Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: H is for Horrible!

[Mangrum]

I remain incredibly pleased and impressed with how this is going. G is coming along nicely, and except for that big batch of elementals in E, nearly everything else is done. With that in mind, here's the next batch (not so long this time). The "lumps" this time include a lot of hybrids ("half-" creatures) and just about all the hags.

Done! Hag, annis [Monster Manual]
Hag, bog [Oriental Adventures]
Done! Hag, dread [Ravenloft Third Edition]
Hag, dune [Sandstorm]
Done! Hag, green hag [Monster Manual]
Done! Hag, sea hag [Monster Manual]
Hag, spectral [Denizens of Dread]
Half-farspawn [Lords of Madness]
Done! Half-fey [Fiend Folio/Van Richten’s Guide to the Shadow Fey]
Done! Half-fiend [Monster Manual]
Done! Half-golem, clay [Monster Manual II]
Done! Half-golem, flesh [Monster Manual II]
Done! Half-golem, iron [Monster Manual II]
Done! Half-golem, stone [Monster Manual II]
Half-illithid [Fiend Folio]
Done! Halfling [Monster Manual]
Hannya [Oriental Adventures]
Done! Head hunter [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Hearth fiend [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Hebi-no-onna (snake woman) [Denizens of Dread/Oriental Adventures]
Done! Hellhound [Monster Manual]
Helmed horror [Monsters of Faerûn]
Hopping vampire [Oriental Adventures]
Huecuva [Fiend Folio]
Done! Hulking corpse [Libris Mortis]
Done! Hulzurdan (dwarven vampire) [Denizens of Dread]

Ravenloft Context

Hag, Spectral: Y'know, honestly, when you break it down this monster is really just a regular hag with the equivalent of "spectral creature" template stuck on, and I'm seriously considering treating it as such. But go ahead and write a blurb; whether it's under Hag, Spectral or the sample creature for a Spectral Creature, I can still use it.

Hulking Corpse: In Ravenloft, the most notorious creator of hulking corpses was Vecna, the Maimed God. Under his command, hulking corpses were one of the many horrors dispatched to tear through Tovagian soldiers in the Burning Peaks. Although Vecna destroyed the Burning Peaks in 755 BC, many of his vile creations may have been scattered into the Mists, only to emerge in other domains much later and without warning.

[Brandi]

John, I sent you a PM regarding language (at least wRT Darkonese Dwarvish names). Since I was hoping to base part of my Head Hunter entry on your answer, I hope to hear from you soon, please.

[Jakob]

A question buzzing in my mind since I first read RLCS: why keep the distinction between Green/Annis/Sea Hag, when you can have a "all-around-Hag" with the template?

[Mangrum]

John, I sent you a PM regarding language (at least wRT Darkonese Dwarvish names). Since I was hoping to base part of my Head Hunter entry on your answer, I hope to hear from you soon, please.

I think I just made them up to sound like the dwarven names in the PHB. It's been too long to actually remember, however.

[Mangrum]

A question buzzing in my mind since I first read RLCS: why keep the distinction between Green/Annis/Sea Hag, when you can have a "all-around-Hag" with the template?

Why have vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream, when you can have all three mashed up in the same bowl?

[Nathan of the FoS]

Hag, dread [Ravenloft Third Edition]

Baba Yaga ate up the seven loaves of good white bread; she ate up the great bowl of borscht; she ate up the suckling pig and the great pile of mashed turnips; then she ate up the side of beef, a whole half of a young steer it was, and all the while she drank down the best vodka as if it were water. At last she ate up a great round of the best cow's cheese, wax and all, then she sat back, picking her iron teeth with a rib of the steer, and lit her pipe. (Smoking after meals is one of Baba Yaga's many bad habits.)

"Did you enjoy your meal, Grandmother?" Ivana asked politely.

"Yes," Baba Yaga allowed reluctantly. "I did. But you have not yet won! There remains a third task to be completed before you may go on your way, and if you cannot finish it--well, then, I'll be eating you tomorrow at this time."

The Story of Ivana and Baba Yaga, traditional Voros

[Isabella]

Hag, Annis

The professor caught my arm as I left his bedside, though his arms lacked the strength to stop me. "I could not call myself a friend if I condoned this course of action," he said to me. "But if you are determined, I can advise you."
"Then do so, for I am," I replied.
"Very well," he sighed, suddenly looking very tired. "If you go to the Tall Woman, you must remember three things: first, be there of your own free will and tell her as such, for those who are sent to her are hers by right. Second, no matter how she treats you, you must treat her with the utmost respect. Third, you must ask nothing of her, for such things lead to harm more often than good."
I nodded and left, all the time wondering how my friend had knowledge of dealing with such dark creatures...

-From the table notes of Dariel Swift, a researcher of Dark Magiks


(I'd do the Hopping Vampire, but all I can think of is the one from Jackie Chan Adventures "If you hold your breath, it cannot find you!" "Uncle, you're just making stuff up now!")

[Jasper]

Half-golem, Iron

Jacob looked in awe at the mass of scuplted iron that adorned his once scarred and crippled left side. Each vien and muscle a testiment to the doctors fendish skill. With controlled movements he picked up the stone goblet from the table and drank deep of the sweet wine.

"Excelent. The wields are holding and joint b-3 is showing full range of motion. A few more days and you will ready to exact revenge on those who attacked you. Are you ready?"

As if answering for him the iron fist clenched reducing the goblet to a fine powder...

Ironheart By Samual Fairfax

[Nathan of the FoS]

Hag, green hag [Monster Manual]

Jenny Greenteeth sits in the moonlight pale,
Pickin' at her teeth with a coffin nail
Hey, Jenny, hey, ho, Jenny, go,
Jenny walking out tonight looking for a beau.

See her in the moonlight pretty as can be,
Hey, Jenny, ho, Jenny, save a kiss for me!
See her in the morning after kissing of her man,
Blood at her lips and blood on her hands.

Jenny in the moonlight, slender as a switch,
Jenny in the sunlight, green-toothed witch,
Careful as you go tonight, fine young man,
Jenny's walking out tonight, catch you if she can.

Hey, Jenny, hey, ho, Jenny, ho
Jenny walking out tonight looking for a beau!

The Ballad of Jenny Greenteeth, traditional Mordentish


Half-golem, clay [Monster Manual II]
"Of dust Man was made, and dust he shall become in the end," Dr. Hawthorne told me, his spectacles two circles of light before his mask-like face. "Of course, things are happening rather--well, asymmetrically--in your case. Half of you, roughly, has hastened to the grave; therefore, I was obliged to reinforce what remains with..."

"Dust?" I asked, quizzically. Despite his manifest madness, it seemed the logical conclusion to this quasi-theological exposition.

"Well, clay," he responded. "It's within the meaning of the act, I'm sure. Stand up, m'sieur."

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed obediently. Words cannot describe my feelings as I saw them to be two well-formed columns of pale clay.

Autobiography of Malcolm Sykes, published Mordent 634

[Brandi]

I think I just made them up to sound like the dwarven names in the PHB. It's been too long to actually remember, however.

Oh, okay. I thought they sounded Finnish (two in Tempe Falls were Pekka Konunn and Clanmother Kyllikki Seppanin). I'll run with that since I suspect the phrase I want will not be easily translated to Tolkien-style Dwarvish.

[Undead Cabbage]

Hulzurdan (dwarven vampire) [Denizens of Dread]

"Blood, blood, granite and blood.
He fills the halls with envy.
And if you see his grave dust trail
give thanks your end comes quickly.

His hammer rots, his axe does break
his castle will come down one day.
His honour fades, his faith forsake
His time is now too plenty.

Do not under estimate one who has been robbed of what he feels he deserves. Does faith matter? Is there really pearly white gates awaiting us all? Do our acts in life have any effect upon the end? Does the journey matter at all?

It certainly didn't for him. Bet he feels like a nit-wit."

- Improvised Story by Jonathan Midwinter after reading something on Hulzurdans.

[Jasper]

Half-Golem, Stone


"And lo the fallen champion was placed on the sacred alter. Each beat of his heart pumped trickles of lifebood from the ragged stumbs where his arms once belonged. With not a word the priests took to there tasks. Seven to the rituals of healing, seven more took up the sacred hammers. For one moon the great hall echoed with the rhymic sounds of thier craft. As the moon rose over the lands of man they presented to champion two new arms carved from the very heart of the earth itself. "

"And lo a new champion arose from the alter. And to him was given the power of mountain and all fell before his mighty blows. "

Negnar Stonehands Dwarven legend

[Jasper]

Halfling

In the days long past the great provider Yondalla looked down at the world and spoke."The world is bare and wild. I need a race that can tend my fields and tame my animals." And so Yondalla turned to Corellon Larethian and asked him to make her a race. Pucking a tree from the great forrests he caved the first elf but this creature was too frail and lanky to tend Yondalla's fields. So Yondalla turned to Moradin and asked him to create a race for her. Hefting his great axe he carved from the great mountan the first dwarf but this creature was too stubborn and greedy to tend Yondalla's fields. So Yondalla turned to Gruumsh and asked him to create a race for her. Trusting his gnarled hand into the great swamp Gruumsh drew up a lump of sludge and formed it into the first orc but this creature was far too ugly and stupid to tend Yondalla's fields.

Degected Yondalla pulled a large clumb of sod from her fields and thought back on the other gods creations. She would create a race of her own- short and stout unlike the elves, kind and generous unlike the dwarves and lovely and clever unlike the orcs. And from her hands came the first halfling and to it was given all Yondalla's fields and her blessing.

Halfing creation myth

[Nathan of the FoS]

Half-fey [Fiend Folio/Van Richten’s Guide to the Shadow Fey]

Was a man in the village where I grew up whom all knew was fey-blooded, for he had horse's hooves for feet, and his fists like hooves when he balled them, and a long mane as it were of black hair down his back. He was main simple and never harmed a soul, so we didn't go about in fear of him; he could talk to horses and was a wonderful ostler, though he never would ride. A weather-prophet he was, too, and he could say whether a foal would be colt or filly a month before it were born.

But an inquisitor came and wanted him to burn; no, we said, he's a good lad and never any trouble, for all he's fey. But he took fright and run off, and never came back for to live in the village again, though we'd seem him sometimes, at dawn or dusk, out in the fields; and mama often had me leave out a bowl of mash, for if he should be hungered.

Folk-tales of the Eastern Core, Magnus Wolfsbane


Half-fiend [Monster Manual]

"My lord Malocchio can lay claim to a more distinguished heritage yet. Surely you must have heard that he grew to manhood in the span of a day? That the wild wolves and all birds of carrion are at his beck and call? That on each hand he has an extra finger, an infallible sign of wizardly power? That even the Vistani scum tremble before his evil eye?"

My jailor smiled and combed his greasy hair back from his forehead with his fingers. "And what are we to conclude from all these evidences?" He leaned close, his foul breath pouring over me, and whispered, "His mother is a witch, aye. But his father...his father is a duke of Hell itself. What can your Gundar offer in comparison?"

from a personal account of Vardan Taltos, Gundarakite rebel, to Toret Johann Severin

[Nathan of the FoS]

Hearth fiend [Denizens of Dread]

It really was a very charming fire; there is nothing more pleasant than the motion and color of flame. I fancied to see a face in it, a little man smiling and nodding at me with the greatest goodwill. I thought to myself, "It would be nice to have the fire bigger," and the little man seemed to nod in agreement. Amused by the thought of gratifying this phantasm, I diligently set to thrusting firewood into the stove and soon had transformed the little cooking fire into quite a merry blaze.

Flamebrother, from Twelve More Tales of the Macabre, Jean Lafolie