[Index]
Numenera Destiny
Massive, dangerous, and without mercy, balithaurs are nearly 30 feet (9 m) in length. Their flesh is dark, but their many clawed—and in some cases, mawed—limbs are studded with piercing eyes. They have only a few joints, giving them a sort of "loose" look, but really that just means they can fold themselves into far smaller spaces than their enormous bulk suggests.
Balithaurs are drawn to the sounds, smells, and detritus created by small settlements and villages. They predate livestock, lone travelers, and visitors who travel in small groups or after da rk. Even as powerful as they are, balithaurs prefer to stay to the edges of communities, so as to avoid even a small chance that they could become cornered. For this same reason, they often avoid larger communities with enough resources to send a competent hunting party after them.
Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment: At the edges of settlements and other small communities
Health: 33
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (8 points)
Movement: Short; short when climbing
Modifications: Speed defense as level 6 due to size. Perception and stealth tasks as level 8.
Combat: A balithaur claws and bites simultaneously with all its limbs, and it can attack all creatures within immediate range simultaneously for a major wound (8 points) each. Alternatively, a balithaur can try to pounce on one target, which means the target must withstand two claws and two bites plus avoid being pinned. A pinned creature is automatically clawed and bitten each round until it can escape.
A victim who descends one or more steps on the damage track as a result of a balithaur's attacks later discovers blisters on their extremities that eventually grow into eyelike organs that blink and look about, but which don't provide the victim any additional points of view.
Interaction: A balithaur is an extremely clever predator and does not fight to the death unless it has no choice. It may even attempt to surrender using body language, adopting a submissive pose. However, a balithaur remains submissive only until it sees an opportunity to get away.
Use: The characters can't get anyone in the settlement to work with them until the "monster in the woods" outside of town is dealt with one way or another.
GM Intrusion: The character attempting to use a cypher against he balithaur risks losing it, unused, when a mawed limb tries to snatch and eat it.