Dragonne

Seen from afar, a dragonne passes for an outsized lion until you notice the small brass-hued wings sprouting from its shoulders. Up close the differences multiply. Its body is covered in heavy brassy scales like those of a brass dragon, its mane is far thicker and rougher than any lion's, and it has enormous claws and fangs and large eyes that usually match its scales. It has no tongue of its own but speaks the tongues of sphinxes and brass dragons.

A dragonne normally opens with its forepaws, each set dealing 1d8 points of damage, and a savage bite for 3d6. That is enough to finish most things it meets. Only when facing an unusually dangerous foe, or after being wounded by a weaker one, does it resort to its roar.

Everything within 120 feet of the roar must save vs. paralyzation or be gripped by fear-born weakness, losing half its Strength for 2d6 rounds. Those within 30 feet are also deafened for 2d6 rounds with no save allowed; they hear nothing and attack at -1 from disorientation. Like a dragon's breath, the roar can be used only once every three rounds, and creatures in range must save vs. fear every time it sounds. A creature that is already deaf cannot hear it and so need not save again until its hearing returns.

The wings keep the beast aloft just 1-3 turns before it must land, but it uses them shrewdly. If enemies try to charge or surround it, the dragonne simply lifts off and settles somewhere easier to defend. It is slow and clumsy in the air compared with most fliers and would rather not fight aloft, yet it can still claw, bite and roar while flying, so it is nearly as dangerous there as on the ground.

Dragonnes favor deserts and rocky foothills, laying claim to big natural caves where they keep modest treasure, mostly plunder from dead adventurers, heaped loosely about. Since they live in empty country, their ranges tend to be vast.

They cannot stand one another. Pairs form only during a short mating season in late autumn, and each dragonne produces a single egg per year. The mother rears her cub for one year; after that, even mother and offspring are hostile if they cross paths, and males are always quarrelsome toward each other. Few creatures get along with them and most intelligent races treat them as a menace, but what a dragonne really wants is to be left alone to hunt.

Herd beasts such as goats are its preferred food, not least because they fight back less than people do; it hunts humans and demihumans only when other game runs out. Its reputation as a wanton killer of travelers owes more to rumor than to fact. What it will not tolerate is intrusion. Anyone who blunders into its lair or tries to settle within its range faces a swift, furious attack, while those merely passing through are usually ignored. Dim as it is, a dragonne can tell a harmless traveler from a would-be homesteader.