Today’s monster s the Bonewing Landskimmer.

This monster is a result of writer’s block. I started with an ability then made my way backwards, so sorry if it doesn’t feel hugely fleshed out.

The Bonewing Landskimmer is a bat-like monstrosity with a sharp bone along the length of its wing. It fights with its claws and wings, and can hamstring its enemies before it feeds.

Today’s monster is the Herbalist.

Similar to our Mason we have the town Herbalist. Again, a stalwart townsfolk who may be on the run from some tax raising Sheriff and accused of banditry… the Herbalist will aid his people well in whatever wilderness they choose to hide in.

Alternatively the Herbalist could be a solitary encounter out in the woods, who is pursuing something for academic reasons, such as the flowers from a dryad’s tree which must be given willingly… once he actually finds a dryad, perhaps the adventurers would help him on his quest. In the future the adventurers may cross paths with him again in town, and he’ll be happy to vouch for them.

The herbalist is an excellent villain in a lower level intrigue session, performing secret, twisted plant growth rituals he has accidentally grown something abhorrent, but can’t help but feed his plant human flesh to sustain it, lest it eats him instead. This herbalist is likely known as Seymour and the plant is a variation of the Bramblesnap or adolescent Carnifer.

Today’s monster is the Shepherd of the Veil.

The shepherd is essentially a grim reaper. Employed by the Raven Queen, these no nonsense celestials will do anything to get the job done. The Raven Queen grants these subjects magic focused on their task, allowing them the ability to chase their quarry over great distances and across planes, until their soul can be reaped and transported back to the shadowfell.

Today’s monster is the Geriviar.

This is a reimagining of a 3.5e giant, however in 3.5e this thing was more of a ranged combatant. This Geriviar is far more of a melee brute, although it can use its immense speed and rock throwing abilities to battle at a distance if needs be.

These giants are tough as nails whilst capable of crushing spellcasters in a single round of combat. Your adventurers should be careful of these mountainous giants, perhaps hearing rumours of these territorial monstrosities before venturing into the Geriviar’s habitat. Luckily the Geriviar is less than subtle, so the local residents should have more than a few rumours about the danger to warn the adventurers before they wander blindly in.

Today’s monster is the Stitched Zombeast.

I don’t always win, but I always enjoy Deathstalker Rexxar. Anyway, inspired by that, here is an alternative to the Chimera. It is an interesting undead because it’s not completely in your face necromancy, it’s just a vicious hard to kill abomination.

With the head of a boar, a bear and a wolf, the wings of a giant bat and tail of a giant scorpion you end up with a rather dangerous creation, if not entirely sane. Part of it wants to keep its distance and sting with the tail, whilst the rest of it wants to charge in and maul. Generally though, it causes enough of a distraction that its creator can flee the scene to continue their work elsewhere.

Today’s monster is the Feral Gibberer.

The feral gibberer is why people prepare fireball. It is why casting fireball on yourself and your fellow adventurers is not always a horrible idea. Gibberers do not reside in dungeons, they infest them. Gibberers delight in chaos and confusion, biting creatures and covering them in copies of themselves in a sick and twisted rodeo. Should you encounter a gibberer, kill it quickly or run for the hills.

Gibberers often hunt in packs, making their duplication exponentially worse. Gibberers use ambush tactics and stealth to ensure they are able to bite their foes. Gibberers throw caution to the wind and try to bite at any cost in order to duplicate themselves to overwhelm adventurers. Should your adventurers kill a gibberer before it duplicates they should consider themselves very lucky indeed.

If you want to ensure a memorable encounter, perhaps have the adventurers spot a gibberer from a safe distance. Have the adventurers watch the gibberer consume a rat and duplicate to allow them to make an informed decision on how quickly they should flee.

Today’s monster is the Avatar of the Fire Mask.

The Fire Mask is a legendary artifact of great power. It imbues the wearer with physical power, fiery abilities, and size. It also has the downside of being irremovable once donned, with the exception of the death of the wearer.

The Avatar of the Fire Mask starts as an ordinary humanoid, however when it dons the mask, it grows in size and power, and many intangible fiery arms flank its body. It retains its own mind, but its personality gradually shifts to embody the chaos of a wildfire. When confronted, the avatar will attempt to start many fires in its enemies flesh.

 Can we get stats for The Fire Mask? It sounds like a blast to give to the BBEG. Pun completely and utterly intended. 

Today’s monster is the Animated Trap.

The Animated Trap is a favoured tool in an arcane trickster’s arsenal, a bear trap that resets itself, waits for an opportune moment to strike and can “play dead” to mess with its foes. In combat it is deceptively simple, ambushing unsuspecting adventurers, latching on and clamping down until its target either removes it or bleeds out. Should the trap manage to kill an enemy it makes a tactical decision to run, hide and attempt to re-ambush, or to continue with its bitey crusade against a new target.

Thief rogues are very effective against animated traps, using their bonus action to use their thieves’ tools to stun the trap and then sneak attacking the stunned trap is an excellent way to show off the Thief’s mastery of traps, exploiting weaknesses in the hinges etc.

This is how I would run an animated trap encounter;

*As the door opens you find yourselves staring into a trapped room. You can tell this is a trapped room as the floor is riddled with traps. Traditional bear traps of different shapes and sizes are scattered about, some are triggered, others are set and look ready to go off.*

Place traps as you want around the room, using the hunting traps from the player’s handbook. Two of the traps are animated traps.

If the players move to disarm any of the traps the animated traps will attack whilst the thief tool user is distracted. If either animated trap is disarmed it is stunned for 1 round, and the other will attack.

What should happen is that as the adventurers attempt to cross the room, or retrieve treasure is that the traps attack. Either one at a time, or both at once, however you’d like to do it. This should leave the adventurers nice and paranoid of the other hunting traps. Additionally you may want to ask for dexterity saves to avoid the hunting traps during combat, so the adventurers have to carefully navigate the heavily trapped room.

If you’re evil, throw in some swinging hammer traps, have them only deal a few damage, say 1d6+2, on a DC 16 Dexterity save, but with a shove rider, so a swinging hammer could knock them directly into a hunting trap.

Hopefully after that room your adventurers will have a newfound respect for bear traps… maybe they’ll take a bear trap from the room with them. Maybe it will be the third animated trap. (Although to be honest, I’d let an adventurer have an animated trap as a pet.)

Work in progress, it will get written eventually! :)

Today’s monster is the Giant Tardigrade.

Also, check out today's bonus post by /u/EmpireofAzad, Dungeonborn, a race of underdark dwelling humans.

One of the miracles / horrors of the natural world (it’s funny how often they coincide), today’s monster is the tardigrade. Or more accurately, the giant tardigrade.

Why is it giant, you ask? Well, this thing is horrifying in reality, and it’s only normally up to 0.5 mm long. So why not make it about 15 feet long and see how it works, eh? At least that was what the gnomes thought? So the goblins say. Or was it that rogue wizard, using magic to blow up all sorts of creatures, like they did with the “Size-of-a-Field” Mouse.

Who knows? As long as you give this thing a wide berth, or prepare to be dinner.

Today’s monster is the Cookie Monster.

The Cookie Monster is a lonely creature, existing only for its love of cookies. Blue, furry, with big googly eyes and an even bigger mouth, the Cookie Monster is harmless once it’s had a cookie or two, but if it’s hungry, then anything could get bit.

This monster has been brewing for a long time, it was a suggestion from a while back (before Day 100!) but it took me a while to actual piece together what I wanted to do for it. I think my favourite thing is that an encounter could be finished with something like Create Food and Water, 45 pounds of cookies would keep it quiet for a while at least!

Today’s monster is the Drop Bear.

The Drop Bear hides among the more sedate koala bear colonies, yet far from the gentle herbivorous koala, the Drop Bear is waiting for the opportunity to surprise unwary travellers by dropping onto them, stunning them before viciously biting them.

The Drop Bear I pinched from Australian folklore, yet it seemed like a great opportunity to create something like a forest based Darkmantle,in a location most experienced players won’t expect it.

Today’s monster is the Ningen.

Created by the gods to hunt aboleths, these mysterious underwater giants are often seen as protector spirits, however the reality is very different. The Ningen is merely indifferent to anything that isn’t an aberration, unless it is preventing the Ningen from completing its sole task.

If one can create a Ningen to hunt aboleths, can one not create a Ningen to hunt other things--like, say, I don't know, adventurers?  And Tiamat is technically a deity. . . 

Today’s monster is the Blue Scream of Death.

A banshee with the coldest of hearts, the Blue Scream of Death is all that remains of a snow elf that used it’s looks for evil. Tougher than a normal banshee, the Blue Scream of Death will literally freeze unwary travellers where they stand.

Todays monster is obviously a pun, though since it’s not a punday monday monster this has been done for awareness of World Computer Security Day instead, so check your passwords and make sure you’ve got 2FA setup on your emails!

Today’s monster is the Akupara.

Going big for day 200 brings the Akupara, a colossal tortoise with a city on it’s back. Less monster and more location, due to its titanic size is is more than capable of throwing its weight around in a combat situation.

Able to hold its breath almost indefinitely, your adventurers might not even know that weeks of their campaign have been set atop this giant tortoise!

Day 200 Bonus Content: Otherworldly Patron - The Xammux, The Cursed Cache.

The Great A'tuin! Stop by the Mended Drum next time you're there.

I like The Xammux, however, I would probably reskin it, no pun intended, for an Elder Brain patron.

Today’s monster is the Illiphant.

Happy Funday Punday Monday. We hope you enjoyed Friday’s monster and bonus content and will stick with us through another 100 (*faints*) monsters.

Today’s monster is what happens when illithids ceremophose an elephant. I’m not sure if we need to say any more than that.

The elephant gets a little tougher, more aggressive, and develops tentacles, a hunger for brains, and psionic powers.

The attack bonus seems off, Intelligence saving throws and DCs have a proficiency bonus of +3 while the attacks have a proficiency bonus of +1.