The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,1

Cuerden left within a month of making the above observation. This trade needs discipline. He thought too much about the needs of his belly and lacked commitment.—John Gregory

An Angry Stone Chucker

Boggarts

Boggarts are far more numerous in the County than anywhere else on earth. There are several different types of these spirit entities—some are little more than an irritation, but others can cause serious damage to property, or to people, and in some cases they may even prove deadly.

Typically boggarts make their lairs in cellars, barns, and hollow trees; most are, at the very least, an inconvenience to people nearby. They are usually invisible, but unless exceptionally powerful, they can be seen by spooks. When angry or happy they briefly show themselves to ordinary folk, taking on forms such as cats, horses, or goats. They can also leave unsettling signs of their presence. For example, a cat boggart may leave paw prints on a clean kitchen floor or claw marks on the furniture.

Unlike other boggarts, stone chuckers cannot directly materialize, but when they want to scare people, they cover themselves in something visible, like mud or leaves, so that their true multiarmed shape can be seen. A terrifying sight indeed!

All boggarts use ley lines1 to travel from place to place, and when mobile they are called free boggarts. Sometimes disturbances to the leys, such as an earthquake hundreds of miles away, cause a boggart to become naturally bound and trapped in one location, unable to escape. Angered, this boggart immediately becomes very disruptive, and a spook may be required to drive it away.

All boggarts can understand human language, but most communicate with actions rather than words. If they are displeased, they show it by throwing and breaking things or being disruptive—for example, by digging up rows of potatoes after they have been planted, or opening gates to allow livestock to escape. If pleased, they may clean out a cowshed or wash and dry plates, placing them carefully back on the rack afterward.

Boggarts that talk, however, are difficult to deal with. Speech indicates a higher than usual intelli-gence. These creatures, combining this attribute with malicious behavior, are to be feared and dealt with very carefully indeed. It is usually necessary to slay them.

TYPES OF BOGGARTS

Bone Breakers

Bone breakers feed on the marrow in bones. Mostly they feast on dead animals, but they sometimes acquire a taste for the skeletons of recently buried people. This can be very upsetting for relatives of the deceased (and makes a lot of work for the poor sexton, who has to clear up the fragments of flesh and bone left behind in the graveyard). Worse still, bone breakers sometimes attack the living, wrenching bones from flesh while their victim is fully conscious. This is rare, but it does happen.

Henry Horrocks, the Spook who would, years later, become my own master, once had an apprentice killed by a bone breaker. I happened to pass by just as Henry was about to bury the poor lad, who was lying by the graveside. I’ve never seen such a look of terror on a dead face. The boggart had really only wanted the thumb bone but had torn the lad’s hand off at the wrist. He’d died of shock and loss of blood. It’s a sight that I’ll take with me to my own grave. The boggart was being controlled by a witch, who used it to gather thumb bones for her magic rituals. When two creatures of the dark cooperate like this, the danger is greatly increased. Even an experienced spook such as Henry can miscalculate—hence the demise of his poor apprentice.

Church Movers

These usually carry away the foundations of churches that are in the process of construction and place them elsewhere. There are many locations in the County—for example, at Leyland and Rochdale—where the new site chosen by the boggart has been accepted. The aim of the boggart is to remove the church from land where it has made its home, thus keeping people away. They rarely move the foundations of taverns, houses, or farm buildings, so it may be that, being creatures of the dark, the act of worship annoys them, causing a disturbance that they cannot tolerate.

Grave Wreckers

These boggarts smash tombstones, disinter corpses, and break coffins into tiny pieces. Like most of their kind, they feed on terror, but additionally draw extra strength from the outraged grief of the bereaved. They also collect bones, often hiding those they have stolen in deep caverns, where they are never seen again.