The Jidwar

There are times that I am very glad I became a librarian. While the work is oftentimes tedious, the subjects of my study lie quietly and wait for their pages to be turned.
-- Kylara B'Tenn, Master Clerk, Fauna Room, Hall of Records

Not all of the creatures changed by the Horrors are of the large variety, immediately recognizable as a threat. In at least one case, a previously innocuous insect was corrupted, becoming just as great a danger as the larger constructs in its own way. The jidwar is a small beetle, approximately the length of my smallest finger, with a dark brown shell. Instead of legs, the jidwar is equipped with flippers like an aquatic turtle, giving it great mobility in water and a passable rate of progress across mud or marshy ground. Its mandibles are large, extending nearly a third of its body length, and razor sharp.

Making its home in the swamps and marshes of southern Barsaive, the jidwar feeds on anything that happens its way. If there were only one in a given pool, perhaps its voracious eating habits would not be such a problem, but jidwars occur in swarms of thirty to over a hundred, or so I am told. I did not have the opportunity to count the ones in the swarm that I ran afoul of, being more concerned with removing myself from their habitat. They attack by swarming, reacting instantly to any disturbance in the water. I am told that a horse putting a foot down wrong and getting its hoof mired in the bottom muck can have its leg stripped to bone before the rider can dismount and free the animal.

Fortunately, while the jidwar is prolific, it has great difficulty traversing land and, despite its aquatic nature, remains an air breather. The combination of the two restricts the insect to connecting bodies of water, and renders it vulnerable to oil poured carefully across its habitat. It is not necessary to set the oil aflame, only to wait for a short while, as the oil prevents the insects from breathing. They drown quickly, and the area may then be crossed in relative safety. As well, if no food wanders into the jidwars' pool for a time, they turn on each other, thus keeping their numbers down. The simple expedient of tossing a small bit of wood into suspicious waters will reveal the insects, as they mistake the wood for something edible, and will churn the water to foam around the twig for a few seconds before realizing that it is not food.

I think that I shall carry an ample supply of small twigs when I am once again able to travel.

Game Mechanics:

DEX: 8 STR: 2 TOU: 2  PER: 4 WIL: 6 CHA: 2
Initiative: 10	Physical Defense: 10
Number of Attacks: 1	Spell Defense: 4
Attack: 11	Social Defense: 3
Damage: 6	Armor: 0
Number of Spells: 0	Mystic Armor: 2
Spellcasting: 0	Knockdown: 5
Effect: N/A	Recovery Tests: 1
Death Rating: 20	Combat Movement: 29
Wound Threshold: 4	Full Movement: 57
Unconsciousness Rating: 11	Legend Points: 5 per insect, with a minimum swarm of 30
Equipment: None
Loot: None, although there may be random items at the bottom of their pools from previous victims

Adventure Hook:
The group is hired to retrieve the cargo of an airship that went down in the swamps. The crash of the ship stirred up the local life forms, especially the jidwars. The abrupt arrival of so much food (in the form of the crew, all killed in the crash) has resulted in a population explosion, and swarms of jidwars have taken up residence in the waters surrounding the wreck. The merchant has put a deadline on the cargo retrieval, as his market will not wait forever. The airship is wooden, thus flammable, so the usual quick method of dealing with jidwars (burning oil) will not have desirable results. Waiting for the jidwars to turn on each other is also not an option, as that will take much too long.

The Pencarrig

Thus far, most of my work has dealt with animals and plants that are simply new species that have appeared during or since the Scourge, or species that we knew of before the Scourge but had never properly catalogued. This record, however, assesses a bird that has been changed quite radically by the passing of the Horrors. Its origins are quite obvious, but its current form is corrupt. I admit that while its habits are disturbing, I cannot bring myself to hate the poor things as its neighbors do. Instead, an overwhelming pity takes hold of me on encountering the pencarrig, and a resolve to use the knowledge gained from their study to reverse the taint that has infected the land.

Before the Scourge, the marshes on the northwest fringe of the Mist Swamps were inhabited by a variety of water birds, including the pencarrig. Its long legs and widely-splayed feet gave it excellent mobility in the uncertain ground, while its binocular eyesight and long, sharply pointed bill made it an effective predator. Its primary diet consisted of frogs, fish and the occasional lizard. It had the notable habit of spearing its victims with its bill, then tossing its prey into the air and catching the falling meal in its open beak.

The bird and the marsh are still present, but neither is the same. The Mist Swamps are inhabited by fell creatures warped by the passing of the Scourge, the very ground rendered unhealthy. The pencarrig likewise has been tainted by the Horrors, quite possibly deliberately. While the bird's anatomy remains more or less the same, its plumage, formerly a brilliant white tinged with blue at the edges of wings and tail, is now a dusky grey, the highlights turned the reddish-brown of dried blood.

Its feeding habits likewise have changed. While the pencarrig still hunts amphibians and fish, and still maintains the odd habit of tossing its meals into the air, it hunts larger game now. When Name-Givers are passing nearby, the bird hides itself in the dense marsh grass and makes a sound like an anguished moan. This sound plucks at the heartstrings of anyone with even a thought for their fellow Name-Givers, urging them to find the injured person and assist them. The bird uses the moaning to lure people into marshy ground, where they become trapped. The pencarrig then feeds on the body after the Name-Giver dies. Occasionally, the bird will attack trapped animals and smaller Name-Givers, striking for the eyes and throat, doing horrific damage with a beak capable of stabbing through a frog in one stroke.

Only those of strong will, or carrying magical protections, can resist the moaning cry of the pencarrig. I have heard tales as well of the birds cooperating, working together to lure in groups of people to a watery grave. Fortunately, the bird does not migrate, and so is not found outside the southern swamps. We know what the pencarrig was like before the Scourge. With close, careful study of this bird, guarded by strong magicks, I hope to gain an understanding of the changes the Horrors have wrought.

Game Mechanics:

DEX: 6 STR: 5 TOU: 5  PER: 6 WIL: 6 CHA: 4
Initiative: 8	Physical Defense: 8
Number of Attacks: 1	Spell Defense: 9
Attack: 8	Social Defense: 5
Damage: 9	Armor: 0
Number of Spells: 1	Mystic Armor: 4
Spellcasting: 15	Knockdown: 8
Effect: 18	Recovery Tests: 2
Death Rating: 32	Combat Movement: 19 ground, 38 air
Wound Threshold: 8	Full Movement: 38 ground, 75 air
Unconsciousness Rating: 24	Legend Points: 270
Equipment: None
Loot: The tailfeathers of the pencarrig are treasure (1d6 * 10 SP) worth Legend Points.
Notes: Failing a WIL test against the Effect result, Name-Givers must follow the sound. The bird will lead anyone following it into the swamps hoping to get them mired. Characters following the bird may make a WIL test against the Effect result each round to break off pursuit. (The pencarrig does not get a new Effect result unless it makes a new Spellcasting attack.) They may also make a PER test each round to avoid getting mired, modified downward by the difference between their WIL test result and the Effect result. Thus, if the bird gets a 24 Effect result, and the player rolls a 15 for his WIL test, his PER test is at -9 for that round. If the PER test is failed, the character steps in the wrong place and becomes mired. Characters mired in the swamp are Harried, and may not use any Talent or maneuver that requires movement of the legs, such as Air Dance or Giving Ground. The pencarrig may attack at that point, striking first to blind, then to kill. Escaping the mire requires a STR test against a 14, adjusted downward by armor modifiers.

Adventure Hook:
Evidence is brought to light that a Major Pattern item for a Horror was lost in the Mist Swamps shortly after the Scourge. The Horror in question is still at large. The route to the last known location of the item leads past a nesting ground of pencarrig. Getting past the birds will be difficult, especially if the group has not heard of the birds. The moaning cries could easily be mistaken for cries for help from a previous expedition that the adventurers were told of, an expedition that never returned.

Tabri

This is the first in a series of dispatches from the southwestern plains, written by Evanten Farseeker. For those who have not seen his previous work, Evanten is not your usual questor of Jaspree. Most of his kind have gone dashing off into the Wastes and the Badlands to try and heal the damage there. Evanten is taking a more organized, more methodical approach. He believes that in order to heal the land, we must understand the effects of the Scourge. He has thus devoted his life to cataloging the flora and fauna of current-day Barsaive, and comparing his work to pre-Scourge records. In this fashion, he expects to gain insight into the effects of the Scourge on Barsaivian life and possibly to discover the key to healing the land of its wounds. His work is the first attempt to produce a comprehensive guide to life in Barsaive since the days before the Scourge.
-- Merrox, Master of the Hall of Records

The tabri are large flightless birds that travel in flocks or herds, much like the grazing mammals that are also found on the plains. Long of leg and neck, their skin is a medium grey, while their plumage is a medium brown. Males have a fan-shaped tail whose feathers are tipped with white, that they display during courtship behavior. The tabri move in small groups led by a dominant male, easily spotted as the largest bird in the flock.

The tabri are polygamous. The males fight viciously during mating season to gain control of coveys of females. New coveys are formed each season, the coveys breaking up after the females are fertilized. Within a herd, several coveys can coexist, although not peacefully during the rut, as the males will contest with each other to gain control of their rival's females. Equipped with talons on the middle toe of each foot the size and sharpness of a dagger, courtship fights frequently draw blood and sometimes kill.

These same talons can do serious damage to Name-Givers and their mounts if battle is joined. Fortunately, like most herding animals on the plains, flight is the primary mode of defense. Tabri only attack if flight is not an option, as when defending a nest or their young. While their eggs are edible, and reportedly something of a delicacy, obtaining them is a very risky proposition. If an aggressive response is seen, serious consideration should be given to backing away, unless the Name-Giver in question is willing to tangle with an animal that kicks with the strength of a horse, is armed with the equivalent of a pair of daggers, and moves quickly and with surprising agility. The nomadic peoples of the plains hunt tabri with spears and bows, only when found in large groups and never during the mating season.

Game Mechanics:

DEX: 8 STR: 7 TOU: 7  PER: 5 WIL: 4 CHA: 3
Initiative: 10	Physical Defense: 10
Number of Attacks: 2	Spell Defense: 7
Attack: 8	Social Defense: 4
Damage: 7 beak/11 talon	Armor: 2
Number of Spells: 0	Mystic Armor: 0
Spellcasting: 0	Knockdown: 11
Effect: 0	Recovery Tests: 3
Death Rating: 40	Combat Movement: 55
Wound Threshold: 11	Full Movement: 110
Unconsciousness Rating: 32	Legend Points: 90
Equipment: None
Loot: None

Adventure Hook:
A merchant in Anghali has found a market for tabri eggs. She has provided the group with several cold chests, large boxes with elemental air woven into them that keep their interiors cold but above freezing, and wants them returned full of eggs. Raiding the nests wholesale will put the group at odds with the Dinganni and other plains nomads, who count on there being a large hatching each year. Taking the eggs will greatly reduce the size of next year's flocks, something the group did not consider or thought irrelevant when they accepted the contract.

The Turfcutter Beetle

Surely a Horror construct, as insects do not normally reach such a size, the adult turfcutter grows to a length equal to that of a large dog. Such a large creature requires a good deal of sustenance. The turfcutter has a means of hunting that is not normally seen in anything this large, yet more evidence of interference by a Horror.

The beetle uses its long, curved mandibles to slice a disc out of the sod, cutting through the thick mat of prairie grass roots. It then hollows out a cavity in the soil large enough for it to crouch in, and pulls the sod over itself, creating a trapdoor. When anything large enough to make a mouthful wanders by, the beetle pops up from its hiding place and seizes its prey, usually slicing it into multiple pieces with the first stroke of its scythe-like mandibles. The beetle does not hesitate in attacking very large animals. I have seen a turfcutter lunge from its hollow and neatly remove the leg from a tabri, then slice off the bird's long neck as it fell. Strong bone will stop the beetle's jaws, but a horse attacked will normally be hamstrung, so the fact that the leg is not severed is moot.

Fortunately, the beetle only spawns once a year, in the middle of the rainy season, and only after a series of courtship battles in which the males compete savagely for the few available females. Its grubs, the size of rats and dark brown with lighter brown banding, make a feast for the birds, further reducing the number of young. The odds of encountering a turfcutter beetle are thus very slender -- yet still enough that since I learned of their existence, travel across the plains has become a nervous business.

Game Mechanics:

DEX: 9 STR: 10 TOU: 10  PER: 5 WIL: 5 CHA: 3
Initiative: 11	Physical Defense: 12
Number of Attacks: 1	Spell Defense: 7
Attack: 18	Social Defense: 4
Damage: 17	Armor: 8
Number of Spells: 0	Mystic Armor: 4
Spellcasting: 0	Knockdown: 18
Effect: 0	Recovery Tests: 5
Death Rating: 52	Combat Movement: 60
Wound Threshold: 15	Full Movement: 120
Unconsciousness Rating: 45	Legend Points: 640
Equipment: None
Loot: None

Adventure Hook:
A Horror has been encouraging the breeding of turfcutter beetles, causing severe trouble for the plains nomads. The adventurers are contacted and offered a generous reward, including tribal friendship, if they can eliminate the Horror and reduce the beetles to their normal population. Getting to the Horror will be half the fun, as the beetle population density increases near the Horror's lair. The entrance cavern has been transformed into a beetle hatchery, and is swarming with grubs and adult beetles.

The Vofoq

A small mammal with a lean build, the vofoq has a pointed muzzle with long whiskers. Its eyes are set wide and well forward in its skull, under large, rounded ears. Its forepaws are small and dexterous, the rear paws being larger and longer at the end of strongly muscled legs. Its plushly furred tail is usually carried erect, but is held straight out when the animal is stalking its prey. The vofoq's fur is light grey with dark grey banding across the shoulders and haunches, dark rings down the tail and a black mask across its face, dark fur surrounding its eyes and extending up its ears.

During the day, the vofoq sleeps, its preferred home being a burrow under the foundation of a building, or a nest in straw or other loose vegetation. At twilight, it comes out to hunt, its principle diet being small rodents and the occasional lizard or large insect. Dwellers in the cities of the southwest have grown accustomed to seeing the vofoq prowling about in the shadows, stalking and pouncing, and welcome its presence for its abilities at pest control -- despite its one odious habit.

The vofoq secretes a foul, sticky liquid from glands under its tail, which it can squirt with terrific accuracy when irritated or marking its territory. The odor of vofoq musk is unmistakable and detectable from a good distance, making it easy to know when you are in the claimed hunting territory of one of the animals. The musk does not wash off with even the strongest of lye soaps, the oily liquid sinking quickly into skin, leather or cloth, and the smell takes days to dissipate. I have yet to meet anyone who is not offended by the odor. If you find a vofoq underfoot, don't kick it out of the way. Even if it refrains from using its musk, its bite can be quite painful.

Given a choice between an infestation of rats and spoogras, or the scent of vofoq musk in the background, I'd have to take the lesser of the two evils and learn to live with the vofoq. A great many people have.

Game Mechanics:

DEX: 6 STR: 2 TOU: 3  PER: 6 WIL: 6 CHA: 5
Initiative: 9	Physical Defense: 10
Number of Attacks: 1	Spell Defense: 8
Attack: 9	Social Defense: 7
Damage: 6	Armor: 0
Number of Spells: 1	Mystic Armor: 0
Spellcasting: 14	Knockdown: 7
Effect: Special	Recovery Tests: 1
Death Rating: 24	Combat Movement: 38
Wound Threshold: 5	Full Movement: 75
Unconsciousness Rating: 15	Legend Points: 155
Equipment: None
Loot: None
Notes: Spell effect -- Bad smell, causes revulsion (WIL vs. 16 to avoid nausea immediately after). Target makes a DEX test against a 20. The difference is the number of days it takes the smell to fade. Thus, if the target rolls a 12, the smell will take 8 days to fade. The target number for the WIL test drops by 2 each day.

Adventure Hook:
The group is on its way to deliver a shipment of fabric for a merchant when a vofoq makes its nest in the cargo. Removing the animal before it shreds the fabric too badly, without resulting in the vofoq fouling the cargo or the adventurers, will be quite a challenge. For an additional complication, the vofoq in question is female, pregnant and about to have kits.

Jacoti

With the abundance of foliage, a large variety of herbivores make their home in the jungle. To survive in such a harsh environment, many strategies are adopted, from protective coloration to foul odors to fleetness of foot. The jacoti survives and flourishes in much the same manner as a crystal raider: by being the largest and meanest creature in its environment.

Standing seven feet tall at the shoulder and weighing over two thousand pounds, an adult jacoti is a force to be wary of. Its deep green hide is rough in texture, and thickens into armor-like plates over most of its vulnerable areas. The neck is protected by a bony plate that sweeps up and back from the head. At the end of its massive, reptilian-like tail is a large bony knob that strikes with all the impact of a mace. Projecting from the top of its snout and from over each eye are horns, not compressed hair like the horn of a rhinoceros, but true horns, with needle-sharp points.

The jacoti's teeth consist primarily of molars, for grinding its leafy diet, and shovel-shaped incisors which are best suited to separating plants from their roots. While not suited to the tearing of flesh like the teeth of carnivores, the jacoti can still deliver a fearsome bite to anyone who approaches too closely.

Jacoti enter their mating season approximately every six months. During this time, the females are anxious to produce offspring, but will not accept any male that she has not seen prove himself in combat. Thus, for two weeks out of every sixth month, every male jacoti of breeding age is spoiling for a fight, preferably in front of a female. Travellers would do well to learn to tell the gender of a jacoti from a distance, and to avoid the vicinity of the females no matter how arduous the alternate route.

In combat, the jacoti attacks by charging with head lowered, aiming its horns at the widest part of its target. Once it has closed, it will rake with its horns and use its tail club to tear and pound its enemy into submission. Jacoti are fierce and stubborn, and will not give up a fight unless mortally wounded. Even then, they do not flee abjectly, but make a fighting withdrawal, continuing to threaten their foe until no longer in range.

Females will normally bear a single young. Twin births are highly uncommon, and multiple births have never been observed. Birth weight averages two hundred pounds. The young are able to defend themselves within a day or so of birth; the mother will stay with her young until they achieve half their adult growth, usually a period of ten to twelve months. Females do not enter the mating cycle again for two years after giving birth.

Jacoti bulls are highly territorial. They stake out an area usually a half day's walk in all directions, and do not tolerate other bulls in their domain. They tend to react to thundra beasts as they would to other jacoti, dominating the females with ritual aggressive behavior and attacking the males. The only time bulls are normally found within each other's territory is during the mating season. Young bulls must carve out their own territory in a series of fights, or wander far afield from their birth area to find unclaimed land. Older bulls have been known to attack anything approaching their size, becoming more defensive of their domain as they age.

One out of every hundred jacoti is born an albino. These white jacoti are smaller and less powerful physically, but are blessed by Jaspree with powerful magics to make up for their size and coloration. Albino jacoti have been observed causing minor earth tremors by pawing the ground and enshrouding themselves with mist and fog to render combat a chancy business. As well, the horns over the eyes store magical energies. If an albino strikes with both of these horns, the energies are discharged into the target, causing grievous wounds. Magicians prize these horns and pay a high price for them. So, too, do the hunters, often paying the final price once they locate an albino jacoti and try to relieve it of its horns.

While there may be predators in the Servos Jungle, both four and two-footed, that represent a grave danger to travellers, the charge of the jacoti remains the most fearsome onslaught likely to be faced in this part of Barsaive.

Game Mechanics:

Standard Jacoti

DEX: 7 STR: 14 TOU: 15  PER: 5 WIL: 8 CHA: 3
Initiative: 7	Physical Defense: 12
Number of Attacks: 2 (1)	Spell Defense: 7
Attack: 12	Social Defense: 10
Damage: 16 (bite), 19 (tail), 20 (charge)	Armor: 12
Number of Spells: 0	Mystic Armor: 1
Spellcasting: 0	Knockdown: 18
Effect: 0	Recovery Tests: 8
Death Rating: 80	Combat Movement: 65
Wound Threshold: 20	Full Movement: 130
Unconsciousness Rating: 70	Legend Points: 240
Equipment: None
Loot: None

Albino Jacoti

DEX: 8 STR: 12 TOU: 13  PER: 7 WIL: 10 CHA: 5
Initiative: 9	Physical Defense: 10
Number of Attacks: 2 (1)	Spell Defense: 10
Attack: 14	Social Defense: 8
Damage: 14/17/18	Armor: 10
Number of Spells: 2	Mystic Armor: 8
Spellcasting: 12	Knockdown: 15
Effect: Zap (damage step 12); Earthshake as Elementalist (uneven ground for 5 rounds); Fog Cloud (Willpower for Effect, vs Spell Defense, reduces attack by Effect steps)	Recovery Tests: 7
Death Rating: 70	Combat Movement: 75
Wound Threshold: 17	Full Movement: 150
Unconsciousness Rating: 62	Legend Points: 360
Equipment: None
Loot: Horns, worth d100 * 10 sp each, treasure worth legend points

The Ntelok

With all of the hazards to travel -- bandits, disease, Therans, predators like these -- there are times when I am quite happy that I chose a career in the Hall of Records.
-- Kylara B'Tenn, Master Clerk, Fauna Room

Its ears are larger than the common wolf, rounded at the top instead of pointed or tufted, and highly mobile. This gives the ntelok hearing far superior to most predators, and certainly superior to any Name-Giver. Its eyes are likewise large, and highly reflective. At night, with its enhanced senses, the ntelok rules the plains. During the day, it lairs in deep grass, under bushes or in caves or large burrows when the former occupant is either gone or can be evicted. When encountered in daylight, the ntelok's sensitive eyes prove a disadvantage, leaving it more vulnerable to attack.

In the night, however, even Name-Givers in large groups can fall prey to this clever hunter. The ntelok hunts in packs, most of which fan out through the area in a rough arc. One wolf stands erect at the center of the arc, using its augmented height to spot movements in the grass that might mean the presence of game. The others then close in on the quarry, under magically-enhanced silence so as not to betray themselves with a rustle of grass. From a distance, in the dark, the spotter could easily be mistaken for a Name-Giver, perhaps a human or an Elf. Hails, of course, will not be returned, and by the time the true situation is realized, the pack may very well be upon you.

A wizard of my acquaintance related a story to me of how he and a group of explorers were travelling through the ntelok's territory, and came upon a pack. He instinctively tossed a flame flash at the first sign of danger, and even nteloks that were not struck by the fire turned and ran, yelping and shaking their heads. As mentioned before, the ntelok has excellent night vision, but is vulnerable to bright light - and the sudden flare of the flames was sufficient to dazzle, perhaps even hurt. I have also heard of travellers using dark lanterns or light quartz kept in velvet bags for the same purpose, to produce a sudden bright light in order to drive off such nocturnal predators.

Game Mechanics:

DEX: 8 STR: 6 TOU: 6  PER: 6 WIL: 5 CHA: 4
Initiative: 10	Physical Defense: 10
Number of Attacks: 1	Spell Defense: 9
Attack: 8	Social Defense: 5
Damage: 12	Armor: 4
Number of Spells: 1	Mystic Armor: 4
Spellcasting: 12	Knockdown: 12
Effect: 14 (Silence, must roll over Effect result on a PER test to notice ntelok)	Recovery Tests: 2
Death Rating: 36	Combat Movement: 60
Wound Threshold: 10	Full Movement: 120
Unconsciousness Rating: 28	Legend Points: 130
Equipment: None
Loot: Pelt worth 6d20 sp if skinned properly
Notes: The ntelok gets an extra 2 steps on all PER tests at night, but is at -3 steps in daylight. When faced with a sudde bright light, the ntelok must make a WIL save against a 12 or flee. When trying to determine whether or not a spotter is a Name-Giver, a PER test is required against a 12.

Adventure Hook:
A farming village hires the adventurers, claiming that a gang of bandits are poaching their sheep. They've seen the bandit leader standing out at the edge of the forest, directing his forces. What the village is actually dealing with is a pack of nteloks, a few more in number than the adventurers. Due to it being the dry season, there are no footprints to give away the true situation. As well, there's a small group of travelling entertainers camped just a short way from the village, through the forest.