Indrid Cold
The smile is the first thing people notice about Indrid Cold, and the last thing they forget. It is not a natural expression. The rictus stretches across features drained of color, a side effect of psionic crystal implants that drew the Infection in his flesh toward his brain during the modification process. The pale skin and fixed grin make him look like a corpse that has not been informed of its condition. Those who have met him and survived describe the unsettling sense that whatever thoughts move behind that smile have very little to do with amusement.
Indrid Cold is the first of Mother Leeds' thirteen sons, a Pure Blood Aberrant whose already exceptional psionic abilities were amplified through an eight-hour surgical procedure involving crystal implants set with Leeds Moss as focal points. The modification enhanced his pineal gland output and connected him to a collective hivemind shared among the other cryptids. Of all thirteen creations, Indrid required the least physical manipulation and remained the most stable, a fact that raises its own questions about what he was before Mother Leeds got hold of him.
He served as her primary operative: collector of materials, recruiter of volunteers, and technical collaborator on every major modification. His contributions went beyond mere assistance. When Mother Leeds could not solve the Jersey Devil's fire-breathing mechanism, Indrid designed the gas sack and flint-and-steel apparatus embedded in its teeth. When the wings failed, Indrid worked out the hollow-but-reinforced bone structure that allowed flight. His knowledge of Iron physiology proved essential for modifying Iron subjects, a familiarity that the transcriber John Bastille attributes to a suspected prior career as a fleshsmith within the Ironworks.
Bastille's theory is that Indrid was never a student of Mother Leeds but her handler. An escaped Ironworks fleshcrafter of that skill level would almost certainly have been a shrewd manipulator of people, and Bastille finds the notion that an untrained psionic in isolation could have assembled the specialized equipment and scientific texts found beneath the Leeds estate implausible without outside orchestration. The journals end abruptly. Indrid's fate is never mentioned. The moss flooded the living quarters. Whether Indrid arranged Mother Leeds' disappearance or simply outlasted her, he is the one creation whose current whereabouts remain entirely unknown.
Indrid Cold is the first of Mother Leeds' thirteen sons, a Pure Blood Aberrant whose already exceptional psionic abilities were amplified through an eight-hour surgical procedure involving crystal implants set with Leeds Moss as focal points. The modification enhanced his pineal gland output and connected him to a collective hivemind shared among the other cryptids. Of all thirteen creations, Indrid required the least physical manipulation and remained the most stable, a fact that raises its own questions about what he was before Mother Leeds got hold of him.
He served as her primary operative: collector of materials, recruiter of volunteers, and technical collaborator on every major modification. His contributions went beyond mere assistance. When Mother Leeds could not solve the Jersey Devil's fire-breathing mechanism, Indrid designed the gas sack and flint-and-steel apparatus embedded in its teeth. When the wings failed, Indrid worked out the hollow-but-reinforced bone structure that allowed flight. His knowledge of Iron physiology proved essential for modifying Iron subjects, a familiarity that the transcriber John Bastille attributes to a suspected prior career as a fleshsmith within the Ironworks.
Bastille's theory is that Indrid was never a student of Mother Leeds but her handler. An escaped Ironworks fleshcrafter of that skill level would almost certainly have been a shrewd manipulator of people, and Bastille finds the notion that an untrained psionic in isolation could have assembled the specialized equipment and scientific texts found beneath the Leeds estate implausible without outside orchestration. The journals end abruptly. Indrid's fate is never mentioned. The moss flooded the living quarters. Whether Indrid arranged Mother Leeds' disappearance or simply outlasted her, he is the one creation whose current whereabouts remain entirely unknown.
Children
