DMR2 Creature Catalog - T & V: Tabi to Velya.

* The Vampire, Nosferatu isn't in the earlier Creature Catalogue (AC9).

Tabi.

Flying monkeys that can be bound (6th level Wizard spell in 2e) as familiars and spies. They are long-lived (though hardly ancient: 150 years in 2e) and give off a stench of rot that can be smelled at up to 100 feet. 

Claws drip a crystal blue venom that causes you to attack whoever's nearest to the best of your ability, but only with weapons or unarmed attacks. Thief abilities. Like to ambush, then hide while their victims fight it out with each other.

I liked this a lot more as just a statblock in the Master DM's book with limited clues to what it was, but I think lots of people have time for winged monkeys (with or without dear little uniforms).

Thunderhead.

Because I'm not keen on the standard dragon, I like borderline cases such as the Thunderhead - a dragon-like fantastic animal that lives in the clouds and loves an electrical storm (encounter one during and it doubles its HD).

Pretty cool.

They're black in colour with a lightning bolt breath weapon, and can carry off a war horse in its claws, so this is a dragon as far as most normal folk are concerned. And I'm not going to quibble.

Topi.

Culturally dubious shrunken undead - smaller (2' tall), tougher and more agile (they can jump) Zombies with slow venom. The process of making them is known only to certain primitive tribes, because head-hunters or voodoo or something.

Caricatures aside, I think they're a sound little monster and a sound little statblock for reskinning. I especially like the inclusion that hitting them with a bludgeoning weapon knocks them over and they lose their next attack.

2e uses tribal, witch doctor and shaman to indicate the certain primitive tribes aspect, and includes the usual greater detail for creating one and how its abilities interact with the expanded AD&D rules. They also get a slight boost in intelligence, making them capable of carrying out orders without close supervision and taking pleasure in killing.

Tortle.

Terrapin/tortoise/turtle people. See also, Snapper. Apparently quite popular nowadays.

Can retreat inside their shells for (in CC) undefined protection. You can use the shells of 25 of their freshly harvested eggs to make lightweight plate mail armor. And they prefer to travel on horse-drawn wagons when not bobbing along in the water.

They travel to traditional, stone-walled compounds near the end of their lives to lay eggs, barricade them in, and then die. Doesn't say if this happens en masse or individually, but I find the whole thing conjures a somewhat bleak image.

2e changes this to females lay eggs only once during their lives and aging males then watch over the eggs, dying once they are safely hatched. Which is also kind of bleak. Though the text would imply that the other Tortles stick around (maybe having a carnival or solemn rites) rather than leave the eggs and the elderly, I think I'd lean into the bleakness on this one.

I like them more than I would expect now I've considered their lifecycle. 

Triton.

Higher (5 to 7) HD merfolk with level-equivalent spell-casting ability (50/50 Cleric or MU - no fire spells). Sparse cultural/habitat detail - they braid their hair and build cities that are works of art.

Different enough to the MM that you could use both. They could share tridents.

Vampire, Nosferatu.* 

This is a special vampire, in that it's the more traditional blood-drinking rather than level-draining one.

Surprisingly short compared to almost every other Vampire entry in almost every other game.

Guess what? Turned as a Vampire by Clerics.

There's a version in 2e, but it's part of the Ravenloft setting. There are a number of differences, not least that it has mechanics for blood-drinking, rather than merely a d4 bite and dietary preferences.

Vampire Rose.

They flush red from white after they've fed on d8 hp of your blood per round. Save vs. spells or you are hypnotically anaesthetised (so I'm not clear if this is a chemical or a magical effect) and let them do it.

They can uproot themselves and move about, albeit slowly, which is creepy.

2e states that the hypnotic effect is from the plant's fragrance, and adds the wonderful feature that it screams and spurts blood if you can sever a part of it while it feeds. Save vs. fear if this is the first time you've experienced this.

Now one of my favourite plant monsters.

Velya.

Take a Vampire entry (almost any will do). Swap around what they can turn into (shark, ray, water) and what they're particularly vulnerable to (destroyed by exposure to open air), but they're otherwise much the same (the Velya has a weaker statline).

However, that doesn't mean I don't like the Velya. In fact, I've always thought it was pretty cool. 

Its charm person power is a thematically appropriate song, and they're normally accompanied by 1d6 wights (victims return as Wights, not more Velyas).

There's also a swamp variant of this variant (turns into albino croc, white eel, water; not vulnerable to open air, as long as it's in contact with the swamp).

As featured (with Wight; by Jeff Butler) in X7 War Rafts of Kron.

CC has them as the undead of surface cities that have sunk beneath the waves; 2e suggests an ancient curse. Maybe this could be what happens to you when you badly disrupt a Shark-kin ceremony and prevent the new elder's ascension.

For some reason, both CC and 2e seem to have settled on that Wight rather than the actual Velya for inspiration:

DMR2 Creature Catalog - S (Part 2): Snake, Rock Rattler to Surtaki + Stalwart

Part 2 of the S section. For easier consumption.

Snake, Rock Rattler. 

Normal and Giant. Nothing that particularly distinguishes them, nor thematically links them to their mountainous habitat.

The Giant (30' long) Rattler has a rattle that is so unnerving that you flee in terror if you fail your save.

Snapper.

I'm instinctively not keen because of the TMNT baggage they inevitably carry.

Snappers are not-quite palette-swapped Tortles as baddies (Chaotic alignment). They exist in reflection of each other. 

Twice the weight of Tortles at 1000 lbs, but worse AC and HD. Able to swim; Tortles can't. Favour long bows, but also have claw/claw/bite. They're bad tempered and attack at the least provocation. 

But: they have an interesting characteristic. To reproduce, they travel hundreds of miles to the rock-walled, roofless labyrinths that serve as their breeding/egg-laying grounds. Meaning that there are possibilities in the structures when the Snappers are absent and/or when they return to find it squatted by other creatures, and in the periods when irritable archers with baby-making on their mind are swarming en masse along the coast.

It doesn't say whether the Snappers actually build these labyrinths, if they are appropriated, or if they are a natural feature.

2e makes them a Lawful Evil variant of Tortles, with a more conventional weapon selection (net, trident, spear) and no interesting egg-laying habits. A disservice.

You could build an interesting adventure around the unfortunate conjunction of Snapper egg-laying time with Shark-kin leaving the sea to raise up a new elder.

Sollux (Sun Brother).

They're humanoids related to elementals of fire (Helions and Efreet specified), and the stats/text only deal with the warriors - membership of the Brotherhood of the Sun is earned by killing an Efreeti, and killing Efreet is what they're about. 

C'mon - surely that could be more than +1 AC and a light effect.

They get a blazing sun shield (treat as a light spell, anticlimactically) and red-gold armour on joining up. Maybe you could too, if you play your cards right.

Basically, goodie Fire Giants/Efreeti. Which sounds more interesting to me than I find them.

2e doesn't really add much, though I like that they have lassoes in their armoury.

Soul Eater.

Extra-dimensional monster appearing as a cloud of darkness with two ghostly claws (though apparently it can assume any shape desired) that gets summoned by Clerics to slay somebody. And, I guess, EAT. THEIR. SOUL.

Per attack, save vs. death ray or lose a point of Wisdom. 0=irrevocably dead, and I think there was a Dragon article that says the summoning Cleric can turn you into a Mummy now.

Foil the Soul Eater and it goes after its summoner, with doubled HD - the quantification of fury.

It gets a name change in 2e (to Spectral Death) and becomes a native of the Quasi-elemental Plane of Vacuum. Summon it using a variant of the aerial servant spell.

It's okay. It makes sense that Wisdom (the most Cleric-y of Ability Scores) is tied to the soul, either being part of it or serving as the buffer against its loss.

Spider, Giant.

Three types.

Hunting: 2 HD, sometimes trained as watch/hunting dogs by several primitive societies (and Drow, probably). No web, no venom, no special abilities.

They're the size of dogs so maybe they're huge not giant (see below)

Sand: Burrow under the sand near pyramids, large statues, rocky crags and paved roads to surprise you 1-4 on d6 when you pass over them. Paralysing venom (d4+4 hours). No web.

Shroud: Intelligent, evil, magical with faintly glowing eyes (visible to 50' in the dark). Immune to normal weapons. Paralysing venom (2d4 10-min turns).

Has a web that paralyses by touch, and can shoot strands of webbing as a special attack. Being wrapped in the webbing (this is the shroud it gets its name from) keeps you in a state of suspended animation, so it could be repurposed for therapeutic work.

I like this one in particular.

Spider, Huge Wood.

Big green and brown 3' long spider. Surprise 1-4 on d6 in woodlands, with a venom that makes you sluggish.

Wood Imps use them as mounts and are the only ones able to coax them into donating their venom.

A nice little variant. In 2e, they are just a sentence in the Wood Imp entry, where they become Large Spiders.

Squid, Giant.

This is approximately half the strength of the AD&D MM Squid, Giant and about 10% of the CC Kraken.

Nothing unexpected.

Steam Weevil.

Geothermally-adapted subterranean flying insects that glow in the dark due to intense internal heat.

The text assumes that you're mainly going to encounter them after volcanic activity forces them out into the world (they die in d4 hours), rather than in their natural habitat.

I think they have d4 hp each, which seems a lot for something described as tiny and their attack is an area effect. Splash them with water to reduce the damage each swarm does per round (damping down their heat), but otherwise it looks like you have to target them individually.

4-24 in a swarm, and you might encounter up to 6 swarms at once. Because the individuals are so robust, I wonder if they were designed with challenge for higher level PCs in mind, rather than to fit into a fantasy ecology.

Strangle Vine.

This is the Mystaran/BECMI/RC version of the Choke Creeper (MM2) - indeed, Strangle Vine is an alt-name in the AD&D entry.

The Strangle Vine is more passive than the Choke Creeper, and you have a better chance of freeing yourself from it if you have low Strength (base chance 5%, but +5% for every Strength point below 6).

Strangleweed.

Same-as-but-different to the AD&D version: CC gives it much better AC and HD, and strips it of what intelligence it has in the MM.

A contested dice roll to escape its clutches: 4d6+4 vs. 4d6+4+/-Strength mod. If you score twice as much as the 'weed, you're free; beat it by less, no damage but still stuck; roll lower, and you take the difference in damage. This is also a cumulative penalty to your future rolls, so eventually you'll have no chance of escaping its clutches. You can't be pulled free, but the weed can be attacked (25% you divide damage between captor and captive).

This little subsystem would work for other hazards, like quicksand, and I feel something very similar turned up in one of the Dragon Warriors volumes. You could even do away with the damage completely (which I think I'd prefer) - Strangleweed is aquatic, so you'll drown in the end or get eaten by predators.

It's handy that it's right next to the Strangle Vine, for comparison.

Surtaki. 

I think I read somewhere that this was meant to be a version of the Giant Minotaur Lizard (really?), but that seems unlikely because it's clearly meant to be stats/mechanics for a Shaggy Beast-type monster.

It's a chimerical beast, made up of bits of other animals, including tortoise feet (though it shows claws in the CC illo, and says hooves in the statblock). Sheds poisonous quills hidden under its thick green fur in melee; they give you a rotting disease if you fail your save.

More tortoise-y, but still not hooves, though.
Arnie Swekel, 2e Mystara monster supplement.

They get the expected biology/ecology update in 2e, and we learn that their freshly laid eggs are a delicacy worth 2-8 gp. This seems a bit low for their rarity (Very Rare) and the risk of obtaining them, and then getting them to market before they turn. Maybe there's a dining-safari business based around them in some settings.

I find the Surtaki rather charming, and I like the 2e illo. It's in that dragon-but-not-a-dragon category that I prefer over actual dragons.

What Was Left Out - Stalwart.

A 9 HD, 7' tall humanoid with Strength and Dexterity of d8+15 each. It thinks that it's better than you and will challenge you to prove it. 

Roll d10 and add your Strength (arm-wrestling, rock-pitching etc) or Dexterity (log-balancing, archery etc) vs. them doing the same. 

If they roll highest, you owe them half your non-magic treasure. Vice versa, it will serve for one month in any way that does not involve danger. 

That's right - better than you!

Because the contest is based on ability scores rather than levels/HD, a low-level party could end up with a powerful follower. Do equally low-level monsters constitute danger to something with 9 HD and a min. Strength bonus of +2? Or would it just insist on challenging them?

Stalwarts have a No. Appearing of 1, and will challenge creatures (I'm presuming humanoid, if not also intelligent) between 5 and 7 feet tall. So it will face off against Ogres and Trolls, though good luck getting them to agree to one-on-one honourable contests.

This has the scent of early White Dwarf/Fiend Factory about it - a monster for a game, rather than a world.