La demanda y la contradicción de la demanda

Large Animal

Hit Dice: 16d8+48 (120 hp) Initiative: +14 (+2 Dex, +12 Reflex) Speed: 40 ft.

DV: 17 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +6 natural) DR: 7

Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+24 Attack: Claw +20 melee (2d4+8)

Full attack: 2 claws +20 melee (2d4+8), bite +14 melee (2d8+4 plus puncture, AP 12)

Space/Reach: 10 ft. (2)/5 ft (1).

Special Attacks: Pounce, improved grab, rake 2d4+4, puncture, tooth breaking

Special Qualities: Scent, low-light vision Saves: Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +11

Abilities: Str 26, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10 Skills: Hide +7, Jump +14, Listen +6, Move Silently +11, Spot +7, Swim +10

Feats: Alertness, Improved Natural Attack (claw), Improve Natural Attack (bite), Run, Stealthy, Weapon Focus (claw) Climate/Terrain: Brythunian Mountains

Organization: Solitary or pair

Advancement: 17-32 HD (Large); 33-48 HD (Huge)

Sword-toothed leopards resemble huge panthers or other big cats in form, but have a silvered, speckled fur. It has a feral, prehistoric look to it. These cats have extremely powerful forequarters in comparison to other big cats, though even their hindquarters are more powerful than those of a lion. This makes them very strong, but their bulk makes them slower than most big cats, and has contributed to their quick and savage hunting style. Their most distinctive feature, though, is the pair of vast teeth that give them their name – huge curved fangs, bigger than daggers and capable of inflicting the most devastating injuries.

Though these fangs are enormously powerful weapons, they are far more brittle than smaller fangs, and older sword-toothed leopards often have one or both of their great teeth broken off.

Sword-toothed leopards are not so common as in former times, now that humanity and wild cats have spread over many of their old hunting grounds. Deep in the forests of the Pictish Wilderness, though, they can still be found wild, and shamans of the Pictish race often call upon them as powerful allies.

Combat

Sword-toothed leopards prefer to stalk their prey, dropping from a hidden position atop a tree or rock and slaying their victims within instants. A large victim such as an elephant or bull will be attacked until the sword-toothed leopard causes a puncture (see below), then the sword-toothed leopard will retreat until its victim bleeds to death. This allows them to avoid the risk of injury, since although they are tough they must eat a fair amount to survive, and any serious wound may impede their hunting ability to such a degree that they starve to death. In open combat with a determined and well-armed foe, the sword-toothed leopard will consider fleeing, particularly if it is injured.

A gigantic mountain cat – gray-speckled on silver, with hunched, massive shoulders that made it taller and broader than the elk itself- tore hungrily at the prey’s slack body, which it must have caught up in its monstrous jaws and dragged to the spot in a few mighty bounds of its pantherish frame. The bulbous feline head, with its tufted ears, arching eyebrow ridges, gory whiskers, and red-slavering, underslung jaw, bristled with devilish menace. Every feature was vastly oversized, and all centered on a pair of fangs as long and evilly curved as the blades of Zamoran tulwars. The great animal used its huge feline teeth methodically, scissoring away slabs of glistening flesh from the elk’s haunches and spilling forth entrails in quivering heaps.

Leonard Carpenter, Conan the Savage

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Pounce (Ex): If a sword-toothed leopard leaps upon a foe during the first round of combat, it can make a full attack even if it has already taken a move action.

Puncture (Ex): A sword-toothed leopard’s bite attack which does a critical hit on an opponent is considered to have punctured a major blood vessel. The victim will lose a further 1 hp per round (in blood loss) until the wound is healed by either the Heal skill or some sorcerous means.

Tooth Breaking (Ex): A sword-toothed leopard whose bite attack does maximum damage on a critical hit (that is, a roll of 16 on 2d8 on a critical hit) loses one of its large canine teeth. This sticks in the wound, doing an additional d6 damage, but the sword-toothed leopard’s bite damage drops to 2d6 + damage bonus and it can no longer do the puncture attack (above). It is possible for the second canine to break off if maximum damage is done a second time

(12 on 2d6), in which case the bite damage drops to 2d4 + damage bonus.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the sword-toothed leopard must hit with a claw or bite attack. If it gets a hold, it can rake.

Rake (Ex): A sword-toothed leopard that gets a hold can make two rake attacks (+20 melee) with its hind legs for 2d8+3 damage each. If the sword-toothed leopard

pounces on an opponent, it can also rake.

Skills: Sword-toothed leopards receive a +6 racial bonus to Balance, Hide, and Move Silently checks. *In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus improves to +8.

Stith

Large Animal

Hit Dice: 4d8+16 (34 hp) Initiative: +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Ref)

Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)

DV: 16 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +5 natural) DR: 7

Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+11

Attack: Talons +6 melee (2d6+4 plus puncture AP 12)

Full attack: Talons +6 melee (2d6+4 plus puncture AP 12) and 2 foreclaws +1 melee (1d3+2) and

bite +1 melee (2d4+2)

Space/Reach: 10 ft. (2)/5 ft (1).

Special Attacks: Pounce, puncture, poison spit

Special Qualities: Scent, low-light vision

Saves: Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +2

From behind the largest of the boulders emerged something unlike anything Conan had ever seen. Tall it was, at least his own height, and it had two arms and two legs. This beast, however, had never seen the inside of a human womb. It was some form of reptile, scaled and grayish-green, and it dragged a tail as thick as Conan’s thigh where it joined the body, tapering to a point thinner than a man’s fingertip. It had the face of a lizard, slits for nostrils, and yellow eyes, with fleshy, oddly puckered lips. It looked as if it meant to whistle with those lips. On top of its bony head was the compartmented plate that rattled as it moved, much as the thing had been on the serpent’s tail. It had short arms, with three claws each. It seemed to smile, and in so doing, revealed pointed teeth the size and shape of a child’s dagger.

Steve Perry, Conan the Defiant

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Abilities: Str 19, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10 Skills: Hide +8, Jump +26, Listen +10, Spot +10, Survival +10

Feats: Run, Track

Climate/Terrain: Brythunian/Zamoran mountains Organization: Solitary

Advancement: 5-8 HD (Large)

A stith is a powerful dinosaur living in the mountains of northern Brythunia. It will attack armed men, even in large numbers. Extremely fast, it has a deadly spit attack. It springs as it attacks, bounding like a kangaroo or a raptor in its deadly charge. Its venomous spittle glows emerald green and is highly acidic and carries diseases deadly to man. They are solitary and territorial.

Combat

A stith uses a combination of speed, grasping forearms, large teeth, and hind legs with ripping talons. It hunts by running at prey, leaping, and ripping with its rear talons as it claws and bites. The talons count as one attack.

Poison Spit (Ex): A stith can spit glowing, emerald green poison by making a ranged touch attack. The spit has a range of 10 feet and is highly acidic (AR 10). A full blast does 2d8 points of damage (Reflex save DC 14 for half damage). Even a partial hit can inflict a potential disease (the Games Master may choose one he prefers for the area). The save is Dexterity based.

Pounce (Ex): If a stith charges, it can make a full attack.

Skills: A stith has a +8 racial bonus on Hide, Jump, Listen, Spot and Survival checks.

Adventure and Campaign

Hooks

A Black Stone has been unearthed, a sinister monolith that broods over the Graaskal Mountains.

Rumoured to be of Atlantean origin, many dark legends cluster about it. The Books of Skelos mention this Stone as one of the keys (a phrase often used in the books and one of the obscurities of the work) and hints at the curious sights to be seen around the monolith on the summer solstice.

Legends tell of ancient animals that roam the forests of southern Brythunia, animals that supposedly can live forever, save by steel. They are large, dire animals. Somewhere in that region is a desolate castle where a wizard once dwelt with his tomes of mystic lore. That ancient library, although much of it was destroyed, may still exist.

There are approximately 475 castles in Brythunia, although about 70 of them are ruined or abandoned. Each of these are ripe for the exploring.

There might be pocket cultures of ancient Acheronians existing in the backwoods of Brythunia, inbreeding to keep their blood-lines pure and delving into dark secrets to rebuild Acheron of old.

One of the kings of Brythunia may declare himself the King of Brythunia, demanding tribute from the other kingdoms.

Characters might be hired to enforce this king’s position or to bring him down.

The surrounding nations consider Brythunia to be a laughable kingdom and often send in invading armies.

Sometimes these invasions are intended as conquests or slave raids, but as often as not they are considered mere training exercises for their troops so they can be prepared for ‘real’

missions.

‘A gloomier land never was – all of hills, darkly wooded, under skies nearly always gray, with winds moaning drearily down the valleys.’

Robert E. Howard, The Phoenix on the Sword

‘The women of the Hyborians do not fight like your Cimmerian women, Conan.’

Robert E. Howard, Black Colossus

CIMMERIA