Akami



Akami (Pronounced Ah-Khom-E) are viciously clever woodland creatures that carve masks and mimic the sound of lost children in order to lure adults into the forest and feed on their bone marrow. They inhabit temperate woods and forests that are near small towns and will occassionally venture close to these villages or outposts in order to observe children. They are feared and respected by almost all forest dwelling beings alike.

Physical Appearance
A small human sized wraith like creature whose body appears to consist of pitch black ragged fabric that drapes over their legs and feet. Their bodies can drastically change shape in order to accomidate their love for caverns and crevices as well as hiding behind trees.

Their arms are thin, nearly skelentonal, and nearly twice the length of a equal sized human being. Their taloned fingers are also extremely long and thin, however extremely articulate and dexterous.

Their faces are completely covered in pale wooden masks that contrast drastically with their black nearly shapeless bodies. Upon these masks are the carved face of children whom they have memorized. It is believed that only newborn and juvenile Akami have masks without detailed faces, instead a small expressionless mouth and two holes for eyes.

Behavior
Akami will live in small forest caves and caverns several miles from small villages. The appear to live in temperate forests only, and will form small packs consisting of 4 to 6 adults. They are fiercely territorial to all races and beings including other Akami and will viciously defend their homes from any amount of human sized creatures.

Akami have a haunting ritual that involves children of the nearby villages in which they inhabit near. Witnesses call this The Mimicing Process, and very few have ever seen it occur in its full state.

The Mimicing Process
Being mostly nocturnal, they will only come out in the hours near dusk or shortly around dawn in order to stalk children. Upon finding children seperated from adults they will sneak up to them and eventually show themselves to the children after they are assured they are alone in the forest. This may be performed by any number of Akami from a single pack. Creatures which get close to Akami will be suddenly overwhelmed by a seemingly hopeless lost and desperate state. The emotional effect is believed to be caused intentionally by the Akami and is used by them on the children which they stalk. Children will generally cry, cower, and call out, after a short time of being exposed to this state, the Akami will appear to the children.

At this point the Akami will emit what can only be described as a calming and traquility sensation over the children. While the children are subdoed by this sensation the Akami will then touch the childrens faces and use their taloned fingers to carve a 'wooden' mask in the exact likeness of the child they have chosen. This process is conducted in a few minutes. Upon completing their masks, the Akami will remove their existing mask and hang it on trees and transfer their newly created masks to their face. Witnesses state the Akami will then pat the children on the head and then cower away.

The children coming out of the state of traquity will have fragmented memories of the actual events that occured, however in no cases have children ever been overly worried about the event or what happened. Usually the first thing childen see after coming out of this hypnotised like state is the left over mask the Akami left behind. Akami appear to never select children twice for the Mimicing process and the desperate cries and sounds the children make during the initial part of the ritual are reused by the Akami for hunting.

Hunting
Akami are voracious hunters and use very clever tricks and tactics to lure humanoids into the woods. At night the group of Akami will often venture around trails near the village and begin emiting mimiced cries of the children they stalked previously. People who hear the sounds and look for the lost children are lured deeper into the forest as the pack of Akami will work together to 'bounce' the mimiced sounds from location to location.

Once the search party has gotten adequately far enough from the starting point, the Akami will close in. The victims will then begin experiencing the same lost and desperation feelings that the Akami emit to children initially. They will even use this tactic to seperate individuals so they can be picked off one by one. As the victims panic and try to get their bearings, the Akami will reveal themselves to the victim, using their mask to appear as the lost child in question. This is when the rest of the Akami ambush the victims using cover from trees, treetops, and bushes.

They attack voraciously, working in groups to pin and hold down the victim while another evicerates them. The attack is violent and bloody and the victim's corpse is stripped of belongings and carried to the treetops or to near by caverns.

The Akami will strip the victim of flesh and bones and feast only on the raw bone marrow of the victim. After eating the Akami return to their home, sometimes taking bones with them to eat later. Piles of broken and cracked hollow bones are dead give away of Akami feeding in the area.