Hunched and bulky with muscle, its hide is mottled like wet stone; when it stops moving, it blurs against the rock and earth background. It seems roughly human sized and shaped, powerful and stocky. Thick defined muscles bunch and coil under its heavy hide, its hands are the size of shovels. On its back, two hinged limbs jut up and back, like strange stubby wings. The back of its eyes shine with reflected light. Its head is flat, a muzzle jutting out with worn bone jaws, its eyes flanking its narrow face. It has no ears, horns, or hair. It smells of darkness and rain, with a hint of cloying blood on its breath.
Clubbers generally acquire a target and shadow the target for a little while, trying to identify individuals alone, or in small groups, or at rest, otherwise inattentive. They specifically go for those who are wearing no headgear as a priority.
It tries to attack from above, from behind, from underwater, or from cover. Its back clamps can hold it to the ceiling if there are protrusions to hold onto. It leaps out, slams a hit into an unarmored head, then snatches the (probably unconscious) target, slinging it up to the back clamps. With the victim secured and out of the way, it sprints off, crossing water or climbing a cliff to then eat its victim in peace.
Clubbers do not like to fight; they prefer ambushes, and if the ambush goes wrong, they’ll flee. They hunt alone, unless defending young, and then in pairs.
It is important to note that the general consensus is that clubbers are not sentient.
While oddly tough and almost woody, their flesh is nourishing and not unpleasant to eat. Their meat is worth about 1 mehra per point. Muscle in the back clamps is a delicacy, up to 5 points per clamp at 3 mehra each.
They make excellent leather. A decent pelt can fetch a sina, or serve as material for leather armor; 1 pelt per coverage level.
Their cute awkward young are prized commodities by those with the resources to train them; they grow up to be clean, careful guards who can be trusted in libraries and courtyards and so forth, to stalk and defeat robbers and intruders. Some poorly equipped sources would pay up to 3 sina for young, but a buyer prepared with animal trainers and an appropriate setting may pay up to 20 sina. Some sources would pay up to 5 sina for a live adult clubber.
They have no interest in treasure, but they do often have a few favorite spots to crouch and chew the carcasses of their victims. Ambush sites may have dropped valuables, and their eating pits may have things more like rings and medallions and sheathed weapons. Packs are often torn off en route. If there is a nest with young, treasure that may travel in small pieces might be found there.
Legendry and Lore
These creatures are attributed to Morglia, the wicked monster-making mercenary wizard, 2,000 years ago. He is reputed to have created them out of brutes, guarding the stony corridors behind the Fortress of Stars. When the wizards came to the back door, many were plucked out of the army’s ranks to vanish into the dark uncharted maze forever. Of course, some clubbers got out, and they spread.
Nobility of Harbiss consider their clubbers status symbols; no estate is complete without one. Some clubbers inevitably escaped, and bred in the sewers below the city.