May special thanks be given to the Good Doctor Josef Mandovi, for his base medical acumen and logic, which served as good counsel in writing this, as well as the autopsies performed on the griffons and crabs, that also assisted greatly in this writing.
A Treatise On the Qualities and Forms of Encountered Fantastical Monstrosities, and Appropriate Response to Them
Griffons are, if you have yet to see one yourself, the unnatural joining of a lion, cat, and eagle. They do not seem to feed on us, nor have there been any sightings, to my knowledge, of them wantonly attacking other animals in the vicinity. This implies one of two things, for animals to treat us so:
What can initially be assumed is that they are territorial in the extreme. Perhaps we have trampled on their breeding ground, in our ignorance, and they have responded thusly. Other animals possess similar nature, the caimen of Old Riseport would oft stake a claim to their own shallow pool or section of a river system, and all attempts at trying to pressure them out were for naught; they would fight to the death. However, to discredit my own theory, I have also seen them retreat from skirmishes with the forces of Old Riseport; thereby, if they are capable of enough logic to formulate a retreat, like us, then are they truly territorial?
This brings me to my second theory: sapience. Could it be that the griffons are intelligent creatures, capable of reasoned and well-informed judgements? I am told that they are smart enough to drop heavy rocks onto those below them, and how different is that from when we fashioned spears, in our early history? This is a land that has seen no trace of any sentient, dominant, apex civilization - could it be because they possess claws, for better which to hunt, instead of hands, for better which to build? Now, if this is the case, why did not try to communicate with us when they first laid their sights upon us? I do not know; perhaps they are indeed truly just territorial animals, but those of surpassing cleverness. There is no precedent from which I could conjecture of how other saptient creatures, those more familiar to us, would react on first contact with another civilization.
The crabs are a simpler matter. They seem to possess vermin-like intelligence; blundering about, without any true malice beyond what could be considered reactionary. Two attacked our camp, and both simply walked past us toward what I presume to be the scent of our recently salted fish. They brushed aside everything else, broke open the barrels of the fish, and began to eat. Paying no mind to the people amassing around them. They are dumb creatures, but of surpassing predatory ability. Their arms move with lightning speed, several times faster than the most experienced fencer in the world perofrming a lunge, and snap closed with obscene ferocity. Fortuitously none of my people have been on the receiving end, but they simply shattered an oaken barrel banded with iron.
In defence against these creatures, I will begin with the griffon. They are surprisingly fragile creatures, aside from their wings, their most birdesque quality. The bones of their wings are small, fragile, and lacking in marrow - like those of birds. It is, therefore, easy to cripple the ability to fly of a griffon by simply landing a solid blow on their wing. Getting into range for doing so is another matter, as is coercing the bird to land in the first place. From what I have gathered, they elect to either initiate a skirmish by the dropping of boulders and other heavy materials, or by suddenly swooping down with their terrifying speed, swiping people up into the air and summarily dropping them after gaining altitude. Of the former, hide. Of the latter, if you reasonably expect to find griffons in your proximity, carry on you a long spike-like weapon. If you find yourself suddenly forty feet off of the ground, without hesitation stab your weapon into the chest of the griffon, which you ought to have an excellent angle for. Being dropped from forty feed is significantly more survivable than being dropped from one hundred, and similarly being dropped from one hundred is significantly more survival than being dropped from the height of the clouds themselves. If you see griffons encircling the air around you, forego the arbalest and longbow, and take up your hunting bows. Their hides are not plate, and their feathers are not steel; it would be better to pepper them with ten arrows, than one bolt that would go straight through them. By the the thick plumage of their feathers, one could perhaps assume that the reason these birds appear to simply from from nowhere, is that they fly above the clouds, and swoop down only when truly upon us. Few are those are old enough to remember the days of ships that flew into the sky and above the clouds, but I can assure you, it is very, very cold.
Crabs are, again, a simpler matter. They do not have very advanced anything, and seem to simply be overlarge and verminous equivalents of normal crabs. It is known that they would attach to a ship’s hull, and ride alongside it for a time, before eventually ascending. How long, and for why, it is unknown. If you are fortunate enough to encounter the crab while it is still on your hull, procure a piece of your ballast (if ou are like our sailors, a bad of sand) and simply drop it overboard. It will knock the crab back into sea, easily enough. However, for those already on board, I would encourage keeping a safe distance. There are schematics that I have considered, for a weapon designed for attacking them. As those who have fought them know, even if you can get past the pincers, their shells are still in the way, and hard as a damned stone, domed as well. The weapon in question would be a polearm, built for the use of two. Ten to fifteen feet in length, sporting on one end either a weight, a spike, or both. Through the strength of two men, lift it high into the air, and simply bring it smashing down onto the shell of the crab. See if the bastard does not die then.
I encourage communion between those of us with a scholarly disposition, for only through the combined logic, reasoning, and knowledge of the Old World shall we overcome the difficulties of the New.
Nwalme Fuvur.
