CE Bestiary: Beasts

Aplakom: Once, a great alchemist fed the flesh of a Golgoth to a baby Dragon. The dragon reacted violently, swelling to twice its normal girth. Its wings shriveled. It became incapable of speech. It's limbs extended and thickened, sprouting three extra fingers each. Stripped of its ability to fly, the creature despaired and threw itself from the face of a cliff.

Two days passed before a great necromancer happened across the beast and took its bones to create many such beasts. He named it Aplakom, meaning 'one who shies from the light', as it was certainly a hideous creature to look upon. The necromancer thought to use the aplakom as undead servants, but to his disdain, this creature would not take orders and wandered to the dark recesses beneath the raised cities of Xsenzar.

Aplakom are able to exist both as terrestrial and aquatic species and possess preternatural strength, but the Aplakom retains no other preternatural abilities and may be killed by ordinary means. These hulking beasts are capable of moving at only slow speeds thanks to their bulky builds and are possess low dexterity. They are generally slow-witted and non-violent, but prefer to be left alone and will attack those who they feel are infringing on their solitude and personal space.

Apertaine Horse: Indigenous to Moonhaven and Garumeth, these most peculiar mounts are feathered from their knee joints to the top of their hooves. It is rumored these feathers allow the Apertaine to run faster than any other horse in all the lands of Edarin. Many Apertaine Horses also have feathers appearing intermittently in their mane and tail. Apertaine are a part of the stallion family and are the most wild of Edarin's horses. Fiercely independent by nature they cannot live or reproduce in captivity.

These horses are often taken as part and parcel with the Zhoan Elves. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the Zhoan share a certain wild nature that the Apertaine can respect, but in reality no one is wholly certain why these two races are so symbiotic. In fact, the relationship is so close, that an Apertaine bound to a Zhoan has a far longer life expectancy. While a wild Apertaine may live 900-1000 years (far longer than any ordinary mount), one who chooses to endure the ritual bindings with a young Zhoan will live three times that, considering no tragedy befalls the Zhoan to whom he/she is bound. Only the Zhoan who the Apertaine is bound to may ride them, and they will bear the weight of no others. This mount also will not tolerate a bridle or saddle of any kind. The Zhoan use pocketed blankets known as haffon which the Apertaine seem to find fully acceptable for carrying miscellaneous items. Haffon are typically decorated in stripes or other geometric patterns. While generally Zhoan prefer earthy colors, haffon are almost always vibrant in shade.

The reasons for the connection between these two races are elusive and not particularly important, but these races do go hand in hand--once bound, the death of one is usually followed promply by the suicide of the other. (This is the ONLY instance the Zhoan feel suicide is an honorable death, as it is very difficult to overcome the loss of one for the other and suicide is far preferred to post-traumatic insanity.)

While an Apertaine Horse bound to a Zhoan Elf is mostly docile, wild Apertaine are reckless and very dangerous. A failed binding almost always results in the Zhoan's death.

Bertar Bee: Visually akin to the more common wasp or bumble bee, this beast bears red and black stripes and transluscent gray wings. Though unlike other bees, bertar bees' stingers are short and funnel shaped and located at the mouth instead of the rear end. Indigenous to the Nohra Mountans in Edarin's Northeast, bertar bees are nicknamed 'brain burrowers'. They enter the body through the orifices of the face and slowly digest the brain. Once a bertar bee infiltrates the body it cannot be removed or destroyed and causes violent madness, seizures, and eventually a brutal death.

Common cloves are capable of warding them off--they dislike the smell. While this herb is not plentiful in the Northern Lands, it is a staple import and easy enough to come by, making the bertars one of Edarin's most tolerable beasts to deal with.

Bone Wraith: A phantom with physical form, these beasts are made common usage among necromancers. Unlike most undead, the bone wraith is not an ephemeral spirit, but inhabits the bones of its mortal body, all flesh long since worn away. They are capable of bearing weapons and simple thought processes, putting them a step above zombies, and cannot be defeated by physical means--no weapon can do them any considerable harm. While some sorcerors are equipped to deal with bone wraiths, it is most common that a cleric or group of clerics be set to the task.

All bone wraiths have attributes of either earth or fire. They may either incinerate people/objects which get in their way, or raise a hand of earth to crush them. Earth bone wraiths and fire bone wraiths do not comingle. A group of bone wraits is either one or the other.

Chameleon: These creatures are often used as subservients of the stryfe in much the same way a man might use a hunting hound. The chameleon has no will of its own byt has the unique ability to transform itself into any inanimate object. The chameleon is plant-based and stryfe often use them for spying purposes. If discovered, this beast reveals its natural form--a purplish, hollow reed with a lumpy texture and multiple scallion-like sprouts. Chameleon roots are said to improve memory when brewed into a potent and sweet-scented tea.

Grim: The Grim is a particularly nasty beast capable of decimating an entire village in the period of one day. This beast is a devourer of souls, which it sucks out through its victims' eyes. However, a grim can only achieve this by stealing the eyesight of a child. Grims themselves are naturally blind, though they can sense heat and auras, especially powerful ones (to which they are attracted like moth to flame). They are only able to use a child's eyesight for 24 hours, afterwhich they consume the child to take a flesh form until they are able to steal the sight of another.

While not corporeal, only a child's eyes can see a grim, which appears as a gray shade. In shade form, the grim is sensitive to light and can be killed easily with light magic or exposure to direct sunlight. In corporeal form, these tricks have no effect, and schisandra root (found only in the Eastern Cyrrines Mountains) must be ingested. This root, while deadly to a grim, is essentially harmless to the child--though there are some cases in which it may cause feverishness.

Mundane attacks and weapons will not harm a grim. As natural shadow beings, physical attacks will pass right through them. Most grim will use the child's eyesight by possessing their body as they are less vulnerable in corporeal form.

Golgoth: [Note: Lv. 6 and up ONLY. No exceptions will be made. Even a party of all 9th level characters can and should expect at least one PC death if going up against this beast. Do not use this beast unless AT LEAST one member of your party is willing to die for it.]

Also known as the 'White Doom', the Golgoth is a white-feathered colossus, only remotely related to the bird family. It is a rare, vicious creature weighing upwards of 40 tons with a length from head to tail that can range as long as six leagues and a wingspan equal to that length. It's mass is considerable enough to block out the light of the sun wherever it flies.

This beast's mouth is on its belly, with thousands of rows of razor-sharp teeth. It has six arms of gripping talons, each three men wide and one and a half tall, and its feathers are stronger than steel. The golgoth's only weak point is the base of the skull where it connects to the creature's short neck, and an attacker must first somehow manage to get atop the beast to reach it--quite the suicide mission in and of itself, as the Golgoth is a beast which never lands upon the ground until death.

Lore states taht whosoever slays a golgoth is doomed to a vicious and untimely death, but as with all lore, no one knows if there is any truth in this, but few would care to chance it. Golgoth are soulless beasts. They are usually called forth by an evil arch-summoner to wreak havoc and wage war.

Kraken: Large sea beasts that appear to be a cross between a giant squid and a jellyfish, kraken are only capable of large scale destruction--from tsunamis and sea storms to violently crushing any ship that happens to cross their path, kraken remain to this day the primary cause of ships lost at sea. While present in all of Edarin's oceans, they are most prominent in the south. The Samhrhadan Sea to the North with its careening icebergs does not appear to have a favorable climate for these beasts, which are most vulnerable to ice-based magics and attacks.

Lohranim: These vicious hounds typically travel in packs of three or four and so are rarely noted in the singular, 'Lohran'. Like many beasts, these hunters exist solely for the kill, sustaining their ravenous appetites on the brains of their victims. Lohranim will attack anything they come across. Even the stryfe are unable to control these creatures. Lohranim do not feel pain and it takes huge amounts of damage to slow them down. A crushing blow to the skull appears to be the most effective manner of killing them. While capable of existing in all temperate zones, the Lohranim appear to be most prominent in the desert regions of Iodar.

Skree: Skree have leathery black, thickly veined wings much akin to a vampire bat gone battlerager--veins pop out where they ought not and you just know it's pure adrenaline forcing everything out around the edges. Skree in fact, do have the bodies of oversized bats, but their facers are a parody of humanity--the proportions are never quite right, as if all the parts were glued on and the glue dried unevenly, leaving things sort of lumpy and out of place. Their eyes glow a firey gold. Brow and lips tend to protrude and are spaced too far apart with eyes closer to the sides of the head. Like many beasts, the skree exist primarily for the sake of feeding. They abduct their victims at random, carrying them sometimes hundreds of miles struggling in their talons before finally devouring them alive--by then, being eaten alive is usually a reprieve--it means the horror is nearly over.

Stitched Familiar: Also known as a 'stitch', the stitched familiar is a sort of pet used by intermediate and high level necromancers for the purpose of companionship and spying. While many such creatures are grotesque and deformed, others look no worse than a badly scarred cat or dog. Stitched familiars are small animals, no taller than knee-high, and for young necromancers must be ritually infused with small amounts of the necromancer's own life energy in order to move. A newly created stitched familiar is little more than a lifeless doll of flesh requiring the necromancer's will and energy to move it. The majority of time it is carried around as a grotesque sort of doll. After a level or so of this ritual infusion of life energy, the stitch is able to move about on its own, and over time grows its own personality, as any family pet might, though the stitched familiar will ALWAYS be loyal to their necromancer. It is a bound that cannot be broken. As the stitch is animated with the necromancer's own life energy, if it is harmed or killed the attached necromancer is able to feel such.

Wendigo: These quadrupeds rarely venture beyond the frozen norths of Windwarren. They have thick white fur and hearts made of ice. A wendigo lures its victims by taking the form of a beautiful Albian elf. Some say this ability may hint at sentince in the wendigo, but there does not appear to be any conscious thought and the wendigo remains unable to speak or understand language.

Wendigo feast on the hearts of sentient beings and are vulnerable to fire, which can be used to melt their icy hearts.

Weyre: Vicious beasts that attack during the eclipse of Edarin's third and smallest sun, Ilwan, around the tenth day of each month, weyres are sentient mortals (usually humans) for the remainder of the month. Many sentients aren't even aware of their beast form, which is typically an overlarge canine or feline with excessive fangs and claws.

The beast form of a weyre is always violent, bloodthirsty, indiscriminate, and completely beyond any conscious control of its sentient counterpart. These beasts do not breed, but increase their numbers by biting their victims and leaving them alive. This is not particularly common, but should a person survive a weyre attack, they will become a weyre themselves if their sire is not killed by the next Ilwan eclipse.

Weyres are stronger than even the Dracon, and their fangs contain venom that is released into the bloodstream of their victims when the bite breaks skin. This venom is low potency; it serves to stun the victim and lasts no more than 48 hours, but there is no known counteragent for it. These beasts are especially vulnerable to divine magic, particularly wind-based, and weapons made of gold or black gold are the most damaging. However, any and all damage inflicted upon a weyre is also inflicted upon it's less durable sentient counterpart.

Wolgara: Bipedal with bone spikes protruding from their forearms, the wolgara have a tough exoskeleton instead of skin. Violent and always hungry, the wolgara are ever on the hunt for fresh meat. They must eat every two hours and missing a feeding halves their strength and weakens their armor-like exoskeleton enough that it may be penetrated for a kill. The exoskeleton must be weakened or only the strongest weapon can even hope to penetrate it. Wolgara are predators by nature. They will only eat something they've killed themselves and they won't eat anything killed a day, or even an hour, beforehand.

Yarl: These beasts are quadrupedal and appear to be a mix somewhere between an oxen and a wild dog. They have small, beady black eyes, broad shoulders, and extremely strong forelegs capable of crushing bone with a single blow. They can also shoot paralyzing mucus out of their mouths. These beasts will hunt and kill anything that wnaders into their territory, even another yarl (unless it happens to be mating season). The yarl are most commonly found in the Cyrrines Mountain Range and accompanying areas, though they have been sighted in more sparse numbers throughout the lands of Edarin. While the Yarl can be harmed by most any weapon, their thick hide is particularly vulnerable to silver, which reacts violently with their black blood and serves as a fast-acting poison on these beasts. Killing a yarl without it is possible, but excessively difficult.

Zombie: The animated dead, zombies are usually controlled by a necromancer or high-level stryfe. Magic is used to raise these decomposing bodies from beyond the grave. They are mindless and soulless and attack on command. Individually, zombies are not overly strong, but generally are summoned by the scores and cannot be stopped by ordinary means. The brain of the zombie must be destroyed to stop it, but the best way to put down an army of zombies is still to kill the one controlling them or somehow disrupt the spell.

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