Freelance
TravellerGarinars
This article originally appeared in Cepheus Journal #004 and was reprinted in the November/December 2022 issue of Freelance Traveller.
| ANIMAL | HITS | SPEED | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garinars | 29 | 12m |
 |
| SKILLS | Athletics (Dexterity) 1, Melee (unarmed) 1, Recon 2, Stealth 1, Survival 1* | ||
| ATTACKS | 2 Bite and Claws (4D)** | ||
| TRAITS | Heightened Senses | ||
| BEHAVIOUR | Carnivore, Pouncer | ||
| NOTE | * If more than one is encountered,
include Tactics ** The creature sometimes strikes to wound and frighten, reducing damage to 2D or even 1D. |
||
The Garinars normally moves quite slowly, almost silently, constantly sniffing the air and searching about with its orangeyellow eyes. When it wants to, a Garinars can surge into a fast rush or leap a surprisingly long way. It changes direction in a fast but ungainly scrabble of claws. It is not known how this creature communicates with others of its kind when out of sight of them – though it definitely does and can set up complex ambushes – as its vocal cords are extremely rudimentary.
Garinars can cooperate even when they cannot see one another, so some communication mechanism must exist. They are pack hunters, preferring to push prey into a confined area and then pounce all at once. In the inevitable scramble to escape, prey will impede one another; a small group will be contained and massacred, while a larger herd of prey will usually have some survivors. This strategy seems geared towards stalking out other predators as well as prey animals – Trapped predators are more likely to scatter and flee, than to fight back as a coherent group. The implication of this is interesting, since the Garinar is an apex predator on most of the worlds it exists on. Either this strategy was created to deal with other bands of Garinar that had entered a pack’s territory, or else the strategy was evolved specifically to hunt humans.
Garinars can best be described as a ‘bristly furred, longlegged doglike quadruped’, striped in grey and dingy brown, with long fangs and claws that let it climb as well as gouge and tear.
It is believed that the Garinars has its heritage in Terran Hyenas or African Wild Dogs. A Comm will translate the local name of the Garinar as:
- ‘extremely clever teethkilling thing’
- ‘that which was left over after civilisation collapsed’
- ‘the things out in the darkness’ and
- ‘Death beyond the light’