Guttar [Dwarven Ox]

Dwarves bred these sturdy oxen for life underground. Their name in the dwarven tongue means 'thunder', for the rumble a moving herd sends echoing through the halls. They are large, rugged beasts with short, coarse hair, and both sexes carry horns that sweep forward and meet over the nose, a trait bred in so the horns won't snag on narrow tunnel walls.

A dwarven ox butts or slashes with its horns for 1-10 points of damage. Charging from at least 40 feet away, it impales for 2-12 and tramples for 1-6. A frightened herd may stampede: anyone who can't get clear takes a charge from the lead ox (2-16 plus 1-4) and is then run over by 2-8 more, each dealing 1-6. A favorite dwarven tactic is to drive a herd through a tunnel full of goblins or orcs and then stroll in to mop up the few survivors.

Guttar avoid bright sunlight and will not willingly go out by day, though torchlight and firelight don't trouble them. Their weak infravision reaches only 30 feet, so they rely on a keen nose to find food. Because tunnel echoes mislead, herds communicate with musk instead of sound, mixing scents that signal fear, danger, dominance, calm or readiness to mate; dwarves use extracted musk to steer their herds.

They graze on underground plants and fungi, even ones dangerous to other animals, shrugging off such a growth's special attacks 95% of the time before happily eating it. Herds range from ten head to hundreds in the great halls, and grazing disputes have sparked wars between dwarven holds. More than one surface village has woken to find its hills stripped bare.

Dwarves use every part of the beast: meat and milk, hair for rope and rough cloth, hide for smithing aprons, gloves and leather armor, horn for weapon hilts and carved love tokens, dried dung for forge fuel, and hooves for glue or as chews for tunnel hound pups. Oxen also haul supplies, pull mine carts and turn mills and lifts. They are too dim for war mounts, but eccentric dwarven berserkers sometimes ride them anyway, and the sight alone has routed goblin units.