Inktober Monstrosities: Z for Zorbo

At long last we reach the letter Z, and in the search for forgotten and overlooked creatures we find the zorbo - a strange koala-like creature that can absorb protective properties from its surroundings, as well as draining protective magical items.

Inktober Monstrosities: Y for Yugoloth, Guardian

Guardian Daemons or Yugoloth are extra planar beings summoned to protect (or guard if you will) items or places. They come in three different sizes, tall, venti and grande... eh...that is... least, lesser and greater, sharing many traits, though unlike the greater, which always appears as a large, horned and winged bear, with eagle talons for feet and claws, the two lesser variants are not as defined in shape or size.

Inktober Monstrosities: X for Xill

The xill are a race of cruel and strange, four armed, flame red alien creatures, native to the Ethereal Plane, that travel to the Material Plane to hunt for potential hosts for their eggs, usually in the form of adventurers. Sometimes they also hire out their expertise as mercenaries and men-at-arms, probably requiring double pay due to their extra set of arms.

Inktober Monstrosities: W for Wemic

Wemics for all intents and purposes lion centaurs. Lion-human hybrid creatures are abundant throughout ancient mythology like the sphinx and the shedu. While creatures similar to the wemic figure in both ancient Assyrian carvings and medieval heraldic devices, it has never really attained the same popularity in myth and fantasy as its equine cousin.

Inktober Monstrosities: V for Vodyanoi

The vodyanoi is a creature from Slavic folklore, residing in rivers and lakes. It is usually described as a humanoid figure with a frog-like face, a long beard, greenish black mucky, scaly skin with webbed hands and feet and a fish tail. Largely a malevolent creature it is known to drown people, overturn boats and smash dams and water mills.

Inktober Monstrosities: U for Umpleby

The umpleby is a strange and obscure monster from the hazy past of D&D. They are described as an eight feet tall, 400 pounds mound of wild, straggly brown hair, with vaguely discernible mouth and eyes within the mass of fur, native to temperate forests. They possess no great intellectual power, but their massive fur soaks up static electricity at an alarming rate.

Usually passive, if encountered an umpebly most likely tag along with the party, neither hindering nor helping them, though it will it is susceptible to bribes of food, drink or its greatest love in life - sparkly gems. It will fight to defend itself or if anyone threatens to steal its hoard of glittering stones, usually found within its cavernous lair.

Inktober Monstrosities: T for Thoqqua

The thoqqua, or rockworm, is a worm-like creature from the elemental plane of earth and/or fire, and it is suspected to be the larva stage of some terrible elemental creature, though no-one knows exactly which. They are said to burrow into this realm of existence from the elemental planes, or the center of the earth itself, melting and devouring rock as it goes.

Inktober Monstrosities: S for Spriggan

The Spriggan is a nasty creature from Cornish mythology. They were depicted as grotesquely ugly, wizened old men with childlike heads. They were known for being unpleasant and mischievous, frightening travelers, destroying crops and stealing children. Normally they were small in size, but it was sometimes thought that they were the ghosts of giants, and so able to swell massively in size.

Inktober Monstrosities: R for Rock Reptile

You'd think finding a good monster for the letter R would be easy, it being the fourth most frequently used consonant in the alphabet, but as it turns out there were actually few good candidates on R. The final choice actually fell on this critter, the Rock Reptile.

They are described as horse sized lizards, living underground, with lumpy, warty hide, with chameleon like powers.

Inktober Monstrosities: Q for Quasielemental (Lightning)

Q was an especially difficult letter to find a monster for, so the solution became the Lightning Quasielemental, and even that by stretching it a bit. Quasielementals are composite or near elementals that don't fit snugly into the classical distinction of the four base elements.

For those interested, the whole family of quasielementals are divided into positive and negative , and include the ash, dust, salt, vacuum, lightning, mineral, radiance and steam elementals.

Inktober Monstrosities: P for Penanggalan

This lovely lady is a penanggalan, a type of female vampire from Malaysian mythology. At night these women (on they can only be women apparently) can detach their head and innards from their body, and fly around in search of prey, preferably other young women. After a night of hunting they return to their headless body, but their entrails are so engorged that they have to be soak them in vinegar for about an hour before they can fit within the cavity of the body.

Inktober Monstrosities: O for Osquip

The osquip is described as a large, hairless, dog sized rodent, that looks something like a massive hairless mole rat with six legs and teeth the size of shovel blades. Most specimens have six feet, but they have been known to have as many as eight or even ten feet in some cases.

Inktober Monstrosities: N for Norker

Another old obscurity, the norker is a small goblinoid, said to be a distant cousin of the hobgoblin. They have thick hide, though its form and nature varies a bit depending on which source you look at. Regardless, this thick hide means the norker will eschew armor.

Inktober Monstrosities: M for Moon Dog

In real life, a moon dog is a rare bright spot on the halo of the moon, caused by the refraction of moonlight by ice crystals in clouds.

In D&D they are strange, benevolent dog, with dark shaggy fur, opposable thumbs on their forepaws, and the ability to travel on either two or four. Kind and intelligent, these dogs are truly any good man's best friend.

Inktober Monstrosities: L for Locathah

The Locathah is a real classic of D&D beast, dating all the way back to 1975.

Described as a race of  aquatic humanoids, that live in nomadic, civilized societies, roaming shallow warm waters, hunting and gathering food.

The Locathah is the D&D creature that most closely resembles the iconic Gill Man, best known as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and given a new renaissance in Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water.

Game stats here.

Inktober Monstrosities: K for Kappa

The Kappa is a strange being from Japanese folklore. A type of spirit, demon, or imp they inhabit lakes and rivers. They are about the size of a child, roughly human in appearance, with scaly  greenish skin, webbed and clawed hands and feet and a turtle shell on its back. They are said to be fond of cucumbers and sumo wrestling, as well as looking up women's kimonos.

The most peculiar trait of the Kappa is the indentation at the top of their skull. This is filled with water from the body of water where the Kappa resides, and should it ever be emptied or dried out, the kappa will loose its power, and might even die.

Click for game stats.

Inktober Monstrosities: J for Jermaline

These diminutive tricksters first appeared in the original Fiend Folio, and have made frequent reappearances throughout the history of the game since, despite their innate ability for subterfuge.

Game stats, here.

Inktober Monstrosities: I for Ibrandlin

You'll be forgiven if you've never heard about the Ibrandlin, but as it turned out, finding a good monster for the letter i turned out to be quite a challenge (especially once it turned out that my original choice, the ixitxachiitl, actually had been covered in the Rage of Demons adventure).

The ibrandlin originally appeared in the first Ruins of the Undermountain boxed set in 1991, and then again for 3rd edition in the Monsters of Faerun book. In appearance they are said to look like fire lizards with long, thick tails, or wingless red dragons. Apparently they are bred as temple guardians by the priests of Ibrandul, a Forgotten Realms god of caverns, dragons and the Underdark.

Game stats here, as always.

Inktober Monstrosities: H for Hippocamp

The Hippocamp, or Hippocampus (not to be confused with the latin name for the common sea horse, or the part of the brain integral to navigation and memory) is a classic, both in real world mythology and in the world of D&D.

Half horse with webbed hooves, half fish, the hippocamp is obviously the result of someone taking the description of a common sea horse a tad too litteraly. They are part of both Etruscan, Phoenician and Greek mythology, among other things described as the horses of Poseidon, god of the sea. They are a common motif on fountains and heraldic designs throughout the world.

Game stats here.

Inktober Monstrosities: G for Greenvise

The Greenvise doesn't really have much history in D&D, only appearing in Monster Manual II for edition 3.5. Still, it's so reminiscent of the Piranha Plants from the Mario games, and Audrey II from the 1986 Frank Oz version of Little Shop of Horrors, that it still feels like an old familiar face.

Game stats, for those interested, can be found here.