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The Civet Beast
🕑 Added 2020-02-13 09:56:13 +0000 UTC
Highly adaptable, highly unstable and generally considered a low tier monster, Civet Beasts are none the lest tricky creatures to deal with, and appear to be slowly spreading...
Civet Beasts are a somewhat new monster within Thistleland, having a history measured in years, not centuries. They first appeared in the Undercity of the capital Guildtown here and there, alongside the usual low level monsters found in most sewers and dungeons. It soon became apparent though that they were rapidly displacing the commonly seen type of monsters lurking below the city, and within but a couple short years had become the dominating monster type to be found there. This is probably due to a combination of their vast and prolific reproduction, as well as their ability and indeed requirement to take the traits of other creatures.
These shaggy beasts are considered enchanted creatures and are in fact highly unstable: strong sunlight is enough to instantly turn them into nothing but a cloud of smoke. This also carries over to their reproduction, requiring third parties to be able to produce the next generation, a generation that will share attributes of both species.
Due to their instability and rapidly diverging nature, there are a great many types of Civet Beasts under Guildtown, though the original version is still in high dominance in terms of numbers. This is probably due to their occasional visits to the basement of Samuel and Samantha Provisions, lured there by the smell of coffee beans.
Civet Beasts have a high boom and bust cycle for population numbers, leading to them potentially becoming a sizeable threat under Guildtown. To prevent the occasional outpouring of Civet Beasts during the night (and the comical attempts during the day, with Civet beast after Civet beast poofing into dust as they emerge from street covers), The Adventure Guild regularly sends small Adventure Groups into the Undercity to take care of the problem, culling as many as they kind. Usually this sort of action is required when people start to go missing (especially from Samuel and Samantha Provisions ), however in recent times a tradition of rookie Adventure Groups has sprung up, testing their skills against a somewhat safe adventure to the Undercity. Many fail, and need rescuing themselves afterwards.
While considered a feral creature, they are able to stand for very short periods on two legs, usually to size up opponents. Their bulky weight and wide frame prevents them properly walking or maintaining this posture however. However despite this more animal intellect it is notable that their forepaws are excellently suited for gripping and holding of objects, though this is usually reserved for simply grappling and grasping over victims, and to carry them away. Understandably this creature uses it's bulk, shaggy fur and gripping paws for a very physical encounter.
Thankfully their highly unstable nature means that they are not seen above the surface during the day, and thus at first they were considered contained in the Undercity. In recent times though some larger city-settlements in Thistleland have begun to report infestations in their own underground networks, which the source of is still entirely unknown.
Individually the base form of the Civet beasts can be a nuisance, but when they appear in numbers, or are one of the many sub-breeds, they pose a problem with even experienced Adventure Groups!
