Monsters for AD&D - Blazing Terror
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Climate/Terrain | Ice Elemental Plane |
| Frequency | Very Rare |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle | Night |
| Diet | Carnivorous |
| Intelligence | Semi (2-4) |
| Treasure | Nil |
| Alignment | Neutral |
| No. Appearing | 1 |
| Armor Class | 6 |
| Movement | 15" |
| Hit Dice | 3+3 |
| THAC0 | 17 |
| No. of Attacks | 1 |
| Damage/Attack | 2-13 |
| Special Attacks | Screech |
| Special Defenses | Special |
| Magic Resistance | Nil |
| Size | M (4' long) |
| Morale | Average (8-10) |
| XP Value | 175 |
Description
These snow-white creatures appear very similar to a Giant Lynx, but with a long serrated beak. It has a sleek, muscular body, with strong legs and unusually wide paws for moving across the top of snow. It's tail is short and covered in a fuzz of crystalline spikes. Otherwise it is free of markings, and blends effortlessly into a snow or glacial background.
Combat
In contrast with most of the denizens of the ice elemental plane, the Blazing Terror moves with startling speed. It is a ferocious hunter that will relentlessly pursue its prey. However, the Blazing Terror prefers to leap on its prey from ambush, relying on speed and surprise.
Due to its pure white coloration and stealthy movement, a Blazing Terror will avoid detection 90% of the time while hiding in ice or snow. It also imposes a -5 penalty on surprise rolls of unsuspecting prey. The terror can leap up to 15' forward and 5' vertically from a stationary position. It can also safely drop from a height of 30' without damage, and any fall is reduced by a like amount for the purpose of determining damage.
Unlike the great cats, the Blazing Terror does not use its padded feet in combat other than to grasp its prey. Instead it uses a razor-sharp beak that is capable of sawing through most common armor. Their shiny flesh appears to constantly emit blue flames that will inflict 1d4hp of freezing damage on contact with unprotected flesh. Elemental ice creatures are not effected by this freezing damage.
They can also emit a hideous screech that will cause many beings to be stunned from terror. If they spend a round screeching, all other creatures must make a saving throw versus paralyzation or be stunned for 1d3 rounds. This effect is not cumulative, but a separate saving throw must be made against each screeching terror.
Habitat/Society
The Blazing Terror prefers a rugged icy environment where it can stealthily approach its prey. It can easily withstand extremely cold temperatures and is unaffected by wind chill. It can communicate in a harsh bark with its own kind and hungry groups of Terrors occasionally hunt cooperatively to attack small herds. However, they generally prefer solitary nocturnal hunting when plentiful small game becomes available.
The only thing that a Blazing Terror truly fears is to be trapped with no escape. Such a situation will drive a Terror berserk and it will batter itself senseless trying to escape. Once release it will remain berserk for 2d6 rounds thereafter, attacking the nearest target until it is quite dead.
Ecology
A Blazing Terror cannot consume flesh that is not frozen and so will not generally hunt warm-blooded creatures for food. However, for reasons not fully understood a Blazing Terror hates any being from an ice-free environment. Thus it will attack warm-blooded creatures even though it does not desire to consume their flesh.
These creatures suffer twice the normal damage level from fire or heat-based attacks. If the temperature rises above freezing a Terror has a chance to become prostrate from heat exhaustion. For each degree Celsius above freezing, the chance of heat exhaustion is 1% per hour. Once prostrate, the Terror will lose 1hp per hour thereafter until dead.