A Third Month-Long Survey of Bestiaries

August 01, 2016
Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II
designer: Rich Baker
interior artist: Tony DiTerlizzi
cover artist: Tony DiTerlizzi
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1995
cover: softcover
number of pages: 128
ISBN: 978-0786901739
description: This bestiary is the second monstrous compendium associated with Planescape, a multiplanar campaign setting from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the aasimar, the offspring formed by the union of a human and an angel, or another denizen of the upper planes.

Just like tieflings, aasimar are the plane-touched creatures that can't quite be called human. In their veins flows the blood of both humankind and one of the raes of the Upper Planes--the rilmani, the eladrins, or the guardinals. Aasimar are beautiful creatures, withcalm, serene features and an inner radiance that shines from their faces...They tend to be great travelers and wanderers, since they are welcomed anywhere on the Upper Planes and can pass without notice in most other places.

August 02, 2016
Heaven Unleashed
authors: Judy Bauer et al.
interior artists: various
cover artist: Igor Grechanyi
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: 2016
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601258281
description: This book focuses on residents and traditions of the Upper Planes from Pathfinder cosmology. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the archon, Pilali. Aasimon (angels) are divided into seven ranks, of which archon is the lowest.

Relatively young for an exscinder, Pilali was elevated to her current form only a few centuries ago. Full of Heaven's righteousness, she joined her colleagues in tracking down powerful evil texts and redacting their most dangerous sections or destroying them entirely in Heaven's heresy ovens. Pilali excelled in her duties, yet just decades into her service, she suffered a major blow.

During the supposedly routine destruction of a powerful evil tome, a hidden trap unleashed a storm of hellfire, immolating Pilali's colleagues. While confident the other archons had died for the greater good, Pilali felt a worm of doubt creep into her virtuous heart. She knew that obviously, evil texts needed to be kept out of mortal hands--for in the eyes of Heaven, even the most righteous and well-intentioned mortals are no more trustworthy than toddlers in a knife shop. Yet wouldn't it be better, she reasoned, to simply cache these books in an impenetrable vault, rather than risk the loss of Heaven's own in their destruction.

August 03, 2016
Warriors of Heaven
author: Chris Perkins
interior artist: Hannibal King
cover artist: Brom
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1999
cover: softcover
number of pages: 96
ISBN: 978-0786913619
description: This book focuses on residents of the Upper Planes from the Planescape cosmology of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the guardinal, a class of beings of goodness, associated with animals.

Guardinals are beautiful, muscular humans with noticeable animal traits. The degree of animalistic appearance varies among individuals. They are something of a paradox to other beings, for they can be compassionate and gentle one moment, then ruthless and violent the next, depending on their moods and the situation. Though guardinals lead tranquil lives on their home plane, they cannot tolerate evil in any shape or form, and they have no qualms about taking the fight to the Lower Planes, where evil waits like a great nest of vipers eager to strike.

Guardinals are native to Elysium, a picture-perfect plane of magnificent landscapes sewn together by the spectacular River Oceanus. The guardinals lover their home and watch it fully for any sign of trouble. Although they aren't as numerous as some of the other celestial races, they have an uncanny way of showing up whenever evil rears its ugly head. Guardinals are living embodiments of Elysium's tranquility, and they refuse to tolerate anything that could disturb that peace.

August 04, 2016
Chronicle of the Righteous
author: Amber Scott
interior artists: Helge C. Balzer et al.
cover artist: Eva Widermann
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: 2013
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601255068
description: This book focuses on residents and traditions of the Upper Planes from Pathfinder cosmology. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the agathion, Irez. Aasimon (angels) are divided into seven ranks, of which agathion is the highest.

Irez emerged from the reeds along the coast of the Sea of No Shadows in Nirvana. She understand the mystical symbolism behind runes, particularly how runes can empower arcane magic. Harrow readers and gamblers pay homage to the Lady of Inscribed Wonder, and her agents teach the exacting art of calligraphy to favored mortals. Irez still makes her home among the reeds where she first appeared. Her palace is a fantastical amalgamation of woven reed floors, paper walls, and bamboo roofs, and while it looks fragile enough to blow away in a stiff breeze, it has stood undamaged for thousands of years.

August 05, 2016
Planescape Planes of Law Monstrous Supplement
designers: Colin McComb & Dori Hein
interior artist: Tony DiTerlizzi
cover artist: Robh Ruppel
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1995
cover: softcover
number of pages: 32
ISBN: 978-0786900930
description: This bestiary is included in the original Planescape Planes of Law box. It is a 32 page pamphlet with no cover containing descriptions of twelve creatures from planes of lawful alignment. Planescape is a multiplanar campaign setting defining the cosmology of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the kocrachon, a lesser baatezu, which was the name given to devils in the 2^nd edition.

The kocrachon is a loathsome, beetlelike fiend, with beady eyes staring out from beneath its enameled carapace. Its three antennae wave above its head, discerning subtle changes of atmosphere, sound, and smell in its environment. It has four arms and two legs; the arms end in opposable pincer-claws. A proboscis juts out from the creature's forehead, located just above its eyes. The kocrachon's wings are located underneath its shell, which parts when the fiend is ready to fly away to safety or to a new victim...The kocrachon is a baatezu designed primarily to inflict pain. Upon creation, however, it isn't immediately aware of this mission. Whether it is promoted or demoted to kocrachon status, the baatezu must study at the School of Pain, which is hidden underneath the Knoll of Blades in Dis, the second layer of Baator. Here the kocrachons study the physiology of known mortal and immortal creatures--as well as the psychology of thos eminds. Thus, kocrachons learn how to inflict tortures both mental and physical on those unfortunate enough to fall into their clutches. Only rarely do they actually kill their victims...

August 06, 2016
Book of the Damned Vol 1. Princes of Darkness
author: F. Wesley Schneider
interior artists: various
cover artist: Kieran Yanner
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: October, 2009
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601251893
description: This bestiary describes the culture and ways of the devils of Hell.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the heresy devil, otherwise known as the ayngavhaul.

Bloated scholars of despair, ayngavhauls collect, create, and spread heresies and apocrypha, sowing disbelief and corruption to all who would seek their foul wisdom. Ironically among the most humanlike, yet still most repulsive breeds of devilkind, these corpulent blasphemers are barely even able to move without the aid of their profane floating thrones. Although their bloated forms make them considerably less of a threat than their brethren physically, they speak maledictions foul enough to agonize those who hear them, yet even with such powers of vicious wisdom, their true strength lies in their envenomed words and temptations of the mind. Their centuries of research grant them great leverage over their diabolical kin, and few devils dare not obey the summons of these hellish scholars.

August 07, 2016
Guide to Hell
author: Chris Pramas
interior artist: Hannibal King
cover artist: Brom
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1999
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-0786914319
description: As the name implies, this book focuses on Hell and its residents. It is compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is Bel, the Pit Fiend, Warlord of Avernus, Lord of the First Hell.

Bel is perhaps the greatest success story of Hell. He climbed the ranks of devilkind until becoming a pit fiend. He then orchestrated the assassination of a pit fiend general and took over the position himself. As a general for the Dark Eight, Bel proved an exceptional warlord and a master of deception. In his most noted campaign, he seemingly betrayed Asmodeus and joined the tanar'ri. After convincing the tanar'ri of his loyalty, he led them into a long-prepared ambush that decimated the demonic armies. He then returned to Hell covered with glory, his star in ascent.

As a reward, Bel was given command of all the armies of Avernus and became the right hand of Zariel, the original Lord of Avernus. Bel served Zariel faithfully for many centuries, concentrating his efforts on the Blood War as was proper. In time, Zariel came to trust her underling, and this was her undoing. In the most dramatic coup in the history of Hell, Bel turned Zariel's court against her and then overthrew the forlorn lord. By a means that has yet to be determined (but perhaps learned during his time among the tanar'ri), Bel was able to imprison Zariel and render her powerless. He then declared himself Lord of Avernus and prepared to repel the assaults that he was sure would follow.

August 08, 2016
Hell Unleashed
authors: F. Wesley Schneider & Jerome Virnich
interior artists: various
cover artist: Remko Troost
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: July, 2015
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601257574
description: This bestiary describes individuals, organizations and one artifact associated with the devils of Hell. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the Darukarex, a contract devil.

Clusters of black spines covered in swirling reams of Infernal writings emerge from the back of this muscular red devil...Darukarex is surrounded by a gentle whirlwind of parchments. At Darukarex's will, these parchments fuse together into a long whip, which he can use to attack, disarm and trip foes...Darukarex can produce an infernal contract for a single living mortal creature. This contract can grant a wide range of abilities and effects. To receive any of these bonuses, however, the mortal must sign its true name upon the document of its own free will. Upon doing so, that mortal's soul is sworn to the contract devil, condemning the soul to an eternity of servitude in Hell.

August 09, 2016
Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
authors: Robin D. Laws & Robert J. Schwalb
interior artists: Daarken et al.
cover artist: Raven Mimura
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: December, 2006
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786939404
description: This bestiary focuses on devils of Hell. It was issued as part of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3^rd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is Baalzebul, Lord of Maladomini, the Seventh Hell.

Baalzebul, the Lord of Lies, rules the seventh level of Hell [Maladomini]. The Fallen One, also called the Slug Archduke, fell from the Upper Planes when his arrogance and ambition led him astray. Ironically, it was these same flaws that led him to his current wretched state...Baalzebul is the patron of strength and guile. He is commonly worshipped by bugbears, though many human cults revere him as well...Baalzebul can spew a cloud of flesh-eating flies or breathe out a swarm to buzz around him, making him hard to hit or engage in melee combat...Baalzebul's most dreadful attack is his touch. The merest brush wastes away flesh, leaching the blood, muscle, and sinew from the limb.

August 10, 2016
Fiend Folio, 3.5^th edition
authors: Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, James Jacobs et al.
interior artists: Arnie Swekel et al.
cover artists: Brom, Henry Higginbotham
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: April, 2003
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786927807
description: This bestiary, contrary to the title, does not exclusively focus on fiends, but also serves as a source of information for a more general distribution of beasts. It is compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5^th edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the baatezu (or devil), Xerfilstyx.

Xerfilstyxes are the stealers of memories and the keepers of thoughts. Lairing mostly on the banks of the River Styx in Avernus, the first layer of Baator, they keep guard over its shores. Xerfilstyxes resemble "classic" devils from the waist up. They have a muscular humanoid torso and arms, and their heads feature both a large, toothy maw and two massive black horns that sprout from their foreheads. Their hands have large, hooked claws, and giant blue bat wings from from a xerfilstyx's back. From the waist down, these devils look like giant slugs. Their lower bodies drag behind them on the ground, leaving a thick, slippery trail of slime wherever they go. Their skin is a near-translucent, sickly blue. Running all over their bodies and vividly visible beneath their skin, are massive veins that pulse red the color of blood. Xerfilstyxes are totally mad. They swim frequently in the River Styx, and the constant bombardment of the memories of the lost souls that come to Baator has long since driven each member of the race to insanity.

August 11, 2016
Planescape Planes of Chaos Monstrous Supplement
designers: Lester Smith & Wolfgang Baur
interior artist: Tony DiTerlizzi
cover artist: Robh Ruppel
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1994
cover: softcover
number of pages: 32
ISBN: 978-1560768746
description: This bestiary is included in the original Planescape Planes of Chaos box. It is a 32 page pamphlet with no cover containing descriptions of twelve creatures from planes of chaotic alignment. Planescape is a multiplanar campaign setting defining the cosmology of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the armanite, a lesser tanar'ri, which was the name given to demons in the 2^nd edition.

Armanites resemble pale, undead centaurs with the horns of rams or bulls. They wear the full armor of knights. Their tails and manes down their spins are stiff bristles, and the flesh on their bellies sags so much that older armanites sometimes look like half-gutted horses, dragging their entrails beneath them...Armanites are the mercenaries and scavengers of the Blood War, living by devouring the flesh and spirits of the fallen. They serve their masters well but expect plunder in return; failure to provide it results in desertion or rebellion, even on the eve of battle.

August 12, 2016
Book of the Damned Vol 2. Lords of Chaos
author: James Jacobs
interior artists: various
cover artist: Eva Widermann
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: December, 2010
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601252500
description: This bestiary describes the culture and ways of the demons of the Abyss. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the vermlek demon.

A corpulent man reels on his feet as if drunk, but a closer inspection reveals the horrific truth--he's not so much reeling as he is seething from within, as if his internal organs were coiling and writhing like a knot of greased snakes. Suddenly, with a hideous retching and tearing sound, the man's face blooms out like a rotten flower and a pallid, five-jawed worm extrudes itself from the ragged hole in the neck where, only a moment before, a head sat.

The hideous vermlek demon is one of the lower-ranking members of the demon race, barely above the dretch in power but remarkably more ambitious and intelligent than its pudgy lesser kin. They wriggle and crawl in nauseating numbers in many Abyssal battlefields or graveyards, impatiently awaiting a chance to find a humanoid body to inhabit. Outside of a host body, a vermlek appears like a fat-headed worm with four long tails, each of which ends in a wriggling nest of long filaments.

Vermleks form from the souls of those who habitually violated the dead in life, such as grave robber, necromancers and necrophiles.

August 13, 2016
Demonomicon
authors: Mike Mearls, Brian R. James & Steve Townsend
interior artists: Arnie Swekel et al.
cover artist: John Stanko
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: July, 2010
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786954926
description: This book focuses on demons of the Abyss. It is compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4^th edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the mane.

Feeble-minded servitors with no will of their own, manes are among the lowest and most wretched of demonkind. Though they respond to their masters' commands in Abyssal, their shrieking babble only barely approximates speech. Adventurers who have faced an attack by these creatures learn to fear that shrill din. Packs of shrieking manes are common in the front ranks of demonic forces across the Abyss and in the mortal realm--and are often the last thing inexperienced adventurers facing such an assault ever see...Though they are consistently slow and stupid, manes are remarkably effective in mass combat. They obey their masters without question, recklessly sacrificing themselves to assist more powerful allies.

August 14, 2016
Demons Revisited
author: James Jacobs
interior artists: various
cover artist: Jesper Ejsing
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: August, 2013
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601255525
description: This bestiary describes the culture and ways of ten types of demons of the Abyss. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the glabrezu.

While multiple limbs are relatively common for the more powerful demons, the glabrezu is one of the few demons to possess multiple arm types. Its relatively normal human arms end in clawed hands, but its primary arms are much larger, ending in razor-sharp pincers. This feature, combined with its canine visage, horned head and saurian legs would hardly lead the ignorant observer to think that the greatest danger posed by a glabrezu is in listening to it speak rather than engaging it in combat--which is, of course, to the treachery demon's advantage. Many who encounter a glabrezu are only too eager to talk to the demon rather than face its rending pincers and slavering fangs. Those who do speak to it and manage to navigate the encounter without physical harm often think of themselves as having somehow "won" the conflict with the demon, yet in truth, very few walk away from a discussion with a glabrezu unchanged, especially if they are foolish enough to take the demon's offer of a single wish...

August 15, 2016
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
authors: Ed Stark, James Jacobs & Erik Mona
interior artists: Ted Pendergraft et al.
cover artist: Sam Wood
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: June, 2006
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786939190
description: This bestiary focuses on demons of the Abyss. It was issued as part of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3^rd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is Zuggtmoy, Lady of Fungi.

This foul demoness resembles a human only from the torso up. This portion of her body is composed of thick rancid sheets and coils of fungus that just happens to have grown into the shape of what would otherwise be an attractive woman. Four fibrous antlers grow from her brow, and her hands bear cruel talons. Her lower torso is a coiling pillar of lashing ropy tentacles and other fungus growths. Her skin is a nauseating swirl of grays, blues, purples and blacks...Zuggtmoy is the Demon Queen of Fungi, and her worshipers envision a world consumed by the fungus host. She nominally rules the 222^nd layer of the Abyss, but her rulership is challenged by Jubilex, the Faceless Lord...Zuggtmoy can absorb creatures she grapples into her body, where they are quickly eaten away by powerful flesh-eating fungus growth.

August 16, 2016
Fiend Folio, 1^st edition
author: Don Turnbull
interior artists: Russ Nicholson et al.
cover artist: Emmanuel
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1981
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 128
ISBN: 978-0935696219
description: This bestiary, contrary to the title, does not exclusively focus on fiends, but also serves as a source of information for a more general distribution of beasts. It is compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1^st edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the demon queen, Lolth.

The demoness Lolth is a very powerful and feared demon lord. She usually takes the form of a giant black widow spider when she is on the Prime Material Plane and she sometimes enjoys appearing as an exquisitely beautiful female dark elf. Little is known about her aims, and only the fact that the drow worship of Lolth causes her to assume form on the earth permits compilation of any substantial information whatsoever.

Lolth enjoys the company of spiders of all sorts--giant species in the arachnid shape, those of normal, large and even huge type in her humanoid form. She is able to converse with all kinds of spiders, and they understand and obey her unquestioningly.

August 17, 2016
Planescape Planes of Conflict Monstrous Supplement
designer: Monte Cook
interior artist: Tony DiTerlizzi
cover artist: Robh Ruppel
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1995
cover: softcover
number of pages: 32
ISBN: 978-0786903092
description: This bestiary is included in the original Planescape Planes of Conflict box. It is a 32 page pamphlet with no cover containing descriptions of twelve creatures from planes of neutral alignment. Planescape is a multiplanar campaign setting defining the cosmology of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the baernaloth, a greater yugoloth, which was the name given to daemons in the 2^nd edition.

Long, gangly limbs covered by purulent gray flesh; an oversized, horned head with an obscene mouth comprising nothing but teeth and tongue; distant, glazed yellow eyes dripping fluid far more vile than tears--all these things area baernaloth, yet it is more. The essence of the creature is callous detachment, never seeing the suffering and pain that it ceaselessly creates; an unending, insatiable need for misery and affliction; a monster that mechanically, methodically hurts, harms, foils, impairs and hinders all other creatures...In many ways the baernaloths are the outcasts among the ranks of the yugoloths. They rarely associate with other yugoloths, and are always found on the Gray Waste, never on Gehenna, where so many of the other yugloths have migrated. Some people wonder if perhaps the baernaloths are not true yugoloths at all, but rather some older, even more primal creatures.

August 18, 2016
Book of the Damned Vol 3. Horsemen of the Apocalypse
author: Todd Stewart
interior artists: various
cover artist: Kieran Yanner
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: November, 2011
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601253736
description: This bestiary describes the culture and ways of the daemons of Abaddon. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the temerdaemon.

Temerdaemons personify the concept of accidental death. A knight falls upon her sword, a peasant trips and breaks his neck, a structure fails in ways its builders never foresaw and buries dozens of innocents, and meanwhile, a distant temerdaemon cackles knowingly. While true accidents please the fiend, it also delights in engineering the mishaps itself, crafting incomprehensibly complex plots that lead to the slaughter of as many mortals as possible. A temerdaemon often wades into the aftermath of such engineered catastrophes, carving apart the crippled survivors and sowing mass confusion and hysteria by its very proximity.

August 19, 2016
Warhammer Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness
authors: Bryan Ansell, Mike Brunton & Simon Forrest
interior artists: Tony Ackland et al.
cover artist: John Sibbick
publisher: Games Workshop
publication date: 1988
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 282
ISBN: 1-869893-51-4
description: This book provides a comprehensive survey of two of the four Powers of Chaos, Khorne & Slaanesh, daemonic gods of violence and depravity, respectively. This book includes a bestiary of their followers, as well as a grimoire of related spells, an inventory of weapons and an investigation into the physiological and psychological traits of daemons. This book is compatible with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Warhammer Fantasy Battle & Warhammer 40,000.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the mount of Slaanesh (Q'qha'thashi'i).

These strange bipedal beasts are sometimes granted to followers of Slaanesh, and are frequently ridden into battle by the Daemonettes. They do not attack in combat, but can move very quickly, and use their long tongue to ensnare their rider's opponents, making them easy targets.

Mounts of Slaanesh are bipedal, combining the appearance of a horse and an ostrich. They have two long, feminine legs, and a crest of vivid green hair runs the length of the back. The glossy fur on the legs and upper parts of the body is a pale lavender colour, while the head, tail and underside are pastel yellow with mottled deep red markings. They have a long, tubular snout, ending in a small mouth from which their long, electric-blue tongue shoots constantly back and forth.

August 20, 2016
Warhammer Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned
authors: Rick Priestley & Bryan Ansell
interior artists: Tony Ackland et al.
cover artist: Les Edwards
publisher: Games Workshop
publication date: 1990
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 296
ISBN: 1-869893-52-2
description: This book provides a comprehensive survey of two of the four Powers of Chaos, Nurgle & Tzeentch, daemonic gods of disease and metamorphosis, respectively. This book is compatible with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Warhammer Fantasy Battle & Warhammer 40,000.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the Great Unclean One (Bahk'ghuranhi'aghkami), a greater daemon of Nurgle.

The Great Unclean Ones are the Greater Daemons of Nurgle. In the case of other Chaos Powers, Greater Daemons are servants, albeit immensely able and powerful ones. This is not quite true of Nurgle's Greater Daemons, who are each more or less a facsimile of Nurgle himself, both physically, and in terms of their personality. In other words, it may be said that every Great Unclean One is also Nurgle.

A Great Unclean One certainly look like Nurgle--a gigantic figure bloated with decay, disease and all imaginable kinds of physical corruption. The skin of the daemon is greenish, necrose and leathery, its surface is covered with pockmarks, sores, and other signs of infestation. The inner organs, rank with decay, spill through the ruptured skin and hang like drapes about the girth. From these organs burst tiny creatures called Nurglings which chew and suck upon the nauseous juices within. Such foulness represents the truth of the universe, of decay and the end of all things.

August 21, 2016
Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead
authors: Andy Collins & Bruce R. Cordell
interior artist: Jeremy Jarvis et al.
cover artist: Tom Kidd
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: October, 2004
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 192
ISBN: 978-0786934331
description: This bestiary focuses on the undead. It was issued as part of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3^rd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the desiccator.

Desiccators are the dried-out undead remnants of creatures of elemental water. They long to quench their tremendous thirst with the precious fluids of living creatures. Thanks to their withered forms, desiccators are sometimes mistaken for mummies, although they wear none of the wrappings common to those creatures. Cursed to remain forever bereft of the watery form it had in life, the desiccator envies and despises all living things.

August 22, 2016
Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead
authors: Bruce R. Cordell, Eytan Bernstein, Brian R. James, Robin Laws & John Snead
interior artists: Mazin Kassis et al.
cover artist: Chris Seaman
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: January, 2009
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786950690
description: This bestiary focuses on the undead. It was issued as part of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4^th edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the brain in the jar.

A brain in a jar is the preserved brain of a sinister being who sought to escape death. Through ritual magic and complicated alchemical processes, the brain is kept alive, retaining all the memories and mental faculties of its former host. The creature usually has some malevolent goal that could not be achieved in life, which drove the brain's former host to take desperate measures to achieve longevity.

The preservation fluid within a brain's jar is a valuable alchemical material, especially useful for crafting undead. Some alchemists claim that the fluid can be distilled into an elixir that imparts the memory and knowledge of the jar's occupant brain.

August 23, 2016
Undead Revisited
authors: Todd Stewart, Brandon Hodge & Steve Kenson
interior artists: Chris Seaman et al.
cover artist: Kekai Kotaki
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: June, 2011
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: Undead Revisited
description: This bestiary describes the culture and ways of ten types of undead. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the ravener.

Of all the creatures of the world, few inspire fear or awe like dragons...Yet in truth, even dragons age, moving steadily toward their final rest...Some especially proud dragons go so far as to attempt to break the bounds of mortality, seeking by forbidden lore and vile pacts to transcend the weakness inherent even in draconic flesh. Of the few who attempt this dark transformation, a handful rise from the ashes of their own mortality as the dread undead dragons known as raveners.

This immortality is not without a terrible price. The arcane void within a ravener's heart leaves her consumed by a maddening craving, a hunger that can only be sated by the life-essence of other beings. Each soul devoured temporarily restores a precious sliver of the draconic magic sacrificed to overcome the ravener's mortality. But all too soon, the need to feast returns.

August 24, 2016
Undead Unleashed
authors: Adam Daigle et al.
interior artists: various
cover artist: Bryan Sola
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: September, 2014
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601256775
description: This bestiary describes fifteen specific undead individuals. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is Walkena, a mummified oracle.

Walkena is in fact a descendant of the gods of ancient Mzali--their blood in his veins both brought him back from the dead and granted him mythic power. He was not so cruel when he was a living child-god, though he was stern and upheld the tenets of law above all else. His sun aspect didn't refer to the life-giving properties of the sun, bur rather to the harsh light that purified the world and illuminated its path. He was always strict, but when he rose as an undead creature, all trace of emotion and empathy in him vanished. He now speaks, his lips unmoving, in a hoarse voice that echoes in the listener's chest. His words are as harsh as his punishments. He is both fierce and cruel; he's angry at his circumstances and takes out that anger on his citizens.

August 25, 2016
Manual of the Planes, 3^rd edition
authors: Jeff Grubb, Bruce R. Cordell & David Noonan
interior artists: Wayne Reynolds et al.
cover artist: Arnie Swekel
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: September, 2001
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786918508
description: This book focuses on various aspects of the planes that make up the multiverse of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3^rd edition. Chapter 9 contains descriptions of 14 classes of extraplanar creatures, most of which contain multiple entries.

Our featured entries from this bestiary are the xag-ya and xeg-yi.

Energons are faintly glowing coalescences of energy inhabited by alien intelligence. Native to the Energy Planes, they wander elsewhere to satisfy curiosity or fulfill some unknown plan. Xag-yas hail from Positive Energy Plane, while xeg-yis come from the Negative Energy Plane. Either type of energon is a translucent globe about 2 feet across that floats and shimmers in the air, giving off a warm (xag-ya) or cold (xeg-yi) glow. Emerging from the lower hemisphere of the globe are six to twelve tentacles. They only other feature is a pair of spots on the upper hemisphere that suggest eyes.

Some powerful necromancers and clerics capture energons, using them to guard a location, assist in a ritual, or strengthen undead minions. When freed, xag-yas and xeg-yis express gratitude by healing their rescuers or fighting on their behalf.

August 26, 2016
Planar Handbook
authors: Bruce R. Cordell and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel
interior artists: Emily Fiegenschuh et al.
cover artist: Matt Cavotta
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: July, 2004
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 192
ISBN: 978-0786934294
description: This book focuses on various aspects of the planes that make up the multiverse of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5^th edition. Chapter 6 contains descriptions of 20 classes of extraplanar creatures, many of which contain multiple entries.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the Elysian thrush.

By virtue of their beautiful song, Elysian thrushes contribute to the overall feeling of joy and contentment that suffuses the Blessed Fields of Elysium. Elysian thrushes are not combative birds by any means. If attacked, they are more likely to flee than to fight back. But their gentle song has a soporific effect that can entrap those who hear it. These birds are reluctant to completely abandon their perches, however, and even if chased away, they may soon return...The song of an Elysian thrush is melodic, soothing , and extremely hypnotic. Those within 30 feet who listen to the thrush's song while resting recover at twice the normal natural healing rate.

August 27, 2016
Manual of the Planes, 4^th edition
authors: Richard Baker, John Rogers, Robert J. Schwalb & James Wyatt
interior artists: Dave Allsop et al.
cover artist: Howard Lyon
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: December, 2008
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786950027
description: This book focuses on various aspects of the planes that make up the multiverse of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4^th edition. Chapter 6 contains descriptions of 11 extraplanar creatures, several of which contain multiple entries.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the astral dreadnought.

Astral dreadnoughts swim fearlessly through the Astral Sea in search of prey. A dreadnought consumes its quarry alive, attempting to fill the emptiness of its existence with the souls of others...Astral dreadnoughts were once angels of the Chained God, but their master's madness corrupted them. They became hideous abominations of mindless, destructive hunger...The dreadnought's star-filled gaze contains a fragment of the Chained God's evil. Those who meet its gaze glimpse utter madness, and the experience can leave a person's mind reeling. Any creature the astral dreadnought swallows becomes trapped in a demiplane. Only the death of the astral dreadnought can free those it has trapped in this extradimensional space.

August 28, 2016
The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos
authors: Ari Marmell, Bruce R. Cordell & Luke Johnson
interior artists: Dave Allsop et al.
cover artist: Jesper Ejsing
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: December, 2009
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786952496
description: This book focuses on various aspects of the Plane of Elemental Chaos of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4^th edition. Chapter 5 contains descriptions of 6 classes of extraplanar creatures, all of which contain multiple entries.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the slaad.

Constrained by order at every turn, slaads seek to spread chaos and disrupt all that is logical, sensible and chained to universal rules of cause and effect. They hope to scar reality itself enough to create a hole into the wider multiverse their maddened leaders believe exist...Slaads sometimes set loose their enlarged embryos into the Elemental Chaos in the form of chaos phage swarms. Dozens of these swarms are a pestilence that spreads faster and farther than ordinary diseases, breeding even more slaads in its wake...White slaads, also known as chronos slaads, have learned that time itself is an illusion that can sometimes be pierced, if ever so briefly. White slaads can pull replicas of themselves into the present from other moments in time. These temporal replicas are not as powerful as the original, but each seeks to accomplish its goals.

August 29, 2016
The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea
authors: Rob Heinsoo, Ari Marmell & Eric Scott de Bie
interior artists: Jim Nelson et al.
cover artist: William O'Connor
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: April, 2010
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786953929
description: This book focuses on various aspects of the Astral Plane of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4^th edition. Chapter 4 contains descriptions of 8 classes of extraplanar creatures, most of which contain multiple entries.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the astral render, an abomination.

The majority of abominations are living weapons created during the Dawn War by either the gods or the primordials. At least one other abomination has been created recently by the strange energy of the isle of Agathys in Carceri. An Astral render's amorphous nature circumvents planar boundaries, allowing it to use dimensional instability as a weapon. Astral renders are among the earliest immortal abominations created by the gods. The gods harnessed the energy of the Astral Sea and turned it inward on itself to create them. Astral renders can rip holes between worlds, harming, disorienting, and transporting foes, or teleporting themselves by way of planar rifts.

August 30, 2016
Faces of Evil: The Fiends
author: Colin McComb
interior artist: Adam Rex
cover artist: Robh Ruppel
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1997
cover: softcover
number of pages: 96
ISBN: 978-0786906840
description: This bestiary is "an accounting of the vilest creatures of the lower planes, the ways of their creation, the means by which they survive, and the manner in which they conduct their dark affairs." It is part of Planescape, a multiplanar campaign setting from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2^nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is gehreleth.

The gehreleths once held sway over the entire Lower Planes, until they were reduced in number and imprisoned on Carceri by a cabal of evil deities who feared the fiends' power. It is said that a chant-broker haunted the Upper Planes for scraps of wisdom about the gehreleths, returning with a dilapidated tome (apparently bound in kelubar skin) that told a story of how the 'leths, once the handsomest nobles of Elysium, were disfigured and cast out by jealous archons and asuras. It is said that an Arcadian zoologist captured a larvae, locked it in a tank on Gehenna, and observed it. She later claimed that the thing, kept out of the hands of fiends and night hags, slowly evolved into the form of a farastu, and thus she concluded that the gehreleths must be the natural race of the Lower Planes, the intended kings of these blighted lands.

The tales are many as to why and how the gehreleths came about. But none of them take into account the fiends' obsession with the strange obsidian triangles, or their reverence for a godlike blood known as Apomps, or their intense hatred of yugoloths.

The gehreleth have only three forms, far fewer than most fiend races. It is said that this is because Apomps couldn't afford to breathe out any more of its life without killing itself and therefore its creations...The three forms of the race--farastu, kelubar, and shator--are all created from the rotting corpses of Carceri, and they all retain some of the characteristics of the dead. Their skin is uniformly loose, as if it were decaying on their immortal forms, and there's a rank odor about them that smells of uncured skins hanging in the breeze. They are also extremely ugly creatures, even to other fiends.

Gender is unknown among the gehreleths. The fiends don't couple for procreation or pleasure, and it's not that they simply choose not to--they can't do it at all. Gehreleths appear to be totally without the drive to create new life, existing only to destroy. When one is slain, a new farastu rises from a corpse somewhere on Carceri, the body remaking itself into the shape of a tarry 'leth.

Unlike the other fiends, the gehreleths have been counted. Ancient reports of the project paint it as an incredibly painstaking, frustrating, and dangerous piece of work...Still, the official story is that only 9,999 gehreleths exist at any one time--10,000, if Apomps is counted as a member of the race. These numbers are divided equally among the three types of gehreleth, with 3,333 in each rank.

August 31, 2016
Imbelnhi's Bestiary
author: Caleb McEntire
interior artists: Alison Blackwell et al.
cover design: 21X Design
publisher: Flying NightBear Games
publication date: 2016
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 178
ISBN: 978-0-9960371-1-2
description: This bestiary is "a traveler's account of our continent and her creatures." It is part of the Beyonder RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the kerchet.

Kerchets are quite beautiful, if you ever get the chance to see one--they have the rough, gnarled look of an ancient tree despite being only inches tall. This makes sense, I suppose (the gnarled part, not the inches tall part), as they're wood spirits, tied to the trees around them. An important note here: kerchets care about nature as a whole, but not in the same way that many nature spirits do. They're part of the trees, and so care about the world as a whole as it relates to trees, but most don't give a damn what you do outside the forest.

Once melded with a tree, the kerchet has some physical control over it. They love this. They can do anything from obvious gestures like making the branches sway when there is no wind (the look on most travelers' faces when this happens is apparently priceless, although I can tell you that it's not always as funny from the travelers' point of view) to more subtle tricks like changing the bark pattern or where the moss grows on the bark.

Continue to the entries for the month of September.