Xaeyruudh's Index

Abrian

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This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A magical beast.

Absurd Adversary

Even within the context of a fantasy world which breaks many of the “rules” that govern our own, this monster is irrational and/or fundamentally stupid, earning it a spot in my Absurd Adversaries list.

Well, this all comes together to paint a pretty picture. A pretty stupid picture, that is. A flock of comparatively dumb, mostly defenseless, totally flightless birds, who want to acquire stuff (barding?) and maybe magic items from passersby in exchange for feathers, eggs, and dung.

Since they’re kinda stupid, they probably get cheated a lot, which helps explain their evil alignment. They can’t carry much of anything (shriveled clawlike hands and reduced carrying capacity) and they’re not really equipped to don armor or use weapons.

They have to depend on their trading partners to do all the lifting and carrying, so presumably a group of abrians surrounds each merchant and threatens to shriek if the merchant tries to cheat them. The merchant would have to deliver his payment to the abrian’s treasury and stack it himself, and then carry away his feathers and eggs by himself, escorted the whole way by this watchful pack of mean birdbrains.

The stench alone would be enough to keep most merchants away. What would make you that desperate to acquire abrian feathers?

The abrian’s only ranged attack is its shriek, which has a 20 foot range and a wimpy DC 12 Fort save. A single quasit could wipe out an entire “communal flock” of 40 abrians in an afternoon. It would be a waste of the quasit’s time, but hey… any diversion is a good diversion when you want to escape your superiors’ notice for a while.

I dunno, I guess the abrian could be useful for humor, but it would inevitably be centered around how absurd this creature is. Which makes it a nice fit for this category.

Sources

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