WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0136 0136
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to bring it down by weight of numbers. They make terrific pets, though, and are especially empathic with their
surroundings. A manju often instinctively knows of approaching danger before human handlers detect a problem. For this reason, handlers pen manju on the perimeters of encampments and farms and watch their behavior
closely. Gauging their alarm can make the difference between life and death on the dangerous frontiers.
Maradoch
Also known as the “Plague of the Whitebone Wastes,”
these vermin are reputedly the harbingers of doom and
pestilence. The size of a medium dog, a maradoch has
tough, dun-brown hide beneath a sparse coat of rough
sandy fur. Males have less fur compared to the females’
tufted manes and spinal crests.
Maradochs live in scourges (a pack group of 25 or
more) in an endless labyrinth of huge tunnels, often
those dug by regelths, which most rogues would avoid.
They fully infest the underground of the Whitebone
Wastes, so it is almost impossible to avoid them there. At
night, many flood out onto the surface from their tunnels, on the hunt for their favorite prey: humanoids.
Maradochs hunt in spates (groups between eight and
twelve in number) and are always led by females. The
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weakest males act as scouts and stalking prey, leading overconfident fools back toward an ambush by his
hunting group. They are aggressive and territorial at
night but usually remain in torpor during the day. They
attack with their teeth and claws but the elder mother
(leader of each scourge) often has added protections,
be it thorns around her lair or herself or random items
among their hoard of treasures.
Many widely known tales say these creatures are fascinated by metal paraphernalia. It is not uncommon to
find metal weapons, armor, shields and coins from the
ancient eras in their lairs especially were the “elder
mother” lives. In fact, they sometimes make traps with
such materials, rigging a slide of coins in a tunnel to
deliver the unwary down a sliding tunnel to fall or simply having a shield to thump as a daytime warning to
awaken the group.
Matakata
The massive Khitan “dragon turtle” defies convention by surviving in the arid wastelands via special
abilities shared with no other animal species on the
planet. Indeed, there is no record of the matakata recorded by any peoples or cultures until the past century. They are, unaccountably, newcomers to Khitus,
