Chernya Mordi

"Keep your eyes off it," Ninya said, quiet but firm. The quadruped stalked the bushes, just outside the light of their campfire. Something long and slick, sharp and bifurcated glistened in the darkness. "Chernya mordi are not interested in us so long as we are not interested in them." It was very well for the older woman to tell the younger to not look. There was a jerkiness to the movements in the dark, disconcerting and unnatural. Limbs seemed to shrink and elongate, and the creature's low, warbling breaths were chilling.

"And as long as we don't have any magic," Camelia added, drawing a confused but impressed look from her mentor. "Good thing I didn't like the look of that necklace." She warmed herself with a grin as the morda seemed to twist. Limbs flailed and folded upon themselves, and the warbling breaths were no more. Both women let out breaths neither knew they were holding. "A real good thing."

Chernya mordi are creatures thankfully confined to the Everforest's magical mists. Sublime hunters, they devour magic. Each morda has a particular taste when it comes to its favoured flavour, and will relentlessly hunt down its mark. One trait all mordi share is an ability to sense lingering teleportation magic. Though this form of magic is exceedingly rare, any who use it within the mists will be hunted down by packs of these bizarre, terrifying creatures.

Anatomy

Chernya mordi are quadrupeds. The name, translated from Vralsk, means black dog, though there is little about these creatures that is canine. Their form always seems to slip from the eye. Most stand at about one and a half meters at the shoulder, their tailless length approximately two metres from their neck to hind. Their round skulls extrude a pointed snout that opens, flower-like, into a toothy maw. From within they unfold a hollow, pronged tongue that pierces flesh to draw out bodily fluids.
Though mordi have a semblance of a skeletal structure, it seems elastic. Their forms stretch and waver on the edge of vision, and their movements are erratic. They are able to teleport at will, though only to and from angles smaller than ninety degrees.

If you find yourself face to face with a morda, your best bet is to strip yourself, throw your items on the ground and leave. They're after whatever magic's in the items, not after you. If you have the ill fortune of being born a mage, close your eyes. It'll be over soon.

If you want to fight a morda, don't. They'll dart around. Your weapons will not harm them, and you will only draw their anger. I have fought many monsters. I have seen many killed. I have outwitted Karthani mages and ancient forest spirits, but the morda make me thank every god that I can't use a speck of sorcery. Zdenos of Kedrov, Lesnoy Spravochnik