Monster Monday Returns!

Cover for City of Brass, by Casey Cristofferson.

I don't know the artist's name.

Owned by Frog God Games. 

Used with permission.

It feels like forever since I've had the chance to sit down and write a blog. NTRPG, camping, and real life issues have been in the way. Enough of that! Back to blogging!

Because Michigan has been around a 100 degrees, today's monster is the Efreet. This monster has been made famous from two sources: the Qur'an and 1001 Arabian Nights. Both of these make Efreet to be powerful beings able to tempt mortals. Neither mentions them granting wishes. 

But, what is an efreet (ifrit, afreet, afrit and other variations)? The dictionary defines it as: a powerful evil jinni, demon or monstrous giant in Arabic mythology. In the AD&D Monster Manual, they are powerful beings from the Elemental Plane of Fire.

They gain a number of abilities and interpretations from Gygax. They can be forced into servitude for 1,001 days (wonder where that came from ...), they can grant 3 wishes, although they always try to pervert the wish. Efreet can become invisible, detect magic, assume gaseous form, enlarge themselves, polymorph themselves, and create a wall of fire. Hence, they are a formidable foe, regardless of level.

Monstrosities calls them "type of genie." Most of their magical abilities are not listed in that book (only creating a wall of fire is.)

An efreet's heart was once used to power a forge within Mord Mar. Once it is found, the party has 3 choices: 1. Bring it to the efreet statue, hoping to gain wishes (although death is a possibility from an angry, recently resurrected efreet), 2. Bring it to the city forge to help create more powerful weapons for the guards and city or 3. Return it to the family who was forced to leave it behind. 

The great pyromancer, Abd Al Alim, has not been seen in weeks. The local royalty begs the party to find out what happened to him. They find an efreet in his inner sanctum, still within the summoning circle. Abs Al Alim's body lays burned just outside the circle.

A cryohydra has nested near the town of Crow's Reach. The king, a retired adventurer is owed a favor by an efreet. So he asks the party to bring the Efreet Bottle to the cryohydra's lair to destroy the many-headed beast. However, the efreet once released, believes he has been sold to a new master, and his services are again required three times before freedom.

A lot more about efreet can be found on Kickstarter right now! City of Brass by Frog God Games is funded and continuing to grow.