Gorynych

In good light no one would mistake a gorynych for a true dragon. Its long, lithe, winged body is coated in tiny blue-green scales, but it has three wolflike heads and a cluster of tails: three heavy ones near the hips that fork again and again into a dozen or so slender lashes.

It has no tongue of its own. If one race dominates the land around its lair, it picks up a little of that race's language, but nothing more; in empty country it speaks no language at all, having no one to talk to.

It has no breath weapon but is a formidable fighter. It opens by lashing its tails to snare foes, each tail attacking separately. Tails deal no damage, but each one wrapped around a man-sized victim grants a cumulative +1 to hit that victim with its two claws and three bites; smaller creatures are mostly ignored. A fighter held by two tails is attacked at +2, and if he cannot cut or slip them, more tails join at that bonus the following round. Each newly snared victim has a 10% chance of being twisted so that he cannot strike back (25% for the rare smaller-than-man-sized target).

Each tail takes 2d6 damage to sever, and this damage does not count against the monster's own hit points. Even with no tails left, it fights on if it thinks it is winning.

If two or more of its heads hit the same foe in one round, it tries to wishbone the victim, ripping between the jaws for an extra 2d6 damage. It needs a fresh grip, and so new hits, to try again.

A single personality is spread across three brains, any of which can run the whole body, so losing two heads hampers neither its thinking nor its movement. Six sharp ears give +2 on surprise rolls even when it sleeps, and with heads facing every way no one can take it from the rear.

It favors bleak, windswept country and lives in deep caves whose winding tunnels show plenty of signs: scraped scales, claw gouges, a coin or gem dropped while stocking its hoard, an odd bone missed in its occasional cleanups. It avoids places where humans travel often, but it notes roads, caravan routes and lonely villages a few hours away on the wing, so food and treasure come easily.

Gorynyches lay eggs and push the hatchlings out to fend for themselves almost at once. Young grow fast, maturing in nine years and living about 400.

Usually the top predator in its area, it has little to do with other species, though rival monsters with strong magic, such as dragons and gazer tyrants, often attack it.