Duat Desert Creatures

== Chapter One: Wildlife ==
=== Cockatrices: Threat Rank D (Local Threat) ===
==== Description ====
The cockatrice is a small avian magical beast. It’s notorious for its petrification ability.
It’s closely related to the pyrolisk.
Although about the size of a large turkey or goose and weighing 25 pounds, a cockatrice more closely resembles a chicken, but it is a hideous hybrid with the wings of a bat and a lizard-like tail. A male cockatrice has a rooster's wattles and comb, which the females lack. It has glowing red eyes. Female cockatrices are very rare, much more so than the males.
==== Combat ====
Any creature that a cockatrice bites can be permanently turned into stone. Cockatrices are immune to their own petrifying bite and that of other cockatrices, though not of other petrifying creatures and spells.
Cockatrices ferociously attack any creature that appears to threaten them or their lairs. Typically, flocks of them attempt to overwhelm or confuse their opponents, and fly at their faces.
=== Death Dogs: Threat Rank D (Local Threat) ===
==== Description ====
Death dogs are vicious and hateful two-headed dogs who have a taste for humanoid flesh. Death dogs have a deep burning hate for everything.
They are aggressive and attack travelers and explorers on sight. They are nocturnal hunters whose skin burns under direct sunlight. They rarely hunt in packs, either roaming alone or with a partner only.
==== Combat ====
A death dog’s saliva has a potent poison that causes a rotting disease on a creature’s flesh. Left unattended, it brings death in a matter of days. Death Dogs typically linger in caves and abandoned structures during the day to shelter from the sun. Flushing them out of these safe spaces and into direct sunlight is ideal but not always feasible.
=== Sandworms: Threat Rank B (Major Regional Threat) ===
==== Description ====
The Giant Sandworm, a creature of varying size and lethality that is only found in the deserts of the world and in the lairs of a Sandworm Queen. They move around the desert either above ground, leaving a trench, or by burrowing and creating a “wave” of sand.
==== Combat ====
Giant Sandworms are very loud on approach and either eat it’s victims whole, or remove limbs and return for the rest in a second attack. The end of their tails are where most of its organs are. They can track prey with tremorsense up to 60 ft, and have blindsight up to 30 ft.
=== Harpies: Threat Rank C (Regional Threat) ===
==== Description ====
A harpy has the upper body of a female humanoid and the lower body of a reptilian creature, with scaly legs, clawed feet, and clawed hands with knotty fingers. Harpies have coal-black eyes in faces like cruel old women, with hair that is filthy, tangled, and crusty with old dry blood. They possess powerful leathery wings with which they can fly and carry away their victims.
Harpies do not wear any clothing, but will adorn themselves with jewelry or trinkets from their victims. There was no physical difference between male and female harpies. The males possess breasts just like the females did, leading to the misconception that male harpies did not exist.
==== Combat ====
Other than their attacks with their sharp claws and ability to drop you from high up via flight. Harpies most notable and worrisome attack is the Luring Song. The harpy sings a magical melody. Every humanoid and giant within 300 ft. of the harpy that can hear the song have a chance of being Charmed until the song ends. It can stop singing at any time. The song ends if the harpy is incapacitated. While Charmed by the harpy, a target is incapacitated and ignores the songs of other harpies. The victims slowly move towards the singing harpy, to be carried off and/or killed. A target that successfully resists is immune to this harpy's song for the next 24 hours.
== Chapter Two: Undead ==
=== Bone Bats: Threat Rank D (Local Threat) ===
==== Description ====
Bone Bats are skeletal undead created from the bodies of giant bats or several bat skeletons. Bone Bats take a malicious delight in killing and if left without commands for too long they will leave their master's lair to hunt. They will typically hunt until they have killed at least two creatures. They often go out of their way to kill bats.
==== Combat ====
Bone Bats prefered combat strategy is to attack in large numbers. One or two at a time will swoop in to hit a target, and then one or two more will attack in rapid succession in a repeating pattern, to disorient the target.
The Bone Bat is most vulnerable to melee attack during these swoops, so learning their attack pattern and timing a counter-attack is the best way to deal with these creatures if you do not have ranged assistance.
=== Mummies and Mummy Lords: Threat Rank C (Regional Threat) ===
==== Description ====
Mummies carry a virulent curse that acts as a disease; Mummy rot. When touched by a Mummy, This affliction will cause the flesh of its victims to rot away, leaving gruesome scars and disfiguring them.
A mummy is an undead creature created from a preserved corpse animated by the dark gods of the desert. These horrid creatures are often marked with symbols of the dire gods they serve. While other undead often stink of carrion, the herbs and powders used to create a mummy give off a sharp, pungent odor like that of a spice cabinet.
Mummies cause fear in the living on sight, and any creature they touch is affected by a rotting curse called mummy rot. Inhabiting great tombs or temple complexes, they maintain a timeless vigil and destroy would-be grave robbers.
==== Mummy Lords ====
Mummy Lords are especially powerful Mummies. They are strong undead that retain a large measure of their past memories, personalities, and powers. This makes each Mummy Lord a unique threat to face. They are often fiercely protective of their tombs, and will stop at nothing to purge any threats to them. They are however not wholly unreasonable, and can under the right circumstances be negotiated with.
==== Combat ====
Mummies were the undead guardians of tombs and vaults of honored dead (such as kings or nobility of the ancient world). They patrol their homes with dedication, remaining alert for signs of tomb robbers or others who would desecrate their assigned lair.
Combat Mummies are granted great strength. They also carry a virulent curse that acts as a disease. This affliction– known as Mummy Rot– causes the flesh of its victims to rot away, leaving gruesome scars and disfiguring the unfortunate soul before finally expiring from the wasting disease.
A mummy moves with a slow, shambling gait and groans with the weight of the ages. They attack intruders without pause or mercy. They never attempt to communicate with their enemies and never retreat. An encounter with a mummy usually ends only with the destruction of one combatant or the other.
== Chapter Three: Constructs ==
=== Sand Golems: Threat Rank D (Local Threat) ===
==== Description ====
Sand golems are intelligent constructs that are acclimated to desert environments. They are often created by Heatstone Farmers in Duat using Scrolls or Focuses in order to guard their harvest from bandits and thieves.
Sand Golems appear muscular, but can have either slender or bulky builds. They have sand-colored bodies, and release sandy dust when they walk.
Behavior These automatons endlessly patrol warm desert areas. Sand golems can not speak, and can only voice dry hissing sounds. Heatstone farmers use them to protect their harvest.
Such constructs possess intelligence, and exploit these wits in combat. Thus, sand golems are often difficult to fight due to their advanced tactics, as well as their natural strength. Despite their strength, these golems can utilize stealth to appear as nothing more than piles of sand.
==== Combat ====
Sand golems generally fight with their powerful fists, but can also suffocate their opponents with the sand and dust that formed their bodies.
As with other golems, they are immune to disease and poison. Such constructs are also immune to any spells that allow magic resistance, and some spells function differently against them. Spells that involve blasts of sand will heal the golems instead of hurt them.
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