Monsters of Catalpa Lake

Went camping this weekend on a small lake near Mt. Hood. Here's what I found.

• Abiel, a subrace of bee-folk, live in subterranean colonies of about 50 – 200. Vassals harvest fireweed and rhododendron nectar to create spiced honey, naphtha, and poisons causing madness or false death. Knights are tasked with fighting off myrmidons and dracodons. All abiel are fertile, but queens kill the offspring of other unions and destroy their eggs if found. Some young queens are assassins and will infiltrate established colonies to kill the old queen and take her place.

• Avalanchers are a type of earth elemental with roughly simian bodies formed from jagged shards of volcanic rock. Like Tolkien's stone giants, they are genial bruisers who rise from the scree during thunderstorms to laugh and throw boulders for sport. Convincing the avalanchers that other species can't survive this entertainment is often difficult given the language barrier and clamor of stone.

• Bark Spiders are three-foot grey spiders that congregate along the trunks of bare pine trees. At rest they are almost impossible to distinguish from curled dead branches. Their skuttling movements are likewise almost identical to the sound of clattering branches in the wind. Bark spiders are lead by astronomer-priests (always perched highest in the trees) that give the order to attack when the stars all align for auspicious hunting.

• Chaos Flies are the least offspring of the region's many trickster spirits. Naturally invisible, they appear as dog-sized houseflies with disturbingly human smiles and hands if detected. Their words manifest as normal-sized flies that whisper eggs into your ears that hatch into cruel suggestions. If found and approached directly the chaos flies can be bargained with, secrets for secrets, favors for favors, though deals struck often have unforeseen consequences.

• Dracodons (giant dragonflies) are the region's alpha predators. Three types are known to inhabit the area. Sapphire darters are fast and nimble, striking in bolts of lightning and plucking out eyes as they pass. Emerald clubtails are slower but stronger and even more massive, and they hunt by disgorging sprays of acid on their prey. Red-veined needlers are small and fat but filled with a deadly poison that corrupts both body and spirit. They are the favored servants of minor devils, and many have been taught to measure sin for their masters or re-knit fiendish bodies. Dracodon courtship is complex, perilous, and messy - the actual intercourse is doubly so.

• Driftwood Hags are dracodon nymphs that have learned to put off their final molt so they might continue to grow in magical power and intelligence. They live in hollowed out driftwood logs with spells and rituals carved in the log's knots and whorls. Many know spells to reanimate their shed carapaces or enchant their retractable jaws as vorpal weapons.

That is not the natural order of things bugs don't eat fish fish eat bugs you cut that out

• The Faceless are a clan of lost human children that have stolen magic from the driftwood hags to keep their bodies small and nimble while their minds continue to mature. The ritual has left them blind, but they've learned to echolocate to compensate. Other tricks include drawing out shadows into black cords for rappelling down trees or strangling people, and hiding their souls in their shadows so they resurrect unless their bodies are burned or left in the sun at high noon.

• Moss wisps congregate in the branches of trees, looking like tufts of fur or vegetation with a soft, ethereal green glow. Usually immobile, they leap out and mob any sources of open flame, dying in droves to release choking black smoke and clouds of infectious spores. Strangely, they also respond to music, and skilled performers can coax the wisps from their perches to float on ley lines and reveal sites of power through their ghostly processions.

• Myrmidons (thanks, Qelong!) are a degenerate offshoot of the ant-like fomorians banished from the plane of law for their rapacious cruelty. What their legions lack in tactics or equipment they make up for with discipline, stamina, and sheer weight of numbers. Their slow march through the region ignores natural obstructions and batters down all resistance, taking slaves to infect with their squirming red broodlings and leaving behind a mathematically perfect line of chitinous brick highway.

• Scallamen are the last sorry survivors of the region's ongoing war against vertebrate life. Once a proud and noble race of philosopher-newts, the scallamen are now the “men in the walls”, hiding from myrmidons and driftwood hags in well-camouflaged mud huts and shanty towns. Though they retain their famed knack for regenerative magic, most bare the lingering scars of bark spider attacks or badly-regrown limbs devoured by dracodons. Those seeking to restore this fallen race to glory will have to overcome their lethargy and learned helplessness in addition to the driftwood hags' curses. An alliance with The Faceless might work, but the scallamen seem as terrified of the dark children as everyone else.

• Silt Sirens appear as waterlogged corpses with lamprey mouths and dead black eyes, but they can use glamour to take more beguiling forms when needed. Regardless, their skins are just husks; their actual bodies are made of stagnant water and leech-infested muck. They work in hunting packs to lure travelers into the region's still lakes - one disguised as a victim, another group "attacking", and a third lying in wait. About one in three can cast spells as druids or sorcerers. Favorite spells include animate mud, sudden decay, blood to silt, wall of leeches, and spell parasite.

• Vulture Wasps look like giant wasps and act like vultures, natch.