Drilladillos or Drill-horned Armadillos, Various

The drill-horned armadillo is among the fastest burrowing creatures known; they can bore through soft rock as fast as a Human can walk. All save the desert and mountian drilladillos are known to be quite tasty; commonly, they are cooked in their own shells.

Pocket Drilladillo

Class:Realistic beast
Hab: Plains, desert
Fre: Common
Num: 10-10,000
Lair: 90%
Size: 10-20 pounds
Move: Quick waddle
Def: Sturdy shell
Att: Drilling horns, hard spade-claws
Int: Basic or simple beast
Spec: Create potholes across the landscape
Posns: Incidental

Pocket Drilladillo

Pocket drilladillos weigh only 10-20 pounds, but may be a nuisance, as their excavations may result in traitorous potholes.

Drilladillos bore an excessive number of holes about their range. These ready-made egg chambers which giant insects; the drilladillos essentially cultivate the grubs they feed upon. While normally innocuous, the drilladillos may become aggressive against anything - or anyone - they perceive to be endangering their grub supply.

While drilladillos flee down their holes when danger threatens, harming one drilladillo will bring the rest of the colony to its defense.

Should a population of pocket drilladillos so thoroughly cleanse their range of all grubs and vermin that starvation become imminent, they may migrate en mass. Such a migration cleanses all grubs and vermin from its path but leaves the ground thoroughly potholed.

Normally, any given pair will have 3-13 young. Migrating colonies are comprised only of adults, as a colony low on food ceases to have new young several months before matters become so critical as to trigger a migration.


Giant Drilladillo

Class:Realistic beast
Hab: Any non-boggy, non-arctic terrain
Fre: Uncommon
Num: Pair plus 2-8 half-grown young
Lair: 70%
Size: 2,000 to 12,000 by species
Move: Ponderous but can charge
Def: Stone-strong shell
Att: Drill-horns, hard spade-claws, powerful tail whap to rear
Int: Simple beast
Spec: Drills caves
Posns: Incidental

Giant Drilladillo

Giant drilladillos range from horse to rhino sized and larger, typically 2,000 to 12,000 pounds. They include arctic, temperate, and tropical varieties, from desert and grasslands, forest and mountain; only boggy areas lack drilladillos.

Wooly giant drilladillos are common in arctic areas, which may dig extensive cave complexes, even connecting several remote feeding grounds, rich in vegetation, separated by glaciers.


Desert and Mountain Drilladillos

Class:Realistic beast
Hab: Mountains and arid wastes with stone outcroppings
Fre: Uncommon
Num: 4-24 plus 2x to 4x as many half-grown young
Lair: 90%
Size: 500 to 2,000, by species
Move: Quick waddle + charge
Def: Exceptionally tough silica-infused shell
Att: Drill-horns, hard spade-claws, powerful tail whap to rear
Int: Basic beast
Spec: Drills extensive caves
Posns: Incidental

Desert and Mountain Drilladillos

Deep-digging drilladillos of the arid wastes and mountains drilladillos have stronger armor and more dangerous drills than any other sorts of drilladillos. Biologists say this is because these drilladillo has developed a method of incorporating ingested stone dust or fine sand in to the matrix of its shell; the shell is composed of organic stone. Because of this silica content, the flesh of the desert and mountain drilladillos is inedible to non-specialist predators.

The desert and mountian drilladillos jealously guard warrens bored even through solid rock to access water deep below. Deep in their warrens they stockpile food against times of famine, commonly in a series of alcoves cut in the rock walls or pits cut in the floor, sealed with chunks of stone fit like irregular brickwork.

Due to their harsh environment, these drilladillos have only half as many young as other sorts of drilladillos; they make up for this by defending them all the more bravely.

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Apr 4, 2006