Chapter 7: BESTIarY Azurat (Blue Watcher) The azurat is a small, beautiful creature that lives around the Lesser Barren Lake and other watery areas of Khitus To the uninitiated, it seems inconsequential, but its size and appearance disguise a horrible truth Its playful dance catches the eye and prepares the distracted mind to be utterly controlled Commonly called a “blue watcher” (or very rarely, a “blue angel”), this tiny being is a powerful mind bender To take control of an intelligent creature, the azurat gets inside its host, usually through the mouth, and makes its way—painfully—to the brain Its bright colors and exotic movements mesmerize a victim, luring one close 128 for a better view Without realizing it, a victim accepts an azurat crawling delightfully on her skin By the time the blue watcher enters an orifice to gouge its way to the brain, a victim has been conditioned to accept the pain and its fate Azurats guide hosts to bodies of water where they can lay eggs and spawn more of their kind Any lake, stream, cistern, or even a barrel of water will While it can force a host body to march directly to water, an azurat knows instinctively that abrupt changes in behavior lead to its own discovery and expulsion Instead, it subtly alters the victim’s desires and behaviors in ways that its companions will not immediately recognize Unfortunately for a victim, though, an azurat’s only egress is out through the brain, destroying the mind and killing the host in the process Blue watchers can be useful to wizards and alchemists who know of one of their subtler attributes Fresh from a host body and for several days after egress, the creature retains all the contents of the mind on which it fed Every memory, every thought, every emotion, every plan … all of this can be extracted from an azurat either through direct application of scrying magic or by simply ingesting the creature directly This latter approach is less accurate and some information may be lost but, properly prepared, a simple meal can impart most—and sometimes all—of the former host’s knowledge right into the diner’s mind These are only fleeting, so any pertinent information must be recorded quickly before the person fully digests the azurat and exhausts its strange powers Azurats live inside small bodies of water everywhere They prefer unstable hosts in whom any subtle alterations of behavior may go unnoticed When choosing among multiple hosts, an azurat will select the moodier or free-spirited among them Blue watchers may take their time selecting victims, moving from one to another, subtly taking each one’s measure from afar before settling on a single host Once discovered, removing a blue watcher requires dangerous poisons or direct intervention with knife and awl, often leaving the host severely damaged