Our fifth look at the zoology of Golden Land, this time featuring mountain nasties and the river area of Zarechie's fearsome beasts. Here's one of the six critters:



The first four sentences of this paragraph are about the funniest damned thing I've read from a developer in a long, long time. Reminds me of the old Steve Martin SNL sketches about the medieval dentist.

Big thanks to Dmitry Glaznev and Roman Volkov!

Zarechie​

The place behind the Ra-River - Zarechie - became the part of Golden land not so long ago. Two centuries ago these lands were called the Wastelands, but when people came, the Wastelands stepped back to the east, and Hunter Woods and South Forest took its place. At the moment Zarechie is very dangerous part of the country for the travelers. It is separated from the Golden Land by the Ra-river, and the only bridge is near the Gate. The biggest city of the country is situated in the northern part of Zarechie. Velegrad is at the south, in the forests. Besides chuds and shishkuns which we already know, these lands are populated with giant and green tritons, gobuls and wolkodlaks. Also the rumors say that some "ruirri" live in the rocks and hills of Wastelands, but this information is not precise.

Tritons​

There are two kinds of tritons - giant and green. First are much more dangerous than the second ones, and their color is darker. Tritons live mostly near the water, because their main food is fish. Some fish often can be found in their stomachs, and the rudiment swimming-bladder, which is the main component of many potions, makes them the object of hunting for the hunters of Ra-city, Velegrad and the Gate. In spite of their slowness, they can be dangerous, and they often come near chuds.

Gobuls​

These slow animals who look as the pile of stones live in the lowlands of the mountains. Gobuls live at Wastelands; they came from Marvia, where there are a lot of them in the jungle. These creatures have very thick and rough skin, which allows them to put on a mask of the stones. Gobuls are carnivorous and hunt from the ambushes. Walking over the hills of Wastelands, the idler can easily find himself in the circle of the angry gobuls. The tribes of these creatures are controlled by the female gobul, who has brown skin, not like the dark green males. They are more dangerous than male creatures. It is better to fight gobuls with the big axes and heavy swords.

Wolkodlaks​

Legends say that wolkodlaks are evil magicians who turn into the animals and hunt for the lost people in the forests. Don't even listen to these fairytales! It is obvious that the human cannot turn into such animal - it conflicts any considerable laws. So, wolkodlaks are people who were turned into the wolf-like creatures as a punishment, probably by the evil magicians. Exactly this point of view seems to be rigorous. The modern science has already gave up the version of self-turning into wolkodlaks as nonsense, but the news from Velgrad are trying to refuse the academic point of view. The rumors say about one Elder who turns into wolkodlak at nights, but has quite becoming style of life. That means that even being the creature, this Elder does not violate the limits of good behavior. But, however, it is really not good thing to meet wolkodlak at the road. Big creature, of 2.5 meters high, with awful claws and fangs, the wolkodlak could even tear the ox to pieces.

Chapter 5​

This is where I finish the exploration of fauna of Golden Land. The lands near the eastern side of Ripean mountains are mostly not explored. There are legends that tell about the entrance to Marvia which was situated there, but I was not able to find the confirmation of this information. The information about the inhabitants of the mountains is scrappy and incomplete, but interesting for both scientists and usual travelers. Not counting shishkuns and umrans I've mentioned in the previous chapters, you'll meet walking rocks near the mountains, and also very dangerous creatures - mountain daemons. Also, the tramps tell the legends about the ruirri, the creatures I've mentioned before. I found no information about ruirri in official sources, but I was able to gain some more knowledge about the life of these strange creatures.

Walking rocks​

Exploring the nature of these creatures, I thought that these walking rocks weren't able to appear by themselves; probably they are the sprirts of mountains, and somebody had put them into stones. These monsters can easily stamp the man, and it is very hard to destroy them. The experienced traveler will try to avoid this spirit, the unexperienced one will vainly try to kill the rock from distance, and the most courageous, who'll decide to accept battle, will be buried under the rocks. The village hunters say that the most scary thing in walking rock's appearance is the red light from its eves. This light is one more argument in my theory of the beyond appearance of the walking rocks.

Mountain daemon​

Mountain daemons are extremely dangerous creatures. They live in the mountains (that's why they are named so) and rarely come out from their caves. But, sometimes one of the creatures gives the settlers of mountain lands a lot of trouble. The meeting with daemon could be the last adventure in your life which is full of events. When they are young, they look like small cute bears, but, as they grow up, they completely change their character and appearance, being gloomy and blood-thirsty. The daemons have an awful horn, and they use it as a weapon sometimes. The witnesses have noticed the following pattern: the uglier and bigger the horn is, the more evil and blood-thirsty its owner is. Love to the human furnishings can be named among their weaknesses - that's why, in my opinion, they come out from their caves. Daemon will not sit in the ambush, waiting while you'll become absent-minded. He'll just attack and kill you. So, if you're going to the mountains, better put everything shining in the pockets, not to attract attention of these evil monsters.

Ruirri​

As the hermits say, ruirri is the spider-like creature which lives in the mountains. Many people say that ruirri are one of the products of Gmurrian magicians who wanted to make the perfect bodyguards to protect their people from human expansion. Made from the alive invertebrate organism with mechanic inserts, strengthened by the magic powers, they present the real danger. I came to an opinion that ruirri had left their masters and began to advance by themselves. I had a look at the body of dead ruirri. Its bones really look like some kind of steel skeleton. I haven't found any stomach, so it is still unknown what do they eat; but, it can be said with certainty that they haven't forgot their function - they attack anyone who comes close to the mountains. On the other hand, ruirri are very rare, and I doubt whether you'll meet them at your way.

End​

As you can see from the research I have made, the Golden Land is populated not only by the animals, but also by spirits and different beyond monsters. Next, I'm planning to reveal details about the Marvian nature a

Thanks to Dmitry Glaznev and Roman Volkov of the Golden Land dev team at Burut for laying down more background on the creatures that go bump in the forest and mountains!