Canon:Hook horror

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, a hook horror is a bipedal, subterranean monster that looks like a vulture-like humanoid with bony hooks in place of hands.

Publication history
The hook horror was introduced to the D&D game in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)
The hook horror was first published in White Dwarf #12 (April/May 1979), in the "Fiend Factory" column, originally submitted by Ian Livingstone, which was later reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles (1980). The hook horror then appears in 1981 in the first edition Fiend Folio (1981).

The hook horror was detailed in Dragon #131 (March 1988), in the "Ecology of the Hook Horror".

Dungeons & Dragons (1977-1999)
This edition of the D&D game included its own version of the hook horror, which first appeared in the module Quest for the Heartstone (1984), and then appeared as a type of hook beast, in Creature Catalogue (1986), and the Creature Catalog (1993).

The hook horror appeared in the Blackmoor campaign setting in the module City of the Gods (1987).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)
The hook horror appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix (1990), and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).

The hook horror also appears in the Greyhawk setting in the module Flames of the Falcon (1993).

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000-2007)
The hook horror appears in the Monster Manual II for this edition (2002). According to Skip Williams, "The hook horror is an old favorite that missed the cut for the first Monster Manual, and it appears here fully equipped for the new game."

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)
The hook horror appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008).

Description
The hook horror is described as an aberration that stands about nine feet (274 cm) tall and weighs almost 350 pounds (160 kg). It has a mottled grey exoskeleton, which is extremely thick and dense, and as difficult to breach as metal armor. Instead of hands/paws/claws, its front limbs end in 12-inch-long (30 cm) razor-sharp, blade-like hooks. These hooks are, of course, the hook horror's primary method of combat. Its legs are similar to those of a bird, and its head is shaped like that of a vulture, including the hooked beak. Its eyes, however, are multifaceted like that of an insect.

Hook horrors have their own language, communicating in a series of clicks and clacks. In a cave, this eerie sound can echo a long way and can be used to estimate cavern sizes and distances, much like the sonar of a bat.

Multimedia
The hook horror is one the D&D creatures featured in the Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon episode The City at the Edge of Midnight. It later appeared in a coloring book based on the TV series. The Dungeons & Dragons action figure line produced a hook horror figure in 1985.

Additional reading

 * Salvatore, RA. Homeland (TSR, 1990).