Fleshmongler

Fleshmonglers are creatures native to either the Crossroads of Abyss and Warrens, specifically the Middledeep<ref name=":0"/> to Deep sections, or those realms individually.

Nature

They are highly territorial, sometimes like that of an animal<ref name=":1" /> other times like a warlord or a god holding its domain. This is in part due to their focus on flesh and partially because should they meat another fleshmongler they will almost inevitably try to attack each other which will often cause them to blend together.

They seek out flesh incessantly, thus when two Fleshmonglers fight each other they'll likely merge together, combining their Self and creating a bigger, stronger Fleshmongler.<ref name=":1">“I don’t really remember. They’re fleshmonglers, deal with it. Um. They’re super territorial, out of some dim sense of Self-preservation, capital S-”

...

“-they stay away from each other because a lot of the time a fleshmongler that fights another fleshmongler just sort of… blends together into a stronger, new fleshmongler.”- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> Because it takes time for them to properly understand their new bodies they tend to have poor dexterity after immediately combining.<ref>“The fleshmongler has a drawback. The longer they’re, well, themselves, the better they are at using their bodies, getting stuff in order. So this one will be big, strong, but clumsy. Not always slow, but clumsy.”- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref>

Appearance

They are hugely variable but have certain motifs that reoccur such as various Teratoma , with odd teeth, hair and eyeballs sticking out of them. They have odd shaped limbs.<ref>Avery had once read about tumors that could grow teeth, hair, even eyeballs. These guys were like that, but all over. Head to toe. From a distance they looked like people made of wet garbage but once they got closer the smell would hit her and then she’d see it was all body parts. One was long-limbed and skinny, one big and bulky, the last a quadruped who had lost a limb in an accident that had left a gnarly scar that was the least messy or gross part about the creature.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> While they can be mistaken as Horrors they are not unless they go through a similar issue.

Formation

Interestingly given their chaotic nature they can settle into various end states that could well push than out of the fleshmongler category, though they'll usually retain some skille from their old identity.

Abilities

They have a near unparalleled power to reconfigure flesh, either taking it away, adding to it or mixing it with something else.<ref name=":0">They didn’t eat, really, except to store ingredients for later regurgitation and use. They just reconfigured flesh, took flesh away, added it, mixed it, or dismantled living things and then used them as currency to make their way in the middledeep Warrens.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> They have a preference for diseased or unusual flesh.<ref>They liked diseased and unusual flesh- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> It is what they are known for.<ref> A Fae schemes like an ogre is strong, and a fleshmongler manipulates flesh. He’s an expert.” - [

Excerpt] from Pate</ref>

They aren't restricted by limitations of the flesh such as fatigue,<ref>They were faster than her and they didn’t get tired. The big one was slowest- but he was still about her speed.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> or the need to eat.<ref name=":0" />

They're able to mutilate small animals and combine them with other creatures, infusing them with it's power to animate them.<ref>The fleshmongler stopped running, digging fingers into the squirrel and tearing it apart.
[...]
The flying object was small enough in the gloom that Avery couldn’t see it clearly until its second fly-by pass.

It was a mangled squirrel. And a mangled bird. Flesh mashed together with flesh, bones broken and sticking out, a tattered, strangled bit of tail streaking the back, ulcerous, tumorous. The wings had been left mostly intact, letting it fly awkwardly, hampered by its less aerodynamic shape.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> This power allows the creature to stretch the flesh of others.<ref>They weren’t as powerful as the fleshmonglers that had made them, but some energy had been invested in them, as a way to keep the mangled, broken bits in their bodies working. As a ‘benefit’, if they could get claws into Avery, her skin wouldn’t scratch. It would stretch. Which made them pretty freaking scary.- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref>

Varieties

Fleshmongled

The creations of a Fleshmongler that can't independently modify themselves.<ref></ref>

Grundum

Abyss dwellers that have wounds similar to the work of the Fleshmonglers.<ref></ref>

Curator of Flesh

An end state where a Flashmongler takes their focus to superlative areas.<ref>frgaerg sfdvee </ref>

Notable examples

Grimsly, Cannibalism Chef de Cuisine Curator

Trivia

There are multiple names for them, some in old English.<ref>“There’s other names for them that are old English or something, but the stuff I read seems to go with whatever is catchiest and modern." - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.2</ref> Speculatively, such names might include Wiktionary:Scar Dolgswæþ (scar, "woundtrace" or "woundbandage") or Wiktionary:flæscmete Flæscmete ("fleshmeat").

References