On request, I’m going to begin writing some lab notes that might reinforce the lore that some of our more terrifying creatures depend on. These notes may not touch on those creatures directly - I would imagine that many of them were never seen before the Cataclysm occurred and the time situation was right for them to arrive - but they should provide a basis for understanding or at least accepting the abilities the creatures use.
“We’ve begun analysis on several of the smaller creatures we’ve encountered, and I’ve been assigned to the ‘Nethertouch’ group, created to investigate a peculiarity many of them share. Though their shapes and abilities vary wildly, it’s clear that all of them share the ability to act over a distance, with no discernible mechanism for doing so. It’s obvious such a mechanism must exist, of course, but it doesn’t seem as if our existing equipment is capable of detecting how these creatures manage it. Does this point to some previously unknown fundamental force? An equivalent of gravity, or electromagnetism, but previously and entirely unknown to us? One of the junior researchers was heard to exclaim that it must be magic, until I demonstrated that the phones we carry might as well be such to those who do not understand the invisible forces they use to do their work. The possibilities, if we can understand and mimic these functionality, are immense, from noninvasive surgery to save lives with no chance of bacterial infection to weapons that can bypass any amount of armor. It may not be magic, but it is incredible… and potentially very, very lucrative.”
“Report NT-1302 Summary: We have designated the small, furry, ball-like creatures as ‘tribbles’, although they share little in common with their namesake beyond a surface similarity since. We haven’t discovered a method for reproduction at all. Our studies would proceed much quicker if we weren’t so reliant of their appearing by chance, but the acquisition team has made little progress on that front. We must tread carefully with the few samples we have. We have done an autopsy on one of them, despite the risk, and an analysis of their microscopic structure indicates that they are most closely related to the infectious slime agent, despite clear differences in function and physiology. They have been marked for further study due to a rather unique ability, best demonstrated by a recent experiment where several of them were left in a large plastic container overnight along with about a hundred marbles of various basic, solid colours. Come morning, all of the red marbles were missing - including marbles that had been stored outside of the container but in sight of the creature, although to be honest we have yet to figure out how the creature sees either since it has no obvious sensory organs. A dissection revealed no trace of the marbles within the creatures body, and when the experiment was repeated the next night, not only were all the red marbles gone once more, but so was one of the tribbles.”
“Report NT-1303 Summary: Further study of the tribbles seems to support the hypothesis that these creatures maintain some sort of connection with… wherever it is they came from. A red marble was found with the detritus from a recent portal test, embedded in the remains of a rather grotesque looking creature we’ve not seen before. It is clear that these creatures have some method for for interacting with material of interest from afar, and somehow pulling it back into the place from which they emerged, but the exact method continues to elude is - there are no gravitational, electromagnetic, or even dimensional fluxuations we can detect with our equipment, but it may simply indicate we are looking at, or for, the wrong things.”
“Report NT-2104 Summary: The experiment involving the exposure of living rats to the writher have been intriguing. Left to their own devices, the writher and rats ignore each other, but, in accordance with last weeks experiments, when exposed to painful stimulus in the form of a blaring tuba blast, the writher becomes agitated. When this occurs, a rat that has an unblocked path to the writher and which are within three or so feet of the creature begin making intense vocalizations, likely indicating a pain response. Their heart rates elevate, their pupils dilate, and unless they are promptly moved out of this range they will remain locked in place, seemingly unable to move except for their vocalizations, which grow progressively more intense as time goes on or until the rat loses consciousness, which occurs after roughly 10 minutes of this experience. Only one rat experiences this behaviour at a time, but removing that rat will cause another to begin suffering from the same symptoms. We have detected no forces emanating from the writher that might cause such a reaction, but it is likely the same effect that caused minor headaches in the staff members that attempted to handle the creature earlier. No chemicals were released from the writhers body, no electromagnetic waves were sent out, and no physical contact was had between the subjects at any time - the cause remains a mystery, but one I am confident we will be able to solve.”
Let me guys know if you like this, if you want to read more stuff like this, or if you think something is “off” and should be changed (for example, perhaps the tribbles and writhers should have obvious eyes and require a gaze)
In game creatures that would probably be studied by this group:
Flaming Eyes, Master Zombies, Necromancer Zombies, Rat Kings, and Horrors (although the last one might be completely unrelated into how it causes it’s effect, the team would surely still love to study them. They will never get the chance of course, since the Horrors only appeared post-cataclysm and by that point the team had larger issues to deal with than capturing new study objects…)