Imp, Intellect Devourer, Invisible Stalker, Irish Deer, Ixitxachitl

 AD&D Imp
Similar to the homunculus of last post, the Imp is a potential familiar for Lawful Evil magic users, though there are so many caveats on rolling special familiars as opposed to birds, cats, toads, etc that they mostly seem like set dressing for NPC magic users. Though they could be very effective assassins with disguising polymorphs, a save or die stinger, invisibility, and flight, they are 90% likely to not fight for their masters.

Their presence does offer a variety of bonuses like a sensory link between the imp and it's master, 25% magic resistance if the imp is right there, +1 level, and 6 questions per week as per a commune spell. But if the imp dies, the 'master' loses 4 levels of experience, and any silver or magic weapon could do the trick, so all in all an Imp familiar may prove more of a liability against informed foes despite its usefulness as a resilient, sneaky monster and the magical advantages.

I think they would be more interesting if they would offer to enter a familiar pact with any willing wizard, with the goal of corrupting them to the service of hell. They also make for an interesting weakness of villainous wizards.

AD&D Intellect Devourer
As the lore of these creatures became more developed (as bodysnatching minions of mind flayers) they departed somewhat from their origin, which well deserves its description as "one of the most feared of monsters."

There appears to be either a flaw in my own understanding of AD&D Psionics, or in the description of Intellect Devourers, because, apart from the four dagger-like claws used to multiattack, these creatures do not appear to have any ability to attack non-psionic targets, for their attack modes of C and E correspond to Ego Whip and Psychic Crush, while the text mentions Ego Whip and Id Insinuation, but no psionic attack mode save for Psionic Blast actually functions vs non-psionics.

Ignoring this however, for a giant brain on legs (as the AD&D variant is medium sized, rather than brain sized, a possible typo given that they were even then meant to 'house themselves in the mindless body'.) they have an inexplicable form of invulnerability. They are immune to normal weapons and 'most spells' and +3 or higher magic weapons  do only 1 point of damage- better even than the fabled demon lords. Fireballs only count as 'bright light'  and lightning bolts deal only 1 damage per die. Death spells have only a 1/4 chance of success, and power word kill slays them. No explanation is given for this, alas.

Bright light and protection from evil drive them off or keep them at bay, which are some fairly accessible weaknesses that at least make up a little for their nigh-invulnerability.

All in all, the idea of brain-eating (and replacing) monsters seems good, but runs into a similar problem as the succubus, where there are implied potential situations of subterfuge and deception, which are then somewhat ruined by the lack of a true need to engage in those situations in that way, due to the complete lack of danger that situation poses to the would-be deceiver.

AD&D Invisible Stalker

A creature I think has a serious case of overlap with Aerial Servants, despite being significantly different. Both invisible, both servants summoned from the plane of air. Stalkers seem to be physical, intelligent, and stealthy, while an Aerial Servant is essentially an Air Elemental. Stalkers seek to subvert commands occasionally, while Servants just go berserk if thwarted. They are discussed almost entirely in terms of how they serve their masters, rather than what they 'are'.  It is even mentioned that stalkers can be seen dimly on certain planes of existence, but not what they actually look like. These creatures are talked about more as of a spell effect with no associated spell than an actual being.

AD&D Irish Deer
These fall within the provenance of  'herd animals' and I assume their inclusion is to appeal to the pleistocene enthusiasts of the early D&D crowd.

AD&D Ixitxachitl
A bizarre combination of 'evil clerics' and 'manta rays,' with some of them being level draining vampiric variants. Though no doubt one of my internet friends will be displeased to see me once again scorning the aquatic inhabitants of D&D, I cannot say I understand the appeal of these entities.


Sunset Realm So and So's

Imps were already discussed in the demons post, and while I am not opposed to a killer body-snatching brain, I don't think my implementation of such an entity would have anything in common with an Intellect Devourer. And as for the rest, no, I think not.

I haven't decided how such a brain would enter the cranium yet though, so perhaps this Yuban apprentice screams in horror at the questionable perspective rather than the brain

Hobgoblin, Homonculous, Horse, Hydra, Hyena

 AD&D Hobgoblin
While inexplicably garbed in samurai armor in the illustration, hobgoblins do not have any actual correspondence to japanese mythology that I am aware of. Instead, they seem to be the D&D variant of the Uruk-Hai from lord of the rings, being superior to goblins in terms of being able to fight in sunlight or darkness, as well as having many siege engines in their lairs. Contrary to what you might expect given the general increase in depiction of orcs as the beefiest demihuman, hobgoblins are actually more powerful and larger than orcs, which is what makes me think they may have originally been Uruk-Hai with the name filed off, much as halflings were once hobbits.

Of some note is Koalinths, marine hobgoblins with gills. I do wonder at the fairly pointless oceanic palette swaps of some monsters, when ocean-specific entities liek Kuo-toa and Sahuagin fill that niche with more flavor for sure.

AD&D Homonculous
Compared to the other forms of artificial servitor in AD&D, which often require Limited Wish, these little creatures are quite reasonable to manufacture, requiring a hired alchemist, Mending, Mirror Image, and Wizard Eye, 1 pint of the casters blood, 500-2000GP, and 1d4 weeks. For a creature with 2HD, a sleep-causing bite, flight, and a telepathic link, that's a pretty good deal, apart from the 2d10 feedback damage sustained if it dies.

They are rather similar to Imps in the form of a diminutive, flying, and poisonous mini-me, but without the demonic traits. They seem a flavor monster above all else, a way to spice up NPC wizards, but I do wonder if they were ever commonly manufactured by players.

AD&D Horse
A horse is a horse, of course of course. But there are some horse-mechanics that may have been lost over the years- firstly, horses are said to panic 90% of the time when confronted with... well, basically any adventuring hazard, really. Warhorses panic only 10% of the time, and do not fight on the first round of melee, kicking and biting only on round 2 and beyond.

AD&D Hydra
Tactically, a pretty good monster in that you can take its heads off rather than just abstractly attack its HP bar. Only 4 heads can gang up on a target at once, making them reasonably 'fair' to engage in melee with. Most do not actually regrow heads, which is fine in my book as everyone has seen Hercules, so the task to burn the stumps is less of a puzzle and more tedious busywork at this point.

Pyro and Cryohydra are of course more dangerous, having miniature breath weapons that can bypass armor and attack HP via saving throws instead.

AD&D Hyena- 3HD dog, with 5HD prehistoric version. Though interesting animals in real life, there's not much going for them in the game world.

Sunset Realm Hobgoblin-
Hob is merely a prefix meaning house, so a 'House goblin' is a goblin ready to serve as a house servant for their alvish masters, having been granted a name and a shadow to distinguish them from the nameless, interchangeable hordes of shadow-goblins servants. As time marched on and the shadowy-type died out without alves to replace them, basically all goblins became Hobgoblins, people rather than monsters, so the term became pointless and they were just referred to as goblins. Refer to the goblin-post for more details.

Sunset Realm Homunculus
Artificial children of biomancy and/or alchemy, Homunculi are traditionally grown in glass jars. They appear as a mixture of whatever blood was offered in their creation. While Chimerae may be grown via similar methods, Homunculi refers to creations that have human blood, even if their appearance does not end up humanoid. They are sometimes made as noble heirs, and may be referred to as 'clones' if grown from only a single donor's blood.

Notable historical/fictional homunculi include
-Barnabas O'Jar, companion to Queen Astrid of Del'Narith on her early adventures, including the chaining of Anathemant, later court sage and librarian. A homunculus grown by a wizard of a lost age who left Barnabas in a jar for years until the Queen and her companions rescued him.
-Seven-Veils, a toadlike little magical prodigy who made a pact with the Great Raven, threatened and saved Fassulia from the Forbidden Moon Gate, defeated Finzu the Egregrious during the Eclipse, and became the lead of the Tower of Cul'Khuwa in Phavea after a long and lawful history of defending the peace.


Sunset Realm Horse- Two gods compete over claiming responsibility for the domestication of the horse- the Horse-God of Yuba, and Our Lady of Gardens. While the Horse-God had a stronger claim in the 3rd and 4th ages, on account of having a horse's head, Our Lady's story became more popular in the 5th age onward, due to the death of the Horse God in the 4th intersolar period. Either way, horses are as part of human society as dogs, being a workforce, mode of transportation, and companion all in one.

horse hydra

Sunset Realm Hydra- A stolen idea I got from one of my players is Hydra-as-template to apply to anything whose heads or limbs are notable. This is a jolly good idea, and so the Sunset Realms has Hydraitis, a rare disease that causes ravenous hunger to fuel regeneration and replication of heads, limbs, or both. It most commonly affects snakes and lizards on the Fault, that being the homeland of the disease spirit, but captured Hydra have spread the disease across the world.

The source of Hydraitis is an ancient gene-modding retrovirus from the days of Yg and the Serpent Empire, originally meant for the creation of medusa, but persisting in a fragmented, free-roaming form due to the various magical catastrophes wrought by wielders of the Orb of Omnipotence. This is why most hydra are reptilian (reptiles save with disadvantage against contracting hydraitis). Eating hydra flesh or blood forces a save vs poison/disease, and it is a potential result of the Death and Dismemberment chart if forced to roll upon it by an infected creature. New heads will retain about half the memories of the original, and so those afflicted become increasingly bestial and instinct-driven until they become a monster eating constantly to sate each head's hunger.

Sunset Realm Hyena
Also known as 'False Dogs' these animals dwell in the north deserts of the Fault and the deserts of Saresare. Cats and Dogs view them with unease, and although they rarely attack humans, (and can be distracted by jokes if they do) they are dangerous vectors of the grinning-plague, ghul fever, or whatever you want to call it, so are regarded as dirty menaces to society and are driven into the wilderness by most human societies. Some lion prides have hyena jesters, though such jesters typically are there as prisoners, rather than by choice, and would happily join anyone who could rescue them, at least until an opportunity to rejoin their own society presents itself.

In the 4th age, they were used extensively by the Korozong, that demon-cult of ghuls, and so it is not unheard of of -zong societies to still use them in the role of dogs, though that is mostly the domain of criminals and people overcompensating for something.

In Saresare, they have a friendly rivalry with Vulch with regards to fighting over corpses, and due to the ancient antics of the head-swapping Ibn Haur, saresaren society has a fair few hyena-headed folk known as Gnolls.

Hell Hound, Herd Animal, Hippocampus and Hippogriff

 AD&D  Hell Hound
A pack of big, angry firebreathing demon dogs is kind of self explanatory.
They are not explicitly demonic, but aren't from around here either. With good surprise chances, high HD, decent AC, and 1d10 bites that also deal an automatic fire damage equal to HD (4-7) with a save for half, they're threatening to both armored and unarmored people, and can locate hidden or invisible creatures 50% of the time. This is due to exceptional eyesight and hearing, rather than smell as you may have guessed, but honestly it makes sense they aren't bloodhounds if they've got fire shooting out their nostrils.

All in all, they fulfill much the same roll as other guard dogs, just on a higher 'power level.' The bandits have regular dogs, the goblins have wolves, presumably someone in the increased HD demihuman pool has wargs, the fire giants have hell hounds.


AD&D Herd Animal
Barely an entry and more of a suggestion that you can give animals 1-5 HD, a damaging attack, and a note that "Humans or humanoids of about man-size or less will be trampled to death if caught in the path of a stampede" which I have always thought sounded ripe for some rules-lawyer to buy a bunch of cattle and drive them before the party to trample Elminster or something.

AD&D Hippopotamus
They're big, they're tough, they're amphibious, they come in numbers, but there is not much else to say.

AD&D Hippocampus
The classic horse with flippers and fish-tail hindquarters, that tritons often have. Did you know they apparently talk in their own language and can learn more, so you can have a talking fish horse? I didn't know that. They are also chaotic good because reasons.

AD&D Hippogriff
Being half bird half horse as opposed to half bird half lion, Hippogriffs seem to me to be a much lamer sort of Griffon, and their statblock does little to disabuse me of this notion, essentially being half a griffon in HD and price of their young and eggs on the open market. They are slightly faster, and are omnivores, in comparison to carnivorous griffons and herbivorous pegasi.



Sunset Realm Hell Hound
The punishment for Bad Dogs (and humans) who repay kindness with viciousness, as prescribed by the Jackal God of Yuba, is to become a hell hound. Their sense of smell choked by smoke, their burning breath spoiling any attempt at kindly interaction, their spiritual existence is an exaggerated mirror of their violence in life, sicc'd on the enemies of Yuba. Those hell hounds who come to miss kindness and repent their own wickedness after a few years of this afterlife can be reborn as dogs or humans once again to try to do better next time, while those who revel in the hunt will forever be demons set to torment the enemies of Yuba, so their bloodthirst might at least be put to good use. Some slip their leashes and run rogue, at which point Very Good Dogs will be assigned to fetch the hellhounds soul back to the Jackal. As in life, they come in all breeds and sizes, but they are blackened by soot and ash and glow from the fires within.

Sunset Realm Hippogriff
Rather than an independent species, Hippogriffs are chimerae, artificial hybrids of bird and horse made by designer Beast Breeders and given a unifying name for marketing purposes (those purposes being a Griffon that can trot, mostly). Unlike Griffon-patterns, Hippogriffs did not escape and thrive in the wild and exist only as domestic populations, primarily in the Beast Islands and Mercia. They are seen as 'budget gryphons' and despite(or perhaps on account of) being considerably more affordable, they never became superbly popular among the nobility. 

From the medieval tome of 'things that didn't happen'

In Mercia, a Hippogriff is a term used for a lower-class person who puts on airs in order to try to interact with the nobility as equals, as some nouveau riche would purchase Hippogriffs in order to keep up (literally and socially) with Gryphon-riding Mercian nobles. As many of these people were lowborn but successful military commanders who amassed Hippogriff squads as budget Gryphon-Knights and held considerable military power despite their lack of titles, and wanted recognition, there is an undertone to the word that insinuates a 'Hippogriff' is someone who might be dangerous to the status quo as well.

In the Beast Islands "Hippogriff" also has derogatory connotations, but in a different sense, indicating something is a cheap knockoff, a product with corners cut rather than a piece of art, etc etc, due to hippogriffs being just that with regards to Gryphons.

Like Gryphons, they were almost entirely phased out by Oroboron Gwyverns by the 6th age, as the value of flying mounts turned more towards speed and efficiency, as claws and fangs were eclipsed by firearms wielded by the rider.

Sunset Realm Hippocampus
Like Hippogriffs, Hippocampi are also artificial Chimera, but unlike the Hippogriffs, Hippocampi were created by the Ningen, the huge fish-people of the sea, as something to trade with land-dwellers-2nd age elves in particular. As such, Hippocampi have a bit of feyness to them compared to the monstrous wild gryphon or the domestic Hippogriff. While all animals can potentially speak, hippocampi had to keep up with the linguistic whimsy of elvish companions, and as such are quite clever in ways one would not expect, not to mention rather independent. They choose their riders and will not abide being tied to a dock-post like a donkey left outside the local inn, but if their independence is respected they can be loyal to humans, but more as a 'friend you visit and can give you a ride' than a beast of burden.

Ironically, the Ningen do not treat Hippocampi with the respect land-walkers afford these sea-steeds. The Ningen created the hippocampi as bargaining chips, steeds for landwalkers, but the Ningen, being larger by far and perfectly capable of swimming on their own, view Hippocampi as a fun species to hunt and prey upon, the taste of horseflesh without the bother of interacting with the land. As such, Hippocampi live in moderate terror of their own creators, which may explain some of their eagerness to ally with landwalkers.

Sunset Realm Hippopotamus
If ever there were any, they are surely gobbled up by now.

Harpies

AD&D Harpies-
Derived from the grecian myths, AD&D harpies have an alluring song that allows them to slaughter all who fail their save vs magic and are lured to it. As usually, the entire adventuring party will not fail their save, the question becomes how to save the entranced party members from 2d6 flying monsters with 3HD and 3 minor attacks... though this is rather complicated by an additional, deeper 'charm' effect that takes place on touch, a rather rude surprise to adventurers who stuffed their ears with wax to dodge the song.

Honestly, charm spam into being 'attacked, tortured, and devoured' by a bunch of bird women reeks of a TPK with little player agency or counterplay if the encounter is sprung upon you without forewarning. This post goes into the variation by edition and even suggests some potential countermeasures to this ignominious character death, mentioning that, at least in the AD&D version, the text does not state the song is a charm as the touch is, merely that it requires one to move towards the harpy, which could allow the character to sling arrows and spells as they walked towards the harpy. Since later editions specify that the entranced characters 'take no actions but to defend themselves' and proceed directly to the harpy, regardless of cliffs or dangerous terrain, this suggested strategem seems likely to be against the spirit of the rules, though later editions also tend to remove the charm on touch ability, giving entranced characters at least a single round to defend themselves after the song stops and, one presumes, the harpy flock goes for the kill.

All in all, a bit suspect as far as good monster design goes, but I'm not the biggest fan of any effect that means the player isn't playing. If it was just problemsolving to avoid hearing the song/disrupt the hearing of the entranced, that would be decent. But the squad of 3HD feathery maulers kind of puts a damper on that. Mythologically, they were abductors and befoulers (and conflated with Sirens) so focusing on them attacking supplies if denied their entranced thralls would be better, as 'how can we get these awful birds to stop shitting on us' is a more interesting problem than 'fight flying monsters that swoop down for a claw/claw/bite + charm spam.'

From Top: Vulch, Bat-harpy, true Harpy

SUNSET REALM HARPIES
The word harpies refers to three beings primarily- the Bat-people of the fault, the Vulch of Saresare, and the monsters of the name.

Bat People, or House Desmodia
Despite having supersonic vocalizations to daze most vertebrates, anaesthetic saliva, a diet of mammalian blood, and better than average odds of being bi disasters, the bat people of the cavernous earth of the Fault are not actually vampires.

all sorts, according to science

Birds do not, as a rule, live underground, so these batty creatures mainly exist because it made more sense to have bat-harpies in the subterranean tomb caverns of my megadungeon than birdly ones. After all, dungeons have a lot of opportunities to make walking towards an enemy a dangerous prospect, so underground harpies have a lot of potential. A pack of them charmed a character who was separated from the rest of the party by a fear effect from a headless horseman, but then rolled very low on the con damage from bloodsucking, allowing the player to survive. From this I reasonably assumed that, as flying creatures, these bat-harpies do not drink all that much blood in one sitting, which makes sense. You wouldn't want to be so bloated you couldn't fly, after all. And from this, it followed that, once the whole megadungeon thing calmed down, they would likely integrate into the already rather furry society of Phillipstown (dominated by wererats as it was) as a superior source of blood than the troll they had been feeding on before. And from there, they'd likely prove valuable as night scouts and mass-manipulators during the intersolar period, which would then give them the clout required to secure exits from the Fault once the 5th age began, escaping the curse/blessing of undeath. And in the more human-dominated lands beyond the Fault, they may have shaved their fuzzy faces and hidden their wings beneath cloaks while in human society and, with their foreign wealth, gotten into advantageous positions, extracted modest blood taxes far more amenable than taxes of silver, and so became the Desmodia family, with the branches extending to Queen's Coast, where they lived as sanctioned beings of Our Lady after initial tragic misunderstandings, and Vint Savoth, where imbibing corrupted blood did indeed make them more vampiric, tarnishing the reputations of those dwelling in Queen's Coast, whose dalliance in the military, the market, and the nobility were honest enough.

But those are just one family. There are doubtless more of the bat-folk in the caverns of the world, unfettered by the social structures of the Desmodia, winging through dungeons in search of blood.

Bat-Harpy
No Appearing 1d6
HD- 1
AC- as chain due to dextrous flight, unarmored if not flying.
Move- twice human flying, half-human crawling on the ground or walls.
Treasure Type C- All will be very light objects
Morale- 4
Echolocation- Provided they can click and squeak, they can tell where physical objects are within their hearing.

Supersonic Song- Bat-harpies singing while stationary causes a chosen species (humans, typically) whether asleep or awake within 300', regardless of walls, to save vs spell or proceed towards the Bat-Harpy at maximum speed, not needing light to navigate and dropping any encumbering packs and items to move faster. They may defend themselves, but not from the harpies. There is a +1 to the save per 10 years of age(assuming human lifespan), as the higher registers are harder for the elderly to hear. The harpy chooses whether the entranced victim will fall into traps or off ledges or wade into water, or take circuitous but safe routes, depending on if they wish for a living victim or a corpse. Upon reaching the harpy, entranced victims are sonically sedated and stripped to expose veins, bitten (the bite causes no damage, being a minor incision from which blood is lapped) and have 1d4 points of constitution drained from them per feeding harpy, feeding taking 1 turn per harpy.
Surviving victims are then abandoned and the harpies flee, taking any lightweight objects they find interesting with them.

Directed Squeak- The subtle effects of supersonic vibrations on the brain can cause other effects when screeched/whispered directly at a target within melee distance, forcing a save vs Sleep or Confusion with the same +1 per 10 years of age to the save. Sleeping victims do not wake if fed upon.

Bat-Harpies must feed once per day or begin starving. They may feed more than once per day, draining another 1d4 points of constitution, but must space out these meals 6 hours apart or become bloated and unable to fly until 6 hours of digestion pass. They do not favor open conflict and will prefer to lure targets and attack sleepers, and corpses are of little use to them so they only kill those who attempt to kill them.



The other winged beings one might call a harpy goes by many names. Mercians called them Vulch, for Vulture-Harpy, Saresarens call them Ibn Nasir, Yubans called them the Yazata. They are long necked and bald, hairless in fact, and hold to a pacifistic, scavenger faith where they do no violence, and take nothing but what has been abandoned, subsisting on trash and carrion in their ascetic lifestyles. They were the first necromancers, though they sang to the restless dead to show them to their dreaming afterlives, and consumed them so their remains may return to the earth. The bell exorcists crafted their instruments from the tones of Vulch-humming, and the earlier, kinder portions of the Necronomicon were penned in part due to apprenticeship under one of them. Their song is for the dead though, not the living, and are able to live among humans as mendicant mystics in Saresare, quelling certain disturbances in the netherworld that go unnoticed or unmanaged by established funerary services.


And lastly, for the monsters that truly bear the name 'Harpy.'

The true harpies of the Fault are birds said to have the heads and torsos of women, though this is a misapprehension. Their 'breasts' are pectoral muscles for flight, their hair, downy feathers, their eyes the far-ranging, wide-open glare of an eagle, not a wide-eyed maiden. Their young are fed flesh, not milk, and they are not birds, despite the eggs and the feathers. They are monsters, creatures that descended upon ill winds from Beyond and now infest the jungles of the Fault and the Beast Islands. They speak your language in the fashion of birds, part cunning comprehension, half thoughtless mimicry. And they speak that which you most wished to hear, the words carrying on the wind and rousing you from sleep, drawing you off the paths with promises of knowledge. Do harpies truly know the secrets and answers, half-heard, or is it merely some monstrous trick? Either way, they are not particularly dangerous in melee combat, having sharp talons and teeth. They roost atop trees and cliffs, and knock the entranced climbers to their doom, or live near larger, more terrible beasts that kill those they lure, leaving the scraps for the harpies. They like shiny things, and so their nests are another sort of glittering lure, promising the treasures of dead heroes when in fact it is mostly fools gold and broken glass. They do befoul things they fear to attack directly with their excrement, ruining rations and marking the shat-upon with a smell that indicates to other creatures that here, here is man-flesh for the taking.

True Harpy

No Appearing 2d6
HD- 1
AC- as leather
Attack- 1d3 claws swoop, save or fall if climbing/precariously situated, fall prone if battered on unremarkable terrain. They may attack at any point during their movement.
Move- twice human flying, half-human crawling on the ground or walls.
Treasure Type C
Morale-9

Swooping Menaces- Harpies cannot be hit in melee by people they are tormenting, as they attack from behind, cause distractions to cover each other, and may well have some supernatural power to torment and victimize those who are alone. Targets the harpy is not targeting in a round may attack them as they fly by as normal.

Nest- Harpy nests glitter enticingly with potential treasures and sparkle from miles away. Harpies sing when they spot prey animals coming, their song reaching about 3 miles (ie, covering a 6 mile hex).
1d6 Nest Location-
1- 40'-90' tall tree (or higher!). Harpies begin attacking once creatures climb to 20' tall, hoping the fall will slay them.
2-50-100' tall cliff or waterfall. The nest will be situated halfway up, and harpies attack once prey are within 20' of the nest.
3- Rock island on raging river, deep lake, or sucking swamp.  Attacks begin once victims are swimming, pushed underwater on failed saves on hits
4- Ruins- highest point of ruin exterior, likely contains dungeon.
5- Bramble Patch- Very slow movement through patch, 1 damage to unarmored AC, harpies viciously harass as soon as the target enters the bramble.
6-Monster Lair- Harpies hope monster will kill entranced targets, less used to personal combat. Roll up a monster lair, Harpy morale reduced to 6.


Secret Song- Players may tell the GM what hinted-at secrets or mimicked voices would  lure them away on a failed save that lures them to the harpies, if the GM wishes to convey truths, half-truths, lies, or nonsense on that topic. Those without DEEP CHARACTER MOTIVES could be given rumors of treasure or simply be lured by the beautiful song. Affected players are not deeply hypnotized, just tempted, and may justify their actions to their allies and will defend themselves even from the harpies, who usually lurk in their nest out of direct line of fire until the time comes to dash the victim onto the rocks. Their goal is to listen to the fragmented information of the harpies, though the harpies themselves invariably foil this goal.

Excrement- Harpies can befoul targets with their droppings from above, with the usual to-hit roll, befouling 1 random inventory item and the target themselves. Though no damage is caused, the reeking smell makes stealth impossible until the character is washed with soap, and items are forever stained, smelly, and (in the case of consumables) ruined, though magic items get a save vs poison or similar.
The smell also attracts wandering monsters at double the normal rate, and the character must save vs a random disease unless they discard the befouled item and clean themselves within an hour or so.

As true monsters rather than simply carnivorous beings, spells such as Protection from Evil ward off harpies, and their very presence brings ill luck and ruin to the waking world.

Halflings

I have put off this post for some time, for must admit I find halflings a mediocre addition to most fantasy games and can muster no excitement about them. Even in Tolkein's work from which the D&D halfling is derived from, their prosaic, domestic nature is in fact their defining quality. This is all well and good for a story with thematic purpose and authorial intent indicated to highlight the virtues of rustic civilians vs those consumed by power struggles, but in D&D games that message is rather hard to pull off outside of 'and then my character retired from the disgusting murderhobo life and lived happily ever after' which is a fine ending but a poor incentive for actually continuing campaigns.

They seem to be meant as a sort of 'underdog' character which I can understand the appeal of, but on the player-end of things, their impressive offensive and defensive bonuses spoil such notions for me, as they end up less underdog, more 'low-profile artillery platform/tank.' The idea is that to a halfling, humans and similarly sized foes would be like ogres, twice as tall and 8 times as heavy. But whereas ogres compared to humans have quadruple the HD and unarmed deal the same damage as a halberd, there's ludonarrative dissonance at play when that difference, one that we intuitively understand should be a nigh-insurmountable combat disadvantage, is represented in game by halflings merely suffering a strength capped at 17, max fighter level 6 or other such negligible differences that pay lip service to the notion that halflings face bigger, relatively speaking, perils.

AD&D Halflings

This is the monster statblock rather than the player bonuses, the player side of things being rather tamer in AD&D 1e but, in later editions and in various retroclones, prone to the defensive creep mentioned that turns them into short tanks. Tactically speaking, they may appear to be essentially goblins who cannot see in the dark, but are crack shots with the bow and sling. +3 to hit with their ranged weaponry is, for masses of soldiers, incredibly menacing, moreso even than Elves. They also resist magic, saving as 4 levels/HD higher, have a few uninteresting fighter/leader types of levels 2-4 based on # appearing, and have 1d4 dogs per halfling when encountered in lair. All in all, fighting halflings would be a numbers game that one would be unlikely to win, and they have treasure type B, which is likely to be no more than a few thousand GP worth of treasures and maybe some halfling-sized magic arms and armor on the leader types. Not at all worth the effort required to defeat, treasure wise, for most would-be pillagers.

There are also the Tallfellows, who are taller and get along with elves, and the Stouts, who are shorter, have infravision, and get along with dwarves. From this I conclude halflings are just shorter humans/elves/dwarves and not actually their own thing, and move on.

Sunset Realm Halflings, or Little People
They're just short humans, or if you take the halfling viewpoint, humans or 'hugemans' are just tall halflings. Most commonly found in the Beast Islands, they hold they are the original humans, and those humans who left small islands for the gigantic mainland grew larger as their habitat did, much like goldfish. Halfling, though not a slur, is a slightly rude term to refer to them as, a diminutive -ling suffix and assumption of deviance from a 'whole' norm. "Little people" is a generally acceptable term when referring to them as a group based on height rather than the actual culture they hail from.

Those who live in the moonlands are rumored to see in the dark, but in truth, those often dark lands simply encourage people to lean more heavily on senses beyond sight. Little clicks for makeshift echolocation, feeling air currents, smelling and hearing, and of course, simply letting ones eyes adjust rather than brandishing a torch can all contribute to this notion.

Due to their small size, they favor training beasts as guards and hunters, and are the origins of the 'Beast Battling' culture of the isles. They also are excellent sailors, mostly culturally but partly physically. After all, a 200 pound grown human requires more food than a 60 pound one, so their ships can be trimmed down and lighter weight compared to larger ships to take advantage of the winds and currents. Rowing is one aspect where they lose out to larger sailors, so most ships of levels larger than personal rowboats are entirely sail-reliant.

Islander customs of beast-befriending can be traced all the way back to the 2nd age, with children who had come of age being sent through rites of passage to claim a pet to serve as their friend and defender. As technology advanced, the war-torn 3rd age added a reputation as trap-makers, as it was easier to defend ones home with gravity, torsion, and so on than with force of arms. The technical skills required to build such devices also allowed one to identify and disarm them, and so 'security specialists' were often hired from the Beast Islands for all manner of legitimate and illegitimate ventures, making the trap-maker reputation shorthand for 'burglar.'  The 4th age saw them in conflict with the dwarves, desiring the  banned clockwork and gunpowder tech which cared not for the size of its wielder, and this gave the Beast Islands, already regarded as roguish, a further reputation for piracy, as dwarvish and Saresaren ships became prime targets of Beast Islander ships aiming to claim the unobtainable tech, and settling for whatever else was onboard. The calmer 5th age saw the rise of fine beast islander alchemists, as trade opened up and technology advanced further, and before the 6th age, the islands became known as the scientific hub of the world, surpassing the rationalist Saresarens and the stagnated dwarves.

On a less lore-heavy note
Rules for Halfling Players(Also children, goblins, ratfolk, and other ~1 meter tall beings)
HD per level never higher than 1d6
5-in-6 chance to hide, gain surprise, etc etc, compared to base 2-in-6, at least vs larger entities in larger environs. Not applicable in metal armor.
Saving throw bonuses based on whatever your system says, based on things missing you mostly
"Darkvision" is a more like a skill for moving without sight. Unless Goblin, they do see in the dark.
Weapons are 1d6 1-handed, or 1d8 2handed, and d10 weapons are too large (guns aside).
Though not explicit, it is assumed most entities find you less threatening due to size, which has its pros and cons

Griffon, Gryphon, Groaning Spirit (Banshee)

AD&D Griffon

I rather like griffons as an encounter, because they are, statwise, essentially flying lions with AC as plate that come in unmanageable numbers of 2d6, but mostly care about eating your horses. A great calamity/opportunity to befall adventurers of any level venturing into the wilderness, really. Young griffons sell for 5000 gold and eggs for 2000, which is more reliable than the rarely-impressive treasure type C, but griffon adults, while fierce enough as is, fight to the death to protect their young.

AD&D Groaning Spirit (Banshee)
The spirit of an 'evil female elf' is, in the original monster manual, specifically called out as a 'very rare thing indeed.' With the later development of the drow, one might wonder if the underdark is absolutely infested with banshees. They are less menacing than spectres, dealing only 1d8 damage instead of level drain, but can do the famous death wail once per day, interestingly only being able to wail in darkness, and the death effect having a short range. Their appearance causes a save vs fear, so one could imagine them being a monster that appears, forces a party split due to saves vs fear causing fleeing, then the scream being used against whichever part of the party fled without light, with their impressive AC of 0 (20), typical immunity to nonmagic weapons, 50% magic resistance and 7 HD  keeping them safe from quick destruction (save for the Exorcism, a 4th level cleric spell) and allowing them to mop up survivors.

Mythologically, it's interesting to note the origin entity (Bean Sidhe) was more of a lamenting spirit mourning the passing of families who were "true" irish, the Milesians, as opposed to english or norse or whoever else was about on the isle. Initially I assumed this degeneration from fairy-bestowed honor1 into an evil deathbringer spirit might be the usual christian demonization of local legends, but the idea of Milesians themselves come from christian pseudohistory, so this is probably just a case of muddled correlation into causation leading the myth to drift from warning of death, to being the cause of it.


Sunset Realm Griffon or Gryphon

a Fault Griffon or Pelicat

The noble gryphon is a chimeric hybrid the result of a political marriage between the King of Beasts, the Lion, and the King of Birds, the Eagle, the resulting beast a nearly unparalleled predator sure to sit at the top of nearly every food chain. Slightly more historically, they are the mounts of Mercian kings and noble knights, which gives them a certain appeal in some ages and places, and a certain symbolism of the rapaciousness of imperialism in others (especially Yuba, whose troop losses to wyverns in the Yuban crusades was the origin of the 'griffons love eating horses idea). As a very rough overview, Griffons were known in the late second age (once Elves rose up from the ashes of the Serpent Empire), were popularized in the 3rd age by elvish warriors and ensuing Witch-Knights, remained popular (though their numbers were reduced) through the 4th age, and were viewed more as just another monstrous animal in the 5th age, and one that was supplanted as the 'flying mount' of choice by Oroboron Goose Wyverns (or Gyverns) which, while equally vicious, were at least vegetarian.

However, in the height of the 4th age, the popularity of griffon mounts far exceeded the population endemic to mercia, and so the Beast Breeders of the Beast Battler circuit (of the Beast Islands, naturally) saw an opportunity, and so began the era of designer griffons. While the variety is too great to provide an exhaustive list,

 

some of the most notable were the Night Gryphons, owl/panther combos favored by assassin cults such as the Esoteric Order of Neuph, the Palace Gryphons, Parrot/Ocelot combos favored as gifts for bratty nobles who wanted gryphons suitable for admiring and entertainment moreso than warbeasts, and the Fault Griffon or Pelicat, a Pelican/Tiger combo that escaped and bred in the Fault after a shipwreck on the coast and was an absolute horror of a beast prone to swallowing people and young donkeys whole, and able to subsist of of sea-fishing in otherwise uninhabitable coastal areas and be just enough of a hassle to dragons that the two species preferred to avoid each other rather than battle for territory.

Sunset Realm Banshee
Elves are immortal in several ways, both biologically, and via reincarnation. However, this reincarnation requires a certain magical construct found at the heart of their cities, and of course, within the Iron Moon. If the soul is banned from returning to any city and able to resist the pull of the Iron Moon (typically thanks to death occurring well within the perimeter of the Daylands), it may linger just as any other soul might, and become a ghost. Given that being banned from reincarnating from EVERY available city means that one must be very near irredeemably unpleasant to be around, these spirits are often quite ill-tempered and dangerous. The theory that the name comes from a translated elvish court record that states '...from reincarnation, the council bans she who would slay without cause the mortal races for sport' could explain where the term came from.

The common misconception is that it is the scream of the banshee which kills, when in fact, it is simply the killing-spell the dead elf uses (typically at screaming volume) which kills. As such, there are banshees which use fireball to burn down any domicile built near the grave, banshees which strike people dead with lightning strikes, banshees that cause the heart to stop, and so on, depending on the favored spell the elf uses. As such, a proper silencing spell is good preparation, but plugging ones ears and going 'lallala' is not.

Cold iron may disrupt their form in death as it did in life, and serve as the DIY exorcism tool in a pinch, but the soul will almost certainly reform after disruption or escape rusted bondage sooner or later if destroyed via such generic means. Proper exorcism requires either petitioning an elvish settlement to open their reincarnation queue to the lost soul, or performing a ritual to banish the soul to the Iron Moon, or Elfland. Related note, no banshee will ever pass through an intersolar period without being collected by the Iron Moon unless located deep underground, so while the surface of Alvish ruins are typically free of this variety of restless dead, their depths, if any, do not have the same guarantee.

Banshees are not technically bound to the place of their death, but as they live under threat of being drawn into the Iron Moon, they typically stay nearby, only gradually expanding their area of influence over years of haunting and confirmation of lunar cycles, and typically staying nearest at night, when the Iron Moon could potentially draw nearer.

Gorgon, Grey Ooze, Green Slime

 AD&D Gorgon
In what cursory research suggests orginates from The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes + accounts of grecian Khalkotauroi, the AD&D gorgon is a 'bull like creature' that breathes out a short cone of petrifying vapors, an attack they prefer to do over their 2d6 attack, presumably a gore/trample. Like many other petrifying creatures, they perceive into the astral and ethereal planes, and their petrifying effects extend to there.

There is not too much to say about them, save that a favorable stratagem, once their breath limit was realized, would be to force them into combat with something other than the party, then slay them once their petrifying abilities were exhausted.

AD&D Grey Ooze
This ooze is roughly in the middle of the deadly jelly-monsters of AD&D. Slow and easily dispatched by melee or ranged, its main defense is appearing as damp stone. It eats metal at the same rate as a black pudding, meaning dispatching it may leave the party unarmed and unarmored against later threats. It is immune to spells save lightning, and is also 'impervious to heat or cold' which notably removes burning oil as a solution and may waste a magic missile or the like. All in all, it strikes me as a creature intended to encourage versatility, backup weapons, and scavenging, but lacking the single-minded charm of the rust monster.

As a final note, some exceptionally large grey oozes attempt to psychically crush any psionics who dare to use this much maligned subsystem around them. While this seems to be more Gygaxian psionic-bullying, the idea of a monster whose size correlates with intelligence isn't bad, and were it applied to oozes that could split and combine this could be very interesting.

AD&D Green Slime
A properly horrific threat, green slimes are technically plants, and are indeed sessile apart from their 'drop from the ceiling' on people attack. Those who it attaches to turn into green slimes in 1d4 melee rounds, a transformation probably variable in whether or not the slime hits the bloodstream, disperses through the body, and devours the unlucky target from within in a flash. Plate armor adds 3 melee rounds before it is eaten through, and wood is very slowly eaten.

Removing attached green slime required scraping, excision, freezing, or burning. Cure disease kills it, but other forms of attack do it no harm (Though it may be reasonable to think plant-affecting spells would affect it as normal.) I thought sunlight killed it as well, but perhaps that was a later conceit made by GMs to assure green slime released into the wild would not consume the world.

It is barely a monster, more of an environmental threat, but it is a memorable one, and a reminder to players with Darkvision that having fire at hand is advantageous for reasons beyond light.

As usual, Goblin Punch has had some jolly good ideas on green slime, including their use as illegal bioweapon thrown in opaque flasks to nigh-instantly kill just about anything.

Perhaps the horror of the green slime is a reflection of the horror of death and decay
A corpse at least has a face, burial rites
someone eaten by slime is just gone in a flash, once a person with hopes and dreams
Now faceless slime, contamination

Sunset Realm Gorgon
I see no great reason to have this creature exist, as there is 'standard lore' for Petrification with regards to it being a sort of byproduct of Yg-based cognitohazards most of the time, and muddying the waters seems unnecessary.
The word, however, may exist in a more grecian/Sunset Realm terminology. Gorgon is the title/rank of a medusa who has forsaken scholarly pursuits, donned arms and armor, and gone to war for the Serpent Empire. So unless a campaign is to be set in the 2nd age when the Serpent Empire was still around, Gorgon is a term of historical note only.

As far as 'killer cow monster' goes I would still use my pandora's ox as a bull that wanders through a dungeon grazing on all manner of normally inedible, abstract things and gaining their powers for itself, and releasing a flood of corrupting energy if slain. The design goal of this creature being to
1- Be different every time, but thematically appropriate based on what it has eaten
2- Be a question of whether to let it roam and collect powers, risking it becoming too dangerous, or to kill it and unleash its corruption to make the rest of the dungeon more dangerous.

Sunset Realm Grey Ooze
As is, the grey ooze has no place, but I am inspired by the bigger=brainier idea, plus the depiction of slime intelligence from the manga Heterogeneous Linguistics, which is all about language and thought from 'monsters.'

Thinker Slimes
While most slimes are unintelligent, ravenous maws of consumption, the Thinker Slime is different. It is unknown what causes an oozelike monster to gain intelligence, but it probably has to do with either eating books, or brains. Any slime can probably become a thinker slime, so this is not a specific 'type' of slime, but more like a template to apply to other slime monsters.

At human size, it has about human intelligence, stronger in pure memory and computational power, but lacking experience and context. It can learn social norms and speech much faster than a baby, but must learn them still. Each halving or doubling of HP roughly halves or doubles its intelligence, though it will often split into more slimes rather rather than seek the abstract heights of braininess unless it has a goal better served by a gigantic thinking jello.

It may split willingly, creating duplicates of itself, just smaller. Small duplicates of 1-4HP size are used as scouts which explore, then return and merge with the original to share information, or as an escape method in which the original sends out as many small versions to escape as it can, increasing the odds that at least 1 will survive and prosper.

If it is split unwillingly (typically by being struck by a bladed weapon) its intelligence and self is not evenly distributed among each part. If split in half, each half has a 50% chance of retaining any given knowledge the original had, with the other having that knowledge if this half doesn't. They may also reroll reactions, as they are essentially new beings, as might multiple slimes that re-merged back into a whole. Merging or splitting takes but a single round, but requires the round to be 'spent' by all involved parties.

They grow rapidly when fed, but require more feedings hence or will be forced to shrink under hunger's yoke. As a rough estimate, 100pounds of organic material(and/or whatever inorganic material this slime may dissolve) grants them 1d8HP after a dungeon turn of digestion.

Sunset Realm Green Slime
This menace is not a natural being, but rather, a nightmare vision of Life, mindlessly self-replicating, perfectly efficient, without any constraints on the simple eat-replicate cycle. It is, perhaps, a vision, a collective nightmare of Fauna imagining a plague-predator Flora. There are prophecies where the entire world drowns in slime, ancient ruins beneath the earth with no inhabitants save a single slimy colony of the stuff. Things have gone wrong with the Slime before, and will again. It is most common in Vint-Savoth, leading some to believe it is algae corrupted by the Blood Moon, or perhaps a variant form of Blood of that moon, but, deep enough in the bowels of the earth, it can be anywhere, dripping down through a thousand miles of hairline cracks and subterranean waters..

Taking this stuff into the sunlit world is a capital offense everywhere. Fools who seek to weaponize it invariably fall victim to it with the dramatic inevitability of a horror movie- it's not just dangerous, it's downright cursed. Political bodies that legalize its use in warfare are declared Dark Lords and crusaded against, much like what happens if some warlord has the bright idea to weaponize Moonspawn and other existential threats to humanity.

Still, fools rush in and all that, so with regards to adventurers, they should know that larger beasts take longer to be devoured- if a human takes 1d4 rounds, each doubling of mass adds +1 round to total conversion as the exponential flesh-to-slime conversion takes effect. Unlike a human being consumed, a monster or beast is likely to flail around as it is consumed, infecting all it collides with in its death throes.

The undead are unaffected by green slime, or at least, digested at a slow enough rate that a zombie leaking green slime is not a sight unheard of. Green slime that attains intelligence typically manifests as a Sludge Vampire (see goblinpunch posts above) and oft mimic real vampire behavior in an attempt to get people to waste their time with ineffective countermeasures. The Sanguine Church is aware of these creatures and suspects at least one vampiric lineage in Vint-Savoth is actually this type of blood drinking slime, as opposed to accursed human.