Unicorn

A unicorn is a mighty horse with a shining pure white coat, a long silky mane and forelock, and eyes of deep sea blue or blazing pink. A single ivory horn 2 to 3 feet long rises from the middle of its brow, and its cloven hooves are a yellowish ivory. Males sport a white beard under the chin, while females are slimmer and more graceful. Unicorns speak their own tongue plus those of elves and other sylvan beings.

A unicorn can sense foes 240 yards away and moves so quietly that opponents take -6 on surprise rolls. Each round it may kick with its forehooves and stab with its horn, which always gains +2 to hit thanks to its magic. Given at least 30 feet of clear ground, it can charge and spear a foe like a lance for 3-36 damage, though it cannot use its forehooves in a round when it charges.

Once per day it can teleport itself and any rider up to 360 yards to any spot it chooses, usually as a last escape from death or capture. No charm or hold magic ever works on a unicorn. It is also immune to poison and death spells, and save against spells as 11th-level wizards.

Unicorns live only in temperate forests far from people. Good but fierce, they avoid all company except sylvan folk such as dryads, pixies and sprites, yet reveal themselves to defend their woods. They mate for life and dwell in an open glade of the forest they protect, carving a glyph into the trees that sylvan creatures recognize as a sign of unicorn protection. A ranger has a 10% chance per level to tell correctly whether a forest is so guarded. Each family claims a range roughly 20 miles on a side, about 400 square miles in all, and other unicorns stay out unless the forest is huge.

Passersby are free to cross the forest and even hunt in it, but anyone who kills for sport or harms the forest out of malice is attacked if the unicorn is close by (10% chance). How fierce the attack is depends on the intruder's wickedness: mischievous youngsters stoning animals get chased off with a few bruises, while marauding orcs are tracked down and killed.

A lone unicorn will now and then let a good-aligned, pure-hearted human or elf maiden tame and ride it. If treated kindly after submitting once, it serves as her mount for life, carries her beyond its forest if she wishes, and defends her to the death.

Unicorns graze on tender leaves and grass. Their only enemies are griffons and forest destroyers, especially red dragons and orcs. No one has recorded their lifespan, but it exceeds 1,000 years, and they stay youthful until mere weeks before death, thanks to the potent magic of the horn.

That horn is coveted. Owning one is a certain cure for any poison, or an alchemist can turn a single horn into 2-12 potions of healing. Horns sell for 1,500 gp or more.