Abrian

An abrian is a hefty, flightless bird about the size of a man, feathered in spiny black and red and balanced on two massive legs. Travelers compare it to an ill-tempered ostrich, but it is much heavier, with a far bigger head and beak. Its wings have shrunk to tiny clawed arms held before its chest, good for fiddling with small objects but too weak to lift even a small child. Its featherless head and legs wear tough gray scale.

They are clever, though only modestly so. They seldom speak to anyone outside the flock, and plenty of would-be conversationalists have died trying. Their wits show best on the hunt, where they lay snares, run prey down in relays, and strike, fall back and strike again.

Abrians attack almost anything as a potential meal. In settled lands they raid herds and outlying farms; in the wild they try to bring down any travelers they meet, and often lack the sense to leave off prey that is clearly too strong. It tears with a saw-edged beak and lashes out with a clawed foot hard enough to kill or cripple a grown human. Its forelimbs cannot wield weapons, but it might use a ring, wand or similar item usable by any class.

One abrian's shriek is merely annoying. Four or more shrieking in chorus force a save vs. spell on every creature in a 20-foot radius; failure means 1d6 rounds of deafness, -1 on surprise, and a 20% risk that any spell with a verbal component fizzles. A chorus of 8 or more doubles those penalties and stretches the deafness to 1d4 hours, and the damaged inner ear adds -1 on both attacks and Armor Class.

Against tough prey a flock splits into two or more bands. While the victims fight one group, a second bursts from hiding behind them; the first band then falls back, circles, and rushes in once the prey has wheeled to face the newcomers. Deafened foes may never hear an ambush coming. Abrians are brave in numbers and quick to retreat when things go badly, yet at the nest they never give ground while alive.

Each small flock answers to an old female (3+6 HD, Average Intelligence). Females make decisions while males lead hunts, though outsiders can barely tell the sexes apart. Half of all flocks (50%) also have a shaman, the next-oldest female, who casts as a 2nd-level priest from the guardian, plant, animal and all spheres.

Flocks nest communally in caves, ruins, thick forest or brush, staying several months before moving on. A third to a half of the birds stay home guarding the nest and treasure while the rest go on hunts lasting days. Chicks number a quarter (25%) of the adult count; each has 1+1 HD and a single 1d4 kick each round. Eggs number 1d6 for every 10 grown birds. The eggs are worthless, though some places pay a bounty for them.

Occasionally an elder female takes a band out to barter with other thinking creatures, but only when well fed and far from home; otherwise every stranger is either a meal or a threat to the chicks. With little grasp of civilized manners, these meetings frequently end in bloodshed.

Abrians arose in the prison plane or the gray wasteland of despair and spread fast, plaguing the neutral middle plane and turning up almost anywhere. Hunters occasionally turn up in the good-aligned realms, though they are far more common in the neutral and evil ones. After 4 to 6 months of stripping the countryside around one lair, a flock relocates, often hundreds of miles away, and builds a new nest.