OCTOBER REWARDS 7

Darkfire57 

 Haunted scarecrows that use birds to force their preys to run into a spot where they will harvested by the strawmen.

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There were so many horror ideas this time around that were absolutely amazing~

These are Scarecrows. Also known as Strawmen, Strawwalkers, Field Shamblers, Fieldwalkers, Corn men, and Harvest Effigies. 

Animate Scarecrows can be created in various ways. Witches and Wizards have created Scarecrows to protect their fields or animated them in the fields of their enemies to lead a secret assault on their rivals. These constructs are crafted from wood, straw, and tattered clothing to create the illusion of a human. While they were made to scare off crows in the past, spellcasters have used them for spying and to kill enemies without leaving a trace back to themselves. 

Scarecrows possess superhuman strength, empowered by the magic that animates them, they are at least twice as strong as an average man, and due to their makeup it's easy for them to take a massive amount of damage and still be able to move on their own. Many of them can be lit on fire and they can remain animate until the talisman that animates them is destroyed. Many times the talisman used to animate the scarecrow is a rune carved heart from a human or similarly sized mammal, placed within the scarecrow's body and animated with an arcane sigil of blood. Upon animation the caster can dictate what the scarecrow will do and the creature will follow the creature's whims as the heart begins beating. Many of them possess supernatural ability such as throwing objects with great accuracy or the ability to lasso a creature with rope, and these abilities can be imbued into the scarecrow just as with other animate objects. Scarecrows implanted with a human heart may take on some of that human's traits and in some weird cases they can be completely possessed by the owner of the human heart. 

By planting a crow's nest in the chest of the scarecrow and breaking each of the eggs within as the ritual is completed, The Scarecrow will become infested with a cacophony of cawing and movement within itself which will die down after a while. The Scarecrow can open it's maw and release a flock of angry, warped birds, which peck and claw at the enemies of the scarecrow , screaming the whole way through. 

The toothy crow like creatures are called Omen birds. Sometimes Death crows, Corvus Dentata, Hell's messengers, or Corvid Familiars. These creatures are used by witches as familiars on occasion and take the shape of semi-warped crow creatures with large human teeth in their beaks. Many can speak certain words, mimic sounds, and the Witch can speak through them as if using her own mouth. Other than their durability, teeth, and ferocity, they are relatively like other crows, save for having a penchant of contracting diseases that they can spread but are otherwise immune to themselves.

The large crow like creatures are called Corvus, Crow Men, Crowbeasts, the Caw, Harvest Omens, and sometimes as Feathered Stalkers. These horrific entities are magical beasts that hail from unknown locations. Some believe them to be the creation of witches, some believe them to be spawn of Harpies or Fae, and others believe them to simply be a creature that has been pretending to be a crow for quite some time. They have been encountered since the days of early man and have appeared in distant realms and spaces alongside the Bird Doctors within the pit of madness. The Crow men are silent creatures, standing roughly 6 and 1/2 feet tall. They have huge shaggy bodies and human like eyes which are locked in a bloodshot stare. Their beak always angled down and their claws out in front of them. The Crow men tend to stand in fields or in distant locations and stare. Their stare is akin to that of a hag in that it possesses a supernatural quality like the Evil eye, and it can be felt by other creatures. Their stare pierces walls, trees, fences and other obstructions and when one stares you suddenly become aware that something is watching. Crow based creatures tend to follow them, and animate scarecrows will bend to their will. Witches will bow down and offer them gifts, and animals steer clear. Wherever they appear, misfortune and death will follow, and crows and ravens will flock to that location, often times becoming sick and violent as well. 

Crow Men walk slowly, and often times when a creature is not looking. Approaching and moving only when a creature looks away. They are incredibly fast despite their fat bodies, and the closer they get the farther their mouth opens and the more beady and bloodshot their eyes get. Whenever they reach a location within roughly 60 feet of a creature they will rush forward silently, claws out and mouth open. Creatures attacked by them are often savagely beaten to death and clawed apart, left up like a scarecrow afterward, or sometimes will be animated as a scarecrow, but will often have strange objects and items placed inside of themselves. Because of this it is believed that the Crow men are closely related to the Bird Doctors that inhabit locations in the Realms of madness or perhaps the Acolytes of the Phoenix. Though Crow men do follow witches and hags sometimes, they more often than not get what they want and leave, or end up in combat with the spellcaster. 

An area where a Crow man is killed will be the site where crows and ravens flock for years and become strange and altered creatures.