Boneclaw Baazrag

Very rarely a baazrag bears just one pup, unusually large, and it grows into a boneclaw over 8 feet tall. A bony helm guards its head, and a hard shell over its back and upper body turns aside any normal missile smaller than a javelin. Saw-toothed edges line the shell everywhere but around the mouth and eyes. Its hide is a dull brown, its claws are sandy, and its red eyes shine in the dark.

A boneclaw tries to eat anything that moves. Given 10 feet of open ground to build speed, it charges straight through a party or herd, weaving to slash up to four creatures standing within 3 feet of one another, and its speed gives it a -4 bonus to initiative that first round. Each target needs a separate attack roll; a hit deals 1-4 (1d4), and a failed save vs. petrification means the cut was too clean to notice, so the victim keeps losing 1 hp each round for 1-4 rounds unless the wound is treated.

After the charge it fights with claws and bite. Leaping at a foe lets it use all four claws for 1-6 (1d6) each; otherwise it rears and uses only the front pair. Either way it also tries to bite, gulping any scrap of flesh or gear it rips loose.

Its psionic powers are telepathic: the science mind link and the devotions contact, life detection, and mind thrust.

Solitary, a boneclaw claims everything within 2 miles of its lair, usually an abandoned baazrag den. Lacking water, it digs until it finds some, so old boneclaw lairs sometimes hold wells that have saved parched travelers. Without prey it can live on plants for up to three months, or go without food entirely for a month.

Though both sexes exist, boneclaws are sterile and care only for eating and killing whatever blocks them. They sit near the top of the food chain, hunted only by drakes, nightmare beasts, and now and then bulettes. Their 125 pounds of meat is edible but stringy. Shell fragments make sharp kitchen knives prized across the desert world; as slashing weapons they give +1 damage and a 5% chance the victim doesn't notice the wound until fainting from blood loss, but used to stab they are 50% likely to shatter.