Amikiri

A species of monster found on the West and Southern coasts of Votrane. They are generally overlooked, or considered vermin by most people, but they are sometimes be highly valued as wizard’s familiars or for their effective poison.

Amikiri are a type of small monstrosity, created by infernal influence. Like many other monstrosities, they are similar in appearance to amalgamation of more mundane creatures. Amikiri have a long, segmented, snake-like body, powerful arms and claws like that of a lobster, and a head similar to that of a parrot, although amikiri have scales instead of feathers. Males also have manes of black, wiry hair. Amikiri are also venomous, injecting venom through bites. Amikiri can fly, although it is through some sort of magic rather than wings or the such like.

Amikiri are carnivorous creatures that live in dock towns and beaches. In rural areas, they hunt small prey by chasing after them and clawing at them, such as rats, lizards, and crabs. If they can hunt creatures more around their size, such as raccoons or some dire beasts, they will bite the creature and inject it with poison. Amikiri poison is valued in Votrane, for a couple reasons. Firstly, amikiri poison causes great pain when injected, and is useful for torture and interrogations. Secondly, when mixed with a few choice ingredients (usually sugar and some sort of alcohol), amikiri poison can be used to make a type of drug referred to as “netcutter” or “greenpaste”. Netcutter is not potent, but it is cheap and easy to find. In urban environments amikiri do hunt, mostly vermin like rats, but they are mostly scavengers. They tend to steal fish from merchants. They are infamous for cutting the fishermen’s nets and gorging on the catch of the day, much to the annoyance of the fishermen.

There is also a recently discovered mutant species of amikiri, called kamikiri, They are larger and humanoid, although with an amikiri-like head and lobster claws. They are popular among pirates, as they have the poison of an amikiri, but can learn pyromancy and can speak Infernal. The only disadvantage of kamikiri over tame amikiri is that kamikiri can neither fly nor swim.