A recent post by Noisms reminded me of The Forge, and of course I was inspired to go fiddle around myself for a while. So, just in time for Halloween, please enjoy these four monsters that probably fall somewhere on the spectrum between “terrifying” and “okay.”

Phase Ape: A perfectly ordinary ape, with gray hair and iridescent eyes, except it can phase through ordinary matter at will. As a rule a Phase Ape is savvy enough to be effectively immune to physical attacks and to magical attacks that create physical effects (e.g. fire, lightning). It can only be hit (on a successful attack roll, as normal) when caught by surprise or if the attacker carefully matches their timing.

Bleak Pusher Bird: A perfectly ordinary raven, about as intelligent as any other corvid, capable of mimicking a handful of words of human speech, except it generates an aura of soul-crushing depression. The Bleak Pusher isn’t going to be any more hostile than any other 99% perfectly ordinary raven, but you still don’t want them around because taking almost any action is going to require a roll (saving throws of increasing severity, in D&D terms). It starts with the big stuff, but if you hang around within the bird’s range for a couple of days it starts to affect breathing, and then you’re in real trouble. You’ll likely be adventuring — Nevermore!

Druid Cobra: A perfectly ordinary cobra, except it can empathically command plants. They’re not intelligent by human standards; they don’t have language; they just desire that the local vegetation hides them from enemies and entangles their prey, and it does so to the best of its ability.

Mute Child Adder: A perfectly ordinary snake, just venomous enough to be a mild threat to a healthy adult, except it has the face of a human child. They don’t have human larynges, though, so they can’t really talk. As a rule they look pretty cute, sweet even, at least until they open their mouths and you see the teeth.