I noticed they have this thread over on Dragonsfoot.

My avatar is (clearly) an Erol Otus pic. Can anyone tell me if it is in any published book? I snagged the scan from an Ebay auction a few years back - it was an auction for the original art. It looks like a Masher, a somewhat obscure monster from the first Monster Manual (and Supplement II: Blackmoor with less description):

"These worm-like fish move slowly along coral reefs, crushing and eating the coral growth...Mashers have a number of dorsal spines, 4' long, with poisonous secretions. An individual will have 4, 6, or 8..."

Blackmoor just says: "Coral eaters, harmless unless frightened, if so is just like 20 hit dice Purple worm, with treasure"

I assume Steve Marsh created them, b/c in the MMI Gygax acknowledges "Steve Marsh for devising the creastures for undersea encounters which originally appeared in BLACKMOOR."

Did anyone ever actually use one of these? I would've paid more attention if there was this Otus illustration! Of course, no Otus in MMI.

It looks like it is from Deities/Ctulthu

I'm not seeing it ... and now it's bugging me.

+++++

My avatar, BTW, is the god known as Steve Yzerman lofting the 1997 Stanley Cup. Then again, I change my picture every 10 days, so this maybe isn't a good thread for me.

My question: just what in the hell is that thing that Deimos is using as an avatar?

Howdy,


The original has "Monster Manuel" [sic], "Reduce 60%", and "Masher" written in pencil.


Futures Bright,

Paul

my avatar is the joker that is on the cover of the 7" single "Empire Song", which was released by my favorite band "Killing Joke" back in 1982.

prb one of my fave pics of all time....

just thought i would share that with you

Al

zhowar wrote:I noticed they have this thread over on Dragonsfoot.

My avatar is (clearly) an Erol Otus pic. Can anyone tell me if it is in any published book? I snagged the scan from an Ebay auction a few years back - it was an auction for the original art. It looks like a Masher, a somewhat obscure monster from the first Monster Manual (and Supplement II: Blackmoor with less description):

"These worm-like fish move slowly along coral reefs, crushing and eating the coral growth...Mashers have a number of dorsal spines, 4' long, with poisonous secretions. An individual will have 4, 6, or 8..."

Blackmoor just says: "Coral eaters, harmless unless frightened, if so is just like 20 hit dice Purple worm, with treasure"

I assume Steve Marsh created them, b/c in the MMI Gygax acknowledges "Steve Marsh for devising the creastures for undersea encounters which originally appeared in BLACKMOOR."

Did anyone ever actually use one of these? I would've paid more attention if there was this Otus illustration! Of course, no Otus in MMI.

We were the ones who sold the artwork in question. It is an Erol Otis piece that was intended to be used in the Monster Manual but was omitted.

The Collector's Trove wrote:The original has "Monster Manuel" [sic], "Reduce 60%", and "Masher" written in pencil.

Thanks, Paul! I should've realized that someone here owns the original.

improvstone wrote:But was it ever in the Monster Manual (I can't see it) ... if so which version?

I don't think so...I have only the 5th print (most common) with all of the errata incorporated & there's no Otus artwork. There's 6th-15th (:!: ) prints listed on the Acaeum but no mention of any artwork changes. MM errata page says all artwork changes were incorporated by 4th print:

http://www.acaeum.com/library/errata_mm.html

Hey deimos, there's a lemur on the cover of the April '06 Smithsonian magazine that looks like it is in spell-casting pose. You could easily photoshop a Meteor Swarm coming out of his hand. There's a tiny pic at the bottom of this page:

http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/

zhowar wrote:Hey deimos, there's a lemur on the cover of the April '06 Smithsonian magazine that looks like it is in spell-casting pose. You could easily photoshop a Meteor Swarm coming out of his hand. There's a tiny pic at the bottom of this page:

http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/

Very cool.  Lemurs are good at looking mage-like.  

The red behind him supposed to be a "hyper-warp fireball" (HWFB) gone awry.  HWFB is a very powerful spell.  Imagine a mentally controlled, long duration, teleporting fireball.  Sort of a variant of meteor swarm in my unfinished campaign setting.  

The photo is being used as an example of the concept of "magical backlash" -- what happens when you bite off a little more magic than you can chew.  This is something warlocks can attempt under the optional magic system.  Brynn's looking nervous because he's just lost mental control of the HWFB...a very bad thing.