Dredger

Dredger is the predecessor of Gaaruung. She was a necromancer-like Beast.

Description
Dredger was a bizarre amalgamation of plant and animal, with glowing teal eyes. Her back and top sides of her limbs were covered in fur that resembled grass - the rest of her limbs are vines and roots. She had no visible mouth, at least not at first glance - it was a vertical, tooth-lined mouth, hidden under her fur. Dredger was almost constantly hunched over and had a shambling walk, dragging her fingers along the ground and usually using one hand to help pull her mass.

Personality
Dredger loved life like her fellow Beasts did, but she did something they raised an eyebrow at - reanimating the corpses of her downed foes. Saddened and traumatized by the first enemy she had slain and as such reanimated, she found a strange comfort in bringing back her foes to life, and these thralls aided her in combat. Dredger was seen as a somewhat naÏve Beast, but she was very loyal and friendly, with powers to be feared.

Powers and Abilities
- Death Raiser: Dredger was notable for reanimating the bodies of her downed foes. She did this by inserting a vine in the bloodstream of her foes, which injected agents that tinkered with the nervous system of the "victim". Usually, the "thralls" would be capable of moving on their own, incapable of much thought, self-consciousness and moving awkwardly, or Dredger would take control of them remotely with her mind to move them like puppets.

- Soul Burner: The Dredger's glowing, teal-colored toxins were injected into foes with her roots - or sprayed from them. Capable of dissolving enemies to the bone in enough amounts, these toxins seemed not just to hurt living beings, but to hurt their lifeforce itself, rendering the creatures weaker. There was no known immunity to these toxins aside from fellow toxic Beasts naturally being immune to them, due to the poison's special nature. Robotic opponents, however, suffered no damage from them aside from minor dissolving of their metal alloy and circuits. Dredger herself was immune to poisonous attacks and illnesses.

- Entangling Roots: The roots that Dredger used as fingers were sturdy and strong, able to inflict powerful constricting force and digging in the flesh of foes to wound and inject toxins.

- Bizarre Shambling Mass: The necromantic Beast had a rather strange anatomy, one as strange as it looked. Her "heart", instead of pumping blood, pumped toxins which were used as some sort of blood by Dredger. The "bones" of the creature were instead made of roots, but the Beast did have muscles - they merely fused with the roots. The shambling Beast was not much harmed when the "bone roots" were cut, as the roots moved of their own to try and re-attach themselves to allow the Fleshmolder to keep moving. Dredger had eyes and a brain, but did not have much in the ways of organs - simply a special digestive system that allowed her to eat to keep her roots healthy. Because of this bizarre anatomy, Dredger could keep moving after sustaining large amounts of damage, where a normal living creature would have long been killed.

Creative Notes
OBB: "The idea of a Beast inspired by the Bog Beasts of World of Warcraft came when I first saw them, when I first played the game in late August '14. I never took that idea off the ground. It came back when I visited the zone of Zangarmarsh, in December. However, I was too busy during that month, so my bog Beast was put next to Korraz Th'auma on the "waiting for things to happen to them" shelf. As you can see, I finally took her off that shelf.

I have read that the WoW Bog Beasts, as half-plant, half-creature beings, represent, to an extent, the order between mammals, birds, etc. and plants. I decided to choose this as a basis for Dredger's design, who is a half-plant, half-flesh Beast herself. It just shows that animals and plants aren't too different, when you think about it. Dredger is sort of a bridge between animal and plant life, but she is also a bridge between life and death, with her necromancer powers."