A Knight at the Opera: N Monsters at the Opera

Monday, January 26, 2026

N Monsters at the Opera

A B C D Demon Dragon E F G1 G2 G3 H I Jackalwere K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Credit: John Bauer

Already covered previously: Nightmare and Nymph. Probably should have alphabetized this series better. I put "genie" under "D" for Pete's sake.

Naga

These aren't actually a terrible attempt to adapt the naga from Indian mythology, but in the vastness of D&D's kitchen-sink worldbuilding, they end up just feeling like an afterthought. It isn't helped that D&D has the Yuan-Ti to cover almost all their "snake people" needs, which have always gotten a lot more love (and, consequently, are way cooler). The 5E Monster Manual tries to make something of this, claiming that Nagas and Yuan-Ti have some kind of bitter rivalry. Ehhh no, I don't think so. This whole thing would have worked better if they'd just been folded into one monster (or, I guess, family of monsters).

Nixie

Credit: Brooke Shaden

Yet another honeytrap monster. Not as overtly sexual as the succubus or nymph, but still nothing more like "beware attractive monster lady who'll magically charm you." The only distinguishing feature of this one is that it's aquatic. For motivation, the AD&D 1E description says only that they "delight in enslaving humans," which isn't a lot to go on. The almost-identical grindylow is slightly more interesting, just because it specifically targets children and the elderly.

Side thing: I was reading the Wikipedia article on Jenny Greenteeth and was shocked by this segment.

A similar figure known as the Storm Hag (uncommonly also known as Jenny Greenteeth) appears in American folklore around Lake Erie, specifically in the urban legends of Erie, Pennsylvania, in which sailors use a paranormal being to explain the dangers and shipwrecks in the Erie Triangle. The Storm Hag is said to be a green skinned woman with teeth like a shark's but green, as well as piercing yellow eyes, who rests on the bottom of the Lake, off the coast of Presque Isle and sings a song whenever a ship approaches.

Come into the water, love,
Dance beneath the waves,
Where dwell the bones of sailor-lads
Inside my saffron cave.

— S. E. Schlosser, Spooky Pennsylvania

When the sailors of the ship hear the song, the Storm Hag attacks the ship and crew with violent storms and waves, sinking and devouring them.

I literally sailed around Presque Isle for years and never once heard any old seadogs telling tales of storm hags. Words cannot describe my disappointment and outrage. Why am I finding this out from Wikipedia? What's happened to us? We used to be a country.

Nothic

He who gazes into the abyss. I think this is a WotC original but it feels like a very natural addition to the canon of D&D aberrations. You go into its lair and start hearing a whisper in your mind. The voice is making alarm comments about your deepest darkest secrets. It's the nothic observing you, reading your mind. Instant tension and intrigue and weirdness.

I also love the implication that "wizards tampering with aberrations when it all goes wrong" is such a common occurrence that there's an entire monster type for it.