Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, Pt 2 (Eladrin to Nightwalkers)

Part two of my coverage of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes!

Again, not a whole ton for me as an introduction here. I spent the past week reading through a huge chunk of Mordenkainen's first half, but... I guess I just really am not super interested about the history of elven gods and anything involving the Gith? The fiend stuff are pretty nice, though, even if they did went a bit overboard in detailing every single archdevil and whatnot, it's still better to have these information for background in a D&D campaign rather than not.

Anyway, I've re-edited the first part of the Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes coverage a little bit because I've actually finally re-read the segments of the book detailing the elves, dwarves, Gith and stuff. I've also finally finished reading Volo's, and have edited some parts of my coverage on them. I really do like these sort of books, honestly, that just cover the culture and the racial identity of these huge parts of D&D lore, and I do find it interesting how they use this as an excuse to tie in a bunch of seemingly unrelated monsters together. That's pretty neat.

• Click here for the first part of Mordenkainen's, covering Allip to Eidolons. 
• Click here for the next part of Mordenkainen's, covering the demons and demon lords. 
• Click here for the index.

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Eladrin 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fey; Chaotic Neutral; CR 10 (Autumn), 10 (Spring), 10 (Summer), 10 (Winter)

Hoo boy, the "Eladrin". The term was introduced in... 2nd Edition, I believe? And the various D&D lorebooks over the five editions can never really decide what "Eladrin" is supposed to represent beyond being tied to the fey and the elves. Are they the pure-bred elves? Are they primal spirits representing seasons? Are they elf-like fey that are to elves what elves are to humans? I genuinely have remember Eladrin so differently throughout the various different editions... I think they were basically the 'high elf' player character race in 4E? 5th Edition D&D (which is basically what we're working with here) Eladrin maintains a brief elven connection but also not making them yet another sub-set of elves and instead making the Eladrin basically their own thing. They are to the elves what elves are to humans, and they're basically Feywild-transformed versions of elves. Perhaps in acknowledgement of the previous editions' versions of Eladrin, Mordenkainen notes that there are various different kinds of Eladrin, giving you space to adapt any of the previous editions' Eladrins into your own home game.

Where elves are able to control their emotions and whatnot, Eladrin wear their emotions on their sleeves -- literally, too, because their physical shape and even powers change depending on their emotions. Some Eladrin move through the different emotional spectrum every other week, while others are happy to remain in the same seasonal shape for years. It's a very fun showcase of literal nature-attuned spirits, in the way that many fantasy elves are portrayed. The different sub-types of Eladrin in 5E also basically have different powers and emotions associated with seasons. Autumn Eladrin are all about goodwill, defusing conflict and like to heal, cure and alleviate suffering, which is... interesting? It's not something I associate with autumn. The others are a bit more obvious -- Spring Eladrin are all about joy and happiness and mischief; Summer is all angry and wrathful and ready to fight; Winter is sad, sorrowful and bitter. The artwork are pretty damn neat, and I absolutely love the pretty different variations for spring, summer, autumn and winter Eladrins. I think the summer Eladrin with his almost gold-like face and the beautiful golden leaves and the bent sword looks the coolest, but I also really do like the autumn Eladrin with her little hunting dress.'

These Eladrin really feel like they will probably show up mostly as a playable race or NPC's or whatever, but since this is a monster bestiary book the D&D team are obligated to note potential avenues of conflict with adventurers, and like most fey, Eladrin basically just really loves beauty and sometimes they just want to abduct or steal really beautiful objects or people. These guys are fey, though, so they already operate on a pretty different morality compass than mortals -- any decent DM would be able to go off that without the bestiary having to shove down "hey these guys sometimes kidnap people all right?" Like, we've had a lot of evil baby-kidnapping fey already, the Eladrin seems pretty much tailor-made to basically be people who become antagonists thanks to misunderstandings and a different culture, y'know?


Elder Elemental: Leviathan 

• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Elemental; Neutral; CR 20

The Tome of Foes also introduces a bunch of souped-up monsters for some classic archetypes, this time around the Elementals. The 'bosses' for Elementals tended to be the genies or the elemental-worshiping cults, before we go straight into the primal elemental lords, but in most editions, we end up having a bunch of wacky elemental-themed monsters that crop up in various supplementary books. 5E brings us the Elder Elementals, which are basically noted to be regular ol' elementals who feed so much on the natural power of their native plane and cannibalize their lesser kin until they become such a gigantic, massive form. And when they get summoned into the material plane, they are basically walking manifestations of their respective element, becoming a disaster in physical form. These Elder Elementals are basically walking disasters, and a lot of evil elemental cults will try and uncover the secret rituals needed to bring them to the material plane and unleash all sorts of havoc.

The Elder Elemental for water is the Leviathan, a monster term that... I'm genuinely surprised to realize haven't had much mileage in D&D. The only official D&D Leviathan I've been able to find prior to 5E is a giant whale from 3.5E, a one-off monster that's just hanging out in a page of its many Monster Manuals. I guess it is kind of true that water monsters just aren't that popular? 5E's Leviathan, meanwhile, is a gigantic sea serpent/dragon thing made entirely out of water currents, and that sure is a cool picture! Mordenkainen's describes the Leviathan as less of a beast and more of a force of nature, noting that it's "a towering wall of water that drags ships down and washes away coastal settlements". It's not a giant sea serpent, it's just water itself that sometimes takes on the form of a sea serpent. Not the most original monster concept, but a pretty cool one.


Elder Elemental: Phoenix 

• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Elemental; Neutral; CR 16

I do find it kind of interesting that Phoenixes don't get a lot more prominence in D&D material. Maybe it's because of my Asian upbringing, but I honestly would rank Phoenixes up alongside the likes of dragons and giants as completely necessary monsters in a fantasy setting. And... and interestingly, phoenixes have been consistently reinvented across various D&D editions, appearing in all of them but not really being super-duper consistent. Still, in most of them Phoenixes have been some sort of mighty elemental creature from the fire elemental plane with rebirth properties. I do remember that 4E turned Phoenixes into a mere fire-breathing variant of the Roc, though. Most earlier editions had Phoenixes be neutral good fire-birds on the Large size category, basically being similar to Couatls or Ki-rins as intelligent beast-like entities, but 5E's Elder Elemental Phoenix is a gargantuan kaiju-sized bird that emerges into the material plane in a volcanic explosion driven with a simple desire to reduce the world into nothing but cinders. This makes 5E's Phoenix basically a more destructive, elemental version of the Rodan from that King of Monsters Godzilla movie. It sure is a neat visual image and all, but I think I find the original D&D take on the Phoenix as a reclusive magical beast with reincarnation abilities a bit more faithful to the mythological legends that inspired the Phoenix.


Elder Elemental: Elder Tempest 

• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Elemental; Neutral; CR 23

Oh, okay, this one is kind of cool, and 90% of the coolness factor comes from the artwork. Hailing from the Air Elemental is the Elder Tempest, which on first glance is a gigantic serpentine dragon with rows and rows of wings across his body, but look closer and you realize that the entire body is made out of storm clouds, with little lightning bolts arcing from one coil to the next. It looks pretty dang cool, and also looks like the fury of the elements made manifest. There's not really much lore to this thing and it's kind of just there to be a massive threat, literally a massive force of nature, but the visual image of this thing is pretty dang awesome. It doesn't really give me much to talk about and I don't want to (and am not qualified to) talk too much about game mechanics, but I do appreciate a lot that Mordenkainen basically gives us four rampaging, simple-minded kaiju with nothing on their mind but unleashing devastation on the material plane.


Elder Elemental: Zaratan 

• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Elemental; Neutral; CR 22

Based on a mythological creature from Arabic and Spanish legend, the Zaratan showed up in some earlier editions as a standalone monster, just a big-ass turtle with an island for a shell, something that's pretty faithful to the original legends that inspired it. I do like the idea of an island that also happens to be a giant turtle! 5E's Zaratan, though, is a lot less of a sea-turtle island and I do think that it loses a degree of cool factor since it's now merely just a giant kaiju-sized turtle made out of rock. It's hard to do anything but love that goofy-ass face, though. The other three Elder Elementals are these graceful, powerful-looking giant serpents and birds, and the Zaratan is just a goofy, chunky eyeless rock tortoise with the pudgiest of legs. And where the other elder elementals are noted to want to burn or destroy or drown everything, the Zaratan is content to really just plod across the land like a happy turtle and 'express its rage through its trumpeting calls'... but at the same time, the description also makes it feel like the Zaratan's destructive capabilities is caused more on accident due to its massive size sending shockwaves and whatnot, and it feels the most like a rampaging animal as opposed to the more force-of-nature feel of its elder elemental kin. I also the kinda adorable description of it hiding inside its shell if it gets damaged like a real tortoise.



Elemental Myrmidons 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Elemental; Neutral; CR 7 (Air Myrmidon), 7 (Earth Myrmidon), 7 (Fire Myrmidon), 7 (Water Myrmidon)

In addition to the massive Elder Elementals that are huge, world-ending (or continent-ending) threats, you can't just rely on the same old boring ghost-shaped Elemental minions, and the actual elemental 'bosses' like Genies or Salamanders deserve a bit more respect. And sometimes you just need a bunch of extra stronger minions. And the Myrmidons are essentially just the same old elementals, but now they have sick-looking cuirasses and helmets and weapons. Very World of Warcraft, I approve. (Again, as with most fantasy-based video games, I'm going to assume that unless proven otherwise, WoW borrowed the look of armoured elementals from D&D) There's just something pretty dang cool to see a partial suit of armour with nothing but a flames or wind inhabiting it. The Earth Myrmidon is the most boring one by virtue of looking the most mundane, looking like a generic rock golem creature, but that comes with the virtue of having such a chunky, humanoid body. The air, water and fire ones look pretty damn cool, with their almost featureless helmets having nothing but their respective elements beneath. I do like the Air Myrmidon basically be comprised with wispy smoke or cloud, which is kind of a neat departure from how air elementals are almost often depicted as being nothing but tornadoes all the time. The water and fire ones are the coolest on a purely visual level. Spiky armour! It's interesting that these armoured states as Myrmidons are basically noted to basically be enslavement, with the Elementals being more or less brainwashed into serving their creators and them having very little recollection of being a free being.


Giff 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Lawful Neutral; CR 3

Oh it's the Giff! I don't really know a whole ton about the specific setting, but back in 2E, one of the modules released was the balls-to-the-wall crazy Spelljammer setting, where thanks to some company mandate, they are forced to adapt D&D into a space-faring setting, and we get some... interesting things out of it since the writers clearly just wanted to let loose and go all crazy. We've seen some Spelljammer-imported creatures before in the Neogi, and some lore from the Spelljammer setting is adapted for things like the Illithid, but the Giff (or Hippo-folk) is one of the perhaps most blatant usage of a pretty bizarre design style that doesn't quite gel with most of D&D's more European-medieval-fantasy-inspired vibe. And it's okay, because the Giffs are in-universe pretty bizarre themselves. Giant seven-foot-tall hippo-men that always walk around in gaudy, out-of-place military uniforms and holding freaking musket rifles, the Giff arrive from space! Their culture is one of those wacky one-note sci-fi "everything is based on your rank" cultures you see in a one-off episode of Star Trek or whatever. Every facet of their culture and life revolves around a military life, so they end up sounding pretty dull to other races.

All Giffs respect the military rank and see it as absolute. They work as interstellar mercenaries, but they insist on only serving in units composed entirely of other Giff, and will only sign contracts with a small print that says that it can sit out of any battle that pits it against other Giff. So serious, for a bunch of hippo people. Also, since they come from space, they have access to the highly amazing, advanced technology of... guns and the weaponizing of gunpowder. Which, depending on your setting, may or may not have existed before, and would be an absolute game-changer. Apparently they prefer payment in gunpower instead of gold, too, which... yeah, that makes sense as anything about the Giff. Anyway, I love these things. They look just so out of place with their Napoleonic outfits and chunky rifles, and I absolutely love the fact that the 5E artwork tries to make a goddamn hippo-person so posh with a monocle and the most fancy of pipes.


Gray Render 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Monstrosity; Chaotic Neutral; CR 12

This is a creature that many members of my gaming party really love. Hailing from 3E and appearing in all editions since, the Gray Render is visually not the most striking creature, just a muscular, humanoid beast-man with six beady eyes and a massive set of fangs, a pretty neat monstrous creature that looks threatening but is kind of essentially just a more beastly-looking ogre. And that's actually part of its whole thing. It looks like a pretty generic brute, but the Gray Render's whole gimmick is that despite its hulking, brutish form, the Gray Render is basically a giant puppy. It's still destructive as hell, being larger than your average tree, but all the Gray Render wants to do is to bond with an intelligent creature and essentially follow it around and be its pet. Like, it's this giant monstrous beast straight from the Underdark, and yet all it just wants to do is to find someone it likes enough and protect it to the death. How can you not love this thing?

Interestingly, Gray Renders reproduce not by giving birth or laying eggs, but by budding, creating little nodules that break off from their body that turn into more young Gray Renders, and they never take care of their young -- meaning that young Gray Renders have an instinctual impulse to go look for non-Gray-Render intelligent creatures to bond with, described lovingly as the Render singing and scratching the ground to ask permission to basically be your huge lumbering puppy forever and ever. Except, well, taking care of a Gray Render is a huge responsibility and like most large dogs, Gray Renders don't have a good gauge of their strength or what's socially acceptable. They'll never harm their master, but everything else is fair game. It's just that instead of your dog scratching up your sofa, your pet Gray Render might accidentally murder everyone in a tavern because someone bumped into you. And also, like real dogs, sometimes they get jealous at you showing affection to anyone else and might attack like a business client or whatever. Anyway, this is a gloriously adorable giant rock-beast monster and I love its flavour so much even if the design is disappointingly boring.


Howler 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend; Chaotic Evil; CR 8

I am a huge, huge fan of the Howlers! Especially with their gnarly, skeletal 3E-4E design. There's a lot to appreciate with the hideous mutated baboon-frog of 5E too, but I am a huge, huge fan of the design from 3E to 4E, which just screams from the page and made me go "whoa that's cool" when I first saw it as a kid. 3E/4E's Howlers are these vaguely feline beasts with a pretty demonic face with pretty cool bone-like shoulder protrusions and these gigantic hedgehog quills running down its body. 5E's Howler is a lot less gaunt and more muscular, toning down the spikes in favour of giving it an absolutely ghoulish face and a giant vocal sac like a frog to emphasize its 'howling' ability... and it does make the creature feel more like a 'howler', but I liked the 3E/4E design so much that I'm kind of sad to see the design lose so much in translation.

Anyway, I haven't even mentioned what a Howler is, huh? They arrive from the plane of madness, Pandemonium, and sometimes hang out in the Lower Planes like hell, and they're basically hideous beasts that unleash massive wailing yowls that strike confusion and fear into the hearts of the weak-willed, and can drive people insane. There really isn't much to them, they're just pack hunters that also have a fear/insanity-causing howl, and they tended to be captured and enslaved by fiends and other nasty beings, but I really do like them for that reason, and I enjoy the description in various monster manuals noting how they can only stare in shock and stumble aimlessly around the battlefield after succumbing to a Howler's howl, leaving them easy prey for the Howlers and/or their handlers. There's really not much more for me to say here, it's just a critter I find pretty dang cool.


Kruthik 

• 5.5E/5E: Small Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 1/8 (Young Kruthik)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 2 (Kruthik)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 5 (Kruthik Hive Lord)

The Kruthik is a creature that I remember from the 3rd Edition and one whose artwork I found to be really really cool because I'm an easy sucker for anything buggy with weird mantis-feet. The art style is different and the vibe of the armour plating is slightly different, but the Kruthik remains relatively consistent throughout the transition to 5E, being this seemingly quadrupedal Xenomorph-style... bug-lizard creature is the best way to describe it, I guess. Four multi-jointed scythe-like legs that hole the body up like a tripod, a third pair of limbs tucked against its abdomen, a creepy sinewy muscle-y body covered with bug-like chitin... the Kruthik isn't the most complex of designs, but like the Howler, is another one that feels refreshingly neat. 5E calls them "chitin-covered reptiles", and they apparently make their giant hives near sources of heat like molten lava. There have been a fair amount of bug-themed enemies in the previous two 5E bestiaries, but not one that's more explicitly based around a hive mentality, I don't think, so it's actually neat that we get one, and the Kruthik's a pretty dang cool mantis-dinosaur-creature.

You can just imagine one of these thing just scuttling around with its massive pointed feet, clattering all over the place as they communicate with their chattering hisses... and that's why they are very dangerous. Like real-life ants and termites, a single Kruthik might not amount to much, but give them a chance and they will summon the wrath of the entire hive to deal with the intruders, and the more Kruthiks are around, the more bold each individual one becomes. Also like real-life communal insects, the scent of enough dead Kruthiks might actually repel the entire hive, which is a neat way to 'defeat' an entire hive without having to fight the hundreds of Kruthiks that live there. Oh, and Kruthik hives also play host to other creatures, like oozes and undead, which they tolerate as guards in a neat way of symbiosis. Mordenkainen's also briefly describes the Kruthik life-cycle, going from egg to the juvenile young Kruthik, to an adult Kruthik... it's not necessary, but I appreciate this so much. The Hive Lord is, of course, the equivalent to the 'queen' of the colony, but even if you slay a Hive Lord, the rest of the Kruthik hive will just retreat, find a new lair, and then the largest Kruthik in the hive will metamorphose into a new Hive Lord. So I guess you do have to exterminate them to the last, then, to truly end the threat of the Kruthik infestation?


Marut 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Construct; Lawful Neutral; CR 25

The Inevitables hail from the 3rd Edition, I believe, where they are the far less comical version of the Mordrons, being mechanical beings that punish anyone who has violated a fundamental principle. Like, I guess they are the Physics police? "Oh, you are violating the fundamental principle of gravity with your feather fall spell, I shall punish thee!" Or something. Like most extraplanar races, there were multiple variants lumped together, but 5E settles with introducing just the one, and I really love that 5E's Marut isn't just a generically-col metal man in armour. These are extra-planar beings from another dimension with a motivation that isn't exactly easily comprehended by most mortal people, of course they have to look a bit weird! And the 5E Marut's bizarre giant eyeball attached into a chunky body, tiny little ineffectual angel wings attached to its shoulders and booties, and oddly mal-proportioned limbs. They look like they confirm just enough to the typical humanoid proportion, but also just slightly off. It is so much weirder and inhuman compared to the 3E Marut (on the right) which is just a generic faceless chunky Spartan golem-man. Ditto for 4E.

I am not 100% sure about their lore in previous editions, but in 5E, the Inevitables are also part of the huge Mordron society, created by their god-creator Primus to bring order to the deals between planar folks, and they're basically the less-evil versions of Yugoloths. The Maruts hang out in the Hall of Concordance, and any two parties who agree to mutual terms can pay another Inveitable, a Kolyarut (center of the 3E artwork), to chisel a contract onto a sheet of gold, which is placed onto the disc-player chest of a Marut, and until the contract is fulfilled the Marut will enforce its terms and beat the shit out of any party who tries to break the terms of the contract. The Maruts are noted to be cold and unfeeling, caring nothing for the spirit of the agreement, only the letter, and will enforce what is written and not what is meant to be understood. It's certainly the basis of a very interesting encounter, and one that Mordenkainen's helpfully notes is great to be used in a storyline involving yugoloths and deals.


Meazel 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Neutral Evil; CR 1

Meazels are apparently once-normal people who go off to places where the Shadowfell is close to the material plane and basically become hateful hermits while lurking in the shadow, and now they're just angry loners who want to be left alone to their suffering. And they now channel the power of shadowy magic to move through pools of shadows, to strangle travelers with cords, or sometimes just use their shadow-jumping ability to move their victims to isolated spots to let them be eaten by other Shadowfell creatures, where the undead and all sorts of creatures that live in the Shadowfell will tear them apart, attracted by the curse the Meazel places on them. An interesting mechanic as an encounter, even if visually and thematically the Meazel just looks like a gangly, angry Gollum who found too much hair gel. Not my favourite monster by a long shot, although I appreciate the attempt to add some diversity to the Shadowfell population.


Nagpa 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Neutral Evil; CR 17

Not to be confused with the Kenku or the Aarakocra, the Nagpa are a completely different set of cursed bird-men. These are hunch-backed vulture wizards who are hateful. The very first Nagpa were a group of wizards that meddled in a ritual that caused the creation of the Raven Queen, patron goddess (or something) of the Shadar-Kai, the Shadowfell elves. It's a whole long story that we'll cover a bit more in the Shadar-Kai's own segment. The Raven Queen still ascended into semi-godhood, and cursed the treacherous wizards and turned them into the Nagpa, these terrible vulture-people, and now they basically exist as a group of schemers and plotters to bring about the worst calamities ever, although they are deathly afraid of the Raven Queen and will revert into 'cringing, fawning things, eager to please and escape' if the Raven Queen or her agents should come across them. Why the obsession with calamities? The Raven Queen's ironic curse on them have caused them to be unable to acquire any sort of new magical power unless it is pilfered from ruins of fallen civilizations... so since there's only so many ruins and so many fallen civilizations, the Nagpa go around to try and orchestrate more fallen civilizations. I do like these sort of more scheming, manipulative enemies, and while the Nagpa visually isn't the most interesting, vultures are cool, sinister-looking birds and translating that into a hunch-backed bird-crone is pretty neat.


Nightwalker 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 20

Another one that has a relatively newer debut, the Nightwalker are gigantic humanoids made out of shadows, and I particularly love that original 3E artwork of just this gaunt humanoid with glowing eyes. It's so simple, yet so unsettlingly inhuman. But the 5E artwork of that horned giant with a very distorted face with shadows bleeding off his form is also pretty cool. Nightwalkers are a type of "Nightshade", creatures that are born when people try and tap into the Negative Plane, the plane of darkness and death that's on the other side of the Shadowfell (there are a lot of planes in D&D-land), and when they fail to actually channel the Negative Plane's energies (since it's, y'know, a plane of death), they are consumed by it and replaced by a Nightwalker, which are giant undead creatures who exist to devour all life that they encounter. Basically, for every aspiring warlock or wizard who tries to enter the Negative Plane is a corresponding Nightwalker that is created by the Negative Plane, which adds an extra layer of complexity. The Nightwalker itself is already a mighty creature of death and destruction, but if you want to free that trapped comrade of yours who tried to peer too much into the Negative Plane, you need to lure the Nightwalker back into the Negative Plane (with 'offerings of life for it to devour', which is probably another headache in and of itself) otherwise their corresponding living counterpart will have no hope of escaping the Negative Plane. And what's to say you even find the right, corresponding Nightwalker, too? Anyway, a pretty cool creature with a correspondingly neat little origin story. I always love it when they give us some sort of intricate backstory to the creation of these creatures -- it's perhaps not quite practical for the sustaining of an entire species, but the Nightwalker is not meant to be an entire species, it's just a type of creature born when a specific event happens.

3E's original introduction of the "Nightshade" creatures features a lot of other delicious variants, but we're keeping it simple with just one big, lanky, scary humanoid shadow giant for now. 

Trolls! 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 13 (Dire Troll)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 9 (Rot Troll), 11 (Spirit Troll), 7 (Venom Troll)

Right, here's a little bonus. I completely forgot to talk about the trolls last time when I covered 'hey, we talked about these races before, but Tome of Foes gives us extra variants". Unlike the Drow or Duergar or Ogres, though, the trolls actually do have a lot of physical differences that give me a fair bit more to talk about, which is why I'm actually glad I missed them since now I can talk about them a bit more. I do appreciate that it's the troll that has a relatively large amount of variation, considering how varied the definition of 'troll' even is in human culture. Going from left to right...

The Dire Troll isn't just a bigger, scarier troll like a Dire Wolf or a Dire Bear or a Dire Porcupine, but rather a troll that has engaged in cannibalism, and apparently when trolls eat the flesh of another troll, they grow so much but they also want 'more troll flesh' to continue their growth. And this apparently translates into 'slap the flesh of the trolls I kill into my body', which is why the hideous Dire Troll have grafted extra arms and heads where they don't belong, and the artist does a pretty great job showcasing this. Those extra random fingers sprouting out of the lower arm of the Dire Troll's left arm, that little face and extra mouths growing from his belly and pectorals... the first time I saw this and read the first part of the write-up, I thought it's just a troll whose regenerative cells or whatever went haywire after cannibalism, but turns out that, no, it's a bit more gruesome than that.

The Rot Troll, in contrast, looks almost normal. I mean, as a normal troll could be. Sure, it's half-decayed thanks to the fact that the Rot Troll is infused with necrotic energy as it is regenerating from a wound, but it's not until you read the description that you realize that thanks to the infusion of necrotic energy, the Rot Troll's regeneration and the infused necrotic energy causes his body to decay and heal up in an unending cycle. The Spirit Troll... is also not the most exciting, basically what happens when you blast a troll with psychic energy when it's regenerating, turning it into basically a ghostly psychic troll that attacks the enemy's mind. But the troll's too dumb to realize that!

Venom Trolls, meanwhile, are trolls that are mutated by a large infusion of poison, and while the description isn't all that exciting -- it's just a troll whose body now produces venom and has venom dripping out of every orifice in combat -- the artwork really sells how wretched and terrifying this creature can be. Sometimes it's the description, sometimes it's the artwork, yeah?

The stats for the creatures we covered here.

• Autumn Eladrin: Medium fey - elf; chaotic neutral; CR 10
• Spring Eladrin: Medium fey - elf; chaotic neutral; CR 10
• Summer Eladrin: Medium fey - elf; chaotic neutral; CR 10
• Winter Eladrin: Medium fey - elf; chaotic neutral; CR 10
• Leviathan: Gargantuan elemental; neutral; CR 20
• Phoenix: Gargantuan elemental; neutral; CR 16
• Elder Tempest: Gargantuan elemental; neutral; CR 23
• Zaratan: Gargantuan elemental; neutral; CR 22
• Air Elemental Myrmidon: Medium elemental; neutral; CR 7
• Earth Elemental Myrmidon: Medium elemental; neutral; CR 7
• Fire Elemental Myrmidon: Medium elemental; neutral; CR 7
• Water Elemental Myrmidon: Medium elemental; neutral; CR 7
• Giff: Medium humanoid; lawful neutral; CR 3
• Gray Render: Large monstrosity; chaotic neutral; CR 12
• Howler: Large fiend; chaotic evil; CR 8
• Young Kruthik: Small monstrosity; unaligned; CR 1/8
• Adult Kruthik: Medium monstrosity; unaligned; CR 2
• Kruthik Hive Lord: Large monstrosity; unaligned; CR 5
• Marut: Large construct - inevitable; lawful neutral; CR 25
• Meazel: Medium humanoid - meazel; neutral evil; CR 1
• Nagpa: Medium humanoid - nagpa; neutral evil; CR 17
• Nightwalker: Huge undead; chaotic evil; CR 20
• Dire Troll: Huge giant; chaotic evil; CR 13
• Rot Troll: Large giant; chaotic evil; CR 9
• Spirit Troll: Large giant; chaotic evil; CR 11
• Venom Troll: Large giant; chaotic evil; CR 7