A Second Month-Long Survey of Bestiaries

The staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House had such a good time assembling a collection of bestiaries for each day of the month of June, that we decided to continue it for the month of July.

These bestiaries fill the shelves that line the halls of the Poison Pie Publishing House. Again, member of the staff have selected a different bestiary for each day of the month. In the gallery below, we present the cover of the book, and portions of a sample entry, including an illustration of the creature as well as an excerpt of the accompanying description. We hope you enjoy perusing this second month-long survey of bestiaries as much as we enjoyed compiling it.

To our surprise we discovered after the fact that all but four of the entries in this month were published in the twenty-first century, demonstrating that the creation of bestiaries remains very much a contemporary activity.

Update: This survey was eventually included in what came to be known as A Survey of One Hundred Bestiaries.

July 1, 2016
The Faerienomicon
authors: The Keffer Family
interior artists: The Keffer Family
cover artists: The Keffer Family
publisher: The Poison Pie Publishing House
publication date: 2014
cover: softcover
number of pages: 84
ISBN: 978-1496137562
description: The Faerienomicon represents "An Account of Faerie: Its Substance and Curiosities, Its Architectures and Landscapes, Its Hitherto Unsubstantiated Histories, And the Habits of Living Of the Diverse Creatures Dwelling Therein". The Faerienomicon was assembled by the Keffer Family of East Tennessee under the artistic direction of Miss Ruth Marie Keffer.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the mushroom faerie.

July 2, 2016
Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III
designer: Monte Cook
interior artists: Tony DiTerlizzi et al.
cover artist: Randy Post
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1998
cover: softcover
number of pages: 128
ISBN: 978-0786907519
description: This bestiary is the third and final monstrous compendium associated with Planescape, a multiplanar campaign setting from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the entrope.

There are holes throughout the multiverse. Call them conduits, portals, or any other name, they're still holes. The Inner Planes are no exception. In fact, these planes in particular are full of tiny leaks where bits of one elements seep into another plane. Some graybeards theorize that one day, in the far distant reaches of the future, the borders of the Elemental Planes will completely break down and all the elements will combine. Such a thing could signal the end of the multiverse, if it's true.

The Doomguard--ever interested in entropy--decided to make sure that it is true and to help the process along. Hence, their magicians and alchemists began devising a means to dissolve the barriers between the Elemental Planes. Hundreds of years of research, trials, and errors took place, but eventually they succeeded. They constructed magical creatures the Sinkers named entropes. Entropes feed on whatever makes up the borders separating the various Inner Planes.

The first batch of these beasts escaped Doomguard control and now wander about the Inner Planes on their own, chewing away at the fabric of reality wherever they see fit.

July 3, 2016
Misfit Monsters Redeemed
authors: Colin McComb, Rob McCreary & James L. Sutter
interior artists: Victor Pérez Corbella et al.
cover artist: Vinod Rams
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: November, 2010
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601252708
description: This bestiary features in depth looks at ten misunderstood monsters, including such perplexing wonders as the dire corby, the flail snail and the flumph. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the disenchanter.

...Thus it is that a gentle creature like the disenchanter is one of adventurers' most feared opponents. Though not malicious, the disenchanter constantly hungers for, and draws its sustenance from, the very magical power that gives most adventurers their edge. The presence of a disenchanter instantly changes the nature of the battle, often forcing travellers to drastically change their tactics, relying solely on their wits and the strength of their arms.

It should be emphasized that the disenchanter means no harm, yet it may be precisely its oblivious nature that makes it such a threat. A disenchanter is a social animal that seeks out the company of others, even members of other species.

July 04, 2016
Dark Sun Creature Catalog
authors: Richard Baker, Armi Marmell & Chris Sims
interior artists: Matias Tapia et al.
cover artist: Wayne Reynolds
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: August, 2010
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 144
ISBN: 978-0786954940
description: This bestiary focuses on creatures from the Dark Sun campaign Setting. It was issued as part of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 4th edition.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the thri-kreen.

The itinerant thri-kreen are fierce warriors and pragmatic hunters. They form deep bonds to their birth clutch and caregivers. Each thri-kreen accepts its place among its clutch mates and the greater pack. The primal instinct runs deep, linking the race to its ancestral history and the spirit world....Thri-kreen packs roam the wilds. For centuries, slavers have trailed thri-kreen and stolen eggs. Newborn thri-kreen fetch a high price because they'll bond with their primary caregiver and clutch mates regardless of race. Generations of thri-kreen have been integrated into city-states in this way.

July 05, 2016
Tome of Horrors 4
author: Scott Greene
interior artist: Chris McFann
cover artists: Charles A. Wright & MKUltra Studios
publisher: Frog God Games
publication date: 2013
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 256
ISBN: 978-1-62283-193-7
description: This bestiary contains primarily original monsters. It is compatible with the Swords & Wizardry RPG and the Pathfinder RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the hag nymph.

Hag nymphs are hideous, bent crones; their frames are emaciated and almost corpse-like in appearance. They have sickly green skin, thin dark hair and hands that end in wicked claws and filthy nails. Their clothes usually carry the bloodstains of previous victims. Hag nymphs live deep within dark forests in huts composed of mud and timber. These huts are usually well-constructed and littered with the rotting remains of creatures the hag has devoured. A hag nymph's profane beauty affects all humanoids within 30 feet. Those who look directly at a hag nymph must succeed on a saving throw or be weakened...

July 06, 2016
Monster Manual II, 1st edition
author: Gary Gygax
interior artists: Harry Quinn et al.
cover artist: Jeff Easley
publisher: TSR
publication date: 1983
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0880380317
description: This bestiary is the second Monster Manual for the 1st edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the froghemoth.

Huge and weird, froghemoths are found only where there are large swamps or relatively shallow (100 feet or less) bodies of fresh water containing large lifeforms that serve as prey. Froghemoths are solitary except during spring mating season. In late spring, females lay only 10-100 eggs of about 1 foot in diameter. These eggs are left in shallow water, and when the tadhemoths hatch, about 90% are eaten by their earlier-hatching fellows or other predators...The tentacles of a froghemoth are very strong and covered with a thick, leathery hide...The only treasure a froghemoth might have is that dropped by hapless victims.

July 07, 2016
Monster Manual II, 3.5th edition
authors: Ed Bonny, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams & Steve Winter
interior artists: Jeff Easley et al.
cover artist: Henry Higgenbotham
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: September, 2002
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786928736
description: This bestiary is the second Monster Manual for the 3.5th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the myconid.

These intelligent, mobile mushrooms are among the more unusual creatures that live deep below ground. Myconids (also called fungus ones) are gentle, quiet, shy and thoughtful. They always view outsiders with distrust because they assume that all strangers are destructive and violent. To ensure that they can live in peace, they usually make their homes far from the more commonly traveled subterranean paths...Myconids grow fungus for food. A tribe usually maintains several fungus farms, which the workers tend with an almost religious zeal. These creatures know everything there is to know about fungus, including the optimum conditions for growing each type, and how large a crop a given area might be expected to produce...The fungus ones hide from strangers and fight only as a last resort. When forced into combat, a myconid releases spores...[Hallucination] spores are released as a 40-foot ray. The target must make a Fortitude saving throw or suffer powerful hallucinations...When released over a dead body, animation spores begin a process that covers the corpse with purple fungus. After 1d4 days, the corpse reanimates as a servant. A servant has all the characteristics of a zombie of the same size, except that it retains its previous creature type and it cannot be turned or otherwise affected as an undead. Over the course of 1d6 weeks, a myconid-animated corpse slowly decays. At the end of that period it simply disintegrates into dust.

July 08, 2016
Monster Manual 2, 4th edition
authors: Rob Heinsoo & Stephen Schubert
interior artists: Des Hanley et al.
cover artist: Jesper Ejsing
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: May, 2009
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786951017
description: This bestiary is the second Monster Manual for the 4th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the nothic.

Aberrant creatures carried to the planes on drifting pieces of the Far Realm, nothics have fragmented intellects strung together by tenuous sanity. Typically controlled by a more powerful master, a nothic's propensity for random, seemingly insane actions makes it more like an amusing pet than a servitor...They have a semblance of intellect, buth their hold on sanity is tenuous. Nothics cackle maddeningly for no apparent reason.

July 09, 2016
Mythical Monsters Revisited
authors: Jonathan H. Keith, Jason Nelson & Anthony Pryor
interior artists: Raven Mimura et al.
cover artist: Michal Ivan
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: January, 2012
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601253842
description: This bestiary features in depth looks at ten monsters from mythology. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the wendigo.

Wendigos are little known outside the myths of certain indigenous tribes of particularly isolated regions, far from the security and hospitality of cities. The lands of the wendigo are where folk struggle to survive on a daily basis with already meager supplies stretched thin, where a single turn of bad luck can mean the difference between survival and starvation. It is under these circumstances, when fortune has turned against a lone hunter, isolated homestead, or lost wagon train, that wendigo psychosis--the insanity inducing curse that forces innocents to indulge in the basest acts in order to survive--most often rears its vile head and draws otherwise normal people into acts of horrific desperation in which they must feed upon their own kind in order to survive. The cannibalistic act brought on by wendigo psychosis is the last stage of the curse, at which point the victim flees straight into the sky at an unearthly speed--its legs burning away into jagged stubs--and becomes fully inhabited by the wendigo spirit, the body now only a shell for the hungry beast.

July 10, 2016
Animals Animals
authors: Kaye Starbird et al.
interior artist: Eric Carle
cover artist: Eric Carle
publisher: Puffin Books
publication date: 1989
cover: softcover
number of pages: 96
ISBN: 978-0698118553
description: This bestiary

Our featured entries from this bestiary are the owl and the crow.

 

And an owl hoo-hoos
Whenever it gives a hoot.
A crow steals corn
From the year it's born
Then hides where it can't be found.

July 11, 2016
Monster Manual III, 3.5th edition
authors: various
interior artists: Dae Allsop et al.
cover artist: Henry Higgenbotham
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: August, 2004
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786934300
description: This bestiary is the third Monster Manual for the 3.5th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the kenku.

Kenkus evolved from avians, although they no longer possess wings or the ability to fly. Soft, dark feather cover a kenku's head and torso, although its scrawny arms and legs remain bare. Selfish and secretive in their dealings, kenkus gather in large cities, lurk in dark alleys, and hoard purloined gold. They rarely travel alone, instead preferring to roam the streets in small gangs, all the while hatching plots to amass more wealth and power. Due to their penchant for shady ventures, they are often employed as thugs, thieves, spies and assassins.

July 12, 2016
Monster Manual 3, 4th edition
authors: Mike Mearls, Greg Bilsland & Robert J Schwalb
interior artists: Howard Lyon et al.
cover artist: Jesper Ejsing
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: June, 2010
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786954902
description: This bestiary is the third Monster Manual for the 4th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the nymph.

Among the great primal spirits of the world, four sisters came into being in the world's youth, more beautiful and more wild than any other spirit of nature. The sisters were the seasons--Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring--and they played a riotous game, chasing one another through the world evan as the chaos of the Dawn War raged through the cosmos. In their play, they encountered brothers of the wind, who were shrouded in the shimmering rain and fog and rich ocean scents. The children of the four seasons and these for wind brothers were the nymphs, fey beings who embody both their mother's ties to the seasons and their father's fickle and tempestuous nature.

*The staff at the Poison Pie Publishing House have a particular fondness for this entry on nymphs. It was these nymphs upon which Ms. Ruth Marie Keffer based her design of her own seasonal nymphs, rendered as felt finger puppets, and featured on both broadsides and in the bestiary, The Faerienomicon, published by the Poison Pie Publishing House. This is only one of countless examples of how the various bestiaries in this survey are connected to each other.

July 13, 2016
Occult Bestiary
authors: various
interior artists: various
cover artist: Igor Grechanyi
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: September, 2015
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601257673
description: This bestiary features about fifty monsters for use in occult campaigns. This book is part of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting series.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the feareater.

These malicious fey prowl the darkest corners of the world, inspiring terror to fertilize the curious fungal fruits that sustain them. Fear eaters tend vast gardens of luminescent mushrooms that grow upon the bound, cringing bodies of their captives. The mushrooms drain emotions from the creatures fertilizing them, and their spores cause spikes of fear in their hosts, which spur the mushrooms to grow even larger. Many such gardens can be found in the stalactite-city known as the Court of Ether, for its dark fey inhabitants crave the piquant misery contained in the mushroom and consider them a delicacy to be used in only the most bizarre culinary delights.

July 14, 2016
If I Ran the Zoo
author: Dr. Seuss
interior artist: Dr. Seuss
cover artist: Dr. Seuss
publisher: Random House
publication date: 1950
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-0394800813
description: This all-ages bestiary consists of fictitious creatures populating an imaginary zoological park.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the iota.


In the Far Western part
Of south-east North Dakota
Lives a very fine animal
Called the Iota.
But I'll capture one
Who is even much finer
In the north-eastern west part
of South Carolina.

July 15, 2016
Monster Manual IV, 3.5th edition
authors: Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel et al.
interior artists: Anne Stokes et al.
cover artist: Henry Higgenbotham
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: July, 2006
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786939206
description: This bestiary is the fourth Monster Manual for the 3.5th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the yuan-ti ignan.

Ignans are the product of yuan-ti experimentation designed to create a creature resembling an abomination with elemental qualities, in this case fire. Some part of yuan-ti's ignan bloodline includes salamanders, but they are still mostly serpent. Yuan-ti ignans are fiercely aggressive creatures, more inclined to charge into melee combat than to lay traps or spring ambushes. They are simple, brutish fighters...Despite their formidable combat prowess, ignans are not trusted by the majority of yuan-ti, and are considered expendable. Their unpredictable cruelty makes them a danger to the tribe, and when not sufficiently occupied, they commit acts of wanton destruction out of sheer boredom.

July 16, 2016
Inner Sea Bestiary
authors: Jim Groves et al.
interior artists: various
cover artist: Tyler Walpole
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: November, 2012
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601254689
description: This bestiary features about fifty monsters for use in the Inner Sea region of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the shoki, a variety of psychopomp.

Shokis are the collectors of lingering souls, tasked with compelling even the most deluded beings to take the first step into the River of Souls. Their tactics are varied, but most start by counseling the wayward dead using theosophical arguments and blunt warnings of the ravenous things that wait to feed upon lost spirits. Each shoki bears powerful tools to aid it in such pursuits--eclectic collections of holy symbols and withered staves of cold iron capable of imprisoning a single soul. Shokis only use their staves against the most stubborn or demented souls, whom they capture and personally escort to the Boneyard for judgment.

July 17, 2016
Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie
authors: various
interior artists: Brian LeBlanc et al.
cover artists: Matt Milberger & Becky Jollensten
publisher: Sword & Sorcery Studios/White Wolf Publishing
publication date: 2001
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 248
ISBN: 978-1588461605
description: This bestiary is the second tome in the Creature Collection series. It is compatible with the d20 system.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the mist reaper.

Murder is all too common across the face of the Scarred Lands. In a world still recovering from a cataclysmic war between gods and titans, where monsters lurk and make war upon civilization, the death or disappearance of the occasional person is often overlooked--or never even noticed. Belsameth, however, numbers every murder. The goddess of death takes stock of every soul that enters her realm and knows the means by which it arrived...Thus is her wrath invoked when killers, murderers and cutthroats fail to venerate her when they perform their trade...Now, on different nights across the Scarred Lands, angry ghosts continue to emerge from the sea, from lakes and even from town wells to stalk and kill those who dispatched them--or those whom a spirit misguidedly believes was involved in its demise. Some walk the land under the cover of fog and are the most infamous of these restless dead.

July 18, 2016
Monster Manual V, 3.5th edition
authors: Creighton Broadhurst et al.
interior artists: Anthony Waters et al.
cover artist: Henry Higgenbotham
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: July, 2007
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0786941155
description: This bestiary is the fifth and final Monster Manual for the 3.5th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is graveyard sludge.

A graveyard sludge is an ooze that forms in an area where the remains of the dead are defiled. Its body is composed of a disgusting muck interspersed with the flesh and bones of corpses that it has absorbed. The sledge is awash in latent spiritual energy siphoned from devoured remains, which gives viewers the impression that humanoid creatures trapped within it are pushing out and trying to escape...Graveyard sludges are at once living and dead. They are healed by both cure spells and inflict spells.

July 19, 2016
Inner Sea Monster Codex
authors: John Compton et al.
interior artists: various
cover artist: Jason Engle
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: June, 2015
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601257529
description: This bestiary explores variations within ten species found in the Inner Sea region of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the strix rokoa.

High atop jagged spires, black-winged shadows sail amid the infamous Chelish crags of Devil's Perch. From there the fiercely territorial, xenophobic strix wage war against the human settlement of Pezzack for its populace's intrusion upon their favored fishing grounds. In turn, the Pezzacki have hunted the strix to near extinction, partly for revenge, and partly because they've mistaken the avians for winged devils under the diabolic yoke of the Pezzacki's political enemies within the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune.

A rokoa is the spiritual leader of a strix tribe. Her duties include deciphering portents, performing funeral rites, tending to the bones of the deceased, and recalling the names of fallen heroes. She is considered the spiritual mother of the tribe.

July 20, 2016
Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn
authors: James Wyatt & Rob Heinsoo
interior artists: Brian Despain et al.
cover artists: Brom & Henry Higgenbotham
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: 2001
cover: softcover
number of pages: 96
ISBN: 978-0786918324
description: This bestiary covers creatures from the Faerûn campaign setting of the 3rd edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the chitine.

Chitines are spiderlike humanoids inadvertently created by the drow as the result of failed experiments. They build with webbing in the same way that humans employ stone or wood...Chitines secrete an oil that keeps them from becoming stuck in their own webs. Their palms and feet are covered with hooks that allow them to climb up walls and across ceilings. They spin sticky webs from an aperture in their bellies and use this webbing as a construction material for homes, traps and armor.

July 21, 2016
Psionic Bestiary
authors: Andreas Rönnquist & Jeremy Smith
interior artists: Brian LeBlanc et al.
cover artist: Joe Shawcross
publisher: Dreamscarred Press
publication date: 2014
cover: softcover
number of pages: 104
ISBN: 978-0989892520
description: This bestiary contains creatures with psionic activity. It is compatible with the Pathfinder rules.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the reva.

Sometimes called builder bats, revas are a bat-like race of aberrations known for their industriousness, communication skills, and their telekinetic use of tools. A roost of revas, which can number more than a thousand, will approach a city or settlement and strike a deal--the revas will contribute labor and information, in the form of scouting or patrols, in exchange for food and property in the city. Further deals may be negotiated if the relationship is positive or prosperous, but revas hate going back on their word and will continue to provide service to an unpleasant partner as long as they are paid and their property is respected.

July 22, 2016
Monster Codex
authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Logan Bonner, et al.
interior artists: various
cover artist: Wayne Reynolds
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: October, 2014
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 256
ISBN: 978-1601256867
description: This bestiary explores variations within twenty species of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the duergar, or gray dwarves.

The duergar are a race enslaved by themselves, the dark powers they called upon for succor, and the lightless labyrinths of their home. The gray dwarves believe that other creatures are fit only for service and torment. The reasons for this perceived racial supremacy vary slightly from community to community, but the underlying narratives are the same: the strong nature of the duergar has allowed them to stand on their own in the depths, and this strength has forged them into a superior race.

July 23, 2016
Elder Evils
authors: Robert J. Schwalb et al.
interior artists: Wayne England et al.
cover artist: Michael Komarck
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
publication date: December, 2007
cover: hardcover
number of pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0786947331
description: This bestiary presents nine elder evils, including descriptions of their henchmen and the locales in which they can be found. This book is part of the 3.5th edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is Zargon.

Many centuries ago, a mighty kingdom named Cynidicea stood in the heart of a massive and trackless wasteland. The kingdom's success bred complacency and decadence, and the population plunged itself into excess. This laxity enabled a bloodthirsty cult to come to power and perform unspeakable sacrifices to their dark god, Zargon. The cult of Zargon needed human sacrifices to feed its god, and when its members exhausted themselves of nonbelievers and criminals from their own people, they enslaved others for this purpose.

Zargon seemed unstoppable, but he had one foe remaining. Eons earlier, Zargon had ruled the Nine Hells of Baator as father of the ancient baatorians, a long-extinct race that preceded the baatezu. His kingdom was a terrifying place, filled with running slime and rampant evil. When Asmodeus and his allies seized the Nine Hells, they purged the plane of the baatorians, enslaving them and destroying their lords. Asmodeus butchered most himself, but Zargon was resilient to the worst attacks. Asmodeus discovered he could kill the flesh of the beast, but not the horn, so he tore it from Zargon's head and flung the hateful spur out of the hells and to the Material Plane, where it pierced deep into the Earth. Driven from the Nine Hells, Zargon's flesh re-formed around his horn and he turned his attention to the Material Plane.

July 24, 2016
Fey Revisited
authors: Savannah Broadway et al.
interior artists: Maichol Quinto et al.
cover artist: Steve Prescott
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: May, 2013
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601255075
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten species of fey from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the dryad.

As beautiful and mysterious as the forests themselves, dryads are some of the most reclusive fey. Found in the thickest and most magic-tinged forests, dryads bond with individual trees, which they must not abandon lest they sicken and perish. Far from resentful of this limitation, these fey embrace their arboreal connections and use them to their advantage. Dryads craft breathtaking words of art and function from wood, transform their bodies into the aspects of trees, and even meld their flesh with wood at will. They manifest the majesty of nature in their effervescent personalities, which allow them to befriend (or manipulated) like-minded creatures with ease.

July 25, 2016
Classic Horrors Revisited
authors: James Jacobs, Rob McCreary & F. Wesley Schneider
interior artists: Andrew Trabbold et al.
cover artist: uncredited
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: January, 2010
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601252029
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten creatures, most of which appear in classic horror fiction and films. It is set in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the werewolf.

Men who can turn into beasts, werewolves prowl the dark fringes of civilization, culling the weak and unwary from the larger human herd. These ravenous creatures are victims of the curse of lycanthropy, consumed by a rage not unlike that of some barbarian warriors, but with a maleficent twist. The bestial desires of a rabid wolf course through their veins, driving them to acts of barbaric cruelty and animalistic fury. Most of these individuals embrace their savage hungers, becoming evil monsters that stalk the night. An unfortunate few vainly struggle to fight the curse, but these are inevitably consumed by the beast within, giving in to the thirst for blood and slaughter.

July 26, 2016
Dungeon Denizens Revisited
authors: Clinton Boomer et al.
interior artists: Andrew Trabbold et al.
cover artist: Wayne Reynolds
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: May, 2009
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601251725
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten creatures, which traditionally dwell in dungeons. It is set in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the gelatinous cube.

Gelatinous cubes are mindless scavengers that live only to eat, wandering aimlessly through caverns and underground tunnels, engulfing anything in their paths. They produce powerful digestive acids to break down organic materials. Gelatinous cube acid is also a paralyzing anesthetic, but different varieties have their own unique acidic secretions, some even capable of dissolving inorganic materials like metal.

The gelatinous cube is widely regarded as too bizarre to be the product of natural evolution. Scholars point to its cubic shape as evidence of intelligent design, and several obscure texts contain ambiguous passages that hint at strange rituals devised by ancient magicians to create gelatinous cubes. In fact, the first gelatinous cube was the accidental product of two warring obsessions in a demented mind. A long-forgotten sorcerer postulated that all ooze life was the product of a vast empire of intelligent oozes from another plane that sought to absorb all other forms of life across the multiverse. While he believed that oozes represented the pinnacle of pseudonatural evolution, this sorcerer was convinced that true perfection lay in geometric precision, and endeavored to merge the two into a race of loyal guardians and servants.

July 27, 2016
Mystery Monsters Revisited
authors: Richard Scott et al.
interior artists: Helge C. Balzer et al.
cover artist: Vinod Rams
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: December, 2012
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601254733
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten creatures, which come from or have been inspired by folklore traditions from around the world. It is set in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the sasquatch.

The legendary sasquatch is a creature of incredible mystery. It stalks the wildest forest yet leaves no trace of its passing. While many have claimed to see such a being, there are no known reports of sasquatch corpses being brought back to civilization. The similarities in eyewitness accounts, however, create a vivid picture of the creature. All agree that the sasquatch stands between 7 and 9 feet tall and appears proportionally more massive than a human. A sasquatch's limbs are thick as tree trunks, particularly near its calves, which widen into enormous flat feet. Its body is heavyset, with a wide chest and shoulders. The creature's head, which is set forward on its chest, hides its short neck. Thick, coarse hair ranging from auburn to black covers its body from head to foot, and only its face, toes, palms, and soles remain hairless.

July 28, 2016
Giants Revisited
authors: Jesse Benner et al.
interior artists: various
cover artist: Steve Prescott
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: May, 2012
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601254122
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten species of giant in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the stone giant.

To outsiders, stone giants may seem more elemental than truly alive, enigmatic beings of stony silence whose flesh seems hewn from living rock and earth itself. Yet the chiseled faces of stone giants are flesh, not rock; their hardened bodies skin, rather than granite; and in their veins runs blood as read as any other, not sand or dust. Myths about stone giants abound, and ignorant travelers in the mountains blame them for landslides, washed out roads, and even thunderstorms. Many flee at the first glimpse of a stone giant, believing such being to be no better than some of their more destructive cousins.

Stone giants claim to be among the oldest of giantkind, their clay molded by the gods to set precedent for many to follow...Modern stone giants find themselves torn between two paths: the crafters and builders who reshape the world with newfound knowledge, and the spiritual giants who respect their ancestors and adhere to the old ways.

July 29, 2016
Darklands Revisited
author: Thurston Hillman
interior artists: various
cover artist: Igor Grechanyi
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: February, 2016
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601258199
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten species presents in the subterranean Darklands of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the gug.

Guarding the entrances to the lowest levels of the Darklands, the bestial creatures known as gugs dwell within a world both far removed from and very near to the strange realm of their ancient origins--the enigmatic Dreamlands. Banished underground by the gods of the Dreamlands, gugs have since spread through out the cosmos, enticed or summoned by numerous malign benefactors to inhabit the depths of countless worlds. The presence of these alien aberrations, clad in filth-encrusted furs and possessing a form both similar and utterly alien to most humanoids, validates the fears of many about the horrors lurking in the depths of the Darklands. These creatures would be terrifying enough if they simply remained in the darker places of the world. Sometimes, however, gugs hear the sibilant whispers of alien powers. While thankfully rare, gugs who listen to these incoherent nightmares imparted by the elder gods they serve inevitably brave the journey to the surface to complete whatever foul missions they have been assigned.

July 30, 2016
Classic Monsters Revisited
authors: James Jacobs et al.
interior artists: Andrew Hou et al.
cover artist: Andrew Hou
publisher: Paizo Publishing
publication date: April, 2008
cover: softcover
number of pages: 64
ISBN: 978-1601250797
description: This bestiary provides in-depth descriptions of ten classic monsters in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting RPG.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the minotaur.

Few monsters are so strongly rooted in mythology as the minotaur. Part man and part beast, the minotaur serves as both the cunning hunter and the feral monster, lurking at the fringes of society, preying on those whom it once hoped to join.

It is said that no one holds a grudge longer than a minotaur. Scorned by the civilized races in ancient times, minotaurs have been taking their vengeance for untold centuries. For those who run afoul of a minotaur, the fear of death comes second only to fear of becomeing the beast's next meal. For the minotaur, there is no greater meal than the flesh of its still-living foes.

July 31, 2016
Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Alien Species
author: Ann Margaret Lewis
interior artist: R.K. Post
cover artist: -
publisher: Del Rey Books
publication date: April, 2001
cover: softcover
number of pages: 176
ISBN: 978-0345442208
description: This bestiary focuses on sentient species as well as beasts in the Star Wars universe.

Our featured entry from this bestiary is the Bith.

With elongated craniums that house supersized brains, the Bith are a highly evolved, humanoid species, the result of years of calculated breeding. The portions of their brains that control advanced reasoning are extremely well developed, while those portions controlling most instinctual behaviors--such as fear and aggression--are not...Clak'dor VII has produced many complex thinkers and some of the most talented artists in the galaxy. The Bith have an aversion to conflict and are careful about expressing their emotions, partly due to the fact that the one time in history they allowed their emotions to get out of hand, it almost led to the destruction of their species.

Continue to the entries for the month of August.