Nightmare Beast

Nightmare beasts are very dangerous combatants, capable of defeating small armies of humans by themselves Though huge in size, nightmare beasts are capable of fairly quick movement, allowing them to close with opponents very rapidly. Their speed on land, combined with their great weight provides them with the ability to smash through nearly any obstacle, including city walls, trees, and small natural rock formations. When engaged in combat, a nightmare beast is absolutely devastating. When they attack, nightmare beasts raise up onto their hind legs, enabling them to attack with their front limbs. A nightmare beast on its hind legs is approximately 35 to 40 feet tall. They attack first with their two front clawed limbs,then with both its horns and finally its massive bite. The extremely thick skin of a nightmare beast provides it with incredible protection against attacks, only being damaged by magical weapons. Nightmare beasts also have a small degree of magic resistance. It is believed that nightmare beasts were created through use of defiler magic, and it is known that all of its spell abilities are similar in effect to defiler magic. A unique adaptation of defiler magic’s life draining effects has produced the nightmare beast’s ability to drain life energy from its victims. Nightmare beasts are also capable of magical and psionic attacks including fireballs, lightning bolts, walls of fire, death clouds, disintegration, summoning planar creatures, teleportation, and mental attacks. It psionic abilities rival that of the eldest and most experienced psionicists of Athas. A nightmare beast will often employ the most direct and brutal attack forms it has at its disposal. One other unique psionic ability of the nightmare beast is its “nightmare” attack. With this ability, a nightmare beast can enter the dreams of its victims and prey on their subconscious minds. This ability is used in two distinctly different manners. The first is used against future victims, those which the beast is either stalking or is intent on attacking. The beast uses this ability when these victims are sleeping. The victims suffer from nightmares of extreme horror (in which the victim is stalked, hunted, and killed by the nightmare beast). These dreams are so vivid that they prevent the victim from properly resting. The other manner in which a nightmare beast uses its “nightmare” attack is during combat to have all creatures within a 50’ radius of the nightmare beast so that next time they go to sleep. While they sleep, victims of this attack have dreams as described above, in which they are stalked, hunted, and killed by the nightmare beast. The effects of these dreams are the same as those described above. 

Nightmare beasts can be encountered in virtually any terrain on Athas. Fortunately, there are very few of these creatures. Some historians think that once there were as many as a hundred of these beasts roaming the world. Now there are believed to be only half a dozen remaining. Nightmare beasts live in their lairs for long periods of time (up to one year). After that time, they will roam the desert until they find a suitable area in which to make their new lair. When a nightmare beast settles into a new lair, it will most often settle near ancient ruins of the former civilization that once inhabited Athas. No matter where they make their lairs, nightmare beasts do so in a consistent manner. All beast lairs are very defensible and well-protected. The nightmare beast will always choose a lair that is difficult to attack from both land and air. Nightmare beasts only rest in their lairs for short periods, usually no more that 6 hours at a time. The rest of their time is spent roaming the area near their lairs and feeding. These beasts will normally rotate between resting and roaming in 6-hour time periods. This activity cycle is maintained for days and sometimes weeks at a time. (The only time that a beast will change this cycle is when it is preparing for battle.) When resting in its lair, a nightmare beast will often use its psionic danger sense devotion. When a nightmare beast roams the area surrounding its lair, its main purpose is to feed itself. These creatures eat nearly anything, both animal and vegetable. Entire herds of erdlus and kanks have been killed when a nightmare beast has come across them while feeding. There are certain creatures that a nightmare beast will not attack, even when it is searching for food. Nightmare beasts will not attack drakes or megapedes, for example, nor would one ever try to fight the Dragon.

As stated above, nightmare beasts eat almost every type of food available on Athas. However, they are unsuitable as a food source because their bodies decay rapidly after death. It is thought that this is because the magic which has sustained their lives vanishes when they die, causing an unnatural rate of decay. However, the horns, claws, and teeth of a nightmare beast make excellent weapons and are usually used in arrowheads, daggers, and (sometimes) darts. Also, the horns of a nightmare beast can be ground and mixed with water to create a paste. When consumed, the paste produces an effect similar to esperweed, though much less powerful.