Legends & Lore
The Hifflewhip appears in many beloved nursery rhymes and fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Gnome"; "Three Little Kobolds"; and "The Hifflewhip and the Seven Dwarfs", where it is usually depicted as a mischievous trickster spirit who plays pranks on the main characters, or sometimes helps them. In many fairy tales involving witches and hags that lure children into their lairs for supper, The Hifflewhip makes many appearances as a guardian spirit who rescues the children and sends them back to their parents.
The Hifflewhip's greatest enemy was a coven of hags who often lured people into their swamp and turned them into red caps. The Hifflewhip recruited a group of heroes known as The Den to destroy the hags for good, and retrieve a heartstone from a night hag named Mummy. Mummy was killed, along with her sisters Auntie, a Green hag, and Granny, an Annis hag. One sister, a sea hag named Sissy, managed to escape, but The Hifflewhip was pleased. The members of The Den later gave Mummy’s heartstone to The Hifflewhip, who used it as a new heart to replace its old heart; a phylactery given to it by a lich after The Hifflewhip suffered a mortal blow and needed something to replace it. It was one of the scattered Phylacteries of the Lich king Skaff, who offered it to the creature thinking it would be safe in The Hifflewhip's possession, though The Hifflewhip owed no loyalty to Skaff, and would gladly trade the phylactery for a superior heart.
The Hifflewhip is thought by some to be an evil trickster, while many others believe it to be a benevolent guardian spirit. Many people believe it to be a neutral, unpredictable trickster that follows its own seemingly playful whim, and generally doesn’t seem to mean harm, while others deny it even exists. Many make the misconception that it is a fey due to its reputation, though it is actually an aberration. Many think it to be a lesser incari.
When The Hifflewhip speaks it tends to speak in cryptic rhymes, answering questions with questions and curiously investigating everything around it. It sometimes speaks nonsensical verbose phrases for seemingly no reason at all. Some think these to be minor prophecies, others think it is just gibberish.
"Why don't you come with me? Together we can frolic through the rotting wood; fly over fields of death; even splash around in the tar. Tis lovely, is it not? To find oneself all alone and isolated from a world of such malice? But mind you don't linger too long, friend. Or you'll end up like The Hifflewhip."
-Children's song of unknown origin
Powers & Abilities
The Hifflewhip is an ancient spirit, purportedly able to find the faintest leyline filaments through Brume to other lands, and see into the Ethereal Plane. It is able to read people's emotions very well, enough to make those hostile to it turn indifferent by singing a song inspired by the Heartwood. It is considered to be a master of Illusion magic, able to cast any illusion spell and surround itself in a cloak of displacement at will. The Hifflewhip created the displacer beasts of Skafisle in its own image, using parts of its own skin mixed with roots from the ground. It does not need to breathe, eat, or sleep to survive, and seemingly doesn’t age. It is immune to most effects that would assault the mind, and resistant to many forms of magic and damage, as well as able to regenerate wounds quickly and reflect any damage taken back to its attacker.
The Hifflewhip always wears a mask that seems to be attached to its tar-like body. When worn by The Hifflewhip, the mask's expression constantly shifts, and doesn’t always display whatever emotion it is feeling. The Hifflewhip’s mask is believed by some scholars to be one of the Aletjuns; powerful artifacts that come from another world.
Affiliations & Alliances
Though generally thought to be a neutral creature, The Hifflewhip was asked by Cudarc, Skafisle’s Inaethri of warriors and the fighting spirit, to escort Fenrir Volfblud across the Brume to the Dire Isle, so he may be tested and grow in power, eventually taking on the form of a mighty wolf to fight at Cudarc’s side during the final days of Finarag, the end times. For reasons unknown, The Hifflewhip agreed to the god's request, and escorted Fenrir from Skafisle to The Dire Isle along with Oran, a paladin of Cudarc who was sent along with Fenrir to watch over him and keep him safe.
The Hifflewhip has a few warlocks under its service, mostly children who were rescued from the lairs of hags and given powers to act as its hands in the world. Displacer beasts never attack these warlocks, who disguise themselves as travelers on the road rewarding generosity with magical boons and punishing naughty behavior with curses.
