prodigal afterbirth

A firstborn child given freely to the sea is said to bring its father home.

When its brothers and sisters have children of their own, the child is born a second time, tangled limbs hauling its pitiful form onto the beach, all milk-pale flesh, puffed and finned. A carpet of teeth scratch sand and stone. A cry carried on the wind, choked forth from waterlogged lungs.

Any who hear its cry see the child as if it were their own: abandoned and alone. It will feed on any who draw close enough to touch.

Can you blame it? It cried for generations, and in all that time you never answered.

Once it has fed on its brothers and sisters and their children, it ceases crying and wriggles back into the sea. It has another mother now.

starstruck giant

6+3d6 feet tall - arms same length.

Stare too long at the stars, and you may begin to hear their call – a song unbound by meat and bone and thought and throat.

Ones entranced by starlight begin to climb. When they can climb no higher, they begin to reach. When they can reach no further, they stretch into a long, thin thing.

They rearrange their bones, so their arms might reach higher. But even this only gets them so far.

When they kill you, they do it gently – choking softly so as not to break even one of the precious treasures inside you. They lovingly unwrap your flesh and fish out the bones within, tears running down their cheeks.

One day, they will grow long enough to grasp those stars.

falselight

In the distance, a comforting rhythmic flicker – guide and sentinel, drawing you closer. Only those who hesitate notice the hiccuping rhythm.

By the time you see its true form, it is too late – you will be stuck upon the shoal. 2d6 tentacles support a stalk ending in an orb, cartilage-veined and pulsating with light: a lighthouse from a nightmare.

A burn-bright pulse that blinds. Then it pulls itself towards you, stalk swinging. Tentacles like a tongue swish inside your ship, pulling all it can shove into its beak. It will not let go until your ship is clean as a boiled crab after dinner. It can’t leave any survivors – a found-out falselight starves.