Under-used supernatural creatures

I once read a story that involved a Ghoul of that kind.

She looked fairly normal and liked to work at mortuaries. Free snacks and all.

Once, when someone was onto her, she framed the person for her murder- Beat herself a bit and broke an arm, then lay down and all vitals stopped.

Since that person had been claiming they were a Ghoul and freaking out, it seemed like he was crazy.

She then woke up and wandered off, cackling.

We have a tropes for different Ghouls.

In Old World Of Darkness Ghouls were pathetic human lackeys of vampires who suck up to them so they could get a taste Vampire blood and gain a little of their power.

There were however a few feared 'Hunter Ghouls', individuals who actively hunted down vampires and killed vampires to feed off them.

Aren't "zombies" actually ghouls who get renamed zombies because one movie that called them that got popular?

While the actual zombies are people who got magic brainwashed into servants?

Simple answer, sort of.

The modern image of 'zombies' as undead cannibalistic monsters comes mainly from the 1968 Movie Night Of The Living Dead. Which did call them ghouls but only as a placeholder. They nether represents oringal zombies from voodoo folk law or the original ghouls for that matter.

I reckon that fantasy in general would be a lot better if people used the original mythological version of creatures, rather than the modern interpretation. Think of Leprechauns, not the annoying little explosions of green from Oireland, the grumpy tricksters from mythology that are just looking for a way to cause you trouble and preserve their homes, some varieties kidnapping people and releasing them decades later, but the victim thinks they've only been gone a night, and others knock down houses that are built on their land. they're not fun, at all.

Fairies be scary.

yeah, i have them in my underworld; not as the bad guys, just as the really bizarre relations of the men on earth, and really enjoy annoying them (where would alien crop circles come from in my universe (if i had them)? Fairies.)

Noppera-bō are fun.

Half Ghost, Half Strange Person.

Facelessness seems like it'd be only startling, but the Uncanny Valley is a mighty force.

This reminds me, Mega Ten is a goldmine for supernatural creatures.

Anyone else think Kongamato needs more love? It lives in central Africa and is supposed to the the last of the pterosaurs.

I should probably also mention Owlman. He's a winged humanoid from England who attacks young women.

Sounds like a c-list 30s super hero.

Owlman, you mean?

No the pterosaurs.

Owlman's a supervillain, actually.

Wonder if Owlman has any relation to the US's Mothman. He does less attacking and more general mysteriousness.

Wouldn't be surprising. They look very similar.

Mothman is owlmam nemesis

edited 25th May '13 5:51:05 PM by joeyjojo

Anyone else here think Baital Needs More Love? He's a riddle-telling demon of Indian myth. If you guess one of his riddles correctly, he escapes. If you guess incorrectly, he becomes your slave. If you know the correct answer but don't respond, Your Head Asplode. He finally managed to stump King Vikram with the following gem (which has also stumped everyone in my family): "A man and his son meet a queen & princess. The man marries the princess and has a daughter; the son marries the queen and has a son. What relationship are the two children to each other?"

Also, I guess Goatman from the southern United States could stand more coverage. He's basically an Ax-Crazy satyr. The Other Wiki tells me he's been seen in Maryland, Kentucky & Texas.

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but I rather like the mythical creatures native to North America, such as the native american Thunderbird.

A particular creature from the region I live in is known as Basket Woman. She is a giant who carries a woven basket on her back, where she holds all the children she has kidnapped. She takes them home and eats them, so she's kind of a boogyman/troll thing (or may possibly be a bigfoot).

edited 14th Jun '13 4:02:26 AM by Sethodine

If it's Native American beasts you want, I mentioned the piasa here.

^^^ So if he asks you a question and you get it wrong you win?

edited 14th Jun '13 4:32:23 AM by joeyjojo

That's obvious; They're half-brother and half-sister to the Son and Princess respectively (the Queen's daughter is the Princess's half sister, the Father's Son is his son's half brother) and therefore either child is the child of the other's half-sibling (The son is the child of the daughter's half sister the princess, the daughter is the child of the son's half brother, the Son); that makes them both half-cousins and half-aunt/half-uncle to each other, genetically (to wit; half their cousin and half their aunt/uncle).

EDIT: Oh, and they're also technically step-siblings, but half-siblings tends to override that.

edited 14th Jun '13 10:44:20 AM by Bisected8

One cryptozoological creature I almost never see mentioned is the Tatzelwurm. It's basically a giant serpentine creature with a pair of front legs and somewhat feline features rumored to lurk in mountainous European areas.

If we're talking Native American creatures, one of my favorites are the Giant Flying Heads featured in some Iroquois stories. A giant boulder sized head with a mouth full of fangs, covered with dark hair, flying with bat wings. That'd be fun to come across in a dark forest at night.

Finally: Geryon. He always struck me as the loser of Greek mythology's 'Random mash up of animal and body parts' lottery. Specifically the versions where he's a guy with three bodies sprouting from a single set of legs. The Chimera and Hydra and Cerberus have all been made into entire species of monsters, but not poor Geryon.

Or the relationship is just "family." Normally, that sort of tricksiness would be useful against the riddle monster.

Pathfinder has a more lizardy version of the Tatzelwurm, but then again the pathfinder bestiaries tend to suck up obscure mythological creatures like a sponge. Seriously, say what you like about the systems but their bestiaries are the shit.

Also, I think Geryon is in dungeon crawl stone soup.

edited 16th Jun '13 12:14:49 AM by doorhandle

Ghulags and the Dobhar-chu (Basically giant, killer otters).