Converting First Edition monsters from DRAGON magazine
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Knight Otu
First Post
Well, bats use colony and crowd... So we could have hunting flock instead of hunting swarm, and colony instead of family swarm.
BOZ
Creature Cataloguer
is this soon enough?
This hairless beast has a small body, with four bony protrusions that project out from its body like a pair of back-to-back crescents. The front crescent curls around the creature's raking fangs, while the rear crescent wraps around its rat-like tail, and a leathery-skinned membrane stretches out like a sheet between the four tips.
The orpsu is a decidedly nocturnal hunter that is also called a "night stirge." While it has no relation to stirges, it is a flying predator that feeds on fresh blood. They are commonly found in temperate wastelands (in the Forgotten Realms, they are common in Kara-Tur and the steppes, plains, and deserts that lie west of the Eastern Realms), and inhabit rocky places like caverns and ruins, and tall trees. They hunt in open, rolling scrubland and plains, and feast on sheep, cattle, woodland animals (particularly badgers, foxes, and otters), large birds, and even humanoids.
Orpsu live in mated pairs, and produce litters of live, instantly active and hungry young, every three summers. Such offspring remain in a family group which will eventually grow to over a dozen, and which point the oldest orpsu split off in pairs to mate and make new families in new hunting territories.
Orpsu have mottled skin of crimson, purple, mauve, or cinnamon-brown hue, which is veined and leathery. This weird creature has a prehensile tail that is too weak to hold struggling prey or wield any sort of weapon, but allows the orpsu to drag small objects or coil around a tree limb when at rest. Its razor-sharp, blade-like bony ?horns? are used like wings, and an orpsu steers by angling the membranes attached to its horns and tilting its body. The orpsu has a row of 4 or more stout, downward pointing fangs; but with no lower jaw, it cannot attack by biting in the normal fashion, and thus slashes or rakes with its fangs instead. Orpsu have no legs or feet, and can only move on the ground by clumsily undulating their bodies.
An orpsu is 3 feet long, with its horns spanning over 2 feet in width, and weighs about X pounds.
Orpsu make no calls or noises, and only communicate with each other telepathically. This telepathic communication is incomprehensible and confusing to any other creature that is able to listen to it using magic, psionics, or other abilities.
COMBAT
Orpsu hunt only in darkness, to avoid attacks from larger predators when flying in the open. An orpsu will try to paralyze its prey before attacking, and catch and overcome most of its prey this way. If an orpsu paralyzes a victim, or comes across a sleeping or otherwise helpless creature, it will glide down and land belly-down on the prey, wrapping its tail around the body. A cluster of soft, white, flexible tentacles emerge from slits in the abdomen, which penetrate the victim's body and begin to drain blood. It is unable to maintain a firm grip with either the tail or tentacles, and any mobile victim or assisting friend will cause the orpsu to bound into the air and fly away.
If an orpsu is unable to find suitable prey to drain blood from, it will swoop down on prey to use its natural attacks. An orpsu is relatively clumsy in flight, and instinctively attacks at an angle as it passes, leaving it able to use only one horn to attack at a time. An orpsu is at a disadvantage if knocked out of the air, so it will be careful to attack only slowed or otherwise vulnerable targets if it can help it.
This hairless beast has a small body, with four bony protrusions that project out from its body like a pair of back-to-back crescents. The front crescent curls around the creature's raking fangs, while the rear crescent wraps around its rat-like tail, and a leathery-skinned membrane stretches out like a sheet between the four tips.
The orpsu is a decidedly nocturnal hunter that is also called a "night stirge." While it has no relation to stirges, it is a flying predator that feeds on fresh blood. They are commonly found in temperate wastelands (in the Forgotten Realms, they are common in Kara-Tur and the steppes, plains, and deserts that lie west of the Eastern Realms), and inhabit rocky places like caverns and ruins, and tall trees. They hunt in open, rolling scrubland and plains, and feast on sheep, cattle, woodland animals (particularly badgers, foxes, and otters), large birds, and even humanoids.
Orpsu live in mated pairs, and produce litters of live, instantly active and hungry young, every three summers. Such offspring remain in a family group which will eventually grow to over a dozen, and which point the oldest orpsu split off in pairs to mate and make new families in new hunting territories.
Orpsu have mottled skin of crimson, purple, mauve, or cinnamon-brown hue, which is veined and leathery. This weird creature has a prehensile tail that is too weak to hold struggling prey or wield any sort of weapon, but allows the orpsu to drag small objects or coil around a tree limb when at rest. Its razor-sharp, blade-like bony ?horns? are used like wings, and an orpsu steers by angling the membranes attached to its horns and tilting its body. The orpsu has a row of 4 or more stout, downward pointing fangs; but with no lower jaw, it cannot attack by biting in the normal fashion, and thus slashes or rakes with its fangs instead. Orpsu have no legs or feet, and can only move on the ground by clumsily undulating their bodies.
An orpsu is 3 feet long, with its horns spanning over 2 feet in width, and weighs about X pounds.
Orpsu make no calls or noises, and only communicate with each other telepathically. This telepathic communication is incomprehensible and confusing to any other creature that is able to listen to it using magic, psionics, or other abilities.
COMBAT
Orpsu hunt only in darkness, to avoid attacks from larger predators when flying in the open. An orpsu will try to paralyze its prey before attacking, and catch and overcome most of its prey this way. If an orpsu paralyzes a victim, or comes across a sleeping or otherwise helpless creature, it will glide down and land belly-down on the prey, wrapping its tail around the body. A cluster of soft, white, flexible tentacles emerge from slits in the abdomen, which penetrate the victim's body and begin to drain blood. It is unable to maintain a firm grip with either the tail or tentacles, and any mobile victim or assisting friend will cause the orpsu to bound into the air and fly away.
If an orpsu is unable to find suitable prey to drain blood from, it will swoop down on prey to use its natural attacks. An orpsu is relatively clumsy in flight, and instinctively attacks at an angle as it passes, leaving it able to use only one horn to attack at a time. An orpsu is at a disadvantage if knocked out of the air, so it will be careful to attack only slowed or otherwise vulnerable targets if it can help it.
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Knight Otu
First Post
I like it. 
But I'm not sure if we should include references to the Realms...
But I'm not sure if we should include references to the Realms...Wahooo!! 
Glad to see ya back Boz (and Shade)! Thanks for finishing this guy up! I haven't had a chance to fully digest the last 2 pages but I intend to start now.
Considering the orpsu is originally a FR creature, I think the references are just fine!
thanks again, guys!
thomas
Glad to see ya back Boz (and Shade)! Thanks for finishing this guy up! I haven't had a chance to fully digest the last 2 pages but I intend to start now. Considering the orpsu is originally a FR creature, I think the references are just fine!
thanks again, guys!
thomas
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