The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: The Antlered Man

This post is part of the Immortal Naturalist's Guide series. The explanation for that series can be found in this post.

    The Antlered Man is said to inhabit a dry peninsula full of tough, salt-loving plants. He is about 8 feet tall excluding the antlers and uses his long arms to pick fruits from the tallest parts of  cactus trees. The beast supplements his diet with a wide variety of foraged leaves and flowers. Those who see him usually only get a glimpse before he runs away at high speed. The antlered man seems to be very wary of any other living thing, tending to avoid even rodents and large insects. I was able to observe him by leaving out food and hiding nearby, showing that the creature seems to rely more on sight than smell. Although I was able to get many hours of observation through this method, the Antlered Man would be gone in a flash as soon as I made any sound.

    The speed of this being is so great that I believe it to have a magical source, likely tied to its hooves which give off a red glow when the Antlered Man runs. While he is fast and able to jump great distances, the Antlered Man is generally unable to turn or stop quickly. While I do not know what would happen if the creature tried to take a sharp turn at speed, I cannot imagine it would end well.

    I was able to track the beast down to his nest and discovered that he sheds his antlers with some regularity and saves them in a massive pile near the nest. After seeing him shred a cactus tree to bits while sharpening his antlers, I tried to take one of the shed antlers for myself, provoking the only aggressive behavior from the Antlered Man that I had ever witnessed. From that point on he did not let me leave his sight until I had left the area entirely. While I suspect that the Antlered Man's shed antlers could be used to make tools stronger than most metals, gathering them seems to propose a significant challenge.

The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: Introduction

 Over the past few weeks I have been working on a bestiary of the unique creatures of the world of Tero. I was inspired by cryptids and mythological monsters and thought I would try my hand at making similar creatures. The result is going to be an in-setting document that is suitable to hand out to players should they ever encounter any of the creatures I come up with, and I think it will be fun to make. This is the introduction I made for it from the point of view of the in-setting author of the these entries, Z, the Immortal Naturalist:

    In my many years spent observing and documenting the natural world, I have heard tales of many bizarre creatures in hidden corners of the planet. While most have small but stable populations, I have come across several which appear to be utterly unique in this world. I have always had a fascination with the novel and the unique, so I have taken it upon myself to seek out and document as many of these creatures as I can. This has turned out much easier said than done. Due to their extreme rarity, most of the unique organisms in this book have long been considered mere folklore. Further complicating matters is the difficulty in actually tracking down something that there is one of and that may not even exist. While some of the creatures within these pages took years to even get a glimpse of, I believe that my work has brought us all just a little closer to understanding our world completely.
    Those in possession of this book will find it most useful as a guide to surviving encounters with these creatures, should they ever be so lucky. Each entry is relatively short and will hopefully act as an effective field reference, while more detailed materials should be left at home for thorough studying before and after your encounter. My own illustrations will accompany my notes on behaviors, homes, diets, abilities, and ways to keep them at bay. Admittedly, I did capture some likenesses better than others, and some creatures have more detailed notes than the rest, but that is the nature of these elusive beasts. Even though this work is not comprehensive, I hope this guide will be of use to whoever has it.