Grudgling

A grudgling is a halfling-sized blend of cat and person. Its body is a big cat's, most often sleek and yellow-orange though fur color and thickness vary, while the head looks elf, human or dwarf, or occasionally another race. Owners especially like pointed elf ears and dwarf beards on their pets.

Normally clumsy, a grudgling turns quick and graceful only when threatened, and its poor morale usually makes it run instead. If it does fight, it drops to all fours and pounces. The claws are weak, but large fangs in its otherwise human mouth give a nasty bite. With a running start, its sudden turns improve its Armor Class by 1.

A brilliant, possibly insane cat-folk wizard created grudglings as familiars, but their shaky nerve made them poor at the job. Today they live almost entirely as house pets among the cat-folk and are rarely found anywhere else. Despite limited wits they insist they are more people than animals, waddling on hind legs and using forepaws as hands, which charms some owners into continuing to breed them. They depend almost completely on their masters.

The rare wild grudgling nearly always has one of the curse-born gifts that helps it survive, and has almost always reached the curse's deforming final stage for want of the curse-warding red metal. Bright enough to feel miserable but not to change anything, these strays haunt the edges of large cat-folk towns, eating garbage or begging.