Archive for Octobernomicon

This creature from Native American folklore appears as a huge head, the size of a grown man, which flies through the air on nightly hunts with a ravenous hunger for human flesh. While all reports of these creatures depict them as horrific, with wide maws filled with sharp teeth, other details vary. Some appear to be male, others female, some appear rotted while others seem freshly severed. Some flying heads have long hair, or the wings of bats or ravens where their ears should be. They are often seen emerging from or returning to bodies of water where they lair in the murky depths until nightfall.

A new race created from a dying one
The serpent kin are a new race, barely a century old, struggling to find its place in the world and their own identity. Outwardly they appear quite human, with a few key differences. Serpent Kin are totally hairless, have long forked tongues, and either slit vertical (in females) or horizontal (in males) pupils. They can extend their jaws to swallow prey (up to SIZ 20) whole and move with an unnatural grace, like a trained dancer or acrobat. They are extremely intelligent, with boundless curiosity and a natural gift for science. Their temperament is one of cold clinical calculation, with subdued emotions. While they understand the concept of empathy it is not something they truly feel, making many of them seem detached at best and cruel at worst. 

“Now learn that henceforth ill-luck shall constantly attend thee; that thy strength shall never exceed what it now is, and that by night these eyes of mine shall stare at thee through the darkness till thy dying day, so that for very horror thou shalt not endure to be alone.” 

– draugr Glámr, The Saga of Grettir the Strong

Alternate Names: Carrion Hounds, Charnel Dogs, Ghoul-Hounds

“The ghoul is seldom alone. In the wake of its passing come the dogs of famine, whose muzzles show the teeth of men. They circle the graveyards like wolves, yet it is not the beast they resemble, but something made mockery of by the tomb.”

—Livre de la Charogne, French, Brother Renault of Poitiers, 1357

The true origins of these creatures remain a mystery, with many theories about their origins. Some say they were once humans who became trapped and corrupted between dimensions. Others surmise that they are natives to another plane of existence who’ve taken on a human-like form to invade our reality. What is known about them is that they emerge from weak points between dimensions, usually caused by failed experiments or rituals involving temporal or extradimensional travel. Once manifesting in our reality a crawler can never return from whence it came, and seem fixated on a single goal, finding and killing as many humans as possible.