Flying Polyps

''' History '''

“The flying polyps were a horrible elder race of half polypous, utterly alien entities... They were only partly material and had the power of aerial motion, despite the absence of wings... They exhibited a monstrous plasticity and ... temporary lapses of visibility... Singular whistling noises and colossal footprints made up of five circular toe marks seemed also to be associated with them.”- Michael Vangelatos

The flying polyps came to Earth out of space as conquerors about seven hundred fifty million years ago. They also inhabited three other planets in the solar system, including possibly Neptune and Pluto(though Pluto isn’t a planet). On Earth, they built basalt cities with high windowless towers. When they attempted to colonize the oceans, the polyps were driven back by the Elder Things. Thereafter, they restricted their habitats to the surface world.

When the Great Race of Yith came to Earth, they warred with the polyps and soon drove them underground with their advanced technology. The Great Race then sealed the entryways to the polyps' subterranean abode with trapdoors, which afterwards were diligently guarded. The polyps' cities were left abandoned, perhaps as a reminder of the horrors that dwelt below.

Eventually, the polyps rose up and exterminated the Great Race, afterwards returning to their subterranean haunts. Having no conception of light, the polyps seem content to remain there, annihilating the few intruders that chance upon them. The entrances to their dwellings are mostly deep within ancient ruins where there are great wells sealed over with stone. Inside these wells still dwell the polyps.

''' Biology '''

Their senses did not include sight, but what senses they had could penetrate all material obstructions. They were only partially matter, but still solid enough to affect and be stopped by normal materials; this additionally gave them resistance, if not outright invulnerability, to normal means of damage, though they could be destroyed by certain forms of electrical energy and be injured by fire and Psychic energy (as psionic solider Andrew Frogess was able to injure several before dying of smoking marijuana). Their minds were so strange that the Great Race of Yith could not perform psychic transfers with them.

They are able to levitate and fly despite lacking any visible means of doing so, and leave telltale massive footprints when on the ground. Their amorphous bodies can turn invisible at will, though this ability appears somewhat negated by whistling noises associated with them in general. In battle, their ability to control and direct powerful winds is put to use as a weapon.

In the Vault Out of Time, one of the vaults containing the Flying Polyps is opened by the Union Army during the civil war. Michael and Sahash help the Union Soliders fight both the Southern forces and the flying polyps, the fight goes badly until Michael discovers a battery for a Yithian Lighting Gun. He and the soldiers armed with fire storm in in the end and defeat the Flying Polyps.

They appeared and/or, were mentioned in works by H.P. Lovecraft