Skykine

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Skykine are huge creatures native to the air world of Edill. They resemble broad-bodied dragons with short, thick necks. Skykine have four legs like a dragon, but they are short and apparently atrophied. Their wings, too, appear much too small and weak to support such a large creature. (In fact, their wings are used only for steering. In their body cavity is a strange organ that allows them to levitate and fly through the skies of Edill. They cannot, of course, leave the atmospheric envelope.)
At the end of a short neck, the skykine's head is broad and flat, with a long snout like an alligator's. The creature's forehead is sharply sloping, indicating that it has no space for a large brain-an explanation for its low intelligence. Its eyes are large and spherical, protruding well out of its skull. This gives it 360° vision in the plane of its body, but only 180° vertically (in other words, it has a blind spot below its own body).
Skykine have rough yet supple skin, very much like that of a shark. They range in color from off-white to blue-grey-perfect colors to let them blend in with the skies of their air world home.
==Combat==
Skykine attack with a bite, and with a tail smash. Their bodies are thick and not overly flexible, which means they can only bite foes in front of them and tail-smash creatures behind them. The creatures are large enough that their attacks can damage a spelljamming vessel, with 10 hit points equating to 1 Hull Point of damage. In addition, against any creature of size H or larger, they can charge and ram. A successful ram inflicts 10d12 hit points, or 1d12 Hull Points of damage.
Although predators, skykine never attack anything larger than half their own size unless they are attacked first. Even then, the large creatures prefer to flee, giving barking, bellowing cries of warning to others of their kind. If they are harried to the point where they believe escape is impossible, they will turn and attack.
==Habitat/Society==
Skykine travel in small herds, often (65%) but not always based on family groupings. If a family herd is encountered, there will be one mature male and 1d3 mature females, plus 2d4 juveniles. Mature males and females have the same statistics, and the sexes are indistinguishable except to another skykine. Juveniles range from 10% to 60% of the size of an adult; their hit points and damage inflicted have the same ratio. All juveniles, regardless of size and age, have AC 6 and THAC0 11.
In a family herd, if a female is attacked or threatened, the male will fight ferociously to defend her... until he is reduced to half hit points, at which time his instincts of self-preservation will take over and he will flee. If the juveniles are attacked, the male will respond in the same way; the female(s), however, will fight to the death to defend their young.
==Ecology==
Skykine feed on other airborne lifeforms, but nothing bigger than about 30' in length, of course. In turn, the skykine are the favored prey of Edill's dragon population. The dragons consider them to be harmless food animals. Of course, “harmless" means very different things to a 150'-long dragon and a human spacefarer!
The big creatures are thought to live for 20 years or so, landing on an orbiting earth body only long enough to bear their live young.
Category:Creatures
Category:Greyspace Creatures