Bog Beasts
Yidak
Dead by Drowning or Violence
The water is cloudy; insects buzz all around. The travellers ignored the warning and cross the sodden land on planks between solid clods of ground. They do not notice the ripples in the twilight. A glowing green shape draws their attention, and they linger. Then there's a splashing and a thrashing and one of their number is dragged down into the bog, screaming. A river dragon? No, say the survivors, no - something leathery and almost human. Meanwhile, their companion's body pickles in the murky water until it's as brown as leather. He gets no burial, for they fear to return. He becomes like the monster that slew him.
It is said by some that bogs of Creation are closer to the lands of the Dead. Certainly, corpses interred in them do not rot as they should. In many regions it becomes a tradition to give corpses to the bog, and the Dead rest easy. But when a traveller drowns or such a place is home to a murder, then the preserved corpse neither forgives nor forgets. The yidak never leaves dwelling place even as it is stained brown. These hungry ghosts are noted for their cold-blooded patience - and their sloth, too. A victim who escapes the initial ambush will likely not be pursued.
The tannins of the bog preserve the organs and brain of the body particularly well. Perhaps this is why a bog beast retains a certain degree of intellect; enough to stand ankle-deep by the path when mists hang low and call out "Help me!" or "Come closer!" or "My friend!". Still, this knowledge passes in time as the brain degrades, and they retreat under the water. It remembers the knife; it remembers the feeling of water filling its lungs. Their dead breath rises from the water in luminescent clouds that draw in the overly curious. It lurks in the deeps, waiting to drag others down. There seems to be no pattern as to whether a bog beast will devour a corpse or leave it to rot - and perhaps rise too. In some places in the North East, tens or hundreds of bog beasts might lay waiting. They do not talk to one another, or hunt. They just lie under the water in torpor, lurking for the living.
Some necromancers have been known to deliberately create bog beasts, murdering men and women to leave their corpses to tan so that they might guard paths. These hungry ghosts are tied to their corpses, though, and their forms rot quickly if their anchoring remains are destroyed. Bog beasts prove a problem for exorcists, for their sodden bodies burn poorly and hunting them down can require months spent in insect-sodden marshes. Often the exorcist might just make sure that there are warning signs up and that the locals know the horror that lurks in the bog.
