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Realmspace is a supplement for the Spelljammer setting, describing the other planets within the crystal sphere that contains Toril, the world of the Forgotten Realms (Dale "Slade" Henson, TSR, 1991). Thomas Baxa's cover art portrays a batship in battle mode, possibly the oddest of all the unusual Spelljammer ship designs, attacking tail-first with exposed decks on the back of the neck and on the belly.
Fright #4 (November 1988) cover by Thomas Baxa and Melanie Merz.
Kigrid
Image by Thomas Baxa, © TSR Inc.
[I can kind of understand why, of the four illithidae introduced in Dragon 150, only three of them made it into Lords of Madness in D&D 3.5. The cessirid and the kigrid are somewhat redundant mechanically, both of them having a bite that inflicts pain poison as their primary unique ability. But from an ecological standpoint, they're quite distinct. Cessirids are pack hunters that cooperate readily with mind flayers, and kigrids are usually solitary and generally uncooperative. So I tried to give them different SLAs and other abilities to give the kigrid its own mechanical identity.]
Kigrid CR 8 NE Aberration This creature looks something like a reptilian bear, with dark skin and long curved claws on all four of its limbs. It has a broad beak like that of a parrot, around which four small tentacles dart and writhe.
A kigrid is a member of the illithidae, having an ecological niche similar to a bear or boar on the Sunset World. They are voracious omnivores, and among the most intelligent of the illithidae. Their intelligence is turned primarily towards devious ways to set ambushes and protect their lairs. They are gifted vocal mimics, and use a combination of mimicked speech and their inherent climbing ability to lure prey onto ledges and cliffs before attacking.
A kigrid will usually attempt to pin down a single opponent and rip them to shreds before moving onto the next target. In order to keep themselves properly paced, they use overwhelming grief to deny enemy actions. Few kigrid ambushes are launched without a blur spell to minimize successful attacks. Kigrids are stubborn foes, and once their blood is up will readily fight to the death.
Kigrids spend most of their lives alone, but associate in pairs in order to court. They prefer to lay their eggs in the corpses of large creatures, and lay a large number of eggs at once. The weakest of the larvae become part of the provisions for the stronger siblings. Once they reach maturity, the surviving siblings may travel together for a while in order to tackle larger prey, but these associations are rarely loyal ones. Their upbringing leads kigrids to view each other as food or rivals more than allies, and cannibalism is a fairly common outcome of kigrid interactions. Kigrids are valued as physical labor by mind flayers—they can carry incredible loads, and their tentacles are as prehensile as human hands. Due to their stubborn independence, however, most kigrids have to be controlled by charm magic, rather than joining a colony of their own free will.
An amphisbæna by Thomas Baxa.
A procession of priests in a deep dark dungeon (Tom Baxa, The Complete Priest's Handbook for AD&D 2e by Aaron Allston, TSR, 1990)
Crodlu-drawn chariot charges across the wasteland sands (Tom Baxa, cover for the Dark Sun World accessory The Ivory Triangle, the largest book in the boxed set by the same name, TSR, 1993)
Embrac
Image by Thomas Baxa, © TSR, Inc.
[The embrac is a monster that has not been well served by either of the pieces of art for it. The piece above gets the basic anatomy right, but has too few tentacles (the original monster had 8--I've cut it back to 4 due to the usual PFRPG reduction of natural weapon attacks), and the legs make it look bear-like and mobile as opposed to the more sea-anemone like, sessile creature the flavor text describes. The 3.5 version from Lords of Madness is properly immobile looking, and gets the number of tentacles correct, but moves them to the back, removing what makes the monster actually illithid like. The LoM version also removes their signature ability, depicted above: using illusions as bait to lure prey close enough to strike.]
Embrac CR 9 NE Aberration This bloated creature is shaped something like a giant sack. Its four limbs are little more than clawed stumps, and a parrot-like beak and large eyes are the only suggestions of a head the beast has. This beak is surrounded by four stout tentacles, each tipped in a clawed, three-fingered hand. Its skin is mottled and slimy, with bony plates studded in it at irregular intervals.
Embracs are members of the illithidae, aberrant kin to the mind flayers. Embracs are among the least intelligent of the illithdae, as their ecology does not require much problem solving. They are ambush hunters. Once an embrac detects the vibrations of a potential prey item, such as from footsteps, it uses its innate powers to scan nearby minds for what they desire. When it detects a desire, it creates a version of it with an illusion, which acts as bait to bring the prey close enough to strike.
An embrac attacks with the claws at the ends of its four tentacles, which both grab prey and inject it with a paralytic toxin. As the prey item struggles to break free, it is dragged towards the embrac’s waiting, beak-like mouth. If the victim was alone, this is usually enough to get the embrac a meal. If it is accompanied, such as a party of adventurers, the embrac uses confusion and crushing despair to break enemy morale and disrupt their tactics. Embracs are very slow; they usually flee using dimension door rather than their shambling gait, and will attempt to bribe or bargain their way out of danger if they cannot escape a losing battle.
Embracs collect treasure from their more civilized victims—this is as much to have as a bargaining chip as anything. They like magic items, but have little understanding of how they work. Embracs are usually solitary, but seek each other out to mate on rare occasions. Embracs are simultaneous hermaphrodites—they fertilize each other, and then lay the eggs in a carcass to develop. Embracs do not provide any parental care beyond the initial provisioning for their eggs.
An embrac is around ten feet in diameter, with tentacles that reach about fifteen feet in length.
