Jhakar

A jhakar looks like a bulldog covered in thick, wrinkled scales, with four short, powerful legs and a stubby tail. Its blunt-snouted head is almost all mouth, and heavy bone ridges and double eyelids shield its eyes and ears. Its hide is sandy brown, darker on the snout and claws.

Jhakar are famous for single-minded persistence. Once a bite hits, the jaws lock on with an effective Strength of 18/00 and hold until one of the two is dead, dealing normal bite damage automatically every round thereafter while the beast tries to haul its prey down.

That dragging is an overbearing attempt, made in the same round as the continuing bite. Thanks to its savagery a jhakar overbears as if it were size M, rolling against its usual THAC0, with +4 versus small targets (size S) and -4 versus large ones (size L). Creatures with more than two legs suffer an extra -2 per additional leg, so a mantis warrior is overborne at -4 in total. Every other jhakar latched onto the same victim adds +1 to the roll. A victim pulled down must fight prone, and attacks against prone creatures gain +4 to hit. Wild packs swarm any prey a packmate has dragged down.

Wild jhakar hunt in small packs that bring down all but the toughest quarry, and they treat a human or elf as just more game. Once a pack catches a scent it never quits, charging in a single bounding rush and hissing like boiling kettles when it sights its target.

City folk know them better as domesticated guard animals and trackers of runaway slaves, feared by thieves and escapees alike. Tame jhakar remain vicious, erratic and dim, often forgetting their own handler overnight, but as trackers they are superb and never abandon a trail.

Alone a jhakar is not especially strong, but a pack is lethal, and most desert creatures steer well clear of one. The tembo is its sworn enemy.