Image © @chimeride

[Sponsored by @crazytrain48, based on the “sun demon” from Arduin. Why these are sun demons is somewhat obscure to me; their scales and boluses suggest they should be iron demons, right? The art does an excellent job making it more sunny, with the solar disk head, which I love. I leaned into it by giving them the name of one of the Zoroastrian daevas of drought, and some of their spell-like abilities.]

Div, Apaush
CR 9 NE Outsider (extraplanar)
This creature is a vaguely avian humanoid, with a beaked head ringed by a structure halfway between a sunburst and an owl’s facial disc. It has fan-like wings, metal talons on its hands and feet and a long whip-like tail. Its body and wings are covered with overlapping metal scales that screech horribly as the creature moves.

The apaush are sometimes known as “sun divs” or “sun fiends”, as they are devotees of drought. They are native to the hottest, driest parts of Abaddon. An apaush on the Material Plane makes sure to use its weather controlling abilities to keep things sunny and hot, and the droughts they provoke lead to widespread starvation and thirst. The head of an apaush resembles a solar disk and some apaush work with clerics of evil sun gods and archfiends. An apaush constantly emits a rasping, screeching noise from the metal scales on its body and wings. Like all divs, the apaush have a psychological weakness; in their case, apaush hate silence. They make noise almost compulsively in quiet places, and in the area of a silence spell are edgy and uncomfortable.

Apaush are incredibly fast fliers, and prefer to attack from the sky. They make hit and run attacks while airborne, spitting boluses of molten iron that entangle and scorch enemies, casting destructive spells, or merely tearing into foes with their claws. An apaush’s metal scales provide it with supernaturally powerful protection against ranged attacks, and the screeching of its metal body is so loud as to be painfully distracting up close.  If forced to land, they usually cast defensive spells like fire shield and wall of fire, to punish melee combatants as much as possible.

An apaush is tall for a Medium creature, being taller than seven feet tall on average. Their whip-like tails are often that length again, but too weak to be used in combat.

Keep reading

“Eternal Fire” © Chris Kanters, accessed at their deviantArt page here

[This is a monster that comes with an apology. Earlier in the year, @crazytrain48​ commissioned me to make a conversion of the Arduin hell horse. I didn’t see it in the book, only a cursory reference in the hell maiden entry, and so delivered the heresholl, which is more of a riff on the idea of an undead steed than an actual conversion. So here’s a fairly straight take on the hell horse as it actually appears in the Arduin books, because I now realize that it exists. The biggest change I made was moving its bite from being poisonous to being cursed; this was inspired by the fact that most fiends are immune to poison, and that in the Compleat Arduin edition, the poison could only be removed by exorcism rather than normal means.]

Hell Horse
CR 7 LE Undead
This creature resembles a partially mummified, partially skeletal horse with a maw full of fangs and hooves of bronze. Its eyes flicker with fire, and yellow slaver drips from its mouth.

Devils prize the planar transport abilities of nightmares, but find these horse-like outsiders to often be willful and stubborn. Thus, the forces of Hell improved upon the model with the hell horse. Hell horses are created from the remains of nightmares, pickled in the waters of the Styx and reanimated as more loyal and more lawful undead. This comes at the cost of the hell horse’s intelligence, but few devils see that as much of a loss.

Hell horses are supremely mobile, capable of flight, running along walls and ceilings, and other great feats of acrobatics. Their bite contains a poison-like curse which saps the life force of creatures, and their hooves strike with the force of a maul. Strangely, hell horses despise dwarves, and attack them on sight. It is suspected that the forces of Hell enlisted the aid of duergar clerics or their god of toil in order to create the first hell horse, and this hatred is a form of rebellion from whatever spark of the original nightmare remains.

Keep reading

Image © @tredlocity​

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​. Unlike most Arduin monsters, where I have multiple versions and multiple editions to compare and contrast from, I only can find stats for the red wraith in The Compleat Arduin edition from the early 90s. If this is a genuine David Hargrave creation, it must have appeared in one of the Arduin adventures. In the source material, it can cast spells of up to the 20th Order, and spells go up to Order 25. So I figured 15th level spellcasting was a decent Pathfinder substitute. The original is unclear over whether it’s supposed to be incorporeal or not–it’s called a wraith and can go ethereal at will. I made mine incorporeal as default, and gave it the ability to take friends along with it.]

Red Wraith
CR 16 NE Undead
This rotting undead being appears as a translucent skeleton with red flames for eyes. Instead of arms, tentacles of liquid darkness lash from its shoulders.

When a powerful humanoid servitor of annihilation dies, they may be restored to unlife as a red wraith. Red wraiths can rise from the minions of many evil gods and powers, but all are united by their ultimate goal of destroying the cosmos and the divine order. Daemon or qlippoth cults, nihilistic religions such as Zyphus or Groetus, or mad scholars of the Dominion can all spawn a red wraith from their ranks. In fact, red wraiths often view each other as competition, splitting hairs over the exact natures of the apocalypses they desire and hunting each other down for destruction.

Red wraiths are sometimes referred to as “lash liches”, referring to their most prominent feature. These incorporeal tendrils can drain life and deliver potent touch spells, and a victim of a red wraith may rise as a wraith to serve it forever. If a red wraith is in a position of power, it will keep its dying foes alive for extended periods in order to drain their lives by hand and create more slaves. They are puissant spellcasters, able to switch at will between arcane and divine spells, but favoring those that bolster their armies and rain destruction on their foes.

Red wraiths are often surrounded by large armies of undead, and they can communicate with spies, saboteurs and other agents over long distances through telepathy. They typically keep multiple desecrated shrines within their lairs, to grant them and their undead the defensive benefits. A red wraith typically has multiple plots to hasten the end, and traffics with fiends, nightshades and other horrors to accomplish these goals. Good aligned weapons can injure a red wraith as if it were flesh and bone, and so red wraiths often seek to steal, destroy or curse artifacts of good.

Keep reading

“The Amazon” © Alexandre Chaudret, accessed at his ArtStation here

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​, from a single sentence in the Arduin Grimoires. It is mentioned that hell maidens ride “hell horses”, and the commissioner requested that I made them undead to distinguish them from nightmares. I found this image while searching for art for that commission, and fell in love with it.

Edit: As explained in the hell horse entry, I had missed that the hell horse actually had statistics in Arduin, and made up my own creature based on the name. So this is “loosely inspired” by Arduin, but I still quite like the critter.]

Heresholl
CR 5 LE Undead
This hideous creature resembles nothing so much as an oversized skull the size of a small horse, six spindly legs of shadow emerging from its undercarriage.

Giants tend towards the insular and clannish, and evil giants more so than usual. When an evil giant betrays its clan, it may be cursed by the leaders of its tribe and be forced in life to physically support the tribe in a way they did not spiritually or metaphorically. These creatures are heresholls—giants use them as beasts of burden, and fiends use them as mounts. The body of a heresholl atrophies, the skull swells, and a bevy of insect-like legs emerge from the hole left behind by the spinal column. Although they are not naturally native to the Lower Planes, they are often carried there by devils, sahkils or other evil outsiders, who often accept them as payment from giant spellcasters using planar ally and similar spells.

Heresholls are grimly servile to giants, and even a giant without magical gifts can order them around with relative impunity. As such, heresholls enjoy taking their frustrations out on smaller and weaker creatures. Their primary attack is a savagely strong bite, but they can run over enemies with their skittering, clawed legs. Creatures trampled repeatedly are slowly paralyzed, their muscles stiffening—these victims are often left alive to be sacrificed, eaten or otherwise tormented.

Most heresholls seek to leave the service of giants, and they eagerly seek out evil outsiders to whisk them away. They prefer those with lawful temperaments, but are rarely choosy enough to turn down a demon, daemon or sahkil. If left to their own devices, heresholls will collect treasure to remind them of the pleasures they once indulged in in life. Their treasures may be so only to a creature with a giant’s psychology—these may include any odds and ends that might be found in a giant’s bag.

Keep reading

“Skull Lady” © Pat Fix, accessed at her ArtStation here

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​. I’m never going to escape sahkils, am I? This one is based on the “Hell Maiden” from the Arduin Grimoire, which managed to escape conversion in the Arduin Eternal edition. Unfortunately, Arduin PDFs are difficult to come by these days. Fortunately, I always download things rather than rely on remote databases when I can. So expect more Arduin-inspired monsters in the future!]

Sahkil, Hemnallid
CR 7 NE Outsider
This woman is armed and armored. Her head is nothing more than a naked skull, decorated with engravings.

Also known as “hell maidens”, hemnallids are the elite soldiers of the sahkils. They represent a fear of warfare, especially to noncombatants. Hemnallids infiltrate armies in order to incite violence against civilians, stoke the impulse to commit war crimes, and generally delight in atrocity. They often ride in disguise, appearing perfectly human as long as they conceal their faces with a helmet or hood.

Hemnallids are equally comfortable fighting on foot or mounted, and often carry a panoply of weapons in order to suit their needs. Their tactics are likewise flexible, and a hemnallid can shift in a second to adapt to new combat styles or tactical needs. Favorite feats to assume with their martial flexibility are Precise Shot and Rapid Shot for ranged combat, Ride-by Attack and Spirited Charge for cavalry maneuvers, and Two Weapon Fighting and Improved Shield Bash if simply trying to inflict as much damage as possible. If fighting in disguise, they attempt to minimize their overtly magical actions, although those fighting alongside or against them may report a faint limning of crimson fire along their weapons, or that they grow stronger the more they kill.

Hemnallids battle against the efforts of psychopomps as other sakhils do, but also hold grudges against another outsider related to death and the River of Souls. Hemnallids despise valkyries, although a single valkyrie is more than a match for even a platoon of hell maidens. As such, only elite hemnallids can confront a valkyrie directly and survive—the creatures therefore rely more on subterfuge and treachery against one.

Keep reading

Image © @tredlocity​

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​. Shagrath the Red Moon Spyder was first mentioned in the original Arduin Grimoire but never got much elaboration, beyond being Chaotic and Evil and having a holiday devoted to him. The 90s “Compleat Arduin” edition misspelled his name with 2 Gs, and that’s what I have used previously in the spiga entry. The Arduin Eternal version from the 2000s made him a creator god, but that information never made it into any of their published books, and their website is only available via Wayback Machine. So this version merges him with another spider-themed archfiend from Arduin, Calyandagg, but incorporates some of my own personal interests in making evil deities based on real-world evils. The idea that conspiracy theories are authored by a giant spider who lives on the moon sounds like a conspiracy theory in and of itself.]

Daemonic Harbinger, Shagrath
CR 22 NE Outsider (extraplanar)
This immense creature looks vaguely arachnid, with thirteen legs and thirteen eyes. Its carapace is a metallic red, with a mantle of bristling fur on it. Alien runes decorate its legs and abdomen.

Shagrath
The Red Moon Spider, The Second Opinion
Concerns alternate history, misinformation, torture
Domains Darkness, Destruction, Evil, Knowledge
Subdomains Daemon, Moon, Thought, Torture
Worshipers conspiracy theorists, interrogators, spiga
Minions crucidaemons, fiendish giant spiders, piscodaemons
Unholy Symbol a ring of twelve red moons showing the lunar cycle
Favored Weapon heavy pick
Devotion Spend one hour promulgating an alternative version of a commonly held idea or belief. It does not matter whether you believe what you say, or if it is true, only that the information is spread. Gain a +4 profane bonus to saving throws against confusion effects and mind-influencing effects that deal damage (such as mind thrust).
Boons: 1: web 2/day; 2: freedom of movement 2/day; 3: extended true seeing 2/day

Shagrath the Red Moon Spider is an ancient being, the first of the race of fiends known as spiga. When first formed, Shagrath lacked magical power, but he realized that belief was a strong enough force to shape the cosmos. By viewing himself as a god, he gained the ability to cast divine spells, and eventually forced his way into the courts of the daemonic harbingers through sheer force of will. His ultimate goal is to achieve full divinity, and his primary means to accomplish this is to expand his cult—if enough mortals believe him to become a god, he will be one.

As part of this agenda of apotheosis, Shagrath tells outrageous falsehoods: that he wove a planet out of his webs; that he can see everything that transpires in moonlight; that he knows literally everything. It matters not to him that the majority of his lies do not stick. If repeated forcefully enough, to enough people, they will take root and become history. His worshipers gleefully create and distribute “alternate facts”, particularly those that demonize a vulnerable group or that promote selfishness and disunity. Of course, Shagrath does enjoy inflicting pain in a more direct sense as well. He is a master of torture, and is especially interested at how the application of pain can cause mortals to weave extravagant falsehoods or completely change their beliefs.

Shagrath has all of the abilities of a spiga, and uses them in similar fashion in combat. He enhances his combat prowess with divine magic, entraps foes in his webs, and then paralyzes them with his claws and venomous bite. Shagrath can create new spiga by implanting eggs inside of paralyzed victims, which he keeps helpless but alive long enough for the spiga to grow inside them. Shagrath has access to many powerful clerical abilities, which he uses in combat as much to impress upon enemies his divine powers as much as to injure and kill.

Shagrath is about thirty feet long and weighs ten tons. He spends little time in Abaddon, perhaps because his interests in divinity make him distrusted by the Horsemen.  He typically lairs on a moon of the planet in the Material Plane he is currently interested in. From this vantage point, he descends earthward to spread lies and torture, and returns to his airless abode to avoid retribution.

Keep reading

Image by William Watt, © Emperors Choice Games.

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​. The hell hopper is, frankly, adorable. Probably because the artist seems to have based it on a waxy monkey tree frog, one of the cutest of the frogs. This is another Arduin monster that appeared later than the Arduin Trilogy (there were 8 Arduin Grimoires all told), so it is more prominent in conversions than in the source material. Notice the presence of a throon in the party illustrated here.]

Hell Hopper
CR 8 N Magical Beast
This fanged, winged frog is the size of a small horse. Its color is a mottled tan and green, but the lining of its mouth is a luminous red.

Hell hoppers are flying carnivorous frogs. They are not from Hell—they are in fact from an alien jungle world—but their luminous mouths, bat-like wings and immunity to fire and acid make them seem devilish indeed. Hell hoppers have blood and saliva that reacts with organic material to make a powerful acid, and they are capable of eating just about anything. They have a limited ability to change the color of their skin—not quickly enough to disappear when observed, but enough that they usually match the background of wherever they dwell.

Hell hoppers spend their adult lives on land, but lay their eggs in water. They prefer to lay eggs in brine pools, hot springs, or other water bodies that are dangerous to predators but in which their eggs and tadpoles can survive. Tadpoles are omnivorous, grazing on algal mats, catching aquatic insects and occasionally resorting to cannibalism. They emerge as frogs after about six months, but their wings take another three months to reach their full size. Once they are winged, they are sexually mature.

Keep reading

“Dark Elf” © Adriana Zaroda, accessed at her ArtStation page here

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48. The deodanths are the Arduin Grimoire equivalent of drow, and like 1e drow, they are clearly Better Than You in every respect. So I had to tone them down considerably in order to make them even remotely a PC race (as the commissioner requested). So no ogre strength, no level draining bite, and certainly no time jump abilities. I’ve included some feats under the cut to help give them at least a little more of their monstrous feel.]

Deodanth
CR ½ NE Humanoid
This rangy humanoid looks like a gray skinned elf, but their eyes are wild and their hands end in jagged claws.

Deodanths are cruel offshoots of the elves. Their bloodlines are infused with negative energy, and their own legendry refers to their ancestors as ghouls who were returned to true life by some cruel power. They are typically nomadic, living lives of piracy and raiding. On the rare occasions they attempt to ally others, it is usually with exploitation in mind. Deodanths typically prefer warm climes, and what few cities they have are typically hidden deep within treacherous jungles. Deodanth society is a cruel meritocracy, where the strong grab power and the weak are little more than slaves. Relationships are usually polyandrous—as males cannot bear children, they are seen by most women as expendable. Despite (or perhaps because of) the similarities between the two races, deodanths and drow despise each other.

Doedanths are aggressive and eager combatants, leaping into the fray in order to feel warm blood on their skin. They usually wear light armor, suiting both their nimble frames and the hot environments they prefer. Some deodanths fight solely with their claws and teeth, but those that use weapons favor piercing ones such as rapiers, javelins and longspears. They use their innate magic in order to make powerful leaps and disappear briefly from view—rumors that deodanths can “jump through time” are merely rumors, but the deodanths themselves spread them out of amusement. Deodanths delight in causing pain, and frequently capture enemies for recreational torture.

Deodanths advance by class level, and most of them favor martial classes such as fighter, rogue or swashbuckler. Spellcasting deodanths are not uncommon, and they favor classes that allow them to manipulate others—bard, sorcerer and mesmerist are favored choices. Few deodanths are divine casters, because that requires them to devote themselves to another power—those that do follow divine courses are likely to worship the Four Horsemen, or be an oracle more aligned with an ideal than a divinity.

Deodanths as Player Characters
Deodanths do not have racial hit dice, and advance by character level. Deodanth characters have the following statistics

+2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis Deodanths are nimble and charming, but reckless
Medium size A deodanth gains no bonuses nor suffers penalties for its size.
Low-light vision
Deodanth Defenses A deodanth gains a +2 bonus on saves against fear, and against all necromancy spells and effects.
Claws A deodanth gains two claw attacks as primary natural weapons that deal 1d4 points of damage
Keen Senses A deodanth gains a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks
Spell Resistance A deodanth gains spell resistance equal to 6 + its character level
Spell-like Abilities A deodanth may use the following spell-like abilities once per day, using its character level as its caster level: hypnotism, jump, vanish
Languages A deodanth begins play speaking Elven and Necril. Deodanths with an Intelligence bonus may select from the following bonus languages: Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Giant, Gnoll, Infernal, Undercommon

A sample deodanth NPC, as well as feats for deodanth characters, can be found under the cut

Keep reading

Image by Jon Usiak (?), © Emperor’s Choice Gaming.

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48. David A. Hargrave really liked flying versions of aquatic animals. Among his contributions to the early 3pp book All the World’s Monsters is an air squid, on top of this air shark, and the Arduin Grimoires themselves have a skyray. I toned the ram ventilation down from “can’t breathe at all if standing still”, when I did research suggesting that that’s true of only a few dozen of the hundreds of shark species. I also dropped the immunity to fear. It feels like every Arduin monster has fear immunity.]

Air Shark
CR 3 N Magical Beast
This horse-sized shark would not be out of place in the depths of the ocean. However, it is flying through the air as if swimming.

Air sharks are much like their mundane cousins, except that they soar through the sky instead of the water. Their bodies are filled with lighter than air gases, granting them great speed and maneuverability in the sky. Unfortunately, these gases are flammable, and air sharks are prone to exploding during lightning storms or when struck by flaming projectiles. Such explosions can trigger a chain reaction, and some schools of air sharks can go up all at once in a single horrifying moment.

An air shark must remain forever on the move. Although they can force air through their gills manually, doing so is labor intensive, and so they fly almost constantly. An air shark can even sleep while in flight, shutting down part of its brain at a time so it can still avoid obstacles. Like ordinary sharks, air sharks are predators first and foremost, and they typically either catch small prey (like birds) on the wing, or swoop to land level in order to make hit and run attacks against land animals. Once prey succumbs to multiple bleeding wounds, the air sharks will circle their kills, tearing bites from them and leaving a messy kill site.

Air sharks make for useful flying mounts for the skilled and resourceful. Their physiology requires certain adjustments to be made instead of keeping them in mundane stables. Due to their movement-based breathing, air sharks require lots of space to roam, and many are kept at pasture and called to be mounted instead of forced into a convenient stable. The use of open flames is also not encouraged by those who ride air sharks, as too many accidents have occurred wherein a rider loses both their mount and their life following an explosion and a long fall.

The statistics above refer to the average air shark, which has characteristics of blue, tiger or bull sharks. Larger air sharks, such as great white air sharks and the feared air megalodons, are possible, as are Small or Tiny air dogfish.

Keep reading

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[Talking with me during the development of her red hag, @soylent-crocodile referred to it as “a species of Starscreams”. Which is a great description, and also an accurate assessment of the palace skelm. Although it’s obvious that Grima Wormtongue is also a major influence on this PF2e monster. The fact that palace skelms and red hags are the same CR and would absolutely hate each other is the icing on the cake for me.]

Palace Skelm
CR 8 LE Monstrous Humanoid
This humanoid figure is almost human, except for the pair of gleaming antlers growing from his skull. He is dressed in fine noble’s clothing.

Palace skelms are creatures that delight in the corruption of power. They often are found among military officers and politicians, some of whom transformed into skelms in that position. Palace skelms spend their time either jockeying for power or abusing the power that they do have, treating their subordinates with casual cruelty. A palace skelm is an excellent liar, and they can even insert their words into the mouths of others. They encourage competition, jealousy and paranoia in any court they find themselves in, turning functioning governments into a den of vipers to exploit. They are ostentatious by nature, and frequently flaunt their wealth and status with finery.

Most palace skelms prefer to exert power from behind the throne, ingratiating himself to a ruler and warping their perceptions so that they only trust the skelm. Coups and political upheavals are dangerous for palace skelms, as they simultaneously allow for more opportunities to inflict suffering while increasing the risk of the skelm’s true nature being exposed, or of the skelm losing their grasp on what power they have. Palace skelms have a tendency to self-sabotage, as their interlocking schemes can spiral out of their control, and their answer to being caught in the act is usually murder.

Keep reading