Happy Mother's Day 2022: A Fugly-Themed Tiny Dungeon Bestiary

A Face Only A Mother Could Love!

A Fugly-Themed Monstrous Compendium for Tiny Dungeon: Second Edition

Happy Mother’s Day! — Someone To Love You!

What is Happy Mother’s Day 2022 (besides a shameless holiday-themed money grab)? Why, it’s only the best time of year to have a mother to love you! I mean someone has to love you, with a mug like that, right?

Here in Happy Mother’s Day 2022, we have a tongue-in-cheek “preview” of the types of monsters we plan to include in a forthcoming full bestiary for Tiny Dungeons: Second Edition called Bestiarum Vocabulum. These four beasts are… ugly. Like really frigging ugly — the kind of  face “only a mother could love.” 

Arachnimane Everyone believes fabled adventurer Loenn Sharn died horribly hunting rare carnivorous spiders on behalf of a reclusive client. In reality, when she failed to acquire the specimens her client needed, that client was furious enough to transform her into the arachnimane. Enough time has passed that the arachnimane barely remembers when she used to be Loenn—her survival instincts now help her avoid detection by a new generation of adventurers and hunters, most of whom don’t know where this creature came from or understand that the people she’s killed have mostly been accidents. All the arachnimane can do is try to survive, waiting for a cure she doesn’t even remember why she needs.

Porgan The porgan was an attempt to recreate the arcane experiments that spawned the pugliss (see next page), ostensibly for money and sport. Though larger and bulkier than its cousin, but able to take a heavy blow in the same way, the porgan’s much slower gait and reaction time made its inferiority as a fighter clear from the start. Some of the less wealthy (or scrupulous) arenas will send out multiple porgans to warm up a challenger or get them feeling confident, before sending a more dangerous pugliss into the mix to shake things up. More often, though, these creatures are passed around breeders or less-successful arenas; used as fodder or as manual labor when they’re given work to do at all. When not being pushed to fight, these creatures are often calm and sedate, prompting a conservation group to come onto the scene, trying to free individual porgans from this cycle of abuse.

Pugliss In some of the more brutal arenas around, challengers who win too many rounds might find themselves facing a pugliss. Not simply created to be tireless fighters, these 8- to 12- foot tall brutes are bred to enjoy a fight, grinning like a maniac no matter how many blows it takes or how tired its body becomes. Whispered legends suggest that a long-ago empire first bred the pugliss for entertainment, pitting them against increasingly complex dangers until the nobility got tired of them. The only way to defeat one of these creatures is to incapacitate it. That’s no small feat, given its thick, muscled flesh, the heft of its dominant arm, or the surprising speed of its jab with the other hand. Even worse, pugliss are known to fight dirty, since winning is everything for them. Expect dirt in the eyes, mean hits and worse, all while the pugliss chortles and taunts until you’re the one on the ground.

Shreekarin The high-pitched, whooping cries of the shreekarin can be terrifying enough as it swings nimbly from branch to branch, whirling around massive trunks to cut off any chance at escape. But even deadlier is the ultrasonic wail from its other head. Like a dog whistle, most creatures can’t audibly hear that second wail—but that doesn’t keep it from bringing them to a sudden halt, momentarily confused and disoriented. Once an opponent is stopped, the shreekarin wastes no time knocking them to the ground with their powerful, tentacled arms and pummeling them before they get a chance to react. Due to their violent tendencies, shreekarin tend to be solitary except during mating season—the sounds of which can be more painful than being attacked by one.

Tiny Dungeon: Second Edition is a popular minimalist fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that aims for the kind of sword and sorcery setting of popular media like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Released by Gallant Knight Games, it’s an ideal for fast and easy fantasy gaming.