Each encounter, on a step.
Specimens are recorded against the descent. The further the die falls, the worse the company.
What follows is the catalogued record. None of these are theoretical.
Specimens of the Field, recorded.
Forty-two specimens recorded by the Vitna scholars, ordered by tier. Each plate carries a roman name, a common name, and a tier indicating the manner in which an encounter ends.
The Quiet Specimenvornar
Recorded once, in a field outside the third gate. No second sighting. No record of withdrawal. Field-notes mark it as 'attentive but indifferent.'
The Sea-Walkerskála
Found at sea. Found at the sea-bottom. Found at the keep above the sea. The Vitna assume one creature. The Drottnar do not say.
The Hollow Sistergryma
Walks the broken shrines. Sings only when alone. The song is on record; no one who has heard it close has returned to remember it.
The Last Houndbrálf
Catalogued posthumously. The last record of a creature that recorded its own death.
The Iron Anchorkolma
Larger than what made it. Smaller than what feeds it. Encountered on the threshold of the second deep, never within it.
The Pale Sentinelthvar
Seen at every funeral the Vitna remember. Seen at none of their own. Where it is going is unrecorded.
The Shadow Reachmørka
Has no fixed shape. Has a fixed appetite. Avoid the long corridors after dusk; the corridors will not be long for you.
The First Drottnardraug
If found, do not engage. The Codex permits no rite for this encounter. The plates after this one are blank by direction of the workshop.