Achaierai

An achaierai looks like an enormous round head with a strong beak, a feathered crest and stubby wings. From its underside sprout four metallic blue-gray legs, each 8-9 feet long, ending in powerful taloned feet. The head-body is dull scarlet mottled with deeper red, and the crest can be nearly any color, most often bright flame red.

Achaierai in a flock never check morale, though a lone bird that loses a leg tries to run. They cannot fly but are fast enough to outrun most pursuers. Only damage to the soft body kills one. A single edged-weapon blow of 15 or more points to a leg cuts it off; 15 or more points from several attacks of any kind cripples the leg without severing it. Area attacks harm the legs in the area only if the creature fails its save. Losing one leg does not slow it; losing two halves its movement.

When it has lost three legs or is otherwise badly hurt, it releases a black, poisonous cloud about 10 feet in radius. Everyone inside except achaierai takes 2-12 damage and must save vs. poison or go insane for three hours, as feeblemind. The wounded bird then tries to escape in the confusion, crawling at movement 2 if three legs are gone. A wounded leg recovers completely within a day or two, but a severed leg never regrows and they have no other regeneration.

Flocks fight in an organized way, targeting whoever seems most dangerous first. Only two can attack a man-sized foe at once. Such foes usually cannot reach the body, and the bird cannot reach them with its beak, so it attacks with two claws instead.

These evil birds came from some ancient infernal plane; long ago the whole race was summoned here for a purpose now forgotten, and none remain anywhere else. They cannot breed here but live extremely long, so remnants of the first flocks still prowl dark unexplored caverns, attacking all they meet, perhaps still trying to obey long-dead masters. They rarely leave the underground, sometimes appearing at night in the shadowy mouths of their caverns, and use clusters of small chambers as nesting areas. Though sterile, they mate for life and fight savagely (+2 to hit) if a mate or nest is threatened.

They form small flocks and pairs but have no real society, and in lean times they turn on weaker flockmates and eat them. A lone achaierai has a 40% chance of being one that has lost legs and fears its own kind. One flock in ten has an exceptional leader with 60 hit points in its body and 25 in each leg, +2 to hit and damage, and the ability to use its toxic smoke up to four times per day.

Achaierai eat only meat and do not care how fresh it is. They need staggering amounts each day and turn to scavenging or cannibalism when necessary. Drow, deep gnomes and other underground peoples fear and hunt them, since a hungry flock can wipe out villages and herds, and land near them is usually stripped of life.