I suppose the name fits.  This is a bizarre little book.  It’s a system agnostic collection of strange monsters, weird items, and suspicious characters.  As it’s an anthology, there really isn’t a uniform style in art or writing.  Mostly, it’s just a bunch of crazy ideas to inspire a GM, and to startle players.

I think my favorite critter is the Flesh Looming Silkworm, which feeds on bodies and creates a unique silk.  There’s a mention near the end of the description of a necromancer using their powers to cultivate and harvest the silk, and I really like the idea.  If I can get the DCC or Shadowdark game I’ve been kicking around really going, there will be a lot of undead-related stuff, and I like the idea that a lich or vampire lord or something is funding their nefarious deeds by selling a precious silk they’re growing on corpses. 

From the artifact section, Red Dana could really, really mess up your party (in a good way!), but I think my favorite is the fairly simple, but super useful Vine Shield.  It’s the kind of item you could easily drop into a session, and will give the PC something a little extra during combat without being too overpowering.  Don’t get me wrong, I love throwing randomly overpowered items at my players, but it’s also nice to have some smaller stuff that creates a lot of possibilities for variation and creative use. 

When it comes to characters, there are several fun ones.  Big Snoz is a great idea.  He wouldn’t work for the way I run goblins, but I’m still fascinated by the idea and am kicking around ways I might do some sort of play on it.  Graveler, the Kiosk of the Wood is so weird that I think it’s my favorite.  It reminded me of one of my favorite encounters from Into the Wyrd & Wild, and now I definitely want to have it in my back pocket as a wilderness encounter.

This book is extremely inexpensive on DriveThruRPG, and more than worth the price.  If nothing else, it’s a fun, inspirational read.  Even if you don’t end up using any of the things from it, you’ll likely enjoy reading the book.  

See my unboxing video here.

I’m an independent author, so… If you like what I do, you can buy me a coffee. Check out my YouTube, and/or take a look at my Patreon page, where I’m working on a novel and developing a tabletop RPG setting. I’m also proud to be an affiliate of DriveThru RPG.