Monster: Mallion

Insanity on Hooves

“You know what they call the noise that thing makes right? It ain’t a whiney, nor a neigh. It ain’t even a bleat, nah… folks round here call it a scream." — Arjen Branchbender; outlander.

Charging in between the border of the Material and Ethereal Planes, leaving a warped wake of bent-space behind, mallions surge forth on an endless rabid hunt for prey. Whereas unicorns are embodiments of good and protectors of nature and nightmares are hellish mounts for devilish overlords, mallions are untethered, hungry, and insane.

A mallion looks like a large horned horse; it has extremely tight blood-red skin that's slow to heal, causing many to be covered in oozing scars. Their faces are gaunt and starved, their angry sunken eyes are disturbingly human-like, and their most distinct feature is set of bone-colored ram horns that twist in strange patterns and helixes.

Mallions are also fiercely intelligent and adept in psionics. They use their abilities to drive their prey insane, flashing horrifying images into their minds while they psychokinetically hurl them about and gore them.

Demented Hunters

Despite their impressive intelligence and cunning, mallions are driven by pure primal urges. They are capable of understanding language and even rudimentary psychic communication. However, most mallions would never use this ability for anything other than terrorizing the mind of their prey.

These beasts are not believed to be native to the Material Plane. Instead, they are said to be a bioweapon from the Far Realm that has escaped. Others say they are a Great Old One’s thoughts given form and allowed to walk the world. No one has ever seen a mallion at rest. No one has ever seen two together that weren’t killing each other.

At night it bellows a ear-piercing shriek that rivals that of a banshee. If you can hear a mallion, it likely already knows where you are. Thankfully, they tend to stay away from population centers and households, but are a constant threat in the wilderness. Beware hills that bleed.