Manni

A manni resembles a humanoid crow or raven with a long beak, standing on two bowed bird legs and covered in black feathers, hence the nickname 'black ones.' Long wings take the place of arms, but three long fingers hidden in the feathers let it grip and use tools. It talks in clicks and whistles and cannot form human words, though it can learn to understand them.

Manni are sneaky cowards who avoid fights whenever they can. Hunger sometimes forces the issue, since they cannot always rely on others' kills. They prefer ambushes guaranteed to leave them unhurt: snares along game trails, lurking at the edge of camps, or mobbing a target with the whole flock.

Besides pecking, it wields a weapon, usually a spear since it is easiest to wield with wings, sometimes a club. Swords are too awkward for them. As a last resort a manni buffets with its wings for 1-2 damage. That risks being grappled, but anyone struck must save vs. spells or reel stunned for a round, which is often all the time it needs to take wing.

These scavengers are loathsome, neither brave nor trustworthy. A flock holds 10-30 manni, no more than a quarter of them males and the rest females and young. Males and females fight equally, the young cannot fight at all, and any hatchling big enough to hold a weapon counts as an adult.

Their shabby villages sit in sheltered woods or hollows: domed nests of woven grass and branches, carefully disguised with moss, leaves and brush, which keep off only some of the weather. The camps stink of filth and rot. In famine the manni dig up grave mounds, rip apart wind burials, and even eat their own dead.

They fear and therefore hate humans, the 'wingless ones,' who return the feeling; nomads usually kill them on sight. Bleak, wasted country, burial mounds and ruins are their favorite haunts, for they love decay and death.

As scavengers they fill a clear niche on the plains, but cowardice and cruelty keep them from ever ruling it. Some nomad tribes decorate with manni feathers, and merchants buy them for exotic markets.