Sea-Crawlers

Sea-crawlers are not yet a well understood species, and some are not entirely sure that they are a species at all, and perhaps they're instead some sort of extraplanar being. Only known to inhabit the duskward waters of the Astrum Sea, they are known only as horrifying, monstrous beings capable of slaughtering entire ships of even the most capable armed men. Their is only one verified description of the beasts, coming from a Khairluutian man who believes he only survived because he quickly hid in the hold of the fishing trawlers he was aboard, his smell being masked by the fish they'd pulled in. He waited there for two days before daring to venture out.
He described it as having a long, lanky figure, humanoid in arrangement and limb count but little else. When it exited the water, moved in frantic, scrabbling movements on all fours, and despite their limbs looking like little more than inky-black, barely corporeal skin stretched tight over bone, it seemed incredibly strong, claws slicing through bodies with so little effort, it was as though they weren't even there.

Sapience

Thus far, it's been impossible to determine how intelligent sea-crawlers are, or if they're even sapient. All that is known about them is that they kill any humanoid they come across, and do not seem to do so for sustenance or self-defense reasons.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

They seem to have began appearing in the duskward third of the Astrum Sea a decade ago, in AE 711. Their territory is not well defined or understood, but they have struck fear into enough sailors for them to give the area a wide berth.

"They scream like nails on a chalkboard, and move like nothin' I've ever seen. It's like they don't even swim, they just... are wherever they're tryna get! It wasn't even eatin' anyone, we weren't even food. It just... tore through 'em like wet paper and moved on to the next like it'd do anything to make sure we were dead." – Bati Ajir Alganaac, only known individual to see a sea-crawler and survive

Average Height

15 feet

Geographic Distribution

• Astrum Sea