[Commissioned by @wannabedemonlord. I was really, really into the Honey Island Swamp Monster as a kid, because it was one of the cryptids covered in a book at my elementary school library, and the illustration of it on the chapter page freaked me out. Modern cryptid lore converges it with the Cajun bogey letiche, who is variously said to be an alligator man or the spirit of an unbaptized child.]
Letiche This hulking humanoid has green
scales growing underneath its fur and broad, clawed hands and feet. Its face is
something like an ape and something like an alligator.
The
letiche are violent swamp monsters that lurk in the densest, more remote
marshes. They are rumored to have been born of a child abandoned in the swamp
and raised by alligators, and they worship savage, crocodilian gods. Letiche
have little in the way of material culture, but their territory always contains
some manner of altar decorated with crocodile teeth, crude paintings of scaled
monsters, and the sacrificial remains of their victims.
A letiche
is a carnivore that hunts by ambush, creeping through the swamp in search of
prey. They are patient hunters, and may stalk their quarry for hours before
closing in for the kill. Their stench may proceed them, but as it smells like
rotting vegetation, few creatures recognize the danger before it is too late.
The glowing eyes of a letiche can freeze an enemy in its tracks through fear,
allowing the letiche ample time to tear it apart.
A letiche
is about seven feet tall and weighs more than two hundred pounds. They are
typically solitary, but mated pairs hunt together. They lay multiple eggs, but
rarely raise more than one whelp at a time, as the juvenile that hatches first
typically makes a meal of its siblings. Whole gangs of them may converge during
new moons and celestial events for horrible bloody rituals.
Letiche are recorded along the northern coast of the Swirling Sea, inhabiting swamps and marshes. They are considered a persistent hazard by explorers in the region.
Shores of Swords 