Monster Monday: Shadow Cat, Predator in the Darkness

Today's Monster Monday is the shadow cat, a magical black panther infused with shadow magic, allowing it to blend into areas of darkness, teleport between shady spots, and even generate its own supernatural darkness. This predatory cat, from whose sleek black fur constantly seeps wisps of smokey darkness, is a formidable hunter in warm forested regions with lots of undergrowth.

Panther illustration from Brehm's Life of Animals (1895), via the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Wikimedia

(This is not to be confused with the Marvel superheroes Shadow Cat and Black Panther, which coincidentally are also the names of my laptop and my gaming PC.)

Encounters with shadowcats should be dynamic, with lots of movement as the creature strikes and repositions, taking full advantage of the environment to maneuver itself to strike at the party's weakest and least defended members.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Kherty - Scourge of the Living, Defender of the Dead

Today's Monster Monday is kherty, an outsider who strides through ancient desert ruins, protecting the dead and slaughtering the living. The kherty has the gaunt, bandaged body of a mummy, but its head is a dried out ram's skull.

Limned in negative energy, the kherty's every attack is inimical to life itself. But aside from its array of spells, its life-taking spear, and its draining touch, this creature is outfitted with a range of abilities that bolster nearby undead, making tomb encounters particularly deadly for adventurers who run afoul of this unwholesome beast. Undead within the immediate vicinity of a kherty gain bonuses to their AC and saves, and the kherty's touch can mend the wounds of the undead. Plus, dying creatures close to the kherty cannot stabilize, so fallen heroes are just two rounds (death knell + create undead) away from joining the ranks of kherty's allies.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Brongya - Evil Yak Men of the Mountains

Today's Monster Monday is the brongya, a humanoid yak that binds elementals to its will and can possess the bodies of humanoids. Brongyai (the plural of brongya) live in hidden cities secreted away in high mountain valleys, where they rule over enslaved giants, bound genies, and servile elementals. Using magic and their ability to possess others, they lure unwary travelers into a false sense of security before capturing them for their own nefarious purposes. The brongyai believe themselves to be the predestined rulers of the world, and they delight in inflicting suffering and torment on those they see as 'slave races'. From their mountain strongholds, they secretly infiltrate and manipulate surrounding lands in centuries-long plots for conquest and domination.

Brongya, by Jonah Bomgaars

The brongya is obviously heavily inspired by the yak folk first introduced to D&D in the al-Qadim campaign setting. Yak folk made their way into D&D 3rd Edition's Monster Manual II, which was released shortly before the switch over to 3.5 Edition. When Wizard's of the Coast created the Open Game License, upon which all of Pathfinder was built, that oddball 3rd Edition Monster Manual II sadly did not make it into the OGL, so the yak folk presented therein are still 'private property', as it were.

Even though a race of humanoid yaks seems pretty silly, they quickly became one of my favorite villains, and two of my longest running campaigns featured significant yak folk encounters. The brongyai are my OGL-friendly take on these not-so-classic, mostly-forgotten monsters, made from scratch without direct reference to the stat block in MMII. It is presented here so that all might someday live in fear of these surprisingly sinister shaggy bovine beasties.

The name brongya comes from the tibetan 'brong (འབྲོང), meaning 'wild yak'. Its alternate name, qutazi, comes from the tatar word for yak - qutaz (кутаз). The sword the brongya is holding in the picture is a forward-curving Nepalese sword called a kora - actually, a ceremonial executioner's version of the traditional kora.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Sawfish, A Toothy Sword-Faced Fish

Today's Monster Monday is the sawfish, a large shark with a tooth-lined sword nose that it sweeps back and forth to shred fish. Okay, actually sawfish aren't sharks, they are rays. And their noses (rostra) aren't lined with teeth, they are modified tooth-like scales (dermal denticles). But there are a similar group of saw-nosed sharks, but they are much smaller than the sawfish, which grows up to about 23 feet in length.

Common sawfish (pristis pristis); Photo by David Iliff (License: CC-BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia

With that said, sawfish are awesome monsters and I am surprised they haven't appeared in a Bestiary yet. Not only does their saw-nose make for a memorable combat experience, but it can also be fashioned into a macuahuitl. If you are going for a more prehistoric experience, saw-nosed sclerorhynchids lived from about 130-55 million years ago - most were Small-sized like modern saw-nosed sharks, but onchopristis was 26 feet long with an 8 foot saw lined with barbed teeth. There was also the saw-nosed ichthyosaur eurhinosaurus that you can find back in this old post.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Sivatherium - Dire Giraffe?

Today's Monster Monday is sivatherium, a prehistoric giraffe that had a moose-like head of antlers. Sivatherium was not as long-necked and spindly as modern giraffes. While its neck was rather long, this beast was thicker and stockier, weighing more than the average adult giraffe at around half the height. I guess you could think of it as a condensed giraffe. With antlers.

photo by Hiuppo, via Wikimedia

Sivatherium reconstruction in the Museum of Evolution of Polish Academy of Sciences

The sivatherium ranged across Africa and India during the Pliocene epoch and survived in some areas up until 8,000 years ago. It also had a really cool looking skull:

photo by Ghedoghedo, via Wikimedia

Skull and leg of sivatherium giganteum in the Natural History Museum, London

In a campaign setting, a sivatherium would stand out as an attractive target for a hunt, as it is tall and distinct enough to spot from far away, it is packed with almost a ton of meat, and its skull and hide would make distinctive trophies. It would also be challenging to hunt, as its high vantage point would give it advance warning of approaching enemies, and its long legs and neck would allow it to lash out at attackers with surprising reach.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.