The Grell makes it’s official Dungeon & Dragons debut in the Fiend Folio (1981) and brings with it just a few more sentences than in the White Dwarf Magazine as well as a shiny new photo of it showing its huge size. The brief description provided covers what the Grell looks like, and we drill down a little more into what this strange floating brain with a beak and tentacles is all about. It’s all bad for adventurers.

The description in the Fiend Folio starts by describing the Grell as dreadful and fearsome. We are convinced that fearsome isn’t a word that should be used to describe them, though seeing a floating brain with a beak is disturbing. The Grell’s body is that of a giant exposed brain approximately 5 feet in diameter and in the middle of which is a long curved beak. Attached to the bottom of the brain-body are ten long tentacles, each of which are approximately 6 feet in length. The brain-body is a bland olive color with streaks of white while its tentacles are dark green. It’s such an odd and bizarre-looking creature that for once, we are left a bit speechless. Looking at this thing in it’s black and white glory, you would think pink and purple… but green works too…

Grells move through a complex levitation process, using its tentacles to steer itself in the direction it wishes to go. It is listed as having a maneuverability class of D in the description, which means that for all intents and purposes within the game, the Grell does fly. It is described a follows:

Class D: Creature that can turn 60’ per round and requires 2 rounds to reach full airspeed. Examples: pteranodons, sphinxes, mounted pegasi.

AD&D Dungeon’s Master Guide, pg 51, 1979

So, it takes our friend the Grell a little longer than normal to turn and face you and has the acceleration of an old lady. What the Grell can do quite effectively is hover in the air close to the ceiling and drop upon you or one of your unsuspecting friends as you walk through the archway in the abandon monastery. While the Grell is usually found underground, they do occasionally hunt in ruined or abandoned buildings.

When the Grell ambushes you, it brings all ten tentacles to wrap around your body, each inflicting 1-4 points of damage and each tentacle is covered in small spines that can inject venom that will paralyze its victim. This is where the Grell becomes an extremely dangerous creature, as the moment a player fails just one of those saving throws against paralyzation, all the tentacles and its beak automatically hit.

There are not many creatures found in AD&D that can land 11 attacks per round, especially at lower levels. Grells are one such creature, and for every round, and it is still attached, two tentacles will be holding on to you, and the remaining 8 tentacles will attack, along with the beak. This is extremely dangerous for anyone at lower levels, especially if the Grell waits behind a doorway and waits for the last character to enter the room… That’s right… we’re looking at you, magic-user with your 1d4 hit dice per level.

One major… weakness? of the Grell is the fact that you can target their tentacles. Anytime they take damage from your attacks, they become inoperative, though they’ll regenerate in 1-2 days later. This is great news if you want to keep the Grell alive and bring it home as a pet, not so great news as that damage doesn’t affect it’s Hit Points and you have to hit its brain-body to actually deal damage to the creature. One final mystery is that the Grell are immune to lightning, there is no reason given. Maybe with all of their tentacles rubbing along on shag carpet, they got used to the electric shocks?

2e - Grell