Ghriest

The ghriest is a big flier with a wedge-shaped body slung beneath enormously wide wings. Its large eyes see almost perfectly in every direction at once. The long, slender head sweeps back into a finlike crest, and the pointed beak hides a row of tiny teeth. Feathers cover it everywhere except the head and a bony ridge along each wing's leading edge. Two scrawny feet tuck against its belly, withered by generations of disuse but still deft. Males are a little larger and brighter, but females are the deadlier hunters.

The ghriest hunts with its beak alone and never bites despite those teeth. It climbs above its quarry, then plunges with remarkable speed and precision, usually surprising its target completely. A diving strike impales for double damage, 4d6. It then works the victim off its beak with its feet, grips tight, and stabs again if the prey still lives. Even laden with a small human, it stays aloft.

Once per day it can spit fire, like a small dragon's breath, dealing 4d6 points of damage to one target; a successful save vs. breath weapon halves it.

From hatching to death, a ghriest never leaves the skies above a frontier coast. Its feeble legs could never hold its weight, but that is not why it never lands: its breathing depends on a strong, constant rush of air, and on the ground it would choke within minutes. After only a few seconds down it would probably be too weak to take off again.

They travel in family groups and generally raise two young a year. Eggs and hatchlings ride in belly pouches and are passed between adults with their nimble feet. Fledglings that can fly still keep close to the family for six months or more.

They range over a forbidden upland and the peaks of a remote mountainous peninsula, favoring hills and mountains where rising air lets them feed and mate on the wing. They shun humanoid settlements except those of the winged elves, who sometimes fly alongside them.

Ghriests are among the top predators of the sky, spearing and tearing apart almost anything else that flies. Winged elves can befriend and tame them, while other races sometimes hunt them for their feathers. Each ghriest carries 4d4 special pilot feathers along its wings. Arrows and bolts fletched with them fly 50% farther and gain a nonmagical +1 to hit.