Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Bestiary of flux engine part 1

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF So like many spins of the dirt ball I mentioned a bestiary of crude scrawlings and half baked research.
Well here it is, would be nice to put it together as a pdf but my knowledge base and desire to fuck around wrangling with relevant programs is not very right now.

Lesser Tyrant  
Beware Although the Lesser Tyrant (Or Groaty MAngler, or Burgarra or Copse-thug) is not as fearsome and terrible as The LUmunious Tyrant it still stands as a taller tree, and in dim light it will be mistook for one, until it's terrible barbed and snatchrous trunk snaps out and tears and flings. The Lesser Tyrant hunts in the night and is silent stepping. When the moon is full however the Lesser Tyrants cavort in their great dances in moonlit clearings with trunk wrapped in trunk and whirling and lurching. It is said that burying the fresh dead underneath the soil before the great gamboling , will allow them to return to life in the sunrise. The Copse-thug will murderously pursue any who spy their merry making and so such a trick is not at  terrible risk.
The rare and dread Cornerling scuttles from impossible spaces flitting and hopping , it's split maw slinging forth and taken great drippy chunks of flesh. The Cornerling is akin to the vulture or the hyena , a coward and sneak stalking slow slow, and then rearing from the shadows and corners to half-devour a injured prey, that the Cornerling has followed unseen from under eaves and nooks. Their skin is softest of velvet and is greatly prized. Hunters of Cornerling will take an "apprentice" with them and then see that they are wounded and thus sweet bait for the Cornerling

The Sharp Man
The Sharp man is wisps and edges, leering bone masks in the haze of morning mists, of no motive or pattern other than pain and blood. It is said that a Sharp Man will befriend a lonely child and be guardian and play mate for the child. The child will grow up morally alien and disappear into the mists to join the Sharp Man on its eve of adulthood. Some say the Sharp Men make these children into them , others speak of dire hatchery in the mud , the bloated betrayed child's body serving as nest for the toothsome eel things that are the Sharp Mans true children. Other stories have the Sharp Men lovingly shaping the child in to a thin thing of bone, another bone knife and mask for the Sharp Mans coat. Some say these knives love the Sharp man still and thus always cut true.
Gloatys lurk in brackish pools  to spring out with their blurring jaws,hooking and thrashing their poor victims to chunks. They then eat like the fly with fleshing melting spittle and fan tongues. The there-not-there traits of their skull will last until the next no moon , unless soaked in concoction of bloods and biles, known only to the vilest of swamp dwellers
Slime Giant 
The Slime Giant is a loom brute of thick thick slime that walks. It is not soft like mud, but more like stone that pores cold from cursed mountains. It may soften and flow , soaking up from  the ground , before resuming its dread bludgeoning resilience. There are rites and protocols to be done before entering the haunts of the Slime Giants, that will let you past by without woe, but every old porch lurker argues fiercely which is the correct ones.   
A Curmudgeon is a shark so contemptuous of life and natural law that it has grown legs to chase prey through the island jungles and even scaling trees with nigh comical fury. The flesh of the Curmudgeon is oily and bitter but said to provide great fortitude versus fungal blights.
Nimbus start from the size of a horse but grow from there to sizes more fitting for a citadel than a gentle creature of the air. The Nimbus drift down from the upper air in small schools picking the top most leaves and fruit of trees far and wide. Ominously the mass of blade like spines along their backs tells of some greater skylofted predator so far unseen by us on the ground.
Great Jabbering Glutton
The size of a bear, wretched lonely man eater, the Great Jabbering Glutton is a punishment of a thing. It dwells in caves near trade routes which it rushes upon devouring all it can whole, before fleeing not having the mettle for a prolonged fight. As further proof of its existence as a mockery to all, its great brutish face , takes on crude caricature of the last intelligent thing it gobbled. Its voice is imitative cacophony of a dozen shouting screams and cries, all mimicked from the last moments of the poor souls now gone to its great gullet .
Its other vice is vanity, being too fond of its useless shiny black wings, spending hours preening and admiring them in  the sun.
Doom Of The Lost
The Doom of the Lost is lurker at paths , a haunter of winter storms, it can choose to be unseen to all, or just one poor soul, his or her companions confused by their instant shouts and pointing at nothing. The are patient and still , letting their prey tire themselves before decsending on them with rush of violence, goring and tossing them with their horns, letting them bleed some (for the horns of The Doom of The Lost are sharp beyond compare) before charging again. The will only eat the eyes and tongue and some say (or have written...) if one is stalked by A Doom of the Lost and you cut out your tongue and offer it to them , they will take only that, and gently lead you by the hand to your home.
The Marquis of Beetles
Spawned in the last gasps of the great war between The Machinists and The Cagehead Empire, the Marquis of Beetles were the finest creation of The Machinists. A war puppet with a thought-harp of such sophistication the Marquis  were not only self aware as previous SoltairePuppet , but inspired by savage and alien genius. Alas they were too expensive to build in numbers to turn the tide of battle and although great shock troops , commandos and scouts, the Machinists were forced to turn to more radical approaches to the war, and thus set down the path leading to the Oroboros. In the last stages of the war, the Marquis deserted the doomed Machinists and now seek their own agenda.  Marquis Of Beetles are generally encountered solo and are never predicable , often engaged in seemingly meaningless banditry and carnage , gathering materials or defending locations for purposes known only to them. They fly with the aid of retractable wings that are a mass of flailing steel ribbons, a preposterousness  than none the less grants them agility and speed aloft.
The top most eye can sear and burn all in it's gaze, while the chest eye can warp distance and make the movements it is beholding like drowning in molasses.

A foul specter of green glowing goo and red spines, the touch of the organ taker melts flesh like ice in the summer sun, allowing it to reach into bodies to snatch at the treats there. It haunts eldritch science blasted ruins, and is said to be able to be tamed and directed by lost devices .

Whisper Broker
Whisper Broker are only found in the twists of the biggest cities. Pay with a memory and they will make a thing known to all by rumour in day, or erase some unwanted fact from the collected minds of the city. The correct rituals in order to get just the right kind of lost to find a Whisper Broker are a matter of furious contention amongst scholars of the uncanny.
A many headed beaked snake, a threat in lands were forests are infringed by farms. Domestic animals dead to the strange words of the SnipSnap mean the locals must gather in a well armed mob to kill the beast before anymore stock or even a child falls to its predations. Its beaks cut subtle, some have lost more than flesh in battle with it. Still it is good to close with a SnipSnap rather than risk battling it at a distance and face its clacking cutting wounds that can cause massive internal hemorrhaging to one who hears them.
The Squibbon cartwheels through the mangroves with its strange whoots and glumps. Its meat is not without merit, although an inquired taste. The many breeds of Squibbon range from the delicate Orchid Squibbon with would easily rest in your palm, to the great quarrelsome Boomers, capable of wrestling and besting some crocodiles.
Bludges are mighty omnivores, rival to the bears in the lands of Mun. In spring they make do with plants and roots, but in autumn and winter they becoming carnivorous , burying themselves loosely and then bursting up, swinging their tail to cripple the prey in a surprise attack before pouncing and devouring. Curiously their diet in spring and summer gives them a bright red hue to the resilient rubbery hide, and makes there flesh and sweat toxic. The Mun know of songs to sedate the Bludge so they can wipe the sweat of them , for use in war. As the diet of the Bludge changes , the poison and the colour leave their skin , making them a deep brown and thus much harder to detect.

Preservers are found in the deserts of the Vast and are much feared. Great two leg walking lizards than have cunning , they are dreaded by the various clans of nomads and passing traders. Nearly as feared as the dread Heatray scorpion or the Giraffe, for while lacking the horrid power of those, Preservers are more tricksy and cruel. The name of them comes from the great spines atop their backs , which serves them as a larder. After more or less subduing their prey , they will "weep" red tears over it, which prevent rot and deter flies. They then impale the victim on their spines, were they will remain "preserved" by the tears and the dry winds. It is because of this habit that makes the preservers dangerous , for while other predators will fill their bellies and rest, the preservers will take prey when ever it is available.
Stunted Crow Thing
Stunted Crow Things are found in the most flux tainted of ruins. Lunatic bird men with burning heads, little is known about them other than reports sudden violent and reckless ambushes by them on explorers to hateful places.

Pygmy axe beaks are examples of island pygmism. While lacking the speed and size of their ancestors, they retain all of the aggressiveness and belligerence. Woe to sailors coming ashore expect easy meat! 
A flux tainted lizard, its very presence sears the mind. While only the size of a fattened pig, the ease which they climb the great northern trees means a watchful eye must always be kept upward, and the first signs of dizzyness or headaches cause for alertness! Their brain is rare delicacy and said to a panacea for all kinds of mental ills.
Leering Iguana
While the hulking Leering Iguana is a common sight in the eastern islands and poses no danger to a well armed party, victims of ship wreck close to these island must be wary for the Leering Iguanas are rapid swimmers and will not misses a chance for easy meat
Riding Bug
Riding bugs are known in Mangal swamps. A tick the size of a monkey , that rides monkeys by inserting its foremost fangs in the monkeys eyes and clutching the brain in its control. Riding bugs will attack with their monkeys in a dozen or so, swimming away if the host monkey is slain.

Wendigo drove the gremlins deep into mountains, with their howls and their maddening wind born spore. Terrifying jumpers crossing 100 of metres in the blink of an eye and landing as softly as a snowflake or as hard as boulder crashing, the Wendigo are a constant threat in the northern mountains. Its is said that they void their waste on the wind and it enters the mind and turns one cannibal.
Vile are hairless , putrid , waste flinging apes. First monumentally blinding by throwing their night soil into a face , then they swoop down and strangle and bludgeon.

Blight and Thinking Worm. Blights are small glowing chattering men, who will take payment to act as guides in their swamp homes. Being too near them however makes heatless burns and strange sicking. The Blights are lonely for intelligent contact but are not willing to subject others to the blight. THinking worms are human sized annelids with a face and no intellect of their own but capable of remembering vast stores of information, which is passed down to their offspring. A thinking worm kept by a society as a library is a considerable liability if it escapes into the wild and breeds with other worms, the children then possessing the library in their minds.
Pickapacka are great beasts of burden in the salt plains. They live primarily  off  brine flies.
Blood Giant
BLood giants are somewhat like a man and somewhat like and insect. They are slightly translucent and when they suck blood through their fangs they blood is seen flowing into their bodies. Rare to the point of disbelieve none the less one should be aware crossing the lands in New Dawn Fades, of mournful bellows which are the hunting cry of a blood giant. Their attack will either come from beneath the slow rivers, or with striding through the reeds and grasses, their full height easily dwarfing an elephant.
Roof Donkey

Roof Donkey
Roof donkeys are common to the city of Kingdust, the size of 8 year child and feeding off the tough grasses that find cracks to grow in. They leap from roof to roof gracefully as anything, and are said to be lucky.
RipperRipper are pack hunting kangaroos of the Munnish Lands , with disemboweling talons on their feet.

Petty Butcher
One armed eyeless bird men that are used as assassins by houses of New Dawn Fades. They can be absurdly grown from powder mixed in bowl of blood (which must be from the would be director of the petty butcher). A sample of hair or clothing of the intended victim is given to the Petty Butcher in a fawning fashion. The Petty Butcher will then dart hopping from rooftop to rooftop until it finds its target, slaying them with a beak thrust to the heart. It will then flee and predate on the fringes of society. If it is caught the director of it can be discerned by Surgeons and Corponauts.
Night Walking Fish are from the caverns of the other side of the moon, they come down in their jellyfish ships with lanterns of paralyzing light and take slaves back with them for labour and experiments
Poison Giant
Poison giants are omnivores of the jungles. A great fleshy kite of a thing, they eat everything poisonous and communicate with gusts of perfume. Unfortunately they are easily maddened by certain smells and will become angered and viscous. Their  tiny claws are sharp and laden with a hundred venons.
Grafted Apes are a rogue war weapon of the Machinist. Vast t numbers of them were made as cannon fodder by grafting what ever mechanical devices were spare to the heads of apes and releasing them with murdery impulses.  Bands of them still are found somehow managing to repair and scavenge parts to make more of their kind.
Fungus Childs are children of fungus, that can spring up over night and stagger towards the unwary choking and crushing them and using them as a growing bed for more of their kind

Fire Lords are something brought here by the Cagehead empire. Barely capable of surviving here they find employ as warriors and artificers, for all flame obeys them. They are constant sick and weaken and needing expensive herbs and minerals to attend to their blights.

Something like a clock and something like an anemone of sea, the Flenser is a weapon of the Machinists , infected and turned against them, and now is a danger to all traveling in former battle grounds. Flensers borrow out of the earth slicing with dozens of delicate blades.
GrrLukA swift lizard capable of running down the swifest horse and biting open it's stomach.  Beware sudden clouds of dust along the highways of Tane, for it could be a Grrluk bearing down on you with furious speed.

 And there's like 8 or 9 more which I'll put up soon.


  1. These are the best new monsters I've seen in quite a while, right up there with Zak's Fiend Folio redos.

  2. These are all pure gold. I will not be able to resist for long their use in my game. Also, I prefer your drawing of a wendigo to many many others I've seen.

    1. That makes me so happy that these monsters will be terrorizing others! The pathfinder wendigo was pretty damn good however http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/wendigo

  3. Impressive, I like your designs. :)
    They have a contagious energy.

    1. Thanks heaps, considering what you can do, that means a lot!