Monster Lore


D E F 

Drow Elves (dark elves): found in Endless Nights
    These dreaded, evil creatures were once part of the community of elves that still roam the world's forests.  Now these dark elves inhabit black caves and winding tunnels under the earth, where they make dire plans against the races that still walk beneath the sun, on the surface of the green earth.
    Drow have black skin and pale, usually white hair.  They are shorter and more slender than humans, seldom reaching more than 5 feet in height.  Male drow weigh between 80 and 110 pounds, and females between 95 and 120 pounds.  Drow have finely chiseled features, and their fingers and toes are long and delicate.  Like elves, the have higher Dexterity and lower Constitution than men.
    In the centuries they've spent underground, drow have learned the languages of many of the intelligent creatures of the underworld.  Besides their own tongue, and exotic variant of elvish, drow speak both common and the subterranean trade language used by many races under the earth.  They speak the languages of gnomes and other elves fluently.
Drow also have their own silent language composed of both signed hand movements and body language.  These signs can convey information, but not subtle meaning or emotional content.  If within 30 feet of another drow, they can also use complex facial expressions, body movements, and postures to convey meaning.  Coupled with their hand signs, these expressions and gestures give the drow's silent language a potential for expression equal to most spoken languages.

Driders: found in Endless Nights
    These strange creatures have the head and torso of a drow and the legs and lower body of a giant spider.  Driders are created by the drow's dark goddess.  When a dark elf of above-average ability reaches 6th level, the goddess may put him or her through a special test.  Failures become driders.
    Because they have failed their goddess's test, driders are outcasts from their own communities.  Driders are usually found alone or with huge spiders, rather than with drow or other driders.  They are violent, aggressive creatures that favor blood over all types of food.  They stalk their victims tirelessly, waiting for the right chance to strike.

Elephant: found falling out of the air onto hapless victims
Elephants have thick, baggy hides, covered with sparse and very coarse tuffs of gray hair.  The elephant's most renowned feature is its trunk, which it uses as a grasping limb.

Ettin (two-headed ettin): found in Greyknife Peaks, Valley of the Giants and Serpentine Mountains
    Ettins, or two-headed giants, as they are often called, are vicious and unpredictable hunters that stalk by night and eat any meat they can catch.
    An ettin at first appears to be a stone or hill giant with two heads.  On closer inspection, however, the creature's vast differences from the relatively civilized giant races become readily apparent.  An ettin has pink to brownish skin, though it appears to be covered in a dark brown hide.  This is because an ettin never bathes if it can help it, and is therefore usually encrusted with a thick layer of dirt and grime.  Its skin is thick, giving the ettin its low Armor Class.  An ettin's hair is long, stringy, and unkempt; its teeth are large, yellowing, and often rotten.  The ettin's facial features strongly resemble those of an orc - large watery eyes, turned-up piggish snout, and large mouth.
    An ettin's right head is always the dominant one, and the right arm and leg will likely appear lightly more muscular and well developed then the left.  An ettin wears only rough, untreated skins, which are dirty and unwashed.  Obviously, ettins smell very bad, due to their complete lack of grooming habits - good or bad.

Eyewing: mostly found as pets to magic users
    Eyewings are loathsome inhabitants of the Abyss.  They are obedient, loyal, and dumb - perfect servitors for the dark gods and their more powerful minions.
    An eyewing's body is a fat, egg-shaped ball covered with matted black fur.  The 5-foot-wide body is supported by a pair of five-foot-long leathery bat wings.  Each wing is tipped with a set of three razor-sharp talons.  An 8-foot-long rat's tail dangles from the back of the body.  The tail ends in a small, sharp spur.  It has no feet and has never been known to land.
    The body is dominated by the single, bulging, 4-foot-wide eyeball.  The eyeball is black with a blood-red pupil.  A vile blue fluid continuously leaks from the eye, soiling its fur.  Great leathery eyelids squeeze this fluid out and away from the creature.  The stench is unbelievable.  It gives off an acidic smell that scorches the sensitive tissues in other creatures' noses and mouths.

Firbolg: found in the Valley of the Giants
    Of all the giant-kin, the firblog is the most powerful, due to natural intelligence and considerable magical power.
    Firblogs appear to be normal humans, except that they are over 10 feet tall and weigh over 800 pounds.  They wear their hair long and keep great, thick beards.  Their skin is a normal fleshy pink, with any shade of hair color, although blonde and red are most common.  The flesh and skin of firbolgs are unusually dense and tough.  Their voices are a smooth, deep bass, thick with rolling consonants.

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