Pterosaur – topaz whineglider

Vitals

Habits

• Spiraling through the sky, making a high-pitched whine
• At the shoreline, perched on mangrove-roots, wrestling over a fish
• Dozing atop a nest of tall, pale-green eggs

Attacks

• Swordbeak, d8 damage plus puncturing: when a whineglider successfully attacks a target, their surprisingly sharp beak also inflicts bleed 2 if the damage total is odd.

Powers

• Dive bomb (2-round) – A whineglider can burn d4 GRT and spend 1 round gliding up on a thermal while staring at its prey to dive bomb on the 2nd round: if their attack hits, they inflict 3d8 damage and regain d4 GRT if the target is biological as they swallow torn flesh.

Gear

• None.

Story notes

Though an individual adult topaz whineglider stands only 1 M tall and has the unsolid frame of a flying predator at the base of the littoral food web, over half of that height comes from their sword-sharp beak. Too, their bulging eyes possess two double-focusing irises, of contrasting electric colors, that allow a whineglider to target prey from high above the waves. While any one whineglider rapidly tires if it misses an ambush, a large family or seasonal nesting colony presents a serious threat to many a Terran or provincial venture.