mythical monsters that kidnap people?

[SirGeneralSir]

I need some ideas.

I am looking for some mythical monsters that operate in a pack/hoard type of community,

that will attack travelers or small towns/villages, doing the raid and or pillage deal

while also kidnapping anyone they could have a use for in any number of ways.

So far I have a pick of Goblins or Werewolves, any other suggestions? 

[Thundercloud]

Ratmen are an obvious alternative, but basically any race can match if you give the right culture. Pirate mermen that raid coastal areas and abduct slaves...

[Desiderius Price]

How about unicorns tripping out on bath salts?

[SirGeneralSir]

How about ones in a forest/mountain setting?

The Ratmen sound like they would be a good candidate for the inside of a ruined city or something, might still be able to use them.

The setting I have is for the hero to find out that his friends have disappeared near X, so he goes out to find them only to find that it was ABC that took them and now he must 

race the clock to save his friends before it is too late.

[Desiderius Price]

Trolls are a classic.

[SirGeneralSir]

Thats another good one.

I am thinking that I might go with the Ratmen though, then all I need is a Lair that they would use and the Hero could take over for his own uses instead.

A plot is forming in my mind but it is not yet clear.

[Desiderius Price]

Well, if you want to twist the classic, make the trolls out to be nice, polite, and keeping people away from those nasty Ratmen.

[SirGeneralSir]

I actually prefer to have monsters etc be more classic/traditional in accordance to history/mythology, I find its less work but also easy for more people to understand the idea etc.

So far the idea now is, Hero hears friends are missing, there is a Ratmen lair at an old fort, Hero wants his friends back.

Might conquer the lair and make it his own home base kind of thing too.

[Desiderius Price]

3 minutes ago, SirGeneralSir said:

I actually prefer to have monsters etc be more classic/traditional in accordance to history/mythology, I find its less work but also easy for more people to understand the idea etc.

So far the idea now is, Hero hears friends are missing, there is a Ratmen lair at an old fort, Hero wants his friends back.

Might conquer the lair and make it his own home base kind of thing too.

Might make it more complicated, so the friends aren’t in the first place he checks… like, maybe he thinks its the trolls at first?  (Or whatever monsters you settle on.)

[WillowDarkling]

If you want traditional beings, rather than monsters who “kidnap” people the Huldufólk (I think the English word for it is Hulder folk, or the Hidden people) of Iceland, have been known to technically kidnap people… We do also have elves who do the same thing, and they are often considered more hostile towards humans than the Huldufólk are. 

There are two ways in which they do this. The first one, and the perhaps more benign way, is that they lure shepherds or travellers who have gotten lost in a snow storm, or thick fog on the highlands into their abodes, which are usually located in cliffs, large hills, or large boulders. In some cases, they appear to humans as kindly strangers and befriend the humans, and invite the humans to their homes, and the humans don’t realise they are dealing with Huldufólk, or elves, until they are inside the homes, and the cliff/boulder/hill closes behind them, and then each day that passes inside, a year or even a decade passes in the world outside. It is VERY hard to leave again and very few actually escaped. This kind of “kidnapping” is usually not done with ill intent, but rather because the Huldufólk or elves fall in love with the human, or just befriend them, or in some cases, the human helps the Huldufólk or elf in some way, and they “repay” us humans by inviting us into their hidden world. Some humans who fall in love with one of them even choose to willingly join their world, and leave the world of the humans behind. 

 

The less benign way is what we call the Umskiptingur, or the Changeling. The origin of this superstition very likely comes from the Irish, Welsh and Scottish roots of our ancestors, since I have heard similar versions of this from the United Kingdom. 

But, the Umskiptingur is a baby… a human woman has a baby, and the baby thrives for the first few months, and in most stories, the baby is gorgeous, and such a sweet baby that it is a wonder to all who know it… but then suddenly, usually around the age of one year or so, when you’d expect the child to start trying to walk, and making sounds like the baby is imitating speech and such, the baby suddenly changes. Usually the child is much the same physically, but it’s moods and general personality does a complete 180°. The child becomes peevish and cries constantly, can’t be soothed by anything that used to soothe it, and very often starts to eat enough for a few babies, which in poorer farming homes could become detrimental to the health of the rest of the household. And very often the baby would start to eat things that were considered the “fancier” options of sustenance. Fatty foods and such. 

When this happens, the way to figure out if your child was an Umskiptingur, was to leave the baby alone in a room, preferably where the baby could get its hands on something edible, or possibly even coffee, if that was available in the home. The the parents should hide out of sight, and wait, and ignore the child as it cried and wailed. Eventually, the Umskiptingur would grow annoyed, or figure that it was completely alone, and then it would shapeshift into its proper form, which very often was a grown male Huldufólk or elf, and make some kind of remark about it being something other than a baby, and walk over to where the foodstuffs were within reach. Then the parents of the baby should jump into view and either scare the Umskiptingur, or beat him, until his wife would come and save him, and bring the parents’ actual baby with her. 

The most famous of these is where the Umskiptingur gave himself away, when the mother of the baby made some kind of a bizarre display in the room he was in, and left the room, and the Umskiptingur said, “Father of seven children am I in the elf home, but never have I seen anything like this before.” Then the mother of the child jumped on him and beat him, until his elf wife came to rescue him and returned the actual baby. 

In some rare cases of this, the elf mother exchanges the human baby for her own irrepressible child, because the human child is so much better behave, or even more beautiful. In those instances, it’s usually necessary to beat the Umskiptingur, or deny them any kind of care until the elven mother decides that it would be better if she were to raise her elven child and return the human child. 

[SirGeneralSir]

I have read up on “traditional” monsters and there are many that will kidnap people for a list of uses, mostly as food.

but it also differs depending on what country, Germany and England may both have a type of fairy, but their nature can be very different, same with their appearances.

Giants, trolls and even vampires can differ a lot in different countries (annoying sometimes)  

 

[WillowDarkling]

The trolls in Iceland kidnap people for food, usually… 

[SirGeneralSir]

Some goblins and trolls, also do that but also for slaves and breeding. I think the more central europe has more about monsters/creatures doing the full list.

honestly not too unlike some kinds of Orcs in name a fic world.

 

[Desiderius Price]

Well, if you’re unsure how to proceed, a slow cook, a good sauce, and baste frequently, are usually good rules of thumb. 

[SirGeneralSir]

ATM I am thinking that some random character will survive the attack, make it back to town and tell the hero what happened, some hunters or whoever, will then inform him that A B and C locations are the more likely spots that would be the lair. 

[InvidiaRed]

On 12/5/2021 at 2:18 PM, Desiderius Price said:

Well, if you’re unsure how to proceed, a slow cook, a good sauce, and baste frequently, are usually good rules of thumb. 

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxJeULM2N_MClun2g2QD0vG4XYKH6dkKeQ

 

[InvidiaRed]

On 12/5/2021 at 12:04 PM, WillowDarkling said:

If you want traditional beings, rather than monsters who “kidnap” people the Huldufólk (I think the English word for it is Hulder folk, or the Hidden people) of Iceland, have been known to technically kidnap people… We do also have elves who do the same thing, and they are often considered more hostile towards humans than the Huldufólk are. 

There are two ways in which they do this. The first one, and the perhaps more benign way, is that they lure shepherds or travellers who have gotten lost in a snow storm, or thick fog on the highlands into their abodes, which are usually located in cliffs, large hills, or large boulders. In some cases, they appear to humans as kindly strangers and befriend the humans, and invite the humans to their homes, and the humans don’t realise they are dealing with Huldufólk, or elves, until they are inside the homes, and the cliff/boulder/hill closes behind them, and then each day that passes inside, a year or even a decade passes in the world outside. It is VERY hard to leave again and very few actually escaped. This kind of “kidnapping” is usually not done with ill intent, but rather because the Huldufólk or elves fall in love with the human, or just befriend them, or in some cases, the human helps the Huldufólk or elf in some way, and they “repay” us humans by inviting us into their hidden world. Some humans who fall in love with one of them even choose to willingly join their world, and leave the world of the humans behind. 

 

The less benign way is what we call the Umskiptingur, or the Changeling. The origin of this superstition very likely comes from the Irish, Welsh and Scottish roots of our ancestors, since I have heard similar versions of this from the United Kingdom. 

But, the Umskiptingur is a baby… a human woman has a baby, and the baby thrives for the first few months, and in most stories, the baby is gorgeous, and such a sweet baby that it is a wonder to all who know it… but then suddenly, usually around the age of one year or so, when you’d expect the child to start trying to walk, and making sounds like the baby is imitating speech and such, the baby suddenly changes. Usually the child is much the same physically, but it’s moods and general personality does a complete 180°. The child becomes peevish and cries constantly, can’t be soothed by anything that used to soothe it, and very often starts to eat enough for a few babies, which in poorer farming homes could become detrimental to the health of the rest of the household. And very often the baby would start to eat things that were considered the “fancier” options of sustenance. Fatty foods and such. 

When this happens, the way to figure out if your child was an Umskiptingur, was to leave the baby alone in a room, preferably where the baby could get its hands on something edible, or possibly even coffee, if that was available in the home. The the parents should hide out of sight, and wait, and ignore the child as it cried and wailed. Eventually, the Umskiptingur would grow annoyed, or figure that it was completely alone, and then it would shapeshift into its proper form, which very often was a grown male Huldufólk or elf, and make some kind of remark about it being something other than a baby, and walk over to where the foodstuffs were within reach. Then the parents of the baby should jump into view and either scare the Umskiptingur, or beat him, until his wife would come and save him, and bring the parents’ actual baby with her. 

The most famous of these is where the Umskiptingur gave himself away, when the mother of the baby made some kind of a bizarre display in the room he was in, and left the room, and the Umskiptingur said, “Father of seven children am I in the elf home, but never have I seen anything like this before.” Then the mother of the child jumped on him and beat him, until his elf wife came to rescue him and returned the actual baby. 

In some rare cases of this, the elf mother exchanges the human baby for her own irrepressible child, because the human child is so much better behave, or even more beautiful. In those instances, it’s usually necessary to beat the Umskiptingur, or deny them any kind of care until the elven mother decides that it would be better if she were to raise her elven child and return the human child. 

Isn’t there one that kidnaps greedy priests?