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Large beast, unaligned
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 95 (10d10 + 40)
Speed 20 ft.
Skills Perception +3
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages —
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Ambusher. The fireback has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.
Forest Camouflage. The fireback has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in forests, woodlands, or other terrain of abundant foliage.
Keen Sight. The fireback has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Sure-Footed. The fireback has advantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws made against effects that would knock it prone.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The fireback makes three melee attacks.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage. The fireback deals an extra 5 (2d4) damage to a creature grappled in its talons, due to shock and blood loss.
Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, the fireback may choose to grapple the target after dealing damage (Escape DC 16). A target grappled in this manner is also prone. The fireback cannot use its claws while it has a creature grappled with them.
BONUS ACTIONS
Aggressive. The fireback moves up to its speed toward a hostile creature that it can see.
REACTIONS
Unbridled Fury. In response to being hit by a melee attack, the fireback can make one melee weapon attack with advantage against the attacker.
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Terror birds, known to naturalists as phorusrhachids[1], are flightless birds of which the largest were undisputed apex predators. While they have gone extinct in Earth and that title is filled by megaraptorans on the distant planet of Kaimere, their legacy lives on as vassal predators: vassal predators, as Kaimeran naturalists classify them, are the predators between the apex predator megaraptorans and the predators that would be apex predators in their absence (big cats, dromaeosaurs, etc.). In the modern Known World, at least one vassal predator niche in the lowland forests and plains is a phorusrhachid. In the mainland forests, that is the fireback, the most common terror bird of Kaimere as well as the largest both there and on earth with a hip height of over 6 feet and a weight near a thousand pounds.
Vassal of the Forests. Firebacks, also called urushai by some, share ranges and with two other vassal predator: subadult zentaur and black cockatrice. Despite the fact these three often share a prey base to a degree, they niche partition by selecting for different habitats: firebacks prefer wetlands and lowland forests; young zentaur prefer titan gardens, forests curated by titanosaurs; and black cockatrices prefer the highlands too uneven for either. Where the two do overlap in range, firebacks dominate the other two in direct combat and they are much more common in lowland forests and wetlands, though the former two vassal predators are more common overall.
Firebacks are also known as "surgeon birds" after their particularly brutal method of killing: the beak of the fireback has a strongly curved tip, which they employ essentially as a meat hook that they slam into the vulnerable parts of the prey and yank at its hide until they die of shock and bloodloss, quickly and brutal. They are also known to pin the prey down with their large claws on the feet for easier kill. They are generalists, but generally prefer slower, armored prey like ground sloths, rhinos, and large thescelosaurs, though when they do team up they can take down proboscideans[2], young titanosaurs, and hukuolgur sloths under certain circumstances.
While they hunt alone, firebacks live in mated pairs, though at they will assemble into larger groups to mob big game during the heights of both the monsoon and dry seasons. The ferocity of these birds is well documented and there have been attempts to tame them so this ferocity may be harnessed are well known but none have been successful. Firebacks are aggressive and territorial and as such will readily attack anyone other than their handler. Even the handler themselves is in danger from firebacks, as if the bird becomes suitably upset or disappointed they attack. Being clever animals, firebacks raised by handlers are known to open doors and recognize where villages keep food stores and children, resulting in many an Arvelith horror story of an escaped pet returning with a mate and a dozen companions to turn a village into a grotesque arena of gore.
Variant: Rohakundi and Harkundi
While the fireback is the only phorusrhachid in Arvel, another still holds on in Ni'Khar by specializing for a different time of day. That would be the Rohakundi, "Hunger of the Stary Night", also called bluebacks for their iridescent dorsal feathers, and represent the counterpart to the daytime hunting fireback, although rohakundi are technically crepuscular. What further allows them to survive amongst firebacks is being arboreal, at least enough to cache their kills and sleep out of their reach. Unlike the fireback, rohakundi are generally skittish and actively avoid settlements.
A rohakundi does not have the Aggressive trait and does have a 20 ft. climbing speed and a challenge rating of 7 (2,900 XP), but otherwise has the same statistics as a fireback.
Most derived of the terror birds of Kaimere is the Harkundi of the Houze Prairie. While most phorusrhachids are ambush predators with minimal distance abilities, the harkundi is a highly derived pursuit predator that is one of the fastest animals on the prairie and pairs this with tremendous endurance. The ancestor of the harkundi was harvested during the Miocene with rhea, eventually slotting into the vassal predator niche with minimal competition, the only one of note being the scavenger king. While they still hunt rhea, harkundi now prefer ungulates like camels, pronghorns, and horses, even being known to pull riders off their mounts seemingly for no reason other than boredom induced response to a chasing instinct.
A harkundi uses many of the same statistics as a fireback, but does not have the Ambusher trait and its Beak attack does not deal an additional 5 (2d4) damage to creatures grappled in their Talons. However, harkundi do have a 40 ft. movement speed instead of 20 ft., Grassland Camouflage instead of Forest Camouflage, as well as the following trait:
Endurance Hunter. The harkundi has advantage on Constitution saving throws against exhaustion.
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