Chapter 7: BESTIarY Ulweppa (Blood Crawler) Blood crawlers, or ulweppas, are the scourges of the wastelands Denizens who miss or ignore the signs of their infestation—looser patches of darkened sand or grounds striped with blood that begin and end suddenly—can quickly be overrun, buried alive, and harvested for their blood beneath the sands A full-grown ulweppa is as wide around as an adult man’s thigh and can grow up to eight feet long Sightless, their keen sense of smell guides them toward living animals and their supplies of blood Ulweppas are not quick, slithering across or just beneath the surface of soft sand or dust; they rely on silence to get close enough to strike Before biting, ulweppas secrete a fluid around their mouths that deadens the bite’s pain for the victim; an unaware or sleeping target may not notice they have been bitten and are being drained of blood Blood crawlers also attack aware targets and use sheer numbers to surround and subdue victims for draining Once ulweppas catch the scent of blood, they pursue relentlessly, even over many leagues and days They send vibrations out through the ground that other crawlers receive; in a matter of hours, a group might find itself being stalked by dozens (called a letting of crawlers) or even hundreds (a carnage) of blood crawlers Ulweppas can stand tall, burying their tails in the sand and extending their open mouths as high in the air as possible, showing themselves while making an eerie sucking sound that carries for miles Fresh blood revitalizes and strengthens an ulweppa immediately, and wounded blood crawlers heal quickly Tasting blood drives them into frenzy, regardless of the source or quantity Given an opportunity, a crawler will gorge itself on blood to the point where it is too bloated to move They commonly descend upon a battlefield to dine on the fallen, making it only safe to visit such a place after the corpses have been drained to pale husks left baking in the sun A blood crawler tries to keep its victim alive so it can drink its blood for as long as possible Once a victim falls unconscious, an ulweppa drags it where it can bury the body just beneath the surface It then sticks its tail into the victim’s mouth and down its windpipe, breathing for the buried victim by keeping its own mouth open just above the surface A victim may stay alive for several days this way, supplying nourishment to the crawler the entire time, before eventually dying of dehydration or starvation Even successfully dispatching ulweppas does not always end their horrors Blood crawler bites often infect victims with parasitic seed-worms that burrow into the victim’s digestive system They multiply there and emerge in the victim’s feces until it either dies (within 1-4 days if untreated) or purges the parasites by magic or caustic poisons Larvae grow to an immature ulweppa within a week with only a small supply of liquid blood Most desert peoples are wary of such larvae, and either insist on immediately burning any wastes or set their children to actively pick through the feces of any visitors They drive off any found infested, if not killing them outright Ruthless raiders collect and weaponize larvae, hurling them by catapults inside the walls of besieged cities Urshev Moving out of the southern deserts, men had to discover new beasts of burden among the northland native species They found many ursine creatures in the deep caves and forest warrens of the frigid north realms, including a broad variety of bears and the larger urshevan Of those, only the latter proved useful as sturdy beasts of burden The urshevan often serve as personal mounts, pack animals, and warm-blooded companions ideally suited to the cold wastes 141