The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,2

Unlike bone breakers, they never feed on them, and as yet no spook has been able to discover why they do it and what purpose it serves.

Hairy Boggarts

These take on the shapes of animals such as black dogs, horses, goats, and cats. Goat boggarts and dog boggarts tend to be untrustworthy and malevolent. Cat and horse boggarts,2 by contrast, can be friendly. They may even help with household and farmyard chores in exchange for being allowed to share a location undisturbed.

Very rarely, boggarts of this type can take any form they choose, usually in order to terrify their victim and grow stronger by feeding on that fear. I once had to deal with a boggart that took on the best-known shape of the Devil, complete with horns, tail, and cloven hooves. It could also talk, making it very dangerous indeed.

Hairy Boggart

Hall Knockers

Hall knockers frighten people by rapping on walls, banging doors, and generally causing a nuisance. If all your doors and windows are closed up tight when you go to bed, but you are still woken by slamming or rattling or loud noises in the night, then it’s likely you are sharing your house with a hall knocker. They are very unpredictable and can be exceptionally dangerous. They may be stable for years, then change without warning into stone chuckers.

One of the most notorious County hall knockers was located in Staumin. It caused severe disruptions in and around the church and manor house for many years. It was eventually bound by a priest. But he was no ordinary member of the clergy. A fully trained spook, who had taken holy orders afterward, he was one of my previous apprentices, Father Robert Stocks.3

Rippers

Without doubt the most dangerous category of all boggarts is the ripper. These begin as cattle rippers, which drink the blood of animals—usually cattle, horses, sheep, or pigs. They can cause the farmer real hardship by preventing his stock from thriving, but eventually this type of boggart starts to kill, draining its chosen animal slowly, visiting it many times until the final encounter, when it drinks until the animal’s heart stops.

The very worst cattle rippers sometimes kill dozens of animals in a single night. They rip open the poor creatures’ bellies or slit their throats, drinking only a small amount of blood in each case. It is simply wanton killing, done for the gruesome pleasure it affords the boggart. On such occasions, the howls of the boggart can be heard across the fields as it satisfies its blood lust. This is usually the final rogue stage, before the boggart becomes a full-blown ripper.

Rippers also drink the blood of humans, often trapping them in some way so they can’t escape.4 They will take small amounts of blood over several days but always finally gorge themselves so that the victim dies. Human blood has become a great delicacy for the boggart, something to be savored. After it has tasted human blood, it will kill and kill again until a spook is summoned to deal with it.

Stone Chuckers

These boggarts throw pebbles, stones, or even boulders. Their intention is to terrify or slay those they wish to drive away from a chosen domain. Sometimes showers of stones rain down on a village or house for weeks at a time. These attacks are often fatal, making stone chuckers one of the most dangerous boggarts to deal with. An angry stone chucker is a terrifying sight to behold, with six huge arms, each hurling rocks. They need to be artificially bound or slain.

Whistlers

Feeding on fear, these boggarts attach themselves to anyone who appears susceptible. They whistle and howl down chimneys and through keyholes, using shrill, terrifying sounds as their weapon. Some victims are driven insane; others kill themselves. The wise ones send for a spook.

DEALING WITH UNKNOWN BOGGARTS

There are four stages when dealing with an unknown boggart, which may be easily remembered by use of the acronym NIBS (Negotiation, Intimidation, Binding, and Slaying).

STAGE 1: NEGOTIATION

The first step is to find out why a boggart is being troublesome and then make it an offer. This can simply be the respect of the people it is plaguing, or even their gratitude. It is, in fact, possible to live in the same house as a boggart and for the situation to be quite comfortable. Many boggarts respond to flattery. To illustrate this, I give below an account of my very first attempt to negotiate with a boggart.

THE CHIPENDEN BOGGART

After the death of my master, Henry Horrocks, I’d been