[More monster syncretism, using the visuals from The X-Files’ Flukeman but the flavor text from Hackmaster. I was pleasantly surprised that Hackmaster made its leech monster men non-evil.]
Leechfolk This wrinkly humanoid has a
gaping, fanged maw occupying most of its face. Webbing stretches between its
fingers and toes.
Leechfolk
are strange, blood-drinking humanoids native to warm swamps and tropical lakes.
Despite their monstrous appearance, they are not evil. Rather, they are an
insular and religious people whose lives are typically devoted to the
veneration of a pantheon of gods and nature spirits. The center of leechfolk
life is their temple, which is typically guarded by the strongest, best
equipped leechfolk. Inside are shrines and idols to all manner of divinities,
from fey entities to gods of plants, animals and nature to some of the more benevolent
Great Old Ones, such as Yig and Yog-Sothoth. Although leechfolk are as
comfortable below water as above it, these temples are always at the
surface—the better to catch sun, moon and starlight during religious festivals.
Leechfolk
are obligate blood feeders, but prefer to feed non-lethally if they can.
Leechfolk territory is typically rigged with a variety of snares, nets, and
other traps. The leechfolk regularly patrol their traps, take a blood meal from
a captured animal, and then set it free. The saliva of a leechfolk contains
anesthetic chemicals, slowing the reactions of their victims but reducing the
pain they feel. They prefer the blood of mammals and birds, and their slow
metabolisms mean they rarely need to feed more than weekly.
A leechfolk
stands between five and six feet tall, and has a lifespan that can reach 100
years if not beset by violence or disease. They are hermaphroditic and lay eggs
into a cocoon of thick mucus. Leechfolk are caring parents, regurgitating blood
into their babies’ mouths until they are large enough to leave the village and
hunt for themselves.
Leechfolk inhabit the marshes of Gladia, being common on the mainland and also recorded on Egdwen and Zinnzar. They often worship the god Bottna. Though their diet is similar to the chiromin, the two species do not compete.
Shores of Swords 