Early explorers of distant and far-off lands often define them by the creatures to be found there, so here is a collection of diverse and fascinating beasts to populate the Southlands and terrorise incautious visitors. These creatures are at home, the party are the interlopers, having to deal with the rigors of the setting as well as the actual monsters themselves. A new land with new monsters provides a challenge to players as well as to their characters as both are venturing someplace new. It's also a way to get over the obstacle of a character knowing more about his surroundings (including the monsters) than his player does!
There's a wealth of opportunity for the GM as well. Treat the monsters not as mere cannon-fodder but as a living, breathing part of the world that they inhabit. The ultimate challenge for the characters may well be to engage in combat with the monsters, but what of learning about them first? Observations can be made, legends learned, and so on, enabling the characters to know something about these new creatures before having to fight them... or such observations can be made after the first stunning shock of a combat encounter as the characters regroup, figure out what attacked them and how they can detect and deal with it in the future.
Even if you don't want to use the Southlands in your game, or the plot does not call for the party to go there right now, the odd creature might have strayed elsewhere. You may have a suitable ecological niche for it where your game is currently set, or it may have strayed - perhaps as an exhibit in a menagerie - far from its natural habitat. There's always scope for new monsters....
The Introduction touches on these concepts and then we're off with an array of monsters presented in alphabetic order. Each comes with all the details we have come to expect: a description, complete stat block, notes on lifestyle, habitat and behaviour and a glorious full-colour illustration. Most entries fill a single page, else they fill two, so users of the PDF will be able to print out the pages that they need without extraneous material. There's almost an hundred of them to feast your eyes upon and build adventures around; and there's a table listing them by CR at the back to help you in setting up encounters appropriate to your characters.
Many of the monsters are uniquely suited to the Southlands, both ecologically and in terms of the overall style of the campaign setting. Perhaps a gentle stroll across the desert will be interrupted as two speckled, wickedly pointed legs erupt from the sand, plunging forward with murderous speed, followed by a spider the size of a rhino... the evocative description provided for the sand spider. Another beast, the subek, is a humanoid crocodile which retains many of the fighting techniques of the animal that is its inspiration such as the 'death roll' of a crocodile dragging its prey underwater to drown, adapting the technique to a land-based grappling manoeuvere.
The giant white apes reflect legends about super-intelligent gorillas found in the depths of Congo rain forests, twisted to suit the Southlands setting yet evoking the same awe and curiousity. The monsters range from pure animal to sentient, from desert dwellers to jungle inhabitants - whatever your needs there is likely something that will suit. Beautifully presented and well-considered, if you are using the Southlands Campaign Setting or have another area occupying the ecological niche of Africa in your world, these creatures will help to bring it to life.
Return to Southlands Bestiary page.
Reviewed: 7 August 2015
