At a Glance
Quelzarn are magical beasts; giant aquatic snakes with the ability to cast hold person.
Source
Tantras [FRE2/9248] page 47. There’s a quelzarn encounter on page 9.
Monsters which may appear in the Forgotten Realms.
Quelzarn are magical beasts; giant aquatic snakes with the ability to cast hold person.
Tantras [FRE2/9248] page 47. There’s a quelzarn encounter on page 9.
Netherbirds are extraplanar outsiders, in the service of Bane.
Shadowdale [FRE1/9247] page 48.
This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Curst, 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
An undead.
Curst are the same height as living creatures but roughly 60% of their living weight, due to dehydration and blood loss. Human curst average 5 ft 9 in tall and 100 lbs (male) or 5 ft 4 in tall and 70 lbs (female). They appear emaciated, but this has no effect on their strength.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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).
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.
This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Ropers are stony creatures of the Underdark, best described as resembling stalagmites. They have a gizzard-like organ known as a horlobb, which accumulates the durable items the roper sometimes consumes along with its victims.
Ropers are thought to venerate Ghaunadaur.
Ropers are related to ghauropers, storopers, and urophions.
A suggestive interpretation of the roper turned up in the Erotic Monster Manual Contest at something awful.com.
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.
This is a continuation of more realistic weights for monsters. This time: oozes, and other regular/irregular shapes that are definitely not humanoid.
A valuable reference here is www.simetric.co.uk/
The average mimic is described as 150 cubic feet and 4500 lbs. That sounds heavy, but as it turns out… that’s about the same density as a snowball.
Seriously. 4500/150 = 30 lbs per cubic foot, which is roughly equivalent to 480 kg per cubic meter. Scroll down the list of weights on the reference page given at the top of this page, and what comes up around 480? Household garbage, hydrated lime, ground-up scrap rubber, and… yup, compacted snow.
You might be saying so what. Consider the fact that coffee beans are heavier than that. Rice, apples, grits, all more dense than snow. Solid ice is 919 kg per cubic meter… mimics are supposed to be half as dense as an ice cube?
So, clearly, something is wonky. Yes, 4500 lbs is more than an empty chest would weigh, but my point is that a handful of mimic should be more significant than a handful of rice. And I really don’t think mimics should float.
I’m going to go with 2400 kg/cu m, or 150 lbs/cu ft. Seems like a big number, but packed dirt is around 2000 kg/cu m. Soapstone, brick, and porcelain are all around 2400, while marble and window glass are closer to 2600, so this seems like a good range. If you want to see big numbers, iron is 7850, steel is around 8000, and platinum is 21400.
Incidentally, I would base the mimic’s dimensions on its hit dice. Greater mimics are described in the second 2e Undermountain box as 1000 cubic feet, at 15 HD, and I think this is a better basis for calculation than 7 HD and 150 cubic feet. So here’s a simple way to calculate the size of any mimic:
HD x 2/3 = the length of one side, in feet.
cube that length to get the volume, in cubic feet.
using this formula, a 7 HD “normal” mimic would be 4.7 feet on a side and 102 cubic feet in volume. Using my suggestion of 150 lbs per cubic foot, that mimic weighs 15,244 lbs. Yea, it’s a beast… but that makes a lot more sense than letting it float on a lake because it has half the density of an ice cube!
Yea, I realize a floating mimic would have a certain appeal, but it’s too weird.
These are described as 15 feet on a side and 50,000 lbs. That’s about 15 lbs per cubic foot. This is about the same weight/volume ratio as cork, which as you know if you’ve ever handled cork is… pretty light. I suggest beefing the gelatinous cube up to about 50 lbs per cubic foot, or 800 kg/cu m, which is a little less than butter and significantly less than water. As a bonus, butter is a great analogy for the consistency of a gelatinous cube. This also means that, unlike a mimic, a gelatinous cube can float in water. No idea why it would want to float, considering that it would be unable to move or steer itself, but whatever.
A 15 ft cube has a volume of 3375 cu ft, which (at 50 lbs per cu ft) is 168,750 lbs. Which really doesn’t matter… unless you piss Durnan off, and instead of pulling you up into the Yawning Portal, he pushes a gelatinous cube down on you…
Just sayin. Don’t mess with Durnan.
More later.
This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
A construct.
Dowagu are intimidating, somewhat resembling either winged yuan-ti or male marilith, but their skin is black.
In spite of their demonic appearance, the dowagu are actually constructs, created by Ambuchar Devayam. There are, supposedly, only six of them, and they are kept busy by their master in the ruins of Solon.
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 monsters described in The Ruins of Undermountain II [1104] include bi-nou, death mold, deep mold, dense pudding, ferragan, flareater, gray mold, gray pudding, iridescent plecos, lemon fish, greater mimic, rocklord, rockworm, scaladar, serpent vine, shadow lurker, silversann, stone pudding, thanatar, wattley, and wraith-spider.
This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Today, the Ganathwood is a quiet and unremarkable forest, but for a few centuries leading up to 1309 DR it was the home of a great green dragon. The dragon was named Sibethibis, but few knew her by that name. She was the Jade Plague to everyone from Semphar to Calimshan, and from Ashane to the Golden Water.
The Jade Plague was a messy end that afflicted wealthy gem collectors. The first was in 1052 DR in Semphar; a merchant acquired a lovely piece of jade said to have been pulled from the earth on the island of Machukara far to the east, and three days later his home was torn apart by a massive green dragon who disappeared over Gbor Nor before the Caliph’s wizards could mount an organized assault. Every few years thereafter, there was another death, always following the acquisition of jade, although it was only occasionally a large or ornate work of art; sometimes it was a small and seemingly insignificant piece of rough stone. By 1300 DR, the deaths ranged from Calimshan to Damara to Durpar.
A green dragon had been slain by adventurers in the Ganathwood in 1155 DR, and an incredible horde of jade was found in a vast treasure chamber. The adventurers took what they could carry, selling it and retiring with vast wealth, confident that the Jade Plague was at last ended. Unfortunately, within a decade another green dragon was spotted flying out of the forest. Where the previous century had seen perhaps three jade-related deaths in a decade (which was why the jade market didn’t collapse; it was slightly more dangerous to deal in jade, but not overwhelmingly so) dozens of deaths were reported among merchants and collectors in 1163 DR, and the adventurers who had supposedly ended the Plague suddenly had much explaining to do; they vanished from the Old Empires the following year, reportedly pursued by scores of hired killers. Some say they took shelter in Waterdeep, some say they went east, perhaps even to Machukara. No two stories agree on their fate.
Another group of adventurers claimed victory over a green dragon on the slopes of the Sunrise Mountains in 1243 DR, but this time there were hints that the dragon may be undead. Within the great cavern, at the bottom of a crevasse that the adventurers saw but could not safely reach, they reported seeing a large statue (or preserved corpse) that looked very much like a green dragon. So they brought word to the incarnation of Anhur at Sultim of the possibility that one dracolich was to blame for the Jade Plague, rather than multiple dragons. And this time (showing considerable restraint!) they left the vast array of jade in the dragon’s lair untouched.
Predictably, another green dragon appeared over the Ganathwood in 1247 DR, but this time there was no surge in the number of merchant deaths… they simply resumed quietly, at the pace of one every few years. The incarnation of Anhur at that time was Anhet, a venerable priest and scholar. Rather than end his life confronting the dragon (although his advisors faithfully assured him that he would surely be victorious) he chose to spend his remaining days directing his church to learn all it could of dracoliches… creatures which Mulhorand’s priests had not yet been compelled to directly confront. In his final audience with the Pharaoh, the incarnation prevailed upon the ruler to save mulan lives by publicly exhorting Mulhorandi (and Semphari for that matter) merchants to avoid dealing in jade until the menace could be decisively ended. Some heeded the advice, some didn’t. Anhet also completed, in 1249 DR, a project he had begun at the first word of this threat’s nature; he gathered almost every known piece of jade in Mulhorand in one place: Saphelgûn, an ancient (ruined) fortress on the River of Spears.
Anhet died peacefully in 1252 DR, at the grand old age of 184. A paladin named Anre succeeded him as incarnation of Anhur and, following suggestions in the priest’s journal, found and destroyed the dracolich’s phylactery. Then Anre went into the Ganathwood to hunt the Jade Plague. He was followed by a disorganized and largely unarmed army of Anhur’s faithful, who were so possessed by the “spirit and might of the God-King” that they ignored his direct admonition to remain in Sultim. He did, however, convince them to remain barely-within-sight of him, for their own safety. It’s said that one of the high priests of Anhur who were chosen to accompany Anre (as healers if it turned out to be necessary) created an illusion of the paladin-hero standing at the mouth of the dragon’s cave so that his overzealous followers would remain at the bottom of the mountain. Night fell, and morning came, and the illusion still stood at the cave entrance, so the throng continued waiting and praying, and singing the praises of Anhur.
Anre emerged from the cave late in the morning (many records of the event say that he was glowing with Anhur’s bright golden brilliance, but tales of zeal are difficult to trust) and declared that the power of Anhur was victorious that day, but that the church and its most devoted followers (meaning adventurers) must remain ever-vigilant.
Anhet’s theory, which is the official explanation offered by the church of Anhur to anyone inquiring into the Jade Plague or the fate of Sibethibis, is that she was a great green wyrm of indeterminate but advanced age. She discovered a means by which to enchant stones (she probably chose jade because it spoke to her vanity) so that she could see out of them like eyes and so that they would enable her to teleport to them in spite of various feeble wards against such magic that merchants might raise around their homes. She dominated various human minions and directed them to sell her enchanted pieces of jade in marketplaces including (at least) Dhaztanar, Ormpé, and Calimport. Then she simply waited until one of her stones was inside the home of a suitably wealthy merchant. When night fell, she teleported to the stone in human form, and killed the merchants’ families and guards in their sleep using her spells. At her leisure, she gathered the merchants’ valuable possessions (first and foremost her piece of jade, obviously), including any useful investment records and outstanding debts, and teleported them to her own treasure chamber under the Sunrise Mountains. Then, as a gesture of triumph and dominance, she split the house asunder by transforming into her real form. After knocking the walls down and stepping on anyone who happened to be in the street, she leaped into the sky and soared out of sight. At some point after leaving the city far behind, she would teleport to her lair or some other safe location to discourage any remaining pursuit.
No green dragons have been seen in the Ganathwood or the Sunrise Mountains since Anre’s March in 1309 DR. The priesthood of Anhur, consulting Anhet’s careful records, restored the jade treasures gathered at Saphelgûn to their rightful owners in 1320 DR, after a reasonable period of cautious optimism regarding the dragon’s final destruction. Today (1365 DR) the Jade Plague is all but forgotten in Mulhorand, though it is still sometimes recalled in the taverns of Semphar.
Every bit of this was made up for the Xaeyruudh campaign. Except the bit about selling/buying/touching items from a dragon’s hoard being a bad idea.
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.