Hafgufa
Lyngbakr, Cirein-cròin, Mial-mor-a-chuain (may be different creatures)
Home Plane: Elemental Plane of Water
Alignment: N
In the deeper parts of the Bottomless Deep there dwells something unimaginable. A creature so large, it can prey on whales like they’re sardines. A creature so ancient, the powers themselves don’t know where it came from. Hafgufa is colossal, reaching almost a mile in length. Its almost impossible to see it clearly—most who encounter the beast assume Hafgufa to be an inanimate floating rock. Its hide is gray and covered with barnacles and coral. Parasitic crustaceans feed on its skin, while being hunted by larger fish that travel alongside it. Only from a great distance can hafgufa be revealed to resemble a cross between a whale, a fish and a marine reptile, with a huge triangular head. Its pectoral fins are quite small, but its vertical tail is long and quite powerful. Hafgufa’s small eyes are almost always covered by an eyelid and virtually invisible on its body.
COMBAT: Hafgufa dwarfs anything else in its habitat (Lion’s Mouth and leviathan worms rival it in terms of length, but not mass, while Lure lives very far away). As such, it doesn’t have natural enemies, or and much in the way of fighting. It hunts in much the same way as whales—by opening its mouth (surprisingly quickly for such a large creature) and swallowing everything caught up in the torrent of water that rushes inside. Legends claim that Hafgufa can swallow even krakens. However, since Hafgufa feeds once a week at most, confirming these rumours is tricky. There’s another ability that Hafgufa can use—belching up a cloud of bubbles mixed with half-digested fish and organic refuse. This disgusting mixture attracts large schools of fish close to the monster’s mouth, whereupon it opens it and swallows its prey again. Otherwise, when confronted with something that refuses to be eaten, Hafgufa simply leaves in annoyance, or else batters the foe with its tail. Events like this are rare, though, and often a result of trickery from an illusionist, since no normal predator can hope to pierce this creature’s skin. However, one of Hafgufa’s right fins does bear an ancient bite mark from some equally large monster—perhaps the mythical being they call the Void Mosasaur.
HABITAT/SOCIETY: It’s not known whether or not Hafgufa is a singular giant creature, or one of a species. Accounts of Hafgufa always seem to differ slightly, but this could be chalked up to natural changes or flaws in observation. Many Prime worlds tell stories of something similar to Hafgufa, like creatures called Lyngbakr or Cirein-cròin—but evidence towards them belonging to the same species is inconclusive. Some graybeards argue that it would be impossible for Hafgufa to survive anywhere outside of the Plane of Water due to its mass and size, but that doesn’t account for the sightings. Perhaps the creature travels the planes via water vortices.
ECOLOGY: Hafgufa feeds on anything that enters its mouth. While there’s plenty of screed going around, no reputable person has travelled inside its stomachs and survives, so anything about its biology is hard to prove. Most natives of the Bottomless Deep agree however, that Hafgufa is partially elemental and feeds on water itself, much like xorns and galeb duhr feed on rock. The beast has no apparent openings on the other side and simply regurgitates indigestible things from its mouth. Some berks have tried to enter Hafgufa’s mouth in search of treasure—but none of those sods have ever been seen again.
CURRENT CHANT: Hafgufa seems to stick to the less explored regions of Water, so few bloods are liable to know its location at any particular time. Recent reports describe a splinter tribe of ruvokas who’ve established some kind of makeshift fort on the creature itself—perhaps in preparation to defend Hafgufa from something—or someone.
No statblock, since this kaiju isn’t supposed to be fightable.
Source: Margarita. Mythwatch: Hafgufa is a giant monster from Norse mythology, often mentioned alongside the kraken, as is Lyngbakr. Cirein-cròin and Mial-mor-a-chuain are similar-sounding sea creatures from Scottish Gaelic folklore.