Rust monster

Greyhawk Creature

Rust monster
From the Monster Manual (2000), art by Mark Tedin.
General information
Size:	Medium
Alignment:	Neutral
Type:	Aberration
Subtype:	Monstrosity
First appearance:	Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975)

Rust monster is a monstrosity (or aberration, depending on edition) about the size of a pony who inhabits the subterranean caves of the Flanaess, which seeks out and consumes metal, often the armor and weaponry of players' characters. They are known mainly for being able to instantly rust and devour metal, particularly ferrous metals, such as armor and weapons, including those made of mithral and adamantite.

Originally inspired by a cheap plastic toy, the rust monster was one of the first monsters specifically created for D&D, and has been included in every edition of D&D, although various aspects of the creature have changed from edition to edition. In most editions, the rust monster has been a non-lethal creature with little or no way of physically harming player characters, however the rust monster's ability to destroy a character's cherished and expensive weapons and armor in mere seconds is what makes it a particularly fearsome opponent.

Ecology

From the Monstrous Manual (June 1993), art by Tony DiTerlizzi.

They are solitary creatures, who do not appear in groups.

Environment

The Rust monsters only live underground and live only in places that are deep enough to be devoid of natural light.

Typical physical characteristics

The rust monster has two antennae that it uses to seek out its food, being able to smell metal when its nearby.

Abilities

The rust monster can use its rust ability to touch any metallic object to make it immediately suffer instant oxidation and crumble. Its entire body is corrosive and any metal that it touches will immediately rust and corrode, breaking into edible sized pieces that the creature then consumes. Metal that has been enchanted is resistant, but not immune to this effect. Even precious metals like gold and silver are subject to this disintegration.

"The sense of smell of a rust monster is apparently linked to magnetism; it increases in effectiveness as the amount and purity of the metal increases."

Appearances

Miniatures

A painted plastic miniature of the rust monster appeared in D&D Miniatures: Dangerous Delves in 2009.

Adventures

Novels

In Paul Kidd's novel Descent into the Depths of the Earth, a rust monster is used by one of the main characters (Escalla) to convince a sentient sword to cooperate with her plans. Another main character (Justicar) loses his black sword to a rust monster, possibly the same one.

Video Games

Card Games

The rust monster was card #581 of 750 in the 1991 Trading Cards factory set.

Film and television

Two young rust monsters (fighting over a metal padlock) appear briefly in the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) (at 0:24:47).

Other appearances

• A rust monster appears as a pet in the Futurama episode "I Second That Emotion". Although it is not mentioned by name, the presence of rust on its robot owner's body indicates that it is based on the Dungeons & Dragons monster. This is confirmed in the audio commentary for that episode on the DVD release. They are also mentioned briefly in a later episode "The Bots and the Bees".
• In strip #415 of The Order of the Stick, Xykon's crystal ball shows a rust monster chasing a paladin.
• The rust monster appears in NetHack.
• RustMonster is the name of a nautical-themed band.
• A rust monster appears as the title character of "Rusty & Co.", a webcomic about a group of monsters who form their own adventuring party to escape the usual monster fate of getting slain by wandering heroes.

Creative origins

From the Monster Manual (1977), art by Dave Sutherland.

In the early 1970s, Gary Gygax was playing Chainmail, a wargame that bore some precursors of Dungeons & Dragons. In order to give his players as many different challenges as possible, Gygax was always on the look-out for new monsters. Although he was able to draw on pulp fiction and sword and sorcery stories for many of them, he also looked through dime stores for figurines that could be used in battle. On one of those occasions, he came across a bag of small plastic toys euphemistically labeled "prehistoric animals". These were Hong Kong-made and the set included monsters from Japanese "Kaiju" films such as Ultraman and Godzilla franchise. Several of these were odd enough to catch his eye, and he used them to represent several new monsters, including the bulette and the owlbear. One of the figurines looked like an absurd lobster with a propeller at the end of its tail, and Gygax could think of no fearsome powers for such a monster. After some thought, he came up with the amusing idea that this non-lethal creature would not attack characters in order to eat them, but rather to eat their hard-earned possessions, especially those made of metal.

"When I picked up a bag of plastic monsters made in Hong Kong at the local dime store to add to the sand table array ... there was the figurine that looked rather like a lobster with a propeller on its tail...nothing very fearsome came to mind... Then inspiration struck me. It was a "rust monster."
—Gary Gygax^{[citation needed]}

"There was a set of plastic toys laughingly labelled as dinosaurs [if I remember right]. I frequented the local dime stores back in the late 60s and early 70s searching for toys that would suit tabletop fantasy gaming. The said bag contained three we incorporated—the bulette, the owl bear, and the rust monster."
—Gary Gygax, EN World  (2002)

The rust monster was an entirely unique creature when it was first created in the early days of D&D, fantasy miniatures—especially monsters—were difficult to find. The rust monster is infamously one which has a unique story, having been inspired by a kids' plastic toy. Tim Kask explains the surprising origin:

"There once was an unknown company in Hong Kong that made a bag of weird animal-things that were then sold in what once were called dime stores or variety stores for like $.99. I know of four other very early monsters based on them. Gary [Gygax] and I talked about how hard it was to find monster figures, and how one day he came upon this bag of weird beasts. It might have had a sci-fi marketing hook. He nearly ran home, eager as a kid to get home and open his baseball cards. Then he proceeded to invent the carrion crawler, umber hulk, rust monster, and purple worm; all based on those silly plastic figures."
—Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot (2009)

Publishing history

Original D&D

When Gygax developed D&, the rust monster rapidly migrated to the new game system, and was described in the first supplement to the original rules, Dungeons and Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk as "inoffensive" but "the bane of metal with ferrous content". The creature was attracted to the smell of iron-based metals, and any such object touched by the creature instantly turned to rust, which the rust monster would then consume. The rust monster could also use this power in its defense, since any metal weapon used against it would also turn to rust. Characters hoping to save their armor and weapons by avoiding it found they could not outrun it, since it moved about four times as fast as the average character.

Basic Set

The rust monster also appeared in the Basic Set (1977, 1981, 1983), as well as the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991).

The rust monster was also featured in both the black box Dungeons & Dragons Game boxed set (1991), and the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game Rules and Adventure Book (1994).

First edition

In 1977, the rust monster was updated for the Advanced D&D game, and was pictured for the first time, in an illustration by Dave Sutherland that depicted a round tick-like creature — albeit 3 feet high and 5 feet long — with a bony shell of armor, four mammal-like legs, two long antennae and a scaly prehensile tail ending in what appears to be a propeller. In this edition, the rust monster consumed all metal, although it still preferred ferrous metals over copper, gold or platinum. It had no bite, tail or claw attack, but the rust monster could smell metal from 90 feet away, and with an increase to its already rapid speed — it now moved six times faster than the average character — it would rapidly close and attempt to touch its antennae to metal, thereby causing the object to instantly corrode. (Magical weapons had a small chance to escape this fate.) In order to escape, fleeing adventurers could discard unwanted pieces of metal in the hope that the pursuing rust monster would stop for a few seconds to devour them. David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, discussed several monsters appearing in the original Monster Manual, warning "woe unto the armor-wearing adventurer who encounters a rust monster deep in some dark subterranean passage".

A droll illustration in the Dungeon Master's Guide shows a fully armored fighter leaping into the arms of a wizard for safety as they are confronted by a playful-looking rust monster.

In the May 1978 issue of The Dragon, Michael McCrery wrote "Excerpt from Interview with a Rust Monster", purportedly a talk with an adventurer who had been magically transformed into a rust monster. However, rather than acting as an insight into rust monsters, this was an article about how to properly explore a D&D dungeon.

The rust monster appeared in set 4 of the Monster Cards series in 1982.

In the August 1984 issue of Dragon (Issue #88), the rust monster was described more fully in "The Ecology of the rust monster", supposedly by a sage. In this article, it is a strange bacteria living in the rust monster's stomach and blood stream that caused metal to rust. Rust monsters have poor sight, although their sense of smell for metal is extraordinary. Handheld spears are useless against its armor, although wooden clubs and crossbow bolts were effective. Rust monsters give birth to live young.

The rust rat variant appeared in the UK's Imagine magazine #22 (January 1985).

Second edition

In 1989, when the rust monster appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two, several small details were changed. Its appearance was now less playful: its carapace was now tight-fitting scales, the propeller on its tail changed to a weapon-like paddle. Its coloration was now described as a yellowish tan underneath and a reddish brown on top. It is said to smell like rusty metal.

In 1993, when the rust monster appeared in the Monstrous Manual, the text remained the same, but its appearance was altered significantly. It now had an insectoid appearance: its four legs were now jointed and barbed like a grasshopper's, its antennae were slightly feathery, and its body was shaped like a wingless mayfly, with a well-defined head, thorax and abdomen.

Third edition

For the third edition, the rust monster was given a makeover, both in style and substance. Its illustration showed a return to roughly the original tick-like shape and bony armor of the first edition of AD&D; however, the insectoid legs, feathery antennae and general appearance from second edition remained. The biggest change was its speed, which was reduced to that of an average adventurer. It was also given a bite attack, albeit a very weak one, in addition to its corrosion attack. In this edition, the rust monster always strikes at the largest piece of metal available before moving on to smaller items.

Third edition v3.5

In the Monster Manual v3.5, the rust monster was left unchanged.

The rust monster appeared on the Wizards of the Coast website, in the "Design & Development: Monster Makeover" column.

The rust monster was further detailed in Dragon #346 (August 2006) in the article "Ecology of the Rust Monster"; this article also featured the O-akasabi-same, an advanced rust monster. This information was also featured in the Paizo book Dragon: Monster Ecologies (2007).

Fourth edition

In fourth edition, the rust monster appeared in the Monster Manual 2. Its appearance remained largely the same as third edition's. However, its speed was doubled, making it twice as fast as the average character. In addition, its bite was given a significant upgrade; for the first time, the rust monster was a dangerous physical threat to characters. Rather than corroding metal with its antennae, the rust monster now corroded metal only with successful bite. In a new development, if a rust monster ate a magical weapon, the "residuum"—the substance that gave the magic weapon its powers—stayed in the rust monster's stomach; once the monster had been killed, the residuum could be recovered and reused to make a new weapon.

Reception

Rob Bricken from io9 named the rust monster as the 4th most memorable D&D monster, as well as one of "The 12 Most Obnoxious Dungeons & Dragons Monsters".

Chris Sims of the on-line magazine Comics Alliance referred to the rust monster as "the most feared D&D monster".

Other publishers

The rust monster is fully detailed in Paizo Publishing's book Dungeon Denizens Revisited (2009), on pages 52–57.

Gallery

• 
  Monster Manual (2008), art by Jason Engle.
• 
  Monster Manual (2014), art by Brynn Metheney.

External links

Disclaimer:Any lore presented through the following links does not necessarily adhere to established officially published content, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of this wiki.

• The d20 System Reference Document
• The creation of Undead Rust Monsters

References

Bibliography

• Beach, Tim. Doug Stewart, ed. Monstrous Manual. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993. Item code TSR2140. ISBN 1-56076-619-0
• Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet and Skip Williams. Monster Manual. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000. Item code 17755.
• Greenwood, Ed. "Ecology of the Rust Monster". Dragon #88. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, Aug 1984.
• Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1977. Item code TSR2009.
• Heinsoo, Rob and Stephen Schubert. Monster Manual 2. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2009. Item code 23966.
• Mearls, Mike, Jeremy Crawford and Christopher Perkins. Monster Manual. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Item code A9218.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	C2 the Ghost Tower of Inverness	5, 6, 7
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Into White Plume (RPGA) (High Level Version), D&D 3.5e	10, 11, 12,
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth	4
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth	4, 13
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Dragon magazine #014	14-20
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Into The Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook, D&D 4e	3, 87, 91, 95, 96, 158
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders	53
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders: Map/Monster Booklet	16
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Greyhawk: Supplement I, OD&D	19, 33, 39, 65
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City	15
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Lords of Madness, D&D 3.5e	151
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	AD&D Monster Cards, Set 4	Not Numbered
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	MC2 - Monstrous Compendium Volume 2	Insert (Rust Monster)
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Monster Manual 1, AD&D 1e	83
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e	305
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e (Premium Edition)	305
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Monster Manual 1, D&D 3.5e (Premium Edition)	216
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Monster Manual 1, D&D 5e	262
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Manual of the Planes, AD&D 1e	113
Rust Monster	Monster	Native of: Material Plane,	Polyhedron magazine #020	15
Spotty (Rust Monster)	Non-player character	Rust Monster,	Return to the Keep on the Borderland	55