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Chapter 7: BESTIarY
A fullet is small, no more than three feet tall, with two
powerful hind legs but only vestigial upper arms and a
long, thin neck. Its distended belly holds its prize. Aside
from blazing speed, the creature has little other defense.
They do possess strength in numbers, though, traveling
by dozens or even hundreds. Capturing even half of a
torrent of fullets would slake many thirsts.
Extracting the fullet’s prized store of water—approximately one liter—is a delicate maneuver. Indeed, any severe injuries may inadvertently spill the precious fluid into
the sands. A skilled wanderer knows how to pluck the head
and spine in just the right way to claim the vital contents,
upending the carcass like a fleshy decanter.
Khitan Terms of Venery
For groups of land animals or creatures, pack is the regular nomenclature and flock covers avian creature groups.
However, those versed in Classic Age bestiaries remember
the once-common terms of venery for Khitan creatures.
Creature
Azurat
Colossodant
Daragkon
Elephant
Fullet
Huckratha
Jaladam
Lu’urat
Manju
Maradoch
Mesachnat
Regelth
Regelthex
Sanid
Tabahk
Thakal
Uludur
Ulweppa
Urshevan
Yethawar
Group Term (Larger Groups, if such a term)
Sheen (up to 10), Sea (11+)
Throng
Claw (up to 8), Savagery ( 9+)
Herd
Stream (up to 29), Torrent (30+)
Scuttle
Punishment
Haunting
Stamp (up to 8), Swarm (9+)
Spate (up to 12), Scourge (13+)
Blink
Tremor
Tumult
Slash
Bramble
Rumble (up to 11), Thunder (12+)
Slake
Letting (up to 29), Carnage (30+)
Snarl
Echo
Huckratha (Coal Crab)
These multi-legged denizens of the wastelands strike
fear into the hearts of experienced wanderers. The
huckratha’s touch turns living flesh to coal via a creeping infection that can only be cured by fire.
Each “coal crab” is roughly three feet wide and two
high, its thick exoskeleton protecting it well from natural predators and armed desert folk. It crawls quickly
across boulder fields, seeking hiding places and further
protection within its favored terrain. When cornered, it
attacks with its forward pincers that are strong enough
to remove a finger (or even an entire hand) or even ruin
armor or shields with crimps or worse.
When its pincers break living flesh and draw blood, the
coal crab releases a virulent fluid into the wound from
glands at the pincers’ hinges. This renders the wound
painless within seconds, allowing an infection to start.
The small bit of wounded flesh becomes a black spot
that grows an inch in diameter per day. After a day, that
spot hardens into a lump of coal that expands with the
infection. It cannot be just cut away or it will grow back.
The coal-flesh must be burnt off, an act that, even when
done carefully, causes enormous pain and leaves the
flesh deeply scarred.
The only benefits wanderers gain from coal crabs are
using their corpses to build easy and long-lasting fires
with very little other fuel (provided they start the fire
at the huckratha’s claws). Certain alchemists and mages
from Torqal and Wani Chereet provide a ready market
for fresh huckratha (i.e. dead less than two days), as they
know how to use the pincer glands to make horrific potions that either turn people into living firebrands or
quickly render them paralyzed coal statues.
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