Greevard Grimling
One of the dark myths associated with Malbrand, the cursed castle in western Revellia, the southernmost canton of Milos.
Greevard Grimling was a madman who lived along the River Nightfall in the Fiirwood. It was said that, as a child, he went into the woods hunting for a certain bear that had savaged one of his father's hogs. The boy was not seen again. A decade later, a man emerged whom many thought might have been Greevard, but he was wholly transformed.
Hunched over and bunch backed, the man had a misshapen head with one huge white eye, an over-sized left hand, and (according to some) fangs and black claws instead of nails. With him was a great grimling, seemingly tame, that followed him wherever he went and attacked no one. The man demanded hogs from the fellow that may have been his father, but the father resolutely refused, insisting this creature was no blood of his.
Soon after, hogs began disappearing overnight. The farmer took his complaint to the lord of Malbrand, who sent soldiers into the woods in search of Greevard Grimling. None returned. Soon, other farmer's hogs were vanishing, and many feared what the winter might bring. The father died just before winter, and as the village went to bury him, it was discovered that more than hogs had been vanishing.
Many of the graves had been dug up, harshly and inexpertly. The remains of several villagers were strewn about, fleshless. Barely a grave was left untouched. Again, the people complained to the Lord of Malbrand, but there was little to do. Some of the villagers were said to have fled east, and some took it upon themselves to hunt for Greevard in the Fiirwood. None were seen again. By the end of winter, the village was empty.
Yet even there, Greevard did not stop.
Malbrand was near, and the castle's Wizard soon discovered that someone was breaking into the crypts overnight. She set up secret sentries, but they too would go missing. This Wizard, whom legend records only as the Wonderer, was possessed of great curiosity, that she must know what was causing this. She set up sentries again, yet then arranged an even more secret watch. She ordered a cook boy of exceptional smallness called Vern to wedge himself into a secret ledge along the ceiling of the crypts, dousing himself in oils that were meant to dull his odor. There, the boy was charged to watch, never interfere, to report what he saw to the Wizard.
The next morning, the boy was half-frozen from the early-Spring chill, and whatever he had seen had stricken him mute. With great difficulty, the Wonderer managed to glean from the boy that no man had broken into the crypts but rather cats, large ones, and dozens upon dozens of them, to feast upon the corpses there.
There are many tales of how the Wonderer rid Malbrand of the grimlings. Some comical, many horrifying. Some say she left human sacrifices in the woods to lead them away from the castle. Some say she tried to trap them in the crypts and burn it down. Some say she sold her soul to the king of the werewolves in the Fiirwood to have him war against the great cats. What is known, is nowadays Malbrand has no crypts. Rather the dead, be they lord or bread boy, are tossed into the Fiirwood to decay in the open. Though it is believed they do not decay long.
It is often whispered that Greevard still roams the Fiirwood near Malbrand, up and down the Nightfall, in the shape of a great black grimling, eager for his tributes. Many a peasant foolish enough to walk the woods there brings a dead sow with him in offer to the Grimling King, in hopes to avoid being eaten alive.