Beldam

### Prey

Anything that lives that isn't a plant, fond of eating insects but favor lifeforce and soul energy

### Predators

Witchers?

The **Beldam** are a solitary race of living tree Fey that stalk the Night Ash Forest of Tír na nÓg. They are a type of intelligent living plants with a very unusual life cycle. They are a mutated cousin species to the Arboreal race.

## Physiology

A **Beldam** is a spindly womanoid creature which stands more than twice as tall as a normal human (15 feet), its joints creaking with deliberate and uncanny movement under its massive weight of 800 pounds giving its blows massive force. They have eyes that look like glass orbs and wear long clothes like dresses that hide their unnatural bodies.

## Abilities

### Racial Abilities

* **Beldam Physiology**: The abilities from being a **Beldam**.
	+ **Enhanced Violence**: The **Beldam** possesses the skills and the desire to harm and brutalize others.
	+ **Unnatural Size**: Compared to a human or most other humanoids, a Beldam is much taller and heavier making it a dangerous opponent who can tower over its prey and hits very hard.
		- **Large Size**: A **Beldam** naturally possesses a level of physical size bigger than a human.
		- **Proportional Physicality**: A **Beldam** possesses enhanced physical abilities proportional to their size and weight.
	+ **Wood Mimicry**: A **Beldam** is completely made up of wood.
		- **Dermal Armor**:
			* **Natural Weaponry**:
			* **Pain Suppression**:
		- **Malleable Anatomy**:
			* **Appendage Generation**:
		- **Seed Generation**:

### Magical Abilities

* **Dark Arts**: A **Beldam** can use dark magic to feed off its victims' lifeforce to cast Fey magic as such these abilities are dependent on the timeframe since the Beldam last fed.
	+ **Create Spawn**: Any creature killed by a **Beldam** rises as a full-powered greater shadow between 3 and 12 seconds after it is slain. A **Beldam** can control any number of greater shadows.
	+ **Dimensional Travel (Limited)**: A **Beldam** is able to travel to and from their pocket dimension via their established portal. Being able to use this ability is dependent upon the Beldam being able to feed within a certain timeframe as past this point which a Beldam can instinctually feel coming on they will either be trapped in or outside of their pocket dimension.
	+ **Psionic Image Projection**: Using their illusionary magic and powers while in their sub-space a **Beldam** can project images from their minds and/or that of others into reality.
	+ **Semi-Immortality**: **Beldams** as long as they continue to feed every once in a while (usually 50 years per victim) do not age.
* **Invisibility**: Like many Fey **Beldams** have the ability to render themselves unable to be seen. A Beldam can use this ability even in its starving state.
* **Mindreading**: **Beldams** are capable of sensing the thoughts or intentions of others. A Beldam can use this ability even in its starving state.
* **Supernatural Ugliness**: **Beldams** in their true form are so monstrously hideous that they are able to use it to affect others with fear and revulsion. A Beldam can use this ability even in its starving state.
* **Swallow Whole**: **Beldams** have supernaturally stretchy mouths capable of swallowing prey whole doing damage to its target and draining their energy. A Beldam can use this ability even in its starving state.

## Behaviors

### Lairing

A **Beldam** will haunt the forest it was born in finding a place to set up her lair using her magic to weave illusions and bend space and time. A **Beldam** will chose a spot (Sometimes a cave, a hole in the ground or a secret door in an old house) and create a portal, usually to a sub-space ruled exclusively by the **Beldam**. A **Beldam** will go around gathering minions to serve her, she will use different methods to gain their obedience some creatures will foolishly enter bargains with the **Beldam** and serve to avoid being killed and eaten, but others are just poor souls that prefer the **Beldam’s** world of fantasy to the harshness of reality.

### Stalking

Rarely does a Beldam go out to lure its victims in rather using its minions or foretelling to wait for its next victim as they are generally long-lived and very patient. Once the victim is near the **Beldam's** lair, it will use dreams or its minions to lure it through its portal to its sub-space, which will turn into a fantasyland specifically tailored for its victim.

### Predation

These bizarre intelligent plants native to the Night Ash Forest of Tír na nÓg are obsessed with consuming lives and “season” their victims by trapping them in a web of illusions specifically tailored to each victim. As the poor soul slowly realizes that their fantasyland is not what it seems, the **Beldam** who love games will often engages in rigged contests and games designed to drive their victims into an even deeper sense of despair. Once the **Beldam** is revealed for what it truly is, it consumes the life-force of its victim and transforms it into a literal shadow of itself to join the **Beldam’s** “family”.

### Reproduction

Every hundred years or so, a **Beldam** is driven to reproduce and plants a singular seed in some remote location. For fifty years, the juvenile **Beldam** resembles an ordinary tree, albeit one that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the human form, until it uproots itself in order to spread chaos and misery.

### Weaknesses

#### Salt

**Beldam's** have a natural aversion to the purifying properties of salt and will not cross a line of it.

#### Running Water

**Beldam's** have a natural aversion to the purifying properties of running and will not cross river or stream of it.

#### Iron

**Beldam's** have a natural aversion to the purifying properties of iron and will not willingly touch it as it burns them.

#### Fire

Being a living tree **Beldams** have an obvious weakness to fire.

#### Silver

A **Beldam** will like many monstrous species have a natural aversion to the purifying properties of silver and will not touch it as it hurts them.

#### Fey Oil

**Beldams** take more damage when struck with a silver witcher's sword covered in Fey Oil.

## Harvestable Parts

### Bark

The bark-like skin of a **Beldam** can be treated to serve as emergency food, it will last for decades and still be safely consumed.

### Sap

Due to the high amount of life force a **Beldam** gathers in their lifetime, the sap or blood of a **Beldam** is an extremely potent medicine capable of soothing and healing a damaged soul or mind.

## Trivia

* The Beldam is inspired by The Beldam from Coraline as well as this article made for inclusion as a DND monster. I took the liberty of adapting it for inclusion in the Witcher multiverse, I do not claim ownership or creation of this original work, all credit goes to the original creator and the article writer.

## Notes

* The flora lifeform known as the **Beldam** is a purely fanon creation as such there is no official proof of their existence in the Witcher works outside the fanon community.