Drik

The drik’s short legs and great weight make it ponderous beast, but this apparent lethargy conceals the beast’s surprising prowess in melee. Its primary form of attack is its bite. A drik’s head and neck are actually quite agile when it holds them away from the resin shell - almost as if its head and neck weren’t connected to its gargantuan body. A causal observer might fall victim to the drik’s unnatural quickness and reach. A drik can also attack with its clawed forelegs, but the animal needs at least three legs on the ground to maintain balance and support its immense weight. The drik can use a ram attack against another drik or other large, slow-moving object. A drik can initiate a ram attack if it has at least 30 feet between it and its target. The drik’s ram attack can also be used against structures. A drik does not normally ram anything but another drik that is invading its family’s territory. Ram attacks against structures or creatures other than a trespassing drik are made only at the instigation of the beast’s handler.

Wild driks live in small family units dominated by a single female, other adult females are not welcome. They generally eat the grasses and shrubs of the badlands or the slower animals they can catch Feral driks often lie still and wait for unwary creatures to wander within attack range. They drink from the Black Waters, making it fairly easy for trappers to locate them. Driks are the only animals known that can ingest Hamanu’s terrible poisons from the Black Waters and survive. In captivity, driks are ideal animals for siege combat. Their natural ram attack is quite valuable, as is their great size and natural protection. Some driks are used to pull massive siege towers or wagons, but often they are used as individual, mobile weapons platform. 

A drik mother lays its eggs in the Black Waters every three years. The young then find the nearest adult female (not necessarily its mother) and become part of that family. A drik reaches adulthood in two years and can live to be 30 years old. An adult drik weighs roughly 5 tons and can carry as much as 2,000 pounds on its back. A drik can pull as much as 10 tons on wheeled vehicles or drag 5 tons behind it on a litter or similar platform. A drik is particularly foul-tempered in captivity. In battle, each drik has its own psionic master who directs its activities. However, in the everyday life of a captive drik, trainers must deal with them without the benefit of psionicists. casualties among drik trainers are high. No driks have been bred in captivity

A drik war machine is similar to the standard drik, but the shell has been reshaped to allow siege weapons to be mounted on its back. Captors reshape the shell to permit greater ramming power. The drik’s resin shell is melted and partially reshaped. Workmen with torches flatten the surface of the shell to more readily accept ballistae and catapults. Raamese engineers have perfected a technique whereby a wooden mold is built around an immobilized young drik as its shell is forming. Though only one drik in three survives the process, the results can be spectacular. A drik so customized has siege weapons mounted on its back, the number and damage caused varies by weapon type and the type of structure being attacked.