Bhaergala

Picture something halfway between a great wolf and a lion, yet kin to neither, and you have the bhaergala. Its pelt carries a faint scent like warm biscuits, an oddly homely smell for so lethal a beast. It mimics human and elven speech and song flawlessly, and most can speak the common tongue outright.

Its favorite opening is a leap from above. A bhaergala can drop 60 feet unharmed; beyond that it takes 1d6 per 10 feet, to a cap of 20d6. On the landing round it uses only its claws, but each claw that hits deals maximum damage. Afterward it rakes with both foreclaws and bites, tearing off chunks to eat later and sometimes savaging a body long after the fight is over.

Its tough constitution grants +3 on saves vs. poison, a 99% chance on system shock checks, and healing of 2 hit points a day. Up to four times daily it can turn a spell cast at it, exactly like a ring of spell turning, but only by concentrating, which takes its entire round.

Solitary, it prowls jungle undergrowth and sylvan woods in warm and temperate lands, favoring humans, elves and satyrs as prey. It always approaches from downwind so its smell gives no warning, and it often uses its mimicry to lure victims into ambush.

Music can calm it. The base chance to sing one to sleep is 25%, plus 5% for a lone singer, plus 5% per Charisma point over 16, plus 15% for a professional or truly gifted performer. A threatened, injured, recently attacked or hunting bhaergala cannot be soothed at all. Even when lulled it naps just 1d10 rounds, and if the singer has gone when it wakes, it will probably give chase.

Adults meet only to mate, always on sand such as a riverbank or sandbar. Six months later 2d4 cubs are born, and the pair stays together a little over a year to raise them. A cub is driven off once it makes its first kill; it has every adult power but only 2+2 Hit Dice and deals half damage. When the last cub leaves, the parents part forever.

A grown bhaergala sleeps high in tall trees and seldom visits its den, a hidden cave or ruin. The den holds little true treasure, mostly broken instruments and noisemakers taken from victims, though now and then a rare or magical instrument turns up.