OK, so Into the Cess & Citadel (2022) isn’t exactly what most folks think of as a monster book. But it is. Sorta. Bear with me.

So, this is the companion to Into the Wyrd & Wild, which shares a similar format, organization and purpose. That earlier book was meant to make forests into something more dungeon-like, and provided a whole new weird ecosystem to support that, including a ton of monsters. Similar thing with C&C, a book that looks to present a city in more dungeon-like terms. (Why would you do this? Because unlike forests and cities, dungeons are constrained spaces; no matter how big they are, you only ever have a couple immediate choices, and this makes them easier to plan, run and play.)

The book has a bunch of rules for generating cities and material to support them in place (like a table of 100 interesting locations). Then there are five more firmly sketched city districts — the undercity, the spires and the foundry, cultivist and archivist districts, all of which have their own unique character, perils and monsters.  Many of these place-specific monsters verge on NPCs, or, at least, give the sense that they in some ways belong to the ecosystem of urban civilization. A group of general monsters that can be found anywhere in the city is also provided. They are very cityish — garbage monsters, living cobblestones — creatures extremely adapted to their environment. The city is a dangerous place.

Which is why I decided to include this book in a week of monster books. In the introduction, the book says to never forget that “the city eats people.” It’s true! And I think that provides some necessary context. All the creatures and maladies and traps and NPCs and items and architectural features presented by C&C make up one, gigantic, unbeatable, ever-hungry monster. Take that, Tarrasque.