Hello, and welcome to the "A Book, A Quill And An Arc: Addendum". This is the place where I will be posting and updating "special" chapters from ABAQAAA (what a fucking acronym rofl) that weren't tied to the story progression directly and instead served more as exposition/explanation/etc. However, such chzpters would inevitably get spoiler-heavy. So, I've decided to move them here instead, out of the way. Not to worry, though, as whenever the main story reaches a point at which an update would be feasible, I will always mention which chapters have been updated/created in author's notes so you can come here and (hopefully) enjoy extra exposition.
It's almost like a super-primitive ARG.
If you're a newcomer that hasn't read the main story yet, you should leave and read it, because possible SPOILERS. If you're still staying, welcome. If you're a returning reader, welcome once more.
I'm in one of those "tired, but not exactly sleepy" moods – been lying in bed for really long now, but sleep just isn't coming. So I figured I'd rather try and make some extra entries – see if that will help. In particular, I want to take a page out of that guide's book – literally, I wished, but have to settle for figurative – and write something akin to a list of everything I've encountered, dead or alive, hostile or not, and put my own thoughts on it. A.K.A what I've been doing so far, just in a more compact form. Will probably bookmark this page too, and leave some extra space for possible future additions.
Anyways, here goes nothing.
First time writing addendums, they will be done in a slightly different (this) font.
Bestiary
Hostile
Zombie: easily the most common of hostiles. Zombies look and act like something straight out of Rob Marrow movie: slow, dumb, disgusting and very numerous. Attack usually by just punching relentlessly (without any inhibition too – I'd seen and felt them outright break their arms against my armor, not that it stopped them in the slightest), or trying to bite. I am yet to have been bitten, and I don't plan to, as I've seen what the infection (or whatever it is) can do to you. There are also baby zombies, as horrific as it sounds. Faster, smaller, somehow hit just as hard as adults; at least they're fragile enough to die-die from a sword swipe almost instantly. As discovered at a later date, they also have the ability to occasionally pick up tools (and I'm guessing weapons) and use them in a fight.
Zombified Villager: this is what this mystical infection does to you. I've only seen this type once, but one is too many times already. From what it looked like, the only difference from your standard zombie is the fact that the face is still recognizable (which makes it so much worse). Poor guys.
Cadaver/Husk: another zombie variant I haven't encountered yet, but it was described by That-Dude-With-Poor-Grammar. From what I understood, he's only ever seen them in very dry and hot locations (a desert, to be precise, so I'm not at risk of seeing one any time soon, I reckon) and that he felt pretty bad after being scratched by one. Wonder if it's infection or something else.
Drowned: same stuff as with Cadaver. Supposedly "lives" in bodies of water and looks like a drowning victim coupled with the usual zombie look (as if it wasn't a grimm sight already). From the Dude's words, likes to grab onto you and try to drown you along with itself. There was more information, but the rest of the entry was unreadable. Can't really erase anything here without ruining the page, so I'm just adding info after my latest encounter: they are fucking ugly and horrifically disfigured, can apparently use fishing rods to drag you towards them; besides that not too different from normal zombies.
Spider: Very huge, very bloodthirsty. Can climb walls. Likes to lunge before biting (gives a great opportunity to dodge). Also able to crawl through small but reasonably wide holes. That's all there is to them, really. NOT poisonous, so that's at least some sort of reprieve (unlike their smaller cousins!). I have seen them occasionally roaming peacefully in sunlight and not paying me any attention, but since I haven't figured out what gives, AND the fact that 95% of them still want to eat me on sight, I'm keeping them in "hostiles" category.
Cave Spider: I really wish I had a flamethrower. Or a fire-based semblance. Lava bucket is good and all, but it doesn't hold up to the pure vileness of these things. Smaller than normal spiders (which lets them fit through spaces you wouldn't expect to be attacked from, yet somehow they bite just as hard, and, worst of all, their poison makes you feel like you're being eaten from inside. Screw these guys.
On a separate, less angry note, these are one of the two monsters I saw being summoned/created by that weird cage thing.
Skeleton: a representative of (presumed) undead that had given me quite the grief while I was new to this place (they still do, occasionally). I say presumed, because they're the other "species", along with cave spiders, who seemed to be created by the strange cage contraption, so I have a suspicion they are not actually reanimated dead. Anyway, all of them wield bows, seemingly infinite supply of arrows (those get pulled out of somewhere), and can aim rather well, though they don't really seem to compensate for arrow travel time, so being quick on your feet really helps. Thankfully, they're nothing more than bones held together by something, so severing/breaking even a single one makes them fall apart – doesn't matter if it's the skull or one of the arm bones you're taking off.
Stray: subtype of normal skeletons I've read about in the guide. From what I gathered, they roam very cold areas (the guide simply said snowy forest), and the arrows they fire have some sort of poison to them too? The author said that the poison severely weakened their legs (making it much harder to move around or run away).
And if that isn't a scary thought.
Creeper: the self-exploding suicider, like the famed Mistralean Kamikaze warriors; also the thing that first introduced me to the Near Death Experiences, forced me to treat it with utmost respect. I'd gotten used to calling them just "Greens" or "Green Guys"; in hindsight, "Creeper" (picked the new name from the Dude's book once again) is a much more fitting moniker. Seriously, in a cave I have to stop every few seconds and listen, wondering if those were my own footsteps, or someone else's; I would call this paranoia if this wasn't downright mandatory for my own survival – save for quiet footstep sounds, they are completely silent. Not that surprising, considering they look like shrubbery with an explosive filling, condensed into a vaguely humanoid form. Once spotted, they are easy prey – just make sure that your hit has good knockback to prevent it exploding too close (or at all), Or just arrow away; whatever works. It's when you hear the dreaded "Hsssssssss…" out of nowhere that there's a problem. A deadly one, more often than not.
Slime: became aware of those only through the book. Described as being giant cubical blobs of, well, green slime, somehow possessing ability and enough intelligence to jump towards and try to crush you; also, evidently, tinier globs that get cut/smashed off try to do much the same thing: jumping into your way, trying to stick to your legs to slow you down, etc. Though, apparently, this process does not go forever – small slimes die for good. If I had to make a comparison, then it would probably be with that Hydra Grimm (native to Menagerie, I think?). Then again, I don't think Hydra get smaller as they die.
Witch: no encounters with these as well, as far as I know. Unfortunately, everything written about the Witch by the Dude is missing (the page is almost gone) so I really have no info on whatever this may be. But then again, witches aren't supposed to be good, right?
Phantom: yet another harpy-looking decomposing thing that looks like it is half step away from falling apart. The only flying monster I have seen so far. Seem to appear right above your head, then glide down and try to take a bite out of you before flying back up. One is easy to avoid, but so far I've only seen them appear in groups. They try to fly back up after getting hit, so it's best to hit them once as hard as possible instead of just several times. Their "wings" are filled out by this strange membrane that can sometimes be caught after they die. Not sure what exactly prompts their appearance - I'd had no encounter with them for like weeks after my arrival, then suddenly they pop out of nowhere, then it's weeks of peace again and another encounter.
Friendly
Cow: the strong backbone of food production – meat, milk and hide for your heart's (and stomach) content. Also a very docile animal that I adore. Beef is really tasty if you treat it right (even if "acquiring" said beef has huge potential to empty your stomach to begin with); leather's useful too. I would very much appreciate getting some milk from them too, but I don't know how to milk cows properly, and I don't want to cause them pain by jerking their udders like an idiot. Guess I'll have to ask around.
Fish: while fish was much more up Blake's alley (I'd never held much taste for it before), I can't deny that here it has spared me sleeping on an empty stomach plenty of times. Add the fact that the fish here seems to have very little variation in how big it is - almost all of it is of award-winning size – and how slowly they seem to swim around, enough to be caught with bare hands…not to mention deeply smoked salmon with a helping of salt is downright divine in taste. Maybe Blake's had a point after all.
Horse: just your average wild horses. Being able to ride them would be a huge bonus, but I don't know how and I already felt what it's like to be a clueless rider.
Donkey: only seen a single donkey so far, not sure what they're like.
Sheep: best choice if you wish to stay warm on a cold night. Their wool is remarkably high quality for being unprocessed/untreated/whatever; best of all, there's no need to slaughter them (though roasted lamb chops are a nice meal, every once in a while) - simply put a pair of easily made iron shears to good use and you'll be swimming in that wool in no time. Their constant BBEEEEEEEEEEing, on the other hand does tend to get annoying; thankfully, my little house is soundproof enough to spare me that.
On a side note, I probably should think of knitting myself a sweater, or a jacket of some sorts (even if knitting is not one of my strong points) - Pumpkin Pete is not going to last forever, even with all my maintenance.
Pig: I really ought to make (or buy) a separate set of clothes for cleaning out the pig corral. I mean, I knew they were not the cleanest of animals, but Gods! That's just downright torturous. Plus the fact that they're so very pig-like makes it extra hard on my conscience when I butcher them. I've only done it once to a pair of them, and have not been looking forward to the next time ever since; so they've been kind of just chilling there. Maybe it's better that way - not like I have a shortage of other meats, and watching them mess around never fails to put a smile on my face. Until I get hit with the freaking smell, that is.
Bee: not much to tell, other than they're really huge and really slow. I did see then pollinating the flowers, so maybe there's some honey to be had. Somewhere.
Chicken: I really have more eggs than I know what to do with; the chicks pump them out like crazy - easily one egg every otber day or so. I imagine it would be an even bigger problem if the eggs did not require external help to hatch, else my chicken pen would probably be overflowing right now. If I had a proper pan, I could make omelettes for days. Homemade chicken wings are great too; or would be, had I known how to make them correctly. Also, this is the only animal so far that can potentially multiply on its own: I only need a single chick to give me eggs; eventually, one of those eggs will give me another chick, and it'll just snowball from there.
Villager: the only sign of civilization around these parts. They're human, but at the same time not exactly - no human or Faunus alive could have a nose that big. Most of them are hard at work maintaining their villages day after day; though quite a few of them do offer trades, even while working. They're a diverse bunch - men, women children of all ages (except old), skin tones and backgrounds. I say backgrounds because, though we all speak one common language, quite a few of them do so with vastly different accents, which is a bit strange, considering how close the villages I've visited are to each other. Most of them, I found, were initially rather apprehensive about me, going so far as being openly distrustful and even hostile. That's changed over time, but there's still this "shady" factor about them and I can't for the life of me figure out what it is; and maybe I shouldn't - everyone's entitled to their own secrets. Especially considering how much they have helped me to adapt.
Treat them right, and they'll do the same in return. At least, that's the idea.
Fox: looks like your typical red-fur fox. Zooms around really fast, is pretty skittish, likes sweet berries, does not like wolves (runs away) and makes these stupid adorable
Hostile if provoked
Iron Golem: the stalwart, full-time protector of villages - a huge, animated iron statue. Normally it doesn't really mind your presence (though it does constantly stare when you're nearby, and it is pretty unnerving), but if it does decide to attack…I saw one smash a pair of zombies high into the air with but a flick of its arms. It is going to hurt.
Man of End: also know as Endman, Ender, Enderman, Tall Black Dude, etc. A strange, tall, slender, pitch-black abomination with purple eyes, a mean streak and ability to teleport all over the place. This was one of my first encounters, and, given the lack of experience back then, it really didn't go too well. The damn thing is fast, hits like a full-speed Beowolf and can teleport anywhere, anytime. Having survived several bouts against them though, I've managed to work out several quirks and crippling weaknesses: their huge size at times may make them unable to reach you (better watch out for those long hands, though); water is harmful to them, so finding a lake or a river can be a life-saver; making eye contact while they're angry freezes them in place (not for long – teleporting and all); above all else, they do not turn hostile if you don't hurt them or make direct eye contact! It's best to leave them alone nine times out of ten. That one-out-of-ten time you do decide to kill them for a chance to get an Ender Pearl (no idea what it does still), their non-hostile (initially) nature gives a lot of time and opportunity to plan the fight ahead.
Wolf: Having met only a single wolf so far, I can't say much besides basic facts: probably travel in packs, probably hunt in packs, will likely leave you alone if not hungry. That being said, the single wolf I've met was, well, alone, rather malnourished and was content with eating rotting zombies for a snack. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly, which is just sad), all it took was a few cuts of meat, scratches and belly runs for the wild beast to turn into my new companion; a ferocious one at that. On top of that, for a wild animal, it had been surprisingly receptive and understanding of my commands, even if they were as basic as "sit" and "kill". Not sure if this is indicative of their entire species being like that - Wolfy looked like he had been on his own for some time - but I'm taking any victory I can get.