LOL'd at work.

[zwiebelring]

Dunno, google spat out Drakensang where you could get 10 rat tails after answering a riddle correctly.

[Cadaia]

That whole part 1 is designed after guantlet, part 2 is designed after pacman... not sure about 3,4,5 though

3 is Frogger...

[Flavilandile]

In Lordmarch Plaza, in Undermine, the named Earth Elemental Rhyolite.
In House Deneith, in Depth of Despair, the named Earth Elemental is Granite.

Well these named Earth Elementals are named after rock names...
( Granite is an igneous rock, Rhyolite is a type of lava )

Then you have Citrine ( named Cat on Lord of Stone ) that is named after a quartz variety
And Zircon ( a mineral, that also makes nice crystals ) a named boss/ NPC from the Sharn Syndicate quest line.

And there's more non rock & mineral related...

[Elixxer]

Only one I can think of is very easy to find, Arnal Swarts, level 17 barb hireling.

[TreknaQudane]

My personal favorite.

Monks in PnP D&D didn't use ki or the elemental strikes. These were added to give the class a bit more functionality. Air, Earth, Fire, Water & Void are the five elements from oriental culture, and the Oriental Adventures series for DDO. Ki is from the Ninja class from Complete Adventurer. They combined some of these concepts and created the elemental system for Monks, and it works nicely. Beyond that, the Monk class is almost exactly was it was in PnP (with a few minor tweaks for the system shift).
All of this means that the Finishers are a new creation for DDO, but there's one in particular that I want to highlight.
While the rest of the Monk class abilities gained upon level up are exactly like they were in PnP, their level 20 ability called Shining Star never existed.

Actually!

A lot of the Monk Finishers were based on rather weak feats from Oriental Adventures that required improved unarmed combat to even take.

Karmic Strike
Eagle Claw Attack
Falling Star Strike
Fists of Iron
Freezing the Lifeblood
Unbalancing Strike

All have their roots in OA. As does the functionality and theme of the DDO Monk and it's Prestige Enhancement line for Shintao Monk and Ninja-Spy

[Calebro]

A lot of the Monk special attacks were based on rather weak feats from Oriental Adventures that required improved unarmed combat to even take, but you were correct when you said that Finishers were a new creation for DDO, because the idea that specific attacks in a chain to create a more powerful ending attack (also known as Combos) never existed in D&D.

fify
I never said those attacks were new, I said that Ki Strikes and Finishers were new. Besides, many of the ones you listed aren't Finishers at all.

[Inferno346]

Rainbow in the Dark - a song by Dio

Running with the Devil(s) - a song by Van Halen

Trial by Fire - a song by Testament, possible coincidence

Ghost(s) of Perdition - a song by Opeth

Coalescence Chamber - Coal Chamber is a band, possible coincidence

Carnifex - another band, although also Latin for executioner so could be coincidence

Ritual Sacrifice - yet another band

[dunklezhan]

"Fear Factory" has an optional locked room where you fight a party of undead adventurers. They are the characters from 1980's cartoon "Dungeons & Dragons". (Now we know what happened to them!)

No unicorn lying dead after having been strangled with a rainbow and disembowelled with its own horn = not enough dead adventurers.

[brian14]

In another thread on this forum someone posted a Berzerk reference in "Cannith Manufactury":

"Get the Humanoid, Get the intruder..." said by the golems guarding the elevator heading up to lvl 2.

[serthcore]

There's an optional boss in Reclamation, an earth elemental called Detritus.
This is one appears in some of Terry Pratchett books (ie:Guards! Guards!) as a troll.