Rare Monsters

  The Alber is a demon or dragon from the legends of the Ziller Valley in Tyrol. It’s said to live on Teufelseck mountain, the mountain’s name meaning ‘devil’s corner’. At times the Alber would descend from the mountain, towards Ziller Valley as a giant fiery dragon, flying through a hole in the cliffs called the Bleiarzkar and down to the valley, spreading plagues, war and famine. It was thought the Alber was the devil himself in dragon form. Legend tells of two men from the village of Meran who witnessed the flight of the Alber and were lucky enough to survive such sights. One was the tailor Hanser, who was a wicked and dishonest man. He partook in every sort of sinful activity, lying, scamming, idleness and debauchery. The other was Loaserer Sepps, a good and honest villager. One night Hanser made a bet with his equally loathsome friends to steal cherries from the cherry tree in the yard of the Mission Cross of Algund. But Hanser was a coward and wouldn’t travel out there at nig...

  On November 14th 1974, a fireball fell from the sky near Bald Mountain in Lewis County, Washington. The impact site stayed inexplicably lit even after the fireball hit the ground, not usual behavior for an ordinary meteorite. It was seen by several people in the nearby town of Chehalis. Things would go from unusual but explainable to outright strange three days later. On November 17, Ernest Smith saw a strange alien creature while he was out deer hunting on the slopes of bald mountain. He said it was the size and shape of a horse. It had a football shaped head with insect like eyes and a beak like mouth. The creature was covered in scales. It had four tentacle-like legs that even had suckers on the underside of them. The whole beast glowed green.  While researching this beast I found conflicting descriptions on whether it had one or two antenna like protrusions from its head. I drew one here, but two are also valid. Mr Smith doesn’t elaborate on what his reaction was on find...

  On August 16, 1968, in the Spanish countryside near Tivissa, John Mateu, an ordinary farmer, was going about his morning routines. It was 6am and the sun had just risen over the horizon. On a nearby hill some lights caught John Mateu’s eye. He assumed this was someone having car trouble and went up the hill to help them.  When Mr. Mateu reached the top of the hill he saw a dome shaped UFO, which he described as shaped like ‘half a watermelon’. The lights were coming from the flat bottom of the spacecraft, which hovered only 4 feet off the ground.  While observing the UFO Mr. Mateu noticed two creatures came running for the UFO. He described them as having bulbous bodies that stood on top tentacles, somewhat like an octopus. However they had grimacing faces instead of just a pair of eyes on their fronts. As well they had either four or five tentacles, that they stood upright on like legs. The aliens were only three feet in height.  The two aliens entered the space c...

  The bat beast of Kent was a vaguely mothman like cryptid seen in the English county of Kent. The bat beast was seen in 1963, three years before the infamous events that took place in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The incident took place near the Saltwood forest, which are known for paranormal strangeness before the incident. The incident being alternately known as the Saltwood ghost and the Hythe mothman, after the nearby village of Hythe. The bat beast overall resembles mothman, but completely lacks a head, eyes or any facial features. It's body is egg shaped and covered in black fur. The wings emerge from the shoulders in place of arms. Oddly the creature also has webbed feet at the end of human like legs. The creature was approximately five feet tall. On November 16 th , four teens identified as John Flaxton, Mervyn Hutchinson and their girlfriends, who remained unnamed through the follow investigation, were walking home along Sandling Road, from a party. On their journey ...

  Aitvaras are a type of malicious house spirit from Lithuanian mythology. They look like purely black or white roosters with flaming tails while inside the house, and like small dragons outside. When they fly they look like a comet streaking across the sky. Aitvaras hatch from eggs of a 9 to 15 year old rooster. Don't ask how a rooster would lay eggs, although it's a motif I've noticed popping up in mythology occasionally. The aitvaras would serve a family in a household through deceptive means. It would bring wealth and good fortune to the household by stealing from the neighbours. The aitvaras would go on nightly flights to rob them. Owning an aitvaras would inevitably bring strain between the household and the rest of the community. Additionally, the aitvaras would slowly siphon away the souls of the residents, damning them. Once an aitvaras was inside a house it was very difficult to remove. Killing it would be difficult as it would heal as soon as it touched the floor...

  The Plat Eye is a ghostly undead monster from America Folklore. It's found along the gulf coast, into Georgia and up into South Carolina. The legend of the plat eye was told primarily among African Americans. The plat eye is a ghostly predatory beast, usually a large cat. Its most distinguishing feature is its single large eye, which glows red. Often all a person will see of the plat eye is its glowing eye staring at them from the darkness. The plat eye's body is pale white or grey, like a lifeless corps. Often its flesh is rotten and its guts are hanging out, furthering the undead appearance.   The plat eye can shape shift into the forms of a headless human, a sickly black calf or a black dog. The plat eye can also appear and disappear at will. Plat eyes haunt bayous and crossroads after midnight, and are never seen in the light of day. They fade out of existence in the sunlight. The plat eye surrounds itself in mist and appears out of the fog. Plat Eyes are the restl...

  The manananggal is a vampiric monster from the Philippines. It is most often found in the Visayan region of the country. The manananggal is found both in older folk lore and modern cryptid reports. It is typically seen in rural areas, flying over rice fields and small villages, and it's believed that city lights may harm the monster, as does daylight. Manananggals are flying human torsos. They are almost always female. During the day manananggals are attached to a set of legs and hide their wings, blending in with the human population. At night they go through a transformation, growing bat wings, long claws and a proboscis like tongue, and separating their torso off from their hips and legs. The head, arms and torso then fly off into the night with their bat wings to find victims to consume. Manananggals only have power at night in the darkness. During the day they remain joined with their torso and appear as normal humans. It's only at night when they're capable of fly...

  In October of 1903 the town of Van Meter in Iowa had multiple encounters with a strange, bird like cryptid, which was later nick named the Van Meter Visitor. The creature had leathery, featherless skin, a bird like head with a beak filled with teeth and leathery bat like wings. The most unusual feature of the cryptid was that it had a glowing horn jutting out from the center of its forehead. Some people reported seeing a more humanoid creature, which stood upright, and had its arms replaced by bat like wings. While others reported a more animalistic and pteranodon like being. Whichever version they saw, people consistently reported the same details about its strange head. The people who reported the sightings were some of the most prominent and upstanding members of the area. The first sighting was witnessed by U G Griffith, a well know businessman in town. He was returning late at night from his work, around 1 o'clock in the morning, when he saw a light on top one of the buildi...

       The kludde was an evil spirit or boogeyman from the low countries, spanning Belgium and the Netherlands. The kludde was always associated with water and inhabited places like swamps, reed beds, ponds and under bridges. While the kludde was capable of travelling over land, it couldn't enter hallowed ground, such as church yards.      The kludde gets its name from the sounds it makes. Although it's known regionally as kleure, klerre, or waterkledde.      The kludde was a dangerous monster, luring anyone who travelled by night into its swamp. There it would kill its victim, either by strangling or drowning. The kludde was capable of causing confusion and fear in its victims just by proximity, even without being seen. The kludde was especially dangerous to children, which it would hunt down even when closer victims were available. Because of this the kludde was used a as boogeyman to scare children into not going outside at night. ...