The Hearthwanderer

The Hearthwanderer

Location	Joriah
Creature Type	Giant
Languages	Unknown

Summary

The Hearthwander is a well-known, harmless creature told as a myth or fairy tale that wanders Joriah at night, drawn to the warmth of a traveller's campfire, a symbol of good luck.

Appearance and Features

The Hearthwanderer is a 12 foot tall creature, vaguely humanoid shaped and walks on two legs but it's arms are longer, nearly touching the ground. Moss and flowers grow amongst the creature's very dark fur, enabling it to hide during the day while it sleeps and aids in being unseen while it travels at night, but it also distorts the creature's real shape and any smaller details. The only other noticeable feature under all the fur and moss is it's gentle, amber eyes that glow a little, flickering ever so slightly like firelight.

There is only one Hearthwanderer and the stories about the creature are older than anyone can remember, but it is impossible to determine if it is the same giant from the original stories, or if they are able to procreate.

Behaviour

This gentle giant is completely harmless, it will sleep during the day in caves or forests and travel the plains at night to look for food, hibernating in winter. It is a herbivore and feeds from the land, only occasionally taking from farms when desperate but only in small quantities, nothing that would be missed. It may travel up 90 miles in a night before finding it's next sleeping location, however it does not have a home that it returns to, it will just continue to wander, feed and spread seeds to maintain the grasslands of it's kingdom.

The Hearthwanderer is drawn to the campfires of travellers for it's warmth and will tend to dying embers while people sleep in order to keep the fire alive. It will never stay for long and leaves behind only good luck, the faint smell of wildflowers and moss, and sometimes a round footprint or two, weather depending. It will avoid camps if there is someone still awake taking watch, and those travelling at night may catch a glimpse of it's amber eyes or a large lumbering form walking in the distance.

Myths and Lore

The story of the Hearthwanderer is used as a way of saying good luck to travellers - "May the Hearthwanderer visit you on your journey!", or to calm small children if they're scared by something moving in the dark outside. The stories often exaggerate the creature's height, varying between 20 feet to 40 feet tall, however the rest of the stories are reasonably accurate.

Some people believe it is a guardian of the forest trying to restore Joriah into a woodland, others believe that it is lost trying to get back to it's family on a different plane, but the general consensus is that it is harmless and that is is good fortune to see it, even if it's off in the distance