[Rq-rules] Sea Griffon

[Paul Cardwell]

Speaking of Chilean monsters, there is the chonchon
(first o should have an acute accent, but those don't
go through the e-mail process very well).  It is a
rather gaunt human head with shark-like teeth, which
flies by flapping its ears.  They are invisible until
they attack, but give their presence away by muttering
"tue, tue" (accents on the e) as they fly.  Like a
cross repels vampires, a hexagram repels them. (No
that is not "equal time" for Jews, but was first
recorded by conquistadores, who had reason to fear the
Inquisition.)

There are quite a few non-European fabulous beasts
from around the world that can be used.  Despite the
fact that the various Celtic groups (particularly
Irish) had an overabundance of these, there are many,
many others.  Mythworld Bestiary includes them from
every continent except Antarctica.

Paul Cardwell



--- Roger Benham <rog_benham at hotmail.com> wrote:
---------------------------------
There's loads of other monsters in Terran mythology
that have never been written up.  I remember a Chilean
one which resembled a floating cow hide with teeth
around the edge that would sneak up on and consume
swimmers in the sea.  

I think the Gateway Bestiary tried to break the mould
a little bit- the Celtic and Cthulhu monsters were
good, and even the Gloranthan ones were different- I
love the Jack O'Bear for instance- but I think the
Eurocentric Bestiary kinda still holds true.  I'm
musing about doing an Australian aborigine campaign
(Been musing for years... one day I may get something
done!) using the creatures from Terra Australis, and
so on.

I'm not a fan of the AD & D approach of more is
better, but I have noticed that the players do get
bored of meeting the same monsters in my campaigns
over and over in the wildernesse encounters.  As such,
variety is useful but not to the scattergun approach
of D20.

Were there Japanese monsters in the Japanese
supplement?

There are also shedloads of other monsters like the
rusalka and the like from Ukrainian mythos too.  All
good stuff. 


 
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