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Description
Relentless predation on R'lyeh is immeasurable selector of evolution on the corpse-isle, resulting in pseudo-herbivores which have developed truly formidable and spectacular defences to ward them off. The blister-beasts are a group which have gone for two clear lines of direct protection, huge horn-like projections and the ability to spew caustic fluids from paired glands. The first pair of "horns" of the blister-beasts originally derived from converting the front pair of appendages into enormous claws, while in all species except the basal daliphant, a second pair arose from heavy modification of a pair of feeding palps (so the two pairs of horns do not have a homologous origin). Another, more hidden, last resort weapon is used in all species against particularly persistent hunters, from paired nozzles located somewhere on their body (usually near the face), they are able to spray a stream of vesicant toxins with great accuracy, causing painful chemical burns on skin, or blindness if it gets into the eyes.

Members of the group, aside from their horn-like projections, can be distinguished from the contemporary urchin-hogs by being quadrupedal, giving them a more erect stance, and a comparatively more familiar mammal-like gait. Due to this, they are fast runners and tend to be more agile, allowing them to flee much more quickly if necessary, unlike the slower and more stationary six-legged urchin-hogs. As more advanced xenotherians, they give live birth; young are able to cling to the underbellies of the parents and feed on a patch of nutrient-rich fatty tissue which grows near the posterior of the adults. Males of most species will use their facial spikes for combat during the breeding season, but are otherwise amicable towards one another and males and females are always very similar in appearance. Most species are social and group-living; several species have either fleshy lobes or erectile quills on their rear end that can be raised and lowered, and used to identify and communicate with one another. Blister-beasts are primarily grazers and low-browsers, only the daliphant notably deviates from this general feeding preference.

———

(from left to right)

Dracra: Something like R'lyeh's attempt to emulate the mammalian antelopes or goats of far-off distant continents, this is a common species found grazing the prairies of the corpse-isle's interior. Their huge tusk-like claws allow them to rip up low-growing planimals, uproot tuber-like fat organs in the soil, or unearth small burrowing animals from their hidden tunnels. They primarily subsist on the sprawling spaghetti creepers which creep across the landscape that other grazers, such as urchin-hogs, rarely bother due to their thicker chitinous shells making them more difficult to tear up and digest. Dracra have thicker and more sturdy beaks, and molar-like grinding teeth more fit to masticate this tougher vegetation, which also allows them to feed on hard-shelled animals like thornsnails and bullbugs. Although more than capable of bounding away from predators, these are pugnacious beasts, and armed with large horns and a dorsal palp covered in thickened plates of callused chitin. These are normally used against one another in ritualistic combat, but they are often happy to test out these weapons against less experienced demohounds or young bugbears, especially in numbers. Herds with young are more likely to stand their ground, forming a ring around their offspring that is nearly impossible for any predators to penetrate.

Craghare: By far the smallest of the blister-beasts, weighing less than one kilogram, these form dense colonies on the high peaks, living among the most tangled brambles and crevices in groups that are frequently dozens strong. Thick, double-layered fur protects them from the howling winds and chill of winter, and they often nest in clumps for mutual warmth, as well as lining their dens with shed filaments for insulation. These make them desirable for other small alpine animals, in particular the toadbats, which commonly associate with the craghares and nest in their burrows in exchange for feeding on parasites and invertebrates which infest their colonies, preventing the spread of disease. During the summer, males become hostile towards one another as they fight for the attention of females; using their small horns, they will fling each other back and forth, sometimes even hurling one another over cliffs. Their small size and cushioning fur usually protects them from serious injury during such confrontations, while hooked, pickaxe-like claws, allow them to climb nearly vertical surfaces with ease, and often after being tossed over a cliff the victim rushes right back up and demands a rematch.

Black Cattle: An iconic denizen of the R'lyehian highlands, this is one of the region's largest motile animals and the largest of the blister-beasts (by weight), reaching nearly five-hundred pounds. Its back is covered in thick chitinous plates, like that of a rhinoceros, making it highly resistant to external injury, particularly from winged predators, and from the stings of venomous flora. It is normally very dark in skin colour to help absorb the sun's heat to compensate for its relatively hairless back. They are well-camouflaged against the blackened volcanic slopes of their natural habitat, but are able to communicate with retractable signalling lobes that protrude from its backside and flash with bright colours. Adults have few predators due to their intimidating pairs of facial spikes, size, and defensive hides, but juveniles make up a large portion of the diet of wiverns, which can swoop in and kill them in seconds by knocking them off ledges to their doom. To minimize losses, black cattle will migrate to lower altitudes to give birth and raise their young for the first several weeks of their lives so they can grow larger and stronger, and their movements bulldoze game trails through the humid cloud forests, which help make the environment navigable for other larger inhabitants of the alpine jungles.

Spithopper: A very common grazing animal widespread throughout most of the island's ecozones, it's an extremely popular prey item, but has adapted for intense predation by great speed and agility, as well as a rapid breeding rate. Powerful back legs allow them to leap in bounds of up to twelve feet in length, a huge distance for a meagre animal of less than ten pounds, and reach over fifty kilometres an hours at full sprint (which it rarely reaches due to the winding and uneven terrain). Predators which close the gap may be in for an unfortunate surprise as the spithopper's nozzles, located behind its head, are able to spray backwards to nail anything directly behind them. They often forage in loose associations of great size, sometimes more than one-hundred may congregate in areas of particular richness, but they are not strictly social. Spithoppers hold home ranges, but this range grows and shrinks with competition and seasons; these are exceptional for their aggression among smaller pseudo-herbivores where they will violently attack and ward away grazers of different species within a similar size range, often mobbing them in numbers, which helps them to ecologically dominate a region. Rarely, they may reach plague-like population densities due to the females' ability to pump out more a dozen young per litter at up to five litters annually.

Retchgoat: Stocky and powerfully built, with huge pairs of curved facial spikes up to three feet long, anchoured by dense muscles which are large enough to form a hump over the shoulders. These are used for the expected purposes of intraspecific conflict and defence against predators, but the blister-beasts also use them for breaking open the exoskeletons of large tree-like planimals and get at the soft flesh underneath, a habit that helps them get through the harsher winter months when other vegetation may be scarce. They primarily subsist on penephytes, which are disliked by most other grazers for their thick waxy cuticle and lack of nutrients. However, the retchgoat's more efficient digestion and the lack of interest towards this variety of vegetation from other grazers means they can consume it in large quantities to make up for its low quality. The species is so named for the distance and strength with which it can lob globules of its burning secretions, a specialization against the winged gargoyles and wiverns which prowl the upland slopes, and are its primary hunters. This is one species commonly seen alongside the montane-dwelling king striders, which will freely intermingle alongside the retchgoats as if it were one of their own, its own pale yellow hide matching the golden-yellow of the blister-beasts.

Daliphant: The most aberrant of the blister-beast species, it cannot be mistaken for another other xenotherian species, even from a distance, due to its grossly telescoped legs, which extend its body more than six feet off the ground, for a total height of up to nine feet. Its status as the most divergent blister-beast is also evident by possession of only one pair of horn-like claws, retaining two pairs of side palps, which have instead become specialized as extremely elongated grasping tentacles, necessary to manipulate objects from far above the ground, and vesicant glands held at its tail end rather than close to its front (primarily used for defence against arboreal or winged predators). The daliphant is a wading feeder, and its legs followed the same ecological pressures as something like a heron or stork, allowing the animal to pad through the shallows with its body held dry, with wide lobes on its feet spreading out its weight on floating or partly submerged vegetation, often tangled in layers so thick that even this one-hundred kilogram animal can be easily supported. Its feet are lined with long, sensitive hairs which it relies on to detect the movement of small aquatic animals in the murky water without needing to see them... or the movement of much larger aquatic predators lurking below.

Sabresheep: An elusive forest grazer which is one of the least social of the blister-beasts, and easily identified from its thick filament coat, which is vibrantly patterned to match the patchy rays of light that pierce through the flesh jungle. Because blister-beasts are predominantly prey animals, they live in numbers for mutual protection, but the sabresheep has less need for herds when it wields an army on its back. Infecting its bristly fur is a type of tiny marrellomorph known as the pyromite. The pyromite is part of subgroup which are common skin parasites for xenotherians, and are adapted to feed directly on their protein-rich skin filaments as sustanence; this is usually harmless, but heavy infestations can lead to mange-like conditions. The sabresheep has adapted to defend against this by growing far in excess of what it needs in hair, allowing the pyromites to proliferate in great number on their bodies with no ill effect. In fact, sabresheep without pyromites are vulnerable to overheating and skin infections due to their overgrowing coats. The pyromites keep their fur continuously trimmed and clean, by consuming any detritus that may accumulate, and provide an effective anti-predator defence; any carnivore attempting to attack a sabresheep often finds itself repeatedly stung by the tiny crawlers pouring from its would-be victim's hair.

Description
Relentless predation on R'lyeh is immeasurable selector of evolution on the corpse-isle, resulting in pseudo-herbivores which have developed truly formidable and spectacular defences to ward them off. The blister-beasts are a group which have gone for two clear lines of direct protection, huge horn-like projections and the ability to spew caustic fluids from paired glands. The first pair of "horns" of the blister-beasts originally derived from converting the front pair of appendages into enormous claws, while in all species except the basal daliphant, a second pair arose from heavy modification of a pair of feeding palps (so the two pairs of horns do not have a homologous origin). Another, more hidden, last resort weapon is used in all species against particularly persistent hunters, from paired nozzles located somewhere on their body (usually near the face), they are able to spray a stream of vesicant toxins with great accuracy, causing painful chemical burns on skin, or blindness if it gets into the eyes.

Members of the group, aside from their horn-like projections, can be distinguished from the contemporary urchin-hogs by being quadrupedal, giving them a more erect stance, and a comparatively more familiar mammal-like gait. Due to this, they are fast runners and tend to be more agile, allowing them to flee much more quickly if necessary, unlike the slower and more stationary six-legged urchin-hogs. As more advanced xenotherians, they give live birth; young are able to cling to the underbellies of the parents and feed on a patch of nutrient-rich fatty tissue which grows near the posterior of the adults. Males of most species will use their facial spikes for combat during the breeding season, but are otherwise amicable towards one another and males and females are always very similar in appearance. Most species are social and group-living; several species have either fleshy lobes or erectile quills on their rear end that can be raised and lowered, and used to identify and communicate with one another. Blister-beasts are primarily grazers and low-browsers, only the daliphant notably deviates from this general feeding preference.

———

(from left to right)

Dracra: Something like R'lyeh's attempt to emulate the mammalian antelopes or goats of far-off distant continents, this is a common species found grazing the prairies of the corpse-isle's interior. Their huge tusk-like claws allow them to rip up low-growing planimals, uproot tuber-like fat organs in the soil, or unearth small burrowing animals from their hidden tunnels. They primarily subsist on the sprawling spaghetti creepers which creep across the landscape that other grazers, such as urchin-hogs, rarely bother due to their thicker chitinous shells making them more difficult to tear up and digest. Dracra have thicker and more sturdy beaks, and molar-like grinding teeth more fit to masticate this tougher vegetation, which also allows them to feed on hard-shelled animals like thornsnails and bullbugs. Although more than capable of bounding away from predators, these are pugnacious beasts, and armed with large horns and a dorsal palp covered in thickened plates of callused chitin. These are normally used against one another in ritualistic combat, but they are often happy to test out these weapons against less experienced demohounds or young bugbears, especially in numbers. Herds with young are more likely to stand their ground, forming a ring around their offspring that is nearly impossible for any predators to penetrate.

Craghare: By far the smallest of the blister-beasts, weighing less than one kilogram, these form dense colonies on the high peaks, living among the most tangled brambles and crevices in groups that are frequently dozens strong. Thick, double-layered fur protects them from the howling winds and chill of winter, and they often nest in clumps for mutual warmth, as well as lining their dens with shed filaments for insulation. These make them desirable for other small alpine animals, in particular the toadbats, which commonly associate with the craghares and nest in their burrows in exchange for feeding on parasites and invertebrates which infest their colonies, preventing the spread of disease. During the summer, males become hostile towards one another as they fight for the attention of females; using their small horns, they will fling each other back and forth, sometimes even hurling one another over cliffs. Their small size and cushioning fur usually protects them from serious injury during such confrontations, while hooked, pickaxe-like claws, allow them to climb nearly vertical surfaces with ease, and often after being tossed over a cliff the victim rushes right back up and demands a rematch.

Black Cattle: An iconic denizen of the R'lyehian highlands, this is one of the region's largest motile animals and the largest of the blister-beasts (by weight), reaching nearly five-hundred pounds. Its back is covered in thick chitinous plates, like that of a rhinoceros, making it highly resistant to external injury, particularly from winged predators, and from the stings of venomous flora. It is normally very dark in skin colour to help absorb the sun's heat to compensate for its relatively hairless back. They are well-camouflaged against the blackened volcanic slopes of their natural habitat, but are able to communicate with retractable signalling lobes that protrude from its backside and flash with bright colours. Adults have few predators due to their intimidating pairs of facial spikes, size, and defensive hides, but juveniles make up a large portion of the diet of wiverns, which can swoop in and kill them in seconds by knocking them off ledges to their doom. To minimize losses, black cattle will migrate to lower altitudes to give birth and raise their young for the first several weeks of their lives so they can grow larger and stronger, and their movements bulldoze game trails through the humid cloud forests, which help make the environment navigable for other larger inhabitants of the alpine jungles.

Spithopper: A very common grazing animal widespread throughout most of the island's ecozones, it's an extremely popular prey item, but has adapted for intense predation by great speed and agility, as well as a rapid breeding rate. Powerful back legs allow them to leap in bounds of up to twelve feet in length, a huge distance for a meagre animal of less than ten pounds, and reach over fifty kilometres an hours at full sprint (which it rarely reaches due to the winding and uneven terrain). Predators which close the gap may be in for an unfortunate surprise as the spithopper's nozzles, located behind its head, are able to spray backwards to nail anything directly behind them. They often forage in loose associations of great size, sometimes more than one-hundred may congregate in areas of particular richness, but they are not strictly social. Spithoppers hold home ranges, but this range grows and shrinks with competition and seasons; these are exceptional for their aggression among smaller pseudo-herbivores where they will violently attack and ward away grazers of different species within a similar size range, often mobbing them in numbers, which helps them to ecologically dominate a region. Rarely, they may reach plague-like population densities due to the females' ability to pump out more a dozen young per litter at up to five litters annually.

Retchgoat: Stocky and powerfully built, with huge pairs of curved facial spikes up to three feet long, anchoured by dense muscles which are large enough to form a hump over the shoulders. These are used for the expected purposes of intraspecific conflict and defence against predators, but the blister-beasts also use them for breaking open the exoskeletons of large tree-like planimals and get at the soft flesh underneath, a habit that helps them get through the harsher winter months when other vegetation may be scarce. They primarily subsist on penephytes, which are disliked by most other grazers for their thick waxy cuticle and lack of nutrients. However, the retchgoat's more efficient digestion and the lack of interest towards this variety of vegetation from other grazers means they can consume it in large quantities to make up for its low quality. The species is so named for the distance and strength with which it can lob globules of its burning secretions, a specialization against the winged gargoyles and wiverns which prowl the upland slopes, and are its primary hunters. This is one species commonly seen alongside the montane-dwelling king striders, which will freely intermingle alongside the retchgoats as if it were one of their own, its own pale yellow hide matching the golden-yellow of the blister-beasts.

Daliphant: The most aberrant of the blister-beast species, it cannot be mistaken for another other xenotherian species, even from a distance, due to its grossly telescoped legs, which extend its body more than six feet off the ground, for a total height of up to nine feet. Its status as the most divergent blister-beast is also evident by possession of only one pair of horn-like claws, retaining two pairs of side palps, which have instead become specialized as extremely elongated grasping tentacles, necessary to manipulate objects from far above the ground, and vesicant glands held at its tail end rather than close to its front (primarily used for defence against arboreal or winged predators). The daliphant is a wading feeder, and its legs followed the same ecological pressures as something like a heron or stork, allowing the animal to pad through the shallows with its body held dry, with wide lobes on its feet spreading out its weight on floating or partly submerged vegetation, often tangled in layers so thick that even this one-hundred kilogram animal can be easily supported. Its feet are lined with long, sensitive hairs which it relies on to detect the movement of small aquatic animals in the murky water without needing to see them... or the movement of much larger aquatic predators lurking below.

Sabresheep: An elusive forest grazer which is one of the least social of the blister-beasts, and easily identified from its thick filament coat, which is vibrantly patterned to match the patchy rays of light that pierce through the flesh jungle. Because blister-beasts are predominantly prey animals, they live in numbers for mutual protection, but the sabresheep has less need for herds when it wields an army on its back. Infecting its bristly fur is a type of tiny marrellomorph known as the pyromite. The pyromite is part of subgroup which are common skin parasites for xenotherians, and are adapted to feed directly on their protein-rich skin filaments as sustanence; this is usually harmless, but heavy infestations can lead to mange-like conditions. The sabresheep has adapted to defend against this by growing far in excess of what it needs in hair, allowing the pyromites to proliferate in great number on their bodies with no ill effect. In fact, sabresheep without pyromites are vulnerable to overheating and skin infections due to their overgrowing coats. The pyromites keep their fur continuously trimmed and clean, by consuming any detritus that may accumulate, and provide an effective anti-predator defence; any carnivore attempting to attack a sabresheep often finds itself repeatedly stung by the tiny crawlers pouring from its would-be victim's hair.