%%%%
# Glyph-specific suffixes
# Only for non-uniques nagas.
__cap-N_suffix

{{
    if you.race() == "Naga" then
        return "It is particularly attractive."
    else
        return "It is strange and repulsive."
    end
}}
%%%%
__cap-T_suffix

You feel a lump in the pit of your stomach.
%%%%
__cap-T_suffix:quote

“Buckshank bold and Elfinstone,
 And more than I can mention here,
 They caused to be built so stout a ship,
 And unto Iceland they would steer.

 They launched the ship upon the main,
 Which bellowed like a wrathful bear;
 Down to the bottom the vessel sank,
 A laidly Trold has dragged it there.”
    -George Borrow, _Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest_. 1851.
%%%%
__cap-U_suffix

If made afraid, it may become angry!
%%%%
__(_suffix_examine

It has been enchanted to dance through the air and attack under its own power.
%%%%
# Uniques
Aizul

Once the primary guardian serpent of a legendary treasure hoard, he was
disgraced after thieves looted it while he slept. He now slithers about the
dungeon, seeking vengeance against all would-be looters. He is an accomplished
spellcaster, but no more deadly in melee combat than others of his kind.
%%%%
Aizul:quote

“I went to Heaven —
 ’Twas a small Town —
 Lit — with a Ruby —
 Lathed — with Down —”
    -Emily Dickinson, _I went to Heaven_. ca. 1860.
%%%%
Agnes

This somewhat older looking spriggan carries a bladed staff (almost as large as
she is). The pockets of her threadbare robe bulge with jangling coins. The
coins and lajatang do not seem to slow her, though, as she darts to and fro,
her pockets streaming behind her and trembling as if about to burst.
%%%%
Antaeus

Once a mighty and renowned titan, his arrogance was his undoing. Now he is
corrupt and tainted, a powerful demon who lords over the frozen wastes of
Cocytus. His gigantic body seems as though it would be easily struck by your
attacks; unfortunately, it also seems as though it would remain unscathed by
all but the strongest of them.
%%%%
Antaeus:quote

“That country was then ruled by Antaeus, son of Poseidon, who used to kill
strangers by forcing them to wrestle. Being forced to wrestle with him,
Hercules hugged him, lifted him aloft, broke and killed him; for when he
touched earth so it was that he waxed stronger, wherefore some said that he was
a son of Earth.”
    -Pseudo-Apollodorus , _Library and Epitome_, 2.5.11. ca. 150 BC.
    trans. Sir James George Frazer, 1913.
%%%%
Arachne

Once the best human weaver, Arachne was cursed by being transformed into her
present form: half-human, half-spider. No longer aging, she has the youth and
beauty of a human female, along with the legs and abdomen of a monstrous giant
spider.

Thousands of years old, she has learned magic and quite a few other tricks.
Expect to be ensnared by webs and magic while her pets digest and then drink
you dry.
%%%%
Asmodeus

One of the arch-demons who dwell in the depths of Hell, wreathed in fire.
%%%%
Asmodeus:quote

“For myself, I have other occupations:  I make absurd matches; I marry
greybeards with minors, masters with servants, girls with small fortunes with
tender lovers who have none. It is I who introduced into this world luxury,
debauchery, games of chance, and chemistry. I am the author of the first
cookery book, the inventor of festivals, of dancing, music, plays, and of the
newest fashions; in a word, I am ASMODEUS, surnamed The Devil on Two Sticks.”
    -Alain René Le Sage, _Asmodeus: Or, The Devil on Two Sticks_. 1707.
%%%%
Azrael

A powerful, belligerent efreet. (Is there any other kind?)
%%%%
Blork the orc

A particularly fat and ugly orc. He seems to have scavenged a pair of
rainbow-coloured suspenders from somewhere. They're not helping.
%%%%
Boris

An ancient and powerful lich. Like all true liches, Boris is immortal, and will
regenerate his desiccated skeletal remains even if completely disintegrated.
%%%%
Cerebov

A violent and wrathful demon, Cerebov appears as a giant human covered in
shining golden armour and wielding a huge twisted sword.
%%%%
Chuck

Chuck the stone giant loves rocks, the bigger the better! Over the years, he
has managed to amass quite the collection, including some rare, enchanted ones.
%%%%
Crazy Yiuf

A withered old gnoll with a long silver beard, wielding a quarterstaff and
wearing a cloak. He looks like a figure from mythology! Wait, is his beard held
on to his ears with hooks?
%%%%
Crazy Yiuf:quote

“There was an Old Man with a beard,
 Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
 Two Owls and a Hen,
 Four Larks and a Wren,
 Have all built their nests in my beard!'”
    -Edward Lear, _A Book of Nonsense [No. 1]_. 1846.
%%%%
Dispater

The lord of the Iron City of Dis.
%%%%
Dispater:quote

“Hoc idem magis ostendit antiquius Iovis nomen: nam olim Diovis et Diespiter
dictus, id est dies pater; a quo dei dicti qui inde, et dius et divum, unde sub
divo, Dius Fidius. Itaque inde eius perforatum tectum, ut ea videatur divum, id
est caelum. Quidam negant sub tecto per hunc deierare oportere. Aelius Dium
Fidium dicebat Diovis filium, ut Graeci Dioskopon Castorem, et putabat hunc
esse Sancum ab Sabina lingua et Herculem a Graeca. Idem hic Dis pater dicitur
infimus, qui est coniunctus terrae, ubi omnia ut oriuntur ita aboriuntur;
quorum quod finis ortuum, Orcus dictus.”
    -Marcus Terentius Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, Liber V, circa 40 BC.
%%%%
Dissolution

The Pits of Slime used to be a thriving civilization, and Dissolution was the
prophet of their god. When the city was overtaken by its current residents,
only Dissolution survived, for he alone turned faithfully to the Slime God.
Dissolution became a tremendous mass of acidic ooze, yet retained his
intelligence. He is filled with hatred for anything that can hold a form.
%%%%
Donald

{{
    local descript = "An adventurer just like you, trying to find the Orb."

    if you.race() ~= "Merfolk" and you.race() ~= "Octopode" then
        descript = descript .. " Unlike you, and d"
    else
        descript = descript .. " D"
    end

    descript = descript .. "espite his hatred of it, he takes to water " ..
                           "like a fowl."

    return descript
}}
%%%%
Dowan

A beautiful but vain elf with an aptitude for magic and little else. His skills
are the perfect complement of his twin sister Duvessa's fighting prowess.
%%%%
Dowan:quote

“Skill and grace, the twin brother and sister, are dancing playfully on your
finger tips.”
    -Rabindranath Tagore, _Chitra_, Act I, Scene iv. 1914.
%%%%
Duvessa

A plain-looking elven fighter who is technically brilliant in many forms of
combat, but over-confident because of it. She is complemented by the magical
skills of her twin brother, Dowan.
%%%%
Duvessa:quote

“Twin children: the Girl, she was plain;
 The Brother was handsome & vain;
 ‘Let him brag of his looks,’
 Father said; ‘mind your books!
 The best beauty is bred in the brain.’”
    -Aesop & Walter Crane, _The Baby’s Own Aesop_, 36: "Brother & Sister".
1887.
%%%%
Edmund

A jealous sibling of Sigmund (indeed, the youngest of nine brothers). He has
none of Sigmund's skills in magic, but makes up for it with his skills in
fighting and a canny head for money. He is eager to prove his superiority by
killing hapless adventurers with his expensive flail and quick wit.
%%%%
Edmund:quote

“And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
 Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper.—
 Now, gods, stand up for bastards!”
    -William Shakespeare, _King Lear_, I, ii. 1606.

“When the forces stood in array Edmund proposed to decide their claims by
single combat; but Canute saying that he, a man of small stature, would have
little chance against the tall athletic Edmund, proposed, on the contrary, for
them to divide the realm as their fathers had done.”
    -Thomas Keightley, _The History of England_. 1839.
%%%%
the Enchantress

A beautiful spriggan woman, the ruler of spriggans who live here. She wears an
opalescent outfit made of dragon skin that shimmers with all colours.

The air around her shows hints of many powerful enchantment spells she cast on
herself.
%%%%
Ereshkigal

A fearsome arch-fiend who rules the deathly netherworld of Tartarus.
%%%%
Erica

A comely spellweaver.
%%%%
Erolcha

An especially cunning ogre-mage.
%%%%
Eustachio

An apprentice summoner with a flowing moustache. He has funny ideas about
honour.
%%%%
Frances

A stout warrior who once bested a powerful lord of Pandemonium in combat,
gaining control over the demon's realm and thanes. The battle left her with a
deep facial scar, one that she carries as a badge of honour rather than a
symbol of shame.
%%%%
Frederick

A svelte fighter-mage who wears a gold-rimmed monocle and seeks a suitable and
worthy opponent. You likely do not fit the bill.
%%%%
Frederick:quote

“I thoroughly disapprove of duels. I consider them unwise and I know they are
dangerous. Also, sinful. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly
and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet retired spot and kill him.”
    -Mark Twain, _Autobiography of Mark Twain_. 1924.
%%%%
Fannar

A cold-hearted elven sorcerer, draped in robes of high office. He whispers
grimly to himself as he stalks the dungeon, trailing ice crystals through the
air behind him.

In ages long past, Fannar's wisdom and precocious talent with frost magic won
him the coveted position of magistrate, placing him in charge of enforcing the
law throughout the Elven Halls. By all accounts, he was once well known for
being benevolent, just, and passionate in keeping the elves free from
corruption and crime, even as those around him began to dabble in necromancy
and demonic magic.

Over the long centuries of his tenure, Fannar's devotion to justice has warped
into paranoia and despotism. Even his closest supporters now whisper that his
magical power has begun to border on the self-destructive. Fannar still tries
to keep the elves from falling to evil, unwilling or unable to notice that he
failed long ago.
%%%%
Gastronok

A voracious and surprisingly intelligent slug, devoted to eating everything and
everyone he comes across, with a pointed hat perched rakishly atop his head. He
acquired the hat the same way he acquired his intelligence and his knowledge of
spells: by consuming their former owner, a powerful wizard.
%%%%
Geryon

A huge, three-headed, winged arch-demon, guardian of the four Hells. Legends
say that his silver horn is used to throw open the gates of Hell themselves.
%%%%
Geryon:quote

“Khrysaor, married to Kallirhoe, daughter of glorious Okeanos, was father to
the triple-headed Geryon, but Geryon was killed by the great strength of
Herakles at sea-circled Erytheis beside his own shambling cattle on that day
when Herakles drove those broad-faced cattle toward holy Tiryns, when he
crossed the stream of Okeanos and had killed Orthos and the oxherd Eurytion out
in the gloomy meadow beyond fabulous Okeanos.”
    -Hesiod, _Theogony_, circa 700 BCE.
%%%%
Gloorx Vloq

A shadowy figure clothed in profound darkness.
%%%%
Grinder

An inefficient shadow imp previously employed as a torturer in one of the lower
circles of Hell. He has a tendency to complain and make inane statements.
%%%%
Grum

A tough-looking gnoll, wearing the pelt of one of his former war dogs.
%%%%
Harold

A middle-aged bounty hunter, anxious to retire from bounty-hunting after one
final job. He hopes to settle down somewhere and live a quiet life with his
family, using the money from his final bounty: you.
%%%%
Ignacio

While a mortal cannot turn into a demon aside from divine intervention, this is
what happened to Ignacio after Makhleb saw his love for his job and smiled upon
him. He is now slated to continue the joy of his life for all eternity.

Although his new form includes a number of large razor-sharp blades growing
from his demonic appendages, he kept his favourite axe and is eager to let you
test its edge.
%%%%
Ijyb

A small and twisted goblin, wearing some ugly blue rags. He claims dominion
over this level of the dungeon; the punishment for trespassing is death.
%%%%
Ilsuiw

A cunning merfolk water-witch, who uses her beauty and spellcraft to draw
unwitting adventurers to their deaths.
%%%%
Ilsuiw:quote

“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
 By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
 Till human voices wake us, and we drown.”
    -T.S. Eliot, _The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock_. lines 129-131. 1915.
%%%%
Jessica

An evil apprentice sorceress. She entered the dungeon hoping to find a quiet,
secluded place where she could study the darker arts without being disturbed.
%%%%
Jorgrun

A deep dwarven magician, particularly well-attuned to the dungeon around him.
He wields powerful earth magic in combat.
%%%%
Jory

Once a simple village peasant, Jory found himself transformed in undeath into a
powerful creature. Through the countless centuries unlived since then, he has
honed his skills in combat and magic, amassed great wealth and many
possessions, and now resides in a stonily quiet Tower of Silence. He's not
about to let any puny adventurers ruin his hard work, so those who encounter
him should beware!
%%%%
Joseph

Looks like a mercenary.
%%%%
Josephine

A hideous crone, her face covered in warts, moles and the occasional patch of
hair, Josephine's appearance may fool one into thinking she is some weak old
woman, but she is truly a formidable necromancer. The use of black magic has
taken a physical toll on and prematurely aged Josephine, turning the once
beautiful lady into an ugly hag.
%%%%
Khufu

An incredibly powerful emperor on the way to godhood.
%%%%
Khufu:quote

“And then I looked farther, beyond the pallid line of the sands, and I saw a
Pyramid of gold, the wonder Khufu had built. As a golden wonder it saluted me,
as a golden thing it greeted me, as a golden miracle I shall remember it.”
    -Robert Hichens, _The Spell of Egypt_
%%%%
Kirke

A beautiful enchantress.
%%%%
Kirke:quote

“Lo, thy comrades yonder in the house of Kirke are penned like swine in
close-barred sties. And art thou come to release them? Nay, I tell thee, thou
shalt not thyself return, but shalt remain there with the others.”
    -Homer, Odysseia
%%%%
Lamia

A powerful queen of the nagas, said to be willing to eat her own children. {{
  if you.race == "Naga" then
    return "She is stunningly beautiful."
  else
    return "Despite her deformed body, she is quite beautiful."
  end
}}
%%%%
the Lernaean hydra

An ancient, outsized serpent-like water beast that possesses numerous heads.
The poets mention more heads than vase-painters can paint, poisonous venom
coming out of its eyes, and that this hydra is a guardian of an entrance to the
Underworld. What of this is true, you do not know.
%%%%
the Lernaean hydra:quote

“The second Labour which he undertook was the slaying of the Lernaian Hydra,
 springing from whose single body were fashioned a hundred necks, each bearing
 the head of a serpent. And when one head was cut off, the place where it was
 severed put forth two others; for this reason it was considered to be
 invincible, and with good reason, since the part of it which was subdued sent
 forth a two-fold assistance in its place. Against a thing so difficult to
 manage as this Herakles devised an ingenious scheme and commanded Iolaos to
 sear with a burning brand the part which had been severed, in order to check
 the flow of the blood.”
    -Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca Historica_. [4. 11. 5.]. c. 100.
%%%%
Lom Lobon

Stoic and inscrutable, Lom Lobon is an ancient demon infamous for his mastery
of magic. Rumoured to be the most learned being in the halls of Pandemonium, he
is at times sought out by mortal wizards who offer their souls in exchange for
the secrets of the arcane. Lacking the terrible wrath present in most demons,
Lom Lobon's single eye instead hides a cold, impartial cruelty.
%%%%
lorocyproca

A tall and gaunt figure, draped in long robes which flow as if alive. It
thirsts for magical energies.
%%%%
lorocyproca:quote

“There it had assumed a wild, incalculable and incredible shape, twisted into a
fantastic arabesque — invisible to their eyes, but dreadful nonetheless — into
the unfamiliar numeral under whose menace they lived.”
    -Bruno Schulz, “The Brilliant Epoch”. 1937.
%%%%
Louise

A mighty sorceress, clad from head to toe in heavy armour. Once an adventurer
looking for the fabled Orb of Zot, she was cast into the Abyss and got
hopelessly lost there. Toyed with by some greater power, she was stuck on the
hostile plane for nearly a decade. When she finally emerged from the Abyss,
Louise had become powerful indeed, but had also gone fully insane. She now
wanders the halls of the dungeon, seeking other adventurers to share her fate.
%%%%
Mara

This tall and powerful demon is Mara, Lord of Illusions, mighty among dreamers.
He is capable of creating intricately detailed illusions, able to mislead even
the minds of the mightiest and most brilliant spell-casters.
%%%%
Mara:quote

“This night the Lord of Illusion passed among you, Mara, mighty among dreamers,
mighty for ill. He did come upon another who may work with the stuff of dreams
in a different way. He did meet with Dharma, who may expel a dreamer from his
dream. They did struggle, and the Lord Mara is no more. Why did they struggle,
deathgod against illusionist? You say their ways are incomprehensible, being
the ways of gods. This is not the answer.”
    -Roger Zelazny, “Lord of Light”, 1967

“He who lives looking for pleasures only,
 his senses uncontrolled, immoderate in his food,
 idle, and weak, Mara will certainly overthrow him,
 as the wind throws down a weak tree.”
    -The Buddha, _Dhammapada_, 1:7.
     trans. F. Max Muller
%%%%
Margery

A lithe spellcaster in service to the powers of Hell; it is her duty to ensure
that the inhabitants of the Dungeon never forget their place. She personally
slew the ancient dragon from whose hide her strange armour is crafted.
%%%%
Maud

A mysterious warrior princess from a far-off kingdom, on a quest to retrieve
the legendary sword 'Entarex'. Countless have been the admirers who, thinking
about Maud, forgot everything else.
%%%%
Maurice

A sly, conniving thief. In his profession, Maurice is considered a legend — at
least according to himself. He is skilled, nonetheless, and among all the
thieves and rogues lured by the Orb, Maurice is undoubtedly the most crafty.
%%%%
Maurice:quote

“'Stop thief! Stop thief!' There is a magic in the sound. The tradesman leaves
his counter, and the car-man his waggon; the butcher throws down his tray; the
baker his basket; the milkman his pail; the errand-boy his parcels; the
school-boy his marbles; the paviour his pickaxe; the child his battledore. Away
they run, pell-mell, helter-skelter, slap-dash: tearing, yelling, screaming,
knocking down the passengers as they turn the corners, rousing up the dogs, and
astonishing the fowls: and streets, squares, and courts, re-echo with the
sound.”
    -Charles Dickens, _Oliver Twist_. 1838.
%%%%
Mennas

There was once a human priest named Mennas. He travelled far and wide preaching
of Zin to any who would listen, going even so far as to travel into Orcish
lands, preaching to orcs about laws and mercy. By all accounts the orcs were
not happy with Mennas. They demanded he swear Beogh was the one true god, and
when Mennas remained silent they cut out his tongue.

Whether or not this angel is that same Mennas is something of a mystery, as he
seems to have difficulty speaking.
%%%%
Menkaure

A fair and noble ruler of an ancient and mighty kingdom, mummified after an
early death. His faithful priests subsequently infused him with great and
powerful magic, seeking to grant him eternal life. Now he is forgotten and
reduced to mouldering bandages and dry, brittle bones.
%%%%
Menkaure:quote

“Ye men of Egypt, ye have heard your king!
 I go, and I return not. But the will
 Of the great Gods is plain; and ye must bring
 Ill deeds, ill passions, zealous to fulfil
 Their pleasure, to their feet; and reap their praise,
 The praise of Gods, rich boon! and length of days.”
    -Matthew Arnold, _Mycerinus_
%%%%
Mnoleg

A weirdly glowing figure, dancing through the twisted air of Pandemonium.
%%%%
Murray

A demonic skull rolling along the dungeon floor.
%%%%
Murray:quote

“Look behind you! A three-headed monkey!”
    -Guybrush Threepwood, _The Secret of Monkey Island_
%%%%
Nellie

A highly intelligent elephant who travelled as part of a circus. One dark
night, she slipped out of her chain and disappeared into Pandemonium, never to
be seen again.
%%%%
Nergalle

A withered sorceress, exceptionally ugly even by orc standards.
%%%%
Nessos

A black centaur warrior with a malicious look in his eyes.
%%%%
Nikola

A brilliant scientist obsessed with electricity. In his attempts to perfect his
electric golem, he was involved in a terrible accident, and now phases in and
out of reality.
%%%%
Nikola:quote

“One can prophesy with a Daniel's confidence that skilled electricians will
settle the battles of the near future.”
    -Nikola Tesla, “The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires As a
Means for Furthering Peace”, _Electrical World and Engineer_. January 7, 1905.
%%%%
Norris

A relaxed peace-in-death cultist with a healthy tan and a soothing voice. He
doesn't really care if it is you or him who dies — “both” would probably be the
best option.
%%%%
Norris:quote

“Death and death alone gives meaning to life and this meaning is entirely
negative.”
    -Georges Poulet
%%%%
Pikel

While kobolds are normally slaves, Pikel's rough life, selfish ambition and
large stature have caused him to rise up and become a slaver himself. He is on
his way to the Orcish Mines to sell his wares, a selection of timid humans that
cower with every crack of his whip.
%%%%
Polyphemus

A cyclops shepherd, he is very protective of his charges, whom he watches with
an undying fervor through his single massive eye.
%%%%
Polyphemus:quote

“...as soon as he had got through with all his work, he clutched up two more of
my men, and began eating them for his morning’s meal. Presently, with the
utmost ease, he rolled the stone away from the door and drove out his sheep,
but he at once put it back again—as easily as though he were merely clapping
the lid on to a quiver full of arrows.”
    -Homer, _The Odyssey_, Book IX.
    trans. Samuel Butler, 1900.
%%%%
Prince Ribbit

A handsome prince before he was cursed, he now adventures for a cure. On the
top of his head he wears a crown tilted jauntily to one side. How it still
stays in place even after his transformation is a mystery.
%%%%
Prince Ribbit:quote

“Princess! youngest princess!
 Open the door for me!
 Dost thou not know what thou saidst to me

 Yesterday by the cool waters of the fountain?
 Princess, youngest princess!
 Open the door for me!”
    -Brothers Grimm (Margaret Hunt), _The Frog King, or Iron Henry_
%%%%
Psyche

A fair-haired mage, wandering and seemingly half-mad with grief and guilt.
%%%%
Psyche:quote

“Let Psyche’s corpse be clad in mourning weed
 And set on rock of yonder hill aloft;
 Her husband is no wight of human seed,
 But serpent dire and fierce, as may be thought,
 Who flies with wings above in starry skies,
 And doth subdue each thing with fiery flight.
 The Gods themselves and powers that seem so wise
 With mighty love be subject to his might.
 The rivers black and deadly floods of pain
 And darkness eke as thrall to him remain.”
    -Apuleius, _Asinus aureus_, “Cupid and Psyche”. circa. 160 AD.
    trans. William Adlington, 1566.
%%%%
Purgy

An unusually thin troll.

You feel a lump in the pit of your stomach.
%%%%
Roxanne

A beautiful sapphire statue of a famous earth mage who disappeared after a
catastrophic spell failure. She is clutching a book.
%%%%
Rupert

A man of very bad manners whose roars can make an ogre envious.
%%%%
Saint Roka

A mighty warlord. Some orcs even say he is the Chosen One of Beogh.
%%%%
Sigmund

The elder of a pair of brothers who came for the Orb. No one knows what Sigmund
saw in the dungeon to drive him mad, but his shrewd magical tactics and wicked
scythe now leave little time for his victims to wonder. Despite his reputation
as a vicious murderer, his grandiose and dramatic ways have earned him the
admiration of many denizens of the dungeon.
%%%%
Sigmund:quote

“But Sigmund turned him about, and he said: ‘What aileth thee, son?
 Shall our life-days never be merry, and our labour never be done?’

 But Sinfiotli said: ‘I have looked, and lo, there is death in the cup.’

 And the song, and the tinkling of harp-strings to the roof-tree winded up;
 And Sigmund was dreamy with wine and the wearing of many a year;
 And the noise and the glee of the people as the sound of the wild woods were
 And the blossoming boughs of the Branstock were the wild trees waving about;

 So he said: ‘Well seen, my fosterling; let the lip then strain it out.’”
    -William Morris, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the
Niblungs_. 1891.
%%%%
Snorg

A particularly corpulent troll with a short temper and a sizable gut.
Uninterested in the Orb, Snorg delights in the endless parade of adventurers –
that is, easy meals — it attracts.
%%%%
Sonja

A graceful kobold assassin. Admire her graceful pirouettes, thrill at her
daring leaps! But watch out for her knives!
%%%%
Terence

A violent murderer who kills for both pleasure and profit, Terence has been
forced into hiding after a botched job, and can't really afford to risk letting
anyone who has seen him leave the dungeon alive — there is a price on his head,
after all.
%%%%
Terence:quote

“A MAN committed a murder, and was pursued by the relations of the man whom he
murdered. On his reaching the river Nile he saw a Lion on its bank and being
fearfully afraid, climbed up a tree. He found a serpent in the upper branches
of the tree, and again being greatly alarmed, he threw himself into the river,
where a crocodile caught him and ate him. Thus the earth, the air, and the
water alike refused shelter to a murderer.”
    -Aesop, _The Manslayer_. 6th century BCE.
     trans. George Fyler Townsend
%%%%
Tiamat

A powerful dragon with mighty wings. Her scales seem to shimmer and change
colour as you watch.
%%%%
Tiamat:quote

“He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us,
 With all her force she rageth, full of wrath.
 All the gods have turned to her,
 With those, whom ye created, they go at her side.
 They are banded together, and at the side of Tiamat they advance;
 They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day.
 They prepare for battle, fuming and raging;
 They have joined their forces and are making war.
 Tiamat who formed all things,
 Made in addition weapons invincible; she spawned monster-serpents,
 Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang;
 With poison, instead of blood, she filled their bodies.
 Fierce monster-vipers she clothed with terror,
 With splendor she decked them, she made them of lofty stature.
 Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him,
 Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack.”
    -Enuma Elish, Third Tablet. circa 668 BCE.
%%%%
Urug

A coarse and lanky orc. Urug lost his eye in a fight with a harpy, and has
sworn to slay every last one of them. Unfortunately, the vision in his
remaining eye is not very good, and he has mistaken you for one.
{{
    if you.can_smell() then
        return "He smells terrible."
    end
}}
%%%%
Wiglaf

A fat dwarf wearing a stupid-looking hat. {{
    if you.can_smell() then
        return "He reeks of alcohol. "
    end
}}
%%%%
Xtahua

An ancient and mighty dragon.
%%%%
the Serpent of Hell gehenna

A huge red glowing dragon, burning with hellfire. It seems to be possessed by
the very essence of Gehenna and its eternal fire.
%%%%
the Serpent of Hell cocytus

You can barely move through the hellish cold that's freezing your soul. It
emanates from this massive white dragon. Your eyes hurt from the temperature,
and from the gleam of shards of ice covering the demonic beast.
%%%%
the Serpent of Hell dis

A towering beast with an army's worth of swords for teeth. Each scale is a
shield with a razored edge. It watches you through a pair of featureless chrome
spheres.
%%%%
the Serpent of Hell tartarus

A pair of lurid magenta eyes hang in the darkness before you. You can just
barely trace the outline of a vast, sinuous dragon. Its malice for you is
palpable.
%%%%
# Non-unique monsters
acid blob

A lump of sickly pustulent flesh, dripping with lethal acid.
%%%%
adder

The common dungeon snake. A species of troglodytic reptile commonly found in
subterranean spaces.
%%%%
agate snail

A huge and disgusting gastropod with a celadon shell, inside which it will hide
when frightened.
%%%%
agate snail:quote

“Snail, snail, slug-slow,
 To me thy four horns show;
 If thou dost not show me thy four,
 I will throw thee out of the door,
 For the crow in the gutter,
 To eat for bread and butter.”
    -Silesian rhyme, _Notes and Queries_, Number 69. 1851.
%%%%
air elemental

A spirit drawn from the elemental plane of air. It exists in this world as a
swirling vortex of air, often dissipating and reforming.
%%%%
alligator

A sneaky crocodilian that hides in water and waits patiently for its prey to
get too close, at which point it puts on a great burst of speed and crushes its
victim with massive jaws.
%%%%
alligator:quote

“Alligators commit errors of diet.”
    -Bennet Bowler, M.D., _Contributions to the Natural History of the
     Alligator, (Crocodilus Mississipiensis), with a Microscopic Addendum_,
     p. 17. 1846.
%%%%
alligator snapping turtle

A particularly large and nasty snapping turtle. Like its smaller relative, it
too can reach out and bite from afar, and will retreat inside its shell when
threatened.
%%%%
anaconda

A very large snake that moves with startling rapidity on both land and in the
water. It kills not by poison but by constricting its prey.
%%%%
ancient lich

A lich who, having existed for countless centuries, has grown almost
unimaginably powerful through the study of dark magic.
%%%%
ancient zyme

A nexus of sentient cancer and disease, borne aloft perhaps by malice alone.
Its nature inflicts withering illness on all living beings in its presence.
%%%%
angel

A divine warrior of the Shining One, it is a towering winged figure of
unnatural beauty surrounded by an aura of brilliant white light. It appears to
be weightless and quite agile while flying, despite wearing heavy armour.
%%%%
apis

A placid, sacred bull of Elyvilon. Beware, evildoers, as it will surely turn on
you!
%%%%
apocalypse crab

An opalescent crab with jet black eyes. A distant relative of the fire crab,
the rumours claim that this species is waiting for the end of time. The chaotic
mists effusing from its mandible are hardly suggestive of waiting.
%%%%
azure jelly

An extremely cold blob of bright blue cytoplasm, forming bits of frost in the
air around it.
%%%%
baby alligator

A juvenile alligator. While it does not have crushing jaws, nor the strength to
put on massive bursts of speed, it is more limber than the adult form, and its
milk-tooth is still very sharp.
%%%%
baby alligator:quote

<alligator:quote>
%%%%
ball lightning

A huge, swift sphere of coruscating electrical energy. It will explode at the
slightest disturbance.
%%%%
ball python

A small snake that can augment its bite by constricting small creatures.
%%%%
ballistomycete

A lumpy reddish fungus covered in knobbly rhizome growths, growing well in the
dank underground dungeon. {{
    if you.god() == "Fedhas" then
        return "Fedhas has suppressed its production of giant spores to " ..
               "protect you from explosions."
    else
        return "It will occasionally produce giant spore balls, which in " ..
               "turn will give rise to more ballistomycetes."
    end
}}
%%%%
balrug

A huge and very powerful demon, wreathed in fire and shadows.
%%%%
basilisk

A crested lizard of middling size with a terrible petrifying gaze.
%%%%
battlesphere

A small globe of magical energy that follows a spellcaster. It cannot operate
on its own, yet it will provide fire support, assaulting whatever its conjurer
casts at with magical missiles that never miss.
%%%%
big fish

A stout fish with a wide, toothy mouth.
%%%%
big fish:quote

“And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?”
    -Herman Melville, _Moby Dick_, ch. lxxxix. 1851.
%%%%
big kobold

A kobold that is bigger and tougher than the ordinary kobold, and often armed.
%%%%
black bear

A small black bear. Like all ursines, the black bear will become enraged if
badly hurt or frightened.
%%%%
black draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
black mamba

A large and astonishingly fast tropical snake whose bite bears a deadly venom.
%%%%
blink frog

A species of giant frog that possesses the ability to blink at will. It can
blink itself close to its intended prey, or blink away to escape harm. It is
commonly found in packs.
%%%%
blizzard demon

A greater demon, wreathed in snow and lightning.
%%%%
blue devil

A peculiar, horned humanoid figure originating from some frigid hell. It is
repulsed by fire and flames.
%%%%
blue devil:quote

“From the sad marine decanter I then drew the cork. Instanter
 Out there jumped a little devil, blue in colour; and before
 I could speak to the new comer (for I never was struck dumber),
 Down upon my empty rummer, straight the little devil bore,
 Right into my empty tumbler straight the little devil bore,
 Squatted, grinned and nothing more.

 There the little imp sat grinning at me while my head went spinning,
 So that had I not sat down I should have fallen upon the floor;
 'Though thy looks be somewhat evil,' said I ”tell me thou blue devil,
 Wherefore holdest though thy revel in the glass that held before
 Much the more agreeable spirit,—mizzle! leave me as before.“
 Then the imp said 'Never-more!'

 Though I felt uncommon funky, still this answer put my monkey
 Up, and at the small blue devil in an undertone I swore.
 Then I said I must be dreaming, although broad awake I'm seeming;
 Doubtless I shall have a screaming morning headache — what a bore:
 Salmon I will eat no more.”
    -J.T.S, “The Blue Imp”, _Melbourne Punch_. Sept. 4, 1856.
%%%%
boggart

A malevolent and dangerous little sprite. Although physically unprepossessing,
boggarts can rapidly summon large numbers of creatures, including more
boggarts, to do their perverse bidding. These troublesome pests can also cloud
one's mind and render themselves unseen.
%%%%
boggart:quote

“He thinks every bush a boggart.”
    -John Ray, _A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs_. 1768.

“A BOGGART intruded himself, upon what pretext or by what authority is unknown,
into the house of a quiet, inoffensive, and laborious farmer; and, when once it
had taken possession it disputed the right of domicile with the legal mortal
tenant, in a very unneighbourly and arbitrary manner. In particular, it seemed
to have a great aversion to children. As there is no point on which a parent
feels more acutely than that of the maltreatment of his offspring, the feelings
of the father and more particularly of his good dame, were daily, ay, and
nightly, harrowed up by the malice of this malignant and invisible boggart.”
    -C.J.T., _Folk-lore and Legends: English_  1890.
%%%%
bone dragon

A huge undead abomination, pieced together from the broken bones of many
dragons by powerful necromantic magic. This creature is unique among dragons in
that it lacks a typical dragon's fearsome breath.
%%%%
bog body

An undead figure preserved by the brackish waters of a bog. Though it has been
reanimated by some unknown magic, this magic is not enough to prevent its
decaying.
%%%%
boring beetle

An umber beetle with large, powerful mandibles which enable it to bore through
solid rock.
%%%%
boulder beetle

A huge grey beetle with an almost impenetrable rocky carapace, capable of
rolling at its foes at high speed.
%%%%
brain worm

A slimy mauve worm with a greatly distended head, this creature feeds on the
intellects of sentient beings.
%%%%
Brimstone Fiend

A huge and powerful demon wreathed in hellfire, with great scaly wings. One of
the most fearsome denizens of any of the Hells.
%%%%
brown ooze

A viscous liquid being that flows along the floor in search of matter to
dissolve and consume.
%%%%
bush

A woody plant. It looks dry enough to be easily set on fire, and its foliage is
not very dense, permitting missiles to pass through it. However, it is firmly
rooted, and requires much effort to destroy.
%%%%
bush:quote

“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the
bush was not consumed.”
    -KJV Bible, Ex3:2.
%%%%
burning bush

A mass of blackened twigs wreathed in orange flames. The walls and floor
surrounding it are covered in scorch marks.
%%%%
butterfly

A large, brightly coloured butterfly with beautifully patterned wings,
fluttering incongruously through the darkness of the cave.
%%%%
butterfly:quote

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your
grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
    -Nathaniel Hawthorne
%%%%
cacodemon

A hideously ugly demon of rage and legendary power, it disables its foes before
blasting them to pieces.
%%%%
cacodemon:quote

“We’ll call him Cacodemon, with his black Gib there, his Succuba, his Devil’s
Seed, his Spawn of Phlegethon, that o’ my Consience was bred o’ the Spume of
Cocytus.”
    -John Fletcher, _The Knight of Malta_. 1647.
%%%%
catoblepas

A sluggish black buffalo, its hide encrusted with dull scales. It carries its
hog-like head just above the ground, protected by a stiff mane of bristles,
joined to its body by a neck as long and loose as an emptied intestine. Man and
beast alike would be wise to steer clear of this creature, as its fearsome
breath is known to turn flesh into stone.
%%%%
catoblepas:quote

“So passed he over into the island, taking with him the two brothers of
Anaxius; where he found the forsaken knight attired in his own livery, as black
as sorrow itself could see itself in the blackest glass: his ornaments of the
same hue, but formd into the figures of ravens which seemed to gape for
carrion: only his reins were snakes, which finely wrapping themselves one
within the other, their heads came together to the cheeks and bosses of the
bit, where they might seem to bite at the horse, and the horse, as he champed
the bit, to bite at them, and that the white foam was engendered by the
poisonous fury of the combat. His impresa was a Catoblepta, which so long lies
dead as the moon (whereto it hath so natural a sympathy) wants her light. The
word signified, that the moon wanted not the light, but the poor beast wanted
the moon’s light.”
    -Sir Philip Sidney
%%%%
centaur

A hybrid with the torso of a human atop the body of a large horse, centaurs are
famous for their skills in archery.
%%%%
centaur warrior

A muscular centaur, a veteran of numerous battles, armed with well-made weapons
and able to use them skillfully.
%%%%
chaos butterfly

A particularly large, garishly coloured butterfly, seemingly shimmering amidst
the torrential storm clouds that follow it wherever it goes.
%%%%
chaos spawn

A being of pure chaos, its form is constantly shifting, growing and then losing
eyes, mouths, claws and tentacles. It corrupts everything it touches.
%%%%
cherub

Behold! A throne-bearer of the Gods, whose head is beset by four faces: one of
a man, one of an ox, one of a lion, one of an eagle. It is one of the three
angelic beings who stand before the Good Gods, singing eternal hymns of praise
to their Glory and Goodness. Indeed, these hymns have the power to rouse
greatness in hearts pure and true.
%%%%
cherub:quote

“The glory of Yahweh mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold
of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full
of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory.
 The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as
the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.”
    -WEB Bible, Ezk10:4-5
%%%%
clay golem

A huge clay statue that has been animated by occult means.
%%%%
clay golem:quote

“Once upon a time a great Cabbalist lived in Prague called the Rabbi Löw. He
made a human figure of clay, and left a small aperture in the lesser brain in
which he laid a parchment with the unutterable name of God written on it. The
clod immediately arose and was a man; he performed all the duties of a servant
for his creator, he fetched water, and hewed wood. All through the Jews quarter
he was known as the Golem of the great Rabbi Löw. Every Friday evening the
Rabbi took the parchment out of his head, and he was clay until Sunday morning.
Once the Rabbi forgot this duty, all were in the Synagogue, the Sabbath hymn
was begun, when all the women and children in the assembly started and screamed
out, ‘the Golem! the Golem is destroying everything!’ The Rabbi ordered the
precentor to pause at the end of the prayer: it was yet possible to save all,
but later nought would avail, the whole world would be destroyed. He hastened
home, and saw the Golem already seizing the joists of his house to tear down
the building: he sprang forward, took the parchment out, and dead clay again
lay at his feet.”
    -Berthold Auerbach, _Spinoza_. 1882.
%%%%
crawling corpse

A corpse weakly animated by necromancy. It is easily destroyed, but capable of
merging with others to form more potent horrors.
%%%%
crimson imp

A small, ugly minor demon. Its fanged maw seems locked in a permanent malign
grin, and its horns protrude obscenely from its scaly pate.
%%%%
crimson imp:quote

“The Devil, too, sometimes steals human children; it is not infrequent for him
to carry away infants within the first six weeks after birth, and to substitute
in their place imps.”
    -Martin Luther
%%%%
crocodile

An aggressive crocodilian with great crunching jaws full of sharp teeth.
%%%%
crystal golem

A huge animated figure made of heavily ensorcelled crystal. It is immune to
most forms of magic.
%%%%
curse skull

A charred skull floating in the air and rotating slowly. Mystic symbols carved
into its blackened surface indicate its resistance to almost any form of
attack.
%%%%
curse toe

A disembodied toe, hanging in the air and radiating an intense field of
negative energy.
%%%%
cyclops

A giant with one eye in the centre of its forehead. Despite their lack of
binocular vision, cyclopes throw boulders with fearsome accuracy.
%%%%
daeva

A divine agent of the Shining One, a daeva is a towering winged figure
radiating an aura of brilliant golden light.
%%%%
daeva:quote

“Between these twain the Daevas also chose not aright, for infatuation came
upon them as they took counsel together, so that they chose the Worst Thought.
Then they rushed together to Violence, that they might enfeeble the world of
men.”
    -the Avesta, Yasna XXX, 6, Ahunavaiti Gatha.
    trans. Christian Bartholomae, 1951.
%%%%
# Only used in lookup mode, not when examining an actual monster.
dancing weapon

A weapon enchanted to dance through the air and attack under its own power.
%%%%
death cob

A dreadful undead cob of maize. Look, this one was probably a mistake. We're
sorry.
%%%%
death drake

A dark and baleful minor dragon, the death drake breathes a lethally potent
miasma from its pestilential maw.
%%%%
death ooze

A putrid undead mass of decaying flesh that spurts pestilent slime.
%%%%
death yak

A larger and beefier relative of the common dungeon yak. Its little red eyes
gleam with hunger for living flesh.
%%%%
deep elf annihilator

A deep elf who exults in conjured mayhem and destruction. It is widely hated
and feared, both for the power and for the precision of its destructive magics.
%%%%
deep elf blademaster

A champion of the deep elves, who scorns magic and is devoted to the study of
the sword. A blademaster wields two weapons with astonishing dexterity and
speed.
%%%%
deep elf conjurer

A deep elf well-versed in a variety of destructive magics.
%%%%
deep elf death mage

A deep elf surrounded by a shimmering aura of negative energy, as a result of
its practice of necromancy and life-sapping magic.
%%%%
deep elf demonologist

A deep elf who is marked heavily by long years of contact with unnatural
demonic forces and the creatures of the Abyss.
%%%%
deep elf elementalist

The primal forces of the universe dance at this demented wizard's fingertips.
%%%%
deep elf fighter

A strong deep elf soldier who wields weapons and battle magic.
%%%%
deep elf high priest

An exalted servant of the ancient dark god of the deep elves, basking in
hellish death magic.
%%%%
deep elf knight

A battle-hardened deep elf fighter.
%%%%
deep elf mage

A deep elf learned in the ways of murderous magic. Deep elf mages are capable
of a wide array of harmful spells.
%%%%
deep elf master archer

A deep elf archer that has devoted a lifetime to the mastery of archery,
dismissing magic as a frivolous distraction.
%%%%
deep elf priest

This deep elf is a servant of the ancient dark god of the deep elves, and has
been granted command of torturous energies by its enigmatic lord.
%%%%
deep elf soldier

A common soldier of the deep elves, who knows spells useful in combat.
%%%%
deep elf sorcerer

A mighty spellcaster who draws power from the very Hells, and possesses lethal
arcane abilities of destruction, summoning and banishment.
%%%%
deep elf summoner

This deep elf is skilled in the summoning of small demons and creatures.
%%%%
deep dwarf

Pale and unnaturally tough-skinned, deep dwarves dwell far below ground and
almost never emerge into the sunlit upper world. They are more inclined towards
the occult arts than their mountainous cousins.
%%%%
deep dwarf artificer

A deep dwarf that has devoted its life to the study and use of arcane devices.
%%%%
deep dwarf berserker

A ferocious and blood-thirsty deep dwarf that revels in the frenzy of combat.
%%%%
deep dwarf death knight

A deep dwarf warrior-priest of Yredelemnul that chants unholy homages to the
dark god and calls forth the dead.
%%%%
deep dwarf necromancer

An evil deep dwarf that has sold its mortal soul in exchange for mastery of the
occult arts of death and pain.
%%%%
deep dwarf scion

An armoured deep dwarf, formidable in melee combat.
%%%%
deep troll

A stooped troll with dark skin, the cave-dwelling deep troll often travels in
packs.
%%%%
deep troll earth mage

A particularly intelligent deep troll, it wields earth magic to tunnel through
the earth to allow it and its kin to ambush its foes.
%%%%
deep troll shaman

A deep troll blessed with divine power to strengthen and hasten its kin.
%%%%
demigod

The aura of power around this human-like figure immediately betrays its divine
ancestry. And with the good gods (at least officially) decrying fornication,
betting on the good nature of this individual may be unwise...
%%%%
demonic crawler

A hellish insectoid creature with a long and bloated body, supported by dozens
of short jointed legs and topped with an almost human head.
%%%%
demonspawn

The offspring of a human and his or her demon lover, a young demonspawn, before
its hellish heritage fully asserts itself, closely resembles a human being, but
with a certain devilish cast to its features.
%%%%
diamond obelisk

This obelisk appears to be indestructible. You'd better find a way around... it
might even provide one.
%%%%
dire elephant

A huge pachyderm, wilder and fiercer than normal elephants, with a very thick
hide, powerful legs, and a memory to die for.
%%%%
draconian

A bipedal reptilian creature slightly larger than a human. Draconians have
fearsome dragonish heads, rudimentary wings, tails, and a covering of tough
scales. In their mature form, their scales take on a distinct colouring, and
they acquire a destructive breath whose nature is signified by their colour.
Whether draconians arose naturally, or are the product of twisted
experimentation by mad wizards on the crossbreeding of dragons and humans, is a
matter of much doubt.
%%%%
draconian annihilator

The draconian annihilator can, in addition to its deadly breath, use powerful
conjurations to destroy anyone who dares to stand in its way.
%%%%
draconian caller

While formidable in combat, this draconian specializes in summoning hordes of
drakes.
%%%%
draconian knight

Protected by both its thick scales and its skill in use of weapons and armour,
this draconian is a dangerous opponent. It complements its abilities in combat
with powerful magic.
%%%%
draconian monk

A draconian who has eschewed the study of weaponry and magic in order to train
in the art of unarmed combat. Its scaly fists, well-thewed leg, and mighty tail
rain blows upon its opponents.
%%%%
draconian scorcher

A cunning draconian who has mastered the inner secrets of the element of fire.
%%%%
draconian shifter

A draconian master of the warp, who can translocate both itself and anyone else
to any place, either on this world or outside of it.
%%%%
draconian zealot

This draconian derives its hellish powers and demonic allies from the worship
of dark gods unknown to men, dwarves, elves or orcs.
%%%%
dragon

A great reptilian beast with powerful claws on its limbs, covered in thick
green scales and with two huge bat-like wings. Little trails of smoke spill
from its toothy maw.
%%%%
dwarf

A member of a short, sturdy mountain-dwelling folk. More robust than their deep
dwarf cousins, yet less skilled in magical lore, dwarves excel in armed hand to
hand combat.
%%%%
dwarf mountain bat

A species of bat that lives in mountain caves. How it got into the dungeon is a
mystery — probably something related to the sudden demise of dwarves in those
lands. But don't worry, an eradication team is on the way.
%%%%
earth elemental

A spirit drawn from the elemental plane of earth, which exists in this world by
inhabiting a lump of earth and rocks.
%%%%
efreet

A huge and muscular figure engulfed in a cloud of searing flame.
%%%%
efreet:quote

“When the hoopoe returned to Solomon (he told him the news), and he responded
(to Sheba’s people): “Are you giving me money? What GOD has given me is far
better than what He has given you. You are the ones to rejoice in such gifts.”
(To the hoopoe, he said), “Go back to them (and let them know that) we will
come to them with forces they cannot imagine. We will evict them, humiliated
and debased." He said, "O you elders, which of you can bring me her mansion,
before they arrive here as submitters?" One afrit from the jinns said, “I can
bring it to you before you stand up. I am powerful enough to do this.”
    -The Quran, Sura 27 Al-Naml
%%%%
eidolon

An ancient skeletal apparition, sheathed in a cloud of mist. Its form glows
white-hot with debilitating energy.
%%%%
eldritch tentacle

An immense, squamous appendage of some unseen creature, dripping with ichor and
tipped with a single, terrible-looking claw.
%%%%
eldritch tentacle segment

A part of an immense, squamous appendage. It thrashes and pulsates like no
other living thing.
%%%%
electric golem

An animated figure made completely of electricity, created in some demented
wizard's experiment.
%%%%
electric golem:quote

“I sing the Body electric”
    -Walt Whitman, “I Sing the Body Electric”, _Leaves of Grass_. 1867.
%%%%
electric eel

Despite its name, the electric eel is actually a variety of fish. This breed,
however, generates far more voltage than its seagoing siblings.
%%%%
elephant

A large, thick-hided pachyderm. It crushes its foes and then thrashes them with
its trunk.
%%%%
elephant:quote

“And the King went to where the blind men were, and drawing near said to them:
'Do you now know what an elephant is like?'
 'Assuredly, Lord: we now know what an elephant is like.'
 'Tell me then, O blind men, what an elephant is like.'
 And those blind men, O Bhikkhus, who had felt the head of the elephant, said:
'An elephant, Sir, is like a large round jar .
 Those who had felt its ears, said: 'it is like a winnowing basket.'
 Those who had felt its tusks, said: 'it is like a plough-share.'
 Those who had felt its trunk, said: 'it is like a plough.'
 Those who had felt its body, said: 'it is like a granary.'
 Those who had felt its feet, said: 'it is like a pillar.'
 Those who had felt its back, said: 'it is like a mortar.'
 Those who had felt its tail, said: 'it is a like a pestle.'
 Those who had felt the tuft of its tail, said: 'it is like a broom.'
 And they all fought amongst themselves with their fists, declaring, 'such is
an elephant, such is not elephant, an elephant is not like that, it is like
this.'”
 And the King, O Bhikkhus, was highly delighted.
    -_Udāna_, VI “Jaccandhavagga”. ca. 5th cent. B.C.
     trans. Dawsonne Melanchthon Strong, 1902.

“And so these men of Indostan
 Disputed loud and long,
 Each in his own opinion
 Exceeding stiff and strong,
 Though each was partly in the right,
 And all were in the wrong!
 So oft in theologic wars,
 The disputants, I ween,
 Rail on in utter ignorance
 Of what each other mean,
 And prate about an Elephant
 Not one of them has seen!”
    -John Godfrey Saxe, “The Blind Men and the Elephant”. 1872.
%%%%
elephant slug

A grey gastropod of impressive size, with folds upon folds of wrinkled skin.
%%%%
elf

An elf, a member of an ancient fey race. Elves are slightly built when compared
to humans, and have an innate magical acumen, though less than their deep elf
cousins.
%%%%
ettin

A two-headed giant, stronger than most giants, able to land devastating blows
left and right with its two huge weapons. Though powerful, the ettin is clumsy.
%%%%
ettin:quote

“But he had not been long in his hiding-hole, before the awful Ettin came in;
and no sooner was he in, than he was heard crying:
 ‘Snouk but and snouk ben,
  I find the smell of an earthly man,
  Be he living, or be he dead,
  His heart this night shall kitchen my bread.’”
    -Joseph Jacobs, _The Red Ettin_
%%%%
Executioner

A horribly powerful and swift demon, its shape obscured by a cloud of swirling
scythe-like blades.
%%%%
eye of devastation

A huge eyeball, encased in a levitating globe of incandescent energy.
%%%%
eye of draining

A hovering horror that waxes strong on magic.
%%%%
feature mimic

A vicious beast masquerading as an ordinary dungeon feature.
%%%%
felid

A feline creature that has been granted sentience by magical means. It uses the
gift of speech to demand milk, treats and catnip.
%%%%
fire bat

A bat whose leathery body burns with a hot flame.
%%%%
fire crab

These crabs are prized for their brilliantly jewelled shells. The rarity of
these shells is only enhanced by the vicious, fiery nature of the animal, and
their almost supernatural ability to expel massive quantities of flames.
%%%%
fire crab:quote

“The planet brought forth scintillating jewelled scuttling crabs, which [they]
ate, smashing their shells with iron mallets; tall aspiring trees with
breathtaking slenderness and colour which [they] cut down and burned the crab
meat with.”
    -Douglas Adams, The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
%%%%
fire elemental

A spirit drawn from the elemental plane of fire, which exists in this world as
a brilliant column of raging flames.
%%%%
fire giant

A blistering heat rages beneath the obsidian-like skin of this giant, and its
wild mane of red hair glows and smoulders. It holds aloft a fiery sword, and
its body erupts with searing flames, seemingly at will. Fire giants believe
that they are destined to unite and burn the entire world to cinders, but, in
the meantime, they'll settle for adventurers foolish enough to approach them.
%%%%
fire vortex

A swirling cloud of flame.
%%%%
fire drake

A small but dangerous dragon, puffing clouds of smoke.
%%%%
flaming corpse

A black, thoroughly charred cadaver covered in unquenchable fire, likely the
remains of some unfortunate adventurer. It now rushes madly through the
dungeon, seeking to share its fate with others.
%%%%
flayed ghost

A hideous floating undead creature, the anguished spirit of a tortured victim,
with torn skin hanging from an emaciated body.
%%%%
flying skull

An undead skull kept aloft and flitting swiftly about by unholy magic. It
periodically emits loud, blood-curdling shrieks.
%%%%
flying skull:quote

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most
excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how
abhorr’d in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it.”
    -William Shakespeare, _The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark_, V, 1.
1603.
%%%%
freed slave

A human who has just been released from magical enslavement. It tries to stand
proudly before you, despite its lingering fear and unkempt appearance.
%%%%
freezing wraith

An incorporeal skeletal form surrounded by a cloud of freezing air, likely the
remains of some unfortunate adventurer. It now floats slowly through the
dungeon, seeking to share its fate with others.
%%%%
frost giant

A giant with blue skin and hair like ice and snow. Its eyes are as bleak as
winter skies. It marches grimly into battle with a great, frosty axe and
howling blasts of cold.
%%%%
fruity bat

An ugly, silly bat. It sparkles.
%%%%
fruity bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
fulminant prism

A slender prism that crackles with barely-contained destructive energy. Any
blow which cracks its fragile surface is likely to result in a violent
explosion.
%%%%
fungus

A lumpy grey fungus, growing well in the dank underground dungeon.
%%%%
gargoyle

A granite statue of a hideous winged and clawed monster, somehow brought
horribly to life.
%%%%
ghost moth

A vile interdimensional predator that feeds on the life force of living beings.
The few who have seen one and lived recall that it resembles an enormous, spiny
moth. Its bizarre lifecycle involves the production of ambrosia, much valued by
gods and wizards.
%%%%
ghost moth:quote

“Always in focus
 You can't feel my stare.
 I zoom into you
 You don't know I'm there.”
    -Judas Priest, “Electric Eye”
%%%%
ghost-faced bat

Does this bat merely possess the visage of a ghost, or is it a ghost itself?
%%%%
ghost-faced bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
ghoul

A truly horrible undead creature, a ghoul is a decayed cadaver, reanimated and
accursed with a terrible hunger. It desires nothing but to feed on the flesh of
the living, and will fell its victims with its vicious claws or with one of the
diseases it is host to.
%%%%
ghoul:quote

“In the desert
 I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
 Who, squatting upon the ground,
 Held his heart in his hands,
 And ate of it.
 I said, ‘Is it good, friend?’
 ‘It is bitter — bitter’, he answered,
 ‘But I like it
 Because it is bitter,
 And because it is my heart.’”
    -Stephen Crane, _The Black Riders and Other Lines_. 1895.
%%%%
giant amoeba

A massive pulsating organism that uses thick pseudopods of protoplasm to ooze
through the dungeons in search of food.
%%%%
worker ant

A wingless black insect with sharp mandibles capable of injecting a deadly
poison. It is a worker, and thus tasked with gathering food — any living being
it encounters is a potential meal.
%%%%
bat

A large grey bat that, despite being herbivorous, is quite aggressive. It is
myopic and uses echolocation to navigate.
%%%%
bat:quote

“The sun was set; the night came on apace,
 And falling dews bewet around the place;
 The bat takes airy rounds on leathern wings,
 And the hoarse owl his woeful dirges sings.”
    -John Gay, Shepherd's Week, Wednesday; or, The Dumps.

“Ere the bat hath flown
 His cloister'd flight.”
    -William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act III, scene 2, line 40.
%%%%
megabat

A huge black bat.
%%%%
goliath beetle

A huge black beetle with great crunching mandibles and very hard chitinous
armour.
%%%%
giant centipede

A chilopod of quite an unusual size, the giant centipede mostly comes out to
hunt when it is dark. Physically weak, it relies on its nasty poison to
dispatch its victims.
%%%%
giant centipede:quote

“Traffickers in the Black Meat, flesh of the giant black centipede—sometimes
attaining a length of six feet—found in a lane of black rocks and iridescent,
brown lagoons, exhibit paralyzed crustaceans in camouflage pockets of the Plaza
visible only to the Meat Eaters.”
    -William S. Burroughs, _Naked Lunch_. 1959.
%%%%
giant cockroach

A big brown insect that makes a nasty hissing noise. Contrary to popular myth,
they are in fact quite susceptible to mutagenic energies.
%%%%
giant eyeball

A giant floating eyeball, with a mesmerising gaze. Some say giant eyeballs are
servitors of Jiyva.
%%%%
giant eyeball:quote

“El ojo que ves
 no es ojo porque tú lo veas,
 es ojo porque te ve.”
    -Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla. 1912-1917.
%%%%
giant firefly

Unlike its mundane counterparts that are merely half an inch big, this enormous
flying bug is large enough to be ridden by some spriggans. Its glow, though, is
faint enough to be hardly visible.
%%%%
giant frog

A large and unusually aggressive amphibian that can cover distance rapidly by
hopping.
%%%%
giant frog:quote

“Hello, my baby
 Hello, my honey
 Hello, my ragtime gal

 Send me a kiss by wire
 Baby, my hearts on fire

 If you refuse me
 Honey, you’ll lose me
 Then you’ll be left alone

 Oh baby, telephone
 And tell me I’m your own.”
    -Ida Emerson and Joseph E. Howard, “Hello My Baby!”
%%%%
giant gecko

A lizard with pads on its toes allowing it to cling to walls and ceilings, and
huge, sharp teeth. It is many times larger than a normal gecko, yet its size
belies its agility.
%%%%
giant goldfish

A relative of the carp. Goldfish that escape into the dungeon often grow to
prodigious sizes by feeding on the corpses of creatures unfortunate enough to
fall into the water with them.
%%%%
giant leech

An aggressive blood-sucking annelid that thrives in swamps and marshlands.
%%%%
giant mite

A large acarine creature with poisoned mouth-parts and a thirst for blood.
%%%%
giant newt

A tenacious little amphibian, several times the size of a normal newt, but
still not very threatening.
%%%%
giant orange brain

A huge wrinkled brain, floating just off the floor and glowing with mutagenic
energies. Every now and then it seems to pulsate.
%%%%
emperor scorpion

The emperor scorpion is the largest arachnid known to exist. The massive barb
on its tail drips with a deadly venom, and its pincers are big enough to shear
you in half. Though the ordinary dungeon scorpion may be both large and
dangerous, this freakish relative puts it to shame.
%%%%
emperor scorpion:quote

“Portents had occurred indicating [Titus Flavius Vespasianus'] approaching end,
such as the comet which was visible for a long time and the opening of the
mausoleum of Augustus of its own accord. When his physicians chided him for
continuing his usual course of living during his illness and attending to all
the duties that belonged to his office, he answered: 'The emperor ought to die
on his feet.'”
    -Cassius Dio, _Roman History_, LXVI, xvii, 2. 222 A.D.
     trans. Earnest Cary, 1925.
%%%%
giant slug

A huge and disgusting gastropod, squirming slowly across the dungeon floor.
%%%%
giant spore

A deceptively fast, floating ball filled with gas and spores, prone to burst at
the slightest disturbance.
%%%%
giga bat

A huge, bloated bat.
%%%%
giga bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
glowing shapeshifter

A shapeshifter which has lost control over its transformations, and is
constantly changing form.
%%%%
gnoll

A taller and better-equipped relative of goblins and orcs, somewhat doglike in
appearance.
%%%%
gnoll:quote

“Then he descended softly and beckoned to Nuth. But the gnoles had watched him
through knavish holes that they bore in trunks of the trees, and the unearthly
silence gave way, as it were with a grace, to the rapid screams of Tonker as
they picked him up from behind — screams that came faster and faster until they
were incoherent. And where they took him it is not good to ask, and what they
did with him I shall not say.”
    -Lord Dunsany, “How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon the Gnoles”.
1912.
%%%%
gnoll sergeant

A commander of a pack of gnolls. Scars on its stout body give evidence of how
it earned its rank.
%%%%
gnoll shaman

A haggard old gnoll, wise and wicked. Its strange chants and ululations send
other gnolls into a wild frenzy.
%%%%
gnome

A small, stout humanoid said to be good at finding its way through underground
passages. Once commonly found in dungeons across the world, gnomes are now on
the verge of extinction. This one may be the last of its kind.
%%%%
goblin

A short, ugly and unfriendly humanoid: squat, broad, flat-nosed,
sallow-skinned, with a wide mouth and pistachio-shaped eyes.
%%%%
goblin:quote

“Swish, smack! Whip crack!
 Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
 Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,
 While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
 Round and round far underground
 Below, my lad!”
    -J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Hobbit_
%%%%
golden dragon

A great winged dragon covered in shining golden scales. Legends say that their
blood runs both hot and cold, and is venomous to boot.
%%%%
golden dragon:quote

“You do not come dramatically, with dragons
 That rear up with my life between their paws
 And dash me butchered down beside the wagons”
    -Philip Larkin, “To Failure”. 1949.
%%%%
golden eye

A tiny and shimmering floating eye, swift as the wind and glistening like gold.
It has a peculiarly hypnotic look.
%%%%
golden eye:quote

“No coveting nor envy burns
   In thy bright golden eye,
 That calm and innocently turns
   On all below the sky.”
    -Hannah Flagg Gould, _The Youth’s Coronal_
%%%%
great orb of eyes

A levitating ball, covered in malignant eyes and humming with eldritch
energies.
%%%%
greater mummy

An ancient pharaoh, embalmed and cursed to undeath, now capable of great and
terrifying feats of magic.
%%%%
greater mummy:quote

<mummy:quote>
%%%%
greater naga

A formidable naga that is skilled in both martial and magical arts.
%%%%
greater naga:quote

“Then there have also come
 nagas from Lake Nabhasa,
 Vesali, and Tacchaka.
 Kambalas, Assataras,
 Payagas, and their kin.
 And from the River Yamuna
 comes the prestigious naga, Dhatarattha.
 The great naga Eravanna:
 He, too, has come
 to the forest meeting.”
    -Mahasamaya Sutta, _Dīgha Nikāya_, 20. ca. 500 B.C.
     trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu
%%%%
green death

A bloated form covered in oozing sores and exhaling clouds of lethal poison.
%%%%
green draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
green rat

A rodent with hair of a most peculiar green colour, and an infectious bite. It
tends to form great swarms of its kin.
%%%%
grey draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
grey rat

A sickening rodent that has a tendency to move in packs.
%%%%
griffon

A large creature with the hindquarters of a lion and the wings, head and talons
of a great eagle.
%%%%
griffon:quote

“As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,
 With winged course, o’er hill and moory dale,
 Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth
 Hath from his wakeful custody purloined
 His guarded gold.”
    -Milton, _Paradise Lost_, Book II. 1667.
%%%%
grizzly bear

A large grey-furred bear. Like all ursines, the grizzly bear will become
enraged if badly hurt or frightened.
%%%%
guardian mummy

An ancient warrior, embalmed and cursed to walk in undeath for eternity.
%%%%
guardian serpent

Serpents are distinct and rare members of scaly society. They are light and
swift like snakes, yet also intelligent like nagas. Their lack of hands,
together with an extreme sense of duty, makes them renowned guardians. It is
said that a guardian serpent would rather die in battle than leave anything to
an intruder.
%%%%
halfling

A humanoid of diminutive stature, member of a race given to domesticity and the
simple pleasures of the flesh. Halflings excel at moving silently.

It definitely deserves an axe to the head.
%%%%
harpy

Harpies have roamed the coasts as long as seafarers can remember. They strike
fear in the hearts of all sentient beings, but not for their claws. It is their
way to devour the food of the unwary, causing many a man to starve to death.
%%%%
harpy:quote

“Bird-bodied, girl-faced things they are; abominable their droppings, their
hands are talons, their faces haggard with hunger insatiable.”
    -Virgil, Aeneid 3

“And Phineus had scarcely taken the first morsel up when, with as little
warning as a whirlwind or a lightning flash, they dropped from the clouds
proclaiming their desire for food with raucous cries. The young lords saw them
coming and raised the alarm. Yet they had hardly done so before the Harpyiai
had devoured the whole meal and were on the wing once more, far out at sea. All
they left was an intolerable stench.”
    -Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 179 - 434
%%%%
hell hound

A huge black dog, with glowing red eyes and smoke pouring from its fanged
mouth.
%%%%
hell knight

A heavily armoured warrior, in league with the powers of Hell, and usually
accompanied by other unsavoury beings of its ilk.
%%%%
hell knight:quote

“Ok, let’s review. It’s up to the fair young maiden to rescue the dragon from
the fire breathing knights in shining armour.”
    -Exiern
%%%%
hell hog

An extremely large and aggressive swine, bred in Hell, whose fiery breath is
capable of setting unwary adventurers alight.
%%%%
hell beast

An abominable crossbreed of beast and man that makes horrible barking noises.
%%%%
Hell Sentinel

A towering monolith constructed and possessed by demonic forces. A thousand
eyes leer through slits in its jagged, spiked armour.
%%%%
hellephant

An abhorrent pachyderm, descendant of demons, burning from within with the
fires of Hell.
%%%%
hellion

A frightful demon, covered in roaring hellfire.
%%%%
hellwing

A hideous skeletal demon, with wings of ancient withered skin.
%%%%
hill giant

A massive, burly humanoid standing taller even than an ogre. Hill giants are
uncivilized in every sense of the word, and have few recreational interests
beyond smashing things such as you.
%%%%
hippogriff

A large creature with the hindquarters of a horse and the wings, head and
talons of a great eagle.
%%%%
hobgoblin

A larger and even uglier goblin, with an even worse temper to match. Many
foolish young adventurers have underestimated the danger of crossing a
hobgoblin and paid for it with their lives.
%%%%
hobgoblin:quote

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
    -Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays: First Series_, Essay II: Self-Reliance.
     1841.
%%%%
hog

A large even-toed ungulate. Like human beings, it is omnivorous, intelligent,
and nearly hairless.
%%%%
hog:quote

“Fern came slowly down the stairs. Her eyes were red from crying. As she
approached her chair, the carton wobbled, and there was a scratching noise.
Fern looked at her father. Then she lifted the lid of the carton. There,
inside, looking up at her, was the newborn pig. It was a white one. The morning
light shone through its ears, turning them pink. “He’s yours,” said Mr. Arable.
“Saved from an untimely death. And may the good Lord forgive me for this
foolishness.”
    -E.B. White, _Charlotte’s Web_
%%%%
holy swine

A rare celestial version of a usually filthy animal. They are said to be not
natural creatures, but angelic beings who succumbed to hostile magic.
%%%%
hound

A fearsome hunting dog, lithe and alert. Its master must be long gone, for it
looks dishevelled, and has a lean and hungry look.
%%%%
hound:quote

“A traveller, by the faithful hound, Half-buried in the snow was found, Still
grasping in his hand of ice That banner with the strange device, Excelsior!”
    -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Excelsior”
%%%%
# Stolen from http://rustyandco.com/frequently-asked-questions/monster-guide/
human

An uppity sort of surface-dwelling, hairless ape. Dwarves think of them as
fragile, elves think of them as clumsy, and monsters think of them as tasty.
%%%%
human:quote

“Do you know
 Do I know
 What’s this thing called ‘man’?
 God only knows what a man is!
 I only know his price.”
    -Bertolt Brecht, “The Measures Taken”. 1930.
%%%%
hungry ghost

The undead form of someone who died of starvation, this creature drains
sustenance from the bodies of its victims, hoping to inflict its own miserable
fate on others.
%%%%
hydra

A great and nightmarish lacertilian beast. It has many heads, and the potential
to grow many more!

Hitting it with any cutting weapon bigger than a dagger or a quick blade risks
lopping a head off, which, considering hydra's unique biology, is not what you
want unless the blade is hot enough to cauterize the wound. Even a troll's
claws may be enough to rip hydra heads.
%%%%
hyperactive ballistomycete

This ballistomycete is in a state of all-out reproduction. It is constantly
ravaged by explosions of spores, damaging everything around, and it is
ultimately going to die to its own spores.

Be sure to keep your distance!
%%%%
ice bat

An undead creature in the shape of a bat, made of ice.
%%%%
ice bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
ice beast

A terrible creature, formed of snow and crystalline ice. Its feet leave puddles
of icy water on the floor.
%%%%
ice devil

A man-sized demon covered in glittering ice.
%%%%
ice dragon

A white, frost-coated dragon. Snowflakes trickle from its nostrils.
%%%%
Ice Fiend

A huge frigid demon covered in frost and wreathed in freezing air. It is one of
the most terrible denizens of the many Hells.
%%%%
ice statue

An imposing idol of some nameless arctic god, carved in glistening deep blue
ice. Freezing vapours swirl about it, and a chill pervades the air.
%%%%
iguana

A green lizard with strong jaws and sharp teeth, prized for its flesh.
%%%%
iguana:quote

“Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was
born an iguana. When he grew up he dwelt in a big burrow in the river bank with
a following of many hundreds of other iguanas. Now the Bodhisatta had a son, a
young iguana, who was great friends with a chameleon, whom he used to clip and
embrace. This intimacy being reported to the iguana king, he sent for his young
son and said that such friendship was misplaced, for chameleons were low
creatures, and that if the intimacy was persisted in, calamity would befall the
whole of the tribe of iguanas. And he enjoined his son to have no more to do
with the chameleon. But the son continued in his intimacy.”
    -_Khuddaka Nikāya_, Jātaka 141 “Godha-jātaka”. ca. 4th cent. B.C.
     trans. Robert Chalmers, 1895.
%%%%
inept feature mimic

A predator masquerading as an ordinary dungeon feature. This one is less
dangerous than most mimics, but can still devour the likes of you.
%%%%
inept item mimic

An apparently abandoned item, actually a small beast in disguise.
%%%%
insubstantial wisp

A thin wisp of floating gas, flickering, disappearing and reforming in a
disconcertingly random fashion.
%%%%
insubstantial wisp:quote

„Dotknij teraz mych czarów
 Wichrze czarci tańcu
 Oto płoną błędne ognie
 Oto bóstwa lasów i gór
 Których nie przebłagam
 Ich sny srebrzą się ponad jeziorami
 Gdzie słyszałem drzewa krzyczące w nocy
 Wyją błagając o zemstę po raz, po raz, po raz...”
    Mastiphal, „Nad jeziorami myśli nieśmiertelnej”
%%%%
iron devil

A hideous humanoid figure with metal skin. While it lacks magical attacks and
is slow of foot, it makes up for these failings with brute strength.
%%%%
iron dragon

A very heavy, slow and apparently flightless dragon. It is named for its
scales, which are so tough they might be iron. Small flakes of metal trail from
its nostrils.
%%%%
iron elemental

A rare and powerful spirit from the elemental plane of earth, it exists in this
world by inhabiting a hulking mass of iron.
%%%%
the iron giant

Huge, lumbering, and particularly dull, this rusting monolith packs quite the
punch. It is quite possibly the largest giant you have ever seen.
%%%%
iron golem

A large, ponderous and very solid statue of metal, given the power of
locomotion through some esoteric means.
%%%%
iron imp

An ugly, twisted little minor demon with metal skin.
%%%%
iron troll

A great troll, mighty of limb and plated with thick scales that resemble
lightly rusted iron, especially in their hardness.
%%%%
ironbrand convoker

Guardian mages clad in pattern-etched armour, convokers can recite a word of
recall to summon distant allies to their location and then imbue them with
unnatural might.
%%%%
ironheart preserver

Towering figures sheathed in heavy armour, preservers safeguard their allies by
selflessly accepting a portion of the injuries inflicted upon them.
%%%%
item mimic

An apparently abandoned item, actually a vicious little beast in disguise.
%%%%
jackal

A small canine scavenger. Packs of these creatures roam the underworld,
searching for carrion to devour.
%%%%
jackal:quote

Always ready to take advantage of every favourable opportunity, the Jackal is a
sad parasite, and hangs on the skirts of the larger carnivora as they roam the
country for prey, in the hope of securing some share of the creatures which
they destroy or wound."
    -John George Wood, _The Illustrated Natural History: Mammalia_. 1865.
%%%%
jelly

A pulsating mass of acidic protoplasm. It can and will eat almost anything, and
grows a little each time...
%%%%
jelly:quote

“Beware of the Blob!
 It creeps
 And leaps
 and glides and slides
 Across the floor
 Right through the door
 And all around the wall,
 A splotch, a blotch...”
    -Burt Bacharach, “Beware of the Blob”
%%%%
jellyfish

A pulsating glob of transparent flesh, waiting just below the surface of the
water to sting its prey with its many tentacles. The tentacles do little harm
on their own, but the poisonous toxins they inject can cause significant damage
to muscle tissue.
%%%%
jellyfish:quote

“From this story it is evident that in former times the jellyfish once had a
shell and bones something like a tortoise, but, ever since the Dragon King's
sentence was carried out on the ancestor of the jelly fishes, his descendants
have all been soft and boneless just as you see them to-day thrown up by the
waves high upon the shores of Japan.”
    -“The Jellyfish and the Monkey”, adapted by Yei Theodora Ozaki, _Young
     Folk's Treasury_, vol. II. 1909.
%%%%
jumping spider

A large venomous spider, which weaves webs between its front legs and leaps at
its prey, ensnaring it. Those who see it in action and live to tell the tale
say the speed with which it leaps is almost supernatural.
%%%%
tengu

A humanoid figure with the head and talons of a bird. Its ferociously combative
nature belies its fragile appearance.
%%%%
tengu:quote

“A Bird came down the Walk –
 He did not know I saw –
 He bit an Angleworm in halves
 And ate the fellow, raw”
    -Emily Dickinson, “A Bird came down the Walk”. ca. 1865.
%%%%
killer bee

A giant bee, bearing a deadly barb which can sting repeatedly.
%%%%
Killer Klown

A comical figure full of life and laughter. It looks very happy to see you...
but is there a slightly malicious cast to its features? Is that red face paint
or something altogether less pleasant?
%%%%
Killer Klown:quote

“All the world loves a clown.”
    -Cole Porter, “Be a Clown”. 1948.
%%%%
kobold

Kobolds are small, greyish creatures with the looks and temperaments of feral
dogs. No one knows for sure where kobolds come from, but ancient demon-gods,
evil spirits, and meddling wizards have all been suggested as culprits.
%%%%
kobold demonologist

A kobold who is in league with demonic powers and can call forth beings from
the depths of Hell.
%%%%
komodo dragon

An enormous monitor lizard more than capable of preying on large animals. Bits
of fetid and rotting flesh from its last few meals are often found stuck in its
teeth, and its bite therefore can cause infections.
%%%%
kraken

A gargantuan sea monster, capable of devouring entire ships. It embraces them
with its tentacles and draws them into the depths. Fortunately, the tentacles
are too big to embrace a small creature like you. Wait, did I say
"fortunately"?
%%%%
kraken:quote

“... Kraken, also called the Crab-fish, which [according to the pilots of
Norway] is not that huge, for heads and tails counted, he is no larger than our
Öland is wide [i.e. less than 16 km] ... He stays at the sea floor, constantly
surrounded by innumerable small fishes, who serve as his food and are fed by
him in return: for his meal, if I remember correctly what E. Pontoppidan
writes, lasts no longer than three months, and another three are then needed to
digest it. His excrements nurture in the following an army of lesser fish, and
for this reason, fishermen plumb after his resting place ... Gradually, Kraken
ascends to the surface, and when he is at ten to twelve fathoms, the boats had
better move out of his vicinity, as he will shortly thereafter burst up, like a
floating island, spurting water from his dreadful nostrils and making ring
waves around him, which can reach many miles. Could one doubt that this is the
Leviathan of Job?”
    -Jacob Wallenberg, “Min son på galejan”, 1781.
%%%%
laboratory rat

A rat that has been subjected to a wizard's terrible experiments. Who knows
what it is capable of?
%%%%
large abomination

A large and hideous conglomeration of mangled body parts, demonically possessed
and altered in ways that challenge your sanity.
%%%%
lava fish

A bright red fish that swims through hot lava as easily as other fish swim
through water. The intense heat of the lava that passes through its gills will
sear anything that gets too close to its mouth.
%%%%
lava fish:quote

“In the black rocks about Tahiti is found the black noki or lava-fish
(Emmydrichthys vulcanus), which corresponds perfectly in color and form to a
piece of lava. This fish is also noteworthy for having envenomed spines in the
fin on its back.”
    -Jordan, Kellogg and Heath, _Animal Studies: A Text-book of Elementary
     Zoology_. 1903.
%%%%
lava snake

A burning red snake which dwells in pools of lava. It will spit gobs of molten
rock at passers-by.
%%%%
lava worm

A vicious red worm which swims through molten rock.
%%%%
lava worm:quote

“Type-species. — Magmatodrilus obscurus....From magma (Greek, =lava) + drilos
(Greek, =worm), masculine, 'lava-worm' for the locality, springs in the lava
beds of Shasta County, Calif., from which topotypes were taken.”
    -_Proceedings of the United States National Musem_. 1968.
%%%%
lemure

A vaguely humanoid blob of putrid white flesh. It gargles horribly as pus flows
from its orifices.
%%%%
lemure:quote

“When Hesperus, the Evening Star, has shown his lovely face
 Three times, from that day, and the defeated stars fled Phoebus,
 It will be the ancient sacred rites of the Lemuria,
 When we make offerings to the voiceless spirits.
 ...
 When midnight comes, lending silence to sleep,
 And all the dogs and hedgerow birds are quiet,
 He who remembers ancient rites, and fears the gods,
 Rises (no fetters binding his two feet)
 And makes the sign with thumb and closed fingers,
 Lest an insubstantial shade meets him in the silence.
 After cleansing his hands in spring water,
 He turns and first taking some black beans,
 Throws them with averted face: saying, while throwing:
 'With these beans I throw I redeem me and mine.'
 He says this nine times without looking back: the shade
 Is thought to gather the beans, and follow behind, unseen.
 Again he touches water, and sounds the Temesan bronze,
 And asks the spirit to leave his house.
 When nine times he’s cried: 'Ancestral spirit, depart,'
 He looks back, and believes the sacred rite’s fulfilled.”
    -Publius Ovidius Naso, _Fasti_, Book V: May 9. ca. 8 A.D.
     trans. A.S. Kline, 2004.
%%%%
lich

A powerful wizard who has learned to cheat death itself, a lich is a skeletal,
desiccated corpse kept intact by a mighty exercise of dark magic. This undead
creature is quite powerful and is best avoided by all but the most skilled.
%%%%
lightning spire

This contraption, made from a coil and a rod, is buzzing with electricity and
can shoot it far, zapping anyone who comes into range.
%%%%
lindwurm

A small serpentine dragon with a pair of strong forelimbs. Its thick scales
give off an eerie green glow.
%%%%
lindwurm:quote

“Freilich verbürgt uns keine Silbe die Existenz von solcherlei Thieren, wenn
wir uns den Drachen oder Lindwurm als ein Ungeheuer vorstellen, dessen langer
Hals in einen Adler-, Löwen- oder Delphinenkopf endigt; das auf dem breiten
Rücken Greifs- oder Nachisittige trägt; und am vielfach gerollten Schweif einen
Stachel mit Widerhaken hat; Feuer speit; sich in Mädchen verliebt und diese
entführt; bald diese bald jene Gestalt annimmt; auf sauer erworbenen Schatzen
ruht — kurz, als ein Ungeheuer, das alle Eigenschaften besitzt, welche die
Fabel ihm andichtet; dann wäre es Wahnsinn, an Drachen und Lindwürmer glauben
zu wollen. Nehmen wir aber dafür bloß ein furchtbares Ungeheuer überhaupt,
welches nun aus unserem Welttheile vertilgt ist, so hat der Glaube daran nichts
Lächerliches.”
    -Leopold Ziegelhauſer, _Schattenbilder der Vorzeit: Ein Kranz von
     Geschichten, Sagen, Legenden, Märchen, Skizzen und Heldenmahlen, Aus allen
     Gegenden Deutschlands und des österreichischen Kaiserstaates_. 1844.
%%%%
lurking horror

A formless mass of energy. It seems to stop moving when you look at it.
%%%%
macabre mass

A fused and twisted collection of body parts, weakly animated by necromancy. It
is easily destroyed, but capable of merging with others to form more potent
horrors.
%%%%
mad acolyte of Lugonu

An insane follower of Lugonu. Years of living in the abyss have clearly taken
their toll on this one's feeble mind.
%%%%
mad acolyte of Lugonu:quote

“And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”
    -Friedrich Nietzche, “Beyond Good and Evil”, 1886
%%%%
manticore

A hideous cross-breed, bearing the features of a human and a lion, with great
bat-like wings. Its tail bristles with spikes that can be loosed at potential
prey.
%%%%
manticore:quote

“Ctesias writeth, that in Aethiopia likewise there is a beast which he calleth
Mantichora, having three rankes of teeth, which when they meet togither are let
in one within another like the teeth of combes: with the face and eares of a
man, with red eyes; of colour sanguine, bodied like a lyon, and having a taile
armed with a sting like a scorpion: his voice resembleth the noise of a flute
and trumpet sounded together: very swift he is, and mans flesh of all others
hee most desireth.”
    -Pliny the Elder, _Natural History_, Book 8, Chapter XXI
%%%%
master elementalist

The primal forces of the universe dance at this demented wizard's fingertips.
%%%%
merfolk

A hybrid with the torso of a man and the tail of a fish, a merfolk dwells both
in water and on land, and fiercely defends its domain.
%%%%
merfolk:quote

“Again at length my thought reviving came,
 When I no longer found my self the same;
 Then first this sea-green beard I felt to grow,
 And these large honours on my spreading brow;
 My long-descending locks the billows sweep,
 And my broad shoulders cleave the yielding deep;
 My fishy tail, my arms of azure hue,
 And ev'ry part divinely chang'd, I view.”
    -Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, XIII, 546-7. 8 A.D.
     trans. Garth, Dryden, et al.
%%%%
merfolk impaler

A powerfully muscled merfolk warrior, bearing a deadly weapon.
%%%%
merfolk impaler:quote

<merfolk:quote>
%%%%
merfolk aquamancer

A slender merfolk mystic with unusually webby hands. Its form shifts and
glistens as if seen through ocean spray.
%%%%
merfolk aquamancer:quote

<merfolk:quote>
%%%%
merfolk javelineer

A fearsome merfolk champion with a piercing gaze and a large bundle of
javelins.
%%%%
merfolk javelineer:quote

<merfolk:quote>
%%%%
mermaid

A young woman with a fish tail in place of legs. Mermaids love to sing and
charm their audience.
%%%%
mermaid:quote

“Then up it raise the mermaiden,
 Wi the comb an glass in her hand:
 ‘Here’s a health to you, my merrie young men,
 For you never will see dry land.’”
    -“Sir Patrick Spens”, Scottish folk song, version 58J in Francis James
     Child, _The English and Scottish Popular Ballads_. 1898.
%%%%
metal gargoyle

A hideous metal statue come to life.
%%%%
metal gargoyle:quote

“Their innumerable sculptures of demons and dragons assumed a lugubrious
aspect. The restless light of the flame made them move to the eye. There were
griffins which had the air of laughing, gargoyles which one fancied one heard
yelping, salamanders which puffed at the fire, tarasques which sneezed in the
smoke. And among the monsters thus roused from their sleep of stone by this
flame, by this noise, there was one who walked about, and who was seen, from
time to time, to pass across the glowing face of the pile, like a bat in front
of a candle.”
    -Victor Hugo, _The Hunchback of Notre-Dame_, 10, ch. IV. 1831.
     trans. Isabel F. Hapgood
%%%%
microbat

A bat that, despite its name, is not any smaller than a megabat.
%%%%
microbat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
minotaur

A large muscular human with the head of a bull. It makes its home in secluded
labyrinths.
%%%%
molten gargoyle

A hideous molten stone statue come to life, with fearsome claws and flames
licking out from its toothy maw.
%%%%
molten gargoyle:quote

<metal gargoyle:quote>
%%%%
moth

Although this moth is unusually large and aggressive, it is quite mundane
compared to most moths found in the dungeon.
%%%%
moth of suppression

An ill, greasy-looking moth, fluttering wanly in the stale air. The atmosphere
in its vicinity seems to shimmer with a dull, dusty haze. Regarded as a
nuisance, these creatures were driven from the surface centuries ago due to
their naturally inhibitive effect on magical items in their vicinity.
%%%%
moth of suppression:quote

“Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold
down one thing, you hold down the adjoining.”
    -Saul Bellow, _The Adventures of Augie March_
%%%%
moth of wrath

A rare species of moth, eradicated from the surface centuries ago due to its
ability to drive those who look upon it insane with rage.
%%%%
moth of wrath:quote

“When within sight of their foe Berserks wrought themselves into such a state
of frenzy, that they bit their shields and rushed forward to the attack,
throwing away their arms of defence, reckless of every danger, sometimes having
nothing but a club, which carried with it death and destruction.”
    -Paul Belloni Du Chaillu,_The Viking Age: the Early History, Manners, and
     Customs of the Ancestors of the English Speaking Nations_. 1889
%%%%
mottled draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
mottled dragon

A small purple dragon with curiously mottled scales, its mouth dripping with a
strange liquid flame.
%%%%
mummy

An undead figure covered in bandages and embalming fluids, compelled to walk by
an ancient curse. It radiates a malign aura to those who intrude on its domain.
%%%%
mummy:quote

“I see Egypt and the Egyptians — I see the pyramids and obelisks;
 I look on chisel’d histories, songs, philosophies, cut in slabs
     of sand-stone, or on granite-blocks;
 I see at Memphis mummy-pits, containing mummies, embalm’d, swathed
     in linen cloth, lying there many centuries;
 I look on the fall’n Theban, the large-ball’d eyes, the side-drooping
     neck, the hands folded across the breast.”
    -Walt Whitman, “Salut au Monde”
%%%%
mummy priest

An ancient servant of a long forgotten god, embalmed and cursed to walk in
undeath for all eternity.
%%%%
naga

A hybrid that is human from the waist up; below is a scaly, muscular snakelike
tail. Its mouth drips with venomous saliva.
%%%%
naga:quote

“Amongst the deities and Asuras and celestial Rishis, O amiable lady, the Nagas
are endued with great energy. Possessed of great speed, they are endued again
with excellent fragrance. They deserve to be worshipped. They are capable of
granting boons. Indeed, we too deserve to be followed by others in our train. I
tell thee, O lady, that we are incapable of being seen by human beings.”
    -Mahābhārata, Santi Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, section CCCLX. ca. 500 B.C.
     trans. Kisari Mohan Ganguli, 1883.
%%%%
naga mage

A naga that has trained in the use of magic, trailed by an eldritch nimbus. It
is especially skilled in spells dealing with poison and venom.
%%%%
naga mage:quote

<naga:quote>
%%%%
naga warrior

A fearsome naga warrior clad in sturdy armour and wielding a mighty weapon.
%%%%
naga warrior:quote

<naga:quote>
%%%%
necromancer

An evil wizard who is devoted to the practice of death magic, the mastery of
unholy energies, and the raising of corpses into a parody of life.
%%%%
necrophage

A vile undead creation of the most unholy necromancy, these creatures are made
from the decaying corpses of humanoid creatures. They exist to spread disease
and decay, and gain power from the decaying corpses of other beings.
%%%%
neqoxec

A weirdly shaped demon, pulsing and shifting with mutagenic energies, its belly
distended with the devoured brains of its victims.
%%%%
neqoxec:quote

“If thus mutation is influenced by natural selection, it implies, that any
particular mutation must advance in a direction advantageous for the respective
species, and, indeed, many examples of mutation known among fossil animals are
apparently due to the advantage produced by the change. I must add here,
however that probably not all mutations (in a palaeontological meaning) are due
to natural selection, but that many do not imply an actual improvement.”
    -_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, Volume XXV, no. 150.
     1896.
%%%%
octopode

A more intelligent cousin of the mighty kraken, capable of using tools and
spells. They are fully amphibious, but most of their species choose to stay
beneath the waves and serve their King.
%%%%
octopode:quote

“In their brief time together Slothrop forms the impression that this octopus
is not in good mental health, though where’s his basis for comparing? But there
is a mad exhuberance, as with inanimate objects which fall off of tables when
we are sensitive to noise and our own clumsiness and don’t want them to fall, a
sort of wham! ha-ha you hear that? here it is again, WHAM! in the cephalopod’s
every movement, which Slothrop is glad to get away from as he finally scales
the crab like a discus, with all his strength, out to sea, and the octopus,
with an eager splash and gurgle, strikes out in pursuit, and is presently
gone.”
    -Thomas Pynchon, _Gravity's Rainbow_. 1973.
%%%%
ogre

A large, ugly, and fat creature, distantly related to orcs and goblins. It is
tremendously strong.
%%%%
ogre mage

A rare breed of ogre, skilled in the use of magic. It usually becomes a
chieftain among its kin.
%%%%
oklob plant

A very dangerous plant which fends off predators by spraying corrosive vitriol
at them. Even experienced adventurers give oklob plants a wide berth.
%%%%
oklob plant:quote

“Carbonic acid is one of the three materials which together form the starting
point of vegetable growth; the others being water and nitric acid. This acid is
formed of carbon and oxygen in the proportion of one part of the former to two
of the latter chemically combined. It is a colorless gas, having an acid taste
and smell; is soluble in water; weighs one-half more than air and can be poured
from one vessel to another, as a liquid may be; 100 parts of water dissolve 106
parts of this gas, and it is from this source that the roots of plants derive
the needed supplies of it.”
    -Henry Stuart, _The Culture of Farm Crops: A Manual of the Science of
    Agriculture, and a Hand-book of Practice for American Farmers_, ch X. 1887.
%%%%
oklob sapling

A young oklob plant, but already dangerous.
%%%%
oklob sapling:quote

<oklob plant:quote>
%%%%
ooze

A glob of grey sludge that has somehow developed a rudimentary awareness and
limited motility.
%%%%
ooze:quote

“Sea horses floundering in the slimy mud,
 Tossed up their heads, and dashed the ooze about them.”
    -John Dryden. _All For Love_, I, i, 15-17. 1678.
%%%%
ophan

A creature from the heavenly realms. It consists of a wheel within a wheel, and
both of these are covered in eyes; strange flames of holy fire flicker all over
it.
%%%%
ophan:quote

“As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside
 each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure
 of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike.
 Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they
 moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced;
 the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went. Their rims were
 high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.”
    -Ezekiel 1:15-18 (New International Version)
%%%%
orange crystal statue

An intricately carved idol of some nameless godling, hewn of translucent orange
crystal. Its lifeless eyes seem to glitter uncannily with a wicked
intelligence.
%%%%
orange demon

An amber-coloured demon with a tail not unlike that of a scorpion. It contains
a venom most potent, one that attacks not only the body but the mind as well.
%%%%
orange demon:quote

“In Sparkill buried lies that man of mark
 Who brought the Obelisk to Central Park,
 Redoubtable Commander H.H. Gorringe,
 Whose name supplies the long-sought rhyme for 'orange.'”
    -Arthur Guiterman, “Local Note”. 1934.
%%%%
orange rat

A unusually large rat with weird knobbly orange skin, glowing with unholy
energies.
%%%%
Orb Guardian

A huge, glowing, four-limbed purple creature with heightened senses, created by
the Orb to watch over itself. It guards the Orb with enormous punctiliousness
and violence.
%%%%
orb of destruction

This globe of pure magic is a conjured projectile that homes onto a designated
target, albeit with massive inertia. A smart and agile person may move out of
its path, causing it to damage its surroundings or even go around in circles.
Be sure to step at least two paces to the side, though, for it is not swayed by
minute movements, including those from the Dodging skill.
%%%%
orb of fire

A globe of raw primordial fire, capable of impressive pyrotechnics, and of
twisting the very flesh of creatures who come into its ken.
%%%%
orb of fire:quote

“There ’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
 But in his motion like an angel sings,
 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.”
    -William Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_, V, i. 1597.
%%%%
orb spider

An eerily glowing spider with strands of pure energy emerging from its
spinnerets. It seems to want to keep its distance.
%%%%
orc

An ugly subterranean race, orcs combine the worst features of humans, pigs and
several other unpleasant creatures. They tend to run in packs or mobs, and
delight in outbursts of insane violence.
%%%%
orc high priest

An exalted servant of the orc god Beogh and a master of many black rites, to
whose aid Beogh will even send beings from the netherworld.
%%%%
orc knight

A heavily armoured orc, covered in scars from many past battles. Orc knights
command their brethren in battle, rousing them to greater, more violent efforts
with bloodcurdling shouts.
%%%%
orc priest

A servant of Beogh, the ancient and cruel god of the orcs. Beogh rewards the
prayers of devoted servants by striking down their enemies.
%%%%
orc sorcerer

An exceptionally competent orcish wizard, in league with hellish and chthonic
forces and motivated by the purest imaginable strain of malevolence.
%%%%
orc warlord

A supreme commander of an orc host, skilled at both melee and ranged combat.
%%%%
orc warrior

An experienced, armoured and well-armed orc soldier, able to command a small
mob of its fellows.
%%%%
orc wizard

While orcs generally prefer physical combat, some of their kind gain
proficiency in the occult arts — though still for martial purposes.
%%%%
pale draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
paladin

A pious armoured warrior fighting in the service of the Shining One.
%%%%
paladin:quote

“Now shame to knighthood, brothers!
 Must Summer plead in vain?
 And shall I wait till others
 My crown of sunshine gain?
 Alone this day I ’ll dare the fray,
 Alone the victory win;
 In me my queen shall find, I ween,
 A sturdy paladin.”
    -Katharine Lee Bates, “The Little Knight in Green”. ca. 1890.
%%%%
pandemonium lord

A formidable demon lord inhabiting the endless halls of Pandemonium. Each one
is different, with its own set of strengths and weaknesses.
%%%%
pandemonium lord:quote

“Mean while the winged heralds by command
 Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony
 And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim
 A solemn Councel forthwith to be held
 At Pandaemonium, the high Capital
 Of Satan and his Peers...”
    -John Milton, _Paradise Lost_,  Book I, l. 752-7. 1667.
%%%%
pearl dragon

A dragon consecrated to the holy divine powers. Its breath is blessed fire, and
its claws burn with the sear of holy wrath.
%%%%
phantasmal warrior

A hideous translucent green spirit of a warrior fallen in battle and recalled
to this plane by unholy magic.
%%%%
phantom

A nearly-transparent undead spirit, suspected by some sages to be a degenerate
form of ghost, with no memories of its former life. It rarely stays in one
place for long.
%%%%
phantom:quote

“Who wondrous things concerning our welfare, And straunge phantomes doth lett
us ofte foresee.”
    -Spenser, _The Faerie Queene_ II. xii. 47
%%%%
phase bat

A strange, glowing bat that seems to flutter through more dimensions than the
average bat.
%%%%
phase bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
phoenix

A bird of myth and legend, said to die in flames and be reborn from the ashes.
%%%%
phoenix:quote

“They have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself have
never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt,
only coming there (according to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once
in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies. Its size and appearance, if
it is like the pictures, are as follow:- The plumage is partly red, partly
golden, while the general make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle.
They tell a story of what this bird does, which does not seem to me to be
credible: that he comes all the way from Arabia, and brings the parent bird,
all plastered over with myrrh, to the temple of the Sun, and there buries the
body. In order to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of myrrh as big as
he finds that he can carry; then he hollows out the ball, and puts his parent
inside, after which he covers over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball
is then of exactly the same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt,
plastered over as I have said, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun. Such
is the story they tell of the doings of this bird.”
    -Herodotus, _Histories_, II, 73. ca. 440 B.C.
     trans. George Rawlinson, 1858.
%%%%
pillar of salt

A large pillar of salt that is quickly crumbling away.
%%%%
pillar of salt:quote

“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the
LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all
the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his
wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
    -KJV Bible, Gen. XIX, 24-6.
%%%%
plant

Few plants can grow in the unpleasant dungeon environment, but some have
managed to adapt and even thrive underground in the absence of the sun.
%%%%
player ghost

The apparition of an unfortunate adventurer, retaining many of the skills and
abilities the adventurer had in life. It is condemned to haunt this particular
level of the dungeons, lashing out violently at the next adventurer to cross
its path.
%%%%
player ghost:quote

“Know thyself.”
    -Inscription in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi
%%%%
polar bear

A large and very strong bear covered in glistening white fur, habituated to
cold conditions. Like all ursines, the polar bear will become enraged if badly
hurt or frightened.
%%%%
polar bear:quote

“The Polar Bear is an animal of tremendous strength and fierceness.iBarentz, in
his voyage in search of a north-east passage to China, had proofs of the
ferocity of these animals, in the island of Nova Zembla, where they attacked
his seamen, seizing them in their mouths; carrying them off with the utmost
ease, and devouring them in the sight of their comrades. It is said that they
will attack and attempt to board armed vessels, at a great distance from shore,
and have sometimes been with much difficulty repelled.”
    -George Shaw, _General Zoology, or, Systematic Natural History_, vol. I,
     p. 2. 1800.
%%%%
porcupine

A vicious rodent with a coat of sharp quills and a painful bite.
%%%%
profane servitor

This blasphemous being used to be an angel of the Shining One. Now it stands as
unliving proof that not even the holiest of beings are beyond Yredelemnul's
grasp.
%%%%
profane servitor:quote

“A spell was cast and the sky turned red
 The angel's heart froze to ice
 In the gloomy sky black clouds were gathering
 The silence was broken by cries
 A spell was cast and the sky turned red
 The angel's heart froze to ice
 In the gloomy sky — The silence where dead angels lie

 Touch the snow... Caress the lifeless sculptures
 Die!!!”
    -Dissection, “Where Dead Angels Lie”
%%%%
program bug

A ravenous and incredibly buggy monster. Please report its existence to the
DevTeam.
%%%%
program bug:quote

“If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first
woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.”
    -Gerald Weinberg, Weinberg’s Second Law
%%%%
pulsating lump

A revolting blob of all kinds of living matter — muscle, gut, nerves, viscera,
marrow — piled haphazardly into a single writhing mass. This distorted flesh is
mutagenic on contact, but without any kind of structural arrangement to its
parts, it lacks the coordination needed to move quickly.
%%%%
pulsating lump:quote

“Doom!
 He finds that in a sudden scrimmage,
 And lies, an unsightly lump on the sodden grass …
 An image that shall take long to pass!”
    -Ford Madox Hueffer, “Antwerp”. 1915.
%%%%
purple draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
quasit

A cowardly little demon with a long, viciously pointed tail. Its sharp claws
are coated with a venom that stiffens muscles.
%%%%
quasit:quote

“You’ll have to pay double reckoning; ’tis only fair you should pay for your
dexterity.”
    -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, _Egmont_, I, 1. 1788.
     trans. Anna Swanwick, 1914.
%%%%
queen ant

A bloated ant, covered in thick chitinous armour and possessing a strong
poison. It is the sovereign of the colony and, when not disturbed, is
constantly laying eggs. Once capable of flight, it has long since shed its
wings; only rudimentary stubs remain.
%%%%
queen bee

A ruler of a swarm of bees, even larger and more dangerous than her many
offspring.
%%%%
quicksilver dragon

A long and sinuous dragon, seemingly more neck and tail than anything else. Its
skin shines like molten mercury, magical energies arc from its pointed snout,
and it moves with terrifying swiftness.
%%%%
quokka

A pesky little marsupial that is a bit like a rat, but not quite.
%%%%
rakshasa

A demon in the form of a tiger who comes to the material world in search of
power and knowledge. Rakshasas are experts in the art of illusion, and are
simultaneously intelligent and cruel.
%%%%
rakshasa:quote

“Vaisampayana said, 'Not far from the place where the Pandavas were asleep, a
Rakshasa by name Hidimva dwelt on the Sala tree. Possessed of great energy and
prowess, he was a cruel cannibal of visage that was grim in consequence of his
sharp and long teeth. He was now hungry and longing for human flesh. Of long
shanks and a large belly, his locks and beard were both red in hue. His
shoulders were broad like the neck of a tree; his ears were like unto arrows,
and his features were frightful.”
    -_Mahābhārata_, Adi Parva, Hidimva-vadha Parva, section CLIV. ca. 500 B.C.
     trans. Kisari Mohan Ganguli, 1883.
%%%%
rat

A dirty rodent that has grown large and aggressive in the dungeon environment.
%%%%
raven

An opportunistic scavenger bird that is quite proactive in the production of
carrion. It has a particularly unhealthy fascination with eyeballs and things
resembling eyeballs, such as pickled onions, walnuts and olives.
%%%%
raven:quote

“The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was ‘Why
is a raven like a writing-desk?’”
    -Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
%%%%
ravenous feature mimic

A deadly venomous tentacled predator with an ability to shapeshift and
masquerade as an ordinary-looking dungeon feature, in order to catch foolish
passers-by and crush them in its deadly grasp.
%%%%
ravenous item mimic

A deadly venomous tentacled predator with an ability to shapeshift into a small
item. While not of a formidable size, it is not a living creature and its
tentacles are harder than steel.
%%%%
reaper

A skeletal form wielding a giant scythe.
%%%%
red devil

A muscular demon covered in spikes and horns. Two short wings sprout from its
shoulders.
%%%%
red draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
red wasp

A huge red wasp with a viciously barbed stinger. Potent paralytic poison drips
from its tip.
%%%%
redback

A vicious black spider with a splash of red on its swollen abdomen. Its
mandibles drip with lethal poison.
%%%%
rock worm

A large worm which moves through rock as if it were air.
%%%%
rotten bat

I guess this bat is well past its sell-by date.
%%%%
rotten bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
rotting devil

A hideous, miserable creature covered in oozing sores, afflicted by some
horrible disease. Bits and pieces fall from its body as it shambles toward its
next victim.

{{
    if you.can_smell() then
        if you.saprovorous() == 3 then
            return "It smells delicious."
        else
            return "It stinks."
        end
    end
}}
%%%%
rotting devil:quote

“The slow adagio begins;
 The winding-sheets are ravelled out
 That swathe the minds of men, the sins
 That wrap their rotting souls about.“
    -John Davidson, ”A Ballad of Heaven". Late 19th cent.
%%%%
rotting hulk

A shambling reanimated corpse. Trapped by evil spellweaving in a grotesque
parody of life, this infected decaying body lurches about, seeking retribution
on the living.
%%%%
the royal jelly

A particularly rich and golden gelatinous thing.
%%%%
salamander

Not the common harmless amphibian, but the far more dangerous mythological
beast with which that amphibian shares its name. A red, flaming half-human
half-snake creature, whose affinity for fire is legendary.
%%%%
salamander:quote

“As for example: the Salamander made in fashion of a Lizard, marked with spots
like to stars, never comes abroad and sheweth it selfe but in great showers;
for in faire weather he is not seene. He is of so cold a complexion, that if
hee do but touch the fire, hee wil quench it as presently, as if yce were put
into it. The Salamander casteth up at the mouth a certaine venomous matter like
unto milke, let it but once touch any bare part of a man or womans bodie, all
the haire will fall off: and the part so touched will change the colour of the
skin to the white morphew.”
    -Gaius Plinius Secundus, _Naturalis Historia_, Book X, ch. LXVII. 79 A.D.
     trans. Philemon Holland, 1601.
%%%%
scorpion

A loathsome arachnid, armed to the teeth. Its body is covered in a thick
carapace, its tail is tipped by a venomous sting, and its forelimbs are
equipped with a pair of sharp grasping claws.
%%%%
scorpion:quote

“Those poisonous fields, with rank luxuriance crown’d,
 Where the dark scorpion gathers death around”
    -Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village”, l. 351-2. 1770.
%%%%
sea snake

A brightly coloured snake, very comfortable in the water. It has a highly
potent venomous bite.
%%%%
seraph

The Seraphim, or the Burning Ones, are the highest rank of the angelic hosts,
the mightiest servants of the Good Gods. They have six wings and but one face,
and are said to sometimes take the forms of fiery serpents.
%%%%
seraph:quote

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered
his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts:
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
    -KJV Bible, Isaiah6:1-3
%%%%
shadow

A wisp of unliving shadow, drifting on the edge of vision. It consumes the
puissance of living beings.
%%%%
shadow:quote

“Between the idea
 And the reality
 Between the motion
 And the act
 Falls the Shadow
     For thine is the Kingdom

 Between the conception
 And the creation
 Between the emotion
 And the response
 Falls the Shadow
     Life is very long”
    -T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men”. 1925.
%%%%
shadow demon

A mysterious demonic figure, constantly blurring into multiple shadows of
itself. It weaves creatures into existence from the very shadows surrounding
it.
%%%%
shadow demon:quote

“As we grow old, we become aware that death is drawing near; his shadow falls
across our path...”
    -Stefan Zweig, _Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman_, 1927.
%%%%
shadow dragon

A great shadowy dragon, radiating evil and death. Its very mouth and breath
stink of the grave.
%%%%
Shadow Fiend

A horrible being that appears as a great mass of writhing shadows which
occasionally reveals a huge, horned skeleton. It is one of the most terrible
denizens of the many Hells.
%%%%
shadow imp

A small and shadowy minor demon.
%%%%
shadow wraith

A mist-wreathed skeletal shadow hanging in mid-air that leeches away the
lifeforce of living beings.
%%%%
shadow wraith:quote

“Yesterday, upon the stair,
 I met a man who wasn’t there
 He wasn’t there again today
 I wish, I wish he’d go away...”
    -Hughes Mearns ,_Antigonish_, 1-4. 1899.
%%%%
shapeshifter

A disturbing creature with the power to change its form. It is very rarely
observed alive in its natural state.
%%%%
shapeshifter:quote

“And then th' old Sea-God crept
 From forth the deeps, and found his fat calves there,
 Survey'd, and number'd, and came never near
 The craft we used, but told us five for calves.
 His temples then dis-eased with sleep he salves;
 And in rush'd we, with an abhorred cry,
 Cast all our hands about him manfully;
 And then th' old Forger all his forms began:
 First was a lion with a mighty mane,
 Then next a dragon, a pied panther then,
 A vast boar next, and suddenly did strain
 All into water. Last he was a tree,
 Curl'd all at top, and shot up to the sky.”
    -Homer, _The Odyssey_, IV, 602-14.
     trans. George Chapman, 1857.
%%%%
shark

A sharp-toothed predatory denizen of the waters, the shark evolved over
millions of years into an almost perfect killing machine.
%%%%
shedu

These boviform divine beings are always found in pairs, often protecting some
sacred shrine, and can heal and even resurrect each other, doubling their
effectiveness as guardians.
%%%%
shedu:quote

“May my god stand at my right hand!
 May my goddess stand at my left hand!
 May the favourable Shedu, the favourable Lamassu...with me!”
    -Assyrian prayer. 2nd millennium B.C.
%%%%
sheep

A dim-witted, fluffy ovine, better known for its woolly hide than its
ferociousness. Dungeon sheep are nevertheless far more murderous than their
surface brethren. This one looks quite flammable.
%%%%
shining eye

A huge and strangely deformed floating eyeball, pulsating with flesh-twisting
energy. Beauty is certainly nowhere to be found in this beholder.
%%%%
silent spectre

The bane of wizards, these terrible spirits bring an unearthly silence to the
area around them, making it impossible to recite the magical incantations
involved with casting spells or reading scrolls.
%%%%
silent spectre:quote

“There is a silence where hath been no sound,
 There is a silence where no sound may be,—
 In the cold grave, under the deep, deep sea,
 Or in the wide desert where no life is found.”
    -Thomas Hood, “Silence”. Early 19th cent.
%%%%
silver star

An orb of divine energy pulsating with blinding light.
%%%%
silver star:quote

“Ah star of evil! star of pain!
 Highhearted youth comes not again”
    -James Joyce, “Bahnhofstrasse”, _Pomes Penyeach_. 1927.
%%%%
silver statue

A beautiful statue of an unknown malignant creature, glistening with a silvery
hue. Its eyes glow with an otherworldly radiance.
%%%%
simulacrum

An ice replica of a monster that is animated by the powers of necromancy.
%%%%
simulacrum:quote

“The simulacrum now hides, not the truth, but the fact that there is none, that
is to say, the continuation of Nothingness.”
    -Jean Baudrillard, _La Pensée Radicale_. 1994.
%%%%
siren

A young woman with a fish tail in place of legs. Sirens are capable of casting
a powerful spell over their audience.
%%%%
siren:quote

“Row'd on, in reach of an erected voice,
 The Sirens soon took note, without our noise,
 Tuned those sweet accents that made charms so strong,
 And these learn'd numbers made the Sirens' song:
 'Come here, thou worthy of a world of praise,
 That dost so high the Grecian glory raise,
 Ulysses! stay thy ship, and that song hear
 That none past ever but it bent his ear,
 But left him ravish'd, and instructed more
 By us, than any ever heard before.
 For we know all things whatsoever were
 In wide Troy labour'd; whatsoever there
 The Grecians and the Trojans both sustain'd
 By those high issues that the Gods ordain'd.
 And whatsoever all the earth can show
 T' inform a knowledge of desert, we know.'”
    -Homer, _The Odyssey_, XII, 268-82.
     trans. George Chapman, 1857.
%%%%
sixfirhy

A small vile creature that moves in bursts, stopping then darting with
lightning speed. It seems to throw sparks all around.

It can heal from electrical damage, although being hit by more than it can
handle will have rather violent results.
%%%%
sixfirhy:quote

“I saw a mouth jeering. A smile of melted red iron ran over it. Its laugh was
full of nails rattling. It was a child’s dream of a mouth.
 A fist hit the mouth: knuckles of gun-metal driven by an electric wrist and
shoulder. It was a child’s dream of an arm.
 The fist hit the mouth over and over, again and again. The mouth bled melted
iron, and laughed its laughter of nails rattling.
 And I saw the more the fist pounded the more the mouth laughed. The fist is
pounding and pounding, and the mouth answering.”
    -Carl Sandburg, “Gargoyle”, _Cornhusker_. 1918.
%%%%
skeletal archer

Since when is having flesh a requirement to be a master archer? These skeletal
fellows can turn you into a bloody hedgehog with ease. Meatlings like you are
only good for a supply of sinew for bowstrings anyway.
%%%%
skeletal archer:quote

“For a glory of all evil spirits rise for victory
 Pain for pain, blood for blood
 Pagan warriors moved quickly forward
 Bows are ready to shoot out their searing
 Darts...”
    -Mastiphal, “For a Glory of All Evil spirits”
%%%%
skeletal bat

A bat skeleton without the decency to lie unmoving like dead bats are supposed
to.
%%%%
skeletal bat:quote

<bat:quote>
%%%%
skeletal warrior

The vicious and heavily armed skeleton of a humanoid creature, animated by
unholy power.
%%%%
skeletal warrior:quote

“Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!
 Who, with thy hollow breast
 Still in rude armor drest,
 Comest to daunt me!
 Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
 But with thy fleshless palms
 Stretched, as if asking alms,
 Why dost thou haunt me?”
    -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Skeleton in Armor”. 1841.
%%%%
skeleton

A skeleton compelled to unlife by the exercise of necromancy.
%%%%
skeleton:quote

“God save us from the skeleton
 Who sitteth at the feast!”
    -James Jeffrey Roche, _The Skeleton at the Feast_. 1890.
%%%%
sky beast

A strange aerial creature formed of clouds and tortured flesh that sparkles
with electricity and, every so often, slips entirely from view.
%%%%
sky beast:quote

“Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion
that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.”
    -James Thurber, _My Life and Hard Times_. 1934.
%%%%
slave

A once proud human who has been magically enslaved, and is now a timid,
simpering creature, ready to perform any deed at its master's command. However,
its magical enslavement lasts only as long as its master does, and it would
surely appreciate being freed.
%%%%
slave:quote

“Who rebels? Who rises in arms? Rarely the slave, but almost always the
oppressor turned slave.”
    -E.M. Cioran, _History and Utopia_. 1960.
%%%%
slime creature

An icky glob of slime, which slithers along the ground, occasionally merging
with other nearby globs...
%%%%
slime creature:quote

“A lustreless protrusive eye
 Stares from the protozoic slime”
    -T.S. Eliot, “Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar”. 1920.
%%%%
small abomination

A hideous mass of body parts, part animated dead flesh, part demon.
%%%%
small abomination:quote

“No — it wasn't that way at all. It was everywhere — a gelatin — a slime yet it
had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes –
and a blemish. It was the pit — the maelstrom — the ultimate abomination.
Carter, it was the unnamable!”
    -H.P. Lovecraft, _The Unnamable_. 1925.
%%%%
smoke demon

An infernal demon that manifests itself as a writhing cloud of smoke. Having
considerable pyrokinetic powers, it can very effectively attack its enemies
from afar.
%%%%
smoke demon:quote

“Why does the thin grey strand
 Floating up from the forgotten
 Cigarette between my fingers,
 Why does it trouble me?”
    -D.H. Lawrence, “Sorrow”. 1916.
%%%%
snapping turtle

A belligerent testudine with an armoured carapace. Its neck is surprisingly
extensible and can reach out and bite from afar. When threatened, it will
retreat inside its shell.
%%%%
snapping turtle:quote

“After a while they came to a village. ”Now then,“ said Snapping Turtle, ”in
the morning at daylight, my friends, we will make on attack. I myself will
first go to the place,“ the leader of the war party said to them.

”Good,“ said the other little one, ”thou art the one who sees to it what we
shall do,“ they said to that Snapping Turtle. ”Now then,“ said Snapping Turtle,
”verily I am now going to tell you what I shall do.“ Thus he spoke. ”Now is the
time I shall begin to walk toward this village. Verily at the time I shall kill
the daughter of the chief will be when the light of day is breaking, and at the
same instant the sky will glow with red in the direction whence the morrow
comes. 'Ho, there, our comrade has killed her!' will thus be the thought in
your hearts. Then is the time when you want to make a great noise, when you
shall whoop all keep it up. Now is the time that you go to attack this
village.“ Thus he spoke to those his young men.

”All right!“ said the other little fellows.”
    -“When Snapping Turtle went to War”, _Publications of the American
     Ethnological Society, Volume IX: Kickapoo Tales_, 1915.
     trans. Truman Michelson
%%%%
soldier ant

A tough ant with a disproportionately large head with strong mandibles and a
vicious sting capable of injecting a painful venom. It is a soldier, and thus
tasked with protecting the colony from invaders.
%%%%
soul eater

This demon looks like a malignantly shifting shadow gliding through the air. It
radiates an intense aura of negative force.
%%%%
soul eater:quote

“Negation is the mind's first freedom.”
    -E.M. Cioran, _The Temptation to Exist_. 1956.
%%%%
spatial maelstrom

A malevolent rift in reality.
%%%%
spatial vortex

A crazily shifting twist in the fabric of reality.
%%%%
spatial vortex:quote

“It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms
of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence
stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open
before our frenzied eyes.”
    -H.P. Lovecraft, “The Colour out of Space”. 1927.
%%%%
spectral thing

A hideous glowing apparition.
%%%%
spectral thing:quote

“On the hungry craving wind
 My Spectre follows thee behind.”
    -William Blake, “Broken Love”. ca. 1800.
%%%%
sphinx

A large creature with a woman's head, a lion's body and the wings of a huge
bird, able to cloud the minds of men and wield fell magics.
%%%%
spider

An ordinary orb-weaving spider with a distinctive white cross on its back.
While not as grotesquely huge as other arachnids to be found in this
environment, it is still as big as a small cat.
%%%%
spiny frog

These frogs are the size of a wolf, and are covered in small spines and spurs,
dripping with venom. Toad licking anyone?
%%%%
spiny worm

A great black worm, its many-segmented body covered in spiky plates of
chitinous armour. Acidic venom drips from its toothy maw.
%%%%
spiny worm:quote

“No sooner had I reached the place than I began to vomit, during which there
came from my stomach a hairy worm about a quarter of a cubit in length: the
hairs were long, and the worm was very ugly, speckled of divers colours, green,
black, and red. They kept and showed it to the doctor, who said he had never
seen anything of the sort before...”
    -Benvenuto Cellini, _Autobiography_. 1563.
     trans. John Addington Symonds, 1187.
%%%%
spirit

The soul of a holy creature, reft from its body. It is a slow and timid
creature, but as something divine it is sure to be under celestial protection.
%%%%
spirit:quote

“In ancient tales, O friend, thy spirit dwelt;
 There, from of old, thy childhood passed; and there
 High expectation, high delights and deeds,
 Thy fluttering heart with hope and terror moved.”
    -Robert Louis Stevenson, “Et Tu In Arcadia Vixisti”, _Underwoods _. 1887.
%%%%
spriggan

A small humanoid, resembling a human or elf except for the size. They move at a
great speed, and love playing dirty tricks on people.
%%%%
spriggan air mage

A magically adept spriggan blessed with the secrets of the winds.
%%%%
spriggan assassin

A deft and surreptitious spriggan that stabs in secret.

These masters of stealth have mastered the art of delivering a quick blade
right under your fifth rib as well.
%%%%
spriggan baker

A spriggan that has mastered the culinary arts.
%%%%
spriggan berserker

A relatively mighty spriggan that plunges recklessly into combat.
%%%%
spriggan defender

An elite, well-equipped spriggan warrior, renowned for its prowess with
advanced weaponry and unbelievable agility.
%%%%
spriggan druid

A spriggan whose connection with the birds and the beasts is exceptionally
strong. Revelling in nature, these protectors of forests are the doom of anyone
who so much as snaps a twig.
%%%%
spriggan rider

Mounted on giant fireflies, these riders make sure no one who dares to intrude
on the spriggan forests and cairns will be able to just walk away.
%%%%
starcursed mass

A mass of stellar detritus that glows with the sickly putrescence of a dying
star, forever shrieking soundlessly in a voice beyond mortal grasp. Its form
quivers and undulates constantly, dividing spontaneously and then withdrawing
when threatened. While the voice of even a single one is unsettling, in chorus,
their screams can overwhelm the minds of even the bravest warriors, leaving
them stunned and helpless.
%%%%
starspawn tentacle

The writhing appendage of a tentacled starspawn, capable of grasping nearly any
prey and dragging it back to be devoured. Any damage dealt to it hurts the
whole creature.
%%%%
starspawn tentacle segment

A sinuous length of an extended starspawn tentacle. Any damage dealt to it
hurts the whole creature.
%%%%
statue

At first glance, this piece of sculpted granite appears inert. The red glow
from its eyes, however, suggests it is no mere stone. Although it is rooted to
its base, you are certain that it can still move parts of itself.
%%%%
steam dragon

A relatively small grey dragon, with a resilient-looking scaly hide and steam
pouring from its mouth.
%%%%
stone giant

A gigantic humanoid with grey skin almost as hard as rock. It carries several
boulders, and is perfectly capable of flinging them a great distance.
%%%%
stone giant:quote

“I really believe what you say, answered the knight; for, I have been engaged
with the giant, in the most obstinate and outrageous combat that I believe I
shall ever fight in all the days of my life: with one backstroke, slam went his
head to the ground; and discharged such a quantity of blood, that it ran like
rills of water, along the field.”
    -Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, _The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La
     Mancha_, IV, 10. 1605.
     trans. Carlos Fuentes, 1997.
%%%%
stone golem

A huge, magically animated statue made of incredibly hard basalt.
%%%%
stone golem:quote

“I see him there
 Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
 In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.”
    -Robert Frost, “Mending Wall”, _North of Boston_. 1914.
%%%%
storm dragon

A huge and very powerful dragon, with hide of thick matte scales, almost like
blue rubber, and enormous scaly wings, along which sparks are continually
crackling.
%%%%
sun demon

A demonic figure shining with the light and fury of a fallen star.
%%%%
sun demon:quote

“Behold him setting in his western skies,
 The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.”
    -John Dryden, “Absalom and Achitophel”, I, 268. 1681.
%%%%
swamp dragon

A large slimy dragon, its gnarly hide covered in swamp muck. Noxious gasses
dribble from its snout.
%%%%
swamp drake

A small and slimy dragon, covered in swamp muck.

{{
    if you.can_smell() then
        return "It smells terrible."
    end
}}
%%%%
swamp drake:quote

“Sweet is the swamp with its secrets,
 Until we meet a snake;
 ’T is then we sigh for houses,
 And our departure take

 At that enthralling gallop
 That only childhood knows.
 A snake is summer’s treason,
 And guile is where it goes.”
    -Emily Dickinson, “A Snake”. ca. 1865.
%%%%
swamp worm

A large slimy worm, adept at swimming through the muck of this foul swamp.
%%%%
swamp worm:quote

“The fool, as I think, at the chasm’s brink,
 Prone by the swamp or the marsh’s side,
 Did, even as I, in the end rejoice,
 Since the voice of death must be His true voice.”
    -Arthur Edward Waite, “At The End of Things”. 1906.
%%%%
tarantella

A small but greatly-feared spider whose venom causes even resistant victims to
break into a frenzied dance.
%%%%
tentacle

This mighty tentacle is part of a kraken. Any damage dealt to it hurts the
whole creature.
%%%%
tentacle segment

Part of the mighty tentacle of a kraken. Any damage dealt to it hurts the whole
creature.
%%%%
tentacled monstrosity

A writhing mass of tentacles, all covered in putrid mucus.
%%%%
tentacled monstrosity:quote

“Oozing and surging up out of that yawning trap-door in the Cyclopean crypt I
had glimpsed such an unbelievable behemothic monstrosity that I could not doubt
the power of its original to kill with its mere sight. Even now I cannot begin
to suggest it with any words at my command. I might call it gigantic —
tentacled — proboscidian — octopus-eyed — semi-amorphous — plastic — partly
squamous and partly rugose — ugh!”
    -H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald, “Out of the Aeons”, _Weird Tales_, 25, No.
     4, pp. 478–96. April 1935.
%%%%
tentacled starspawn

A lumbering maw shrouded in a mass of sinuous tentacles. Every now and again,
one slithers out to drag unfortunate prey back into its waiting gullet.
%%%%
thrashing horror

A seething mass of yellow flesh. It thrashes erratically, staggering foes
beneath the weight of its impacts.
%%%%
titan

This huge, bolt-hurling, lightning-limned humanoid is unusually large and
powerful, even among giants.
%%%%
titan:quote

“And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both
sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless
sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken
and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of
the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound
of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they
launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as
they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great
battle-cry.”
    -Hesiod, _Theogony_, 8th cent. B.C.
     trans. H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914.
%%%%
toenail golem

A huge animated statue made entirely from toenail clippings. Some people just
have too much time on their hands.
%%%%
toenail golem:quote

“Gentle socks pamper them by day, and shoes cobbled of leather fortify them,
but my toes hardly notice. All they’re interested in is turning out
toenails—semitransparent, flexible sheets of a hornlike material, as defense
against—whom?”
    -Jorge Luis Borges, “Toenails”. 1960.
    trans. Andrew Hurley, 1998.
%%%%
toadstool

A short-lived species of fungus typically found on or around decaying organic
matter.
%%%%
toadstool:quote

“Ale Wojski zbierał muchomory.”
 “But the Seneschal gathered the toadstool fly-bane.”
    -Adam Mickiewicz, _Pan Tadeusz_, III. 1834.
     trans. G.R. Noyes, 1917.
%%%%
tormentor

A malign devil covered in all manner of claws, spines, and cruel hooks. It is
able to inflict torturous agony on those foolish enough to gaze upon it.
%%%%
tormentor:quote

“Thou art to me a delicious torment.”
    -Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays: First Series_, Essay VI: Friendship. 1841.
%%%%
training dummy

A mannequin used for battle practice.
%%%%
training dummy:quote

“Things are only mannequins and even the great world-historical events are only
costumes beneath which they exchange glances with nothingness, with the base
and the banal.”
    -Walter Benjamin, _Protocols to the Experiments on Hashish, Opium and
     Mescaline 1927-1934_, “Protocol II: Highlights of the Second Hashish
     Impression”. 15 January 1928.
     trans. Scott J. Thompson, 1997.
%%%%
trapdoor spider

A fast-moving arachnid that both surprises its prey and evades its enemies by
concealing itself in crannies in the dungeon floor.
%%%%
troll

The common troll is a huge and physically powerful humanoid creature. Short on
intelligence but long on brawn, its thick knobbly hide heals rapidly from most
wounds.
%%%%
twister

A whirling vortex of turbulent air.
%%%%
two-headed ogre

A huge ogre with two heads on top of a bloated ogre body. It is capable of
holding a weapon in each giant hand.
%%%%
ufetubus

A chattering and shrieking minor demon.
%%%%
ufetubus:quote

“We were permitted to shriek in the tongue of dwarfs and demons”
    -Czesław Miłosz, “A Task”.
%%%%
ugly thing

An ugly thing. According to legend, this mutated creature is the otherworldly
spawn of a wizard's breeding experiment. Yuck.
%%%%
ugly thing:quote

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which
contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may
even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every
individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to
regulate those of others.”
    -David Hume
%%%%
unborn deep dwarf

A deep dwarf that has honed its empathy with the powers of earth and death at
the cost of its natural life force, transcending mortality in a peculiar
dwarven fashion.
%%%%
unseen horror

A creature rarely seen by anyone, and those few who have seen one would rather
that they hadn't.
%%%%
unseen horror:quote

“The awful shadow of some unseen Power
 Floats, tho’ unseen, amongst us.”
    -Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”, I, 1-2. 1816.
%%%%
vampire

A human cursed with vampirism, drifting in a state between life and undeath,
perpetually hungry for the blood of the living. It has power over beasts and
the minds of lesser men, and can appear in the form of a bat.
%%%%
vampire:quote

 • Scuze me. My friend Burt says you're a vampire hunter. 'zat so?
 - Uh yes. Yes it is.
 • Well you n'ain't gonna find one round here, mate. They ain't no vampires.
 - You don't believe in vampires?
 • 'course not!
 • But I do believe in con artists. And charletans who like to stir up trouble!
 • Dead people who get up at night and suck blood. How stupid do you think we
are?
 • My place is haunted with 16 ghosts and they all say there n'ain't no
vampires!
    -Rich Morris
%%%%
vampire bat

A large black bat with vicious fangs that feeds on blood. This is the preferred
form for vampires in disguise.
%%%%
vampire knight

A powerful vampire noble who complements its combat prowess with dark magic.
%%%%
vampire mage

A sorcerer who, by accident or design, has been afflicted with the curse of the
vampire. Regardless, through undeath, this wizard has finally mastered the art
of dark magic.
%%%%
vampire mosquito

A mosquito that has fed upon tainted blood and been transformed into a
revolting and pestilent undead insect, seeking to drain its victims to the last
drop.
%%%%
vapour

A cloud of weird vapour, only visible to those with supernaturally enhanced
eyesight. As it floats aimlessly through the dungeon, it builds up an electric
charge, which it will occasionally discharge in your direction.
%%%%
vapour:quote

“I had rather be a toad,
 And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
 Than keep a corner in the thing I love
 For others’ uses.”
    -William Shakespeare, _Othello_, III, 3. 1603.
%%%%
vault guard

A heavily armed and armoured guardian of the Vaults.
%%%%
vault sentinel

Vigilant scouts of the Vaults, sentinels are quick to alert their fellows to
the presence of intruders and can mark these same intruders with magic such
that they will be unable to hide from pursuit, no matter where they flee.
%%%%
vault warden

Veteran commanders of the Vaults, wardens can seal nearby doorways to prevent
intruders from either trespassing further or escaping alive.
%%%%
very ugly thing

A very ugly thing. According to legend, this hideously mutated creature is the
otherworldly spawn of a wizard's breeding experiment. Double yuck!
%%%%
wandering mushroom

A large, fleshy mushroom that wanders slowly around the dungeon. It is both
innately curious and incredibly shy, pursuing the objects of its curiosity only
when out of sight. Noxious spores drift around its cap.
%%%%
wandering mushroom:quote

“Telimena, wearied with the prolonged wrangling, wanted to go out into the
fresh air, but sought a partner. She took a little basket from the peg.
“Gentlemen, I see that you wish to remain within doors,” she said, wrapping
around her head a red cashmere shawl, “but I am going for mushrooms: follow me
who will!” Under one arm she took the little daughter of the Chamberlain, with
the other she raised her skirt up to her ankles. Thaddeus silently hastened
after her—to seek mushrooms!”
    -Adam Mickiewicz, _Pan Tadeusz_, II. 1834.
     trans. G.R. Noyes, 1917.
%%%%
war dog

A huge and vicious dog, trained to kill. Its neck is protected by a massive
spiked collar.
%%%%
warg

A particularly large and evil-looking wolf, usually found in the company of
orcs.
%%%%
water elemental

A spirit drawn from the elemental plane of water. It exists on this world as
part of a body of water.
%%%%
water moccasin

A largish venomous brown snake. It usually lives near water, and is an able
swimmer.
%%%%
white draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
white imp

A small and mischievous minor demon covered in frost.
%%%%
wight

An ancient warrior, kept in a state of perpetual undeath by its desire to die
with honour in battle.
%%%%
wight:quote

“Unhappie wight, borne to desastrous end,
 That doth his life in so long tendance spend!”
    -Edmund Spenser, “Mother Hubberds Tale”, _Complaints_. 1591.
%%%%
wizard

A rather eccentric person, dabbling in all sorts of arcanities.
%%%%
wizard:quote

“Each family or tribe has a wizard or conjuring doctor, whose office we could
never clearly ascertain.”
    -Charles Darwin, _The Voyage of the Beagle_, ch. X. 1839.
%%%%
wolf

A strong wild canine, with sharp teeth and a healthy appetite.
%%%%
wolf spider

A hairy fast-moving hunting spider with vicious mandibles, roaming the dungeon
in search of prey, which it kills with its deadly venom.
%%%%
worm

A giant annelid, glistening with slime, with unusually large teeth.
%%%%
worm:quote

“While the angels, all pallid and wan,
   Uprising, unveiling, affirm
 That the play is the tragedy, ‘Man’,
   And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.”
    -Edgar Allan Poe
%%%%
wraith

This undead spirit appears as a cloud of black mist surrounding an
insubstantial skeletal form. Its eyes burn bright with unholy malevolence and
hunger for life essence, on which it feeds.
%%%%
wraith:quote

“God, though this life is but a wraith,
 Although we know not what we use,
 Although we grope with little faith,
 Give me the heart to fight—and lose.”
    -Louis Untermeyer, “Prayer”. 1919.
%%%%
wretched star

A conflux of unearthly light and energy, awash in unnatural colours and strange
forms no normal being was meant to perceive. Merely being near it fills your
body with the disorder of the Abyss.
%%%%
wyvern

A dragon-like creature with a long, sharply pointed tail. Although smaller and
less formidable than true dragons, wyverns are nonetheless a foe to be reckoned
with.
%%%%
yak

The common dungeon yak, covered in shaggy yak hair and bearing a nasty pair of
yak horns.
%%%%
yaktaur

A hybrid with the torso of a robust man atop the body of a yak. Although they
excel in ranged combat, they are also formidable foes in close quarters.
%%%%
yaktaur captain

An exceptionally strong and brutish yaktaur, it is able to order its weaker
brethren around to do its bidding.
%%%%
yellow draconian

A scale-covered humanoid with a reptilian tail and small wings.
%%%%
yellow wasp

A giant wasp covered with thick plates of yellow chitinous armour. Its deadly
venom can render most beings unable to move.
%%%%
ynoxinul

A winged demon covered in shiny metallic scales. It has a legion of imp minions
under its command.
%%%%
ynoxinul:quote

“He fixed his eyes upon the door, which, slowly opening, disclosed a stranger
of majestic form, but scowling features, who demanded sternly, why he was
summoned? 'I did not summon you,' said the trembling student. 'You did!' said
the stranger, advancing, angrily; 'and the demons are not to be invoked in
vain.' The student could make no reply; and the demon, enraged that one of the
uninitiated should have summoned him out of mere presumption, seized him by the
throat and strangled him.

When Agrippa returned, a few days afterwards, he found his house beset with
devils. Some of them were sitting on the chimneypots, kicking up their legs in
the air; while others were playing at leapfrog, on the very edge of the
parapet. His study was so filled with them that he found it difficult to make
his way to his desk.”
    -Charles Mackay, _Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions_, Vol. III,
     Part I. 1841.
%%%%
zombie

A corpse raised to undeath by necromancy.
%%%%
zombie:quote

“It seemed that while the zombie came from the grave, it was neither a ghost,
nor yet a person who had been raised like Lazarus from the dead. The zombie,
they say, is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but taken from the grave and
endowed by sorcery with a mechanical semblance of life—it is a dead body which
is made to walk and act and move as if it were alive. People who have the power
to do this go to a fresh grave, dig up the body before it has had time to rot,
galvanize it into movement, and then make of it a servant or slave,
occasionally for the commission of some crime, more often simply as a drudge
around the habitation or the farm, setting it dull heavy tasks, and beating it
like a dumb beast if it slackens.”
    -William Seabrook, _The Magic Island_. 1929.
%%%%
# Specials
test spawner

(If you see this outside wizmode or the arena, this is a bug.)

Whatever it is, it is capable of spawning countless monsters by casting Shadow
Creatures, and is virtually undestructible itself.

To destroy it, lower the central elevator pillar, then pump rockets into the
hole in its exposed brain when the pillar rises to an appropriate height. You
can add another rocket while jumping down.

Oh wait, wrong game.
%%%%
sensed monster

Thanks to your antennae, you know there is some creature there, although you
know nothing about its identity.
%%%%
trivial sensed monster

By the power of Ashenzari, you know there is some creature there, and that it
shouldn't give you the slightest concern.
%%%%
easy sensed monster

By the power of Ashenzari, you know there is some creature there, and that you
should be able to defeat it without much risk.
%%%%
tough sensed monster

By the power of Ashenzari, you know there is some creature there, and that it
is somewhat dangerous.
%%%%
nasty sensed monster

By the power of Ashenzari, you know there is some creature there, and that you
should be afraid. Very afraid.
%%%%
friendly sensed monster

By the power of Ashenzari, you know there is some creature there, and that it
is one of your allies.
%%%%
##############################################################################
### Vault-defined monsters
##############################################################################
Cloud Mage

This strange wizard has attained mastery over clouds, and his mystic gestures
are as deft as they are foreboding.
%%%%
Hellbinder

A mighty spellcaster, wreathed in arcane energies, and muttering the most
profane incantations you might ever have heard.
%%%%
# arena sprint final boss
Master Blaster

A mighty old lich, notorious for blasting people with powerful conjurations at
the slightest provocation, or just on a whim.
%%%%
Statue of Wucad Mu

This statue, made of a fine glassy orange crystal, depicts a mystic known as
Wucad Mu, who mastered the matters of the mind. Beware of the statue's powers,
as you have no chance in mental combat against it.
%%%%
air elementalist statue

A delicate statue of a tengu gliding through the air. It looks quite
insubstantial.
%%%%
ancient champion

An unfathomably ancient skeleton. It has hundreds of golden sigils etched onto
its bones, and pulses with terrible, unholy power.
%%%%
antique lich

A lich who has grown expensive over countless years.
%%%%
archer statue

The likeness of a beautiful elven archer, sculpted in finest marble. It holds a
bow aloft, and appears to be magically animated, letting it use the bow to
riddle you with arrows.

Being a statue, it doesn't appear to have a means of salvaging shot arrows or
fletching new ones, but you guess the statue's creators gave it enough of a
supply to kill you before someone comes to replenish the quiver.
%%%%
captured wizard

With wild eyes, the wizard frantically mumbles something and waves his arms,
but is unable to cast a single spell. His tongue has been cut off!
%%%%
charred statue

It looks like this statue has been imbued with fire magic, letting it use
fire-based conjurations against you. Fortunately, it looks pretty ineptly made,
and its charring shows that it has trouble controlling its magic as well.
%%%%
Cigotuvi's Monster

This terrifying creation looks to have been constructed from the body parts of
every monstrous creature imaginable.
%%%%
Cigotuvi's Monster:quote

“I beheld the wretch — the miserable monster whom I had
 created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if
 eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened,
 and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin
 wrinkled his cheeks.”
    -Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein”
%%%%
# In the first umpteen pages of googling, the only use of "Iskenderun" for a
# living being is the first Turkish Van cat brought to Britain. With
# Crawl's felids being sentient, it'd be hard to not make a connection with
# the wizard.
conjurer statue

This statue seems to harness the mightiest pure conjurations ever devised by
Iskenderun. It is not made in her likeness, as legends describe her as a female
felid, but, if I were you, I'd pay more heed to the orbs of magic flying your
way than the statue's appearance.
%%%%
crystal guardian

This crystal golem is so ensorcelled that it is immune to nearly any magic
itself, and it can also shoot powerful beams of fire and cold at any
tresspassers.
%%%%
decayed bog body

An undead figure preserved by the brackish waters of a bog. This one seems to
have decayed quite a bit, and looks weak.
%%%%
deep troll monk

It seems a flimsy representation of a monk; nothing more than a half-formed
memory.
%%%%
deformed humanoid

This poor creature looks hideously deformed.
%%%%
demonic plant

Just as demons are shaped in a mockery of living beings, this... thing... here
is a mockery of a plant. The colours don't match, and normal plants don't have
mysterious appendages and tentacles writhing around. Fortunately, this one
appears to be harmless, but with demons, you can never be sure.
%%%%
drunken dwarf

This short fellow seems to be working as an ale quality tester, and is enjoying
the job a little too much.
%%%%
earth elementalist statue

A plain statue of a dwarf wielding a pickaxe. It looks incredibly heavy.
%%%%
fire elementalist statue

An ornately worked statue of an orc holding a torch aloft, hewn from black
basalt. The air around it seems to shimmer.
%%%%
firespitter statue

A statue of a large humanoid head, roughly cut from greyish gabbro. Its mouth
is blackened with scorch-marks, and there is a faint ember glow in its empty
eyes.
%%%%
flesh golem

An animated mound of misshapen flesh.
%%%%
frost-covered statue

An ineptly made statue of a mage. Its magic keeps leaking, letting you know
what kind of spells you can expect: cold-based ones.
%%%%
greater air elemental

<air elemental>
%%%%
human monk

It seems a flimsy representation of a monk; nothing more than a half-formed
memory.
%%%%
iron troll monk

It seems a flimsy representation of a monk; nothing more than a half-formed
memory.
%%%%
kamikaze kobold

This kobold is either mad or a martyr for some obscure kobold faith, being
enchanted to explode in a blaze of fire. You'd better keep your distance!
%%%%
lasher statue

This statue depicts a savage-looking slave driver with a vicious barbed whip.
It appears to be capable of moving the whip arm. Prepare for a flogging...
%%%%
lasher statue:quote

“To be a slave for a moment
 The body offered up to cruelty
 To the lash which whips on the skin
 Which slashes the flesh, lacerates the back”
    -Samael, “Flagellation”
%%%%
malarious mermaid

A young woman with a fish tail in place of legs. She looks quite sick, but
still capable of bespelling her audience.
%%%%
# Sprint only, too unhinged for regular games...
oklob plant annihilator

It would seem inconceivable that a mere plant could attain sentience and the
use of magic, but that's what you see here. What sorcery is it?
%%%%
oklob plant conjurer

<oklob plant annihilator>
%%%%
oklob plant demonologist

<oklob plant annihilator>
%%%%
oklob plant meteorologist

<oklob plant annihilator>
%%%%
oklob plant shifter

<oklob plant annihilator>
%%%%
oklob plant summoner

<oklob plant annihilator>
%%%%
oklob sapling priest

This immature oklob plant seems to be mumbling some orisons... er, what?!?
%%%%
oklob sapling wizard

<oklob plant annihilator>
%%%%
orb of electricity

A massive floating ball. It resembles ball lightning, but looks far more
stable. It definitely lacks some heavy-duty insulation, though.
%%%%
# I'm not sure how widely cosmogonical Norse myths are known to an average
# reader; Crawl's audience tends to be far more educated though, so let's
# hope the concepts of Ginnungagap, Niflheim and Muspelheim are not too
# obscure.
orb of ice

A globe of primordial ice, floating in the air. You don't know whether the
tales about the world's once being a void bracketed by realms of endless fire
and cold are true, but if they are, this orb may be a relic of that ancient
time.

Ordinary ice seems to form on the surface, but it is easy to distinguish from
the perfect ball inside. You'd better stay far away, or you may end up frozen.
%%%%
orb slug

A monstrously big slug who apparently ate a mighty conjurer, or maybe an orb
spider. Or perhaps it's a product of divine experiments, in which case it looks
like Xom's handiwork...
%%%%
petrified plant

Something has turned these ordinary plants into stone. Better not tarry here.
If whatever petrified these plants gets you as well, we'll be stuck with a
statue as ugly as you standing here for ages.
%%%%
phase spider

An otherworldly spider that can move short and medium distances by briefly
shifting between the planes of reality, in order to better ensnare its prey.
%%%%
pristine statue

An immaculately sculpted porphyry statue of an archer poised to release an
arrow, with a full quiver at the hip. The individually sculpted arrows look
almost as if they could be removed one by one and used in a real bow.
%%%%
sickly siren

A young woman with a fish tail in place of legs. She looks quite sick, but
still capable of bespelling her audience.
%%%%
strange machine

A glistening silver machine.
%%%%
strange machine:quote

“The machine had stood there a long time. It was several
 hundred feet long and could run on a thimbleful of earth or
 water. It had been working seven and a half million years.”
    -Sweet Their Blood and Sticky, Albert Teichner
%%%%
succubus

A female demon who uses her charms to seduce humanoid males. If you wish to
take advantage of her, however, you will fail: she seems very angry right now
and has blood more on her mind than fun.
%%%%
water elementalist statue

A smooth, charming statue of a beautiful mermaid bathing in a fountain,
sculpted from creamy, faintly pinkish travertine. It glistens softly in the
light, as if sprinkled in actual water.
%%%%
young spriggan druid

A junior member of the order of spriggans sworn to protect nature. While less
dangerous than the elders, this one is perfectly capable of dealing with
trespassers like you.

{{
    if you.god() == "Fedhas" then
        return "Those foul druids care mostly for animals, instead of " ..
               "taking proper care of plants as Fedhas commands.";
    end
}}
%%%%
vine covered stone golem

While made of ordinary old weathered stone, covered with moss and vines, this
golem still needs to be respected. It is still hard as stone, after all, and
its weight spells massive damage if it connects a blow.
%%%%
witch

An old and unnaturally ugly human, wearing robes stained with what appears to
be swamp ooze, cauldron soot and brew ingredients.

A magician with such stellar sanity and manners probably has great pets as
well. You might not have to wait long to find out for certain.
%%%%
witch:quote

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
    -KJV Bible, Exodus 22:18
%%%%
withered plant

This plant lost the war against life-draining influences, and yet its physical
form is intact. Its dead body stays here uneaten, as the small creatures that
would naturally decompose it prefer to stay away. And it looks like this plant
died many {{ if you.branch() == "Crypt" or you.branch() == "Tomb" then return
"centuries"; else return "years"; end }} ago.
%%%%
wizard statue

In this land of magic, it'd be foolish to assume that a statue of a wizard is
always an inert piece of rock. This statue's hands and staff have very little
dust compared to the base, suggesting it is capable of making magical gestures.
The trap is too obvious, but dealing with it might not be.
%%%%
zin angel

A divine agent of Zin, it is a towering winged figure with an aura of brilliant
white light. This angel's face, though, is marked by a scowl, as if its zeal
against any real or perceived vice overshadows its goodness.
%%%%
zot statue

An utterly bizarre statue, hewn from a single piece of dark gabbro
scintillating with tiny crystals. It is impossible to tell whether the statue
is intended to represent some creature or personage, or is completely abstract.
One thing is certain: it is profoundly disturbing.
%%%%
### Arena sprint boss renames
ancient emperor scorpion

<emperor scorpion>
%%%%
big bog body

<bog body>
%%%%
dark black mamba

<black mamba>
%%%%
dire wolf spider

<wolf spider>
%%%%
elder swamp dragon

<swamp dragon>
%%%%
giant anaconda

<anaconda>
%%%%
greater ghost moth

<ghost moth>
%%%%
greater orb of eyes

<great orb of eyes>
%%%%
hardcore manticore

<manticore>
%%%%
harpy queen

<harpy>
%%%%
naga archmage

<naga mage>
%%%%
naga warlord

<naga warrior>
%%%%
stinky swamp drake

<swamp drake>
%%%%
sulfuric acid blob

<acid blob>
%%%%
vault guard captain

<vault guard>
%%%%
### Meatsprint
bag of meat

One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. It is a
horrendous imitation of the human form, consisting of an unrecognisable mass of
meat stitched together with limbs sewn on seemingly at random. Its skin hangs
off loosely in some places and bulges repulsively in others. Each one bears a
large symbol carved into its flesh, a mark of pride from its twisted creator.
%%%%
large bag of meat

One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Its
bloated hulk pulsates and throbs constantly with accursed fires. It looks as if
it could explode into a torrent of viscera at any moment.
%%%%
meat berserker

One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Its form
is large and muscular. It moves swiftly and with impetuous fury, the sole
thought within its being to rend you apart with great fervour. As it rages, it
creates a cacophonous din.
%%%%
meat hydra

One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Each of
its eight necks is distended and elongated, connected to a colossal body
crumpled and dripping with ichor. Its many heads spew blood while writhing and
convulsing in agony, as it brings torment to itself and anything else that
beholds its foul visage.
%%%%
meat beast

One of the legions of abominations created by the sculptors of flesh. Ablaze
with demonic frenzy, it gores and tramples with ferocity unmatched. Its skin is
flayed, exposing the glistening tendons and sinew underneath, and the teeth
inside its cavernous maw are stained with blood.
%%%%
sculptor of flesh

An artisan of unlife, the sculptor appears as a grim skeletal form. It has six
long arms ending in mangled hands with broken fingers, upon which it crawls
like a spider. Its skull is abnormally large and full of holes. Its bones are
reddened and fractured, inscribed with the unholy spells it weaves to assemble
its puppets.
%%%%
destroyer

The destroyers begin to descend upon you. They come in numbers and with wrath,
maws gaping like abaddon, bottomless and abyssal. They bring your doom and will
feast on your remains.
%%%%
accursed

The accursed are the ones who came before. They have come to ensure you share
their fate.
%%%%
tyrant

A colossal mass of bones and skulls, a walking tomb. You hear shrieks and
screams as it approaches, shattering off bones with each crushing step,
reassembling itself in eternal unrest.
%%%%
dread

An affront to existence, a void in which there is only torment and hellfire.
Its unearthly form is torn and twisted, black and hollow. It is bereft of
rational thought, knowing only hatred and the desire to desecrate your soul.
%%%%
scourge

A vast serpentine form with raw and diseased skin, seeping bile and pus,
spouting venom and blight.
%%%%
observer

You see the unseen, you stare and they stare back. They whisper and laugh, they
grin and cry, they leer at you with contempt and gaze at you in adoration. They
are the observers, they are the judge of your worth and will decide your end.
%%%%
lost soul

A spectre, struggling to leave the mortal world it is incarcerated in. It
drains life and unlife from all those it comes into contact with.
%%%%
fleshlord

One of the greatest servants of the Meatlord. It is muscular, agile and full of
malevolence.
%%%%
vile

An emaciated figure brimming with hellfire and plague. Its appearance signifies
the end of days.
%%%%
The Servant

His glaive is alight with the flames of hell.
%%%%
The Captor

Those who enter will not escape.
%%%%
The Defiler

His shield is emblazoned with images of infernal flames.
%%%%
The Meatlord

You behold the embodiment of filth, corruption and depravity, the Meatlord. His
foul body is bloated to the extreme, leaking viscous fluid and the stench of
death. His head is that of a boar with bulging eyes and tusks split in two, his
snout flares and oozes as he snorts and squeals at the sight of you, his mouth
is a toothless rift which drools pools of blood and vomits forth disgusting
remains. His neck is stretched and lops forward, its skin sagging downward. His
immense gut writhes and distorts as the larvae within await their repugnant
release. His legs are unrecognisable masses of flesh, covered in protrusions
and throbbing boils. Your mind reels at the sight of this hideous form and your
senses begin to shut down in an attempt to preserve your sanity as you choke on
the oppressive stench.
%%%%
The Unspeakable

You hear the echoes of planets behind the deafening roar of stars as it
approaches. It is the jaws of the abyss. It brings forth crawling chaos from
within. It is the last sight you will ever see.
%%%%
