Creatures

  Sneakpeak on the impanzee background  

The impanzees were created by a Hand who was...perhaps somewhat short-sighted. This Hand had no domain of his own but was in control of a Dark Mother and a number of imps. He eventually came upon the remains of that of a Hand who’d been destroyed some time previously by another Hand. Without bothering to spend too much time exploring the place, the Hand had his imps install the Dark Mother in the central chamber.
However, all useful resources had already been fully extracted from the area and the Hand could find nothing but dirt. Still, he had his imps bring this to the Dark Mother and feed it to her, and soon he had a great number of the little creatures. But imps, as any Hand knows, are no good for combat, or conquest, so this Hand wondered how he might achieve any kind of victory. He had his imps dig out tunnels in the surrounding area in order to see what they might find, and eventually came upon a route to the surface, emerging in the middle of a jungle which held a fairly large population of chimpanzees.
Being something of an experimenter with magic, the Hand had his imps capture a number of chimpanzees and bring them into his lair, where he began manipulating their minds and bodies. He thought, perhaps, that the aggression of a chimpanzee might be combined with the loyalty and single-mindedness of an imp to create a new, hybrid creature which could be produced in large numbers but without the need for a Dark Mother. Cannibalising his own imps in the process, the Hand combined the two species to see what kind of army he could create.
It wasn’t long before the experiments showed a level of success. While the process of combining members of the two species was painful for both individuals, the Hand cared not. The magic had a few bizarre side-effects, notably in changing the appearance of the new creatures to something which only distantly resembled either of them, least of all in colour. But they seemed aggressive, and the Hand was happy with this. For a time.
As the creatures’ numbers grew, the Hand allowed them to roam around his domain, to see how they might behave. But he hadn’t counted on the sheer number of things which could go wrong with his experimentations – there is a reason that Hands rely on Dark Mothers for their creatures, rather than simply attempting to magically alter existing creatures themselves. The impanzees did indeed have the aggression of the chimps comprising half of their being, but bore nothing of the loyalty of the imps. The creatures immediately rebelled against the Hand which had created them, seeming barely aware of his presence as they wildly ran through the tunnels, slaughtering every imp they found and eventually coming upon the Dark Mother herself.
Their existence not being bound to the Dark Mother, as they were not directly spawned from her, the impanzees destroyed her too, leaving the Hand with no further means of creating any kind of army. It is believed he simply fled the region at this point, as there was nothing more he could do to control the creatures he’d created.
The impanzees soon found their way along other tunnels and out into other subterranean regions. Their numbers have multiplied since the disaster that was their creation, and now they can be found almost anywhere, roaming around and generally causing chaos.

Appearance

Impanzees are about the size of imps, but don’t physically resemble them particularly closely except in their humanoid structure. Their skin is a vivid shade of purple and they have bright red beards, like some kind of dwarf. These features are put down to the somewhat chaotic nature of the magic used to hybridise the imps and the chimpanzees.
It is believed that they have their own “queens”, overweight versions of themselves who act almost like a kind of Dark Mother and whose purpose is to continually spawn more impanzees.

Behaviour

It is very rare to find a lone impanzee – these creatures tend to hang around in large groups. They are highly aggressive and will attack any approaching creatures by screeching and pelting them with rocks. It can be very easy to be overrun by impanzees if no care is taken when digging around in unexplored tunnel systems. However, they are physically quite weak individually so shouldn’t be too much of a problem in small numbers. They’re also not particularly intelligent, so getting them to run into traps is a reasonable plan.

Fragments of a journal

This journal is somewhat battered, but whatever killed its owner evidently had no particular interest in his or her possessions and left the book mostly untouched. The writing is in a hand that is neat and well-spaced.

I have begun this journal as a means of noting down our exploits as we journey down beneath the surface of the world, seeking to destroy that dark Hand whose reach has begun to extend into the villages located at the outer edges of the jungle of Ranmark. Ten of us venture now into the darkness, our intention to seek out the lair of the one known as the Clawed Hand, destroy his creatures, and see what precious items we might obtain in the process.

We have arrived at the lair of the Clawed Hand, only to find the place is abandoned, the creatures slain, any treasure taken, and damage to the surrounding area demonstrating that there was a lot of fighting here. None of us were aware that any others had come down from the surface to seek this place – we’re the only ones. So it must mean that this Hand encountered another, and was wiped out. What a wasted journey for us! We will make a thorough search of the area, however, just in case some corner has been overlooked. None of us wish to return to the surface empty-handed.

As we had hoped, there remained a small area which was untouched by the invaders who took this place. Unfortunately, it contained nothing but traps and it is with sorrow that I now write that our numbers have been halved – only five of us now remain, and I fear that number will soon diminish further as the injuries take their toll on the two who were caught in the blast but survived. On top of this, sounds have been echoing down one of the outer tunnels. Considering the state of our party now, we elected to attempt to conceal ourselves in this distant corner in the hopes that our presence will remain undiscovered, for none of us wished to attempt to find another route and risk becoming hopelessly lost in this dark underworld.

Our healing skills were not enough – now we number three. We have supplies enough to last, but not the strength to fight whatever has arrived in this dead place. There seems to be some kind of...presence roaming the area now. Could it be that another Hand has arrived to claim this place? If that is so, there seem to be few resources here besides solid dirt. If this presence is indeed one of those dark overseers, we hopefully need only to remain hidden until it moves on.

Perhaps somewhat confusingly, we were right – it is indeed another of those Hands, though we don’t seem to have been detected yet, hiding as we are in a distant corner. We have even ventured out a little way and seen clear signs that one of those “Dark Mothers” has been placed into the pit of the former occupant. Quite how such a feat was accomplished I am unsure, but there seem to be a great number of those little imp creatures running around. Perhaps they performed the heavy lifting. The Hand itself seems to spend little time here, perhaps searching for resources. The imps seem to spend a lot of time away down one of the unexplored tunnels. I don’t know what they’re doing down there, as it is too dangerous to venture close enough to look.

The handwriting in the journal is starting to become a little more untidy. Perhaps the writer was in a hurry, or has simply started neglecting to write so carefully.

Today, I heard shrieking noises as of...apes, perhaps? Whatever is going on here, we should attempt to leave when we can – we’ve been here far too long and the risk of discovery must surely be increasing with every moment we linger. Our supplies continue to dwindle, though we’re in no immediate danger of starving to death. Worse, I think that being trapped here in this way, in these tunnels and with only each other for company and the fear of discovery a constant threat even though no imp has yet ventured down this way, is having some effect on us. Tempers are becoming short.

The imps of this Hand have taken prisoners, for today one of the things escaped – it is an ape! A chimpanzee. I saw it from a distance as it ran past a junction. Many imps were pursuing it and I heard shrieking shortly afterwards. But what are they doing here? The tunnel must lead to the surface! To the jungle!

So much shrieking and screaming comes from the creatures. There is magic being used – the Hand must be doing something to them. I hear imps shrieking as well. Something is happening to them. Dirt everywhere here – no resources. Why does the Hand stay? There are only imps. Imps and the chimpanzees. Is the Hand torturing them? What is to gain from staying here?

Our supplies dwindle further. And things are becoming worse. There was a fight. Now we are two. I fear I may have to flee. Face the darkness myself? But if I stay, I may be next – he is wounded, but how badly I cannot say.

The next page is stained with ink blots and there appears to be the start of a sentence near the top. It would seem that the writer was interrupted before being able to complete the entry. There is a new entry on the following page, though. The handwriting is clearly very rushed and probably written by someone who was at this point anxious to write down as much as they could as quickly as possible.

I am alone. I had to run. He attacked me. But not first. There was...

The writing breaks off, before resuming a short way down the page.

I must remain calm. There were loud shrieks and the distant sound of combat. Was the Dark Mother being attacked? No other roaring could sound like that. I heard imps dying. Something came near to our hiding place. We saw it. I have never seen anything like it! Bright purple! Like an imp, but not an imp. It sounded like a chimpanzee. Why does it have a beard? Did the Hand combine the chimpanzees with his own imps? I think it went wrong. They are wild! They must have been the ones to kill the Dark Mother. Then one found us. It started screaming and we heard answering screams in the distance. The last of my companions attacked it and slew it, but his eyes were wild. I think his mind had gone, from being trapped here for so long. He turned on me. I ran. I heard him shouting. The screaming of the purple creatures became louder. They must have killed him. He is dead. I am alone. Alone.

This final entry is in a very rough hand. It is difficult to read and some is illegible. That probably doesn’t matter too much, however.

Alone...only one...screaming...screaming...-ing louder.
Not...-er way...run. They are...
Imps. Chimps. Imps and chimps an...-anzees
Screaming.
...have found me.