Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: D is for Dread

[Nathan of the FoS]

Dire bear* [Monster Manual]

“You see here the drawings of the First Men, our ancestors,” our guide said, gesturing with his torch toward the cavern wall. “See, here is the Bear Totem.” I gasped involuntarily; although crude, the massive figure, depicted surrounded by a ring of dwarfish man-figures with spears, had a terrifying rude power, far more striking than a natural philosopher’s labeled illustration in a Darkonese bestiary.

“Sometimes he is still seen in the high peaks,” he continued. “Some worship him still.”

Adventures of a Wanderer , Larraby Quift


Dire rat [Monster Manual]

GWF claimed to be “shocked and astonished” by the size of the rats we saw today (killed one just under two stone), also complained of the smell. Told her not to be missish, and what on earth did she expect in a sewer anyway? Had the desired effect of putting her back up; she will be on her mettle and inclined to sniff at any rat smaller than a mastiff, which is good as we visit the Central Line tomorrow and I can’t have her fainting when she sees the granddaddies.

5/24/755, journal of Nathaneal Dent, grimetrekker

[Mangrum]

We've reached page 3, so here's an updated list of the remaining monsters:

D

Darkenbeast [Monsters of Faerûn]
Death dog* [Fiend Folio]
Death engine* [Die Vecna Die]
Deathbringer* [Monster Manual II]
Deathlock* [Libris Mortis]
Done! Deathshrieker [Monster Manual III]
Deep hound [Races of Stone]
Demodand, shator* [Fiend Folio]
Demon, mane [Monster Manual]
Demon, marilith* [Monster Manual]
Demon, quasit [Monster Manual]
Devil, bearded (barbazu)* [Monster Manual]
Devil, Styx (amnizu)* [Monster Manual II]
Done! Devil, horned (cornugon)* [Monster Manual]
Devil, imp, assassin imp [Denizens of Dread]
Dharculus* [Planar Handbook]
Done! Dire boar* [Monster Manual]
Dire elephant* [Monster Manual II]
Dire elk* [Monster Manual II]
Dire hippopotamus* [Sandstorm]
Dire puma* [Sandstorm]
Done!Dire raven* [Ravenloft Gazetteer I]
Dire rhinoceros* [Fiend Folio]
Dire snake* [Monster Manual II]
Dire tiger* [Monster Manual]
Dire toad* [Monster Manual II]
Dire tortoise* [Sandstorm]
Dire vulture* [Sandstorm]
Dire weasel* [Monster Manual]
Dire wolverine* [Monster Manual]
Dire animal, smilodon (saber-toothed tiger)* [Frostburn]
Dokufu (mountain spider) [Oriental Adventures]
Doom guard* [Fiend Folio]
Done! Doppelganger, dread [Denizens of Dread]
Doppelganger, greater [Monsters of Faerûn]
Doppelganger plant, podling [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Dragon, shadow* [Monsters of Faerûn]
Dread warrior [Monsters of Faerûn]
Done!Dream spawn, ennui [Denizens of Dread]
Dream spawn, gray morph [Denizens of Dread]
Dream spawn, pale morph [new]
Dream spawn, shadow morph [Denizens of Dread]
Dream vestige* [Libris Mortis]
Done! Dreamweaver [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Drowned [Monster Manual III]
Drownling [Denizens of Dread]
Dryad [Monster Manual]
Dustblight [Sandstorm]
Dustform creature [Sandstorm]
Dwarf [Monster Manual]

B
Done! Blaspheme [Libris Mortis]
Done! Bog imp [Heroes of Horror]
Bogeyman, Alligator Lenny [Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends]
Done!Bogeyman, the Bad Thing [Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends]
Breathdrinker [Monster Manual II]

C
Done! Charnel hound [Monster Manual III]
Done! Cinder swarm [Monster Manual III]
Done!Cloaker, dread, outlander [Monster Manual]
Done! Crimson death [Monster Manual II]
Done! Crypt chanter [Libris Mortis]

[cure]

DIRE BOAR

My delectable Elf lass, a shortspear is a fine weapon for sticking pigs, but show a little care for your flesh and take, if not a longspear, then at least a proper spear, for we are to hunt Grandfather Boar himself.

-Harkon Lukas

[Joël of the FoS]

Blaspheme [Libris Mortis]

The thing suddenly appeared from a door in the lich’s ruined lair, grinning wildly and babbling insanely. At first we thought it was a mad construct, but its supernatural undead nature was found later by our researches. It rushed at me, hissing and showing off its mean looking black teeth. I figured I was lost, since the shoulder-belt of my crossbow was entangled with that of my backpack and I could not prepare myself for this blasphemous horror. When it ran toward me I saw its immense hate in its eyes, and its hunger too... But suddenly it erratically changed its course to attack Viktor, our anchorite. By chance, Viktor was ready to receive the charge with his spear. This gave us time to hack at the thing until all its parts hideously fell apart…

- Van Richten’s journal

[Joël of the FoS]

Bog imp [Heroes of Horror]

In the Southern parts of Sithicus, the elves believe that when they die by drowning, their spirit sometimes comes back as little, mischievous gremlin-like green creature. Their spirit is then transformed to insatiable cruelty and evil playfulness. These green gremlins are also said to love to watch people drown.

From a bard’s folklore notes

[Jakob]

Charnel hound

Dr. Fulviani: Can you hear me, Antonia?
Antonia B.: Yes...
Dr. Fulviani: Very well. I want you to go back to that time in that graveyard in Darkon.
Antonia B.: No! No!
Dr. Fulviani: You will go there.
Antonia B.: I'm opening the gates. I'm walking in. The corpses have been stolen. The villagers are scared.
Dr. Fulviani: Go on, my dear.
Antonia B.: I enter. I prepare holy water in my hand. Then... The corpses start to dig out of the grave.
Dr. Fulviani: Did you use the water?
Antonia B.: I can't... I'm too scared...
Dr. Fulviani: Why?
Antonia B.: There is a dog... A giant dog. It is... Oh, Ezra... It is made of corpses...
Dr. Fulviani: What does it do?
Antonia B.: It is baying... Baying... It is baying right now in my head! Make it stop!

From the personal notes of Dr. Dario Fulviani, in the Mikki Sanitarium of Chateaufaux.

[Jakob]

Deathshrieker

It is widely known, throughout Darkon, that truly gruesome deaths, especially those that happen on battlefields and in poor houses, or those that happen regularly in the streets of Paridon, generate undead. I dismiss all of this as rubbish! Undead are only born of the foulest necromancy.
There are, of course, exceptions.
For example, a year after I came back to my native Darkon from my travel in Dementlieu and Markovia, I witnessed a creature called Eiulatus in Darkonese. This creature, an horrible undead whose semblance was that of a ghostly skeleton, was roaming the place of a battle of the first Falkovnian invasion. The ghost was screaming like he was being torn apart by some unseen force. I must admit that, in spite of all of my noteworthy willpower, even I was moved to fear!

From All that is true about this world a pamphlet by the Toret Warlock Claude Seymar of Martira Bay.

[Jakob]

Cinder Swarm

10/01/759
I witnessed today a most disturbing scene during my stay in an unnamed village near Viktal, maybe even more disturbing than my true memories returning after crossing Darkonese borders. A cleric of the Inquisition, true leader of the community, was preparing to burn two people at the stake, under the pretense of witchcraft. One of them was the man who had been my guide in the woods. The same evening, it seems, he got drunk (thanks to the money I gave him) and said something about the Inquisitor's mother. The other one, it was evident, was a minus habens, whose diversity was to be his death.
The Inquisitor shouted, before igniting the pyre: "May this fire purge the wicked".
I prepared to cast a spell for distraction, so I could quench the fire with a create water and spirit those unfortunate solus away from the stake during the confusion.
Then, the cinders from the pyre began to coalesce, to fuse in an undulating mass of fire, that moved away from the wood and literally jumped on the cleric, burning him to ashes. In the terror and ensuing panic, I was able to "kill" those creatures and to free the two men.
I must say, this land has a soft spot for poetic justice.

From the private journal of Witch Claire Silence of Viaki.

[Jakob]

Drowned

2/6/758

This sea voyage is one of the most frightening I ever made. The way to Markovia is riddled, it seems, with difficulties and hardships. A great vessel, during the night, approached us. It was an old ship, like those that sailed the Sea of Sorrows two centuries ago. This night, on insistence of Anchorite Seymar (a person I came to despise greatly, I must admit), we will explore it.

Later that night

I must pen this now, before I faint again. Writing is a good way of exorcizing our ghosts. During the exploration of the ship that boarded us, we found out that the whole crew was made of undead. Some of them were truly horrible. Bloated and partially decomposed, they were exhuding a thick mist, like the sprays of the sea. As soon as they came near us, I felt my lungs fill with water, but i was quick enough to hold my breath. Jean-Michelle, Tids and Anchorite Claude were not so lucky. There were more than twenty of them, and only I and Lyr were still standing. The others were choking, like suffocating under water...

From the private journal of Witch Claire Silence of Port-au-Lucine.

[Nathan of the FoS]

All right--let's try something more straightforward for this one:

Devil, horned (cornugon)* [Monster Manual]

The credo "Might makes right" may be abominated by lesser men, but we who serve Omnipotence, and see its lash raised among us to scourge out weakness, know that it is a simple statement of fact. To allow the weak to rule the strong is against the order of Nature, set forth from the hand of Omnipotence. All praise to that Being which stands among us unseen and whose prowess guides us in the True Path!

The Secret Scourges of the Brothers of the Whip, Reinhold Schwartzgraf

[Nathan of the FoS]

Doppelganger, dread [Denizens of Dread]

“How is it possible?” I asked at last. “Sir Hobbs went in to speak with Mr. Farquhar; Mr. Farquhar emerged after their argument and went down into the street; Sir Hobbs never came out at all, as far as we can tell, and yet it is Mr. Farquhar’s body we have before us, and Sir Hobbs is nowhere to be found.”

“Not only possible, but easy, in this city,” Ray replied, his mouth set in a firm line. “To explain these events is child’s play; but the puzzle of finding a man able to change his face, in a city of thousands—that is a worthy challenge.

An Incident in Paridon, from The Casebook of Alanik Ray, Arthur Sedgwick

Dreamweaver [Denizens of Dread]

The case of XXXXX, the brag commonly known as Walltapper, against YYYYY, the shee commonly known as Nightlily; alleged by the aggrieved party that YYYYY borrowed a cloak of black dreamweaver silk from XXXXX for the discomfiting of a mortal with whom YYYYY had had a dispute over a birch tree. YYYYY failing to retrieve the cloak in good time, it was destroyed by sunlight.

Judged in the presence of Queen Maeve that YYYYY must provide to XXXXX a spindle of four dreamweavers, two black and two white, for a period sufficient to make silk enough for two new cloaks.

From The Marcusen Manuscript, trans. G. Weathermay-Foxgrove

[Nathan of the FoS]

Since you'll be away, John, I've started indicating which critters have been immortalized in prose. (I chose the red because it's so much easier to see on my message-board skin.)

I am struck already by what a pain in the rear it is to keep track of everything. :-/

[Joël of the FoS]

Crypt chanter [Libris Mortis]

“I do not know why Joseph asked me to accompany him in this cemetery at night, because when the chant started, he hit me on the head with his cudgel, and it made me unconscious, you know. The chant was so wonderful, very sad and frightening, but the most strange and beautiful voice at the same time. But then Joseph hit me so I don’t know how long it lasted. It was more fascinating than those vistani’s songs, really. I came to myself in the early hours of morning, and Joseph was laying on the ground, his face showing a mix of awe and horror. I’ve never been back to this place at night.”

- as told to his friends, by Maurice, in Darkon

[Joël of the FoS]

Crimson death [Monster Manual II]

Around the fire, our guide told us of a strange kind of phantom, and he was irritated that we had a hard time believing him. But here’s his story. He was a soldier before this arm wound forced him to do something else for a living. He said his regiment once was searching for a lost soldier in light moors, and suddenly they found a thick patch of water weeds that held the corpses of many beings, floating in the weeds. He said may be twenty dead bodies were there. Then they heard a splashing noise in the back on the group: one of their comrades just fell in the water and started yelling in pain. Panic spread to the group as they saw a hideous fog creature holding to the man, its white-red color slowly changing from to blood red, like if the phantom was draining his blood… They ran away from the place, leaving their friend, and without fighting it. I’ve never heard of an incorporeal bloodsucker before, and never since then, so I wonder if this was a tall tale, but our guide seemed to believe what he was telling us.

- An adventurer’s journal in Darkon.

[Jakob]

Demon, Marilith

I see myself standing. I'm issuing orders. I'm bathing in blood.
Thunderclap.
I stir.
Then I bask again in my dreams. I have a strange creature before me. It is like a horrible gargoyle with reptilian skin of a tainted red. It is whriting in pain. Two of my arms are teasing him with silvered pokers. The other four are carefully tearing his limbs. He is screaming. I have no question to make. I live only for his pain.
Thunderclap.
I stir.
I see a great army, spanning at least two countries. It is ready for a bloody fight. A bloody war. A shout, they charge.
Thunderclap.
...
I almost opened my eyes. I could see a dark hall, where my body is confined. Then I fell asleep again. What is real? What is not?
I'll never know.
I'll just wait some more thunderclaps...