Nightnadder

Behaviour

Living in colonies below the ground, they work as a unit to hoard food. These mounds of rotting flesh provide a warm host for their brood which is also raised as a collective. Much like bees there is a social expectation that every individual contributes, whether by: scavenging food, protecting the colony, or caring for the young. Those who are found to abstain for their duties are routed by the rest of the colony, banished or even killed for their woeful transgressions. There is no queen or alpha amongst these creatures, however the larger one becomes the more likely they’ll gain better access to food and pup-care. 

Although Nightnadders prefer their food already dead, they’re not above killing it themselves. Emerging in groups they scour the lands following the scent of disease and death. Opportunism has allowed them to exploit the misery of men by invading cemeteries and morgues from which they exhume the bodies below. If what they have found is too big to move on their own they may leave and return with more of their kind to rip it into smaller pieces. Once they have claimed a carcass they shall become very protective of it and attack anything that tries to steal from them.

History

The City of Larova bears an animosity to the creature for its habit of consuming their dead—a sentiment all the more prevalent in the face of The Pale. Relatives of the deceased vilify Nightnadders for their disregard of burial and the diseases they carry. Calls for slaughter and bounties are common with widespread encouragement to reveal where their colonies are found. A minority acknowledge their indifference to moral principle and their relatively limited risk to people—but these voices are rendered meek by the deafening demands for their destruction.