Monsters in Interactive Fiction

Acid Rain (2021)

> x monster (@ Northern End of Long Hallway)

It doesn't look very friendly.
It's as dead as a doornail.

The monster's full name is "the small ravenous monster that defies description".

Additional Tales from Castle Balderstone (2019)

> x creature (@ (viewing the creature))

His eyes were bloodshot. His hair was stringy and unctuous. His teeth were chipped and yellowed. His chin protruded like a bent nail.

Another Day, Another Sea Monster (2001)

> x monster (@ On the Beach)

He is green and slimy, just as you feared! Plus he wears a cute chef's hat.

The Apprentice (2006)

> x gargoyle (@ Passageway)

[originally:] It`s a large statue of some strange beast with wings and large arms. There is a golden crown sitting on its head.
[alive:] The gargoyle is evil looking and seems to dislike your presence.
[dead:] It`s a broken up statue of some strange beast with wings and large arms. There is blood all over it.

Awakening (2009)

> x monster (@ Gateway)

Some kind of gargoyle. It is difficult to make out any more detail.

The Awakening (1998)

> x me (@ Inner Chamber)

You find you cannot look down at yourself. It is almost as if you know what you might find and are afraid to have your fears confirmed.

Baluthar (2003)

> x creature (@ Artificial Tunnel)

You have met something like this once before in a boyhood adventure that you'd rather forget. It is a ghoul - a person who had died as a very small baby and been swiftly raised as a zombie by a powerful necromancer. While the body was indeed dead, there was life of a sort left in the agents of growth and development of the child. Its development was deeply warped by the trauma of death and the unnatural effects of the evil magic that re-animated it. Now it is a fully developed monster; looming, hairy and gruesomely deformed, with huge square yellow teeth and skin that rots, oozes and renews constantly. The rotting skin attracts the beetles in their dozens, so even though the monster is completely still most of the time, it is constantly animated by the crawlers that roam over and under its flesh.

> x necrimera (@ Monster's Lair)

The monster is a jumbled chaos of zombified heads, limbs, tails and skin. In some places it has fur, in others scales, and in many others it has pale, bloodless human flesh. Its surface is punctuated with sharp spines, hanging teats, blotches and wounds. With every movement it makes, it appears to be fighting against itself in an endless battle for dominance over its own body.

The Bibliophile (2014)

> x chakota (@ Well Chamber)

You try not to look at it, but your mind is scarred by what you have seen. It is a maggot, maybe nine feet in length and very bulbous. It is the closest thing your mind can associate with it. But what your mind fails to comprehend are the numerous faces that bulge from the slimy hide of the beast. They scream out silently in horror and pain.

> x shambler (@ Slimy Tunnel)

It is a hulking, blasphemous form of a thing not wholly ape and not wholly insect. Its hide hangs loosely upon its frame and its dead-eyed rudiment of a head sways drunkenly from side-to-side. Its forearms end in talons spread wide. Its whole body is taut with murderous malignity despite its utter lack of facial description.

The Colour Pink (2005)

> x gargoyle (@ The base of the Red Tower)

On first glance the gargoyle looks monstrous, with a fierce facial expression and large wings, but when you notice that he is wearing glasses, he looks less intimidating. You think that he is made of stone, but he is clearly alive, so you are not sure. The gargoyle has not stopped staring at you since you first appeared.

Compliance (2012)

> x creature (@ Containment Area)

It appears to be some kind of small, hairy creature. It looks up as you approach, then hides once more.

Conan Kill Everything (2005)

> x golem (@ Dungeon)

The golem is a towering, intimidating apparition. Numerous branches protrude from its body.

Ditch Day Drifter (1990)

> x creature (@ Hall)

It looks like the result of a biological experiment that failed (or succeeded, depending on who performed the experiment).

Dr Horror's House of Terror (2021)

> x gargoyles (@ The Castle Rooftop)

You know they're made out of painted foam, but they're pretty good. They actually look....forbidding and slightly evil. Someone in the set design department has a talent for this sort of thing.

> x monster (@ The Laboratory of Dr Von Hummels)

It seems far bigger and bulkier than it should be! The terrible creature is composed of Melissa's white legs, with their red painted toenails, Beanie's well muscled arms, and Harry Higginbotham's scowling head. It's all connected together by rough black stitches to a torso that has a little blue swallow tattoo.

> x monster (@ The Cathedral of Bone)

The monster made from assorted body parts is extremely strong and his special attack, using his monstrous strength to squeeze the life out of his opponents is extremely powerful. Unfortunately, he is also very slow and a bit clumsy. The amount of damage he deals to his opponent is very high.

Hercules! (2021)

> x hydra (@ Lake Lerna)

It's almost impossible to describe. A nightmarish, gooey purple lizard with 5ft fangs and a swirling mass of multiple heads and necks. Larger than physics would think possible. And it's staring right at you.

Seven of the monster's heads notice you ogling it and let out a chorus of tortured, screeching cries. You nearly pass out from fear.

> x monster (@ Erytheia)

The monster Geryon seems more genial than you've heard. It's ugly, sure, with three heads (two of which don't seem to do anything), trollish features, patchy hair and a strong odor, but it isn't openly hostile towards you. It's currently using one of its six hands to count the coins in its coin purse.

In a Tomb with a Donkey (2023)

> x sphinx (@ Sphinx's room)

A sphinx is comfortably curled up against the wall, taking up most of the room. In contrast to what you've read about sphinxes in the past, her expression is friendly. She looks at you expectantly. A wide circular platform, only raised by an inch or so, sits in front of her.

The Legend of Horse Girl (2022)

> x gila monster (@ Mine Entrance)

An enormous warty bloated lizard, covered in swirls of purple and yellow scales, lies sprawled on the ground, regarding you lazily with one baleful yellow eye. You've never seen one so big. You've heard that high amounts of snake oil in the environment can cause mutations like that. [if has venom] Its venomous fangs glisten in the harsh desert sun. [end if] It wears a collar with a tag that says "IDA MAE."

The Lonely Troll (2022)

> x sphinx (@ Desert)

The sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a woman. She has huge white wings and a kind face. Her body has a pattern of question marks all over it.

> x cyclops (@ Field)

A tall bald cyclops with one eye in the center of his forehead.

> x griffin (@ Cave)

A noble griffin, looking sad and scratching at his feathers. There's one puffy gold feather at the tip of its wing.
A noble griffin, looking sleepy and contented.

The Quest of the Golden Banana (2004)

> x gargoyle (@ Museum of Curious Antiquities)

The Green Gargoyle of Gloom is so ugly it would probably turn the Gorgon Medusa to stone. The small plaque affixed to the display case explains that it was made by the mad demons of Hell Fire Cavern in a fit of psychotic fury, and then cast out into the world of men as being too hideous for mere demonkind to bear. It subsequently caused a public scandal when King Freddie the Fatuous mistook it for a bust of his wife.

Several Other Tales from Castle Balderstone (2020)

> x famulus (@ Laboratory)

A melliphytic famulus is sculpted with the limbs, sensory organs—even the specific intellectual faculties required by its summoner. Presumably when this one is not acting as a mere guard dog, it is able to assist the Marquis in his depraved studies.

> x Nemertean (@ Grotto)

The Nemerteans discovered the principle of melliphysis and employed its unseemly techniques to travel here from their native spheres. They are well aware of the deleterious effects of melliphytic magic, but, lacking any faculty corresponding to the terrestrial concept of a conscience, have no qualms with proliferating its use across the planet. Thus it falls to the Orthodoxy to defend the world against Nemertean influence, and to punish anyone—vampire or no—who engages in any form of melliphytic research.

Ship of Whimsy (2011)

> x creature (@ Belowdecks)

Humanoid, in that it has two arms, two legs and a head. It is nude, sexless body covered with smooth gray skin. Its facial features are rudimentary, except for its eyes, which are large and glossy black.

You Are Here (2001)

> x creature (@ Black Copse)

The creature's resemblance to a bush is remarkable. It's almost as if one of the shrubs rose up to fight you of its own accord.
The creature's resemblance to Harolde is remarkable. Such is the skill of this Changeling that you find it difficult--though luckily not impossible--to tell the difference.
The creature's resemblance to you is remarkable. Such is the skill of this Changeling that even those close to you would find it difficult--though not impossible--to tell the difference.

Default response instances

Birmingham IV (2018): small furry creatures @ Experiment Room.

Synonyms of other things instances

Amusement Park (2004): creatures ≡ merry-go-round @ Merry-go-round.