060 – The Living Crystal

There are many uncanny entities on the face on Posterra – in fact, if it wasn’t for the terrifying danger of the interdimensional rip in reality that is the Dreadwake it is almost assured that one of the galactic dominions would transform it into a tourist trap safari planet, where your happy little zagnoids comes to witness the colourful plenty of monstrous creatures. The horrors of these shattered realms offer a little something for everyone – from titanic, living bogs to tiny, flesh-eating fairies. And some are even less suitable for the title of ‘life’, and yet despite their impossibility, they still exist and function. Like the infamous Living Crystal of Aorum, which are exactly what’s in the title – big chunks of semi-transparent, murky green crystals that utilize some sort of internal magic to form protozoan flesh of sorts, dark and drooping, semi-liquid, yet still strong and tangible enough to encompass the crystals and carry them around from place to place as an impromptu body. They are harmless enough on the surface – they don’t attack anyone, they do not hunt for any prey, they just… Lumber around seemingly without purpose, unless they settle in a new place with a wet splat of their dissolving body, seeping into the ground, where their work begins, as they will sap every single thaumatic molecule of the nearly area, cleansing the ground of every tiny mote of magic. Some consider them sacred thanks to that, like the arcane-hating cults of Czugora, but most find their presence spiteful as they tend to not differentiate between cursed, blighted ground and blessed, enchanted area, stealing all magic, be it good or bad.