Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: Insane through Killer

[Baduin9]

Jahi

I had been directed to the decrepit tower where the ancient wizard was said to live.

In the gloomy interior his figure couldn't be seen clearly. The gravelly voice was steady and calm:

"Jahi? Yes, I know much about those spirits. They did me a great wrong.

Even then, so long ago, I was a magus of not inconsiderable power, gained with much toil and danger. My spells won me great riches and happiness. But when, after spending a long time deep underground, learning strange knowledge from sun-fearing beings, I returned home, I found it changed into part a whorehouse and part a temple. My poor wife - so young and so beautiful! - was leading a life of debauchery, surrounded by a promiscuous cabal.

She told me many cruel and false words, but I espied a ghostly three-headed snake coiled on her breast and I knew the source of my misfortune! Jahi tried to break my will, but I proved the stronger. I paralysed its slaves and defeated the snake, although it resisted my magic and flied through the air to escape my dagger.

My wife lied senseless on the ground, but my power could constrain even the gods, and I saved her.

After putting my house to rights and incinerating the shameful paramours of my wife, I left again, since the great works of magic I had began could only with great loss be left alone.

What a terrible surprise awaited my on my second return! My wife had escaped. Servants told me she climbed many times at night a certain bare, mist-enshrouded hill, and returned at last with another smoky snake on her neck.

Then I knew that I must delve into deeper lore to defeat for ever the power of the jahi. After a long search, I found a book in the library of Il Aluk. It came through the mists from a foreign land, and was written in language which no living man can read. I deciphered it nevertheless, and found within it much about the great druj Jahi the Whore, the undead three-headed dragon Azi Dahaka, and their poisonous brood of snakes. I found also an incantation to banish them forever.

Alas, my quest was in vain! Only a living man could speak that spell, and no living man can study in the library of Necropolis."

He opened the door. The last rays of the setting sun broken through the clouds and illuminated his skeletal fingers, withered face and sunken and lustreless eyes.


From the notes of Gennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove.

[cure]

JOLLY ROGER

“Mournsworth was ever a jolly fellow. He loved a good joke. He loved a bad joke. He loved a malicious joke and a vicious prank too. To sign on with his crew a mate had to demonstrate a sense of humour. A sailor who in truth lacked one or, for that matter, a thick skin wasn’t long for his presence. Roger punned constantly and swore incessantly. He named his ship the HMS Esra and he was oft heard whispering and chuckling to himself, “By the deep, she’s a fine lass, my lady of the Mists.” The details of his birth were obscure and there were whispers of Darkonese, Sri Rajan, Vistana, even fiendish blood. Others suggested that he was born of a woman long secreted away in the sanatarium. By Ezra he was eccentric, but his judgement upon the waves was inspired. For his callousness I can imagine that he was cursed a dozen times, thrice in my presence at least, once by meself. I’d wager that one of those curses stuck, for he is still out there, long beyond his time, chuckling upon the sorrowful sea.”

-Interview with retired Captain Walford Halloway

[cure]

KORPU

"Isn’t it precious? The pearls, the platinum, the strangely long, fluid design? Have you ever witnessed anything comparable? No doubt one such as you will have heard whispers of Shay-lot, of the city lost beneath the sea. This is its key. Take it into your hand. Do you not hear the waves, taste the salt, feel the tug of the current in your hair? I assure you that its owner dreams much, much more. But what is one such as I to do with the sea? What is gold, indeed forgotten treasures untold, to the Vistani? But a chain that is not to be borne. The thing offends me. It is a curse, filling my thoughts with concerns that would turn me from the open road. Veritably I have spoken of it, have told you its truth. It is mine now to do with as I wish and I would sell it to you. Let us come to a mutually agreeable price for a key that is a treasure."

-Dr. Vinchenzio, travelling showman and Vistani outcast

[Mangrum]

Since I’ve started writing up monster capsule descriptions on request, I thought I might as well go through and do the rest:

Ice Beast: Template Construct (Cold), neutral. The conjure ice beast spell creates artificial creatures from pale blue ice that exist to serve the caster for a short duration. The ice beast has some cold-based abilities, but lacks most of the base creature’s special abilities. In Ravenloft’s it’s a useful way to work around the settings limitations on summoning spells.

Icegaunt: Medium Undead (Cold), CR 6, neutral evil. Humanoids who froze to death and were essentially mummified by the cold climate. Because of this, they’re fairly well-preserved, and sometimes act as false guides, leading other explorers to be lost and die in the wilderness, just as they did. Its freezing touch drains life, and it has considerable druidic spellcasting ability.

Illithidae, Embrac: Large Aberration (Psionic), CR 7, neutral. Illithidae are other creatures that originate from the illithid homeworld. The mind flayers also fleshcraft these creatures to create their own alien ecologies. These creatures are basically illithid wildlife, and don’t serve illithids any more than bears serve humans. They roam around wild in the tunnels and fissures of Bluetspur.

An embrac is a hulking, dimly intelligent ambush predator that somewhat resembles a cross between a spider and a squid. It has poison-barbed tentacles and psionic powers.

Illithidae, Kigrid: Medium Aberration (Psionic), CR 5, neutral. A kigrid is vaguely feline, with eyes along its jawline (as if its face were upside down). A powerful predator, somewhat intelligent, that hunts in packs. It has psionic abilities and poison barbs in its hind feet, which come into play when it rakes its prey.

Illithidae, Saltor: Small Aberration (Psionic), CR 3, neutral evil. A salter is a subterranean scavenger that resembles a hairless baboon with eyes along its jawlike and a “beard” of tentacles. Nearly as intelligent as humans, they possess psionic powers and a painful screech.

Impersonator: Small Oooze (Shapechanger), CR 3, neutral evil. A native Ravenloft creature, these strange oozes paralyze their prey, suck out its blood through the skin, then replicates the form and mind of the (Small or Medium) victim it’s just fed on. It can remain in that form for a number of hours equal to the Con it drains. While in a replicated form, the impersonator is only subconsciously aware of its true nature, which allows it to “act naturally” with ease.

Intellect Devourer: Small Aberration (Evil, Psionic), CR 7, chaotic evil. Essentially a brain that clambers around on four clawed feet. Quite intelligent, it attempts to kill its prey, then devour the victim’s brain and crawl inside its head. It can then walk around, using the victim’s body like a puppet, for up to a week. Vulnerable to protection from evil, possesses potent psionic abilities. These creatures sometimes serve the mind flayers, acting as spies among the thralls.

Ixitxachitl: Small Aberration (Aquatic), CR 1, neutral evil. (Vampiric ixitxachitl are CR 3). Basically intelligent, evil manta rays. Extremely territorial and slavers, they wage war on other intelligent races that encroach on their turf. (Although personally weak, they can take class levels, and are often clerics.) Vampiric ixitxachitl aren’t undead, but have an energy drain attack. They may be the equivalent of calibans.

Jackal Lord: Medium Monstrous Humanoid, CR 8, lawful evil. Jackal lords are slender, wiry humanoids with the head of a black jackal. They possess significant divine magical abilities, and lead aristocratic lives while remaining in the shadows of the Amber Wastes. A jackal lord can command jackals and can assume the form of a jackal. Once per day, with its gaze, it can transform another creature into a jackal via a powerful curse.

Jackalwere, Dread: Small/Medium Magical Beast (Shapechanger), CR 2, chaotic evil. A trickster beast that can assume the form of a Small or Medium humanoid (with a fair amount of control and variety) to hunt prey. Its gaze can put others to sleep. While present in Paridon and the Amber Wastes, they’re most at home in the little-known domain of Farelle.

Jermlaine: Tiny Fey, CR 1/2, neutral evil. These tiny, somewhat ratlike fey have an affinity for rats and dire rats. They enjoy ambushing larger folk in their snares and traps, then swarm all over them, knock them out, and steal all their valuables (and possibly shave off their hair as well). Appeared in The Awakening.

Kelp Angler: Large Plant (Aquatic), CR 9, netural. Resembling a big clump of tangled seaweed in the shape of a jellyfish and possessed of dim intelligence, kelp anglers float on the surface amid kelp beds. They use their tendrils to lash out at prey that comes near. Has a few spell-like abilities and is extremely resilient to damage.

Kelpie: Large Fey (Aquatic), CR 10, chaotic evil. In its true form, a kelpie resembles a foul-smelling warhorse that’s been lying in a lake for the last week. It can also assume human form. It attempts to lure mortals near its watery lair so it can drown them. Has a few mind-affecting magical abilities.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Jackal lord

"So, you've come for your lover," the sheikh growled, his eyes glowing like coals between the veil that covered his face and the turban that covered his head. "He has been my slave these seven years and more, so his debt to me is paid; but there is amusement to be had in a game of skill, is there not, m'lady? Let us set a wager; if you can know him when you see him, he is yours; if you do not, you...are mine."

"I will never forget his face," Asjanna replied. "Nothing in the wide world could cause me to mistake him for another."

"Let us hope you are correct," the sheikh replied courteously (but there was malice in his voice). "He is in the plaza with his fellow-servants. Choose him out and he is yours."

As he spoke the sheikh drew back the curtain, and Asjanna rushed forward; but what was her astonishment and horror to see the plaza filled with jackals. At last she knew why the sheikh was so closely veiled, and why he had made the wager; and now both Abdul's life and her own depended on her choice.

The Garden of the Black Sheikh, traditional Pharazian

[cure]

INTELLECT DEVOURER

“You will not tell me that your people do not talk of such matters with outsiders. You are in my land, I am your lord, and this is my preserve. No one, no thing, hunts here without my permission. This is to say that my hand is extended to you and your people. Accept my assistance by withholding nothing from me as to this deceased brain that by all evidence clawed its way uninvited into the skull of this unfortunate lying before us, a young woman trusted by an important servant of mine.”

-Count Strahd von Zarovich in conference with Chorin Mur’Thaan

[Nathan of the FoS]

Ixitxachitl (including vampiric ixitxachitl) [Monster Manual II]

In the name of Holy Ezra, all this is true. My name is H...

(large section here made illegible by water damage)

...woke to find ourselves in the dark and underwater, in an airy cave where the devilfish have kept us from drowning. We have been here three sleeps. Oldby and Narrax are dead. They took Janus before our last sleep; when he returned he lay in the corner and refused to speak. Harford says the devilfish eat men's souls and they have taken his. Harford and I have decided to swim for it; I will put this in a bottle and release it if we are abo...

(remainder illegible)

Message found in a bottle in Blaustein, 742


Jackalwere, dread [Fiend Folio, Hour of the Knife]

He was a very vulgar old man, lewd and wrathful, but I had been advised to take no note of it, and took no offense at his jibes; but I began to be rather sorry I had come. There was also something strangely soporific in the gleam of his squint eyes; whether from the fire, or the days exertions, I began to feel myself slipping into slumber, and as I did so my host's physiognomy seemed to flicker. At one moment his face was itself, rather ill-favored but by not means unusual; and then I thought to see it shift to some more canine form, the eyes yellow, the eyeteeth long and sharp; and the hand he reached toward me seemed the paw of a small dog, or perhaps a jackal.

Reginald St. Jacques, Farelle

Jermlaine [Monster Manual II]

...at which he laughed. "Rat-people," he said, "Terrifying." At which I grew a bit hot under the collar, I confess, and told him if he had ever been underground in a tunnel too small to turn in, with no light because a rat-man had snatched it fron his hand, and then heard the rat-people working to open a sluice-gate to the river upstream, he would laugh out the other side of his face. To this day I don't know how I didn't drown. I've seen about all there is to see in those tunnels, and had more close scrapes than I care to think of, and that's the closest I've ever been to death.

diary of Nathanael Dent, grimetrekker, 7.3.753


Kelp angler [Fiend Folio]

6.16.738 Almst lost D tday to bizrr thing. Srt of amb. seawd whc puts out feelrs to ctch food. D was struck of one & ws draggd below, but Mr S cut "line" w/hs clsp knf, savd him. (Mch sawing necess., crttr v. tough in skn.) Chased thing away w/noise, hrpn.

1st mt. said (& I agree) smthing wrng w/a place whr plants fish for men.

Ship's log of the Stormrake, Captain Elias Blackburn, recovered from Saragoss in 749

[Jeremy16]

Here is my first try. I hope it fits!

Illithidae, Saltor

Some say that Bluetspur is only a figment of a fevered madman's imagination. Others say it was a part of our very land not such a long time ago. Some say it is a lifeless hell, where evil spirits are sent to live forever in purgatory. I have been there, however, and I know the truth. I have walked its wasteland and I have seen some of the horrors it has to offer…

While hiding out in a cave to protect myself from the night-lightning I heard a screeching from the depths. It made all the hairs on my body stand up on end. I don't know how long I stood there - maybe seconds, maybe minutes. What finally broke my fear-induced trance was a second screeching. This time, it was much, much closer.

I fled as fast as my legs could carry me, unconcerned with the ubiquitous lightning strikes that greeted me. I looked back one final time and could just barely make out two rows of dimly glowing eyes peering out of the dark mouth of the cave.

- "On Bluetspur", an excerpt from Hidden Lands, Hidden Perils by Orbius

[Jeremy16]

Illithidae, Embrac

Our party warily trudged along, the constant droning that the land emitted serving to breakdown our concentration. We neared a small rock outcropping when a hideous creature suddenly darted out and attached itself to our swordsman, Xarin.

At first glance, it looked like one of the overlords of this damnable land, with its long tentacles flailing all about. That is were the similarities ended, however. It had the short, squat body of a spider with thin, hairy legs that bound Xarin's arms to his side.

It was quick, too. Before we could raise our weapons to attack, it had already darted behind a large boulder, no doubt skurrying away to its underground lair to enjoy the fresh catch.


- "On Bluetspur", an excerpt from Hidden Lands, Hidden Perils by Orbius

[Nathan of the FoS]

Ice beast [Frostburn]

The shamans of the high peaks have their own servitors--beasts made of deep blue glacial ice, which they summon to their aid in time of distress. It was never made clear to me if the shamans sculpt these creatures and then animate them, or if their spells call them up out of the living ice (as the Sanguinians call the glaciers that never melt), but either way they are effective servants to their masters, and far more convenient in that still, cold place than any creature which would require that its master feed and care for it.

Larraby Quift, Adventures of a Wanderer



Icegaunt [Frostburn]

You can imagine our joy when we saw Piotr again, for when the zilinya neskha had separated us we had given him up for dead. It had been six moons since we had seen him. He told us he had found a fallen tree, and bedded beneath it till the snow passed; then he went south (we had gone north) and found a little hamlet there, where he had stayed until striking out for home again.

But little by little our joy turned to doubt, and then to suspicion. Jan told me that Piotr took off his glove, and his hand was black with frostbite--and yet he handled his skinning knife with great dexterity as we skinned the buck. And I noticed, too, that he would not come near the fire for any reason, and he refused the meat we offered, saying his stomach was upset. So when Piotr offered to lead us to the "hamlet" where he had stayed, we knew better than to accept! He cajoled, then grew angry and threatened; but there were three of us and only one of him, and he went away.

But if you see Piotr in the woods, well, you must not leave the path to follow him for any reason. Any reason at all.

Larraby Quift, from Adventures of a Wanderer; attributed to Mikhail Zolnik



Illithidae, kigrid [Lords of Madness]

So, these druids all go swarming the one way swearing that they're going to catch the panther, and then they all go swarming the other way screaming "Abomination, abomination!" and so forth. So I went to have a look. It was pretty abominable, all right. I guess I could see how the old man mistook it for a biggish panther, but anyone who wasn't half-blind wouldn't have made that mistake. For one thing, panthers usually have eyes; also, they aren't green.

Harad ap Fittle, interview with Toret Johan Severin


Kelpie [Fiend Folio]

"Come with me, child," the great gray horse said. "You'll never have another chance to ride another such as myself. I appear only to the most beautiful child in the Lake Country once in a year, and I never come to the same child more than once."

He was a beautiful horse, tall and dapple-gray, with his long white tail and long white mane; but Marie looked into his great green eyes, and in them she saw herself drowning in Lake Duchamps, with the wild green kelp all around her.

The Kelpie, traditional Dementlieuse

[Mangrum]

Great! Nothing more to see here, folks; these three letters are done.