So you want to use this monster

[Set]

I wouldn't mind seeing an interesting plot hook / adventure seed involving giant eagles.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Although hmm. I'm still thinking of these as less a species, and more a supernatural result (I can't think of them as breeding). Sort of like how the Wendigo legend is related what happens when a man goes cannibal. Perhaps a cautionary tale of what happens when a person casts aside everything to pursue a single purpose; losing yourself in your calling and being consumed by it, resulting in the loss of your humanity and Wickedness/Other taking up residence in the emptiness you have left.

and...

Aberzanzorax
Oni come into being out of an extreme desire...a sort of deal with a devil. They are wisps of negative emotions and raw, untapped power until given form.

Hmm...living mana? A manifestation of the Fey world given form by desire? Mortal darkness given power by some nameless sleeping, dreaming godlike being?

Aberzanzorax
What gives them form? The desires of a mortal, who gives the oni created a name (and an envisioned form and purpose).
<snip>
The oni will seek, at first, to fulfil its purpose for the master. Over time, however, the purpose becomes all consuming. The vengeance Oni lives to revenge the tiniest slight...Oni quickly become consumed, each with its own particular type of extreme eccentricity. Their purpose utterly drives them to the point that the tiniest slight that negatively affects their purpose results in an extreme (and usually deadly) response.

The problem is that usually, the master, whose name the oni has been given, inevitably commits the sin that they so hated (fickle and imperfect as humans, but not oni, are). When the master is killed, the oni is free to concoct schemes, becoming proactive (the betrayed lover sets up a brothel and kills married johns) rather than reactive.

Between Rechan and Aberzanzorax, I think we've got something fairly solid.

Like the Wendigo, Ringwraiths or even the Shadowen, Oni are mortals who have been consumed by magic combined with extreme obsessiveness...perhaps as a form of a curse...and transformed into powerful beings.

Oni, thus, are immortal but cursed, and may only rest comes when they fulfill the goals of another- who is, in turn, cursed to become an Oni.

The only thing that can keep an Oni from its task is its unique obsession, as mentioned in previous posts.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I wouldn't mind seeing an interesting plot hook / adventure seed involving giant eagles.

1) They are messengers for a particular god.

2) They are not from this time and place, but have come through a portal. Since they have no rivals or predators in this current environment, they must either be killed or returned through the portal...which must be shut, BTW. (See the BBC show, Primeval Primeval - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .)

3) They are one of the great totemic animals- seeing one is a sign of luck. Feeding one by hand is the mark of a True Chief. Having one eat your remains guarantees you a place in the Happy Hunting Grounds...

But seeing many? That is a sign that there is a disturbance in the spirit world.

4) They are not native to this area...something is driving them to stray from their normal habitat. Is it something natural, like a migration or an absence of sufficient prey? Or is it unnatural- something attacking them, or a great magic being done in their home region that has profoundly disturbed them?

5) Gnomes have figure out how to ride them, and they're using them as war-mounts. "Death to those who make short jokes! RAWR!"

 

[Aberzanzorax]

For giant eagles, I think of a few things (based on LotR and our local zoo which has both a bald eagle and a golden eagle, and they're impressive at llife size, let me tell you). One thing that surprised me was that their food sources listed included "baby deer". Holy crud!

I see eagles as consumate hunters from on high, snatching away their prey without notice.

I see giant eagles as majestic things with a noble culture of individualism and purpose of self. I like to think of them as the paladins of the bird world...noble, warlike, and bold.

In fact, I see them so much in this way that I think just about any adventure with a paladin NPC could have him/her replaced with a giant eagle.


For ecology, I'd give them a "guardians fom above" purpose. They hunt animals to eat like normal eagles, but also, they watch for changes in the lands of men. Since I've called them paladins, maybe I'll go even further and call them "eagle eyed paladins of helm". They discover danger, and act as both messengers and warriors...they are not spies, though. They are straightforward with their watching of others, sometimes to the point of intentionally making others paranoid that they are watching them, sitting or flying just out of reach of arrows or melee, to encourage those making unwise or unjust decisions to have an opportunity to rethink them.

To go even further, I'd envision them raising their young with a moral code and moral tests, akin to how birds first learn to fly (including a few getting tossed out of the nest and plummeting to the ground)...but they must also fly in on virtue and honor, not just on the winds. To other races, such tests seem cruel, as death can be the result of failure, but to the eagles, this is just another part of life...to grow to be an adult is to learn the basics of adult life and virtue and honor are no more or less a part of a giant eagle's life than flight.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You could use Giant Eagles as your campaign's version of the legendary Thunderbird.

Cryptozoology.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_(mythology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_(cryptozoology)