A Torment of Ogres

Do you have a torment of ogres chasing after your character? Is he about to run into a devilry of gremlins? Has he been driven insane by a rally of hobgoblins who escaped capture by a malevolence of trolls?

Does your story need a monster? Take a look through the monsters in this article and the previous mythological monster articles to see if you can find one that fits what you are looking for. If not, why not create your own? Try blending the characteristics of two or more of the known mythological monsters together and come up with one of your own creation. Who knows? Maybe your creature will become famous.

An ogre is a huge, cruel, and ugly humanoid giant monster who feeds on human flesh. They have been featured in many fairy tales and works of fiction down through the years. A torment of ogres is more than one of these hideous monsters.

Gremlins are mischievous little creatures who just love to mess with machinery, appliances, and most of all, airplanes. A devilry of gremlins is a group of these small beast-like creatures with large ears. At least that is what they are portrayed as looking like now. Originally, they were miniature humans with yellow eyes and elf-like ears. They wore overalls and carried their own set of miniature tools.

What would your character do if he ran into a devilry of gremlins?

According to the dictionary, a harpy is a cruel creature in ancient Greek stories. This creature would have the body of a bird and the face of a woman. A harpy is also an insulting name for a woman who you think is unpleasant. A clamor of harpies, whether it is the human kind or the bird kind, is a group of these unpleasant beings.

A town has a group of women that hang around together all the time. They are called harpies by the other residents because of their cruel and unkind actions. But they didn’t start out being mean. What happened to make them this way?

Hobgoblins are practical jokers, and they have the ability to shape-shift. These ugly little creatures are portrayed in many children’s stories as nuisances who harm or trick people. A rally of hobgoblins would drive a sane person crazy with all of their tricks and practical jokes.

Your character ventures into the woods late one night searching for his dog. He does find his dog, but the dog is being held captive by a rally of hobgoblins. Their eyes light up when they see the dog’s master has come after him. What happens? Does the man rescue his dog, or is he also taken captive by the hobgoblins?

The hydra is a creature from Greek mythology. It is a snake-like creature with many heads that lives in the water. A truly fearsome creature, it would originally have nine heads, the middle one supposedly immortal with breath and venom that was extremely poisonous. A warfare of hydras would almost be impossible to escape – for each head that is cut off, two grow back.

How would your character defeat a warfare of hydras?

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature that is said to live in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. The first Jersey Devil, according to legend, was the thirteenth son born to a whore. This whore, Mother Leeds, called upon the name of the devil while giving birth. Soon after the child was born it turned into a devil-like creature and flew off. Since the eighteenth century, there have been thousands of people have claimed to see this creature.

The Jersey Devil has become a part of popular culture. It has starred in television shows (X-Files), has been the theme of songs (“A Night with the Jersey Devil” by Bruce Springsteen), has featured in many books (The Pines by Robert Dunbar), and even has a New Jersey hockey team named after it. An assault of Jersey Devils is said to inhabit the woods in southern New Jersey.

The leviathan, mentioned six times in the Bible and described in great detail in Job, chapter 41, has now come to describe any large sea creature or sea monster. In the modern Hebrew language, it simply means whale. A scuba diver would probably not be thrilled if he encountered a continent of leviathans.

Your character jumps into the ocean and swims down until he finds a continent of leviathans. Why was he looking for them? Is he successful at what he sets out to do?

The Nephilim are giants. In Genesis 6:4, we are told they are the offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men.” In Numbers 13, they are the giants who inhabited Canaan. A gathering of these giants would be called a tromp of Nephilim.

Your character is lost and wandering around trying to figure out just where he is. He happens upon a village inhabited by Nephilim. Of course, he is terrified when he sees this tromp of Nephilim. What does he do? What happens? Are these Nephilim dangerous, or do they help him out?

The Orcs are a race of creatures that were created and used as soldiers by the villains in Lord of the Rings. They came to us from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien. More than one of these grotesque creatures with greenish skin is called a rage of orcs.

Orcs are some really nasty villains, and I definitely would not want to encounter even one of them. But your character feels a bit differently. He is convinced that he has enough cunning, smarts, and strength to defeat a rage of orcs, so he sets out to find a group of them. Does he manage to find a rage of orcs? What happens if he does?

Trolls, according to Scandinavian folklore, are a group of supernatural beings who live in caves or subterranean dwellings. Sometimes they are portrayed as giants, sometimes as dwarves. Two or more of these ugly, unfriendly beings are a malevolence of trolls.

Trolls are big, fat, and ugly. Could this be the reason they are always unfriendly? Have they always been this way? If not, what made them mean?

 

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Owls: Harbingers of Doom
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