Of dungeons and dragons and howlers

When I first started working here (yes, it's true, 1987), we couldn't keep Dragon Magazine on the shelves. But for the past several years, there hasn't been much interest. I figured that with the rise of so many video game options, the face-to-face nature of Dungeons & Dragons had spelled its demise. Boy, was I wrong. This year we've got a new crop of subfreshman boys who are ardent players. They've pored through every issue of Dragon in our collection and lobbied heavily to have the three volume Core Rulebooks in the library. I finally caved (well, it wasn't a hard decision to make). Book III arrived first. It contains entries for "hundreds of creatures, both hostile and benign, for use in Dungeons & Dragons adventures." Here's a picture of the howler, who lives on "planes where chaos and evil hold sway." Although they are intelligent, they do not speak--they only howl. I think I prefer the kind of howlers found in Harry Potter's world.