Horror

On Dwarves The Long River Kingdoms were the first to encounter these strange beings. Their name for them, Dwa-Phen (which in time and under less sophisticated tongues becomes our crude “dwarf”) has many translations. The most commonly cited translation is “The Earthen Folk”, or perhaps “Children of the Caves”. Some scholars argue it could be translated as “The Armoured Ones”, or “The Old Men of Many Plates”. These translations are suitable enough, to one degree or another. Bu

In today's blog, we dig into the donestre - a manipulative monstrosity found in medieval bestiaries.

[TW: This post contains discussions of domestic violence, racism, and homophobia.] [SPOILER WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Stephen King’s IT, and as such may reference upcoming plot points in HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry.] In light of the recent IT: Welcome to Derry TV show, I have decided to go back and re-read the iconic doorstop novel that started it all. Stephen King’s IT is quite possibly the prototypical Stephen King text: A writer protagonist, a small town in M

As the seasons shift and the Spirits of Old flit on the peripheries of waking, I felt it’d be a good time to explore the more sinister side of the classic fantasy bestiary. On this blog we have discussed dragons and Derros, and future installments will look at dwarves, elves, giants, and more. But today, on this most hallowed of eves, we'll be looking at the most feared of all beasts and bastards of by-gone days. Today, we shall take a closer look at the dreaded night hag. If

You have been wandering through the Underdark for days now. At least, you’re pretty sure it’s been days: It’s hard to tell, given the lack of sunlight and the ever-present glow of these damned mushrooms. The smell of subterranean gasses float up from deeper, darker levels of this cursed labyrinth, snagging in your throat and clinging to your nostrils. Every now and then, a lizard the size of a horse lumbers by, fixing you in its lazy purple gaze. Sometimes, you think you hear

We stand knee-deep in the spooky season, and “horror” is the word on everyone’s lips. GMs clamour to inject terror into their campaigns, and players long to be thoroughly terrified. The question, however, is how. Horror has been a staple of the TTRPG scene since its very inception, and of all the different flavours of horror that have influenced the hobby, the greatest and most terrifying is cosmic horror.  Horror is a tricky genre. Mechanically, it’s very similar to comedy:

Dragons are not born, you know.  Some claim that they, lizard-like, lay eggs atop volcanoes and or in the dark depths of the earth. This...