[spookygibberish]

Freak

[spookygibberish]

Day 7 - Hyperparasite

Wiffsps are tiny, herbivorous insects that feed on sap by penetrating phloem vessels with their small, beaklike mouthparts. This particular species is an inquiline parasite of Goldnestling Stemfly galls. Eggs laid on the surface of the gall hatch into larvae which burrow into its interior, inducing the formation of a secondary gall chamber which expands to crush the original Stemfly larvae inside, creating a much roomier, hollow space in which the wiffsp larvae may grow and pupate before emerging to disperse.

[spookygibberish]

Day 4 - Apex Predator

I was busy playing Silksong and don’t have lore for this one yet.

[spookygibberish]

Day 5 - Scavenger/Decomposer

Snossers (Cinerivittatus foetens) are the among the most common representatives of the most basal living hexaped clade. Solidly omnivorous, these adaptable creatures will eat nearly anything they come across, be it bugs, berries, carrion, or trash.

As implied by the epithet 'foetens', Snossers secrete a sticky, foul smelling oil from the end of their tail when threatened.

[spookygibberish]

Day 3 - Secondary consumer

The Bluethief (Chalybicleps bicolor) is a small Doghawk which feeds primarily on insects (including the Deceitful Hornback), though will readily consume small vertebrates should the opportunity present itself, including songmice up to half its own size.

[spookygibberish]

Pimchits (Picogryps cordifer) are a members of the tribe pycogrypini (tribe in the taxonomic sense, a collection of related genera) of intelligent microgriffins (family picogrypidae). Pimchits are highly communal, omnivorous griffins who construct extensive nests which are maintained and reused for indefinitely, baring their destruction by some outside force. Pimchit nests are often subterranean, but may also be constructed out of woven grass in the interior of thorny bushes or decaying trees, or in the walls of dwellings made by larger sophonts.

Pimchits live about 5 to 7 years on average, though they may live over a decade on rare occasions. Female pimchits lay clutches of 2-6 eggs twice a year in spring and summer. Eggs are laid in communal nest chambers and cared for by capable adults regardless of sex. Labor in Pimchit colonies is not strongly stratified, and jobs are filled as needed by any individual willing to work them, though most individuals tend to develop preferences and routines that dictate their role.

Pictures above are adult male (red markings) and female (black markings) Pimchits in summer coats. Below is an egg and day old hatchling, a week old nestling, a month old questling, and a 5 month old pinkpaws. Sexual maturity is obtained at one year of age.

Pimchits follow a type II survivorship curve, and tend to die randomly at any age.

[spookygibberish]

The Red-Headed Honeysearcher (tachycallos erythrops) is a small, tropical fluttermouse which feeds primarily on the nectar of bellflowers, though they also supplement their diet with small insects. Four-winged hexapedes such as honeysearchers are not actually closely related to songmice and other hexapedes with a single set of wings, and are thought to have evolved flight separately.

[spookygibberish]

Skwutt

Pictured: Arquatella citropelma

Of their kin, these lanitubates are noteworthy for a number of distinctive traits, not least of which is their peculiar manner of locomotion. While in possession of small, clawed feet, they hang uselessly beneath their bellies, and are never used to propel their fatty bodies over the earth. They instead walk along the ground by alternately clinging with a flared oral and anal pad, each of which is capable of generating significant suction, particularly on smooth surfaces. Once so adhered, one will find them quite impossible to remove, though harassing these creatures in such a way is an endeavor ill advised.

Of all lanitubates they are some of the most benevolent yet encountered, being almost entirely pacifistic consumers of the small plants, fungi, and films which grow in abundance upon the moistened surfaces of logs and stones. I have yet to observe any partake of the flesh of any animate thing that was, at time of consumption, animate in that particular moment. In general they seem fundamentally unselective in their intake, with their preference for the stationary more a consequence of their restricted style of locomotion above all.

Many of these creatures are clothed spectacularly in shining, iridescent coats of fine, soft bristles in every visible hue. We have seen the Pimchit killing them quite deftly to harvest their pelage, which they craft into the most marvelous ornaments and garb. In the second week of the hot moon, we came upon one community which had seemingly specialized itself in the accumulation and trade of skwutt-hairs. The grounds of their compound were crawling with the things! Whether they had cultivated a habitat particularly amenable to the creatures, artificially perpetuated their breeding, or where simply blessed by fortune to have settled in a place with such animal wealth, we had not the time nor communicative ability to ascertain. Regardless, while surely fortunate from an economic standpoint, I do not know how they could live with the anxiety!

Given their gentle natures and splendid adornments, that the Skwutt should have a flaw as crippling as theirs seems inevitable in an almost cosmic way – they absolutely reek! Not only is their flesh and blood completely foul in both odor and taste, but they have the reprehensible habit of standing upright, anchored firmly by the mouth, and aiming their rears towards any presence that offends them. Their anal pads are often pigmented so as to contrast strikingly with their coats, a fair warning indeed! Should the unfortunate in question persist in their campaign of harassment, they will find themself soaked with the most fetid substance any living organism has surely ever produced.

While I have thus-far avoided such mishap, we cannot say the same for poor Ititiim Ibibit. On the eve of our departure from the Swkutt-ranchers, the sorry fool made the mistake of approaching a Low Jobeltine to relieve himself beneath its leaves, as the ranchers, like most Pimchit we have encountered, seem hesitant to allow us interlopers to make use of their compound lavatories. While crawling beneath, he was surprised by a particularly marvelous skwutt, which blasted him with a particularly foul spray, point blank!

Needless to say, on our trek to the next nearest compound, he held up the rear. Though, to his credit, though unintentional and undeserved, the walk was particularly uneventful, and we never felt the shadow of any monstrous presence at our backs. Perhaps there is good reason beyond the gathering of shining fur to keep such rancid company close.

[spookygibberish]

“There is no custom the wizened traveler observes more religiously than the fear of open sky. Most keep to the brambleways, for the protection they offer is unmatched. Long grass is better than short grass or none, but its cover is dealt by a duplicitous hand, given in equal measure to men and his hunter alike. Of swooping things which haunt open fields and woody margins, the bluethief is perhaps the most practiced killer of men. It falls deftly upon those caught in its sights, and vanishes them on the wing in three bites or less. It will readily snatch any body with a heartbeat half its size or less and at all larger than a speck. Though it prefers prey which it need not expend much effort to subdue, and can kill easily with a well placed bite, it has been seen to harry large songmice from the air, shredding their wings and so permanently grounding them. A well-named beast, the bluethief is a significant pest of arthroculture, for more than any warm-blooded prey does it love to feast upon insects. Well-tended grounds established near the open or semi-open landscapes it prefers, should they produce in great enough abundance, will inevitably be visited by such vicious callers. Abundance, for all we court it, is a fickle thing, and wealth a restless nest. Whether by shrewd paw or savage tooth, it will spread itself before it grows heavy.”

- Shishwii Itwitwii, Notes from the Psisireip Expedition, Year 1, Goldgray Moon 12

Bluethieves are serial monogamists, coming together in pairs each spring to raise their whelps. Two to five soft shelled, curly-tailed eggs are laid in two clutches per year, the first in spring and the second in summer. Nest sites are selected in hollows and cavities in sparse woodlands, meadows, or the margins between, but never in fully forested habitat. Nests are furnished with plush moss, leaves, and grass, and stocked abundantly with the bodies of prey. Prolific hoarders, bluethieves maintain multiple larders throughout their territories regardless of season. So jealously do they defend these larders that males of the species forgo migration, spending the long winter dedicated to their defense while the females seek more tropical climes.

Like other lantern-eggers, bluethieves will retrieve and relocate their eggs should they be discovered by a predator or otherwise threatened, a strategy which is exceptionally effective against crawling threats like tubesnakes, but less-so against more volant adversaries capable of giving chase. In such cases, bluethief pairs act in tandem to protect their eggs, with one parent, usually the more aggressive female, harassing the predator while the other spirits the eggs to a temporary safehold.

[spookygibberish]

Of those peculiar fishes which haunt the stagnant, stinking marshes which pool alow the wooded valleys, the muck-panfish is perhaps among the strangest and most elusive. The true rarity of it is difficult to know, for it is so easily overlooked, as is its wont. It is a mud-dwelling thing by nature, most often glimpsed as surfacing eyes as it rises for breath, or as a cryptic suggestion of a form, the faint outline of a reticulated disk at rest along a clear, shallow bank, half buried beneath mats of slime and leaves. Of predatory fishes, it is of minor, though not absent, concern, for it much prefers to suck buried bugs, worms, and shells from the muck than to rise to snatch prey at the surface.

In times of drought it has been known to drag itself hand over hand along the ground to flee an evaporating pool. Though it is of the air-breathing fishes, it dies easily to dehydration. On such occasions should it be seen and intercepted on its mission, it presents a rare and thrilling hunt. While clumsy on land, it is neither helpless nor harmless, and is heavily armored beneath its soft, fleshy skin. Being well defended above, the trick to slaying the mud-panfish lies below. While the disk of its head and the segments of its tail may be well-clad in plate, it is exceedingly soft between its legs, and any injury inflicted there is likely to puncture vital organs, thus spelling the creature’s doom. Of course, there is no region of the panfish more dangerous to approach - that sucking mouth strikes with blinding speed and shocking reach, and a plated throat designed to crack shells can reduce any man to pulp before he’s even aware of being snatched.

How a muck-panfish is best tackled depends on its size. Young, small specimens may be easily flipped by only a few men, though even at three-lengths or less the bite is not to be underestimated. For those larger creatures, up to two lalo-lengths from nose to fin, long poles and hooks are recommended, so that the hunters may reach beneath the disc from a sufficiently safe distance to avoid becoming prey to their quarry. Any fish exceeding two lalo in length is not often worth the effort of the hunt, its plate too thick to cut apart, its shell too heavy to flip, and the smell of its death likely to attract hungry scavengers well before even a minority of its flesh can be harvested.

The meat is very quality, and more than worth the trouble. It is particularly good marinated in snowcup honey, as I may now personally attest.

[spookygibberish]

Oilbush Whistling-twig (Zoalygium guttiphilos)

“For some shrubs, one may occasionally make the alarming discovery that not all of their extremities are wholly their own, possessed of independent will. Not only that, but these extra-bodily appendages also come equipped with a bevvy of entirely unplantlike anatomy: skin, bones, blood, scales, and bright, staring eyes.

Whistling-twigs, for they are capable of generating a terrifically shrill sound if persistently antagonized, are a curious and seldom-seen member of the siphonodraco, though perhaps their rarity is less a consequence of scarcity than excellent masquerade. In these hotter climes, it is not rare to find them in abundance on particular hosts, which they come to resemble quite closely. This particular specimen was one of dozens collected from the branches of a ubiquitous desert shrub. To the natives, they are just as much a product of the bush as its fruit and flowers, and make for quite good sweet jerky.

I will concede to being delighted by the multitudes in which we encountered these little impostors, for they are an exceedingly rare sight in my native Irimpimio, encountered only after strong bought of wind has knocked them from their high realm in the forest’s very crown, and even then more often as mangled remnants than live and sprightly travelers. I have heard that, as one travels south, they only become larger and more grandiose, as long and thick as whole tree-limbs, or bearing bright flags and waving baubles. I cannot think of anything I would like more to verify with my own eyes!

I almost hesitate to recount it, for I have no interest in spreading superstition, but I have heard troubling things which I feel I would be remiss to neglect, for even if lacking in veracity, such tales are surely rich in anthropological intrigue. It is said that among those hothouse giants, not all adopt the lifestyle we take as synonymous with their kind, that of the gentle, thin-boned grazer, their clever disguises employed only to the preservation of their own lives. We have been regaled with legends, for I cannot confirm them of anything but the sort, of giant living branches, no easier to detect than their benign cousins, who have forgone the taking of leaves to exploit much bloodier fare, their soft, pharyngeal fingers tipped with intoxicating hooks, and their grinding inner teeth chiseled into vicious, rending beaks.

The stories are horrific to consider. I consider myself fortunate I cannot in good faith relay them to you as anything more substantial than folklore.”

[spookygibberish]

“Mudhearts, sometimes called mudroots, are neither plant nor organ, but a whole creature unto themselves, if one which seems fundamentally incomplete in construction. It is a simple, blind and limbless sort of animal, and it spends its whole life buried in the loose soil beneath still, swampy waters, with only its stalked throat and anus protruding above the sand, pumping water in one end and out the other.

The chamber of their bodies is lined with muscle, which pulses to propel water through, so that the sticky hairs which line its gullet may trap detritus or whatever tiny, hapless animals cannot escape. It is this throbbing motion which gives it the common name of Mudheart, for its motions very much resemble those of said organ.

Individual mudhearts can live ten lifespans or more, and grow many hundreds of times heavier than a person. The Vuxte seem to favor them as a foodstuff, and many of their wetland or coastal cultures will expend great effort to create shallow, flooded plains and ponds wherein the mudhearts breed extensively, so they may harvest them in quantity.

Mudhearts propogate themselves in much the same way as certain trees and lilies, bearing creeping, wormlike fruits, though fully aquatic and lacking any vegetable anatomy. Mudheart fruit-larvae are small, dark, and fishlike, swimming erratically by the motion of a pennant-like tailfin. These larvae are ravenous vegetarians, and will quickly reduce any green matter within their reach to particulate. Through their insatiable appetite, they create muddy barrens suitable for the development of their immobile adult stage. The feces of the larvae is also a suitable foodstuff for the adult forms, and by their digestive action they convert biological material that would be inaccessible to their mature forms into a ready supply of nutrition.”

[spookygibberish]

This primitive lanitubate is a good example of the ancestral condition of the clade, with a segmented skeleton supported by many legs, large, well developed eyes, a toothed pharynx, and a iridescent coat of hydrophobic setae which serves well to prevent water loss through the thin, membranous cuticle. Very early predatory lanitubates fed on "arthropods" and the sluglike, terrestrial larvae of bladdergill plants. Largly feeding on creatures with poor eyesight, and lacking major predators of its own, early lanitubates where often surprisingly flashy in their coloration.

[spookygibberish]

Three 'lizards' - The Violet Stonelady (Saxicathartes ianthoflabellum), Silver-snouted Drakeworm (Microdacnister viridans), and the Valentine Fiddleneck (Achetauchenus lyprus)

[spookygibberish]

Prince Amber Bells Temple, of Amber Bells Temple, also known as Psi, is the youngest Chamber Prince yet crowned. No longer a child, he is yet naïve to his duties, and holds his elders in uncritically high regard. Uniquely among many-faced princes, Psi’s faces go by distinct names and exhibit separate, non-overlapping personalities, though these names are used only by each face to refer to the others. Each face refers to itself exclusively as Psi.

Suu, the seemingly dominant personality, is the youngest. It is most often in charge of directing Psi’s movements and interacting diplomatically with others. It is nervous but not fearful, and comes across as submissive and diplomatic. Though it comes across as silly and uncertain, much of its behavior is centered around the desire to appease those around it.

Pax, the middle-child face, is very direct, often to the point of tactlessness. It does not often actively seek socialization, thought it will intervene should if feel the need to do so. Pax enjoys tasks like book keeping and curation, and will busy itself with such work while Psi’s other faces are asleep.

Iia, the oldest face, is the only face incapable of speaking, though this does not mean it is without personality. Iia is easily overwhelmed and rarely left in charge, indeed, Pax and Suu exist to take care of business it does not believe it is capable of performing. Iia is equally incapable of dealing with crowds as it is able to cope with solitude. Psi is mostly controlled by Pax and Suu, who take turns as needed.

Each face prefers different foods, different company, and has different hobbies.

[spookygibberish]

"For guides, the Sugarstone Nest gave us five callows who they could readily spare, assuring us that they were the best of their respective broods. Indeed, we found no deficiencies with them in character or body. All were possessed of that hot inner ember which so characterizes the hearbearer callow, a violent will to live which I have found lacking in my own tribe, so coming to know their own as I now do. All were physically strong, and all were deeply knowledgeable, as per their inheritance as children of this land.

Of our heartbearer guides, the most arresting character was the largest and apparently the oldest, surpassing four springs, who we came to call Sunveil in absence of any name our company could properly articulate. For no deeper reason did we pick for her this name than her particular fondness for eating the cups of the flower in question. (I have tried them myself, and found them excessively bitter, so perhaps it is more fitting than we knew, if by way of happy accident.)

Indeed, she was a very serious sort of creature, and supremely lacking in fear of any kind. No creature of any size, bearing any weapon or venom or disguise could cow her, all faced and beaten back with suicidal aplomb."

[spookygibberish]

felt like drawing Psi