Another page? Sure; we're coming to the end, and I'd like to get it done at some point. We continue with animal definitions, and the carnivores. There are two left to learn about: The sirens, and the killers. Here we go.
The sirens are, as I surmised earlier, the Venus fly-trap creatures. Instead of just trapping their prey, they lure them in before trapping them. Whether it's by smell or some other sense, they attract their prey and capture them before making a light snack of them. We also get a tease about a 'psionic' lure, although we haven't seen psionics yet. Methinks that subject will appear later in the book.
Finally, the killers. These are, as you might guess, straight-up killers that don't care what they're trying to eat, as long as they can chew it. Sharks are the example, to my complete lack of surprise. I suppose man-eating lions might fall under this category as well, different from regular lions. Ever see that movie Ghost and the Darkness with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer? Maybe not. But those lions were definitely killers. Blood lust, mindless ferocity...yeah.
Our fourth animal category is the scavengers. There are intimidators, hijackers, carrion-eaters, and reducers. They either steal other animals' prey, or wait for the leftovers.
The intimidators are sneaky buggers who wait until someone else does all the work of catching food, then try to frighten them off and steal the kill. They're practically parasites. Coyotes are the example given, although one might be tempted to add 'politicians' to the list.
Next are hijackers. These are also kill-stealers, but instead of sneaking in and scaring the hunters by surprising them, they just bully them into leaving the food for them. The only terrestrial example they give is 'lion in a bad mood.' You would think that these would be intimidators, since they literally intimidate through size and strength. But I didn't write the book, so we'll just go with it.
Carrion-eaters. Vultures, obviously; they wait for something to die on its own, or they feast on the remains of another animal's meal. I wonder if hyenas would fit in this one, or in one of the other two categories.
Not the fourth one, though, which is the reducers. These are like bacteria and some vermin, critters that wait until even the carrion-eaters are finished before moving in. They'll even reduce the bones of a carcass.
And that's the animals. But, that's only half of this page. The second half of the page is devoted to 'events,' which also appear on the encounter tables. These could be animals, or they could be natural events, geographic or geologic in nature. The ones listed are just examples, though. Let's see what we have.
Ravines and precipices start us off. This is an obstacle to overland travel, which slow you down by a full day. If it's a close encounter (no pun intended), the lead character has a chance to go over said ravine or precipice on a 6+ roll, taking 1-6 dice of damage in the process. Ouch. If the characters are in a vehicle, there's an 8+ chance to go over. The driver's skill level is a DM, but if you're speeding, you take a -5 to the roll as well, which means you're screwed unless your driver is NASCAR-trained. Everyone in the vehicle takes 0-5 dice of damage on the way down. Also ouch.
Next up is a seismic quake, which is going to knock you off your feet unless you roll your strength or lower on two dice. If you can't stay upright, then you roll again; a 12 means you take 2D of damage. So, the odds of actually getting hurt during one of these isn't very high.
Meteor shower! Well, that's an interesting one. It's best used on airless worlds, since the odds of a meteor coming through a thicker atmosphere and hitting someone is very small; either it's going to be a tiny one that gets burned up in the air, or it's going to be a Deep Impact event. These showers have a chance of penetrating vacc suits, which would seriously wreck your day.
Chameleons are next; these are actually animals, camouflaging animals that are basically just rolled as normal, except you can't see them very well. It's a straightforward deal, but it can apply to any animal type. A camouflaged shark... there's a frightening thought.
Psionic assaulters? Man, they're really dropping the hints on psi-stuff, aren't they? Like the chameleon, these are otherwise rolled up normally, but you skip straight to the 'carnivores' section for these guys. Can you imagine a pack of telepathic wolves? That's worse than the sharkameleon. If your characters aren't ready for psionic attacks, they're automatically knocked out and take 2D+6 damage, which is going to scramble your brains. And these guys always attack with surprise, so you're screwed unless you've got some way to fight back against psionics.
Lastly, we have 'storms,' which are your typical thunder-and-lightning rain storms. Nothing special here, although it might be interesting to make these storms a bit more flavorful. Maybe it's acid rain as well as thunder and lightning.
And that's it for this page. But we're not done with the animals just yet.
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