The Compendium of Creepier Creeps

Continuing the feature begun with The Hollyshade a few months back, although this creature differs from that one in several respects: It was drawn in a Rhodia DotPad (less pretty, better paper); it’s inspired by reading The Dying Earth, and it’s much cuter. Oh, and it’s statted for B/X, not Basic Fantasy.

Like much of my output, this is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows you to share it or reuse it in nearly any context.

The Esm

Ungainly, unkind and untrustworthy, the Esm is an opportunistic agent of Chaos spawned from demonically-tainted flux stone. Once birthed, the quickly form squabbling warbnds and set off in search of magic items or demihumans—both of which they eat, Esms being wicked metal-human hybrids birthed of magic and driven to cannibalism. In their cowardice, however, they can usually be bartered with.

AC: 7
HD: 1
Attacks: 1d6 Damage (or by weapon), Belch
Movement: 60’ (20’)
No. Appearing: d4+1
Save As: Normal Man
Morale: 7
Treasure Type: R (B)
Alignment: Chaos

The Esm generally fights with his crude weapons. In desparation, he may belch forth a noxious goo dealing d4 damange within a 5’ radius. However, this may (1–2 on d6) kill the Esm outright due to internal bleeding.

1 out of 6 Esms are “mages”, fighting as 2 HD creatures and knowing a single random Level One spell (used more or less randomly).

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