Carry On Valsinore!

CARRION (#27/31, #301/365) [OOTP IV]

SKILL: 7

STAMINA: 7

ATTACKS: 2

WEAPON: Large Claws and Bite

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: None

HABITAT: Mountains, Hills, Plains, Desert, Wilderness, Ruins, Forests, Volcanic Areas

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 1-2

TYPE: Undead

REACTION: Hostile

INTELLIGENCE: Low

High up in the skies of Titan soar not just live birds but dead ones too, such as the undead taloned blasphemy that is the CARRION. In life it must have been something the size of Roc or a Giant Vulture, and has characteristics of both, but it is hard to be certain now the thing is somewhat decomposed - its flesh hanging in tatters from its bones, its jaundice-yellow eyes rolling in the orbits of its fleshless skull. Whatever it was in life, now that it is dead its hunger is insatiable. Giving a savage squawk the undead bird will launches itself at a victim on featherless wings of torn dead skin, that still amazingly allow it to fly in somewhat ragged fashion, and attack with its sharp claws and curved beak. 

The Carrion is not the cleanest of creatures, and anyone who is injured by one must roll a die; on a 6 they contract Red Plague (Test for Luck to avoid, see Advanced Fighting Fantasy, p. 54). They tend to haunt lonely places, preying on the occasional ibex or mountain sheep, but they have also known to be used as flying steeds by Hags and undead, such as Skeleton Kings, particularly in Bathoria and other cursed principalities of Mauristatia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Carrion are also present in the Demonic Pit, soaring aloft on high noxious thermals over the sanguine waves of the Plane of Blood or the black basalt mountains of the Plane of Pain, looking for easy prey to torment and tear apart with their terrible talons.