Dullahan

 The best thing that blogs and articles that existed far before this one did for fantasy RPGs is push forward the idea that encounters with sentient undead shouldn't just be combat - they should each contain a mystery, a fixation, making the why of the fight as interesting as the how.

Regalt of Greevia was a witch-hunter in life. In death, not much has changed- but while his methods were violent in life, he never hurt anyone he believed to be innocent. These days, his infamous catchphrase "Nana, give me your head" is dreaded across the world, as it means torture and even slaughter of anyone who might know anything begins until the witch, hag, or changeling is brought to him for execution. All the while, the warlock who arranged his execution hides his head somewhere halfway across the world...

The Pastor is a dullahan dressed in a priest's black robes who rides across the western plains. Whenever he encounters travelers, he asks them for a confession. Most are swiftly judged - but for some unknown reason, those whose stories are about sins in the service of a greater good are spared.

The Third Inquisition is known for using any means necessary to get results. For instance, years ago they found an undead warrior's severed head, and he has proven to be one of their most valuable assets. Unfortunately, their over reliance on the dullahan comes back to bite them - as the said head turns out to have been a Lich's phylactery the entire time. Coming in conflict with the lich, the choice to destroy the head is obvious - but that means absolutely infuriating the dullahan, who not only is an extremely capable combatant, but also knows far too much of the inquisition's secrets.

Duergar

 The dwarves' own drow, the duergar remain a bit more flexible in how you can utilize them in your campaign. In Golarion, they remain enslaved by an evil, slaver deity - but your take on them can always give them a different niche.

A particularly ambitious ashen dwarf oracle has decided that the world needs more duergars. To that end, he has enlisted the aid of several dero scientists - who are happy to work for him as long as there is a steady supply of fresh daywalker meat, which they experiment on with glee. This has resulted in an increase of disappearings in the dwarf-ruled settlement of Prestroyka, and an investigation is called for.

On the barren world of Druzga, all civilized life resides underground. For the past few decades, among the Dvergar, babies with mutations such as light skin, and resistance to the Sun's deadly rays have appeared at an alarming rate. What the public doesn't know, is that these so called "dvarfs" have united into a loose alliance, along with lightskin drow and fey-blessed svirfneblin. While the alliance has grown over the years, the only path to the surface leads through the lair of a massive crimson worm.

The Duergar of Antyss Abyss are said to worship the devil himself. True enough, as lords of the neighbouring lands dread duergar priests like no other enemy. Each fall, those priests come to the most downtrodden of villages, the dirtiest of slums, the bloodiest of the arenas. There, they find the poorest, the weakest and the most desperate. Each of them is offered a fulfilment of a single wish, supposedly coming from a god whose name must not be said out loud. The price is always the same: the recipient of the gift must place a single brick into the massive foundations of an unknown structure at the bottom of the Abyss. And yet, many who do so choose to remain underground, working menial jobs under cruel duergar masters. Each year, more and more good men flock to the depths, and the Lords' coffers and armies are begginig to thin.

Dryad&Hamadryad

 Dryads are the elven-looking fey guardians of single trees. Hamadryads are their jacked up versions that watch over entire forests. Both like to use charm and guile to trick folks into helping them, but the latter often bring some bigger friends into the fray as well.

Llikanthika was a Hamadryad that fell into a deep sleep several millennia ago. When she laid, her demesne was a massive, deep forest, and her subjects were legion, with dozens of dryads and other fey at her call. When she finally wakes, she finds her self in but a little park, a tiny speck of green in a massive, gray city. Some kids stumble upon her soon after, and only their childish innocence stops her hand. The kids, for their part, now bear a terrible responsibility - stopping the wraith of nature itself from being unleashed upon the city...

Not all dryads rely on charms to win allies for their cause. Drizilla, the Dealin' Dryad, is a well known card player and gambler. When playing against her, the stakes will inevitably go from gold and baubles to favours owed to the forest itself.

The emerald forest is so big that not even a hamadryad can take care of it alone. Several of them have banded together, and ritually crowned Queen Amalfia as the Archidryad. She now watches over an entire continent's worth of deep and lush forests, bonded to the Tree of Ages, the oldest living organism. While Amalfia is good-natured, if somewhat stern and impulsive, she hides a secret - unlike other hamadryads, who rule over more sinister beings of nature, Amalfia has a second form: that of a green woman, nature's wrath incarnate. If the forest is threatened, or any of her hamadryads and dryads hurt, Amalfia will fly into a rage, and her fury matches that of gods.

Drow

 Drow, you know? The evil tyrannical elves everyone has to put a twist on these days. So let's do our best in honouring that tradition in three different ways.

The drow of Mad Moon Mountains are known as a tribe consisting exclusively of madmen. Not without reason, either. The ashen elves, out of religious reasons tied to dead gods, follow a social system known as infantarchy - all of their leaders are toddlers, whose instinctive and impulsive actions supposedly follow the chaotic will of the universe. Sane men fear the drow, for they could be friendly one day, and launch an invasion based on the slightest offense the next day. However, trade with the mad elves is often conducted - as their feats of magic and technology, developed at their masters mad whims, are unparalleled. 

In the Shadowlands, beneath the Elderspire, it is the drow who come from driders, not the other way round. While they share most traits with other elven tribes, and can reproduce, the most common way a drow is created is when a drider commits something so heinous he needs to be cast out from society. A painful procedure is conducted, removing the future elf's arachnid lower body and reconstructing humanoid legs. Then comes the exile.
A former drider theologian, now a drow drifter, postulates that all elves actually have an origin similar to the drow, only the drow are singular in remaining in contact with their progenitors. He is now recruiting a team to find the butterfly-like nectarians, centipede-bodied crawlaths, mosquito-headed skeeters, and the lobster-clawed bleegers.

The drow of Bizarria are a misunderstood people. They are a very meek, selfless and good-natured people, but they managed to offend a trickster god many millennia ago. In retribution, he turned their entire language (a perfectly understandable dialect of elvish) on its head, making words mean their exact opposites. Recently, the bizzarians found a way out of their dark lands in the world below, and seeing so many races thriving on the surface, they naturally tried to make friends. Unfortunately, greetings like "Goodbye, enemies, we leave to take your loot" mean that the surface dwellers are now preparing for war - unless someone realizes that the drow never seem to deliver on their threats, instead leaving gifts and offerings.

Drider

 While they bring a lot to the fray with their stat block (some decent spells, venom, thrown webs), the true terror of a drider comes from their disgusting origin. But fleshwarping is mostly tied to the drow... and what if your world doesn't feature drow, or features them in a positive role? These following encounters will try to explore driders as true abominations, while giving you multiple ways to play that sense of degeneracy.

Pyottar Pakhar was a mad elven scientist and alchemist, whose goal was to hybridize humanoids and animals. Running out of both willing and unwilling subjects, he conducted his final experiment on himself. He exposed a spider to the wild magics of the Magicka Wastes, and then had that spider bite him. While the experiment was a partial success, giving him a spider's legs, as well as the ability to scale walls and produce webs, it also backfired. The former genius is now reduced to an almost bestial level of intelligence, instinctively guarding his old lab. The fact that the lab contains a potion rumored to stop aging has given him ample opportunity to feed.

In the netherspace, driders aren't created - they are instead a parasitic species. The vile spider-beings' larvae travel between planets on asteroids, embedding themselves in soil, and finally reaching their humanoid hosts through nutrition. Once ingested, the larvae wake up from dormancy, and quickly produce spider-like growths on the infected's bodies. The nervous system is the last to be attacked. The growths can somewhat safely be removed before the host kills for the first time - but a taste of fresh blood awakens a deep frenzy in the beings, sealing their hosts fate.
While individually dangerous, the spiderlike parasites have been treated as a pest for years - owing to the fact that they appear to posses no true nervous system, and no real agenda. That belief is put to a test when a group of smuggler accidentally discovers a planet absolutely overrun with driders, who seem to be gathered around massive, organic, pyramid-like structures.

The mysterious driders have been engaged in a war with elves for eons. When a renegade squad of them comes to an elven redeemer, asking for a chance at breaking the "cycle of curses", the elf is slow to trust them, but willing to hear the story. The driders reluctantly agree to show the redeemer the "sacred sacrificial altar", where supposedly everything will be clear.
Unfortunately, that same night, their camp is attacked - by beings similar to the driders, but with the lower bodies of massive scorpions instead. Only the elf and his squire make it out with their lives. They are now faced with the question of a lifetime. Is the secret that could end the cycle of violence worth risking their lives?

Drakauthix

 One thing i will always praise paizo for is throwing in some outright weird monsters in their books. The drakauthix (please don't make me try and pronounce it) is one of those things. A giant, floating, carnivorous tentacled mushrooms that see through clouds of spores. And i'm bloody loving it.

Rotten hill, the windiest peak in all of Ungerlund, is now home to a crazed fungal monstrosity. The spores of a juvenile somehow left their dark, underworld homes, and hatched on the sunny hill. However, the constant heavy wind that blows across the entire area keeps sweeping away any sight-spores. Hence, the drakauthix is crazed into being less passive than most of its kind, violently lashing out at any motion it manages to detect in its close vicinity. As the hill is a popular spot among locals, the Duke has offered a reward to anyone willing to cleanse it.

Explorers under the leadership of Ser Henry Hearthwise have achieved their goal - they reached the famed bottom of the world. Except, after going several hundred kilometers underground, discovering several lost civilizations, and going through caverns no mortal eye has ever seen... they're in for one more surprise. What every civilization since the creation of the universe has considered the endpoint of the world itself, is in fact populated by a sea of flying, tentacled mushrooms. Ser Henry being who he is, some foolhardy shenanigans net him a discovery that will shake up all theories about the world - beneath the shroom colony, a deep and dark abyss lies... and the fungal beings seem to be feeding on the remains of whatever lives below.

The king has been killed, and very creatively. Someone managed to slip live drakauthix spores into the ink that was delivered to the king's scribe. Soon enough, several of the fungal behemoths rose up across the castle, most notably in the king's bedroom. A rescue party must go into the keep and find any remaining survivors, while also trying to contain the infestation. 

Dragon turtle

Look at this thing. It has positive modifiers in each of the mental stats. Please, please, please, don't treat it as just an aquatic beast. It can be so, so much more.

Ships transporting magical components and alchemical goods between the coasts of Dardagos and Nuova Zbriglandia have been disappearing. An expedition under the lead of Captain Karamarkos will yield a disturbing truth - Zgrulla, an ancient dragon turtle, has began amassing wealth. Apparently, she dreams of flying across the skies like true dragons, and is paying an entire tribe of sea devil witchers an exorbitant sum of money to conduct a ritual that would give her wings. If the ritual is stopped, she flies into a murderous rage - but less vengefully minded sailors might aid the ritual, earning her gratitude, and the knowledge of the unexplored, riches and adventures filled Blodmoon archipelago.

Several years ago, lord Asmint got what he thought was a snapping turtle for his garden pond. When the reptile started becoming too large for the pool, he ordered his slaves to release it into the glades right outside the city. The slaves, in their laziness, actually released the turtle into a nearby sewer pit.
Several years have passed, and the "Sewer Dragon" has grown as large as a horse - though its size is somewhat stunted by the confines of the space it resides in. With an urge it doesn't understand - one for the open sea - making it nervous and agitated, the reptile now plots revenge against its former captor. Anyone wandering the sewers risks getting forcefully recruited into its war effort.

The treasure of the pirate Ysgarr contained, among other things, the Eye of Storms. The famed gem turned out to contain the wild magicks needed to undo a curse cast upon poor Ungar the Unlucky. Unfortunately, years back, before he became a professor at Port Lagrazza's university, a vain and egoistical dragon turtle named Plasmorasmus ate the pirate. Afterwards, the turtle had the pirate's treasure melted, and then poured over its armor. However, the mighty being has since gone "civilized" - holding lectures about marine wildlife and geography out of an amphitheater built around a dock. While moody and asocial, the professor is well loved in the port city - and scheming to steal a peace of his gilded armor won't get much support for Ungar and his friends.

Doppelganger

 If you love mixing in intrigue into your fantasy, eventually you're gonna have to use either one of these or some sort of Rakshasa.

The city Of Götmanland has been protected by the masked hero Bulleteman for a full decade. After a series of increasingly violent murders seems to evade his notice, a group of ex-guards take the things into their own hands, and discover two disturbing secrets. Firstly, Bulleteman is a shapeshifter, who by day takes the form of socialite Brutus Wainus. Secondly, a third "personality" has recently emerged - and unlike the first two, this one does not share memories nor intentions with the collective. Outright execution would solve the city's problem - but maybe finding a cure could be more beneficial in the long run...

The Riversdoom Rascals have been protecting the city and its interest for almost a decade. In the past few months, however, there have been more and more sightings of them engaging in extortion, robbery, and wanton violence. Hoping to put an end to this, they surrender to the city authorities - only to find out that they apparently already did exactly that several hours prior.
The two identical looking groups are put on trial - and the imposters appear to know disturbingly specific details about the group's prior adventures.

Sly the Doppelganger learned a very neat trick - he can take on the appearances of dead, bloody corpses in addition to his normal shapeshifting abilities. As a Bravi noble named Harlas Tinlas, he recruits a mercenary squad to escort him to his "summer holdings" in the city of Dunesdale. However, when the squad opens his carriage on arrival, they their employer seemingly stabbed. Unsurprisingly, they are immediately arrested - and under Dunesdale's laws, this means all their assets are to be seized. Soon enough, a clerk comes to collect - and he comes in wearing lord Tinlas's prized amulet.

Dog

 You know what? I might be a cruel GM who enjoys tactical fights, but i am never going to make you fight good bois. They also come in two sizes, small and medium.

Sir Borky is a celestial being from the other side of reality, who takes the shape of a dog. His divine mission is to appear to people who have become misguided and yet could have been great, and (in ways only a pet really can) teach them about compassion, responsibility and communication. However, while in the care of Despario, an emotionally stunted tiefling mage, he is forced to break character - as a bunch of angelslayers appear at the door.

A group of adventurers, desperately needing a crucial bit of information, makes a pact with a lord of the Fae. In exchange for completing a task that is "daunting, overwhelming and nigh-impossible", the Fey will reveal any knowledge they might desire to them. Fearing the worst, they prepare - yet the task is not at all what they were expecting. The Fey gives them an ugly, unkempt, sickly looking dog... and gives them the arduous mission of somehow winning the yearly dog show in Straganza City.

The massive, yet high-stamina elven ridge-backed dogs are used for hunting smilodons. However, Ri'shi, a dog from the latest litter, seems to be afraid of every sort of cat, from the smallest to the largest. The elves would be willing to, for the first time in history, give one of these dogs to an outsider. However, anyone willing to take on such a companion might first demonstrate discipline, a level of stubbornness, and dedication - lest the beast grow up to become a monster, ruining the breed's reputation (which would indeed, be an insult to the elves who bred it).

Djinni

The friendliest and most sociable of geniekind, the djinni make for phenomenal social encounters that push forward the point that you're not in Kansas anymore.

A deaf djinni is disaster engine, as the residents of New Dervishire recently found out. A venerable and gentle-natured being, Angharadd promised each resident of the newly founded colony three wishes - and he has been hard at work making them come true. Unfortunately, his hearing is damaged - and his will is literal. After several mishaps, the least of which is a man who became incredibly good at overcoming large turtles, a group of emissaries are sent to the old genie to beg him to ask twice. However, the noble elemental refuses to admit he has made a mistake - and if pushed, can become violent.

A group of bounty hunters have been hunting for their nemesis for ages. Their hunt, a legendary quest that has been sang about in taverns across the entire world, has taken them across the elemental planes. Finally, they catch up to their quarry in the Netherworld. As they draw to a close, a djinni vizier appears. Out of sheer need for amusement, he offers to fulfill up to seven wishes - but for every wish that someone in the group is granted, one will be given to their nemesis as well.

A sad looking djinni found sitting by the road offers a group of adventurers a wish fulfilled if they get him back the platinum ring he is bound to. The ring, he says, was stolen by a master thief then sold, and is now in the possession of a mighty noble of the Svalyaki line.
In truth, the djinni is not able to grant wishes to mortal, and was never bound to the ring - instead, it is a mighty artifact capable of visiting great harm upon one of the efreeti. The djinni has a plane shift ready to go as soon as the adventurers bring him the ring - but if they see through his lies, or try to one-up him in any way, he will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Dhampir wizard

 Preparing to do an introduction to this post, i realized one thing. Despite being a mostly pathfinder GM, and pathfinder being a combat focused rpg... i really, really love writing social/non-combat encounter ideas. Anyway, this should technically be a "family" kind of post, like the dragon posts, but since bestiary one really only gives us one member of said family, i'll stick to the traditional post format.

Two different anonymous patrons have hired The Molty Crew, a tengu band of mercenaries, to find an elusive mage. The mage turns out to be a dhampir - and the patrons, his parents. His paladin father wants to cleanse him of the vampirism and help him integrate fully into humanoid society, but must not socialize with a spawn of darkness. His vampire mother, on the other hand, wants to keep him safe in a dhampir haven - but in her world, safety is paid for with blood money and comes without any luxuries attached. For his part, Motlin the mage is notoriously bad at making decisions - and asks the tengu mercs to help him decide.

In the accursed land of Notorya, where vampires rule with an iron fang, dhampirs aren't mishaps. Instead, they are intentionally bred to be the vampires day-walking arm of the law. That is why, when a rag-covered dhampir steps out of a portal, and exclaims "come with me if you wish to save mortalkind", not many in the Mortal Liberation Army are willing to trust them. Which is a shame, as the brave five who do end up following him find that they have been transported to the Progenitor's Crypt - a labyrinthine complex that, legend has it, houses the sleeping deity of all vampirekind. Ancient lore claims that if this being is slain, all of the vampires will lose their dark powers.

A dhampir wizard looking to rid himself of his curse found an ancient artifact that split him in two. The crew he works with is now at a loss - while the vampire part kept all of the magical knowledge, it is also now a vicious and monstrous being, although one that can be bargained with. On the other hand, the humanoid half kept the undying loyalty he was known for, along with the connections in the city's shady underworld. Unfortunately, they both categorically refuse to work together ever again.

Dezullon

 Aw, cool, a mobile plant that has some poison associated with it, this will surely be a decent random encounter for my low-level party? WRONG. The dezullon is a level 10, regeneration infused monstrosity with an aura that makes you easier to hit with its bloody amnesia venom. 

The raging reveler is a tavern known for attracting people with flexible morals and wild urges. Indeed, the tavern's elven mistress seems to encourage all manner of hedonistic indulgences. In truth, mistress Ancilla actually preys on the feeble-minded among the bunch - offering them final bliss, and an escape from themselves. Those who take her up on the offer are taken to one of the tavern's many hidden basement rooms, where a dezullon plant destroys their mind. Once broken, they are easy cannon fodder for the Green Scar, the ecoterorrist organization Ancilla works for.

After sailing across two oceans, Knights of Glade Greenest have finally found the goal of their initial quest - the Pitcher of Bacchus. As the first mortals to lay eyes on it, they are surprised it appears to be made out of calcified plant matter - and already filled to the brim with a sweet-smelling nectar. If any of the knights go against the instructions they had been given so many years ago and drink from the chalice, they forget who they are but remember who they once were, breaking the curse cast over them. However, if the pitcher is depleted (and there is enough liquid for but three sips), the ancient dezullon whose body makes up the pitcher decalcifies and attacks.

A dero mastermind has been terrorizing the dwarven undercity of Kalaas. One day, he turns up in the city square - alone, naked, and almost catatonic. Comparing the city guard's notes on his activities with the tidbits of information he can remember in flashes, the dwarven sages realize he has bred a super-dezullon. The plant was apparently mutated so that it rapidly spreads by spores - but before he could start that spread as a relatively controlled process, the mad scientist apparently had his mind blanked. While the city's sages and heroes must go into the unexplored undertunnels and exterminate the plants before an infestation happens, the city's sages and law-givers must decide if and how the dero in his current, almost helpful state should be tried for his past crimes that he does not remember committing.

Desert drake

 So. Basically, you take a blue dragon's lust for power, and you remove the mental capacity needed to understand such a yearning, and then splash in some sandworm shenanigans - and you got yourself a desert drake. Also happens to be the mightiest of the drakes (as of bestiary 2) at level 8.

A group of space-faring dracologists are on their most daunting task yet. Some illegal beast traffickers caused a major ecological disaster - they smuggled some duneworms from one desert planet to another. And yet, Kandallore doesn't have Malahar's native parasites that keep the worms from growing truly gigantic. As it stands, Kandallore's dessert drakes are facing extinction. While adult drakes are too big and ferocious to safely capture, the scientists are now tasked with finding, securing and extracting as many eggs and juveniles as they can - while avoiding giant worms and angry drake parents ready to dive out of the sand at every step.

The Flying Sand desert, a cursed and avoided location, is inhabited by a huge flock of desert drakes. The dark grey "sand" of the desert is actually fine iron dust, which keeps getting magnetized from all of the drakes electrical discharges - giving the locale its name. The drakes, for their part, are drawn to the accursed land like nowhere else - especially to the fabled central plateau, rumored to contain ancient technology. Unfortunately for them, that plateau is exactly where a shaman and his druid lover were foretold to have their last stand...

Most desert drakes stick to... well, deserts. Thundertooth has always been a clever girl though - she realized her electrically charged attacks became especially potent underwater. Thus, she became the tormentor of Dawnwater, a triton settlement in the shallows, just off the coast of Kali Gorya. The tritons try to send word to landlubbers and call for aid - but Thundertooth hunts all their messengers down. Finally, a group of triton youth are given magical bubbles of land breathing, and must venture forth into the weird, dry lands above, and stand up to their sadistic, draconic nemesis.

Dero

 Have you ever felt a need to run a stereotypical little gray men from UFOs story in TTRPG form, but decided it was ill-fitting for your fantasy setting? Worry not, the dero are here to save you. 

A band of warriors wakes up in a dark and moist dungeon, shackled to the walls. The night before, they had celebrated a major victory against the invading forces of Niblingast, and they must have gotten very, very drunk - as all of their memories appear very hazy, and they haven't the faintest clue where they could be.
Soon enough, a group of small, milky-eyed humanoids enter the room without a word. They feed their captives some sort of fungal sludge, and one of them slips several keys in Fluki the Shade's hands, whispering in a broken form of elvish: "if you survive what is coming, seek me out. I have an interesting proposition".
After the first group is finished, another enters - this one accompanied by a cave giant, and led by a cackling, syringe wearing elder of the race.

Synn, an aasimar who can trace her lineage to the actual Sun-god Zhaa, is approached by a strange man in a long black trenchcoat. The "man" turns out to be two dero standing on top of one another. The uncanny humanoids have a proposal: If Synn is to allow them to clone her - and "care not if the clones get murdered, hurt, and/or eaten in the pursuit of enlightened science", she will be given access to their vast amounts of research on Zhaa. Such knowledge could unlock her true angelic potential, but it also hides secrets best left undisturbed...

The proud city of Arkhangast is falling into darkness. Literally. Over the last few months, entire households have started collapsing into the ground overnight, as their foundations mysteriously vanish. The city was built on top of a large complex of deep gnome tunnels - but those have long since been purged. A deeper (pun intended) investigation reveals that the tunnels have been repopulated - but not with the svirfneblin but with previously unseen humanoids, the sun-fearing dero. The paranoid little humanoids gather around a messiah whose ultimate goal is as simple as it is insane - if the dero can not rule the Overworld by inhabiting it, then they shall simply bring all of the overworlders into the blessed Underworld, even if some (or most) of them do not survive the trip.

Demilich

 Not gonna lie, despite being a fan of big bad stat blocks that give you a lot to work with, this one scares me. Not only is the stat block decently complex, but liches, and in turn demiliches, have been a staple of the hobby far, far before i got into it in the early 2010s. These things have legacy, in amounts i can't truly grasp.
This, funnily enough, translates pretty well into how i believe they should be treated in-game.I think most encounters should have at least a bit of context to them, lest they feel video gamey - but demiliches? Their very existence in an area shapes local myths and legends, disrupts flows of magic and fundamentally affects histories of entire races. 

The heroes of Sorya have never met a foe as ungodly persistent as Nal'Galosh. When they first thwarted his plans, he was but a cult leader who had started delving into necromancy. As he gathered power, both personal and political, they fought his endless hordes of undead - but failed to stop his ascent to lichdom. Years passed, and the heroes trained and prepared to meet their foe for the final time - but it was not to be. While the lich fell to the barbarian Ganur's axe, the huge warrior - agains't the wizard and cleric's urges - took the mighty undead mage's skull as a trophy. Just as they reached Sorya, and were passing an ancient burial ground, the skull suddenly animated, and stuck once more. The fight was long and hard, and claimed Ganur's life, but Nal'Galosh was finally laid to rest.
In the years since, the heroes have become the world's guardians, called against the greatest threats, and drank from the fountain of eternal youth. A hundred and one years after their last encounter, Nal'Galosh somehow returns. With a body of pure negative energy, and legions of shadowy creatures at his command, he wages war once more - and the heroes grow weary.

In their travels across space and time, the crew of the spaceship The Rake encounter a truly bizzare tomb world, orbiting a dying star. The world is littered with thousands, possibly even millions, of small tombs - each and every one containing a skull with bizzare crystal outgrowths. The ship's scans show that the planet is somehow dampening the skull's energy signatures - but surely at least one should be removed for closer research?

In his prime, the Three Sisters of One Tooth served the lich Parafloscus dilligently. In the years since, the once influential undead scholar retreated deeper into his labs to further his alchemical studies, which, over time, resulted in his body devolving into that of a demilich - while his mind wandered off gods know where. The three night hags, who now command the myriad monsters that infest their lord's realm, rarely directly confront intruders - instead, they rely on curiosity being a killer. Indeed, many a grave robber was enticed by a strange, fungus bearing skull laying neatly on the floor of the laboratory, only to learn that the fungal outgrowths indeed trap souls of heroes long forgotten. The hags, in turn, have developed methods of safely stealing the souls from their former master - but that means the undead is mad with spiritual hunger whenever encountered.

Deinonychus

You know what? No big writeup this time, i'm just gonna tell you if you describe these boys without feathers, i'll appear at your doorstep and bonk you on the head with an encyclopedia. 

Dino races are a very popular sport in Saurotopia. When an unknown perpetrator sabotages the locks on the raptor stables, a group of stable-boys are put to a test - they are the only thing that stands between a horde of deinonychuses and a city completely unprepared for it.

The natives of Uk'Tash jungles hunt alongside their dinosaur companions. Conquistadors taking the reptiles for mere lizards, and launching a war against the barbarians might find themselves in a bit of a pickle - as the natives' reptilian goddess infuses the dinosaurs with rage and a spark of intelligence, sending them in endless yet carefully coordinated swarms against the would-be conquerors.

A spoiled noble is paying an extremely large sum to the first person able to bring him a trained dinosaur. While it has never been done before, it is theoretically possible. While the money is enough to net an early retirement, merely getting to the Emerald Jungles is a perilous task - and getting there and back again, while caring for an exotic being like a deinonychus (apparently the smartest and easiest to train of the reptiles) is the type of adventure that songs are sung about.

Deep gnome

 In Golarion proper, deep gnomes serve as the only remotely (true neutral) approachable faction in the darklands. If you, however, do not play in Golarion, you might find a different niche for them, and with little to make them mechanically interesting (decent illusory disguise on scouts and warriors, and some more primal spells on the rockwardens), I'd say you should weave a story that makes them feel different.

Young gnomes have been disappearing from the city of Calora. An investigation of the metropolis's sewers - along with several encounters with enraged duergar - lead the gnomes' chosen champions deep underground, where a settlement of stone-skinned gnomes is built around a magitechnological contraption. The kidnapped gnomes are thrown into the machine's reservoirs, where long tubes pierce their flesh, and start drawing out all colour from their bodies. The machine then produces a nectar that is both invigorating and highly addictive for the deep gnomes. While the sages of the settlement are open to alternative fuels for the machine (which inevitably kills the captives), unless such an alternative is presented, they are not willing to stop the operation. Of course, violence is always an option, but the potion makes deep gnomes a serious force, not to be taken lightly...

Diddlyfrumph Cloisterdoinks was a moody old gnome who owned a tavern. The tavern was notorious for having a (heavily enforced) sign on its entrance that said "Entry forbidden to dogs and dwarves". When Diddlyfrumph dies of old age, his proteges find that he left behind a large quantity of face and hair paint, as well as a map that supposedly leads to a hidden treasure. There's only one problem - the map claims that the planet is hollow, and saying that out loud, or trying to prove it, is heresy in the eyes of the Smiling God and his powerful clergy...

After searching for it for years, a group of adventurers have finally found the fabled Bottomless Pit. Throwing his lamp inside is the only way to truly contain a djinn prince that the group have been dealing with since the humble beginnings of their epic travels. The only problem is, the only way to the pit is through a Svirfneblin temple-city. The gnomish men are willing to allow the adventurers to pass - but the dwarven princess in their escort must not set foot on the holy stone of the city. While the Svirfneblin swear on their forgotten gods' names that no harm will come to the princess, the demon who hides in her soul is sure to be let loose if but one deep gnome tries to draw blood from the girl. If its anger is unleashed, not only would the temple be razed to the ground, but the adventurers could end up with no way home...

Dark Naga

Dark Nagas appear to be beings of immeasurable pride, stuck in ages long forgotten. They cling to those times when they walked as gods among the lesser beings, and they cling to areas and objects that remind them of those times. Also, something about them just screams pulp adventure, at least to me.

Artifacts have been disappearing from Niflungard's museum of history. A closer look by the city's constabulary reveals most of the missing pieces belong to the museum's exotic collection of artifacts from the ancient naga-cyclopean war, that ravaged the continent in a forgotten age before men and elves arrived. Arranging an ambush, the detectives catch a group of mind-washed trogs, who reluctantly point them in the direction of the nearby asbestos mines, where their lord, The Gilded Snake, makes his domain.

Even gods have finite appetites. An experienced group of heroes, each of them a child of one of the gods of mount Atlas, investigate rumors of a dark cult taking root in the ruins of old Nakatosh. When they arrive, they find a city of mutated ogres ruled by a dark naga. The "god" postures in front of his underlings about how he will consume and destroy the intruders, but as soon as he is left alone with the heroes, he proposes a deal - play the role of his chosen champions, and they shall have unlimited access to the vaults beneath Nakatosh. Of course, he forgets to mention that it is in those vaults that his master, a truly divine being, makes his dark hunting grounds...

On the Wall, a magi-physical construct created to keep the creatures of the outer planes at bay, the paladin defenders have been joined by unlikely allies - a group of seven dark nagas. While any help is more than welcome, such beings aren't know to act in altruism - and the resident inquisitor is tasked with investigating their motives, without angering them so much that they pick up and leave.

Dandasuka

 As a stat block, a dandasuka makes for a great spy or scout. As a storytelling device, a dandasuka is a minor disaster waiting to blow. While you can use them as plain antagonists, i feel like the best dandasuka stories would be those where a dandasuka ends up in the PCs service, be it as a dandasuka's own nefarious plan, or due to the PCs foolish megalomania.

An old cleric, who is a retired adventurer, tutors the king's only son. After a summer at his uncle's palace, the child is completely changed - prone to violent and chaotic outbursts, easy to go in a rage and highly unpredictable. Gathering his old crew for one last mission, the cleric discovers the boy has been replaced with a dandasuka - and his uncle with a Raja. Further investigation shows a deeply entrenched rakshasa conspiracy to replace the entire royal court.
While cleansing it must be done, the old adventurers realize any of their potential allies can secretly be nefarious shapeshifters. 

For his services to the Dark Lord, an aspiring Asmodean Hellknight is granted a highly unusual familiar - a dandasuka. While most knights get obedient imps, drawn directly from one of the nine hells, the young knight has shown a spark of greatness - and his higher-ups reward it by testing him to his limits. The overeager, bloodthirsty fiend is meant to be a lesson in control and restraint, and if the inexperienced knight can fully exert his will over its, he is sure to be inducted into the inner circle of the church. Of course, if he fails, that is one more soul to fuel the forge of hells...

Sir Altos, a champion of The Lord of Second Chances, has found a way to separate fiends from their evil natures and grant them free will. To that end, he has reluctantly agreed to let a free-willed dandasuka join him and his comrades on their travels through the Sleeping Valley. While the dandasuka has managed to put up an appearance of meekness and redemption in front of the champion, when they lay asleep, it has been whispering tales of lost knowledge and hidden powers to the wizard, already the least committed of the group

Cyclops

 Cyclopes come to us in two versions - the large, not too smart regular cyclopes, and the larger, dumber, more brutal great cyclopes. The exact correlation between the two is left vague - and that is where your writing comes into play.

Nubonga the cyclops is a reluctant ally of the Merry Mercenary Company of Marsholm. While he is prone to violent outbursts at a slightest perceived offense, the one-eyed giant's deep knowledge of the threads of fate makes him a very valuable asset. However, when the mercenaries return to his cavernous dwelling after several months of exploration, they find him mutated, almost doubled in size, and more maddened than ever. Before jumping at them with murderous intents, the giant manages to mutter "moon... spawn... help... me".

For years, local have avoided the Three Crowns hilltop. While the cyclopes that dwell there were brutal and aggressive, they rarely wandered beyond their ruined city's crumbled walls. For the past few days, however, loud sounds have been coming from that direction. Anyone who dares investigate will find out that the cyclopes have, after decades or even centuries of passivity, started rebuilding. What that means for the surrounding kingdoms of men and elves remains to be seen.

On the faraway, technologically advanced planet of Dezcordia, every sentient is implanted with a chip. Those chips record and store every bit of the implantee's knowledge. A group of archeologists - although some would call them grave robbers, or even thugs - are looking for information on pre-purge societies. It just so happens that the only good source of such information is the only living being who was alive at the time - a great Cyclops called Ugryt. Unfortunately, Ugryt is locked away in a solitary prison-satelite complex, guarded with several layers of counter-measures.

Crocodile

 The croc comes to us in two sizes - the basic crocodile and the primeval deinosuchus. Despite clocking in at a measly level 2, the crocodile has one of the deadliest abilities in the game - death roll. Once you drown a PC in knee-high water, you will get a reputation as that GM.

The Milzeezipee river is a great route for logs, cut in the north and transported downstream. Unfortunately, some gators have realized folks who try to steal single logs from the massive groups make for easy food, and gator hunting season has been called for. Each gator will net you ten gold, and the hunter who bags the largest of the beasts will get another thousand, along with a magical machete. 

A group of grizzled mercenaries is approached by a strange man in a beige robe called Stevanos Irwinos. He wishes to (for some insane reason) catalogoue the crocodile population of the Nakhunta glades. The catch is, he wishes no harm on the animals. As the glades are treacherous and full of dangers, he needs protection.
Even as a legendary deinosuchus - a crocodillian beast the size of a small house - capsizes their boat, Stevanos keeps trying to calm the situation down and urges his compatriots not to hurt the beast. If they listen, they are rewarded a single scale from the lizard king when their ordeals are over - allowing them to summon an entire army of dinosaurs as a one-time boon.

Legend holds it that if a lizardfolk egg is swallowed whole by a dire crocodile, it will immeddiately hatch and give birth to a mighty champion of the swamps. A militant iruxi shaman now summons a troupe of foreigners he once nursed back to health, and asks them to help him devise a plan of action. He wishes to distribute as many eggs over as big of a territory as he can, hoping to raise a physically enhanced warbands.
Of course, even if they know of a way to help him, the foreigners are at a conundrum - such a warband would surely be used for invasion. On the other hand, the sanctity of an owed favour is not to be carelessly broken...

Crimson worm

 You know, i like to throw in non-combat encounters into these, i really do. But if anyone does find a way to deal with fire-spewing, adventurer-swallowing, volcano-dwelling worms, they should be given a fantasy Nobel Prize for Peace.

The greatest battle in the history of Undermount was about to begin. Dwarven kings Ulfhar and Harulf stood opposed, the two largest armies in recorded history at their sides. The future of dwarfkind was about to be writ... but then a monstrous swarm of Crimson Worms burst forth from the nearby geyser, and proceeded to consume everyone but the two kings and their three champions each.
Their lives in ruins, dwarvenkind all but extinct, the survivors struggle to find place in a world turned upside down.

Every fifty years, the youngest child of the monarch of Sunridge Isles is given to Ashmaw, the ancient crimson worm that slumbers beneath the capital. However, Vasylisa, the king's daughter, has fallen in love. When her secret betrothed does the unthinkable and allows herself to be swallowed by Ashmaw as well, seeking to free Vasylisa from the literal belly of the beast, she uncovers an ancient conspiracy. Ashmaw isn't a vengeful predator, it is a containment mechanism - that for the accursed, magical children that wield the power of apocalypse in their hands.

A meteor crashes into peaceful and uneventful lands of Shiresheere. Several days later, a tall metal tower rises from the crater, and starts emitting unsettling sounds. Attempts to approach it fail miserably - as the crater is now inexplicably surrounded by a moat of molten lava, in which a massive, aggressive, worm-like being appears to be swimming.

Crag linnorm

 Yesterday, we covered copper dragons, and as much as i hate to say it - good old mettalics and chromatics are beginning to feel a bit... mundane. If you want dragons that feel primal, destructive, alien, linnorms are where its at. Of them, the crag variety, while being the weakest one we got as of bestiary 2, might get some recognition - from its appearance in owlcat's pathfinder kingmaker video game.
Also, do note that while a crag linnorm speaks three languages, it has basically animal level intelligence.

Traditionally, when a chieftain of one of the Eleven Tribes of Evershore needs council, a shaman is sent to the Elvenspire. The ancient monolith is said to hold the collective knowledge of ancestors hidden within it, which the shamans access by falling asleep at its base, and having dream-visions. Several days ago, however, a monstrous, serpentine beast arrived from beyond the sea, coiled around the monolith and fell asleep. While its usually docile, whenever a shaman tries approaching it it flies into a violent rage, and three of the eleven sages already lay dead. As Times Of Trouble come ever closer, the shamans knowledge is needed more than ever, and unless a different source of power is found or the beast slain, the tribes are sure to perish.

After eating Gustaff Ustaff, the King of Narfleek, an ancient and vicious linnorm named Nagaytasha crowned herself the new queen. The ceremony itself was a perverse mockery of the land's tradition - yet noone dared raise their hand against the queen, as Narfleek was always ruled by fire and blood. However, word has come of the Sovereign, a mighty blue dragon monarch, offering her his hand in marriage. A draconic marriage, of course, is unheard of - but the Sovereign plays by the letter of the law, even as he mocks its spirit and intent. If the marriage comes into fruition, the Sovereign and his legion of blue-scaled Dragonborn grunts would gain a foothold on the last free continent, and would surely use it to stage a final invasion. A group of spies recruited from the ranks of the Last Alliance is tasked with using any means necessary to thwart the marriage.

Flametooth is the ancient, serpentine guardian of Hapthus's temple. Flametooth is also dying, after having guarded the temple for exactly a millennium. A temple guard and his young apprentices are tasked with finding a fresh crag linnorm egg to replace flametooth, and bringing it before the old beast succumbs to age - keeping up the charade that the temple's draconic guardian is truly immortal.

Copper dragon

 Copper dragons are essentially fairy dragons with an agenda. While threading on almost fey territory with their hedonistic approach to life and love of jokes, but their staunch, if easily misdirected moral compass is what sets them apart.

While dragons are wise and powerful, they aren't immune to indoctrination. While investigating ways to combat a dwarven lich king, a group of would-be heroes end up facing his top enforcer - a young copper dragon, convinced from hatching that tyranny and lordship over the weak are virtues. While battling him remains a (risky, bordering on suicidal) option, if swayed he could make for an exceptional ally.

A venerable copper dragon is throwing a massive party in the city's keep. The party is supposed to be a masquerade, and there's a prize - those who divine the draconic patron's identity will be given riches beyond measure.
While that is certainly true, the great wyrm also plans to recrtuit the five most successful investigators from the crowd - and with or without their consent, transport them to the city of Tarabath, where he needs help thwarting the plans of a secret society of shapeshifters.

An accomplished gang of mage-criminals travels to the faraway, dragon-ruled land of Netraxia. After stealing a prized diamond in a diabolical and daring heist, an officer of the law finally catches up to them - except its a dragon as tall as a house. If they express disbelief, the dragon responds with "Well yeah, we're know as coppers, aren't we?", before trying to chomp their heads of - keeping a self-satisfied grin on its face while he does.

Cockatrice

 The still valid, but somewhat underwhelming way to utilize a cockatrice, is as the poor man's basilisk, when the PCs are low level. The way to make a creature with a single special ability that stacks with itself memorable, though, is to wait for the PCs to level up, then throw heaps and heaps of these annoying creatures at them. Do note: Some of the entries below will substitute the bestiary's origin of the cockatrice for european folk tales about it.

A seer was fired from the King's court for treachery. What the man did was suggest that a rooster laying eggs in the king's royal garden is a bad omen, and that said eggs should be destroyed or at least removed. Unfortunately, the king found the occurrence to be very interesting, and has invited guests from several neighbouring lands to marvel at the eggs.
The seer, still loyal to the foolish monarch, recruits some of the visiting dignitaries entourage to destroy the eggs - unfortunately, as they arrive at the gardens in the dead of nights, several eggs appear to have already hatched, and statues apparently depicting terrified work staff and at least one pair of lovers are scattered among the rare plants.

A goblin alchemist working in the sewers of Kepesh has made a radical discovery. By submerging cockatrice eggs in specifically curated refuse from great beasts from the surrounding plains, he has managed to breed several mutated variations of the base cockatrice, ranging from those with breath weapons, to large, amphibious breeds with alligator-like jaws who draw their slowed prey into the muck to drown them. Unfortunately, as accomplished as the goblin is at breeding the beasts, he hasn't yet found efficient ways to control them - so now the already perilous undercity has grown ever more dangerous.

The harshest of the many forms of duels in the nation-state of Ciri'Tarya is the so called slowpoke duel. It is an often deadly endeavour, where participants are given a rapier, no armour, and a dose of high-proof cockatrice venom each. It is only used for the gravest of offenses, as a single good hit can often end the entire affair.
Unfortunately, the party's bard flirted with the wrong noble's fiancee, and a challenge has been issued. By law of the land, such a challenge can not be refused - but the bard's blades are as dull as his words are sharp.

Cloud giant

There's just something so folktale-ish about cloud giants. These aren't creatures that just randomly exist in the world, these are creatures multiple surrounding villages have wildly differing local legends about. They aren't an "appropriately leveled challenge for the player characters to face", they are a story unfolding itself as you witness it. Their divergent alignments also hint at yet even greater mysteries in the background.

A standoff of (literally) gigantic proportions is taking place at the mouth of Durgil's deeps. Two delegations of previously unseen giants have set up camps, and appear to be constantly arguing and bickering. So far, no physical violence has erupted, but if it does, the nearby townships are sure to be the one to suffer. 

If the local mayor's emissaries manage to sneak past the giants and their random bursts of magic, and delve deep into the treacherous caves, what awaits them at the very bottom is another giant, chained to a monolith. The prisoner looks much like his arguing kin above, but appears ancient beyond measure. At his feet, a plaque stands, an engraving in ancient valhallan on it. "The last one who did not choose a side", the text says.

The old giant, if awakened, pleads his finders "not to let the childer find him, for it shall start the war anew".

In the lands of Ledenya, the brothers who dwell above are treated as deities. The two cloud giants - one kind, benevolent and gregarious, the other cruel, sadistic and petty, come and go with the seasons. As summer draws to a close, Dvoryak's castle, a thing of white and gold sitting on soft clouds, sails beyond the horizon, as Kuryak's castle, with its sharp edges and tall spires appears, riding on a storm.
One winter, though, Dvoryak's castle crashes from the skies. With the last remnants of life, the benevolent giant awakens the seed of greatness within four youths of the tribe, and urges them to find a new home for their people, beyond the Shardspire mountains - but time is short, and they must go before Kuryak comes for them.

For ages, it has been common belief that some cloud giants are good and some evil. The truth, however, is that they go through two psychological and physiological phases in their life. Juveniles tend to be more physically imposing, highly territorial and yearn for violence. As they mature, they settle down, become builders, develop the need for humanoid contact, and essentially reinvent their entire personalities.
A group of mercenaries is shocked when a giant, who nearly murdered them early in their careers by trying to feed them to his pet hydra, congratulates them on their latest escapade and calls them for a feast in their honour. While the patriarch himself is bound to be civil, some of his teenage sons might also be present...