List of SLAY creatures

The following entry is a list of creatures from SLAY, a serial podcast created and written by Scott Sigler.

Dangerous Creatures

Anemones

Main article: Anemone

A parasitic species that grows in human or monster hosts. Hosts are paralyzed by "polyps," the anemone's larval form. Polyps are mobile, while anemones are sessile. If a polyp can't find a host, they will form a cyst, similar to an amoeba. If that cyst is cracked, it kills the polyp. The cyst contains a narcotic substance known as pus.

Bonehusk Revenant

A Bonehusk Revenant is a corpse reanimated not by magic, but by pure vengeance—the soul long gone, but the body still moving, driven by the echo of rage burned into its bones. Its flesh is scorched and brittle, held together by a black, tar-like resin that drips from its joints and smokes when it touches light. Killing one is nearly impossible—unless you know the name of the person it died hating, it will keep coming, dragging its charred limbs through fire, bullets, and walls just to finish what death couldn’t.

Cockeye

Magical beings with one oversized eye that can see enlightened beings at long distances and through solid materials. Cockeyes are the size of domestic dogs and look like a combination between a sea urchin and a

Description from SLAY: The creature came up to Dante’s hip. It had a floppy comb — reminiscent of a rooster’s, hence the name — which was slathered in thick, gleaming slime, sweat, puss, or a combination of the three. The same foul substance matted what few downy feathers clung to its long body, which resembled a buzzard neck coated in rot. No feet for this beast — it moved about on eight stubby tentacles that looked like fat cow tongues. Atop that neck and below the comb was one eye squinted so shut the wrinkled lids looked like the pursed lips of an angry old woman. The other eye was beachball-big, constantly trembling, lined with angry red veins, and had a black iris the size of a dinner plate.

Crattlebats

Serpent-like creatures with two sets of wings and large, sharp talons. Summoned by Oleus Oakbeard and others.

Description from SLAY: Billy heard a screeching from above, but it was faint, like it was close and yet worlds away. He glanced up, saw large birds, but they weren’t just birds. They had overlays, just like Pragman’s six-shooters, those women’s swords, and the crockobear. The overlay glimmered and gleamed in the sun. Long, snake-like bodies. Two sets of wings, one near their head, and a second, smaller set, on their long tail. Six of the creatures. No… seven.

Diamortuga

A 500-pound tortoise with a diamond-hard shell. Diamortugas have longer legs proportionally than a normal tortoise. They necks can extend to three times their body length.

Dreamgaunt

A monster that makes people have specific nightmares. Dreamgaunts often find work causing specific fear-based dreams so that particular fibers can be harvested via hypodermic needles injected into their bodies.

Description from SLAY 2: HATCHET MAN: More fingers extended from the wicker basket. Six, in total, moving like jointed tentacles, clustered close together and pointing forward like the tentacles of a squid. They grabbed Gabriella’s feet and pulled. The thing hauled itself out of the basket, the six gray fingers and a reddish body the size of a fist… and a tail, soft and vile, dotted with yellow mold and oozing, open sores.

Hound

A creature that can sniff out trails left by magical entities, and normal scent-trails followable by animals like wolves and hunting dogs.

Description from SLAY: Pragman wasn’t alone. He had a huge dog on a leash, at least tow-hundred pounds of animal, only it wasn’t a dog, Billy knew. Just like with the six-shooter, a dream-like image covered the dog, seemed to occupy up the same space. He didn’t know what it was, had never seen the like — a freakish cross between a crocodile and a small bear, maybe.

Jerboas

Shadowy, man-sized creatures with long ears that listen for people talking about enlightened topics, such as magic and monsters Jerboas decide if someone knows too much; if so, they turn that person into shadow and eat them.

Description from SLAY: A crunching cacophony, like bricks being smashed by a steamroller. The long-eared shadows started to peel off the walls. Long, bone-thin shadow-legs, dark as storm clouds, stepped into the alley. Shadow-bodies followed. Skinny shadow-tails swished. Six creatures, black and growing blacker, each about Billy’s size if you didn’t count the long, wide ears that rose up and back. Eyes formed — heavy spots of deep red. Mouths appeared and opened — maws of glowing orange, rimmed by metallic teeth that gleamed like wet daggers. Billy felt the heat of their breath, like silent hairdryers blowing his way.

Lagroune

An amphibious monster conjured to block river entrances or to break river blockades. Lagrounes are humanoid with long arms and legs ending in clawed, finned hands and feet. They have wide, tapered heads that angle to their muscular shoulders, greenish skin on their limbs and back and yellowish skin on their chest and belly, reminiscent of a crocodile's coloration. While many races and classes can conjure up lagrounes, they are most often associated with Chénèque meshchanics.

• Pronounced: lah-GROON

Mudwuggies

An elemental zombie that is basically half rotted human, and half swamp mud.

Ooozing Guffins

Creatures with a stench so bad it makes people vomit. However, oozing guffins are incredible chess players, so many people will endure the stink in order to play them.

Ratadant

A tarantula-like spider with dragonfly-ish wings. Uratedants weighs five to ten pounds, have a wingspan of two feet and a leg span of three feet. The name comes from a rough translation of an ancient Hindi word: "Urate" meaning flying, and "Dant" meaning "fangs." The creature's name is derived from "flying fangs."

Shmegola

A coitus-feeder that drains the blood of victims during sex. Schmegolas are constantly in pursuit of shape-shifting talismans so they can appear as a form their prey finds desirable.

Description in SLAY 3: EASY TARGET: Meredith’s neck was gone — her approximation of shoulders angled to a segmented, tapered point. Where her human face had been now sat a bumpy, slimy, red-green circle with little studs of yellow flesh all around. Inside, a ring of triangular teeth, and something sort of resembling a long tongue.

Umakaten

A strong demon with spiky, porcupine-like natural armor and long claws.

Description from SLAY: Hulking, long arms and legs covered in mismatched, piecemeal armor gathered from the corpses of the dozen Rixators it had killed over the years. The beast’s war hammer smashing home, breaking bones, sending her tumbling.

Humanoid Sentient Species

Chénèque

A small, goblin-like spirit native to the swampy bayous of Louisiana, standing no taller than three feet, with skin that resembles damp moss and eyes that glow like fireflies in the moonlight. Known for their pranks and mischief, Chaneques have the ability to disorient travelers by leading them in circles, making the thick cypress trees appear to move and creating the sounds of distant voices to confuse them. These swamp spirits are also notorious for stealing trinkets from those who venture too far into the bayou, leaving only a lingering scent of rotting leaves and a sense of dread, but they rarely cause harm unless their territory is disrespected.

• Pronounced: shay-NEK

Dökkálfar (Dark Elves)

Obsidian-skined elves whose skin tends to glow from bioluminescent filament. They are often employed as spies and assassins.

Hermaphaunt

(Main page: Hermaphaunt)

A shapeshifting race that specializes in sexual gratification for other species. Hermaphaunts are most often found in the prostitution business.

Kandéki

This bat-like humanoid has elongated arms that end in bat-like wings. Their faces may be a mix of human and bat features, including a large nose and pointed ears, enabling them to navigate both the human world and the dark, shadowy places they inhabit. Kandéki are night-dwelling beings, skilled in stealth and echo-location. They are believed to be guardians of the caves and forests, often depicted as protectors or tricksters, with deep knowledge of the earth and skies.

Description in SLAY 3: EASY TARGET: The Kandéki’s big bat ears quivered. Usually that race’s black eyes gleamed with malevolence. They were a shifty lot. In this one’s eyes, though, Lincoln had to admit he saw sadness. Perhaps even despair. ALSO: Lincoln knew it wasn’t fair to pre-judge the new guy, even if his nose did look like a diseased vagina.

Löwenmensch

The Lion Man of German folklore.

Description from SLAY 2: HATCHET MAN: A tawny-furred löwenmensch stood sentry on either side of the open entrance. Each held a tall, golden spear in their left hand, a golden kite shield on their right arm. Their lion eyes stared out across the city, ignoring everyone until it was time to not ignore them. Their manes were fluffy and perfect. Fuckers probably had to spend hours in a salon to get manes like that.

Salthrall

Salt-crusted undead humanoids risen from cursed seas. Their jagged, crystalline limbs grow back if broken, and they seek fresh water to dissolve others into salt.

Skultean

Gorilla-like bipeds with thick, bony faces that are imbued with meshwork Skulteans can ignore many attacks, and absorb significant damage from the attacks that get through. Their brain is in the base of their long neck, not in their head.

Thuengol

Bipedal, intelligent creatures that work in packs, often as hired enforcers for criminal operations. They are distant kin of orcs and kobolds. Thutengols are known for using human firearms and melee weapons.

Description from SLAY 2: HATCHET MAN: Free floss. A great idea. There were chunks of shredded meat — and maybe some spinach — stuck in Amethysta’s sharp yellow teeth. That and her puckered, enamel-dotted, puke-gray skin made her look like an undead hybrid of human and gecko.

Velcaren

Insectoid humanoids with segmented bodies and glittering, beetle-like shells. They are hive-minded. Some produce a paralytic venom from their claws.

Medical Organisms

Carofactors

Worm-like creatures that can repair internal wounds. Carofactors burrow into th wound and heal a person from the inside.

Description from SLAY: Magda stood. Something writhed in her hands, something maybe a foot long, mottled and grayish-pink, the color of a zombie on TV. A worm of some kind? Maybe, if that worm came from someone’s nightmare.

Fouskálas

Magical leaches used to treat blisters, burns, and to counter many kinds of poison.