Leaper
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The leaper appears a bizarre cross between a wolf and a frog. Perhaps six feet from snout to rump, covered with slick, hairless skin in a dark green, it lacks all trace of fur but has a set of fangs worthy of any wolf that ever strode the land. Extra long front legs tipped with raking claws give it the bounding gait that has earned its name.
The leaper is medium in size and about three feet high.
Hunting strategies
If you are young and using a ranged weapon, it will be safer for you to hunt leapers in the more defensive stances. Leapers are capable of taking out 39+ health points with one bite or claw, and for beginning players, that can stun or even be fatal. If your dexterity is high and you have a ranged weapon, try hunting in full defensive. Your AS will be cut in half, but you will still be able to hit them. Just be prepared to use lots of arrows and/or bolts.
Other information
The leapers past the snowbank near the South Gate of Icemule can transmit disease with a bite or a claw. Once infected, you will lose ten points of health the first round; the illness will decline in intensity one point for the next ten rounds.
Behind the Scenes
In the I.C.E. Age leapers were called "bounders", which clarifies the meaning of their creature description. These were hunting hounds used by dark elves and evil lords, which relates them symbolically to Lorgalis. They were introduced into an area of the Coastal Cliffs associated with Kestrel and Bandur Etrevion. These may have been nobles who Bandur subjected to a transformation curse, analogous to werebears, owing to the literary allusions in the purgatory section of The Graveyard. Interestingly, similar things may be said for the myklian, and the toad in the Dark Shrine.
They infest a ruined coastal village near the underground stronghold, which housed a cult of Klysus (Luukos) which was likely crushed in the rise of The Dark Path. Of special note is the extensive presence of fungus in the region due to sea spray from the Bay, which were Lovecraft references below The Graveyard and within the Dark Grotto of The Broken Lands, related to the hidden dreamland theme of those locations. Like the forest approaching The Graveyard it features predatory vines, especially a carnivorous species that traps its victims in a dream state while it devours them.
The village is likely a reference to the abandoned village of lava sculptors on the way to Ngranek in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath." Of special note is the brass shrine, with ambient scripting implying ancient secrets, and under certain conditions releasing green mists with prophecy of doom. The kappas resemble the Old One worshippers of Ib whom the "cylinders of Kadatheron" had written descended from the moon, as well as the fish-frog men "Deep Ones" who required human sacrifices and transformation of humans from perverse hybrid mating for immortality.
References
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