What the hell is Grendel?

As a lifelong D&D guy, I never explored Beowulf to much a degree. Sure, I may have read some translation of the poem at some point as a kid, but I don't recall it. Probably because there is a certain amount of ambiguity and "minimal description" in some of the verbal imagery. Kind of like reading Dracula or Frankenstein.  What informs your mental picture of these creatures is more often than not things that come way after the debut of the literary works. Bela Legosi is our best-known image of Drac. Karloff is our Frankie. But what is our Grendel? 

Today while doing the usual early Sunday puttering around cleaning and cooking with the tellies on in all the rooms and trying to make up my razoodock about what to do with my Sunday afternoon, I saw that the 2007 computer animated film Beowulf was on. I remember seeing it a bit over 10 years ago (on TV I am sure), and how I was struck by the great motion capture and voice work of the monster Grendel. So, I took another look. Sure, there are other monsters in it (dragons are kind of ho hum these days), but Grendel is kind of the sweet spot. Crispin Glover gives a lot of personality to the creature. As Grendel busts into the great mead hall multiple times, he whimpers and moans as if each movement is agony. Indeed, he very much resembles Glover, but with fatal burn wounds all over his body and possible spinal stenosis.

He cries, he howls, he stomps the shit out of men with his size 32 feet. He picks up warriors and bites their heads off like chocolate bunnies. I have not seen a ton of the other film interpretations of Grendel, but I cannot imagine some growling, clawed animal like version of Grendel could be as scary as Glovers. He is both frightening and terrifying in that Frankenstein way. Even when taking a wound, he is angry and weeping at the same time. Disturbing. 

I have to guess that 90% of the people who own 
and display this got it as a gift or won it in a contest.

But what is this thing? I am no expert by a long shot. I've done maybe 20 minutes of research right now, and a lot is open to interpretation. Really, translations vary, and different translators have had their own take based on what they know of the ancient language. Some even seem to suggest Grendel is not necessarily humanoid. Or that he may actually be a bipedal dragon, seeing as dragons are a theme in the tales. But all seem to point at Grendel being a descendant of the biblical Cain.

 Grendel represents "a monstrous outsider enraged by the joy of brotherhood and society from which he is forever banished. His enmity towards Heorot is grounded solely in this moral perversion, which is another example of the hatred of the good simply because it is good."  Grendel exhibits his envy towards the warriors as Cain did to his brother, Abel, so long ago.

 

Some interpretations just suggest Grendel was simply a badass local warlord who attacked the mead hall with his followers on occasion. 

Maybe really go deep in the weeds and
imagine him as an evil wrestling clown.

OK, so whatever it is this monster is preying on the local community as food source, for pure hatred, or a combo of both (the 2007 film suggests he is just sensitive to sound and the noise of the mead hall keeps him up at night). And this is one of the elements that would make this part of the tale the perfect D&D scenario. Hell, a DIY DM who isn't all that aware of Beowulf is likely to come up with the scenario independently. Monster preying on the populace; heroes intervene to tackle the problem. 

What classic game monsters would make the best Grendel in the scenario? Well, the Crispin Glover Grendel seems very Troll to me. There are similarities between this version and the classic D&D troll. 

Really, if characters of around 3rd level stumbled into the situation a monster of around the power level of a troll would be probably perfect. It's a slobber knocker of a fight, but they likely prevail (especially if they go to fire use). If it's one single 8th or 10th level fighter (like Beowulf) the fighter will win, but he'll know he was in a fight.

A good old hill giant would make for a good, loud, stompy indoors fight.

 And I suppose a basic ogre would do if it's a group of 1st or 2nd level characters. Or you could go outside the box and have an outcast Beholder be the troublemaker. Maybe a minor demon of some kind? Vrock? Maybe one of those toadish ones? 

Or go full DIY and create something of your own. A creature that is both horrifying and unique. Maybe and alien. Xenomorph! The Predator! Clearly your Grendel can be whatever you want him to be. I have a lot of old monstrous minis that don't resemble any common D&D staple critters.

Hell yeah

But don't forget that dungeon component. Beowulf had to go to the caves and deal with Grendel's mom. So, after wasting the dude, characters can go nip down to the dungeon from whence he came to deal with the other creatures that lurk there. His mom, benefactor of some kind, or maybe his pets which happen to be a bunch of basic lesser monsters. 

There's a local con later in the year looking for DM's (I was tapped to do a rare con appearance last year but it got cancelled), and suddenly I'm inclined to use a scenario based on this. Perfect for a 3-4 hour one shot. Characters stop at an inn, the monster attacks and is slain/escapes, and it's off to the dungeon (for a hearty reward of course) to take care of the creature and/or his allies. Easy peasy, right?

 With things based on ancient literature, it's all good meat and potatoes for D&D adventures. 

Love and the Monster Manual

Look at it now, and the first edition of the Monster Manual doesn’t look like much on the outside. Looking at it as an adult, it seems like a 12 year old painted the cover in elementary school art class.

But as a kid in the late 70’s, it was a wonder to behold. After having only the little brown books and various cheapie Judges Guild items, the bold colors of the MM cover really hit you over the head. And showing monsters above and underground told you almost all you needed to know about D&D; fighting beasties in the wilderness and in the dungeon.

And all those monster inside; boy, I must have poured through that book day and night for a year after getting it. For future fanboys like me, the MM was the first gateway drug to Greek Mythos. Hydra, Gorgons, hippogriffs, and all that lot right out of Bulfinch’s. And leave us not mention the Tolkien based stuff, including no less than three types of hobbit!

Man, that first copy of the MM got a lot of use, and still does. I still get a chill looking at the artwork, especially the Trampier stuff.

And one night years later, as a confused and sensitive mid-teen, the Monster Manual got me through my first real hard night. After a brutal dumping by a girlfriend at a Sci Fi con near LAX, I went home that Sunday night and was heartbroken. I could not sleep and had no idea how I would make it through the night.

I had a project in mind before that, which was doing the old Tunnels and Trolls classic Monsters! Monsters! But for 1st edition AD&D. So I broke out the MM and a notebook, and started to work out how each and every intelligent creature in the book could be used as a player character. Assigning of classes and class combinations, bonus and minus to stat blocks, and abilities gained through level progression. To this day it is the most work I have ever done on gaming material in a single sitting. And eventually I got to run that game. One player ran a young Frost Giant, another a Carnivorous ape, and things like that. They took a village apart that session, and the atrocities committed were horrendous. Half that party died when they tried to attack an actual walled city. The hail of arrows put an end to their madness.

And a happy ending too. Me and my ex-girlfriend reconnected for a time not long after that lonely night. There is always hope, but you just gotta get through the pain so you can feel good again. Thanks to the Monster Manual, I got through that dark night of the soul and came out smiling on the other end. Thanks, MM! I’m not sure my heart even has nerve endings anymore, but it’s nice to know you are there if I ever had to stay up all night again simmering in my own juices.

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE

I want to mention up front that it was a gaming podcast that got me involved in the online blogging community. I don’t know the name of it (maybe it was an early episode of RFI), but James from Grognardia was a guest, and listening to his old school talk, then going on to look at his blog, inspired me to start my own blog about a year or so ago.

I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts, but on occasion I like to listen to some chatter on my Ipod while on the computer at work or working out, and my cast of choice is usually the popular Adam Carolla Podcast. But the blurb I saw at Dragonsfoot regarding "issue" 14 of the RFI podcast mentioned that they would be talking about Gnolls, creating adventures, and giving tips on running thieves, and that sounded interesting to me.

I’ve been gaming since I was a kid in the late 70’s. In those days, we loved talking gaming, because a lot of it was still so mysterious. Everybody had their own point of view on particularities of various game related things. Then in my early teens in the 80’s, I spent a lot of time at Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica where lots of older gamers (some who probably should not have been hanging around young people) would philosophize and argue about games over issues of The Dragon and the Alarums and Excursions fanzine. But by the late 80’s and through the 90’s, I didn’t hang out at the store anymore (I actually found the owner and the crowd to be very negative as I grew older) or go to cons, and I culled most of my players from my groups of friends, mostly people with little to no D&D experience. So for the most part my efforts to actually sit and discuss gaming when we weren’t actually gaming usually fell flat. I had the occasional exception, somebody dorky enough to sit around and drink beer and talk about the merits of magic-users and clerics and all the deep stuff with me (one of these in the early 90’s was maybe a little too fond of a certain white, powdery substance), but that was a rarity for me. I would usually just run the game, and afterwards if we talked about anything, it was usually movies or TV shows.

So getting into the blogging community, specifically that involving the OSR, really got my juices flowing again as far as out of game talk goes. Long threads on every possible D&D subject can be looked up at Dragonsfoot.org, and the game blogs are just brimming with invigorating ideas and commentary on gaming. I guess gaming podcasts were kind of a no brainer, but it took me well over a year to have a listen to another one. So it was today with the Roll For Initiative cast, and I have to admit I am glad I gave a listen.

I am sure I will put the hosts names together as I get into further episodes (or go back to the archives to hear some older ones), but for now they seem like pretty good dudes. They don’t come off as any of those annoying, creepy gamer dudes who either smell like sour milk or cat piss. But they do know their 1st edition AD&D, and during the discussions they often actually reference their Monster Manual, Fiend Folios, etc. on the spot, which I found pretty endearing. Combined with the occasional mildly amateurish moment (bumping and fidgeting sounds, microphone thumps, awkward interruptions, etc.), it felt pretty comforting and homey, just as if me and my players were hanging around the game table looking things up as we talked gaming. The guys are fairly comfortable on the mike, so it comes off just like a pre/after game jive session, complete with the type of dopey jokes (they pronounce gnolls, “ga-nolls,” for example) all involved in gaming take part in. It seems like just the right attitude for 1st ed. Talk.

So the guys speak on adventure creation (helpful for new DM’s, but pretty standard stuff for the experienced), do a “creature feature” on the gnoll race (I found interesting because I used these beasts for the first time in decades recently), and give tips for successfully running thieves as characters. Most fun for me was the “Dragon’s Hoard” section, where they discuss a magic item out of the game. I wasn’t particularly interested in their discussion on the Beaker of Plentiful Potions, until to my surprise they dragged out some dice and made the random rolls for potions the beaker actually contained. This was a nice touch, and just the sound of dice hitting the table out of a regular game context was very cool.

All in all, I found this to be a great little podcast, and I’m going to listen to more of them. I’ll praise it more in the future when I know more about the gents on the microphone, and dig a little deeper into the background.

Emirikol the Chaotic and Trampier the Mysterious

I always loved the artwork in the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and DM Guide back in the day, but the artists themselves were never much on my mind. It wasn’t until my involvement in the blogging community that I started reading about them in places like Grognordia and finding new appreciation for them.

I was looking through the Players Handbook and DM Guide the other day prepping for the next game, and had to stop and gaze on the rendering of the mysterious Emirikol The Chaotic. This page always intrigued me since I was a kid. A bearded, not-so-nice looking gent gallops down the street while shooting what is probably a magic missile at a man, while another lies burning on the cobbles outside a tavern. Not only did he look like a cool character, but the street and buildings of the picture themselves were so well done, they forever became how I envisioned the slightly claustrophobic streets of my own main city.

David A. Trampier, who often signed his work as “DAT” or “Tramp,” drew people, monsters, and places in a sort of classical, realistic style, but they still captured the essence of D&D. Often they were the first time iconic monsters in D&D had been depicted. Rakshasa, Catoblepas, the Fire Giant, Werereats, etc. To me, I see his work and say “that is for sure an artist who played the game.” I didn’t know until this week that he was also the creator of “Wormy,” that great cartoon from the old Dragon mags that featured the point of view of a dragon and other denizens of a dungeon, who almost all seemed to have East Coast personalities (an Imp who lives in Wormy’s cave called him “Woimy”).

Not only did he do the most iconic D&D image, that of the Players Handbook idol cover (and famously used as the title image over at Grognardia), but he also did a ton of the best images from Gamma World. He touched so many things in gaming, and his visuals determined how I pictured things in game terms in many ways.

What really blew me away when I researched Trampier a bit this week was that he quit his D&D artwork, and also his work on Wormy in the middle of a storyline, and went off to be a cab driver in a small Illinois town. He was actually still getting checks for his work, but they were returned to TSR and they just assumed he had died. Can you imagine? His photo eventually showed up in 2002 in a local university newspaper, and many of his fans recognized his name and even tried to contact him. He apparently rejected the attention from fans, and politely asked them not to write or call him. Wow.

His work was so good, and Wormy so popular and it is hard to envision somebody just stopping. I’m sure the money was not huge (with tips a cabby could probably make more money than niche artists in the early 80’s), but there had to be other reasons he was “done with the game.” Did he really dislike the people he had to deal with in the business? Did the dorky fans scare him off? He could probably drive a cab and do his art, unless he is one of those poor souls who really go for the cab money and work 15 hour shifts 7 days a week.

D.A.T. has full old school cred and would no doubt get some real props if he were to pop up as an interview on Grognardia or something, but given his history, it seems he is destined to go down as yet another mysterious figure in a field that is full of them.

Demogorgon is just alright with me

Seeing as I (for some reason) decided to dedicate the name of my gaming blog to this nasty demon lord, I thought it might be appropriate to make him the subject of my very first post. Props to Grognardia for inspiring me to write about a demon lord in the first place. Who would ever think I’d be musing about demons with tentacles and multiple baboon heads? Mother would be so proud.

According to Wikipedia’s non-D&D entry, Demogorgon’s obscure etymology is as follows: The origins of the name Demogorgon are uncertain, partly because the figure itself was of imaginary coinage. Various theories suggest that the name is derived from the Greek words daemon ('spirit' given the Christian connotations of 'demon' in the early Middle Ages)— or, less likely demos ('people')— and Gorgon or gorgos ('grim'). Another, less accepted theory claims that it is derived from a variation of 'demiurge'. The early Christian obsession with Satan and the vivid inhabitants of Hell are of Persian origin, while the magical context in which such imaginings thrive was Egyptian and Syrian.

Back in the day, when I first cracked open my shiny new Monster Manual, the drawings of the demons were what really caught my eye in those first few moments. Sure, the dragons are hellacool, but we had seen dragons a thousand times in our young, over -fantasizing minds. Here, right before my 14 year-old peepers, were the insanely powerful rulers of hell. The refined and royal-looking Azmodeus, the grossly fat and badass Orcus (these two might make a great Odd Couple inspired sitcom. Messy and Chaotic Orcus and neat, clean lawful evil Azzy).

Out of all the demons and devils, however, one stuck out most of all. Overall, Demogorgon has the look of a hitherto undiscovered greek monster – but a monster meaner and more pissed-off looking than any harpy or hippogriff. Sure, a pair of snarling monkey heads, tentacles instead of arms, and lizard feet are going to make you do a double-take, but it’s what you find out after reading that makes you do a spit-take. OK, so he maybe isn’t the most powerful demon, but the first thing the MM tells you is that this guy has a passionate rivalry with Orcus. You don’t fuck with somebody like Orcus unless you are either a badass or insane. Demogorgon is a lot of both.

Let’s take a look at some of his stats and powers, and let’s try to do it through my then immature eyes. Mind you, when I first read these demon/devil entries, my highest level character was around 3rd, and it took 5 or 6 games to get there. I had yet to run my first real game, but I could envision one day pitting this fiend against some higher level heroes (at that point 8th level seemed like an amazing level to reach, and Demo - G would make mincemeat out of a group of 8th levelers).

Demogorgon has the usual Godly stats that make a player cringe and clutch their favorite character close to the chest: -8 A.C., a couple hundred hit points, and high psionic ability You need a plus 2 weapon to hit him, but in almost any campaign with characters high enough to fight Demo-G all characters are probably going to be running around with plus 3’s or better. So no problem there.

Like most demons and devils, Demogorgon has supra genius level intelligence. Wow. That sounds really intelligent. I mean, Wile E. Coyote only had super genius level ability, and he could follow the instructions on all the high-tech Acme shit he bought. Supra was really out there. And how the hell do you portray a monster that smart? Could he never be tricked? Could he outsmart you, Road Runner style, into walking off a cliff or running face first into a wall?

Demo also has 95% magic resistance. WTF? So, hey magic users, don’t even friggin’ bother trying to fight this guy. Toss your items into his treasure pile, disrobe down to your loin cloth, and wait for him to get around to rotting your flesh off with his tentacles.

Demogorgon’s most troubling powers are in his heads. According to later information, these heads are almost always at odds with each other. But when they come together to wipe-out your party, look out. They will hypnotize you, and for one turn you will do what they want (you won’t kill yourself, but you would probably kill your own baby if so ordered), and for another 1-6 turns you will be disposed to doing his bidding like his bestest friend. For 1-3rd level creatures, the usual make-up of a typical army troop, he will hypno 10-100 people. So an average of 50 attackers (your henchmen and followers) are out of the running for a few turns. Hell, they are probably attacking you. Keep in mind this is automatic – only 15th level or higher creatures get a saving throw. All others are attacking their buddies, running away, or scratching and pecking at the ground like chickens. This is probably Demogorgon’s most dangerous ability.

Independently, the heads have pretty nice powers as well. The left one can vamp you like a rob of beguiling, and the right one can drive you insane with it’s gaze causing insanity for 1-6 turns, which isn’t much better than being hypnotized, but at least you will probably just do something random rather than Demo-G’s bidding. Oh, you get a break in that you get saves vs. magic against the individual heads as well. Hooray.

Demogorgon’s powers are rounded out by the usual “spell-like” powers most deity types tend to have: polymorph self and others, illusionary powers, clairaudience and clairvoyance (the one-two punch of godlings).

Demogorgon may not be compelling enough to base an entire campaign upon, but certainly his presence could be strongly felt in a dungeon setting. I’d love to run an “evils” campaign one day, and having Demo be a benefactor would be a great way to get a well-painted figure of him out on the gameboard, without slaughtering half a high level party. I just need to get a minature of him, and do a half way decent paint job on him.

Hey, how about this party of evils gets caught in the middle of Demogorgon and Orcus’ war on each other? Hmm. I’d better get figures for both.