None of this artwork is actually new per se. But I'm realizing that my standard all-land-fauna page is so massive, it's kinda hard to see the individual creatures. So we're gonna break it up a bit to give each one a little more breathing room.
Hookfist - While appearing initially to be a crab, the hookfist is actually a highly carcinized anomalocarid. Lurking in the treetops, the hookfist seizes its prey with lightning speed, quickly immobilizing it with its many pincers, and shredding it with the small-but-powerful mandibles hidden beneath its feelers.
While hookfists are one of the more common threats faced by woodsmen, they have a curious vulnerability to pepperspray, which irritates their breathing holes. If one can be made to let go, it will likely not pursue, preferring to wait for less troublesome game.
Hookfists reproduce asexually, carrying their eggs in their hindmost limbs, and then allowing their offspring to ride them for the first three months, before they drop off and find their own spots.
The hookfist's strikes are so quick, in fact, that a Fronterran boxing style was named for it, prioritizing rapid, speedy blows and firm grapples.
Saladile - Analogous to crocodiles, the saladile is actually a predatory amphibian lurking in the area's freshwater ways and wetlands. Ambush predators by nature, they bury themselves in the murk and strike when they sense movement. Though usually found in the water, they have been known to lurk within mud and even loose soil if the conditions are favorable.
Saladiles lack true eyes, instead sporting receivers on their faces that sense vibrations and changes in the air current. Thus, one can theoretically hide from one by remaining completely motionless - a taller order than it seems in the wilds.
Saladiles are gastric brooders, storing their eggs in their stomachs once they are laid and keeping them there until the tadpoles have hatched and grown strong enough to swim, whereupon they are vomited out in a large torrent by their father. One of my colleagues insists she saw one use this as a ranged attack at one point, but I remain skeptical.
Curiously, saladile tadpoles are actually algae-eaters, and don't develop a taste for meat until they reach at least eleven years of age. This means that many of the "fish" encountered in daily life are, in fact, young saladiles who've yet to begin their metamorphosis. Their meat is considered a staple of wetland cuisine by many locals, though they warn me not to try it without first smoking the meat thoroughly.
Crowned wyvern - While many will question this pterosaur's place on this part of the guide, I stand by my words. While known by and large as a fruit-eater, the crowned wyvern is less picky than it might first let on, and will gleefully snap up medium-sized animals, fungi and research assistants if it gets the chance.
Crowned wyverns are migratory, taking wing and heading for the mountains when it comes time to reproduce. There they will remain until their offspring are of flying age, adopting a more openly carnivorous diet by feeding on mountain game. Once their parental duties are done, they return to the lowlands to sample the more diverse food sources that the jungles offer.
Culturally, this fact seems lost on the populace, who have repeatedly assured me that the wyvern is a strict herbivore. Fortunately, most of the beast's strength seems to be concentrated on its chest and wings, allowing me to force it to regurgitate its captive with a few swift kicks.
Agropelter - The agropelter is a simian creature with a truly bizarre anatomy. Its arms are elongated and boneless, functioning more as tentacles via which it executes its preferred hunting strategy of flinging or 'snapping' objects into victims at high speeds. The force with which it can fling these objects is comparable to a high caliber firearm, and it has been known to take down creatures far larger than itself. Many reported encounters imply a rather sadistic sense of humor, as the beasts enjoy sniping or even 'kneecapping' travelers and watching them struggle to escape. Whether the creatures intend to eat them or simply enjoys the act of taking potshots, I cannot say, though its dentation and preference for the flesh of small birds and fish means it's a predator.
Demisuchus - In a world where amphibians fill the role of crocodiles, it seems only natural that crocodiles would branch out. Demisuchus - colloquially known as 'sukes' is a largely terrestrial hunter, patrolling the deserts and lowlands for prey by day. While its speed is reserved for quick bursts, its stamina is impressive at a slower pace, and they have been known to simply walk down their prey over miles at a time. Stories have been told of the creature deliberately cutting off access to water, slowly but relentlessly marching its victim into the desert, trailing a ways behind until at last the victim succumbed to dehydration and the crocodile moved on.
While this is dubious as a hunting strategy, the animal is none the less one of the premier threats on the frontier, though it seems to be regarded as more of a threat to livestock than to individuals.
Demisuchus have a strange natural enmity with scissormites, who stalk much of the same prey at night. Many claim to have witnessed battles between single sukes and packs of scissortmites.
Lindorm - Though superficially resembling a monstrous centipede, this creatures inner workings are unlike anything currently known to science. Instead of muscles, its limbs move via compressed gas pumped into almost hollow shells. Instead of a brain, it has a massively decentralized nervous system, in which every appendage contains a small amount of brain. Even its digestive system operates less like an arthropods than it does a snakes.
The lindorm is a lowland creature, lurking under the sand or beneath the shrubbery, waiting for prey to pass by, which it will seize in its deadly forelimbs, immobilize with its venom, and then swallow whole.
Lindorms are prasitic breeders, preferring to lay their eggs in the bodies of enormous herbivores killed by their venom. They will lay up to seventy eggs at a time inside the victim, depending on the size, then abandon them. Once the larva devour their cradle, they will turn on one another until only a few remain, then go their separate ways.
Curiously, dissection of larvae reveals only a single, relatively compact brain. It seems that this cannibalism is not only normal, but necessary for the creatures development, as juvenile specimens appear to have integrated the brains of their siblings into their own nervous system. In some ways, the creatures brutal development ritual may be less a matter of killing their competition than a means of determining which body came out strongest, so that the neurons may flock to the best vessel.
The largest specimen on record was an individual known as "Old Lambton", who I have chosen to illustrate for the sake of satisfying my colleagues, for whom the figure is something of a cultural icon. Old Lambton, as the stories go, was so massive and therefor so neurologically complex that they were capable of speech, and that they helped liberate the west from the rule of the Fair Folk, who once plundered and hoarded the land's resources for themselves. While I cannot verify these stories, and have yet to encounter a specimen exceeding eight feet in length, I must concede that there seems nothing *preventing* the creatures from growing larger, and that a larger specimen would, theoretically, be that much smarter.
Frumble- Occupying some transitional space between amphibians and reptiles, the frumble is an arboreal predator found deep in the rainforest. Essentially, it combines the ecology of a chameleon and a tree frog, standing still in the canopy, using its independently operable eyes to pinpoint suitable prey and ensnaring it with its tongue. Retractable, venomous barbs in its dorsal crests protect it from flying enemies, paralyzing the muscles of whatever they prick and allowing the frumble to make a meal of would-be predators.
Frumbles are not widely recognized as a threat, primarily because they're not widely recognized as a species. It seems that most attacks are reported as disappearances, with the victim's companions never having seen the creature in the first place. More study is needed.
Rainbowhead - This allosaurid survives the dense jungle not through thick skin or great strength, but through chemical warfare. By consuming numerous toxic fungi, the rainbowhead transforms its body into a cocktail of deadly chemicals, any number of which can be spewed from its jaws on command. It uses this ability both offensively and defensively, blinding and sedating its prey, while simultaneously repelling enemies with well-placed eyeshots.
Rainbowheads have a complicated relationship with locals, who enjoy refining their venom into a recreational drug. Most attacks seem to be based less on the dinosaur seeing its victim as food than on simple self defense. Thus, its placement here may be questionable. While they have been observed eating corpses, there is no proof that they were hunting said victim for food.
Sand spectre - A mantid adapted for a purely terrestrial existence, this insect is a master of agoraphobic combat. Preferring to dig holes and lie in wait for prey to pass over, the spectre goes the extra mile by hoarding pieces of its environment to disguise the hole. When food is scarce and it must leave, it covers itself with bushes, rocks, bark, or even concrete or pieces of buildings in order to move about and find a new spot.
Because of its segmented body plan and narrow waist, the spectres digestive system is inverted, with its mouth being located in its abdomen. Victims are dismembered and fed into its fanged backside and processed then and there.
The sand spectre poses a constant threat to communities, as it enjoys setting up amidst them, where prey is plentiful. Searches must be constantly made in order to determine that they havent set up shop. Some travelers, however, have come to see the creatures as minor treasure troves, as their nests are littered with the inedible remains of whatever they've consumed. As the creatures bury all signs of their prey, their burrows may have valuable items carried by previous victims.
Seafoam boa - In a world of armored behemoths, super-speeding fliers and all manner of outrageous critters, this arboreal constrictor manages to occupy a comfortable niche in the jungle just by being a little more elusive and a little more unapetizing than its neighbors. Its dense, armored scales are able to repel most parasites, its muscles can crunch even tough ossaderm shells and its stomach can handle vertebrates and invertebrates in equal measures. Though the snake isn't the best at any one thing, it survives by likewise having no specific weaknesses.
Though snakes do not endure the same negative stigma they do in Western Earth, the seafoam boa's reputation as a maneater is still highly exaggerated. While attacks are recorded, they are few and far between. It seems that the creature's infamy comes from its abilities more than its habits, as they have been observed swallowing prey well over three times their own body mass.
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