Greetings Readers!
This is your favorite Wizard Novelist, returning with another in my occasional series of articles about the practice of keeping miniature monsters. This time, How to Get More out of Your Monster.
You see, caring for small monsters can be more than just a rewarding hobby in itself. You can also get useful and even profitable material and services from the denizens of your menagerie if you care for them properly. Since the creatures you will be keeping are generally fairly exotic to begin with, there is really no end to the rare and desirable products that can be made from their cast-off scale, fur, or other body parts. However, here are some ideas that can get you started thinking about how to turn your monster habit into profit, or at least fund itself.
The easiest way to start earning income from your monstrous pet is to collect bits of them that they aren't using any longer. That includes any skin, scales, feathers, and the like that the creature naturally sheds as it grows or due to seasonal variation. Cockatrice feathers are particularly prized as spell components, for writing magic scrolls, and as decorations on headwear. Dragon scales are key ingredients in many potions, and make beautiful jewelry. Manticore spines, shed regularly from their tails, are excellent for sewing seams on magic robes and leather goods, and can even be used as phonograph needles (if those exist in your section of the planes). Just be sure to treat them with baking soda to neutralize the poison before use.
The next level of usefulness you can get from your miniature beastie takes a bit more effort, but can be very profitable or at least lots of fun. For example, if you happen to be fortunate enough to have acquired a diminutive phoenix, you might consider tapping into their well known healing capability. To do so will require many hours of training to teach your monster to heal on command. Alternatively, you could try immolating your phoenix and compounding some of the ashes into healing potions — just be sure to leave enough of the ashes untouched for the creature to reconstitute itself!
Other miniature monsters, while not as remunerative, can be very handy to have around the house. A Xorn in the kitchen makes a very effective waste disposal system for eliminating food scraps. A Morkoth can make a fun maze puzzle to amuse and befuddle your friends. By contrast, if you travel with a small minotaur on your dashboard, you'll never get lost — just like having a Global Positioning System receiver nearby.
So, whether you are shearing your mastodon's deep and plush wool, teaching your miniature stirges to fly in formation, or leasing out your carrion crawler for biohazard cleanup, I wish you success and good fortune making good use of your well-tended tiny monsters.