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[Arachian Bestiary] The Creatures of The Marsh

Bartooliinii

An Alteran Bard
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Retired Staff
Pronouns
He/Him
Slimy_Froggy
Slimy_Froggy
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The Creatures of The Marsh
These non-sentient beings infest the festering swamp lands of Nid Arach. Find the ghosts and other denizens [HERE].
Use this thread to refer to any beasts you may encounter during my DM's for a quick overview of what you're dealing with.




Arachian Bats
Horror from Above

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Arachian Bats sport four wings, a long snake-like tail, no eyes, and can grow up to 3 meters from tip of the tail to the snout, with a wingspan of 4 meters. Their screeches are deafening and can lead to serious hearing damage for Vyres and Elves. Their long snake-like tails are used to hunt and choke their prey, -often small rodents, krowlers and even stray crooners- as they flap their four wings in an attempt to strangle and fly off with their catch. It takes three grown Arachian Bats to lift a knight into the air and fly of with him. When the Arachians held the fortress, they mounted several ballistas to the towers to repel this flying menace.



Crooner
Evil from the Black Lake

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A little less than 1 meter tall, an adult Crooner looks slightly humanoid, if it wasn't for the webbed fingers, scaly skin, small tail, gills along the sides of their jaws and the ribboned fin that runs along their spine, and other such fish-like attributes. The brackish conditions of the Arachian Swamps serve them just fine. They are fiercely protective over their nests, which are often filled with bits and pieces of Arachian treasure which they've gathered when they came across it during scavenging for food. They can sometimes be seen outside of the water, looking to steal things around the fort, but not often risk to do so too far away from a pond where they can jump into and seek shelter should they be in danger.



Fey
The Misplaced Faeries

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These elegant little creatures seem very out of place in this place of darkness, however Nid Arach has been known to house Fey in the caves and dungeons, which had Lilac eyes and had amassed a pile of small lodestones. More recently, green-eyed and white-eyed Fey have been spotted on the surface of Nid Arach, sometimes daring to come close to adventurers carrying a torch. There are even the rare few light blue eyed Fey who have been seen interacting with the Lightning Pincer Beetles. With their wings made of a substance that can induce vivid hallucination, they are sometimes hunted by the wicked denizens of Nid Arach.



Cave Wendigos
Danger in the Dark

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While the smallest of its species, it is just as equally fearsome as the others of its kind. Known for its ability to hide in plain sight and attack without warning. It prefers to lay in wait in the shadows of the caves and dungeons of Nid Arach, its skin blending in with the pale walls. The only thing that can typically be seen being the reflective orbs that might cast backlight if there is a light source nearby. When light is forced upon them they may flee in fear and pain, covering their eyes and seeking the darkness once more, therefore they are never seen out at night, with the lightning beetles around flashing light. Usually seen attacking torches first to douse the light before raining mayhem upon its prey. It is a very antisocial beast, usually hunting alone but living in a den with a large number of its own. The only accounts of cave wendigo encounters have been with a stray wendigo in a cave... Thus far.



Krowlers
Disease Ridden Rodents

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The Krowlers of Nid Arach are rarely seen in the swamp lands and more often prefer the scattered caves and dungeons within these marshes. They can sometimes be seen swimming the marsh in great numbers, when infighting for territory between clans of some 20 to 30 individuals occurs. Their signature clicking noise is the first warning a trespasser will hear before the entire swarm bears down upon the unfortunate soul who crossed their path. Although they may be weak individually, in greater numbers they move like a hive-mind, clawing, slashing and biting their foes. Carrying much worse diseases much more often than rats, these creatures don't live long and are best avoided if one doesn't want to catch a horrible flu or unknown disease.



Giant Spiders
The Common Pest

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Most commonly found underground, some do lurk above ground. Their lairs are fairly easily spotted, as they encase entire trees in webs. Sometimes their nests can span several trees, with a great web spun between them, catching things from rodents up to entire Arachian Bats to feed themselves and procreate. While watching where you step so not to sink into the swamp and die, one may also want to look up so not to unwittedly pass under a giant spider's nest.



Spotted Poison-Pincer-Beetle
Both Poison and Cure

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These beetles are most often found in the water, hunting smaller invertebrates. They are part of the reason why traveling the swamp land is such an arduous task. Should one be forced to cross through the water, they are bound to come back out with a spotted poison-beetle bite. They will notice purple spots appearing on their skin, their head starting to feel fuzzy, and a big itchy swell on the spot where the beetle had bitten. However, when their poison is extracted, it can be made into a coma-inducing drug.



Lightning Pincer-Beetle
Light in the Night

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These beetles are found in swarms below the giant mushrooms of Nid Arach, without fail. They use the cap of the mushroom to be protected from predators from above and seem to nest and spend the day quietly within these caps. During night, they fly out in small groups, dancing around each other with flashing lights. The lights originate from static electricity which is generated as they rub their wing-caps. They do so while they stop flying, dropping down to create a spark, and then flying back up, repeating this process over and over, lighting up the swamp at night.



Traveler Pincer-Beetle
Cleaner of the Swamp

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The Traveler Pincer-Beetle clears entire pathways within Nid Arach, carrying whatever they find back to their ever growing termite-hill-like nests. The nests are built from the many pieces of grass, branches and things that are found around the nest and on their paths. Alongside the sides of these paths full of traveler-beetle-traffic stand some of these beetle's soldiers, who have developed somewhat bigger pincers with which they guard the colony.



Gryphon Pincer-Beetle
Insect Pest Control

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These pincer-beetles build giant hyves up in the dead trees of the Arachian swamp. From these nests, they fly great distances across the swamp hunting other insects. They're known to also have a go at other pincer-beetles should the chance arise. Regardless of their efforts, the marsh is still swamped by thousands of mosquitos, which goes to show how bad it would be without the Gryphon pincer-beetles around.



Piranhas
A Biting Menace

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The swamps of Nid Arach are infested with Piranhas (pufferfish), which are not averse to biting bits of flesh off of creatures that pass through their waters. They feed off the small generic fish, but aren't the top predators of the waters.



Pike
Population Control

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Pikes in the Arachian Swamps would never approach anything bigger than themselves. However, they're keen and excellent hunters of the many pests in the Arachian waters. As far as predators of the swamp go, this one is at the very top. They keep the Piranha population under control. They also eat any small creatures that come to drink by the water, like young Arachian Bats, Krowlers, Fey and when they've grown big enough they would even go after the odd Crooner youngster.



Snapjaw Turtle
Painful Amputator

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The Snapjaw Turtle uses its incredible jaw-force to crash the food it eats. Its omnivoric, so will eat willow bark just as well as a bite from any creature that makes the mistake of coming too close. It feeds off anything, no matter its size, from a stray spider to a towering Arachian Bat. Where the piranha takes a bite the size of a fingerprint, an adult snapjaw turtle is able to bite through bone and has been known to amputate an entire foot when happening to bite too close to one's ankle. They are quite slow and live as much above as underwater, so when one is careful where they step they can avoid a run-in with one of these creatures.
 
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