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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 6285038" data-attributes="member: 57383">Unfortunately, I suspect a lot of heraldic beasts were viewed more as  symbolic creatures rather than a fabulous animals from far-away lands,  so wouldn't have much in the way of folktales to inspire adventure  seeds.Some mythological creatures are even more problematic - they be nothing more than a few lines in an ancient text or a couple of pictures - sometimes ones we don't even have names for. Or, they could just be distressingly mysterious like the Sha (the Typhonic Beast) - we've got lots of pictures of that, but it's unknown whether it's meant to be a real animal or a fabulous chimera.Some of those might simply be regional variations or local names of a standard monster.An Axex might just be what ancient Egyptians called a Gryphon, or maybe a subspecies of it with a crest on its head. Incidentally, I've just done some internet searching and haven't found any sources describing it as leopard-bodied - I'm getting "large feline" or "lion" for the body and haven't found any sites with "leopard" or "spotted coat" in the description, which makes it sound even more like a Gryphon.Here's the alce entry. It's a bit longer than I should probably be aiming for, but once I start writing....  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />All I could find about an Alce (aka <a href="http://thebestiaryproject.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/keythong/" target="_blank">Keythong</a>) is that they're either a "male griffon" - which implies that the winged ones are female - or are a "lion-griffon" resulting from a Lion and Gryphon mating. Some pictures show them with spines or plumes where a griffon's wings are, but I couldn't find any indication these helped it move or fight in any way. One <a href="http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/medieval-bestiary-part-one.html" target="_blank">OSR D&D site</a> I came across seemed to think they were spikes for stabbing attackers like a porcupine's spines, but I couldn't find any folklore support for that ability.It's worth noting that some classical images of "griffons" show them without wings - like <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZICYola7C7E/UCPNURleMPI/AAAAAAAAATk/zH2PEKP40gQ/s1600/Knossos+Throne-room-0283.jpg" target="_blank">these ones</a> in the palace throne room in Knossos - which the ancient Greeks might have considered to be "<a href="http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Grypes.html" target="_blank">Grypes</a>" (their name for gryphons) despite the lack of wings. It does suggest wingless griffons have a older pedigree than medieval times.Anyhow, getting back to the adventure seed. Since Keythongs (like gryphons) are supposed to be loyal mates, protective guardians, and "male gryphons", how about something like...An Alce guards a mound of sand and twigs with 2d4 eggs buried within it, which it will fight to the death to defend. The moment the beast spots intruders it starts making ear-splitting shrieks to warn its mate, a Griffon. If the PCs kill the Alce or steal its eggs, the Griffon will pursue the party and ambush them from out the sky when they least expect it. The Griffon may gather its pride together to assist its vengeance. The eggs are worth X gold pieces each and will produce either an Alce or a Griffon if they hatch (50% chance of each).</blockquote>

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