| Class: | Beast |
| Hab: | Arctic + temperate, any non-desert, prefers swamp, marsh |
| Fre: | Uncommon |
| Num: | 2-12 each bulls, cows, adolescents + pups = ½ # cows (sized by season) (2d6 x three; largest # is cows, 2nd is adolescents, 3rd is bulls) |
| Lair: | 20% in denning area |
| Size: | Piebald: cows 60-80', bulls 70-100', Black 20' less, Arctic double size Pygmy: half size, in all types |
| Move: | Swift run, charge is faster than a horse |
| Def: | Thick, tough pelt, hide & blubber, great mass |
| Att: | Bite + tail swipe = orca, claws = bear, trample lesser foes |
| Int: | Brute beast, wolf-cunning pack hunting |
| Spec: | Shear bulk gives overwhelming charge, may swallow prey whole |
| Posns: | Pelts prized + valuable blubber, gizzard stones |
Alien Companions come in as many varieties are there are annoying aliens of questionable intelligence. In common, they have other-dimensional senses and detection methods, distinct personalities, and form attachments to individuals (often transferable to others the individual's companions in case of death.) They are also commonly as persistent as they are annoying and / or cute. Their intelligence is utterly alien and is unratable; they combine fiendish cleverness with utter imbecility.
Companion Aliens are often attracted to a particular range of objects. They seem to "collect" visits to such objects, and will desire to go to the closest one not yet visited. They will also be very reluctant to leave their pet person alone. This means they will nudge and otherwise encourage their pet person to go to the object of their (current) desire.
Some folk learn to get along quite well with their companion alien. The companion may become a fond pet or even, if attached to a wizard who has studied alien sciences, a familiar. More often, companion aliens are so annoying, they simply must be gotten rid of. This may involve a series of adventures. Further, just because it's been gotten rid of once doesn't mean it won't return - again and again and again. One companion had the ability to teleport through mirrors; it had a chance of returning any time its pet person looked in a mirror too long.
Companions are generally impervious to most effects and regenerate nearly instantaneously; it is speculated that we interact not with their original selves but with some sort of tangible dream-self or inter-reality projection of these aliens.
Such aliens are often found where their previous pet person managed to trap the annoying little bugger. Once released, the alien may mystify with odd behavior (it's recalibrating its senses and tasting the ether to see what's out there) and then simply disappear (it discovered a preferred pet person elsewhere, possibly its previous person still alive - and your party is spared.) More often, it will attach to the first person it "sees" (or who has released it), although it may have other criteria.
Whether it is a cute and useful pet or a source of pure annoyance depends as much on how the party reacts and treats the alien as it does upon the alien itself.
Examples of places an alien companion might have been stowed include inside puzzle boxes, frozen in artificial ice (which may have been carved into a stature), in a sealed mirror-maze, used to power a majical artifact (being released when the object uses up all its charges or has a critical failure).
Some documented forms of alien companions include bouncy colloidal balls of transparent silver or wobbly red rubber, giant fluffy amebas with big eyes and antennae (looking rather like fluffy bedroom slippers), living flying gemstones (like ioun stones but with personality), whizzing handfuls of flying sparks or embers, drifting veils of pure light, and bouncing amorphous blobs of liquid fire able to control their own temperature. One of the most subtle forms was no form set at all - they determined what their pet person valued and hid in and animated that, whether it was a sword or a backpack or a vase of incredible value.
Some wizards collect aliens to study, although this may involve devising some ingenious - and often very expensive - containers. Such collectors may offer rich bounties for prize specimens - IF the captive aliens are proffered with a way to keep them.
| Vladpup Home RPG Home Bestiary Index | Last update Apr 4, 2006 |