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Bestia Infinium: A Scamp Study

Tags: #"Bestia Infinium"  #"Event Article" 
  • Member
    September 15, 2017

    Master Gestor has to be kidding me. A month long study of Scamps? ‘At least five pages’. I came here to learn magic, not turn into a quill-pusher!

     


    Scamps are the lowest ranking Daedra that serve Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of destruction and natural disasters. So it’s no surprise that Scamps are adept at magic, and specifically fire destruction spells. They’re weak, with low magicka reserves, so a beginner conjuror won’t have to worry about something advanced like Fire Storm or Incinerate.

    Watch out for simple spells like fireball, flare, heat wave, and rain of fire.

    Scamps can be kept as pets, if you just want something to hold your extra travel gear or you just want to feel better about yourself.

    Tough luck for the Nords. These little pests are immune to unenchanted iron and steel weapons.

    They’re not immune to a good kick in the face, though.

     

     


    Ugly little bastards, aren’t they? They look like someone’s freakish experiment involving a bat, a monkey and a skeever. Some have horns protruding from their heads, shoulders and elbows, like a stonefire scamp, but all of them have four things in common:

    Big, bat-like ears. Shaggy, dark fur that starts at the stomach and goes all the way down to their feet, and scaly, tough looking skin the color of a troll’s earwax. Like everything else in Mundus, some are hairier or scalier or spikier than others. These varieties don’t give them any benefits, it’s just how they look.

    A scamp has a small, chiropteran face, and pointed ears longer than a Skyrim hare’s. They’ve got skinny little skeever tails for balance. I spoke to one of the mages from Morrowind, and there’s a small difference in the amount of claws on each hand and foot. Some have three claws on their feet, with four (and a thumb) on their hands.

    Others, like a stonefire scamp, have three claws on their hands (and a thumb), and four on their feet. Whatever advantage or disadvantage these numbers give doesn’t matter much. They’re still the lowest of the Daedric food-chain.

    You know what no one told me before I summoned one?

    They stink. They stink. Like a dead goat dragged through mammoth dung and left out in the sun to dry.

     

     

     

    I used the Staff of Everscamp to observe them in a group. They behave like dogs, or monkeys. Being so weak, Scamps immediately form a group - a troop or a pack, if you want to get specific. They’re agile and very very good at hiding. The amount of times I had one of the little fiends jump out at me from a dark corner…

    They have long limbs and claws like shivs. They can grip anything from a branch to a basket-handle. Helpful, if you want to use one as a courier, annoying, if you want to keep them out of your stuff.

    What might look like a sixth sense for danger is probably extraordinary hearing and sense of smell. They always know when someone’s coming, and they can smell whenever food is nearby (doesn’t matter if it has a pulse or not).

    Apart from being stinky pests, Scamps can get pretty vocal. They speak in some kind of gibberish, and no amount of extra credit on this assignment is going to make me try transcribing it. It’s just sounds. They get into petty little arguments among themselves, and give off a lot of warning growls. The most sound they ever make is when they’re fighting. Between the fireballs and the snarling, expect a lot of noise when dealing with them.

    If they sound about as much fun as a migraine, it’s because they are.

    On top of being some of the weakest, summonable creatures in the Daedric hierarchy, scamps are stupid and cowardly. I’ve met Nord brats with more guts and mettle than they have. They don’t win fights unless they’re in a large enough group. A sheer, overwhelming number might give a strong warrior or mage a run for their septims.

    I know I’d get a better understanding of scamp behavior if I could observe them in the Deadlands, but it’s not worth risking my life to see a bunch of scamps pick their noses. Whatever they’re like in Mehrunes’ plane, I’ll leave that up to someone else to discover.

    A few nights browsing Urag’s library tells me they tend to pop up in connection to other Daedric Princes as well. Vaermina, and even Malacath. They’re common, easy to control, and sometimes even useful, so this doesn’t surprise me.

    What DOES surprise me is that some of these creatures have actually been merchants. I guess every now and then you find a scamp with enough intelligence to understand how to barter and communicate with their betters. Like finding a diamond in dung. If I’m ever in Caldera (in Vvardenfell), I’ll see if I can find the scamp they call Creeper. Apparently it can speak in full sentences. I’ll have to see it to believe it.

     

    Turns out scamps are more useful dead than alive (shocking). They’re good for a couple of potions. If you’re an aspiring alchemist, scamp skin by itself has damage magicka, resist shock, reflect damage, and damage health properties.

    If you combine scamp skin with heather, you’ll create a potion that can restore personality. Mix it with dreugh wax, and you can restore strength.

    Scamp skin also cures paralyzation and drains magicka.

    Scamp skin must be harvested while the scamp is still bound to the mortal plane. Good luck with that.

    This is as much as I could find on the little pests.

     

    I hope you’re satisfied, Gestor. Before you ask, I returned the Staff of Everscamp to the archives. Next time I want to see a scamp, I’ll summon it myself.

    If I ever have to use that staff again, I’m hurling it into the Sea of Ghosts.

     

  • Member
    September 15, 2017
    I know this Orc! :D Art, words, and info all delivered in brilliant style, Fawn. Funny, too. I can actually almost smell them, a mention that was cool and brought me back to TES IV and hearing complaints about the stench. Great work, I reckon :)
  • Member
    September 15, 2017

    I love it. Very detailed and a great amount of fun to read; you can just imagine an annoyed student having to carry the staff of Everscamp around for an assignment and the scamps just ruining her life.

    Great stuff Fawn.

  • Member
    September 15, 2017

    Paws said: I know this Orc! :D Art, words, and info all delivered in brilliant style, Fawn. Funny, too. I can actually almost smell them, a mention that was cool and brought me back to TES IV and hearing complaints about the stench. Great work, I reckon :)

     

    Thank you, Phil! It was a lot of fun to write, and I got to play with Thurza's character voice in the process. ^^

  • Member
    September 15, 2017

    Teineeva said:

    I love it. Very detailed and a great amount of fun to read; you can just imagine an annoyed student having to carry the staff of Everscamp around for an assignment and the scamps just ruining her life.

    Great stuff Fawn.

    XD Haha, thank you. Thurza was pretty much ready to tell Gestor to shove that staff where the sun don't shine if that assignment went on any longer. 

  • Member
    September 23, 2017

    I love that concept art, too :D Somehow they made them look cute.

  • September 23, 2017
    I still hate them.