Warlords of the Mushroom Kingdom Bestiary Fluff Part V
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dorchadas
Zol
In the depths of the earth, there are bubbling pools that crawl along channels and slither between cracks in the rock, always hungering. They flow over their prey, engulfing it in their protean mass and dissolving it, eating through armor, flesh, and bone with equal ferocity. They have no eyes or ears, but are able to discover their prey even in the pitch-black night of the underground. Zol rarely come to the surface as they fear extremes of both cold and heat, but occasionally one will climb into a pipe and end up there. They can be discovered by the trails they leave—cracked and seared ground, scarred to bare earth by the substance of their form.
Zol are very difficult to kill. Their gelatinous bodies make them nearly immune to mundane weapons and armor, and even enchanted weaponry passes through their bodies without inflicting much damage. The most reliable means of killing a zol is fire, which they cannot withstand.
Dry bones
The Kappa Wastes are no place for mercy. The kappa tribes do not have the resources to keep prisoners and exile is usually equivalent to a death sentence, but the shamans allow a way out for those whose crimes are grievous enough. In lieu of death or exile, they can undergo the Ritual of the Eternal Champion and be transformed into dry bones, the unceasing guardians of the kappa tribes.
Dry bones have all flesh stripped from their bodies as part of the process, with a flickering flame burning in their eyes and zeal guiding their movements. Dry bones are intelligent, but all of their intelligence is devoted toward protecting the kappa and the honor of the ancestors. To that end, the magic that empowers them is well-named--dry bones cannot be destroyed by anything short of separating their bones and burning them in far-distant pyres. Any other damage heals before the eyes of their would-be slayers. They can even rebuild themselves from broken fragments.
Axe-beak
The axe-beak is a vicious flightless bird, named after its incredibly sharp beak and its tendency to attack nearly everything smaller than itself that it comes across. Adults are two and a half yards high and powerful enough to kill a claw strider, with dull yellow or brown feathers and wings far too small to even slow their fall. They hunt by running down their prey and leaping on them, which is easy because the axe-beak is one of the fastest animals on the face of Agarica. Fortunately, they are restricted to savannah and plains areas and do not live in forests, otherwise they would be much more dangerous than they already are.
In B'rabt, there are tame axe-beaks used as riding animals, but even after long generations of breeding the taming only goes skin-deep and many riders die at the claws of their mounts.
The Pidgit-Folk
High in the air are the Cloud Kingdoms, floating islands placed in their courses by the science and sorcery of the Predecessors. Few live there other than hermits and mystics, but many of the islands which are not the nests of rocs are the abodes of the pidgit-folk, a proud people who hold themselves apart from the “dirt-walkers.” They have little dealing with the other nations of Agarica, as they hold anyone unable to fly as unworthy, and the largest group of those who can fly, the Navigators of the Empyrean, are despised as liars and thieves.
The pidgit-folk rarely descend to earth, and when they do they spend as little time on the ground as possible, eating and sleeping in the treetops and avoiding all contact with the dirt. Those few who have earned their respect enough to ask them about this behavior allude to some ancient cataclysm that afflicted the pidgit-folk so severely that they fled to the skies and remain there to this day, but even they know only fragments.
Spawn of the Devourer
The Silent Ones are not the only inhabitants of the Dreamlands who come to the waking world. Zathoka'ah's corruption has given rise to other beings. Creatures out of nightmare, who are always hungry and use the nightmares of dreamers to bridge the gap to the waking world in pursuit of feeding that hunger.
The spawn's worst capability is their mimicry. They are able to adopt the shape of those they devour, including behavior, memories, and sorcery or martial prowess. They use this to get closer to further victims, and there are cases of spawn devouring entire extended families before being discovered and destroyed. Even that can be difficult if the spawn manages to devour a particularly potent target. The tale of the spawn that assumed the form of a High Inquisitor of the Temple of the Holy Flame and the horrors that followed thereafter is still told in the tea-houses of Agarica.
In the depths of the earth, there are bubbling pools that crawl along channels and slither between cracks in the rock, always hungering. They flow over their prey, engulfing it in their protean mass and dissolving it, eating through armor, flesh, and bone with equal ferocity. They have no eyes or ears, but are able to discover their prey even in the pitch-black night of the underground. Zol rarely come to the surface as they fear extremes of both cold and heat, but occasionally one will climb into a pipe and end up there. They can be discovered by the trails they leave—cracked and seared ground, scarred to bare earth by the substance of their form.
Zol are very difficult to kill. Their gelatinous bodies make them nearly immune to mundane weapons and armor, and even enchanted weaponry passes through their bodies without inflicting much damage. The most reliable means of killing a zol is fire, which they cannot withstand.
Dry bones
The Kappa Wastes are no place for mercy. The kappa tribes do not have the resources to keep prisoners and exile is usually equivalent to a death sentence, but the shamans allow a way out for those whose crimes are grievous enough. In lieu of death or exile, they can undergo the Ritual of the Eternal Champion and be transformed into dry bones, the unceasing guardians of the kappa tribes.
Dry bones have all flesh stripped from their bodies as part of the process, with a flickering flame burning in their eyes and zeal guiding their movements. Dry bones are intelligent, but all of their intelligence is devoted toward protecting the kappa and the honor of the ancestors. To that end, the magic that empowers them is well-named--dry bones cannot be destroyed by anything short of separating their bones and burning them in far-distant pyres. Any other damage heals before the eyes of their would-be slayers. They can even rebuild themselves from broken fragments.
Axe-beak
The axe-beak is a vicious flightless bird, named after its incredibly sharp beak and its tendency to attack nearly everything smaller than itself that it comes across. Adults are two and a half yards high and powerful enough to kill a claw strider, with dull yellow or brown feathers and wings far too small to even slow their fall. They hunt by running down their prey and leaping on them, which is easy because the axe-beak is one of the fastest animals on the face of Agarica. Fortunately, they are restricted to savannah and plains areas and do not live in forests, otherwise they would be much more dangerous than they already are.
In B'rabt, there are tame axe-beaks used as riding animals, but even after long generations of breeding the taming only goes skin-deep and many riders die at the claws of their mounts.
The Pidgit-Folk
Not sure on the original source for this...
High in the air are the Cloud Kingdoms, floating islands placed in their courses by the science and sorcery of the Predecessors. Few live there other than hermits and mystics, but many of the islands which are not the nests of rocs are the abodes of the pidgit-folk, a proud people who hold themselves apart from the “dirt-walkers.” They have little dealing with the other nations of Agarica, as they hold anyone unable to fly as unworthy, and the largest group of those who can fly, the Navigators of the Empyrean, are despised as liars and thieves.
The pidgit-folk rarely descend to earth, and when they do they spend as little time on the ground as possible, eating and sleeping in the treetops and avoiding all contact with the dirt. Those few who have earned their respect enough to ask them about this behavior allude to some ancient cataclysm that afflicted the pidgit-folk so severely that they fled to the skies and remain there to this day, but even they know only fragments.
Spawn of the Devourer
The Silent Ones are not the only inhabitants of the Dreamlands who come to the waking world. Zathoka'ah's corruption has given rise to other beings. Creatures out of nightmare, who are always hungry and use the nightmares of dreamers to bridge the gap to the waking world in pursuit of feeding that hunger.
The spawn's worst capability is their mimicry. They are able to adopt the shape of those they devour, including behavior, memories, and sorcery or martial prowess. They use this to get closer to further victims, and there are cases of spawn devouring entire extended families before being discovered and destroyed. Even that can be difficult if the spawn manages to devour a particularly potent target. The tale of the spawn that assumed the form of a High Inquisitor of the Temple of the Holy Flame and the horrors that followed thereafter is still told in the tea-houses of Agarica.
