====== Bestiary ====== ===== Emerald Darter ===== These flying insects of incredible size resemble dragonflies. An emerald darter has a long, thin body with a bright green carapace. Its head features four globelike eyes, and it moves about on three pairs of wings that beat too quickly for the eye to follow. In the wild, darters hunt small mammals. Natives have managed to tame them for use as mounts. ===== Furry Tree Spider ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:hairy_tree_spider.jpg?200 |}}Sheep sized body, 6ft diameter legs, very hair. Farmed for their hair and silk. Fairly docile if kept fed. They live in the tree canopy and mostly eat large insects and small mammals. ===== Horror Talon ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:horror_talon.jpg?200 |}}A swamp beast that roams in packs. This creature is very territorial. It once was only seen in the deep forest swamp areas but since the plague started it a has come out and been a problem. The Horror Talon are very agile and stalks it prey. They stand about 6-7 foot high at the shoulder and can weight 1800-2000 pounds. ===== Kremit ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:kremits.jpg?200 |}}Small frog like creature, about 3ft in length. Shades of green, with shades of brown spots. Obnoxious and loud noise maker. Consider a pest and almost always harvested on site, because their meat is very tasty. ===== Man Leech ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:man_leech.jpg?&200 |}} 3ft long, 6in diameter, black and leathery. Attracted to humans. Poisonous / paralyzing bite. Skin makes very good leather, while the dried internals make very good tea. ===== Poop Frog ===== {{:swn:planets:theloderma_moloch.png?direct&200 |}} About a 6in long frog like creature that oozes poop from its skin as a defense mechanism. Very tasty if you can get past the poo. ====== Mutated Creatures ====== ===== Grunt ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:grunt.jpg?200 |}} "I'm starting to think these events may have been the beginning of the a zombie story. It certainly matches the pattern: Some kind of deadly infection hits a settlement, almost wipes out the whole population, and then the dead rise from their graves in order to feast on the living. Though this is the only zombie story I've heard where the zombies take up weapons - torches and blades in most cases - to wield against the living. It seems like the hunters of this era were simply calling them Grunts. There are conflicting reports of course, but the material I have found so far appears to be talking about what's probably a slow-moving and mostly human creature, possibly the victim of a viral infection" -unknown ===== Husk ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:armored_photo.png?200 |}} "The Husk, named for their inhuman chitin, flesh dried, hardened. A hollowed husk of hope, a knight errant arrived dead on his horse. The Husk, its name has proved remarkably ambiguous. Some invoke a defensive figure, one that is willing to slip back into its shell. That could not be further from the apparent truth, as many accounts suggest the opposite. A creature well protected, enabled to go on dangerous offensives. A shock troop; with more mobility, and so flexibility, than the gigantic Meathead"-Unknown. ===== Hive ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:hive.jpg?200 |}} The hive is a malformed husk of a woman, the torso of whom has been twisted and hijacked by a swarm of malignant stinging insects. A hive's torso has erupted to allow for expansion of the insects' dwelling, its body twisted and gnarled. Hives wander the swamps, unleashing veritable clouds of insects on anyone unfortunate enough to disturb them. "Of the ten creatures I have researched thus far, it is the Hive who haunts my dreams. Though she appears to have been classified alongside the other Grunts, she was a far more dangerous creature, setting a swarm of insects upon any human in range until their bodies were punctured and swollen and heaving with their vile poison. Only her own death - the death of their host, the Hive Mother - stopped their persistent attacks. Though she could be safely killed from afar with a shot to the head, the positioning of her body made the task difficult even for the best marksmen." -Unknown ===== Meathead ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:meathead_photo.png?200 |}} "A thing simply called Meathead. Terrifying thing... A headless and massive, almost bloated, humanoid monster with leeches for hair. The stuff of nightmares. Frankly, I'm not sure why they referred to this thing as a Meathead at all. The creature has no head. It could best be described as a bloated, headless, humanoid monster. More easily cut than shot; a hard hitter, but too well insulated to take much damage from a fist or a blunt object. It appears to have a symbiotic relationship with leeches, though these, too, are not the creatures you might recognize as such. The leeches appear to have acted as the creature's sensory organs, allowing him to see, to find prey, and to weaken that prey with their own poisonous bites. They are a clever extension of the creature, advance troops in a way." -Unknown. ===== Hellhound ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:hell_hound.jpg?200 |}} "First the facts: the so-called "Hellhounds" were pack animals (most often seen traveling in groups of between two and four), aggressive, and fast. These hounds would work together to take down a target, and while they do not appear to have any kind of special defenses, they did not have any particular vulnerabilities either. People have always feared dogs, even as they began to domesticate them and live side by side. Were these specimens really supernatural creatures, as reported? Or just highly aggressive, feral dogs, made all the nastier when the plague made food - and human kindness - scarce?"-Unknown ===== Water Devil ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:waterdevil_photo.png?200 |}} "The water devil appears as a mass of writhing tentacles, although canonically it is actually a 'colony' of wormlike beasts. Though it would be easy to mistake it for one many-tentacled creature, the Water Devil is in fact a swarm of smaller aquatic animals. It seemed to sense the presence of anything entering its home waters, and its movements were quick and decisive. Because of its swarm-like nature, it was hard to kill with bullets or any sort of melee attack, and often the best recourse was simply to run for the shore." -Unknown. ====== Rare Mutated Creatures ====== ===== Assassin ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:assassin.jpg?200 |}} "The arrival of the Assassin marks a surprising turning point in the Savacola Case. Before its arrival, the entity's major aspects were certainly formidable combatants, though designed for other purposes. The humanoid Assassin seemed especially sculpted to shock humans, and destroy them. Accounts of such a creature are similar: that of a tall humanoid figure who can seemingly melt into a swarm of insects. Whether or not this is the result of trickery, or actual physical transformation, is debatable. Though with all things relating to this case, I am inclined toward belief in the most outlandish and bizarre theorizations one day, and incredulous the next. Of this, I've noted a remarkable pattern in its behavior. The Assassin seemed capable of remarkable feats. Chief among them, the ability to split into several (three) manifestations of itself. These manifestations would function as a distraction, attacking hunters independently, while the true Assassin would use the opportunity to find the right moment to strike." -Unknown. ===== Butcher ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:butcher.jpg?200 |}} "The huge bloated body - clearly a relative of the Meathead - with bits of wood and metal protruding from the skin. A leather apron covers the horrors of its torso, the head of a pig,and - and somehow this is the detail that I find most difficult to believe - a flaming hook. It is comfortable with fire and resistant to heat - likely thanks in part to the apron - and to bludgeoning. A regular bulletsponge, and though more fallible to rending attacks, it is hard for me to imagine how these people managed to kill any of them at all. When driven into a violent fury, its behavior would become erratic, and flames would fly from the aforementioned hook. I shudder to think. What it must have felt like to round a dark corner and come face to face with the empty eyes and glowing hook of that seemingly impossible beast?" -Unknown ===== Spider ===== {{:swn:planets:savacola:spider_photo.png?200 |}} "More people than you think suffer arachnophobia. A primal fear of something poisonous lurking, weaving traps, able to scale any surface. At odds, though, with its domestic function: keeping a dwelling clear of flies and other undesirable creatures. A spider the size of a quarter, though, is manageable. But, at the size of a horse, even the most rational and logical would recoil in disgust at an eight-legged arachnid, gnashing its mandibles, expelling coils of webbing. The Spider strikes the ardent occultist as one of the most outlandish and monstrous examples of hysteria. References keep cropping up throughout the archive, of something not quite human and not quite spider, a semi-sentient mass of limbs, poisonous in both body and intent. The hunters were pragmatic, that much can be said. Most information preserved concerned how to combat such a beast. It hit hard, then retreated to the shadows to ready its next assault. Hunters were advised to keep moving, as the Spider could apparently spit poison, which lingered some time after in the air." -unknown.