Cyst

The Gutmire, perhaps more so than any other part of the Black Forest, is alive with festering corruption. The rancid swamp consists of living, pulsing flesh and viscera that bubbles and shudders with gases and fluids that the fetid earth produces.

In this foul soup, the organic detritus sometimes clumps into a boil that gestates in the putrescent broth until a Cyst is born.

Physique and characteristics

A Cyst is, simply put, an amalgamation of flesh that is comprised of the meat-like matter that the Gutmire itself consists of. It is considered a Hateling even though it is not born directly from the Heart of Hate.

Cysts have no defined physical characteristics, as each forms differently. There is no universal anatomical reference, heads and limbs can and will appear anywhere on the mass the Cyst is composed of, or will be entirely absent.

The only feature that seems to be shared between different Cysts are the razor-tipped feeding tentacles that a Cyst will also use for locomotion if it has not been blessed with legs or other extremities with which to propel itself.

Behavior and diet

Much like the Gorewillows that dot the deeper reaches of the Black Forest, Cysts mainly draw their sustenance from the soil of the damned forest, stabbing their feeding tentacles into the putrid loam and sucking up whatever foulness they subsist upon.

However, a Cyst won't pass up the chance to stick those feeding tentacles into anything and everything living that they set their eyes on, or otherwise detect should sight not have been bestowed upon them during their blasphemous birth.

Like the Arachnitha, Cysts pre-digest their prey via a delivery of digestive fluids through the feeding tentacles into the body of their hapless victim. These potent enzymes then liquefy the innards of the victim, which are then ingested by the Cyst, leaving the victim a drained husk after they are done feeding.

Interestingly, Cysts seem to lack the apparent sadism that is present in most other Hatelings and their behavior is more in line with animals, driven purely by instinct rather than malice. That is not to say that Cysts are not a threat.

Proliferation

Cysts are not equipped to procreate in ways that produce direct offspring. However, they shed maggot-like protrusions from their mass, which seek out organic material to embed themselves into. Once embedded, they begin to gestate, growing inside their host.

As the maggot grows, it begins to feed upon the host organism and starts to rapidly transform both itself and the host in a grotesque symbiosis. The host's body becomes a living incubator, its tissues warping and distorting to accommodate the growing parasite. The maggot, now burrowing deeper, fuses its nervous system with that of its host, taking partial control of the organism's movements and instincts.

When the maggot reaches full maturity, the host's body is considered obsolete, a shell that has served its purpose. In a violent burst of tissue, the new cyst emerges, an amalgamation of the original parasite and the biological matter of its former host, ready to repeat the gruesome cycle.

Containment

The forces of the Seeker fellowships have orders to treat Cysts like any other Hatelings and thus strive to kill them on sight, even if the creatures are not immediately hostile. This is done due to the possibility of an infected host leaving the boundaries of the Black Forest, delivering a Cyst into the wider world where it could start to spawn uncontrollably.

If anything moves, anything at all, stab first and ask questions later.

–A Seeker squad leader to his squad as they skirt the border of the Gutmire

by Midjourney

_{A Cyst.}

by Midjourney

_{A pair of Seekers engaging a Cyst in battle.}