Warm Forest

Baboons are known for their aggressive nature and distinctive build, including a canine-like maw filled with sharp teeth, strong jaw muscles, a short tail, and prominent calluses on their brightly colored and protruding buttocks. Though they are primarily vegetarians, baboons are known to eat fish, insects, shellfish, and other small creatures. Ferociously territorial, baboons are quick to rise and defend their homes from any sort of intruders. A baboon is 3 feet tall and weighs 70 pounds.

Monkey goblins are an offshoot of the goblin race that has eagerly adapted to life in the high, leafy canopies of tropical forests. Equipped with rat-like prehensile tails, monkey goblins are as at home in the trees as they are on the ground.  Monkey goblins lead savage lives, and many take levels in the barbarian class, though fighters and rogues are also common among the race. While spellcasting classes are almost unheard of among them, monkey goblin clerics in the service of dark gods are given a level of respect by other monkey goblins that borders on fear.

Giant centipedes attack nearly any living creatures with their poisonous jaws. These creatures adapt to many environments and feed voraciously on the local fauna, including humanoids. The coloration of giant centipedes mirrors that of normal centipedes and spans the spectrum, ranging from dull hues to bright reds and fiery oranges. Other species of giant centipedes exist as well, some smaller but most quite a bit larger. You can adjust the stats given here by changing Hit Dice and size (changing Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution as appropriate) to represent a wide range of giant centipede species. The following table lists the most common variants.

Unlike normal caterpillars, voracious giant horn caterpillars don’t pupate into butterflies. Instead, they remain in their worm-like forms for their entire life cycle, growing between each molt until they eventually reach the size of large dogs.  Horn caterpillars feed on the hooves and horns of dead ungulates, which they usually scavenge from corpses. Their sharp mandibles allow them to effortlessly shear through tendon and bone.  

Be they jungle-dwelling pythons or swampdwelling boas like the anaconda, constrictor snakes are among the most deadly predatory animals of the tropical wilds. Fortunately, these large snakes are relatively passive, save for when they are preparing to shed their skins or are particularly hungry. Nevertheless, the sinuous creatures are held in fear by many societies who often ascribe fiendish qualities to them. The constrictor snake presented here is a relatively small one. You can create stats for a larger maneater like an anaconda by applying the advanced and giant simple templates, or by advancing the stats above to a 7 HD Large snake (CR 5), or even a 14 HD Huge snake (CR 10).

Leopards are 4 feet long and weigh 120 pounds. The statistics presented here can describe any feline of similar size, such as jaguars, panthers, and mountain lions—what differentiates these big cats from the similarly sized cheetah is primarily their habitats—leopards and their kin prefer to hunt at night and ambush their prey from above, pouncing down from trees or high rocks. Leopards eat almost any animal they can run down and catch, preferring Small prey but capable of downing Large herbivores or surviving on rodents, birds, and insects. Healthy leopards are generally not aggressive toward humanoids, and if they aren’t hungry and don’t feel threatened, it is possible to approach closely without a hostile reaction. Yet a leopard that settles in an area bordered by humanoid civilization can easily and swiftly become a dangerous predator.

Monkeys sometimes travel in huge colonies of hundreds of individuals. In such quantities, these primates can become quite dangerous, capable of overwhelming many foes by their sheer numbers. Unlike most swarms, monkey swarms work well together. A swarm of monkeys does not possess a true hive mind, but it is capable of working in tandem with other swarms to make basic tactical decisions in combat.

A smaller cousin of the deinonychus, the velociraptor is a swift, cunning pack hunter. It has no fear of Medium or even Large creatures. Its leaping charge attack grants it a significant advantage against foes in thick underbrush. A velociraptor is around 1-1/2 feet tall and 7 feet long, and weighs 35 pounds.

These colorful winged monkeys sport tawny fur coats ranging from blue-white to slate grey or even black, and some individuals have much lighter white or ivory areas around their faces and shoulders. Their wings tend to be brightly feathered. Their faces, feet, and hands are always hairless, and they groom the hair surrounding their faces outward, giving them a tattered, bearded appearance. Xiaos have bodies about 15 inches long with equally long tails and a wingspan of about three feet. A few individuals have two pairs of wings; this trait grants them perfect maneuverability, but they are otherwise statistically identical to their two-winged kin.  Xiaos are omnivores, eating fruit, nuts, insects, small mammals, crabs, and fish. Given enough time, rather than devouring their food raw, xiaos create elaborate dishes of their favorite foods and cook these dishes over small fires, which they light with their spark spell-like ability. Xiaos also enjoy trying new and exotic foods prepared by humanoid creatures, especially foods made with flour and sugar. Most xiaos are very adventurous eaters, though they tend not to like the taste of beef and lamb.  Xiaos build nests high up in the canopy of wild places or thick forests, and often cluster their nests together in groups of trees. They welcome small villages of friendly humanoids within their territories, as such creatures are a ready source of useful objects and new forms of interesting food. Xiao troops often raid nearby civilized communities for small amounts of salt and sugar, or prepared foods for single meals, but do not otherwise cause much mischief unless provoked. Larger or hostile communities that persecute or hunt xiaos often suffer from numerous unexpected fires and destructive forms of larceny and sabotage. Xiaos have excellent memories and hold grudges against those who abuse them.  While xiaos have very few natural enemies, they flee from derhii on sight. The enormous winged gorillas are very territorial and consider xiaos to be pests. They do not hesitate to kill, skin, and eat xiaos, and can eliminate a thriving xiao community in a matter of hours.  Xiaos are born from eggs slightly larger than a chicken egg. These eggs are covered with bluish leathery skin, and are usually laid singly or, infrequently, in pairs. A juvenile xiao begins flying within 6 weeks of hatching, and hangs from the fur on its mother’s chest until that time. Those born in captivity latch on to suitably friendly and patient humanoids as surrogate mothers during development. While a xiao raised in captivity takes to flying later than those born in the wild, it otherwise develops normally, though it is likely to have less fear of strange humans than its wild kin.  A spellcaster with the Improved Familiar feat and an arcane caster level of 7th or higher can select a xiao as her familiar.

An adult male ape is 8 feet tall and can weigh as much as 400 pounds. While generally shy and peaceful creatures when left to their own business, gorillas are territorial and become highly aggressive when provoked. This stat block can generally be used for any of the larger types of primates, such as gorillas—for smaller apes like orangutans and chimpanzees, apply the young simple template. Even smaller primates should use the stats for monkeys. Gorillas typically make a large show of force before actually attacking, thumping their chests with their palms, stamping their feet, and roaring loudly. Any opponents who refuse to flee after this display are attacked. Troops of apes fight together in a frenzy, tearing opponents to pieces with their hands and teeth.

Known to many scholars as the gigantopithecus, the dire ape is a much more dangerous and bestial creature than the relatively peaceful gorilla. An adult male dire ape stands 9 feet tall and weighs 1,200 pounds. The dire ape attacks anything that intrudes on its territory, including other dire apes not of its troop, and does not break off the attack until the trespasser is dead or runs off. A dire ape makes no displays of toughness or warnings before it attacks— it simply leaps into action with little or no provocation, tearing at its opponents with claws and teeth. If a dire ape is stymied by a heavily armored foe, it attempts to grapple its foe, pin it to the ground, and rend it.

As swift and agile as it is deadly, the deinonychus is a pack hunter, running with several of its kind to take down prey and rip it apart with their gutting talons. You can apply the young simple template to create statistics for smaller, more agile velociraptors. Conversely, you can either increase the deinonychus to Large size and its Hit Dice to 8 or simply apply the giant and advanced simple templates to create a formidable megaraptor.

A dimetrodon is a quadrupedal reptile similar in shape to a crocodile, but with a blunter snout filled with jagged, sharp teeth. Its most distinguishing feature is the massive sail that runs the length of its back. By extending or contracting the fin, the cold-blooded reptile can control its body temperature with ease. While they are not technically dinosaurs, dimetrodons are still often found dwelling in regions inhabited by such creatures. A fully grown adult dimetrodon can reach a length of up to 15 feet and weigh upward of 2,000 pounds.

These large lizards have the ability to shift the pigments in their skin to match their surroundings. A giant chameleon is typically 11 feet long and weighs 160 pounds.

Giant termites are social, burrowing insects that create immense earthen mounds the size of cathedrals to house their large colonies. The colony splits into small groups to take on various tasks, like hunting food or collecting dirt and clay to expand the colony’s mound. They are destructive pests, consuming plant matter and destroying wooden structures, but they consume meat as well if creatures interfere with their cycle of demolition and construction. Termites also use their acid to render animals into glue to reinforce the mound.

Not quite man nor ape, the kech is a hairless primate that dwells in the deepest jungles. There they live in sizable tribes, relying upon their uncanny coloration and skill with bows to hunt prey. The green-and-brown camouflage coloration of a kech’s flesh shifts and adapts to all surroundings to aid in stealth, but works particularly well in forests or jungles. This, combined with its uncanny ability to move through any terrain and leave no trace of its passage, makes the kech a masterful ambush hunter. A kech is 6 feet tall and weighs 240 pounds. These creatures prefer to dwell in ruined jungle buildings, and when presented with an opportunity to seize a remote town, slaughter the citizens, and move in, the typical kech tribe does not hesitate. Keches are as cruel as they are stealthy, and most jungle villages do not realize that they are under attack by a band of keches until the battle is already decided, with more than half the village dead in their beds, never having had the chance to awake and sound an alarm. Once a village does rouse to mount a resistance, the keches often seek to subdue remaining victims rather than kill them. Those who are slaughtered are inevitably eaten within 24 hours as part of a tremendous victory feast. Prisoners are often kept in cages in close proximity to the feasting, for keches enjoy the sound of wailing as their victims watch their kin being consumed. A kech tribe is typically led by a chieftain with 2–4 levels of ranger or fighter. Keches value magical support, particularly divine magic, for the jungle has no shortage of methods to wound, poison, or sicken those who dwell within. A kech cleric is as likely to worship an evil deity as it is one of the Four Horsemen or an evil elemental lord, but most kech priests are in fact druids. The combination of restorative magic and power over the natural world is often too seductive a path for a devout kech to ignore. Kech druids typically take apes as animal companions, and even tribes that lack druids generally have a few well-trained guard apes among them. Cannibalism is seen as a particularly vile taboo by keches—this prohibition extends to the consumption of ape or monkey flesh, but notably does not extend to the flesh of humanoids.

Blood caterpillars are among the largest of giant caterpillars. These massive vermin draw sustenance from rotting meat in the same way many butterflies eat rotting fruit. Behind their mandibles are spinnerets that allow them to manipulate silk, which the caterpillars can discharge to spin webs and immobilize their prey. Their venom weakens the muscles of creatures exposed to it, aiding the caterpillars in restraining and devouring even large, strong, and agile prey.  

Centipede swarms are a terrifying sight to behold, comprising countless venomous creatures that move as one relentless entity. Drawing from various environments, these swarms have members that display the same vast array of colors seen in their larger, solitary counterparts, with shades ranging from muted tones to vivid reds and striking oranges. These swarms not only showcase the adaptability and voracity of the individual centipede but amplify it many times over. Their collective hunger knows no bounds, and they will voraciously consume anything in their path, including unfortunate humanoids. While some centipede swarms may feature smaller species, the majority consist of larger and more aggressive varieties, each driven by the singular desire to feed.

Although a ceratosaurus’s horn is mainly for courtship displays, its jaws are extremely deadly. A ceratosaurus stands 10 feet high and can grow up to 18 feet long and 1,600 pounds.  

This lizard is a true behemoth— an apex predator found in tropical regions. Many species of giant lizard exist—other species lack this lizard’s intimidating charge special ability but might have other special attacks like grab, trip, constrict (with a bite), or pounce.

Despite its close resemblance to other types of crocodilians, the kaprosuchus is a terrestrial predator, not an aquatic one. Squat and powerfully built, these creatures hunt for prey in forests. The adults can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh as much as 2,500 pounds.

Sabosan are an intelligent and evil race of batlike humanoids that dwell in warm and isolated forests or deep underground in vast caverns. Sabosan are vicious predators, combining human intelligence with a bat’s natural adaptations for hunting. They favor warm climates, preferring to make their lairs in places that are inaccessible to most intruders, such as mountaintop crags, abandoned ruins, subterranean caverns near hidden hot springs, and dense canopies of jungle trees. With wingspans almost three times their height, sabosan are agile and graceful fliers, capable of traveling miles on a single current of air in their dauntless search for prey. Although they can see as well as any human in daylight, sabosan hunt at twilight or after dark when their echolocation-based blindsense ability gives them a great advantage. Sabosan can also use their voices offensively, funneling their screeches into blasts of highpitched sound capable of deafening other creatures. When hunting en masse or attacking foes, a sabosan employs its fell shriek on adversaries while other sabosan use their massive wings to churn up great clouds of dust and debris, rendering foes deaf and blind. A sabosan’s emaciated frame belies its strength and agility, which are not apparent from its gaunt appearance. Its giant, leathery wings can reach a span of almost 20 feet. Both males and females have red or dark brown fur on their heads, necks, chests, and backs. Sabosan stand just under 6 feet tall and weigh only 150 pounds.

Girallons are among the jungle’s most dangerous predators. They are aggressive, carnivorous, highly territorial, and incredibly strong. Worse, their four muscular arms are capable of inflicting incredible damage on anything that falls into their clutches. Their exotic appearance makes them popular creatures in certain cities as attractions in gladiatorial combats, either starved and pitted against each other, or set against gladiators eager to increase their fame and notoriety. One who kills a girallon is all but assured of fame, yet most battles against these ferocious beasts end poorly for those foolish enough to attempt to single-handedly defeat one. An adult girallon is 8 feet tall, broad-chested, and covered in thick, pure white fur. It weighs roughly 800 pounds. Girallons live in troops led by a dominant male. Solitary girallons are usually young males looking to start their own troop. Girallons are very territorial and tend to attack intruders without warning, including strangers of their own kind. Groups of girallons may attack in a line to drive prey toward a cliff or other hazard, or quietly form a ring around their target and suddenly close in. While most girallons are little more than beasts, ancient carvings and the oral traditions of some tribes hint that the girallon wasn’t always the stupid creature it is today. According to these legends, the first girallons were men who called upon savage demon gods to gain great strength, yet in so doing abandoned their humanity. With each generation, these first girallons grew more and more savage and feral, and the same legends maintain that these intelligent girallons still dwell in the darkest part of the jungle. In addition to their intellects, these girallons retain a vast appetite for cruelty. Called “high girallons,” these creatures are almost always chaotic evil, and have Intelligence scores of 6 or higher. An intelligent girallon generally speaks whatever language the local humans speak. Often, they become leaders of unusually large troops of their less-intelligent kin, inhabit strange ruined cities in the jungle or mountains, and conduct raids on villages for food and treasure. Some primitive tribes worship these girallons as the agents of evil gods or demons, and a few high girallons have been known to work for or even breed with tribal orcs, inspiring legends of four-armed “white orcs.”

Jungle drakes are tenacious predators, ruthlessly adapted to the environment they call home. The tails of these drakes inject a virulent toxin, capable of debilitating the most stubborn of foes.  Jungle drakes typically travel in rampages of three or more, stalking animals or humanoids without remorse. Able to travel through forested terrain with ease, jungle drakes prefer to make several hit-and-run attacks, using their stingers to inject their prey with poison. After the venom has time to set in, the drake reemerges from the jungle, snatching the weakest target in its jaws before retreating back into the woods with its new meal. When the prey of a jungle drake appears too well armed or prepared to assault foes head-on, the drake stalks them, letting the natural hazards of the jungle wear them down before emerging to grab a meal, and then retreating back to the protection of the deeper jungle.  A jungle drake measures 14 feet from front to back, with a lean but muscular build, and weighs around 2,100 pounds.

Termite swarms are the bane of architects and engineers in warm climes. They live in mounds and nests, devouring growing plants, decaying logs, and wooden structures alike from the inside out, and can quickly bring down even a solidly constructed building. They are nearly impossible to eradicate, and react with violence when their mounds are threatened.

Mngwas are the incarnation of malevolent jungle spirits, driven by anger directed toward their focus of hate—a specific creature, family, or community who has despoiled the jungle or desecrated a sacred site. A mngwa exists only between sunset and sunrise. Each day at sunset the mngwa materializes near the spot on which it first manifested, and each day at sunrise the mngwa fades back into nothingness. Legendary for their skill at evading hunters, mngwas sometimes haunt a region for centuries, continuing to stalk the members of large tribes or extended families responsible for some ancient transgression.  Mngwas average 15 feet in length and weigh 3,000 pounds.

A psychepore is a symbiosis of two different plant creatures—a lurching bit of undergrowth distantly related to the shambling mound and an intelligent cluster of hard fungal growths that possess a malevolent hive mind. On their own, the shambling undergrowth is an unintelligent creature, barely aware enough to move itself to new sources of sunlight and water, while the fungal conks, for their part, are intelligent but immobile. The two pose a serious threat only once the psychic fungus infests the shambling undergrowth, and the creatures transform into the horrifying psychepore.  A psychepore procreates through microorganisms in its poison, spreading into victims fungal spores that try to bond with that host’s physiology to create a new psychepore. Generally, the only creatures with which these spores can coexist are the shambles that form the base of a psychepore, but these spores also have strange effects on creatures that aren’t their typical hosts. Such creatures suffer from delusional visions as their minds try to assimilate or reject the images presented by the alien will of the strange symbionts, and their bodies desperately attempt to force the foreign spores out. Some cultures harvest psychepores to distill their poison into a powerful drug, using it in religious rituals that search for inner knowledge or in dark alleys as a temporary escape from cruel, short lives—or transforming it into a truth serum used during psychological torture and other types of interrogation.  Most psychepores attack only in vain attempts to procreate, never seeming frustrated by their usually futile efforts, but more intelligent specimens pursue less direct but more fruitful approaches, often serving those who aid in gathering the undergrowth they need to replicate. There are rumors of even more highly developed and intelligent versions of these creatures that learn the secrets of telepathy and how to adjust their poison to replicate possession magic. These super-intelligent psychepores become more aware of cultural structures and take great joy in manipulating other forms of life to achieve their goals.  A psychepore is a hulking thing with a dense composition. It stands 6 feet tall or slightly taller and weighs about 300 pounds.   

The immense baluchitherium stands nearly 18 feet high at the shoulder, measures 30 feet from end to end, and weighs 40,000 pounds. Despite its size, it lives a peaceful life pulling leaves from the tops of trees unless startled into action. When panicked, a baluchitherium tramples any obstacle in its path. If confronted, it smashes its tormentors with its elephantine feet. A properly trained baluchitherium makes a capable mount for ettins, ogres, smaller giants, or other Large humanoids, and is one of the few mammals other than an elephant able to fill that role. Its relatively ponderous pace limits its usefulness to some extent, but its strength often more than makes up for this shortcoming.

Tick swarms are merciless blights, able to quickly reduce the larger animal life of a region they infest to blood-drained, diseased husks

Dangerous protectors of deep forests and lush jungles, tikbalangs are malicious creatures that enjoy leading travelers astray. Tikbalangs mimic sounds to lure explorers off their determined path, even separating a single traveler from his group and kidnapping him. They use their magical abilities to make the forest confusing to those passing through, often weaving illusions around a path to hide important turns or cloaking the entire jungle in an unfamiliar appearance. Sometimes a tikbalang stalks intruders, spying on them from afar or from within the canopies of trees to learn more about its visitors. It then uses its change shape ability to appear as someone familiar to its first victim (such as another member of the group) and leads that person deeper into the woods to become lost. Once the victim is out of hearing range, the tikbalang drags it into a high tree, wraps it in vines, and packs its mouth with leaves and moss to stifle its screams. The tikbalang may eat its prisoner, offer to release it if the other intruders leave, or leave its corpse as a grisly warning to other travelers. Though sinister and always looking to bring ruin to explorers, tikbalangs can be bribed or mollified into allowing safe passage with offerings or the performance of strange rituals, such as singing a song, wearing a shirt inside out, or giving the monster bread and honey. The exact bribe is different each day, and the tikbalang never explains what it wants.

The tyrannosaurus is an apex predator that measures 40 feet long and weighs 14,000 pounds.

Couatls are servants of lawful and good deities, though some operate independently of any greater being. Respected and admired for their wisdom and beauty, they try to steer mortals onto the right path and use their powers to fight evil, particularly those known to shift between the planes. Some couatls are viewed as benevolent gods by isolated societies, and while most couatls cringe at the thought of pretending to be a god, they allow such misconceptions to continue since they allow the couatls to guide and coax these societies onto paths of peace and cooperation with their neighbors. A couatl is about 12 feet long, with a wingspan of about 15 feet. It weighs 1,800 pounds. As native outsiders, couatls must eat. They prefer the same foods as true snakes, such as mammals and birds, though they have been known to eat evil humanoids. As they would rather spend their time promoting their agenda than hunting, couatls appreciate offers of food, particularly small boars and large game fowl. A couatl sometimes shows its favor to an adventurer or party that has done it a service by gifting the group with 1d4 of its brightly colored feathers. Such a freely given feather, if used as an additional material component, allows a spellcaster to cast planar ally to conjure that specific couatl without expending the typical payment of gold or other valuables—provided the the couatl approves of the service asked for by the spellcaster.

Reclusive by nature, jungle giants lair deep within the rainforest. These giants distrust the ways of civilization and resent trespassers. More than one vine-covered lost city in the deep jungle owes its fall to jungle giant ire. The warrior-women of these tribes usually fight with bows, sacred weapons often passed down over generations from mother to daughter. To touch a jungle giant’s bow without permission is a mortal insult. Jungle giants stand 17 feet tall and weigh 4,000 pounds. Their bark-like skin bears runic brands etched into each giant as a rite of passage into adulthood. Jungle giant tribes are matriarchal, ruled by an elder female warrior. Males traditionally defend the village, gather food, tend livestock, and raise children.

Muhurus are elusive creatures that dwell in the most remote reaches of the world’s jungles. They are so difficult to find that many scholars do not believe they exist, yet the fantastic tales of their amazing, reflective dorsal fins draw explorers and trophy hunters from far and wide in the hope of finding even a single specimen.  Muhurus are often considered to be nature spirits. Locals point to the creatures’ ability to move through the densest parts of the forest without a trace as evidence of their otherworldly nature. At the very least, they believe muhurus are favored by the spirits of nature, and they do not take kindly to those who wish to kill such beasts for nothing more than sport.  Muhurus are certainly able to defend themselves, of course. The massive beasts shake the earth with their very step and can knock opponents to the ground with one slap of their spiked tails. They also use their prismatic fins as potent weapons to blind their enemies.

This strange creature has the body of a tiger, the head of a fanged monkey, and a poisonous viper for a tail. Though some call it a chimera and treat it as an exotic specimen of that creature, it is a completely different breed of beast. Intelligent enough to enjoy cruelty as well as inflicting terror upon its prey, a nue delights in toying with its victim before dealing the killing blow. Often, a nue will select a target and plague it with nightmares before it even attempts an act of violence, wearing down the victim with dreadful dreams and phantasmagoric terrors. Once its prey is thoroughly exhausted, the nue will finally steal into the victim’s sleeping chambers and engage in combat, paralyzing its target with its magic and infecting its prey with both disease and poison, letting the victim writhe in pain before succumbing to death. A nue’s ghastly appearance in physical form is only made eerier by its ability to turn into an inky cloud of darkness. In this guise, a nue can hide amongst fog clouds or shadows before emerging as the destructive horror it is. By the time a nue crawls forth from the inscrutable black cloud, its prey is often too fatigued from its strange night terrors to defend itself. The dreams a nue impregnates creatures’ minds with varies from victim to victim, but all share the trait of an ever-present, foreboding cloud that exudes a fierce and palpable sense of malice. Some legends suggest that nues are the spirits of children warped into twisted forms to spread paranoia, exhaustion, and fear among former friends and family. According to these stories, such a cursed child wreaks terror upon its friends and relatives until they are all either dead or driven mad by fear. Then, the creature moves on, seeking more challenging kills to sate its vicious hunger. The greatest joy a nue can feel is snuffing the life of a once-strong and proud target that has been brought low by its debilitating attacks. A nue is 9 feet long and weighs 600 pounds.

When the gods of nature or powerful spirits desire a champion to defend the animal world, they invest a token of their power in a chosen vessel—be it animal or humanoid. Traditionally, only one animal lord for a specific animal species is active on a world at any one time, although sometimes, when an extant animal lord strays from its charge or otherwise fails, the force that created it might create a replacement to send against the fallen animal lord to challenge it in a combat to the death, with the victor claiming the right to rule or a chance at redemption. An animal lord does not dwell among humanity—the wild is its domain. How an animal lord interacts with a humanoid society largely depends on how that society treats the animals of that lord’s affinity. Societies that honor and respect those animals, even if they use the animals as a food source, earn the animal lord’s (sometimes grudging) respect, but those who abuse or otherwise harm animals of that lord’s species find a powerful and ardent enemy in the lord. The cat lord above uses a leopard as the base animal— this particular cat lord represents a newly created animal lord. The longer an animal lord exists, the higher its level should be.

The mapinguari is a creature of legend, a beast many claim to have seen, though few who actually encounter one live to tell their story. A mapinguari patrols a territory so large that some believe each claims an entire jungle as its own. However, those more familiar with the legends know that a mapinguari’s territory is greatly limited by lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water.  A mapinguari stands approximately 20 feet tall and weighs 15,000 pounds.

Kongamatos are primeval dragons that hunt the deep jungles of the world. Although not as intelligent or magically adept as their “true” cousins, kongamatos are respected and feared for their resilience and awesome strength. While the kongamato’s body is clearly draconic— squat and dense with sharp claws capping each of its four limbs—the creature’s head is distinctly avian, with a long, toothless beak and a pronounced crest. A kongamato’s hide is a rich emerald hue, with an ash-colored underbelly and crimson webbing on its broad wings. Females have smaller head-crests than males, and a rosy hue colors both the undersides of their wings and their underbellies. Kongamatos are apex predators that make their lairs in the tops of the oldest and strongest trees, or in caves and ruins. Kongamatos are carnivorous and prey on large herd animals. Although they do not have teeth, their beaks are sharp and strong, allowing them to carve their kills with precision and to punch through wood, rock, and even metal. When possible, kongamatos hunt on the perimeter of their territories, gliding silently and gracefully through even the thickest forest foliage to surprise prey. Both males and females grow to a length of almost 30 feet, with an equally broad wingspan, and can weigh up to 7 tons. Kongamatos live between 500 and 600 years.

A tunche is a bizarre forest creature with twisted feline legs, a dense body resembling jungle undergrowth, clawed arms like those of a praying mantis, and a head resembling a cross between a monstrous spider’s head and a jungle orchid. Although it has plant and animal features, a tunche is neither plant nor animal and is immune to effects that specifically target such creatures. Considering itself the ultimate protector of the jungle, a tunche prowls its domain in search of any who might despoil this vibrant and lush environment. If a tunche encounters travelers who treat the jungle with proper respect, it might simply observe them or demand an offering in exchange for allowing them to pass through its territory. A tunche especially enjoys toying with its victims, using its magic to confuse and mislead its opponents. A tunche rarely kills a foe without toying with it first, unless the target is actively harming plants or animals. A tunche stands 20 feet tall and weighs 4,000 pounds.

Terrifying predators, tarantula trees claim dominion over vast swaths of territory. Within these regions, they tend to be nomadic until they find a productive hunting spot. While they cannot speak, these plants are quite intelligent and have been known to live in peace with creatures willing to engage them in entertaining conversation.  The typical tarantula tree stands upward of 100 feet in height and weighs nearly 200 tons.

Mogaru, known as the Final King to kaiju scholars, or simply as King Mogaru, is one of the most destructive of his kind. Although not the most powerful kaiju (a sobering thought in and of itself ), Mogaru is certainly the most active of the known kaiju. Additionally, Mogaru seems to be as eager to rampage through the works of humanity as he is to attack and kill other kaiju, making him something of a mixed blessing to kaiju-threatened cities. While the prospect of an attack by Mogaru is the stuff of nightmares, the possibility of his intervention during a different kaiju attack is the stuff of hope, though the damage dealt to a city during its defense may be significant. Mogaru appears as a towering dinosaur with twin tails, spines that glow red as he uses his breath weapon, and two powerful clawed forearms. King Mogaru dwells in the depths of a tropical jungle, sleeping silently at the bottom of an unusually deep lake until roused. Legends hold that Mogaru was born of the world itself, either formed from the spirits of countless plants and animals resulting from ages of hunting and predation by humanoids for food or sport, or formed from the souls of the countless slain in an ancient apocalypse or war that devastated one of the first of the world’s empires. Regardless of the actual cause, the birth of Mogaru in these legends seems to be the same—soon after another kaiju, Lord Varklops, emerged from an erupting volcano, Mogaru rose to oppose the Thrice-Headed Fiend in a vast battle that nearly slew Varklops while devastating an entire nation in the process. Mogaru is also rumored to have slain no fewer than a dozen other kaiju, including Agmazar the Star Titan, now believed to be the only undead kaiju in existence. Of particular note is the curious fact that Mogaru exhibits a particularly unique interest in song. Legends of skilled singers being able to save their cities with a single mournful paean to the kaiju, or of vengeful bards using their craft to waken the monster from his lair to send him on a rampage are common along coastal regions with a history of kaiju attacks, and in such regions renowned singers are well respected for this ability to inf luence one of the world’s most destructive creatures. Kaiju scholars suspect that song manages to penetrate Mogaru’s memories of some primeval event, but the reasons for the kaiju’s reaction to the song are its own. Mogaru stands 140 feet high and weighs 20,000 tons, and is nearly 300 feet long from nose to tail.