Botchlings

Saying a botchling's ugly is like saying shit's not particularly tasty: can't say it's a lie, but it doesn't exactly convey the whole truth, either.

– Lambert, witcher of the Wolf School

Botchlings are perhaps the most repulsive creatures a witcher will ever have the displeasure of meeting. Born of dead, unwanted babies discarded without a proper burial, their appearance is that of a partially-decayed fetus, their unformed flesh twisted with hate, fear and malice. These hideous creatures feed on the blood of pregnant women, driven by a mad hunger that most often leads to their victim's death.

A botchling will emerge from its lair at night to lurk by the bedside of an expectant mother, draining her strength and that of her unborn progeny as she sleeps. A woman thus beleaguered first suffers from troubling dreams, then fever, delirium and a general weakening of the flesh. After a few such nights she is enfeebled and unable to defend herself - it is then the botchling attacks directly, sinking its long, sharp fangs into her body and drinking of her blood until mother and fetus perish together.

A botchling stands around a foot and a half in height, but, when threatened and if gorged with blood, it can change form. At such times it grows into a deformed man, hunched over and striding, ape-like, on its forearms. Stronger and fiercer after this alteration, it hurls itself into direct, physical combat, gnashing at its opponent or attacking him with sharp claws.

A botchling's curse can be lifted by transforming it into a lubberkin - a guardian spirit of the hearth that watches over the family it never knew in the house it never could call home.