Monstrous - The Brute

So it took a while but I finally got access to my physical copy of the book Monstrous by Cloud Curio. It contains some well written mad libs style prompts for making interesting monsters. Some of the prompts are a bit weird and I'm not quite sure how they would work in a game but from just reading it it seams to hold a lot of promise.

I plan on making a post for each monster (there are 10 in total). To help with this I will be using one of the ten guilds of Ravnica from Magic: The Gathering to help inspire each monster. The monster isn't going to be from the Ravnica world or the multiverse of MTG, just going to use the mana combination for some ideas. 

This post is going to contain the first monster I have made using Monstrous, a Brute.

Text in italics is from the book, text in bold is the stuff I filled in. 

 

 

Abrupt Decay by Svetlin Velinov

Brute - Golgari - Life Eater

Blood pact
Long ago, the Life Eaters willingly entered into a Blood Pact with a pact-holder. They swore to obey the pact-holder’s command to kill all beings that try and extend their lifespan
The pact-holder, in turn, harnessed great and terrible sorceries to grant the Life Eaters tough mycelial flesh, rotting acidic spores, and the ability to sense how old something is


Mark of the damned
Whatever noble intentions the Life Eaters might have had for entering into the Blood Pact, the oath eventually became their curse. The bodies of the Life Eaters became warped and beastly, and the gifts they received from the Blood Pact were corrupted.
The curse began when the life eaters turned on their godly creator, killing it.
Now marked by the curse, the Life Eaters spread its evil upon the world. The Life Eaters mark rotting matter by disintegrating it with its spores
Whatever is marked by the Life Eaters becomes more Life Eaters that grow and feast upon the rotting material


Profane aversion
In their cursed state, the Life Eaters cannot abide youth, which they avoid at all cost.
The Life Eaters are also repelled by reminders of their mortal lives before the Blood Pact, which will render them momentarily dazed before they are driven ever deeper into their cursed, beastly state.


Unleashed beasthood
In battle, the Life Eaters are merciless and brutal, leaving their victims melted and decomposing
When the Life Eaters attack with teeth, claws, or weapons, they also choose one of the following enhancements
The attack is entropic, preventing healing both natural and magical for a time
The attack is disfiguring, leaving the target both burned and aged

 

Sporemound by Svetlin Velinov

 

An ancient god of rot and death created the Life Eaters to ensure mortals would not rise above their station and try and unnaturally extend their life. This god made a mistake when creating the Life Eaters, their simple minds were commanded to slay all things which were not mortal or which tried to attain immortality. Being only able to comprehend the word of this law and not its meaning they looked at the world and attacked the oldest thing they could see: the very god that created them. After this shocking betrayal the other gods cast them to the mortal world where they could not touch them.

Now loosed upon the material plane they live without much purpose. Given a crippling fear of youth as a failed fail safe they only live in the most foul or barren regions of the world, slowly turning them into an acidic hellscape. The Life Eaters are horrible menaces, often killing the elderly and healers in their misguided attempt to stop the immortal. 

Despite these facts some still seek them out either for knowledge (for they know precisely how old something is) or for help against immortal foes (for though they are quite sedentary they can be roused if you manage to convince them). If one wishes to do this your greatest weapon against a Life Eater will be a newborn as they cannot stand its youth and will do anything for you to take it away.

So far Monstrous has been quite a fun book to use and it has lead me to some ideas I don't think I would have found without it. 

You should be able to get a PDF of Monstrous on Itch.io and it looks like physical copies might be available some time in the future if you missed the kickstarter but I don't have any details on that.