Sandstorm Art Gallery

[Dark Psion]

Good lord, there is something to match the silliness of the Phantom Fungus!

I mean, the Saguaro Sentinel is very funny!

It's a Dire Cactuar!!

Now where is the Dire Chocobo?

 

[The Shaman]

When in the name of all that is Funk and Wagnall did the word "dire" come to mean "covered in spiky bits?"



I got away from GMing D&D a few years ago, but books like this and Frostburn really get my gears a-turnin'...

 

[Ryltar]

Nice gallery, overall, especially the worm and the Sand Dragon... although some of the monsters in there are not exactly what I need: sand mephits, sand golems, lava oozes ... please. Not every material that's out there needs one of these three creatures to "illustrate" it.

There's one piece of art that I have an issue with, though, and that is:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/sand_gallery/87641.jpg

Does this look like it could be from a sci-fi book, or what? Looks like a bulldozer's distant relative ...

 

[Gez]

The Sand Dragon is beautiful, because it's a Lockwood piece, but...

... All my lobying for the Yellow Dragon on the Wizards monster boards has been mocked and ridiculed once again.

What's the deal with deserts and "ashera" names? Asherati from WotC, Asherak from S&SS...

Canisphinx should be named Cynosphinx. (Canis is Latin, Cynos is Greek. All other sphinx names are fully Greek.)

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

Canisphinx should be named Cynosphinx. (Canis is Latin, Cynos is Greek. All other sphinx names are fully Greek.)

I think that's because Cynosphinx is too much like gynosphinx. There would be some confusion.

What I do like is that the egyptian and babylonian influence seems not to be too strong. There's lot of things that can easily fit into every kind of desert environment.

 

[Gez]

I found that it has a sort of Morrowind influence, in fact.

(Plus the obvious Dune bit, of course.)

 

[shilsen]

When in the name of all that is Funk and Wagnall did the word "dire" come to mean "covered in spiky bits?"

Check the MM. Many of the dire animals are described as having spiky bits, to use your phrase.

 

[Illvillainy]

That's a lot of monsters.

 

[Klaus]

The jackal I can uderstand, but what are a puma and a tortoise doing in a book about deserts?

And why is it "puma" when the default word for that kind of creature in the MM is "leopard"?

 

[Crothian]

...oh, we are, now? When did this change?

don't worry, you're still not allowed....