World: Alfheim
Diet: Annoyance and frustration as boggart, fear as bogeyman
Height: 7’3″ as bugbear
Lifespan: 170 years
Habitat: Other creature’s habitations
Activity Cycle: Nocturnal
Boggarts are an omnipresent nuisance in Alfheim life, found wherever sapient beings make their habitations. Capable of becoming invisible and telekinetic, they hide themselves inside the walls, cling to eaves, do anything necessary to hide themselves while using their powers to cause mayhem. Boggarts very rarely cause physical harm to any other living being. They throw items around, knock over furniture, and wake people up in the middle of the night, all to create the anger which they feed off of. A boggart will often make life hell for a household, giving them no rest for weeks at a time before suddenly moving on to another location.
Boggarts do not rely only on invisibility to hide. While this ability becomes more extensive in their adult stage, boggarts are natural shapeshifters. Not only can they change color and even alter features such as their horns, proportions, and integument, most of their body is similar in constitution to the substance known as “rubber”. There is very little hard substance in a boggart’s body, with most of what seem like solid limbs just being inflated sacks. The boggart can let this air out and collapse nearly flat, allowing it to hide in incredibly tight spaces. This suits it well when after nearly 20 years of tormenting others, the boggart finds a safe space to hide away and metamorphosize into its adult form.
As an adult, a bugbear no longer feeds upon anger but on fear. They can no longer become invisible but are still just as flexible and compressible as before, sneaking with surprising skill despite their bulk and bright colors. Their telekinetic powers are now used to unnerve prey as they stalk them, building tension for the final surprise. However, just like their juvenile state, a bugbear rarely if ever causes actual harm to its prey, and in fact is quite incapable of physical combat. Fearsome-looking claws and teeth are just as rubbery as the rest of the body, and what looks like muscle is only backed up by air. It is for this reason that bugbears prefer to terrify children, and if faced with the risk of a real fight, fold up as small as they can with a terrified squeak and hide away.
