Catoblepas

The catoblepas is as loathsome as the vile swamplands in which it lives, a conglomeration of bloated buffalo, dinosaur, warthog, and hippopotamus parts. Despite its ungainly physiology, a catoblepas resembles a natural animal in its behavior, ambling through its marshy home, munching choice vegetation, eating the occasional bit of carrion, and wallowing in mire. A catoblepas might be found with the one mate it chooses for life and, on occasion, with a calf. A catoblepas attacks anyone that moves too close, especially if guarding its young. A catoblepas’s stink, like the stench of death mixed with swamp gas and skunk musk, gives it away as being much more ghastly than its appearance suggests.

Ordinary folk rarely see a catoblepas, but the creature has such a feared reputation that stories about it are ingrained in the popular culture. Any rumor of a catoblepas taking up residence nearby is taken to be a bad omen, even if the rumor is proven false. In some lands, the silhouette of a catoblepas, with its tail extended over its body and its head held low, is a baleful heraldic figure signifying death or doom.