The Strange Bestiary
The rank smell of wild animal precedes the 10-foot (3 m) tall white ape. The creature's shaggy fur is usually stained red with blood and gore, especially around the mouth and clawed hands.
White apes are beasts of rage and fury. Depending on where they are encountered, they might be descended from genetic manipulations gone awry, natural creatures of a recursion's jungle wilds, or a devolved (or ancestral) species in Old Mars. In all cases, white apes are usually found among ruins, "ghosts" haunting the shattered dreams of a lost civilization.
Some white apes have four arms instead of two; these can make one additional attack each turn on their action.
Every so often, a darkfurred ape is born from the whites. Such an ape grows larger than normal and tends to rise to alpha status among its band.
Motive: Defense, hungers for flesh
Environment (Magic or Weird Science): Anywhere in remote ruins, either alone or in bands of three to five
Health: 33
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Movement: Short; long when swinging from vines
Modifications: Speed defense as level 5 due to size; ability to see through tricks as level 3.
Combat: A white ape can make two attacks as one action. If both attacks hit the same target, the ape also tries to bite the target's throat out on the same action (which requires another Speed defense roll to avoid). If the ape succeeds, the victim takes damage and begins to bleed at a rate of 4 points of damage each round. The bleeding can be suppressed by spending an action wrapping the neck securely in bandages. The bleeding stops permanently after the victim regains 6 or more points to a stat Pool (with a recovery roll or other healing method) or if he is completely healed of all damage.
Interaction: White apes have the intelligence of cunning hominid predators. They communicate with each other using grunts, roars, and crude sign language. A character who studies this interaction long enough to learn it could attempt to negotiate with a white ape before it tears his arms off.
Use: Bands of white apes prefer to hunt in dense jungle environments, tumbled ruins, and other places until it finally attacks.
Loot: Individual white apes don't carry loot, but they live in the ruins of once-great civilizations, so a white ape lair reliably includes 1d6 cyphers and an artifact, in addition to the possessions of previous prey.
GM Intrusion: A white ape decides it likes the character, and on a successful attack, it grabs him and swings away instead of dealing damage. Escape requires a successful Might-based task.