Carnivorous Ape

Bigger, stronger and far more aggressive than a gorilla, the carnivorous ape has massive shoulders, a heavy black-furred body, long arms and short legs. Its fingers and toes end in hooked black claws. The face is light brown, with wide nostrils and a mouth full of long, sharp teeth for tearing flesh. It knuckle-walks on all fours and can swing through branches at 75% of its normal movement.

These apes are reasonably intelligent and very crafty, and their sharp senses give them +2 on surprise rolls. In forest they trail victims through the trees for miles, dropping down when the prey stops to drink or lets its guard slip. Where there are no trees, they lurk in tall grass or dense brush and spring from behind.

In battle an ape rears up, pounding with its huge arms and biting with powerful jaws. Hitting with both hands in one round lets it tear the victim for an extra 1d8. After a kill, or to scare off an intruder, it stands upright, drums on its chest and roars, a sound known to send the faint-hearted fleeing in panic.

Families of two to 20, females outnumbering males roughly two to one, live in tropical jungles and plains, sometimes sleeping high in tall trees. Pregnancy lasts about nine months, and for its first three years an infant never leaves its mother, clinging to her long fur and riding on her back. The biggest male leads, setting the day's routine and defending the family. Younger males sometimes challenge him in a savage wrestling match that is never fatal. A losing challenger slinks off and eventually joins another family; a deposed leader lives out his life alone and embittered.

Families have no permanent lair, roaming a home range of 10-20 square miles and never sleeping two nights running in the same place. The leader marks the boundary by gouging crude symbols in tree trunks or spraying them with musk from glands beneath his tongue. Coins, gems and other finds are stashed in hollow trees or similar safe spots.

The family eats soon after sunrise on prey the adult males hunt and drag back to share. The adults then nap while the young play. A second meal comes before sunset, and soon after dark they bed down in a hidden meadow or a communal nest woven in the highest branches.

For all their temper, they usually kill only to eat or to protect their families. They enjoy nuts and fruit, yet they mainly eat rodents, small reptiles, eggs and fish, with the odd giant insect or carcass, supplemented by antelope, buffalo, deer and horses. Where game is plentiful they compete with lions and other predators, and when a pride violently disputes a hunting ground, the apes generally move on rather than risk their families.

Their man-eating reputation is exaggerated. A few families do live on human flesh alone, raiding villages and hunting parties, but they are rare. More common is the lone man-eater, typically a bitter deposed leader who attacks people as much from rage as hunger. Human hunters prize the apes as trophies (pelts, hands and heads), and some primitive tribes require killing one as a rite of passage.