Monsters

“Not bad… Not bad at all…”

Oddleigh gawped – firstly at the thing squatting in the rough chalk circle and then at his tingling hands, hardly believing that he had managed to summon, let alone bind, such a creature with the flimsy pentagram he had scrawled onto the flagstones in the back yard of the inn.

“Thank-you master,” he muttered, grinning with embarrassment as some of warband, idly watching  nearby, applauded half-heartedly.

The creature, dense, flabby and pale, moved it’s head slightly as the tentacles that comprised what was presumably it’s face gently probed the air around it.

“Back in my day we called them Moonbeasts,” said Thaddeus conversationally. “We could only get them to manifest during a full moon. That you can summon one in daylight is quite an achievement, though I daresay the strong magical field around here had something to do with it.”

“Is it dangerous?” Oddleigh asked, noting the muscles tensing under the creature’s rubbery skin.

“All extra-planar entities are dangerous in one way or another,” his master replied. “But Moonbeasts are docile enough – absolute buggers if roused though.” He chuckled to himself, remembering some old incident or other from his own apprenticeship. “I think I’ll sit and watch this one for a while – see if the sunlight causes it any discomfort – my notepad and a sandwich if you please.”

Oddleigh sighed inwardly – performing a rare feat of summoning obviously didn’t exempt one from the usual round of fetching and carrying…

He sloped off into the inn’s kitchen, lost in thought, and reached for the bread.

“BOY!”

Oddleigh paused halfway through hacking his way through the loaf as his master yelled – the noise mingling with shouts of alarm from the rest of the warband. He rushed back into the yard, where the men were circling a huge worm-like creature that reared above them.

Thaddeus sat comfortably to one side with a look of amused detachment.

“Oh good summoning master!” Oddleigh cried, agog.

“Oh this is not my work boy; it sort of… erupted from underneath the midden…”

“Oh…”

One of the men yelled and sprang swiftly to one side as the worm darted at him, it's circular toothy maw stained with dried blood.

Thaddeus snorted, before pointing a bony finger at the Moonbeast still pawing at the invisible wall around the summoning circle.

“You bound it boy, so you can let it out – be interesting to see which one wins… Now, where's that sandwich?”

Two nice monsters to reduce the creatures to-do pile – plastic pre-painted Pathfinder figures that I’ve ‘prettied’ up a bit and re-based. The Moonbeast will do as a minor or major demon (and at a push a mutated frost ape or bear), whilst the Grimslake will double up as a worm or demon.