Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - 5E Adventure Modules, Pt 6

Come one, come all, to one of my favourite official D&D 5th Edition modules, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight! In which case I mean that I actually purchased this book and ran the adventure! I'm not a big carnival theme fan, but two-thirds of the adventure takes place in the Feywild and I've always felt like D&D's 5th Edition has a severe dearth of Feywild and Far Realm stuff. Lots of coverage of D&D's other aspects, but two of my all-time favourite aspects of world-building never really got much shine... until now! I really like the vibe of Witchlight, I really love that the adventure is technically doable without having to engage in any combat against the major NPCs (technically, not likely) and I just love the 'twisted children's fantasy' vibe of the whole thing. 

I will note, however, that looking back, I feel like a lot of the 5th Edition content just isn't the best for me to do 'reviewing monsters' for. So much of the creatures in this adventure are just creatures that were released in older material (though to be fair, it's not like there's a lot of Fey-centric creatures for Redcaps and Korreds to show up in), reskins of older creatures (a roc substituting for a giant owl involved in the story; golem statblocks substituting for sentient toy soldiers) or NPCs that are just a bit too unique for me to really talk about in a 'reviewing monsters' segment. Which I think has been one of the causes why I'm not too happy with some of my older content, which covers a bit too many NPCs opposed to monsters. It's like... Amidor the talking dandelion here is my homie, but talking about him or the batch of other 'wacky' NPCs doesn't really lend to a proper 'reviewing monsters' segment, right? That's not to say I don't like the NPCs, because I feel they're wonderful -- and Witchlight in particular is great -- but if I start doing an NPC review segment, then it really ends up defeating the purpose of these 'reviewing monsters' articles, I feel.

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[Context: my review of Wild Beyond the Witchlight originally published in July 2025]

Bless this article. This was one of my first reviews for my return to talking about RPG monsters alongside the Spelljammer books in 2025, and since then I've gone back and re-did and republished all of my Dungeons and Dragons reviews originally published in 2018-2020. That was so fun, and I felt like the improvements to the articles were really significant. 

But since I'm doing revisions on all of the adventure modules and doing them all together, I felt like Wild Beyond the Witchlight was a bit oddly left out. So I'm re-publishing it with no changes (other than moving the Giant Dragonfly and Giant Snail into the appendix with a lot of the other 'just a beast'), but tacking another book - The Book of Many Things! It is a splatbook (with a very... interesting way to arrange its content) themed around the titular magical item, the Tarot-inspired Deck of Many Things, and potential adventures you could have with it. It's an interesting one, with the Book teleporting your adventurers to many different locations, but ultimately while there are a lot of statblocks there, there aren't a whole ton of monsters that I can really talk about. 

Also, also, since it's in the theme of the fey sort of, I'm including some (not all) of the weirdo monsters from the web-only supplement Monstrous Compendium, Vol. 4: Misplaced Monsters!

• Click here for the previous part
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• Click here for the index.

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Fairy

• Small Fey; Any Alignment
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

So for most of Dungeons & Dragons' life, the term 'fairy' is just used for a wider classification of... well, all fey creatures. And even if 'fairy' is used, older editions tend to make sure to know that it can mean a lot of things from sprites to pixies to the more seldom-reprinted grixies and nixies and brownies and atopies. I think 5th Edition has reduced a lot of these same-y 'tiny guy with wings' into just sprites and pixies.

Come Wild Beyond the Witchlight, they decided to give us a couple of extra player character options, one of which is just... 'Fairy'. It's just a bunch of honestly quite generic balanced abilities, with the most important differentiators being that fairies are small, they are fey, and most importantly, they are capable of flight. D&D has been very careful about giving flight to any playable character (and that's the major reason why Dragonborns don't have wings, and why Aasimar flight is so limited) but if you're small I guess it's a lot more believable! 

We don't really get any particularly interesting lore here for the fairies, but I do think that the vibe is that it's meant to be a catch-all for any kind of pixie or sprite or more obscure fey sub-types you want. I like that the official art showcases two Fairy characters with very different wings -- one having a colourful moth wing, and another with the distinctive two-part wings of a beetle. And honestly, the fact that it's so hard to classify the fey actually makes a fair amount of sense, doesn't it? I've always found the Fey to be particularly interesting because while they do play by some rules (which is why I don't like interpretations of D&D fey as being 'lol me so random'), they don't play by our rules. So yeah, what makes a pixie and a sprite different might be obvious to fairies themselves, but to other humanoids, not so much. And the general visual customization for a lot of these non-standard player characters have always been one of the most charming elements, and being able to pick what bug wings to slap on your fairy guy is absolutely one of them. 

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Harengon

• Medium Humanoid; Any alignment; CR 1/8 (Brigand), 1/4 (Sniper)
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

The other new race introduced in Witchlight is the brand-new-to-DND Harengon, which are bunny-people! They are rabbit-folk that are native to the Feywild, sometimes migrate to the Material Plane, and is always moving from one place to another. Interestingly, whether in the playable character section or their enemy variants (the Harengon Brigand and Harengon Sniper) they are consistently referred to as merely humanoids instead of being fey. I guess they just stay in the Feywild without any of the fancy wacky magic? 

The Harengon's gimmick is that they can jump really far, and they are very lucky -- a cute pun with the 'rabbit's foot', eh? Even their name is a rather bad pun on 'here and gone'. The adventure features a sequence where a bandit band of Harengons harangue our heroes, but they're otherwise just... just bunny people. They're cute! A lot of their culture describes their wanderlust and them absorbing culture and personalities like a sponge, which is... honestly just makes them regular people, aren't they? 

They're charming enough, I suppose! I don't really have much to say here beyond 'cute bunny people', but I definitely appreciate the additional playable race, and I'm happy that it's not just another elf subtype.

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Brigganock

• Tiny Fey; Neutral Good; CR 1/8
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

Moving on to the actual new monsters... look at these guys, they're just little guys! The art doesn't really show it properly, but these guys are like, the size of little mice, enough for them to hide in your pocket. Brigganocks are another type of fey that live in the Feywild, and I'm quite happy that Witchlight expands on a bit more of the Fey races beyond just the same old ones from the Monster Manual. Resembling World of Warcraft's take on the Kobolds somewhat, I like these guys. They're little green mice-men with bushy beards and pickaxes. That little blue ball of light behind it is its soul, however, which stays outside its body and doubles as a candle as it scurries around tunnels. And in a nod to old-school stories about brownies and whatnot, Brigganocks can accelerate time around itself to specifically 'accomplish hour-long tasks in a matter of seconds'. 

Brigganocks run around in mines, which in and of itself isn't the most novel. What the mine for, on the other hand, is what's interesting -- they mine for wishes. And this is tied specifically to the strange nature of the Feywild! Any time a person makes a wish in the Material Plane, like a birthday wish or something, an 'echo' of that wish manifests in the Feywild. Brigganocks mine for these wishes, which they then refine into gemstones, but also filter out 'wishes of ill intent'. The gemstones are then traded to other Fey.  This is the kind of weird, whimsical metaphysical dream-scape stuff that I like from my Fey creatures, which fits so much in the 'it's chaotic but there are some rules that we mortals don't quite understand' vibe of the Fey, I feel!

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Bullywug Knight / Bullywug Royal

• Medium Humanoid; Lawful Good (Knight), Any (Royal); CR 3 (Knight/Royal)
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

The book also features a lot of returning Feywild creatures from previous books, where they have been underutilized due to a lot of settings not really featuring Feywild elements other than maybe Hags. We've got a bunch of Faerie Dragons, Korreds, Quicklings, Redcaps, Darklings and a bunch of others, but the coolest expansion are to the Bullywugs. With the introduction of the Grung and their instant addition as playable races back in Tomb of Annihilation, the Bullywugs kind of became redundant. Both tribes were smallish frog-people who live in tribes in swamps, and are comedic... and... uh... that's it. The Bullywugs are technically fey but don't do much with it, and the Grung are kind of poisonous, and like many overlapping aspects in D&D they don't really do as much to differentiate them. Throw in the much more iconic Slaadi, and the Bullywugs kind of have the short end of the stick as far as humanoid frog-men goes.

Until now! With a gigantic Bullywug swamp being the centerpiece of a huge chunk of the adventure, we get to see Bullywugs be fleshed out a lot more as whimsical toad-people whose idea of 'royalty' is completely different -- seen from the eyes of a frog, basically. The artwork for the statted Bullywug Knights and Bullywug Royal is absolutely adorable. I actually think the knight looks quite smashing, doesn't he? With his suit of armour and his rose and those curled boots? 

The royal wears a delightfully puffy outfit, and the many royals described in the book have so much character as they are obsessed with their fight over the Soggy Court, and giving themselves titles like 'the Baron of Muckstump' or something along those lines. It's a glorious wacky mockery of typical royalty tropes, which doesn't only help to build a nice sense of Fey-flavoured hijinks but also helps to rescue Bullywugs from being the most boring of the froggies!

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Campestri

• Tiny Plant/Medium Swarm of Tiny Plants; Unaligned; CR 0 (Campestri), CR 1 (Swarm)
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

I am surprised to find out that the Campestri came from 2nd Edition, and was brought back and adapted for 5th Edition in Wild Beyond the Witchlight! Very happy to see older monsters be given some love. I would like to say that I like the snaggly, shit-eating faces and the rougher caps of 2E Campestri... but that's not the flavour we're going for here, no. 

5E's Campestri has them as being happy-go-lucky sentient toadstools whose entire point of living is that they really, really like music. It's just that being mushrooms (and not even the ones shaped like an ear) they can't actually tell if a music being played is good or bad. And honestly... fair enough, if you like it, you like it, y'know? But Campestris will always sing along whenever someone plays an instrument or sings nearby, in "an obnoxiously nasal falsetto", and with enough repetitions they will perfectly memorize it. But they're just having a good time! They're just like that one drunk friend of yours in karaoke night! 

Campestris can also move, and the book even describes encountering a swarm of Campestri, all of which just trying to adorably headbutt you. As shown in the 5E art, Campestris can actually move along like weird cartoon worms, though the book describes it as 'manipulating the mycelium of its stem'. The way they consume minerals from soil also makes them unpleasant to most creatures since they're super-salty, though this just makes them a delicacy to the Bullywugs... and honestly, it's just a matter of preparation, isn't it? Preparation and the fact that these are cute singing sentient beings.

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Displacer Beast Kitten

• Small Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 1/8
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

KITTY! The Displacer Beast Kitten is part of a small 'side-quest' where your heroes find its parent earlier in the adventure, and have to go forth and rescue the cute baby kitty. It's a cute baby kitty! The fact that it's statted means that either your players are psychotic enough to kill a harmless little itty-bitty kitty, or the DM is going to try his/her best to put the kitty in danger of the other monsters in the game. 

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Glasswork Golem

• Medium Construct; Unaligned; CR 2
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

Not actually listed among the bestiary at the back of the book (and many of the 5th Edition adventures do this) is the Glasswork Golem. Which I thought was a bit too cool to not mention. It's also very similar to an earlier monster from 2nd Edition, the Stained Glass Golem, except the Glasswork Golem is a lot cooler-looking. On one hand, there is just something special about the fact that the Stained Glass Golem just peels off from that church fresco and attacks you as a two-dimensional image. On the other hand, the Glasswork Golem still retains a fair bit of whimsy even though it's a more 'serious' design of a slightly-disembodied-and-disconnected humanoid form made up of broken glass. I just really enjoy the art in general. 

Being made up of glass, and potentially shattering glass, the Glasswork Golem will actually regenerate its health every turn, presumably by doing something similar to the artwork by having its broken pieces float up around itself... but it loses this ability when hit by thunder or bludgeoning damage -- the ways you would shatter glass. That's neat! In addition to typical golem stuff, the Glasswork Golem can also use its body as a prism to shoot light attacks. I like this!

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Jabberwock

• Huge Dragon; Chaotic Evil; CR 13
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

Based on the creature of a very similar name (the Jabberwocky) from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, the Jabberwock is shown to be a temperamental evil dragon that haunts the Feywild. Or rather, it's a type of dragons since it's not noted to be a singular being. As a nod to the original poem it's based on, people who have met the jabberwocks are confused on what it looks like, retaining a confused impression of its parts caused by the Jabberwock's "confusing burble", which is also useful in combat where it forces the Jabberwock's enemies to run in random directions or attack its enemies. 

I like the 5E's interpretation of the Jabberwock as a particularly sickly green dragon, with arms and legs that look a bit too humanoid and a gloriously weird head with bright white orbs for eyes and a disturbingly human mouth. Instead of a traditional dragon's breath weapon, it has eye beams that it launches from those blind-looking eyeballs. I did feel like it could've been weirder, though I suppose it does fit into the theme of the original poem. 

An additional aspect of the Jabberwocks is that they are also extremely great tracker, being able to track any creature it's wounded and hunting them down with an unerring obsession which is always a nice plot hook. Also, rather interestingly, Jabberwocks don't reproduce normally -- if it's slain, another one appears a couple of decades later, materializing near the site of the older one's death fully formed without going through adolescence. It's just weird Feywild stuff, I suppose. I kind of like it, although I kind of feel like, again, they really could've gone a lot weirder with this one. 

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Living Doll

• Tiny Construct; Neutral Evil; CR 2
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

Okay, yeah, we've got just an evil doll here. One of the main antagonists of the adventure is themed around twisted toys, and the Living Dolls are littered in her domain. They're basically what you expect from one of these things -- it disguises itself as an inanimate object before attacking you, and then tries to latch on to you and damage you mentally with psychic cackling. Pretty horrifying, isn't it? 

Also, trapped within each doll is a mean spirit that encourages those around it -- most likely children -- to behave badly towards others. And failing to find children as targets, it's just as likely to torment the guilt-ridden and despondent, driving them to paranoia. It's a nice little plot hook for what could've been a simple humanoid fight, and the idea that this tiny evil doll being an evil little manipulator is a creepy one. I like it!

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Tin Soldier

• Small Construct; Unaligned; CR 1
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

This is a shorter bestiary for the adventure due to the fact that a lot of the enemies actually are described in the adventure itself, with a note saying 'please use X stat for this'. Which I feel is particularly good when it's meant to represent like, just a goblin with a pumpkin head or something! Tin Soldiers, for example, make use of the 'Animated Armour' stat block from the Monster Manual, only they're small. They serve as the toy soldiers of the toy-themed hag, and I love their goofy mustachioed painted faces. 

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The Hag Coven

• Medium Fey (Hag); Neutral Evil; CR 7 (Bavlorna), CR 8 (Skabatha), CR 6 (Endelyn)
• Debut: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021)

The book actually features a good dozen or so statted characters who are just NPCs you meet along the way. There's a pair of twins, the circus ringmasters, a group of evil adventurers, a group of nice adventurers, the ruler of the fey realms you're trying to free... and I think I'll make it a point in all my D&D reviews to not cover them. It's a monster review, after all, and I think I've tried and failed to describe 'it's a cool knight'. 

But! But NPCs that also happen to be monsters, or at least unique takes on monsters? They are fair game. So these are the three sisters -- a nice showcase of the three-hag covens described in Monster Manual and Volo's Guide to Monsters -- that took over the plane of Prismeer from their sister, the arch-fey who rules it rightfully, and corrupted three parts of it into 'Hither, Thither and Yon', giving us three thematic fey-themed 'levels' to go through. 

The first one you meet is Bavlorna Blighstraw, who's the first one here. Riding a lily-pad sofa with vines and roots that scuttle below her, Slack-Jawed Lorna rules over a swamp of Bullywugs, and herself looks like a toadish old lady. She is attended by little frog-shaped minions called 'Lornlings' (reskinned versions of the Quicklings) and in the spirit of being gross and nasty, she's always covered by a cloud of flies and if she fails to take a bath to moisturize herself with slime, she'll seize up. In a nice bit of fey whimsy, Bavlorna is allergic to people running counterclockwise in circles, which would literally cause her to burst into sneezing fits. 

The second one you'll meet is the oldest, Skabatha Nightshade. She's the toy-themed hag, and has imprisoned a lot of kids to work in her workshop. The magic of Prismeer has caused children to be unable to be harmed, but Skabatha found a loophole in making them work for her. Skabatha herself looks like a particularly creepy toy and is described as 'part toy', and under the makeup toy paint she has flesh 'like rotten bark and infested with wood lice and fungus. She also has a wind-up key on her back. She also hides in a little dollhouse in her otherwise regular-sized child-labour factory, shrinking herself into a doll to sleep.

The three Hourglass Coven hags additionally have a theme of past, present and future, with Lorna getting 'present' and Skabatha representing 'past'. This has more to do with the kinds of deals they prefer, but Skabatha has a nice little quirk where she will forget and be completely unable to perceive the first thing she sees after waking up. 

Our final sister is Endelyn Moongrave, the coolest one of the three and the one representing 'future'. Her realm is a massive theater stage built into the side of a stormy mountain, but Creeping Lyn herself is a very awesome gothic-looking hag wearing an outfit fashioned like a fancy funerary dress... clearly the most fashionable one of her family! She's got a skeleton face underneath that veil, and four arms that play with marionettes on her... dress? These being hags, I wouldn't surprise if Endelyn's entire abdomen is actually thin air and the whole torso-and-head just floats over it creepily. Her lower body is one of those fancy giant dresses, except it's scuttling along like a crab or spider. Absolutely metal design.

Being the hag of the future, Creeping Lyn is able to tell the future (for an unfair price, of course) but is herself tormented by visions of her own demise 'during a solar eclipse'. This actually makes her the most difficult of the hags to deal with since she's essentially unkillable unless there's a solar eclipse. The idea, of course, is that your characters need to engineer a solar eclipse, even if they have to make a symbolic one using a pair of NPCs that are acting as the sun and moon. 

That is, if. This module is quite interestingly unique that you can actually progress without ever doing a single piece of combat, using negotiations, problem-solving or stealth to evade every single threat in your way. That also extends to the three main hag antagonists, whose status as hags actually makes them pliable to making deals with you... you just have to make sure to word them properly while you search for a way to get what you need from their domains. 

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Dandylion

• Large Fey; Chaotic Neutral; CR 6
• Debut: Monstrous Compendium, Vol. 4: Misplaced Monsters (2023)

There have been a couple of 'Monstrous Compendium releases online, mostly to tie in with specific crossovers like Magic: The Gathering planes and, siiiiigh, freaking Minecraft. But a charity one released in 2023 had a bunch of monsters that were created by kids. Not all of them were particularly interesting beyond being 'a kid's imaginary monster', which is adorable and all but also doesn't leave me much to talk about... but technically 'Coral', 'Rain', 'Seth' and 'Sheldon' are described as if they are actual characters and not a type of creature, so they do fall under my (completely self-enforced) rules of not talking about named characters. 

Two actually come with actual properly-written descriptions, though, and being tied to the feywild actually does make the zaniness make sense! It's a bit weird going back and forth with some of the entries essentially having a child's babbling, and others having more D&D-entry speech. But anyway.

Dandylions are green lions with a braided mane, and stands atop some flowers. It's a bit hard to tell due to the positioning, but its tail has a dandelion flower with seed pots, which they wave around and cause the seeds to bloom into plants. They are the farmers that cultivate the flowers and crops in the Feywild, and share their knowledge and crops with those that treat them with respect. Their crops may have magical properties, which is a nice bonus -- all you need to do is to flatter the Dandylion! But the Dandylions protect their farms ferociously, and anyone who tries to steal them are going to be attacked by it. They often brag about their fields and produce, and are jealously proud of it. 

That does sound like a creature that would live in the Feywild, doesn't it? Even the punny name fits with the Feywild's "logic". 

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Scrapper

• Large Construct; Unaligned; CR 8
• Debut: Monstrous Compendium, Vol. 4: Misplaced Monsters (2023)

These are just junkyard monsters! They have one good robot arm, and another arm made out of entangled wires, which sparkle with electricity. I actually love the description about how their quasi-mechanical minds are shielded with lead... which protects them from psychic damage. Love it! That's a big middle finger to all you psionic classes out there, ha ha!

Scrappers feed on scrap metal, and utilize their wires as grappling tendrils to reel in foes. In addition to all of the above, it's got a hidden laser beam attack in its eye, because of course it has. A kid made this up! Are you going to tell them that their magic scrapyard robot doesn't have sneaky little gimmicks hidden up its sleeves?

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Deck Defender

• Medium Construct; Unaligned; CR X
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

We're going into the third book now, the Book of Many Things. Now let me note that the Book of Many Things features a lot of statblocks -- many just depict random spirits summoned by the deck if you draw a certain card, such as the 'Reaper Spirit' that is summoned if you draw the 'Death' card. A lot of them are really just one-off enemies that I can't really say much about, especially without a profile or an art piece. But the Deck Defenders are adorable! If you draw a 'Knight' card, traditionally the Deck of Many Things will just summon a random Knight for you. Pfft, boring!

You could instead have a Deck Defender,  who is a knight that is made out of an origami-folded playing card. It also grows to the size of a human, which I thought is less cute than if the card gave you a swarm of these little dudes, but it's still adorable regardless! I love that its attack is called 'Paper Cut'! 

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Breath Drinker

• Medium Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 14
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

Oh, a Dementor! Or, well, a Breath Drinker. As far as I can tell, this is a brand-new creature to Dungeons & Dragons, and the Book of Many Things did include a bunch of new additions. The Breath Drinker are just living shadow-specters, and they actually behave similarly to a much higher-level version of the classic Shadow, being one of the rare 5th Edition D&D creatures to do 'stat damage'. Breath Drinkers drain the charisma stat, consuming the victim's personality and identity, before drawing out their entire soul. That does feel like something that could be represented by having charisma be drained for sure. 

Breath Drinkers are associated with the "Void" card in the Deck of Many Things, and were even created in the Far Realms because the very first Void card was drawn. This book really does its best to hype up the Deck of Many Things as this ultimate magic item, which I appreciate the dedication towards. One of the few creatures to receive a full bio in this book, the Breath Drinker is also described as independently serving more powerful Far Realm entities. 

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Fate Hag

• Medium Fey; Neutral; CR 4
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

Oh! A new hag! Fate Hags are based on the Moirai or Fates from Greek mythology, who sometimes are depicted as villainous and malicious in adaptations. The Three Fates are three sisters in Greek myth that consist of Chloto the spinner, Lachesis the weaver and Atropos the shearer, who decide the fates of every being in the universe, even the gods themselves. The 'three women with supernatural powers' bit with the Moirai undoubtedly framed the 'coven magic' of the Hags in Dungeons and Dragons. 

We technically already have hags associated strongly with prophecy and fate, with the Dusk Hags of Eberron. Fate Hags are a bit more of a blatant adaptation, noting that they are able to manipulate the strands of fate and snip them with magical scissors. Fate Hags are noted to be 'neutral' unlike most hags, and their maliciousness depend more on the individual Hag's personality and where they set up base in. Fate Hags in the Shadowfell are more attuned to fates of doom and destitution; while Fate Hags in the Feywild are more attuned to hopeful and prosperous destinies. I actually like this, that the location that the Fate Hag based in actually influences her reality-warping powers as to the kind of futures and fates that they can affect. 

Fate Hags aren't as powerful as their inspirations, but they are powerful enough to be diviners and to do minor reality-warping effects as the silver threads of fate turn against their foes. These aren't anywhere as badass as instant death or ruinous destinies, and in combat is just really bad luck during that fight. But as NPCs, quest-givers or neutral figures to beseech, I feel like having the Fate Hag as a concept is a much-overdue addition to 5th Edition D&D. 

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Living Portent

• Small or Medium Celestial; Lawful Neutral; CR 3
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

Mmm, not the biggest fan of this one. Or at least, the 'vanilla' version. Living Portents are CR 3 celestials, and are embodiments of prophecy that land in the form of falling stars and land on earth, creating craters where miraculously no one is harmed. Living Portents assume humanoid forms, and look out for beings that are destined for prophecy by the gods and will... aid them? Inform them of the prophecy? Most of their abilities revolve around blessing and healing their allies, so probably the former. Even in a 'Chosen One' scenario I feel it's a bit ingenuous when the gods are sending celestial envoys to actually hang out with them. And in any case, it feels like a role that could easily be filled with angels (or the Pari above). 

More interestingly, though, is the 'Portents of the Elder Evils' sidebar, which are aberrations that are sent by the Elder Evils as heralds. This is a soft adaptation of one of the cooler enemies from 4th Edition, the Star Spawn (not to be confused with 5E's Star Spawn, which were called Farspawn/Foulspawn in older editions) that are heralds of Elder Evils from beyond the stars. Suddenly the language of meteors and comets and mysterious craters makes more sense when realizing that the Living Portents are celestial adaptations of this older monster!

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Riffler

• Small Fey; Chaotic Neutral; CR 5
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

This one is fun. Rifflers are just gambling fey tied to the Deck of Many Things. They resemble gnomes, they are obsessed with fate and destiny and chance, and were manifested into being when the Deck of Many Things was shuffled for the first time, creating bodies and coming into form specifically because they like the idea of fate and chance being tied to the shuffling of cards. 

Rifflers wander the world to search for the Decks of Many Things, going around and collecting, trading, hoarding and freely scattering the cards like the most chaotic Magic: The Gathering player ever. There's some incomprehensible agenda to manipulate the fate or the universe... or maybe they just really, really like chaos.  

In addition to typical luck-manipulating magic and the expected random effects, I very much like their 'Riffling Step', the Riffler's take on other fey's 'Misty Step'. Instead of just teleporting, they temporarily turn other objects and people to have the consistency of cards and 'shuffle' their way through them. It's a very JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ability!

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Talon Beast

• Large Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 7
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

The Talon Beast is tied to the 'Talon' card in the Deck of Many Things, which upon drawn will disintegrate all of your magic items. What a dick card! The Talon beast is a full-on manifestation of it, being these strange fusions of vultures and... what appears to be an elephant? Or a rhinoceros? It's a neat enough 'chimera animal' artwork, and I like how strange talons look on a pachyderm body. The Talon Beast can sense magic, and its beak can destroy and remove enchantments from magical items. 

It's not quite as oppressive as the actual Talon Card from the Deck of Many Things, but it is a nice type of 'fuck you' monster that 5th Edition has been shying away from since its inception. The Talon Beast, in essence, is just a remake of the infamous Disenchanter from the original Fiend Folio; who had the same role of destroying magical items. These kind of 'screw over your players' monsters can lead to very toxic roleplaying moments in newer, less-experienced GM's, and I like that the 'base' set of D&D rules limits it to the Rust Monster... but I also like that these supplemental books are reintroducing the concept to some degree. 

It's just tied into the 'Talon card' to tie with the themes of this book. Unlike the Breath Drinker above, I do like that Talon Beasts do just exist in the wild, prowling ruins and catacombs and the Underdark. I really like that they are giving alternate avenues for campaigns and settings to utilize some of these monsters independently of a Deck of Many Things campaign! I also love the description about how scholars agree that there must be some link between Talon Beasts, the Talons card, and even a constellation of the Talons, but they can't agree or find enough evidence to say which comes first, the beast, or the card, or the constellation? That's fun. 

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Ruin Spider

• Large Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 5
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

The innocuous Ruin Spider might look simple for a D&D monster. It's just a giant spider with an abdomen that looks artificial, with some runes and whatnot (matching the card back of the Deck of Many Things) inlaid on it. It reminds me of the Armagohma boss from The Legend of Zelda! But just like the Talon Beast above, the Ruin Spider is associated with another item-destruction card, the 'Ruin' card, and the Ruin Spider has a ruinous acid on both its venom and even its own carapace. Any armour it hits slowly disintegrates, and weapon that hits it slowly disintegrates, losing armour class points and damage respectively until they shatter. That's neat, and, again, not the right enemy for every campaign but it really does feel cool to have some of these old-school 'item destruction' monsters back. 

The Ruin Spiders, unlike the Talon Beasts, are explicitly created by the potent magic roiling out of the Deck of Many Things, mutating nearby giant spiders. That's why it's got the card back on its abdomen!

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Grim Harrow Beasts

• Medium Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 3 (Harrow Hound)
• Tiny Undead; Unaligned; CR 1 (Harrow Hawk)
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

The Book of Many Things introduced a bunch of extradimensional factions tied to the deck, and one of them is the "Grim Harrow", which is a multiversal crusade led by a group of undead victims of the Skull card (where an Avatar of Death comes and kills them). The lingering spirits are now a dedicated to destroy every single Deck of Many Things in the universe. On one hand, it's a bit overwrought... but on the other hand, that's the exact kind of specificity that a book about the Deck of Many Things should have. And to be fair to the Grim Harrow...  there are a lot of horrible things that the Deck of Many Things can do!

I am skipping the many, many humanoid enemies introduced in this book, but the two beasts included, the Harrow Hound and the Harrow Hawk, classify enough as monsters. The Harrow Hound are transformed from a group of blink dogs slaughtered by the Grim Harrow (no!!!) and now utilize their half-flayed bodies as trackers. I do like the art, showing the rear part of the undead Blink Dog in the distance as it is mid-teleportation. 

The Harrow Hawks are types of undead that died alongside their companion and have such a strong bond that they rise again as undead. And for some reason, they can even travel through the multiverse. This leads the Grim Harrow faction to seek them out, capture and tame them, using them as scouts. I felt like I like this one better if its multiversal-travel origins were tied to the Grim Harrow, since it felt a bit odd jumping from its 'faithful companion' origin straight to somehow inexplicably possessing multiverse-jumping powers. 

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Werevulture

• Medium Fiend; Chaotic Evil; CR 4
• Debut: The Book of Many Things (2023)

I am genuinely flummoxed that we never got a Werevulture before in D&D, at least from what I can tell. I actually spent a bit too much time going through 2E and 3.5E material because I was sure that I've seen a Werevulture mentioned before... but do you know where that was from? A background, one-off information from The Elder Scrolls, where Werevultures were offhandedly mentioned in lists of lycanthropes all over Tamriel. They were not from D&D! 

So yeah, welcome to the ever-expanding lycanthrope family, I suppose, Werevulture, even if being an 'animal person' is increasingly losing a special 'edge' of uniqueness in this franchise. I feel like they really should go back into making lycanthropes look actually feral, to differentiate this guy from like, just an Aarakocra! 

Werevultures have all the expected abilities you'd think a lycanthrope vulture would have, and I like that the bio notes that there are a lot of speculation that Werevultures are related to the vulture-demon Vrocks -- whose plagues in one particular attack ended up cursing its victims with the Werevulture transformation instead of outright killing them. In addition to all the typical lycanthrope stuff, Werevultures also have a compulsion to feed on carrion and to take pretty, fancy baubles when they are in the sky.  

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Daredevil: Born Again S02E04 Review: Boxing Match of the Century

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 4: Gloves Off

At the rough mid-way point of Born Again's second season, we finally get a confrontation between the lead characters. And it's... it's a bit sad, really, that it took so long to reach this point. The show has been spinning its wheels so much with less interesting characters and I'm continually surprised to be reminded that each of these episodes are 50 minutes long. 

But after being awkwardly set up and disappearing, we start off this episode with a fantastic Bullseye killing spree of Taskforce minions in a diner. Love that whole sequence as Bullseye sits down to order a milkshake, fools the Taskforce into coming, and then just uses cutlery and at one point a lobster claw to brutally take down the goons. Still not sure about how 'look so realistic' his balaclava supervillain outfit looks, but I love this interpretation of Bullseye's craziness. MCU's take on Bullseye changes him from being a psychopath who kills 'just because' into someone who sees a warped version of the world due to a combination of trauma, psychological disorders and evil people pushing him in different directions. He's still undoubtedly not sympathetic, but it does make him so much more interesting than a lot of other villains I've seen lately in superhero TV. 

The minor sequence of Bullseye going through his daily life also pays off rather well. Matt goes on his own investigation, tracking down the very specific coin back to his church (which was the random scene in episode 2) and detectives his way to where Bullseye is hiding. And despite the showcase of 'Tom' bonding and being nice to the old neighbour with the cat, Bullseye doesn't hesitate to hold her hostage with a gun while yelling stuff about how he's "the hero" and how he's going to balance the scales of Foggy's death with "one good deed". 

This is a very cool reorientation of Bullseye and a proper spotlight for him not dissimilar to the one Punisher received around the mid-way point of Born Again's first season. The wacky props like lobster claws, lunch trays and Walkman CD's being used in the fights that Bullseye does against his opponents makes it extra fun. 

Meanwhile, the Kingpin takes literal center stage as he sets up a trap for Bullseye that he can't resist by making a huge boxing match. We get some buildup to this and a nice sequence of brutality as Kingpin beats up his opponent (who's just some random guy) while the crowd cheers around him. It's a nice little setpiece. And after spending so much of this season just either sitting around giving orders or trading barbs with Mr. Charles, it feels like a nice release for Kingpin as well as he's allowed to indulge in some physical brutality. 

Oh, and Mr. Charles finally makes a reappearance after the first episode, doing another confrontation of Kingpin over the whole smuggling business. Charles tries to make Kingpin feel small by noting what a tiny part of the world he's controlling, but Kingpin refuses to be intimidated and his main goon Buck Cashman murders Mr. Charles's two bodyguards before Kingpin walks out of the meeting. That was cool as well. 

But the boxing match is, of course, the main highlight. Kingpin tries to send away Vanessa for her safety, but Vanessa refuses. I... I would've really loved this more if the previous two episodes actually highlighted Vanessa and Wilson's relationship a lot more. Instead, she gets a nightmare and tries to ship two minor characters together and just feels so unfocused. Really, instead of Angela, BB or Blake, you'd think that Vanessa Fisk should've gotten the spotlight episode early on in the season -- especially considering what happens at the end of this episode. 

Vanessa's unexpected arrival in the boxing match triggers a fervour in Kingpin as he accelerates his brutality over his boxing opponent, but also a panic as he's expecting Bullseye to arrive. Vanessa does have a bit of a motive discussion in this episode, talking about how she wants to be Wilson's partner, and manages to talk down the Governor in a short scene. It's a nice rereailment after last episode focuses way too long on their marriage counseling, but it also comes at a bit too little, too late. 

That said, Bullseye's attack on the boxing match is fantastic. The fight between Bullseye and the Taskforce as he launches stuff into the crowd, and when Daredevil comes intent on... saving everyone? Vanessa and Fisk both have their moments of pulling out a gun at Bullseye. But ultimately, Bullseye throws one of those tacky glass souvenirs, and despite Kingpin blocking it, the glass item shatters and a huge piece pierces Vanessa's temple. Daredevil and Bullseye manage to escape with the AVTF in hot pursuit, but Kingpin is left at the end of the episode cradling a bleeding, dying Vanessa. 

(The show did spare Cherry for seemingly no reason, but Vanessa's death looked pretty final -- and, all right, I did take a peek to see if it sticks)

It's definitely a massive escalation and a surprising one, and a great one because I actually care a lot more about the Daredevil/Kingpin/Bullseye conflict. I do feel that there are some weaknesses here, of course -- Vanessa's lack of buildup, and maybe we could've had more scenes devoted to Matt's struggle on his stance about killing/sparing Bullseye and/or Kingpin. But that was pretty great to look at. 

Other stuff happen in the background of this episode, too, which I felt are the right amount of times to be dedicated to a lot of these more minor characters instead of the meandering we've gotten in the first 3 episodes. Kirsten gets her office harassed by AVTF goons, and the frustration leads her to accept Karen's offer to help Christofi. Blake and BB are present but aren't taking up precious screentime. Jack Duquesne/Swordsman exits the resistance after handwaving and giving some resources to Matt and Karen, so there's one less character to look out for. Angela is intent on sticking around and being the new White Tiger. Angela helps to smuggle some plot devices around to BB. Buck is sent away by Kingpin on a mission to kill Christofi, plugging up that loose thread. 

There's a world where any of these less interesting storylines are given entire episodes on their own to develop, but I am happy that they're all sped-run in the background here. It does really help to add to the chaos of everything that's going on in the boxing match for sure. 

But of course, the main spotlight of this show is the confrontation between the three primary movers of the show. It's a nice breath of refreshing air after the show twiddled its thumbs so much in the first couple of episodes. With some plot threads resolved and some slammed shut, I look forward to what the second half of the season has to offer. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Just like Bullseye's spotlight episode in season 3 of the original Daredevil show, this episode opens with a sequence of Dex going through his morning routine. 
• Fogwell's gym being associated with Matt's dad is brought up.
• The shot of Vanessa falling mirrors the shot of her being poisoned (less brutally) in Daredevil season 1. In this episode, Vanessa also makes a fuss about being 'sent away' for her own protection, similar to season 1. 
  
• Vanessa Fisk does die in the comics, but died due to terminal illness (and after launching a villainous scheme of her own against Daredevil), and in a much more hostile relationship against Wilson.

Daredevil: Born Again S02E03 Review: Trial of the Swordsman

Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 3: The Scales & the Sword

Yeah, this feels like it probably should've been the big bombastic moment at the end of the premiere of the season, or at least the second episode. After a fair amount of meandering, "The Scales and the Sword" kind of... goes through with the Jack Duquesne trial. And while I do appreciate Duquesne's actor hamming it up with his commentary of the sequence, it just feels... quite one-sided. Which I suppose is the whole point of the kangaroo trial, but considering how long it took us to get here, it really did feel like we could've gotten here in a lot faster. The other Daredevil seasons do take their time with the trials, but they actually took the effort to go through some attempt at making up defenses and discuss legal strategies. Which I don't pretend to understand... but if the narrative for this season calls for a sham, kangaroo trial that the lawyer doesn't have time to prepare for, why not just rush through this trial and get it over with in the first episode? 

There is some nice bits with Kirsten as she tries her best to help Duquesne in a trial that's clearly rigged against her. She gets to call out Heather early on in the episode, but otherwise her blindfolded journey through the AVTF prison just serves to let Daredevil 'work with' the descriptions and get into the prison to stage the jailbreak. I'm... I'm not convinced that Kirsten is sensitive enough to provide Daredevil with all the descriptions, but sure. (This episode is also particularly clunky with exposition. Matt and Karen wants to destroy the weapons in Red Hook... but Matt interrogates Kirsten about Duquesne. So Matt infiltrates the evil base seemingly to rescue Duquesne... but then Matt and Karen later act as if freeing the prisoners was an unexpected development?)

The actual jailbreak is entertaining, with Daredevil being joined with Jack "Swordsman" Duquesne as they beat up AVTF agents and make liberal use of baton weapons, but even for a superhero show, it is rather odd that there's only so few prisoners of the AVTF raids. Enough to pile into a car. Sure, maybe Matt didn't free everyone, but considering only Daredevil and Swordsman had the vigilante abilities to fight back against trained, armed soldiers, it feels like we're stretching the credibility a bit. 

Angela del Toro and her White Tiger amulet also show up randomly (and unexplainedly) with a vague 'I can help', apparently having done stuff offscreen? Karen lets her, and while she gets to free her aunt and slash some tires, it feels shoehorned -- either show us the new White Tiger actually be a badass fledgling vigilante, or keep her elsewhere. Her inclusion just felt odd. 

I did like the callback to the Mr. Charles discussion with Kingpin in the first episode, however, where Kingpin gets the 'foreign workers' on the Northern Star and then orders the ship to be blown up, killing all the witnesses and pinning the crime on the evil vigilante Daredevil. That was neat. If only it happened in closer proximity to the foreshadowing. (Where is Mr. Charles, by the way?)

On the villain side... we see a lot more meandering, really. Vanessa just feels airy, and she feels so off compared to the more intelligent and ruthless character we're more used to. Even if she's paranoid or scared, she's not really showing it. Heather continues to be an asshole, but she gets to trade barbs with Kirsten instead so I suppose that's a bit different? Buck gets to go through a discussion of Kingpin's little 'kingdom', which I felt, again, would've worked a bit better earlier on before we've spent two episodes in the season giving so much focus on Blake. Vanessa's also... shipping Buck and Heather? Which feels so random and unnecessary, and feels like not something she'd think about considering the whole Bullseye situation. 

Blake continues to a bit more focus, this time trying to look for blackmail information on the Mayor (who I think is a new character) that's coming down hard on the legalities of the Northern Star's sinking. Again... not very interesting. BB Urich goes live with another TikTok meme-wacky Fisk parody, which has to count at self-indulgent at this point. 

The Punisher is noted to be absent in the show, and... and I really don't understand why. I get that he has his own mini-movie or whatever planned, but to just handwave him aside without at least a cameo? Karen, for a moment, seems like she's entertaining filling Frank Castle's role in the series -- which would be a neat development that wouldn't even be out-of-character for her -- but we just don't get much development, again, from either of these characters. 

I'm not sure if Officer Saunders is going to be relevant as one of the few anti-Powell, anti-Kingpin members in the task force, but I've already complained a bit about the side-character overload. Bit of a shame. Born Again's first season did a great job focusing on different characters and themes, but this one just seems intent on jumping around and dragging its characters all over. (No Bullseye either in this episode, disappearing just as he gets a bit of focus.)

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Matt and Karen's interrogation of Taskforce Officer Saunders has callbacks to previous interrogation scenes in the Daredevil show -- the 'unhappy man' threat is a callback to season 1, episode 2; Karen and Daredevil doing an interrogation aided with Daredevil's lie-detection powers is a callback to season 3, episode 6. (Thanks, internet!)
• Angela del Toro, of course, succeeded her uncle Hector in the comics as well as the second White Tiger. Comics!Angela was a lot older than her MCU version, though. 

Reviewing Monsters - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - Bosses

This was originally part of the other Echoes of Wisdom review, but the length got a bit too long so I decided to split it into two articles as I do with most Zelda games. Echoes doesn't have the most dungeons and bosses (and a lot of the 'minibosses' for smaller dungeons become our minions anyway) but there are enough unique enemies to fill up a whole article.

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MINI-BOSSES:

Echo Link

So a huge crux of the original setting was that Link is gone, fighting the forces of evil in the Rifts, while the King and his advisors are replaced with echo doppelgangers. This does give the option for the game to throw Echo Links at us as bosses -- we fight these evil Links (not quite the traditional Dark Link) three times, and Zelda gathers Link's equipment from these doppelgangers. First the sword and shield, then the bow, then the bombs. Zelda has the power to call on Link's echo to enter a temporary 'swordfighter mode', and beating up the Echo Links throughout the journey does end up being a rather fun way to upgrade her 'Link mode'. 

Echo Jabu Jabu

Lord Jabu Jabu returns from Ocarina of Time, albeit looking a bit more catfish-y this time around. Turns out, though, that this is a fake Jabu Jabu that ends up rampaging and destroying chunks of the two tribes of Zoras' domain! (Can I say how much I love that the traditionally 2D River Zoras and the traditionally 3D Sea Zoras are kind of interacting with each other in this game?) 

Ultimately Zelda and the Zora leaders confront the false Jabu Jabu before being able to enter the dungeon that would close the rift in the Zora's Region. Jabu Jabu constantly sucks in the water in the pool you fight him in, and spits it out. Sometimes he spits out Octoroks and Tanglers! The idea is to get him to swallow up Bombfishes as he does the sucking. It's not the most intricate boss fight, but as a relatively early miniboss it's all right. 

Bori

I just had this listed as 'Barinade' after the Ocarina of Time big Bari boss, but turns out it's called 'Bori' in the files. Okay? After dealing with the rifts in Zora's Domain, a mini-dungeon unlocks which is a sunken ship, and within that ship is this gigantic Bori with a swarm of tiny Baris circling him. Again, it's a 'classic' Zelda fight similar to Arrrghus of ALTTP fame or Barinade, where you need to take down the little Baris before the main body becomes vulnerable. 

Not much to really say here, it's nice to see this type of fight even if I thought they could've done a bit more to make the Bori a lot more distinctive than just a bigger Bari. 

Lanmola

The Lanmola graduates into being a miniboss status, and is fought three times in the Gerudo Desert! The presence of the Lanmola creates giant sandstorms that screw around with your minimap, preventing it from being used, and hunting down the Lanmolas will stop the sandstorm from being generated. There are three, with the final purple one needing a sidequest to unlock. 

The Lanmola design is a lot more 'it's a cartoon centipede' than the more abstract look that the Moldorms have, and even the original Lanmolas from ALTTP or Zelda I. They create a zone of 'quicksand' and summon a horde of Sand Piranhas to harass you, while they bury in and out of the quicksand and launch rocks. The gimmick for all three Lanmolas is that when it's trying to burrow under the ground, Zelda needs to 'bind' the butt and pull the Lanmola out, at which point it starts thrashing and is vulnerable. The 'butt' is a spinning rotor similar to a fan, which I think is meant to show how the Lanmola drills through the sand. I'm not sure if the physics really works, but there you go. 

Smog

Smog is a character from one of the Oracle games that I've never played, and Smog is encountered twice if you do his side-quest. First encountered in an independent abandoned temple, and later on in Faron Wetlands. I mentioned in the review of the monsters that there are a couple of temples that are very specifically running off of puzzles involving the Spark, and the Smog is the final boss of both dungeons. 

Smog himself isn't that threatening when he's in his full form -- a giant cloud with a cyclops eyeball and a grin, He launches some electric balls, but other than that is quite easy to beat up. The problem is that Smog splits up into little invulnerable balls -- which is funny, because normally when one of these RPG boss monsters splits up it becomes weaker. But Zelda essentially needs to do a Spark puzzle to get the Smogs to all accumulate together, manipulating the pathway of their journeys, so that Smog reforms in his larger, more vulnerable form. 

It's particularly challenging and I really did enjoy fighting Smog! It feels more like a puzzle than a traditional boss fight, if you know what I mean? M

Slime Eye

The mini-boss of icy Lanayru Temple is one such 'splitting apart' boss. Slime Eye borrows its name from a Link's Awakening boss, but has nothing really similar with it. For one thing, Slime Eye has got two eyes. A whole two eyes in that big zol body! That's Slime EYES, surely? 

The Lanayru Temple that Slime Eye is fought in is an ice-themed dungeon, and Slime Eye, unlike many other RPG dungeon bosses, is actually weakened by the element of its own dungeon. You need to summon icy enemies to freeze Slime Eye, at which point he then becomes vulnerable to being broken apart... but you have to keep doing it as the Slime Eye splits into smaller and smaller and more hectic pieces. I actually find this fun; initially the expensive and powerful Ice Wizzrobe or Ice Keese alone is enough to trace one or two big slimes, but as they become smaller and smaller it's more efficient to spam your own army of Ice Octos and Frost Slugs and go for quantity and speed. 

Not all the minibosses are particularly memorable or creative, but I particularly like Slime Eye here. 

Volcanic Talus

The boss of a short 'follow-up dungeon' in the Goron Mountains, the Volcanic Talus is just a stronger version of the Stone Talus that's going to be described below. It sure is a Stone Talus that's on fire!

Oh, the Tweeluses are meant to reference these guys. Got it!

Manhandla

The miniboss of Faron Temple is also very memorable! I really do love Manhandla, and as the franchise remembers that old Manhandla exists, they've been slowly positioning it as a 'boss' for the more common Deku Babas. The heads of the Manhandla here is a nice touch, with its final form having two heads that are straight-up the classic Deku Baba heads. 

Faron Temple is really fun to explore because of how nonlinear it is, and you have to keep hunting down Manhandla as its core bulb has swallowed up the boss key, and you fight Manhandla twice -- once with two heads, and once with four. You need to do the gimmick in this game of using 'Bind' to rip off a Deku Baba's head, except for Manhandla it's to expose a weak point in its neck so your Darknuts and Lizalfoses can swoop in and behead Manhandla. Multiple times. 

Not much else to say, but Manhandla has always been one of my favourite classic bosses,  so I'm happy to see it back! 

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DUNGEON BOSSES:

Seismic Talus

The first boss of the first proper dungeon that Zelda goes through, Suthorn Ruins, is a rather simple affair as these things go. The Seismic Talus is an interesting 3D-to-2D adaptation of the Taluses that became a bit iconic thanks to Breath of the Wild, but interpreted in a less 'realistic' way (if you can assign realism to living rock elemental golems, anyway). In that it gets a face and hands!

The Seismic Talus is just that. A big golem guy with floating hands that he spins around. There's a very obvious glowing purple orb that's weak and it moves around the Seismic Talus's body. You're meant to hit it, either with Zelda in her Swordsman Form, or by chucking your Darknuts at it. Not much to say here, a rather simple opening enemy that doesn't really have anything to do with the theme of the beginner dungeon. 

Vocavor

Vocavor is the monster at the end of the long Zora's Domain questline. After solving the overworld politics of the River and Sea Zora leaders, destroying the fake Lord Jabu Jabu, and going through the Rift world's version of the temple, the creature at the nexus of the rift is Vocavor. Who is this giant prawn or anomalocaris creature with a cartoon face. It's a neat enough design, and I like the kunai-like tail parts that Vocavor can detach and telekinetically manipulate. Vocavor's also got a bunch of light blue... tumours? On its back? Those soft bits are Vocavor's weak points.

Oh, the battle against Vocavor is also completely underwater and in a 2D side-scrolling section, and Vocavor's deal is that he keeps summoning giant whirlpools that take up chunks of the battlefield. Pretty fun little design, and I like him quite a bit. 

Morgrpyh

The Gerudo Desert or the Zora's Domain questlines could be done in any order, but as you could probably see from the ordering of my monster review, I did it in the order of Zora's Dungeon followed by Gerudo Desert. Didn't really much care for the desert area if I'm being honest, but the Gerudo were quite fun this time around -- with a surprisingly long storyline about the Gerudo leaders bickering, Zelda trying to prove herself, and the majordomo of the Gerudo Chief actually being an echo. 

The boss of the final dungeon of the Gerudo arc is... I expected a big Lanmola, considering how much it was spotlighted in the overworld, but I am pleasantly surprised by the Morgryph, which is surely the larger version of the Holmill. The Morgryph is a giant mole with a brown 'mane' like a lion and wings. It's a mole gryphon... but it's still goofy because it's got the face of a cartoon mole with the eyes reinterpreted as glasses. That's cute. 

Morgryph's whole deal is that he alternates between diving down the sand or flying around, with Zelda needing to trick Morgryph into burrow-rushing and slamming its head onto a statue; or when it's flying, divebombing smack-dab into a statue. Pretty neat as well. 

Echo Ganon

Ganon is technically fought as part of the very initial tutorial dungeon when you play as a full-powered Link. Zelda fights Ganon as well, and... it's essentially a remixed version of the A Link to the Past boss fight. Which I've done a couple of times. It's very familiar, and it does feel quite different since I'm playing as Zelda with completely different mechanics. Echo Ganon hits hard and fast, but ultimately I don't have much to really say here. It's Ganon! We know Ganon. 

Volvagia

We also know Volvagia, making his grand return as a boss since Ocarina of Time. Volvagia serves as the final boss of the Eldin Volcanoes arc, which revolves around the Gorons. At the end of the Eldin Temple is Volvagia, and the fight against him is surprisingly faithful to the Ocarina of Time incarnation, with Volvagia flying around the volcanic arena, flying down into the lava lake, and periodically popping his head up and unleashing devastation. The green orb on Volvagia's neck can be binded and pulled to stun him. Volvagia has a bunch of different fireballs to blast apart entire phalanxes of Zelda's echoes, too. 

The design is a bit cuter than Ocarina of Time, of course, and the additional shift from a 3D-Zelda-game boss fight to a 2D-Zelda-game boss fight does make him a bit more novel than the Ganon repeat. 

Skorchill

The questline for the Lanayru / Hebra Mountains is quite a tearjerker with the yeti child Conde... and we actually see Skorchill menace Conde quite a bit, masquerading as his brother. But as an asshole brother. But the actual boss fight against Skorchill is... a bit goofier than I thought it was going to be. He puts on a weird helmet with googly eyes, and he alternates between a light blue one (which shoots ice) and a red one (which shoots fire). Theoretically, the three horns that pop up from the other holes are the weak parts that you have to take down one by one. But as long as you summon the right elemental Wizzrobe or Keese, or just abuse the swordfighter form's arrows, Skorchill goes down extremely fast. I spent more time fighting Slime Eye, the sub-boss of his dungeon, than Skorchill himself. 

Gohma

Big Mama Gohma! Okay, so that's where the eyeball went. Taking a page out of Twilight Princess's Armagohma, the big Gohma in this game has a regular spider face, and a giant eyeball at the center of the cephalothorax. Gohma shoots lasers out of this central eye, shoots a bunch of webs to web up the battlefield, and also launches eggs that Baby Gohmas hatch out of. It mostly stays on its ceiling, but sometimes she will jump down and try to rake Zelda apart with its two spikier front claws (which seem to be based on the Hyrule Warriors incarnation. 

Gohma probably shares a spot with Volvagia for having the best attack animations, but it's not the most impressive one to take down. Very obvious green crystals that you're supposed to launch electric attacks to are on the Gohma's legs, and it's a very simple 'zap her at her weak spot, beat her up' boss. A bit of a shame, since Faron Temple is easily by far my favourite dungeon in the game to explore.

Echo Zelda

Called 'Tekom' in the internal game files but never referred to as such in the game, the main villain of the game, the primordial evil Null, will manifest herself as an Echo version of Zelda... which is such a cool concept. But she doesn't do much but fool the king and his ministers for a bit, and then open the accessway to the final dungeon. Which... which, I'm not going to lie, is very disappointing especially after how much I liked the rest of the game. It's basically a corridor with some scripted fights, and no puzzles at all!

It does have two bosses, though. Echo Zelda serves as the boss before entering the dungeon, and she's... she's basically just Zelda! She spams monsters, you spam monsters, and it's a bit of a shame that she doesn't do much beyond just fly around while you take potshots at her in-between summoning creatures. She only really ever summons weak and mid tier monsters, and doesn't summon any more than Zelda, so realistically if you have a Lynel or any of the LV 3 echoes, Echo Zelda is just a massive cakewalk. 

Null

And our final villain is Null, who is a primordial evil of doomy doom. His fight is... it's a bit derivative of Dethl from Link's Awakening, I'm afraid. Maybe it's just because its true form is a big shadow blob with two massive hands?  Null initially appears like that, a giant orb with a face that's a mockery of your fairy companion Tri and her people. Null is fought in a room that's also the inner body of his big, eldritch, extradimensional shadow-monster form. And a lot of the fight with Null basically just extends to it summoning arms and Zelda needing to drag the arms so that her echoes and Link can hack them apart, similar to Manhandla. Null can also summon echoes of some of the previous bossed (mostly Morgryph, Vocavor, Ganon and Skorchill) but it's just for animations and unlike Dethl we don't even have to call back what we needed to fight it. 

There's a side-scrolling part to the Null fight too, and eventually he breaks apart into that five-tentacles monster as he absorbs all of the other Tris. I do like his final form, with four undulating masks and an effect of screaming Tri faces warbling over its amoeba-like inner core.

I dunno. I really like almost all of Echoes of Wisdom, but Null is just a big... nothing. He's just a sealed eternal evil or whatever, making him a retread of Demise without a personality. There could have been something about him making echoes of people and there being an attempt to be creepy with that in the boss fight, but no. And for a game where I've summoned echoes to fight throughout the whole game, neither Echo Zelda nor Null really test that gimmick, not really -- the main thing you do when fighting Null is really just binding and pulling the arms while Link and your Lynel or Darknut cut them up. It's a bit disappointing, really, although I do like the weirdness of its final form.