The Strange Bestiary
“I have never seen a Rak, to be sure, but I have read of them in the story-books that grew in my orchard, and if this is indeed one of those fearful monsters, we are not likely to conquer the world.”
The cloud surrounding a rak is far larger than the actual creature and reaches halfway across the sky. Still, the rak in the center is by all accounts many times larger than a person, which means it also requires many times as much food. Few things in Oz are so feared as a rak, yet one appears so rarely that that fear is usually put aside for more immediate concerns. But when a cloud darkens the sky like ink poured on paper, thoughts turn to the possibility of a rak flying in its center. If the fog descends and the distinctive odor of salt and pepper is not detected, all's well. However, if that vile odor is present, it's time to flee—though it might already be too late.
Motive: Hunger
Environment (Oz | Magic): Anywhere far from civilization
Health: 21
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (9 points)
Movement: Short; long while flying
Modifications: Ability to see through deception and flattery as level 4; Speed defense as level 4 due to size and slowness.
Combat: A rak's breath automatically cloaks the area within 500 feet (152 m) with thick clouds that restrict the vision of other creatures. For opponents who can't see through smoke, the difficulty of attacks, defense rolls, and other tasks that require visual acuity is increased by two steps. This makes hitting the rak hard, but avoiding the rak's bite or claws even more problematic. The rak can bite or attack with pincers. Alternatively, it can breathe out fire, inflicting damage on up to ten targets within short range of each other and within long range of the rak, but never twice in two rounds.
The rak is an enchanted creature, and it regenerates 3 points of health per round while its health is above 6, or 1 point of health per minute while its health is 0 to 5. The only way to permanently kill a rak is to slice it into many pieces and bury those pieces far from each other. While a rak has between 1 and 5 health, the difficulty of all its tasks is increased by three steps, and it cannot fly. At 0 health, it remains conscious and able to talk, but otherwise it can take no other actions.
Interaction: A rak's incessant hunger isn't ameliorated in any way by its quarrelsome, petty disposition and penchant for going back on promises. One way to negotiate with a rak is to hurt it badly enough so that its regeneration falls to 1 point per minute, then threaten to cut it up. On the other hand, a rak isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and can be fooled by clever lies.
Use: A village has gone dark, literally, and every day one new villager turns up eaten. The entire place smells of salt and pepper, but the survivors are too scared to flee, except for one brave soul who managed to get out and seek help from the PCs.
Loot: 1d100 xs 20 gold coins, 2d6 cyphers, and possibly an Oz artifact.
GM Intrusion: The rak lands on a character. In addition to the crushing damage, the character is pinned until she can succeed on a Might defense roll to get free or use other means to convince the rak to move.