Tcherak

Horribly disfigured, rotting, and filled with an all-consuming hatred of all other sapient species, the Tcherak is hardly deserving of pity. The person they once were, however, for them my tears flow.

— Qiesces, Chirugeon of Borata

Creation

A Tcherak is created when a sentient being becomes infected by a Tcherak worm. These tiny, horrific nemotodes have a maw filled with hundreds of sharp hair-like teeth. Once once of these worms has entered the body of the victim, usually by being trod on, or swimming in an inhabited water source, they slowly work their way toward the brain. This process can take days, and once the worm has latched itself into the brain matter, it begins to feed. The first symptoms include rapid heartbeat, dizziness, problems remembering past events, and sudden, often violent, mood changes. Within a week, the victim dies - however this is the birth of the adult Tcherak.

Once the nervous tissue has been exhausted, the worm begins an almost metamorphosis wherein they begin to grow long tendrils and oddly-shaped appendages. Most notably, a large tendril finds its way to the largest part of the body and engorges into a reeking fleshy sac full of worm eggs. In addition, another long tendril fuses with the throat and tongue, gaining the ability to be thrust quickly through flesh and bone.

Within a few more days, the Tcherak is fully formed. The worm has changed into a large pod, replacing the brain. The appendages connect to the limbs of the body and the creature becomes mobile. The remaining flesh continues to rot away, aided by noxious liquids that ooze from the invader. The clumps of skin and hair that come from this creature can be used to synthesize some of the deadliest poisons known.

Tactics & Abilities

The Tcherak is filled with an insatiable hunger and a hatred of all living beings. They posess an uncanny intellect, though they have no emotional attachment to any thing or person from their past life. Instead, they feel a compulsion to feed. An encounter with a Tcherak is likely fatal to whomever the creature was hunting. Stealth, cunning, and incredible stength and speed are all in the repertoire of this nightmarish abomination.

Tcherak are solitary creatures typically, though they have been known to coordinate efforts with each other in certain cases. However, any such alliance is simply for convenience, and after the successful capture of their prey, any Tcherak will begin attacking each other over the spoils. A Tcherak will track down any potential victims and attack when conditions are most favorable. With a whirlwind of bony limbs and necrotic appendages, they seek to overwhelm their prey as quickly as possible. It's a favored tactic to secretly invade a person's home and dispel any light before lying in wait for their food to come to them.

A Tcherak feeding is likely one of the most bile-inducing sights to behold, and some have been shaken so by mere accounts of this vile deed, that they are never the same - often haunted by nightmares that threaten to consume them in the comforting embrace of madness. Due to the graphic nature, details of this process are omitted, though one important aspect that must be known - the "tongue".

A Tcherak has a long proboscis like appendage that can be launched at an enemy. Like a serpent, this fleshy appendage strikes and punctures most non-reinforced metal, burrowing deep into the tissue of their unfortunate prey. The end of this tendril splits open to reveal thousands of hair-fine razor-sharp teeth. These teeth are brittle and splinter when driving into flesh, quickly dissolving into a necrotic ooze that begins to digest the victim. The Tcherak, however, cannot feed through this tendril, and the digestion process started by the lost teeth is painfully slow - both for the victim and the Tcherak. On the cusp of feeding their hunger, the anticipation is often too much to allow the doomed creature a long death. The Tcherak will retract its "tongue" and strike again repeatedly, while also using other limbs and appendages to simply shred the meat in a violent display.

Reproduction

Tcherak reproduce through infesting another person. After about 3 months of gory feasting, the abomination will feel the compulsion to breed. Like hunting for food, the Tcherak will stalk a being and attack - only instead of splitting their proboscis, small holes along the length disgorge hundreds of tiny worm eggs. Thankfully, most of these will simply die before hatching. Those that surive, however, will begin a bloody and agressive race to the brain. These worms grow faster and stronger from eating their brethren - determined to be the victor. Once a worm has reached the brain, it begins the conversion process into a new Tcherak. If a Tcherak cannot find a suibtable victim, it may dispense its eggs inside a corpse or in any place rife with heat, humidity, and potential and often unwary victims. A Tcherak worm can live for only a few days after hatching before it must find a host. Worms that can find pools of water may survive for longer, though their presence slowly corrupts and befouls the water, making it deadly for even themselves.

An adult Tcherak is an undead creature, and as such, are difficult foes to root out and destroy. They are one of the very rare few kinds of undead that can spawn young. Interestingly, their worm vector is alive until the metamorphosis, which transitions them into undeath. Another oddity posessed by the Tcherak is their regeneration. Any light or moderate wounds received will heal within seconds. More severe damage will instantly heal the next time Tcherak feeds. When this occurs, the Tcherak will feel the compulsion to reproduce (assuming they're mature enough to do so) shortly after. Once, an adventuring party failed to completely kill a Tcherak, and the creature stalked them to a small village. Overnight, the Tcherak managed to lay its insidious seed within the entire population. Several weeks later, when the aventurers were returning through the area, they discovered the gruesome massacre. The Tcherak who were born from the villagers had fled after consuming their neighbors that were a bit slower in their transformation.

Like most forms of undead monsters, Tcherak shy away from bright sources of light. They also have a strange kinship with fire, which seems to aggressively accelerate the beast's unholy regeneration. Tcherak, however, are not without weaknesses. Electrical energy seems to be incredibly effective at wounding them, and can even be lethal, if enough is discharged before the Tcherak can feed or bathe in flames. In addition, severing the proboscis will lead to the creature's demise if the Tcherak cannot heal quickly enough. Eventually, the eggs carried within the bulbous sac will hatch and ravenously consume the creature itself, before the worms begin to seek out hosts.