Dread Fisher

One by one, we disappeared into the fog. What started as a thirty member expedition was down to 9 by the time we managed to find some shelter. We began running out of food, but fortunately, we managed to devise a plan that would avoid the risk of getting taken, while allowing us to get it. Maybe even escape. It was Tom's turn. Days passed. Tom never returned. Where was he? I opened the entrance to find the next scout. As soon as I closed it, something covered my mouth, like a tentacle. I looked up to see a brain seeming to float in some kind of gelatinous container. Ah, there was Tom.

Also known as "the prince's spawn" due to their relation with the story of the prince's brains, dread fishers inspire both disgust and terror in the hearts of those that witness or hear about them, in particular their habit of seemingly drinking their own brains.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A dread fisher's body resembles a light-bluish ultimately transparent tadpole, like a malformed jellyfish with a tail for tentacles. While due to the size and shape a dread fisher's head and tail can be made apart, they are otherwise indistinguishable save for the six thick bones (three on each side) inside the head, which appears similar to fossilized teeth, and the occasional brain floating in there. There is also a tube in front of the dread fisher's head, covering up to twenty times the main body's actual length.

Biological Traits

Dread fishers are capable of floating in the fog. None alive have been seen outside the fog, so it is unknown whether any would be able to fly outside of it.

Genetics and Reproduction

Dread fishers reproduce asexually through fission. The process begins by them growing a second head with it's own tube, and their tail expanding as it develops the material for the new body. When the time comes, the two tubes grab on to opposite ends of the valley and pull until their body is ripped in half, forming the two new dread fishers.

Growth Rate & Stages

Because of their method of reproduction, by the time a dread fisher is born they are already fully developed adults.

Ecology and Habitats

Dread fishers inhabit exclusively the mist valley on the northwestern border of the former Hoofest kingdom, also known as "the valley of no escape" or "bugger's trap" among the most jovial. Dread fishers perfectly adapted to this environment and much of how they operate relies explicitly on inhabiting this place. The fog aids their floating and their senses, on top of hiding their presence from both threats and prey. Their reproductive habits rely on the existence of the valley's ravines and tunnels, and their primary prey exists in abundance within the valley.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dread fishers primarily consume stone crabs, crab-like creatures that coat themselves with a rock-based shell and dig extensive tunnel networks for their own protection, which their immense brains, protected by the aforementioned shell, easily memorize. When a dread fisher first manages to capture a stone crab, they abduct it with their tube and drop it above their head, which the bones spread open like a maw to get the stone crab inside. Then the "maw" closes and the teeth use the crevices in the shell to crack it open, thus killing the stone crab. The brain is then separated from the body, the latter which is digested in the dread fisher's tail, while the brain remains in the head. For up a few weeks after the dread fisher will use it's tube like a straw to drink a softened stone crab brain, and absorb not only nutrients but memories as well, thus allowing it to find other openings in the tunnel network and capture a new stone crab.
A particular danger resulting from this is that stone crabs are not the only beings a dread fisher can eat. Human expeditions that were not prepared for the encounter with this creature often result in well-fed dread fisher capable of using, but not of understanding, magic, making them even more dangerous creatures. Legends ahve developed of dread fishers obtaining even human-level intellect and being capable of speech.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Currently they only exist in one location, the mist valley northeast of the former kingdom of Hoofest.

Average Intelligence

While they act like wild animals, dread fishers have excellent instincts born from the amount of memories they incorporate, having been known in the past to be able to outmaneuver military units in their habitat.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dread fishers possess only one sense, a form of touch which is extremely sensitive to vibrations. Dread fisher's poke around with their tubes through the ground in an attempt to feel the vibrations and detect prey, though they often rely on feeling the very vibrations in the fog they inhabit to detect approaching danger.

Lifespan

15-20 years

Average Weight

~3.2 KG

Average Length

3.4 Meters on average (around 12 meters counting the tube).

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Similar to a blue jellyfish's, light blueish but ultimately transparent.

Related Myths

• The Prince's Brains