The first thing you all need to know is that I AM NOT SORRY. I am not ever going to apologise for Air Toads.
The second thing, I suppose, is what Air Toads are.
A cliff toad, Bufo hippovorax, is pretty standard Gloranthan nightmare fuel, one of a variety of creatures that is just out to get you. However, I was running a game in which one of my players knew Glorantha pretty well, and the rest did not. I wanted to surprise them all, not just one of them. So the Air Toad was born. It’s just like a cliff toad, right up until you pierce its skin, or it panics and inflates, floating away. It has not yet realised that in this state it is good arrow fodder.
BOOOOOOM.
“Roll POWx3, please, to find out if you’re deafened.”
So anyhow, after I posted on the RuneQuest forum, Austin Conrad made eye contact, and I didn’t look away, and we wrote a Monster of the Month together, for his series, and I still laugh when I look at the roughs for the cover. He did the editing and layout, we shared the writing, and I did the cover, and the small bits of internal art, all of which are chunks of flying toad. It’s not part of the Beer With Teeth stable, but I’m fine with that. I got to write about Air Toads.
I will never be sorry.
