Tloutor
Description
In the bogs what looks like land is often a weave of plants hiding depth or floating moss or sometimes it’s the shell of a tloutor. Amassing up to the size of 2m in diameter these tortoise like creatures have hard shells slicked with mud and moss, a long neck and dives into the water of the bogs to hunt and four strong legs to swim and a long tail to confuse predators, as it mimics the head perfectly.
Behaviour
The tloutor has adapted to life in the swamp by protecting themselves from the greatest predators present, the Zizzer. Their slick shells are too slippery for the creature to grab if they notice them at all and the Yawnzay can’t bite onto their strong shell. Their greatest threat is the Quibelcan who can pierce their shell with their smaller head so they prefer to move at night when that creature rests. They eat the larva of bugs that grow in the fetid waters in which they live.
Relationship to locals
Tloutor mean no harm to the humanoids of the bogs but their land like appearance can often trick the unprepared into stepping onto them and causing them to flee in fear. If they feel threatened a tloutor will strike, their tail being adept at catching things and wringing the life from them, but otherwise they keep clear of humanoids and their settlements.
Folktale
There is a whimsical tale that all land in the bog are the shells of tloutor, just ones who have entered a deep sleep. Some go so far into the belief as to say that the bog itself is a giant tloutor’s shell that is resting on a lost sea of Thiusland. It’s understandable that people would think the creatures are so ancient as their faces and bodies look like things from a now long past.