ARMORED BEAR (Panserbjørne) |
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| The people of armored bears, or panserbjørne, live in the far north, into ice towns and castles. It has a feudal, monarchic organization, somewhat barbarian in law and usages but highly evolved in metallurgy. Despite this yet, killing another armored bear is absolutely forbidden a thing; only for really heavy reasons this can be permitted by the king, and then just within a ritual clash of equal chances. Allowed punishments are but penal servitude, imprisonment and exile. Male panserbjørne usual jobs are hunting (seal overall), fishing, ore extraction and metalworking. Their enormous strength, the terror with they strike, their ferocity, the invulnerability of their powerful armors, their fighting ability, along with their exceptional loyalty and courage (they prefer death rather than failing the word), made them legendary fighters. Yet they are rarely and hardly enlisted, in particular by non-panserbjørne leaders, for they love much their independence and freedom; only a few among the more discontent ones can be found willing to leave their country to become mercenaries. All of the males own a powerful armor of excellent steel; they are extraordinarily proud of it, and they wear it almost always, unless they need to be not encumbered (sleeping, swimming, ordinary job). Everybody makes by itself its own one. This is a suite of plates closely 1 inch thick, and two or more layers of chain mail made of large rings. It cannot be pierced by any means and covers all the body, except for the mandible -that's left free to bite- and for the sharp retractile claws. It is so heavy as to halve ground moving and as to make impossible to swim beyond a handful seconds (just the time for quickly exiting water after an accidental fall). The bear adores it to the point of considering it as part of itself; if the bear loses it for any reasons, the beast has no rest nor peace until it rescues it, for panserbjørne believe their armors to be the residence of their souls. Armored bears do not use any weapons but their deadly claws and fangs, and hug for 5-20 HP when both claws hit. Regular fighting units yet can be equipped with sky onagers, called firethrowers. These are fired at 3rd level ability and hurl burning sulphur, that's prepared into portable sky-boilers; it causes 3-18 HP damage to any creatures into a 10' diameter area. Firethrowers can also hurl ice blocks or stones. A few bears can learn shaman powers, up to 7th level ability. Outside their villages, panserbjørne are more often met in small groups of the same sex (80%) or mixed (20%). As females spend most of their time at home, these represent but 20% of the encounters. Females have 1 HD less than males and -2 to hit, and wear no armor. Armored bears don't use any money but just barter, and rarely have anything of value with them. They appreciate gems and metals anyway, that can thus be found in their houses. Slaves of different races are often employed at their mines. Panserbjørne look very much as huge polar bears, though they have opposable thumbs at forward claws.
By Gianluca Meluzzi 1996, 1999.
For AD&D 1st Edition, TSR Games.
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