Even in reality, bombardier beetles feel a little like fantasy creatures, so we decided to make it into a monster! Presenting the Giant Bombardier Beetle!
Living in grassland or woodland areas, the bombardier beetle has two reservoirs in its abdomen filled with chemicals. When threatened, these chemicals combine exothermically and the resulting pressure shoots a caustic, near boiling liquid at the attacker. Icky!
Every generation, a handful of goblins are born with access to the ancient powers of the blood moon. These goblins are extra aggressive and able to access a range of blood fuelled abilities.
These goblins typically worship blood and use it in sacrifices to their chosen deities, some even end up serving under powerful masters such as Vampires.
Day 26: Hello adventurers and welcome to Bog Week, a week dedicated to the denizens of swamps, marshes and bogs. We’re going to kick off with today’s monsters, the Mud Pie and the Muddle.
These mud-like oozes are the creation of powerful hags, Bog Hags, although their creation is rather incidental. When a Bog Hag uses their cauldron to mix up volatile potions, elixirs, curses, concoctions and beauty products they generally have a lot of “Waste product” left over. After they’ve distilled the powerful elements of their mixtures into small vials, they obviously have to clean the cauldron of all the waste. Many Bog Hags have found if they cover the cauldron and set it at a high heat they can bake the waste mixture into a Mud Pie.
Bog Hags then set the pie on the windowsill to cool, once cooled the mud pie slithers off into the swamp or bog. These wild Mud Pies typically hunt and dissolve small creatures and add the resultant gunk to the swamp, sustaining the Bog Hag’s lair. When multiple Mud Pies collide they can combine into a Muddle, a larger and deadlier ooze.
huh that's interesting to say the least. I love the use of a real physical puzzle. Also once this has been completed if I'm not wrong you can still use the magic for the toy chest to go back in it; so you could shrink down stuff you don't need and keep it in the box saving space and cut down weight to more or less nothing. This also reminds me of some of my personal favorite magic items. Items that can only be found when shrunk; such as a magic needle that can be used as a rapier (obviously like most magic items it would adapt to your size when you are back to normal), or a magic thimble that can be used as a helmet.
Bog Creepers are an amalgamation of natural oil, earth and the waters of the swamp given life. Their homes are often thick, fetid and boggy waters, almost tar like in consistency. They care only for their domains and protect their homes fervently. Typically Bog Creepers are large, roughly humanoid in shape and their translucent bodies belie the plant life and detritus inside, which slowly shifts as it moves.
A Carnifer is a type of Treant, twisted and corrupted by Bog Hags, in order to thrive in a swamp environment, and thirst for blood. The Carnifer is native to marsh-like terrain where it can shift and slide through loose topsoil and use it’s roots to ensnare prey.
Carnifers are quite solitary trees, and more often than not they will be the only thing in a wide area, other vegetation losing the battle for nutrients and water, and any living beasts being dragged down to feed the Carnifer’s voracious appetite.
Much like a treant the Carnifer’s features are hidden in the twisted bark until they make themselves known. Although those wary of whomping willows will wisely stay out of reach of the Carnifer’s roots.
The Bog Drowned are undead creatures that inhabit the swamp or marsh in which they died. A Bog Drowned is created when a creature suffers a particularly horrific death in a swamp-like environment. Bog hags commonly create bog drowned by drowning their victims, however drowning does not need to be the cause of death, the corpse just needs to be submerged in the waters which often traps a vengeful spirit in the bog. Bog Drowned then take special umbrage against the living, trying to drag them down into the muck to share in the bog drowned's horrid fate. It is said that should a bog drowned manage to drown it's killer that it's soul would be freed from the wretched curse.
Everybody has heard of a Bog Hag, although you often don’t realise it at the time. Bog Hags are powerful fey that delight in deception, spinning twisted fables. Whilst some may speak of the kind old lady that lives in a giant pumpkin in the depths of the forest, in truth the Bog Hag lures in waylaid travellers to her lair, a hut made from the skin of giants, where she extracts their souls to fuel her alchemy and tosses their bodies into the bog to become Bog Drowned.
Bog Hags are often very old Green Hags who have managed to achieve a level of mastery over illusion. Green Hags need to construct a lair in a swamp before they can bond to it and draw out its power. Bog Hags’ lairs are created through a special ritual that fuels the mirage arcana; a spell so powerful that the rotten wooden shack made to appear as gingerbread also tastes and smells like gingerbread.
A Bog Hag may use its Illusory Appearance to appear as a kind old apple seller, and its Creation spell to craft a poison apple. A Bog Hag may use its lair’s illusory duplicate to safely bargain with adventurers, offering them difficult tasks and challenges in exchange for magic potions, items or spells.
In whatever instance a Bog Hag is a deceptive witch, looking to trick and tempt, mislead and misdirect to get what she wants, and she usually wants power; souls to power her spells, ingredients for her cauldron or tools for her schemes. However in a direct confrontation a Bog Hag is more than able to hold her own. Her resistance to magic is formidable, as there are not many tricks this trickster is unfamiliar with. Her hit and run tactics are empowered by her disguises, her misdirection, her illusions are often reality and she can transform into the bog itself in order to escape. A Bog Hag in town often sticks close to the sewer grates in order to have an exit strategy should someone see through her disguises.
A Bog Hag’s Swamp should be a significant part of the campaign world, and perhaps people know it’s true nature as a dreaded swamp of despair, or marsh of madness or alternatively they could think of it as Matilda’s Marshlands, home to the kindly grandmother good witch who aids passers by with healing potions and removes curses. Perhaps the lair is a Candy House, or a Giant’s Shoe converted into an orphanage. In the end I encourage creativity, because the Bog Hags who inhabit these lairs are certainly creative types.
In small warbands or tribes these minotaurs are typically the leaders or military advisors. In larger communities of minotaurs these berserkers are seen as the warrior elite, the champions of war.
It’s not hard to see why, the entire community rallies to their aid, and their artisans practise an ancient necromantic art in order the create weapons for them. Every blood-iron weapon lost is years of work, generations of history and souls of their ancestors gone forever. Berserkers sometimes admit that in the heat of battle they often hear their former kin guiding them to glory. Sometimes it is seen as wishful thinking, but the more spiritual believe that their ancestors find immortal glory in battle from beyond.
Blood-iron weapons could find their ways into your player's hands, but if you don’t want to let them attune to them then simply advise them of the attunement requirements. It is very rare that a player may be sworn in a blood oath to a clan of minotaurs, and if they do choose this path then they probably deserve the weapon for the control over them the tribe now has. You could allow a player to bypass these restrictions through research, allowing an alternative way to attune to the weapon via blood magic, or vampirism; generally some blood manipulation would typically qualify you… I’m looking at you Hemogoblin.
A player that happens to be a minotaur could potentially relish receiving one of these weapons if you drop hints about it before hand, perhaps he could fight alongside a berserker and you could arrange for the berserker to fall in glorious combat and for your player to inherit the weapon and avenge him.
Or maybe you just need a great big imposing minotaur to seriously wound your players.... either way, happy adventuring!
Chronowls are nearly man-sized tawny owls that live in the feywild with facial markings that are faintly reminiscent of a clock face. Wise beyond understanding, a Chronowl is a observer of time, and exists in every possible eventuality of every situation, seeing them all at once as though it was there (because it is).
It is not allied to any fey court, however most courts will seek the counsel of Chronowls at times to help with their decision making.
Not hostile, but perfectly capable of defending itself, the Chronowl uses it’s manipulation of time look into history, or the future, as offense, defence, and utility.
An encounter with a Chronowl could go many ways, however we suggest that the Chronowl is quite deliberate in its word choice. This is a being of immense knowledge and wisdom, and should act as such. They will converse with creatures that approach, but may only lend assistance if they are given a challenge, or an offer that might expand their knowledge base.
Quick note: I do have some concerns that this creature’s mechanics might be open to abuse. If anyone does use this monster, I would greatly appreciate feedback to balance it if required.
We have a suggestion box on our own subreddit /r/1d6Adventurers. That being said creatures like this we consider "filler" for when we've run out of other ideas!
We sit on things like that until we need something to fill out a week. Keep your eyes peeled and we might have something for you!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
We return to Wildlife Correspondent and Hunter Extraordinaire, Sir Hunter Von Huntington III, this time deep in the jungle, at the base of an active volcano.
“What ho adventurers! My name is Sir Hunter Von Huntington III, and you’re joining me in the midst of an egg watch. We’ve found a nest, on the edge of a lava pool, possibly an old Salamander lair if I’m not mistaken. You can barely just make out eggs from here, they’re dark grey and red, naturally camouflaged to appear like molten rocks. We’ve been here several hours now, and we’re expecting the Magmahawk to return shortly.
Ah, there, movement! It’s a Salamander… I knew it, looks to be a juvenile, barely old enough to be out on it’s own. It’s approaching the eggs, I think it’s sensed an easy source of food, though those eggs are pretty tough and intensely hot; heat is never an issue for a Salamander though.
This is going to get interesting, up there, here comes the Magmahawk! You can tell this is an adult Magmahawk, oh just look at the blood-red plumage, so majestic. It’s probably the mother, female crest, and it’s spied that Salamander, it’s ready to dive. Oh what a clash, the Magmahawk has caught this juvenile Salamander by surprise, talon first, the heat of the Salamander’s body is nothing to a Magmahawk and this juvenile would struggle to reach the intense temperatures of it’s kind. The Magmahawk does not let up, with a barrage of talons and beak, oh it’s a bloody slaughter.
There we have it, the Magmahawk has returned quickly enough to protect it’s young from harm, or perhaps it used the eggs as bait, a risky tactic, but an effective one. These eggs aren’t far from hatching and there will now be food for them when they emerge from their mother’s nest. I’ve been Sir Hunter Von Huntington III and I’m off to bag one of these birds that doesn’t have any eggs right now.”
Every generation, a handful of goblins are born with access to the ancient powers of the blood moon. These goblins are extra aggressive and able to access a range of blood fuelled abilities.
These goblins typically worship blood and use it in sacrifices to their chosen deities, some even end up serving under powerful masters such as Vampires.
Day 24: Today’s monster is the Giant Bombardier Beetle.
Even in reality, bombardier beetles feel a little like fantasy creatures, so we decided to make it into a monster! Presenting the Giant Bombardier Beetle!
Living in grassland or woodland areas, the bombardier beetle has two reservoirs in its abdomen filled with chemicals. When threatened, these chemicals combine exothermically and the resulting pressure shoots a caustic, near boiling liquid at the attacker. Icky!
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 25: Today’s monster is the Hemogoblin.
Every generation, a handful of goblins are born with access to the ancient powers of the blood moon. These goblins are extra aggressive and able to access a range of blood fuelled abilities.
These goblins typically worship blood and use it in sacrifices to their chosen deities, some even end up serving under powerful masters such as Vampires.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Happy Fool's day adventurers; today we've taken a break from our regular posting schedule to introduce to you a few of our special friends.
Firstly, it wouldn't be April without a Fool and this fool comes fully equipped with everything including the kitchen sink.
Next up we have the Mule but his friends just call him Barry. Barry comes from our campaign and is a firm favourite of ours.
Lastly but not least, we have a favour to Axe and it's not just any axe, it's the random axe of kindness.
So thank you for following our daily monsters, there's plenty more where they came from.
Have fun fooling around.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 26: Hello adventurers and welcome to Bog Week, a week dedicated to the denizens of swamps, marshes and bogs. We’re going to kick off with today’s monsters, the Mud Pie and the Muddle.
These mud-like oozes are the creation of powerful hags, Bog Hags, although their creation is rather incidental. When a Bog Hag uses their cauldron to mix up volatile potions, elixirs, curses, concoctions and beauty products they generally have a lot of “Waste product” left over. After they’ve distilled the powerful elements of their mixtures into small vials, they obviously have to clean the cauldron of all the waste. Many Bog Hags have found if they cover the cauldron and set it at a high heat they can bake the waste mixture into a Mud Pie.
Bog Hags then set the pie on the windowsill to cool, once cooled the mud pie slithers off into the swamp or bog. These wild Mud Pies typically hunt and dissolve small creatures and add the resultant gunk to the swamp, sustaining the Bog Hag’s lair. When multiple Mud Pies collide they can combine into a Muddle, a larger and deadlier ooze.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
By the gods now even puddles want to kill us; well better add this on the list next to the sand dune mimic from The Tomb Of Beasts.
The Mule is actually useful and the jester is cool character...HA an axe of random kindness I love it and should give it to an evil PC LOL.
huh that's interesting to say the least. I love the use of a real physical puzzle. Also once this has been completed if I'm not wrong you can still use the magic for the toy chest to go back in it; so you could shrink down stuff you don't need and keep it in the box saving space and cut down weight to more or less nothing. This also reminds me of some of my personal favorite magic items. Items that can only be found when shrunk; such as a magic needle that can be used as a rapier (obviously like most magic items it would adapt to your size when you are back to normal), or a magic thimble that can be used as a helmet.
Day 27: Today’s monster is the Bog Creeper.
Bog Creepers are an amalgamation of natural oil, earth and the waters of the swamp given life. Their homes are often thick, fetid and boggy waters, almost tar like in consistency. They care only for their domains and protect their homes fervently. Typically Bog Creepers are large, roughly humanoid in shape and their translucent bodies belie the plant life and detritus inside, which slowly shifts as it moves.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 28: Today’s monster is the Carnifer.
A Carnifer is a type of Treant, twisted and corrupted by Bog Hags, in order to thrive in a swamp environment, and thirst for blood. The Carnifer is native to marsh-like terrain where it can shift and slide through loose topsoil and use it’s roots to ensnare prey.
Carnifers are quite solitary trees, and more often than not they will be the only thing in a wide area, other vegetation losing the battle for nutrients and water, and any living beasts being dragged down to feed the Carnifer’s voracious appetite.
Much like a treant the Carnifer’s features are hidden in the twisted bark until they make themselves known. Although those wary of whomping willows will wisely stay out of reach of the Carnifer’s roots.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Imagine this with those cobblestone things from the time of beasts. An entire town where the floor wants to murder you.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
imagine town of just mimics being controlled by changelings.... a place where nothing is real and no one is who they seem.
Day 29: Today’s monster is the Bog Drowned.
The Bog Drowned are undead creatures that inhabit the swamp or marsh in which they died. A Bog Drowned is created when a creature suffers a particularly horrific death in a swamp-like environment. Bog hags commonly create bog drowned by drowning their victims, however drowning does not need to be the cause of death, the corpse just needs to be submerged in the waters which often traps a vengeful spirit in the bog.
Bog Drowned then take special umbrage against the living, trying to drag them down into the muck to share in the bog drowned's horrid fate. It is said that should a bog drowned manage to drown it's killer that it's soul would be freed from the wretched curse.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 30: Today’s monster is the Bog Hag.
Everybody has heard of a Bog Hag, although you often don’t realise it at the time. Bog Hags are powerful fey that delight in deception, spinning twisted fables. Whilst some may speak of the kind old lady that lives in a giant pumpkin in the depths of the forest, in truth the Bog Hag lures in waylaid travellers to her lair, a hut made from the skin of giants, where she extracts their souls to fuel her alchemy and tosses their bodies into the bog to become Bog Drowned.
Bog Hags are often very old Green Hags who have managed to achieve a level of mastery over illusion. Green Hags need to construct a lair in a swamp before they can bond to it and draw out its power. Bog Hags’ lairs are created through a special ritual that fuels the mirage arcana; a spell so powerful that the rotten wooden shack made to appear as gingerbread also tastes and smells like gingerbread.
A Bog Hag may use its Illusory Appearance to appear as a kind old apple seller, and its Creation spell to craft a poison apple. A Bog Hag may use its lair’s illusory duplicate to safely bargain with adventurers, offering them difficult tasks and challenges in exchange for magic potions, items or spells.
In whatever instance a Bog Hag is a deceptive witch, looking to trick and tempt, mislead and misdirect to get what she wants, and she usually wants power; souls to power her spells, ingredients for her cauldron or tools for her schemes. However in a direct confrontation a Bog Hag is more than able to hold her own. Her resistance to magic is formidable, as there are not many tricks this trickster is unfamiliar with. Her hit and run tactics are empowered by her disguises, her misdirection, her illusions are often reality and she can transform into the bog itself in order to escape. A Bog Hag in town often sticks close to the sewer grates in order to have an exit strategy should someone see through her disguises.
A Bog Hag’s Swamp should be a significant part of the campaign world, and perhaps people know it’s true nature as a dreaded swamp of despair, or marsh of madness or alternatively they could think of it as Matilda’s Marshlands, home to the kindly grandmother good witch who aids passers by with healing potions and removes curses. Perhaps the lair is a Candy House, or a Giant’s Shoe converted into an orphanage. In the end I encourage creativity, because the Bog Hags who inhabit these lairs are certainly creative types.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 31: Today’s monster is the Minotaur Blood-iron Berserker.
In small warbands or tribes these minotaurs are typically the leaders or military advisors. In larger communities of minotaurs these berserkers are seen as the warrior elite, the champions of war.
It’s not hard to see why, the entire community rallies to their aid, and their artisans practise an ancient necromantic art in order the create weapons for them. Every blood-iron weapon lost is years of work, generations of history and souls of their ancestors gone forever. Berserkers sometimes admit that in the heat of battle they often hear their former kin guiding them to glory. Sometimes it is seen as wishful thinking, but the more spiritual believe that their ancestors find immortal glory in battle from beyond.
Blood-iron weapons could find their ways into your player's hands, but if you don’t want to let them attune to them then simply advise them of the attunement requirements. It is very rare that a player may be sworn in a blood oath to a clan of minotaurs, and if they do choose this path then they probably deserve the weapon for the control over them the tribe now has. You could allow a player to bypass these restrictions through research, allowing an alternative way to attune to the weapon via blood magic, or vampirism; generally some blood manipulation would typically qualify you… I’m looking at you Hemogoblin.
A player that happens to be a minotaur could potentially relish receiving one of these weapons if you drop hints about it before hand, perhaps he could fight alongside a berserker and you could arrange for the berserker to fall in glorious combat and for your player to inherit the weapon and avenge him.
Or maybe you just need a great big imposing minotaur to seriously wound your players.... either way, happy adventuring!
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 32: Today’s monster is the Chronowl.
Chronowls are nearly man-sized tawny owls that live in the feywild with facial markings that are faintly reminiscent of a clock face. Wise beyond understanding, a Chronowl is a observer of time, and exists in every possible eventuality of every situation, seeing them all at once as though it was there (because it is).
It is not allied to any fey court, however most courts will seek the counsel of Chronowls at times to help with their decision making.
Not hostile, but perfectly capable of defending itself, the Chronowl uses it’s manipulation of time look into history, or the future, as offense, defence, and utility.
An encounter with a Chronowl could go many ways, however we suggest that the Chronowl is quite deliberate in its word choice. This is a being of immense knowledge and wisdom, and should act as such. They will converse with creatures that approach, but may only lend assistance if they are given a challenge, or an offer that might expand their knowledge base.
Quick note: I do have some concerns that this creature’s mechanics might be open to abuse. If anyone does use this monster, I would greatly appreciate feedback to balance it if required.
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Very nice.
Now time for me to be "that person"
Can we get a Large Beast no higher than CR 2? My artificer would appreciate it. ;)
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Hello!
We have a suggestion box on our own subreddit /r/1d6Adventurers. That being said creatures like this we consider "filler" for when we've run out of other ideas!
We sit on things like that until we need something to fill out a week. Keep your eyes peeled and we might have something for you!
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!
Day 33: Today’s monster is the Magmahawk.
We return to Wildlife Correspondent and Hunter Extraordinaire, Sir Hunter Von Huntington III, this time deep in the jungle, at the base of an active volcano.
“What ho adventurers! My name is Sir Hunter Von Huntington III, and you’re joining me in the midst of an egg watch. We’ve found a nest, on the edge of a lava pool, possibly an old Salamander lair if I’m not mistaken. You can barely just make out eggs from here, they’re dark grey and red, naturally camouflaged to appear like molten rocks. We’ve been here several hours now, and we’re expecting the Magmahawk to return shortly.
Ah, there, movement! It’s a Salamander… I knew it, looks to be a juvenile, barely old enough to be out on it’s own. It’s approaching the eggs, I think it’s sensed an easy source of food, though those eggs are pretty tough and intensely hot; heat is never an issue for a Salamander though.
This is going to get interesting, up there, here comes the Magmahawk! You can tell this is an adult Magmahawk, oh just look at the blood-red plumage, so majestic. It’s probably the mother, female crest, and it’s spied that Salamander, it’s ready to dive. Oh what a clash, the Magmahawk has caught this juvenile Salamander by surprise, talon first, the heat of the Salamander’s body is nothing to a Magmahawk and this juvenile would struggle to reach the intense temperatures of it’s kind. The Magmahawk does not let up, with a barrage of talons and beak, oh it’s a bloody slaughter.
There we have it, the Magmahawk has returned quickly enough to protect it’s young from harm, or perhaps it used the eggs as bait, a risky tactic, but an effective one. These eggs aren’t far from hatching and there will now be food for them when they emerge from their mother’s nest. I’ve been Sir Hunter Von Huntington III and I’m off to bag one of these birds that doesn’t have any eggs right now.”
We are 1d6Adventurers! We create a Monster-a-Day, posted every weekday around 8pm UTC.
Be sure to head over to /r/1d6Adventurers, where you can find our monsters and other bonus content!