Soot Creeper

Summary

One of the most ubiquitous forms of spirits on Veltrona, the titular Soot Creeper is a relatively small being, varying between hand-to-head sized balls in size. Its body is little more than a condensed mass of ash, dust, and/or soot, and pitch black enough not even light can pierce it fully. While some compare it to a spider, the soot creeper's shifting mass and endless tendrils make it much closer to a kind of sea urchin-like creature instead.   Born from the remnants of fire, soot creepers are generally benign spirits who proactively seek out flames or cinders. They engulf the remaining heat, devouring it completely and then sweeping up any burned soot they can find into themselves. While this means they can, intentionally or not, stop accidental fires from running rampant, they also snuff out things like candles pretty regularly.   Some historians theorize many civilizations moved onto wax or crysium-based light sources as the soot creepers seemed to not prefer such if other options were available. In fact, many customs around fire management may even make sacrificial flame sources soot creepers can access so they don't go after actually valuable flames. The constant and unending tug-o-war between people and soot creepers is one of history's funnier, if often overlooked, dilemmas.   There is some contention about the intelligence of the soot creeper. They do display keen awareness of their surroundings, and often perceive dangers long before anything else around them does. While they never communicate, they display understandings of speech and can react to information they 'hear'. Some consider them to have a wolf-like intelligence in their cunning, but others argue they may be as smart as people. Soot creepers have a way of interfering with those they don't 'like', which is often believed to be a bad omen for the person.   The larger soot creepers are sometimes called 'mommy long legs', due to the fact that smaller soot creepers crowd around underneath them. It's not clear if it's actually familial behavior, but soot creepers can move together in great packs, with the largest of them functioning as 'leaders'. Despite their entirely benign existence, they can and regularly do scare the life out of people because of how unafraid they are. More than one late-night cook has opened their stove only to have a tide of soot creepers crawling out with great fervor.