Crawling Claw

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Crawling Claw, from the official WotC Monsters of Faerûn Art Gallery... click on the image for the link.
All rights are assumed to be reserved by that website

At a Glance

A construct.

Crawling Claws are severed hands or claws, animated by magic… as constructs, not undead. There’s a variation known as flying fingers. A group of crawling claws is called an applause.

This monster is featured on Stupid Monsters (and the sequel), which is a fun read.

Sources

  • Monsters of Faerûn [11832] page 29
  • Shadowdale [FRE1/9247] page 45
  • Ruins of Undermountain [1060] adventure booklet, page 22
  • WotC Monster Index

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Baneguard

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Baneguard, from the official WotC Monsters of Faerûn Art Gallery... click on the image for the link.
All rights are assumed to be reserved by that website

At a Glance

An undead.

Baneguards are skeletal undead, usually human, animated by the priests of Bane. They are related to direguards.

Skeletons are the same height as living creatures (obviously) but roughly 1/7 of the weight. Human skeletons average 5 ft 9 in tall and 23 lbs (male) or 5 ft 4 in tall and 17 lbs (female).

Sources

  • Lost Empires of Faerûn [17738] page 162
  • Monstrous Compendium Annual 1 [2145]
  • Shadowdale [FRE1/9247] page 44
  • Ruins of Undermountain [1060] adventure booklet, page 21
  • WotC Monster Index

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Laughing Flow

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

A river which drains the southern half of the Evermoors before joining the Surbrin.


Sources

  • Waterdeep and the North [FR1/9213] page 4, under Dessarin
Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Goblintide River

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The Goblintide begins near the southern edge of the Lurkwood, flowing only a short distance before joining the Shining Creek and then the Surbrin.


Sources

Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Shining Creek

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

This river begins near the southern edge of the Lurkwood, and is joined by the Goblintide just before it drains into the Surbrin.


Sources

Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The River Rauvin

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

A river descending from the Nether Mountains, and passing Sundabar, Everlund, and Silverymoon before joining the Surbrin.


Source

  • Waterdeep and the North [FR1/9213] page 5, under Dessarin
Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Black Ash Plain

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The Black Ash Plain is a broad badlands area extending south from the Smoking Mountains to the River Alamber.

Hot, acidic ash and tephra falling from the perpetual clouds over the mountain range has formed hardened ridges in some places, silty dunes in others, and elsewhere has partially dissolved the ground.  The latter effect, in particular, is dramatically worsened by flooding from the River Alamber.  The result is an uneven, unpredictable, and dangerous landscape.

Understandably, there’s not much wildlife here, but certain creatures tolerate or even appreciate the environment.  Notable among these are the ash giants who have settled the area and built a successful business selling the ash to farmers of the Greenfields, who use it to improve their soil.


Sources

Primary Sources
Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Maerthwatch

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

The Hills of Maerth, also called the Maerthwatch, are a range of low hills found in central Chessenta, running eastward from the northern Adder Peaks to the Akanamere, then northeast to the Adderswamp.

There are no human communities within the hills, but several nearby settlements, including Maerduuth, Oslin, Saden, and Villon.

Source

  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] page 52 describes the Hills of Maerth

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Medusa

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Departure from Canon

In the Monster Manual, a medusa is described as “a well-proportioned human” …then as “repulsive” …then as “indistinguishable from a normal human” at a range as short as 30 ft.  And they have an average Charisma of 15.  Charisma is not all about looks, but ugly things are often given low Charisma scores.

I’m resolving these discrepancies and making the medusa a little more dangerous.  I’m also going out on a limb with their origins.  This presentation may contradict some official details, but it supersedes the MM description for the Xaeyruudh campaign.

At a Glance

A medusa is very similar in overall appearance to a human woman, with the obvious exception of her head and some subtler differences elsewhere.  When nude and prevented from disguising herself, she’s easily distinguished from other creatures, but by then it’s usually too late for the observer to flee.

  • The hair on her head is replaced by a mass of poisonous snakes.  She has no other hair, including no eyebrows or eyelashes.  The coloration of her scales, and the snakes, varies according to her habitat: dusty brown or red in the desert, emerald green in the forest, olive drab in the marshes, and so forth.  When living amongst humans or other races, her color approximates the tone of the dominant subrace. If she relocates, from the Raurin to the Lizard Marsh, for instance, her coloration changes over the course of a month or so.
  • Her skin is leathery, and covered with scales – very fine (looking like human skin) on her face, chest, and abdomen, thicker and harder on her shoulders, back, forearms, and legs.
  • Her eyes glow when she’s angered.  Eye color varies widely, but only among the vibrant shades… “chlorine” green, gold rather than brown, ice blue, and so forth.  Medusae who are blind (due to disease or other “natural” condition, not magic) have black eyes.  In all cases the eyes resemble glittery opaque gems, and lack visible pupils.
  • A medusa is an unrepentant carnivore, and she prefers her meals fresh and raw — she will disdainfully discard any leftover meat after a few hours.  She views fruits and vegetables the same way humans look at grass: at least two steps too far down the food chain.  Alcohol is a useful tool for making meals compliant, but a medusa will never get drunk.  “In the wild” a medusa will eat whatever meat she can catch, and drink the purest water she can find.

Some 10% have alluring sultry voices, but most have a slight-to-severe rasp which hampers their seduction of humans without the assistance of magic.

Once past puberty, a medusa can control the petrifying quality of her gaze… before that time it “has a mind of its own” and often frustrates her attempt to find treasure or a meal. A medusa cannot eat petrified victims, and unless she has the appropriate spells, she has no means to turn her statues back into meals.

A medusa has a keen taste for the finer things in life— art, cut gems and fabulous pieces of jewelry, rare coins especially platinum and gold, and extravagant clothing.  She also collects magic items… particularly ones that glitter attractively in addition to performing their functions.

Compassion is alien to a medusa.  She feels nothing resembling affection, for anyone other than herself.  Even her mates and spawn are owned and commanded, rather than loved… love is weak, like fruit.

Like vampires and lamia and other intelligent and cruel predators, a medusa likes to play with her food when she has the opportunity – meaning when she goes into a city, which she thinks of in the same way that humans think about a farmer’s market.  Suitably disguised, she will coyly flirt with whoever catches her eye, gentlemen and ladies alike, sometimes for hours if the conversation is stimulating, before taking them back to her lair-of-the-moment.  Once there, she’ll dally with them, or drop her charade and allow them to fight her, or tie them up and torture them… depending on her mood.  Before the end of the night, however, she’ll sate her hunger.

A young medusa will avoid sleeping in human cities… not that she’s afraid, mind you.  It’s just the stench of humanity; it gets to her, you understand.  However, an older medusa may be more than confident enough, particularly if she has levels in a spellcasting class, to maintain a semipermanent lair in a human city such as Scornubel or Baldur’s Gate or even Waterdeep… although the cold makes Waterdeep less appealing than a cozy buffet like Marsember.

The snakes grow throughout the medusa’s life, averaging a half inch per year of life.  Medusae who can cast spells, and who attempt to live among other races, obviously use magic to disguise the snakes and their own scales.  Those who can’t cast spells will go to any lengths to acquire the means to alter their shape so that they can have access to human and demihuman cities.

The Xaeyruudh Campaign

In my campaign, the medusa were created by the sarrukh.  This will not necessarily mesh with official lore, as noted above, but I think it makes good sense.

First, a medusa clearly has both humanoid and serpentine ancestry; this makes them a prime candidate for being the result of sarrukh genetic engineering. I think it makes sense for the medusae to have once been the personal servants of the sarrukh, since they have arms for wielding tools and a scaly form that the sarrukh would find more aesthetically pleasing than a non-reptilian slave race. Medusae also tend toward lawful alignments, making them more servile than other races.  The naga fancy themselves the favorites of the sarrukh, but I think that’s just ego and wishful thinking.

As the sarrukh empires waned, the medusae remained docile and nearly faded into obscurity with their masters, while the yuan-ti “stepped up” and began building kingdoms of their own.  In time the medusae scattered, remaining few in number and relatively shunned by the other reptilian races… though still greatly feared by kobolds, lizardfolk, and so forth, as the right hands of the ultimate masters.

Medusae venerate “Mother Sss’thasine’ss” — actually Talona since the old serpent deity was destroyed by an elven god in the days of Aryvandaar.  Historically, clerics have been rare among the medusae, for the many centuries since the fall of the sarrukh have made them self-sufficient and excessively proud.  Change is in the air, however, as the sarrukh begin to reawaken.

To Do

  • medusa lairs in the Realms, some individuals
  • successful Knowledge check results

Sources

  • Monster Manual [17755] page 180
  • Serpent Kingdoms: the sarrukh, and the connection between Sss’thasine’ss and Talona, come from Serpent Kingdoms
  • Original stuff: the rest is made up, and still a work-in-progress; constructive input is welcome

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

River Surbrin

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The River Surbrin is a river which descends from the Spine of the World and is joined by three significant rivers (and at least two smaller streams) before it feeds into the Dessarin.  In order, these are the Rauvin, the Shining Creek, and the Laughing Flow.


Sources

Primary Sources
  • Waterdeep and the North [FR1/9213] page 4, under Dessarin
Passing Mention
Maps
Other Resources

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.