#barton iv

Otter-eels are the largest megafauna of Barton IV and have been, for millennia, responsible for the massive ice caverns carved out beneath the planet’s permafrost. With the front body and head of what we know to be an otter and the tubular body and tail of a moray eel several hundred feet long, these creatures dig out large portions of the earth underground, usually around the natural geothermal vents where it’s warmest, though the smaller ones will sometimes seek out the proximity of hellbender nests with the same objective in mind.

The mammoth eels secrete a type of slimy musk that deters predators based on its pungent smell (though those living on Barton IV will be the first to tell you they have no idea what kind of creature could possibly prey on an animal whose head itself is sixty feet from forehead to chin), the slime coating the rock and ice of their dens and warrens. When relatively fresh, the slime can be harvested and boiled down into a thick, concentrated paste that can be smeared on the perimeter of properties and homes (or yourself, if you’re really desperate) to keep some of the more dangerous wildlife at bay.

The otter-eels have a symbiotic relationship with the aforementioned hellbenders, warmed by the proximity of their own nests and the magma chambers the hellbenders spawn from. Hellbenders are a large salamander-like creature with a body most believe is actually made of magma (though humanoids have been unable to get within proximity for confirmation), largely crackled black skin with currents of bright orange showing through the ever-changing seams. Sometimes called magma-salamanders, the hellbenders rely on the otter-eels to create new pathways for migration and exploration, eating the smaller prey animals the otter-eels are unable to or are uninterested in.

As the hellbenders crawl along the walls of ice and rock, the concentrated heat of their bodies melts the otter-eels’ secretions and fuses it with the ice, creating a near-indestructible coating that reinforces and smooths over the rock, giving it a glossy, tempered transparisteel finish. This effect has, over the years, created incredibly sturdy and resilient cave systems, the ones closest to the surface eventually populated by sentients as civil centers. The ice on the surface is clean and clear enough that even several dozen feet underground the sunlight often still shines through in patches here and there, and the magma chambers and salamander burrows provide enough warmth for the caves to be habitable.

Baricouda are amphibious cervids capable of swimming underwater much like water buffalo, though over longer distances. They have the appearance of a semi-aquatic caribou, but their most notable features are the spine-like antlers that fold together when on land, and the incredibly sharp teeth found in two rows in their mouths. The baricouda are omnivores and largely feed on fish, mollusks, and other aquatic creatures, but they are capable of and do travel in herds through parts of the forests found in ice caverns near sentient populations. It is unclear whether they migrated or were brought down by sentients moving underground, but they are used for their fur, fish spines, patagiums, meat, and antlers, in addition to their use as occasional steeds, beasts of burden, or underwater sled haulers.

Baricouda, though not aggressive to humanoids while alive, can be struck by a rare form of wasting disease and will enter a strange decaying state that indicates they are close to death (if they’re not dead already; it’s hard to tell). Their eyes glow a soft, unsettling white, their fur begins to fall out, and they take on a mottled, dark gray-green color to their smoother, more aquatically-inclined skin, which will then start to slough off as the disease progresses. Algae and kelp gets caught on their spines, mimicking the look of a mane of hair.

The most disturbing part of the illness is its tendency to compel the baricouda to lurk underwater but near the surface of oft-frequented watering holes and river inlets, enticing creatures closer to the water’s edge in order to reach out and pull them under with their teeth, swimming into the shadowed depths to drown and presumably eat them. Folk tales say the baricouda of legend and myth would hypnotize their prey, luring them into the water to climb onto their backs, taking hold of the kelp as the baricouda dove beneath the surface. Once an afflicted baricouda succeeds in capturing its prey, neither the animal or its victim are seen again.

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On the surface of the planet, a variety of wildlife dots the landscapes from the salt flats at the equator to each of the arctic poles and every glacier, plain, and mountain range in between. The largest mountain range known as “the Vulture’s Spine” (or simply “the Spine”) is home to several hardy breeds, each of them unique.

The crystalback hydra is a type of reptile with the ability to change its scales’ color and pattern in order to camouflage itself from predators and prey alike. They begin as juvenile snakes and have strong muscles to constrict their prey before eating them, but they also have incredibly venomous fangs with a venom that coagulates the blood within a victim’s body, killing them in a matter of seconds. If the crystalback is cut in half, each piece will regenerate as a new snake over the course of a week; if faced with a crystalback where one manages to come out alive at the end of the encounter, the remains must be disposed of by fire to fully kill it.

If the snake is allowed to evolve and mature into an advanced pupation of the species (a process that does admittedly take many, many years), it becomes a four-legged reptilian mammal with the head, neck, tail, and partial pattern of the snake, the camouflaging furred body of an asharl panther, and the legs and feet of a mountainous cervid. These mature crystalback hydras are much more deadly and difficult to kill, especially since a severed head now results in a much faster regeneration of two heads, a process that happens every time a head is cut off. The mammalian body has every weakness a normal mammal would though, and can be killed with a lethal strike to the chest or abdomen.

The hydra’s remains are still recommended to be disposed of by fire, but it is possible for the pelt to be salvaged without consequence; if prepared by a specialized taxidermist the scales and fur will still take on the color and pattern of its surroundings, camouflaging the wearer, though it does take longer for the camouflage to acclimate than it did when the creature was alive. If you’re a hunter lying in wait though, it can prove an invaluable resource.

There is a type of burrowing, ichthyic-mammalian creature the size of a large massif somewhat like a mole or gopher in its efficient ability to rapidly displace earth and snow at the topmost layer of the planet’s crust. These creatures have a squashed, elongated face and snout that looks somewhere between a catfish and a star-nose mole, wide, strong mouths with rows of small teeth, poor eyesight, and a telltale dorsal fin or ‘sail’ shaped much like that of a small spinosaurus.

The dorsal sail of the excavators is able to detect vibrations above the earth, guiding it towards prey animals like the snow trout that flit through fresh powder, and its visibility on the surface is a warning to those above the snow that they are in the vicinity. They have burrows that wind strategically around and through the mountains, giving them access points to hunting spots and mating grounds. Their poor eyesight, however, does mean that when they poke their head up above the snow to bite their prey and drag it down under, they sometimes grab animals they cannot actually eat.

These creatures have been known to latch onto humans and drag them beneath the surface, or to the tails or feet of the ice vultures (prompting a very large, very surprised bird to flap up in indignation, searching for the subterranean offender. Humans are not so lucky.).

Some ice vultures have learned to hunt the excavators by luring them to the surface, pulling them out with their talons once they latch on. The technique has been used by humanoids familiar and brave (or stupid) enough to fish them out by sticking their arm up to the shoulder into one of the burrows, making enough movement to entice the creature into latching onto the entire arm. The hunter in question can then hook their hand to the inside of the creature’s gullet and pull them out. It is recommended that said hunters be accompanied by other people who are equally as strong and foolhardy in order to brace the main hunter and pull them back once they get a bite.

A more threatening predatory animal that usually lives in the mountains is a type of large wolf. They have dense fur in a range of greyscale colors, range in length of 10-13 feet (3-4 meters) from nose to tail’s end, weigh upwards 350 lbs/160 kg, and would be otherwise unremarkable if not for their additional offensive and defensive attributes.

These mountain wolves have thick, bony frill plates surrounding their neck and throat that protect them from lethal retaliatory attacks. They are somewhat flexible and jut backwards from the head, hard to see beneath their thick fur. The plates’ secondary purpose is to protect the venom sacs in the throat behind either side of the jaw that fill the wolf’s teeth with a paralytic venom meant to immobilize their prey. The paralytic keeps the prey alive and their blood moving until they can be dragged back to the wolves’ den. The wolves are intelligent, fast, nimble over jagged terrain, and hunt in coordinated attacks of five or more. The wolves have even been rumored to be capable of taking down the smaller ice vultures, and their bite and habitat has led the sentients of Barton IV to irreverently refer to the attacks as a deadly game of “freeze tag.”

Junk rats are found on several planets, and though no one is sure when the invasive species was introduced to Barton IV, most people suspect they came on the few starships that found their way to the icy wastes and they proliferated from there. Called so because of their proclivity to nest in ductwork, junk yards, the walls of starships and industrial factories (and the occasional unlucky droid), junk rats gather and harvest scraps of inorganic material to line their nests with, anything from copper circuitry to galvanized aircraft cables. Their biggest threats are electrocution when biting or traversing especially high-current conduits, or the primary predator willing and inclined to hunt them known as the spitfire.

Spitfires are a semi-feline-like creature distantly related to the nexu and asharl panthers, though their bodies are smaller and shaped a bit differently due to their natural double-jointedness and elastic excess of skin. Despite their bulk, their skeletal structure and flexibility allow them to… displace certain bones and squeeze through crevices and unnaturally-angled passageways in the caves and mountains of Barton IV, the visual of their limbs reaching from the darkness a bit like the ice spiders of Maldo Kreis as they curve their multi-jointed legs through the tunnels. The gangly limbs and flattened ribcage can then be rolled or pulled back into place as they slink along the walls and cave ceilings with their tarantula-like paws, silent as they stalk small vermin and other prey.

Spitfires are nimble and powerful jumpers, they are fast, they have night vision and natural camouflage, and unless an area is well lit, they are usually only detected by the reflection of light in the tapetum lucidum of their eyes, or by the green bioluminescent glow visible through its throat pouch as it rears up and readies to spit acid at its prey. Said acid is meant to incapacitate and/or blind its victims, and the spitfires have excellent aim.