Rougebuck

Rougebucks are said to be the lingering curse of caravans lost on winter roads, where a single cheery guide of a reindeer was claimed by cold and grief. Townsfolk tell of a beast that returns each year to the places where warmth was squandered, seeking to reclaim heat and hearth from the living. Many a roadwarden's log in the northern reach mentions a lone, crimson-eyed buck that led travelers astray until the travelers were found frozen with chests puffing small, red blooms of frost. Scholars at the Hemmbridge Collegium, notably the winter folklorist Marvek Surn, argue that Rougebucks are not simple undead but a skittering echo of a spirit bound to places where promises were broken on cold nights. The Bound Cartel — a guild of caravaners — keeps a crude set of rites and bells they use to ward wagons from the Rougebuck's approach. Still, hunters who attempt to slay one find its nose hard to extinguish; some claim removing it only produces two more faint glows that crawl away into the snow.

Rougebuck resembles a small, emaciated stag about the size of a large hunting dog to a human (roughly knee-high). Its coat is patchy: snow-dulled white fur clings in tufts around bones and joints, while midsections show taut, leathery skin streaked with dark, frozen blood. The most striking feature is a bulbous nasal pad that glows a raw, crimson light, wet with a slow, viscous sap-like fluid that freezes into black crystals where it drips. Antlers are thin, brittle, and asymmetrical, like abandoned fence posts, spiked with flakes of rime that chime faintly. Its eyes are glassy and pale, pupils wide and slow. Hooves click like brittle wood on ice; the creature leaves small, jagged frost-marks that blacken whatever they touch.