As Fall approaches, as does the time when young newly weened Brownies leave their broodmares nest seeking out homes to inhabit and endear themselves to through hard work and long eye lashes. 

Despite the continued request of my own house brownie, to "let the little buggers find their own way!" and "No don't feed them! They will never leave now!" I have live captured a small number of them to re-home into suitable families rather then allowing them to deal with the elements as the explore the world larder by larder until proper milk and bread is found to sustain them.  

Perhaps, I am just growing soft in my graceful aging, as it does go against my principals to insure the continued survival of one species of Fae over another. However having noticed a decline in the number of Brownies in service to households over the years, I feel an intervention on my behalf is necessary to insure womanly tradition and good husbandry of this species continues on over the generations to follow my own. 

As such, I will begin the process of housebreaking the little Brownie bites, and place them in the classes that I hold with the Lunar Brownies on manners and good house keeping. 

 

I have gotten my Table numbers for the Dragoncon art show. There will be goblins, brownies, dragons, and even a teddy bear on our auction table and my artist table will be spilling over with creatures. 

Our spaces are BT44, and auction table TBL12. Artist Tiffany Crosby, (the person who makes all the Preservation goodies) will be taking part on the tutorial panel "Sculpting fantasy creatures" sat aug 31 at 7pm.

See you all there!

On 9/14/2013 I will be in attendance of a farmers market.  https://www.facebook.com/herbcafefarmtoartmarket

While most will say the bane of the sky ways is the pirates that soar through them with no concern for the well being of their fellow travelers with their large guns and pension to rob others.
I find the gremlyns who build hives in the underbelly of ships far more dangerous.  


Gremlyns which in size compares to a cat or a very large rat, are an urbanized breed having adapted to infest and live on ships. Due to this they are wide spread menace, as their destructive nature and ingenuity has caused many a ship to crash. One would think that destroying their own home is counter productive but it is in fact  part of their natural life cycle and is natures way of keeping this vermin in check. 

In truth, a single gremlyn can be useful. They tinker with this and that, making their nest, which is often in the relay room of a ship, purr like a kitten. Most pirate ships I believe are infested due to their stealth in the air, yet being swift and having their engines at full throttle.  It is when several of this breed sneak aboard the real problems begin. When a hive forms, all of the gremlyns will begin to nest and modify their environment. Like a pot with too many cooks, the outcome is often fatal for the human crew on the ship.

How they get onto the ship is always an interesting study to watch. Most gremlyns begin their life on the ground in a smoldering pile of wood and chard remains of it's mothers former home. There is something about the impact and the flash of heat that causes the eggs to hatch. Without these two elements one can have eggs stored safely for decades, as females like chickens will just lay eggs on a rather regular bases. However, I am getting ahead of myself so lets return to the newly hatched gremlyns.

As I have stated, most gremlyns begin life on the ground. They are a member of the goblin family and share many of the goblin's identifying traits. two fingers, and a short tail they use to balance. They also have a third digit that is prehensile allowing it to use tools. They are born the color of the sky the day and time their were laid by their broodmare. Giving them a large range of colors making them hard to classify  by just a glance. They grow quickly to their adult size within a week depending on their diet, which as a freshly hatched pup can range from insects, mammals, and inorganic objects such as shoes. They are not picky eaters.

Once they are fully grown, they start to crave the air in high altitudes. I have theorized it is needed for their breeding cycle. Most of the clutch will begin to seek higher ground, climbing up trees, buildings if any are near by. But the clever ones, the ones that will someday get on a ship and complete it's life cycle, are the real danger. They are dangerous because they are tinkers, and will begin to build themselves a set of wings to reach their lofty goal. Having spent several years watching a gremlyn do this, I can only image that the story of  Icarus was inspired by watching these creatures try over and over again to fly. The one I was watching actually ripped off the wings of a flighted faerie and tried to flap its arms to gain lift with the wings tightly held in hand. This was it's first attempts of many, of the months I began to bring wine and a snuff box with me to observe it's progress as it was very entertaining and much more heart lighting then an evening at the theater with my husband. 

It was after I had left my pocket watch on accident during one of my day studies that the gremlyn made progress and used it to motion the wings it made. Like a bumble bee, not aware that something of it's gurth should ever hover off ground it drifted slowly up and latched itself to a passing ship over head. I caught the name of the ship with my lens, and recorded it to compare to the crash records of ships at a later date. 

once the Gremlyn reaches it's goal (some of the gremlyns will infest other means of transportation, but will not reproduce without the high altitude for egg laying) it will begin to explore and familiarize itself with the ship. Only 2 areas of the ship will be it's overall goals, the gully and the engine room (or relay room if it is a newer model of ship) Food and home. 

As I have stated the gremlyn will mess with the engine, to insure it has the perfect nest. The engine will cease to over heat, it will run smooth and quietly. Some ship engineers will not kill the vermin if it is making their job easier and more profitable. I have even heard of gremlyns becoming so familiar with the engineers presence that they will eat out of the humans hand without fear and only rarely eating a finger.

Eventually however all good things come to an end, and another gremlyn with make it on board either by flying up themselves, ship hopping during a raid, or rarely when at port..   If the ship crew is fortunate it will be of the same sex as the first vermin and only minor problems will begin to arise in the mechanics of the ship. Sooner or later a member of the opposite sex will gain access to the ship and breeding will begin.

I believe gremlyns are the true reason sailors fear women upon their ship and feel it is ill luck. As their luck will change once the female goblin is aboard. They like the males tinker, more so then the male goblin in their nesting drives. The female gremlyn gains a chill easier then their male counter parts and will work to increase the temperature of the nest, the males with get too warm and lower it back to an "acceptable" range. I also feel this might be the females attempt to obtain hatching temperature for her eggs. In a course of a year, all the tinkering with the engine has it's toll on the ship and if not taken care of promptly and the gremlyns removed the ship will crash. Allowing the eggs of the nest to hatch and begin the cycle again. 

Today we explored the local faerie doors in Ann Arbor Michigan. The brush goblin did a wonderful job of locating the doors. I might attempt to train it so it can ferret out other fae from their nest and burrows in the same fashion as dash hounds are sent down rabbit and badger holes.

Caught in the wylds of the Northern Territory of Michigan, a brush goblin. This creature is also commonly known as a lawn goblin. Distantly related to their urbanized cousins, "lawn gnomes" these goblins, attempt to dress themselves in hopes of obtaining the free meals and board that gnomes enjoy.

Unfortunately, unlike gnomes who have been breed and groomed for centuries to remain still in gardens and other green lush locations while wearing garments made for them by their owners, brush goblins, easily grow bored and like all goblins with nothing better to entertain themselves will begin to destroy beautifully manicured topiaries, herb gardens, and potted plants.

While relatively harmless to humans, as their diet pertains mostly to plant matter and large insects, they have been known to tease household pets into permanent neurotic behavior and to steal small shiny objects that they can drag under a door or a mouse hole when scavenging in a house. 

The oddest part of this creature is it's fascination with sheep bells. This one I found was proudly wearing one on it's tail, which is how I found it when walking the grounds of my family's home. 

I will be taking this specimen home with me for further studies.         

I am worried that I might have an infestation on my hands as I can come along yet another red cap while about in my gardens this morning. I believe based on it's girth it may be female. 

I am going on holiday before I travel to Dragoncon. It will be of course a working holiday and I will continue to preserve and prepare my findings for Dragoncon's artroom where I will have pieces both in the auction and have an artist table. As such all my online storefronts including the one on this page will be closed until after Dragoncon in Sept. 

Hard backed redcap, observing a panaeolous foenesecii after a night of rain, this type of mushroom does not provide the redcap with it’s dietary requirements to produce toxins as it is low of not absent of psilocybin nor the redcaps normal poison muscimol which is common in Amanita muscaria. The redcap goblin like it's cousin the soft backed redcap often lives among forest rich in Amanita blending into the floor canopy and waiting for a hapless victim to bite and then eat at it’s leisure. While a solitary creature by nature, due to their natural aggression to turn on one another, a lone redcap is rarely an issue for a well versed traveler as they are calculating and not foolish in their attacks. Most would consider the redcap cowardly over calculating, however I have found them to be as manipulative if not more so then any other breed of faerie, luring it's victim into a false sense of safety by acting timid and almost playful. The Common redcap will not try to take down a prey it does not feel it can mange on it's own, where as the soft backed redcap tends to be more social within its breed and will call on the aid of other soft backs to take down large prey.

Boletus lupites, also known as The soft backed red cap is named after it’s ability to blend into patches of Amanita muscaria between the roots of cedar and pines. Less common then it’s larger cousins the common red cap, it is also smaller but as destructive. 
Red caps are known for their continued feeding frenzies, yet few know of the hallucinogenic properties of their saliva and marking glands as I had discovered recently in the capturing and handling of a specimen as of late. 
While I will not say it was necessarily and enjoyable discovery, I have now formed a hypothesis that red capped mushrooms may not in fact be toxic in their own right, but have been contaminated by the infestations of soft backs living among them. It could also be argued that the toxin has been ingested so often by the creature that it just has a naturally high serum level in it's system making it toxic. I strongly advise bite proof gloves should be worn when removing these from a live capture trap. 
Like most creatures in the goblin family, they have a fondness for human nick nacks, in this case the one I have captured had some silverware from a child's tea set, some tiny little keys, and a glass vile that was filed with a questionable fermented substance that may have once been milk. 


Further study will be continued on this genus of goblins after I have finished cleaning the wound from the bite I received earlier.