Wendigo Monstrosity - Dreadclaw

32mm scale model designed by DM Stash, unpainted, unassembled

A monstrous ancient abomination: a relic of darkness from the Age of Creation that has called Saltmist Isle its home for millennia. This dark creature of burden was responsible for the many failed colonies that tried to gain a foothold on the isle, only to be met with famine, disease and death. Though these afflictions hold little sway over the Vampire Coven of Arthur Belfrie, which have regrettably made the isle their home.

An ancient being that has prowled the forests of Saltmist Isle millennia before Men first walked upon the planes of Minera. A ravenous creature with a hunger for flesh and misery, Dreadclaw was a device of Idinhelieth abandoned during Mindoriel’s defeat. It has ever since remained trapped on the isle it now sees as its domain, slumbering for centuries at a time before it is woken by trespassers to its home. Any unfortunate beings who might find themselves in its sights were doomed to die, as it would either consume their flesh or their sanity.

When the first colony was built on the isle by Elves of Nan Thalias in the First Era, the creature was quick to drive them against each other, the colony ending in a bloodbath as the isolation took over them and Dreadclaw pressed this paranoia to its advantage. Within decades the colony burnt to the ground and he feasted upon the misery and corpses of its inhabitants. The Elves from then on felt the isle was cursed, but for the deaths of their kins, rather than any creatures of Mindoriel that might lurk there.

Over the millennia a dozen attempts were made by various factions to colonize the isle, from Sea Elves to Men of Baldur and Alimroth. All of these attempts were doomed to fail with Dreadclaw watching and manipulating from afar. Now the Vampire Coven of Arthur Belfrie seeks to make its domain their own, and while aware of the beast, they seem to be impervious to its effects, much to its frustration and detriment. Its only hope is to manipulate the Werewolves they have brought as cattle to do its bidding.