Dulan has really wanted to be an entertainer and a researcher. He really didn't want to be on the highway with a group of the King's Guard attempting to hunt down what had been killing farmers coming to market in this backwater town. He was only a novitiate into the Wizard's Guild, with spell which would let him dazzle a person - and really didn't feel ready to battle a monster (as the panicked reports claimed). However, the Masters didn't care what he wanted. Tracchus, the captain who was leading him and the other four had apparently come back from the last war, and seemed sanguine about the situation, and Dulan took hope in his silence. Until, of course, they crested the hill and saw the horrible thing.
There in the small valley was a massive hulking creature. It wasn't an ogre or orc which is what they were expecting. This was larger than an orc, and even more misshapen than an ogre. The creature was taller than a horse, and covered in corded muscle, which stuck out of its flesh at odd angles, making it look like they might rip as it moved. It loped like a dog, with strange legs, but was almost recognizable as a former man. One of its eyes hung by some sort of thread, as strange organs dangled from its belly, and its mouth was massive and horrific, making a horrible snapping sound as it opened and closed. For the creature had seen them and began to charge them with its strange loping run, making a horrific noise in its throat. Dulan immediately screamed and ran. He heard the snapping of a spear as Tracchus seemed to keep his cool. They he heard horrible snappings and screams. Dulan eventually got up the nerve to look - probably only a few moments later, but as he looked he saw a horrific sight, two of his companions, including Tracchus were already dead. The others fighting a pitched battle to escape. He whimpered and began chanting.
The Riastrad or the Warped are a rare sight along the highways, and the edges of cities. They are grotesque, with their bodies twisted, the inside and the outside swapped in places, with guts and things potentially outside their body. They look like nothing that could ever be found in nature, since they are not created in nature. They are, in fact, completely outside the bounds of nature. They are the results of what happens when someone without the Gift attempts to try to shake the foundations of the natural world. When someone learns a spell and attempts to cast it - most of the time nothing happens, and the person has just waited months or years of their lives learning something worthless. Whereas the rare ones undergo the Riastrad, or the Warp Spasm, where the laws of nature warp and the world changes, but only within themselves. They bloat, twist, and grow massive, their minds going the same way as their body, and they start reacting animalistically and violently. Most of the time they are killed by those around them as they attempt to rip a bloody trail through the world, other times they escape and become a danger living at the edge of society, since they attack whenever they see a person. A very small number have had a priest perform a minor miracle and bring them back into the realm of nature.
The Warped are well known as an easy source for witch hunters, would-be heroes, or freakshows looking for something they can display. Witch hunters use them to show the horrors of magic, and explain the way that magic is an attempt by the sorcerer to defy the will of the gods. The Warp Spasm is literally the act of Creation itself coming unravelled inside the body of a failed sorcerer, but other sorcerers are simply warping creation outside themselves, just with effects on others and not themselves. Those less inclined to religious fervor still wish to get the body of a Warped since having killed one can earn one a reputation as a power warrior, or just a great way to bring in the rubes to drop a few tinkers in the coffers.
__Horrific Violence_: The Riastrad is a horrific terrible monster, it is terrifying to behold, and it's horrific to battle. Whenever the creature causes a Steel test due to wounds, it adds +1 to the Ob of the test due to the horrific violence performed.
Improper Anatomy: The Riastrad is not properly designed, its body does not protect itself, since it is a mockery of nature. When they are struck, roll a die of fate. On a 6, add +1 to the damage dealt (so a B6 wound becomes a B7) and reroll, as the strike hits something that is not in the proper place, like the liver or the eyeball warped outside the body.
Destructive Body: The Riastrad's body is horrific, but almost all of them have a single horrible weapon. A giant club arm, a massive snapping set of jaws, a jagged spike of bone, something horrible which it uses as a weapon. The Riastrad's normal bare fisted attack is Pow - Add 2 WS 3 VA - WL Shortest (before Massive Stature), but this weapon gives one of: WL Long, WS X, or VA 2, depending on what it is.
A Burning Wheel Monster Every Week