Cloud Ray

Against the evening sky of the desert world, a cloud ray glides slowly by, a broad flat body beating vast pectoral fins to help its psionic flight. It is mottled brown above and dull olive and white below. Bony ridges shield four jet-black eyes, two flanking the snout and two set beside a bulge on its head. A spine runs from that bulge into a long, slender tail tipped with the zip, a cluster of razor-edged barbed ridges. The zip also flashes a signal language only other rays understand. Inside, the maw spans more than 20 feet and is lined with row after row of sharp cartilage ridges.

A ray's favorite tactic is simply to gulp its target whole. It gets one try per victim, and a hit swallows any creature smaller than huge. If that fails, it glides in silently and cracks its tail like a whip, with a thunderclap boom, for 5-50 points of damage. Then it spins its enormous body around with surprising speed and bites the following round. An inertial barrier surrounds it at all times as an innate ability.

Psionics: it knows telekinesis and dream travel, and also levitation, inertial barrier, and control winds, which it uses at no cost.

Cloud rays roam the skies without aim, always hunting. Now and then one lands and passes for a rocky outcrop, and anyone standing on it when it takes off may become dinner. They favor flying prey, especially rocs, great flying reptiles, and winged humanoids. With no real stomach, a ray grinds swallowed prey to liquid on its inner jaw ridges, and after a big meal it sometimes dream travels while it digests.

Rays respect each other's territory and rarely trespass in another's sky. They live alone except to mate. Gestation lasts over 3 years, and the female gives birth in flight. The male catches the newborn and carries it on his back for its first year while she hunts. Once the youngster can fly and fend for itself, the family scatters.

Though psionic themselves, rays fly into a fury when a psionicist touches their minds, and will do anything short of landing to catch and eat the offender. The only creature they truly fear is the world's dragon-tyrant.

One dead ray could keep a whole settlement in meat and materials for 2-3 months, but killing one is unlikely. They are rightly dreaded: single rays have wiped out villages. A ray hovering low over buildings and beating its wings strikes like the worst sandstorm, and a few swipes of the zip level most structures.