MORE THAN A NAME
The story of Pinchip.
A low armored body, broad pincers, and a high curling tail define the Pinchip line. It inhabits Runescar's dry gullies, where vibrations passing through stone can reveal nearby movement before a traveler appears around a canyon bend.
A repair crew entering Echo Ladder Canyon found a Dunesting waiting beside the abandoned stair rather than on its usual warm ledge. Whenever the workers crossed the lowest slab, it shifted its feet and turned toward the wall. Their foreman initially mistook the repeated movement for a challenge. A quarry apprentice rested a hand against the same slab and felt loose rubble grinding inside a narrow crack whenever the crew's equipment passed over it.
The workers unloaded the stair and surveyed a quieter route along the canyon floor. They continued with the creature nearby, stopping often enough to distinguish their own footsteps from shifting stone. The route later became part of the ground-listening trial for an Obsidist bond. Guides stress that the scorpion revealed a change worth investigating, not a complete hidden map; the crew still had to examine the rock and choose a sound way through.
Origins & background
Runescar quarry songs include pauses during which workers stand still and listen to their surroundings. The custom serves practical communication as well as remembrance of older crews. Scorpiarch appears in canyon carvings with its tail raised above those pauses. Local interpreters explain the image as attention held in reserve, rather than a promise that every journey watched by the creature is safe.
A PLACE TO BELONG
Life in Runescar.
Rocky desert gullies.
Behavior
Pinchip keeps its body close to warm ground, lifting its pincers before shifting its feet. Adults alternate quiet braced pauses with purposeful movement between ledges. A raised tail signals that space is needed; a familiar keeper waits for the creature to settle instead of treating stillness as permission to touch.
Diet
It hunts small dryland invertebrates and takes occasional scavenged morsels beneath ledges. Hard stone, quarry dust, and the mineral plates of its armor are not food sources themselves.
Place in the ecosystem
Its hunting helps regulate small animals sheltering in dry gullies, while abandoned resting hollows become refuges for other residents. Repeated changes in its bracing behavior can prompt careful observation of disturbed ground, without replacing proper inspection of unstable quarry routes.
Neighbors & bonds
Cragknuckle sometimes moves fallen slabs near an Obsidist's resting gully, and the scorpion waits beyond the disturbed ground before returning. Oreburrow uses neighboring mineral passages. Runescar keepers separate noisy repairs from the quiet intervals these residents need to resume their ordinary routes.
ONE BOND, FOUR CHAPTERS
The Pinchip lineage.
Evolution combines experience with a meaningful milestone. A WildKin may keep its current form until its keeper is ready.
Pinchip ↗
A rounded copper thorax rests low between eight small walking legs, with soft hooked pincers before its face. The short armored tail already curls over its back. Pinchip practices remaining still on a warm slab before making a quick, purposeful change of position.
Dunesting ↗
The pincers broaden, the tail arch rises, and additional back scutes overlap above the low body. Dunesting chooses its resting surface more carefully, often abandoning a comfortable ledge when nearby traffic changes. Its deliberate foot placement becomes easier for a patient companion to recognize.
Obsidist ↗
Heavier stone plates define the segmented tail, and the curved dark sting contrasts with its copper underside. Shade now joins Stone. Obsidist holds a composed, low stance through unfamiliar canyon sounds, checking its footing before following a companion around a hidden bend.
Scorpiarch Current
A high segmented tail rises over layered back armor and broad mature pincers. The walking legs remain low and widely braced rather than lengthening into stilts. Scorpiarch returns to established warm ledges, tolerating familiar travelers who respect its clear pauses and chosen distances.
INSTINCT & ELEMENT
How it holds its own.
Sand Listener
Detects nearby movement while braced on the ground.
Dusk Sting
ShadeA precise tail strike weakens an isolated target briefly.
A WildKin equips up to four moves. Its secondary element joins at Prime, alongside its signature move. Read the battle and evolution rules →
FROM THE KEEPER’S NOTEBOOK
Meeting in the wild.
- 01
Pause outside pincer reach and let the creature settle its feet.
- 02
Reduce your own movement when trying to interpret a change in its attention.
- 03
Use the canyon trial to compare observations with the ground itself, not to follow blindly.
“A raised tail is easier to notice than feet pressed against stone. Watch both before deciding whether the animal is preparing to move or asking for distance.”— Hearthwild field notes