Wednesday, December 25, 2024

A short bestiary of random denizens from Pangaria and elsewhere... (part two)

CLOUD GIANT (#1/31, #1/365) [OOTP IV]

SKILL: 10

STAMINA: 11

ATTACKS: 3

WEAPON: Club or Staff

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: Double Damage

HABITAT: Mountains, Magical Plane of Air, Sea

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 1-2

TYPE: Humanoid

REACTION:Neutral-Unfriendly

INTELLIGENCE: High

One of the rarer types of Giant upon Titan are the CLOUD GIANTS, large humanoid creatures dedicated to cruising the aerial atmosphere of the planet through various means. They are gigantic muscular humanoids around six metres in height, and typically clad in robes, while wielding a great club or staff as a weapon. Cloud Giants have pale blue skin and their hair ranges from gold to purple in colour. They are something of an intermediary in the world of Giant-kind, trading between various sub-races, such as Storm Giants, Mountain Giants, Sea Giants and Fire Giants, bartering anything from raw materials, finished goods, and gossip and lore, in their peregrinations through the sky realms. Cloud Giants are even one of the most trusted trading partners of the floating archipelago of Pangaria, suppling the Technomancers there with whatever components they cannot source locally, for all their artificing rituals.

As well as attacking with a large club or staff, all Cloud Giants possess the ability of levitation, and are more than happy to lure enemies into dangerous situations such as clifftops or parapets where they can hurl an opponent to their doom while remaining safely floating themselves. Cloud Giants can travel in a variety of transport vehicles or steeds; roll on the following tables to determine how and with what cargo are they are transiting:

Roll Transport Type

1 Hovers (Giant-sized)

2 Flyer

3 Balloon

4 Airship

5 Cruiser

6 Steed (Roll: 1-2 Stormdrake, 3-4 Fog Wyvern, 5-6 Blue Dragon (young))

Roll Cargo Type

1 Food

2 Trade Goods

3 Technomancy Gadgets

4 Technomancy Fuel (Roll: 1-2 Lightning Sphere, 3-4 Storm Crystal, 5-6 Lava Sphere/Seed)

5 Objects D'Art

6 Drink

Cloud Giants are the link for the various disparate communities of Technomancers across Titan; the Storm Giants, the Fire Giants, and the floating islands of Pangaria. They can also be found on the elemental Plane of Air, for they are good friends with Air Elementals, and followers of both their father Titan and Pangara, god of wind.

DRILLBILL BIRD (#2/31, #2/365) [OOTP IV]

SKILL: 4

STAMINA: 3

ATTACKS: 1

WEAPON: Small Bite

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: +1 to Damage Roll

HABITAT: Mountains, Hills, Sea

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 6-36

TYPE: Bird

REACTION: Hostile

INTELLIGENCE: Low

Thought to be related to the Razorbeak Bird, but smaller in build, is the dread DRILLBILL BIRD, a notorious inhabitant of some of the more isolated places across Titan. They are strange-looking birds, with curling tail and wing-feathers, as well as a feather-crested head and a sharp pointed beak, and their colouration depends on the climate of the hills and mountains in which they dwell. Those in temperate areas will be a fawn colour with black spots, while those in colder climes will have drab grey feathers, and tropical variants have green-feathered heads and brownish bodies. 

Drillbill Birds aggregate in aggressive scavenging flocks, and attack anything they perceive as weaker than themselves, spiraling down on flange-wings to peck and tear with their penetrative beak. Worse, in unison they emit a high-pitched piercing call that causes incredible agony. Unless their opponent is wearing ear plugs or earmuffs of any description, they must Test their Luck every Attack Round, or be rendered unconscious by the cumulative sonic scream produced by an aggressive flock of Drillbill Birds! Those that remain conscious must still reduce their SKILL by 2 points while they remain within the presence of the shrieking Drillbill Birds.

Legend has it that the chaos wizard Darkmoon kept an aviary of spotted Drillbill Birds at his Maggot Manor lair, to which he fed various prisoners, while the semi-mythical Floating City of the Flat Lands had a resident flock of such creatures that dissuaded all but the most ardent from approaching. In modern times, the Drillbill Bird is a common pest among the floating islands of Pangaria, and Sky Watch Officers are regularly dispatched to deal with some new colony of the creatures that has become established among the caves that dot the underside of any given levitating isle among the hanging archipelago. A primary reason for this is that a flock of aggressive Drillbill Birds is a distinct threat to any dirigible-based transport, whether it be balloon, flyer or airship; more than happy to puncture any inflatable structure with their wickedly-sharp bills!

FLESH FISH (#3/31, #43365) [OOTP IV]

SKILL: 5

STAMINA: 1 (see below)

ATTACKS: 1

WEAPON: Small Bite

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: +1 to Damage Roll

HABITAT: Sea, Rivers, Lakes

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: 3-18

TYPE: Fish

REACTION: Neutral or Hostile

INTELLIGENCE: Low

Similar in habits to the Piranha, the FLESH FISH is a small yet highly carnivorous piscine equally at home in salt or fresh water. Generally dwelling in colonial burrows among the lair of a larger predator, they will descend en masse upon uncontested dead meat, stripping flesh from bone at lighting speed. Worse, their long pectoral fins permit limited flight capabilities and they are more than happy to leap from the water to take bites from whatever sorry victim is in front of them, whether it be a lonesome traveller crossed an isolated stepping-stone ford or a poor sailor on night-watch, up on deck at the mercy of the cruel sea. The shoal of Flesh Fish can be treated as having a single SKILL of 5, with each fish having a STAMINA of 1, and as many Attacks as the number of fish present.

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