Pirtuk men are short lived golems made of snow and ice. Their animation is based entirely on the Frost Shard buried deep in their torso. A Pirtuk Man has a basic humanoid form, a central body, two trunk like legs, and at least one spindly arm, but some have been seen with many more. The head is smallish and situated directly atop the torso, with no neck to be seen. The eyes are small and hard to discern, as they are either stone or large chips of ice buried in the head.
Initially created in the northland wastes of Atar, the first Pirtuk Men were nothing more than games of fancy. Atarian children created snowmen and it was a simply thing of magic charms to have some of these creations bounce and gambol around with the children. Usually a snowman would collapse once the Kam, the local term for a magus, stopped actively animating the heap of ice and snow. It isn’t known when the first Pirtuk man was created, but is is agreed that it was very likely an accident. By including a frost shard into the corpus of a snow man, the animating spell that moved the object became in a limited fashion, permanent. So long as a Pirtuk man remains frozen, it’s animation will endure.
Encounters and Combat
Most Pirtuk Men are wild, accidental creations. They instictively move north to avoid melting in the coming spring and summer months. Being of limited intellect, most Pirtuk men do not survive a single year. Encoutners with them are rare as most are more inclined to avoid the humans that created them. They cannot speak or make sound, but most understand the rudimentary language of their creator, meaing most Pirtuk men only speak the old Atari langauge of the Kam.
Fighting a Pirtuk man can be either murderously hard or childishly easy. Armed with fire, buckets of warm water, or similar spells a Pirtuk man offers as much resistance as a mundane snowman would. Against mundane weapons, he is nearly invulnerable. Arrows pass straight through, as do slashing and piercing weapons. Bludgeoning weapons like hammers and maces can only deal temporary damage as a Pirtuk man can use fallen snow to ‘heal’ it’s injuries. If it’s head is broken off, it can ball up another one, plop it atop it’s body, and be on it’s way.
Known Pirtuk Men
Frosty - Now nearly a decade old, Frosty is the pet Pirtuk of the Narr-atala village. This venerable pirtuk man is a sort of playmate and mascot for the children of the village to play with. This is seen as a good thing as the Pirtuk man, festooned with charms, branches, and a battered southerners hat is an attentive playmate. This has allowed the hunters to spend more time hunting, knowing that their children and wives are safe.
Tla-Gho-Ti - Also known as the Ice giant, Tla-Gho-Ti is a pirtuk man who has endured unknown years of existance. Each year it increases it’s mass, and is now more than 20 feet tall, possesses three boulder sized heads and at last count, 14 arms. Violent and paranoid as the Kam that created it, Tla-Gho-Ti is known to carry a cedar trunk that it uses as a club. On occassion, strange tracks are found, along with a hapless dead hunter or animal. Almost every bone will be broken in their body, having been hit like a golf ball with a tree trunk.
Bone-Chewer - Violent winds blowing across the ice shelves have stripped the snow pack from this Pirtuk man. All that remains are struts and rods of ice, pulsing with energy from the frost shard at the base of the head. Bone Chewer resembles nothing more than an icy skeleton wandering the ice pack.
Chur-Took - Basically translating as Spear Carrier, Chur-Took is one of a dozen Pirtuk men who have been together for several years. Animated by a coven of Kam, the Chur-Took Pirtuks are artificial solders. Each is armed with a curved wooden cudgel that has been magically shaped to resemble a curved scimitar. Lacking any sort of cutting edge, it is an ornamental club. The Chur-Took are used to protect the coven and their interests, though they refuse to harm children even if ordered to do so.