The Wispthorn

The Wispthorn, or ignis fatuus, is a monstrous entity steeped in legend, first recorded in 1624. According to the account, a young village girl, gathering firewood in the dense woods, came upon this creature by chance. She fled back, terrified, describing a beast that resembled a bear—but only in the most twisted, nightmarish sense. Its face was a grotesque amalgam of exposed teeth, set where eyes and a nose should be, and when it opened its maw, she saw not a throat but countless vacant eyes, gazing back with an unsettling sentience.
The creature's body bore further horrors: a prehensile, monkey-like tail and long, razor-sharp claws, almost disturbingly human in shape. What lingered most hauntingly in her memory, though, was the Wispthorn’s smile—a cruel, knowing grin that suggested a terrible pleasure in her terror. Rolling onto its back, it revealed a belly writhing with the tormented faces of those it had claimed before. The girl survived the encounter, as the beast simply watched her with its horrid visage before slinking back into the shadows of the forest.
Days after the incident, the girl nearly drowned in a nearby lake, only to awaken and speak of a liminal place where the Wispthorn reappeared, watching her silently, as if judging her soul.
Legends paint the Wispthorn as an angel to some, a demon to others, for it preys upon the helpless, consuming their fear. Though sightings have faded over time, some who have brushed death claim to have seen it, looming as arbiters. If it deems a soul worthy, they say, it grants a second chance at life; if unworthy, it consumes them, leaving their petrified face among the legion etched into its twisted form.