Let's Read the Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Dune Reaper
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The Lore
Like a lot of other Athasian fauna, dune reapers are predatory insectile/reptilian pack hunters. However, they lean a lot more towards the “insectile” side, and their origins are clearly unnatural even to contemporary inhabitants of Athas.
The book says they “came to existence through defiling magic”, though it doesn’t specify whether they were an artificially engineered species or whether some side effect of defiling brought them to the world. Their Aberrant origin kinda hints at the latter.
These creatures have a complex social structure. They organize into large familial groups known as prides, who build large hives from sand, rocks, and organic secretions near a water source that becomes the center of their territory. The pride then splits up into smaller packs, which roam that territory looking for food. A pack is composed of a large female “warrior”, accompanied by smaller male “drones” and “shrieks” who are her mates. The pride’s dominant female is known as its “matron”, and it’s her who makes decisions that affect the whole pack, like where to build the hive or when to seek new territory. A matron rules the pride until her death, which is usually in a duel with an up-and-coming warrior who challenges her for the position.
Dune reapers are a scourge on the local ecology. Their menu includes just about everything they can reach: humanoids, animals, plants, wagons, buildings… they even eat rocks to store in their gizzards and aid in the digestion of tougher food. A humanoid settlement in dune reaper territory is only safe if they can provide the creatures with an ample alternate source of food.
Dune reaper reproduction happens on an annual cycle, and they’re even more dangerous during mating season. The pride’s females need to lay their eggs inside the bodies of living creatures, you see. When the eggs hatch, the newborn reapers eat their host, and then set upon each other. Only the strongest hatchlings survive this process. After about two months they’re already as dangerous as a fully grown adult. At this time, they’re driven from their birth hive and must either join another pride or form a new one with other young reapers.
The Numbers
Dune Reapers are Aberrant Beasts with Darkvision. Their basic melee attack always uses their Arm Blades, which do standard damage for their level and might have other effects depending on the stat block.
Dune Reaper Drone
These relatively small males are Medium and make up the dune reaper worker caste. They build the hive and carry food back to it, but as Level 12 Skirmishers with 120 HP and Speed 8 they’re certainly strong enough to take part in the hunt as well.
Their basic arm blade attack also lets them shift 1 square on a hit. They can perform a Leaping Slash that lets them jump 4 squares without provoking opportunity attacks and use Arm Blade at the end of the movement. This recharges when they’re first bloodied.
If an enemy grants Combat Advantage to the drone, it can use a minor action to bite, dealing light physical damage on a hit. If an enemy makes a melee attack against the drone, it can Leap Away, jumping 4 squares without drawing OAs, as an immediate reaction.
Drones want to leap into melee at the start of the fight, and seek positions where their chosen target grants them CA. They’ll leap away when attacked and come back from an unexpected angle. When fighting drones, shoot them or surround them. Don’t let them surround you.
Dune Reaper Shriek
That’s not a role you usuall find among mundane insects. The book considers them specialized drones that can leap not just through the air, but through time and space. When they do this, they emit an ear-splitting scream that gives them their name. They’re Level 14 Lurkers with 106 HP and Speed 7.
Their arm blades are standard attacks with no riders, and are a lot more dangerous when used in conjunction with the shriek’s freaky powers. A Shrieking Reap lets them make two arm blade attacks against the same target. If one hits, it teleports the target 2 squares and inflicts 10 ongoing damage (save ends). If both hit, the teleport distance increases to 5, and the ongoing damage to 15. A Shrieking Warp removes the shriek from play until the start of its next turn, when it appears at a spot within 10 squares of its previous position and makes a Close Burst 2 attack that deals thunder damage and pushes 2 squares on a hit.
Shrieking Warp is an at-will ability, but it’s disabled for a turn when the shriek takes force damage because of its Forceful Silence trait. Shrieking Reap recharges whenever the creature uses Shrieking Warp. Our lurker loop here is Shrieking Reap -> Shrieking Warp -> Repeat.
The book reminds us that forced movement is always voluntary for the attacker, so shrieks arriving from a Warp will often choose to push all but one of the enemies they hit with the attack, to isolate it from its allies. Clever!
Dune Reaper Warrior
This Large female will lead a pack of drones and shrieks when hunting. She’s a Level 15 Brute with 180 HP, Speed 7, and the Leader tag.
She exudes an aura (3) of Inciting Pheromones that grants all dune reapers inside a +2 bonus to Will, and makes them immune to the Dazed condition. She also has the Unhindered trait we saw before, which lets her drag grabbed characters around when she moves.
Her arm blade is Reach 2 and extra-strong. She can perform a Leaping Slash similar to the drone’s, which also inflicts 10 ongoing damage if either attack hits.
Her triggered actions make her even more dangerous. Snapping Mandibles triggers when someone hits the warrior with a melee attack. As a reaction, she attacks their Fortitude and grabs them on a hit. Grabbed targets take 10 damage when they fail an escape attempt. Her Compelling Musk (recharge 5+) is triggered when she misses with an Arm Blade attack, and lets another dune reaper within 3 squares make a melee basic attack as an opportunity action. I’m not going to make a joke about that power name, it’s too easy.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Dune reaper packs number between 5 and 12 (!) individuals. Only one will be a warrior, though you could say the PCs found more than one pack together if you want there to be more of them.
Reapers are impossible to train, but sapient humanoids still capture them for use as arena beasts, and hunt them as a source of leather, organic armor plates, and blades.
These seem to me like yet another pack-based predator, the third or fourth we saw in this reading. I do like the ominous aberrant touches in both their lore and mechanics, though. The shriek in particular reminds me a lot of a Hound of Tindalos.