First, it doesn't look to me like you need that xsl:if test at all.
As on other occasions, if no such nodes exist, a for-each instruction
won't select any to operate on.

:-) "While we were in a commercial break," that xsl:if test lets me
know I need to output a proper header for the group of items to
follow.

So...

<xsl:for-each select="$monster-path-perhaps-best-bound-to-a-variable">

Yeah, I saw that from David. I'm very excited about that, for more
than one reason.