Drifters

Overview

The Drifters are the predators of the Veil. They have adapted to its fluidity so completely that they can change their form, their size, and even their nature to move through its shifting corridors, and they hunt the Lost and the unwary. Among them are the Fog-Stalkers, which strike from the mist, and the Voice-Mimics, which lure travellers off their road.

Appearance

A Drifter has no fixed shape. Glimpsed in the fog it may be a long, low thing like an eel in air, then a tall figure, then a drift of mist with too much purpose in it. What travellers agree on is the colour of fog with something darker inside, and that it moves against the drift when nothing else can.

Habitat and Range

They hunt in the corridors and fog of the Veil, most often where travellers lose their way.

Behaviour and Temperament

What unites them is the hunt. A Drifter preys on the Lost, travellers who drifted too far and lost their purpose, and on the unwary, those whose intent wavers. A traveller who knows where they are going is harder prey.

Abilities

They change form, size, and nature to suit the corridor and the prey, and the Veil's fog hides them.

Uses and Dangers

They give nothing. Their danger is the reason travellers are told to keep their intent clear and not to cross alone.

Lore and Belief

The Veil's fog, travellers say, hides dangers, and they mean the Drifters. Tales of the Veil on Caeldon name them in many ways: fog-wolves, the hungry mist, the ones who follow.

Shrine-keepers at thin places tell of crossers who came back with claw-marks no beast of Caeldon makes, and of a few who did not come back and whose voices are heard calling from the fog at dusk.

Where It Appears

• The Veil
• Writers' Guide: The Veil and the Outside