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Sample file ® Saga THE BESTIARY Being a treatise on the subject of AnsalonianAnsalonian animalsanimals andand monsters.monsters By Steven “Stan!” Brown Additional Design Harold Johnson and slade Editor Miranda Horner Brand Manager Sue Weinlein Cook Typographer Angelika Lokotz Graphic Designer Dawn Murin Typeface Design Adam Roe Cover Title DiTerlizzi Cover Designer Dawn Murin Border Illustrator Valerie A Valusek Interior Illustrators Rebecca Cavay and Matthew Mitchell Art Director Dawn Murin Playtesting and Advice: Jodi Brown, William W. Connors, Sue Cook, Shaun Horner, Dave Lemon, Becky Keeth, Stephen King, Steve Miller, Mike Montesa, Bill Olmesdahl, Jeff Quick, Cindi Rice, Ed Stark, Skip Williams The authors gratefully acknowledge the original pioneers of Krynn: Larry Elmore, Jeff Grubb, Harold Johnson, Douglas Niles, Carl Smith, Michael Willams—and, of course, MargaretSample Weis and file Tracy Hickman. Dedications Harold: To Allison, Caitlin, and Michael, my three favorite kender. slade: To ian slade wolfgang, 08/09/96. Keep gigglin’,pal! Stan!: To Linda Kehoss, who saw me through the “Time of Troubles.” May I be there for you if you ever need me. U.S., CANADA, ASIA, EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS PACIFIC, & LATIN AMERICA Wizards of the Coast, Belgium Wizards of the Coast, Inc. P.B. 34 P.O. Box 707 2300 Turnhout Renton, WA 98057-0707 Belgium +1-206-624-0933 +32-14-44-30-44 Visit our website at www.tsr.com 9564XXX1501 ADVANCED DUNGOENS & DRAGONS,AD&D,DRAGONLANCE,FIFTH AGE,SAGA, and the TSR logo are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. All TSR characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. is a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ©1998 TSR, Inc. All rights reserved. Made in the U.S.A. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc. and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the hobby, toy, and comic trade in the United States and Canada by regional distributors. Distributed worldwide by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and regional distributors. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc. Author’s Foreword I have a confession to make ...I didn’t want to write this book. I know that may sound strange, but I really didn’t. You see, first and foremost, I con- sider myself a storyteller. Before I took to writing roleplaying games for a living, I did my time as a journalist, a cartoonist, and even as a lyricist (not to mention a teacher). And no matter what job I was doing, I always used it to tell stories. Landing a job on the DRAGONLANCE® team is probably the luckiest thing that ever happened to me. Not only do I get to work in the roleplaying industry (where everything is about telling stories), but I write for the game world that most completely intermingles stories, novels, and games. So imagine my shock when I saw “The Bestiary” pop up on my schedule. “The Bestiary?!?” I said. “That’s a monster catalog! I don’t want to write a monster catalog; I want to tell tales and write adventures!” Luckily for me, my friends and coworkers talked me into quietly taking the assignment. You see, this being a DRAGONLANCE book, the Bestiary was always intended to be more than a monster catalog. We already have several of those and, truth be told, it is pretty darned easy just to translate the AD&D® statistics from the MONSTROUS MANUAL™ into a SAGA® format. What we didn’t have was a book telling how a Krynnish giant is dif- ferent from one found on Toril or Athas or Oerth. That is what the Bestiary was always intended to be: a book to tell the story of every creature on Krynn in a way that interests every DRAGONLANCE fan, gamer, or novel reader. Let me tell you, finding or creating a story behind each and every monster, beast, and magical creation in the DRAGONLANCE saga was a bigger job than I ever imagined. Hope- fully, the stories in this bookSample do more than file just describe a whole bunch of beasts—they add to the world of Krynn and the DRAGONLANCE saga. In the end, I’m glad I got to write this book ...I hope you are too. Special Thanks To: Sue Cook, Miranda Horner, Harold Johnson, and Steve Miller, all of whom provided inestimable help in guiding me through the hills and dales of Krynn, and pointed out the animals along the way. slade, who started this journey with me but, through no fault of his own, could not finish it. The members of the DRAGONLANCE Mailing List, who have more stories about Krynn than I could ever dream of. Anthony Stewart Head, who unknowingly provided Bertrem with a voice. Table of Contents Prologue . 4 Roleplaying . .4 Sidebar: About Sidebars . .5 An Ansalonian Bestiary as Told by Caramon Majere . .17 Author’s and Editor’s Forewords . .18 Chapter One: Ansalonian Beasts . 20 Mammals . .20 Avians . .38 Aerial Mounts . .44 Insects . .52 Reptiles . .74 Chapter Two: Magical Creatures . .84 Animated Creatures . .84 Elementals . .92 Elementalkin . .98 Chapter Three: Monsters . .108 Chapter Four: Unnatural and Undead . .124 Chaos Creatures . .124 Corporeal Undead . .130 Incorporeal Undead . .152 Chapter Five: Dragons and Dragonkin . .166 Dragons . .Sample . .file . .166 Draconians . .170 Dragonkin . .178 Chapter Six: Peoples of Krynn . .194 Beastmen . .194 Birdfolk . .199 Goblin Races . .201 Ogre Races . .207 Closing Remarks . .218 Epilogue: Monsters and You . .220 Appendix One: Creature Catalogue . 226 Appendix Two: Habitat Guide . .236 PROLOGUE or one instant, as DRAGONLANCE Saga, with players taking the Goldmoon had parts of Ansalonian heroes fighting for the looked into the cause of Good against the Great Dragons, Dark Knights, and other Evils that afflict cart, she had the land. wondered what In order to make this volume useful for terrible disease roleplayers, each entry must contain could turn a numeric and technical information man’s flesh into describing the creatures in terms of the scales. She had SAGA rules (the mechanics that drive the DRAGONLANCE:FIFTH AGE game). This moved forward to information appears at the end of each touch the pitiful entry in a boxed sidebar. cleric with her Roleplayers can refer to this box imme- staff, but at that diately, skipping over the more descriptive moment the creature sprang out at text, while casual readers can bypass the game data entirely. However, the Bestiary is her, grasping for the staff with a the most useful when both types of infor- clawed hand. Goldmoon stumbled mation are used in conjunction. backward, but the creature was swift and its clawed hand closed Special Abilities around the staff. There was a blinding flash of blue light. The In the DRAGONLANCE:FIFTH AGE game, the creature shrieked in pain and fell diverse natural and learned talents that creatures possess are called special abilities. back, wringing its blackened hand. This section provides a comprehensive list Riverwind, sword drawn, had defining the special abilities used in the leaped in front of his Chieftain’s Bestiary. Daughter. Many of the special ability descriptions in this section mention one of the eight —The Heroes of the Lance meet character abilities. For clarity, the descrip- draconians forSample the first time, filetions refer to the specific ability (such as Dragons of Autumn Twilight Presence) instead of a related ability (like Essence) even though the sidebars and charts list merely the four related pairs. In a few pages, you will begin reading The distinction becomes important only if Caramon Majere’s colorful descriptions of the Narrator chooses to use the expanded the various creatures of Krynn. For the creature ratings. Otherwise, the appropri- casual or literary DRAGONLANCE fan, this ate related ability applies. “book within a book” should provide all Special abilities describe general effects. the information you would ever need on As such, not all instances of a certain abil- Ansalonian fauna. For those who prefer to ity, whether mundane or fantastical, work experience Krynn through roleplaying exactly the same way. games, though, another dimension is nec- A leonine’s spotted fur and a giant man- essary. tis’s use of foliage both achieve the same effect of hiding the creature from view. These vastly different activities are referred Roleplaying to by the name of the effect they provide; For the uninitiated, roleplaying games are in other words, they both fall under the a form of interactive storytelling— special ability “camouflage.” However, the structured versions of the children’s game Narrator should consider how a particular “let’s pretend.” The DRAGONLANCE:FIFTH special ability affects the tale being told so AGE® game is the roleplaying game of the that it reflects the correct mood or feeling. 4 PROLOGUE PROLOGUE The term “attack,” used to describe many special abilities, is merely a term of conve- About Sidebars nience. Not all offensive special abilities are Sidebars like this one always present a simply attacks. Often the Narrator can beast’s rules and statistics for use in the employ these abilities in other manners. A DRAGONLANCE:FIFTH AGE roleplaying creature can use the pounce ability, for game. example, to leap away from a foe. While the sidebar presents all the Many creatures possess special abilities game information, the main body of that seem to be magical. Dragons alter the entry contains anecdotal informa- their shapes, behir breathe lightning, and tion that may prove equally useful. elementals have near-complete mastery of Often it includes examples of combat their elements, but none of these creatures with the creature as well as common truly use sorcery or mysticism.