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Huge beast, unaligned
Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 136 (13d12 + 52)
Speed 45 ft.
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +5
Senses passive Perception 16
Languages —
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)
Endurance Hunter. The uktan has advantage on saving throws against exhaustion.
Grassland Camouflage. The uktan has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made in grasslands, savannas, or other non-desert terrain that is mostly open spaces.
Keen Hearing and Sight. The uktan has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or sight.
Pack Tactics. The uktan has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the uktan's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The uktan makes one bite attack and two claw attacks. If it has a target grappled in its jaws, the uktan can trade the bite attack for an additional claw attack against that target.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d8 + 7) piercing damage. If the target is a Huge creature, it must succeed a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be grappled. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it is grappled and must make the saving throw end of its turn. Until this grappled ends, the target is restrained, and the uktan can't bite another target.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d10 + 7) slashing damage. If the target is a grappled creature, it suffers 9 (2d8) damage for 1 minute due to internal bleeding. This does not stack if the target is hit with multiple claw attacks.
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Most famous of the robust monarchs and indeed all Kaimeran theropod dinosaurs is without a shadow of a doubt the Uktan (Thanatobates) of the Houze Prairie. These beasts are the undisputed dominant predator of the grasslands, be it the northern continent of Ni'Khar or far off in the eastern continent of Kairul where they evolved. Evolving alongside the Houze grass and the ghlanos, the uktan strikes terror and awe into the hearts of the Shu of Ni'Khar. Pale beige colors of their lower bodies contrasts their brown manes, white ruff, and gold faces.
Lord of the Houze. About 5 million years ago, robust monarch megaraptorans crossed a straight bordering northern Ni'Khar into northern Kairul where they quickly began to push the resident apex predators into intense specialization or rarity as generalists. Not long after this shake up, a new plant species evolved on the northern tip of Kairul that would change the course of Kaimere: Houze grass. Prior to this, this grass was a rare ecological after thought but it quickly began to boom due to its hardiness, so adapted to dry conditions it could turn deserts into prairies, and it was aggressive as well, eroding the soil as it spread to anywhere that did not have significant and reliable precipitation. In this environment, the species that would become the uktan began to take shape, adapting to feed on the abundant ungulates that feed on the grass, up to and including the ghlanos who they evolved alongside. As the grass spread into Ni'Khar about 3 million, the ungulates like the glhanos followed and the uktan not far behind, where they became the dominant species of the modern Houze Prairie.
Once they made their way to the Known World they quickly outcompeted the resident apex predator and are now the undisputed top order carnivores of the Prairie in the Known World. In terms of their anatomy, uktan are not dissimilar to the zentaur, save for a slightly leaner and taller build. In terms of behavior though, the uktan could not be more different from its cousin. The most notable difference is in its reproduction: unlike all other megaraptorans which are polygamous, uktan form monogamous pairs that remain with each other for life. This long-lasting, deeply rooted social bond also extends to their parental care, with it not being uncommon for offspring to remain with their parents well into their teenage years. The role of these offspring is to protect and rear their younger siblings alongside their parents until they are old enough to strike out on their own. Because of this, sexual dimorphism is minimal with males being indistinguishable from females save for a darker mane and slightly larger horns. In addition, the young of uktan also resemble a different species native to the Houzie Prairie known as a dro'khel, an aggressive, swift thescelosaur that only adult uktan are able to regularly take down. This parental care tactic has lead to a high biodiversity among the smaller predators of the Houzie Prairie and many considering the uktan to be the most intelligent of them, although this may be unfair due to said intelligence simply being easier for humanoids to understand as it involves parental care.
Uktan also employ different hunting strategies than their relatives, relying on persistence and pursuit hunting to take down their prey. While their preferred prey of ungulates and thescelosaurs are usually faster than they are, adult uktan can maintain a steady powerwalk for hours at a time, even in the heat of the Houzie Prairie, while their prey are pushed to the brink of exhaustion. The exception to these are glhanos which are so massive and have large enough claws that they require a different strategy: when they confront ghlanos, it is almost always an stallion that has been beaten and battered in a fight or an individual that has in some other way been separated from the herd and it almost always requires a pair to take it down. One, usually the female, charges from the front but does not attack and simply keeps the claws of the ghlanos distracted while the other, the male, flanks it from the rear and plunges its claws into the underbelly from behind, at which point it is simply a matter of holding on till it drops dead from exhaustion and internal bleeding. While they are occasionally a threat to people due to their propensity to take horses, uktan almost never turn to people for food and they have long earned the respect and reverence they deserve among the Shu as kings of the Houzie Prairie.
Variant: Chaku Ka Bawe
Kairul's answer to the zentaur, the megaraptoran known to the locals as chaku ka bawe ("slayer of all") is the dominant forest predator. Despite this, they are not actually that close to the zentaur, in relation or ecology. Instead, they are a separate species of Thanatobates and are therefore closer in relation and behavior to the uktan. A chaku ka bawe has Forest Camouflage instead of Grassland Camoflage as well as the Ambusher trait, but otherwise has the same statistics as an uktan.
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