[Day 12] Esseth, the Crawling Shade

Esseth, the Crawling Shade

Of course there are people who play with blood and vampirism in ways that are safe, sane and consensual. Then there are vampiric cults of people with pernicious anemia who are none of those. Then there are the Essath, inhuman creatures who seem to have crawled into our world from some dark underworld
An Essath is also known in some texts as an insect shade. It is a slender humanoid creature, about 3 meters in length. It moves by slithering along the ground, and seems incapable of standing entirely upright. It rears up like a cobra when it attacks.

Its diet seems to be exclusively blood.



An Essath has spiderlike fangs and something like a chitinous shell. It has the ability to turn into a living shadow, becoming effectively invisible in low light. In this form it cannot attack physical beings, nor can it be attacked. When moving in this form it can defy gravity and slither along walls and ceilings, as long as it stays out of the light. It will come as no surprise that the Essath navigates perfectly in the dark, and is largely nocturnal.

Some Essath are merely intelligent and opportunistic hunters, while others seem fascinated by human behavior. One specimen found in the Galgenbeck slums held six young men captive in a lighless cellar. It fed off them a little, but spent most of its time urging them to talk. When it was discovered it had learned the rudiments of human speech.

After being rescued two of the men cut their tongues out.

Hp 11, Morale 7, no armor, Bite 1d6+special
Special: Aftera successful bite it starts feeding, sucking 2 points of Toughnessand Strength per round. These return after a hearty meal anda good night's sleep.
In its shadow form the Esseth is invulnerable to physical attacks. Not magic ones though.

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