My best monster is the Bone Thief - A small, ethereal, fey creature, with murky grey skin and sinews, two spindly limbs ending in talons, and a long prehensile tail that it can perch on, slither, or hang from. It has no functional head, just a three-toothed beak between it's 'shoulders.' Bone Thieves pass right through living or dead flesh, including wood and leather, but their slippery looking skin adheres to bone at the creatures' discretion, making it difficult and painful to disentangle yourself from one. They collect bones which they use to build a skeletal system inside themselves, forcing their strange bodies to adopt the new shape and possibly new capabilities. They prize skulls especially, which they wear as their own heads, allowing them to speak. Some steal bones from other monster nests or traps, cobble together a functional body, and use the strength of it to try and kill something bigger and with more interesting bones. Others will use their powers to pull the bones from a still living victim, crippling them piecemeal until they can claim the whole creature. Very successful Bone Thieves will transform graveyards and crypts into macabre arsenals and displays for their growing collections. The worst of them though are employed by the unseelie court as a form of gruesome infiltrator, having them fatally clamber inside a living person to work them as a puppet. A favorite subject is the common household servant who is already meant to be silent and unnoticed. From within such a body, the Bone Thief is all but invulnerable, able to function despite egregious bodily harm, loss of limb, decapitation, etc. and can last a few days in such a disguise before the smell of death becomes too obvious to others. Ideally, it's always wisest to kill the creatures before they can build or steal a useful body. Failing that, a large or unusual animal bone can be traded for safe passage, or used as a distraction, so long as the Bone Thief in question is after easy pickings or something more exotic than it has. If neither is an option, remember that even empty, Bone Thieves cannot pass through stone or metal, and share the common fey weakness to cold iron. A suit of cold iron armor is a small price to pay to keep your skeleton on the inside, I say.
Thanks for sharing this with people Jordan.
Of course!
My best monster is the Bone Thief - A small, ethereal, fey creature, with murky grey skin and sinews, two spindly limbs ending in talons, and a long prehensile tail that it can perch on, slither, or hang from. It has no functional head, just a three-toothed beak between it's 'shoulders.'
Bone Thieves pass right through living or dead flesh, including wood and leather, but their slippery looking skin adheres to bone at the creatures' discretion, making it difficult and painful to disentangle yourself from one. They collect bones which they use to build a skeletal system inside themselves, forcing their strange bodies to adopt the new shape and possibly new capabilities. They prize skulls especially, which they wear as their own heads, allowing them to speak.
Some steal bones from other monster nests or traps, cobble together a functional body, and use the strength of it to try and kill something bigger and with more interesting bones. Others will use their powers to pull the bones from a still living victim, crippling them piecemeal until they can claim the whole creature. Very successful Bone Thieves will transform graveyards and crypts into macabre arsenals and displays for their growing collections. The worst of them though are employed by the unseelie court as a form of gruesome infiltrator, having them fatally clamber inside a living person to work them as a puppet. A favorite subject is the common household servant who is already meant to be silent and unnoticed. From within such a body, the Bone Thief is all but invulnerable, able to function despite egregious bodily harm, loss of limb, decapitation, etc. and can last a few days in such a disguise before the smell of death becomes too obvious to others.
Ideally, it's always wisest to kill the creatures before they can build or steal a useful body. Failing that, a large or unusual animal bone can be traded for safe passage, or used as a distraction, so long as the Bone Thief in question is after easy pickings or something more exotic than it has. If neither is an option, remember that even empty, Bone Thieves cannot pass through stone or metal, and share the common fey weakness to cold iron. A suit of cold iron armor is a small price to pay to keep your skeleton on the inside, I say.
Whoa, those sound scary! :O
#EatAHalflingFriday