Announcing the Malevolent & Benign Project

There's a convergence of interests on my blogs right now, so I thought I'd cross-publicise: over on my art-blog, I've undertaken what I'm calling the Malevolent & Benign Project, where I do daily sketches of  creatures drawn from the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio. I'm on monster eleven right now (Carrion Crawler).

Here was #1:

A Fiend Folio Problem, Solved

So, I'm thinking about a possible project wherein I draw all (or most) of the monsters out of the MM or the Fiend Folio, and so looking through those tomes to decide on which would be more interesting. Flipping through the Fiend Folio, I realise something that's never hit home to me before: there are a ludicrous number of bird-monsters in this book, most of which are severely lacking in the 'cool enough to use in my game' category.

But I have the solution. The aarakocra, dire corby, kenku, and achaierai (the worst name ever) are all native to some far-flung, half-legendary kingdom aking to Prester John's, only ruled by birds. Aaracokra are, instead of being bland noble-looking eaglemen, like peafowl with flashy colourful males and drab females of shrewd business acumen. Dire corbies, which look like ostriches or cassowaries with weird arms instead of wings are the enforcers and muscle of the bird-kingdoms, achaierai (still almost too stupid to type) are like elephants, with howdahs on their backs stuffed with lavishly dressed aarakocra maharajahs and their avian harems. Kenku are sneaky corvid nuisances (and actually have a place in ordinary places in the game). In the Avian Kingdoms they're more like working-class Dickensian crowmen, with braces, grubby bowlers, cockney accents, and gin habits.

A very simple random table

A bit of prep for an adventure I'm working on. This is pretty basic, but should work out well with my players.

Why Am I In This Dungeon?

1. Recovering the lost pet of the Dowager Countess of Groanborough
2. Keeping an eye on another PC
3. Community Service by order of the Lord High Executioner
4. Dissatisfied in current line of work
5. Ancestral Quest
6. Looking for lost relative/loved one
7. Financial difficulties
8. Hunting for a relic by command of the Lord Mayor
9. In search of a legendary beast
10. Fame and Glory
11. Avenging dead relative
12. Ill-advised bet made whilst drunk
13. On the run from the law
14. Scientific research
15. Investigating at the behest of a foreign nation
16. Looking for rare ingredient
17. Tourist
18. Recovering your stolen property
19. Shadily paid to explore it by a man in a pub
20. Hopelessly lost