ACKS Morrowind: Guar

Guar

% in lair: None

Dungeon encounter: None

Wilderness encounter: Herd (2d6)

Alignment: Neutral

Movement: 120' (40')

Armor class: Desc 7, Asc 13, ACKS 3, as Ring Mail

Hit dice: 3

Attacks: 1 (bite)

Damage: 1d8

Save: F1

Morale: 0

Treasure: None

XP: 50

These bipedal lizards measure 10 to 12' from nose to tail and weigh around 650 lbs.  They are omnivorous, eating roots, fungus, rats, and scrib with equal relish.  Wild guar have been known to attack and eat humanoids during particularly lean years.  Their ungainly heads contain fat and water reserves like the hump of a camel, over a thick skull containing a brain the size of a man's fist.  During competition for mates, guar headbutt each other; these impacts resemble the initial collision in a sumo match.  The guar's tail serves as an essential counterbalance to its front-heavy mass distribution; hence the Ashlander expression, "to be the tail of the guar", meaning to do a task which is important but unpleasant, unglamorous, or smelly.  Domesticated guar express their affection by licking.

A herd of wild guar is often led by an huge old guar (or "old chonker") of 4HD and AC4 weighing 1100 lbs, whose bite deals 2d6 damage.

Both the Ashlanders and civilized dunmer raise guar for meat and as pack animals.  As pack animals, a typical guar can carry 12 stone at 120' speed or up to 25 stone at 60' speed.  Racing on guar-back is a popular sport among Ashlander children.  Very large guar can carry 22 stone at 120' speed or 44 stone at 60' speed, but they are rarely used as battle mounts because they aren't very smart and tend to like to stop and eat things on the battlefield.  Rumor has it that the Redorans are working on selectively breeding guar for carrying capacity and trainability as cavalry.  When butchered for meat, a guar yields 25 stone, and a very large guar yields 44 stone.

The hide of a guar is a common ingredient in alchemical recipes, and the hides of very large guars are worth 100XP towards magical research dealing with Fellowship, Sanctuary, Vigor, Charm Animal, Summon Animal, and Predict Weather effects.