Unseelie Bestiary:

Unseelies are the cruelest creatures to walk the 9 realms, naturally hostile to all other residents of the nine realms, few stray from their home realm of Svartalfheim. These fey rarely make deals and their kills are slow and brutal. There are many kinds of Unseelie yet to be documented by any feyer. Should you encounter an Unseelie you don’t recognize – run.

Fey of Autumn and Winter, Unseelie possess powers of earth and water. Unlike Seelie which can be found throughout the year, Unseelie stick much more to the seasonal patterns of their home realm. Rarely will you find an Unseelie in the spring or summer.

Unseelie make no attempts to hide their foul presence and are far more easily located than Seelie fey, and most often far more dangerous. If hunting an Unseelie be sure to check dark, damp places such as caves, gorges, and abandoned buildings.

No one has seen Svartalfheim and lived to speak of it, but from various Unseelie who have been…. persuaded to tell us the truth, we have pieced together some basic knowledge. It is a sea, deep and fathomless, where old titan creatures swim in the dark. There on the bottom of the seafloor lies their home, a living beast of sandstone and coral that is slowly expanding, ever hungry and always waiting for the chance to invade Midgard.

Cloven (Autumn/Earth):

They bear a striking resemblance to the Seelie satyr, but unlike their partying cousins, cloven are rams instead of goats, and they have large aversions to people. Wandering countrysides with herds of animals (most often sheep and lesser beastly fey).

One of the more easily identifiable fairies, tending to not even hide their inhumane natures. Look for tall, towering humanoids, with rams’ horns and hooved feet, most will also have a tail and carry a walking staff.

Be warned though, while cloven don’t tend to gather with other humanoid fey, they instead are fond of joining herds of giants. Should you find a cloven among a giant herd, leave it be. Giants are a battle you will not win. Mark the sighting of the cloven and the giant kin and be on your way. Eventually the cloven will part from the herd and another feyer will be able to strike them down.

Gargoyle (Autumn/Earth):

I have told architects for decades to stop building statues of these monstrosities, but they continue to ignore me in favor of their foolish tall tales.

Gargoyles do not bring good luck, and making statues of these creatures does not protect you from them, it only attracts them. But it does not matter how often you tell them otherwise, you can report the infestation all you like, but those uppity idiots will prefer to keep their “art” than let you do your job. Remember you do not need permission to kill fey, they should thank you for keeping their children safe from the Gargoyle’s sharp claws. If they don’t, well… you can leave a few as an example.

[Please do not leave rouge fairies of any type as “an example”. Tristram Blackwall is making a joke, and this advice should not be headed. Kill any and all fey that threaten human existence, whether you are paid or thanked for the job does not matter].

It’s almost too easy to locate gargoyles. Keep an eye on rooftops in cities, you will find a statute or two more than there should be. However, locating which of the statues is real can be more challenging. For gargoyles are living constructs of stone, and when resting during the day, appear exactly the same as the harmless statues they stand among. Gargoyles are nocturnal creatures, so you will need to wait until night falls before you can identify which is the real fairy.

Use blunt weapons such as maces and hammers to kill them. Though they possess wings they are incapable of flight, only able to glide from high rooftops, but be warned they can scale walls with ease. If possible wait to engage once the gargoyle has left the rooftop, for if it returns to its inherent stance (something it can only do when surrounded by the likeness of its own kin), it will be invulnerable to all damage you may try to inflict upon it, until the next moonrise.

Golbin (Autumn/Earth):

Rats of the fey world, bringing pestilence and famine wherever they go, goblins are vile and foul creatures that are the scourge of all humans.

Goblins steal crops and food stores from human settlements, uncaring of the damage and havoc they leave in their wake. Though shaped like small green humanoids, goblins lack intelligence. Only mindless creatures set on their own needs and pleasures.

Goblins build their dens in abandoned buildings, caves, and any other dark places where they can squirrel themselves away from human eyes until they are ready to strike. Most goblin invasions begin with a few livestock going missing, then storefronts and warehouses being broken into. If left unchecked this petty theft and vandalism will escalate, until goblins have taken over the settlement.

When fighting goblins, be mindful that they are quick and light-footed, and that goblins are ambush hunters so try to fight in large open spaces where the vile things have no place to hide. Goblins are fools but they have numbers, never fight a goblin infestation with less than five feyers. They swarm you with their numbers and will attempt to herd you towards primitive traps, keep a careful watch on your surroundings, and try to lure the hideous things towards your own traps, hidden pitfalls have been the method I’ve found most useful.

Redcaps (Autumn/Earth):

Smallish humanoid mushroom people, about the size of a dwarf. The size of their famous “red cap” determines how many the redcap has killed (though false reports in the past have attributed the red caps size to age).

Known to be one of the most violent types of fey. Redcaps are aggressive to even others of their own kind. They seek only the pleasure of the kill and will brutally tear apart any creature that stumbles into their path, be they beast, human, or other fey.

It’s easy to tell a redcap kill, because the victim will needlessly be torn apart. A violent display of joy in the kill, and red mushrooms will take root in the body. The most important task is to clear the corpses as quickly as possible, for otherwise if left, a false redcap will grow. Terrible creatures, that are mindless and only seek the pleasure of the kill. While violent, false redcaps are weaker than their true fey parents and lack any ability to speak or think. It is still unknown if the redcap who spawns these false redcaps has any power or control over these puppets.

There is no way to kill a redcap without a fight, so be careful when you challenge one. Use every trick at your disposal to kill them, traps and a second feyer providing ranged support is a tried-and-true method. Once killed carefully comb the nearby area for any of their mushrooms to prevent any more of the beasts from spawning.

Treant (Autumn/Earth):

The hardest to locate of all the Unseelie, treants are twisted mimics, taking the appearance of trees to better hunt their prey.

Found in overly healthy groves and lingering on the edges of human settlements. Treants are notoriously hard to locate, for when in hibernation they appear as a normal tree. But any unlucky lumberjack will find these trees fighting back when attempting to cut them down. The only way to tell a treant from a normal tree is to check the sap, should the tree bleed green instead of the common orange, then it is a treant.

Treants should be hunted from a distance, for these tree-like fey can rip their roots out of the ground to ensnare and trap careless feyers. I’ve found arrows dipped in tar and set ablaze to be the best method of eliminating the imposter foliage.

Karkinos/Zaratan (Winter/Water):

Crabs of unusual size. Found mostly along coastlines, they seem to have some connection with selkies and ottermanners. My best guess is they are some sort of messenger fey, less intelligent and used to guard and defend treasures the higher fey want protected.

For the most part karkinos look like normal crabs, but are noticeably larger, at about a foot around, with six sets of claws (only two of these are large enough to do any damage). They float along the top of the water where they are often mistaken for floating debris as their shells tend to become homes for wildlife.

For hunting karkinos use nets and other fishing tools. Karkinos have a rich and unique flavor but make sure you clean the meat with utmost care until there isn’t any blood before cooking.

Kelpie (Winter/Water):

At first glance a kelpie appears no different from a well-bred horse of refined breeding. A prized stallion if there ever was one, but as the songs warn, “beware of horses that linger near water, bridled and ready with no rider in sight, for it is not a horse you have found but a kelpie tempting you to ride into your watery tomb.”

As a feyer you should know not to ever ride any mount that isn’t branded with an iron feyer mark, but in case you need to hear it again. DO NOT RIDE THE KELPIE. We have lost far too many recruits to such a stupid and foolish ruse.

Kelpies are rather easy to hunt, though smart enough to trick humans to their death, it only has one trick. Easily you can lead the horse from the water, and from there, it is a simple act of slaying by hand or leaving it far from any water source where it will eventually dry up.

Ottermaaner (Winter/Water):

Distant cousins of the selkie, but instead of seals they turn into otters and live in freshwater rivers and streams.

They are much smaller than selkies, and even when in human guise are not tall enough to appear more than a young human child, most seem to pass themselves off as dwarfs for this reason. They are found of anything that shines and so are religious thieves. Should fishing lures, cooking utensils, and other shiny objects start to disappear in towns located near water, check for those objects in more dangerous parts of the river. Ottermaaners don’t hoard the shiny baubles for themselves, but to use as lures for unwise humans. Letting harsh rapids and jagged rocks do their dirty work before they feast upon the water logged flesh of their unfortunate victims.

Ottermanners are small and travel around in their chosen river, stream, and/or lake by bubble. Working in symbiosis with invasive fairy coral. Should an ottermanner be located, you need to strip the stream they were dwelling in to find the invasive coral before the whole waterway is contaminated with fey magics.

Fishing nets and traps baited with precious jewels and other shiny objects tend to work best. Ottermanners will not venture more than 1,000 feet from their water source, so make sure to place traps in the correct locations. Once caught, perform the same ritual for selkies and burn their pelts to kill the pests.

Siren (Winter/Water):

Shark based fairies, known for their enchanting beauty and melodic voices that lure sailors to their deaths.

Like normal sharks, sirens enter feeding frenzies and will hunt only about once a month. Though depending on the size of the siren pack these attacks can be anywhere as frequent as once a week to 6 months. Normally depending greatly on how many sailors they charm from the shoreline.

Sirens are notoriously hard to catch as they live in deep water and only come to the surface to hunt. Making it both risky and dangerous to hunt the creatures. For even if feyers are immune to their charms, your human helpers will not be. Sirens can smell the iron in our blood and will find other vessels to plunder. Time your hunt with their normal feeding patterns and use their ravenous hunger against them.

Nets and harpoons will be necessary, and the larger the boat the better, for sirens are known to capsize smaller watercraft. I also recommend at least three feyers be present for hunting a siren, and if you have stumbled into a pod of the beasts, then retreat at once and summon the nearest feyer order.

Once slain, collect their scales carefully (instructions located in the back of this book). Siren scales are one of the strongest materials you will come across and even blackened by their death will fetch a few gold.

Royal Fey:

Not much is known about the Unseelie royals. We know their king, Alberich, is a large whale like creature (that according to some fey is as big as Midgard). Little is known about this king, and no human alive has seen him and lived to speak of it.

We know he has one daughter, perhaps the cruelest of all the Unseelie, fond of forcing elaborate and costly deals on humans she finds “interesting”. Though a regular sight in the late winter months when she is released to cause havoc in our world she has been missing the past 5 winters. I still caution all feyers to avoid her if possible. She is the most cunning and cruel of her kind. And will force your consent under threat of death.

There have been rumors of an Unseelie prince since the dawn of the feyers themselves, but there was never evidence to support the idea. However, I know for a fact truer than the great Thor is strong that such a prince exists. He is the one who leads the Unseelie Wild Hunt, and they leave no victims behind to tell the tale of the masked prince. Should you ever see an Unseelie atop an elk of snow, black wolf mask showing golden eyes – I pray for your soul in Valhalla.

--- Excerpt taken from the “The Guide of the Fiendish Fey and How to Kill Them” written by Tristram Blackwall.