Critteralia Briefs

Critteralia

For much of the last 40 years, a booklet is often found among the hands and in the hearts of many folks of the land. Typically fashioned of a rough paper, printed on a press, bound in a thick cover, and scattered throughout the land, they are nearly ubiquitous. It is certain that at least one member of the party has one, if not all of them.

We use a classification system from that here.

The classifications used here are:

Aberrations	Abominations	Constructs	Corruptions	Denizens
Dragons	Elementals	Faunalia	Floralia	Giants
Grimms	Horrors	Rumored	Salathen	Slimes & Oozes
Spirits	Trolls	Undead	Undying	Water Monsters

The following is a general list of some of the most terrifying creatures that exist in the world. Descriptions are provided for several, but you would do better to consult a good bestiary for more information. I recommend a book called The Bestiary. It was written by Shim Sheroo, and although folks keep waiting for him to update it, he has not. Shim is a merchant, and by all accounts one who made his fortune before the book as an adventurer, which he wrote in his retirement.

Sample Creatures

The following list gives a brief sample of some of the creatures known to inhabit the greater Wyrlde.

Aboleth	Al’miraj	Animated Objects	Ankheg	Awakened Plants
Banshee	Basilisks	Behirs	Beholder	Bicorn
Black Pudding	Blights	Blue Slime	Carrion Crawler	Cave Urchins
Chupacabra	Clay Golem	Cloaker	Constructs	Crawling Claw
Cyclops	Darkmantle	Demilich	Dragon Turtle	Dryad
Elemental	Ettercap	Fae Dragon	Flameskull	Flesh Golem
Gargoyles	Gas Spore	Gelatinous Cube	Gibbering Mouther	Golem
Gorgon	Gray Ooze	Green Slime	Grick	Harpies
Hellhounds	Helmed Horrors	Iron Golem	Jackalope	Katikis
Kraken	Leviathan	Lich	Medusae	Mimic
Mummy	Naiad	Ochre Jelly	Oni	Orcus
Peryton	Piercer	Pseudodragon	Quaggoth	Racoonwolf
Redcaps	Revenant	Roper	Scarecrow	Scylla
Sea Serpent	Shrieker	Shroomkin	Skeletons	Hypnarach
Stone Golem	Tarrasque	Trolls	Vampires	Violet Fungus
White Slime	Yuma	Zombie	Other (G & L)

You can find a copy of it yourself, called The Critteralia Wyrldica. It contains much the same information here, only in far more depth and with suggestions, tips, hints, and even some cures.

P7152#y1 In the book, Sheroo catalogued around two hundred or so known critters of the world, as well as many of the most pernicious diseases; in doing so he often fought with them, battled with them, seeking in some way to find ways to make the lives of those who came after him easier. He describes many of the creatures and denizens of the world beyond the walls, all of them encountered in his travels, with some tips for dealing with many of them. This list is drawn from that book, and I have included a few of the descriptions given in the book, but not many details.

Aberrations

Utterly alien, highly sentient, and terrifying. Aberrations tend to have some kind of Planar origin, and are usually hostile and generally foul tempered, but this is not a default trait; rather they are often angry that they are trapped within the cycle of Wyrlde where they do not belong.

They are some of the strangest of all the things that are out there in the world.

Beholders

Beholders are the product of Dusit and Pallor getting together with Melane an exceptionally long time ago and creating something new. They became weapons meant to change the course of the war, and they still get mighty upset when folks forget how important they were, sweeping across the land in vast groups of them, and they would have been unstoppable “if it weren’t for the damn Elfin”.

They are why one can come across a field of statues, or a swatch of vegetation that is new amid the old. The last attempt at a census of them identified twenty-five before the last of the team was slain.

Tarrasque

The Wyrlde Tarrasque is not quite as large as its sibling in other Mortal Realms. This makes it significantly less a threat – and far more common. This does not mean it is a pushover. Widely considered to be the single most dangerous thing one can encounter – in so far as people have returned. It is said that some places one can go and never return, and there are things as bad or worse there.

Abominations

Abominations are living remnants of the God’s War, creations built to destroy the followers and defenders of other Powers That Be. Abominations are terrifying to behold, and often fashioned to destroy and eradicate anything. Since the God’s War, most of them have fashioned some lair or found some place, for they do not fit into the circle of life of the world itself, and do not often need to feast on anything other than the followers of the Bright or Shadow Powers That Be.

Constructs

Mashenists are not, sadly, only interested in making life easier and improving the lot of the ordinary person. Some are dark, and often they have picked up the same cues from wizards, and sorcerers, and warlocks, in the fabrication of monstrosities.

Dreadnaughts

The God’s War was absolutely devastating to the entire planet, not merely to the Ancient Lands. The people had spread far and wide across the lands, and built many places that were special, and even sacred.

Wherever people were, the Powers That Be fought. The Powers That Be tried many things before they turned to creating the young peoples. The most devastating and fearful of them all were the Dreadnaughts.

Dreadnaughts are machines built for the sole purpose of destroying life, and they feed on all things. But they were often left alone, or abandoned, and the places they were made, the vast forges, were not shut down. Some say these forges are still out there, somewhere, still building them, though the materials are rare and there does not appear to be anyone still mining for them, let alone who might know who how to make them or what to make them from. It is rumored that Dreadnaughts are not the only things of their kind left over from the ancient days – that a few attempts to create soldiers exist as well.

There are several distinct kinds of Dreadnaughts. Each has vitredur armor around its inner workings, but all are still able to be felled, and vitredur is a valuable material, as are many of the other parts from these things.

Dreadnaughts are not alive. They have no Soul, but it would not be something you could tell. They will stalk, hunt, and kill people, and there are rumors of the Goblins even using them. They are animated by forces from the necrotic plane, however.

The advice of the wisest is that when you see a Dreadnaught, you run. You run for all you are worth, and you do not stop until it goes back into sleep.

Let sleeping Dreadnaughts lie.

Please.

Corruptions

The Corruptions are something that came about after the God’s War, twisted beings like the Yuma. No lair has ever shown any of them to be in service to a Dread God, but they still seem to have found some source that has twisted them beyond the norm. While the birth of a Yuma from a corrupted person has been witnessed, no one knows where the hellhounds come from, and their twisting is too like the Yuma to be a coincidence.

Yuma

The Yuma are large, eight to ten-foot-tall, emaciated (young) or grossly thick (well-fed) beings that have some unique powers. They eat only entrails and organs, with a special delight for livers, hearts, and brains. They are usually roughly human in shape, with long, curved nails that end in sharp points, elongated feet that force them to stand on thickened balls and toes with bent knees, and rows of pointed, sharp teeth but no molars.

The most terrifying thing about Yuma is that they were once people, and their forms reflect the rage, the despair, the jealousy, the vices, the horror of their inner selves. Transformation happens over a week, and the first sign is the loss of molars as the new teeth grow in. A common symptom is inordinate hunger that cannot be satisfied normally, along with pain should something other than entrails be eaten. The best tasting entrails come from other people. They cannot eat cooked food, grains, or fruit. As they change, their base desires override their ability to reason, though not their cunning. Yuma heal incredibly fast – they are not too dissimilar from trolls that way.

Hypnarach

The Hypnarach are eight limbed – four limbs on each side, capable of bending in multiple directions. Each limb is roughly seven feet long. These are attached in groups of two to gut sections about three to five feet long each. Behind the gut sections is a large, six to eight-foot-long bottom section much like a spider’s abdomen, while ahead of it is a chest and head section. The head looks somewhat human, though it splits open into four sections revealing the inner maw with its many moving parts that can cut through steel as if it were paper. They have six eyes, two forward, one on each side, and two above that can also see forward. The eyes are human looking. To either side of the head, in what might be thought of as the “shoulders” though no limbs come from it, only strange cilia used for manipulation, are sets of spinnerets.

Hypnarach are mottled shadow black, covered in long stringy hair that is usually tangled and matted and coated in filth. They make musical, pretty sounds that can calm and lull creatures. They lair in places that people do not go, where they fashion a burrow usually about fifteen to twenty feet deep that is lined with webbing that is slick and frictionless. They give birth to live young three to five per birth, and they eat any kind of moving protein. Preferably while alive, as dead is tasteless.

Hypnarach are not spiders – each of their limbs ends in a five fingered hand, they are warm-blooded, and they think. It is believed that they may have once been human, like Yuma, and were or are corrupted by something. Their vital organs are in a soup in the large “belly,” and in some cases an entire person has been found within it, pale and hairless.

They lure victims in, calm them with their song, and then wrap them in a cocoon that seems to have a surface paralytic. When they eat, the “head” burrows into the cocoon, and they feast while the flesh is still warm and the victim alive. The cocoon is then eaten after. They are experts in trap building, lure making, and incredibly strong, agile, and fast. They do fear fire or intense cold, and do not move or go out when it is too cold or raining.

Some theorize that they are the servants of Pallor in the world, for their lairs often have imps and other creatures around them as helpmeets.

There is little that one can do for a victim of a Hypnarach. The filth around them often carries infections and illness, and few survive.

Many a Yuma has come to be because of them.

Denizens

Denizens is a collective term for the dimensional beings. These include Fae, Phantasms, Specters, Angels, Malakim, Valkyries, Devils, Demons, Hags, Ghouls, Ghasts, Miasmas, Zyma, Humours, Vapours, Pneumas, Wraiths, Wights, Shiki, Kauns, Khrysos, Lunos, Wisps, Shadows, Shadowfells, and Netherfells.

Kauns = Karma

Khrysos = Ex

Lunos = Eighth

Miasmatas = Euthania

Ghouls = Quietus

Ghasts = Silence

Shadows = Dreamscape

Yuma = Pandamonium

Wisps = Whispers

Nightmares = Nightmare

Wraiths = Limbo

Wights = Purgatory

Ephemerals

Fae

When discussing the denizens of the Fairywilde, it is key to remember a few things about terms for them and those drawn from them:

Fey is a “kind” of Faerie, with the other sort being Fells (singular Fell, and much like the other dimensional Fells). Fae is the term for all of them, any who come from the Fairywilde. Fell beasts include the dreaded Displacer Beast, as well as assorted other horrific creatures, inclusive of Cait Sidhe and Cu Sidhe. The Fell are, essentially, not able to be mistaken for people. The Fey, on the other hand, can and often are mistaken for them.

Fay is a term to denote a Halfling, with the reason behind it being that Elfin were shaped in part with stuff from Faerie.

Although spelled differently, they all sound very much alike, and there is no doubt that it is intentional and purposeful, a form of the natural unreality and chaos the forges that place and those people.

The Fey are dangerous, capricious, and prone to all manner of violence and harm against people, because they don’t believe that Wyrlde should have people in it, and that they are little more than overdeveloped animals and savages that might make for halfway decent pets.

The Rules of Fairywilde

It is not uncommon to encounter a Fae or Fell. It is of value to know certain rules gleaned through trial, tribulation, error, and grievous consequences.

Never accept a Faerie gift.
Do not eat Faerie Food or drink Faerie wine within the plane – their food is not meant for us, and they are known to be amused by our reactions.
Do not follow the music and step into a fairy ring, nor follow the singer and descend a Mound, nor rest wearily to the wind’s whispers beneath a shady bough.
Do not tell the Faerie your full name. Whenever possible, do not tell them your name at all, nor let those around you do so.
Do not be impolite, or rude, or offensive, even in jest. Be polite, very polite, so very polite.
Do not give them any clothing except for the most wonderful, nor anything made that is not the most beautiful.
Do not be surprised if they ask a gift of you, and already know what they want.
Do not thank them, but always show gratitude, lest you incur a debt or acknowledge one.
Do not mention a newborn child you may know of when in their presence or within earshot.
Do not kindle flame in the woods except in clearings.
Do not shed the blood of another on Fae ground except in a duel, and always make sure you have witnesses.
Do not run in the Woods at night, lest you step upon a resting Fae, or offend a dryad or nymph.

Phantasms

Specters

Celestials

Celestials are denizens whose exact nature is often best described as merely ineffable and beyond the mortal ken. They are roughly akin to the Fey, Fell, Specters, and Phantasms of the Inner Planes around the Material. While not universal, most of the Powers That Be have some sort of demesne within this Plane. The Denizens of this plane are most notable for their use of an empowering by Celestial Energy, which is cool, comforting, and more than a little numbing.

Angels

Angels are winged humanoids that stand about 8 feet tall in their normal forms. Angels are servants of the Powers That Be, and they can serve any of them. are the children of the Powers That Be, acting as servants, messengers, and general support staff for the Powers. Sometimes they are given tasks to handle within the Ephemeral such as guarding a potential Ikon or supporting someone of interest to a particular Power.

Angels are exceptionally hostile towards Devils, and it is always warned not to get caught up in between the two. They tend to be neutral towards and even confused by the Fae, and they get along well with the Kauns of the Radiant Plane. They and the Reanimated of the Necrotic planes are an interesting thing – the presence of an Angel causes the Reanimates to collapse and stop moving. Meanwhile, the Wights of the Netherealm are capable of causing them intense damage that seems to ignore whatever it is that have to defend against Devils (with whom Angels are more evenly matched). Finally, they will generally attack a Yuma that is rampaging, but won’t normally act to save someone who has been infected. As with the broader denizens of the Outer Planes, they are there after having been sent there initially through the efforts of Belial, and like the Fey are not bound to the ways of thinking and custom that we are familiar with.

Valkyries

Valkyries are the children of the Powers That Be, acting as servants, messengers, and general support staff for the Powers. Sometimes they are given tasks to handle within the Material such as guarding a potential Ikon or supporting someone of interest to a particular Power. Valkyries are always women, or at the very least they all appear to be women, but we have no way of proving that, and even Valkyries talk about their men.

As with the broader denizens of the Outer Planes, they are there after having been sent there initially through the efforts of Belial, and like the Fey are not bound to the ways of thinking and custom that we are familiar with.

Valkyries ride winged horse like beasts and are drawn to bravery and battle. When seen, they typically have a sword, a shield, and a spear. Valkyries stand about 8 feet tall, and seem to shimmer, and their shadows are always strange.

Malakim

Malakim are the children of the Powers That Be, acting as servants, messengers, and general support staff for the Powers. Sometimes they are given particular tasks to handle within the Material such as guarding a potential Ikon or supporting someone of interest to a particular Power. Malakim are not winged, but always have an aura around them, and stand around 8 feet tall in their natural forms.

Malakim appear to all be men, but even they speak about the women they have, so it is likely that this is just our way of seeing them. Malakim have deep and intense dislike for demons

Infernals

Devils

Even Angels have not the breadth of lore and tale that Devils do, for only Demons are more feared.

Devils feed on souls, and the more wicked a person is, the sweeter the soul is. Evil is in actions, not in what the person thinks – intent is not magical, so Devils are extremely gifted at goading and encouraging and helping to set the stage so that thought turns to action and then to keep encouraging it They will use pleasure as a tool, but more often they use suffering and pain and trauma.

Devils have a fixed, horrifying shape that they obscure through Glamour, and they delight in pain, suffering, and trauma. This form is usually bipedal in some way, four limbed, often tailed, frequently with horns, sometimes with wings. Devils need only to touch to drain one, and their weapons and bodies are meant to draw blood and cause harm — they have a violent and cruel structure so oppositional to our own that even the Dread Powers That Be and their followers avoid Devils. They have a goal, and that goal is the subjugation and destruction of the Mortal Realms. It is said they take every shape and form that is possible, but that they settle most often a few that are well known.

A Devil is generally considered to be one of the most potent powers there is, and their hunger for the souls of humans is legendary and unyielding — there is no deal one can make that will not result in giving them a feast. It is said that Devils were the ones who made the bargains to create Vampires, and that they laugh about it. Devils are readily as powerful as Angels, and while Demons are older, they are the more dominant.

Devils have set rules that they follow upon their own Plane, and set structure, and are rigid and unyielding, which is part of why folks who conjure them often think in terms of dealing. Devils do not have the power to cross to the Mortality Plane on their own — they must be summoned, and they cannot remain here for long, never more than a single day. The amount of harm that a single devil can cause in that day, however, is incalculable.

Devils are eternally foes of Angels, will often take command of reanimated dead, consider wights beneath them but are not so foolish as to ignore them, are terrified of Yuma, and dislike Fae because they are too mutable. Devils like that which does not change, can be counted on, and no one has ever said such about the Fae. Kauns and Devils do their best to avoid each other.

Demons

Demons feed on human suffering, grief, fear, and terror, and like to chase it with a bit of flesh when they can – the younger, the better. Demons are more flexible in their shape and appearance than Devils, for their shape and form is affected by the being they are facing – and only the sharing of what one sees with others can fix the form of a Demon among any given group – otherwise they will see their own manifestation. They can seem to be almost anything since demons take their shape and forms from the minds of those they torment.

Demons are amorphous, shape changing, and often immaterial. They are distinctly different from Devils, in that they care nothing for souls, but everything for suffering and misery. Demons can only arrive on the Mortality Plane by being summoned — but they can persist and remain indefinitely. Demons can be forced back to their Plane, but the risk is often immense — Demons are chaos and uncertainty made manifest, filled with nothing resembling rational and logical thought.

Demons do not abide by rules, codes, or contracts. As many of them have names similar to those of Devils, to whom they are very distantly related, they are often summoned by accident, and as they cannot be bound in ritual summoning as devils can be, those failures are rarely recalled or recognized for there is never anyone left to tale the tale.

Demons seek to dominate and control people, but do not cooperate or partner only dominate and force. They care nothing for rulers or leaders, heroes or cowards, they thrive on emotions and the darker the better. Some demons prefer the brighter emotions as an appetizer – the sark of love, the first flush, the contented happiness, the amuse bouche of nostalgic amusement – and they are often considered the worst, for they will encourage and feed and toy with those emotions, slowly draining everything through it, and then they will turn and destroy what is joyful to feast upon the darkness and horror and grief.

The most powerful Demons known include Vinirial, Pathos, and Penitwis.

Hags

This is the home of Hags, horribly vile beings whose eternal struggle against Valkyries are documented in many myths across all the Mortal Realms.

Hags seem to be uniformly women, as no one has ever reported encountering a masculine or neutral Hag. They are gifted with the ability to produce Glamours, and perhaps the most notable thing about them is that they make bargains that are incredibly dangerous.

Hags are extremely territorial and will only bow down before the greatest of their kind, whose threat is ever ominous: Baba Yaga. Hags loathe witches and claim to be offended by the mere sight of them. There is a long history of Witches interfering with the plans and schemes of hags, which are always tied to some bargain, and always have the same end results: servitude and consumption.

Hags will eat anything but prefer things that complain about it while they are being eaten.

Radiants

Kauns

Kauns are a short, green loving people who love joyously, but lack a certain generosity of spirit. One tells a long and torturous story of centuries spent struggling to live in a hostile world after getting trapped there one time. Name of Lepra, he takes a lot of flak from others. As a result, we call these Denizens “Leprechauns”.

Khrysos

Khrysos appear to be golden hued people, said to be eternally happy, optimistic, outgoing, and joyful. They are all of those things even while doing incredibly cruel and malicious actions.

They always have incredibly complicated names, like “Rumplestiltskin.”

Lunos

All of them are named Bud. Except for when they are not. Lunos appear as house cats of larger than normal size, usually very white, and fond of using their right forepaws to interact with things. It is said that if you shake that paw, you will be either lucky or unlucky. Black is not an uncommon color, but then so is any other coloration – white just seems to predominate.

Necrotics

Miasmata

Reanimates are the Undead: Zombies, Mummies, Skeletons, Severed Limbs, and so forth that are powered by the spirits of this plane. Strictly speaking, it is Miasmas that animate the dead, Pneumas that animate golems, Zyma that animate certain constructs such as the Dreadnaughts, Humors that can affect the living, and Vapours that can interact with the world more physically.

Ghouls

Ghouls come from Quietus, and it is believed that the poor fools who originally summoned them are themselves now ghouls. Ghouls are discussed in the Bestiary.

Ghasts

Ghasts are almost like personifications of their home – silent, swift, and feral. They appear to be emaciated humanoids, bald, with long pointed ears that stick up above their heads and make it appear at a distance as if they have small horns. They are carnivorous and have a double row of sharp teeth. They live in small villages led by a combination of shaman and chieftain, and they are quite industrious in their underground lairs.

The upper world is occupied by the Gormen, immense Minotaur like beings who are almost exactly like the Ghasts, except they are omnivores and while they will eat Ghast meat, they prefer their farms and grains and vegetables.

Shadowfells

Shadowfells are very much like the Fae, a reflection of them, but as a shadow is a reflection.

Shadows

Beings of nightmare, like the hellish versions of Shiki.

Wisps

Appearing as glowing orbs of intangible light to most, these beings are mischievous, and may help or may hurt, but always are of their own mind and hate to be alone.

Netherfells

Netherfells are spirits that have fallen to a curse, denied the peace or horror of the afterlife deserved, and bound to a space. Netherfells are often said to be the spirits of people – and they may well be so. However, it is likely that they are Spirits of the World. It should be noted that Netherfells are not undead, though they are often confused with such.

Wraiths

Nightmares

Shiki

Shiki are tiny sized, hybrid animal (such as cat/fox) creatures that are magical and denizens of the Netherealm who are summoned to Wyrlde. They are also known to escape and venture into the world at large, where they flit about and observe things. It is believed they are spies for the Netherealm, who likely have designs on Wyrlde for themselves. There are many different varieties of them, and according to legend they were once actively sought out for arena fighting purposes, since they do reproduce. That was before the God’s War, however, and the manner of capturing them has been lost, except perhaps to Theurges. They do not like Beholders.

Wraiths come from Limbo, and delight in their psychic tortures. Like the Fey, they are powerful and dangerous.

Wights

Wights are essentially the Demons of Purgatory and appear to be proud of it.

Dragons

From the Hydra to the assorted sized dragons and on to the wyvern, these dragons of Wyrlde are not what you might expect. The Dragons of Wyrlde are not the many-colored splendorous things that many have flights of fancy about. They are six limbed, typically grey-brown, and get really annoyed with people. Especially people who steal things. Dragons hate to have things stolen from them.

Dragons of Wyrlde have enormous wings but are otherwise small – about the size of a large elephant, excluding the wings and tail. Not much more is known about them – they do not seem all that interested in having long conversations that end with people returning to tell the tale.

And they do like to talk. Endless talkers. Seems as if they have a culture and social system all their own, but it centers on being the one with the most stuff and the largest herd, though I have to say I have never seen a dragon herding anything.

Elementals

The elementals of Wyrlde are far less interesting than those able to cross to other places. Note that there are thirteen kinds of Elementals.

Elementals have many different forms, some of which are well known – Dao, Djinn, Efreet, Marid, etc. They may seem to be humanoid, with great powers, and there is always one kind for each of the elements. Earth and Fire elementals are always masculine, Air and water elementals are always feminine. The rest of the dimensional Dozen are generally without a fixed or given gender state. There are many other types of elementals, like the great birds, the serpents, and others. One thing remains true: if an elemental exists in a shape in one, then there is a form of it in all others.

Lastly, there are guardians of the world itself, separate from any God or other power, whose sole purpose is to protect the world. They are always people, who are infused with this spirit, and become lost in the memories of all the people they were before and separated from the regular concerns of mortal people – for people are their enemy far too often.

Faunalia

It is difficult to describe Beasts, as I am never sure what Sheroo used for his boundaries. Most of them are some sort of strange combination creature, usually not particular sapient or sentient – that is, they are animals, beasts, but not “normal”.

Al’mirazh

These resemble a rabbit with a single horn, like a unicorn, but have the temper and disposition of a stepped-on Badger. They are sometimes found among Jackalope. Of note is that some of them have horns that are more like spear points, and teeth that are so sharp they can be used to shave. They have earned the nickname “vorpal bunny,” and it is rarely said with humor. Nobody knows what vorpal means, but that doesn’t matter.

Bicorn

A part-panther, part-cow creature with a human-like face that feeds on divine or radiant energy and tends to eat clerics. They carry a strong and unforgettable stench about them.

Chupacabra

These demonic looking beasts are reputed to attack and drink the blood of livestock. They resemble a dog with horns, extra-long teeth, and metallic claws that unsheathe like a cat.

They are especially fond of goats.

Jackalope

Jackalopes are said to be so dangerous that hunters are advised to wear stovepipes on their legs to keep from being gored. Stores sell jackalope milk, but some question its authenticity on grounds that milking a jackalope is known to be fraught with risk. One of the ways to catch a jackalope is to entice it with whiskey, the jackalope’s beverage of choice.

The jackalope can imitate the human voice. When ranchers gather by the campfires singing at night, jackalopes can be heard mimicking their voices or singing along, usually as a tenor. They would attack humans by goring their legs with their antlers, causing foresters to wear stovepipes on their legs as protection. The legend stated the only way to calm an angry jackalope was to offer it whiskey to drink.

It is said that jackalopes only breed during lightning flashes and that their antlers make the act difficult despite the hare’s reputation for fertility.

Kaktikis

The Kaktikis is a cat-like creature, covered in hair-like thorns, with particularly long spines extending from the legs and its armored, branching tail. The creature is said to use its spines to slash cacti at night, allowing juice to run from the plants. On later nights, the creature was said to return to drink the now fermented juice. The then-drunken creature was said to shriek throughout the night. The cactus cat was a very hostile creature towards any animal invading their territory. Animals that crossed them often ended up with large puncture wounds, and sometimes fatal injuries.

It is a desert predator. To avoid the harsh heat, they’d carve out the inside of a cactus and sleep through the day. It eats the bugs and juice of the cactus, keeping it hydrated. They were said to be immune to scorpion venom and would hunt them at night.

Cactus cats were social animals, often mating for life. They were said to live about 20 to 30 years. Before and during mating season, the male felines would break open a large Saguaro cactus and let the smell attract females to the location. Often enough, two females would be attracted to the scent, and fight. The fight usually ended in one of them getting brutally spiked or stabbed to death. The winning female would then meet with the male and drink the cactus juice. The pair would get drunk and then produce a litter of kittens within the next few weeks. The kittens were born blind at birth with no spikes.

RacoonWolf

Yeah, Trash Panda crossed with a wolf and as big as a horse. In packs. If you see one, use fire. They do not like fire. They do like your friends, though – usually for a meal.

Alicanto

This bird with luminescent feathers which feeds on gold or silver is often found near mines, causing all manner of problems given it is a wingless raptor, smart, and brutal. It does not eat flesh, only metal, but it has no problem with tearing anything that gets between it and its food to pieces. Think a feathery velociraptor.

Hodag

“It had the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long tail with spears at the end”, according to one survivor of an encounter with a hodag. Vicious, sneaky, and predatory, Hodags are a scourge that often sneaks in through patrol lines into civilized territory, usually by burrowing.

Isnashi

Details on these beings are scarce. These include the creature only having one eye, long claws, lizard-like skin, backward feet, and a second mouth on its belly. In more recent alleged eyewitness accounts, it has consistently been described as resembling either an ape or giant ground-dwelling sloth and having long arms, powerful claws that could tear apart small trees, a sloping back, reaching heights of seven feet when standing on its hind legs, and covered in thick, matted fur.

It is slow but ferocious and extremely dangerous due to its ability to move without noise in the thick vegetation.

It gives off a putrid stench and emits a frightening shriek and weapons such as arrows and bullets could not penetrate the creature’s alligator-like hide. Its only known weakness is that it avoids bodies of water.

Piasa

They have Horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish’s tail. Green, red, and black are the three colors of this beast that haunts rivers, streams, lakes, and shores.

Ramidreju

Creatures which have a sinuous six limbed body, like a snake, and their fur is slightly green-colored. Its eyes are yellow and its nose is like that of a hog, which it uses to dig very deep holes. Ramidrejus are a very sought-after animal because their fur heals sickness and the animal has a fervent desire for gold, so there is often a goodly amount of it in its lair. They eat it, though – you might come across a lair of a hungry one.

Bulcors

Kind of a mole, badger, and tiger hybrid that burrows or swims through the soil. They avoid stone, and are ambush hunters, usually seeking to pick off one of the large herds of deer and related creatures. They are about five feet tall at the shoulder, with clawed feet, but are not particularly fast above ground.

Floralia

Plants, sentient, sapient, and other. Yes, we have them. Fortunately, they are rare. At least in my experience. Wyrlde has a large variety of murderous plants, carnivorous flora, and then, of course, the number of plants that are just going to poison, kill, or maim you.

Fungal Foes

Fungi are everywhere and known to be the all-time favorite foodstuffs of Imps. As with most plants, they can be cultivated, a trait that many species engage in. Goblins like them since they too have a large enjoyment of their taste – it is said that the fastest way to distract a horde of goblins is a plate of mushrooms with gravy. As Goblins can eat pretty much anything, even poisonous ones will do.

Of the forms the Imps have bred (and there are many), the Shrieker is the most dangerous and deadly in any of its several forms.

Deadly Plants

Some plants are just plain dangerous.

Bloodvine

The greatest horror is the vine which they call “the devil’s snare”, and we’re full of stories of its death-dealing powers. I was able to discover truly little about the nature of the plant, owing to the difficulty of handling it, for its grasp can only be torn away with the loss of skin and even of flesh; but, as near as my friend Dunstan could ascertain, its power of suction is contained in several infinitesimal mouths or little suckers, which, ordinarily closed, open for the reception of food. If the substance is animal, the blood is drawn off and the carcass or refuse then dropped. This does make it easy to avoid, if you can spot the skeletons that the vines tend to cover or catch the scent of death in the air.

Devilpops

These are parasitic vines with purple blossoms known as the “devil’s poppy” that seize and poison animals. Is a potent narcotic. My band once fell asleep passing through a meadow full of the damn things. Lost my dog, Toto, too.

Madagar Tree

The slender delicate palpi, with the fury of starved serpents, quivered a moment over her head, then as if instinct with demoniac intelligence fastened upon her in sudden coils round and round her neck and arms; then while her awful screams and yet more awful laughter rose wildly to be instantly strangled down again into a gurgling moan, the tendrils one after another, like great green serpents, with brutal energy and infernal rapidity, rose, retracted themselves, and wrapped her about in fold after fold, ever tightening with cruel swiftness and savage tenacity of anacondas fastening upon their prey. I still have scars from this damn thing. I won’t say where.

Yateveo

Named for producing a hissing sound and having poisonous “spines” that resemble “many huge serpents in an angry discussion, occasionally darting from side to side as if striking at an imaginary foe” which seize and pierce any creature coming within reach.

Giants

It is said that there are Giants in Wyrlde though they do not appear to want much to do with us, and I have heard of none within the Empire. However, there are some giant-like beings that are quite fearsome, if easily manipulated.

Orci and Oni are often said to be two sides of the same thing, but I suspect they are more than that, a twisted relation not unlike the Goblins that was never functional, and they have much in common with the hulking Trolls.

Oni, fortunately, are limited to the islands, and Orci prefer quiet forested streams and ponds that draw prey to them. I am aware of the legends about yeti or ogres that infest other regions in small numbers, but the best I have seen is casts made of footprints that could have been shaped by people seeking to draw money out of the unaware or Troll sign, and you just don’t want to encounter a troll.

Notable about both Orci and Oni is that they are generally ten to twelve feet tall.

Grimms

Creatures of the Underdark, bred in secrecy for the purposes of the Imps, these terrifying things are truly monsters. Some of them are classified as Floralia, as Imps create incredibly beautiful gardens they do not like to be disturbed, and peculiar traps for the unwary.

Cave Urchins

Stone covered, many spiked creatures that tumble through cave like spiked boulders, with a massive maw capable of swallowing a person whole. They never come out of the tunnels – should you encounter such, please report it to your local Guildmaster.

Horrors

Horrors are exactly that: things that are utterly horrific, and terrifying, and horrible, and, well, you get the idea. Yogs are an infamous example of this.

Rumored

The Rumored are creatures there is some kind of rumor about, usually unproven, sometimes a hoax. They may more properly belong in other classifications. As an example, one rumored is that there are an entire people who have the bodies of goats but with a human head!

Mites

Mites are a race of violet or purple skinned, two foot tall, bipedal, pigeon toed, winged, flight capable beings with one eye in the center of their wide heads, one brightly colored horn that juts up from it, no visible nose, and a gaping maw that stretches nearly the width of the head and can open to almost a foot wide. They are primarily arboreal, preferring to ambush prey from the trees, and seem to be able to tell if the prey is going to be tough or not. They have an intense love of music and will often pause to gyrate strangely when they hear a tune they like. They can also be bargained with, having a value on very short shorts, something they occasionally wear.

When attacking, they will drop to the ground and begin to gyrate and speak their strange tongue, including such words as wop, bam, boom, bop, a-boppa, lopa, and lum. This is a ritual chant to prepare the sacrifice for their deity, which appears to just be a ten-foot-tall representation of one of them. The horn on their head can be useful to gore their opponents, but also can be used as a sort of musical instrument, with them exhaling through it while closing off holes they have drilled into it in some strange ritual.

Victims are sacrificed and their corpses dragged at the mouth of a cave within a large, circular rock that is thick in the middle and thin on top, like two inverted teacup saucers. There, a shaman keeps careful count, and those who have reached an unknown number of acceptable sacrifices are allowed into the cave. After a period, they will emerge, nearly eight feet tall and commensurate in size. this massive increase in size leaves them in an aggravated state, which can only be calmed by music and ritual prayer.

These very large ones have a deep fondness for eating their prey, usually people, whole.

Salathen

There are five broad types of Salathen (Sky, Sea, Soil, Sand, and Smoke), each broken into around a dozen or half dozen kinds, and they are all very dangerous. It is said that they predate all the Peoples on the world. They are six limbed, often vaguely resemble a dragon in some ways, or perhaps a big lizard. They have peculiar eyes that have three pupils surrounded by a comingled iris of assorted colors and horizontally slit nostrils. Some have fur, some have scales, and some seem to combine aspects of different animals. Among the assorted types occasionally seen, however, are Agrainains, Silurians, Floridians, Venturians, and something that is usually just referred to as a walking wall.

Salathen comprise an entire system unto themselves – and they especially enjoy eating the things the Gods made. Legends say that Dragons are a kind of Salathen, and that among them are some strange beasts that seem to be combinations of different animals – including people and horses! How hilarious. Probably just some sort of therian.

Thankfully, it is rare to encounter Salathen in the Bright Realms, as they tend to be mostly confined to wherever it is they come from.

Slimes & Oozes

Slimes

Slimes are of assorted kinds, usually marked by their overall color. They are an amorphous species, their core form being a kind of rounded dome like shape, and they can exude assorted things from their surface. Essentially all eat in the same way: they absorb the thing, enfolding itself within them. They are able to operate collectively and form a large being with a kind of hive mind that is likely about the same level as a dog. It is said that if ever there were an intelligent slime, it could likely find a way to take over the world, and slimes eat anything. One of the most feared is the Gelatinous Cube, which seems to be an oversized version of the assorted slimes. Despite reports of the sometimes being seen above ground, they dislike the heat of the sun. One report has a massive conglomerate of Cubes acting with high levels of intelligence down in Lemuria.

Oozes

There are some things that defy the mind. One of the most likely is the existence of sentient oozes, which actively move of their own will, slick and sticky, fluid and filmy. Their moist and malleable forms are excessively painful, and they love to hide and ambush prey.

Spirits

One of the more complicated groupings, this is a catch all for the Spirits of the World, the dis-, semi-, and incorporeal beings that inhabit assorted places around the world. Naiads, Dryads, and a host of other beings occupy places and will often defend or protect them.

Spirits are a powerful and potent force, rarely to be underestimated, and they are everywhere. Many have Shrines raised to them or have made deals with people. They are often confused with Fae or Elementals, and Spirits often rely on that misunderstanding.

Spirits are of particular importance to Melanie, Antelle, Ululani, and Tamasin.

Ghosts

Ghosts are not planar – they are the cursed dead. It is possible to curse someone so that their Quintelan is bound here, trapped and often fractured in some way, such that they are unable to move on unless the curse is lifted, or the circumstances forced upon them are changed.

Ghosts can be harmless or extremely dangerous and deadly – the things and events that make a ghost are myriad and not fully understood, but few who are ghosts are happy with their state of being, for they are no longer in the Cycle, and are trapped.

Ghosts are weak against Radiant energies, and susceptible (like all things) to the voids. Voids do not free them, however, merely discorporate them, and Radiant causes them to fade for a time, but they will return.

Ghosts can only be freed through solving a problem that lifts a curse. A curse always has a solution, but it is always out of the grasp of the Ghost. They cannot be exorcised or turned away, and they require Arts to understand and communicate – so they can be terribly angry, very frustrated, and often violent.

Trolls

The Trolls of Wyrlde are leftover madness, half sentient, extremely removed from what may once have been a human start, Trolls are varied and terrifying creatures.

Many names have bubbled up over the ages for them, but they are abominable, man shaped, seven- to eight-foot-tall human shaped beings with massive hands and large feet, covered in thick mated hair over a skin like hide that often earns them their name. Their eyes are sunken, and smoke or steam wafts out of the dark eye sockets in which there resides an ember like glowing mass They smell atrocious, and they will eat anything, their breath far worse than the rest of them.

Trolls are also sometimes called Things, because it is the best someone can come up with at the time. They all have a certain quirk that varies from one to one. Trolls tend to fit into their environments. They are described as seven to nine feet tall, bipedal, with overly long arms and large feet, covered in thick fur, usually matted, that helps them blend into the region they occupy. They can be found in Frigid, Wooded, Grassland, Scrubland, Desert, Wetland, Riparian, and underground biomes.

Stone trolls cannot stand the light of the sun – it causes them to harden and freeze into immobility. For Wood trolls, they are extremely susceptible to fire, but they also recover from it when the fire is out. River Trolls cannot move beyond the river or stream they have taken as home, waiting in the depths for the unwary, demanding tolls to cross a ford or bridge. Snow Trolls, sometimes called Yeti, become white and depend on the cold. Sand Trolls can rest beneath the sands for weeks and draw down their victims. Swamp Trolls can summon the very roots and vines to do their bidding, and at least one is said to cause burns on those who fear it when touched.

Oh, yes, they can talk, they can demand, they can beat the unwary and unprepared to death and later add their ground bones to flour for vitamins. Trolls are not inherently good or bad, orderly or chaotic – they can vary. But trolls are often said to be like children.

If you come across an Arch Sage named Telomere in your travels, ask him about trolls. He knows a lot about them and even then, tends to speak on their behalf.

Trolls are an especially pernicious problem, perhaps more common than some of The Foe that appear at inopportune times. In my past life, they were a children’s story told in bits and pieces, either friendly or hostile, small or large, and they were generally cute. Not here. No, here, they remind me of something in what we called a “comic book”, stories to entertain, but in this case brought to life in a horrible, disgusting, terrifying way. They are very dangerous to encounter, though all have a peculiar weakness that can render them immovable and allowing for a hasty escape.

Bridge	Desert	Forest	Hill	Deep
Mountain	Frost	Jungle	Swamp	Sand
River	Meadow	Stone	Blood	Rampant

Here are a few descriptions of the broad groupings, in some cases with a bit of information on a notable type or three within that grouping. Sorry to say, do not expect much; it is more of a collection of hints, and as you are off to be adventurers, I shan’t give you too much. It would spoil the surprise.

Undead

There are dark magics in Wyrlde, magics which twist the flesh and bind the soul, necromancies that revive the dead and unnaturally prolong the spirit, drawing on necrotic powers. Those for whom this happens, those unfortunates, are called the Undead. Infested and driven by miasmatics from the Necrotic Plane, these beings are alive, but not in a sense that we recognize, being driven entirely by death itself.

There is no hierarchy to the undead. They are the tools of others like the dark Clerics, and as such the revenants, zombies, and skeletons are little more than puppets. They are often confused with the corrupted, however, of which the Yuma are the most fearsome, but thankfully not all that common yet. That these things can animate skeletons and keep them together, that they fill zombies and pause decomposition, that they are able to raise revenants and restore mummies – they are a scourge, and the necrotic plane is to blame.

According to the lore of visitors to other Mortal Realms, some things that are undead elsewhere are not so here.

Vampires and Liches are not undead here.

Nor are Wraiths, Spectres, Shadows, Ghouls Ghasts, and many others. They are planar Denizens.

Ghosts are not undead. They are very much just dead. Specifically, ghosts are a Spirit of the World.

Zombies

Zombies – and their more decayed future selves, called Skeletons – are the work of something and or someone bringing through vapours, humours, and miasmas through a dimensional rift to animate and empower the dead. A lot of people will say that the best way to kill a zombie is to chop its head off. Sadly, that is why most of those people survived by running away from Zombies. The best way to get rid of a Zombie is to get a Cleric over there to dispel the Necrotic denizens and restore the corpses to the ground.

Chopping the head off of a thing that doesn’t need one in the first place is foolish and I am pretty sure something leftover from folks from another world.

Undying

There are beings of immense power and horrific weakness who have found ways to extend their life beyond the norm – and are not undead, but Undying – immortal, though the manner of that life leads much to be desired. There are three kinds of Known Undying: Vampires, Liches, and Demiliches.

In each case, they draw from the Infernal, Nether, and Necrotic dimensions, respectively, but never solely, each individual drawing from at least one additional dimension (including pockets) for the power that sustains — the flesh being a separate issue.

Vampires

Vampires are a scourge that first appeared following a bloody civil war, with a member of a minor Noble house making a deal with one of the infernal courts and gaining significant power as a result — but at the cost of his humanity and his soul.

Vampires have no soul, and are neither dead nor alive, having become something else. The original and Prime vampire is long dead, but he had three “children”, or people whom he turned into vampires and bound within the same curse that he had been bound by.

Vampires are entirely territorial, limited to the realms in which they were born and a connection to the very soil itself. Vampires cannot stand the purity of the Sun, and have challenges with fire, which can harm them in any of their forms. Vampires are not stronger than they were in life, but they are generally faster and less limited by sensations such a pain — for they do not feel such things, and are incapable of love, contentment, and friendship.

A group of vampires is headed by a Master. The master vampire is always going to be the oldest, and they will usually have three to five people beneath them, and those in turn, will have three to five, and those then will have three to five, and so forth.

A vampire does not always turn others — doing so is weakening, and not all seek to reduce their own power. Vampires do not turn by bites or other harm — they turn by Corruption, by drivi g people into a state where they cast aside all light, all hope, all love, all empathy. The weakenin gcomes because to corrupt someone takes time, effort, energy , and Vampires feed in order to gain continuance, though an unfed Vampire will endure in a deathlike state without any known end.

They can compel others, to induce a loss of memory, and they are utterly and completely without any redeeming qualities. They can change form into a thick black smoke or take the form of a rat or a wolf. The stories about bats are a myth — vampires do not fly, though they do have very strong and very sharp claws, allowing them to scale surfaces and their lack of fatigue means they do not tire.

Vampires need to sleep upon the soil of their realm of birth, and they need to be hidden from the sun. Some have cabinets in which they rest during the day, lined with the soil, so that they can travel.

Vampires can be killed much the same as anything else can, though the best ways are still fire and any other great source of Purity (including running water, which can drown them and tear them apart, though this can take significant time). A vampire is ranked according to how deep their lines of subordinates go, so a vampire with none is a rank one vampire, while one that has five generations is a rank five (each generation consisting of three answering to one above).

Vampires can command undead. Vampires are always empowered by evil, but weakened and subject to the powers of the Powers That Be who oppose those forces.

Water Monsters

There are monsters in the seas and rivers, who will strike at an unwary vessel and destroy it – for pleasure, for glory, for territory. Some have theorized that this is why Wyrlde’s ships are either riverboats, with their wide, shallow draft single hulls that avoid the oceans and seas, or the vast catamarans that are more difficult for these fearsome creatures of the deep to overturn. A single hulled craft would be easily capsized and likely lose all hands far more readily, for these things are voracious, and even the Kerisian warriors fear them.

Sea Serpents & River Serpents

Combining features of both snakes and eels, these amphibious critters are found in assorted sizes from something as big as your finger to large enough to swallow a ship whole, with a typical specimen able to swallow a large man in a single bite, ready for slow digestion. The best news about them is that once they have a snack, they leave people alone while they retreat to their deep underwater lairs and digest them. Slowly. Sparing a though for the victims, the good news is they usually suffocate before they are digested much.