Chain of Freaks: A Blogging Challenge
Introduction
When Sahh sends out the call for a blogging challenge, I am obligated by fae contract (the joy of creation) to respond. The jist of this one is that each blog shares an image with the other and, in response, anyone participating makes something (a creature, location, etc.) based on the image. Then they post their own image and the cycle repeats.
You can find the image I’m basing this off of here (Why would I embed the image when I can drive traffic to someone else’s blog?)
Anyways…
*: assumes the use of Supernatural Hit Dice, where once the creature sustains a number of attacks that deal 5+ damage equal to the creature’s hit dice, it dies.
Mermaid Mire
Local legend says that each one of the Mire Mermaids is the bitter soul of a woman who drowned. The Learned Men with their spectacles and crystal tools tap the ground and commune with the figures in their folios and declare the Mermaids an expression of the Black Mist that surrounds the wetlands nowadays. Whichever interpretation is true, it doesn’t change what they are right now, or the people they’ve put in early graves.
The Black-Haired Mermaid
(HD 3*, hypnotic voice to foreigners)
She’s the oldest, or at least the first one people started telling tall tales about. Her voice sounds airy and delicate, even when she howls late at night. Around her left arm is a golden bracelet. They say the bracelet is what lets her speak, keeps her from going crazy like her sisters, but who can say?
She’ll actually talk to you a bit if you’re unlucky. If you’re not a local, she’ll try to lure you off your canoe and onto a spot of dry land. It’s never land, but if you’re not from here how would you know? How could you resist? As soon as your ankle hits the water you’re already dead.
If you’re a local, she threatens to call her sisters. As a rule, they’re worse.
She isn’t interested in parley
The Red-Haired Mermaid
(HD 2*, fire breath)
The lights in the woods at night are not for you. The Red-Haired Mermaid is the loudest of her sisters and the most deadly. If she does speak, her voice sounds like air escaping a ragged bellows. Broken, raspy, grating, as though she is ripping open a wound when she talks.
She breathes fire. If you’re not a local, she scoops up a mouthful of water (people say the fire burns her if she doesn’t) and sprays it onto your canoe as you pass.
If you’re a local, she’ll try and tip your canoe. She then dives into the mud below you and heats the water above her, boiling you and any other wildlife in the water nearby. You might survive, but you’ll never come back, and that’s good enough for her.
The Brown-Haired Mermaid
(HD 3*, adaptive camouflage)
Whenever you pull your canoe from the water, it’s best practice to hit the bottom with an axe. The Brown-Haired Mermaid stalks like her sisters, but over the course of days and not hours. Her voice is the song of birds and the buzzing of cicadas. She hides herself in the trees.
If you’re not a local, she’ll hide on a tree and leap onto your canoe, trying to flip it and drown you in the murky water. She cannot be seen until she touches the canoe.
If you’re a local, she’ll swim beneath your canoe and camouflage into the bottom. When you reach your destination or a portage point, she’ll grab your arm and pull you into the water. She cannot be seen until she grabs you.
The White-Haired Mermaid
(HD 2*, ice breath)
The wind is not supposed to be cold. The White-Haired Mermaid does not speak; her mouth is covered in cold sores and her face is horribly frostbitten. She hides it behind her wall of lamb white hair.
If you’re not a local, she’ll freeze your canoe (and herself) in place with a breath and bash your head against the thick ice. Her grip is very strong.
If you’re a local, she’ll wait until you wade into the wetland (It only takes a moment) and freeze your feet to the ground. She likes to play with her food.
My Picture!
Here it is :)
The Houses Are Faces, Jean Veber, 1899
Lavi did a post on this image here!