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It would embrace the fact that monsters are built using the same "Legos" that PCs are built out of. The problem is, there's several books of Lego expansions for PCs, but very very few Lego expansions for monsters. THAT'S what this book would be about.

The trickiest hurdle to clear for a book like this is the fact that it's not really a book for players, and that tends to make folks nervous since the perception is that the book would sell much less. I'm not sure that's the case, since Bestiaries aren't player books and they seem to be selling just fine.

It'd pretty much be a crunch-heavy book for GMs, and NOT for players.

As a GM, and as someone who writes and develops lot of adventures... I've always felt these books for other systems are worth their weight in gold. And almost as rare.

I would quickly buy a book on Monsters as James has described.

In an effort to get my players to pledge something I've told them that I will award their current characters in the campaign we are playing 10 xp per dollar pledged.

Not sure if it will work, but I am not at all above simple bribery!

Rain sat on the beach, looking out to the vast and seemingly endless ocean. Her legs were pulled up so that she could rest her chin on them. She felt a bit lonely and sad at the conclusion of her latest adventure, but she knew it would soon pass. She had missed her rounds about town, but she did not feel up to it. As she sat, a little elven boy and a half-orc girl came to sit with her. They were wondering if she was all right, for they missed her at the fountain. She smiled gently at them, her heart buoyed by their concern. She drew them to her and hugged them.

"I am fine my, little ones." she said. "I shall return to the fountain tomorrow, I think. And I will have more tales."

She looked at the two of them curiously. "Perhaps," she said, offering them to sit with her, "I may have a story just for the two of you." They eagerly sat, attending to her words raptly. She smiled. "It may sound like a sad story at first, but if not for the depths of grief, how can we truly measure the heights of joy?"

Once upon a time, in a land far away and remembered only in song and verse, there was a beautiful elven kingdom whose spires sparkled in the sunlight. In its castle lived a prince, fair of visage and good of heart, who loved to walk about his kingdom and visit his subjects. One day he happened upon a group pelting stones at a cloaked and huddled figure and stood between them.

"Here now!" he commanded. "There will be none of that in my kingdom!"

"But My Lord, she's an outsider! A half-orc!" The group called.

"I care not." Said the prince. "She is in my kingdom, and I'll not have her treated so poorly."

When the mob had dispersed, the prince went to the huddled figure. "Come with me." He said gently. "I will take you home."

The half-orc looked up from under her hood. She was a fierce looking creature, from her orcish bloodline, but her features also held a delicacy, a gentle look in the eyes that also held sadness and loneliness. Such hurt touched the prince's heart when she answered, "I 'ave no home, master." she said, averting her eyes from him.

"I am born a prince, but I am no ones master." He said. "Very well, if you have no home, I shall install you in my house as my guest, until such time as we have healed you of these sores from the rocks and you have forgiven me and my people for disgracing you in such manner."

"I... I am not disgraced, Prince. 'Tis me lot in life. Me people's lot in life." She said humbly.

"Nonsense." said the prince. "Now come along or I shall have the guard carry you up there." He smiled.

So it was she stayed in the prince's castle, and although he discovered that beyond the wounds of the rocks that she was bent and lame, he invited her to stay as his handmaiden, for he felt her gentle spirit. In the fullness of time, she served him well, and when he married a woman of genteel nature as his own and bore children, the half-orcess was as good as the children's second mother.

Time passed, and the half-orc grew old and feeble. She did not have the long life of an elf, and it broke the elf's heart, who by now had become king, so that he was always at her bedside when she took ill. She had served him faithfully and lovingly for near half a century, and now her time was nearing. He held her hand and wept as the hour neared, when suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light in the room and a small girl was standing there, as beautiful a visage as the king had ever seen.

The small girl smiled at them and looked to the half-orc. "I've come for you, handmaiden. It is time for you to walk proudly through the garden of the Eternal Rose."

The king stood agape as the little girl took the handmaiden's hand and guided her out of bed. She stood tall now, erect and straight, not a glimmer of her former discomforts, and behind the little girl, a round portal opened into the most beautiful garden the king had ever seen, so that he was brought to tears yet again. The half-orc embraced her king one final time and they exchanged their last goodbyes, then she entered the paradise.

The little girl looked at the king with kindly eyes. "You have glimpsed eternity this day, heartful king. It is my gift to you, as well as an eternally fruitful tree in my garden. Live your life as you always have, and you and your family will walk under its branches one day. She will be waiting for you there." She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed the king's cheek, then walked away into the portal and closed it.

The king mourned for the loss of his friend, and planted a tree on a beautiful hilltop for her. It was always said that tree bore the ripest and best fruit that had ever been, and in his own time, the king went there with his wife of many ages, where he lay under its shade and slept. When his wife returned alone, she was weeping but smiling. "I have seen him cross the bridge and rest under the shade of the tree." she said, and never mentioned that she had met a little girl there who had been waiting for him for such a long time.

Sandpoint town square. Rain sitting with children:

Did you ever wonder why the sea is salty and the rivers and lakes are not?

That is a story told from times beyond times, which is why we tell it like this...

Once upon a time, the sea was as pure as snow, there was not a grain of salt within it. A King of the sea fell in love with a beautiful maiden from a town…oh…very much like this one. She was fair of visage and pure of heart, and she loved a sailor, who loved her as well. The Sea King constantly washed pearls and other gifts from his domain for the girl to find, but she loved more than gifts. She loved for love's sake, and the Sea King grew jealous that a mortal meant more to her than he did, for he truly only desired her beauty.

In his anger, the Sea King cursed the sailor one day when he took his boat out to go fishing. The sailor could never again return to the land alive. The maiden took to walking the docks where the sailor brought his boat as close as he could to her, but the docks were so high, he could not reach up to touch her hand, though she stretched as far as she could. The sailor knew that if she parted from the land, the Sea King could take her, so she could not join him on the boat.

One day, when he saw that she was wasting away in her love for him, he stepped off the boat and walked to shore. She ran to meet him and they embraced for a moment, but then his foot touched the dry shore and he was transformed into the sand that his foot had fallen upon.

The maiden wept on that sand for a day and died there, weeping until the very last. The Goddess looked down and took pity on the maiden, and took her tears and spread them in the sea, all over the world, to punish the Sea King for interfering with the purest love, letting her surround him, knowing he could never have her, but also, that she could always kiss her one true love forever, which is why the waves roll into the sandy beaches.

So remember, children, whenever you walk in the waves, a King has power... but he can still be humbled by love.

I have begun running the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. One of the players has chosen to portray a female elven cleric of Shelyn. Rain, as she is called in the Common Tongue, has taken to wandering around Sandpoint in her off time, chatting with the folk of the town.

In particular she has begun telling the children of the village stories and legends from Shelyn. The player has been sending me these stories in between games as he writes them and I thought it would be fun to post them here. They have nothing to do with the adventure itself, other than the fact that they are great role-playing items and they have helped create a deeper and wider game world for us.

So as he sends me these tales that Rain is passing on to the children of Sandpoint I thought I would share them with the community here as well (with his permission). If they help anyone else's game in any way that would be great, too.

I'll post the first two that I have shortly.