“Swamp Dragon” © Davey Baker, accessed at his ArtStation here

[The ninki nanka is an example of what I was talking about with the fantasies about Africa influencing its cast of monsters. If you ask a cryptozoologist, a ninki nanka is some sort of giant reptile, maybe a dinosaur or monitor lizard. If you ask an actual Mandinka person, they will tell you that it’s a powerful and intelligent being, controller of weather and blesser of kings. Much more interesting than just another relict swamp dinosaur that fits better with paleontology that went out of date in the 1960s.]

Ninki Nanka
CR 14 LN Dragon
This great draconic creature has four short legs and is slung low to the ground. It is covered with black scales, with flecks of golden and silver scales among them. It has two long horns growing from its head.

A ninki nanka is an aquatic tropical dragon that meddles in the affairs of the people who live in its wide territory. It rarely deigns to interfere in the lives of commoners, but feels very strongly about the rulership of the people who live there. A ninki nanka considers itself a kingmaker, and if it is not consulted to give its authorization to the local king, it will make life difficult for the people that king rules. Ninki nankas have a variety of magic powers, which they can use to bless those they approve of and vex those they do not. If a ninki nanka is particularly impressed with a potential mortal ruler, it will bestow a magical scale upon them that enhances their Charisma and can conjure great treasures…at the cost of the ninki nanka being able to check in on them whenever the dragon wishes.

A ninki nanka views combat as an interesting challenge and diversion at times, but usually only uses a fraction of its power. Typically it tries to just kill enemies with its jaws and horns, or blast them with its rainbow breath, which carries multiple types of destructive energy. Anyone who survives the ninki nanka’s initial assault is seen as more worthy, whereupon the dragon begins to draw upon its magical powers. Ninki nankas do not hesitate to flee from a losing fight, but will return later and call upon allies to help it take revenge.

Ninki nankas come in all alignments, but most of them are lawful. Good ninki nankas only support kings who are good to their subjects, and evil ninki nankas value might and cunning about kindness and mercy. There are a few chaotic ninki nankas; these bestow their favor on potential rulers who will shake up and change their societies, whether for better or worse depending on the moral alignment or the whims of the dragon. Like most dragons, ninki nankas value treasure, and those wishing to court their favor usually give them gifts. It eats gold and other precious metals, incorporating them into its scales. When a ninki nanka is slain, a treasure value equal to the normal amount for a creature of its CR can be extracted from its hide with a successful DC 25 Craft (metalworking) or Survival check. There are few creatures strong enough to simply hunt ninki nankas for their hides.

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“Slog” © deviantArt user Neysun, accessed at their gallery here

[The mulilo is an excellent example of how the game of Telephone that is cryptozoology works. The first documented appearance of the mulilo in English was in an article written for British colonialist journal The Empire Review in 1940, as part of an article about African folklore from the most condescending possible perspective. The mulilo is a dragon that looks like a slug, nests under the rainbow, and is responsible for mysterious deaths in the mines. It’s pretty obviously folkloric; imagine if cryptozoologists claimed that leprechauns were real because they lived at the end of rainbows! The only indication that the mulilo has some sort of physical reality is that pieces of its hide are apparently used as “fertility charms”. And as we know from the yeti (or the unicorn, for that matter), it’s easy to call parts of one animal the remains of a more supernatural one.

The Empire Review article was picked up by Karl Shuker, who included it in his 1997 book From Flying Toads to Snakes With Wings. Anyone familiar with Shuker will know that he’s capable of making a lot of fire out of very little smoke, and so he proposed that the mulilo hides belonged to a mystery animal (although, he reasoned, it would have to be some sort of amphibian or reptile to have a hide, since slugs don’t). This became the modern internet cryptid, where it is just a giant slug, no two ways about it. Also, somehow, its coloration has almost completely reversed, from being black to pale gray. Since I do not have an authentically Zambian account of the mulilo (I don’t even know what ethnic or language group it belongs to), this is the best I can do, “remythologizing” it by putting it back somewhat into context, as opposed to a completely mundane mystery animal (if “six foot long slug” could be considered mundane).]

Mulilo
CR 3 NE Dragon
This dark colored creature looks like a cross between a slug and a reptile. It has two limbs on which it pulls itself, a thick slimy body, and two pairs of tentacles, one bearing its eyes. Its mouth is large and filled with sharp teeth, and a shine of iridescence dances on its jaws when it opens its mouth.

A mulilo is also called a slug dragon, as befits its hybrid physiology. It only has bones in order to shore up its limbs and skull, and a series of plates along its back, allowing it to squeeze through narrow passages. It secretes slime to ease its movement and to allow it to better stick to surfaces. Mulilos are sapient, but not very intelligent, and are violently selfish, raiding villages for livestock and killing those that come near their cavern lairs.

A mulilo is said to nest in the hills where a rainbow appears, and they do often appear on the surface in the combination of sun and rain that forms rainbows. They can also breathe a rainbow gas, which simultaneously mesmerizes and poisons creatures caught in the area. A mulilo will usually initiate combat with its rainbow breath, and prefers to attack victims incapacitated that cannot fight back. They usually save a second rainbow breath in order to make an escape.

In some cultures, mulilos are seen as embodiments of fertility, and charms made from their skin are taken as tokens to promote pregnancies and ease childbirth. It is true that a single pair of mulilos can lay dozens of eggs at once, and brood clusters of young and subadult mulilos are nasty surprises that miners and explorers sometimes find underground. Catching a mulilo is usually done with traps—a long box set to close when entered, lined with razorblades and baited with a chicken is traditional.

A mulilo is about six feet long when fully grown.

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Image © @chimeride​, accessed at their blog here

[Mpaca is a forest spirit in the lore of the Nyange, a people in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have a rich and mostly still extant oral tradition. The Epic of Mwindo is the most famous of their sagas in English, and Mpaca appears in that story in passing, as a point of reference and comparison. The folktale in which he plays a starring role is collected in The Dictionary of African Mythology, and is online for free . Something I think is interesting is how closely the story “Mpaca’s Very Long Fingernail” maps to the davalpa/himantopus. It is a greedy, parasitic creature that rides on its victims’ backs, and can be defeated by getting it drunk. I’ve talked before about how I don’t hold a lot of stock in diffusionism, but part of me does wonder if the voyages of Sinbad made it to east/central Africa, or Nyange epics made it to the Middle East. There was a lot of trade between the regions, after all.]

Mpaca
CR 4 CE Monstrous Humanoid
This little man has long, wild hair and long fingers. The middle finger on each hand is extremely long compared to the others, ending in a single claw. His face is elongated, ending in a mole-like snout.

An mpaca is a twisted little humanoid that delights in enslaving other creatures. They can control the behavior of humanoids by jabbing them with their long middle finger, and then ride atop them. They do not treat their slaves well, forcing them to do exhausting work on long hours, and restricting their food and water. An mpaca may even ride such slaves into combat as a mount. Such slaves are controlled repeatedly and often worked to death if the mpaca can manage it.

In seeking out new slaves, an mpaca can shapechange, often favoring the shape of young women and girls. They can also extend their magical fingers to extreme distances, spying on their charges from afar though the nail. If their fingers are severed, the mpaca cannot use its charming ability, and so almost always only extends the finger on one hand and keeps the other in reserve.

Most mpacas live as parasites of humanity, taking over small villages to use as their personal dens of iniquity. The mpaca keeps the community in line with threats and magical charm, alternating between hosts while draining the wealth and happiness from everyone who lives there. When not finding victims, mpacas are lazy and slovenly. They are prone to indulging in drugs and drink, and victims of an mpaca have been known to dislodge the creature by getting it intoxicated.

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“Southern ground hornbill” © ArtStation user “Reptile without any name”. Accessed at their ArtStation here

[Animabri appears in the creation myths of the Krachi people of Togo and Ghana; specifically, he is the first creature to kill humans. In Harold Scheub’s A Dictionary of African Mythology, Animabri is referred to as a “giant ground toucan”. Which is not a thing that exists, and if it did, wouldn’t exist in Africa. It’s a hornbill. So this entry pulls in some other ground hornbill lore from throughout Africa to round out what I could only find passing references to.]

Animabri
CR 9 CE Magical Beast
This great black bird has an oversized beak with a short crest at its base. Colorful patches of bare flesh mark its face, and hang from its neck in a wattle.

The animabris are sinister avian predators that resemble a ground hornbill the size of an elephant. They have powers over death and misfortune, and people where animabris roam are leery of even mundane hornbills. Although they are fully flighted, an animabri is not very agile in the air, so spends most of its time on the ground. Animabris have incredibly keen vision, and ignore invisibility and illusions. They use this in their pursuit of small game. “Small” in this case is proportionate to the animabri, so includes creatures such as antelope, wild pigs and people.

An animabri is shrouded by a perpetual aura of misfortune. Most creatures are cursed by its mere presence, making fighting back against such a beast difficult. This curse of misfortune is temporary, but a well-placed peck or claw can bestow a more permanent curse on an enemy. Victims slain by an animabri have their souls severed from their bodies, making them harder to raise from the dead. Incorporeal undead tend to be more common than usual in animabri country, although the monstrous birds do not associate with such restless spirits.

Most animabris live in social units consisting of a single family—a mated pair and their adult children. These families are insular and clannish. They fight to the death with other animabris over hunting territory. Only when the parents grow old does the family split up, each member trying to find a mate to start its own little clan. Despite their group living, they are more competitive than cooperative when it comes to foraging, and may bicker over a choice meal or trinket. Animabris are interested in treasure, but have little idea of value. Their hoards contain the most brightly colored and shiniest objects they can find, regardless of their actual worth.

An animabri can live around 40-50 years. They can speak Common, which they use primarily to deliver threats and boasts.

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Still from Return of Ultraman accessed at the Ultraman Wiki here

[I am coming to the Ultra franchise pretty much cold, and am watching it in isolation from its fandom except for my girlfriend @abominationimperatrix. One of the things that I gather from her is that the monsters that stand out to me from these series are rarely fandom favorites. Like, I’m not planning on statting up Black King or Gudon or Twintail from Return of Ultraman… but this ratty anthro Snuffleupagus was immediately on my list. Part of that is how grody and gross he looks. Part of it is he has an interesting power set, one that led to my conception of the flavor text. It seems that Tsubaraya Studios thought the idea of a ninja elephant was worth exploring long before it was a joke on RPG.net about D&D 3.0’s skill system]

Sartan
CR 17 CE Monstrous Humanoid
This creature is as tall as a building. Its features are lumpy and misshapen, with bulging eyes and sparse, bristly hair growing from its head. It has a long, elephant-like trunk, clawed hands, and a short tail.

A sartan is an interplanetary thrill killer. They travel from world to world, using their powers of invisibility to spy on people and learn who their heroes are. They then seek these heroes out and kill them for no reason other than to challenge their abilities and to cause other people emotional suffering. Sartans are cruel and enjoy collateral damage in these assassination attempts. Some powerful entities attempt to hire sartans to work for them as assassins, but sartans care little for money. Only if a target interests them, or if the employer resorts to charm spells, will they take on one of these jobs.

A sartan usually only enters combat if it suits them, whether because they have found their target, they want to lure that target into the open, or if they just feel like committing some cruelty for fun. Their supernatural abilities are mostly defensive—a sartan is invisible unless it chooses to appear, or is actively locked in combat. They can become incorporeal, which they often do in order to have mundane weapons pass right through them. When it comes to actual violence, however, sartans do it the old-fashioned way, by getting their claws bloody or grabbing a foe with their trunks and squeezing it to death. Sartans value their own hides too strongly to fight to the death. They will usually attempt to flee a losing battle, but may come back for a rematch on their own terms. 

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