Triple Threat: Therasal

Therasal (or stone quills as they are more commonly called) are a strange mixture of badger, pangolin, porcupine, and canine with eight legs, octagonal scales, long spines, and a fuzzy down in places where their armor does not fully overlap. Their sharply pointed ears have fine tufts of fur that alert them to danger and they can see in the dark as easily as in the full light of day. Therasal can be bad-tempered brutes, but don’t fly into berserker-rages (well, the majority of them at least) and are often found in dwarven settlements as pets, friends, and working animals (they are amazing as miners as they can sniff out precious metals and gemstones like a pig sniffs out truffles!). Therasal diet varies to whatever they can find and they can eat just about anything remotely organic as well as gemstones and metals (which they need to stay healthy). Therasal seem to be functionally immortal, continuing to grow as they age – shedding their skins much like a cicada does. Truly ancient therasal can be the size of boulders!

Furthermore, therasal are what they eat. They gain the properties of whatever metal (or gemstones if there is enough) they’ve been regularly consuming (at least 2% to 5% of its body weight in the last 1d days). For example, a therasal that has been snacking on meteoric iron will be immune to most magical effects, while one that’s been eating mithrigin will have triple its normal DR!

For Any Game

ST: 16                            HP: 21                                               Speed: 7.00
DX: 14                           Will: 14                                             Move: 7/14
IQ: 6                              Per: 14                                                Weight: 200-300 lbs.
HT: 14                           FP: 14                                                SM: -1
Dodge: 10                    Parry: 10                                         DR: 7

Bite (16): 1d+1 impaling. Reach C. Apply an Armor Divisor of (2) against metal or stone armor or targets. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Claw (16): 1d+1 cutting. Reach C, 1. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Rend (13): Two attacks against the same opponent. Use the same damage as the claw entry. If the target was worried last turn, instead roll 1d and roll that many attacks instead!
Torso Grapple (16): No damage, but on further turns can squeeze (Choke or Strangle, p. B370) as ST 18 or win a Quick Contest of ST 24 against the best of opponent’s ST, DX, Judo, or Wrestling to pull him to its mouth.
Worry (-): This can only be used after a target has been bitten. It does the same damage as the bite entry.

Traits: Acute Hearing 3; Acute Smell 3; Bad Temper (15); Burrower; Cannot Float; Combat Reflexes; Curious (12); Danger Sense; Dark Vision; Detect (Metal and Gemstones; Long-Range 1; Reflexive; Smell-Based, Reversed); Discriminatory Hearing; Discriminatory Smell (Emotion Sense); Enhanced Move 1 (Ground Move 7/14; Temporary Disadvantage, No Legs (Wheels)); Extra Legs (Eight Legs); Flexibility; Fur; High Pain Threshold; Horizontal; Increased Consumption 1; Long-Range Smell 1; Overconfidence (12); Parabolic Hearing 2; Quadruped; Reduced Consumption 2 (Cast-Iron Stomach); Regeneration (Regular); Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+8); Spines (Long); Teeth (Sharp); Temperature Tolerance 10; Terrain Adaptation (Rocky); Tunneling (Move 6); Uncontrollable Appetite (15) (Metals); Unfazeable; Universal Digestion (Metal and minerals only); Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-16; Stealth-14; Survival (Mountains or Underground)-14; Tracking-17; Wrestling-16.
Notes: Treat the therasal’s bite as if it were three SM larger allowing a therasal to bite the torso of SM 0 beings! Larger or smaller specimens are not uncommon – if the therasal can find enough to eat. Modify ST and HP by 30% per ±1; modify DR and Move by ±1 per SM. Higher SM therasal can provide higher SM armor or produce multiple suits for lower SM beings. The highest SM therasal ever recorded was the Hill-That-Moves, a SM +7 being living in swamp far to the south. Similar specimens would have ST 50, HP 65, Move 14/28, and DR 14! If the GM is using Intrinsic Fright Check from GURPS Horror (p. 139), therasal have a modifier of -2,

For Dungeon Fantasy

ST: 16                            HP: 21                                               Speed: 7.00
DX: 14                           Will: 14                                             Move: 7/14
IQ: 6                              Per: 14                                                Weight: 200-300 lbs.
HT: 14                           FP: 14                                                SM: -1
Dodge: 10                    Parry: 10                                         DR: 7

Bite (16): 1d+1 impaling. Reach C. Apply an Armor Divisor of (2) against metal or stone armor or targets. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Claw (16): 1d+1 cutting. Reach C, 1. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Rend (13): Two attacks against the same opponent. Use the same damage as the claw entry. If the target was worried last turn, instead roll 1d and roll that many attacks instead!
Torso Grapple (16): No damage, but on further turns can squeeze (Choke or Strangle, p. B370) as ST 18 or win a Quick Contest of ST 24 against the best of opponent’s ST, DX, Judo, or Wrestling to pull him to its mouth.
Worry (-): This can only be used after a target has been bitten. It does the same damage as the bite entry.

Traits: Acute Hearing 3; Acute Smell 3; Bad Temper (15); Burrower; Cannot Float; Combat Reflexes; Curious (12); Danger Sense; Dark Vision; Detect (Metal and Gemstones; Long-Range 1; Reflexive; Smell-Based, Reversed); Discriminatory Hearing; Discriminatory Smell (Emotion Sense); Enhanced Move 1 (Ground Move 7/14; Temporary Disadvantage, No Legs (Wheels)); Extra Legs (Eight Legs); Flexibility; Fur; High Pain Threshold; Horizontal; Increased Consumption 1; Long-Range Smell 1; Overconfidence (12); Parabolic Hearing 2; Quadruped; Reduced Consumption 2 (Cast-Iron Stomach); Regeneration (Regular); Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+8); Spines (Long); Teeth (Sharp); Temperature Tolerance 10; Terrain Adaptation (Rocky); Tunneling (Move 6); Uncontrollable Appetite (15) (Metals); Unfazeable; Universal Digestion (Metal and minerals only); Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-16; Stealth-14; Survival (Mountains or Underground)-14; Tracking-17; Wrestling-16.
Class: Dire Animal.
Combat Effectiveness Rating: 0 (OR 0 and PR 0).
Notes: Treat the therasal’s bite as if it were three SM larger allowing a therasal to bite the torso of SM 0 beings! Therasal can be skinned for their hides. This requires a roll, at -5, against the better of Armoury (Body Armor), Naturalist, or Survival. Success provides metallic “leather” that’s equivalent to chain or plate. It uses the statistics for dragonhide (Adventurers, p. 27), is immune to rusting effects, but can be any sort of leather armor and can be made into a full suit for a SM+0 character. Therasal which have been feasting on exotic metals combine both the effects and the costs. For example, one eating meteoric iron would add +19 CF to the cost of the armor, in addition to the cost as therasal leather. Such “combination” armor is highly prized and the GM may wish to double or triple the final cost factor! Larger or smaller specimens are not uncommon – if the therasal can find enough to eat. Modify ST and HP by 30% per ±1; modify DR and Move by ±1 per SM. Higher SM therasal can provide higher SM armor or produce multiple suits for lower SM beings. The highest SM therasal ever recorded was the Hill-That-Moves, a SM +7 being living in swamp far to the south. Similar specimens would have ST 50, HP 65, Move 14/28, and DR 14!

For Monster Hunters

ST: 21                            HP: 26                                               Speed: 8.00
DX: 14                           Will: 14                                             Move: 8/16
IQ: 6                              Per: 14                                                Weight: 200-300 lbs.
HT: 14                           FP: 14                                                SM: -1
Dodge: 11                    Parry: 11                                         DR: 28

Fright Check: -2

Bite (18): 2d+2(2) impaling. Reach C. Apply an Armor Divisor of (5) against metal or stone armor or targets. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Claw (18): 2d+2(2) cutting. Reach C, 1. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Rend (15): Two attacks against the same opponent. Use the same damage as the claw entry. If the target was worried last turn, instead roll 1d and roll that many attacks instead!
Torso Grapple (16): No damage, but on further turns can squeeze (Choke or Strangle, p. B370) as ST 23 or win a Quick Contest of ST 29 against the best of opponent’s ST, DX, Judo, or Wrestling to pull him to its mouth.
Worry (-): This can only be used after a target has been bitten. It does the same damage as the bite entry.

Traits: Acute Hearing 3; Acute Smell 3; Bad Temper (15); Burrower; Cannot Float; Combat Reflexes; Curious (12); Danger Sense; Dark Vision; Detect (Metal and Gemstones; Long-Range 1; Reflexive; Smell-Based, Reversed); Discriminatory Hearing; Discriminatory Smell (Emotion Sense); Enhanced Move 1 (Ground Move 8/16; Temporary Disadvantage, No Legs (Wheels)); Extra Legs (Eight Legs); Flexibility; Fur; High Pain Threshold; Horizontal; Increased Consumption 1; Long-Range Smell 1; Overconfidence (12); Parabolic Hearing 2; Quadruped; Reduced Consumption 2 (Cast-Iron Stomach); Regeneration (Regular); Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+8); Spines (Long); Teeth (Sharp); Temperature Tolerance 10; Terrain Adaptation (Rocky); Tunneling (Move 6); Uncontrollable Appetite (15) (Metals); Unfazeable; Universal Digestion (Metal and minerals only); Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-18; Stealth-14; Survival (Mountains or Underground)-14; Tracking-17; Wrestling-18.
Notes: Treat the therasal’s bite as if it were three SM larger allowing a therasal to bite the torso of SM 0 beings! Larger or smaller specimens are not uncommon – if the therasal can find enough to eat. Modify ST and HP by 30% per ±1; modify DR and Move by ±1 per SM. Higher SM therasal can provide higher SM armor or produce multiple suits for lower SM beings. The highest SM therasal ever recorded was the Hill-That-Moves, a SM +7 being living in swamp far to the south. Similar specimens would have ST 50, HP 65, Move 14/28, and DR 14! Use the skills listed under Cryptids in the Know Thy Enemy box in Monster Hunters 1 (p. 16). One therasal is a fair fight for one champion.