Yeti

People sometimes confuse it with the abominable snowman, but the yeti is a far-off kin of the meat-eating great apes of warmer regions. Adults stand 8 feet tall, weigh about 300 pounds, and wear long white fur over ivory flesh and claws. Wide, flat hands and feet spread their weight on treacherous snow. They walk on all fours but fight upright easily, and unlike other apes they have no opposable toe. Their eyes are icy blue or nearly colorless, with a clear second eyelid that lets them see in blowing snow and keeps the eyes from freezing. They carry little body fat, relying instead on their extraordinary fur. In the cold their scent is faint, but in warm or enclosed places they smell strongly musky.

Yeti hunt by ambush. A favorite ploy is to circle ahead of prey and lie in a hollow or shallow pit under a dusting of snow; only someone native to the arctic can see through the ruse, with a 25% chance. Against open snow its coloring makes it invisible until prey is within 10 yards, and buried under a thin layer it cannot be seen at all.

Anyone surprised by a yeti has met its frozen blue gaze and must save vs. paralyzation or stand rigid with fear for three rounds, during which both claws hit automatically and it can squeeze.

It rarely bites (1-4) and prefers its claws. A claw hit on a natural 20 pulls the victim into a hug, and because the fur draws heat from anything it touches, the squeeze inflicts 2-16 points of freezing damage. That same trait makes it vulnerable: heat deals 50% more damage than normal.

Yeti are of average intelligence but build no civilization; they use simple tools and captured weapons without making any. Their homes are mountain and hill ice caves, natural or dug and widened by the family, and their treasure usually comes from dead explorers.

In the harsh north, survival and breeding are their only goals. A family typically has one adult male, one to three females and, when females are present, 1-6 young half the time; the young leave once grown. In an attacking group the biggest is the male, the next biggest his mates, and any others are young about to depart.

Anything outside the family is food, other yeti included, though only a starving yeti attacks a clearly stronger group. They eat caribou, bears, wolves and other herd animals and mountain creatures, scavenge in lean times, and range about 15 miles from their lair.

Teeth and claws bring roughly one gold piece apiece, worth something only because yeti are rare. The fur is the real prize, treasured in cold lands for its warmth, and a grown yeti's pelt may sell for as much as 300 gp.