moving.

Depictions in Alpagistan ruins call it Ha'amat, a creature which does not run, but grips the ground with such strength that it moves the world to bring its unknown destination toward itself.

Dragon lore claims that it is Ignys Wyrmund, one of the seven First Dragons who was cursed to wander the earth until the end of times, searching for a treasure he can no longer remember and leaving a trail of thick smoke in his wake..

In his Collected Stories of the Ancient Harpy Flocks, Giovanni claims it is a many-legged infernal insect, borne of Tartarus and suckled on fire and iron, which consumes earth and ore as it searches for a mate.

To the Musen tribes, it is a great snake, grandchild of the World Tree, who races around the world consuming yesterdays so its father may reforge them into tomorrows.

It even makes an appearance in part of the classic Eastern fairy tail "Pinecone the Liar", in which the wayward hero is consumed by the beast and finds living within it a thriving a population of lost souls who built a society from the detritus it consumed.
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Perhaps they're more "fantasy creatures" that proper monsters, but better they be shared somewhere than languish forever in an old forgotten gdoc.
 
I like the tiger lilies, although they do seem vulnerable to fire - manmade or otherwise. The Alpagistani description of the train monster is also fun.
 
Bassoe said:
Also, a new idea.

For this monster to manifest requires the following conditions of a pool of water where the surface is smooth enough to be reflective and the bottom cannot be clearly seen, regardless of the actual depth of the water. A puddle contaminated with enough mud to be opaque would do, even if it was only a few inches deep. The monster can be seen below the water, paddling to keep itself in place and banging on the underside of the water's surface like it was a solid piece of some transparent material. Disturbing the water's surface stillness and scattering the reflection disperses the monster, unless the disturbance consisted of exposed flesh touching the water, in which case the monster will be free. For example, tossing a rock into the puddle or stomping on it while wearing boots would drive the monster away, while sticking your hand in there would do the opposite. Once freed, the monster is capable of either grabbing the unfortunate victim who released it, pulling them into the water and submerging while dragging them away with it, never to be seen again, regardless of the water not being deep enough for any of this, or to climb out of the water into the real world.

I've got no credible ideas for how this monster should look, other than that it would have to be amphibious. Likewise for backstory and a name. In all three cases, ideas would be welcome.
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I just found the perfect video for picturing this. Just imagine the mirrors are horizontal and on the floor.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U4WgZsQaMA
 
I had this idea for a certain take on Godlings and D&D-style Warlock pacts;

The God-Machine and The 9 Aeons

Once upon a time (we don't know where and when), someone (who don't know who or why) built the God-Machine (with a powerful reality shard as a key component, committing an extreme ethical violation in the process) which created and now maintains The Nine Aeons. If the God-Machine is ever destroyed or even simply switched off, the Aeons would be disincorporated (turned off) immediately.

Which is a shame, because the reality shard that keeps the God-Machine running is the Ashlar, and having that out of place has caused the world to become unhinged from healthy cosmic rhythms. Thus mana all over reality is prone to occasional "blow outs" of wild chaos surges known as "reality tremblors" and sometimes spawns weird pockets of alternate/retrocreated unreality known as "reality subduction zones."

A full-blown reality quake, a complete upheaval of reality, could only happen if the Ashlar was destroyed, an epic task requiring the tools of truly god-like entities - so it is not happening, we hope.

It is theorized that the God-Machine's design uses a powerful magical ceremony known as The Jonbar Ritual, opening a channel for the world's mana to flow through it and be harvested by the God-Machine's automated mechanisms. Of course, this is all speculation, as no-one has located the damn thing, let alone examined it in detail.

The Nine Aeons are extremely powerful interdimensional magical constructs who have been configured to incarnate and "personify" (if they were anthrophonic in appearance enough, which they mostly aren't) one of the nine Paths of magic each. The Aeons do not have personalities as humans would interpret it - they are so far above humanity's viewpoint on life, the universe and everything that Aeons seem completely oblivious of such things. They have no bias, no egos, no fears...A popular theory is that the Aeons are merely ultra-complex machines operating on a hypergeometric frequency rather than true intelligences.

The Nine Paths are; Body, Chance, Crossroads, Energy, Magic (sometimes referred to as Prime or Meta to avoid confusion with magic in general), Matter, Mind, Undead and Spirit.

The important part is, of course, that the Aeons can help people cast spells according to what Path they represent - if properly attuned to and invoked. If a spell requires two or more Paths, you invoke more than one Aeon at once, of course.
 
Liquid Mimic

Can transform into liquids to blend in. They typically seep into bottles of alcohol or potion vials, then consume them or mix with the substance inside. They then wait in stasis until an unfortunate and careless individual drinks the contents of the vessel without a second thought. Mimics can imitate the flavor, viscosity, and texture of the fluid, making it difficult to detect them until they begin parasitizing and multiplying inside their new host.​
 
Those are all good, they remind me of a blog series based around the idea; "how do all the 8 schools of arcane magic in D&D allow you to become immortal?"

Box Full of Boxes

Gonzo RPG content from someone who can't decide what to run.
boxfullofboxes.blogspot.com boxfullofboxes.blogspot.com

The Necromancy school actually has a sort of improved spin on Liches - you eat souls to halt aging rather become actually undead.
Enchantment; use forced mind uploads to turn other people into a hive mind of your mental copies.
Illusion - go to sleep permanently, create an entire dream world reality to live forever in.
Abjuration - create a personal pocket dimension that you exercise complete control over.
Conjuration - bind yourself to an higher plane of anti-existence.
Evocation - bind yourself to a place of elemental power as a sort of pseudo-nature spirit.
Divination - sever yourself from Fate (with a capital F, the actual force of causality).
Transmutation - become a Beholder.
 
101001101 said:
The Necromancy school actually has a sort of improved spin on Liches - you eat souls to halt aging rather become actually undead.
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Improved how? Vampirism usually lets you eat food and enjoy hugs and so forth, and also gives you unlimited mind control and the ability to survive on a small cult rather than a large city worth of anthropophagy. If you're an evil wizard who's going to rely on Clones for when-killed immortality anyway, that seems like a strict upgrade?
(I know 5E decided that liches are obligate animavores because they wanted liches to be evil, but it's metaphysically squicky and philosophically baffling, since souls are pretty definitionally "the part of a person that outlives death". I'd expect soul-ingestion to be what you do to gain knowledge, becoming ever more haunted - and maybe aging a lot faster/more, if aging is the weight of a more powerful soul. A bit like stackable possession. Alternately, consuming lives could give you instant revives, including when you die of old age. That might make sense for a Diviner or a Conjurer, actually.)

...

The point of liches, to me, is that they've hidden the thing they live for. That can be as simple as the desire to avoid death, so they hide and guard that death so it may never approach them - but they're fundamentally a sort of self-made haunting, and their heart should tell you something important about them.

I know Rowling isn't terribly popular at the moment, and quite possibly didn't invent the idea either, but giving a lich multiple 'hearts' is a great way to make a long-term villain. Seven is probably too many for most - I don't think most villains have 7+ strong emotional beats that can be told well through found objects - but three or four seems like it'd work well.
 
Well, vampires are famously slain by sunlight. Notice how that's a huge weakness?

Meanwhile, the "True Liches" described in the blog article are already epic level necromancers, so they can probably give you advantages just as dangerous what powers proper vampires have.

But for powers specific to True Liches, you get the "full blush of life" so you don't get any emotional-physical issues you get with an undead body. They can also, with stolen souls, "extend their lifespan indefinitely, [and] also control their apparent age, heal themselves, interrogate the souls of those they have slain, or to resurrect themselves from all but the most dire of demises." They do not need to eat, sleep, drink, or rest in any way. Turn Undead and death spells do not affect them. They are able to endure crippling injuries such as decapitation, dismemberment, or conflagration. And killing them requires even more damage than any human could sustain.

Other soul-powered abilities they have; cast any necromantic spells they know without the usual costs or preparations, succeed at a failed save, create a revenant simulacrum of a soul they have but haven't eaten to act as a minion for a time…

The big drawback is a semi-addiction to eating souls. They also age if they go without eating fresh souls for a while, but that youth can be restored by - you guessed it - eating souls.
 
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