notnotdnethack/dat/data.base

#	SCCS Id: @(#)data.base	3.4	2003/07/23
#	Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by the NetHack Development Team
#	Copyright (c) 1994 by Boudewijn Wayers
#	Copyright (c) 2002 by the Slash'EM Development Team
#	NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details.
#
# This is the source file for the "data" file generated by `makedefs -d'.
# A line starting with a # is a comment and is ignored by makedefs.
# Any other line not starting with whitespace is a creature or an item.
#
# Each entry should be comprised of:
# the thing/person being described on a line by itself, in lowercase;
# on each succeeding line a <TAB> description.
#
# If the first character of a key field is "~", then anything which matches
# the rest of that key will be treated as if it did not match any of the
# following keys for that entry.  For instance, `~orc ??m*' preceding `orc*'
# prevents "orc mummy" and "orc zombie" from matching.
#
# Now almost every ASCII symbol inputted at the 
# "Specify what?" prompt yields a "More info?" prompt.
# The exceptions currently are: 
# ` (boulder or statue) 
# " (amulet or a web)
# _ (iron chain or an altar)
# | (wall or an open door or a grave)
# - (wall or an open door)
# \ (opulent throne or a wall)
# / (wand or a wall)
# # (iron bars or a tree or a corridor or a lit corridor or a sink or a cloud)
# . (splash of venom or a doorway or the floor of a room or ice)
# + (spellbook or a closed door)
# } (water or molten lava)
#   (ghost or a dark part of a room or air)
# I (remembered, unseen, creature)
# , (amulet [on the rogue level])
# j (jelly)
#
#
abbot
	For it had been long apparent to Count Landulf that nothing
	could be done with his seventh son Thomas, except to make him
	an Abbot or something of that kind.  Born in 1226, he had from
	childhood a mysterious objection to becoming a predatory eagle,
	or even to taking an ordinary interest in falconry or tilting
	or any other gentlemanly pursuits.  He was a large and heavy and
	quiet boy, and phenomenally silent, scarcely opening his mouth
	except to say suddenly to his schoolmaster in an explosive
	manner, "What is God?"  The answer is not recorded but it is
	probable that the asker went on worrying out answers for himself.
		[ The Runaway Abbot, by G. K. Chesterton ]
armor salve
armour salve
	This strange shell secretes a viscous slime capable of repairing
	damaged armor. Perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye?
# takes 'suit or piece of armor' when specifying '['
ac
armor*
armour*
suit or piece of armor
	"The last spot on the school jousting team came down to another 
	boy and me. He was poor, and his only armor was a blanket his 
	mother had made him from her hair. I, on the other hand, had 
	a brand new suit of chain mail. Just before our joust, I asked 
	him what he'd do if he made the team. (I was hoping to be more 
	popular with the ladies.) He said he would be able to save the 
	town from dragons and be able to afford some water for his 20 
	brothers and sisters.

	Well, a sense of compassion came over me. I insisted we swap 
	armor. He was forced to accept, as it would have been an 
	insult not to do so.

	On the battlefield, we charged at each other and we both connected 
	with our lances.

	Lying there on the mud mortally wounded, I learned what true armor 
	class was that day."
	 	[ When Help Collides, by J. D. Berry ]
adamach
	The listener.
	The salt of creation.
	The banisher of Their harbinger.
	The first of the Rilmani.
aglaope
siren
	In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, 
	portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their 
	enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of 
	their island. [...] In some later, rationalized traditions, the
	literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or 
	Anthemusa, is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in 
	the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae.
	All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.

	Their number is variously reported as between two and five. 
	In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, 
	but gives the number of the Sirens as two.  Later writers mention
	both their names and number: some state that there were three, 
	Peisinoe, Aglaope, and Thelxiepeia or Parthenope, Ligeia, and 
	Leucosia.
		[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren ]
~agate ring
agate*
	Translucent, cryptocrystalline variety of quartz and a subvariety
	of chalcedony. Agates are identical in chemical structure to jasper,
	flint, chert, petrified wood, and tiger's-eye, and are often found in
	association with opal. The colorful, banded rocks are used as a
	semiprecious gemstone and in the manufacture of grinding equipment.
	An agate's banding forms as silica from solution is slowly deposited
	into cavities and veins in older rock.
		[ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
aclys
aklys
	A short studded or spiked club attached to a cord allowing
	it to be drawn back to the wielder after having been thrown.
	It should not be confused with the atlatl, which is a device
	used to throw spears for longer distances.

aleax
	Said to be a doppelganger sent to inflict divine punishment
	for alignment violations.
alhoon
	Alhoons superficially resemble their living kin; however,
	their skin is dry and wrinkled, free of the ubiquitous
	mucous that covers living mind flayers.
		[ The Illithidae, Bruce R Cordell ]
*altar
	Altars are of three types:
	1.  In Temples.  These are for Sacrifices [...].  The stone
	top will have grooves for blood, and the whole will be covered
	with _dry brown stains of a troubling kind_ from former
	Sacrifices.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
*amalgamated skies
	*Know* that there is nothing in all the Worlds that can stand
	against unity. When all know a single purpose, when all hands
	are guided by one will, and all act with the same intent, the
	Planes themselves may be moved.
		[ The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon,
			Planescape Torment ]
amat*rasu *
	The Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami is the central
	figure of Shintoism and the ancestral deity of the imperial
	house.  One of the daughters of the primordial god Izanagi
	and said to be his favourite offspring, she was born from
	his left eye.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
amber*
	"Tree sap," Wu explained, "often flows over insects and traps
	them.  The insects are then perfectly preserved within the
	fossil.  One finds all kinds of insects in amber - including
	biting insects that have sucked blood from larger animals."
		[ Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton ]
amethyst*
	The twelfth foundation is amethyst. Isidorus says of it: Among
	purple stones, the Indian amethyst holds first position; it is,
	indeed, purple but of mixed coloration, giving forth violet and
	rose-coloured lights; it is easy to engrave. For this reason the
	humility of the saints is signified by it;
	  	[ The Aberdeen Bestiary, translated by Colin McLaren ]
*amnesia
maud
	Get thee hence, nor come again,
	Mix not memory with doubt,
	Pass, thou deathlike type of pain,
	Pass and cease to move about!
	'Tis the blot upon the brain
	That will show itself without.
		...
	For, Maud, so tender and true,
	As long as my life endures
	I feel I shall owe you a debt,
	That I never can hope to pay;
	And if ever I should forget
	That I owe this debt to you
	And for your sweet sake to yours;
	O then, what then shall I say? -
	If ever I should forget,
	May God make me more wretched
	Than ever I have been yet!
		[ Maud, And Other Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]
ammit
	Ammit ("devourer" or "soul-eater"; also spelled Ammut or Ahemait) 
	was a female demon in ancient Egyptian religion with a body that 
	was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile-the three largest 
	"man-eating" animals known to ancient Egyptians. A funerary deity, 
	her titles included "Devourer of the Dead", "Eater of Hearts", and 
	"Great of Death".
~amulet of yendor
~amulet of restful sleep
*amulet
amulet of *
	"The complete Amulet can keep off all the things that make
	people unhappy -- jealousy, bad temper, pride, disagreeableness,
	greediness, selfishness, laziness.  Evil spirits, people called
	them when the Amulet was made.  Don't you think it would be nice
	to have it?"
	"Very," said the children, quite without enthusiasm.
	"And it can give you strength and courage."
	"That's better," said Cyril.
	"And virtue."
	"I suppose it's nice to have that," said Jane, but not with much
	interest.
	"And it can give you your heart's desire."
	"Now you're talking," said Robert.
		[ The Story of the Amulet, by Edith Nesbit ]
amulet of yendor
	This mysterious talisman is the object of your quest.  It is
	said to possess powers which mere mortals can scarcely
	comprehend, let alone utilize.  The gods will grant the gift of
	immortality to the adventurer who can deliver it from the
	depths of Moloch's Sanctum and offer it on the appropriate high
	altar on the Astral Plane.
ancient of thought
	Rumors describe ancient places built underneath the slopes of 
	Malbolge. Below the hellish rock and stone, creatures older 
	than the devils themselves-the ancient baatorians-might still
	roam.

	A certain hard-to-find defile leads to a cavern whose walls
	glow with a brain-numbing, grayish light. Boulder falls often
	clog the defile, but somehow the cavern is reopened time and 
	time again. Devils sent by the Lord of the Sixth to investigate
	have never returned.

	Terrible cries sometimes issue forth from the cavern, echoing
	across Malbolge's slopes. Strangely, petitioners on this level
	cannot hear the cries. But devils can, and the sound is 
	innately terrifying to them.
		[ 3rd Edition Manual of the Planes, by Jeff Grubb, 
			Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan ]
ancient of transparency
	Something in this darkened cavern seems to be moving,
	fluttering in the air.  No - it's your light. The light 
	is... moving? Something's stealing the light away!
	
	It's almost as though the light turns into twinkling sand
	and flows toward the back of the cavern, like grains falling
	through an hourglass. But at a certain point, the particles
	of light disappear, as though somehow consumed.
	
	Suddenly, you realize that you aren't alone in the cavern,
	nor have you ever been. The presence - the being - that
	was absorbing the light seems to be waking up....
		[ Hellbound, the Blood War, Squaring the Circle ]
~fallen angel
angel*
	He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
	is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed
	are the children of the kingdom; but the weeds are the
	children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the
	devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers
	are the angels.  As therefore the weeds are gathered and
	burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
	[...]  So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels
	shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
	and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be
	wailing and gnashing of teeth.
		[ The Gospel According to Matthew, 13:37-42, 49-50 ]
angry god*
	Cold wind blows.
	The gods look down in anger on this poor child.

	Why so unforgiving?
	And why so cold?
		[ Bridge of Sighs, by Robin Trower ]
anhur
	An Egyptian god of war and a great hunter, few gods can match
	his fury.  Unlike many gods of war, he is a force for good.
	The wrath of Anhur is slow to come, but it is inescapable
	once earned.  Anhur is a mighty figure with four arms.  He
	is often seen with a powerful lance that requires both of
	his right arms to wield and which is tipped with a fragment
	of the sun.  He is married to Mehut, a lion-headed goddess.
ankh-morpork
	The twin city of Ankh-Morpork, foremost of all the cities
	bounding the Circle Sea, was as a matter of course the home
	of a large number of gangs, thieves' guilds, syndicates and
	similar organisations.  This was one of the reasons for its
	wealth.  Most of the humbler folk on the widdershin side of
	the river, in Morpork's mazy alleys, supplemented their
	meagre incomes by filling some small role for one or other
	of the competing gangs.
	    [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
anshar
	A primordial Babylonian-Akkadian deity, Anshar is mentioned
	in the Babylonian creation epic _Enuma Elish_ as one of a
	pair of offspring (with Kishar) of Lahmu and Lahamu.  Anshar
	is linked with heaven while Kishar is identified with earth.
	    [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
ant
* ant
	This giant variety of the ordinary ant will fight just as
	fiercely as its small, distant cousin.  Various varieties
	exist, and they are known and feared for their relentless
	persecution of their victims.
anthemoessa
	According to the Roman poets Virgil and Ovid, the Sirenum 
	scopuli were three small rocky islands where the Sirens of
	Greek mythology lived and lured sailors to their deaths.
	[...]
	Similarly, Anthemoessa (or Anthemusa) was the island home 
	of the Sirens in other versions of the myth.  Although the
	name no longer exists, varying accounts attribute 
	Anthemoessa to either the island of Ischia or Capri.
		[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthemoessa ]
antimagic rift
	Societies throughout history have invented techniques for
	nullifying or otherwise protecting against magic. However,
	only the most desperate or foolish have tried to unravel
	the fabric of the Arcane Weave itself.
	
	This diamond contains the fruits of one such attempt: a
	tiny fraying of the Weave that can be freed to
	temporarily block arcane magic for many miles around the
	user, though divine magic and psionic powers are not
	affected.
	
	Beware: overuse of such weapons can form a permanent dead
	zone in the Weave.
anu
	Anu was the Babylonian god of the heavens, the monarch of
	the north star.  He was the oldest of the Babylonian gods,
	the father of all gods, and the ruler of heaven and destiny.
	Anu features strongly in the _atiku_ festival in
	Babylon, Uruk and other cities.
anubite
	_Ardeth Bay: I am sorry if I alarmed your son. But you must 
	understand, now that the bracelet is on his wrist, we have 
	only seven days before the Scorpion King awakens!
	_Rick: We? What we?
	_Ardeth: If he is not killed, he will raise the Army of Anubis!
	_Jonathan: I take it that's not a good thing?
	_Rick: Oh, he'll wipe out the world.
	_Jonathan: Ah, the old "Wipe-Out-The-World" ploy.
anuban*
	The Egyptian Jackal (_Canis aureus lupaster_) also 
	known as the African Wolf or Wolf Jackal is currently 
	listed as a subspecies of the golden jackal, but may be 
	a subspecies of grey wolf or a unique species in its 
	own right. It is native to Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia, 
	though its post Pleistocene range once encompassed the 
	Palestine region.
		[ Wikipedia ]
Aoa*
	Aoa resemble huge blobs of quicksilver that float above
	the surface of whatever environment they may be found. 
	Their surface is like a mirror and reflects all light. 
	Aoa are surrounded by tiny orbs that randomly separate 
	from the sphere and reabsorb back into it.
	
	A full-sized aoa is called a sphere. Smaller aoa called
	droplets split off from a sphere when it reflects a 
	large amount of magical energy. Eventually, a droplet
	will grow to become a full-sized sphere.
		[ DnD 3.0, Fiend Folio ]
ape
apelike creature
* ape
	The most highly evolved of all the primates, as shown by
	all their anatomical characters and particularly the
	development of the brain.  Both arboreal and terrestrial,
	the apes have the forelimbs much better developed than
	the hind limbs.  Tail entirely absent.  Growth is slow
	and sexual maturity reached at quite an advanced age.
	[ A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa by Dorst ]
	
	Aldo the gorilla had a plan.  It was a good plan.  It was
	right.  He knew it.  He smacked his lips in anticipation as
	he thought of it.  Yes.  Apes should be strong.  Apes should
	be masters.  Apes should be proud.  Apes should make the
	Earth shake when they walked.  Apes should _rule_ the Earth.
		[ Battle for the Planet of the Apes,
			by David Gerrold ]
	
	Four-handed, tailless,  mammal of  the  order of  Primates, of  the
	sub-order  of _Anthropoidea_,  which of  all  mammals most  closely
	resembles man (both in appearance and in behaviour).
			  [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
aphanact
aphanactonan audient
aphanactonan assessor
	At that time, angelic creatures called aphanacts called the plane
	of Mechanus home. Ambitious and obsessed with justice, the 
	aphanacts raised great armies that crusaded on other planes,
	bringing vast swaths of the multiverse under their rigid code of
	laws.

	Ganthros's writing hints that the deities themselves ended 
	the aphanact crusades, while Lathar posits an alliance of 
	convenience among the fiends of the Lower Planes and the 
	archons, angels, and eladrins of the Upper Planes. In any case, 
	every last aphanact disappeared 10,000 years ago.
		[ The Ecology of the Inevitable, by David Noonan ]

	We are recorders. Our duty is to observe.
		[ Drakengard 3, by Access Games ]
apollyon
	Apollyon's background and original name are known only to those 
	steeped in infernal and heavenly lore. Apollyon was once a powerful
	Solar and may have even been a Seraph. He was charged with the 
	binding of particularly powerful Fiends and other spirits of evil 
	in remote demi-planes in the Ethereal Plane at the behest of the 
	Virtues of Mount Celestial, ensuring that such beings would never 
	again threaten the Bastions of Righteousness, allied good gods, 
	and the Prime.
		[ Dicefreaks, The Demon Princes As They Were II: Apollyon ]
apotheosis veil
	"Wear this Veil and feel the Void. It is not a force of malice,
	no more charitable or heinous than gravity. The Void is a tool to
	be wielded by the patient, nothing more and nothing less. If you
	respect the Void, then one day you too shall step upon this
	pristine realm."
		[ Destiny ]
apple
	NEWTONIAN, adj.  Pertaining to a philosophy of the universe
	invented by Newton, who discovered that an apple will fall
	to the ground, but was unable to say why.  His successors
	and disciples have advanced so far as to be able to say
	when.
		[ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
archeologist
* archeologist
	Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. [...] 
	So forget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel, 
	and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried 
	treasure, and X never, ever, marks the spot.
		[ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ]

	"I cannot be having with archeological excavations, myself,"
	I said.  "The fellows who dig them only ever find tiny walls
	and a few bits of broken pottery, and then they get all
	excited and swear that they have just made the most
	important discovery of the century, the ruins of a mile-high
	gold-covered temple to Frogmore the God of Bike-Saddle
	Fixtures or some such."
	"I think you will find," said Mr Rune, "that they do this
	in order to secure further government funding for their
	diggings and so remain in employment."
	"That is a rather cynical view," I said.
		[ the brightonomicon, by Robert Rankin ]
#		[title & author: same situation as with "bad luck" entry]
arcadian avenger
	Arcadian avengers appear as angelic females, with angular 
	features and bright metallic silver skin. They possess 
	metallic razor-sharp wings, and usually wield two swords 
	just as sharp. While they are not constructs, arcadian 
	avengers all resemble each other.

	Arcadian avengers fight on the side of order, and see 
	themselves as a pure force of law. They fight free of 
	hesitation, doubt, or even remorse, and may even come into 
	conflict with good creatures that have broken the law. 
	They approach combat in a methodical, detached way, 
	weighing each foe's strengths and weaknesses before 
	attacking.
~justice archon
*archon
	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
justice archon
	Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; 
	I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
		[ Isaiah 42:1, English Standard Version of the Bible ]

	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
sword archon
	For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 
	The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, 
	they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
		[ 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, New International Version of the Bible ]

	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
trumpet archon
	The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, 
	which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord 
	and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
		[ Revelation 11:15, New International Version of the Bible ]

	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
warden archon
	Therefore for Spirits I am so farre from denying their existence, that 
	I could easily beleeve, that not onely whole Countries, but particular persons 
	have their Tutelary, and Guardian Angels: It is not a new opinion of the Church 
	of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato; there is no heresie in it, and 
	if not manifestly defin'd in Scripture, yet is it an opinion of a good and 
	wholesome use in the course and actions of a mans life, and would serve as an 
	Hypothesis to salve many doubts, whereof common Philosophy affordeth no solution[...]
		[ Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne ]

	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
throne archon
	...quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
	(Who will guard the guards themselves?)
		[ Satires, by Juvenal ]

	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
argentum*
argenach*
	To paraphrase a particularly wise prime, the rilmani are an
	enigma cloaked in a riddle, wrapped in a mystery. Who can
	question their motives or their actions? They keep their own
	counsel. They're sworn never to come when called, but always
	to be there when needed; never to answer questions put to
	them, but always to provide what information is necessary; to
	aid and abet good, evil, law, and chaos alike in order to maintain
	the Balance, regardless of the cost or repercussions.
		[ Planescape Monstrous Compendium II, by Rich Baker ]
arioch
	Arioch, the patron demon of Elric's ancestors; one of the most
	powerful of all the Dukes of Hell, who was called Knight of
	the Swords, Lord of the Seven Darks, Lord of the Higher Hell
	and many more names besides.
		[ Elric of Melnibone, by Michael Moorcock ]
*arrow
	I shot an arrow into the air,
	It fell to earth, I knew not where;
	For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
	Could not follow it in its flight.
	
	I breathed a song into the air,
	It fell to earth, I knew not where;
	For who has sight so keen and strong
	That it can follow the flight of song?
	
	Long, long afterward, in an oak
	I found the arrow still unbroke;
	And the song, from beginning to end,
	I found again in the heart of a friend.
		[ The Arrow and the Song,
		  by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
arkenstone
	It was the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain. So Bilbo
	guessed from Thorin's description; but indeed there could not
	be two such gems, even in so marvellous a hoard, even in all
	the world.  Ever as he climbed, the same white gleam had shone
	before him and drawn his feet towards it.  Slowly it grew to a
	little globe of pallid light.  Now as he came near, it was
	tinged with a flickering sparkle of many colours at the
	surface, reflected and splintered from the wavering light of
	his torch.  At last he looked down upon it, and he caught his
	breath. The great jewel shone before his feet of its own inner
	light, and yet, cut and fashioned by the dwarves, who had dug
	it from the heart of the mountain long ago, it  took all light
	that fell upon it and changed it into ten thousand sparks of
	white radiance shot with glints of the rainbow.
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	
	Arkenstone, Heart of the Mountain, property of the King
	under the Mountain, is the most valued jewel that the
	dwarves possess. It shines white light that can guide
	your steps in the darkness, and holding it aloft is said
	to inflame the greed of all creatures.
ascodel
bloody sunset
	...The obyrith Pale Night finally misled Royal Consort
	Ascodel of the eladrin Court of Stars, appealing to his
	concern for the well being of the most vulnerable eladrins--
	their children.  Through subterfuge and magical influence,
	Pale Night tricked Ascodel into a blasphemous pact, and
	with that the Abyss gained thousands of new permanent 
	inhabitants--an entire generation of eladrin forever bound
	to one of the deepest and least accessible layers of the
	Abyss.
	...Ascodel himself died on Androlynne protecting the 
	children he had unwittingly betrayed, and even Queen
	Morwel's current consort, Faerinaal, continues the tradition
	of his predecessors, spending much of his time personally
	overseeing the defense of the innocent eladrins trapped on
	Androlynne.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
	
	...Eladrin are not known to have 'children'; like all
	exemplar they arise from the souls of mortals.
*shikaga *akauji
	Ashikaga Takauji was a daimyo of the Minamoto clan who
	joined forces with the Go-Daigo to defeat the Hojo armies.
	Later when Go-Daigo attempted to reduce the powers of the
	samurai clans he rebelled against him.  He defeated Go-
	Daigo and established the emperor Komyo on the throne.
	Go-Daigo eventually escaped and established another
	government in the town of Yoshino.  This period of dual
	governments was known as the Nambokucho.
	[ Samurai - The Story of a Warrior Tradition, by Cook ]
	
	On July 8, 1336,  he and his samurai entered Kyoto, forced Go-Daigo
	to retire,  after which  he seized  power himself  and installed  a
	puppet prince on the throne  (the current Japanese  imperial family
	are  the   descendants  of  this   puppet  emperor  that   Ashikaga
	installed).
	
	Go-Daigo escaped,  though, wouldn't  admit to  have been  defeated,
	and  opened a new "capital"  in Yoshino (south of  Kyoto), where he
	and few  of his  descendants claimed  to be  running a  government,
	known as  the "Southern Court". The  period between  1337 and 1392,
	when Japan was ruled by two courts, is known as the Nambokucho.
	
	That "government" disappeared, naturally, after a  few generations,
	and Ashikaga's  Muromachi regime lasted for  a long  time. The last
	Ashikaga daimyo in power was the 14th descendant of Takauji.
asmodeus
	The Serpent's Throne filled the mirror, a great hooded viper
	of lustrous ruby that slithered about its own coils. Darkness 
	unfathomable surrounded this throne. Yet, a deeper darkness 
	was hidden within. Then, I saw him. Or rather, I saw Him. 
	Seated upon the Serpent's Throne He looked at me. He looked 
	at me as I sat in what I thought was safety!
	
	The small amount of exposed flesh was flawless, like the 
	purest marble. His attire was like the robes and cloaks of 
	a holy high priest, both regal yet simple in its austerity.
	It did not seem woven from any fabric in this or any other 
	world, but spun from the blackness of the Cosmos itself. In
	the long fingers that rested in his lap He held a ruby 
	scepter, its head an onyx pentagram. For all of this, what 
	I remember more than anything were the eyes. They were large 
	under the heavy brow. Completely red, like blood, those 
	glowing eyes gazed at me. Through me. Into and beyond my soul. 
	They devoured everything I ever was and could be. Despite the 
	pleasant smile on His face, those eyes told me I was less than
	nothing, an object to be used and discarded as necessary.
		[ Dicefreaks: The Gates of Hell ]
	
	-------
	Asmodeus is the overlord over all of hell.
	His appearance, unlike many other demons and devils, is
	human apart from his horns and tail.  He can freeze flesh
	with a touch, or boil it, and is a master of diverse
	magicks besides.  It is said that the ancestors of 
	devilkind arose from his blood.
	------
	
	SO, THOU HAST PEERED BEYOND THE GATES OF HELL. His lips
	did not move. Or perhaps they did. To this day, I cannot
	tell.
	
	WAS IT WORTH IT?
		[ Dicefreaks: The Gates of Hell ]
athame
	The consecrated ritual knife of a Wiccan initiate (one of
	four basic tools, together with the wand, chalice and
	pentacle).  Traditionally, the athame is a double-edged,
	black-handled, cross-hilted dagger of between six and
	eighteen inches length.
athen*
	Athene was the offspring of Zeus, and without a mother.  She
	sprang forth from his head completely armed.  Her favourite
	bird was the owl, and the plant sacred to her is the olive.
	    [ Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch ]
	
	Athena, the  Greek goddess of war and peace, the peaceful arts, and
	wisdom.  Patron defender of many Greek cities, Athens in particular
	(then called Pallas Athena),  she is a major  goddess of the  Greek
	pantheon  and, according to Hesiod, the daughter  of Metis (Wisdom)
	and Zeus, born fully  armed from his head. A goddess of  battle and
	allegedly  a snake  goddess,  she is  a deity  who also  stands for
	discipline against  the more unruly conduct  of such  as Hermes and
	Poseidon.
	Her  symbol is the Aegis,  the skin of  a sacrificial  goat. She is
	also associated with ship-building and domestic crafts.
			  [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
atma weapon
	Ancient weapon created during the War of the Magi, forged
	in opposition to the war beasts of the gods. Its attack power is
	bound to its wielder's life force.
axe
	"For ev'ry silver ringing blow,
	Cities and palaces shall grow!"

	"Bite deep and wide, O Axe, the tree,
	Tell wider prophecies to me."

	"When rust hath gnaw'd me deep and red,
	A nation strong shall lift his head.

	"His crown the very Heav'ns shall smite,
	Aeons shall build him in his might."

	"Bite deep and wide, O Axe, the tree;
	Bright Seer, help on thy prophecy!"
		[ Malcolm's Katie, by Isabella Valancey Crawford ]
axolotl
	A mundane salamander, harmless.
baalphegor
	Ancient Baalphegor, canny and inventive, here since the beginning.
		[ Rip Van Wormer ]

	Baalphegor is a dignified she-devil with cinnamon-colored skin, 
	red eyes and hair, as well as bat wings. She appears young and 
	carefree but when angered, her eyes glow with flames and her 
	usually musical voice becomes very harsh. She is only five and 
	a half feet in height.
	
	Baalphegor is said to have been around since the creation of 
	Baator itself. She's a very skilled diplomat and tactician, and 
	an unmatched sorceress. She has created many artifacts and 
	techniques used throughout the Nine Hells. In addition to her 
	status, this fact granted her a deep respect from almost everyone
	in Baator, even from Asmodeus, who appreciates her to the point 
	of letting her live with her ever-scheming consort.
	
	Knowing all too well her master's position, Baalphegor keeps her 
	goals to herself, acting with a minimal degree of loyalty to the 
	Lord of the Eighth. Mephistopheles tolerates this due to the 
	protection given by his consort's presence.
		[ GreyWiki ]
bag
bag of *
sack
	"Now, this third handkerchief," Mein Herr proceeded, "has also
	four edges, which you can trace continuously round and round:
	all you need do is to join its four edges to the four edges of
	the opening.  The Purse is then complete, and its outer
	surface--"
	"I see!" Lady Muriel eagerly interrupted.  "Its outer surface
	will be continuous with its inner surface!  But it will take
	time. I'll sew it up after tea."  She laid aside the bag, and
	resumed her cup of tea.  "But why do you call it Fortunatus's
	Purse, Mein Herr?"
	The dear old man beamed upon her, with a jolly smile, looking
	more exactly like the Professor than ever.  "Don't you see,
	my child--I should say Miladi?  Whatever is inside that Purse,
	is outside it; and whatever is outside it, is inside it.  So
	you have all the wealth of the world in that leetle Purse!"
		[ Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, by Lewis Carroll ]
bael
bel
	Crimson scales cover this large fiend, from its bestile head
	to its clawed toes. From its back spread great batlike wings.
	Foul green venom drips from its teeth, sending up streams of
	smoke wherever it falls. Cinched around its waist is a belt
	of a dozen shrieking angel heads, their necks neatly severed
	by the massive flaming sword the creature holds in his
	clawed fist.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
	
	Why there must be consorts, I do not know. But I understand. 
	My love says that there must be balance in a layer between 
	anima and animus. Even the writhing Zariel has a consort, 
	her warrior Bel.
	
	My daughters, he told us. And my son, my Bel. You shall be 
	my eyes, ears, and tongue among the nine. Where they plot 
	and scheme, you shall remain loyal to me.
	
	I don't know that I believe him, for he is the Father of Lies.
		[ Rip Van Wormer ]
baelnorn
	Baelnorn are elves who have sought undeath to serve their 
	families, communities, or other purposes (usually to see a 
	wrong righted, or to achieve a certain magical discovery or 
	deed). They are lifelike creatures that appear as tall, 
	impressive-looking elves with shriveled skin and glowing 
	white eyes. Most baelnorns keep to the crypts, ruins, or 
	mage-towers they guard or work in, and they are never seen 
	except by those who intrude into such places.
		[ Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual, TSR ]
b*lzebub
	The "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Hebrew
	Ba'alzevuv (Beelzebub in Greek).  It has been suggested that
	it was a mistranslation of a mistransliterated word which
	gave us this pungent and suggestive name of the Devil, a
	devil whose name suggests that he is devoted to decay,
	destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic...
		[ Notes on _Lord of the Flies_, by E. L. Epstein ]
balrog
	...  It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as
	if a cloud had bent over it.  Then with a rush it leaped
	the fissure.  The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed
	about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air.  Its streaming
	mane kindled, and blazed behind it.  In its right hand
	was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it
	held a whip of many thongs.
	'Ai, ai!' wailed Legolas.  'A Balrog!  A Balrog is come!'
		   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
baluchitherium
titanothere
	Extinct rhinos include a variety of forms, the most
	spectacular being _Baluchitherium_ from the Oligocene of
	Asia, which is the largest known land mammal.  Its body, 18
	feet high at the shoulder and carried on massive limbs,
	allowed the 4-foot-long head to browse on the higher branches
	of trees.  Though not as enormous, the titanotheres of the
	early Tertiary were also large perissodactyls, _Brontotherium_
	of the Oligocene being 8 feet high at the shoulder.
		[ Prehistoric Animals, by Barry Cox ]
banana
	He took another step and she cocked her right wrist in
	viciously.  She heard the spring click.  Weight slapped into
	her hand.
	"Here!" she shrieked hysterically, and brought her arm up in
	a hard sweep, meaning to gut him, leaving him to blunder
	around the room with his intestines hanging out in steaming
	loops.  Instead he roared laughter, hands on his hips,
	flaming face cocked back, squeezing and contorting with great
	good humor.
	"Oh, my dear!" he cried, and went off into another gale of
	laughter.
	She looked stupidly down at her hand.  It held a firm yellow
	banana with a blue and white Chiquita sticker on it.  She
	dropped it, horrified, to the carpet, where it became a
	sickly yellow grin, miming Flagg's own.
	"You'll tell," he whispered.  "Oh yes indeed you will."
	And Dayna knew he was right.
		[ The Stand, by Stephen King ]
bandersnatch
	But while he was seeking with thimbles and care,
		A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh
	And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,
		For he knew it was useless to fly.
	
	He offered large discount-he offered a check
		(Drawn "to bearer") for seven-pounds-ten:
	But the Bandersnatch merely extended its neck
		And grabbed at the Banker again.
	
	Without rest or pause-while those frumious jaws
		Went savagely snapping around-
	He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,
		Till fainting he fell to the ground.
	The Bandersnatch fled as the others appeared
		Led on by that fear-stricken yell:
	And the Bellman remarked "It is just as I feared!"
		And solemnly tolled on his bell.
			[ The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll ]
banshee
	In Irish folklore and that of the Western Highlands of Scotland,
	a female fairy who announces her presence by shrieking and wailing
	under the windows of a house when one of its occupants is awaiting
	death. The word is a phonetic spelling of the Irish _beansidhe_, a
	woman of the fairies.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
baphomet
	This hulking, manlike brute stands 20 feet tall. His muscular
	frame is covered in thick, matted black hair. His head is that
	of a fiendish bull, and his great horns are stained in the 
	lifeblood of countless victims.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
barbarian
* barbarian
	They dressed alike -- in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and
	deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short
	swords; and they were all gaunt and scarred and hard-eyed;
	sinewy and taciturn.
	They were wild men, of a sort, yet there was still a wide
	gulf between them and the Cimmerian.  They were sons of
	civilization, reverted to a semi-barbarism.  He was a
	barbarian of a thousand generations of barbarians.  They had
	acquired stealth and craft, but he had been born to these
	things.  He excelled them even in lithe economy of motion.
	They were wolves, but he was a tiger.
		[ Conan - The Warrior, by Robert E. Howard ]
barbed devil
	Barbed devils lack any real special abilities, though they
	are quite difficult to kill. They are large humanoids, 
	covered from head to toe with sharp barbs, right down
	to the tips of their long, meaty tails.
bardiche
long pole*
	A long axe blade on a stick. The cutting blade is typically
	two feet long or more, but it is mounted on one of the 
	shortest poles for a polearm, only about five feet (1.5 meters).
	   
	     |\
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	     |  |
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	     |  |
	    Z[  |
	    H|  |
	    H|  |
	    H|  |
	    H|  |
	    Z[_-
	    H
# takes "bat or bird" when specifying "B"
*bat
bat or bird
	A bat, flitting in the darkness outside, took the wrong turn
	as it made its nightly rounds and came in through the window
	which had been left healthfully open.  It then proceeded to
	circle the room in the aimless fat-headed fashion habitual
	with bats, who are notoriously among the less intellectually
	gifted of God's creatures.  Show me a bat, says the old
	proverb, and I will show you something that ought to be in
	some kind of a home.
		[ A Pelican at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse ]
bebelith
	'Long we live and long we weave
	Till we have filled this space.
	Then, as before, we will leave
	To hunt another place.
	Our task ends when the weak are gone.
	then fill new spaces with our spawn!'
		[ Planescape Monstrous Compendium, TSR ]
	
	A demonic arachnid that exists outside the regular order of
	demons. The sharp claws of the bebelith shread flesh and
	armor alike.
bec de corbin
beaked polearm
	While this weapon does have a blunt hammer, its main 
	feature is the heavy crow's beak blade, designed to
	puncture heavy plate armor. The shaft is about eight
	feet long (2.4 meters).
	   
	      A
	      H
	  _  _H______
	 | \/ H      \
	 |_/\_H_______\
	      H
	      H
bear trap
	Probably most commonly associated with trapping, the leghold
	trap is a rather simple mechanical trap. It is made up of two
	jaws, a spring of some sort, and a trigger in the middle. When
	the animal steps on the trigger the trap closes around the leg,
	holding the animal in place. Usually some kind of lure is used
	to position the animal, or the trap is set on an animal trail.
	Traditionally, leghold traps had tightly closing "teeth" to make
	sure the animal stayed in place. The teeth also made sure the
	animal could not move the leg in the trap and ruin their fur.
	However, this resulted in many animals gnawing off legs in order
	to escape. More modern traps have a gap called an "offset jaw"
	and work more like a handcuff. They grip above the paw, making
	sure the animal cannot pull out but does not destroy the leg.
	This also allows the trapper to release unwanted catches.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*bee
	This giant variety of its useful normal cousin normally
	appears in small groups, looking for raw material to produce
	the royal jelly needed to feed their queen.  On rare
	occasions, one may stumble upon a bee-hive, in which the
	queen bee is being well provided for, and guarded against
	intruders.
*beetle
	[ The Creator ] has an inordinate fondness for beetles.
		[ attributed to biologist J.B.S. Haldane ]
	
	The common name for the insects with wings shaped like
	shields (_Coleoptera_), one of the ten sub-species into
	which the insects are divided.  They are characterized by
	the shields (the front pair of wings) under which the back
	wings are folded.
		[ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
beholder
	"Beauty in things exists merely
	 in the mind which contemplates them."
			[ Moral and Political, 
				by David Hume ]
~bell of opening
*bell
	No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece 
	of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by 
	the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
	well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's 
	death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and 
	therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for 
	thee.
		[ For Whom The Bell Tolls, by John Donne ]
bell*book*candle
	_Bell, book and candle._ The popular phrase for ceremonial
	excommunication in the Roman Catholic Church. After pronouncing
	sentence the officiating clergy closes his book, quenches the candle
	by throwing it to the ground and tolls the bell as for one who has
	died. The book symbolizes the book of life, the candle that the soul
	is removed from the sight of God as the candle from the sight of man.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
bell of opening
	"A bell, book and candle job."
	The Bursar sighed.  "We tried that, Archchancellor."
	The Archchancellor leaned towards him.
	"Eh?" he said.
	"I _said_, we tried that Archchancellor," said the Bursar loudly,
	directing his voice at the old man's ear.  "After dinner, you
	remember?  We used Humptemper's _Names of the Ants_ and rang Old
	Tom."*
	"Did we, indeed.  Worked, did it?"
	"_No_, Archchancellor."
	
	* Old Tom was the single cracked bronze bell in the University
	bell tower.
		[ Eric, by Terry Pratchett ]
bill?guisarme
hooked polearm
	A bladed polearm with mutliple sharpened edges and spikes,
	and with a hook. This weapon is about nine feet long
	(2.7 meters).
	   
	    |
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	    | _---\
	    | \
	 ___|  |
	  -_   |
	    |  |
	    | /
	    ||
black flower
	The Black Flower is the voice
	which abides in this broken eye
	Where it remained since its creation
	awaiting its purpose

	A harmless song of ruin
	which creates a monster
	that harms itself and others

	The Black Flower is the voice
	I hear always in bloodied prayers

	The Black Flower is the song
	that shall ring out the day of repentance
	in which all shall...disappear
		[ Drakengard 3 ]
black light
	Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength
	shorter than that of the visible region, but longer than that of soft
	X-rays. ... Some of the UV wavelengths are colloquially called black
	light, as it is invisible to the human eye.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
blaster
arm blaster
hand blaster
	Not as showy or impractical as a lightsaber; a powerful weapon, for
	an uncivilized age.
blindfold
	The blindfolding was performed by binding a piece of the
	yellowish linen whereof those of the Amahagger who condescended
	to wear anything in particular made their dresses tightly round
	the eyes.  This linen I afterwards discovered was taken from the
	tombs, and was not, as I had first supposed, of native
	manufacture.  The bandage was then knotted at the back of the
	head, and finally brought down again and the ends bound under
	the chin to prevent its slipping.  Ustane was, by the way, also
	blindfolded, I do not know why, unless it was from fear that she
	should impart the secrets of the route to us.
		[ She, by H. Rider Haggard ]
blind io
	On this particular day Blind Io, by dint of constant vigilance
	the chief of the gods, sat with his chin on his hand
	and looked at the gaming board on the red marble table in
	front of him.  Blind Io had got his name because, where his
	eye sockets should have been, there were nothing but two
	areas of blank skin.  His eyes, of which he had an impressively
	large number, led a semi-independent life of their
	own.  Several were currently hovering above the table.
	    [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
blue jelly
	The tissue injury resulting from frostbite is produced in two ways. The most 
	obvious is actual freezing of the tissues. Although ice crystals form between 
	the cells and grow by extracting water from them, the cells are physically 
	disrupted by the ice crystals only to a limited extent. The dehydration and 
	osmotic and chemical imbalances resulting from  extraction of water from within 
	the cell injure them, but permanent damage may be small. (...) The second 
	mechanism of tissue injury by frostbite, which is much more significant is loss
	of blood supply to the tissues. Blood may flow through larger vessels but (one 
	of the signs of adequate rewarming is a flushing of the frozen area) oxygen 
	cannot be deliver to the tissues because the small blood vessels that would 
	carry it have been lost.
		[ Hypothermia, Frostbite, and Other Cold Injuries: 
			Prevention, Survival, Rescue and Treatment
			by Gordon G. Giesbrecht, James A. Wilkerson ]
~crystal ooze
blob
* blob
ooze
* ooze
	These giant amoeboid creatures look like nothing more than
	puddles of slime, but they both live and move, feeding on
	metal or wood as well as the occasional dungeon explorer to
	supplement their diet.
blood bloater
	The most distinguishing feature of Bloodbloaters which set them
	apart from other Oozes is their red, egg yolk-like center, which
	stands out starkly from their clear, circular bodies that measure
	about 4 inches in diameter.
	
	When in contact with prey, Bloodbloaters move into contact as a 
	swarm and exude digestive enzymes from thin red flagellum that are
	attached to the brain. The digestive enzymes eat through cloth and
	flesh as a acid - and once in contact with the blood-stream, act 
	as a anesthetic. Thus - it is not unheard of for a person to 
	undertake massive damage or even death from a Bloodbloater swarm 
	without feeling anything.
	
	Bloodbloaters are parthenogenic organisms, and reproduce 
	constantly, wherever food is most plentiful.
		[ The Clock Strikes 12 ]
bo*shuriken
	A thin, metal dart.
bokrug*
	Through all the land of Mnar and the lands adjacent spread the tales 
	of those who had fled from Sarnath, and caravans sought that accursed
	city and its precious metals no more. It was long ere any traveller 
	went thither, and even then only the brave and adventurous young men
	of distant Falona dared make the journey; adventurous young men of
	yellow hair and blue eyes, who are no kin to the men of Mnar. These
	men indeed went to the lake to view Sarnath; but though they found
	the vast still lake itself, and the grey rock Akurion which rears
	high above it near the shore, they beheld not the wonder of the
	world and pride of all mankind. Where once had risen walls of 300
	cubits and towers yet higher, now stretched only the marshy shore, 
	and where once had dwelt fifty millions of men now crawled only the 
	detestable green water-lizard. Not even the mines of precious metal 
	remained, for DOOM had come to Sarnath.
	
	But half buried in the rushes was spied a curious green idol of stone;
	an exceedingly ancient idol coated with seaweed and chiselled in the 
	likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard. That idol, enshrined in 
	the high temple at Ilarnek, was subsequently worshipped beneath the 
	gibbous moon throughout the land of Mnar.
		[ The Doom That Came to Sarnath, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
bone devil
	Learn to love and uphold the Law
		[ Faces of Evil, by Colin McComb ]
	
	Bone devils attack with weapons and with a great hooked tail
	which causes a loss of strength to those they sting.
book of the dead
	A collection of ancient Egyptian texts, both religious and magical,
	concerned with guidance for the safe conduct of the soul through
	Amenti (the Egyptian Hades). The Egyptians called it _The Book 
	of Going Forth By Day_ and copies, or parts of it, were buried with
	the mummy. There is a variety of texts.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
~*jackboots
~*water walking*
~*speed boots
~*boots of speed
*boot*
	In Fantasyland these are remarkable in that they seldom or
	never wear out and are suitable for riding or walking in
	without the need of Socks.  Boots never pinch, rub, or get
	stones in them; nor do nails stick upwards into the feet from
	the soles.  They are customarily mid-calf length or knee-high,
	slip on and off easily and never smell of feet.  Unfortunately,
	the formula for making this splendid footwear is a closely
	guarded secret, possibly derived from nonhumans (see Dwarfs,
	Elves, and Gnomes).
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
*booze
potion of sleeping
	On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had
	first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes-it was
	a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and twittering
	among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting
	the pure mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not
	slept here all night." He recalled the occurrences before he fell
	asleep. The strange man with a keg of liquor-the mountain ravine-
	the wild retreat among the rocks-the woe-begone party at ninepins-
	the flagon-"Oh! that flagon! that wicked flagon!" thought Rip
	-"what excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle!"
		[ Rip Van Winkle, a Posthumous Writing 
		  of Diedrich Knickerbocker, by Washington Irving ]
boulder
	I worked the lever well under, and stretched my back; the end
	of the stone rose up, and I kicked the fulcrum under.  Then,
	when I was going to bear down, I remembered there was
	something to get out from below; when I let go of the lever,
	the stone would fall again.  I sat down to think, on the root
	of the oak tree; and, seeing it stand about the ground, I saw
	my way.  It was lucky I had brought a longer lever.  It would
	just reach to wedge under the oak root.
	Bearing it down so far would have been easy for a heavy man,
	but was a hard fight for me.  But this time I meant to do it
	if it killed me, because I knew it could be done.  Twice I
	got it nearly there, and twice the weight bore it up again;
	but when I flung myself on it the third time, I heard in my
	ears the sea-sound of Poseidon.  Then I knew this time I
	would do it; and so I did.
		[ The King Must Die, by Mary Renault ]
~*longbow of diana
bow
* bow
	"Stand to it, my hearts of gold," said the old bowman as he
	passed from knot to knot.  "By my hilt! we are in luck this
	journey.  Bear in mind the old saying of the Company."
	"What is that, Aylward?" cried several, leaning on their bows
	and laughing at him.
	"'Tis the master-bowyer's rede: 'Every bow well bent.  Every
	shaft well sent.  Every stave well nocked.  Every string well
	locked.'  There, with that jingle in his head, a bracer on
	his left hand, a shooting glove on his right, and a
	farthing's-worth of wax in his girdle, what more doth a
	bowman need?"
	"It would not be amiss," said Hordle John, "if under his
	girdle he had four farthings'-worth of wine."
		[ The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ]
brain golem
	A creation of the ancient race of mind flayers, brain 
	golems may be the most horrible of all their kind. 
	They exist purely for the desire of illithids and are 
	unswayed from their goals.
	
	A brain golem appears as a huge, burly humanoid with 
	an oversized brain for a head. In fact, the whole body 
	is made up of brain tissue, but is covered with a thin 
	film of slimy skin.
	
	In a book by a sage called Hapworth is a tale told by 
	two rescued human prisoners of the illithids, who 
	apparently saw a brain golem created. Although the 
	magic used was unknown to the humans, the brain golem's
	body seemed to be a combination of different racial 
	brains. As for the head, this was taken from a part of 
	the elder brain of the mind flayers. The skin was a 
	membrane oozed from that same being.
		[ Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual, TSR ]
brigit
	Brigit (Brigid, Bride, Banfile), which means the Exalted One,
	was the Celtic (continental European and Irish) fertility
	goddess.  She was originally celebrated on February first in
	the festival of Imbolc, which coincided with the beginning
	of lactation in ewes and was regarded in Scotland as the date
	on which Brigit deposed the blue-faced hag of winter.  The
	Christian calendar adopted the same date for the Feast of St.
	Brigit.  There is no record that a Christian saint ever
	actually existed, but in Irish mythology she became the
	midwife to the Virgin Mary.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
~rune*sword
~stormbringer
~*vorpal*
*broadsword
	Bring me my broadsword
	And clear understanding.
	Bring me my cross of gold,
	As a talisman.
		[ "Broadsword" (refrain) by Ian Anderson ]
bugbear
	Bugbears are relatives of goblins, although they tend to be
	larger and more hairy.  They are aggressive carnivores and
	sometimes kill just for the treasure their victims may be
	carrying.

	Bugbears are giant, hairy  cousins of goblins who frequent the same
	areas  as  their smaller  relatives.  Bugbears are  large and  very
	muscular, standing 7' tall.  Their hides range from light yellow to
	yellow brown  and their  thick coarse  hair varies  in colour  from
	brown  to  brick  red.  Though  vaguely   humanoid  in  appearance,
	bugbears seem to contain the  blood of some large  carnivore. Their
	eyes recall  those of  some savage  bestial animal, being  greenish
	white with  red pupils, while their  ears are  wedge shaped, rising
	from the  top of  their heads. A  bugbear's mouth  is full of  long
	sharp fangs.
	Bugbears have two main goals  in life: survival and  treasure. They
	are  superb  carnivores,  winnowing  out  the   weak  and  careless
	adventurer, monster, and animal. Goblins  are always on  their toes
	when  bugbears are present, for  the weak or  stupid quickly end up
	in the stewpot.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR, Inc. ]
bugle
	'I read you by your bugle horn
	And by your palfrey good,
	I read you for a Ranger sworn
	To keep the King's green-wood.'
	'A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn,
	And 'tis at peep of light;
	His blast is heard at merry morn,
	And mine at dead of night.'
		[ Brignall Banks, by Sir Walter Scott ]
bullwhip
	"Good," he said and, unbelievably, smiled at me, a smirk like
	a round of rotted cheese.  "What did your keeper use on you?
	A bullwhip?"
		[ Melusine, by Sarah Monette ]
byakhee
	A creature of the stars, this bat like being can be summoned
	across the vast interstellar gulfs to serve magicians and
	dark powers.  It is said that they will seize those who 
	summon them and cannot best them and carry them off to whatever
	terrible fate awaits them on other worlds.
callandor
	He stepped out beneath a great dome, and saw what he sought.
	_Callandor_, hanging hilt down in midair, waiting for no hand
	but that of the Dragon Reborn. As it revolved, it broke what
	little light there was into splinters, and now and then it
	flared as if with a light of its own.
	[...]
	The One Power surged through him, a torrent greater than he
	could believe, from _saidin_ into the sword. The crystal blade
	shone brighter than even Moiraine's fire had. It was impossible
	to look at, impossible any longer to see that it was a sword,
	only that light blazed in his fist.
		[ The Dragon Reborn, by Robert Jordan ]
*camaxtli
	A classical Mesoamerican Aztec god, also known as Mixcoatl-
	Camaxtli (the Cloud Serpent), Camaxtli is the god of war.  He
	is also a deity of hunting and fire who received human
	sacrifice of captured prisoners.  According to tradition, the
	sun god Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into Mixcoatl-Camaxtli
	to make fire by twirling the sacred fire sticks.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
camelot*
	The seat of Arthur's power in medieval romance. The name is of
	unknown origin and refers to the castle but also includes the
	surrounding town.
	[...]
	Camelot appears, most significantly, as a personal capital as
	opposed to a permanent or national one. It is Arthur's and
	Arthur's alone. There are no previous lords and Arthur's
	successor, Constantine, does not take up residence there.
	Camelot is actually said to have been demolished after Arthur
	and Lancelot were gone by Mark. Fazio degli Uberti, the Italian
	poet, claims to have seen the ruins in the 14th century.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
candelabrum*
	Faustus: Come on Mephistopheles.  What shall we do?
	Mephistopheles: Nay, I know not.  We shall be cursed with bell,
	book, and candle.
	Faustus: How?  Bell, book, and candle, candle, book, and bell,
	Forward and backward, to curse Faustus to hell.
	Anon you shall hear a hog grunt, a calf bleat, and an ass bray,
	Because it is Saint Peter's holy day.
	(Enter all the Friars to sing the dirge)
		[ Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, by Christopher Marlowe ]
*candle
	My candle burns at both ends
	It will not last the night;
	But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
	It gives a lovely light. 
		[ A Few Figs from Thistles, by Edna St. Vincent Millay ]
candle of invocation
	A magical candle that can be invoked while lit to open an
	extra-planar gate. Said gate lasts only seconds once opened,
	allowing for a single creature to pass through. The best-known
	use for this gate is to seek audience from an angelic being,
	though rumors exist of fools chasing their hearts' desires
	or disturbing storied demons from their fortresses.
candy bar
	Only once a year, on his birthday, did Charlie Bucket ever
	get to taste a bit of chocolate.  The whole family saved up
	their money for that special occasion, and when the great
	day arrived, Charlie was always presented with one small
	chocolate bar to eat all by himself.  And each time he
	received it, on those marvelous birthday mornings, he would
	place it carefully in a small wooden box that he owned, and
	treasure it as though it were a bar of solid gold; and for
	the next few days, he would allow himself only to look at it,
	but never to touch it.  Then at last, when he could stand it
	no longer, he would peel back a tiny bit of the paper
	wrapping at one corner to expose a tiny bit of chocolate, and
	then he would take a tiny nibble - just enough to allow the
	lovely sweet taste to spread out slowly over his tongue.  The
	next day, he would take another tiny nibble, and so on, and
	so on.  And in this way, Charlie would make his ten-cent bar
	of birthday chocolate last him for more than a month.
		[ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl ]
carcosa
lost carcosa
	Along the shore the cloud waves break,
	The twin suns sink behind the lake,
	The shadows lengthen
		In Carcosa.

	Strange is the night where black stars rise,
	And strange moons circle through the skies,
	But stranger still is
		Lost Carcosa.

	Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
	Where flap the tatters of the King,
	Must die unheard in
		Dim Carcosa.

	Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
	Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
	Shall dry and die in
		Lost Carcosa.
	- "Cassilda's Song" in The King in Yellow, Act i, Scene 2
	[ The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers ]
carcosan courtier
	Their skin was like porcelain. I think those were the natives.
	You know, SCP-2264-1. But the more you stared, the less human
	everyone seemed; some had too many limbs, some had too few.
	They were like the monsters from an old fantasy comic I read
	as a kid. Crazy as this place was, I don't think we were ever
	seeing the whole truth. It's like a filter. The people look
	humanoid because we're human. Something from another world
	would see us more like them. But some... especially the
	natives... I got the feeling that behind those masks,
	beyond their illusions, was something inconceivable.
		[ SCP-2264, by Metaphysician ]
carmilla
	She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that
	her movements were languid-very languid-indeed, there 
	was nothing in her appearance to indicate an invalid. 
	Her complexion was rich and brilliant; her features were 
	small and beautifully formed; her eyes large, dark, and 
	lustrous; her hair was quite wonderful, I never saw hair 
	so magnificently thick and long when it was down about her 
	shoulders; I have often placed my hands under it, 
	and laughed with wonder at its weight. It was exquisitely 
	fine and soft, and in color a rich very dark brown, with 
	something of gold. I loved to let it down, tumbling with 
	its own weight, as, in her room, she lay back in her chair 
	talking in her sweet low voice, I used to fold and braid 
	it, and spread it out and play with it. 
	
	Heavens! If I had but known all!
		[ Carmilla, by Sheridan Le Fanu ]
carrot
	In World War II, Britain's air ministry spread the word that a diet of
	these vegetables helped pilots see Nazi bombers attacking at night. That
	was a lie intended to cover the real matter of what was underpinning the
	Royal Air Force's successes: Airborne Interception Radar, also known as
	AI. ... British Intelligence didn't want the Germans to find out
	about the superior new technology helping protect the nation, so they
	created a rumor to afford a somewhat plausible-sounding explanation
	for the sudden increase in bombers being shot down. ...
	The disinformation was so persuasive that the English public took to
	eating carrots to help them find their way during the blackouts.
		[ Urban Legends Reference Pages ]
*cat lord
	Elder Goddess of cats, earthly knowledge of the true name 
	and nature of this being was already becoming confused by
	the time of ancient Egypt. It is believed that the Cat Lord
	entered into some pact or covenant with the rulers of this 
	early nation. However, the terms of this agreement, down to 
	the correct pronunciation of the unprecidented hieroglyphs 
	found in the being's name, have long since been lost, though
	the goddesses _Bastet_ and _Sekhmet_ are believed to be 
	descended from the stories surrounding the Cat Lord and its
	agreement.
	
	The hieroglyphs enclosed within its cartouche are drawn with
	variable numbers of strokes, though no glyph requires more
	than seven strokes to draw. The fourth and fifth and the
	eight and ninth hieroglyphs are smaller than the average,
	but must be drawn as pairs. The completed cartouche contains
	nine hieroglyphs.
s*d*g*r* cat
	Imagine a sealed container, so perfectly constructed that no
	physical influence can pass either inwards or outwards across its
	walls.  Imagine that inside the container is a cat, and also a
	device that can be triggered by some quantum event.  If that event
	takes place, then the device smashes a phial containing cyanide and
	the cat is killed.  If the event does not take place, the cat lives
	on.  In Schroedinger's original version, the quantum event was the
	decay of a radioactive atom.  ...  To the outside observer, the cat
	is indeed in a linear combination of being alive and dead, and only
	when the container is finally opened would the cat's state vector
	collapse into one or the other.  On the other hand, to a (suitably
	protected) observer inside the container, the cat's state-vector
	would have collapsed much earlier, and the outside observer's
	linear combination has no relevance.
		[ The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose ]
# takes "cat or other feline" when specifying "f"
*cat
*feline
kitten
	Well-known quadruped domestic animal from the family of
	predatory felines (_Felis ochreata domestica_), with a thick,
	soft pelt; often kept as a pet.  Various folklores have the
	cat associated with magic and the gods of ancient Egypt.
	
	So Ulthar went to sleep in vain anger; and when the people
	awakened at dawn - behold!  Every cat was back at his
	accustomed hearth!  Large and small, black, grey, striped,
	yellow and white, none was missing.  Very sleek and fat did
	the cats appear, and sonorous with purring content.
		[ The Cats of Ulthar, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
# this one doesn't work very well for dwarven and gnomish cavemen
catapsi vortex
	The seed of an Astral storm, sealed in a diamond. Breaking
	the diamond and releasing the storm disrupts Psions'
	connections to the collective unconscious, on which
	all psionic powers depend.
	
	Beware: overuse of such weapons can form a permanent
	disturbance in the Astral sea.
cave*man
human cave*man
	Now it was light enough to leave.  Moon-Watcher picked up
	the shriveled corpse and dragged it after him as he bent
	under the low overhang of the cave.  Once outside, he
	threw the body over his shoulder and stood upright - the
	only animal in all this world able to do so.
	Among his kind, Moon-Watcher was almost a giant.  He was
	nearly five feet high, and though badly undernourished
	weighed over a hundred pounds.  His hairy, muscular body
	was halfway between ape and man, but his head was already
	much nearer to man than ape.  The forehead was low, and
	there were ridges over the eye sockets, yet he unmistakably
	held in his genes the promise of humanity.
		[ 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke ]
dwar* cave*man
gnom* cave*man
	'Twas in a land unkempt of life's red dawn; 
	Where in his sanded cave he dwelt alone; 
	Sleeping by day, or sometimes worked upon 
	His flint-head arrows and his knives of stone; 
	By night stole forth and slew the savage boar, 
	So that he loomed a hunter of loud fame, 
	And many a skin of wolf and wild-cat wore, 
	And counted many a flint-head to his name; 
	Wherefore he walked the envy of the band, 
	Hated and feared, but matchless in his skill. 
	Till lo! one night deep in that shaggy land, 
	He tracked a yearling bear and made his kill; 
	Then over-worn he rested by a stream, 
	And sank into a sleep too deep for dream.
		[ The Dreamer, by Robert Service ]
*centaur
	Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination
	the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves.
	Despite a strong streak of sensuality, in their make-up,
	their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly
	thought of man's welfare.  The attempted outrage of Nessos on
	Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the
	Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of
	Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet,
	lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles.  Further, the
	Centaurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the
	body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved
	an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important
	members.  So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek.
	These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and
	clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially
	with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos.
		     [ Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271 ]
center of all
	Compass all the planes,
	and yet you will never find
	creation's heart
		[ riff on a Planescape Haiku,
			originally by Ecco-Mono ]
centipede
	I observed here, what I had often seen before, that certain
	districts abound in centipedes.  Here they have light
	reddish bodies and blue legs; great myriapedes are seen
	crawling every where.  Although they do no harm, they excite
	in man a feeling of loathing.  Perhaps our appearance
	produces a similar feeling in the elephant and other large
	animals.  Where they have been much disturbed, they
	certainly look upon us with great distrust, as the horrid
	biped that ruins their peace.
		[ Travels and Researches in South Africa,
			by Dr. David Livingstone ]
*erberus
kerberos
	Cerberus, (or Kerberos in Greek), was the three-headed dog
	that guarded the Gates of Hell.  He allowed any dead to enter,
	and likewise prevented them all from ever leaving.  He was
	bested only twice:  once when Orpheus put him to sleep by
	playing bewitching music on his lyre, and the other time when
	Hercules confronted him and took him to the world of the
	living (as his twelfth and last labor).
chameleon
	A small lizard perched on a brown stone.  Feeling threatened by
	the approach of human beings along the path, it metamorphosed
	into a stingray beetle, then into a stench-puffer, then into a
	fiery salamander.
	Bink smiled.  These conversions weren't real.  It had assumed
	the forms of obnoxious little monsters, but not their essence.
	It could not sting, stink or burn.  It was a chameleon, using
	its magic to mimic creatures of genuine threat.
	Yet as it shifted into the form of a basilisk it glared at him
	with such ferocity that Bink's mirth abated.  If its malice
	could strike him, he would be horribly dead.
		[ A Spell for Chameleon, by Piers Anthony ]
chaos
	Garland's hatred
	burned for 2000
	years.  That
	hatred led the 
	Four Powers to
	this world.
	
	CHAOS was
	created from
	those Four.
	Evil dominated
	the world and
	covered it in
	darkness.
		[ Final Fantasy ]
charo*n
	When an ancient Greek died, his soul went to the nether world:
	the Hades.  To reach the nether world, the souls had to cross
	the river Styx, the river that separated the living from the
	dead.  The Styx could be crossed by ferry, whose shabby ferry-
	man, advanced in age, was called Charon.  The deceased's next-
	of-kin would place a coin under his tongue, to pay the ferry-
	man.
chest
large box
	Dantes rapidly cleared away the earth around the chest.  Soon
	the center lock appeared, then the handles at each end, all
	delicately wrought in the manner of that period when art made
	precious even the basest of metals.  He took the chest by the
	two handles and tried to lift it, but it was impossible.  He
	tried to open it; it was locked.  He inserted the sharp end
	of his pickaxe between the chest and the lid and pushed down
	on the handle.  The lid creaked, then flew open.
	Dantes was seized with a sort of giddy fever.  He cocked his
	gun and placed it beside him.  Then he closed his eyes like a
	child, opened them and stood dumbfounded.
	The chest was divided into three compartments.  In the first
	were shining gold coins.  In the second, unpolished gold
	ingots packed in orderly stacks.  From the third compartment,
	which was half full, Dantes picked up handfuls of diamonds,
	pearls and rubies.  As they fell through his fingers in a
	glittering cascade, they gave forth the sound of hail beating
	against the windowpanes.
		[ The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas ]
chih*sung*tzu
	A character in Chinese mythology noted for bringing about the end
	of a terrible drought which threatened the survival of the people.
	He achieved this by means of sprinkling the earth with water from a
	bowl, using the branch of a tree to do so. He became the heavenly
	controller of the rain, and lived with other celestial beings in
	their paradise on Mount Kunlun.
		[ The Illustrated Who's Who In Mythology,
		  by Michael Senior ]
chromatic dragon
	Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind.  She is
	extremely vain.
	
	Avaricious,  supremely vain,  and  profoundly Lawful  Evil,  Tiamat
	proclaims  herself  the   creator  of  all  evil  dragonkind,   and
	certainly many evil dragons  revere her as their creator and patron
	deity.  She  infests the  uppermost  of  the  Nine  Hells with  her
	consorts,  each a  Great Wyrm  of different  colour -  one red, one
	white, one green, one blue, and one black.
	Tiamat's Avatar appears  as a gigantic five-headed dragon with  one
	head of  each of  the chromatic  (evil) dragon  types. Each  head's
	colour  runs the length  of the  neck and into  the forepart of het
	body  as stripes,  gradually blending  to  three  stripes of  grey,
	blue-green,  and  purple  over her  back  and  hind-quarters,  then
	merging into a muddy dark  brown tail. Her underbelly and  legs are
	greenish white fading into her upper body colours.
		 [ Monster Mythology, by TSR inc. ]
circle of Acheron
*acheron
	Then looking further onwards, I beheld
	A throng upon the shore of a great stream:	
	Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know	
	Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem
	So eager to pass o'er, as I discern
	Through the blear light?" He thus to me in few:
	"This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive
	Beside the woful tide of Acheron."
		[ The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri ]
	
	A circle of acheron takes just two strokes to scribe, making 
	it the simplest of the wards. It may be reinforced up to
	4 times.
clairvoyant changed
	Agent Smith: Mr. Anderson, welcome back, we've missed you. 
		You like what I've done with the place?

	Neo: It ends tonight.

	Agent Smith: I know it does, I've seen it. That's why the
		rest of me is just going to enjoy the show, because we 
		already know that I'm the one that beats you.
			[ The Matrix Revolutions ]
clarent
	Clarent is the sword which Arthur drew forth from the stone,
	proving himself a rightful king.  It represents authority
	and leadership.  Clarent cleaves through stone easily, but
	only those dedicated to law can remove it from a stony
	grasp.
cleaver
	Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed,
	sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic 
	melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled 
	thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."
		[ The Phoenix on the Sword, Robert E. Howard ]
~elven cloak
~oilskin cloak
*cloak*
	Cloaks are the universal outer garb of everyone who is not a
	Barbarian.  It is hard to see why.  They are open in front
	and require you at most times to use one hand to hold them
	shut.  On horseback they leave the shirt-sleeved arms and
	most of the torso exposed to wind and Weather.  The OMTs
	[ Official Management Terms ] for Cloaks well express their
	difficulties.  They are constantly _swirling and dripping_
	and becoming _heavy with water_ in rainy Weather, _entangling
	with trees_ or _swords_, or needing to be _pulled close
	around her/his shivering body_.  This seems to suggest they
	are less than practical for anyone on an arduous Tour.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
clockwork automaton
	I am not an unimaginable thing
	My thoughts are tangible
	though they're full of springs
	
	I don't have the heart to send you untruthful words
	My skin is cold to the touch and made from the earth
		[ Automatonic Electronic Harmonics,
			Music & Lyrics By David Michael Bennett ]
cloud*
	I wandered lonely as a cloud
	That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
	When all at once I saw a crowd,
	A host, of golden daffodils;
	Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
	Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
		[ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth ]
cobra
	Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without
	answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush
	there came a low hiss -- a horrid cold sound that made
	Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet.  Then inch by inch out of
	the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big
	black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail.
	When he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground,
	he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion-tuft
	balances in the wind, and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the
	wicked snake's eyes that never change their expression,
	whatever the snake may be thinking of.
	'Who is Nag?' said he.  '_I_ am Nag.  The great God Brahm put
	his mark upon all our people, when the first cobra spread his
	hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept.  Look, and be
	afraid!'
		[ Rikki-tikki-tavi, by Rudyard Kipling ]
cockatrice
	Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are
	just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg.  Then,
	along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad,
	to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to
	hatch.  When it hatches, out comes a creature called basilisk,
	or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures.  A single
	glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both
	man and beast.  Its power of destruction is said to be so
	great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal.
	Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vegetation
	to wither.
	
	There is, however, one creature which can withstand the
	basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel.  No one knows
	why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the
	basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle.  Perhaps
	the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness:  if it ever
	sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instantly.
	But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that
	merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
	sicken and die.
	[ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
	  and other sources ]
changed
warrior changed
	Those Changed by the Far Realms of Insanity now find the 
	Prime Material plane inimical to their existence, and must 
	wear protective suits formed from the flesh of those still 
	native to our dying universe.  Should the suit be breached,
	the Changed within will slowly boil away in a cloud of 
	noxious fumes.
chickatrice
	This beastie is the recently-hatched broodling of a cockatrice, a
	creature feared by adventurers great and small for its petrifying
	peck.  
		[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
citrine*
	A pale yellow variety of crystalline quartz resembling topaz.
pyrolisk
	A single glance from this red-feathered cockatrice  can cause even
	the bravest adventurer to burst into flames, their flesh withering
	and blackening and curling beneath the creature's baleful gaze.
		[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
*coin
*coins
zorkmid*
	The coin bears the likeness of Belwit the Flat, along with the 
	inscriptions, "One Zorkmid," and "699 GUE [ Great Underground 
	Empire ]." On the other side, the coin depicts Egreth Castle, 
	and says "In Frobs We Trust" in several languages.
		[ Zork Zero, by Infocom ]
combat
fight
fracas
melee
spat
squabble
tiff
	[Scene: Mr. Moon and Gilbert enter tavern and discover many
	corpses strewn about the place; Blind Pew is sole survivor.]
	Blind Pew:  Evening.  Sounded as though there has been a bit
	            of a squabble.
	 Mr. Moon:  Squabble?  They're all dead.
	Blind Pew:  Oh.  Must have been more of a tiff then.
		[ Yellowbeard, directed by Mel Damski, screenplay
		  by Graham Chapman, Peter Cook, Bernard McKenna ]
# not "stethoscope"
cope
* cope
	The cope is a liturgical vestment which may be worn by any
	rank of the clergy. Copes are made in all liturgical colours,
	and are like a very long mantle or cloak, fastened at the breast
	by a clasp.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
cornuthaum
	He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur tippets which had
	the signs of the zodiac embroidered over it, with various
	cabalistic signs, such as triangles with eyes in them, queer
	crosses, leaves of trees, bones of birds and animals, and a
	planetarium whose stars shone like bits of looking-glass with
	the sun on them.  He had a pointed hat like a dunce's cap, or
	like the headgear worn by ladies of that time, except that
	the ladies were accustomed to have a bit of veil floating
	from the top of it.
			[ The Once and Future King, by T.H. White ]
	
		"A wizard!" Dooley exclaimed, astounded.
		"At your service, sirs," said the wizard.  "How
	perceptive of you to notice.  I suppose my hat rather gives me
	away.  Something of a beacon, I don't doubt."  His hat was
	pretty much that, tall and cone-shaped with stars and crescent
	moons all over it.  All in all, it couldn't have been more
	wizardish.
			[ The Elfin Ship, James P. Blaylock ]
corwin
	I am a part of the evil that exists in the world and in
	Shadow. I sometime fancy myself an evil which exists to
	oppose other evils, and on that Great Day of which prophets
	speak but in which they do not truly believe, on that day
	when the world is completely cleansed of evil, then I, too,
	will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. 
	But whatever . . . Until that time, I shall not wash my
	hands nor let them hang useless.
		[ The Guns of Avalon, Roger Zelazny ]
couatl
	So rare as to be considered almost legendary, the couatl is one
	of the most beautiful creatures in existence. It has the body of
	a long serpent and feathered wings the color of the rainbow. 
	... This winged serpent is native to warm, jungle-like regions but
	can also be found flying through the ether. Their intelligence and
	goodness have made them objects of reverence by the natives of the
	regions which they inhabit. Considered to be divine, there are many
	legends in which the couatl is the benefactor of mankind and the
	bestower of such precious gifts as agriculture and medicine. There
	are even shrines in certain areas dedicated to the couatl, and any
	who attack or harm a couatl are automatically viewed as the blackest
	of villains. 
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
coure
mote of light
	The smallest eladrins are the coures, tiny, spritelike creatures
	who can be found throughout Arborea. They're messengers, scouts,
	pranksters, and mischief-makers who pester and annoy any 
	travellers or more serious eladrins they run across. The coures'
	jests are not meant maliciously; in fact, it's hard for even the
	most dour Doomguard to hang on to a frown when a flock of coure
	eladrins is dancing around his head.
	
	Despite their senses of humor and boundless energy for song, 
	dance, and jest, coure eladrins tale a definite turn for the 
	serious when confronting evil creatures. Harmless pranks develop
	into skilled guerilla tactics of hit-and-run nuisance attacks 
	while messengers are sent to summon more suitable opposition to 
	the threat.
	
	Coure eladrin resemble tiny, slender elves with long gossamer 
	wings trailing from their shoulders. They appear in a variety 
	of improbable colors and are fond of wearing bright apparel of
	questionable taste. A coure can assume the shape of a tiny 
	(6" diameter) ball of faerie-light at will.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
coyote
	This carnivore is known for its voracious appetite and
	inflated view of its own intelligence.
cram*
	If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't
	know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely,
	is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining,
	being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing
	exercise.  It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
cream pie
		Gregor stared at the pastry tray, and sighed.  "I suppose
	it would disturb the guards if I tried to shove a cream torte up
	your nose."
		"Deeply.  You should have done it when we were eight and
	twelve, you could have gotten away with it then.  The cream pie
	of justice flies one way," Miles snickered.
		[ The Vor Game, by Lois McMaster Bujold ]
*crocodile
	A big animal with the appearance of a lizard, constituting
	an order of the reptiles (_Loricata_ or _Crocodylia_), the
	crocodile is a large, dangerous predator native to tropical
	and subtropical climes.  It spends most of its time in large
	bodies of water.

	How doth the little crocodile 
	    Improve his shining tail, 
	And pour the waters of the Nile 
	    On every golden scale!

	How cheerfully he seems to grin 
	    How neatly spreads his claws, 
	And welcomes little fishes in, 
	    With gently smiling jaws!
		[ How Doth The Little Crocodile, by Lewis Carroll ]
croesus
kroisos
creosote
	Croesus (in Greek: Kroisos), the wealthy last king of Lydia;
	his empire was destroyed when he attacked Cyrus in 549, after
	the Oracle of Delphi (q.v.) had told him:  "if you attack the
	Persians, you will destroy a mighty empire".  Herodotus
	relates of his legendary conversation with Solon of Athens,
	who impressed upon him that being rich does not imply being
	happy and that no one should be considered fortunate before
	his death.
crom
	Warily Conan scanned his surroundings, all of his senses alert
	for signs of possible danger.  Off in the distance, he could
	see the familiar shapes of the Camp of the Duali tribe.
	Suddenly, the hairs on his neck stand on end as he detects the
	aura of evil magic in the air.  Without thought, he readies
	his weapon, and mutters under his breath:
	"By Crom, there will be blood spilt today."
	[ Conan the Avenger by Robert E. Howard, Bjorn Nyberg, and
	  L. Sprague de Camp ]
	
	The chief idol of Eirin. This huge object stood on the plain
	of Mag Sleact (the plain of adoration or prostration) in County
	Cavan in Ulster. Situated around him were twelve smaller idols
	made of stone while his was of gold. To him the early Irish
	sacrificed one third of their children on Samain (November 1) 
	in return for milk and corn and the good weather that insured
	the fertility of cattle and crops. ... The twelve lesser idols
	that encircle Crom have led to the assumption that he was a solar
	deity; certainly a fertility god. However, he has not been
	identified with any of the ancient Irish gods.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
	
	... Crom was their chief, and he lived on a great mountain, whence he
	sent forth dooms and death. It was useless to call on Crom, because
	he was a gloomy, savage god, and he hated weaklings. But he gave a
	man courage at birth, and the will and might to kill his enemies,
	which, in the Cimmerian's mind, was all any god should be expected
	to do.
		[ The Tower of the Elephant, by Robert E. Howard ]
crossbow*
	"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
	From the fiends, that plague thee thus! -
	Why look'st thou so?" - With my cross-bow
	I shot the Albatross.
		[ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor
		  Coleridge ]
crystal ball
	You look into one of these and see _vapours swirling like
	clouds_.  These shortly clear away to show a sort of video
	without sound of something that is going to happen to you
	soon.  It is seldom good news.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
black crystal
black orb
	The black ORB
	glitters ominously....
	But nothing happens.
		[ Final Fantasy I ]
fire crystal
water crystal
earth crystal
air crystal
fire orb
water orb
earth orb
air orb
	And so their
	journey begins----
	
	What awaits the
	Four, they do
	not know.	
	
	Each holding an 
	ORB, that 2000
	years ago shined
	with beauty from
	within.  But now,
	only darkness.
	
	Come!!
	Start your 
	journey!
	Return the light
	of peace to our
	world.
		[ Final Fantasy I ]
crystal ooze
	What's worse, the evil residue has spawned a creature.
	A gigantic crystal ooze lives in the pool and attacks
	anything that enters the chamber - not out of hunger,
	but spite. It particularly enjoys attacking sods as
	soon as they emerge from the bottom of the shaft,
	trying to grab them and drag them down into the foul,
	green soup.
		[ Dead Gods, by Monte Cook ]
*cthulhu
*Cthulhu
*ct*ul*u
*kt*ul*u
*cht*ul*u
*kht*ul*u
	"The Thing cannot be described -- there is no language for such
	abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch
	contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order.  A
	mountain walked or stumbled.  God!... the Thing of the idols,
	the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awakened to claim
	his own.  The stars were right again... great Cthulhu was
	loose again, and ravening for delight."
		[ The Call of Cthulhu, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
	
	The exact origins of Cthulhu are lost to time, but it is
	known that in aeons long past a race of space faring
	beings came to this world and Cthulhu was amongst their
	number as the high priest who interceded between them
	and the dark gods they worshipped.  Whether Cthulhu is
	a long lived individual or a title of office, is not
	known, but a creature bearing this name lives on,
	trapped in eternal slumber in the ruins of his great
	city. 
	
	I shall never sleep calmly again when I think of the 
	horrors that lurk ceaselessly behind life in time and in
	space, and of those unhallowed blasphemies from elder
	stars which dream beneath the sea....
		[ The Call of Cthulhu, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
curse*
	Curses are longstanding ill-wishings which, in Fantasyland,
	often manifest as semisentient.  They have to be broken or
	dispelled.  The method varies according to the type and
	origin of the Curse:
	[...]
	4.  Curses on Rings and Swords.  You have problems.  Rings
	have to be returned whence they came, preferably at over a
	thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and the Curse means you won't
	want to do this.  Swords usually resist all attempts to
	raise their Curses.  Your best source is to hide the Sword
	or give it to someone you dislike.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
cwn*n
	A pack of snow-white, red-eared spectral hounds which
	sometimes took part in the kidnappings and raids the
	inhabitants of the underworld sometimes make on this world
	(the Wild Hunt).  They are associated in Wales with the sounds
	of migrating wild geese, and are said to be leading the souls
	of the damned to hell.  The phantom chase is usually heard or
	seen in midwinter and is accompanied by a howling wind.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
cyclops
	The one-eyed giants, the cyclops, were the forgers of Zeus's 
	thunderbolts. Zeus killed Apollo's son Asclepius (Aesculapius)
	with one such thunderbolt in retribution for Asclepius giving
	mortals the skills to evade death, thus upsetting the natural
	order of the world. Apollo responded by slaying the cyclops.

	And after he had milked his cattle swiftly,
	he again took hold of two of my men
	and had them as his supper.
	Then I went, with a tub of red wine,
	to stand before the Cyclops, saying:
	"A drop of wine after all this human meat,
	so you can taste the delicious wine
	that is stored in our ship, Cyclops."
	He took the tub and emptied it.
	He appreciated the priceless wine that much
	that he promptly asked me for a second tub.
	"Give it", he said, "and give me your name as well".
			...
	Thrice I filled the tub,
	and after the wine had clouded his mind,
	I said to him, in a tone as sweet as honey:
	"You have asked my name, Cyclops?  Well,
	my name is very well known.  I'll give it to you,
	if you give me the gift you promised me as a guest.
	My name is Nobody.  All call me thus:
	my father and my mother and my friends."
	Ruthlessly he answered to this:
	"Nobody, I will eat you last of all;
	your host of friends will completely precede you.
	That will be my present to you, my friend."
	And after these words he fell down backwards,
	restrained by the all-restrainer Hupnos.
	His monstrous neck slid into the dust;
	the red wine squirted from his throat;
	the drunk vomited lumps of human flesh.
		[ The Odyssey, (chapter Epsilon), by Homer ]
daemon
	He'll wrap you in his arms,
	tell you that you've been a good boy
	He'll rekindle all those dreams
	it took you a lifetime to destroy
	He'll reach deep into the hole,
	heal your shrinking soul
	...
	They're whispering his name
	'cross this disappearing land
	But hidden in his coat
	is a red right hand
	...
	You're one microscopic cog
	in his catastrophic plan,
	designed and directed by
	his red right hand
		[ Red Right Hand, by Nick Cave
			and the Bad Seeds ]
~sting
~grimtooth
*dagger
	Is this a dagger which I see before me,
	The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
	I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
	Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
	To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
	A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
	Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
	I see thee yet, in form as palpable
	As this which now I draw.
                [ Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ]
dagon
	The demon is immense, its glistening bulk heaving monstrously 
	into the air as a writhing storm of hook-suckered tentacles
	unfolds from its shapless lower body. Its two largest tentacles
	terminate in immense five-fingered talons. Its head is that of
	a deep-sea fish, twisted with cruelty and leering with a
	primordial intelligence, its stilettolike teeth immense and
	translucent.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
dahlver-nar
strange corpse
	[...] Binder scholars know a different story—that Dahlver-Nar
	was a powerful cleric who forsook his deity to pursue the power 
	of pact magic. The fabled teeth of Dahlver-Nar, to which all 
	the legends attribute miraculous powers, were neither his own nor
	those of the dragon he battled. They were the teeth of beings 
	that became vestiges after death, and they could grant abilities 
	similar to those that the vestiges themselves imparted. Pact magic
	treatises relate that Dahlver-Nar pulled out his own teeth and
	replaced them with those of the vestiges, but that using them all 
	drove him mad. What happened thereafter is a matter of debate, but 
	the texts maintain that Dahlver-Nar eventually died, and the teeth 
	were lost, divided up among the squabbling followers he had managed
	to gain and then spread across the world. Today, Dahlver-Nar exists
	as a vestige in his own right—perhaps brought to that state through
	his close association with so many others.
		[ Tome of Magic,
			by Matthew Sernett et al. ]

	Thirty-two horses on a red hill,
	First they champ,
	Then they stamp,
	Then they stand still.    
		[ Adapted from the Hobbit,
			by J. R. R. Tolkien ]
damned pirate
	These memories were bought with the lives of good men
	A price that I paid without scruple
	So many souls suffered so I could get drunk
	And swagger from brothel to brothel
	
	And for what?
	It's been many years
	Yet the screams of the vanquished still ring in my ears
	And for what?
	I've blood on my hands
	I wait for my place in the halls of the damned
	And If I could go back and make my amends
	I'd make all those mistakes again
	I'd kill every last one of those bastards, my friend!
		[ Pirate Song, Alestorm ]
dark one
	... But he ruled rather by force and fear, if they might
	avail; and those who perceived his shadow spreading over the
	world called him the Dark Lord and named him the Enemy; and
	he gathered again under his government all the evil things of
	the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it,
	and the Orcs were at his command and multiplied like flies.
	Thus the Black Years began ...
		[ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
dark young
	The mouths was like leaves and the whole thing was like a 
	tree in the wind, a black tree with lots of branches trailing 
	to the ground, and a whole lot of roots ending in hoofs. And 
	that green slime dribbling out of the mouths and down the 
	legs was like sap!... 
	It came crawling up the hillside to the alter and the 
	sacrefice, and it was the black thing of my dreams-that black 
	ropy, slimy, jelly tree-thing out of the woods. It crawled up 
	and it flowed up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms. And 
	the men bowed and stood back and then it got to the alter 
	where they was something squirmin on top, squirming and 
	screaming.
		[ Notebook Found In a Deserted House, by Robert Bloch ]
darkness given hunger
	Juiblex has many slime, pudding, ooze, and jelly "servants," 
	although none are intelligent enough to serve the demon lord 
	willingly-except for one.
	
	Darkness Given Hunger is the largest black pudding known. 
	It was possessed by a hezrou demon at Juiblex's command, and 
	then an Imprison Possessor spell was cast upon the fusion, 
	making it permanent. For centuries, the demon has dwelled 
	within the pudding, and the two have truly become one in the 
	foul depths of the Abyss. Now, Darkness Given Hunger is 
	Juiblex's main servant, helping patrol the Abyssal layer upon 
	which they both dwell, looking for food.
		[ The Book of Vile Darkness, by Monte Cook ]
# includes "dart trap"
dart*
	Darts are missile weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp, 
	often weighted point will strike first. They can be distinguished
	from javelins by fletching (i.e., feathers on the tail) and a shaft
	that is shorter and/or more flexible, and from arrows by the fact
	that they are not of the right length to use with a normal bow.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

	Against my foe I hurled a murderous dart. 
	He caught it in his hand--I heard him laugh-- 
	I saw the thing that should have pierced his heart 
	Turn to a golden staff.
		[ Gifts, by Mary Coleridge ]
Daruth Xaxox
	Past the edge of reality is a relic from the Material Plane: a 
	stone keep securely lashed to the trunk of a dessicated tree a 
	mile in diameter. This was an outpost of mages too intent on 
	discovering forbidden knowledge to fear for their own sanity. 
	Nor do they fear insanity now, for rational thought has departed
	those who still live. Amid the wreckage of a laboratory, 
	barracks, kitchen, small library, and specimen cells, some 
	powerful spellcasters and their servants yet wander. Daruth 
	Winterwood, an ancient elven mage, led the expedition, but 
	now his brain is full of spiders. Literally.
	
	Still, he seeks to return Xaxox to the Material Plane in one 
	piece. Every now and then he coaxes open a small portal, allowing
	the essence of the Far Realm to seep onto some random plane, 
	troubling the dreams of those who reside there. Should Daruth 
	ever attract assistance from those on the far side of his 
	portals, or manage to transfer Xaxox on his own, a permanent 
	portal between the Far Realm and the Material Plane could open. 
	Anticipation of the tidal wave of insanity that would follow is 
	the delight that continues to inspire Daruth's mania.
		[ 3rd Edition Manual of the Planes, by Jeff Grubb, 
			Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan ]
deep one
	Them things told the Kanakys that ef they mixed bloods there'd
	be children as ud look human at fust, but later turn mone'n
	more like the things, till finally the'd take to the water an'
	jine the main lot o' things daown har.  An' this is the
	important part, young feller - them as turned into fish things
	an' went into the water wouldn't never die.  Them things never
	died excep' they was kilt violent.
	... Folks as had took to the water gen'rally come back a good 
	deal to visit, so's a man ud often be a'talkin' to his own 
	five-times-great-grandfather who'd left the dry land a couple 
	o' hundred years or so afore.
		[ The Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
deeper one
	For eighty thousand years Pth'thya-l'yi had lived in Y'ha-nthlei,
	and thither she had gone back after Obed Marsh was dead. 
	Y'ha-nthlei was not destroyed when the upper-earth men shot death
	into the sea.  It was hurt, but not destroyed.  The Deep Ones 
	could never be destroyed, even though the palaeogean magic of the
	forgotten Old Ones might sometimes check them.  For the present 
	they would rest; but some day, if they remembered, they would 
	rise again for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved.
		[ The Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
deepest one
	It was the pictorial carving, however, that did most to hold me 
	spellbound. Plainly visible across the intervening water on 
	account of their enormous size, were an array of bas-reliefs 
	whose subjects would have excited the envy of Dore. I think that 
	these things were supposed to depict men-at least, a certain 
	sort of men; though the creatures were shewn disporting like 
	fishes in waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage at some
	monolithic shrine which appeared to be under the waves as well. 
	Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail; for the 
	mere remembrance makes me grow faint. Curiously enough, they 
	seemed to have been chiselled badly out of proportion with their 
	scenic background; for one of the creatures was shewn in the act
	of killing a whale represented as but little larger than himself.
		[ Dagon, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
	
	No Deep One dies naturally. The longer it lives, the larger
	it grows, and it can become exceptionally large.
		[ S. Petersen's Field Guid to Cthulhu Monsters
		a Field Observer's handbook of preternatural entities ]
deminymph
	The daughter of a nymph and a mortal hero, a deminymph retains
	all of her mother's charm, adding to that the martial training
	and near-limitless potential of her father.
demi*lich
	The demilich is not, as the name implies, a weaker form of the lich.
	Rather, it is the stage into which a lich will eventually evolve as
	the power which has sustained its physical form gradually begins to
	fail. In most cases, all that remains of a demilich's body are a skull,
	some bones, and a pile of dust. 
	When it has learned all that it feels it can in its undead life, the
	lich will continue its quest for power in strange planes unknown to
	even the wisest of sages. Since it has no use for its physical body
	at this point, the lich leaves it to decay as it should have done
	centuries ago.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
demogorgon
	A terrible deity, whose very name was capable of producing the
	most horrible effects. He is first mentioned by the 4th-century
	Christian writer, Lactantius, who in doing so broke with the
	superstition that the very reference to Demogorgon by name
	brought death and disaster.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
	
	Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth and can
	spread a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending
	them.  He is a mighty spellcaster, and it is said that no
	mortal may meet his gaze and live to tell of it.
	
	The demon towers over you, his body at once sinuous like
	that of a snake and powerful like that of a great ape. Two
	baleful baboon heads leer from atop his lumbering shoulders,
	attached to which are two long, bifurcated tentacles. His
	lower torso is saurian, like some great reptile with an 
	immense forked tail.
		[ Adapted from Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
# takes "major demon" when specifying "&"
demon
major demon
	It is often very hard to discover what any given Demon looks
	like, apart from a general impression of large size, huge
	fangs, staring eyes, many limbs, and an odd color; but all
	accounts agree that Demons are very powerful, very Magic (in
	a nonhuman manner), and made of some substance that can squeeze
	through a keyhole yet not be pierced with a Sword.  This makes
	them difficult to deal with, even on the rare occasions when
	they are friendly.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
demonbane
	"From the hate-scorched sky----
	 With righteous anger in our hearts----
	 We draw forth the sword that smites Evil!
	 Thou art the innocent blade----
	 Demonbane!"
		[ Demonbane ]
devil*snare
	"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is --
	it's Devil's Snare!"
	"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help,"
	snarled Ron, leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling
	around his neck.
	"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.
	"Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with
	it as it curled around his chest.
	"Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare . . . what did Professor Sprout
	say? -- it likes the dark and the damp --"
	"So light a fire!" Harry choked.
	"Yes -- of course -- but there's no wood!" Hermione cried,
	wringing her hands.
	"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
	  [ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J. K. Rowling ]
diamond
	The hardest known mineral (with a hardness of 10 on Mohs' scale). It
	is an allotropic form of pure carbon that has crystallized in the
	cubic system, usually as octahedra or cubes, under great pressure.
		[ A Concise Dictionary of Physics ]

	The diamond, _adamas_ or _dyamas_, is a transparent stone, like crystal,
	but having the colour of polished iron, but it cannot be destroyed by
	iron, fire or any other means, unless it is placed in the hot blood
	of a goat; with sharp pieces of diamond other stones are engraved and
	polished. It is no greater than a small nut. There are six kinds,
	however Adamant attracts metal; it expels venom; it produces amber
	(and is efficacious against empty fears and for those resisting spells).
	It is found in India, in Greece and in Cyprus, where magicians make use
	of it. It gives you courage; it averts apparitions; it removes anger and
	quarrels; it heals the mad; it defends you from your enemies. It should be
	set in gold or silver and worn on the left arm. It is likewise found
	in Arabia.
	  	[ The Aberdeen Bestiary, translated by Colin McLaren ]
dilithium*
	The most famous and the first to be named of the imaginary 
	"minerals" of Star Trek is dilithium. ... Because of this
	mineral's central role in the storyline, a whole mythology
	surrounds it. It is, however, a naturally occurring substance
	within the mythology, as there are various episodes that
	make reference to the mining of dilithium deposits. ...
	This name itself is imaginary and gives no real information on
	the structure or make-up of this substance other than that this
	version of the name implies a lithium and iron-bearing
	aluminosilicate of some sort. That said, the real mineral that 
	most closely matches the descriptive elements of this name is
	ferroholmquistite which is a dilithium triferrodiallosilicate. 
	If one goes on the premise that nature follows certain general 
	norms, then one could extrapolate that dilithium might have a 
	similar number of silicon atoms in its structure.
	Keeping seven (i.e. hepto) ferrous irons and balancing the 
	oxygens would give a theoretical formula of Li2Fe7Al2Si8O27. A 
	mineral with this composition could theoretically exist, although
	it is doubtful that it would possess the more fantastic properties
	ascribed to dilithium.
		[ The Mineralogy of Star Trek, by Jeffrey de Fourestier ]
dimensional lock
	The inexplicably-sky-blue image of the willow hints at the 
	aetheral power of the simple disk. While active, dimensional
	magics (typical of summonings) fail.
	
	"The enemy is ancient, eternal, and forever. Yet they are not
	 without weakness, for they have been put down before and shall
	 be put down again. 
	
	"The power of the Cerulean Sign has not faded over the eons; it
	 has grown. With its power within my soul, I cannot help but 
	 prevail against the Elder Evils, and they cannot help but fall
	 against my might."
		[ Lords of Madness, by Rich Baker, James Jacobs, 
			and Steve Winter ]
dingo
	A wolflike wild dog, Canis dingo, of Australia, having a
	reddish- or yellowish-brown coat, believed to have been
	introduced by the aborigines.
	[ Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language ]
disenchanter
	The disenchanter resembles a spindly dromedary-like animal with a long,
	flexible snout. It is pale blue in color and slightly translucent.
	It targets magical items carried or worn by an opponent.
	
	"Ask not, what your magic can do to it. 
		Ask what it can do to your magic."
diskos
	And here I must make known that these weapons did not shoot; but had a
	disk of grey metal, sharp and wonderful, that spun in the end of a rod
	of grey metal, and were someways charged by the Earth-Current, so that
	were any but stricken thereby, they were cut in twain so easy as aught.
	And the weapons were contrived to the repelling of any Army of Monsters
	that might make to win entrance to the Redoubt. And to the eye they had
	somewhat the look of strange battle-axes, and might be lengthened by
	the pulling out of the handles.
		[ The Night Land, by William Hope Hodgson ]
dispater
	The Roman ruler of the underworld and fortune, similar to the Greek 
	Hades. Every hundred years, the Ludi Tarentini were celebrated in his 
	honor. The Gauls regarded Dis Pater as their ancestor.
	The name is a contraction of the Latin Dives, "the wealthy", Dives 
	Pater, "the wealthy father", or "Fater Wealth". It refers to the 
	wealth of precious stone below the earth.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
	
	Dispater is an arch-devil who rules the city of Dis.  He is
	a powerful mage.

	This dark-haired figure stands just over seven feet tall. He could
	pass for human if it weren't for the small horns protruding from
	his brow and his glowing red eyes. Dressed in regal finery, he carries
	a long rod capped with a macelike head.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
displacer beast
	The displacer beast is a magical creature that resembles a 
	puma with two powerful black tentacles growing from its 
	shoulders. Very rare, they stay far from human habitations.

	The displacer beast has the blue-black coloring of a dark 
	panther, and a long cat-like body and head. Females range 
	in length from 8 to 9 feet, and weigh 450 pounds; males 
	are 10 to 12 feet long, and weigh up to 500 Lbs. They have 
	6 legs. Tentacles are tipped with rough horny edges that 
	can inflict terrible wounds. Their eyes glow bright green, 
	even after death.
		[ Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual, TSR ]
djinn*
	The djinn are genies from the elemental plane of Air.  There,
	among their kind, they have their own societies.  They are
	sometimes encountered on earth and may even be summoned here
	to perform some service for powerful wizards.  The wizards
	often leave them about for later service, safely tucked away
	in a flask or lamp.  Once in a while, such a tool is found by
	a lucky rogue, and some djinn are known to be so grateful
	when released that they might grant their rescuer a wish.
# takes "dog or other canine" when specifying "d"
~hachi
~slasher
~sirius
*dog
pup*
*canine
	A domestic animal, the _tame dog_ (_Canis familiaris_), of
	which numerous breeds exist.  The male is called a dog,
	while the female is called a bitch.  Because of its known
	loyalty to man and gentleness with children, it is the
	world's most popular domestic animal.  It can easily be
	trained to perform various tasks.
# typing "spellbook or a closed door" shouldn't yield this entry.
~trap*door
~*spellbook*
*door
doorway
	Through me you pass into the city of woe:
	Through me you pass into eternal pain:
	Through me among the people lost for aye.
	Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
	To rear me was the task of power divine,
	Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
	Before me things create were none, save things
	Eternal, and eternal I endure.
	All hope abandon ye who enter here.
		[ The Inferno, from The Divine Comedy of Dante
			Alighieri, translated by H.F. Cary ]
doppelganger
	"Then we can only give thanks that this is Antarctica, where
	there is not one, single, solitary, living thing for it to
	imitate, except these animals in camp."
	
	"Us," Blair giggled. "It can imitate us. Dogs can't make four
	hundred miles to the sea; there's no food. There aren't any
	skua gulls to imitate at this season. There aren't any
	penguins this far inland. There's nothing that can reach the
	sea from this point - except us. We've got brains. We can do
	it. Don't you see - it's got to imitate us - it's got to be one
	of us - that's the only way it can fly an airplane - fly a plane
	for two hours, and rule - be - all Earth's inhabitants. A world
	for the taking - if it imitates us!
		[ Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell ]
	
	Xander: Let go!  I have to kill the demon bot!
	Xander Double (grabbing the gun): Anya, get out of the way.
	Buffy: Xander!
	Xander Double: That's all right, Buffy.  I have him.
	Xander: No, Buffy, I'm me.  Help me!
	Anya: My gun, he's got my gun.
	Riley: You own a gun?
	Buffy: Xander, gun holding Xander, give it to me.
	Anya: Buffy, which one's real?
	Xander: I am.
	Xander Double: No, _I_ am.
	    [ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Episode 5.03, "The Replacement" ]
*dragon
*xoth
	In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man.  Although
	preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it
	was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction
	and disease.  Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous
	undertaking.  For the dragon's assailant had to contend
	not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire
	breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail,
	the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
	[ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
	
	"One whom the dragons will speak with," he said, "that is a
	dragonlord, or at least that is the center of the matter.  It's
	not a trick of mastering the dragons, as most people think.
	Dragons have no masters.  The question is always the same, with
	a dragon:  will he talk to you or will he eat you?  If you can
	count upon his doing the former, and not doing the latter, why
	then you're a dragonlord."
		[ The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin ]
*dragon*scale*
	Stephen had argued, and the expert armorer had grudgingly
	admitted, that dragonscale shield or armor, provided it proved
	feasible to make at all, ought to offer some real, practical
	advantages over any metal breastplate or shield -- gram for
	gram of weight, such a defense would probably be a lot
	tougher and more protective than any human smiths could
	make of steel.
		[ The Last Book of Swords: Shieldbreaker's Story,
			by Fred Saberhagen ]
dragon lance
dragonlance
	An ancient weapon, forged in the Age of Dreams to be the bane
	of dragon kind.
dread blossom*
dreadblossom*
	An individual dread blossom looks like a foot long
	crimson flower, speckled with gold and black pollen,
	that ends in a 6-inch-long hollow thorn surrounded at
	its base by a frill of inch-long roots. Few creatures can
	examine a dread blossom in such detail, as a dread blossom
	swarm at rest is usually firmly planted in the bodies
	of its latest victims.
		[ Monster Manual III, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 ]
dread pirate roberts
	Finally, Roberts decided something. He said, "All right, 
	Westley, I've never had a valet. You can try it for tonight. 
	I'll most likely kill you in the morning." Three years he 
	said that. "Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll 
	most likely kill you in the morning." It was a fine time for 
	me. I was learning to fence, to fight, anything anyone would 
	teach me. And Roberts and I eventually became friends. And 
	then it happened.
	
	Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. He took me to 
	his cabin and he told me his secret. 'I am not the Dread Pirate 
	Roberts' he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from 
	the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit 
	it from me. The man I inherited it from is not the real Dread 
	Pirate Roberts either. His name was Cummerbund. The real 
	Roberts has been retired 15 years and living like a king in 
	Patagonia.' 
		[ Adapted from The Princess Bride, by William Goldman ]
dream quasielemental
	The region of dreams is near to the elemental planes
	in many respects, being the weakest and most impermanent
	of the shapings of the possible into the actual.
	
	The emanations of dream, then, are not true elementals,
	but are similar to them in some respects.  Dream 
	quasielementals are also able to take the forms of a
	wide variety of creatures, though they never hold the
	same from long.
drider
	A droven punishment form uniting the upper body of a drow 
	with the lower body of a giant spider. This form is 
	typically inflicted on drow matrons who fail a test set 
	out by Lolth, or who scheme and plot against others 
	without benifit to themselves, or who value material 
	things above all else. Driders are cast out of droven 
	society, driven deep into the underdark tunnels, far from 
	the cities of the drow. As with all punishment forms, 
	conversion into a drider also renders the victim sterile. 
	Driders, then, have been given the _form_ of the deity 
	Lolth, but have been deprived of the _essence_ of what it 
	means to be drow.
drow*
	Myths exist for a purpose - To explain the unexplainable.
	Because man fears the unknown.
	
	Murdering our kin. Our children.
	Butchering our towns.
	Devouring our flesh.
	Enslaving our people.
	Whispering of incest.
	Desecrating our lands.
	These mythical black demons with red eyes, embodying all
	the sins of men.
	
	But what if those demons truly exist?
				What are they, who are they?
		Do they dream?
				 Do they hate and love?
			Do they have their own demons that represent
			everything they despise and fear?
	[ Drowtales, by Kern, Kite, and Bandit, Drowtales.com ]
	
	Also known as dark elves, drow are a depraved and evil 
	subterranean offshoot of the elvish species.
	
	White is the most common hair color among drow, but almost 
	any pale shade is possible. Drow tend to be smaller and 
	thinner than other sorts of elves, and their eyes are often 
	a vivid red. 
		[ DnD 3.5 SRD ]
*drum*
	Many travelers have seen the drums of the great apes, and
	some have heard the sounds of their beating and the noise of
	the wild, weird revelry of these first lords of the jungle,
	but Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, is, doubtless, the only human
	being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating revel
	of the Dum-Dum.
		[ Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs ]
dunce*
	A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap,
	or dunce's hat, is a tall conical hat. In popular culture, it
	is typically made of paper and often marked with a D, and given
	to schoolchildren to wear as punishment for being stupid or
	lazy. While this is now a rare practice, it is frequently depicted
	in popular culture such as children's cartoons.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
~dungeon fern*
dungeon*
	At once as far as Angels kenn he views 
	The dismal Situation waste and wilde, 
	A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round 
	As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames 
	No light, but rather darkness visible 
	Serv'd only to discover sights of woe, 
	Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
	And rest can never dwell, hope never comes 
	That comes to all; but torture without end 
	Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed 
	With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd: 
	Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd 
	For those rebellious, here their Prison ordain'd 
	In utter darkness, and their portion set 
	As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n 
	As from the Center thrice to th' utmost Pole. 
		[ Paradise Lost, by John Milton ]
dwarf smith
	It looked to Sacharissa that the only tools a dwarf needed
	were his axe and some means of making fire. That'd eventually
	get him a forge, and with that he could make simple tools,
	and with those he could make complex tools, and with complex
	tools a dwarf could more or less make anything.
		[ The Truth, by Terry Pratchett ]
~dwarf ??m*
dwarf*
	Dwarfs have faces like men (ugly men, with wrinkled, leathery
	skins), but are generally either flat-footed, duck-footed, or
	have feet pointing backwards.  They are of the earth, earthy,
	living in the darkest of caverns and venturing forth only
	with the cloaks by which they can make themselves invisible,
	and others disguised as toads.  Miners often come across them,
	and sometimes establish reasonably close relations with them.
	... The miners of Cornwall were always delighted to hear a
	bucca busily mining away, for all dwarfs have an infallible
	nose for precious metals.
	Among other things, dwarfs are rightly valued for their skill
	as blacksmiths and jewellers: they made Odin his famous spear
	Gungnir, and Thor his hammer; for Freya they designed a
	magnificent necklace, and for Frey a golden boar.  And in their
	spare time they are excellent bakers.  Ironically, despite
	their odd feet, they are particularly fond of dancing.  They
	can also see into the future, and consequently are excellent
	meteorologists.  They can be free with presents to people
	they like, and a dwarvish gift is likely to turn to gold in
	the hand.  But on the whole they are a snappish lot.
	    [ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
earendil
elwing
	In after days, when because of the triumph of Morgoth Elves and
	Men became estranged, as he most wished, those of the Elven-race
	that lived still in Middle-earth waned and faded, and Men usurped
	the sunlight.  Then the Quendi wandered in the lonely places of the
	great lands and the isles, and took to the moonlight and the
	starlight, and to the woods and the caves, becoming as shadows
	and memories, save those who ever and anon set sail into the West
	and vanished from Middle-earth.  But in the dawn of years Elves
	and Men were allies and held themselves akin, and there were some
	among Men that learned the wisdom of the Eldar, and became great
	and valiant among the captains of the Noldor.  And in the glory
	and beauty of the Elves, and in their fate, full share had the
	offspring of elf and mortal, Earendil, and Elwing, and Elrond
	their child.
		[ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
earth
	Mostly Harmless.
		[ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams ]
ebon pane
	ZAPHOD:
	It's the wild colour scheme that freaks me. I mean, when you try an' 
	operate one of these weird black controls which are labelled in black
	on a black background, a small black light lights up black to tell you
	you've done it. What is this? Some kind of intergalactic hyper-hearse?
		[ The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Fit the Fifth),
			by Douglas Adams ]
edderkop
	Ettercaps resemble hunched, grey-purplish humanoid aberrations with 
	distended white underbellies, spider-like faces (fangs and eyes and 
	such), and two sharp, black chitinous claws instead of hands and 
	feet. They are not particularly intelligent. Ettercaps possess the 
	capability to shoot sticky webs and have an affinity for monstrous 
	spiders, which they keep as pets and guards. They are cowardly and 
	vicious, and prefer to set traps to ensnare their enemies.
		[ Adapted from the Forgotten Realms Wiki]
	
	The edderkops found in the Dungeons of Doom are dark brown or black
	in color, and are known to be shadowsmiths of fearsome power. The
	shadow-forged blades and bolts of the edderkops pass through armor
	without resistance, and have claimed the lives of many an adventurer.
eel
giant eel
	The behaviour of eels in fresh water extends the air of
	mystery surrounding them.  They move freely into muddy, silty
	bottoms of lakes, lying buried in the daylight hours in summer.
	[...]  Eels are voracious carnivores, feeding mainly at
	night and consuming a wide variety of fishes and invertebrate
	creatures.  Contrary to earlier thinking, eels seek living
	rather than dead creatures and are not habitual eaters of
	carrion.
	    [ Freshwater Fishes of Canada, by Scott and Crossman ]
effigy
	An effigy is a representation of a specific person in the form of
	sculpture or some other three-dimensional medium. The use of the
	term is normally restricted to certain contexts in a somewhat
	arbitrary way: recumbent effigies on tombs are so called, but
	standing statues of individuals, or busts, are usually not.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

	This effigy is magical, and its self-immolation will cleanse
	all varieties of curses afflicting the invoker.
egg
	But I asked why not keep it and let the hen sit on it till it
	hatched, and then we could see what would come out of it.
	"Nothing good, I'm certain of that," Mom said.  "It would
	probably be something horrible.  But just remember, if it's a
	crocodile or a dragon or something like that, I won't have it
	in my house for one minute."
		[ The Enormous Egg, by Oliver Butterworth ]
eladrin
	The eladrins are the native race of Arborea, just as the
	devils are associated with the Nine Hells and the demons with
	the Abyss. They're wild and free beings who exult in their own
	existence and live a life of song and celebration. The eladrins
	aid all people of good hearts against the forces of evil, but
	seek to do so with individual acts of kindness or heroism.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
noviere*
water dolphin*
	The seas and islands of Ossa, the second layer of Arborea, are
	the home of the noviere eladrins. Like the bralani, the novieres
	are a people who celebrate the beauty of the lands and emerald
	waters around them. They're the most straightforward and
	approachable of the eladrins. The shieres are blocks of ice to
	the typical cutter traveling in Arborea, the bralani are fickle
	and flighty, and trying to talk seriously to a coure can drive a
	sod barmy - but the novieres're willing to take a basher at his
	word and deal with him the way he deals with them.

	The novieres appear to be aquatic elves or nixies. Their skins
	are greenish, blue, or golden in hue, and their hair ranges from
	deep blue-green to pale blond. They're equally at home in the
	water or on land. The novieres're somewhat more human in
	appearance than a full-blooded aquatic elf; they're stockier,
	and have no prominent gills or webbing in their fingers. Their
	eyes mirror the color of the seas around them. In addition to
	their demihuman form, novieres can take on the shape of golden
	dolphins made entirely of shimmering water.

	Novieres prefer to remain in the seas of Ossa, but sometimes
	journey to other planes or prime-material worlds to visit with
	ocean nymphs or merfolk. They love exploring a new coastline or
	listening to the sound of the surf on a strange shore. Of all
	eladrins, the novieres are most likely to be interested in trade
	or material things; they're fascinated by gemstones and jewelry.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
bralani*
singing sand*
	The snowy, sandy wastes of Pelion are home to the bralani 
	eladrins. They're the wildest and most feral of their kind,
	existing from heartbeat to heartbeat in a glorious, never-ending
	passion. No eladrin can match the fury of an angry bralani, or
	the keening depths of her grief or sorrow, or the blissful
	heights of her joy. Bralani are tied to the plains of Pelion,
	but may occasionally be found dancing in the desert winds or
	arctic wastes of other realms, exulting in their freedom and
	the beauty of the open land.

	Bralani in their demihuman form resemble short, stocky elves,
	broad in the shoulders but graceful nonetheless. Their hair is
	usually a bright silvery-white, and their eyes are an
	everchanging rainbow of hues that flicker and shift with the
	vagaries of the bralani's mood. Bralani can also take the shape
	of a whirlwind of dust, sand, or snow, racing across their
	beloved plains like living zephyrs.

	Bralani are the most distant and fey of the eladrins, dangerous
	to approach and fickle in temperament. Strangers might be 
	greeted with wild celebration or attacked in a towering rage.
	Although the bralani's purpose seems to be to dance and race
	about in the wastes, they'll drop their endless dance in a
	moment if they come across evil in their domain. A few rare and
	unusual bralani sojourning in other worlds ally themselves with
	the local forces of good, siding with a tribe of noble desert
	savages or aiding a group of northern herdsmen.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
firre*
dancing flame*
	It shouldn't be any surprise that there are eladrins who devote
	themselves to art, music, and magic. The firres (pronounced
	feers) are creatures who live for beauty; their lives are
	consumed by a fiery passion for art of any kind, and they
	strive to make their own existence a living image of wonder
	and delight.

	The firre eladrins live as wandering minstrels and bards in
	Arborea, attending the courts of more powerful eladrins or
	tarrying to entertain a circle of coures in a forgotten dell.
	Their pursuit of beauty leads them to any place where art,
	skill, or grace is held in high esteem. A body could run
	across a firre traveling the Outlands or visiting the palaces
	of neutral-aligned powers just as easily as he'd find one in
	Arborea. Firres have a deep love and appreciation of mortal
	art, and often embark on lengthy sojourns on the Prime
	Material Plane to seek out works of excellence.

	In their demihuman, firre eladrins resemble stocky elves with
	brilliant red hair and fiery red eyes. At first glance, a
	firre might be taken for a half-elf, but her eyes give her
	away; they have no iris or pupil, and glow brightly with the
	firre's inner flame. Firres can also transform themselves
	into man-size pillars or balls of fire.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
shiere*
ball of light
	The warriors of Arborea are the shieres, graceful eladrin 
	knights who fight with skill, strength, and honor. They're
	the defenders of the eladrin courts, a shining host that
	seeks out evil intruders and ensures that no darkness will
	trouble the Queen of Stars or her people. By night the
	shieres gather together in bright companies to ride the
	wilds of Olympus and drive away any who would do the folk
	of Arborea harm.

	The shieres appear to be exceptionally tall high elves of
	some kind. They're long-limbed and slender, with lanky
	frames and long, narrow faces and hands. A shiere's as
	strong as the mightiest mortal warrior despite his slender
	build. All shieres are very fair-skinned, with pale golden
	or silver hair and piercing eyes of blue, green, or violet.

	Unlike the other eladrins, shieres're bound more permanently
	into their demihuman form and can change shape only into a
	harmless ball of faerie-light, similar to that of a coure
	eladrin.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
ghaele*
luminous cloud*
	The ghaeles are the knights errant of the eladrins. Wherever
	evil and tyranny raise their ugly heads, the ghaeles respond.
	Working behind the scenes, they quietly muster resistance and
	offer guidance to any creatures of good heart with the courage
	to stand against their oppressors. More than any other
	eladrins, the ghaeles are accustomed to working from behind
	the veil.

	Ghaeles resemble tall, athletic high elves. They might easily
	be taken noble elves if not for their pearly, opalescent eyes
	and radiant aura. Of course, a ghaele may be wearing any
	manner of mortal guise when encountered away from Arborea.
	Ghaele eladrins can also take the form of an incorporeal cloud
	of luminous energy.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
tulani*
ball of radiance
	The greatest of the eladrins are the tulani, or faerie lords.
	Their courts are scattered throughout Olympus, never staying
	in the same place more than one night. The tulani are
	peaceful in nature and take up arms only when Arborea itself
	is threatened or the direst of emergencies requires their
	attention.

	Tulani're creatures of unearthly beauty and grace; their
	voices are living music, and their faces shine so brightly
	that mortals find it difficult to look at them. In form
	they're tall, stately elven lords dressed in shimmering
	robes of shifting color. A tulani is surrounded by a magical
	aura that evil creatures cannot bear to be near. Tulani
	eladrins can also take the form of an incorporeal globe of
	eldritch colors, 5' in diameter.

	Visitors to Arborea who seek out the tulani courts soon find
	out that the eladrins aren't easy to find when they want to
	avoid someone. When a cutter finally gets to meet with a
	tulani, he's wise to keep his bone-box shut and mind his
	manners. The tulani don't tolerate insolence or disrespect
	from mortals, but are gracious hosts when their guests
	behave themselves.
		[ Monstrous Manual, Planescape Appendix 2, TSR ]
elbereth
	... Even as they stepped over the threshold a single clear
	voice rose in song.
	
		A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
		silivren penna miriel
		o menel aglar elenath!
		Na-chaered palan-diriel
		o galadhremmin ennorath,
		Fanuilos, le linnathon
		nef aear, si nef aearon!
	
	Frodo halted for a moment, looking back.  Elrond was in his
	chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon the
	trees.  Near him sat the Lady Arwen.  [...]
	He stood still enchanted, while the sweet syllables of the
	elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody.
	"It is a song to Elbereth," said Bilbo.  "They will sing that,
	and other songs of the Blessed Realm, many times tonight.
	Come on!"
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
elder brain
	The elder brain is a huge, fibrous mass of cognizant brain 
	tissue covered with writhing feelers. A single elder brain 
	floats within the depths of a briny pool found at the center 
	of its illithid community.
	
	The elder brain is the center of its illithid community, 
	serving as an advisor and, most importantly, the living 
	repository of the community's technology, history, and psionic 
	expertise. It is the right and obligation of every illithid to 
	merge with the elder brain after death - living in exalted 
	mentality while guiding and shepherding its erstwhile 
	community. While most illithids believe that their personality 
	will survive the transition, individual egos are suborned to 
	the gestalt consciousness suffusing the tissue mass.
		[ Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual, TSR ]
*elder elemental eye
	Also known as the eye of the dragon, the eye is the holy symbol
	of the Elder Elemental God, a mythic being that once ruled over
	the earthly elements and reached for the heavens beyond.
	
	The elder elemental eye can be drawn in six strokes, making
	it very quick to engrave, and may be reinforced up to seven
	times.
*elder sign
*eye of yggdrasil
	An strange symbol that has come down to the younger races out
	of the forgotten past, the elder sign resembles a six-branched
	limb: a curved stroke with three branches above and two below.
	The sign is effective alone, or in groups of up to six; five 
	forming a star around the first: three above and two below.
	
	A simple elder sign is composed of six strokes; however, due
	to the more complex star shape of the reinforced ward, 
	expanding the sign requires ten strokes for the first arm,
	and eight thereafter.
electric eel
	South-American fish (_Gymnotus electricus_), living in fresh
	water.  Shaped like a serpent, it can grow up to 2 metres.
	This eel is known for its electrical organ which enables it
	to paralyse creatures up to the size of a horse.
	   [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
*elemental
	Elementals are manifestations of the basic nature of the
	universe.  There are four known forms of elementals:  air, fire,
	water, and earth.  Some mystics have postulated the necessity
	for a fifth type, the spirit elemental, but none have ever
	been encountered, at least on this plane of existence.
elshava
	To reach Elshava, [they] need to find a pair of sagging towers
	in the Clerk's Ward that leaned so heavily toward each other
	that they now touch at their apexes. [...]
	
	The sea-burg's built to resemble a nautilus shell, in that it's
	an ever-expanding spiral. It floats upon the shallow sea of
	Ossa and everything about it has a watery feel. The buildings
	look like shells, octopi, or fish, and most of them seem to be
	made from mother-of-pearl or coral. [...]
	
	The floating city's home to sea elves, selkies, mermen, and the
	like, but the inhabitants simply call themselves Sea Folk, 
	making no distinctions among the various races.
		[ Dead Gods, by Monte Cook ]
~human or elf*
~elf ??m*
~gr?y*elf
*elf*
elvenking
elvenqueen
	The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn
	rings of old trunks.  Some went to and fro bearing cups and
	pouring drinks; others brought food on heaped plates and
	dishes.
	"This is poor fare," they said to the hobbits; "for we are
	lodging in the greenwood far from our halls.  If ever you are
	our guests at home, we will treat you better."
	"It seems to me good enough for a birthday-party," said Frodo.
	Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for
	his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the
	sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a
	waking dream.  [...]
	Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to
	himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained
	in his memory as one of the chief events of his life.  The
	nearest he ever got was to say: "Well, sir, if I could grow
	apples like that, I would call myself a gardener.  But it was
	the singing that went to my heart, if you know what I mean."
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
elven cloak
elf* cl*
elv* cl*
	The Elves next unwrapped and gave to each of the Company the
	clothes they had brought.  For each they had provided a hood
	and cloak, made according to his size, of the light but warm
	silken stuff that the Galadrim wove.  It was hard to say of
	what colour they were: grey with the hue of twilight under
	the trees they seemed to be; and yet if they were moved, 
	or set in another light, they were green as shadowed leaves,
	or brown as fallow fields by night, dusk-silver as water under
	the stars.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
emerald
	'Put off that mask of burning gold
	With emerald eyes.'
	'O no, my dear, you make so bold
	To find if hearts be wild and wise,
	And yet not cold.'
	
	'I would but find what's there to find,
	Love or deceit.'
	'It was the mask engaged your mind,
	And after set your heart to beat,
	Not what's behind.'
	
	'But lest you are my enemy,
	I must enquire.'
	'O no, my dear, let all that be;
	What matter, so there is but fire
	In you, in me?'
		[ The Mask, by W.B. Yeats ]
engrav*
A.S*
	Presently we reached a place where the beach narrowed; the sea
	almost came up to the foot of the cliffs, leaving a passage no
	wider than a couple of yards. Between two projecting rocks we 
	caught sight of the entrance to a dark tunnel.
	There, on a slab of granite, appeared two mysterious letters, half
	eaten away by time - the two initials of the bold, adventurous
	traveller:
	
			A.S.

	'A.S.,' cried my uncle. 'Arne Saknussemm! Arne Saknussemm again!'

	[...] at the sight of those two letters, carved there three hundred
	years before, I stood in utter stupefication. Not only was the
	signature of the learned alchemist legible on the rock, but I
	held in my hand the dagger which had traced it. Without showing
	the most appaling bad faith, I could no longer doubt the existence
	of the traveller and the reality of his journey.
		[ Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne,
		  translated by Robert Baldick ]
enormous rat
	To set certain popular misconceptions to rest once and for all:
	
	1) He was not found wandering the sewers of London as a child during
		the winter of 1864, unable to say anything more than "Powerful 
		big rats, gentlemen."
	
	2) He was never exhibited in public houses to the curious; only 
		briefly in July, 1865, to selected gentlemen of standing from 
		the scientific and literary community.
	
	3) He did not have a vestigial tail.
	
	4) He did indeed have what most people would commonly understand 
		as "eyes."
	
	5) He was not actually the pilot of the Zeppelin, although he did 
		disappear for good following the explosion.

	6) There is obviously no "underground kingdom beneath London, 
		inhabited by huge, intelligent rodents." And even if there were,
		and suggestion of Neil's involvement in the mazy territorial
		negotiations between Londons Above and Below can be considered a
		joke, and in poor taste at that.
	
	7) He was afraid of neither mirrors nor street conjurers.
	
	8) There were no tooth marks on the bones.
		[ The Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman ]
*epidaurus
	The asclepieion at Epidaurus was the most celebrated healing center
	of the Classical world, the place where ill people went in the hope
	of being cured. To find out the right cure for their ailments, they
	spent a night in the enkoimitiria, a big sleeping hall. In their dreams,
	the god himself (Asclepius) would advise them what they had to do to
	regain their health. There are also mineral springs in the vicinity
	which may have been used in healing.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
epoch's curve
	Epoch's Curve has served the Wardens for generations and was passed
	from Warden to Warden for many years before being lost.
	According to legend it was made from the first ash sapling to sprout
	after the Spellblaze and carries powers of both time and renewal. 
		[ Tales of Maj'Eyal ]
erinys
erinyes
	And more he said, but I hold it not in mind because my eye had 
	wholly attracted me toward the high tower with the ruddy 
	summit, where in an instant were uprisen suddenly three 
	infernal furies, stained with blood, who had the limbs of 
	women and their action, and were girt with greenest hydras. 
	Little serpents and cerastes they had for hair, wherewith 
	their savage brows were bound. 
		[ Inferno, by Dante ]
	
	These female-seeming devils named after the Furies of mythology
	attack hand to hand and poison their unwary victims as well.
ettin
	The two-headed giant, or ettin, is a vicious and unpredictable
	hunter that stalks by night and eats any meat it can catch.
excalibur
	At first only its tip was visible, but then it rose, straight,
	proud, all that was noble and great and wondrous.  The tip of
	the blade pointed toward the moon, as if it would cleave it
	in two.  The blade itself gleamed like a beacon in the night.
	There was no light source for the sword to be reflecting
	from, for the moon had darted behind a cloud in fear.  The
	sword was glowing from the intensity of its strength and
	power and knowledge that it was justice incarnate, and that
	after a slumber of uncounted years its time had again come.
	After the blade broke the surface, the hilt was visible, and
	holding the sword was a single strong, yet feminine hand,
	wearing several rings that bore jewels sparkling with the
	blue-green color of the ocean.
		[ Knight Life, by Peter David ]
expensive camera
	There was a time when Rincewind had quite liked the iconoscope.
	He believed, against all experience, that the world was
	fundamentally understandable, and that if he could only equip
	himself with the right mental toolbox he could take the back off
	and see how it worked.  He was, of course, dead wrong.  The
	iconoscope didn't take pictures by letting light fall onto
	specially treated paper, as he had surmised, but by the far
	simpler method of imprisoning a small demon with a good eye for
	colour and a speedy hand with a paintbrush.  He had been very
	upset to find that out.
		[ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
eye of doom
	The eye!  The terrible eye!  Its gaze will doom us all!
eye of the aethiopica
	This is a powerful amulet of ESP.  In addition to its standard
	powers, it regenerates the energy of anyone who carries
	it, allowing them to cast spells more often.  It also reduces
	any spell damage to the person who carries it by half, and
	protects from magic missiles.  Finally, when invoked it has
	the power to instantly open a portal to any other area of the
	dungeon, allowing its invoker to travel quickly between
	areas.
eye of the overworld
	... and finally there is "the Eye of the Overworld".  This
	obscure artifact pushes the wearer's view sense into the
	"overworld" -- another name for a segment of the Astral Plane.
	Usually, there is nothing to be seen.  However, the wearer
	is also able to look back and see the area around herself,
	much like looking on a map.  Why anyone would want to ...
WSOGMM
	Whole Sort Of General Mish Mash (WSOGMM)
	
	The technical term for the sum total of all the parallel 
	universes, which aren't parallel, and furthermore are not,
	strictly speaking, universes either. This is easiest if you
	don't try to realize that until a little later, after you've
	realized that everything you've realized up to that moment
	is not true. The reason they are not universes is that any
	given universe is not a thing as such, but rather just a way
	of looking at the WSOGMM. The reason they are not parallel
	is the same reason the sea is not parallel. You can slice
	the WSOGMM any way you like and you will generally come up
	with something that someone will call home. Please feel
	free to blither now.
		[ Mostly Harmless, by Douglas Adams ]
father dagon
mother hydra
	"Yield up enough sacrifices an' savage knick-knacks an' 
	harbourage in the taown when they wanted it, an' they'd let 
	well enough alone. Wudn't bother no strangers as might bear
	tales aoutside - that is, withaout they got pryin'. All in
	the band of the faithful - Order o' Dagon - an' the children
	shud never die, but go back to the Mother Hydra an' Father 
	Dagon what we all come from once ... Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ..."
		[ The Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
fauchard
	This weapon is a development of the scythe or sickle. Set 
	upon a long pole, the curving blade of a fauchard can be 
	used for both cutting and thrusting. The weapon offers little 
	in the way of parrying or catching/holding and has no provision 
	for dismounting opponents, though it is quite useful for crippling 
	their mounts.
	    ________
	   / ___--
	  / /
	 | |
	 | |
	 | |
	 | '
	 ||
	 ||
fallen angel
	Lucifer rebelled.
	
	The angels fell.
	
	We have only the tales of mortals to guide us on this. We,
	the heirs of angels, must piece together our heritage from
	the scraps of myth. We can surmise that some divine force
	exiled Lucifer and his followers. We use their word, God,
	because it is a convenient shorthand for our unknown
	enemy. The demon race was bred to overthrow this enemy and
	take its throne and whatever else we forget, we should
	never forget that destiny. A full third of the Host fell,
	according to some accounts. For their sins - for pride,
	for rebellion, for desiring to be like God, for unknowable
	and ineffable reasons - they were banished and they fell.
		[ Infernum, Book of the Tormentor, by Gareth Hanrahan ]
fedora
	Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty, to set
	them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your
	stride as if you're only a step away from dancing.  They demand a
	lot of you.
		[ Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman ]
*fern*
	These dreadful weeds have been driven to extinction on the
	surface, yet deep within the dark and damp of the dungeon
	they still flourish. When it detects the motion of nearby
	creatures, the dungeon fern releases a deadly, poisonous
	spore, which quickly detonates to propagate the species.

	Residents of the dungeon have learned how not to disturb
	the dungeon fern, and will attack its spores on sight to
	keep them from overtaking their home.

	More than one variety of this plant is known to exist.
field*marshal* baton
	"Every French soldier carries in his cartridge-pouch 
	the baton of a marshal of France."
		[ Napoleon ]
figurine*
	Then it appeared in Paris at just about the time that Paris
	was full of Carlists who had to get out of Spain.  One of
	them must have brought it with him, but, whoever he was, it's
	likely he knew nothing about its real value.  It had been --
	no doubt as a precaution during the Carlist trouble in Spain
	-- painted or enameled over to look like nothing more than a
	fairly interesting black statuette.  And in that disguise,
	sir, it was, you might say, kicked around Paris for seventy
	years by private owners and dealers too stupid to see what
	it was under the skin.
		[ The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett ]
*finger of death
wand of death
	"Your sad excuse for a third-year Defence textbook will suggest to you that you
	expose the mountain troll to sunlight, which will freeze it in place. This, my
	young apprentices, is the sort of useless knowledge you will never find in my
	lessons. You do not encounter mountain trolls in open daylight! The idea that
	you should use sunlight to stop them is the result of foolish textbook authors
	trying to show off their mastery of minutia at the expense of practicality.
	Just because there is a ridiculously obscure way of dealing with mountain
	trolls does not mean you should actually try to use it! The Killing Curse is
	unblockable, unstoppable, and works every single time on anything with a brain."
		[ Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky ]
finger
fingers
*many wormy finger*
	Captain: Uh... hi there. Nice to see you again... I think.
	
	Orz Captain: That is *funny*. You think you *see* Orz but Orz are
	not *light reflections*.
	Maybe you think Orz are *many bubbles* too. It is such a joke.
	Orz are not *many bubbles* like *campers*. Orz are just Orz.
	I am Orz. I am one with many *fingers*.
	My *fingers* reach through into *heavy space* and you *see*
	*Orz bubbles* but it is really *fingers*.
	Maybe you do not even *smell*? That is sad.
	*Smelling* *pretty colors* is the best *game*.
		[ Star Control 2, by Toys for Bob ]
fire brand
	So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the 
	garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned 
	every way, to guard the way of the tree of life.
		[ King James 2000 Bible ]
	
	One of a pair of legendary swords that possess the powers of elemental
	flame and ice, and will grant these to whoever is fortunate enough
	to wield them.
fire trap
	'Let him be for a while,' said Cohen. 'I reckon the fish disagreed
	with him.'
	'Don't see why,' said Truckle. 'I pulled him out before it'd hardly
	chewed him. And he must've dried out nicely in that corridor. You know,
	the one where the flames shot up out of the floor unexpectedly.'
	'I reckon our bard wasn't expecting flames to shoot out of the floor
	unexpectedly,' said Cohen.
	Truckle shrugged theatrically. '_Well_, if you're not going to expect
	unexpected flames, what's the point of going _anywhere_?'
		[ The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett ]
fierna
belial
	These two humanlike figures are tall, dark, and sensual.
	They have a pair of small horns jutting from their brows. Their
	red eyes smolder with the promise of physical pleasure, and the
	fine clothing that clings to their bodies completes the 
	debaunched image.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
flail
	The flail the weapon is derived from the flail the agricultural
	tool. The original is made by connecting a wooden handle to a 
	wooden club with a rope, and is used for thrashing grain. The
	weapon is made by connecting a handle to a club, metal bar, 
	spiked ball, or whatever will hurt the most. It is used for 
	thrashing advesaries.
	The nunchaku is a Japanese variaty of flail on which the
	business end and handle are identical. This allows for a fast-
	paced eastern style of thrashing advesaries.
floating eye
	Floating eyes, not surprisingly, are large, floating eyeballs
	which drift about the dungeon.  Though not dangerous in and
	of themselves, their power to paralyze those who gaze at
	their large eye in combat is widely feared.  Many are the
	tales of those who struck a floating eye, were paralyzed by
	its mystic powers, and then nibbled to death by some other
	creature that lurked around nearby.
flesh golem
	With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
	the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
	of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.  It was
	already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
	the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
	glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
	eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
	motion agitated its limbs.
	
	How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
	delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
	had endeavoured to form?  His limbs were in proportion, and I
	had selected his features as beautiful.  Beautiful!--Great God!
	His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
	arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
	flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
	only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
	seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
	which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
	black lips.
		[ Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ]
flint*
	An emerald is as green as grass;
	A ruby red as blood;
	A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
	A flint lies in the mud.

	A diamond is a brilliant stone,
	To catch the world's desire;
	An opal holds a fiery spark;
	But a flint holds fire.
		[ Precious Stones, by Christina Giorgina Rossetti ]
*flute
	With this thou canst do mighty deeds
	And change men's passions for thy needs:
	A man's despair with joy allay,
	Turn bachelors old to lovers gay.
		[ The Magic Flute, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ]
# also takes 'fog/vapor cloud'
fog* cloud
	The fog comes
	on little cat feet.
	
	It sits looking
	over harbor and city
	on silent haunches
	and then moves on.
	     [ Fog, by Carl Sandburg ]
# includes "food detection" and "detect food", which might not be the best
*food*
	The little girl stood on tip-toe and picked one of the nicest
	and biggest lunch-boxes, and then she sat down upon the ground
	and eagerly opened it.  Inside she found, nicely wrapped in
	white papers, a ham sandwich, a piece of sponge-cake, a pickle,
	a slice of new cheese and an apple.  Each thing had a separate
	stem, and so had to be picked off the side of the box; but
	Dorothy found them all to be delicious, and she ate every bit
	of luncheon in the box before she had finished.
		[ Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum ]
forge
	Life's a forge! Yes, and hammer and anvil, too! You'll be
	roasted, smelted, and pounded, and you'll scarce know what's
	happening to you. But stand boldly to it! Metal's worthless
	till it's shaped and tempered! More labor than luck. Face
	the pounding, don't fear the proving; and you'll stand well
	against any hammer and anvil.
		[ Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander ]
fountain
	Rest! This little Fountain runs
	Thus for aye: -- It never stays
	For the look of summer suns,
	Nor the cold of winter days.
	Whose'er shall wander near,
	When the Syrian heat is worst,
	Let him hither come, nor fear
	Lest he may not slake his thirst:
	He will find this little river
	Running still, as bright as ever.
	Let him drink, and onward hie,
	Bearing but in thought, that I,
	Erotas, bade the Naiad fall,
	And thank the great god Pan for all!
		[ For a Fountain, by Bryan Waller Procter ]
fox
	One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard
	till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine
	which had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing
	to quench my thirst," quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he
	took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning
	round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with
	no greater success. Again and again he tried after the
	tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked
	away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are
	sour."
		[ Aesop's Fables ]
~violet fungus
*fung*
	Fungi, division of simple plants that lack chlorophyll, true
	stems, roots, and leaves.  Unlike algae, fungi cannot
	photosynthesize, and live as parasites or saprophytes.  The
	division comprises the slime molds and true fungi.  True
	fungi are multicellular (with the exception of yeasts); the
	body of most true fungi consists of slender cottony
	filaments, or hyphae.  All fungi are capable of asexual
	reproduction by cell division, budding, fragmentation, or
	spores.  Those that reproduce sexually alternate a sexual
	generation (gametophyte) with a spore-producing one.  The
	four classes of true fungi are the algaelike fungi (e.g.,
	black bread mold and downy mildew), sac fungi (e.g., yeasts,
	powdery mildews, truffles, and blue and green molds such as
	Penicillium), basidium fungi (e.g., mushrooms and puffballs)
	and imperfect fungi (e.g., species that cause athlete's foot
	and ringworm).  Fungi help decompose organic matter (important
	in soil renewal); are valuable as a source of antibiotics,
	vitamins, and various chemicals; and for their role in
	fermentation, e.g., in bread and alcoholic beverage
	production.
		[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
frost brand
	Some say the world will end in fire,
	Some say in ice.
	From what I've tasted of desire
	I hold with those who favor fire.
	But if it had to perish twice,
	I think I know enough of hate
	To say that for destruction ice
	Is also great
	And would suffice.
		[ Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost ]
	
	One of a pair of legendary swords that possess the powers of elemental
	flame and ice, and will grant these to whoever is fortunate enough
	to wield them.
galadriel
	I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew;
	Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
	Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
	and by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
	Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
	in Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
	There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
	while here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
	O Lorien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
	The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
	O Lorien! Too long have I dwelt upon this Hither Shore
	and in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
	But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
	what ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*garuda
	The Garuda is a large mythical bird or bird-like creature
	that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Garuda 
	is usually the mount (vahana) of the God Vishnu. Garuda is
	depicted as having the golden body of a strong man with a
	white face, red wings, and an eagle's beak and with a crown
	on his head. This ancient deity was said to be massive,
	large enough to block out the sun.
		[ Wikipedia ]
	
	The wings of garuda require 70 strokes to fully render,
	however, fragmentary drawings are effective and can be
	improved in increments of ten strokes.
*gargoyle
	And so it came to pass that while Man ruled on Earth, the
	gargoyles waited, lurking, hidden from the light.  Reborn
	every 600 years in Man's reckoning of time, the gargoyles
	joined battle against Man to gain dominion over the Earth.
	
	In each coming, the gargoyles were nearly destroyed by Men
	who flourished in greater numbers.  Now it has been so many
	hundreds of years that it seems the ancient statues and
	paintings of gargoyles are just products of Man's
	imagination.  In this year, with Man's thoughts turned toward
	the many ills he has brought among himself, Man has forgotten
	his most ancient adversary, the gargoyles.
	[ Excerpt from the opening narration to the movie
		_Gargoyles_, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
sir garland
	You impertinent fools.
	I, Garland, will knock
	you all down!!
		[ Final Fantasy ]
garland
	Remember me, Garland?
	Your puny lot thought it
	had defeated me.  But,
	the four FIENDS sent me
	back 2000 years into 
	the past.
		[ Final Fantasy ]
garo
	"That is the ghost of a ninja. Its scientific name is Garo 
	 Robe. They are merely shells that are empty on the inside. 
	 They're the shells of spies from an enemy nation sent to 
	 investigate Ikana. They have been unable to forget their 
	 living days. Even now their spirits--emptiness cloaked in 
	 darkness--continue to spy."
		[ Pamela's Father, Majora's Mask ]
garo master
	Leader of the ninja that came from points unknown to spy on 
	the Kingdom of Ikana. This master spy has uncovered secrets 
	greater and more dangerous than those found by lesser garo.
gas spore*
		Gas spores are a vaguely intelligent fungal growth that has
	evolved to strongly resemble the Beholder.  If they are struck 
	with  any amount of force they will explode violently.  Gas spores 
	tend to grow in groups, and legends have been written about the 
	destruction caused by foolish adventurers who touched a
	single one.
		[ Adapted by Ben Lehman from Monstrous Manual, by TSR, Inc. ]
*garlic
	1 November - All day long we have travelled, and at a good
	speed.  The horses seem to know that they are being kindly
	treated, for they go willingly their full stage at best
	speed.  We have now had so many changes and find the same
	thing so constantly that we are encouraged to think that the
	journey will be an easy one.  Dr. Van Helsing is laconic, he
	tells the farmers that he is hurrying to Bistritz, and pays
	them well to make the exchange of horses.  We get hot soup,
	or coffee, or tea, and off we go.  It is a lovely country.
	Full of beauties of all imaginable kinds, and the people are
	brave, and strong, and simple, and seem full of nice
	qualities.  They are very, very superstitious.  In the first
	house where we stopped, when the woman who served us saw the
	scar on my forehead, she crossed herself and put out two
	fingers towards me, to keep off the evil eye.  I believe they
	went to the trouble of putting an extra amount of garlic into
	our food, and I can't abide garlic.  Ever since then I have
	taken care not to take off my hat or veil, and so have
	escaped their suspicions.
		[ Dracula, by Bram Stoker ]
# gas spore -- see *spore
gehenn*
*h?nnom
hell
	"Place of Torment."  The Valley of Hinnom, south-west of
	Jerusalem, where Solomon, king of Israel, built "a high place",
	or place of worship, for the gods Chemosh and Moloch.  The
	valley came to be regarded as a place of abomination because
	some of the Israelites sacrificed their children to Moloch
	there.  In a later period it was made a refuse dump and
	perpetual fires were maintained there to prevent pestilence.
	Thus, in the New Testament, Gehenna became synonymous with hell.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
gelatinous cube
	Despite its popularity (or perhaps because of it), the
	gelatinous cube is also widely known as one of the sillier
	role-playing monsters.  It is something of a commentary on the
	ubiquity of treasure-laden dungeons in the Dungeons & Dragons
	universe, as the cube is a creature specifically adapted to a
	dungeon ecosystem.  10 feet to the side, it travels through
	standard 10-foot by 10-foot dungeon corridors, cleaning up
	debris and redistributing treasure by excreting indigestible
	metal items.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*gem
gem or rock
	The difference between false memories and true ones is the
	same as for jewels:  it is always the false ones that look the
	most real, the most brilliant.
		[ Salvador Dali ]
*genocide
	A word invented by Professor Raphael Lemkin of Duke University,
	U.S.A., and used in the drafting of the official indictment of war
	criminals in 1945. It is a combination of Gr. _genos_, race; and
	Lat. _caedere_, to kill. It is defined as acts intended to destroy,
	in whole or in part, national, ethnical, racial, or religious
	groups, and in 1948 was declared by the United Nations General
	Assembly to be a crime of international law.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
geryon
	Geryon is an arch-devil sometimes called the Wild Beast,
	attacking with his claws and poison sting.  His ranking in
	Hell is rumored to be quite low.
	
	Forthwith that image vile of fraud appear'd,
	His head and upper part expos'd on land,
	But laid not on the shore his bestial train.
	His face the semblance of a just man's wore,
	So kind and gracious was its outward cheer;
	The rest was serpent all: two shaggy claws
	Reach'd to the armpits, and the back and breast,
	And either side, were painted o'er with nodes
	And orbits.  Colours variegated more
	Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
	With interchangeable embroidery wove,
	Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom.
	As ofttimes a light skiff, moor'd to the shore,
	Stands part in water, part upon the land;
	Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,
	The beaver settles watching for his prey;
	So on the rim, that fenc'd the sand with rock,
	Sat perch'd the fiend of evil.  In the void
	Glancing, his tail upturn'd its venomous fork,
	With sting like scorpion's arm'd.  Then thus my guide:
	"Now need our way must turn few steps apart,
	Far as to that ill beast, who couches there."
		[ The Inferno, from The Divine Comedy of Dante
			Alighieri, translated by H.F. Cary ]
*ghost
valley of *dea*
	And now the souls of the dead who had gone below came swarming
	up from Erebus -- fresh brides, unmarried youths, old men
	with life's long suffering behind them, tender young girls
	still nursing this first anguish in their hearts, and a great
	throng of warriors killed in battle, their spear-wounds gaping
	yet and all their armour stained with blood.  From this
	multitude of souls, as they fluttered to and fro by the
	trench, there came a moaning that was horrible to hear.
	Panic drained the blood from my cheeks.
	     [ The Odyssey, (chapter Lambda), by Homer ]
ghoul
	The forces of the gloom know each other, and are strangely
	balanced by each other.  Teeth and claws fear what they cannot
	grasp.  Blood-drinking bestiality, voracious appetites, hunger
	in search of prey, the armed instincts of nails and jaws which
	have for source and aim the belly, glare and smell out
	uneasily the impassive spectral forms straying beneath a
	shroud, erect in its vague and shuddering robe, and which seem
	to them to live with a dead and terrible life.  These
	brutalities, which are only matter, entertain a confused fear
	of having to deal with the immense obscurity condensed into an
	unknown being.  A black figure barring the way stops the wild
	beast short.  That which emerges from the cemetery intimidates
	and disconcerts that which emerges from the cave; the
	ferocious fear the sinister; wolves recoil when they encounter
	a ghoul.
		[ Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo ]
	
	Ghouls are undead creatures, once human, who now feed on the 
	flesh of corpses. Although the change from human to ghoul has
	deranged and destroyed their minds, ghouls have a terrible
	cunning which enables them to hunt their prey most effectively.
 		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
giant eagle
	That also shall come to be by the heed of Iluvatar, and before 
	the Children awake there shall go forth with wings like the wind 
	the Eagles of the Lords of the West.
		[ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*giant
giant humanoid
	Giants have always walked the earth, though they are rare in
	these times.  They range in size from little over nine feet
	to a towering twenty feet or more.  The larger ones use huge
	boulders as weapons, hurling them over large distances.  All
	types of giants share a love for men - roasted, boiled, or
	fried.  Their table manners are legendary.
giant rat
	'Matilda Briggs', said Holmes, 'was... a ship which is 
	associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which 
	the world is not yet prepared.'
		[ The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, A. Conan Doyle ]
giant turtle
	This time I will with poetic art rehearse, 
	by means of words and wit, 
	a poem about a kind of fish, 
	the great sea-monster which is often unwillingly met, 
	terrible and cruel-hearted to seafarers, 
	yea, to every man; 
	this swimmer of the ocean-streams is known as the asp-turtle.
	
	His appearance is like that of a rough boulder, 
	as if there were tossing by the shore 
	a great ocean-reedbank begirt with sand-dunes, 
	so that seamen imagine they are gazing upon an island, 
	and moor their high-prowed ships with cables to that false land, 
	make fast the ocean-coursers at the sea's end, and, bold of heart, 
	climb up.
		[ The Whale, Old English Poem ]
githyanki*
	Githyanki are an ancient race descended from humans. They dwell 
	upon the Astral plane but will often leave that plane to make war 
	on other races. They are engaged in a lengthy war with the 
	githzerai.

	Githyanki are strongly humanoid in appearance. They are 
	approximately of human height but tend to be much more gaunt and 
	long of limb. They have rough, yellow skin and gleaming black 
	eyes that instantly betray their inhumanness. Like many demihuman 
	races, their ears have sharp points and are serrated at the back. 
	Dress for the githyanki is always an elaborate affair. Their 
	baroque armor and weapons of war are decorated with feathers, 
	beads, and precious metals and gems.

	History provides some information on the githyanki - their race 
	is both ancient and reclusive. Sages believe they once were 
	humans that were captured by mind flayers to serve as slaves and 
	cattle. The mind flayers treated their human slaves cruelly and 
	the people harbored a deep resentment toward the illithids. For 
	centuries these humans increased their hatred but could not 
	summon the strength necessary to break free. So they waited for 
	many years, developing their power in secret, waiting for an 
	opportunity to strike out against their masters. Finally, a woman 
	of power came forth among them, a deliverer by the name of Gith. 
	She convinced the people to rise up against their cruel masters. 
	The struggle was long and vicious, but eventually the people 
	freed themselves. They had earned their freedom and become the 
	githyanki, (which, in their tongue, means sons of Gith).
		[ Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix, TSR ]
gnoll*
	We are born and we die.
	No one cares, no one remembers,
	and it doesn't matter.
	This is why we laugh.
		[ The Gnoll Credo, by J. Stanton ]
glaive
single?edged polearm
	The glaive is a knife-bladed spear. It has the thrusting 
	function of the spear, and the secondary cutting function of 
	the convex blade of the knife. The weapon was rapidly enlarged 
	in the blade in order to give it a greater cutting function as 
	well as a cleaving attack. As with a spear or fauchard, however, 
	it is not overly effective at holding opponents back, nor does 
	it have the piercing or dismounting capabilities.
	
	Basically, a knife on a long stick. A nine foot long stick
	(2.7 meters). With a big knife on the end. 
	   
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giant*er
	He traveled over high hills, and on the third day he came to a
	large and spacious forest through which his road lay. Scarcely
	had he entered the forest when he beheld a monstrous giant
	dragging along by the hair of their heads a handsome knight
	and his lady. Jack alighted from his horse, and tying him to an
	oak tree, put on his invisible coat, under which he carried his
	sword of sharpness.  

	When he came up to the giant he made several strokes at him, but
	could not reach his body, but wounded his thighs in several places;
	and at length, putting both hands to his sword and aiming with all
	his might, he cut off both his legs. Then Jack, setting his foot
	upon his neck, plunged his sword into the giant's body, when the
	monster gave a groan and expired.
		[ The History of Jack the Giant-Killer, 
		  from The Blue Fairy Book, ed. Andrew Lang ]
glasya
	Adorned in priceless jewelry, silks, and other finery, this
	humanlike creature is the vision of beauty -- though her
	copper skin, batlike wings, forked tail, and pointed horns
	betray her true nature.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
# note: "gnomish wizard" is a monster;
~gnome ??m*
gnome*
gnomish wizard
	...  And then a gnome came by, carrying a bundle, an old
	fellow three times as large as an imp and wearing clothes of
	a sort, especially a hat.  And he was clearly just as frightened
	as the imps though he could not go so fast.  Ramon Alonzo
	saw that there must be some great trouble that was vexing
	magical things; and, since gnomes speak the language of men, and
	will answer if spoken to gently, he raised his hat, and asked
	of the gnome his name.  The gnome did not stop his hasty
	shuffle a moment as he answered 'Alaraba' and grabbed the rim
	of his hat but forgot to doff it.
	'What is the trouble, Alaraba?'  said Ramon Alonzo.
	'White magic.  Run!'  said the gnome ..
		[ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]
	
	"Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know," Harry told Ron as
	they crossed the lawn.
	"Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes," said Ron,
	bent double with his head in a peony bush, "like fat little
	Santa Clauses with fishing rods..."
	There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered,
	and Ron straightened up.  "This is a gnome," he said grimly.
	"Geroff me! Gerroff me!" squealed the gnome.
	It was certainly nothing like Santa Claus.  It was small and
	leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like
	a potato.  Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him
	with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles
	and turned it upside down.
	  [ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling ]
goblin
	Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.  They make
	no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.  They
	can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled
	dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually
	untidy and dirty.  Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes,
	tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well,
	or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and
	slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and
	light.
	     [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
god
goddess
	Goddesses and Gods operate in ones, threesomes, or whole
	pantheons of nine or more (see Religion).  Most of them claim
	to have made the world, and this is indeed a likely claim in
	the case of threesomes or pantheons:  Fantasyland does have
	the air of having been made by a committee.  But all Goddesses
	and Gods, whether they say they made the world or not, have
	very detailed short-term plans for it which they are determined
	to carry out.  Consequently they tend to push people into the
	required actions by the use of coincidence or Prophecy, or just
	by narrowing down your available choices of what to do next:
	if a deity is pushing you, things will go miserably badly until
	there is only one choice left to you.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
gold
gold piece
	A metal of characteristic yellow colour, the most precious
	metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange.  Symbol,
	Au; at. no. 79; at. wt. 197.2.  It is the most malleable
	and ductile of all metals, and very heavy (sp. gr., 19.3).
	It is quite unalterable by heat, moisture, and most
	corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in
	coin and jewelry.
	     [ Webster's New International Dictionary
		  of the English Language, Second Edition ]
golden knight
	Originally, it was created to constrain its user's power...
	It has since absorbed enough of their strength that it radiates
	strength back into the mortal wearer.
	If you receive a fatal attack when you still have vigor left,
	you can use the rest of the vigor to heal yourself to the state you
	were in before you were attacked.
		[ Kubera, by Currygom]
treasury golem
gold golem
	The bellows he set away from the fire, and gathered all the tools
	wherewith he wrought into a silver chest; and with a sponge wiped
	he his face and his two hands withal, and his mighty neck and
	shaggy breast, and put upon him a tunic, and grasped a stout staff,
	and went forth halting; but there moved swiftly to support their
	lord handmaidens wrought of gold in the semblance of living maids.
	In them is understanding in their hearts, and in them speech and
	strength, and they know cunning handiwork by gift of the immortal
	gods.
		[ The Iliad, by Homer ]
~argentum golem
~gold golem
~treasury golem
~flesh golem
~straw golem
~wood golem
~glass golem
*golem
	"The original story harks back, so they say, to the sixteenth
	century.  Using long-lost formulas from the Kabbala, a rabbi is
	said to have made an artificial man -- the so-called Golem -- to
	help ring the bells in the Synagogue and for all kinds of other
	menial work.
	"But he hadn't made a full man, and it was animated by some sort
	of vegetable half-life.  What life it had, too, so the story
	runs, was only derived from the magic charm placed behind its
	teeth each day, that drew down to itself what was known as the
	`free sidereal strength of the universe.'
	"One evening, before evening prayers, the rabbi forgot to take
	the charm out of the Golem's mouth, and it fell into a frenzy.
	It raged through the dark streets, smashing everything in its
	path, until the rabbi caught up with it, removed the charm, and
	destroyed it.  Then the Golem collapsed, lifeless.  All that was
	left of it was a small clay image, which you can still see in
	the Old Synagogue." ...
	    [ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]
gorgoneion
	Among the Ancient Greeks the most widely-used image intended to 
	avert evil was that of the Gorgon, the head of which now may be 
	called the Gorgoneion, which features wild eyes, fangs, and 
	protruding tongue. The full figure of the Gorgon holds the apex 
	of the oldest remaining Greek temple where she is flanked by two 
	lionesses. The Gorgon head was mounted on the aegis and shield 
	of Athena.
		[ Wikipedia ]
	One of the most versitile wards, this 60 line emblem must
	typically be prepared in advance.
grave
	"Who'd care to dig 'em," said the old, old man,
	"Those six feet marked in chalk?
	Much I talk, more I walk;
	Time I were buried," said the old, old man.
		[ Three Songs to the Same Tune, by W.B. Yeats ]
grayswandir
	She touched Grayswandir
	"What a beautiful blade! I've never seen one like it."
	"There isn't another," I said, and each time that I shifted
	a little, the light fell differently upon it, so that one
	moment it seemed filmed over with unhuman blood of an 
	orange tint and the next it lay there cold and white as
	snow or a woman's breast, quivering in my hand each time
	a little chill took me.
		[ The Guns of Avalon, by Roger Zelazny ]
graz*zt
	The figure standing before the throne is darkly handsome,
	an ebon-skinned man nearly 9 feet tall. His slightly
	pointed ears, yellow fangs, and six-fingered hands mark
	him for the demon he is.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
*grease
	ANOINT, v.t.  To grease a king or other great functionary
	already sufficiently slippery.
		[ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
gremlinoid
	The gremlin is a highly intelligent and completely evil
	creature.  It lives to torment other creatures and will go
	to great lengths to inflict pain or cause injury.
	
	Suddenly, Wilson thought about war, about the newspaper
	stories which recounted the alleged existence of creatures in
	the sky who plagued the Allied pilots in their duties.  They
	called them gremlins, he remembered.  Were there, actually,
	such beings?  Did they, truly, exist up here, never falling,
	riding on the wind, apparently of bulk and weight, yet
	impervious to gravity?
	He was thinking that when the man appeared again.
		[ Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, by Richard Matheson ]
gremlin
	Look Mister, there are some rules that you've got to follow.
	Yeah, what kind of rules?
	First of all, keep him out of the light, he hates bright 
	light, especially sunlight, it'll kill him. Second, don't 
	give him any water, not even to drink. But the most 
	important rule, the rule you can never forget, no matter 
	how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, 
	never feed him after midnight. 
		[ Gremlins ]
gr?y*elf
	Grey elves have either silver hair and amber eyes, or pale
	golden hair and violet eyes (the violet-eyed ones are known as
	faerie elves). They favor bright garments of white, gold, silver,
	or yellow, and wear cloaks of deep blue or purple. Grey elves are
	the rarest of elves, and they have little to do with the world
	outside their forests. They value intelligence very highly, and,
	unlike other elves, devote much time to study and contemplation.
	Their treatises on nature are astounding. 
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
grid bug
	These electronically based creatures are not native to this
	universe.  They appear to come from a world whose laws of
	motion are radically different from ours.
	
	Tron looked to his mate and pilot.  "I'm going to check on
	the beam connection, Yori.  You two can keep a watch out for
	grid bugs."  Tron paced forward along the slender catwalk
	that still seemed awfully insubstantial to Flynn, though he
	knew it to be amazingly sturdy.  He gazed after Tron, asking
	himself what in the world a grid bug was, and hoping that the
	beam connection -- to which he'd given no thought whatsoever
	until this moment -- was healthy and sound."
	    [ Tron, novel by Brian Daley, story by Steven Lisberger ]
grimlock
	Grimlocks have thick, scaly, grey skin and long, black, 
	filthy hair. Their teeth are white and extremely sharp. 
	Their eyes are blank white orbs.

	Grimlocks are totally blind, but have highly developed 
	senses of smell and hearing. Their sensitive ears and noses 
	combine to allow them to distinguish objects and creatures 
	just as well as if they were able to see.  Those same ears
	render them extremely vulnerable to loud noises, however.
		[ Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
grimtooth
	Elves. Dwarves. Men. All cruel beyond measure, all poisoned 
	with a hatred true and ancient. Likewise shall we hate them 
	and poison them in turn - for every harm they do us, with the 
	grim curved blade of our wrath shall we avenge, smash them, 
	smite them twofold.

	Let them hate us, but we will teach them a new kind of fear, 
	whose name even the least among us shall know and know well.
gug
	It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped 
	with formidable talons. Alter it came another paw, and after 
	that a great black-furred arm to which both of the paws were 
	attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes shone, and the
	head of the awakened Gug sentry, large as a barrel, wabbled 
	into view. The eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded 
	by bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the 
	head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth 
	had great yellow fangs and ran from the top to the bottom of
	the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally. 
		[ The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
guisarme
	Medieval peasants discovered that their pruning hooks made 
	reasonably effective pole arms. The result: the guisarme. 
	It is furnished with a sharp cutting edge along its convex 
	side, with a reverse spike to hook. The spike can be used 
	to penetrate armor when the weapon is swung, and the curved 
	hook provides an ample means of pulling horsemen to the ground.
gunyoki
	The samurai's last meal before battle.  It was usually made
	up of cooked chestnuts, dried seaweed, and sake.
gwynharwyf
furious whirlwind
	A short, stocky elf stands ready for battle.  Her hair is
	a wild silver-white mane, and her eyes are as green as jade.
	She has a tanned complexion and clutches a pair of gleaming
	scimitars that seem to reflect every color of the rainbow.
		[ The Book of Exalted Deeds, by James Wyatt,
			Christopher Perkins, and Darrin Drader ]
hachi
	Hachi was a dog that went with his master, a professor, to
	the Shibuya train station every morning.  In the afternoon,
	when his master was to return from work Hachi would be there
	waiting.  One day his master died at the office, and did not
	return.  For over ten years Hachi returned to the station
	every afternoon to wait for his master.  When Hachi died a
	statue was erected on the station platform in his honor.  It
	is said to bring you luck if you touch his statue.
halb??d
angled pole*
	Basically an axe on a pole, this weapon has been a mainstay 
	weapon in many armies for a long time. The axe blade angles
	downward, and there is usually a spear tip at the end and
	a spike protruding from the back. Due to its popularity it
	comes in a wide variety of styles, many reaching ten feet
	(3 meters).
	   
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*hamsa
	Depicting the open right hand, an image recognized and used 
	as a sign of protection in many societies throughout history,
	the hamsa is believed to provide defense against the evil eye.
	The symbol predates Christianity and Islam. In Islam, is also 
	known as the hand of Fatima, so named to commemorate 
	Muhammad's daughter Fatima Zahra. Levantine Christians call it
	the hand of Mary, for the mother of Jesus.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
	
	A hamsa mark may be drawn in 10 strokes, making it fairly quick
	to engrave; however, additional pairs after the first must be
	drawn togther. Up to six hamsas may be drawn in one square.
*harp
	A triangular stringed instrument, often Magic.  Even when not
	Magic, a Harp is surprisingly portable and tough and can be
	carried everywhere on the back of the Bard or Harper in all
	weathers.  A Harp seldom goes out of tune and never warps.
	Its strings break only in very rare instances, usually
	because the Harper is sulking or crossed in love.  This is
	just as well as no one seems to make or sell spare strings.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
	
	After breakfast was over, the ogre called out: "Wife, wife,
	bring me my golden harp."  So she brought it and put it on
	the table before him.  Then he said: "Sing!" and the golden
	harp sang most beautifully.  And it went on singing till the
	ogre fell asleep, and commenced to snore like thunder.
	Then Jack lifted up the copper-lid very quietly and got down
	like a mouse and crept on hands and knees till he came to the
	table, when up he crawled, caught hold of the golden harp and
	dashed with it towards the door.  But the harp called out
	quite loud: "Master!  Master!" and the ogre woke up just in
	time to see Jack running off with his harp.
		[ Jack and the Beanstalk, from English Fairy Tales,
		  by Joseph Jacobs ]
halberd
	This form of a pole axe is seen as a convex-headed broad axe 
	in early examples, but the head is set at a convenient angle, 
	considering the point where the blade is most likely to impact 
	upon an enemy. This alone makes it quite distinct from an 
	ordinary long-hafted axe. The whole weapon reaches 8 feet in length, 
	and is nearly always topped with a long spear point and backed by 
	a spike, which was often angled or hooked slightly downward. 
	The spear point is, of course, designed to keep opponents at bay 
	and deliver a thrusting attack (this proves quite useless when 
	opposing mounted knights armed with lances). The opposing spike was 
	for penetration of heavy plate armor, with a secondary function as a 
	hook for dismounting opponents. 
hawaiian*shirt
	'One of the things he can't do, he can't ride a horse,' he said.
	Then he stiffened as if sandbagged by a sudden recollection,
	gave a small yelp of terror and dashed into the gloom. When he
	returned, the being called Twoflower was hanging limply over his
	shoulder. It was small and skinny, and dressed very oddly in a
	pair of knee-length britches and a shirt in such a violent and
	vivid conflict of colours that the Weasel's fastidious eye was
	offended even in the half-light.
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
healer
* healer
attendant
doctor
physician
	I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health,
	and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according
	to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this
	stipulation -- to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear
	to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve
	his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the
	same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if
	they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and
	that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction,
	I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those
	of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath
	according to the law of medicine, but to none others.  I will
	follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and
	judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain
	from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.  [...]
		[ Hippocrates' Oath, translated by Francis Adams ]
	
	PHYSICIAN, n.  One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our
	dogs when well.
		[ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]
heart of ahriman
	The other three drew in their breath sharply, and the dark,
	powerful man who stood at the head of the sarcophagus whispered:
	"The Heart of Ahriman!"  The other lifted a quick hand
	for silence.  Somewhere a dog began howling dolefully, and a
	stealthy step padded outside the barred and bolted door. ...
	But none looked aside from the mummy case over which the man
	in the ermine-trimmed robe was now moving the great flaming
	jewel, while he muttered an incantation that was old when
	Atlantis sank.  The glare of the gem dazzled their eyes, so
	that they could not be sure what they saw; but with a
	splintering crash, the carven lid of the sarcophagus burst
	outward as if from some irresistible pressure applied from
	within and the four men, bending eagerly forward, saw the
	occupant -- a huddled, withered, wizened shape, with dried
	brown limbs like dead wood showing through moldering bandages.
	"Bring that thing back?" muttered the small dark man who
	stood on the right, with a short, sardonic laugh.  "It is
	ready to crumble at a touch.  We are fools ---"
		[ Conan The Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
hell hound*
	Hell hounds are fire-breathing canines from another plane of
	existence brought here in the service of evil beings.  A hell
	hound resembles a large hound with rust-red or red-brown fur,
	and red, glowing eyes.  The markings, teeth, and tongue are
	soot black.  It stands two to three feet high at the shoulder
	and has a distinct odour of smoke and sulphur.  The baying
	sounds it makes have an eerie, hollow tone that sends a shiver
	through any who hear them.
	
	But suddenly they started forward in a rigid, fixed stare, and his
	lips parted in amazement.  At the same instant Lestrade gave a yell
	of terror and threw himself face downward upon the ground. I sprang
	to my feet, my inert hand grasping my pistol, my mind paralyzed by
	the dreadful shape which had sprung out upon us from the shadows of
	the fog. A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not
	such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its
	open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle
	and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never
	in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more
	savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark
	form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog.
		[ The Hound of the Baskervilles, 
		  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ]
hellcat
	One of the worst things about the hellcat is that it's damned
	near invisible in *any* kind of light. [...] However, if a 
	body's smart enough to douse the light when a hellcat's
	suspected nearby, she'll see a glowing outline of a cat the
	size of a tiger. She'll also see the thing's malevolently
	glowing red eyes - 'course, that might also be the *last*
	thing she sees.
		[ Planes of Law, TSR ]
*heptagram
	The heptagram, a sevenpointed star, is an obvious development 
	of the pentagram, once it was discovered. The number seven is
	well known in symbolism. The traditional seven planets (the 
	wandering celestial bodies as opposed to the fixed stars) were
	associated with seven celestial spheres, thus the old 
	expression "to be in seventh heaven". The names of the seven
	days of the week may have been derived from the ordering of 
	planets based on orbital period according to the paths of the
	heptagram.
		[ Adapted from symbols.com, the online encyclopedia of
			Western signs and ideograms ]
	
	The heptagram ward requires 21 strokes to draw, and is one of
	the most broadly effective wards. It may be reinforced up to
	seven times.
*hexagram
	The hexagram is based on the triangle gestalt. The earliest
	examples found are dated back to around 800-600 B.C. 
	If the structure had been designed by a process of random 
	experimentation with the basic gestalt, the hexagram as 
	graphically simpler than the pentagram would have been 
	created long before it. Present archeological and historical
	facts, however, indicate that it first appeared at least
	3,000 years later than the pentgram. It is sometimes reffered 
	to as Solomon's seal, though the sign on Solomon's seal is 
	believed to have been a pentagram, and it is frequently used 
	in the magic formulas in the old book of witchcraft, 
	The Key of Solomon.
	
    The alchemists of the Middle Ages used the hexagram first and 
	foremost as a general symbol representing the art of alchemy 
	and secondly as a sign for combinations of water and fire. 
	Combined these two triangles formed the symbol for fire water, 
	the essence or spiritus of wine: alcohol. It was also used as
	a sign for quintessence, the fifth element. 
		[ Adapted from symbols.com, the online encyclopedia of
			Western signs and ideograms ]
	
	Composed of just twelve strokes, the hexagram can be drawn 
	fairly quickly. It may be reinforced up to seven times.
hermes
	Messenger and herald of the Olympians.  Being required to do
	a great deal of travelling and speaking in public, he became
	the god of eloquence, travellers, merchants, and thieves.  He
	was one of the most energetic of the Greek gods, a
	Machiavellian character full of trickery and sexual vigour.
	Like other Greek gods, he is endowed with not-inconsiderable
	sexual prowess which he directs towards countryside nymphs.
	He is a god of boundaries, guardian of graves and patron deity
	of shepherds.  He is usually depicted as a handsome young
	man wearing winged golden sandals and holding a magical
	herald's staff consisting of intertwined serpents, the
	kerykeion.  He is reputedly the only being able to find his way
	to the underworld ferry of Charon and back again.  He is said
	to have invented, among other things, the lyre, Pan's Pipes,
	numbers, the alphabet, weights and measures, and sacrificing.
hezrou
	"Hezrou" is the common name for the type II demon.  It is
	among the weaker of demons, but still quite formidable.
hippocrates
	Greek physician, recognized as the father of medicine.  He
	is believed to have been born on the island of Cos, to have
	studied under his father, a physician, to have traveled for
	some time, perhaps studying in Athens, and to have then
	returned to practice, teach, and write at Cos.  The
	Hippocratic or Coan school that formed around him was of
	enormous importance in separating medicine from superstition
	and philosophic speculation, placing it on a strictly
	scientific plane based on objective observation and critical
	deductive reasoning.
		[ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
hobbit
	In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	
	Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more
	numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace
	and quiet and good tilled earth:  a well-ordered and well-
	farmed countryside was their favourite haunt.  They do not
	and did not understand or like machines more complicated
	than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a handloom, although
	they were skillful with tools.  Even in ancient days they
	were, as a rule, shy of "the Big Folk", as they call us, and
	now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
hobgoblin
	Hobgoblin.  Used by the Puritans and in later times for
	wicked goblin spirits, as in Bunyan's "Hobgoblin nor foul
	friend", but its more correct use is for the friendly spirits
	of the brownie type.  In "A midsummer night's dream" a
	fairy says to Shakespeare's Puck:
		Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
		You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
		Are you not he?
	and obviously Puck would not wish to be called a hobgoblin
	if that was an ill-omened word.
	Hobgoblins are on the whole, good-humoured and ready to be
	helpful, but fond of practical joking, and like most of the
	fairies rather nasty people to annoy.  Boggarts hover on the
	verge of hobgoblindom.  Bogles are just over the edge.
	One Hob mentioned by Henderson, was Hob Headless who haunted
	the road between Hurworth and Neasham, but could not cross
	the little river Kent, which flowed into the Tess.  He was
	exorcised and laid under a large stone by the roadside for
	ninety-nine years and a day.  If anyone was so unwary as to
	sit on that stone, he would be unable to quit it for ever.
	The ninety-nine years is nearly up, so trouble may soon be
	heard of on the road between Hurworth and Neasham.
		[ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
*holy moonlight sword
	An arcane sword discovered long ago by Ludwig.
	When blue moonlight dances around the sword, and it channels
	the abyssal cosmos, its great blade will hurl a shadowy lightwave.
	
	The Holy Moonlight Sword is synonymous with Ludwig, the Holy 
	Blade, but few have ever set eyes on the great blade, and 
	whatever guidance it has to offer, it seems to be of a very 
	private, elusive sort. When Ludwig closed his eyes, he saw 
	darkness, or perhaps nothingness, and that is where he discovered
	the tiny beings of light.
	
	Ludwig was certain that these playful dancing sprites offered 
	"guidance." They could empty Ludwig of his fears at least in the 
	midst of a hunt.
		[ Bloodborne, by From Software ]
holy water
	"We want a word with you," said Ligur (in a tone of voice
	intended to imply that "word" was synonymous with "horrifically
	painful eternity"), and the squat demon pushed open the office
	door.
	The bucket teetered, then fell neatly on Ligur's head.
	Drop a lump of sodium in water.  Watch it flame and burn and
	spin around crazily, flaring and sputtering.  This was like
	that, just nastier.
	The demon peeled and flared and flickered.  Oily brown smoke
	oozed from it, and it screamed and it screamed and it screamed.
	Then it crumpled, folded in on itself, and what was left lay
	glistening on the burnt and blackened circle of carpet, looking
	like a handful of mashed slugs.
	"Hi," said Crowley to Hastur, who had been walking behind Ligur,
	and had unfortunately not been so much as splashed.
	There are some things that are unthinkable; there are some
	depths that not even demons would believe other demons would
	stoop to.
	". . . Holy water.  You bastard," said Hastur.  "You complete
	_bastard_.  He hadn't never done nothing to _you_."
	"Yet," corrected Crowley.
		[ Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett ]
hom*nculus
	A homunculus is a creature summoned by a mage to perform some
	particular task.  They are particularly good at spying.  They
	are smallish creatures, but very agile.  They can put their
	victims to sleep with a venomous bite, but due to their size,
	the effect does not last long on humans.
	
	"Tothapis cut him off.  'Be still and hearken.  You will travel
	aboard the sacred wingboat.  Of it you may not have heard; but
	it will bear you thither in a night and a day and a night.
	With you will go a homunculus that can relay your words to me,
	and mine to you, across the leagues between at the speed of
	thought.'"
		[ Conan the Rebel, by Poul Anderson ]
~pruning hook      
*hook
	But as for Queequeg -- why, Queequeg sat there among them --
	at the head of the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an
	icicle.  To be sure I cannot say much for his breeding.  His
	greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his
	bringing his harpoon into breakfast with him, and using it
	there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it, to
	the imminent jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the
	beefsteaks towards him.
		[ Moby Dick, by Herman Melville ]
~unicorn horn
*horn
	Roland hath set the Olifant to his mouth,
	He grasps it well, and with great virtue sounds.
	High are those peaks, afar it rings and loud,
	Thirty great leagues they hear its echoes mount.
	So Charles heard, and all his comrades round;
	Then said that King: "Battle they do, our counts!"
	And Guenelun answered, contrarious:
	"That were a lie, in any other mouth."
		[ The Song of Roland ]
hooloovoo
	A super-intelligent shade of the colour blue.
horn of plenty
cornucopia
	The infant Zeus was fed with goat's milk by Amalthea,
	daughter of Melisseus, King of Crete.  Zeus, in gratitude,
	broke off one of the goat's horns, and gave it to Amalthea,
	promising that the possessor should always have in abundance
	everything desired.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]

	When Amalthea's horn
	O'er hill and dale the rose-crowned flora pours,
	And scatters corn and wine, and fruits and flowers.
		[ Os Lusiadas, by Luis Vaz de Camoes ]
horned devil
	Savage determination drives one quite efficiently
		[ Faces of Evil, by Colin McComb ]
	
	Horned devils lack any real special abilities, though they
	are quite difficult to kill.
*horror
	Despite its eldritch appearance, the shambling horror is
	among the most harmless inhabitants of the Dungeons of
	Doom. Many adventurers who have returned from the depths
	can attest to the varied yet innocuous aspects of this
	creature. It is speculated by some that the shambling
	horror may occasionally possess abilities that are quite
	lethal, but if this is true, no one has yet observed
	them and survived to document it.
~horsem*
*horse
	King Richard III: A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
	Catesby: Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.
	King Richard III: Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
	                  And I will stand the hazard of the die:
	                  I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
	                  Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
	                  A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
		[ King Richard III, by William Shakespeare ]
hound of Tindalos
	I saw them for a ghastly moment. For a moment I stood on the
	other side. I stood on the pale gray shores beyond time and
	space. In an awful light that was not light, in a silence
	that shrieked, I saw *them.*
		[ The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long ]
*horsem*
rider*
death
famine
pestilence
war
hunger
	[Pestilence:] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals,
	and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four
	beasts saying, Come and see.  And I saw, and behold a white
	horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given
	unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
	
	[War:] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the
	second beast say, Come and see.  And there went out another
	horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon
	to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one
	another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
	
	[Famine:] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the
	third beast say, Come and see.  And I beheld, and lo a black
	horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his
	hand.  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say,
	A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley
	for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
	
	[Death:] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the
	voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.  And I looked, and
	behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death,
	and Hell followed with him.  And power was given unto them over
	the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
	hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
	     [ Revelations of John, 6:1-8 ]
huan*ti
	The first of five mythical Chinese emperors, Huan Ti is known
	as the yellow emperor.  He rules the _moving_ heavens, as
	opposed to the _dark_ heavens.  He is an inventor, said to
	have given mankind among other things, the wheel, armour, and
	the compass.  He is the god of fortune telling and war.
hu*h*eto*l
minion of huhetotl
	Huehuetotl, or Huhetotl, which means Old God, was the Aztec
	(classical Mesoamerican) god of fire.  He is generally
	associated with paternalism and one of the group classed
	as the Xiuhtecuhtli complex.  He is known to send his
	minions to wreak havoc upon ordinary humans.
	     [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
humanoid
	Humanoids are all approximately the size of a human, and may
	be mistaken for one at a distance.  They are usually of a
	tribal nature, and will fiercely defend their lairs.  Usually
	hostile, they may even band together to raid and pillage
	human settlements.
# takes "human or elf or you" when specifying "@" as a dwarf, gnome or orc.
human
human smith
chieftain
guard
ninja
maid
nurse
page
ronin
student
thug
warrior
*watch*
player
human or elf*
	These strange creatures live mostly on the surface of the
	earth, gathering together in societies of various forms, but
	occasionally a stray will descend into the depths and commit
	mayhem among the dungeon residents who, naturally, often
	resent the intrusion of such beasts.  They are capable of
	using weapons and magic, and it is even rumored that the
	Wizard of Yendor is a member of this species.
hungry dead
blob of preserved organs
	"Hm, obviously the ghoul-women would be naked, but I don't 
	want to make things too NSFW since I know for a fact that 
	over half my audience reads this from work. How can I...
	oh, I know, I'll just rip out all their guts from the 
	genitals up to the lungs and leave an enormous scoop mark 
	there. That'll keep things tasteful."
		[ Kyle Marquis ]
hunter
	What of the hunting, hunter bold?
	Brother, the watch was long and cold.
	What of the quarry ye went to kill?
	Brother, he crops in the jungle still.
	Where is the power that made your pride?
	Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side.
	Where is the haste that ye hurry by?
	Brother, I go to my lair to die.
		[ The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling ]
hunting horror
	And in the air about him were great viperine creatures, 
	which had curiously distorted heads, and grotesquely great 
	clawed appendages, supporting themselves with ease by the 
	aid of black rubbery wings of singularly monstrous 
	dimensions.
		[ The Lurker At the Threshold, 
			H.P. Lovecraft & August Derleth ]
ice devil
	A thing coveted is worth the wait.
		[ Faces of Evil, by Colin McComb ]
	
	Ice devils are large semi-insectoid creatures, who are
	equally at home in the fires of Hell and the cold of Limbo,
	and who can cause the traveller to feel the latter with just
	a touch of their tail.
idefix
	Another clever translation [of the _Asterix_ character names]
	is that of Idefix.  An _idee fixe_ is a "fixed idea", i.e.
	an obsession, a dogma.  The translation, Dogmatix, manages to
	conserve the "fixed idea" meaning and also include the syllable
	dog -- perfect, given that the character is a dog who has very
	strong views on the environment (he howls whenever he sees an
	uprooted tree).
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
iksh*na deva
	One day in the park
	I had quite a surprise.
	I met a girl
	who had many eyes.

	She was really quite pretty
	(and also quite shocking!)
	and I noticed she had a mouth,
	so we ended up talking.
		[ The Girl with Many Eyes, by Tim Burton ]
i*lona s*
	We do know that Vlad later married Ilona Szilagy, who was 
	related to Matthias Corvinus, the king of Hungary who had 
	placed Vlad under arrest following his escape from Wallachia 
	in 1462. It appears that Corvinus made an arrangement with 
	Vlad to restore him to his throne. To strengthen the bond, 
	Vlad was offered a royal bride. 
		[ Dracula's Homepage, by Dr. Elizabeth Miller ]
illurien of the myriad glimpses
	A strange woman composed of tears and raindrops, Illurien 
	of the Myriad Glimpses is a collector of information and 
	a keeper of secrets. She appears as a dancing array of 
	countless swirling droplets. This storm of stolen moments 
	surrounds and creates a slender, but extremely tall, 
	feminine form clad in gray robes.
	
	She has no facial features other than her vivid blue eyes.
		[ Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition 
			Monster Manual V ]
ilmater
	Ilmater is the god of endurance, martyrdom, perseverence,
	suffering, the oppressed, and the persecuted. His followers
	seek to ease the suffering of others, and were taught to halt
	and relieve the suffering of others, and to take that suffering
	upon themselves if they must.
		[ Adapted from the Forgotten Realms wiki ]
# takes "imp or minor demon" when specifying "i"
imp
imp or minor demon
	 ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
	gambol and jump prodigiously; ...
		[ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]
	
	An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting.  Thus an 'ymp tree' was
	a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed.
	'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan,
	but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from
	hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as
	well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils.
	The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the
	ghostly and the diabolic state.
		[ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
incantifier
	Several centuries ago, there existed a faction, now almost 
	entirely extinct, called nowadays 'The Incantifers', then 
	simply as The Magicians or The Wanters. They believed that 
	magic, specifically arcane magic, was the key to power, 
	indeed the only power that mattered in the multiverse. Gain 
	enough knowledge of magic and skill in it and you could do 
	anything. Even challenge The Lady....
	
	According to legend, at least two members of the Wanters 
	tried just that. They died, horribly and spectacularly. 
	Legend also says that one of them almost succeeded.
	
	Then one day, they vanished. Cutters looked up one 
	morning and the Tower Sorcerous, the faction headquarters 
	of the Wanters was simply gone. Nearly all of their 
	members vanished with it, though a scant few remain to 
	wander the planes.
		[ Shemeska's Story Hour, by Todd Stewart ]
	
	"They all ate magic. They ate other people's magic. 
	Spells, items, anything they could buy, steal, or otherwise
	get a hold of. This place is sealed off from everything. 
	There's no way out and you've got an entire faction of 
	magic eating wizard suddenly bottled up with each other and
	no food source... except each other."
		[ Shemeska's Story Hour, by Todd Stewart ]
incubus
succubus
	"Yet it may be said that these devils assume a body not in 
	order that they may bestow life upon it, but that they 
	may by the means of this body preserve human semen, 
	and pass the semen on to another body."
		[ Malleus Maleficarum, by Heinrich Kramer ]
	
	The incubus and succubus are male and female versions of the
	same demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
	usually to the detriment of the mortals who are unwise in
	their dealings with them.
intoner
	People who can use the power of song to wield vast 
	attacking force. Six of them, all female, have been 
	recorded throughout history. The Intoners freed each land 
	from the despotic rulers that once terrorized their 
	people, and are now worshipped as saviors.
		[ Drakengard III ]
irrational pi*
	The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to
	constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at
	every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with
	a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the
	constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should
	the value of pi change.
		[ FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers ]
*insect
*insects
	A minute invertebrate animal; one of the class _Insecta_. The
	true insects or hexapods have the body divided into a head,
	a thorax of 3 segments, each of which bears a pair of legs,
	and an abdomen of 7 to 11 segments, and in development usually
	pass through a metamorphosis. There are usually 2 pairs of wings,
	sometimes one pair or none.
		[ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary 
		  of the English Language ]

	Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will 
	I bring the locusts into thy coast:
	And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able
	to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is 
	escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every
	tree which groweth for you out of the field: 
	And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants,
	and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor
	thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the
	earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
		[ Exodus, 10:4-6 ]
*iron ball
*iron chain
	"You are fettered, " said Scrooge, trembling.  "Tell me why?"
	"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost.  "I
	made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my
	own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.  Is its
	pattern strange to you?"
	Scrooge trembled more and more.
	"Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and
	length of the strong coil you bear yourself?  It was full as
	heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago.  You
	have laboured on it, since.  It is a ponderous chain!"
		[ A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens ]
iron bars
	Stone walls do not a prison make,
	  Nor iron bars a cage;
	Minds innocent and quiet take
	  That for an hermitage;
	If I have freedom in my love,
	  And in my soul am free,
	Angels alone that soar above
	  Enjoy such liberty.
		[ To Althea from Prison, by Richard Lovelace ]
ishtar
	Ishtar (the star of heaven) is the Mesopotamian goddess of
	fertility and war.  She is usually depicted with wings and
	weapon cases at her shoulders, carrying a ceremonial double-
	headed mace-scimitar embellished with lion heads, frequently
	being accompanied by a lion.  She is symbolized by an eight-
	pointed star.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
issek
	Now Issek of the Jug, whom Fafhrd chose to serve, was once
	of the most lowly and unsuccessful of the gods, godlets
	rather, in Lankhmar.  He had dwelt there for about thirteen
	years, during which time he had traveled only two squares up
	the Street of the Gods and was now back again, ready for
	oblivion.  He is not to be confused with Issek the Armless,
	Issek of the Burnt Legs, Flayed Issek, or any other of the
	numerous and colorfully mutilated divinities of that name.
	Indeed, his unpopularity may have been due in part to the
	fact that the manner of his death -- racking -- was not
	deemed particularly spectacular. ... However, after Fafhrd
	became his acolyte, things somehow began to change.
		[ Swords In The Mist, by Fritz Leiber ]
itlachiayaque
	Tezcatlipoca (Fiery Mirror) was undoubtedly the Jupiter of the
	Nahua pantheon. He carried a mirror or shield [ Itlachiayaque ],
	from which he took his name, and in which he was supposed to see
	reflected the actions and deeds of mankind. The evolution of this
	god from the status of a spirit of wind or air to that of the
	supreme deity of the Aztec people presents many points of deep
	interest to students of mythology.
		[ The Myths of Mexico and Peru, by Lewis Spence ]
izchak
	The shopkeeper of the lighting shop in the town level of the
	gnomish mines is a tribute to Izchak Miller, a founding member
	of the NetHack development team and a personal friend of a large
	number of us.  Izchak contributed greatly to the game, coding a
	large amount of the shopkeep logic (hence the nature of the tribute)
	as well as a good part of the alignment system, the prayer code and
	the rewrite of "hell" in the 3.1 release.  Izchak was a professor
	of Philosophy, who taught at many respected institutions, including
	MIT and Stanford, and who also worked, for a period of time, at
	Xerox PARC.  Izchak was the first "librarian" of the NetHack project,
	and was a founding member of the DevTeam, joining in 1986 while he
	was working at the University of Pennsylvania (hence our former
	mailing list address).  Until the 3.1.3 release, Izchak carefully
	kept all of the code synchronized and arbitrated disputes between
	members of the development teams.  Izchak Miller passed away at the
	age of 58, in the early morning hours of April 1, 1994 from
	complications due to cancer.  We then dedicated NetHack 3.2 in his
	memory.
			[ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]
jabberwock
jabberwockian
	"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
	  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
	Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
	  The frumious Bandersnatch!"
	
	He took his vorpal sword in hand;
	  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
	So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
	  And stood awhile in thought.
	
	And, as in uffish thought he stood,
	  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
	Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
	  And burbled as it came!
	
	One, two! One, two! And through and through
	  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
	He left it dead, and with its head
	  He went galumphing back.
				[ Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll ]
jacinth*
	Sweet in the rough weather
	  The voice of the turtle-dove
	'Beautiful altogether
	  Is my Love.
	  His Hands are open spread for love
	And full of jacinth stones
	  As the apple-tree among trees of the grove
	Is He among the sons.'
		[ The Beloved, by May Probyn ]
jackal
	In Asiatic folktale, jackal provides for the lion; he scares
	up game, which the lion kills and eats, and receives what is
	left as reward.  In stories from northern India he is
	sometimes termed "minister to the king," i.e. to the lion.
	From the legend that he does not kill his own food has arisen
	the legend of his cowardice.  Jackal's heart must never be
	eaten, for instance, in the belief of peoples indigenous to
	the regions where the jackal abounds. ... In Hausa Negro
	folktale Jackal plays the role of sagacious judge and is
	called "O Learned One of the Forest."  The Bushmen say that
	Jackal goes around behaving the way he does "because he is
	Jackal".
		[ Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore ]
*jack*boot*
	A large boot extending over the knee, acting as protective
	armour for the leg, worn by troopers in the 17th and 18th
	centuries and later.  It is still the type of boot worn by
	the Household Cavalry and was adopted by fishermen and others
	before the advent of gum boots.  Figuratively, _to be under the
	jack-boot_ is to be controlled by a brutal military regime.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
jade*
	Nothing grew among the ruins of the city.  The streets were
	broken and the walls of the houses had fallen, but there were
	no weeds flowering in the cracks and it seemed that the city
	had but recently been brought down by an earthquake.  Only
	one thing still stood intact, towering over the ruins.  It
	was a gigantic statue of white, gray and green jade - the
	statue of a naked youth with a face of almost feminine beauty
	that turned sightless eyes toward the north.
	"The eyes!" Duke Avan Astran said.  "They're gone!"
		[ The Jade Man's Eyes, by Michael Moorcock ]
jaguar
	Large, flesh-eating animal of the cat family, of Central and
	South America.  This feline predator (_Panthera onca_) is
	sometimes incorrectly called a panther.
	 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
jellyfish
	I do not care to share the seas
	With jellyfishes such as these;
	Particularly Portuguese.
		[ Lines on Meeting a Portuguese Man-o'-war while
			Bathing, by Michael Flanders ]
juiblex
jubilex
	A shuddering, glistening cone of jelly and slime striated
	with veins of black and green rears up from the pit. 
	Baleful red eyes swim in the things gelatinous body, and
	dripping pseudopods of tremulous ooze writhe with latent
	hunger in every direction at once.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
	
	Little is known about the Faceless Lord, even the correct
	spelling of his name.  He does not have a physical form as
	we know it, and those who have peered into his realm claim
	he is a slime-like creature who swallows other creatures
	alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes disease in his
	victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
jubjub*
	But the valley grew narrow and narrower still,
		And the evening got darker and colder,
	Till (merely from nervousness, not from goodwill)
		They marched along shoulder to shoulder.
	Then a scream, shrill and high, rent the shuddering sky,
		And they knew that some danger was near:
	The Beaver turned pale to the tip of its tail,
		And even the Butcher felt queer.
	[...]
	Such friends, as the Beaver and Butcher became,
		Have seldom if ever been known;
	In winter or summer, 'twas always the same-
		You could never meet either alone.
	
	And when quarrels arose-as one frequently finds
		Quarrels will, spite of every endeavour-
	The song of the Jubjub recurred to their minds,
		And cemented their friendship for ever!
			[ The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll ]
k-ration
k ration
	The K ration was the [ Quartermaster Subsistence Research
	and Development Laboratory's ] answer to the demand for an
	individual, easy-to-carry ration that could be used in assault
	and combat operations. It was noted for compactness and superior
	packaging and was acknowledged as the ration that provided the
	greatest variety of nutritionally balanced components within the
	smallest space.
		[ Special Rations for the Armed Forces, 1946-53, 
		  by Franz A. Koehler ]
kabuto
	The kabuto is the helmet worn by the samurai.  It was
	characterized by a prominent beaked front which jutted out over
	the brow to protect the wearer's face; a feature that gives
	rise to their modern Japanese name of 'shokaku tsuki kabuto'
	(battering-ram helmet).  Their main constructional element
	was an oval plate, the shokaku bo, slightly domed for the
	head with a narrow prolongation in front that curved forwards
	and downwards where it developed a pronounced central
	fold.  Two horizontal strips encircling the head were riveted
	to this frontal strip:  the lower one, the koshimaki (hip
	wrap), formed the lower edge of the helmet bowl; the other,
	the do maki (body wrap), was set at about the level of the
	temples.  Filling the gaps between these strips and the shokaku
	bo were small plates, sometimes triangular but more commonly
	rectangular in shape.  Because the front projected so
	far from the head, the triangular gap beneath was filled by
	a small plate, the shoshaku tei ita, whose rear edge bent
	downwards into a flange that rested against the forehead.
	   [ Arms & Armour of the Samurai, by Bottomley & Hopson ]
kamerel
	You live in the mirror as well as the real world - the
	proof's right there when you gaze at the reflection. 
	But, does something live only in that mirror place?
	Stare into the mirror my friend. Does something
	besides you look back?
	[ Tales from the Infinite Staircase, by Monte Cook]
katana
	The katana is a long, single-edged samurai sword with a
	slightly curved blade.  Its long handle is designed to allow
	it to be wielded with either one or two hands.
kelp*
	I noticed that all the plants were attached to the soil by
	an almost imperceptible bond.  Devoid of roots, they seemed
	not to require any nourishment from sand, soil, or pebble.
	All they required was a point of support -- nothing else.
	These plants are self-propagated, and their existence depends
	entirely on the water that supports and nourishes them.
	Most of them do not sprout leaves, but sprout blades of
	various whimsical shapes, and their colors are limited to
	pink, carmine, green, olive, fawn, and brown.  I had the
	opportunity to observe once more -- not the dried specimens
	I had studied on the _Nautilus_ -- but the fresh, living
	specimens in their native setting.
		[ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne ]
keter seph*
	Strange spiritual machines, the Crown Enumerations enforce 
	the inevitability of certain Laws on the inhabitants of 
	this world.
chokhmah seph*
	A delicate-seeming statue of mythril and adamantine, Justice
	herself come down off her pedestal to bring ruin to those who
	deny the inevitability of Law. Clad in sapphire armor, her
	left hand bears a balance scale and her right wields a black
	blade. A blindfold is tied around her neck; her onyx eyes
	never leave her target. Within her body spins an infinity
	of miniscule clockwork mechanisms.
	
	"The Crown's Law shall come to pass.
	 Inevitability shall not be denied."
binah seph*
	An angular, abstract scupture of unyielding iron and floating
	hexagonal gears.  The narrow pyramid of its body tapers to a 
	razor point, and its arms are swordblades about which dance 
	arcs of black light.
	
	"Agency is not given to you,
	 to challenge the inevitability of your Maker."
gevurah seph*
	An Onyx statue in golden armor. Its right fist crackles with
	lightning and its left fist rings with peals of thunder. It
	bears a leaden omega crest on its chestplate, and its face
	is carved into the shape of a great skull. With each step it
	takes, there is the whirring of golden gears.
	
	"Whether by age, plague, war, or the hangman's noose, 
	 the inevitability of death waits for none."
		[ The Inevitable, by Todd Stewart ]
netzach seph*
	"Whether in fire or in dust,
	 all things end inevitably in ruin."
hod seph*
	A humanoid figure, clad in mirrored armor over wrappings of 
	some black cloth that drinks the light. The oval mirror that
	is its head bears the reflection of your face. A pair of 
	mismatched wings spread from its back, one angelic and the
	other demonic. Beneath its cloth skin, the turning of metal
	gears can be faintly heard.
	
	"The one time a man inevitably tells the truth 
	 is when he makes a vow in his own heart." 
		[ Adapted from Code Geass ]
daat seph*
	A six-arm humanoid torso, made from an amalgamation of
	metal and stone, surmounts a whirling orrery of rings
	of pure metals and carved stone.  In the gaps between
	segments of its admixed skin can be seen interlocking
	gears of like composition to the rings of its orrery.
	
	"The inevitability of separation and the turning of
	 the Great Wheel shall not be transcended."
yesod seph*
	A humanoid sculpture of black metal and mechanical
	muscles, clad in golden armor and a crimson cloak.
	It bears a silver scroll on its breastplate.
	
	"Whether by blood, or by gold, or by sweat, 
	 the contract will inevitably be repaid."
malkuth seph*
	A clockwork centaur, marble facades over a universe
	of brass gears and struts. A pair of hooked chains
	extend from its wrists and a coil of rope wraps 
	around its waist.
	
	"Whether in this life or the next,
	 you shall face inevitable judgment."
kiku*ichi*
	The thirteen swordsmiths of the Fukuoka School traditionally
	inscribed only the character "Ichi" (one) on the tang of 
	their swords as their signature. They further received 
	permission to append the Imperial chrysanthemum crest (kiku) 
	on the tang, thus their swords are known collectively as 
	"Kiku-ichimonji" (Chrysanthemum and Ichi character).
ki-rin
	The ki-rin is a strange-looking flying creature.  It has
	scales, a mane like a lion, a tail, hooves, and a horn.  It
	is brightly colored, and can usually be found flying in the
	sky looking for good deeds to reward.
king arthur
*arthur
	Ector took both his sons to the church before which the
	anvil had been placed.  There, standing before the anvil, he
	commanded Kay:  "Put the sword back into the steel if you
	really think the throne is yours!"  But the sword glanced
	off the steel.  "Now it is your turn", Ector said facing
	Arthur.
	The young man lifted the sword and thrust with both arms; the
	blade whizzed through the air with a flash and drilled the
	metal as if it were mere butter.  Ector and Kay dropped to
	their knees before Arthur.
	"Why, father and brother, do you bow before me?", Arthur asked
	with wonder in his voice.
	"Because now I know for sure that you are the king, not only
	by birth but also by law", Ector said.  "You are no son of
	mine nor are you Kay's brother.  Immediately after your birth,
	Merlin the Wise brought you to me to be raised safely.  And
	though it was me that named you Arthur when you were baptized,
	you are really the son of brave king Uther Pendragon and queen
	Igraine..."
	And after these words, the lord rose and went to see the arch-
	bishop to impart to him what had passed.
	   [ Van Gouden Tijden Zingen de Harpen, by Vladimir Hulpach,
		 Emanuel Frynta, and Vackav Cibula ]
kingslayer
	"I think it passing odd that I am loved by one for a kindness 
	 I never did, and reviled by so many for my finest act."
		[  A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin ]
knife
stiletto
	Possibly perceiving an expression of dubiosity on their
	faces, the globetrotter went on adhering to his adventures.
	
	-- And I seen a man killed in Trieste by an Italian chap.
	Knife in his back.  Knife like that.
	
	Whilst speaking he produced a dangerous looking clasp knife,
	quite in keeping with his character, and held it in the
	striking position.
	
	-- In a knockingshop it was count of a tryon between two
	smugglers.  Fellow hid behind a door, come up behind him.
	Like that.  Prepare to meet your God, says he.  Chuck!  It
	went into his back up to the butt.
		[ Ulysses, by James Joyce ]
~death knight
~golden knight
knight
* knight
	Here lies the noble fearless knight,
	Whose valour rose to such a height;
	When Death at last had struck him down,
	His was the victory and renown.
	He reck'd the world of little prize,
	And was a bugbear in men's eyes;
	But had the fortune in his age
	To live a fool and die a sage.
		[ Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miquel de
		  Cervantes Saavedra ]
~kobold ??m*
~winged kobold
*kobold*
	The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation
	of a master wizard (demi-god?).  They are about 3' tall with
	a vaguely dog-like face.  They bear a violent dislike of the
	Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble
	for Elves at any time.
~edderkop
*kop*
	The Kops are a brilliant concept.  To take a gaggle of inept
	policemen and display them over and over again in a series of
	riotously funny physical punishments plays equally well to the
	peanut gallery and the expensive box seats.  People hate cops.
	Even people who have never had anything to do with cops hate
	them.  Of course, we count on them to keep order and to protect
	us when we need protecting, and we love them on television shows
	in which they have nerves of steel and hearts of gold, but in
	the abstract, as a nation, collectively we hate them.  They are
	too much like high school principals.  We're very happy to see
	their pants fall down, and they look good to us with pie on
	their faces.  The Keystone Kops turn up--and they get punished
	for it, as they crash into each other, fall down, and suffer
	indignity after indignity.  Here is pure movie satisfaction.
	
	The Kops are very skillfully presented.  The comic originality
	and timing in one of their chase scenes requires imagination
	to think up, talent to execute, understanding of the medium,
	and, of course, raw courage to perform.  The Kops are madmen
	presented as incompetents, and they're madmen rushing around
	in modern machines.  What's more, the machines they were operating
	in their routines were newly invented and not yet experienced
	by the average moviegoer.  (In the early days of automobiles,
	it was reported that there were only two cars registered in all
	of Kansas City, and they ran into each other.  There is both
	poetry and philosophy in this fact, but most of all, there is
	humor.  Sennett got the humor.)
		[ Silent Stars, by Jeanine Basinger ]
kos
	"I am not a coward!" he cried.  "I'll dare Thieves' House
	and fetch you Krovas' head and toss it with blood a-drip at
	Vlana's feet.  I swear that, witness me, Kos the god of
	dooms, by the brown bones of Nalgron my father and by his
	sword Graywand here at my side!"
	   [ Swords and Deviltry, by Fritz Leiber ]
koto
	A Japanese harp.
kraken
	"Below the thunders of the upper deep; 
	Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, 
	His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep 
	The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee 
	About his shadowy sides: above him swell 
	Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; 
	And far away into the sickly light, 
	From many a wondrous grot and secret cell 
	Unnumber'd and enormous polypi 
	Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. 
	There hath he lain for ages and will lie 
	Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, 
	Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; 
	Then once by man and angels to be seen, 
	In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die."
	   [ The Kraken, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]
*lady
	Blind Io took up the dice-box, which was a skull whose various
	orifices had been stoppered with rubies, and with several of
	his eyes on the Lady he rolled three fives.  She smiled.  This
	was the nature of the Lady's eyes:  they were bright green,
	lacking iris or pupil, and they glowed from within.
	
	The room was silent as she scrabbled in her box of pieces and,
	from the very bottom, produced a couple that she set down on
	the board with two decisive clicks.  The rest of the players,
	as one God, craned forward to peer at them.
	
	"A wenegade wiffard and fome fort of clerk," said Offler the
	Crocodile God, hindered as usual by his tusks.  "Well,
	weally!"  With one claw he pushed a pile of bone-white tokens
	into the centre of the table.
	
	The Lady nodded slightly.  She picked up the dice-cup and held
	it as steady as a rock, yet all the Gods could hear the three
	cubes rattling about inside.  And then she sent them bouncing
	across the table.
	
	A six.  A three.  A five.
	
	Something was happening to the five, however.  Battered by the
	chance collision of several billion molecules, the die flipped
	onto a point, spun gently and came down a seven.  Blind Io
	picked up the cube and counted the sides.
	
	"Come _on_," he said wearily, "Play fair."
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
*lamp
	When he came to himself he told his mother what had passed,
	and showed her the lamp and the fruits he had gathered in the
	garden, which were in reality precious stones.  He then asked
	for some food.
	
	"Alas! child," she said, "I have nothing in the house, but I
	have spun a little cotton and will go and sell it."
	
	Aladdin bade her keep her cotton, for he would sell the lamp
	instead.  As it was very dirty she began to rub it, that it
	might fetch a higher price.  Instantly a hideous genie
	appeared, and asked what she would have.  She fainted away,
	but Aladdin, snatching the lamp, said boldly:
	"Fetch me something to eat!"
		[ Aladdin, from The Arabian Nights, by Andrew Lang ]
lance
	With this the wind increased, and the mill sails began to turn 
	about; which Don Quixote espying, said, 'Although thou movest
	more arms than the giant Briareus thou shalt stoop to me.'
	And, after saying this, and commending himself most devoutly
	to his Lady Dulcinea, desiring her to succor him in that trance,
	covering himself well with his buckler, and setting his lance
	on his rest, he spurred on Rozinante, and encountered with the
	first mill that was before him, and, striking his lance into
	the sail, the wind swung it about with such fury, that it broke
	his lance into shivers, carrying him and his horse after it,
	and finally tumbled him a good way off from it on the field in 
	evil plight.
		[ Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miquel de
		  Cervantes Saavedra ]
land mine
	Your heart is intact, your brain is not badly damaged, but the rest
	of your injuries are comparable to stepping on a land mine.  You'd
	never walk again, and you'd be in great pain.  You would come to
	wish you had not survived.
		[ Steel Beach, by John Varley ]
*lantern
	While pretending to be a fancy safety lamp, it is in fact battery powered.
	A discreet little switch is marked "on/off" in elaborate lettering.
		[ Adventure 770, by Mike Arnautov ]
lash of the cold waste*
	When for the third time he awakened with those flights still
	undescended and those hushed sunset streets still untraversed,
	he prayed long and earnestly to the hidden gods of dream that
	brood capricious above the clouds on unknown Kadath, in the 
	cold waste where no man treads.
		[ The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft ]
lava
* lava
	You are on the edge of a breath-taking view. Far below you is an
	active volcano, from which great gouts of molten lava come surging
	out, cascading back down into the depths. The glowing rock fills the
	farthest reaches of the cavern with a blood-red glare, giving
	everything an eerie, macabre appearance. The air is filled with
	flickering sparks of ash and a heavy smell of brimstone. The walls 
	are hot to the touch, and the thundering of the volcano drowns out 
	all other sounds. Embedded in the jagged roof far overhead are 
	myriad twisted formations composed of pure white alabaster, which 
	scatter the murky light into sinister apparitions upon the walls. To 
	one side is a deep gorge, filled with a bizarre chaos of tortured 
	rock which seems to have been crafted by the devil himself. An 
	immense river of fire crashes out from the depths of the volcano, 
	burns its way through the gorge, and plummets into a bottomless pit 
	far off to your left. To the right, an immense geyser of blistering 
	steam erupts continuously from a barren island in the center of a
	sulfurous lake, which bubbles ominously. The far right wall is aflame
	with an incandescence of its own, which lends an additional infernal
	splendor to the already hellish scene. A dark, forboding passage 
	exits to the south.
		[ Adventure, by Will Crowther and Doug Woods. ]
law*
	Then a lawyer said, But what of our Laws, master?
	  And he answered:
	  You delight in laying down laws.
	  Yet you delight more in breaking them.
	  Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers
	with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
	  But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand
	to the shore, And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.
	  Verily the ocean laughs with the innocent.
		[ The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran ]
leash
	They had splendid heads, fine shoulders, strong legs, and
	straight tails.  The spots on their bodies were jet-black and
	mostly the size of a two-shilling piece; they had smaller
	spots on their heads, legs, and tails.  Their noses and eye-
	rims were black.  Missis had a most winning expression.
	Pongo, though a dog born to command, had a twinkle in his
	eye.  They walked side by side with great dignity, only
	putting the Dearlys on the leash to lead them over crossings.
		[ The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith ]
~legion dev*
legion
	An ancient nexus of elemental forces and foul slime, 
	fused to the tortured flesh of a thousand fallen mortals.
	It is this entity to whom Moloch trusts the command of 
	his armies, when he does not wish to exercise it himself.  
legion dev*
	This creature is humanoid in shape, with deep red skin.
	It wears studded leather armor, a chain coif, and a
	vicious snarl.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
	
	A soldier of the Legions of Hell. More powerful
	individuals can be distinguished by their increasingly
	large horns.	
lembas*
	In the morning, as they were beginning to pack their slender
	goods, Elves that could speak their tongue came to them and
	brought them many gifts of food and clothing for their
	journey.  The food was mostly in the form of very thin cakes,
	made of a meal that was baked a light brown on the outside,
	and inside was the colour of cream.  Gimli took up one of the
	cakes and looked at it with a doubtful eye.
	'Cram,' he said under his breath, as he broke off a crisp
	corner and nibbled at it.  His expression quickly changed,
	and he ate all the rest of the cake with relish.
	'No more, no more!' cried the Elves laughing.  'You have
	eaten enough already for a long day's march.'
	'I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dalemen
	make for journeys in the wild,' said the Dwarf.
	'So it is,' they answered.  'But we call it lembas or
	waybread, and it is more strengthening than any foods made by
	Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.'
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
lemure
larvae
	The Larvae (Lemures) are Roman spirits of deceased family members.
	These malignant spirits dwell throughout the house and frighten the
	inhabitants. People tried to reconcile or avert the Larvae with
	strange ceremonies which took place on May 9, 11, and 13; this
	was called the "Feast of the Lemures". The master of the house
	usually performed these ceremonies, either by offering black beans
	to the spirits or chasing them away by making a lot of noise. Their
	counterparts are the Lares, friendly and beneficent house spirits.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
	
	The lowliest of the inhabitants of hell.
	
	The lemures fester at the very bottom of the scale of
	baatezu politics.  Again, many scholars seem reluctant
	to classify them as true baatezu, leaving them officially
	unranked and definitely unamed.  The lemures are the 
	mindless armies of the Blood War, the rank-and-file, 
	incapable of making decisions on their own.  They're
	driven into battle by threats of pain and destruction.
	However, as pathetic as they are, lemures are also the
	steppingstone to greater things.
		[ Faces of Evil, Colin McComb ]
leocrotta
leu*otta
	... the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness,
	the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a Stag, the neck,
	tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven
	hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous
	bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can
	imitate the human voice.
		[ Curious Creatures in Zoology, by John Ashton ]
Leo Nemaeus hide
lion skin
	"My next perplexity was to draw the shaggy hide from the dead 
	beast's limbs: a very taxing labour, for to attempt it I had 
	neither knife of iron nor stone nor other means. Then a god 
	put into my head to slit the lion's skin with the lion's own 
	claws; with these I soon had it off and wrapped it around my 
	frame to serve as a shield against the cut and thrust of the 
	battle-rout. And there, my friend, you have that tale of the 
	fate that befell the lion of Nemea, that was once the cause 
	of many a sorrow to flocks and to men."
		[ Theocritus, Idylls 25. 132 ff (trans. Rist) ]
leprechaun
	The Irish Leprechaun is the Faeries' shoemaker and is known
	under various names in different parts of Ireland:
	Cluricaune in Cork, Lurican in Kerry, Lurikeen in Kildare
	and Lurigadaun in Tipperary.  Although he works for the
	Faeries, the Leprechaun is not of the same species.  He is
	small, has dark skin and wears strange clothes.  His nature
	has something of the manic-depressive about it:  first he
	is quite happy, whistling merrily as he nails a sole on to a
	shoe; a few minutes later, he is sullen and morose, drunk
	on his home-made heather ale.  The Leprechaun's two great
	loves are tobacco and whiskey, and he is a first-rate con-man,
	impossible to out-fox.  No one, no matter how clever, has ever
	managed to cheat him out of his hidden pot of gold or his
	magic shilling.  At the last minute he always thinks of some
	way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the
	twinkling of an eye.
		[ A Field Guide to the Little People
			       by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse ]
lethe
sparkling water
	Of gold I am, and by gold I'm plied, 
		still as the tears in dead men's eyes.
	Drink of silver, find no peace, 
		but drink of me and find release.
		[ Adapted from Shemeska's Story Hour
			by Todd Stewart ]
	
	The Lethe is a river, slow, dark and deep, which flows from
	the mortal world to the forbidden lands of N'Kai.  It is
	said that a single sip of its sparkling waters is enough to
	wash a man's memories away, never to return.
leviathan
	Phaeton felt a rushing then, as if he were being pulled
	quickly through many waters. After a time he realized
	that he did indeed feel wet - soaking wet - but the blackness
	here was absolute, and the pressure on him immense.
	Something swam by him, and the elf recognized
	the creature again, grown somehow into immensity, and
	glowing eerily. It peered at him and spoke in his mind;
	the foundations of his sanity trembled. Somehow Phaeton
	could perceive that this was just an image, a shadow
	of something far greater; he saw in his mind's eye a
	creature encased in ice, frozen and unable to touch the
	world.
	
	Here you will forget. The creature seemed to swim
	lazily about him. But there is something you must yet do.
	
	What? Phaeton thought back.
	
	Don't you remember?
	
	A strange sensation burned in the elf's lungs, and
	recognition dawned.
	Oh, yes, he thought. I must breathe.
		[ Dicefreaks: The Gates of Hell ]
*lich
death knight
helm of undeath
	Once in a great while, an evil master wizard or priest will
	manage through use of great magics to extend his or her life
	far beyond the normal span of a human. The usual effect of
	this is to transform the human, over time, into an undead of
	great magical power. A Lich hates life in any form; even a
	touch from one of these creatures will cause a numbing cold
	in the victim. They all possess the capability to use magic.
	
	But on its heels ere the sunset faded, there came a second
	apparition, striding with incredible strides and halting when
	it loomed almost upon me in the red twilight-the monstrous mummy
	of some ancient king still crowned with untarnished gold but
	turning to my gaze a visage that more than time or the worm had
	wasted. Broken swathings flapped about the skeleton legs, and
	above the crown that was set with sapphires and orange rubies, a
	black something swayed and nodded horribly; but, for an instant,
	I did not dream what it was.  Then, in its middle, two oblique
	and scarlet eyes opened and glowed like hellish coals, and two
	ophidian fangs glittered in an ape-like mouth.  A squat, furless,
	shapeless head on a neck of disproportionate extent leaned
	unspeakably down and whispered in the mummy's ear. Then, with
	one stride, the titanic lich took half the distance between us,
	and from out the folds of the tattered sere-cloth a gaunt arm
	arose, and fleshless, taloned fingers laden with glowering gems,
	reached out and fumbled for my throat . . .
		[ The Abominations of Yondo, by Clark Ashton Smith ]
lichen
	The chamber was of unhewn rock, round, as near as might
	be, eighteen or twenty feet across, and gay with rich
	variety of fern and moss and lichen.  The fern was in
	its winter still, or coiling for the spring-tide; but
	moss was in abundant life, some feathering, and some
	gobleted, and some with fringe of red to it.
		[ Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore ]
lifehunt scythe
	There once was an abomination who had no place in this
	world, the bastard child of the last unliving dragon
	and the goddess of sin.  This scythe is born from
	the soul of that stark white crossbreed, who long
	ago was drawn into a cold and lonely painted world.
	
	Even the gods feared her lifehunt ability, though
	in the hands of a mortal its power will turn
	upon its wielder.
		[ Adapted from Dark Souls, by FromSoftware ]
# takes "light" when specifying "y"
~* of light
~black light
light
* light
	Strange creatures formed from energy rather than matter,
	lights are given to self-destructive behavior when battling
	foes.
*lightsaber
	"Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon,
	for a more civilized age."
		[ Star Wars ]
lillend
	A lillend has the torso, arms, and head of a comely man or woman, 
	but also has broad, powerful, feathered wings and a stout 
	serpentine body from the waist downwards. Though the humanlike 
	portions of a lillend are of unremarkable hue, the feathered and 
	scaled parts of its anatomy are brightly colored and strikingly 
	patterned. Each individual has its own unique color combination 
	and is quite proud of it. A lillend wears no clothing but 
	sometimes wears jewelry. It always carries weapons and musical 
	instruments.
	
	Lillendi social status depends on a simple system of initiations 
	into mysteries and the ownership of certain totem masks. The 
	mysteries are akin to secret societies, and each mystery is a 
	specific kernel of wisdom passed on from one generation to the 
	next. The more societies a lillend is a member of, the greater 
	her status. Each society is devoted to particular musical forms, 
	songs, instruments, and weapons, so a group of lillendi usually 
	uses the same instruments, weaponry, and spells.

	The masks are tangentially related to the societies, since each 
	mask design belongs to a specific family, and long ago each 
	family lived in a single lodge and wore a single type of mask. 
	Things have gotten a little more complicated since then, but the 
	masks still roughly indicate status and family affiliations.
		[ Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
crone lilith
	It seems as if Euryale has always dwelt in the Hells. 
	Beelzebub named his present city (Malegard) after her in 
	ancient times, when she was the mistress of discipline there.
	She customarily takes the form of an old arthritic-looking 
	hag with the strength of a titan and serpentine hair. In 
	various forms she visits the copper citidels of her plane; 
	if the inhabitants do not respond appropriately the burg is 
	destroyed in a vast inferno and servants are dispatched to 
	build another. 
	Euryale is the third ruler of Malebolge. Euryale replaced 
	Moloch, who in turn replaced Count Beherit, who was 
	destroyed by the Dark Lord for disobeying restrictions on 
	the elevation of devils. Lilith and Tartach convinced her 
	to stage a coup during the mad cycles of the last Reckoning, 
	and as a result she is no longer considered a subordinate 
	of Baalzebul.
		[ Rip Van Wormer ]
mother lilith
	Lilith was crafted by the Lords of Baator to haunt Prime 
	Material deserts, stealing children, corrupting men, and 
	recruiting witches to their cause. Thought to be older 
	than humanity, Lilith fulfilled her role across the 
	ages until it was feared she might become a goddess. 
	To prevent this from happening, she was bound to Count 
	Moloch, who became the Horned King to her Great Goddess.
	She viewed him with hatred, and thought fondly of the 
	kiss of the desert wind and her throngs of adoring 
	consorts and covens. 
	
	During the last Great Upheaval, while Beelzebub and his
	camp were busy with the war, she made her move. She 
	whispered to her lover that his greatest opportunities
	lay with supporting the Lord of the Flies. Asmodeus cast 
	him down, and made his consort ruler in his place.
	
	Moloch was sent away in disgrace, but Lilith was still 
	unsatisfied. She knew Asmodeus was watching her progress
	and feared that he had allowed her to retain the sixth 
	layer of Baator only because she was being groomed to be
	his bride. Knowing well what had happened to Bensozia, 
	Asmodeus' previous choice, she maneuvered to prevent this
	from happening.
	
	Secretly, she corrupted certain officials in Malsheem and
	managed to smuggle out a small quantity of the essence of
	Asmodeus and Benzozia to the yugoloths, with Glasya the 
	result. She hoped that a daughter would satisfy whatever 
	schemes Asmodus had in mind, and as a result he considers
	Lilith to be the princess' honorary mother.
		[ Rip Van Wormer ]
Daughter Lilith
	Even in the light, the girl was difficult to see. Her 
	long, glossy black hair concealed most of her pale face, 
	and her dark clothing seemed to draw on shadows. Her 
	amber eyes, somehow serpentine, reflected in the light.
	Yet there was something familiar about her... Somehow, he
	knew her to be cause of this madness.
		[ Dicefreaks: The Gates of Hell ]
gecko
iguana
lizard
	Lizards, snakes and the burrowing amphisbaenids make up the
	order Squamata, meaning the scaly ones.  The elongate, slim,
	long-tailed bodies of lizards have become modified to enable
	them to live in a wide range of habitats.  Lizards can be
	expert burrowers, runners, swimmers and climbers, and a few
	can manage crude, short-distance gliding on rib-supported
	"wings".  Most are carnivores, feeding on invertebrate and
	small vertebrate prey, but others feed on vegetation.
		[ Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia ]
loki
	Loki, or Lopt, is described in Snorri's _Edda_ as being
	"pleasing and handsome in appearance, evil in character, and
	very capricious in behaviour".  He is the son of the giant
	Farbauti and of Laufey.
	Loki is the Norse god of cunning, evil, thieves, and fire.
	He hated the other gods and wanted to ruin them and overthrow
	the universe.  He committed many murders.  As a thief, he
	stole Freyja's necklace, Thor's belt and gauntlets of power,
	and the apples of youth.  Able to shapechange at will, he is
	said to have impersonated at various times a mare, flea, fly,
	falcon, seal, and an old crone.  As a mare he gave birth to
	Odin's horse Sleipnir.  He also allegedly sired the serpent
	Midgard, the mistress of the netherworld, Hel, and the wolf
	Fenrir, who will devour the sun at Ragnarok.
*longbow of diana
	This legendary bow grants ESP when carried and can reflect magical
	attacks when wielded.  When invoked it provides a supply of arrows.
# long worm -- see "worm"
looking glass
mirror
	But as Snow White grew, she became more and more beautiful,
	and by the time she was seven years old she was as beautiful
	as the day and more beautiful than the queen herself.  One
	day when the queen said to her mirror:
	
		"Mirror, Mirror, here I stand.
		Who is the fairest in the land?" -
	
	the mirror replied:
	
		"You, O Queen, are the fairest here,
		But Snow White is a thousand times more fair."
		[ Snow White, by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm ]
lord carnarvon
carnarvon
	Lord Carnarvon was a personality who could have been produced
	nowhere but in England, a mixture of sportsman and collector,
	gentleman and world traveler, a realist in action and a
	romantic in feeling.  ...  In 1903 he went for the first time
	to Egypt in search of a mild climate and while there visited
	the excavation sites of several archaeological expeditions.
	...  In 1906 he began his own excavations.
		[ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
lord sato
sato
	Lord Sato was the family head of the Taro Clan, and a mighty
	daimyo.  He is a loyal servant of the Emperor, and will do
	everything in his power to further the imperial cause.
lord surt*
surt*
	Yet first was the world in the southern region, which was
	named Muspell; it is light and hot; that region is glowing
	and burning, and impassable to such as are outlanders and
	have not their holdings there.  He who sits there at the
	land's-end, to defend the land, is called Surtr; he brandishes
	a flaming sword, and at the end of the world he shall go forth
	and harry, and overcome all the gods, and burn all the
	world with fire.
			[ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
lucern?hammer
pronged polearm
	Like many polearms, this weapon has several spikes.  But
	while many others have a blade or axe, this one has a 
	three-pronged hammer at the end of a seven foot (2 meter)
	pole.
	
	     I
	     H
	     H
	     H______ 
	  __-H    [_
	-----H____[_
	     H
	     H   
lucifer
	I have haunted the tombs of the ages,
	  I have flown on the pinions of fear,
	Where the smoke-belching Erebus rages;
	  Where the jokulls loom snow-clad and drear:
	And in realms where the sun of the desert
	  consumes what it never can cheer.
	
	I was old when the pharaohs first mounted
	  The jewel-decked throne by the Nile;
	I was old in those epochs uncounted
	  When I, and I only, was vile;
	And Man, yet untainted and happy, 
	  dwelt in bliss on the far Arctic isle.
	
	Oh, great was the sin of my spirit,
	  And great is the reach of its doom;
	Not the pity of Heaven can cheer it,
	  Nor can respite be found in the tomb:
	Down the infinite aeons come beating 
	  the wings of unmerciful gloom.
		[ Nemesis, H.P. Lovecraft ]
# if a quote for good luck gets added, make this one exclusively bad luck
luck
bad luck
	"[...]  We'll succeed and you'll get all the fortune you came
	seeking."
	Jack shook his head dismally.  "You'll be better off without
	me," he said.  "I'm nothing but bad luck.  It's because I'm
	cursed.  A farmer I met on the way to the city cursed me.  He
	said, 'I curse you Jack.  May you never know wealth.  May all
	that you wish for be denied you.'"
	"What a horrid man," said Eddie.  "Why did he curse you like
	that?"
	Jack shrugged [...].  "Bad grace, I suppose.  Just because I
	shot off his ear and made him jump into a pit full of spikes."
			[ the hollow chocolate bunnies of
			  the apocalypse, by Robert Rankin ]
#			[no relation... both cover and title page list
#			 this book's title in all lower case]
lug
lugh
	Lugh, or Lug, was the sun god of the Irish Celts.  One of his
	weapons was a rod-sling which worshippers sometimes saw in
	the sky as a rainbow.  As a tribal god, he was particularly
	skilled in the use of his massive, invincible spear, which
	fought on its own accord.  One of his epithets is _lamfhada_
	(of the long arm).  He was a young and apparently more
	attractive deity than Dagda, the father of the gods.  Being
	able to shapeshift, his name translates as lynx.
lurker*
	The lurker is a carnivorous scavenger found only in subterranean
	settings. It resembles a large manta ray; its grayish belly is
	textured like stone. The lurker typically attaches itself to a
	ceiling, where it is very difficult to detect (only 10% chance)
	unless actually prodded. ... Lurkers are opportunistic feeders
	that make do with whatever wanders by. The lurker flies by means
	of gases generated in sacs.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
lycanthrope
were*
human were*
*were
	In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting
	the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a
	were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province,
	"notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase."
	The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins,
	halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the
	said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to
	take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other
	penalty."  The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may
	judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following
	year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who
	ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little
	children, "even on Friday."  The poor lycanthrope, it appears,
	had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French
	pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from
	eating infants on a fast day.
		[ The History of Vampires, by Dudley Wright ]
lynx
	The animal proverbial for its piercing eyesight is a
	fabulous beast, half dog and half panther, but not like either
	in character. The cat-like animal now called a lynx is not
	remarkable for keen-sightedness. The word is probably related
	to Greek _lussein_, to see.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
	
	To dream of seeing a lynx, enemies are undermining your
	business and disrupting your home affairs.  For a woman,
	this dream indicates that she has a wary woman rivaling her
	in the affections of her lover. If she kills the lynx, she
	will overcome her rival.
		[ 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, by Gustavus Hindman Miller ]
lyre
	The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its
	use in classical antiquity and later.
	[...]
	According to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes
	created the lyre from a slaughtered cow from Apollo's sacred
	herd, using the intestines for the strings - eventually Apollo
	discovered who had stolen his herd, but Hermes was forgiven
	after he gave Apollo the instrument.
	      [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyre ]
~*sceptre of might
mace
sceptre
	Originally a club armed with iron, and used in war; now a staff
	of office pertaining to certain dignitaries, as the Speaker of
	the House of Commons, Lord Mayors, Mayors etc. Both sword and
	mace are symbols of dignity, suited to the times when men went
	about in armour, and sovereigns needed champions to vindicate
	their rights.
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
magicbane
	A highly enchanted athame said to hold the power to channel
	and direct magical energy. It is said by some that this
	artifact is less useful when imbued with other magics, an
	assertation that is fiercely debated among the most wise
	and learned of those familiar with its lore.
magic marker
	The pen is mightier than the sword.
		[ Richelieu, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]
magic mirror of merlin
	This powerful mirror was created by Merlin, the druid, in ages
	past, when trees sang and rocks danced.  It protects all who
	carry it from magic missiles, and gives them ESP.

	  [...] In Dehenbarth (that now South Wales is hight,
	  What time King Ryence reigned, and dealed right)
	  The great magician Merlin had devised,
	  By his deep science, and hell-dreaded might,
	  A looking-glass, right wondrously aguised,
	Whose virtues through the wide world soon were solemnized.
	
	It virtue had to show in perfect sight
	  Whatever thing was in the world contained,
	  Betwixt the lowest earth and heaven's height,
	  So that it to the looker appertained;
	  Whatever foe had wrought, or friend had fained,
	  Therein discovered was, nor aught might pass,
	  Nor aught in secret from the same remained;
	  For-thy it round and hollow shaped was,
	Like the world itself, and seemed a world of glass.
		[ The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spencer ]
mail d*emon
	It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
	domesticated canines only.
malcanthet
	This statuesque beauty wears a sardonic smile on her ruby lips.
	Curved horns jut from her brow and hold back her long dark hair
	-and her eyes smolder with dangerous red sensuality. Large
	leathery wings stretch from her back, the joints of which are
	laced with razorlike claws, and a sinuous tail ending in a thin
	curved spike completes the image of demonic beauty. She wears a
	revealing gown of diaphanous silk and razor studded leather
	straps.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
green pit fiend
mammon
	The Viscount bowed low again as he accepted the
	silver piece. He beamed another huge smile at the Lord
	Minister and turned to leave. Almost as an afterthought,
	he turned back. "Tell me truly, Lord Minister. Will this
	gold you have gathered go to the one you serve?"
	
	The old man glared at the impertinence of the question,
	then seemed to think the better of it. "Yes, Viscount.
	It will go to His work. The aspects of His work which I
	see fit to place it towards."
	
	The Viscount beamed and bowed yet again. "One
	more indulgence, Gracious Father of Salvation. Could
	you read to me a page from your Holy Writ? I have
	always had a passion for hearing it spoken aloud. Any
	passage will do..."
	
	Almost snarling, the Lord Minister yanked the book
	from its chain and angrily opened it, tearing several
	pages in the process.
	
	"No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate
	the one and love the other, or he will be enslaved to one
	and betray the other. One cannot serve both God and
	Mammon."
	
	As the Lord Minister concluded the passage, the
	sound of a thousand golden coins falling to the ground
	resounded throughout the temple. The Viscount's smile,
	now framed by a red moustache and forked beard, became
	ugly as his teeth lengthened into golden fangs.
		[ Dicefreaks: The Gates of Hell ]
	
	This massive fiend has the lower body of a brown-spotted serpent
	and the upper body of a muscular humanoid with two large arms.
	The creature's bestial head is terrifically monstrous, with a 
	black-lipped maw filled with pointed teeth and a pair of serpent's
	fangs. His eyes are pale white, without irises or pupils, yet he
	seems to see perfectly.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
ma*annan*
	Normally called Manannan, Ler's son was the patron of
	merchants and sailors.  Manannan had a sword which never
	failed to slay, a boat which propelled itself wherever its
	owner wished, a horse which was swifter than the wind, and
	magic armour which no sword could pierce.  He later became
	god of the sea, beneath which he lived in Tir na nOc, the
	underworld.
manes
	The gnats of the dungeon, these swarming monsters are rarely
	seen alone.
	
	Manes or Di Manes ("good ones") is the euphemistic description 
	of the souls of the deceased, worshipped as divinities. The 
	formula D.M. ( = Dis Manibus; "dedicated to the Manes-gods") 
	can often be found on tombstones. Manes also means metaphorically
	'underworld' or 'realm of death'. Festivals in honor of the dead
	were the Parentalia and the Feralia, celebrated in February.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
manticore
	The manticore is a true monster, with a leonine torso and legs,
	batlike wings, a man's head, a tail tipped with iron spikes, and
	an appetite for human flesh.

	The manticore stands 6 feet tall at the shoulder and measures 15
	feet in length. It has a 25-foot wingspan. Each section of the 
	manticore closely resembles the creature it imitates. The leonine 
	torso has a tawny hide, the mane is a lion's brown-black color,
	and the batlike wings are a dark brown with sparse hair. All 
	manticores have heads that resemble human males; the mane
	resembles a heavy beard and long hair.
	
	In combat, the manticore fires volleys of 1-6 tail spikes.
	The spikes are coated in a paralyzing venom.
		[ Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
marauder's map
	"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
	Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
	are proud to present
	THE MARAUDER'S MAP"
		[ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,
			by J. K. Rowling ]
marduk
	First insisting on recognition as supreme commander, Marduk
	defeated the Dragon, cut her body in two, and from it created
	heaven and earth, peopling the world with human beings who not
	unnaturally showed intense gratitude for their lives.  The
	gods were also properly grateful, invested him with many
	titles, and eventually permitted themselves to be embodied in
	him, so that he became supreme god, plotting the whole course
	of known life from the paths of the planets to the daily
	events in the lives of men.
		[ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
marilith
	"Why did the half-breed _agree_ to this dealing? Does he not
	_realize_ he seeks to impress one without a _shred_ of 
	humanity, without the barest conception of _love_?"
		[ hellBound: the Bargain, by Jeff Grubb ]
	
	The marilith has a torso shaped like that of a human female,
	and the lower body of a great snake.  It has multiple arms,
	and can freely attack with all of them.  Since it is
	intelligent enough to use weapons, this means it can cause
	great damage.
mars
	The god of war, and one of the most prominent and worshipped
	gods.  In early Roman history he was a god of spring, growth in
	nature, and fertility, and the protector of cattle.  Mars is
	also mentioned as a chthonic god (earth-god) and this could
	explain why he became a god of death and finally a god of war.
	He is the son of Jupiter and Juno.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
mask
	He hides who he really is and pretends to be someone else 
	forever.  So in time he becomes that person, so his lie 
	becomes the truth, see?  He transcends the mask. Well, don't
	you get it? That's how he finds happiness. That's pretty good,
	right?
		[ FLCL ]
master assassin
	He strolled down the stairs, followed by a number of assassins.
	When he was directly in front of Ymor he said: "I've come for
	the tourist." ...
	"One step more and you'll leave here with fewer eyeballs than
	you came with," said the thiefmaster.  "So sit down and have
	a drink, Zlorf, and let's talk about this sensibly.  _I_
	thought we had an agreement.  You don't rob -- I don't kill.
	Not for payment, that is," he added after a pause.
	Zlorf took the proffered beer.
	"So?" he said.  "I'll kill him.  Then you rob him.  Is he that
	funny looking one over there?"
	"Yes."
	Zlorf stared at Twoflower, who grinned at him.  He shrugged.
	He seldom wasted time wondering why people wanted other people
	dead.  It was just a living.
	"Who is your client, may I ask?" said Ymor.
	Zlorf held up a hand.  "Please!" he protested.  "Professional
	etiquette."
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
master key of thievery
	This skeleton key was fashioned in ages past and imbued with
	a powerful magic which allows it to open any lock.  When
	carried, it grants its owner warning, teleport control, and
	reduces all physical damage by half.  Finally, when invoked,
	it has the ability to disarm any trap.
master of thieves
	There was a flutter of wings at the window.  Ymor shifted his
	bulk out of the chair and crossed the room, coming back with
	a large raven.  After he'd unfastened the message capsule from
	its leg it flew up to join its fellows lurking among the
	rafters.  Withel regarded it without love.  Ymor's ravens were
	notoriously loyal to their master, to the extent that Withel's
	one attempt to promote himself to the rank of greatest thief
	in Ankh-Morpork had cost their master's right hand man his
	left eye.  But not his life, however.  Ymor never grudged a
	man his ambitions.
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
mastodon
	Any large, elephantlike mammal of the genera Mammut, Mastodon,
	etc., from the Oligocene and Pleistocene epochs, having
	conical projections on the molar teeth.
		[ Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary
			of the English Language ]
	
	Yakwawi, the Mastodon, was placed on the world to be useful 
	to man; but the great monstrous beast was fierce, powerful and
	invincible. Its hide was so strong and so thick that the sharpest 
	spears and arrows could hardly penetrate it. This terrible 
	creature made war against all the other animals that lived in 
	the woods and on the plains; other animals that the Creator put 
	here to be used as meat for the Lenape people.)
		[ From Legends of the Lenape Native Americans ]
*mattock
	A mattock is an agricultural tool similar to a mining pick. It
	is distinguished by the head terminating in a broader blade
	rather than a narrow spike, which makes it particularly suitably
	for breaking up moderately hard ground. ... During the Middle
	Ages of Europe, the mattock served as an improvised shafted weapon
	for the poorer classes.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
mayor cummerbund
	Mine was a name that struck fear into men
	And regret into plenty of lasses
	Oh, how I wish I could take back those days
	As I stare at these empty beer-glasses
	
	I think of the times past when I had it all
	I toyed with men's wives and their daughters
	And in my pursuit of this ill-gotten wealth
	I stabbed and I slashed and I slaughtered.
	
	And for what?
	The men that I've fought
	Are matched by the number of women I've bought
	And for what?
	I've killed and I've shot
	And reddened the cold tears of children with blood
	And If I could go back and make my amends
	I'd make all those mistakes again
	I'd kill every last one of those bastards, my friend
		[ Pirate Song, Alestorm ]
meat*
huge chunk of meat
	Some hae meat and canna eat,
	And some would eat that want it;
	But we hae meat, and we can eat,
	Sae let the Lord be thankit.
		[ Grace Before Meat, by Robert Burns ]
medusa
perseus
	Medusa, one of the three Gorgons or Graeae, is the only one
	of her sisters to have assumed mortal form and inhabited the
	dungeon world.
	
	When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the
	conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the
	country.  She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her
	chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva,
	the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her
	beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents.  She became a cruel
	monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could
	behold her without being turned into stone.  All around the
	cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men
	and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and
	had been petrified with the sight.  Perseus, favoured by
	Minerva and Mercury, the former of whom lent him her shield
	and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she
	slept and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided
	by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he
	cut off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the
	middle of her Aegis.
		[ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
melon
	"What is it, Umbopa, son of a fool?" I shouted in Zulu.
	"It is food and water, Macumazahn," and again he waved the
	green thing.
	Then I saw what he had got.  It was a melon.  We had hit upon
	a patch of wild melons, thousands of them, and dead ripe.
	"Melons!" I yelled to Good, who was next me; and in another
	second he had his false teeth fixed in one.
	I think we ate about six each before we had done, and, poor
	fruit as they were, I doubt if I ever thought anything nicer.
		[ King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard ]
mephistopheles
	This diabolical fiend has crimson skin, massive red leathery
	wings, curling horns, white eyes, and long, straight black
	hair. Swathed in a flowing black cape, he is the vision of
	evil.
		[ Tyrants of the Nine Hells,
			by Robin Laws and Robert Schwalb ]
mercury
	Roman god of commerce, trade and travellers.  He is commonly
	depicted carrying a caduceus (a staff with two snakes
	intertwining around it) and a purse.
*metroid*
	Metroids appear to be able to sense the life energy of their 
	prey as they have no visible sensory organs.
	
	In their natural life cycle, Metroids gradually metamorphose
	to take a somewhat reptilian form, growing a hard organic 
	shell, a head, and limbs, eventually shedding their gelatinous
	membrane completely. The shell removes their weakness to cold
	temperatures.  The egg-laying Metroid Queen appears to be the
	only form in which Metroids can normally reproduce, although 
	many Metroid bioforms can divide almost instantaneously
	when exposed to certain kinds of high-energy radiation.
migo
mi-go
	Also known as the Fungi from Yuggoth, the Mi-go are parasitic
	fungoid entities which inhabit pinkish, crustacean-like
	creatures.  These creatures are the size of a man, and their
	bodies are composed of pyramided, fleshy rings. Where a head
	would normally be sits a convoluted ellipsoid, which in turn
	sprouts innumerable antennae: the true body of the
	parasite pushing through the cracked shell of its host. The
	hosts are about 5 feet (1.5 m) long, and their crustacean-
	like bodies bear numerous sets of paired appendages. They 
	also possess a pair of membranous wings which are used to fly
	through the thin aether of outer space.
migo worker
mi-go worker
	The Mi-go hail from trans-Neptunian space, but come to Earth
	to mine various rare substances not found in the environs of
	far Yuggoth.  Mi-go workers bore through the dark, stealing
	the riches of the Earth from beneath the feet of its native
	sons and daughters.
migo soldier
mi-go soldier
	The Mi-go ruthlessly defend their outposts against human
	intrusion.  Mi-go soldiers are armed with mist projectors
	and bio-armor, and many also carry earthly weapons taken
	from past victims.  Additionally, one in four Mi-go soldiers
	are equipped with the dreaded Mi-go Electric Gun.
migo philosopher
mi-go philosopher
	Mi-go Philosophers are masters of many branches of science
	and magic.  Mi-go Philosophers are mainly interested in the
	inhabitants of earth as experimental subjects.  In
	particular, humanoid brains are held in high regard when it
	comes to experimental fodder.  Under normal circumstances a
	Philosopher will take its time while removing a brain
	-ensuring that the brain remains fully functional- but if it
	believes that it's in danger of losing the subject completely
	it can perform a partial deceribration in seconds.  In
	addition to their surgical tools and magical texts,
	Philosophers carry improved mist projectors.
migo queen
mi-go queen
	Mi-go Queens are powerful Philosophers who direct the efforts
	of the Mi-go.  In addition, they are the reproductive units
	of the Mi-go race.  They wear through host bodies at an
	incredible rate, consuming the flesh and organs of their
	host to support their numerous sporangia.
mist projector
migo mist projector
mi-go mist projector
	The Mist Projector was created by the Mi-go. It is a cluster
	of twisted metal tubes that, when turned on, slowly disperses
	a cone of icy mist about ten feet across. The mist is
	described as thick and intensely cold, so much that even
	running automobile engines can be frozen upon long
	exposure.
		[ The H. P. Lovecraft Wiki ]
*mimic
	The ancestors of the modern day chameleon, these creatures can
	assume the form of anything in their surroundings.  They may
	assume the shape of objects or dungeon features.  Unlike the
	chameleon though, which assumes the shape of another creature
	and goes in hunt of food, the mimic waits patiently for its
	meals to come in search of it.
mina harker
	I thought that I was asleep, and waiting for Jonathan to 
	come back. I was very anxious about him, and I was powerless 
	to act, my feet, and my hands, and my brain were weighted, 
	so that nothing could proceed at the usual pace. And so I 
	slept uneasily and thought. Then it began to dawn upon me 
	that the air was heavy, and dank, and cold. I put back the 
	clothes from my face, and found, to my surprise, that all was 
	dim around. The gaslight which I had left lit for Jonathan, 
	but turned down, came only like a tiny red spark through 
	the fog, which had evidently grown thicker and poured into 
	the room. Then it occurred to me that I had shut the window 
	before I had come to bed. I would have got out to make certain 
	on the point, but some leaden lethargy seemed to chain my limbs 
	and even my will. I lay still and endured, that was all. I 
	closed my eyes, but could still see through my eyelids. (It 
	is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how 
	conveniently we can imagine.) The mist grew thicker and thicker 
	and I could see now how it came in, for I could see it like 
	smoke, or with the white energy of boiling water, pouring in, 
	not through the window, but through the joinings of the door. 
	It got thicker and thicker, till it seemed as if it became 
	concentrated into a sort of pillar of cloud in the room, 
	through the top of which I could see the light of the gas shining 
	like a red eye.
	[...] 
	The last conscious effort which imagination made was to show me 
	a livid white face bending over me out of the mist. 
		[ Dracula, by Bram Stoker ]
*mind flayer
	The emotions of the flesh were strong. The greed and hates, 
	the pains and joys, the jealousies and doubts, all of these 
	served as a guiding stone to enemies. In becoming flesh, the 
	First People became enslaved to those who *knew* flesh only 
	as tools for their will. *Know* these beasts were the 
	*illithids.*
	
	The *illithids* were a race that had come not to *know* 
	themselves. They had learned how to make other races not 
	*know* themselves.
	
	They were the tentacled ones. They lived in flesh and saw 
	flesh as tools for their will. Their blood was as water 
	and they shaped minds with their thoughts. When the 
	*illithids* came upon the People, the People were a people 
	no more. The People became slaves.
		[ The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon,
			Planescape Torment ]
	
	This creature has a humanoid body, tentacles around its
	covered mouth, and three long fingers on each hand.  Mind
	flayers are telepathic, and love to devour intelligent beings,
	especially humans.  If they hit their victim with a tentacle,
	the mind flayer will slowly drain it of all intelligence,
	eventually killing its victim.
mine*
gnomish mines
	Made by Dwarfs.  The Rule here is that the Mine is either long
	deserted or at most is inhabited by a few survivors who will
	make confused claims to have been driven out/decimated by humans/
	other Dwarfs/Minions of the Dark Lord.  Inhabited or not, this
	Mine will be very complex, with many levels of galleries,
	beautifully carved and engineered.  What was being mined here
	is not always evident, but at least some of the time it will
	appear to have been Jewels, since it is customary to find
	unwanted emeralds, etc., still embedded in the rock of the
	walls.  Metal will also be present, but only when made up into
	armor and weapons (_wondrous_).
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
minotaur
	The Minotaur was a monster, half bull, half human, the
	offspring of Minos' wife Pasiphae and a wonderfully beautiful
	bull. ...  When the Minotaur was born Minos did not kill him.
	He had Daedalus, a great architect and inventor, construct a
	place of confinement for him from which escape was impossible.
	Daedalus built the Labyrinth, famous throughout the world.
	Once inside, one would go endlessly along its twisting paths
	without ever finding the exit.
		[ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
mirkwood spider
mirkwood elder
	Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
	Old fat spider can't see me!
			  Attercop! Attercop!
				   Won't you stop,
	Stop your spinning and look for me!

	Old Tomnoddy, all big body,
	Old Tomnoddy can't spy me!
			  Attercop! Attercop!
					Down you drop!
	You'll never catch me up your tree!

	Lazy Lob and crazy Cob
	are weaving webs to wind me.
	I am far more sweet than other meat,
	but still they cannot find me!

	Here am I, naughty little fly;
	you are fat and lazy.
	You cannot trap me, though you try,
	in your cobwebs crazy. 
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
mirror brand
	What does it mean to fight for the Balance? How is one a part 
	of it, how does it make its way through all things?
	
	Balance is the quest for equilibrium, the movement of all 
	things to the center. If the center cannot hold...that is the
	fear, that the Spire is the foundation that all others 
	foolishly seek to crack and topple in their careless pursuit
	of malice and charity, freedom and constraint.
	
	Yes. But more -- what is the identity of Balance? Its face?
	Who is that face, and what is its identity?
	
	The identity of Balance is its citizens and its guardians. 
	Its citizens are those who are neither too cruel nor too 
	kind. Its guardians however must kill and save innocents, 
	must be selfish and charitable in equal quantities. The face
	of Balance is the rilmani, the guardians. They are forever 
	walking the line, ever seeking to keep themselves in 
	equilibrium. Who they are is this walking, this act of 
	treading upon the thinnest of strands.
		[ Blade of Innocence, by Sciborg ]
mirrorbright
	"Copper gilt, and burnished bright, bright as sun
	 where there is no night,
	 wise men chained and wise men seek,
	 bubbling visions not for the weak."
		[ Shemeska's Story Hour, by Todd Stewart ]
mit*ra*
	Originating in India (Mitra), Mithra is a god of light who
	was translated into the attendant of the god Ahura Mazda in
	the light religion of Persia; from this he was adopted as
	the Roman deity Mithras.  He is not generally regarded as a
	sky god but a personification of the fertilizing power of
	warm, light air.  According to the _Avesta_, he possesses
	10,000 eyes and ears and rides in a chariot drawn by white
	horses.  Mithra, according to Zarathustra, is concerned with
	the endless battle between light and dark forces:  he
	represents truth.  He is responsible for the keeping of oaths
	and contracts.  He is attributed with the creation of both
	plants and animals.  His chief adversary is Ahriman, the
	power of darkness.
		[ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
			Nations, by Herbert Spencer Robinson and
			Knox Wilson ]
*mithril coat*
*mithril-coat*
	_Mithril_!  All folk desired it.  It could be beaten like
	copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
	of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
	Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty
	of _mithril_ did not tarnish or grow dim.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*mitre of holiness
	This helm of brilliance performs all of the normal functions
	of a helm of brilliance, but also has the ability to protect
	anyone who carries it from fire.  When invoked, it boosts
	the energy of the invoker, allowing them to cast more spells.
mjollnir
	Forged by the dwarves Eitri and Brokk, in response to Loki's
	challenge, Mjollnir is an indestructible war hammer.  It has
	two magical properties:  when thrown it always returned to
	Thor's hand; and it could be made to shrink in size until it
	could fit inside Thor's shirt.  Its only flaw is that it has
	a short handle.  The other gods judged Mjollnir the winner of
	the contest because, of all the treasures created, it alone had
	the power to protect them from the giants.  As the legends
	surrounding Mjollnir grew, it began to take on the quality of
	"vigja", or consecration.  Thor used it to consecrate births,
	weddings, and even to raise his goats from the dead.  In the
	Norse mythologies Mjollnir is considered to represent Thor's
	governance over the entire cycle of life - fertility, birth,
	destruction, and resurrection.
mog
	Mog is known as the Spider God. Mog resembles a four-limbed spider
	with a handsome, if not entirely human, face.
~slime mold
*mold
	Mold, multicellular organism of the division Fungi, typified
	by plant bodies composed of a network of cottony filaments.
	The colors of molds are due to spores borne on the filaments.
	Most molds are saprophytes.  Some species (e.g., penicillium)
	are used in making cheese and antibiotics.
		[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
mol?ch
	And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
	Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever
	he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that
	sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech;
	he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall
	stone him with stones.
	And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off
	from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto
	Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
	And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes
	from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill
	him not:
	Then I will set my face against that man, and against his
	family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after
	him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
		[ Leviticus 20:1-5 ]
monk
* monk
grand master
master kaen
	One day, an army general invited the Buddhist monk I-Hsiu
	(literally, "One Rest") to his military head office for a
	dinner.  I-Hsiu was not accustomed to wearing luxurious
	clothings and so he just put on an old ordinary casual
	robe to go to the military base.  To him, "form is void".
	
	As he approached the base, two soldiers appeared before him
	and shouted, "Where does this beggar came from?  Identify
	yourself!  You do not have permission to be around here!"
	
	"My name is I-Hsiu Dharma Master.  I am invited by your
	general for a supper."
	
	The two soldiers examined the monk closely and said, "You
	liar.  How come my general invites such a shabby monk to
	dinner?  He invites the very solemn venerable I-Hsiu to our
	base for a great ceremony today, not you.  Now, get out!"
	
	I-Hsiu was unable to convince the soldiers that he was
	indeed the invited guest, so he returned to the temple
	and changed to a very formal solemn ceremonial robe for
	the dinner.  And as he returned to the military base, the
	soldiers observed that he was such a great Buddhist monk,
	let him in with honour.
	
	At the dinner, I-Hsiu sat in front of the table full of
	food but, instead of putting the food into his mouth, he
	picked up the food with his chopsticks and put it into
	his sleeves.  The general was curious, and whispered to
	him, "This is very embarrassing.  Do you want to take
	some food back to the temple?  I will order the cook to
	prepare some take out orders for you."  "No" replied the
	monk.  "When I came here, I was not allowed into the
	base by your soldiers until I wear this ceremonial robe.
	You do not invite me for a dinner.  You invite my robe.
	Therefore, my robe is eating the food, not me."
		[ Dining with a General - a Zen Buddhism Koan,
		  translation by Yiu-man Chan ]
monoton
	Single function laborers, they can carry out only 
	one command at a time, passed down to them by their
	duton superiors.
duton
	Bi-functional laborers, they may interpret and 
	carrying out two commands at once. If given only one 
	task at a time, it shows a limited ability to react
	to unexpected stimuli.
triton
	Low level overseers, typically, they receive a general 
	order, which they then divide into smaller tasks that 
	can be completed by the lower castes. They are capable 
	of reporting actions and observations, as well as 
	actually planning limited objectives on the battlefield.
quaton
	Upper level managers, quatons report actions and 
	observations, make plans, react to unexpected 
	occurrences, and act to remedy them. They are thus
	the first of the auton castes that can be truly
	described as sapient.
quinon
	Auditors of the lower castes, quinons monitor the
	quatons as they carry out their duties, seeing
	that the will of the One is reflected in all 
	matters.
axus
	Ruling over the castes is Primus, the One and the
	Prime. It and the plane are one in thought and deed; as
	Primus turns, so do the wheels of Mechanus.
		[ Planescape Monstrous Suplement, by David Cook ]
auton
modron
	The most omnipresent of the beings living on
	Mechanus (bar none) are the modrons. There's not
	much known about the geometrical and mathematical
	constructs, including their goals, their functions, and
	their minds. 
	The short of it is that modrons are largely 
	unknowable by humans.
		[ Planes of Law, by Colin McComb ]
auton caste*
modron caste*
	Modrons are strictly divided into fourteen castes,
	five common castes and nine ruling castes.
	Castes are hardly unique, but the modron approach to
	them is. Not only does each rank have its own functions,
	but each also has its own body shape, so the rank
	of any modron can be readily identified by the creature's
	appearance.
		[ Planescape Monstrous Suplement, by David Cook ]
monkey
	"Listen, man-cub," said the Bear, and his voice rumbled like
	thunder on a hot night.  "I have taught thee all the Law of
	the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle--except the
	Monkey-Folk who live in the trees.  They have no law.  They
	are outcasts.  They have no speech of their own, but use the
	stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep,
	and wait up above in the branches.  Their way is not our way.
	They are without leaders.  They have no remembrance.  They
	boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people
	about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of
	a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten.
	We of the jungle have no dealings with them.  We do not drink
	where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go;
	we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die...."
		[ The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling ]
morning star
	The morning star was a medieval weapon resembling a mace, but
	with a large spike on the end and smaller spikes around the
	circumference. It was also known as the goedendag (from the
	Dutch word for "good day") and the holy water sprinkler (from its
	resemblance to the aspergillum sometimes used in the Catholic Mass).
	It was used by both cavalry and infantry; the horseman's weapon
	typically had a shorter haft than the footman's, which might be up
	to six feet long. It came into use in the beginning of the 14th
	century.
	The name "morning star" is often erroneously applied to the
	military flail (also known as the therscol), a similar weapon,
	but with the head attached by a short chain.
		[ Dictionary of Medieval Knighthood and Chivalry, 
		  by Bradford Broughton ]
mortai
	Mortai are a mystery of the Beastlands, enigmatic creatures
	of immense intelligence and power.  Also known as the 
	"faces in the clouds", mortai are creatures of the air. 
	They appear as great clouds spanning the horizon, covering 
	miles from side to side and towering thousands of feet in 
	the air. In fact, a basher who doesn'tknow what he's looking
	for'll walk right under a mortai wihout even realizing that 
	the creature is just drifting along a half mile or so over 
	his head. Most of the time, mortai are happy to remain 
	unnoticed, and can imitate a natural cloud perfectly. But 
	when they want a basher to know they're present, the mortai
	begin to pulsate with a golden glow, crackling with immense
	power like a lightning storm. When a mortai reveals itself
	this way, great faces of wisdom and beauty begin to appear
	on the surface of its clouds.
		[ Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
mumak*
	... the Mumak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and
	the like of him does not walk now in Middle-Earth; his kin
	that live still in latter days are but memories of his girth
	and majesty.  On he came, ... his great legs like trees,
	enormous sail-like ears spread out, long snout upraised like
	a huge serpent about to strike, his small red eyes raging.
	His upturned hornlike tusks ... dripped with blood.
		[ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*mummy
	But for an account of the manner in which the body was
	bandaged, and a list of the unguents and other materials
	employed in the process, and the words of power which were
	spoken as each bandage was laid in its place, we must have
	recourse to a very interesting papyrus which has been edited
	and translated by M. Maspero under the title of Le Rituel de
	l'Embaumement. ...
	Everything that could be done to preserve the body was now
	done, and every member of it was, by means of the words of
	power which changed perishable substances into imperishable,
	protected to all eternity; when the final covering of purple
	or white linen had been fastened upon it, the body was ready
	for the tomb.
		[ Egyptian Magic, by E.A. Wallis Budge ]
mummy wrapping
	He held a white cloth -- it was a serviette he had brought
	with him -- over the lower part of his face, so that his
	mouth and jaws were completely hidden, and that was the
	reason for his muffled voice.  But it was not that which
	startled Mrs. Hall.  It was the fact that all his forehead
	above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and
	that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his
	face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose.  It was
	bright, pink, and shiny just as it had been at first.  He
	wore a dark-brown velvet jacket with a high, black, linen-
	lined collar turned up about his neck.  The thick black
	hair, escaping as it could below and between the cross
	bandages, project in curious tails and horns, giving him
	the strangest appearance conceivable.
		[ The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells ]
mouth of the goat
	Ever Their praises, and abundance to the
	Black Goat of the Woods. 
	Ia! Shub-Niggurath! Ia! Shub-Niggurath!
	The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!
		[ The Whisperer in Darkness, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
movanic deva
	Movanic devas have milky white skin and silvery hair and eyes, 
	and are slender and exceedingly agile. Although they can carry a 
	variety of weapons, they most often employ a two-handed sword. 
	Any weapon wielded by a movanic deva is further enhanced by the 
	deva's fiery aura. Movanic devas are the most privileged of all 
	the devas, for they are sent to many other planes to aid 
	prominent mortal followers of good deities in moments of dire 
	need. They are able to pass into the Prime Material at will.
		[ Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
monadic deva
	Monadic devas have dark brown skin, jet hair, and piercing green 
	eyes, and are of strong, bulky build and rely more upon strength 
	than on speed and agility. On rare occasions, a power from the 
	Upper Planes needs a servant to go to one of the Elemental or 
	Paraelemental Planes. When this need arises, monadic devas are 
	used. Monadics can pass into any Elemental Plane at will and 
	survive there without ill effect.
		[ Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
monastic deva
astral deva
	Astral devas have golden skin, amber eyes, and fair hair, and are 
	extremely supple and move with inhuman quickness. They carry a 
	macelike weapon. Any creature struck twice in the same round by 
	the weapon may be stunned by the force behind the blows. Astral 
	devas attend to matters in the Lower Planes for the powers of 
	good. These powerful, pure warriors can pass into the Lower 
	Planes at will, bringing their justice to the heart of evil. If 
	directly commanded by the power they serve, they can enter any 
	layer of any lower plane without passing through intermediate 
	layers. Astral devas also commonly travel to the Astral Plane to 
	rescue good-aligned mortals who have become lost or stranded.
		[ Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition 
			Complete Monstrous Manual ]
mahadeva
	Shiva (Sanskrit: Siva, meaning "The Auspicious One"; 
	Tamil: Sivan, meaning "The Red One"), also known as 
	Mahadeva ("Great God"), is one of the three deities of 
	Hinduism. Shiva is distinct from Vishnu and Brahman yet 
	one with them. He is "Anant" [Who is neither found born 
	nor found dead]. At the highest level, Shiva is regarded 
	as limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. 
	Shiva also has many benevolent and fearsome forms. In 
	benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi 
	who lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash, as well as a 
	householder with wife Parvati and his two children, 
	Ganesha and Kartikeya, and in fierce aspects, he is often 
	depicted slaying demons.
		[ Wikipedia ]
	
	This fearsome emanation of the divine fights with weapons 
	and the magic of blades. In melee combat it is capable of 
	forming additional arms as desired, and can strike a 
	poorly-defended target dozens of times in a single instant.
*naga*
*naja*
	The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and
	the head of a man or woman.  They will fiercely protect the
	territory they consider their own.  Some nagas can be forced
	to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.
naginata
	A Japanese pole-arm, fitted with a curved single-edged blade.
	The blades ranged in length from two to four feet, mounted on
	shafts about four to five feet long.  The naginata were cut
	with a series of short grooves near to the tang, above which
	the back edge was thinned, but not sharpened, so that the
	greater part of the blade was a flattened diamond shape in
	section.  Seen in profile, the curve is slight or non-
	existent near the tang, becoming more pronounced towards the
	point.
	
	"With his naginata he killed five, but with the sixth it
	snapped asunder in the midst and, flinging it away, he drew
	his sword, wielding it in the zigzag style, the interlacing,
	cross, reversed dragonfly, waterwheel, and eight-sides-at-
	once styles of fencing and cutting down eight men; but as he
	brought down the ninth with a mighty blow on the helmet, the
	blade snapped at the hilt."
	  [ Story of Tsutsui no Jomio Meishu from Tales of Heike ]
nalfeshnee
	Not only do these demons do physical damage with their claws
	and bite, but they are capable of using magic as well.
nalzok
	Nalzok is Moloch's cunning and unfailingly loyal battle
	lieutenant, to whom he trusts the command of warfare when he
	does not wish to exercise it himself.  Nalzok is a major
	demon, known to command the undead.  He is hungry for power,
	and secretly covets Moloch's position.  Moloch doesn't trust
	him, but, trusting his own power enough, chooses to allow
	Nalzok his position because he is useful.
nazgul
	Immediately, though everything else remained as before, dim
	and dark, the shapes became terribly clear.  He was able to
	see beneath their black wrappings.  There were five tall
	figures:  two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing.
	In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under
	their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs
	were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of
	steel.  Their eyes fell on him and pierced him, as they
	rushed towards him.  Desperate, he drew his own sword, and
	it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a
	firebrand.  Two of the figures halted.  The third was taller
	than the others:  his hair was long and gleaming and on his
	helm was a crown.  In one hand he held a long sword, and in
	the other a knife; both the knife and the hand that held it
	glowed with a pale light.  He sprang forward and bore down
	on Frodo.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
neanderthal*
	1.  Valley between Duesseldorf and Elberfeld in Germany,
	where an ancient skull of a prehistoric ancestor to modern
	man was found.  2.  Human(oid) of the race mentioned above.
necronomicon
	Non-Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to 
	stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, 
	and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional
	reality behind the ghoulish hints of the Gothic tales and the
	wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to
	be wholly free from mental tension. [...] The professors at 
	Miskatonic had urged him to slacken up, and had voluntarily
	cut down his course at several points. Moreover, they had
	stopped him from consulting the dubious old books on
	forbidden secrets that were kept under lock and key in a
	vault at the university library. But all these precautions
	came late in the day, so that Gilman had some terrible hints
	from the dreaded Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred, the
	fragmentary Book of Eibon, and the suppressed Unaussprechlichen
	Kulten of von Junzt to correlate with his abstract formulae on
	the properties of space and the linkage of dimensions known
	and unknown. 
		[ "The Dreams in the Witch House," H.P. Lovecraft ]
neferet
neferet the green
	Neferet the Green holds office in her hidden tower, only
	reachable by magical means, where she teaches her apprentices
	the enigmatic skills of occultism.  Despite her many years, she
	continues to investigate new spells, especially those involving
	translocation.  It is further rumored that when she was an
	apprentice herself, she accidentally turned her skin green, and
	has kept it that way ever since.
nessian pit fiend
	The great horns, bat-like wings,
	serpentine tail, and cloven-hoofed feet are identical to
	the terror of the pit. Yet, this creature towers 20 feet in
	height. Accompanying the flames that lick its translucent
	flesh is a darkness that ripples the surrounding air. The
	blood red form is covered in muscles and the burning,
	white eyes glare from a shadowy face.
		[ Dicefreaks: The Gates of Hell ]
neverwas
	You weren't there. In the final days of the war. You never saw 
	what was born. But if the time lock's broken then everything is 
	coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Star of 
	Degradations. The Horde of Travesties. The Nightmare Child. The 
	Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. 
	The war turned into hell! And that's what you've opened. Right 
	above the Earth. Hell is descending.
		[ Dr. Who, The End of Time (Part Two) ]
newt
	(kinds of) small animal, like a lizard, which spends most of
	its time in the water.
		[ Oxford's Student's Dictionary of Current English ]
	
	"Fillet of a fenny snake,
	In the cauldron boil and bake;
	Eye of newt and toe of frog,
	Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
	Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
	Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
	For a charm of powerful trouble,
	Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
		[ Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ]
ninja
	Ninja are the spy-assassins of Japan. They are quick and
	stealthy, though not as strong as fighters. Their characteristic
	weapon is the deadly shuriken or throwing-star.
nightmare
	By a route obscure and lonely,   
	Haunted by ill angels only,
	Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,   
	On a black throne reigns upright,
	I have reached these lands but newly   
	From an ultimate dim Thule--
	From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
	Out of SPACE -- Out of TIME. 
		[ Dream-Land, by Edgar Allen Poe ]
ninja-to
	A Japanese broadsword.
*nkia
*n'kai
	A vast, endless, eternally dark gulf said to lie at the bottom
	of the world.  Even daemons fear to tread there.  The basen of
	the Lethe river is said to be within the great gulf.  What few
	tales exist of its outer reaches speak of hordes of hideous
	gugs that scavenge and devour the bodies of all who enter.
noble
nobleman
noblewoman
	Here the COUNTRY is organized into peasants and lords and 
	usually ruled by a bad KING or REGENT. The peasants will live
	in HOVELS and do all the work. The lords will have all the
	MONEY and oppress the peasants by taxing, beating, and 
	imprisoning them, and exercising unlimited droit du seigneur.
	[...] Usually the arrival of the Tour is the signal for the
	peasants to revolt.
	
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
*norn
	The Norns were the three Norse Fates, or the goddesses of fate.
	Female giants, they brought the wonderful Golden Age to an end.
	They cast lots over the cradle of every child that was born,
	and placed gifts in the cradle.  Their names were Urda,
	Verdandi, and Skuld, representing the past, the present, and
	the future.  Urda and Verdandi were kindly disposed, but Skuld
	was cruel and savage.  Their tasks were to sew the web of
	fate, to water the sacred ash, Yggdrasil, and to keep it in
	good condition by placing fresh earth around it daily.  In her
	fury, Skuld often spoiled the work of her sisters by tearing
	the web to shreds.
		[ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
			Nations by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox
			Wilson ]
nightgaunt
night*gaunt
	Suddenly, without a warning sound in the dark, Carter felt 
	his curved scimitar drawn stealthily out of his belt by some
	unseen hand. Then he heard it clatter down over the rocks 
	below. And between him and the Milky Way he thought he saw 
	a very terrible outline of something noxiously thin and horned
	and tailed and bat-winged. Then a sort of cold rubbery arm 
	seized his neck and something else seized his feet, and he was 
	lifted inconsiderately up and swung about in space. Another 
	minute and the stars were gone, and Carter knew that the 
	night-gaunts had got him. 
	
	[They] were indeed shocking and uncouth black things with smooth,
	oily, whale-like surfaces, unpleasant horns that curved inward 
	toward each other, bat wings whose beating made no sound, ugly 
	prehensile paws, and barbed tails that lashed needlessly and 
	disquietingly. And worst of all, they never spoke or laughed, 
	and never smiled because they had no faces at all to smile with, 
	but only a suggestive blankness where a face ought to be. All 
	they ever did was clutch and fly and tickle; that was the way 
	of night-gaunts. 
		[ The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
nunchaku
	A nunchaku is two sections of wood (or metal in modern
	incarnations) connected by a cord or chain.  There is much
	controversy over its origins; some say it was originally a
	Chinese weapon, others say it evolved from a threshing flail;
	one theory purports that it was developed from a horse's bit.
	Chinese nunchaku tend to be rounded, whereas Japanese are
	octagonal, and they were originally linked by horse hair.
	There are many variations on the nunchaku, ranging from the
	three sectional staff (san-setsu-kon nunchaku), to smaller
	multi-section nunchaku.  The nunchaku was popularized by
	Bruce Lee in a number of films, made in both Hollywood and
	Hong Kong.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
nupperibo
	Nupperibos are much like lemures in appearance, but are even
	less defined than those creatures. Nupperibos are amorphous,
	vaguely humanoid monsters with no discernible features. 
	They have appendages that might be construed as arms and head.

	Nupperibos are blind, deaf, and mute.

	There is, however, a unique and curious relationship between
	the lemures and the nupperibos. The nupperibos are slightly
	higher in station than the lemures, hut they can never become
	higher forms of baatezu without first being demoted to lemure
	status. Doubtless some greater power in Baator has set the
	advancement path that way for its own fiendish reasons.
		[ Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix, TSR ]
metamorphosed nupperibo
	Planewalkers who know a little of the chant regarding 
	baatezu can recognize that this is no ordinary nupperibo.
	For one thing, it mewls in pain and frustration at its
	predicament. Nupperibos are mute. Further, it *looks*
	at [them] as they enter the room. Nupperibos are blind.
	
	[...] Suddenly, the pale, bloated stomach of the disgusting
	creature bursts open, and dozens of tiny, pinkish tendrils
	shoot out, attempting to grab [...] anything else in the
	room.
		[ Tales from the Infinite Staircase,
			by Monte Cook ]
ancient nupperibo
	There're shapes frozen in the of some of the [Canian] 
	glaciers. The ice distorts the images so that it's nearly
	impossible to see what the shapes actually are, but some
	enterprising Guvners have taken the time to melt passages
	through the ice to the shapes. They came back shaken,
	reporting that some of the figures turned out to be
	frozen devas and archons battling spined creatures of
	unknown origin. Other shapes were cities crused by the
	glaciers of Cania. What lived in the cities, none can say.
		[ Planes of Law, TSR ]
~swamp nymph
*nymph
dryad
naiad
oread
	A female creature from Roman and Greek mythology, the nymph
	occupied rivers, forests, ponds, etc.  A nymph's beauty is
	beyond words:  an ever-young woman with sleek figure and
	long, thick hair, radiant skin and perfect teeth, full lips
	and gentle eyes.  A nymph's scent is delightful, and her
	long robe glows, hemmed with golden threads and embroidered
	with rainbow hues of unearthly magnificence.  A nymph's
	demeanour is graceful and charming, her mind quick and witty.
	
	"Theseus felt her voice pulling him down into fathoms of
	sleep.	The song was the skeleton of his dream, and the dream
	was full of terror.  Demon girls were after him, and a bull-
	man was goring him.  Everywhere there was blood.  There was
	pain.  There was fear.	But his head was in the nymph's lap
	and her musk was about him, her voice weaving the dream.  He
	knew then that she had been sent to tell him of something
	dreadful that was to happen to him later.  Her song was a
	warning.  But she had brought him a new kind of joy, one that
	made him see everything differently.  The boy, who was to
	become a hero, suddenly knew then what most heroes learn
	later -- and some too late -- that joy blots suffering and
	that the road to nymphs is beset by monsters."
	    [ The Minotaur by Bernard Evslin ]
obsidian*
	A volcanic glass, homogeneous in texture and having a low water
	content, with a vitreous luster and a conchoidal fracture. The
	color is commonly black, but may be some shade of red or brown,
	and cut sections sometimes appear to be green. Like other volcanic
	glasses, obsidian is a lava that has cooled too quickly for the
	contained minerals to crystallize. In chemical composition it is
	rich in silica and similar to granite. It is favored by primitive
	peoples for knives, arrowheads, spearheads, and other weapons
	and tools.
		[ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
oceanid
	The Oceanids' father Oceanus was the great primordial world-
	encircling river, their mother Tethys was a sea goddess, and
	their brothers the Potamoi were the personifications of the great
	rivers of the world. Like the rest of their family, the Oceanid
	nymphs were associated with water, as the personification of springs.
	Hesiod says they are "dispersed far and wide" and everywhere "serve 
	the earth and the deep waters", while in Apollonius of Rhodes' 
	Argonautica, the Argonauts, stranded in the desert of Libya, beg the
	"nymphs, sacred of the race of Oceanus" to show them "some spring of
	water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth".
		[ Wikipedia ]
ochre jelly
	This monster resembles a giant amoeba, seeping through darkened
	corridors, through cracks and under doors, searching for flesh or
	cellulose to devour. ... Voraciously dissolving all types of carrion
	and trash, this monster is sometimes tolerated in inhabited subterranean
	areas for its janitorial services, but this activity is difficult to
	organize and is usually not appreciated by the inhabitants because of
	its danger. 
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
odin
	Also called Sigtyr (god of Victory), Val-father (father of
	the slain), One-Eyed, Hanga-god (god of the hanged), Farma-
	god (god of cargoes), Hapta-god (god of prisoners), and
	Othin.  He is the prime god of the Norsemen:  god of war and
	victory, wisdom and prophecy, poetry, the dead, air and wind,
	hospitality, and magic.
	As the god of war and victory, Odin is ruler of the Valkyries,
	warrior-maidens who lived in the halls of Valhalla in Asgard,
	the hall of dead heroes where he held his court.
	These chosen ones will defend the realm of the gods against
	the Frost Giants on the final day of reckoning, Ragnarok.
	As god of the wind, Odin rides through the air on his eight-
	footed horse, Sleipnir, wielding Gungner, his spear, normally
	accompanied by his ravens, Hugin and Munin, who he would also
	use as his spies.
	As a god of hospitality, he enjoys visiting the earth in
	disguise to see how people were behaving and to see how they
	would treat him, not knowing who he was.
	Odin is usually represented as a one-eyed wise old man with a
	long white beard and a wide-brimmed hat (he gave one of his
	eyes to Mimir, the guardian of the well of wisdom in Hel, in
	exchange for a draught of knowledge).
offler
	Offler hesitated. He was a very old god, who had arisen from
	steaming swamps in hot, dark lands. He had survived the rise
	and fall of more modern and certainly more beautiful gods by
	developing, for a god, a certain amount of wisdom.
	
	Besides, Nuggan was one of the newer gods, all full of 
	hellfire and self-importance and _ambition_. Offler was not
	bright, but he had some vague inkling that for long-term 
	survival gods needed to offer their worshippers something
	more than a mere lack of thunderbolts. And he felt an 
	ungodlike pang of sympathy for any human whose god banned
	chocolate _and_ garlic.
		[ The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett ]
	
	'It's _you_, isn't it?' he growled. 'You're Nuggan, aren't 
	you?'
	'You utter, utter...fifteen years! Fifteen damn years before
	I ever tasted garlic! And the priests used to get up early
	in the countryside round us to jump on all the mushrooms!
	And do you know how _much_ a small slab of chocolate cost
	in our town, and what they did to people who were caught with
	one?' The minstrel shouldered the Horde aside and advanced
	on the retreating god, his lyre raised like a club.
	
	'Broccoli,' murmured Offler to Sweevo, God of Cut Timbur,
	'You can't go wrong with broccoli.'
		[ The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett ]
ogre*
	Anyone who has met a gluttonous, nude, angry ogre, will not
	easily forget this encounter -- if he survives it at all.
	Both male and female ogres can easily grow as tall as three
	metres.  Build and facial expressions would remind one of a
	Neanderthal.  Its small, pointy, keen teeth are striking.
	Since ogres avoid direct sunlight, their ragged, unfurry
	skin is as white as a sheet.  They enjoy coating their body
	with lard and usually wear nothing but a loin-cloth.  An elf
	would smell its rancid stench at ten metres distance.
	Ogres are solitary creatures:  very rarely one may encounter
	a female with two or three young.  They are the only real
	carnivores among the humanoids, and its favourite meal is --
	not surprisingly -- human flesh.  They sometimes ally with
	orcs or goblins, but only when they anticipate a good meaty
	meal.
		[ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
oilskin cloak
	During our watches below we overhauled our clothes, and made
	and mended everything for bad weather.  Each of us had made
	for himself a suit of oil-cloth or tarpaulin, and these we
	got out, and gave thorough coatings of oil or tar, and hung
	upon the stays to dry.  Our stout boots, too, we covered
	over with a thick mixture of melted grease and tar.  Thus we
	took advantage of the warm sun and fine weather of the
	Pacific to prepare for its other face.
		[ Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana ]
oilskin sack
	Summer passed all too quickly.  On the last day of camp, Mr.
	Brickle called his counselors together and paid them what he
	owed them.  Louis received one hundred dollars - the first
	money he had ever earned.  He had no wallet and no pockets,
	so Mr. Brickle placed the money in a waterproof bag that had
	a drawstring.  He hung this moneybag around Louis' neck,
	along with the trumpet, the slate, the chalk pencil, and the
	lifesaving medal.
		[ The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White ]
olog-hai
	But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen
	appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of
	Mordor.  Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech.  That
	Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not
	known.  Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs;
	but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike
	even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size
	and power.  Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will
	of their master:  a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and
	cunning, but harder than stone.  Unlike the older race of the
	Twilight they could endure the Sun....  They spoke little,
	and the only tongue they knew was the Black Speech of Barad-dur.
		[ The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
oona
	The Morwel is the queen of the Eladrin.
	The Morwel has always been queen.
	The Eladrin took no side in the war of Law and Chaos.
oracle
delphi
p*thia
	Delphi under towering Parnassus, where Apollo's oracle was,
	plays an important part in mythology.  Castalia was its
	sacred spring; Cephissus its river.  It was held to be the
	center of the world, so many pilgrims came to it, from
	foreign countries as well as Greece.  No other shrine rivaled
	it.  The answers to the questions asked by the anxious
	seekers for Truth were delivered by a priestess who went into
	a trance before she spoke.
		[ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
orange
pear
	What was the fruit like?  Unfortunately, no one can describe
	a taste.  All I can say is that, compared with those fruits,
	the freshest grapefruit you've ever eaten was dull, and the
	juiciest orange was dry, and the most melting pear was hard
	and woody, and the sweetest wild strawberry was sour.  And
	there were no seeds or stones, and no wasps.  If you had once
	eaten that fruit, all the nicest things in this world would
	taste like medicines after it.  But I can't describe it.  You
	can't find out what it is like unless you can get to that
	country and taste it for yourself.
		[ The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis ]
*orb of fate
orb of fate
	Some say that Odin himself created this ancient crystal ball,
	although others argue that Loki created it and forged Odin's
	signature on the bottom.  In any case, it is a powerful
	artifact.  Anyone who carries it is granted the gift of
	warning, and damage, both spell and physical, is partially
	absorbed by the orb itself.  When invoked it has the power
	to teleport the invoker between levels.
goblin king
orcrist
	The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when he
	looked at it, and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth,
	clashed their shields, and stamped.  They knew the sword at
	once.  It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when
	the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did
	battle before their walls.  They had called it Orcrist,
	Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply Biter.
	They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
orcus
	The massive, boated demon stands 15 feet tall, his immense
	frame a hideous combination of muscle and bloated flesh. His
	head is that of a ram with a great maw filled with tusks,
	and his thick-furred legs end in cloven hooves. Leathery
	wings and a barb-tipped tail complete the picture of the
	archetypal demon.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
	
	Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a ram's head and a poison
	stinger.  He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
	abilities.  His wand causes death to those he chooses.
~orc ??m*
~orcish barbarian
~orcish ranger
~orcish rogue
~orcish wizard
~orc of the ages of stars
orc*
* orc
	Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the
	goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous.  The average orc
	is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders,
	a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur.
	Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
	Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested.  Not
	needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated
	apparels.  Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or
	hordes.  They tend to live underground as well as above
	ground (but they dislike sunlight).  Orcs can use all weapons,
	tools and armours that are used by men.  Since they don't have
	the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly
	hunting for them.  There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot
	use.
		[ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
orc of the ages of stars
	But of those hapless who were snared by Melkor little is known 
	of a certainty.	[...] Yet this is held true by the wise of Eressëa: 
	that all those of the Quendi that came into the hands of Melkor, 
	ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts 
	of cruelty and wickedness were corrupted and enslaved. Thus 
	did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orkor in envy and mockery 
	of the Eldar, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes. For 
	the Orkor had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children 
	of Ilúvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance 
	thereof, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë 
	before the Beginning: so say the wise. And deep in their dark hearts 
	the Orkor loathed the Master whom they served in fear, the maker only 
	of their misery. This maybe was the vilest deed of Melkor and the most 
	hateful to Eru.
		[ Morgoth's Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien,
			edited by Christopher Tolkien ]
ochre jelly
	An ochre jelly resembles a giant amoeba, consisting of a thick, porous, golden 
	sludge. It lurks in dungeons, slowly sludging its way along floors, walls and 
	ceilings alike, under doors and through cracks, looking for victims. When it 
	finds them, it extends, latches onto them, and then proceeds to engulf and 
	constrict them. The ochre jelly reproduces asexually, and can sometimes be 
	found with several of its divided offspring.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
orihalcyon gauntlet
orihalcyon gauntlets
orihalcyon bracer
orihalcyon bracers
	"I'm sick of fighting mages on this job. First I get frizzed
	by the Shak'nai's boyfriend. Then a ditzy brunette knocks me
	about with wards half a day. She didn't even have the book
	anymore!
	
	"This time I'm prepared! These orihalcyon bracers will absorb
	any spell you throw at me!"
		[ Bookwyrms, by Charles Crawford ]
orion
sirius
	Orion was the son of Neptune. He was a handsome giant and a
	mighty hunter. His father gave him the power of wading
	through the depths of the sea, or, as others say, of
	walking on its surface.
	
	He dwelt as a hunter with Diana (Artemis), with whom he
	was a favourite, and it is even said she was about to marry
	him. Her brother was highly displeased and often chid her,
	but to no purpose. One day, observing Orion wading through
	the sea with his head just above the water, Apollo pointed
	it out to his sister and maintained that she could not hit
	that black thing on the sea. The archer-goddess discharged
	a shaft with fatal aim. The waves rolled the dead body of
	Orion to the land, and bewailing her fatal error with many
	tears, Diana placed him among the stars, where he appears
	as a giant, with a girdle, sword, lion's skin, and
	club. Sirius, his dog, follows him, and the Pleiads fly
	before him.
		[ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
orpheus
	Orpheus is a legendary figure, described by most ancient
	sources as Thracian, and venerated throughout the ancient
	Hellenised world as a heroic, civilising benefactor to
	mankind. [...] Pindar calls Orpheus "the father of songs"
	and asserts him as a son of the Thracian king Oeagrus and
	the Muse Calliope.
	[...]
	The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of
	his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). [...] Eurydice
	fell into a nest of vipers and she suffered a fatal bite
	on her heel.  Her body was discovered by Orpheus who,
	overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs
	that all the nymphs and gods wept.  On their advice, Orpheus
	traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the
	hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever
	to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him
	to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her
	and not look back until they both had reached the upper
	world. He set off with Eurydice following, and, in his
	anxiety, as soon as he reached the upper world, he turned to
	look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper
	world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever.
	       [ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
osaku
	The osaku is a small tool for picking locks.
owlbear
	Owlbears are probably the crossbreed creation of a demented
	wizard; given the lethal nature of this creation, it is quite
	likely the wizard who created them is no longer alive.  As
	the name might already suggest, owlbears are a cross between
	a giant owl and a bear.  They are covered with fur and
	feathers.
page
	A male servant or attendant; specifically, in chivalry,
	a lad or young man in training for knighthood, or a youth
	of gentle parentage attending a royal or princely personage.
		[ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary 
		  of the English Language ]
pale night
	A strange shimmering in the air announces the arrival of a
	shape, little more than a billowing white diaphanous sheet.
	Closer inspection reveals a writhing, seductive form beneath
	the sheet, indistinct and hazy. Now and then the edges of 
	the sheet rise a little too high on the netherwind, yet
	never enough to reveal the details that lie beyond.
		[ Adapted from Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]
*pall
	_Pallium._ The Roman name for a square woollen cloak worn by
	men in ancient Greece, especially by philosophers and
	courtesans, corresponding to the Roman toga. Hence the Greeks
	called themselves _gens palliata,_ and the Romans called
	themselves _gens togata._
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
panther
	And lo! almost where the ascent began,
	A panther light and swift exceedingly,
	Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
	
	And never moved she from before my face,
	Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
	That many times I to return had turned.
		[ Dante's Inferno, as translated
			by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
*paper
	Some players, who unconsciously perceive Paper as weak or a sign of
	surrender, will shy away from using it entirely or drop it from their
	game when they are falling behind. On the other hand, Paper also
	connects with a player's perceptions about writing. There is a quiet
	power in the printed word. It has the ability to lay off thousands of
	employees, declare war against nations, spread scandal or confess love.
	Paper, in short, has power over masses. The fate of the entire world is
	determined by print. As such, some players perceive Paper as a subtle
	attack, the victory of modern culture over barbarism. Such players
	may use Paper to assert their superiority and dignity.
		[ The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide ]
partisan
vulg?r polearm
	Originally this weapon was a spear with small double
	axe blades added below it. While the main blade retains
	the same shape as a wide spearhead, the side blades 
	bare only a passing similarity to the axe blaes they
	were in ages past. Frequently merely ceremonial now,
	these weapons are from nine to ten feet long (2.7 to
	3 meters).       
	   
	   ,^.
	   | |
	   | |
	   | | 
	 . | | .
	< ~   ~ >
	 \     /
	  \_ _/
	    H
peace keeper
	When someone wins, the fighting will end.
		[ Code Geass ]
pelias
	Conan cried out sharply and recoiled, thrusting his companion
	back.  Before them rose the great shimmering white form of Satha,
	an ageless hate in its eyes.  Conan tensed himself for one mad
	berserker onslaught -- to thrust the glowing faggot into that
	fiendish countenance and throw his life into the ripping sword-
	stroke.  But the snake was not looking at him.  It was glaring
	over his shoulder at the man called Pelias, who stood with his
	arms folded, smiling.  And in the great, cold, yellow eyes
	slowly the hate died out in a glitter of pure fear -- the only
	time Conan ever saw such an expression in a reptile's eyes.
	With a swirling rush like the sweep of a strong wind, the great
	snake was gone.
	"What did he see to frighten him?" asked Conan, eyeing his
	companion uneasily.
	"The scaled people see what escapes the mortal eye," answered
	Pelias cryptically.  "You see my fleshy guise, he saw my naked
	soul."
	    [ Conan the Usurper, by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp ]
*pentagram
	The pentagram was probably discovered as a result of 
	astronomical research in the Euphrates-Tigris region about 
	6,000 years ago. Isolated pentagrams have been found on broken 
	fragments of burned clay in Palestine, in layers dating from 
	around 4000 B.C. It was a common sign among the Sumerians around
	2700 B.C. Some of those who have conducted research of symbols
	believe the pentagram was used by the Sumerians as a cosmic 
	symbol representing the four corners of the earth and the vault
	of the heavens. This, however, seems a bit far-fetched. 
	
	After the Sumerian time there is no clear evidence as to what 
	the pentagram might have meant until the sign appears in 
	Pythagorean mysticism, where it represents Hugieia ("health")
	and the five hidden cavities.
	
	The pentagram also symbolizes the five elements, and authority
	over the same. King Solomon was given a ring with a pentagram
	seal that gave him authority over demons and djinn.
		[ Adapted from symbols.com, the online encyclopedia of
			Western signs and ideograms; 
				and from Wikipedia ]
	
	The pentagram is drawn with 10 strokes, and can be drawn 
	fairly quickly. It may be reinforced up to seven times.
*pen of the void
	The first thing Tak did, he wrote himself.
	
	The second thing Tak did, he wrote the Laws.
	
	The third thing Tak did, he wrote the World.
	
	The fourth thing Tak did, he wrote a cave.
	
	The fifth thing Tak did, he wrote a geode, an egg of stone. 
		[ Gd Tak `Gar (The Things Tak Wrote),
			translated by Sir T. D. J. Pratchett,
			available from Unseen University Press for AM$8 ]
phantom fungus
	A phantom fungus is a tripedal carnivorous plant that roams the
	vast and deep underground caverns of the world. It wanders in
	search of food, using its rootlike feet to detect movement along
	the cavern floors and the sensitive tendrils surrounding its
	mouth to pinpoint prey.
	
	The maw with which a phantom fungus attacks prey is lined with
	row upon row of sharp, jagged teeth that resemble pointed rocks
	more than actual fangs. This "mouth" is not used to feed, however,
	and does not attach to a digestive tract-it is nothing more than
	a gaping natural weapon. When a phantom fungus feeds, it does so
	by squatting down on its prey and infesting the corpse with
	thousands of feeding filaments that burrow through dead flesh to
	siphon away nutrients.
		[ Pathfinder RPG ]
phase spider
	Sometimes confused with neogi or driders and called planar
	spiders on some worlds of the Prime, phase spiders are intelligent
	web-spinners with a raised thorax and a humanlike
	head. What really makes phase spiders stand out is their
	enviable ability to phase back and forth between a plane and
	the plane's Border.
	
	Unknown to most creatures, phase spiders possess
	large web habitats on the Ethereal (both in the Deep and on
	the Border) and only appear on other planes while hunting
	for food. Some phase spiders do live mostly on material
	planes, but these spiders are the exception, not the rule. Like
	many more familiar cultures, Ethereally-based phase spiders
	are not a cohesive race, but instead exist in separate clutches
	(tribes), each of which claims various Prime territories as its
	sole hunting ground. Sometimes disparate phase spider
	clutches cooperate, but sometimes they come into conflict
	over temtorial disputes.
		[ A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, by Bruce R. Cordell ]
pick*ax*
broad pick
	The mine is full of holes;
	With the wound of pickaxes.
	But look at the goldsmith's store.
	There, there is gold everywhere.
		[ Divan-i Kebir Meter 2, by Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi ]
*piercer
	Ye Piercer doth look like unto a stalactyte, and hangeth
	from the roofs of caves and caverns.  Unto the height of a
	man, and thicker than a man's thigh do they grow, and in
	groups do they hang.  If a creature doth pass beneath them,
	they will by its heat and noise perceive it, and fall upon
	it to kill and devour it, though in any other way they move
	but exceeding slow.
		[ the Bestiary of Xygag ]
pindar
	Pindar (ca. 522-443 BC), was an Ancient Greek lyric poet.
piranha
	They live in "schools." Many times they will wait for prey 
	to come to the shallow water of the river. Then the large 
	group of piranhas will attack. These large groups are able 
	to kill large animals... Their lower teeth fit perfectly 
	into the spaces of their upper teeth, creating a tremendous 
	vice-like bite... Piranhas are attracted to any disturbance 
	in the water. 
		[ http://www.animalsoftherainforest.com ]
pit
spiked pit
	Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the
	idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm.
	I rushed to its deadly brink.  I threw my straining vision
	below.  The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost
	recesses.  Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to
	comprehend the meaning of what I saw.  At length it forced --
	it wrestled its way into my soul -- it burned itself in upon my
	shuddering reason.  Oh! for a voice to speak! -- oh! horror! --
	oh! any horror but this!
		[ The Pit and the Pendulum, by Edgar Allan Poe ]
pirate
	Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
	We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	
	Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
	We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	Maraud and embezzle and even highjack.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	
	Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
	We kindle and char and inflame and ignite.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	We burn up the city, we're really a fright.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	
	We're rascals and scoundrels, we're villians and knaves.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs.
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	
	We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads,
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,
	Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
	Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
		[ Pirates of the Caribbean, Disneyland ]
pirate brother
	The Brethren or Brethren of the Coast were a loose 
	coalition of pirates and privateers commonly known as 
	buccaneers and active in the seventeenth and eighteenth
	centuries in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and 
	Gulf of Mexico.
	
	Based primarily on the island of Tortuga off the coast 
	of Haiti and in the city of Port Royal on the island of 
	Jamaica, the original Brethren were mostly French 
	Huguenot and British Protestants, but their ranks were 
	joined by other adventurers of various nationalities 
	including Spaniards, and even African sailors, as well 
	as escaped slaves and outlaws of various sovereigns.
	
	In keeping with their Protestant and mostly Common 
	Law heritage the Brethren were governed by codes of 
	conduct that favored legislative decision-making, 
	hierarchical command authority, individual rights, 
	and equitable division of revenues.
		[ Brethren of the Coast, Wikipedia ]
pirate king
	Oh, better far to live and die
	Under the brave black flag I fly,
	Than play a sanctimonious part,
	With a pirate head and a pirate heart.
	Away to the cheating world go you,
	Where pirates all are well-to-do;
	But I'll be true to the song I sing,
	And live and die a Pirate King.
	
	For I am a Pirate King!
	And it is, it is a glorious thing
	To be a Pirate King!
	
	When I sally forth to seek my prey
	I help myself in a royal way.
	I sink a few more ships, it's true,
	Than a well-bred monarch ought to do;
	But many a king on a first-class throne,
	If he wants to call his crown his own,
	Must manage somehow to get through
	More dirty work than ever I do,
	
	For I am a Pirate King!
	And it is, it is a glorious thing
	To be a Pirate King!
		[ Pirates of the Penzance, Gilbert & Sullivan ]
pit fiend
	Finally, we come to the pit fiends. These creatures are the
	overlords of the race, the most terrifying of all baatezu.
	Raised from the shrieking agonies of the Pit of Flame, they
	understand pain and suffering like no others. 
	
	Wherever they travel, they travel with the might of all 
	Baator behind them.
		[ Faces of Evil, by Colin McComb ]
		
	Pit fiends are among the more powerful of devils, capable of
	attacking twice with weapons as well as grabbing and crushing
	the life out of those unwary enough to enter their
	domains.
platinum yendorian express card
	This is an ancient artifact made of an unknown material.  It
	is rectangular in shape, very thin, and inscribed with
	unreadable ancient runes.  When carried, it grants the one
	who carries it ESP, and reduces all spell induced damage done to
	the carrier by half.  It also protects from magic missile
	attacks.  Finally, its power is such that when invoked, it
	can charge other objects.
# playing style, rather vague topic but these quotes are too apt to pass up
player
play* style
user
	Be bold,
	be bold,
	but not too bold.
	Or else your life's blood,
	shall run cold.
		[ The White Road, by Neil Gaiman ]

	People think I'm crazy to worry all the time;
	If you paid attention, you'd be worried too.
	You better pay attention, or this world we love so much
	Might just kill you.
		[ It's a Jungle Out There, by Randy Newman ]
#			[ theme song from "Monk" ]
polymorph trap
	One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams,
	he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous 
	verminous bug. He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he 
	lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided 
	up into rigid bow-like sections. From this height the blanket, 
	just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in 
	place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the 
	rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.
		[ The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston ]
pony
		Hey! now! Come hoy now! Whither do you wander?
		Up, down, near or far, here, there or yonder?
		Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin,
		White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!

	[...]
	Tom called them one by one and they climbed over the brow and
	stood in a line.  Then Tom bowed to the hobbits.
	
	"Here are your ponies, now!" he said.  "They've more sense (in some
	ways) than you wandering hobbits have -- more sense in their noses.
	For they sniff danger ahead which you walk right into; and if they
	run to save themselves, then they run the right way."
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
*portal
	Portals can be Mirrors, Pictures, Standing Stones, Stone
	Circles, Windows, and special gates set up for the purpose.
	You will travel through them both to distant parts of the
	continent and to and from our own world.  The precise manner
	of their working is a Management secret.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
poseido*n
	Poseido(o)n, lord of the seas and father of rivers and
	fountains, was the son of Chronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus,
	Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.  His rank of ruler of the
	waves he received by lot at the Council Meeting of the Gods,
	at which Zeus took the upper world for himself and gave
	dominion over the lower world to Hades.
	Poseidon is associated in many ways with horses and thus is
	the god of horses.  He taught men how to ride and manage the
	animal he invented and is looked upon as the originator and
	guardian deity of horse races.
	His symbol is the familiar trident or three-pronged spear
	with which he can split rocks, cause or quell storms, and
	shake the earth, a power which makes him the god of
	earthquakes as well.  Physically, he is shown as a strong and
	powerful ruler, every inch a king.
		[ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
		  Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
~*sleeping
~*booze
*potion*
	POTABLE, n.  Suitable for drinking.  Water is said to be
	potable; indeed, some declare it our natural beverage,
	although even they find it palatable only when suffering
	from the recurrent disorder known as thirst, for which it
	is a medicine.  Upon nothing has so great and diligent
	ingenuity been brought to bear in all ages and in all
	countries, except the most uncivilized, as upon the
	invention of substitutes for water.  To hold that this
	general aversion to that liquid has no basis in the
	preservative instinct of the race is to be unscientific --
	and without science we are as the snakes and toads.
		[ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]

	Jack Burton:  What's in the flask, Egg?  Magic potion?
	   Egg Shen:  Yeah.
	       Jack:  I thought so, good.  What do we do?  Drink it?
	        Egg:  Yeah.
	       Jack:  Good, I thought so.
	     [later]
	       Jack:  This does what again, exactly?
	        Egg:  Huge buzz!  [drinks]  Oh good!  See things no
	              one else can see, do things no one else can do.
		[ Big in Trouble in Little China, directed by
		  John Carpenter, written by Gary Goldman &
		  David Z. Weinstein, adaptation by W. D. Richter ]
pray*
	Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer
	reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice two be not four.
		[ Ivan Sergeyevich Urgenev ]
preservative engine
	An invention of the School of Hellfire in the eight circle of Hell.
	Designed to ward off the rending claws of certain demons, only a few
	prototypes have thus-far been completed, and many of those have been
	lost. When set to high intensity, also protects one's possessions
	against many forms of energy-based damage.
~priest of an unknown god
~priest of Ghaunadaur
~priestess of Ghaunadaur
~elder*
priest*
* priest*
acolyte
	[...]  For the two priests were talking exactly like priests,
	piously, with learning and leisure, about the most aerial
	enigmas of theology.  The little Essex priest spoke the more
	simply, with his round face turned to the strengthening stars;
	the other talked with his head bowed, as if he were not even
	worthy to look at them.  But no more innocently clerical
	conversation could have been heard in any white Italian cloister
	or black Spanish cathedral.  The first he heard was the tail of
	one of Father Brown's sentences, which ended:  "... what they
	really meant in the Middle Ages by the heavens being
	incorruptible."  The taller priest nodded his bowed head and
	said:  "Ah, yes, these modern infidels appeal to their reason;
	but who can look at those millions of worlds and not feel that
	there may well be wonderful universes above us where reason is
	utterly unreasonable?"
		[ The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton ]
elder priest
	From Leng, where rocky peaks climb bleak and bare
	Under cold stars obscure to human sight,
	There shoots at dusk a single beam of light
	Whose far blue rays make shepherds whine in prayer.
	They say (though none has been there) that it comes
	Out of a pharos in a tower of stone,
	Where the last Elder One lives on alone,
	Talking to Chaos with the beat of drums.
	
	The Thing, they whisper, wears a silken mask
	Of yellow, whose queer folds appear to hide
	A face not of this earth, though none dares ask
	Just what those features are, which bulge inside.
	Many, in man's first youth, sought out that glow,
	But what they found, no one will ever know.
		[ H. P. Lovecraft, Fungi from Yuggoth XXVII. ]
priest of an unknown god
	"To the Gods of Asia and Europe and Africa, 
		to the unknown and strange gods."
			[ Inscription found on an altar at Athens, ~60AD ]
priest of Ghaunadaur
	Ghaunadaur, god of fallen stars, slime, outcasts, and the 
	discarded, is best known as a peripheral member of the 
	drow pantheon.  However, he is also an ancient, 
	pre-humanoid entity, thought to have emerged from the 
	primordial ooze, or even to have born that ancient life 
	with him to this world from some forgotten home.  Most 
	slimes and oozes are mindless and unable to worship 
	Ghaunadaur, but the deity is known and revered by 
	shoggoths, from which its most powerful priests are
	drawn.
priestess of Ghaunadaur
	Ghaunadaur, god of fallen stars, slime, outcasts, and the 
	discarded, is a peripheral member of the drow pantheon. 
	He is worshiped mainly by disaffected drow, especially 
	those warped into punishment forms and exiled by Lolth.  
	The most powerful droven followers of Ghaunadaur are 
	often former priestesses of Lolth, warped into drider 
	form after failing one of their goddess's many tests.
prisoner
	Where am I?
		In the Village.
	What do you want?
		Information.
	Whose side are you on?
		That would be telling.  We want information ...
		information ...
	You won't get it.
		By hook or by crook, we will.
	Who are you?
		The new Number 2.
	Who is Number 1?
		You are Number 6.
	I am not a number!  I am a free man! 
		[ The Prisoner, by Patrick McGoohan ]
ptah
	Known under various names (Nu, Neph, Cenubis, Amen-Kneph,
	Khery-Bakef), Ptah is the creator god and god of craftsmen.
	He is usually depicted as wearing a closely fitting robe
	with only his hands free.  His most distinctive features are
	the invariable skull-cap exposing only his face and ears,
	and the _was_ or rod of domination which he holds,
	consisting of a staff surmounted by the _ankh_ symbol of
	life.  He is otherwise symbolized by his sacred animal, the
	bull.
*pudding
	   " It's all very fine," said the Puddin' gloomily, " singing about
	the joys of being penguins and pirates, but how'd you like to be a
	Puddin' and be eaten all day long? "
	   And in a very gruff voice he sang as follows :--
	      " O, who would be a puddin',
		  A puddin' in a pot,
		A puddin' which is stood on
		  A fire which is hot ?
		O sad indeed the lot
		Of puddin's in a pot.
	...
	      " But as I am a puddin',
		  A puddin' in a pot,
		I hope you get the stomachache
		  For eatin' me a lot.
		I hope you get it hot,
		  You puddin'-eatin' lot ! "
	   " Very well sung, Albert," said Bill encouragingly, " though you're
	a trifle husky in your undertones, which is no doubt due to the gravy
	in your innards.  However, as a reward for bein' a bright little
	feller we shall have a slice of you all round before turnin' in for
	the night."
	[ The Magic Pudding: The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum. Norman Lindsay ]
*purple worm
	A gargantuan version of the harmless rain-worm, the purple
	worm poses a huge threat to the ordinary adventurer.  It is
	known to swallow whole and digest its victims within only a
	few minutes.  These worms are always on guard, sensitive
	to the most minute vibrations in the earth, but may also
	be awakened by a remote shriek.

	"With a single, savage thrust of her spear, the warrior-woman 
	impaled the fungus, silencing it.  However, it was too late:  
	the alarm had been raised[...]
	Suddenly, a large, dark shape rose from the abyss before them, 
	its fetid bulk looming overhead...The monster was some kind of
	great dark worm, but that was about all they were sure of."
		[ The Adventurers, Epic IV, by Thomas A. Miller ]
pyrolisk
	At first glance around the corner, I thought it was another 
	cockatrice. I had encountered the wretched creatures two or
	three times since leaving the open area. I quickly ducked my 
	head back and considered what to do next. My heart had begun
	to thump audibly as I patted my pack to make sure I still had 
	the dead lizards at close reach. A check of my attire showed
	no obvious holes or damage. I had to keep moving. One deep
	breath, and a count of three, two, one, and around the corner 
	I bolted. But it was no cockatrice! I felt a sudden intense 
	searing of the skin around my face, and flames began to leap
	from my pack. I tossed it to the ground, and quickly retreated
	back, around that corner, desperately striving to get out of 
	its sight.
python
	A monstrous serpent in Greek mythology, and the child of Gaia,
	the goddess earth. It was produced from the slime and mud that 
	was left on the earth by the great flood of Deucalion. It lived 
	in a cave and guarded the oracle of Delphi on mount Parnassus.   

	No man dared to approach the beast and the people asked Apollo 
	for help. He came down from Mount Olympus with his silver bow 
	and golden arrows. With using only one arrow he killed the serpent
	and claimed the oracle for himself. ... The old name of 
	Delphi, Pytho, refers to the serpent.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
serpent people
serpent man
serpent man of Yoth
	They resemble upright serpents, with arms and legs, 
	ophidian heads and tails, and commonly wear robes of 
	the highest quality.
	
	This ancient race first reach prominence in the 
	Permian Age, long before the first dinosaurs.  
	That primordial civilization built cities of black 
	basalt, fought deadly wars, and mastered profound 
	chemical and hypergeometrical techniques.  The 
	species dwindled in the Triassic.  In the Pliocene,
	Serpent People increased and once again built cities,
	thriving into the early Pleistocene.  Now they are 
	again a relict species, here and in the Dreamlands.
	
	Their first civilization learned the secret of 
	immortality, later enabling isolated scholars to 
	contribute profoundly in epochs when civilization 
	was prostrate.
		[ S. Petersen's Field Guide to 
			Creatures of the Dreamlands ]
*silver sky
	Hear not just my words, but the meaning behind them.
	Zerthimon's will, my will, your will. Let us all be as one.
	In this place, broken upon shadow, carved deep in earth.
	What once was sundered, from two peoples born.
	Make all that was scattered whole again
		by the heart that guides the will.
		By the will that guides the hand.
		And the hand... that guides the blade.
		[ Neverwinter Nights 2 ]
*sky reflected
	Zerthimon took the blade and studied its surface.
	In it, he saw his reflection. It was in the
	reflection of the steel that Zerthimon first *knew*
	himself. Its edge was sharp, its will the wearer's.
	It was the blade that would come to be raised against
	Gith when Zerthimon made the Pronouncement of Two
	Skies.
		[ The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon,
			Planescape Torment ]
*speed*
	"Attack on ground where your enemy believes you will not, from an unexpected 
	direction at an unexpected time. Defend where your enemy believes you are not, 
	and when he believes you will run. Surprise is the key to victory, and speed 
	is the key to surprise. For the soldier, speed is life."
		[ Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan ]
*starshadow
*star-phantom
	Strange is the night where black stars rise,
	And strange moons circle through the skies,
	But stranger still is
		Lost Carcosa.
	[ The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers ]
Stranger
The Stranger
Cassilda*
	Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.

	Stranger: Indeed?

	Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.

	Stranger: I wear no mask.

	Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda) No mask? No mask!
		[ The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers ]
quadruped
	The woodlands and other regions are inhabited by multitudes
	of four-legged creatures which cannot be simply classified.
	They might not have fiery breath or deadly stings, but
	adventurers have nevertheless met their end numerous times
	due to the claws, hooves, or bites of such animals.
quantum mechanic
	These creatures are not native to this universe; they seem
	to have strangely derived powers, and unknown motives.

	_Uncertainty Principle_ The principle that it is not possible
	to know with unlimited accuracy both the position and momentum
	of a particle. ... An explanation of the uncertainty is that
	in order to locate a particle exactly, an observer must be
	able to bounce off it a photon of radiation; this act of
	location itself alters the position of the particle
	in an unpredictable way. To locate the position accurately,
	photons of short wavelength would have to be used. The high
	momentum of such photons would cause a large effect on the
	position. On the other hand, using photons of lower momenta
	would have less effect on the particle's position, but would
	be less accurate because of the lower wavelength.
		[ A Concise Dictionary of Physics ]
quasit
	Quasits are small, evil creatures, related to imps.  Their
	talons release a very toxic poison when used in an attack.
queen bee
	The term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, 
	mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is 
	usually the mother of most, if not all, the bees in the hive.
	The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees 
	and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. 
	There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*quest
	Many, possibly most, Tours are organized as a Quest.  This
	is like a large-scale treasure hunt, with clues scattered
	all over the continent, a few false leads, Mystical Masters
	as game-show hosts, and the Dark Lord and the Terrain to
	make the Quest interestingly difficult.  [...]
	In order to be assured of your future custom, the Management
	has a further Rule:  Tourists, far from being rewarded for
	achieving their Quest Object, must then go on to conquer
	the Dark Lord or set about Saving the World, or both.  And
	why not?  By then you will have had a lot of practice in
	that sort of thing and, besides, the Quest Object is usually
	designed to help you do it.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
quetzalcoatl
	One of the principal Aztec-Toltec gods was the great and wise
	Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukumatz in Guatemala, and
	Kukulcan in Yucatan.  His image, the plumed serpent, is found
	on both the oldest and the most recent Indian edifices. ...
	The legend tells how the Indian deity Quetzalcoatl came from
	the "Land of the Rising Sun".  He wore a long white robe and
	had a beard; he taught the people crafts and customs and laid
	down wise laws.  He created an empire in which the ears of
	corn were as long as men are tall, and caused bolls of colored
	cotton to grow on cotton plants.  But for some reason or other
	he had to leave his empire. ...  But all the legends of
	Quetzalcoatl unanimously agree that he promised to come again.
		[ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
quickling
	A blur of color and a hint of movement are the only clues most 
	people have of the existence of the quickling. Great speed and 
	small size make it difficult to find and focus on these swift 
	beings.
		[ ADOM, by Thomas Biskup ]
quit*
	 Maltar:  [...]  I remembered a little saying I learned my
	          first day at the academy.
	Natalie:  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Winners never quit and quitters
	          never win.
	 Maltar:  What?  No!  Winners never quit and quitters should
	          be cast into the Flaming Pit of Death.
		[ Snow Day, directed by Chris Koch,
		  written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi ]
quivering blob
	A blind, brainless monster that lives in a state of constant,
	undirected terror.
raijin
raiden
	The Japanese god of thunder (rai) and lightning (den). He prevented
	the Mongols from invading Japan in 1274. Sitting on a cloud he sent
	forth a shower of lightning arrows upon the invading fleet. Only three
	men escaped. Raiden is portrayed as a red demon with sharp claws,
	carrying a large drum. He is fond of eating human navels. The only
	protection against him is to hide under a mosquito net.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
ramiel
	I AM THE THUNDER OF GOD. ANGEL OF LIGHTNING. 
	I AM RAMIEL. I HAVE COME.
		[ NGE, Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman ]
rans??r
hilted polearm
	This wepaon is essentially a spear with a hilt,
	designed to block and possibly disarm the opponent.
	The hilt can be curved backwards or stick straight 
	out from the thin spear head. It is from nine to  
	eleven feet long (2.7 to 3.3 meters).       
	 
	   
	    A
	    H
	    H
	    H
	    T
	 -=ZZZ=- 
	    H
ranger
* ranger
	"Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters -- but hunters
	ever of the servants of the Enemy; for they are found in many
	places, not in Mordor only.
	If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have played
	another part.  Many evil things there are that your strong walls
	and bright swords do not stay.  You know little of the lands
	beyond your bounds.  Peace and freedom, do you say?  The North
	would have known them little but for us.  Fear would have
	destroyed them.  But when dark things come from the houseless
	hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us.  What
	roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in
	quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the
	Dunedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?"
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
ranseur
	A variant of the pike, the ranseur has a thin, double-edged 
	primary blade. Secondary blades are backward-hooking projections 
	set well below the large central blade, forming a crown-shape. 
	The spearing function of the weapon is apparent, and the 
	deflection includes the trapping of opponent weapons in the space 
	below the main blade, where a twist of the shaft would apply 
	pressure from it or the secondary projections to either break the 
	caught weapon or disarm its wielder. Additionally, the side 
	projections provide both a means of holding an opponent at long 
	range or of pulling mounted opponents off their steed.
rat
sewer rat
rabid rat
	Rats are long-tailed rodents.  They are aggressive,
	omnivorous, and adaptable, often carrying diseases.

	"The rat," said O'Brien, still addressing his invisible
	audience, "although a rodent, is carnivorous.  You are aware
	of that.  You will have heard of the things that happen in
	the poor quarters of this town.  In some streets a woman dare
	not leave her baby alone in the house, even for five minutes.
	The rats are certain to attack it.  Within quite a small time
	they will strip it to the bones.  They also attack sick or
	dying people.  They show astonishing intelligence in knowing
	when a human being is helpless."
		[ 1984, by George Orwell ]
raven
	But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
	That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
	Nothing further then he uttered -- not a feather then he fluttered--
	Till I scarcely more than muttered, 'other friends have flown before--
	On the morrow *he* will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
		Then the bird said, 'Nevermore.'
				[ The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe ]
razorvine
razor vine
	Razorvine's a fact of life in Sigil and on some of the Lower
	Planes. It's a black-leaved creeper or ivy with an exceptionally
	sharp-edged stem hidden under the lush foliage. The plant's
	capable of surviving almost any conditions, and flourishes in
	most environments - regardless of the quality of the soil, atmos-
	phere, rainfall, or light. Razorvine can grow several feet in a 
	single day, and can cover a small building or untended wall in
	a week. There are few creatures as can stomach razorvine, so
	its growth is often unimpeded by natural means.
	
	Merchants and other cutters interested in extra security have 
	been bringing razorvine cuttings with them to the Outlands,
	planting the vines on whatever they wanted kept safe, and then
	learning just how virulent ravorvine growth really is. Chant is
	they recently had a sod drawn and quartered in Ribcage for trying
	to smuggle cuttings in after they'd just finished clearing the
	town of the stuff.
		[ Planescape Monstrous Compendium II, by Rich Baker ]
~*invisibility
~ring of wishes
*ring
ring of *
	Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
	Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
	Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
	One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
	In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
	One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
	One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
	In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
ring of invisibility
	[...] "When time came for the shepherds to hold their customary
	assembly in order to prepare their monthly report to the king
	about the state of the flocks, he came too, wearing this ring.
	While he was sitting with the others, it chanced that he moved
	the collet of the ring around toward himself into the inside of
	his hand; having done this, he disappeared from the sight of
	those who were sitting beside him, and they discussed of him as
	of someone who had left. And he wondered and once again feeling
	for the ring, he turned the collet outwards and, by turning it,
	reappeared. Reflecting upon this, he put the ring to the test
	to see if it indeed had such power, and he came to this conclusion
	that, by turning the collet inwards, he became invisible, outwards,
	visible. Having perceived this, he at once managed for himself to
	become one of the envoys to the king; upon arrival, having seduced
	his wife, with her help, he laid a hand on the king, murdered
	him and took hold of the leadership."
		[ The Republic, by Plato, translated by James Adam ]
ring of wishes
	A simple black ring, decorated only by a cluster of stars. Each
	star is an indicator of the magics enchanted into the ring, 
	which the wearer can then invoke to summon a djinni. 
robe
	Robes are the only garments, apart from Shirts, ever to have
	sleeves.  They have three uses:
	1.  As the official uniform of Priests, Priestesses, Monks,
	Nuns (see Nunnery), and Wizards.  The OMT [ Official Management
	Term ] prescribed for the Robes of Priests and Nuns is that
	they _fall in severe folds_; of Priestesses that they _float_;
	and of Wizards that they _swirl_.  You can thus see who you
	are dealing with.
	2.  For Kings.  The OMT here is _falling in stately folds_.
	3.  As the garb of Desert Nomads.  [...]
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
rock
	Bilbo saw that the moment had come when he must do something.
	He could not get up at the brutes and he had nothing to shoot
	with; but looking about he saw that in this place there were
	many stones lying in what appeared to be a now dry little
	watercourse.  Bilbo was a pretty fair shot with a stone, and
	it did not take him long to find a nice smooth egg-shaped one
	that fitted his hand cosily.  As a boy he used to practise
	throwing stones at things, until rabbits and squirrels, and
	even birds, got out of his way as quick as lightning if they
	saw him stoop; and even grownup he had still spent a deal of
	his time at quoits, dart-throwing, shooting at the wand,
	bowls, ninepins and other quiet games of the aiming and
	throwing sort - indeed he could do lots of things, besides
	blowing smoke-rings, asking riddles and cooking, that I
	haven't time to tell you about.  There is no time now.  While
	he was picking up stones, the spider had reached Bombur, and
	soon he would have been dead.  At that moment Bilbo threw.
	The stone struck the spider plunk on the head, and it dropped
	senseless off the tree, flop to the ground, with all its legs
	curled up.
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
rock mole
	A rock mole is a member of the rodent family.  They get their
	name from their ability to tunnel through rock in the same
	fashion that a mole tunnels through earth.  They are known to
	eat anything they come across in their diggings, although it
	is still unknown how they convert some of these things into
	something of nutritional value.
rodent
	A gnawing mammal (order _Rodentia_) having in each jaw two
	(rarely four) incisors, growing continually from persistent
	pulps, and no canine teeth, as a squirrel, beaver, or rat.
		[ Webster's Comprehensive International Dictionary 
		  of the English Language ]
rodent of unusual size
	"Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist."
		[The Princess Bride, by William Goldman ]
*rod of seven parts*
	A canvas's colors of blood and ichor soak the ground upon the
	fields of Pesh, mountains of corpses surrounding a creature
	whose body wavers between forms arachnid and lupine. Miska
	the Wolf-Spyder.
	
	The wind dukes and their servants (slaves?) are falling, the 
	former comets being doused and the latter as if a wind put 
	darkens a field of candles. One duke is a pillar for the the 
	forces of Law and its allies, shining in its gorgeous 
	androgyne nudity despite the vastness of Miska's shadow which 
	flows through forms like quicksilver. In his hand is a simple 
	black rod, elegant in its minimalism as befitting the nature 
	of its orderly creators. 
	
	The duke moves toward Miska, attendants falling around him as 
	sacrificial fodder for the historical moment.  A mountainous 
	black wolf with golden pupiless orbs has eight bebillith legs 
	that slash through the surrounding enemy. Then it is a silver 
	haired spider with eight lupine eyes and slavering jaws 
	between fangs should be, biting through stone giants and 
	lawful titans whose race ends here.
	
	What happens next is unclear - those who might have recalled 
	these moments better are lost even to the great powers shining 
	their light on this ancient past. One of the wind dukes that 
	was there before the tide of the demonic horde fell upon them 
	is dead, his body torn by gaping but perfectly circular holes. 
	One of the Vaati has speared the body of the Miska the 
	Wolf-Spyder, who is in his drider like form, his eye-holes 
	pouring out light that strangely resembles rotted gold.
		[ Blade of Innocence, by Sciborg ]
rogue
* rogue
	I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a
	quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a
	good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other
	senses.  I see this is the time that the unjust man doth
	thrive. <...> The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity,
	stealing away from his father with his clog at his heels:  if
	I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the king
	withal, I would not do't:  I hold it the more knavery to
	conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
		[ Autolycus the Rogue, from The Winter's Tale by
			William Shakespeare ]
roshi
	Roshi is a Japanese word, common in Zen Buddhism, meaning "old"
	(ro) and "teacher" (shi). Roshi can be used as a term of respect,
	as in the Rinzai school; as a simple reference to actual age, as
	in the Soto school; or it can mean a teacher who has transmitted
	knowledge to, and thus "given birth" to, a new teacher.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
rothe
	The rothe (pronounced roth-AY) is a musk ox-like creature with
	an aversion to light.  It prefers to live underground near
	lichen and moss.
*royal jelly
	"'Royal Jelly,'" he read aloud, "'must be a substance of
	tremendous nourishing power, for on this diet alone, the
	honey-bee larva increases in weight fifteen hundred times in
	five days!'"

	"How much?"

	"Fifteen hundred times, Mabel.  And you know what that means
	if you put it in terms of a human being?  It means," he said,
	lowering his voice, leaning forward, fixing her with those
	small pale eyes, "it means that in five days a baby weighing
	seven and a half pounds to start off with would increase in
	weight to five tons!"
		[ Royal Jelly, by Roald Dahl ]
ruby
sapphire
	_Corundum._ Mineral, aluminum oxide, Al2O3. The clear varieties
	are used as gems and the opaque as abrasive materials. Corundum
	occurs in crystals of the hexagonal system and in masses. It is
	transparent to opaque and has a vitreous to adamantine luster.
	[...] The chief corundum gems are the ruby (red) and the
	sapphire (blue).
		[ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
~stormbringer
~orcrist
rune*sword
	Runes are an intensely magical form of writing. Anything
	written in Runes is going to be a Spell.
	[...]
	6.  Written on Rings and Swords. These Runes always
	make words and nearly always mean trouble. Avoid any
	artifact with Runes on it, even if the Runes prove only to
	spell the maker's name.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
rust monster
	Rust monsters are subterranean creatures with an appetite for
	all sorts of metals. These unique creatures, though generally
	inoffensive, are the bane of fighters everywhere. 
	The average rust monster measures 5 feet long and 3 feet high
	at the shoulder. It has a strange tail that appears armor plated
	and ends in an odd-looking bony projection that resembles a 
	double-ended paddle. Two prehensile antennae are located under
	the thing's two eyes. The hide of the rust monster is rough,
	covered with lumpy projections. Coloration varies from a 
	yellowish tan on the underside and legs, to a rust red upper
	back. Rust monsters smell like wet, oxidized metal.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
r*lyeh
	Then, driven ahead by curiosity in their captured yacht under
	Johansen's command, the men sight a great stone pillar 
	sticking out of the sea, and come upon a coastline of mingled
	mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing 
	less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror -
	the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, that was built in 
	measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome 
	shapes that seeped down from the dark stars.
	[...]
	I suppose that only a single mountain-top, the hideous 
	motolith-crowned citadel whereon great Cthulhu was buried,
	actually emerged from the waters. When I think of the extent
	of all that may be brooding down there I almost wish to kill
	myself forthwith.
		[ The Call of Cthulhu, H. P. Lovecraft ]
r*lyehian
star spawn*
	When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to 
	world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They
	could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would
	never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great
	city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for
	a glorious surrection when the stars and the earth might once
	more be ready for Them.
		[ The Call of Cthulhu, by H. P. Lovecraft ]
r*lyehian faceplate
	In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old
	Ones in dreams, but then something happened. The great stone 
	city R'lyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk 
	beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal
	mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off 
	the spectral intercourse.
		[ The Call of Cthulhu, by H. P. Lovecraft ]
the drowned
	Long, long ago, before your ancestors
		had discovered flint or fire or songs, 
	my people already climbed the great heights of civilization.
	Settling on an island in the midst of the lonely seas, 
		we raised a great city to the stars.

	...But Time washes away all things, 
		and that shining city has long since drowned 
		beneath the uncaring ocean.
~lightsaber
~saber-toothed cat
*saber
*sabre
	Flashed all their sabres bare,
	Flashed as they turned in air,
	Sab'ring the gunners there,
	Charging an army, while
	All the world wondered:
	Plunged in the battery smoke,
	Right through the line they broke;
	Cossack and Russian
	Reeled from the sabre-stroke
	Shattered and sundered.
	Then they rode back, but not--
	Not the six hundred.
		[ The Charge of the Light Brigade,
		  by Alfred, Lord Tennyson ]
saber-toothed cat
	The saber-toothed tiger, a common term for a member of the
	genus Smilodon, is perhaps the most well-known of the
	saber-toothed cats.  Notable for the long, dagger-like fangs
	from which the name of the genus is derived, these apex predators
	stalked mammoths, bison, and other large herbivores across the
	plains of prehistoric North America
saddle
*black web entity
	The horseman serves the horse,
	The neat-herd serves the neat,
	The merchant serves the purse,
	The eater serves his meat;
	'Tis the day of the chattel,
	Web to weave, and corn to grind,
	Things are in the saddle,
	And ride mankind.
		[ Ode, by Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
sake
	Japanese rice wine.
salamander
	For hundreds of years, many people believed that salamanders
	were magical.  In England in the Middle Ages, people thought
	that fire created salamanders.  When they set fire to damp
	logs, dozens of the slimy creatures scurried out.  The word
	salamander, in fact, comes from a Greek word meaning "fire
	animal".
		[ Salamanders, by Cherie Winner ]
samurai
* samurai
	By that time, Narahara had already slipped his arm from the
	sleeve of his outer robe, drew out his two-and-a-half-foot
	Fujiwara Tadahiro sword, and, brandishing it over his head,
	began barreling toward the foreigners.  In less than a minute,
	he had charged upon them and cut one of them through the torso.
	The man fled, clutching his bulging guts, finally to fall from
	his horse at the foot of a pine tree about a thousand yards
	away.  Kaeda Takeji finished him off.  The other two Englishmen
	were severely wounded as they tried to flee.  Only the woman
	managed to escape virtually unscathed.
		[ The Fox-horse, from Drunk as a Lord, by Ryotaro Shiba ]
sandestin
	Ildefonse left the terrace and almost immediately sounds
	of contention came from the direction of the work-room.
	Ildefonse presently returned to the terrace, followed by
	Osherl and a second sandestin using the guise of a gaunt blue
	bird-like creature, some six feet in height.
	
	Ildefonse spoke in scathing tones:  "Behold these two
	creatures!  They can roam the chronoplex as easily as you
	or I can walk around the table; yet neither has the wit to
	announce his presence upon arrival.  I found Osherl asleep
	in his fulgurite and Sarsem perched in the rafters."
		[...]
	"No matter," said Rhialto.  "He has brought Sarsem, and this
	was his requirement.  In the main, Osherl, you have done well!"
	
	"And my indenture point?"
	
	"Much depends upon Sarsem's testimony.  Sarsem, will you sit?"
	
	"In this guise, I find it more convenient to stand."
	
	"Then why not alter to human form and join us in comfort at
	the table?"
	
	"That is a good idea."  Sarsem became a naked young epicene
	in an integument of lavender scales with puffs of purple hair
	like pom-poms growing down his back.  He seated himself at
	the table but declined refreshment.  "This human semblance,
	though typical, is after all, only a guise.  If I were to put
	such things inside myself, I might well become uneasy."
		[ Rhialto the Marvellous, by Jack Vance ]
sasquatch
	The name _Sasquatch_ doesn't really become important in Canada
	until the 1930s, when it appeared in the works of J. W. Burns,
	a British Columbian writer who used a great deal of Indian
	lore in his stories.  Burn's Sasquatch was a giant Indian who
	lived in the wilderness.  He was hairy only in the sense that
	he had long hair on his head, and while this Sasquatch lived a
	wild and primitive life, he was fully human.
	Burns's character proved to be quite popular.  There was a
	Sasquatch Inn near the town of Harrison, British Columbia, and
	Harrison even had a local celebration called "Sasquatch Days."
	The celebration which had been dormant for years was revived
	as part of British Columbia's centennial, and one of the
	events was to be a Sasquatch hunt.  The hunt never took place,
	perhaps it was never supposed to, but the publicity about it
	did bring out a number of people who said they had encountered
	a Sasquatch -- not Burns's giant Indian, but the hairy apelike
	creature that we have all come to know.
		[ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]
sara
sara*the last oracle
	Tell the king; the fair wrought house has fallen
	No shelter has Apollo, nor sacred laurel leaves
	The fountains are now silent; the voice is stilled.
	It is finished.
		[ The last Oracle of Delphi 
			to a representative of the Emperor Theodosius ]
scalpel
	A scalpel is a very sharp knife used for surgery ... Merely
	touching a medical scalpel with bare hands to test it will
	cut through the skin. ... Medical scalpel blades are gradually
	curved for greater precision when cutting through tissue.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*sceptre of might
	This mace was created aeons ago in some unknown cave,
	and has been passed down from generation to generation of
	cave dwellers.  It is a very mighty mace indeed, and in
	addition will protect anyone who carries it from magic
	missile attacks.  When invoked, it causes conflict in the
	area around it.
scimitar
	Oh, how handsome, how noble was the Vizier Ali Tebelin,
	my father, as he stood there in the midst of the shot, his
	scimitar in his hand, his face black with powder!  How his
	enemies fled before him!
		[ The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas ]
*scion queen*
	The scion queen mother rules over all the social insects,
	and many other creatures besides. Her sign is a stylized
	insect head composed of eight strokes, and may be
	reinforced up to seven times.
scorpio*
	A sub-species of the spider (_Scorpionidae_), the scorpion
	distinguishes itself from them by having a lower body that
	ends in a long, jointed tail tapering to a poisonous stinger.
	They have eight legs and pincers.
		[ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
scorpius
	Since early times, the Scorpion has represented death, darkness,
	and evil.  Scorpius is the reputed slayer of Orion the Hunter.
	[...]  The gods put both scorpion and hunter among the stars, but
	on opposite sides of the sky so they would never fight again.
	As Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west.
		[ 365 Starry Nights, by Chet Raymo ]
~*amnesia
~*genocide
~*light
~*paper
~stamped scroll
unlabeled scroll
scroll*
	And I was gazing on the surges prone,
	With many a scalding tear and many a groan,
	When at my feet emerg'd an old man's hand,
	Grasping this scroll, and this same slender wand.
	I knelt with pain--reached out my hand--had grasp'd
	Those treasures--touch'd the knuckles--they unclasp'd--
	I caught a finger: but the downward weight
	O'erpowered me--it sank. Then 'gan abate
	The storm, and through chill aguish gloom outburst
	The comfortable sun. I was athirst
	To search the book, and in the warming air
	Parted its dripping leaves with eager care.
	Strange matters did it treat of, and drew on
	My soul page after page, till well-nigh won
	Into forgetfulness; when, stupefied,
	I read these words, and read again, and tried
	My eyes against the heavens, and read again.
		[ Endymion, by John Keats ]
scythe
	A scythe consists of a wooden shaft about 170 centimetres 
	(67 in) long called a snaith, snath, snathe or sned. The 
	snaith may be straight, or with an "S" curve, but the more
	sophisticated versions are curved in three dimensions, 
	allowing the mower to stand more upright. The snaith has 
	either one or two short handles at right angles to it - 
	usually one near the upper end and always another roughly 
	in the middle. A long, curved blade about 60 to 90 centimetres
	(24 to 35 in)) long is mounted at the lower end, perpendicular
	to the snaith.
		[ Wikipedia ]
sea monster
	The oceans of the surface world are populated by numerous sea
	creatures, both vast and deadly, and by way of magic or
	underwater tunnels many of these have found their way into
	the dungeon environment.
	
	Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
	was pale-green and luminous and wet.  Its fingered end had
	hold of Frodo's foot, and was dragging him into the water.
	Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife.  The
	arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out
	for help.  Twenty other arms came rippling out.  The dark
	water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
seal
	Selkie is simply the Orcadian dialect word for "seal".

	So, selkies are a very common sight across Orkney. Heads
	bobbing above the waves, they are often seen by the shore,
	watching inquisitively with uncannily human eyes.
		[ Orkneyjar, by Sigurd Towrie ]
selkie
	Unlike the Finfolk, who retained their malicious tendencies
	throughout the years, the selkie-folk have come to be
	regarded as gentle creatures, with the ability to transform
	from seals into beautiful, lithe humans.
	
	In the surviving folklore, there is no agreement as to how
	often the selkie-folk were able to carry out the
	transformation. Some tales say it was once a year, usually
	Midsummer's Eve, while others state it could be "every
	ninth night" or "every seventh stream".

	Regardless of how often they were able to transform, the
	folklore tells us that once in human form, the selkie-folk
	would dance on lonely stretches of moonlit shore, or bask
	in the sun on outlying skerries.
		[ Orkneyjar, by Sigurd Towrie ]
secret-whisperer
truth-seer
dream-eater
veil-render
	You noticed them, and they noticed that you noticed them.
		[ The Mothman Prophecies ]

	The Great Ones that inhabit the nightmare are sympathetic
	in spirit, and often answer when called upon.
		[ Bloodborne, by From Software ]

	The hole in your room is a hole in you.

	You called me, so here I am. I know I shut you out sometimes
	- I'm always glad to hear from you.
		[ Control, by Remedy Entertainment ]
serpent-necked lioness
	The image generally is classified as a feline, and with 
	close inspection resembles an unusually long-necked 
	lioness. It bears the characteristic tuft of the species 
	at the end of the tail, there are no spots, the 
	round-eared head most closely resembles the lioness rather 
	than a serpent, because serpents do not have ears, and 
	there are no typical serpent features such as scales, 
	tongue, or head shape.

	It has been suggested that in Ancient Egyptian art the 
	serpent-necked lioness represents "a symbol of the chaos 
	that reigned beyond Egypt's borders", which the king must 
	tame. They are normally shown conquered or restrained, as 
	in the Narmer Palette, or attacking other animals. But in 
	Mesopotamian art they are shown in pairs, with intertwined 
	necks.
	
	There is no known name for the creature in any ancient 
	texts.
		[ Wikipedia ]
set
seth
	The ancient Egyptian god of chaos (Set), the embodiment of hostility
	and even of outright evil. He is also a god of war, deserts, storms, and
	foreign lands. ... In the Book of the Dead, Seth is called "Lord of 
	the Northern Sky" and is held responsible for storms and cloudy weather.
	 ... Seth was portrayed as a man with the head of undeterminable origin, 
	although some see in it the head of an aardvark. He had a curved snout,
	erect square-tipped ears and a long forked tail. He was sometimes 
	entirely in animal form with the body similar to that of a greyhound. 
	Animals sacred to this god were the dog, the jackal, the gazelle, the
	donkey, the crocodile, the hippopotamus, and the pig.
		[ Encyclopedia Mythica, ed. M.F. Lindemans ]
~shadowsteel*
~shadowlander's torch*
shad*
	Shades are undead creatures.  They differ from zombies in
	that a zombie is an undead animation of a corpse, while a
	shade is an undead creature magically created by the use
	of black magic.
shaman karnov
	Making his quarters in the Caves of the Ancestors, Shaman
	Karnov unceasingly tries to shield his neanderthal people
	from the Chromatic Dragon's minions' harassments.
shan*lai*ching
	The Chinese god of Mountains and Seas, also the name of an
	old book (also Shan Hai Tjing), the book of mountains and
	seas - which deals with the monster Kung Kung trying to
	seize power from Yao, the fourth emperor.
		[ Spectrum Atlas van de Mythologie ]
shark
	As the shark moved, its dark top reflected virtually no
	light.  The denticles on its skin muted the whoosh of its
	movements as the shark rose, driven by the power of the
	great tail sweeping from side to side, like a scythe.  
	The fish exploded upward.
	Charles Bruder felt a slight vacuum tug in the motion of
	the sea, noted it as a passing current, the pull of a wave,
	the tickle of undertow.  He could not have heard the faint
	sucking rush of water not far beneath him.  He couldn't
	have seen or heard what was hurtling from the murk at
	astonishing speed, jaws unhinging, widening, for the
	enormous first bite.  It was the classic attack
	that no other creature in nature could make -- a bomb from
	the depths.
		[ Close to Shore, by Michael Capuzzo ]
lamb
sheep
	A Wolf, wanting lamb for his dinner,
	Growled out “Lamb you wronged me, you sinner;”
	Bleated Lamb – “Nay, not true!”
	Answered Wolf – “Then ’twas Ewe…
	Ewe or lamb; you will serve for my dinner.”
		[ Retelling of Aesop's The Wolf and the Lamb
			from The Baby's Own Aesop, by W.J. Linton ]
shield of the resolute heart
	The wind is in the sky, 
	and the stars are in the heavens,
	and a resolute heart 
	beats within my chest!
shito
	A Japanese stabbing knife.
*shoggoth
*shuggoth
	"... in the place of utter blasphemy, the unholy pit where 
	the black realm begins and the watcher guards the gate - 
	I saw a shoggoth - it changed shape ..."
		[ The Thing on the Doorstep, by H.P. Lovecraft ]

	It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway 
	train -- a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly
	self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and 
	un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-
	filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic 
	penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and 
	its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came 
	that eldritch, mocking cry -- "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" and at 
	last we remembered that the demoniac Shoggoths - given life, 
	thought, and plastic organ patterns solely by the Old Ones ...
		[ At the Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
shopkeeper
	There have been three general theories put forward to explain
	the phenomenon of the wandering shops or, as they are generically
	known, _tabernae vagantes._
	The first postulates that many thousands of years ago there
	evolved somewhere in the multiverse a race whose single talent
	was to buy cheap and sell dear. Soon they controlled a vast
	galactic empire or, as they put it, Emporium, and the more
	advanced members of the species found a way to equip their very
	shops with unique propulsion units that could break the dark 
	walls of space itself and open up vast new markets. And long
	after the worlds of the Emporium perished in the heat death of
	their particular universe, after one last defiant fire sale, the
	wandering starshops still ply their trade, eating their way
	through the pages of spacetime like a worm through a three-volume
	novel.
	The second is that they are the creation of a sympathetic Fate,
	charged with the role of supplying exactly the right thing
	at the right time.
	The third is that they are simply a very clever way of getting
	around the various Sunday Closing acts.
	All these theories, diverse as they are, have two things in 
	common. They explain the observed facts, and they are completely
	and utterly wrong.
		[ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
shrieker
	With a single, savage thrust of her spear, the warrior-woman 
	impaled the fungus, silencing it.  However, it was too late:  
	the alarm had been raised[...]
	Suddenly, a large, dark shape rose from the abyss before them, 
	its fetid bulk looming overhead...The monster was some kind of
	great dark worm, but that was about all they were sure of.  
		[ The Adventurers, Epic IV, by Thomas A. Miller ]
throwing star
shuriken
	You know, that's what I hate most about fighting against magic:
	you never know what they're trying to do to you until it hits.
	The sorceress knew what hit her, however.  Two of the shuriken
	got past whatever defenses she had.  One caught her just below
	the throat, the other in the middle of her chest.  It wouldn't
	kill her, but she wouldn't be fighting anyone for a while.
		[ Jhereg, by Steven Brust ]
*sickle
	A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously 
	curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or 
	cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock 
	(either freshly cut or dried as hay).
	
	The inside of the blade's curve is sharp, so that the user 
	can either draw or swing it against the base of the crop, 
	catching the stems in the curve and slicing them at the same 
	time. The material to be cut may be held in a bunch in the 
	other hand (for example when reaping), held in place by a 
	wooden stick, or left free.
		[ Wikipedia ]
siege ogre
	Grey as a mouse
	Big as a house
	Nose like a snake
	I make the earth shake
	As I tramp through the grass
	Trees crack as I pass
	With horns in my mouth
	I walk in the South
	Flapping big ears
	Beyond count of years
	I stump round and round
	Never lie on the ground
	Not even to die
	Oliphaunt am I
	Biggest of all
	Huge, old, and tall
	If ever you'd met me
	You wouldn't forget me
	If you never do
	You won't think I'm true
	But old Oliphaunt am I
	And I never lie 
		[ Oliphaunt, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
silver
	A white, precious, metallic chemical element that is extremely 
	ductile and malleable, capable of high polish, and an excellent
	conductor of heat and electricity: symbol, Ag; atomic weight,
	107.880; atomic number, 47.
	[ Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary Unabridged,
		Second Edition ]
	
	The toxicity of certain heavy metals is a well-known effect,
	with lead, mercury, and cadmium best known examples. Other
	metals have a reduced or negligible effect on humans, but
	negativly effect smaller organisms such as bacteria. Silver
	is perhaps the best known example of this latter class, being
	used since ancient times to treat external infections. It's
	well known efficacy in this regard led to the idea that it
	was effective against many other forms of evil, both seen
	and unseen.
silver key
	But the key-Carter sent me a photograph of that. Its curious
	arabesques were not letters, but seem to have belonged to the
	same culture-tradition as the hieroglyphs on the parchment.
	Carter always spoke of being on the point of solving the
	mystery, though he never gave details. Once he grew almost
	poetic about the whole business. That antique Silver Key, he
	said, would unlock the successive doors that bar our free
	march down the mighty corridors of space and time to the very
	Border which no man has crossed since Shaddad with his
	terrific genius built and concealed in the sands of Arabia
	Petraea the prodigious domes and uncounted minarets of
	thousand-pillared Irem.
		[ Through the Gates of the Silver Key, 
			H.P. Lovecraft ]
skeleton
	A skeleton is a magically animated undead creature.  Unlike
	shades, only a humanoid creature can be used to create a
	skeleton.  No one knows why this is true, but it has become
	an accepted fact amongst the practitioners of the black arts.
slasher
	"That dog belonged to a settler who tried to build his cabin
	on the bank of the river a few miles south of the fort,"
	grunted Conan. ...  "We took him to the fort and dressed his
	wounds, but after he recovered he took to the woods and turned
	wild.  -- What now, Slasher, are you hunting the men who
	killed your master?" ...  "Let him come," muttered Conan.
	"He can smell the devils before we can see them." ...
	Slasher cleared the timbers with a bound and leaped into the
	bushes.  They were violently shaken and then the dog slunk
	back to Balthus' side, his jaws crimson. ...  "He was a man,"
	said Conan.  "I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the
	dog, who knew no fear."  He quaffed part of the wine, then
	emptied the rest upon the floor, with a curious heathen
	gesture, and smashed the goblet.  "The heads of ten Picts
	shall pay for this, and seven heads for the dog, who was a
	better warrior than many a man."
		[ Conan The Warrior, by Robert E Howard ]
slave to armok
	Losing is fun
*sleep
	Sleep is a death; oh, make me try
	By sleeping, what it is to die,
	And as gently lay my head
	On my grave, as now my bed.
		[ Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne ]
*slime
	A hideous growth, green slime is bright green, sticky, and wet. It
	grows in dark subterranean places on walls, ceilings and floors. 
	... Green slime attaches itself to living flesh and in 1-4 melee
	rounds turns the creature into green slime ... Green slime is an
	infestation that all creatures avoid; it is burned out of caverns
	or mines if found. Once it has infected an area, it has a tendency
	to grow back, even after being frozen or burned away, because dormant
	spores can germinate years later.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
slime mold
	Slime mold or slime fungus, organism usually classified with
	the fungi, but showing equal affinity to the protozoa.  Slime
	molds have complex life cycles with an animal-like motile
	phase, in which feeding and growth occur, and a plant-like
	immotile reproductive phase.  The motile phase, commonly
	found under rotting logs and damp leaves, consists of either
	solitary amoebalike cells or a brightly colored multinucleate
	mass of protoplasm called a plasmodium, which creeps about
	and feeds by amoeboid movement.
		[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
sling
	And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and
	drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward
	the army to meet the Philistine.
	And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone,
	and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that
	the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face
	to the earth.
	So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with
	a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there
	was no sword in the hand of David.
		[ 1 Samuel 17:48-50 ]
*snake
serpent
water moccasin
python
pit viper
	Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field
	which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea,
	hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
	And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of
	the trees of the garden:  but of the fruit of the tree which is
	in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of
	it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent
	said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  for God doth
	know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
	opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And
	when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it
	was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
	wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also
	unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
	
	And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou
	hast done?  And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I
	did eat.  And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou
	hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
	every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
	dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  And I will put
	enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
	seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
		[ Genesis 3:1-6,13-15 ]
snickersnee
	Ah, never shall I forget the cry,
	    or the shriek that shrieked he,
	As I gnashed my teeth, and from my sheath
	    I drew my Snickersnee!
	--Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu
		[ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ]
sode no shirayuki
	Then at the very least, you would do well to learn the
	name of my Zanpakutou. Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!
		[ Bleach, Tite Kubo ]
	
	Said to be the most beautiful of the soul-cutting swords,
	Sode no Shirayuki (Sleaves of White Snow) demands a graceful, 
	dance-like fighting style of its wielder. It's most powerful
	techniques are activated by moving the blade in a specific
	way while calling out the name of the technique. The first
	dance, White Moon, invokes a freezing circle that embraces
	both heaven and earth. The next dance, White Ripple, fires
	a beam of snow and ice. The last dance, White Sword, repairs
	any damage the blade has suffered, and temporarily boosts its
	attack power.
sokoban
	Sokoban (Japanese for "warehouse person") is a puzzle-type
	game where the player must push around treasure to a goal
	area.  It apparently won first prize in a Japanese programming
	contest.
		[ Xsokoban web site ]
	
	Sokoban (Japanese for "warehouse keeper") is a transport puzzle in
	which the player pushes boxes around a maze, viewed from above, and
	tries to put them in designated locations. Only one box may be pushed
	at a time, not two, and boxes cannot be pulled. As the puzzle would
	be extremely difficult to create physically, it is usually implemented
	as a video game.
	
	Sokoban was created in 1982 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and was published
	by Thinking Rabbit, a software house based in Takarazuka, Japan. Thinking
	Rabbit also released three sequels: Boxxle, Sokoban Perfect and Sokoban
	Revenge.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
*soldier
sergeant
lieutenant
captain
	The soldiers of Yendor are well-trained in the art of war,
	many trained by the Wizard himself.  Some say the soldiers
	are explorers who were unfortunate enough to be captured,
	and put under the Wizard's spell.  Those who have survived
	encounters with soldiers say they travel together in platoons,
	and are fierce fighters.  Because of the load of their combat
	gear, however, one can usually run away from them, and doing
	so is considered a wise thing.
son of Typhon
	First [Herakles] was assigned to fetch the skin of the 
	Nemeian lion, an invulnerable animal sired by Typhon . . .
	He then went to Nemea, found the lion, and shot it first with 
	arrows. But when he knew for sure it was invulnerable, he 
	picked up his club and started after it. 
	It escaped into a double-mouthed cave, but Herakles blocked 
	up one of the mouths, and ran in after the creature through 
	the other. He encircled its neck with his arm, and by squeezing 
	choked it to death.
		[ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 74 - 76 
			(trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.)  ]
* soulstone
	Though most damned souls are reborn as least fiends, this
	unfortunate has been shaped into a stone that constantly
	leaks the energies that dominated its life.
	
	The pietous may wish to sanctify the rock and attempt to
	set the soul free, while the morally flexible may wish to
	expend the soul's energies for immediate benefit. As with
	many soul-harnessing devices, curses strengthen the
	stone's effects, but blessings also work to amplify the
	passively exuded energy.
*spear
javelin
	- they come together with great random, and a spear is brast,
	and one party brake his shield and the other one goes down,
	horse and man, over his horse-tail and brake his neck, and
	then the next candidate comes randoming in, and brast his
	spear, and the other man brast his shield, and down he goes,
	horse and man, over his horse-tail, and brake his neck, and
	then there's another elected, and another and another and
	still another, till the material is all used up; and when you
	come to figure up results, you can't tell one fight from
	another, nor who whipped; and as a picture of living, raging,
	roaring battle, sho! why it's pale and noiseless - just
	ghosts scuffling in a fog.  Dear me, what would this barren
	vocabulary get out of the mightiest spectacle? - the burning
	of Rome in Nero's time, for instance?  Why, it would merely
	say 'Town burned down; no insurance; boy brast a window,
	fireman brake his neck!'  Why, that ain't a picture!
		[ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark
		  Twain ]
*spellbook*
	The Book of Three lay closed on the table.  Taran had never
	been allowed to read the volume for himself; now he was sure
	it held more than Dallben chose to tell him.  In the sun-
	filled room, with Dallben still meditating and showing no
	sign of stopping, Taran rose and moved through the shimmering
	beams.  From the forest came the monotonous tick of a beetle.
	His hands reached for the cover.  Taran gasped in pain and
	snatched them away.  They smarted as if each of his fingers
	had been stung by hornets.  He jumped back, stumbled against
	the bench, and dropped to the floor, where he put his fingers
	woefully into his mouth.
	Dallben's eyes blinked open.  He peered at Taran and yawned
	slowly.  "You had better see Coll about a lotion for those
	hands," he advised.  "Otherwise, I shouldn't be surprised if
	they blistered."
		[ The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander ]
spetum
forked polearm
	This polearm has a thin spearhead with two angled dagger-
	type blades at about 45 degrees. They can be used to attack, 
	block, or hold an oppenent at bay. Unfortunately, they can't
	do any of those tasks excedingly well. This weapon is
	nine to ten feet long (2.7 to 3 meters).
	   
	    A
	    H
	    H
	    H
	 \  H  /
	  \\H// 
	   \H/
	    H
~phase spider
~mirkwood spider
*spider
	Eight legged creature capable of spinning webs to trap prey.
	
	"You mean you eat flies?" gasped Wilbur.
	"Certainly.  Flies, bugs, grasshoppers, choice beetles,
	moths, butterflies, tasty cockroaches, gnats, midges, daddy
	longlegs, centipedes, mosquitoes, crickets - anything that is
	careless enough to get caught in my web.  I have to live,
	don't I?"
	"Why, yes, of course," said Wilbur.
		[ Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White ]
spell
	A spell is a consciously directed act of magic which may take
	almost any form, depending on the laws of magic in operation.
	Commonly there will be a spoken element, ranging from a simple 
	phrase or name to elaborately complex ritual incantations. 
	[...]  Hand-gestures or passes may be required -- called 
	the "somatic element" by the scientific magic investigators 
	in L. Sprague de Camp's and Fletcher Pratt's _Incomplete
	Enchanter_ series.
	Many spells exhaust the caster, like Gorice's arduous conjuration
	in _The Worm Ouroboros_ (1922) by E. R. Eddison.  Jack Vance's 
	_The Dying Earth_ (1950) has spells which must be painstakingly 
	impressed on the mind (whose capacity is finite), and when cast 
	are gone until re-learned.  
		[ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy by David Langford ]
*sphere
	The attack by those who want to die -- this is the attack
	against which you cannot prepare a perfect defense.
					--Human aphorism
		[ The Dosadi Experiment, by Frank Herbert ]
spire
	"Long ago a silver queen emerged from the Hinterlands below, 
	having followed the path of the great pillar, Axis Mundi, 
	that extended deep into the earth. She had come to see the 
	top of this edifice, and perhaps learn who had built the 
	foundation of her underground realm. Yet when she emerged 
	with her eight children--four sons and four daughters--she 
	saw that the Spire extended far into the sky. Eight great 
	roads extended out from the monument to Mystery, veering and 
	branching into sixteen paths that crossed and diverted, 
	shifting like living streams.
	
	While her children stared off into the distance, the queen 
	herself looked up into the sky. In the distance she saw that 
	infinity might have an end, a height that might be ascended 
	to. Her children felt the same way about the roads that ran 
	to embrace the horizon. Together they realized they might 
	walk and climb and thereby measure the Wheel, squaring the 
	circle at last.
	
	To each son and each daughter was given a blade, to keep them 
	safe on their journeys. And so the children each picked a 
	road and began walking, choosing different forks and turns, 
	getting lost but always finding themselves once more. 
	Meanwhile, the silver queen began to climb. She was 
	determined to reach the top of the Spire, for it was there 
	that she might watch for her children as she waited for their 
	return."
		[ Blade of Innocence, by Sciborg ]
sprow
	A droven punishment form combining the worst aspects of humanoids 
	and spiders. Sprow combine the head and torso of a drow with the 
	limbs of a spider. This form is typically inflicted on drow 
	novices who see spiders as holy creatures worthy of worship, 
	rather than as allegories and useful tools. It may also be 
	inflicted on young drow who boast about their cunning to others.
	Unlike driders, sprow are too weak to survive alone and are not 
	driven out of the droven cities, instead being used as 
	slave-laborers or beasts of burden.
squeaky board
	A floorboard creaked. Galder had spent many hours tuning them,
	always a wise precaution with an ambitious assistant who walked
	like a cat.
	D flat. That meant he was just to the right of the door.
	"Ah, Trymon," he said, without turning, and noted with some
	satisfaction the faint indrawing of breath behind him. "Good
	of you to come. Shut the door, will you?"
		[ The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett ]
~*aesculapius
*staff
	So they stood, each in his place, neither moving a finger's
	breadth back, for one good hour, and many blows were given
	and received by each in that time, till here and there were
	sore bones and bumps, yet neither thought of crying "Enough,"
	or seemed likely to fall from off the bridge.  Now and then
	they stopped to rest, and each thought that he never had seen
	in all his life before such a hand at quarterstaff.  At last
	Robin gave the stranger a blow upon the ribs that made his
	jacket smoke like a damp straw thatch in the sun.  So shrewd
	was the stroke that the stranger came within a hair's breadth
	of falling off the bridge; but he regained himself right
	quickly, and, by a dexterous blow, gave Robin a crack on the
	crown that caused the blood to flow.  Then Robin grew mad
	with anger, and smote with all his might at the other; but
	the stranger warded the blow, and once again thwacked Robin,
	and this time so fairly that he fell heels over head into the
	water, as the queen pin falls in a game of bowls.
		[ The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle ]
*staff of aesculapius
	This staff is considered sacred to all healers, as it truly
	holds the powers of life and death.  When wielded, it
	protects its user from all life draining attacks, and
	additionally gives the wielder the power of regeneration.
	When invoked it performs healing magic.
staircase down
	While dreaming, you or I might notice a huge staircase 
	leading enticingly down, out of ordinary dream, down
	the seventy stairs of light slumber, down into the
	Cavern of Flame.
	
	In this flickering chamber dwell Nasht and Kaman-Thah,
	hoary priests who have the power to accept the most
	worthy as initiate dreamers and to send them on, down 
	seven hundred steps more to the Gates of Deeper Slumber...
		[ S. Petersen's Field Guide to 
			Creatures of the Dreamlands ]
staircase up
	Dr. Ray Stantz: Hey, where do those stairs go?
	Dr. Peter Venkman: They go up.
		[ Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman,
		  written by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis ]
stairs
ladder
	Up he went -- very quickly at first -- then more slowly -- then
	in a little while even more slowly than that -- and finally,
	after many minutes of climbing up the endless stairway, one
	weary foot was barely able to follow the other.  Milo suddenly
	realized that with all his effort he was no closer to the top
	than when he began, and not a great deal further from the
	bottom.  But he struggled on for a while longer, until at last,
	completely exhausted, he collapsed onto one of the steps.
	"I should have known it," he mumbled, resting his tired legs
	and filling his lungs with air.  "This is just like the line
	that goes on forever, and I'll never get there."
	"You wouldn't like it much anyway," someone replied gently.
	"Infinity is a dreadfully poor place.  They can never manage to
	make ends meet."
		[ The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster ]
stalker
invisible stalker
	The invisible stalker is a creature from the elemental plane of
	Air. Those encountered on the Prime Material plane have almost
	always been summoned by wizards to fulfill a specific task. 
	The true form of the invisible stalker is unknown. On the Material,
	Astral, or Ethereal planes, the invisible stalker can only be
	perceived as a shimmering air mass which looks much like the
	refraction effect caused by hot air passing in front of cold.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
~statue trap
statue*
	Then at last he began to wonder why the lion was standing so
	still - for it hadn't moved one inch since he first set eyes
	on it.  Edmund now ventured a little nearer, still keeping in
	the shadow of the arch as much as he could.  He now saw from
	the way the lion was standing that it couldn't have been
	looking at him at all.  ("But supposing it turns its head?"
	thought Edmund.)  In fact it was staring at something else -
	namely a little dwarf who stood with his back to it about
	four feet away.  "Aha!" thought Edmund.  "When it springs at
	the dwarf then will be my chance to escape."  But still the
	lion never moved, nor did the dwarf.  And now at last Edmund
	remembered what the others had said about the White Witch
	turning people into stone.  Perhaps this was only a stone
	lion.  And as soon as he had thought of that he noticed that
	the lion's back and the top of its head were covered with
	snow.  Of course it must be only a statue!
		[ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis ]
sting
	There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about
	him when he came to his senses.  The spider lay dead beside
	him, and his sword-blade was stained black.  Somehow the
	killing of the giant spider, all alone and by himself in the
	dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of
	anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins.  He felt
	a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of
	an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put
	it back into its sheath.
	"I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call
	you Sting."
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
stormbringer
	There were sounds in the distance, incongruent with the
	sounds of even this nameless, timeless sea: thin sounds,
	agonized and terrible, for all that they remained remote -
	yet the ship followed them, as if drawn by them; they grew
	louder - pain and despair were there, but terror was
	predominant.
	Elric had heard such sounds echoing from his cousin Yyrkoon's
	sardonically named 'Pleasure Chambers' in the days before he
	had fled the responsibilities of ruling all that remained of
	the old Melnibonean Empire.  These were the voices of men
	whose very souls were under siege; men to whom death meant
	not mere extinction, but a continuation of existence, forever
	in thrall to some cruel and supernatural master.  He had
	heard men cry so when his salvation and his nemesis, his
	great black battle-blade Stormbringer, drank their souls.
		[ The Lands Beyond the World, by Michael Moorcock ]
stormhelm
	Harmony within, hurricane without.
		[ Destiny ]
*strange object
	He walked for some time through a long narrow corridor
	without finding any one and was just going to call out,
	when suddenly in a dark corner between an old cupboard
	and the door he caught sight of a strange object which
	seemed to be alive.
	   [ Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky ]
straw golem
	    Dorothy leaned her chin upon her hand and gazed thoughtfully
	at the Scarecrow.  Its head was a small sack stuffed with straw,
	with eyes, nose, and mouth painted on it to represent a face.
	An old, pointed blue hat, that had belonged to some Munchkin,
	was perched on his head, and the rest of the figure was a blue suit
	of clothes, worn and faded, which had also been stuffed with straw.
	On the feet were some old boots with blue tops, such as every man
	wore in this country, and the figure was raised above the stalks
	of corn by means of the pole stuck up its back.
		[ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum ]
sunflower
	A single species of plant evenly dispersed across the land, 
	from here to the infinity-horizon. Each plant had a single blossom,
	and each blossom turned to follow Louis Wu as he dropped. A 
	tremendous audience, silent and attentive.
	
	He landed and dismounted beside one of the plants. The plant stood
	a foot high on a knobbly green stalk. Its single blossom was as big
	as a large man's face. The back of that blossom was stringy, as if
	laced with veins or tendons; and the inner surface was a smooth
	concave mirror. From its center protruded a short stalk ending in
	a dark green bulb.
	
	All the flowers in sight watched him. He was bathed in the glare.
	Louis knew they were trying to kill him, and he looked up somewhat
	uneasily; but the cloud cover held.
	
	"You were right," he said, speaking into the intercom. "They're 
	Slaver sunflowers. If the cloud cover hadn't come up, we'd have
	been dead the instant we rose over the mountains."
sunsword
	What you seek is a blade of light,
	a weapon for vengance.
		[ Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Cordell and Wyatt ]
susano*o
	The Shinto chthonic and weather god and brother of the sun
	goddess Amaterasu, he was born from the nose of the
	primordial creator god Izanagi and represents the physical,
	material world.  He has been expelled from heaven and taken
	up residence on earth.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
swamp nymph
	As a forest pathogen, a fungus can be very destructive. 
	Its high destructiveness comes from the fact that, unlike 
	most parasites, it doesn't need to moderate its growth in 
	order to avoid killing its host, since it will continue to 
	thrive on the dead material.
		[ Adapted from Wikipedia ]
~excalibur
~giantslayer
~vorpal*
sword
* sword
	Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place:
	for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
		[ Matthew, 26:52 ]
tanko
	Samurai plate armor of the Yamato period (AD 300 - 710).
*temple
	To every man upon this earth
	Death cometh soon or late;
	And how can man die better
	Than facing fearful odds
	For the ashes of his fathers
	And the temples of his gods?
		[ Lays of Ancient Rome, by Thomas B. Macaulay ]
tengu
	The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese
	legend.  Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose
	and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up
	feuds and prolonging enmity between families.  Indeed, the
	belligerent tengu were supposed to have been man's first
	instructors in the use of arms.
	[ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
tensa zangetsu
	Cast off your fear.
	Look forward.
	Move forward.
	Never stand still. 
	Retreat and you will age.
	Hesitate and you will die.
	Shout. My name is:
	ZANGETSU!
		[ Bleach, Kubo Tite ]
	
	A soul-cutting sword that is advanced to Bankai (Final
	Release) typically gains the ability to project some large,
	flashy effect, or to manifest a massive creature to do battle
	for its master. Not so Zangetsu. Instead, its final form,
	Tensa Zangetsu (Heaven-chain Slaying Moon), focuses all its
	power into the form of a normal daito sword. The shear 
	intensity of the energies within this sword make the blade
	almost impervious to damage, allowing it to parry a wide 
	variety of effects. The blade can additionally create a
	protective field around its wielder in the form of a cloak
	or long coat. Tensa Zangetsu may also be invoked to fire a
	powerful energy blast known as a Getsuga Tenso (Heaven-
	Piercing Moon-Fang) which can cleave through enemies and
	obstructing terrain alike. Finally, the compressed forces
	at play in Tensa Zangetsu greatly affect the wielder's 
	sense of time, allowing them to move and attack much faster 
	than they otherwise could. The immense pressures acting on 
	the blade, however, are far beyond what a mortal can endure.
	Any living creature that wields this sword will find their
	body and bones gradually ground into dust.
thriae
	The Thriae were nymphs, three virginal sisters, one of a number
	of such triads in Greek mythology. They were named Melaina 
	("The Black"), Kleodora ("Famed for her Gift"), and Daphnis 
	("Laurel") or Corycia. They were the three Naiads (nymphs) of
	the sacred springs of the Corycian Cave of Mount Parnassus in
	Phocis, and the patrons of bees. The nymphs had heads like
	women and lower body with wings like a bee.
		[ Wikipedia ]
thorin*
	Known as 'Thorin Oakenshield' because in the Battle of Azanulbizar
	he used an oak-branch as a shield and club.  He is the King of
	Durin's folk in exile, and wears a golden necklace and a belt.
thoth
	The Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, Thoth is the patron
	deity of scribes and of knowledge, including scientific,
	medical and mathematical writing, and is said to have given
	mankind the art of hieroglyphic writing.  He is important as
	a mediator and counsellor amongst the gods and is the scribe
	of the Heliopolis Ennead pantheon.  According to mythology,
	he was born from the head of the god Seth.  He may be
	depicted in human form with the head of an ibis, wholly as an
	ibis, or as a seated baboon sometimes with its torso covered
	in feathers.  His attributes include a crown which consists
	of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc.
	Thoth is generally regarded as a benign deity.  He is also
	scrupulously fair and is responsible not only for entering
	in the record the souls who pass to afterlife, but of
	adjudicating in the Hall of the Two Truths.  The Pyramid
	Texts reveal a violent side of his nature by which he
	decapitates the adversaries of truth and wrenches out their
	hearts.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
thoth*amon
	Men say that he [Thutothmes] has opposed Thoth-Amon, who is
	master of all priests of Set, and dwells in Luxor, and that
	Thutothmes seeks hidden power [The Heart of Ahriman] to
	overthrow the Great One.
		[ Conan the Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
*throne
	Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne
	Which mists and vapours from mine eyes did shroud--
	Nor view of who might sit thereon allowed;
	But all the steps and ground about were strown
	With sights the ruefullest that flesh and bone
	Ever put on; a miserable crowd,
	Sick, hale, old, young, who cried before that cloud,
	"Thou art our king,
	O Death! to thee we groan."
	Those steps I clomb; the mists before me gave
	Smooth way; and I beheld the face of one
	Sleeping alone within a mossy cave,
	With her face up to heaven; that seemed to have
	Pleasing remembrance of a thought foregone;
	A lovely Beauty in a summer grave!
		[ Sonnet, by William Wordsworth ]
thug
	A worshipper of Kali, who practised _thuggee_, the strangling
	of human victims in the name of the religion.  Robbery of the
	victim provided the means of livelihood.  They were also
	called _Phansigars_ (Noose operators) from the method employed.
	Vigorous suppression was begun by Lord William Bentinck in
	1828, but the fraternity did not become completely extinct
	for another 50 years or so.
	In common parlance the word is used for any violent "tough".
		[ Brewer's Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ]
tiamat*
	So, you have come this 
	far----
	I, TIAMAT the FIEND of
	the Wind will now put an
	end to your adventure!!
		[ Final Fantasy ]
tiger
	1.  A well-known tropical predator (_Felis tigris_): a
	feline.  It has a yellowish skin with darker spots or
	stripes.  2.  Figurative: _a paper tiger_, something that is
	meant to scare, but has no really scaring effect whatsoever,
	(after a statement by Mao Ze Dong, August 1946).
		[ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	
	Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
	In the forests of the night,
	What immortal hand or eye
	Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
		[ The Tyger, by William Blake ]
tin
tin of *
tinning kit
	"You know salmon, Sarge," said Nobby.
	"It is a fish of which I am aware, yes."
	"You know they sell kind of slices of it in tins..."
	"So I am given to understand, yes."
	"Weell...how come all the tins are the same size?  Salmon
	gets thinner at both ends."
	"Interesting point, Nobby.  I think-"
		[ Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett ]
tin opener
	Less than thirty Cat tribes now survived, roaming the cargo
	decks on their hind legs in a desperate search for food.
	But the food had gone.
	The supplies were finished.
	Weak and ailing, they prayed at the supply hold's silver
	mountains: huge towering acres of metal rocks which, in their
	pagan way, the mutant Cats believed watched over them.
	Amid the wailing and the screeching one Cat stood up and held
	aloft the sacred icon.  The icon which had been passed down
	as holy, and one day would make its use known.
	It was a piece of V-shaped metal with a revolving handle on
	its head.
	He took down a silver rock from the silver mountain, while
	the other Cats cowered and screamed at the blasphemy.
	He placed the icon on the rim of the rock, and turned the
	handle.
	And the handle turned.
	And the rock opened.
	And inside the rock was Alphabetti spaghetti in tomato sauce.
		[ Red Dwarf, by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor ]
titan
	Gaea, mother earth, arose from the Chaos and gave birth to
	Uranus, heaven, who became her consort.  Uranus hated all
	their children, because he feared they might challenge his
	own authority.  Those children, the Titans, the Gigantes,
	and the Cyclops, were banished to the nether world.  Their
	enraged mother eventually released the youngest titan,
	Chronos (time), and encouraged him to castrate his father and
	rule in his place.  Later, he too was challenged by his own
	son, Zeus, and he and his fellow titans were ousted from
	Mount Olympus.
		[ Greek Mythology, by Richard Patrick ]
tobiume
	Kochifukaba
	nioiokoseyo
	umenohana.
	Arujinashitote
	harunawasureso
		[ a waka by Michizane Sugawara ]
	
	A powerful fire-type soul-cutting sword, Tobiume (Flying 
	Plum Tree) launches searing fireballs from behind a stiff
	defense. 
	
	Tobiume takes the form of a three-branched-sword, it's two side
	branches making it strong defensively but awkward on the offense.
	Tobiume is a mage's sword, able to draw on the mystical energies
	of its wielder to launch fireballs without pause. Should the 
	wielder be forced into close combat, the branches can be used to 
	disarm weapon-wielding opponents. Should the wielder succeed in 
	overcoming an opponent in melee, Tobiume will launch their bodies 
	backwards much like one of its fireballs.
	
	When East Winds blow
	send me your sweet scent
	my blooming plum!
	Though your master's gone
	Do not forget the Spring!
		[ translation of same; 
			from The 5th Season, by Robin Gill ]
topaz
	Aluminum silicate mineral with either hydroxyl radicals or
	fluorine, Al2SiO4(F,OH)2, used as a gem. It is commonly
	colorless or some shade of pale yellow to wine-yellow;
	[...] The stone is transparent with a vitreous luster. It has
	perfect cleavage on the basal pinacoid, but it is nevertheless
	hard and durable. The brilliant cut is commonly used. Topaz
	crystals, which are of the orthorhombic system, occur in highly
	acid igneous rocks, e.g., granites and rhyolites, and in
	metamorphic rocks, e.g., gneisses and schists.
		[ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ]
touch*stone
	"Gold is tried by a touchstone, men by gold."
		[ Chilon (c. 560 BC) ]
tourist
* tourist
	The road from Ankh-Morpork to Chrim is high, white and
	winding, a thirty-league stretch of potholes and half-buried
	rocks that spirals around mountains and dips into cool green
	valleys of citrus trees, crosses liana-webbed gorges on
	creaking rope bridges and is generally more picturesque than
	useful.
	Picturesque.  That was a new word to Rincewind the wizard
	(BMgc, Unseen University [failed]).  It was one of a number
	he had picked up since leaving the charred ruins of
	Ankh-Morpork.  Quaint was another one.  Picturesque meant --
	he decided after careful observation of the scenery that
	inspired Twoflower to use the word -- that the landscape was
	horribly precipitous.  Quaint, when used to describe the
	occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-
	ridden and tumbledown.
	Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld.
	Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant "idiot".
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
tove
	'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
	Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
	All mimsy were the borogoves,
	And the mome raths outgrabe.
		[ Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll ]
		
	Something like badgers - 
	they're something like lizards - 
	and they are something like corkscrews.
		[ Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll ]
towel
	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say
	on the subject of towels.
	A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing
	an interstellar hitchhiker can have.  Partly it has great
	practical value.  You can wrap it around you for warmth as
	you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie
	on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus
	V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it
	beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world
	of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy
	River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it
	round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze
	of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mind-bogglingly
	stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't
	see you - daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can
	wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of
	course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean
	enough.
		[ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
		  by Douglas Adams ]
*tower
*tower of darkness
	Towers (_brooding_, _dark_) stand alone in Waste Areas and
	almost always belong to Wizards.  All are several stories high,
	round, doorless, virtually windowless, and composed of smooth
	blocks of masonry that make them very hard to climb. [...]
	You will have to go to a Tower and then break into it at some
	point towards the end of your Tour.
	[ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
trap*door
	I knew my Erik too well to feel at all comfortable on jumping
	into his house.  I knew what he had made of a certain palace at
	Mazenderan.  From being the most honest building conceivable, he
	soon turned it into a house of the very devil, where you could
	not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo.
	With his trap-doors the monster was responsible for endless
	tragedies of all kinds.
		[ The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux ]
# takes "trapper or lurker above" when specifying "t"
trapper
trapper or lurker above
	The trapper is a creature which has evolved a chameleon-like
	ability to blend into the dungeon surroundings.  It captures
	its prey by remaining very still and blending into the
	surrounding dungeon features, until an unsuspecting creature
	passes by.  It wraps itself around its prey and digests it.
tree
	I think that I shall never see
	A poem lovely as a tree.
	A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
	Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
	A tree that looks at God all day,
	And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
	A tree that may in Summer wear
	A nest of robins in her hair;
	Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
	Who intimately lives with rain.
	Poems are made by fools like me,
	But only God can make a tree.
		[ Trees, by Joyce Kilmer ]
treesinger
	I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold,
		and leaves of gold there grew:
	Of wind I sang, a wind there came
		and in the branches blew.
	Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon,
		the foam was on the Sea,
	And by the strand of Ilmarin
		there grew a golden Tree.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
trilobite
	Trilobite, any member of a group of extinct fossil arthropods
	easily recognized by their distinctive three-lobed, three-
	segmented form. Trilobites, exclusively marine animals, first
	appeared at the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 542 
	million years ago, when they dominated the seas. Although 
	they became less abundant in succeeding geologic periods, a
	few forms persisted into the Permian Period, which ended
	about 251 million years ago.
		[ Encyclopaedia Britannica ]
tripe
tripe ration
	If you start from scratch, cooking tripe is a long-drawn-out
	affair.  Fresh whole tripe calls for a minimum of 12 hours of
	cooking, some time-honored recipes demanding as much as 24.
	To prepare fresh tripe, trim if necessary.  Wash it thoroughly,
	soaking overnight, and blanch, for 1/2 hour in salted water.
	Wash well again, drain and cut for cooking.  When cooked, the
	texture of tripe should be like that of soft gristle.  More
	often, alas, because the heat has not been kept low enough,
	it has the consistency of wet shoe leather.
		[ Joy of Cooking, by I Rombauer and M Becker ]
*troll
	The troll shambled closer.  He was perhaps eight feet tall,
	perhaps more.  His forward stoop, with arms dangling past
	thick claw-footed legs to the ground, made it hard to tell.
	The hairless green skin moved upon his body.  His head was a
	gash of a mouth, a yard-long nose, and two eyes which drank
	the feeble torchlight and never gave back a gleam.
	[...]
	Like a huge green spider, the troll's severed hand ran on its
	fingers.  Across the mounded floor, up onto a log with one
	taloned forefinger to hook it over the bark, down again it
	scrambled, until it found the cut wrist.  And there it grew
	fast.  The troll's smashed head seethed and knit together.
	He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them.  The
	waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.
		[ Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson ]
*tsurugi of muramasa
	This most ancient of swords has been passed down through the
	leadership of the Samurai legions for hundreds of years.  It
	is said to grant luck to its wielder, but its main power is
	terrible to behold.  It has the capability to cut in half any
	creature it is wielded against, instantly killing them.
~*muramasa
tsurugi
	The tsurugi, also known as the long samurai sword, is an
	extremely sharp, two-handed blade favored by the samurai.
	It is made of hardened steel, and is manufactured using a
	special process, causing it to never rust.  The tsurugi is
	rumored to be so sharp that it can occasionally cut
	opponents in half!
~*spellbook
turquoise*
	TUBAL: There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company
		to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.
	SHYLOCK: I am very glad of it; I'll plague him, I'll torture him;
		I am glad of it.
	TUBAL: One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
		daughter for a monkey.
	SHYLOCK: Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my
		turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I 
		would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.
	[ The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare ]
*twin gear*spirit*
	The Clockwork Perfection of Mechanus is driven by great 
	gears. Tending these gears and making sure they run 
	smoothly are given to creatures called "gear spirits."
	These gear spirits have the ability to turn themselves 
	into almost any tool or common mechanical device... even 
	crossbows. This dual crossbow is actually two gear spirits,
	and they seem to have willingly fled with from Mechanus.
	
    Their duties are so essential to the smooth functioning of 
	Mechanus that the modrons have officially assigned these 
	spirits to the various gears. While the gear spirits love 
	the gears they tend so much, their servitude to the modrons 
	rankles them, making them somewhat disgruntled. As a 
	result, there are tales of gear spirits that leave the 
	great gears of Mechanus, leaving their duties for a while 
	to sample the Planes beyond their own. Most likely, these 
	two spirits caught this wanderlust, and they now piggyback 
	along with you, peppering any hostile creature they see 
	with crossbow bolts. The gear spirits can make endless 
	supplies of these bolts, so there is never any need for 
	to reload unless you wish to fire special crossbow bolts. 
	
    The spirits occasionally make small clicking and rattling 
	noises. They seem to be talking to each other, but their 
	conversation is indecipherable. They're most likely 
	discussing the finer points of crossbow mechanics.
		[ Adapted from Planescape: Torment ]
twoflower
guide
	"Rincewind!"
	Twoflower sprang off the bed.  The wizard jumped back,
	wrenching his features into a smile.
	"My dear chap, right on time!  We'll just have lunch, and
	then I'm sure you've got a wonderful programme lined up for
	this afternoon!"
	"Er --"
	"That's great!"
	Rincewind took a deep breath.  "Look," he said desperately,
	"let's eat somewhere else.  There's been a bit of a fight
	down below."
	"A tavern brawl?  Why didn't you wake me up?"
	"Well, you see, I - _what_?"
	"I thought I made myself clear this morning, Rincewind.  I
	want to see genuine Morporkian life - the slave market, the
	Whore Pits, the Temple of Small Gods, the Beggar's Guild...
	and a genuine tavern brawl."  A faint note of suspicion
	entered Twoflower's voice.  "You _do_ have them, don't you?
	You know, people swinging on chandeliers, swordfights over
	the table, the sort of thing Hrun the Barbarian and the
	Weasel are always getting involved in.  You know --
	_excitement_."
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
tyr
	Yet remains that one of the Aesir who is called Tyr:
	he is most daring, and best in stoutness of heart, and he
	has much authority over victory in battle; it is good for
	men of valor to invoke him.  It is a proverb, that he is
	Tyr-valiant, who surpasses other men and does not waver.
	He is wise, so that it is also said, that he that is wisest
	is Tyr-prudent.  This is one token of his daring:  when the
	Aesir enticed Fenris-Wolf to take upon him the fetter Gleipnir,
	the wolf did not believe them, that they would loose him,
	until they laid Tyr's hand into his mouth as a pledge.  But
	when the Aesir would not loose him, then he bit off the hand
	at the place now called 'the wolf's joint;' and Tyr is one-
	handed, and is not called a reconciler of men.
			[ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
*hulk
	Umber hulks are powerful subterranean predators whose
	iron-like claws allow them to burrow through solid stone in
	search of prey.  They are tremendously strong; muscles bulge
	beneath their thick, scaly hides and their powerful arms and
	legs all end in great claws.
*unicorn
unicorn horn
	Men have always sought the elusive unicorn, for the single
	twisted horn which projected from its forehead was thought to
	be a powerful talisman.  It was said that the unicorn had
	simply to dip the tip of its horn in a muddy pool for the water
	to become pure.  Men also believed that to drink from this horn
	was a protection against all sickness, and that if the horn was
	ground to a powder it would act as an antidote to all poisons.
	Less than 200 years ago in France, the horn of a unicorn was
	used in a ceremony to test the royal food for poison.

	Although only the size of a small horse, the unicorn is a very
	fierce beast, capable of killing an elephant with a single
	thrust from its horn.  Its fleetness of foot also makes this
	solitary creature difficult to capture.  However, it can be
	tamed and captured by a maiden.  Made gentle by the sight of a
	virgin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head in her lap, and
	in this docile mood, the maiden may secure it with a golden rope.
	[ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]

	Martin took a small sip of beer.  "Almost ready," he said.
	"You hold your beer awfully well."
	Tlingel laughed.  "A unicorn's horn is a detoxicant.  Its
	possession is a universal remedy.  I wait until I reach the
	warm glow stage, then I use my horn to burn off any excess and
	keep me right there."
		[ Unicorn Variations, by Roger Zelazny ]
~priest of an unknown god
*unknown god
	"You sing of the young gods easily
	In the days when you are young;
	But I go smelling yew and sods,
	And I know there are gods behind the gods,
	Gods that are best unsung.
	
	"And a man grows ugly for women,
	And a man grows dull with ale,
	Well if he find in his soul at last
	Fury, that does not fail.
	
	"The wrath of the gods behind the gods
	Who would rend all gods and men,
	Well if the old man's heart hath still
	Wheels sped of rage and roaring will,
	Like cataracts to break down and kill,
	Well for the old man then--
	
	"While there is one tall shrine to shake,
	Or one live man to rend;
	For the wrath of the gods behind the gods
	Who are weary to make an end.
	
	"There lives one moment for a man
	When the door at his shoulder shakes,
	When the taut rope parts under the pull,
	And the barest branch is beautiful
	One moment, while it breaks.
	
	"So rides my soul upon the sea
	That drinks the howling ships,
	Though in black jest it bows and nods
	Under the moons with silver rods,
	I know it is roaring at the gods,
	Waiting the last eclipse.
	
	"And in the last eclipse the sea
	Shall stand up like a tower,
	Above all moons made dark and riven,
	Hold up its foaming head in heaven,
	And laugh, knowing its hour.
	
	"And the high ones in the happy town
	Propped of the planets seven,
	Shall know a new light in the mind,
	A noise about them and behind,
	Shall hear an awful voice, and find
	Foam in the courts of heaven.
		[ The Ballad of the White Horse, by G. K. Chesterton ]
upgrade kit
	An assortment of tools, components, and other miscellaneous things
	that can be used to do anything from upgrading clockwork automatons 
	to tripling the size of some plate mail armor. No prior skill is
	required -- just open up the kit and go!
uranium imp
	Despite being imbued with reality-warping powers, these trouble-
	making servants of darkness seem unaware of their true power, and
	probably would run away if yelled at.

	GG: those stupid things are impossible to kill :(
	TG: no you can kill them
	TG: youll get better dont worry
		[ Homestuck Act 5, by Andrew Hussie ]
uruk*hai
uruk*captain
	"What of the dawn?" they jeered. "We are the Uruk-hai: 
	we do not stop the fight for night or day, for fair 
	weather or for storm. We come to kill, by sun or moon. 
	What of the dawn?"
		[ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
uvuudaum
	Strange creatures with long, claw-tipped tentacles in place
	of heads, Uvuudaums hail from far realms beyond the known
	planes. It is said that they are the lords of those realms,
	although evidence for this is thin at best. As with all
	supposed facts about that place, this claim is more likely
	a gross anthropomorphism, if not an outright falsehood.
	The merest glimpse of their form drives men mad, and they 
	are capable of crushing a man's head with a single flick 
	of their headspikes. Even if the victim escapes this fate,
	their long spikes run with strange venoms. 
valkyrie
* valkyrie
	The Valkyries were the thirteen choosers of the slain, the
	beautiful warrior-maids of Odin who rode through the air and
	over the sea.  They watched the progress of the battle and
	selected the heroes who were to fall fighting.  After they
	were dead, the maidens rewarded the heroes by kissing them
	and then led their souls to Valhalla, where the warriors
	lived happily in an ideal existence, drinking and eating
	without restraint and fighting over again the battles in
	which they died and in which they had won their deathless
	fame.
		[ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
			Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox
			Wilson ]
vampire
vampire bat
vampire lord
vampire mage
	The Oxford English Dictionary is quite unequivocal:
	_vampire_ - "a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in
	the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated
	corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking
	the blood of sleeping persons. ..."
vampire killer
	"I am the morning sun, come to vanquish this horrible night!"
		[ Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia ]
venus
	Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, was the daughter of
	Jupiter and Dione.  Others say that Venus sprang from the
	foam of the sea.  The zephyr wafted her along the waves to
	the Isle of Cyprus, where she was received and attired by
	the Seasons, and then led to the assembly of the gods.  All
	were charmed with her beauty, and each one demanded her
	for his wife.  Jupiter gave her to Vulcan, in gratitude for
	the service he had rendered in forging thunderbolts.  So
	the most beautiful of the goddesses became the wife of the
	most ill-favoured of gods.
		[ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
victorian underwear
	The Victorian woman wore an extraordinary amount of 
	underwear. The basic items consisted of chemise, drawers, 
	corset and several petticoats. In general, these main 
	garments remained throughout the period, but new ones were
	added (and taken away, too), including crinolines, bustles,
	corset covers and combinations.
		[ An Overview of Underwear,  Ladies Treasury 2003 ]
	
	-Elizabeth, how's it coming?
	-It's difficult *gasps* to say.
	-I'm told it's the latest fashion in London.
	-Well, women in London must have learnt to not breathe.
		[ Pirates of the Caribbean ]
violet fungus
	Violet fungus growths resemble shriekers, and are usually
	encountered with them. The latter are immune to the touch of
	violet fungi, and the two types of creatures complement each
	other's existence.
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
viper tree
	This creature might be mistaken for a white beech tree at a 
	distance. A closer look, however, reveals reptilian skin and
	branches tipped with fanged viper heads.
		[ Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, by Wolfgang Baur
			and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel ]
vlad*
	Vlad Dracula the Impaler was a 15th-Century monarch of the
	Birgau region of the Carpathian Mountains, in what is now
	Romania.  In Romanian history he is best known for two things.
	One was his skilled handling of the Ottoman Turks, which kept
	them from making further inroads into Christian Europe.  The
	other was the ruthless manner in which he ran his fiefdom.
	He dealt with perceived challengers to his rule by impaling
	them upright on wooden stakes.  Visiting dignitaries who
	failed to doff their hats had them nailed to their head.
vorpal*
	 The Cat materialized at the far end of the bar, downed the
	Hatter's drink, and said, "I hear the burbling, and eyes of
	flame are drifting to the left."
	 I glanced at the mural, and I, too, saw the fiery eyes and heard
	a peculiar sound.
	 "It could be any number of things," Luke remarked.
	 The Cat moved to a rack behind the bar and reached high up on
	the wall to where a strange weapon hung, shimmering and shifting
	in shadow. He lowered the thing and slid it along the bar; it came
	to rest before Luke.
	 "Better have the Vorpal Sword in hand, that's all I can say."
	 Luke laughed, but I stared fascinated at the device which looked
	as if it were made of moth wings and folded moonlight.
		[ Sign of Chaos, by Roger Zelazny ]
voulge
pole cleaver
	Place a cleaver at the end of a seven to nine foot shaft
	(2 to 2.7 meters) and you end up with this weapon. Its
	short broad blade is ideal for slicing through armor.
	   
	      /\
	     /  \
	     |   \
	    Z[   |
	    H|   |
	    H|   |
	    H|   |
	    Z[__-'
	    H
*vortex
vortices
	Swirling clouds of pure elemental energies, the vortices are
	thought to be related to the larger elementals.  Though the
	vortices do no damage when touched, they are noted for being
	able to envelop unwary travellers.  The hapless fool thus
	swallowed by a vortex will soon perish from exposure to the
	element the vortex is composed of.
voulge
	Place a hefty cleaver at the end of a long, stout shaft, and 
	the leverage which the pole gives the wielder will enable him 
	to cleave through armor. The voulge has no provision to keep 
	the enemy at a distance in its basic model, but with the top 
	front or back edge is ground down so as to provide a pointed, 
	dagger-like tip, the weapon assumes a more complete form.
vrock
	The vrock is one of the weaker forms of demon.  It resembles
	a cross between a human being and a vulture and does physical
	damage by biting and by using the claws on both its arms and
	feet.
wage of *
	The economies of the lower planes are ultimately based on the
	transmigration of souls, however well the fiends use coins of
	gold. Though most damned souls are reborn as least fiends,
	those who lived lives dominated by the pure expression of a
	single sin are instead smelted into soul coins. 
	
	The pietous may wish to sanctify the container and attempt to
	set the soul free, while the morally flexible may wish to take
	up the sin and harness the soul's energy to their own benefit.
	A doubly-damned coin amplifies both its effects and the moral
	cost of its use.
wakizashi
	A wakizashi was used as a samurai's weapon when the katana was
	unavailable. When entering a building, a samurai would leave
	his katana on a rack near the entrance. However, the wakizashi
	would be worn at all times, and therefore, it made a sidearm for
	the samurai (similar to a soldier's use of a pistol). The samurai
	would have worn it from the time they awoke to the time they went
	to sleep. In earlier periods, and especially during times of civil
	wars, a tanto was worn in place of a wakizashi.
		[ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
# takes "wand or a wall" when specifying "/"
~*sleep
~wand of death
wand of *
*wand
	'Saruman!' he cried, and his voice grew in power and authority.
	'Behold, I am not Gandalf the Grey, whom you betrayed.  I am
	Gandalf the White, who has returned from death.  You have no
	colour now, and I cast you from the order and from the Council.'
	He raised his hand, and spoke slowly in a clear cold voice.
	'Saruman, your staff is broken.'  There was a crack, and the
	staff split asunder in Saruman's hand, and the head of it
	fell down at Gandalf's feet.  'Go!' said Gandalf.  With a cry
	Saruman fell back and crawled away.
		[ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
ward
	Apotropaic magic (from Greek apotrepein, to ward off : apo-, 
	away + trepein, to turn) is a type of magic intended to 
	"turn away" harm or evil influences, as in deflecting 
	misfortune or averting the evil eye. "Apotropaic" 
	observances may also be practiced out of vague superstition 
	or out of tradition, as in good luck charm (perhaps some 
	token on a charm bracelet), amulets, or gestures like 
	fingers crossed or knocking on wood.
		[ Wikipedia ]
warg
	Suddenly Aragorn leapt to his feet.  "How the wind howls!"
	he cried.  "It is howling with wolf-voices.  The Wargs have
	come west of the Mountains!"
	"Need we wait until morning then?" said Gandalf.  "It is as I
	said.  The hunt is up!  Even if we live to see the dawn, who
	now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves
	on his trail?"
	"How far is Moria?" asked Boromir.
	"There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen miles
	as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs,"
	answered Gandalf grimly.
	"Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can,"
	said Boromir.  "The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc
	that one fears."
	"True!" said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath.  "But
	where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls."
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
~mjollnir
war*hammer
	They had come together at the ford of the Trident while the
	battle crashed around them, Robert with his warhammer and his
	great antlered helm, the Targaryen prince armored all in
	black.  On his breastplate was the three-headed dragon of his
	House, wrought all in rubies that flashed like fire in the
	sunlight.  The waters of the Trident ran red around the
	hooves of their destriers as they circled and clashed, again
	and again, until at last a crushing blow from Robert's hammer
	stove in the dragon and the chest behind it.  When Ned had
	finally come on the scene, Rhaegar lay dead in the stream,
	while men of both armies scrambled in the swirling waters for
	rubies knocked free of his armor.
		[ A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin ]
*watcher in the water
	'I felt that something horrible was near from the moment that
	my foot first touched the water,' said Frodo. 'What was that 
	thing, or were there many of them?'
	
	'I do not know,' answered Gandalf; 'but the arms were all 
	guided by one purpose. Something has crept, or has been 
	driven out of dark waters under the mountains. There are 
	older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of 
	the world.' 
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	
	Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the 
	world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows 
	them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked 
	there, but I will bring no report to darken the light 
	of day.
	   [ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
long sinuous tentacle
	Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
	was pale-green and luminous and wet.  Its fingered end had
	hold of Frodo's foot, and was dragging him into the water.
	Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife.  The
	arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out
	for help.  Twenty other arms came rippling out.  The dark
	water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
watchman
	They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the 
	Patrol. Whatever their name, their purpoes in any work of 
	heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three
	(or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack
	the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No-one ever asks
	them if they wanted to.
		[ Guards, Guards  by Terry Pratchett ]
watch captain
	"In all, I've had seventeen demands for your badge. Some want
	parts of your body attached. Why did you have to upset
	everybody?"
		[ Feet of Clay, by Terry Pratchett ]
water
	Day after day, day after day,
	We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
	As idle as a painted ship
	Upon a painted ocean.

	Water, water, everywhere,
	And all the boards did shrink;
	Water, water, everywhere
	Nor any drop to drink.
		[ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor
		  Coleridge ]
water demon
	[ The monkey king ] walked along the bank, around the pond. He examined
	the footprints of the animals that had gone into the water, and saw
	that none came out again! So he realized this pond must be possessed
	by a water demon. He said to the 80,000 monkeys, "This pond is
	possessed by a water demon. Do not let anybody go into it."

	After a little while, the water demon saw that none of the
	monkeys went into the water to drink. So he rose out of the middle of
	the pond, taking the shape of a frightening monster. He had a big blue
	belly, a white face with bulging green eyes, and red claws and feet.
	He said, "Why are you just sitting around? Come into the pond and drink
	at once!"

	The monkey king said to the horrible monster, "Are you the water
	demon who owns this pond?" "Yes, I am," said he. "Do you eat whoever
	goes into the water?" asked the king. "Yes, I do," he answered,
	"including even birds. I eat them all. And when you are forced by your
	thirst to come into the pond and drink, I will enjoy eating you, the
	biggest monkey, most of all!" He grinned, and saliva dripped down his
	hairy chin.
		[ Buddhist Tales for Young and Old, Vol. 1 ]
*water walking*
	And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto
	thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out
	of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw
	the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried,
	saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand,
	and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore
	didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
		[ Matthew, 14:28-32 ]
weapon
	A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.
		[ The Vor Game, by Lois McMaster Bujold ]
web
	I watch her in the corner there, 
	As, restless, bold, and unafraid, 
	She slips and floats along the air 
	Till all her subtile house is made

	Her home, her bed, her daily food 
	All from that hidden store she draws; 
	She fashions it and knows it good, 
	By instinct's strong and sacred laws. 

	No tenuous threads to weave her nest, 
	She seeks and gathers there or here; 
	But spins it from her faithful breast, 
	Renewing still, till leaves are sere. 

	Then, worn with toil, and tired of life, 
	In vain her shining traps are set. 
	Her frost hath hushed the insect strife 
	And gilded flies her charm forget. 

	But swinging in the snares she spun, 
	She sways to every winter wind: 
	Her joy, her toil, her errand done, 
	Her corse the sport of storms unkind.
		[ Arachne, by Rose Terry Cooke ]

	Oh what a tangled web we weave,
	When first we practise to deceive!
		[ Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott ]
weeping *angel
	Lonely assassins they used to be called. No one quite knows
	where they came from, but they're as old as the universe. Or
	very nearly, and they have survived this long because they
	have the most perfect defense system ever evolved. They're
	quantum locked. They don't exist when they're being observed,
	in the moment they are seen by any other living creature
	they freeze into rock. No choice, it's a fact that their
	biology, in the sight of any other living thing they literally
	turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. 'Course a stone
	can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away.
	Then you blink. And oh yes it can.
		[ Doctor Who, "Blink" ]
	
	"This whole book, it's a warning about the weeping angels, so
	why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?"
	"There was a bit about images. What was that?"
	"Yes. Hang on.... 'That which holds the image of an angel
	becomes itself an angel.'"
		[ Doctor Who, "The Time of Angels" ]
whistle
	There were legends both on the front and on the back of the 
	whistle. The one read thus:

	FLA FUR BIS FLE The other: QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT 
	'I ought to be able to make it out,' he thought; 
	'but I suppose I am a little rusty in my Latin. 
	When I come to think of it, I don't believe I even 
	know the word for a whistle. The long one does seem 
	simple enough. It ought to mean, "Who is this who is coming?" 

	Well, the best way to find out is evidently to whistle 
	for him.'

		[Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by Montague Rhodes James
		 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad']
# werecritter -- see "lycanthrope"
*wight
	A wight is a fearsome undead spirit inhabiting the remains of a
	deceased humanoid. Due to their corporeal nature, wights are able
	to make use of both weapons and magic.

	When he came to himself again, for a moment he could recall
	nothing except a sense of dread.  Then suddenly he knew that
	he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a barrow.  A
	Barrow-wight had taken him, and he was probably already under
	the dreadful spells of the Barrow-wights about which whispered
	tales spoke.  He dared not move, but lay as he found himself:
	flat on his back upon a cold stone with his hands on his
	breast.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
winged kobold
	All kobolds believe themselves to be descended from dragons.
	The race of winged kobolds (Urds) just has a bit more 
	evidence than the rest.
~gnomish wizard
wizard
* wizard
apprentice
	Ebenezum walked before me along the closest thing we could
	find to a path in these overgrown woods.  Every few paces he
	would pause, so that I, burdened with a pack stuffed with
	arcane and heavy paraphernalia, could catch up with his
	wizardly strides.  He, as usual, carried nothing, preferring,
	as he often said, to keep his hands free for quick conjuring
	and his mind free for the thoughts of a mage.
		[ A Dealing with Demons, by Craig Shaw Gardner ]
rodney
wizard of yendor
	No one knows how old this mighty wizard is, or from whence he
	came.  It is known that, having lived a span far greater than
	any normal man's, he grew weary of lesser mortals; and so,
	spurning all human company, he forsook the dwellings of men
	and went to live in the depths of the Earth.  He took with
	him a dreadful artifact, the Book of the Dead, which is said
	to hold great power indeed.  Many have sought to find the
	wizard and his treasure, but none have found him and lived to
	tell the tale.  Woe be to the incautious adventurer who
	disturbs this mighty sorcerer!
wolf
*wolf
*wolf cub
	The ancestors of the modern day domestic dog, wolves are
	powerful muscular animals with bushy tails.  Intelligent,
	social animals, wolves live in family groups or packs made
	up of multiple family units.  These packs cooperate in hunting
	down prey.
*wolfsbane
	1.  Any of various, usually poisonous perennial herbs of the
	genus Aconitum, having tuberous roots, palmately lobed leaves,
	blue or white flowers with large hoodlike upper sepals, and an
	aggregate of follicles.  2.  The dried leaves and roots of some
	of these plants, which yield a poisonous alkaloid that was
	formerly used medicinally. In both senses also called monkshood.
	[ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
	  Fourth Edition. ]
wood golem
	Come, old broomstick, you are needed, 
	Take these rags and wrap them round you! 
	Long my orders you have heeded, 
	By my wishes now I've bound you. 
	Have two legs and stand, 
	And a head for you. 
	Run, and in your hand 
	Hold a bucket too.
	...
	See him, toward the shore he's racing 
	There, he's at the stream already, 
	Back like lightning he is chasing, 
	Pouring water fast and steady. 
	Once again he hastens! 
	How the water spills, 
	How the water basins 
	Brimming full he fills!
 	[ The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 
	  translation by Edwin Zeydel ]
woodchuck
	The Usenet Oracle requires an answer to this question!
	
	> How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could
	> chuck wood?
	
	"Oh, heck!  I'll handle *this* one!"  The Oracle spun the terminal
	back toward himself, unlocked the ZOT-guard lock, and slid the
	glass guard away from the ZOT key.  "Ummmm....could you turn around
	for a minute?  ZOTs are too graphic for the uninitiated.  Even *I*
	get a little squeamish sometimes..."  The neophyte turned around,
	and heard the Oracle slam his finger on a computer key, followed
	by a loud ZZZZOTTTTT and the smell of ozone.
		[ Excerpted from Internet Oracularity 576.6 ]
# avoid false hits for non-long worms
worm
long worm
long worm tail
	  Where the dunes began, perhaps fifty metres away at the foot of a
	rock beach, a silver-gray curve broached from the desert, sending
	rivers of sand and dust cascading all around. It lifted higher,
	resolved into a giant, questing mouth. It was a round, black hole
	with edges glistening in the moonlight.
	  The mouth snaked toward the narrow crack where Paul and Jessica
	huddled. Cinnamon yelled in their nostrils. Moonlight flashed from
	crystal teeth.
		[ Dune, by Frank Herbert ]
worm that walks
	"The nethermost caverns," wrote the mad Arab, "are not for the 
	fathoming of eyes that see; for their marvels are strange and 
	terrific. Cursed the ground where dead thoughts live new and 
	oddly bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely 
	did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard 
	hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all 
	ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought 
	hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the 
	very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life 
	springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it 
	and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are 
	digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have 
	learnt to walk that ought to crawl."
		[ The Festival, by H.P. Lovecraft ]
worm tooth
crysknife
	[The crysknife] is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken
	from dead sandworms.  The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed".
	An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's
	electrical field to prevent disintegration.  Fixed knives
	are treated for storage.  All are about 20 centimeters long.
		[ Dune, by Frank Herbert ]
wraith
	The wraith is an evil undead spirit of a powerful human that seeks
	to absorb human life energy. 
	These horrible creatures are usually seen as black, vaguely man-shaped
	clouds. They have no true substance, but tend to shape themselves with
	two upper limbs, a torso, and a head with two glowing red eyes. This
	shape is a convenience born from the habit of once having a human body. 
		[ Monstrous Manual, by TSR inc. ]
*wumpus
	The Wumpus, by the way, is not bothered by the hazards since
	he has sucker feet and is too big for a bat to lift.  If you
	try to shoot him and miss, there's also a chance that he'll
	up and move himself into another cave, though by nature the
	Wumpus is a sedentary creature.
		[ wump (6) -- "Hunt the Wumpus" ]
	
	_Wumpus yobgregorii_, in the flesh...
	Later, all you will be able to remember are its eyes. They are 
	rich mud-brown, and they hold your own without effort.
		[ Hunter, In Darkness, by Andrew Plotkin ]
xan
	They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to
	find out what lay ahead.  "Since you are the one who sucks
	the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosquito,
	"go and sting the men of Xibalba."  The mosquito flew
	down the dark road to the Underworld.  Entering the house of
	the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw...

	The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the
	man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?"  So
	he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he
	knew the names of all twelve.
			[ Popul Vuh, as translated by Ralph Nelson ]
xorn
	A distant cousin of the earth elemental, the xorn has the
	ability to shift the cells of its body around in such a way
	that it becomes porous to inert material.  This gives it the
	ability to pass through any obstacle that might be between it
	and its next meal.
ya
	The arrow of choice of the samurai, ya are made of very
	straight bamboo, and are tipped with hardened steel.
yeenoghu
	This gaunt, 12-foot tall humanoid demon is covered with
	mangy patches of yellow fur and has pale grey flesh
	showing where the fur is absent. His face is that of
	a leering, amber-eyed hyena, and he wields a massive
	flail with three spiked heads.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]

	Yeenoghu, demon lord of gnolls. He casts magic projectiles 
	at those close to him, and a mere glance into his piercing 
	eyes may hopelessly confuse the battle-weary adventurer.
yeti
	The Abominable Snowman, or yeti, is one of the truly great
	unknown animals of the twentieth century.  It is a large hairy
	biped that lives in the Himalayan region of Asia ... The story
	of the Abominable Snowman is filled with mysteries great and
	small, and one of the most difficult of all is how it got that
	awful name.  The creature is neither particularly abominable,
	nor does it necessarily live in the snows.  _Yeti_ is a Tibetan
	word which may apply either to a real, but unknown animal of
	the Himalayas, or to a mountain spirit or demon -- no one is
	quite sure which.  And after nearly half a century in which
	Westerners have trampled around looking for the yeti, and
	asking all sorts of questions, the original native traditions
	concerning the creature have become even more muddled and
	confused.
		[ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]
yog*sothoth
truth
	I am the world, I am the universe, I am God, I am truth,
	I am all, I am one, and I am also you.
		[ Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood ]
*yugake
	Japanese leather archery gloves.  Gloves made for use while
	practicing had thumbs reinforced with horn.  Those worn into
	battle had thumbs reinforced with a double layer of leather.
yuki-onna
	The Yuki Onna is one of Japan's most well-known and yet 
	unknown yokai. There is no single story of the Yuki Onna.
	From dread snow vampire of the mountains to a loving bride
	and mother, she has played many roles over the centuries;
	worn many costumes. She is ephemeral as a windblown mist
	of snow, and as impossible to hold.
		[ Yuki Onna - The Snow Woman, by Zach Davisoson ]
yumi
	The samurai is highly trained with a special type of bow,
	the yumi.  Like the ya, the yumi is made of bamboo.  With
	the yumi-ya, the bow and arrow, the samurai is an extremely
	accurate and deadly warrior.
*zombi*
	The zombi... is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but
	taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a
	mechanical semblance of life, -- it is a dead body which is
	made to walk and act and move as if it were alive.
		[ W. B. Seabrook ]
zruty
	The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the
	wildernesses of the Tatra mountains.
zuggtmoy
	This foul demoness resembles a human only from the torso
	up. This portion of her body is composed of thick rancid
	sheets and coils of fungus that just happens to have grown
	into the shape of what would otherwise be an attractive
	woman. Four fibrous antlers grow from her brow, and her
	hands bear cruel talons. Her lower torso is a coiling
	pillar of lashing ropy tendrils and other fungus growths.
	Her skin is a nauseating swirl of grays, blues, purples,
	and blacks.
		[ Hordes of the Abyss,
			by Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona ]