#humans are cryptids to a colony of monsters right?

[tricitymonsters]

I don't know why but if I had to choose a monster form it would probably be some kind of vengeful forest spirit or just good old Wendigo. I don't even like scary things but those just feel right.

You'll want to put in some high quality, hard research as I'm 95% sure there's a strong push to keep wend/gos a closed cultural thing for non-natives because of its complex relationship with the sacred/taboo + a lot of pop cultural references to such entities have caused issues with bastardization and other appropriative problems.

It's sort of to be expected, when you're digging around in monster/cryptid/entity lore, that sometimes you happen across situations like this and you'll just want do your best to use it as an opportunity to learn. I think its just kind of an unavoidable part of being a responsible monster enthusiast.

BUT the world is LUSH with forest spirits that should be treated with caution. Some of them even better fit the antlered cryptid vibes we've seen in popular media lately. ANyway, here's a readmore while I ramble about some of my favorite forest entities that might strike a chord of interest with you.

One of my favorite concepts is an entity/spirit that is tied to a certain element, like this whole forest manifests spiritually as this figure/being. It could be this specific ancient tree, or this river, or this bat colony all animistically . There's so much flexibility to tie in there with motives, powers, imagery that its just a toybox of build parts.

This also bleeds into the greek concept of incarnate gods: like how hypnos is the personificaiton of sleep, eris of discord, nyx of night, etc. The personification or incarnate of certain forests, trees, even feelings (personification of "lost in the woods"?? fucking sick).

Honestly exploring dryads or wood nymphs would be a breath of fresh air too. I've seen some freaky dryad concepts explored in TTRPG space but i want to see them fleshed out past being big monsters. There's a huge board game called Kingdom Death that has insanely detailed and creative monsters. One I'm always thinking of is called the Lonely Tree.

This is cool af but imagine if it had like a personified form too? Augh.

I'm also very VERY partial to seeing fae/fair folk done in unsettling (but not necessarily scary) ways. There's a ton of different kinds and their potential horror factor lies in the fact that they're very... bizzaro human. Close but different in an uncanny valley, magical way. Also, outside of scarier elements, the emotional connection that fae can have with a place or natural landmark would be really fun to explore. While I'm talking about ireland/scotland, consider the dullahan, or headless rider. On aesthetic ALONE this would make an amazing monster form build. Their vibes are scary and hellish but there's a mournfulness about them too that make them incredibly fascinating. Also they dump blood on people for looking at them.

Anyway! Those are my first thoughts on sexy forest spirits, definitely do some reading! I know northern europeans (scandanavia and ireland come to mind first) have LOTS of freaky forest shit going on but also check out some legends from the southeastern united states (lots of swamp and thick forest dwelling entities there) and off the top of my head a lot of southeast asia has some juicy legends too that tend to focus on things in the woods. (I'm thinking it was a balinese legend of a wood witch who chased people with knives for tresspassing? sort of a baba yaga type figure but I can't seem to find the exact story) ANYWAY. I hope this gave you some food for thought!

#thank you for asking #i hope that was at least semi informative! #i would def love to see what you come up with tho anon

[univorn-art]

“They must’ve came in from that storm last night”

Prompt by @nonetoon

Day 2: Washed-up

#art #illustration #caught-on-tober #cryptid art #cryptid #monster #harpy #harpies #Halloween #october #monster girls #humans are cryptids to a colony of monsters right?

[wahbegan]

The thing is the Wendigo isn’t just a monster that eats people, y’see? And it’s not a spirit of the cold or the forest. It was associated originally with those things, yes, but it’s first and foremost a spirit of hunger and greed. A monster of pure gluttony and ravenous consumption. See, in the woods up North in this country, before cars and snow plows and heating, it’s not just that the winters were long and dark and cold. It’s that there was barely enough to go around, or not enough at all, and sacrifices often had to be made.

And there are always some people in the world who put their needs before their love of their fellow man, or whose survival instinct simply overtakes their humanity.

So when food ran out...eating human flesh was the purest act of destructive greed, a symbol of the ultimate disregard for human life in pursuit of your own gratification. It was (shock of shocks) just as horrible and taboo to the Algonquian peoples before the colonists came as it is to all of us today. And it’s said that it came with a heavy price.

See, the horror of the Wendigo didn’t come mainly from the danger of the thing stalking around the woods eating lost and unwary campers like it does these days in horror stories. That was surely part of it, yes. But the real horror is what happens to something that used to be human, what could happen to anyone once they cross that line.

Once the Wendigo got its first taste, its humanity fast faded. It hunted relentlessly. It could never have enough. Its heart froze over. It wandered off into the woods, pale and naked and frostbitten, emaciated to the point of being corpse-like, and constantly wasting away. Some folks say its mouth was tattered, maimed, and bloody...because it would get so hungry for human flesh it would chew its own lips off and eat them when it couldn’t find anyone to hunt. There are many Algonquian tribes, and some also said that the Wendigo grew larger with every human it ate so its stomach was never full, becoming an icy giant of death. 

To become a Wendigo is to be damned. To be forever ravenous, never sated. To eternally wander the cold and desolate woods freezing, starving, undying, and forever howling for more.

And it’s not a fucking cryptid and it never had FUCKING antlers.

These days, many indigenous writers consider the true spirit of The Wendigo more representative of the human rights abuses committed in the name of capitalism and colonialism than desperation due to harsh winters because modern technology has mostly rendered those fears obsolete, but the point of the story is always the same: when you consume your fellow man in greed, you lose your humanity. It’s a symbol...a fable. The context is important for understanding the Wendigo. Much like having fangs and a cape doesn’t make you a vampire (draining the life from people around you does), the cold and the forest don’t make the Wendigo. The hunger does.

#Wendigo

[poptropicashitposts]

Here are my Top Ten Islands!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

10. Wild West

Wild West Island was the first Island I ever played! I remember being extremely excited when I got the Marshall badge and it was a part of my character's costume for a veryyy long time. I think the nostalgia is why I love this island so much, but in my opinion it was also a very well done island!

9. Lunar Colony

This Island TRAUMATIZED me, like I was absolutely caught so off guard by the ending and man, has it stuck with me. The realization that just because you don't get a happy ending doesn't mean someone else doesn't; Salerno got her happy ending but it wasn't the one we expected. Also Space!!

8. Night Watch

I know that there are quite a few mixed opinions on Night Watch Island but personally I loved it! I had this strange weekend ritual where I'd wake up at around 8am and play Night Watch Island followed by Black Lot Island. I had no idea why it was always those two islands but I Night Watch had a lot of replayability for me! I think that's a prime reason to why I like it so much.

7. Mystery Train

Oh boy, where do I start with this island. I absolutely love islands with historical themes! Seeing all those iconic figures from the late 19th century interact with eachother made 10yro me SO happy. I was genuinely convinced from the start that Gustave Eiffel was the theif, so I was probably one of the few people that didn't see the plot twist coming which in my opinion made it so much more enjoyable!

6. Game Show

I remember Game Show Island being one of the islands that took a bit longer for me to complete, and honestly I wish the lore was further expanded upon because it had me HOOKED! I love Harold Langley with all of my heart and there isn't enough content of him out there. I adored the mini-game show games and found the end puzzles quite challenging. It was overall an island that I really really really enjoyed and it's just kinda stuck as one of my favourites.

5. Virus Hunter

Virus Hunter Island was all the rage when I first joined the Poptropica fandom because it was the most recent one to come out, AND it was the first island to have sound! Dr. Lange owns my mortal body and I have sooo many headcanons about her. During the time in which it came out I was very invested in biological workings and it provided a positive outlook of the internal workings of the human body!

4. Cryptids

I think we can all agree that Cryptids Island is a fandom favourite, we are all Harold Mew's children and feral cryptid kids. Do I even have to explain what's amazing about this island? We all share one braincell and that braincell is LOVING this island

3. Steamworks

I cannot put into words how incredible Steamworks Island is. I know not everyone liked the isolated aspect of it but that's what made it stand out for me! Steampunk. Isolation. Plants monsters. Such a questionable yet perfect combination! Zak ended up being an entire cute sweetheart and the whole premise of Sprocket was genius. I also believe it was the one of the hardest islands to complete and that fact matched perfectly with the other underlying themes of the Island!

2. Astro Knights

Astro Knights Island changed my life. It's where my love of Medival History first originated from you better believe I was biggest Arthurian Legend in my age group. Again, I love historical islands! The Knights! Space!! Mordred!! The VIBES!!! MEDIVAL!!!!! SAVING A PRINCESS!!!!!!!! This island impacted me so much as a child and it's where so many of my intrests have stemmed from. The Binary Bard is also one of my favourite villains and omlll this island means so much to me.

1. Mocktropica

I can say, wholeheartedly, that I am the number one fan of this island. It's official. This island CONSUMED me. This Island has been ingrained into my personality and not a day goes by where I don't think about it nor make a reference. I have so, SO many theories and headcanons about the Executive Capitalists Including their names, backstories and so much more. Poptropica is a game targeted towards the younger generations, particularly children, and yet this WHOLE island is one big pile of satirical, meta GENIUS that I cannot put into words just how... incredibly well done it is. Anyone of any age could play this island and get a laugh out of it, in fact I think most of this island's brilliance would fly right over younger children's heads. The Bonus Quest is also my favourite! I'm legally married to Mark Hertz he is a whole sweetheart. This islands takes the absolute PISS out of capitalism and I am HERE for it. Glitches? Taxes? Robots? YES YES YES!!! It's so mcfricking satirical and ironic and... holy heck I can't. I love this island so much, It permanently has a place in my heart. There are so many iconic lines and little details in the background that make every playthrough more enjoyable than the last and everytime I play it I feel like I'm tripping on acid. The entire thing is an absolute fever dream and I want to know what Jeff Kinney was taking when he even fathomed the idea that this Island was based upon. This island somehow has both a Utah vibe and a Netherlands vibe. I can't. Like can you imagine living in the damn NETHERLANDS and your entire life just gets ruined by capitalism-, in the NETHERLANDS. I could banter on about this island all night but I will end this list here.

#poptropica characters #poptropica worlds #poptropica villains #poptropica islands #poptropica #thank you so much if you read th entire thing oml #reblog with your own top ten list!

[aniimvs]

"plots please" !!! cause yessss

subject plots please // accepting : :

i'll respond with three or more potential relationships // connections // plots between our muses. a creative exercise with no pressure to follow up, but we can if you'd like!

𝐢. fairytale

i see you, i see you liking that fairytale verse post and yessss. look, imagine if you will:

jaina couldn't give a toss about courtly life. not her thing, not her jam, not her cuppa tea. and expectations on what she'll do with her life are slim pickings. become an advisor for her brother? eh. become an ambassador? meh. a political marriage to ensure peace between nations? bleh.

responsibilities of the state are her brother's problems. his book is filled with expectations, but jaina has a lot of blank pages just waiting for her. she's got her eyes on the horizon and, much to leia's dismay, she follows it. jaina decides to find her adventure and maybe even a ship called the falcon whose captain might the estranged consort, mhm.

but then tragedy strikes and suddenly, jaina is heir to throne. leia sends out riders to bring her home but she isn't the only one looking for jaina though. the black knight kylo ren is on the hunt and unlike the couriers, he doesn't stop till he gets what he wants.

i imagine when he finds jaina, she doesn't know who she is. she wasn't there to witness her brother's fall and while on the road, it's hard to keep track on the current happenings across the world. but maybe there was a rider who found her first, told her a blip of the bad news that her brother was dead and that jaina was expected to take his place. tells her all this right before he's struck dead by the violent arrival of kylo ren.

from there i can see it becoming a fight/capture arc that kylo ren most likely ends up winning. so now poor jaina is not only a prisoner but by the man she believes may have/did kill her brother. and then what if on the way back to snoke's domain or wherever it is that kylo wants to take her, something far more frightening than the black knight of the fae seeks to slake its thirst.

𝐢𝐢. carnival row

critch hunter kylo and critch smuggler jaina? they're at complete odds with each other. her brother is a ruthless killer who uses the powers his hybrid lineage gave him to kill others exactly like him. and his sister uses the airship she inherited from their father to not only transport refugees but supplies to the row.

anytime they see each other ─── which most of the time is right when jaina sails off with ren's quarry ─── it's all glowers and growls. but for all the animosity, neither of them will betray each other's secret: they're half-bloods. jaina doesn't want her to see her brother dead or imprisoned by the very people he works for and kylo doesn't want to see his sister treated like...well, how critch are treated. even in the burgue, if it were to slip that she wasn't fully human despite her appearance? they wouldn't let her keep her ship or the government would surely give her a hard time about it. she'd be under constant threat of losing all she's worked for, she be under such scrutiny that she'd become an ineffective smuggler and then what? as much as her brother hates what she does, he won't put her at risk no matter how tempting it might be to be rid of such a persistent nuisance. he doesn't want to see his sister in the row or anywhere that'll punish her for being strongwilled.

i'd assume the feeling is mutual. kylo's line of work has made plenty of enemies that would pounce on even a hint of his lineage. he's crafty, like his sister, and while they both use the magic in their blood to their benefit ─── it's not kylo's freedom that's threatened, but his life. and for all the bitterness that might stew between them, a dead brother's not on her wishlist.

as for the plot? i feel like there's a lot of interactions they could have. a fighty, cat-and-mouse thread of kylo ren chasing after his sister as she tries to guide a group of refugees to her ship. i can see them meeting in the burgue, her wondering why her brother is there and him trying to avoid her finding anything out at all cost. jaina would be much more the aggressor in that scenario. not in a violent way, but i can see her tailing after him, demanding answers, tracking him down, spying on him, and kylo just incoherently screaming in his head about it. playing off that, how the events of the first season would affect them during their hide-and-go-seek on steroids. especially since their mother is an augur and they've inherited her gifts.

fortunately and unfortunately, carnival row doesn't have any source material beyond a screenplay for a movie from a decade or so ago. so while that means we don't have any canon to that replicates what force-sensitivity would best translate as and what otherkin that would be, it does leave room for our own speculation. a human-passing witch-like otherkin with telekinetic abilities isn't a reach for what we've seen in the show so far. and even if leia isn't full otherkin either, and their powers are from an ancestor, that doesn't change the targets between their eyes if anyone ever found out because "blood impurity" of any kind is enough to turn society against you.

𝐢𝐢𝐢. tolkien

i've been speculating about this one for a looooooooooong damn time because frankly it feels sacrilegious to change anything about middle-earth. i need to reread at least the silmarillion and the children of húrin or at least dig into the deepest, darkest pits of my mythology notes to sparknotes myself. i'm not entirely sure where to place it at the moment but i imagine alderaan is a small, very beautiful and very cursed kingdom of men. the ruling bloodline has been thoroughly plagued by internal conflict with their alliances flip-flopping every generation or so. and it's because of that there's inherited weakness to the call of the dark and a very young ben would've been susceptible to the whispers of a servant of sauron.

i'm sure ben is good at hiding it but it's only a matter of time before someone hears him mumbling to himself in the dark tongue and wondering where the fuck he picked that trick up.

but yes! this verse is very theoretical at the moment because there's a lot of events to work around, especially with the specific placement of alderaan. i do fancy the idea of them being within the sights of angmar though and leia having screaming matches with the witch-king since the day she was born. it would also lend to just how corrupted their lands are and why there's a strong influence of evil bleeding into its heirs. but i'm also digging the idea of having them border ithilien, so they get to have that look of "the prettiest in the westlands" look but the corruption of the morgulduin seeps into their soil.

that latter idea is what i'm really focusing on because the idea of rebellious scamp royals ben and jaina sneaking off to go adventuring and seeing minas morgul is a such a morbid mood because just imagine feeling the evil radiating around them. ben, of course, wants a closer look. he's drawn to it and jaina's just like "haha we're in danger."

𝐢𝐯. time period horror

i'm not entirely sure on what time period because i'm very drawn to a colonial setting for the vvitch and sleepy hollow oomph but also early 1900s is a such a fantastic gothic period that would put them through the gauntlet. it's modern, but with still a lot of untouched wilderness for them to get dragged through by a pair of clawed hands attached to gnashing teeth. but either way, something that mixes american horror classics like witchcraft + washington irving + lovecraft + edgar allan poe.

i don't have a solid idea for an over-arc plot but i imagine something episodic. like different mysteries and hunts that they go on and experiencing the strife that goes along with the real world events happening as they get dunked on by cryptids. plus, i doubt they'd be fully human themselves.

i think in this verse, we would get to see what they'd be like as brother and sister without corruption physically taking jaina's brother away from her, but i do think ben would still have dark tendencies and the deeper they go into an unseen world of monsters and magic... *cue maniacal coffee sipping*

𝐯. the children of indi-han-a jones

a verse with indiana jones and the mummy vibes? mhm. yes please. also gives the solo sibs to be their solo-iest because i don't think ben would be evil. he might be morally grey with that good old hollywood american ability of getting himself into completely avoidable trouble, but an heir of darkness he is not. he might be prone to dark influences/curses but s'little different. anyway, this in the late 1800s to the early 1900s setting? gimme.

#⋞ answered ⋟ // the voices never stop. #yunharlaquin #*projectile word vomit*

[dailybestiary]

Peuchen

(Illustration by Dave Allsop comes from the PathfinderWiki and is © Paizo Publishing.)

I’m a big fan of Dave Allsop’s art—he did the Bestiary’s woeful mite and the amazing papinijuwari I was so excited about a few months ago—so I’m a little bummed that his peuchen, while beautiful, doesn’t capture the scale of the beast.  What he’s painted looks like an exotic species you’d see on display in a fantasy reptile house or curled around the arm of some sorceress.  But it’s actually a roughly human-sized (Medium) monster that punches in at a mighty CR 10.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I like the peuchen: It’s a pretty good dragon substitute for low-level campaigns.

But let’s back up. The peuchen is a cryptid from Andean mythology, especially Chile and Argentina—likely a mashup of the boa and the vampire bat—that is a feared shapeshifter who drains the blood of livestock and lone shepherds. Pathfinder’s version follows that outline almost exactly (right down to bleed and blood drain abilities, as well as the ability to cast hold person and vampiric touch).

I’m always looking for good non-European monsters I can point GMs to, and the peuchen definitely checks that box.  (Which is awesome, as South America is probably our least-represented continent in terms of Bestiary monsters.  Even Antarctica has a better selection once you start throwing in Lovecraft, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Hollow Earth tales and other pulp inspirations.). Then again, if you’re a Euro diehard, the peuchen reskinned could make a perfectly acceptable version of Fáfnir the dragon.  I’m also always looking for ways to tell bring more intimate, narrative and folktale-inspired gaming into Pathfinder.  And I can totally see a slow-moving, low-XP campaign where a PC’s parent’s death hangs over the campaign…with the peuchen teased as the culprit all along but finally revealed somewhere around Level 6 or 7, just as the players are really coming into their full powers.

But if you want straight-up hack & slash…well, Camazotz is about the most badass god/devil/demon (depending on your game world) out there.  Someone’s got to clean out his creepy jungle temple superdungeon…and guess what’s the perfect monster to fight on Level 10?

Nutmeg’s value to spice traders isn’t just from its rarity and taste—it’s also dangerous to harvest.  Peuchens delight in polishing their scales with the crushed aromatic seeds of the nutmeg tree.  Harvesters in the Bluewater Isles need adventurers who will guard their crews from the cunning winged snakes.

The fey of the Bier of Bone—bloodthirsty pixies, tooth fairies, quicklings, redcaps, and worse—all serve the mad leanan sidhe Umlar.  Her prize pet is a peuchen the blue of a bird of paradise.  Recently she has been distracted by the charms of a larabay (who secretly plots to steal her throne), leaving the peuchen as the main guardian of her ivory hoard.

Years ago, a silver-tongued drover talked his ways out of the jaws of a peuchen by offering to deliver livestock the likes of which the winged snaked had never tasted. Intrigued, the peuchen agreed, and was rewarded with Huwari beef from the Olfshires—a kind of cattle newly brought by Northern colonists.  Desiring more such delicacies, the peuchen and the drover began trading Northern cattle for alpacas, llamas, and other livestock. Today the drover is the most powerful beef importer in the thriving colony Sor Pelag, with the peuchen as his silent partner—and occasional enforcer.  When a new source of flesh—glowing, duergar-raised deep oxen—threatens the pair’s monopoly, they turn to murder to keep their balance sheets in the black.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 5 189

The history of nutmeg is actually super interesting.  Nutmeg is also one of the reasons that, while Pepsi always does better in blind taste tests, Coke is more popular in reality—the nutmeg in a Coke Classic sets off more flavor sensors and yields a more complex, richer experience over the course of the entire can.  (At least according to some New Yorker article I read years ago.)

I keep waiting for my day job to hand my some kind of nutmeg-related project, but so far I’ve only played around with for turmeric and bay leaves.

Looking for the penguin? We covered that way back here.

#daily bestiary #pathfinder #paizo #3.5 #dungeons & dragons #dungeons and dragons #d&d #dnd #peuchen #magical beast

[omuii]

The Northeastern United States and Its Cryptids - Part 1

I don’t know about you guys, but I love cryptozoology. Bigfoot, Loch Ness, Mothman - you name it, I love it.

Whether you share that same love or not, cryptozoology and urban legends play a big cultural part in places all over the country, and the northeast is no exception.

If you guys like this kind of thing, I’ll gladly do more in the future.

Let’s get started 😎

New Jersey - The Jersey Devil

Starting off with my home state, I of course have to bring up the classic Jersey Devil.

In New Jersey, there’s a large area of land known as the Pine Barrens, which is a massive forest stretching through several counties in the state. It’s a beautiful natural landmark with a very unique ecosystem and a lot of history. More importantly, the Pine Barrens are the host of many local legends and folktales.

The story of the Jersey Devil goes back to the 1700s and starts with a family known as the Leeds Family. A large family consisting of a couple and their 12 children, the Leeds Family was pretty run-down from being so large, and meeting the demands of such a big family was a strenuous task. So when Mother Leeds found out she was pregnant with a 13th child, you can imagine she was very upset.

In her anger, she cursed the child, hoping for the devil to take it so she wouldn’t have another mouth to feed. Nine months later, the 13th baby was born. At first, it was a normal baby, but minutes after being delivered it began to transform and take on a horrifying shape. The baby grew a goat head and horns, hooves and a forked tail, and a set of bat-like wings.

The devilish creature that had transformed before their eyes killed everyone in the house: Mother Leeds, her husband, her previous children, even the midwife who was present for the birth. With the blood of all those on his hands, he climbed through the chimney and flew off into the Pine Barrens.

That was the night the Jersey Devil was born. Originally, he was dubbed the Leeds Devil, but when a sudden outcrop of sightings all across the state began in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he soon became known as the Jersey Devil instead.

To this day, it is said the Devil roams the Pine Barrens, preying on animals and leaving bloodbaths in his wake. He jumps from rooftop to rooftop in neighborhoods all over the state, and it’s said that if you go into the Pine Barrens at night, you might here the blood-curdling scream of the Jersey Devil himself.

You’re safe if you stay out of the Pine Barrens. People from all over the country who know of the legend will tell you that he is only in the Pine Barrens, but when you’re actually in Jersey, there are some who claim that the Pine Barrens is the only place the Devil can’t go...

Pennsylvania - The Green Man

Urban legends about cryptids are usually based on real life people or events, if only loosely. In the case of Pennsylvania’s Green Man, this ‘cryptid’ really wasn’t a cryptid at all.

In a rural area in Western Pennsylvania, an urban legend tells the tale of an ominous, inhuman being that would wander the woods at night, omitting a strange green glow. Called The Green Man as a result of his skin, people would actively seek out this cryptid at night, and many actually saw him.

However, The Green Man wasn’t a cryptid at all.

In fact, he was actually a man named Raymond Robinson, a gentleman who lived alone in the woods. As a child, Robinson climbed a telephone pole and got severely electrocuted, ultimately losing his nose and eyes and becoming permanently disfigured. Some inconsiderate people called him a monster because of his appearance, and in time, the legend of The Green Man came to be. The glowing green light he allegedly omitted was an addition made based on the fact that he was electrocuted.

Robinson only left the house at night due to his appearance. He didn’t want people to see him and be afraid, so he’d only go out at night when nobody was around. Many people taunted him and treated him awful, but there were many others who treated him like any normal person should be treated. He had friends and loved ones, and some claim that every once in a while he’d pose for a picture in exchange for beer or cigarettes.

Though it was revealed long ago that the so-called “Green Man” was simply a tale made up based on Robinson, the story spread so far and wide and was passed down through so many generations that to this day, despite Robinson having passed decades ago, there are still people who claim to see The Green Man in the woods.

New York - Champ

In upstate New York in the grogeous Adirondack mountains is Lake Champlain, the biggest lake in that region. Renowned for its fishing, boating, and beautiful scenery, Lake Champlain is a wonderful spot to visit, as well as the home of a creature named Champ.

The legend of Champ goes back centuries, starting as a legend for both the Iroquois and Abenaki natives in that region. They told stories of a large creature that inhabited the lake, called Tatoskok by the Abenaki tribe. Over time, Tatoskok came to be known as Champ, a nickname derived from the lake’s name: Champlain. Originally it wasn’t called Lake Champlain, a guy from France “””discovered””” it and it got named after him, but I digress.

The first specific sighting of Champ came in the 1800s when a captain was on Bulwagga Bay. He reported a massive black serpent in the water almost 200 feet in length that rose high out of the water. The captain reported “a black monster, about 187 feet long and with a head resembling a sea horse, that reared more than 15 feet out of the water. He claimed the monster he saw had three teeth, eyes the color of a ‘a pealed [sic] onion,’ a white star on its forehead and ‘a belt of red around the neck.’“

Over the next 100 years, a number of sightings were reported, and even to this day there are still reports of people spotting Champ swimming around in Lake Champlain. And then, as the world entered the 21st century, even more sightings surfaced, drawing attention from places as far away as Japan. To this day, many say that Champ still swims in the lake. Essentially, Champ is America’s Lock Ness!

Connecticut - The Melon Heads

The legend of the melon heads comes from Michigan, Ohio, and the Connecticut. Generally, they are described as small beings with unnaturally large heads, similar to some depictions of aliens. The legend itself varies in each of these states, but since we’re talking about the northeast, I’ll just talk about Connecticut’s version of the melon heads.

One of Connecticut’s stories behind the melon heads is that in the 1960s, an asylum for the criminally insane burned to the ground, everyone perishing in the fire save for a dozen or so unaccounted for inmates. It is said that those inmates survived and ran off into the woods, keeping themselves alive by cannibalizing each other and eventually inbreeding, resulting in hydrocephalus, a condition in which fluid fills part of the brain.

The second version of the history of Connecticut’s melon heads is that, back in the colonial days, a family was banished into the woods because they were allegedly performing witchcraft. Like the previous story, hydrocephalus as a result of inbreeding is claimed to be the reason behind their appearance, as it is said that the banished family began breeding among themselves to survive.

In Connecticut, the melon heads live in wooded areas at the end of dirt roads, and in certain towns, the said dirt road is called Dracula Drive. If you enter their territory in the woods, they will immediately attack, biting and even eating their victims.

Massachusetts - The Dover Demon

The Dover Demon is a strange creature that’s only been see twice, both times in the same night.

A little past 10pm on a spring day in the 1970s, three teenage boys were in a car heading down the road. The driver, Bill Bartlett, was driving his two friends home when he spotted something strange out of the corner of his eye. Along a stone wall on the side of the road, a small creature was slowly crawling by. For a split second in the headlights of his passing car, Bartlett described seeing a creature with an unusually large head and a disturbingly lanky, thin body. It’s skin was peach-colored and appeared to have a rough texture, its hands seemed to curl perfectly around the rocks beneath it, and it’s eyes were two glowing orange orbs.

Before Bartlett could say anything they had already driven past and the creature was gone. His friends hadn’t seen it. He dropped them both off at their homes and then returned to his own home, visibly shaken as he described the sighting to his father and drew a sketch of it.

In his sketch, he describes the creature, then he also writes, “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of bibles that I saw this creature,” followed by his signature.

That same night only a couple hours later, another teenage boy in the area by the name of John Baxter left his girlfriend’s house to walk home alone. After walking about a mile, he sees a small figure approaching him on the road. Based on its height, he assumes it’s a younger kid he knows who lives on the street and calls out. There was no response, and both parties continued towards each other when suddenly the shorter being stopped, causing Baxter to stop as well.

He called out again, and this time the being made a run for it. It runs off into the woods and down a slope, and Baxter follows right behind it. When he gets to the bottom of the slope, he manages to get a good look at the being. It’s small and lanky, with extremely thin, “monkey-like” limbs, a head shaped like a figure eight, and feet that curled perfectly around the rocks it stands on.

Baxter immediately backed up the slope, knowing that he had spotted something that wasn’t human. Afraid of what it might do, he made his way back to the road, hurrying down the street towards home until a couple driving by picked him up.

Popular cryptozoologist Loren Coleman later investigated the incident, and deemed the creature, dubbed the Dover Demon, to be an “unknown phenomenon.” It has not been seen since.

images: x, x, x, x, x, x, x

#hetaliafandomhub #aph ambassador #aph america #cryptids #cryptozoology #horror #body horror #originally posting this as an aph ambassador post but obviously anyone can reblog it #this is just a general post #feel free to add on or correct me on anything

[solotheloso]

A BOON BARELY GIVEN - CH. 4

When I woke, the storm was still raging and the sky so deeply clouded that at first I thought I had slept through to the evening. My phone read only a few minutes past 1:00 p.m., which was a little early for me. Left to its own devices, my body is happy to lie in a near-comatose state for half a day, but sacrifices are to be expected when you’re on the job.

It took just over a half an hour for me to drag myself out of my stupor. My exertion last night had ensured that, by the time I reached my apartment, I was far too exhausted to think about anything but falling into bed. I’m normally fastidious when it comes to personal hygiene, so the realization that I had laid in sweat and grime for the entire night sent chills up my spine. I took an especially long shower and went about my morning routine, but not before depositing my soiled clothes in the trash and the shrine watcher’s skull fragment in a double-sealed sandwich bag.

My apartment was simple but well-suited to my needs, a one bedroom unit located high above the ground on the fifth floor. The building itself was old and of sturdy construction, one of the first structures that had been built with modern techniques when the city made the switch from single-family houses to multi-story tenements. Bare brick walls and wrought iron were practically everywhere, attractive complements to the age-polished wood floors. It gave off an intensely nostalgic vibe, which you could consider odd, given that the area I had grown up in was strongly French Colonial. The only reason I was able to afford such a place was due to its location overlooking a rather unattractive abandoned lot behind the building. That, and what I suspect was a murder-suicide some time in the past five years. I did always get strange feelings from the hall closet.

I prepared a simple breakfast in the kitchen: eggs, a bagel and a huge mug of coffee. Like much of the apartment, the room was spotless and meticulously organized, everything in its proper place. It had little in common with my office. That space took up most of my living room, two card tables and a rickety stool set against the wall with windows bathing the area in natural light. It was strewn with scraps of paper, half-filled notebooks and uncategorized junk. Any other adult mage worth half their salt would be horrified by the chaos in my work area, but I found that it suited my improvisational style rather well; I had never been one for formulae and rote memorization.

I took a seat and tucked into my breakfast. While I ate, I examined the skull fragment again. It was charred and blackened, barely resembling the typical white of human bone. Portions of it were brittle and others threatened to turn to dust at the slightest provocation. I had taken it from the ridge of bone above the eye socket, close to the frontal lobe, the seat of reason. This kind of association was good for magical purposes since it lent the object a special significance that I wouldn’t have gotten as strongly as something from the cheekbone or back of the skull. If I were so inclined, I could use it to lay a curse on one of the owner’s living relatives; something involving forgetfulness or even dementia would be entirely reasonable. This time, however, I had a different goal in mind.

I finished my meal and pushed the plate aside. A small lockbox just to my side contained several small objects, one of which I took and placed on the plastic surface of the table. It was a small disc of supple leather, originally a light pink but stained with a patina of age and some unidentifiable yellowish substance. It was human skin. I had discreetly ‘inherited’ the thing from an uncle. It and the other objects in the lockbox were universally things that I would most certainly not want to be caught with (by mages or otherwise), and with that in mind I had laid a spell on the container to burn the contents if I ever failed to touch it at least once every two days or someone else touched it at all. It wouldn’t stop someone from discovering it in the first place, but it would definitely keep the evidence out of their hands.

I pulled the bone fragment from its baggie and set it gently in the center of the leather disc, which I then slowly rotated until a tiny mark on the outer rim faced due north. Now that the construct was prepared, I could feel a dark warmth radiating from the objects, a mana field that brought to mind the taste of copper and a suffocating redness. As with every time I used this kind of magic, there was a vague feeling of intoxication, almost like the pleasant buzz one gets from just the right amount of alcohol. I fought off the feeling as I always did, refusing to be pulled into its grip, and focused on the bone fragment. The construct was a form of anthropomancy, divination powered through human blood and flesh. While there was no overarching authority in the world of magic, most clans frowned upon human-fueled magic at the very least. If I were caught at it, the only trial I would be likely to get would be at the wrong end of a bullet. Considering the monsters that had flourished before execution became a matter of course, I couldn’t exactly blame them.

Almost twenty minutes of deep concentration followed. I was beginning to think that the whole process was a bust until I started to feel the faint metaphysical sparking that signified a newly formed magical connection. The construct was working, the spell churning along at full force. With a surge of energy that tingled from the crown of my skull to the bottoms of my toes and back again, an image rushed into my mind’s eye. The image was a face. I saw the shrine keeper as he was in the last days before his death, a haggard visage of a white man somewhere between forty-five and sixty, cheeks hollowed and eyes sunken by months of lost meals and forsaken sleep. Oily hair hung limply over his eyes, which themselves seemed to fit a corpse better than a living man. His sharp cheekbones and stern nose meant he could have been considered quite handsome if it weren’t for his state.

Another, smaller jolt brought me a second chunk of information: the sound of the man’s name. Augustus Varga. I quickly scribbled it down before it could fade from my mind. The image of his face would likely remain for a while; for me, faces are always easier to remember than names. Just after I finished, the bone fragment swiftly crumbled into dust, which itself seemed to vaporize into thin air. Consumption of the reagent was an unfortunately common byproduct of any spell, especially those where said reagent was bodily remains.

I put the leather disc back into the lockbox and moved over to my couch, where the laptop was sitting plugged into its charger. I kept the thing on hand more for utility than entertainment, but even so, most nights I found myself crawling through bunk amateur websites dedicated to cryptids or magical minutiae. Or watching movies. Hey, despite my otherwise stoic lifestyle, I’m as human as anyone else.

I utilized the wonderful world of modern technology in an attempt to find the deceased shrine watcher. Luckily, his name was fairly unique as far as those go-- at least in this country-- so it only took a few quick searches to find him. I found myself looking at the company website for a local chain of convenience stores (Go-Rite!, the cheerful yellow logo exclaimed), a photo of a smiling and healthy Augustus Vargas staring back at me. My initial suspicions had been spot on: He was a handsome individual, possessed of bright grey eyes and that rare sort of charisma that was somehow innate to the structure of his face and his expressions; he gave the impression of a close family friend, or perhaps a trusted professor. There was no trace of the tormented obsession that my spell had shown me. The photo labeled him as the owner and operator of the chain, yet he wore a bright blue polo shirt labeled with the company’s logo rather than one of the drab suits typical to management types. The shirt was pressed but slightly faded and a tiny stain marred the collar, which told me one of two things: either he was the hardworking type that got his hands dirty alongside his employees, or some poor schmuck had been forced to lend out his work uniform.

Given that I hadn’t found any clues as to the identity of the fool who had trashed the shrine, my best bet now was tracing out every possible angle on this. The most prominent was Augustus himself. It might be beneficial for me to take a look at his old life and scope out any possible clues as to the culprit, if there was any connection at all. I’m no investigator or cop, but there was little else I could have done at that point. Ten million procedural crime dramas couldn’t be wrong, right?

I took out my phone and dialed the number I found on the website’s contact page. It rang a full six times before someone picked up. The woman at the other end sounded frazzled and forcefully cheery, like someone who had just run a marathon and been told to smile like her life depended on it. “Go-Rite!, this is Eveline speaking, how can I help you?”

I adopted a polite and chipper tone. “Hi, Eveline, may I speak to Mr. Vargas?”

The girl hesitated, and when she spoke it sounded wary. “I’m sorry, but Mr. Vargas is unavailable. Can I ask what this is about?”

“Do you know when he’ll be in?”

“Uh, no, I haven’t seen him in a while… sorry, what do you need to speak to him for?” She was starting to sound suspicious. It would be wise to ease the tension a bit.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. I put an upward lilt into the end of each sentence to give my speech a bit of a bubble vibe.  “I’m not a telemarketer or anything. My name is Brenda, I spoke with Mr. Vargas a few weeks ago about buying a used TV. He was selling it on Craigslist and getting a new one, and the number he listed on the email he sent me was the one I just called?”

Eveline sounded immediately exasperated, but to her credit she didn’t hang up. “I’m sorry, Mr. Vargas isn’t here right now, can you call back later?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t want someone else to get to it before me! Mine broke and I have just been dying without my shows. Do you have, like, a home number or something?”

There was a moment’s hesitation before she spoke. I could hear clattering in the background. Apparently she decided that getting me off the phone in a hurry was more important than any potential violations of her boss’ privacy. “Fine,” she acquiesced. “Do you have a pen?”

She gave me the number and I thanked her happily, then hung up. It took a moment for me to shake out the Valley Girl. Never a pleasant experience. It was a matter of minutes to find the address associated with the number online. With that done, I leaned back into the couch and blew out a breath, massaging at my neck where a mother of a headache was starting to take root. I glanced at the paper in my hand with Augustus’ information written on it. “Not great,” I murmured, “but it’s a start.”

#writing #fiction #urbanfantasy #prose

[swipestream]

New Release Roundup, 14 July 2018: Fantasy and Adventure

The Colonies throw off England’s shackles in a second American Revolution, two genetically engineered sharks battle sea monsters for the fate of the free world, and the Shield Knight quests to stop the rise of an evil new god in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in fantasy and adventure.

The Cessation of Karrak (The Ascension of Karrak #3) – Robert J. Marsters

Betrayal… something the companions would never have suspected of one of their own.

Sadly, they are oblivious to the twisted thoughts of revenge harboured by one of the younger wizards. His darkest secret, his true identity… an identity hidden from them, but recently revealed to the shadow lord. The alliance between the traitor and the dark sorcerer Karrak would undoubtedly prove to be more dangerous than any threat they had overcome previously.

Could they still succeed?

Now, the situation more precarious than ever and facing insurmountable odds, no decision made by Jared Dunbar can be easy if he and his companions are to survive the final confrontation. Even at the cost of his own life, he must bring about…

The Cessation of Karrak.

Countdown to Apocalypse (Superhuman #2) – Evan Currie

The first shots of war have been fired, now it’s a race against time to stop a headlong rush before someone fires the last shots.

The alien probe that created dozens of superhuman weapons and unleashed them on Houston has a new testing site, the city of Hong Kong, and Alexander Hale has been asked to intervene. With no idea who, or how, the experiments on people are being done he slips into the city to try and find out what ever he can, but beyond the skyline of Hong Kong trouble is brewing.

With China and The USA rushing headlong toward a nuclear exchange, there may only be hours to save the world from this countdown to apocalypse.

It’ll take a superhuman effort.

Good thing he has that going for him, because nothing else seems to be.

Dragon Blessed (The Dragonwalker #2) – D. K. Holmberg

The magic of the ancient dragons cannot be ignored.

Learning he’s descended from the ancient Deshazl, those once known as the Dragonwalkers, has changed nothing for Fes. He continues to serve Azithan and the empire, even after deceiving them. The ancient Deshazl magic lives within him, but Fes doesn’t know how to control it or even if he should try.

An old nemesis approaches him with a job he can’t refuse, and he’s forced to head toward Toulen. When betrayal separates him from from a friend in need, Fes must begin to understand how to use his Deshazl magic. If he can’t, not only will he lose his friend, but innocent people will suffer.

With a growing magic within him, Fes questions not only the nature of his power, he’s forced to make a choice between these new connections and the empire.

Empire Day (New England #1) – James Philip

It is nearly two hundred years since George Washington was killed and his Continental Army was destroyed in the Battle of Long Island and now New England, that most quintessentially loyal and ‘English’ imperial fiefdom – at least in the original, or ‘First Thirteen’ colonies – is about to celebrate its devotion to the Crown and the Old Country, of which it still views, in the main, as the ‘mother country’.

In Whitehall every British government in living memory has complacently based its ‘American Policy’ on the one immutable, unchanging fact of New England politics; that the First Thirteen colonies will never agree with each other about anything.

In past times a troubling question has been whispered in the corridors of power in London: what would happen to the Empire – and the Pax Britannica – if the British hold on New England was ever to be loosened?

If the New World ever discovers again a single voice supporting any kind of meaningful estrangement from the Old Country; it would surely be the end of the Empire…

Image of Evil – William Hallstead

Raphael Kooven, half-Dutch, half Argentinian, master at espionage and international thievery, dies on the eve of his most demanding assignment.

Then he is astonished to find himself alive in another man’s body, the product of a breakthrough in human engineering by an obscure Montreal neurosurgeon. He is a magnificent scientific creation, as astounding as the electronic development he has been assigned to acquire.

All that stands in his way is a disgraced ex-cop, exiled to a remote think-tank in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains. Discredited Security Chief Marty Horn is unable to convince the institution’s director, his Washington superiors or even an FBI friend that an incredible change had taken place in a key resident scientist.

Horn determines to stop what he is convinced is a sinister penetration of security. He puts his job, his sanity and ultimately his life on the line against one of the most startling espionage plots ever conceived.

Operation Megalodon – Matthew Dennion

It has been six months since the terrorist Rol-Hama had captured the world’s cryptids.

The madman transformed the cryptids into giant monsters and then unleashed them on the world. Sea monster attacks quickly shut down worldwide shipping. The world’s economies and vital infrastructures are falling apart. Essential supplies that keep the world functioning including food, medicine, and oil are unable to be delivered. In response the US government enacts Operation MEG (Monster Extermination Group). The plan consists of mutating two great white sharks to monstrous proportions.

Now the fate of world is in the hands of Operation Megalodon.

Secret Treaties (The Valens Legacy #9) – Jan Stryvant

Having killed Gradatim’s pet demon, Sean now has to move onto Portland, a true Gradatim stronghold. When the Gradatim breaks the silence with an attack on Sean’s family, Sean’s response is drastic and immediate, yet the Gradatim cannot help but to escalate their own response. Pushed into a corner, Sean and the Lions’ response is both drastic and deadly, sending shockwaves through both magical and governmental organizations.

Forced now into a two front war as Sean has to deal with the consequences of his own actions, other parties start to take an interest in him and his crusade as politicians start to wrangle inside the government and council heads look to settle old scores as well as new ones, doing their best to take advantage of the changing dynamic in their own bids to gain power.

But allies have a way of turning up in the places that you least expect, and when it comes time to take a stand, there are still people who will stand for what is right.

Seven Shakespeares #1 – Harold Sakuishi

Literary secrets come alive when Harold Sakuishi, creator of the all-time-classic rock ‘n’ roll manga BECK, tackles a different kind of legend: William Shakespeare.

He’s said to be the greatest playwright and poet in history, the author of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth, but just who was William Shakespeare?

It is Sixteenth-Century England, and the Protestant Reformation controls the hearts of the people and their consciences. With the tides of history whirling fiercely, and a devastating storm of persecution brewing, what path will the young boy William Shakespeare choose?

Harold Sakuishi unlocks the secrets behind the writer you only thought you knew!

Sorceress (Sevenfold Sword #7) – Jonathan Moeller

The quest of the Seven Swords will unmask treachery.

Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, questing to stop the rise of the evil New God. The sorceress Cathala, imprisoned within magical stone, holds the lore of the creator of the Seven Swords.

But dark powers are stirring in the Serpent Marshes, and Cathala has secrets of her own.

Secrets that might kill Ridmark and his friends…

This is sword-and sorcery at its very best. – Amazon Reader Review

Takeoff (Seth Walker #1) – Joseph Reid

Still reeling from a devastating personal tragedy, air marshal turned investigator Seth Walker embarks on his first case. All he has to do is accompany female pop star Max Magic to Los Angeles and deliver her to the FBI. But when their routine flight ends in a hail of gunfire at LAX, Walker has no choice but to take the frightened diva on the run.

After a second attack leaves him battered and bloody, Walker realizes he cannot trust the FBI. To keep his client alive, he must use a patchwork of trusted aviation contacts to get her home to Austin, where the key suspects await.

But as they race to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers, the biggest danger of all may be what they’re heading toward—the dark secrets that Max herself has been keeping…

Teeth (The Icefjord Saga #1) – Zaya Feli

Twelve years after the death of his family, Isa meets a boy in the woods with an injured foot who can bring ravens back to life. But something else has come to Ulfheim, and when Isa opens the rune ward keeping the village safe to let the strange boy through, the wicked beast that has haunted Isa’s dreams his entire life follows.

Six years later, the boy from the woods returns and his arrival sets events into motion much grander than Isa could have foreseen. Isa’s control is slipping. The wolves close in on Ulfheim and home is no longer safe.

In the north, Fenrisborg stirs. If Karel wants to save his sister and prove his worth, he must act now. But Ulfheim is as unforgiving as his father’s chilled halls and Karel will need all his skills to deceive a jarl and capture an evil creature.

Wrath of Gods (Paternus Trilogy #2) – Dyrk Ashton

On the run from an ancient evil and his army of terrors straight out of myths from around the world, Fi and Zeke aid Peter in his globe-trotting quest to seek out the remaining Firstborn, uncover the enemy’s plans, and gather the warriors of old for what may become the final battle in the world’s oldest war. Along the way, Fi and Zeke discover they, too, have strengths of their own–though they come at a cost neither may wish to bear.

“What a sequel should be – bigger stakes, bloodier action, and even more mythological madness.” – Fantasy Book Critic

New Release Roundup, 14 July 2018: Fantasy and Adventure published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames