Deathrattles
"If you hear it coming, it’s not for you. If you don’t, run anyway." -Old mountaineer’s warning scratched into a fallen pickaxe
The Deathrattle is one of the most feared ambush predators in the upper reaches of Everwealth's mountain chains and cliff-bound forests. Named for the unsettling bone-clatter of its armored hide, the Deathrattle resembles a scaled mountain lion, mottled in glacial gray and bone-white, with ridged reptilian plates along its shoulders, flanks, and spine. Its eyes are serpentine, green or yellow and vertically slit, and its head is crowned with feline grace but cold, cold intent. Though it appears feline in build, the Deathrattle’s blood runs closer to that of lizards and ancient drakes. It regenerates from wounds, breathes underwater, and possesses a prehensile tail strong enough to dangle from cliff overhangs or suspend prey mid-air. Smaller than a tiger, yet denser, its muscle-laced body grants it remarkable stamina, able to outlast wolves in the chase or scale stone walls like ivy. But it is the sound that gives it myth: the rattling clack of armored scales as it begins its charge. This staccato chorus echoes across stones and canyons like falling bones. Many believe it heralds an avalanche, or something worse.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Deathrattle stands about 4.5 feet at the shoulder, with a body just under 8 feet long, not including the whip-like prehensile tail, which adds another 4-5 feet. Its entire form is layered in overlapping, pale calcite-gray scales reminiscent of fossilized bark or shale. These plates shift and click when it moves, producing its infamous rattling sound. Its paws are feline in structure, but each toe ends in a claw curved like a falcon’s talon, capable of splitting stone when sharpened against cliff faces. Its jaw structure resembles that of a mountain lion but with elongated, venom-channeling fangs akin to those of a pit viper, and across it's entire spine from neck to tail sits a line of bladed dorsal spines. Despite its predatory bulk, it moves with the silence and balance of a cat, limber and dexterous enough to launch it's 600lb frame at you like a bullet.
Genetics and Reproduction
Deathrattles reproduce in low numbers, typically birthing 1-2 cubs after a long gestation. Their reproductive cycle is poorly understood due to their elusiveness, but it’s believed that males and females separate immediately after conception. Cubs are born blind, scaled, and already possess rudimentary regeneration. When fully grown, they become territorial apexes, often driving out bears, pumas, and even trollkin from elevated hunting zones.
Growth Rate & Stages
- Cub (0-6 months): Blind, dependent on the mother, builds climbing strength early.
- Adolescent (6 months-2 years): Begins to hunt alone; learns cliff-shadow stalking.
- Adult (2+ years): Fully armored, dominant, near-silent unless charging.
Ecology and Habitats
Deathrattles haunt the wind-bitten crags, moss-wrapped cliffs, and shale-bound forests of regions like The Cloudrend Mountains and Kibonoji’s western rim. They avoid open plains, preferring vertical territory with loose stone, narrow ledges, and obscuring mist. Their presence is known by more than sound. They scrape territorial glyphs into stone with their claws, leave stripped carcasses impaled on roots or branches, and are often seen hanging motionless from stone outcroppings by their tails. Despite their solitary natures, it’s said that pairs occasionally form during fog-heavy seasons, a time when entire alpine villages go quiet.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Deathrattles are obligate carnivores, preferring warm-blooded prey such as deer, mountain goats, or unfortunate travelers. They hunt using a mix of vertical ambush, stealth stalking, and burst assault. When possible, they will climb above game trails and drop onto prey, pinning it beneath their crushing weight and slicing into the neck with venom-laced fangs. They eat slowly, often dragging kills into cliffside caves or half-submerged pools, where they remain submerged while feeding, resurfacing only when disturbed. They require only one or two kills per moon, but can gorge and remain dormant for weeks.
Biological Cycle
Their regenerative traits increase in warmer months and during periods of heightened atmospheric charge, lightning storms, arcane fallout, or seismic events. In winter, they grow slower, but more territorial, their rattling echoing across ice fields as warning. Deathrattles molt once every few years, sloughing off old scales in long, armor-like sheets. These molt husks are prized by alchemists and forge-smiths for their spell-resistant plating.
Behaviour
Deathrattles are solitary, calculating, and profoundly territorial. They maintain vast hunting grounds, often marked by claw gouges, broken bones, or drifts of cast-off scale. While not sadistic, they are known to observe prey for days before striking, learning paths, patterns, and even seasonal routines. They prefer precision over bloodlust, one clean kill over a chaotic pursuit. Their rattling charge is not only a fear tactic, but also a calculated strike, used only when escape must be eliminated. Outside of hunts, they move silently, their body low and tail coiled for ambush or elevation. Some scholars believe Deathrattles exhibit ritualized behaviors, such as “mourning” over failed kills or lingering near grave markers. Their high intelligence and strange patience lead some to theorize a communal memory or ancestral instinct, buried deep in claw and bone.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Deathrattles possess:
- Keen low-light vision, with slitted yellow or green eyes adapted to detect movement at extreme range.
- Thermal sensitivity, allowing them to track prey even through stone walls or mist.
- Underwater echolocation, using subtle exhalations through their fangs.
- Guilt-scenting lore: Some believe they can sense remorse or shame in the blood, and will stalk those carrying guilt for days.
Scientific Name
Felodraco ossirex.
Origin/Ancestry
Likely a post-Schism convergence between mountain pumas, deep lizards, and unknown arcane residue left from collapsed cliffside shrines. Some scholars believe they were engineered as wardens by cliffside civilizations that vanished after the Schism.
Conservation Status
Unmonitored and unadvised. Deathrattles are rare but so lethal that no serious effort has been made to track or capture them. Mountain rangers are advised to avoid high cliffs at dusk or after snowfall. Local superstitions often treat their arrival as an omen of avalanches, inheritance disputes, or cursed legacies. Their scales are spell-resistant, used to line armor or reinforce vault doors Their fangs are potent alchemical focuses, especially in truth-extracting draughts. The sound of their rattle is feared, but some grief cults record and mimic it to induce trance or confession. In mountaineer myth, they are said to walk only where no truth has been spoken in a generation, and once seen, may follow you for the rest of your life… whether you hear them or not.
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