| Class: | Fabulous Beast |
| Hab: | Mountainous wilds, rugged pains |
| Fre: | Unommon |
| Num: | 10-100 |
| Lair: | 15% |
| Size: | 600-1,200 lb, 4' to 6' at shoulder |
| Move: | 40 mph; = medium horse, extremely sure-footed |
| Def: | Dodge, very tough leather hide |
| Att: | Drilling horns = twin chainsaws |
| Int: | Bright beast |
| Spec: | Fabulous version has drilling horns |
| Posns: | Horns, meat, hide |
The real markhor is the largest of wild goats, weighing 200 pounds and more. Native to Eurasia from the Himalayas to the Urals, it has been hunted near to extinction for the prize of its heavy, dramatically spiraled backswept horns. In worlds of fiction, its giant cousin may fare better.
The fabulous markhor's horns are spiraled for good reason. They are drills. The goats use their horns to cut innumerable crevasses and pockets in to the mountain rock. The winds fill these nooks with soil, and so they serve as herb-pots, growing food in locations inaccessible to any creature less agile and sure-footed than the mountain goat. The goat is also known to use its drill-horns to loosen rock and so prepare avalanche-traps against it foes.
Upon discovering a very narrow crevasse, or lacking that a flaw in the rock, the markhor may drill it out, making a narrow-mouthed cave in which it may hide. Such deep caves often lead to water; if there is none, in times of drought, the markhor may drill deeper yet.
As large as a small horse, the markhor is yet able to slip through openings only a couple of feet wide, for it is both slender and limber. Because it spends its spare time enlarging any opening it finds in its mountains to a size in which it can hide, it makes of the mountians' wee crannies caves just large enough for a wild mule, a Human, or others of similar size to slip in.
Other creatures often take shelter in these markhor-drilled crannie-caves. As few others can reach the inaccessible places the markhor prefers to feed, such creatures do not compete with it, but they do provide alternative prey for those beasts or hunters who might peruse the markhor; any other creature would be easier to catch than the sure-footed mountain goat, as fleet as a horse over the most dangerous of terrains rocky and steep. The soles of its feet have textured rubbery pads, letting the markhor grip the steepest and most slippery of slopes, while its sharp hooves act as crampons or gripping claws.
Due to the sparseness of their habitat, markhor tend to graze scattered out across a wide area, but watchful guard goats up un the mountain ridges keep an eye on all. If threatened, a few of the fastest lure their pursuers through a narrow cleft, or in through one of their typical narrow cave entrances, so the pursuers must follow single-file. Past the narrows, the pursuers are attacked from all sides by waiting markhor.
When markhor attack, they plunge both horns in, spinning at full drill-bit speed. The scattering of gore is shocking.
| Vladpup Home RPG Home Bestiary Index | Last update Apr 4, 2006 |