Cakil

Lanky, dancing fiends with jutting lower jaws and upturned fangs, cakil haunt forest roads in shrieking bands, boasting of every kill before they make it.

A cakil is lean and long-limbed, never still: it bobs, twitches, and spins in quick, jerky steps, as if dancing to a gamelan only it can hear. Its face is all jaw. The lower jaw thrusts far past the upper one, and a pair of curved fangs juts upward beside its nose. Travelers usually hear a band of cakil before they see one: the clack of gnashing teeth, shrill laughter in the trees, and a stream of boasts about heroes they have supposedly killed.

A cakil's voice is a shrill, tinny screech. It speaks by pushing its lower jaw and teeth far forward, and the sound comes out garbled, so its words are hard to make out unless the listener already knows what it is likely to say.

Cakil are the lowest rank of buta, the brutish fiends that serve demon lords and wicked warlords as scouts, road wardens, and expendable shock troops. They lurk in deep forest where knights and wanderers must pass, and they love nothing more than challenging a lone warrior to a duel they intend to win by ambush. Dalang puppeteers tell a story that cakil hate to hear: a cakil who danced too boldly against a calm young knight and died on the point of its own keris. To the dalang, the tale is a warning about arrogance. To the cakil, it is an insult worth killing over.

In Combat

Cakil fight as a pack of skirmishers. Each opens by using Gnashing Howl on a different foe, then darts in to bite whoever is Frightened, using Nimble Dance to slip away before the enemy can answer. They gang up on anyone who backs away or looks afraid and ignore heavily armored foes who stand their ground. When half the band has fallen, the rest scatter into the trees, screaming promises of revenge.

Cakil Boasts