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The art in the book is very good if a little sparse in places; From Jon Hodgsons excellent cover art to some truly creepy depictions and descriptions between the pages. A few more art pieces throughout would certainly not have gone amiss, but it’s not a great concern.
The book covers a wide range of creatures and monsters that exist throughout the Lands of Legend; from Fae horrors like the Caitshee, to Necrochors guarding their ancient tombs in the Kaikhuran Desert, to the loathsome and obscene Hellrots spreading their pestilence at the ancient demon Rimfaxs behest.
The Bestiary is broken down into different sections; Creatures of Legend: details the meaning behind descriptors such as movement rates, Rank equivalents, Stealth and Perception, Treasure types and the different types of vision possessed by creatures in the world of Legend.
Chance Encounters: A series of random encounter charts featuring the most common creatures covering major terrain types, underworlds and sea travel.
Men and Man-Like Creatures: Features a grab-bag of humanoids including Adventurers and ordinary men, ‘Common’ Fey such as Goblins, Gnomes and Trolls as well as stranger races from the edges of the world. This section also details the two most man-like fey, Elves and Dwarves along with some optional rules on making them PCs.
Animals, Tame and Wild: Details the wildlife most likely to come in conflict with PCs and those domestic animals that may be either companions or opponents.
Monsters of Legend: Dragons, Chimera, Water Leapers and many more. Ancient beasts of legend and horrors from the dawn of the world.
The Supernatural: The beasts of Faery, those who wear two skins and creatures of far-flung legend; Hags, Pazuzu, Barghest and others.
Creations of Sorcery: Constructs, sorcerous conjurations and unholy abominations, including Golems, Skullghasts and Fang Warriors, sprung from Hydras teeth. Also included here are the Wadwos, beast-men created through unnatural sorcerous breeding, they are most known from their use as Black Riders by the Mad Duke of Ereworn but have often found use in my campaigns eking out an existence in the forgotten thickets or Elleslands forests.
Infernal Creatures: What it says on the tin, not just your average demons; Hellions, Hellhounds and White Ladies, the eldritch handmaidens of the Fengris Wolf.
The Undead: The restless shades of ancient chieftains, the drowned and the damned; Barnacle Men, Barudath, Wraiths and Vampires among many others.
Most of the descriptions contain a great deal of atmosphere and at least one or two plot hooks, really serve to anchor the beings within the Lands of Legend. Those monsters which seem familiar to experienced gamers can be quite different in Legend, and a number of those never seen outside of Dragon Warriors are even stranger.
Some of the descriptions are a little lacking, mostly those creatures which are natural animals or which were included in the original edition despite not fitting the milieu of Legend, Orcs I'm looking at you.
The book is reasonably well organized though I may have put certain creatures in different categories than they currently occupy. I would also have grouped the creatures of Faery together into one section as they play such an important part in most Dragon Warriors campaigns.
In closing this is a very useful GM tool for any Dragon Warriors game, another nice piece of work from Dave Morris through the crew at Serpent King Games.
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