Herd Animals [Dark Sun]

Desert folk raise or round up a number of creatures for meat, hides and tools. Some are half tame; others are simply too dim to avoid capture. A few are dangerous enough that 'herding' them is a generous word.

Plated rooter: A timid, six-legged digger 2 to 4 feet long under nine plates of supple horn that make superb leather, with a pointed snout, tiny eyes behind glassy lenses, strong digging foreclaws, and stubby hind legs. It grunts to its kind; dwarf herders imitate the grunts, and a character can learn this 'language' with one nonweapon proficiency slot and an Intelligence check, failure meaning the rooter ignores the attempt or gets the wrong message. Rooters waddle away from trouble, which makes herding easy, and fight only when cornered or guarding young. Once a day one can release an invisible 8-cubic-foot cloud of pheromones; those inside save vs. poison or sink into apathy for 1d8 turns, not even caring to drink water. Victims can be led about or made to drink, but are indifferent to living or dying. Dwarves, hardy and focused, save at +4. Litters of 2-6 come twice a year and ride clinging to the mother's skin folds until they can walk, maturing in 3-5 months. Their armor lets them dig through brambleweed for its sweet roots, and they eat anything that does not fight back, garbage included. Dwarves keep herds slowly moving so they do not ruin crop roots; one roasted rooter feeds two famished dwarves, or six as stew. A skilled dwarf with animal husbandry can milk the pheromones safely, but a turn's work yields only enough for a one-cubic-foot cloud, and it goes inert within 48 hours.

Scream-hopper: A small, upright lizard that bounds on strong taloned hind legs, balanced by a thick tail, with a pointed head, vestigial forelimbs and tan-to-brown featherlike razor scales. Herds, called leaps, chirp constantly to stay together. These are perhaps the dimmest, most skittish animals on the desert world, prone to stampeding over cliffs or into the silt sea. A frightened hopper screams so piercingly that everyone with normal hearing within 100 feet must save vs. petrification. A failed save leaves the victim sprawled and disoriented, unable to fight, cast or use psionics until the screaming stops or they get out of range; success still imposes -2 on anything needing concentration, such as combat, spells or psionics. Covering the ears beforehand gives +2 to the save, plugging them with wax or cloth +4; silence magic may negate the effect, and the deaf are immune. One screamer soon sets off the whole leap. If desperate, a hopper bounces and grinds against a foe with its razor scales for 1d6 per round; its peck does just 1 point. It needs little water and forages for itself, digging up insects and seedlings with its talons. Females bury 1-3 eggs about once a month and forget them; the scales form so early that no creature can eat the eggs. Descaled, the drumsticks and tail of an adult make fine eating, enough for six people or one half-giant, and one hopper makes soup for a dozen. The scales serve as knives and razors for about a week before going dull for good.

Goldpelt: A sleek, foot-tall burrower with short strong legs, cheek pouches for food or water, and a golden pelt prized in trade. Its squeaks are too high for humanoid ears. Beneath each limb is a spur fed by a venom sac. A spur hit deals 1d2 and injects venom; a failed save vs. poison brings agony as the struck area, whether limb, torso or head, shrivels and dies at 1 foot of diameter per round. The thick venom stays local. The victim can do nothing but scream until it runs its course. Neutralize poison stops it; slow poison slows it to 1 foot per hour. Venom in the head drains 1 Intelligence per turn until it hits zero, leaving the victim in a coma to starve. Goldpelts dig linked family warrens with rooms for living, storage and sleep and closely guarded food and deep water, sleeping by day and foraging from dusk. Most 'herders' are really trappers who snare them at night, and a wise one builds his hut on stone or above ground so the creatures cannot tunnel up and kill him. The meat is gamy but edible, at about one goldpelt per elf or human; the venom sacs make butchering risky. Worse, the smell of the meat cooking drives any goldpelts nearby into a rage, and a feast too near a warren brings a swarm down on the diners.