Skelm, Palace

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[Talking with me during the development of her red hag, @soylent-crocodile referred to it as "a species of Starscreams". Which is a great description, and also an accurate assessment of the palace skelm. Although it's obvious that Grima Wormtongue is also a major influence on this PF2e monster. The fact that palace skelms and red hags are the same CR and would absolutely hate each other is the icing on the cake for me.]

Palace Skelm CR 8 LE Monstrous Humanoid This humanoid figure is almost human, except for the pair of gleaming antlers growing from his skull. He is dressed in fine noble’s clothing.

Palace skelms are creatures that delight in the corruption of power. They often are found among military officers and politicians, some of whom transformed into skelms in that position. Palace skelms spend their time either jockeying for power or abusing the power that they do have, treating their subordinates with casual cruelty. A palace skelm is an excellent liar, and they can even insert their words into the mouths of others. They encourage competition, jealousy and paranoia in any court they find themselves in, turning functioning governments into a den of vipers to exploit. They are ostentatious by nature, and frequently flaunt their wealth and status with finery.

Most palace skelms prefer to exert power from behind the throne, ingratiating himself to a ruler and warping their perceptions so that they only trust the skelm. Coups and political upheavals are dangerous for palace skelms, as they simultaneously allow for more opportunities to inflict suffering while increasing the risk of the skelm’s true nature being exposed, or of the skelm losing their grasp on what power they have. Palace skelms have a tendency to self-sabotage, as their interlocking schemes can spiral out of their control, and their answer to being caught in the act is usually murder.

Tailypo

Image from The Tailypo: A Ghost Story © Joanna Galdone and Paul Galdone. Accessed here

[You want to know what scares the monster maker? Here you go. My mom read this book to my sister and I as a bedtime story when we were around 5 and 6. And we couldn’t get to sleep all night. No version I could find online was nearly as creepy as the original picture book, so with the picture book I went.]

Tailypo CR 3 NE Magical Beast Stalking forth from the darkness is a beast that combines the features of a wolf, an ape and a big cat. Its paws bear some resemblance to human hands and its face is dominated by staring, owlish eyes and tall ears with tufts like a bobcat’s. A long and furry tail waves in the air behind it.

Bestial backwoods predators, the hybrid creatures known as tailypos are far more cunning than their appearance would indicate. Their hunting strategy is unusual in that it involves a sacrifice of their own body parts, like a lizard shedding its tail. Any creature that takes the bait is stalked unceasingly by the tailypo, who strikes when its target is most vulnerable. They prefer to hunt sentient prey for the challenge, and their nimble paws allow them to open doors and use tools in order to terrorize and kill a victim.

Tailypos are territorial and drive away or kill other predators in their ranges, such as big cats, wolves and bears. Tailypos spend most of their lives in solitude, only meeting with others of their own kind in order to mate and raise offspring. A female tailypo will give birth to a litter of two to six cubs, which grow to maturity over the course of a year. Tailypo cubs are prized for their tracking abilities and can fetch up to 2,000 gp on the open market, but such purchases are highly risky due to the tailypo’s cunning and evil disposition. A tailypo grows to eight feet long, with about half of that length being tail.

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There are some pretty good pieces of tailypo art out there now, but this is still my favorite for its vague menace, the bear-like claws and the sheer nostalgia factor. A gallery of other tailypos for your perusal…

Image © DeviantArt user Kravuus, accessed at his gallery here. Probably my favorite overall, although I wish the paws were more clearly prehensile.

A tailypo combining features of foxes and opossums, © @a-book-of-creatures, accessed at their site here

A stylishly vague tailypo with striking eyes, © @dailycryptodrawings, accessed here

A very American McGee’s Alice in Wonderland tailypo, which makes me think tailypos are sort of an evil equivalent of Cheshire Cats. © deviantArt user streetartist123, accessed at her gallery here

This tailypo plays up the primate aspects; it looks a lot like a murderous bushbaby to me. © deviantArt user eadiletsum, accessed at their gallery here

Traci Shepard’s tailypo is the most raccoonish of the lot, although there’s definitely some bobcat in the face and ears. © Traci Shepard, accessed at Arcane Beasts and Critters here

And lastly, the cutest goddamn tailypo you ever did see, © deviantArt user draemora, accessed at her gallery here.

Redback Gorger

Image by Johnny Duddle, © Simon and Schuster

[Sponsored by @glarnboudin. An Awfully Beastly Business is a series of chapter books for young readers, set at a nature reserve for monsters. I read the first of them, and it was okay I guess. I'm definitely not in the target audience for them, but likewise if I was eight to ten when they came out, I could see myself having fixated on them. The redback is the cover monster of the second book, Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies, in which the villains hope to use it as the centerpiece of a seafood feast of exotic monsters. In order to avoid giving the redback just an adjective name, I resorted to the "adjective verber" formula beloved of Magic the Gathering and 4e D&D.]

Redback Gorger CR 17 N Magical Beast This creature resembles an octopus with the face of a frogfish. It has a craggy exoskeleton covering its body, studded with red plates along its back. It has eight tentacles, each of which is as thick as a tree trunk and lined with suckers that ooze a black resin. Growing from its head is a very long, flexible appendage ending in an eyeless blue snake’s head.

Redback gorgers are among the rarest of sea monsters—rarely is there more than one adult per ocean basin on any given planet. They are long-lived ambush predators—they spend most of their time resting or slowly swimming along the abyssal plains, then move higher into the water column to hunt. Although their jaws and tentacles are strong, they prefer to incapacitate their prey by injecting it with a super-cooled venom, carried in the fangs of their false head. The false head can smell, hear and sense heat, and can strike around cover. The redback gorger feeds primarily on large fish and small whales, which it paralyzes with its venom and then swallows without a struggle.

Despite their massive territorial requirements and rarity, redback gorgers can communicate through infrasound vocalization, similarly to whales and elephants, and use this to demarcate territorial boundaries and determine fertility status. Redbacks mate only once or twice in their long lives, but produce around a million tiny planktonic eggs during each mating event. The vast majority of larval redbacks are eaten while still tiny and planktonic.  On the rare occasions a redback gorger appears on the surface, it may probe its surroundings with this false head, giving the impression that a sea serpent or plesiosaur lurks below the surface instead of a much more dangerous predator. They can survive on land for brief periods, but only emerge onto land as an act of desperation.

Wether

“Goat” © Rockgames, by Guilhame Motta. Accessed at his ArtStation page here

[Inspired by a conversation with @emydix, who pointed out that a lot of medieval bestiary creatures are weird, but it’s hard to turn them into plot-hooks that players will care about. Their suggestion for the “wethers have worms in their heads” was to treat it like a cordyceps infection, but my version is inspired more by Toxoplasma gondii ]

Wether CR 3 N Magical Beast This sheep appears muscle-bound for its size, and its horns are especially large. It has a mad look in its eyes.

A wether is born an ordinary sheep, but it is one that has succumbed to a strange parasitic infection. The adult stage of this parasite lives in the guts of wolves and other canids, and sheds spores in the animals’ feces. A sheep that comes into contact with these feces transforms over the course of a week into a muscular, belligerent parody of itself as the parasite establishes itself in the brain and nervous system of its host—a wether. All wethers are large, muscular and horned, even in sheep breeds where females are typically hornless. A wether is rendered sterile, but is constantly in a state of hyper-aggression similar to that of a ram in mating season.

Driven by their parasitic masters, wethers are constantly fighting, either with each other or with other creatures, or even against inanimate objects. This violent behavior pushes them into conflict with predators such as wolves, which pick up the parasite when they eat the wether and the cycle continues. Due to the nature of this infection, humanoids coming into contact with either wolf droppings or wether meat are not transformed by this parasite. Still, the aggressive wethers cause problems for ranchers and shepherds, and one infectious wolf can transform an entire paddock of sheep into belligerent monsters.

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Could the wether be called a true "wolf in sheep's clothing", considering how the sheep are transformed by parasitized wolf droppings?

Tsuchinoko

Image obtained from The Cryptid Chronicles.

[It isn’t often that the world of yokai and the world of cryptids overlap, but this is one of those instances. Although there isn’t a lot of evidence suggesting the tsuchinoko is anything but a misidentified snake with a full belly, it is a beloved critter in many parts of Japan (and has a Pokemon based on it in the form of Dunsparce).]

Tsuchinoko CR 3 CN Magical Beast This snake is the length of a man’s arm and twice as thick. Unlike most snakes, it has a short, discrete tail much thinner than its body. Its head is broad and triangular, and bears an incongruously wry facial expression.

Considered to be mythical by many, the elusive snake-like creatures known as tsuchinoko are intelligent predators with a mischievous streak. Their diet consists of small mammals, birds and other reptiles, but they have a pronounced fondness for alcohol. Many of their encounters with humanoids are in order to obtain such a beverage, which they accomplish using lies, threats or empty promises. Tsuchinoko are consummate liars and enjoy sending other creatures on wild goose chases based on their empty words.

Tsuchinoko are exceedingly rare; a single forest may only be home to one of these creatures. They are good parents, raising their young together until they mature, then splitting up as their children find territories of their own. Tsuchinoko keep little treasure, although they may treasure a prized bauble or two as a keepsake of a particularly impressive con.

Unlike other snakes, tsuchinoko do not slither—rather, they crawl in inchworm fashion with startling speed. This strength allows them to launch themselves fully a yard into the air when threatened, sending them hurtling towards enemies with a mouth full of tiny, venomous teeth. When a tsuchinoko cannot win a battle, it flees, gripping its tail in its teeth and rolling to safety.

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Terlen

“Eagle Shark” by unknown artist, accessed here

[The terlen has a weird backstory. The original creature was the terl, a flying fish monster from Gamma World. It lost its mutant powers and gained a very slow land speed when it became the terlen, a Planescape monster that was basically a winged barracuda. It became more shark-like when it was converted into the 3e Fiend Folio, but a copy-paste error made all of its speeds the same–60 feet. So imagine a winged shark zooming around on land without any legs. Warmed the cockles of my heart, it did.

In college, I ran an occasional pick-up game for friends in my home town, and the terlen ended up in one adventure. We rationalized its land speed as it having legs, and sketches were made (although they never ended up online). The above pic is pretty close, although our head-canoned terlen was a quadruped.]

Terlen CR 3 NE Magical Beast This creature looks like a shark with large, membranous wings and a pair of powerful legs. It moves with surprising speed.

Terlens are all-terrain ambush predators, fish-like monsters capable of preying on creatures of the land, sea and air. They are found throughout the evil aligned planes, and are believed to be the result of some fiendish experiment. By the standards of their home planes, they are fairly weak, and cruise the waterways in search of fiendish vermin and animals, petitioners and minor fiends to kill and consume. Their skin can change color and pattern, granting them excellent camouflage—they use this ability as much to avoid detection from greater hazards as to ambush their prey.

A terlen rarely stays still in combat, preferring to make hit and run attacks. They are adept at attacking from odd angles when flying or swimming, catching foes off guard. A terlen will usually save its burst of speed to flee from an encounter it cannot win. They travel in social groups, but these schools are not particularly cooperative. A hungry terlen will happily turn on and consume its fellows if given a chance. Terlens are egg-layers, and they leave their eggs buried in moist soil on riverbanks or in marshes. Although they are most comfortable in the water, they can survive on dry land indefinitely.

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When hunting the great seas for blubber, meat and oil, there are a variety of species that whalers are eager to spot. Massive flabby beasts that are sure to fill their holds with valuable materials to be sold back on shore, and perhaps ones with some extra meat on them so that the crew can be spared of gut steaks for a few nights. You can certainly tell when one of these favored creatures are sighted, as the voices that ring out from the nest up high are filled with excitement, which soon spreads through the entire crew. They rush to their stations and ready the ship for the hunt, eager to sink their ivory harpoons into that valuable flesh. However, the vast oceans house many beasts and monsters, and there is no telling what leviathan will rear its head during a voyage. Some are sought for, others ignored, while others fill the hearts of the sea folk with dread. And in some rare cases, it can be a bit of both. This can be seen in the Harpoon Leviathans, whose presence typically creates hesitation in the most hardiest of whaling crews, as they wonder if the chance for a big payout is worth the risk of sinking to the bottom of the ocean. 

Harpoon Leviathans are sea monsters whose very image speaks of their deadliness and ferocity. When one wants to depict the dangers of the ocean in scrimshaw, you will commonly see one of these horned beasts carved into the ivory. They are certainly a sight to behold, armored scales running down their bodies, maws filled with sharp tooth and tusk, and of course that massive spike jutting from their heads. This great horn is sharp and serrated, perfect for piercing prey and causing a ton of damage going in and out. This ivory spike is connected to a muscular socket in their skull, which allows it to pivot and rotate according to the situation. Said situation is the gutting of other leviathans, using this weapon to slash open hides and pierce thick blubber. Harpoon Leviathans feed upon whales, porpoise and great serpents, going after organs to ensure a fatal wound. Prey is detected through their snout covered in vibrissae, and their sharp eye sight helps them zero in on large silhouettes. They make sure to strike fast and hit crucial weak points, and then leisurely follow the wounded beast til it bleeds out. Since they fight large leviathans like themselves, they are aggressive and determined, even more so when another beast tries to steal their kill. Their armored plating not only helps survive a hunt, but to help defend themselves from scavengers and ensuing feeding frenzies that wish to benefit from their hard work. Thus, Harpoon Leviathans are quick to anger and quick to throw down, and that massive horn is more than capable of backing up this ferocity.

Though Harpoon Leviathans come off as rage-filled beasts, there is a different side to them. They are very sociable creatures, seeking company with their own kind and even mating for life. The horn that spears prey can also be used as a signal for other Harpoon Leviathans, raising and lowering this horn like one would message with a flag. Social grooming is also a behavior seen in their pods, as individuals take turns cleaning off the bloodied horns of their fellows. When they have young, they are fiercely protective and keep close to them well until they are armed and armored enough to face the world. Harpoon Leviathans are known for good memories, being able to recognize and remember fellow beasts even after years of separation. But this also means they are more than capable of holding a grudge, which is exactly what they will do if one kills their mate or offspring.

Due to their aggression and obvious weaponry, Harpoon Leviathans are a worrisome sight for whaling ships. These beasts are always ready for a fight, be it with an attacker or competition. Unfortunately, these beasts have learned that these odd ship things are a combination of both, hunting both Harpoon Leviathans and their prey. So they are quick to fly into a rage and try to destroy whaling ships that get too close. Their bulk allows them to ram into the boats in an attempt to capsize it, while their armor helps ward off harpoons and blades. The infamous horn can pierce through hulls, but it isn't always easy to remove once stuck in. Some would think this is a good thing, as the beast is now trapped, but they would quickly realize the opposite once it starts panicking and thrashing. Tales enjoy the symbolism in a ship sinking with a drowning Harpoon Leviathan still embedded within it, a tale of two aggressors dying while locked in battle. Obviously, the folk who don't enjoy these stories are often the ones who actually have to live them. The other worry that comes with the sighting of one of these leviathans is the chance that the captain may command them to hunt it. While these beasts are certainly a threat, they are also a lucrative catch. Their meat, oil and blubber is as good as any whale, and it also adds the bonus of hardened scales and a wonderful trophy. Harpoon Leviathan horns are capable of making one rich, and there is no end to buyers eager to add it to their collection. These horns are also important to the sea folk, who often use them for scrimshaw and crafting elaborate shrines and memorials from a single huge spike. They sometimes are even used as weaponry, though too big for a single man. Whaling ships may strap one of these horns to their bow to ram into prey, or construct elaborate devices fueled by explosive whale oil or Yellow Bile to launch a powerful spear into the sides of leviathans. But of course, carrying a horn or killing one of these beasts is sure to enrage another Harpoon Leviathan, who will not stop to destroy the ship responsible. And thus the hunt and fight begins once more. Certainly there is something to be said of these two sides, who are not too different from each other, forever locked in this endless battle.

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"Harpoon Leviathan"

Fall of Ichor needs sea beasts too!

Sartan

Still from Return of Ultraman accessed at the Ultraman Wiki here

[I am coming to the Ultra franchise pretty much cold, and am watching it in isolation from its fandom except for my girlfriend @abominationimperatrix. One of the things that I gather from her is that the monsters that stand out to me from these series are rarely fandom favorites. Like, I'm not planning on statting up Black King or Gudon or Twintail from Return of Ultraman... but this ratty anthro Snuffleupagus was immediately on my list. Part of that is how grody and gross he looks. Part of it is he has an interesting power set, one that led to my conception of the flavor text. It seems that Tsubaraya Studios thought the idea of a ninja elephant was worth exploring long before it was a joke on RPG.net about D&D 3.0's skill system]

Sartan CR 17 CE Monstrous Humanoid This creature is as tall as a building. Its features are lumpy and misshapen, with bulging eyes and sparse, bristly hair growing from its head. It has a long, elephant-like trunk, clawed hands, and a short tail.

A sartan is an interplanetary thrill killer. They travel from world to world, using their powers of invisibility to spy on people and learn who their heroes are. They then seek these heroes out and kill them for no reason other than to challenge their abilities and to cause other people emotional suffering. Sartans are cruel and enjoy collateral damage in these assassination attempts. Some powerful entities attempt to hire sartans to work for them as assassins, but sartans care little for money. Only if a target interests them, or if the employer resorts to charm spells, will they take on one of these jobs.

A sartan usually only enters combat if it suits them, whether because they have found their target, they want to lure that target into the open, or if they just feel like committing some cruelty for fun. Their supernatural abilities are mostly defensive—a sartan is invisible unless it chooses to appear, or is actively locked in combat. They can become incorporeal, which they often do in order to have mundane weapons pass right through them. When it comes to actual violence, however, sartans do it the old-fashioned way, by getting their claws bloody or grabbing a foe with their trunks and squeezing it to death. Sartans value their own hides too strongly to fight to the death. They will usually attempt to flee a losing battle, but may come back for a rematch on their own terms. 

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Your Favorite Monster (Phooka) Prompt List

Creature Codex Art Challenge

Commentary

So I try to set goals and things to accomplish each and every month in terms of my art uploading to new sites, attempting difficult areas like drawing people or drawing bigger and apparently this month the goal was networking. Creature Codex has been a huge help in more than one person seeing my art so I decided rather than making what would be my favorite monster and instead make theirs, the Phooka/Phouka(?). A nice hairy fellow which is always a fun challenge.

I was initially struggling to think of how to portray this guy when I saw that they apparently enjoy those in an altered mindset so boom Beer bottle label. I'm happy with this piece and thankful to Creature Codex for giving me some great art to whip up this month.

And here's the winged variant

Palette Picked

Shadow Ape

“Bbbb 12 Great Ape” © deviantArt user joverine. Accessed at their dA page here

[Hackmaster is weird, you guys. Spun off from the comic Knights of the Dinner Table and existing only because of a copyright dispute, Hackmaster was a parody RPG that has reinvented itself recently as a serious RPG with a goofy name. The original as it stands is one of the very earliest D&D retroclones, and is only slightly more ridiculous than actual AD&D.

Oh, and relevant to my interests, has an eight volume “Hacklopedia” with more than 800 monsters in it.

Obviously I’m not going to convert them all, and I’m going to break them up so we don’t all get crazy-bored, but I’ve got my eye on about 60 (!) Hackmaster monsters that deserve a PFRPG retooling.]

Shadow Ape CR 3 N Magical Beast This man-sized ape looks something like a small gorilla with grayish fur. Its outline blurs with its surroundings, as if it were fading away.

Shadow apes are curious omnivores native to the cloud forests of tropical regions. Due to influence from the Plane of Shadow, shadow apes have translucent fur that seemingly absorbs light, allowing them unparalleled stealth. Unlike their gorilla kin, they do not avoid humanoids. They instead use their stealth to sneak unseen into humanoid settlements in order to watch them and steal from them. Shadow apes are inherent pack rats, stealing brightly colored and shiny objects to decorate their dens with. In villages and towns, shadow apes are likely to be found in small numbers, but in their own habitat they associate in large bands comprised of multiple family groups.

A shadow ape has a broad diet, consisting of insects, eggs, fruits and leaves. They have a particular taste for cooked foods and will steal them if possible. They occasionally include animals in their diet, with a seemingly perverse preference for other primates—monkeys and lemurs are a favorite. This has led to fatal conflicts, as small humanoids, like halflings or children, seem to spark predatory instincts in shadow apes.

In combat, a shadow ape is fairly straightforward, striking with its massive fists and trusting to its shadow blend and fast healing to carry it through a fight. They do not fear fire, but bright lights, particularly magical ones, blind them and may cause them to flee. A shadow ape stands a little over five feet tall and weighs about 150 pounds.

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At this point, I have done something like… 150 Hackmaster conversions? Maybe more? It has been a fertile source for monster conversions. And honestly, I skipped enough going through the original Hacklopedias that I could probably do another theme block around it.

Sahkil, Penqual

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[Sponsored by @justicegundam82. The penqual fits in with the tumblak as PF2E sahkils that are a bunch of humanoids squished together. As such, and because their foci (claustrophobia and agoraphobia) are often seen as "opposites", I wanted the flavor text to include some reference to them both. The original stats make them a Huge swarm of Medium creatures; troop rules didn't exist in PF2e yet, but that seems like the logical mechanical niche in both editions.]

Sahkil, Penqual CR 15 NE Outsider (extraplanar) This seething mass consists of a mob of humanoid figures. Each of them is subtly disturbing in appearance—they have dead black eyes, no noses or mouths, and their fingers and toes are long talons. The mob moves as a single unit.

Penquals are sahkils that represent agoraphobia and the fear of crowds. Although they resemble a mass of separate humanoid figures, each penqual is indeed a single entity, their bodies held together with thin fleshy appendages like umbilical cords. They tend to wear clothes and disguise themselves as a group of mundane humanoids when hunting on the Material Plane. Penqual attacks tend to focus around festivals, markets and other places where crowds gather, where the monsters can mingle unnoticed while on the search for those who are already showing signs of discomfort and anxiety. Penquals and tumblaks, the sahkils of claustrophobia, view each other as rivals, and debate the relative merits of confined versus open spaces in causing dread.

Penquals do not bother with individual attacks, instead attempting to devastate all opponents in their reach with a flurry of claws and fists. Their look of fear renders creatures slowed in addition to afraid, and penquals delight in prolonging a futile chase for a few rounds before grabbing an enemy and tearing them apart. Penquals enjoy making people edgy and uncomfortable in addition to overwhelming them with terror. A penqual might use nightmare and antipathy spells to stoke tensions for days or weeks before a scheduled mass gathering, where they abandon subtlety and indulge to bloody violence.

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NPC ( Venger )

Prompt list

Creature Codex Art Challenge

Commentary

So yeah I love Venger I had a whole campaign lined up where they were the main villain with four lieutenants (They were the Elite four from pokemon (it was weird but I am weird)) So outside of dealing with car troubles there's not much to say. Bit of trouble with finding a good size while still working small. Maybe I'll come back and try it in different sizes.

Palette Picked

Shrine Skelm

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[The shrine skelm, like all of the skelms, rules, but I didn't like how it doesn't have any ability to magically conceal its alignment. Considering that spells like misdirection and nondetection exist in 2e (although now they have non SRD names like "veil of privacy"), it seems a bit of an oversight to have a monster whose whole deal is deceiving religious figures whose cover can be blown by any 1st level paladin. So I gave it the "feign faith" ability, and some spell-like abilities to synergize with it.]

Shrine Skelm CR 5 LE Monstrous Humanoid This gray-skinned figure is nearly human, except for his yellow eyes and rack of antlers. He wears priestly vestments and expensive-looking holy symbols.

Shrine skelms are skelms that specialize in abusing religious authority. Regardless of what faith they feign, they are skilled at interpreting its doctrines and stories in the most restrictive and cruel lights, using them as excuses for the abuse they heap onto their followers. All of their parishioners are at risk, of course, but shrine skelms focus their ire on those who question their authority, or those who have something that they envy. Exorbitant tithing is often the first sign that a shrine skelm has infiltrated a church. Shrine skelms are skilled at seeming like a wise counselor one minute and a cruel adjutant the next, listening to their followers at prayer and probing their minds to learn their hopes and fears. Worshipers or clergy especially prone to hatred, rage or anger may find themselves groomed to become a skelm themselves, and a church can rapidly be converted into a front for a synod of shrine skelms.

Shrine skelms prefer not to fight themselves, instead letting their minions get their hands dirty while supporting them with spells. A shrine skelm’s most formidable ability is the ability to steal divine spells cast by real clerics, paladins, inquisitors, etc., which can both be used as a combat tactic and to denigrate anyone who tries to display the truth of their faith versus the skelm’s disguises and lies. Once the chips are down and their true nature revealed, however, a shrine skelm is just as hateful and violent as any skelm, using their antlers and fists to gore and bash enemies.