Guardians
Minotaur: Large and ironclad, this creature's shoulders stand a good head above a tall man. It is bull-like in appearance, with great curved horns and saucer plate hooves. But its body, its great muscled body, is covered in plates of metal rather than coarse hair. It looks a great worn-down cyborg, rusted and blackened and yet still seemingly invulnerable. Its eyes burn with a red fire, it moves with a careful slowness, plodding along like the beast of the field it so resembles. But slow as it is, this monster is deadly. The horns that top its massive head are sharp as swords and hard as diamonds, and its hide is like the armor of the gods. The only weakness this creature posses is its small, widely set eyes. It keeps to the fields and forests.
Echidna: Serpentine beasts of great size - reaching fifteen feet in length - echidnas favor places dark and stony. They have heads that vaguely resemble the heads of women, the hints of features bulging beneath their scaly, grey and green skin. Their skin is cracked and rough, no hint of vibrancy touching their sickly bodies. They have small front legs, held close to the body and calling to mind those terrible dinosaurs, the velociraptor. Those are their only limbs. Their tail is forked. They both crush and claw their prey, rending it to pieces before they begin to feed. These monsters prey on both humans and weaker creatures alike.
Krakken: Lord of the waters, king of the deep, the krakken resembles the creature of legend. Though rarely is all of its body seen. This creature makes its home in vast underground lakes, deep beneath the surface, waiting for the unwary to pass by the edge of its water. Its body is massive and thick, smooth black skin covered in some slick, slippery substance. It has more eyes than can be counted, and more tentacles than any creature should ever possess. In the center of that writhing mass of lengthy limbs is the creature's mouth, cavernous and lined with the teeth of a shark.
Lamassu: The ultimate guardians. These creatures have no purpose but to guard chosen doorways. They are like mighty lions, but prey to the strange rot that plagues all animals at nighttime. They are matted and rent, muscle and bone showing through between swaths of blood matted fur, more skeleton than animal. Their manes are tattered and limp and black. Their maws are distorted by their overlapping teeth. From their backs rise the wings of bats, black leathery flesh spanning between skeletal frames, allowing them the advantage of flight. They can be found anywhere treasure hides.