Bone Harvester

"But the lazy son fell asleep when he was to be tending the hearth fire. While the embers grew dark the house grew cold. Soon after, from just outside, came the rattle of bones."
-excerpt from Eiranian cautionary fairy tale "The Bone Picker"

Impassion Fruit

"We trekked across the ashlands for the better part of the day, but we left with only about a dozen of the brilliant crimson fruits. Each painstakingly selected by the local herbalists, who insisted I keep my distance.  Before we made the return journey, the flesh of the fruit was carved out and prepared for the trip, a process given even more care than their selection. As we turned back to the black desert that surrounded Mount Nuri, I inquired with one of the herbalists, a bit perplexed why they would make such a trip only to return with a small fraction of what was there. The old man only chuckled at my question, insisting I'd have my answer soon enough. 

Only perhaps a few minutes later an explosion rang across the ash valley. It was quickly followed by another, and another. I turned about--half expecting Nuri to be erupting--to see a thousand crimson fruits bursting across the mountainside."

-from the travel log of Alchemist Jorridin

Watcher-in-the-Waves

The wave has hung there for days. Just off the horizon. Still water or storm. Never breaking, never shrinking. Some of our crew claim it is a blessing of Raun. Others fear it is a [demonic entity] hunting the ship. I am not sure, though it would be a strange blessing indeed.
-excerpt from journal of an ancient Elysian sailor

Wiindigoo

Camp quiet, no signs of life. Remains of all but one soldier accounted for. Signs of struggle/severe injuries. Bones picked-clean. Unknown teeth marks noted. Food provisions ransacked. Possible new large predator in area. No notable tracks/markings. Will search for missing soldier and return by morning. Advise mage support for future outposts.
-Final communication from scouting party of Lt Rectfeld

Williwaw

"Treat a stranger as you would a williwaw: be kind but never turn your back."
-Northern Ordinian proverb

Preserver

"What causes these regions of petrification is unknown but the process seems to be absolute. Anything left within long enough will invariably, and irrevocably, be turned to stone. Be it trees, grasses, birds, insects, humans. Even the soil has solidified, making it impossible to take samples without a hammer and chisel."
-Notes on the Stone Steppes by Keeper Bato

Snow Oracle

I'll tell ya, in all our battles it just never occurred to me to fear death. It would be there at the end one way or another. Just one more journey to take, I suppose.

Then I heard the old crone sing to the snow. The words were in a language like nothing we'd ever heard, if they even were real words. But we knew it all the same. Felt it. And it chilled us in a way the icy wind never could. It wasn't a threat or warning. More a story. A story about death. But . . . not death the way we know it. As the living see it. It wasn't about suffering or dying, or loss. No. This was the song of someone who had died. And returned. Of someone that's seen what's on the other side.

I tell ya, I never feared death. But I do now.

-Testimony of Klin Bersk, Mercenary and Adventurer