Cernabryn Stagwarden

Cernabryn Stagwardens are servants and hunters of the Glanver Court, a seasonal fey retinue that rules the half-year of waning light and harvest. Legends claim the first Stagwarden was a woodcutter who cut down an exalted oak and was reborn with the bark's resentment; the Glanver Court bound him to its hunt and granted antlers that whisper to deer and shadow. Hunters who vanish in the harvest woods speak of a polite voice that asks for a 'keeping of accounts' beneath russet trees. Scholars such as Marrek Ise of Wyrmwood Grove trace the Stagwarden's patterns by the scattering of acorns left like talismans at fresh kills; the creature collects tokens from its prey to barter with other fey. The Stagwarden's lair is often a ring of standing trunks known as a 'hollow seat' where the court holds mock trials; stray travelers taken here are rarely seen again unless returned as trophies or bargaining chips for the court's whims. Local hunters fear the Stagwarden’s mimicry — it will copy a lost companion's call, leading pursuers into snares and bewitched briars.

A male-bodied fey roughly human-sized but longer-limbed, clothed in a patchwork coat of browned leaves, moss, and stitched hunting trophies. Its head is a real stag skull with a full rack of antlers; living muscles and fur frame the bone, and the antlers are veined with coppery runes that glow faintly at dusk. Its eyes are glossy amber, reflecting like lanterns. Fingers end in chipped, plant-like black nails; strips of fungus and lichen cling to knees and shoulders. Scars of old arrows cross its ribcage, and a leather bandolier of carved bone trinkets hangs at its hip. When it moves it leaves a whisper of falling leaves and the faint crunch of twigs, and steam-like motes of spores trail from its coat in cold weather.