Ghesterm

Ghesterm are the result of prolonged exposure to raw occult radiation leaked from ruined arcano-industrial sites. The radiation corrupts flesh and mind over weeks, warping survivors into creatures that are neither fully human nor purely beast. Legends among scavengers speak of the first Ghesterm as a 'harbinger' escaped from the broken vault of the Ardent Coil, but the phenomenon has been found wherever wild flux stains the earth. Scholar Jex Morden of the Cartography of Decay cataloged Ghesterm from fallen research districts to remote glassed-over fields; his papers identify a social tendency for newly formed Ghesterm to cluster around a single 'singer' — an elder specimen whose low-frequency rasp guides others with compulsive signals. The Order of the White Seal has mounted expeditions to quarantine affected zones, but rangers and prospectors who ignore the warnings still bring home spores of the sickness, and the Ghesterm's infection is blamed for more than a few ruined settlements.

A Ghesterm stands slightly hunched at roughly 6 feet tall with lank, stretched limbs and an uneven gait. Its skin is mottled ashen gray with patches of crusted, glassy scales that glow faintly green where the radiation burned deepest. The face retains a human outline but is sunken, lips pulled back to expose yellowed, jagged teeth and a split jaw. Fingers end in hooked, chitinous claws stained with a viscous, luminescent residue. Veins along its neck and shoulders pulse with faint bioluminescence. Tattered remnants of clothing cling to its torso — a warped lab coat or a singed jacket — giving scale cues and hinting at its pre-transformation life. Scars seam its belly where flesh has sloughed away in irregular plates; where the skin is torn, you can see a faint, smoky shimmer like heat above coals.