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Madman's Hands

by ThatWhichMoves

"I saw them skittering around out there. They only stop for the Sun, and not even for him on foggy days... you know?"
- Curious young girl from Firewander

"Y'shouldn't go near them marshes, boy! Things grow there as ain't meant to!"
- Old Gran, to a passing traveller on his way to the Marsh

Few things in Creation match the horrors of the Yozi's children. Fewer still reside near civilized (if you can call it that) areas. The Madman's Hands of Stone Pine Marsh, as they've been named by the local strange crone, Old Gran, are some of the few apparitions to do so.

They appear to be great, sinewy, purple-skinned hands, perhaps three feet in height, with eyes on their fingertips and comically disproportionate legs on the stumps. Each fingertip also has branches above the eye on it, which end in up to 3 hands similar to the larger one, though without eyes. Their long, straight, rectangular fingernails have various symbols painted on them in black and green, which many claim to be the symbols of the Anathema.

They are not solitary creatures, and run in packs of 5 to 7. These packs hold a tryst every night on Dead Beast Hill, making for a conglomeration of at least 50 grotesque hands for the curious eye to behold. According to the tales of certain people who dare go there at night, they are the ones seen to be doing the mad things with animal corpses and skins.

In the daytime, they retract their legs and scatter to attach to tree limbs with closed eyes till nightfall -- unless it's foggy out. If there's an exceptional amount of fog, they proceed with life as normal. Strangely enough, this happens every 25th day, and is centred around the Marsh. So, every 25th day is known as the Day of the Masked Peacock. The day was named by a lean young man passing through Firewander. Incidentally, he was never seen again.

Spider's Tears find Madman's Hands poisonous and harder to subdue than most beings, so they keep to a grudgingly symbiotic relationship.

When animals fail to come around at night, the hands creep into Firewander itself, in search of humans to complete their rituals with. Usually, their skins and animal corpses follow them, alerting people to their presence.

Rumours

• According to Old Gran, they are the servants of whatever being lives on Dead Beast Hill.
• They're beings created by the fae from the Wyld Area in Firewander, called to that marsh by the power which the beast of the Rivergate Scandal was drawn to.
• The trees in the area are all interconnected, and happen to be a large symbiotic being that gave birth to the Hands.
• It should be noted that the Immaculate Order denies the very existence of such blasphemous beings.

Secret

• In truth, they are Wyldtouched tree limbs. The taint of Humanity nearby has changed them. Their minds are very malleable, and they've been forced into servitude by the spirit of the Hill.
• The wanderer who passed through and named the foggy day was a Sidereal. As if the name wasn't obvious enough.

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