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The Mar have fought the Drakes for resources for centuries, but even the wizards fear those rare times when the Drakes organize an invasion. To better understand why, read the book.

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OTHER PROJECTS

HANGOUTS

COMICS

Thunder guer

Thunder guer are the largest known race of guer — up to 100 feet long from the tip of their tails to the front of their heads. These huge creatures literally shake the ground when they walk, which is how they got their name. The body of a thunder guer is huge, and its four legs are thick trunks to support its enormous weight. This guer's tail, which makes up nearly a third of the length of its body, is too big to merely aid in blance. Some scholars claim it also serves as the thunder guer's primary means of defense, though they are not certain what a thunder guer could possibly have to fear from any living thing. The thunder guer's neck is also extremely long — making up more than a third the length of the body — supporting a relatively small head. Thunder guer are herbivores that travel in small herds to feed. Little else is known about these creatures' anatomy, as they have never been seen south of the Fens of Reur.

Thunder guer habits are largely unknown to scholars. Sailors rarely see these guer grazing the flood plains on the northwest and northeast coasts of the subcontinent, but the expeditions aimed at capturing or killing a thunder guer have either ended in tragedy or failure. These guer lack manipulative appendages, so it is difficult to determine their intelligence. Sailors and mapmakers have observed that thunder guer communicate to each other vocally with deep songs that sound like huge horns. In the fall, these songs are far more complex, employing harmonies and rhythms spontaneously to create songs that trained musicians could only achieve after long practice. Thunder guer often stomp the ground during these performances, using the earth itself as a drum.

(Introduction contributed by Nightfire Tradition)

Tactics

The only way you will encounter a thunder guer is on an expedition to seek out and kill one. If you're crazy enough to do that, you deserve whatever you get. This is far more likely to be humility than battle scars.

Thunder guer are gargantuan. You can't really appreciate this fact until you and six other mapmakers are soaked in fear sweat trying to bring one down, and you suddenly realize it is ignoring you. Arrows are like stinging flies. Spears are no more life threatening than the thorns of small shrubs. Sword cuts are no worse for it than you'd expect to give yourself when you discover a knife blade is not as dull as you thought while testing it with your thumb.

These creatures can be dangerous opponents, if they feel threatened — as we discovered when, desperate for some trophy of our adventure, we tried amputating a foot with a two-man saw intended for cutting down huge trees. About six inches into the flesh, it stopped simply moving its foot away from the saw and actually trotted away from its assailants. Then it lifted its tail and crushed both Mar flat with it before continuing to graze. The thunder guer exhibited no anger nor even cried out to the rest of its herd. It simply swatted the source of its discomfort as carelessly and easily as a Mar would swat a mosquito. Perhaps a wizard would attract a thunder guer's attention more quickly, but I suspect his fate would be the same.

(Tactics contributed by Weard Girdag Langat)