Biology
The Mad Owls, the Carrion Bears, the Vultures of
Antara, these are a few of the names given to these fearsome beasts that stalk the
Island of Antara. These monstrosities are supposedly descended from Owlbears, and the resemblance is certainly there. They are monstrously large beasts with a body similar to a bear's, but a head and beak that is distinctly avian, and they are just as aggressive if not more so.
Changed Monstrosities
But their diet of Titan flesh, blood and the meat of humanoids who have eaten copious amounts of Titan flesh as well has changed them irreversibly. Like all who consume this aberrant meat they can display wild mutations ranging from gleaming, reflective skin to additional limbs. But what all the Mad Owls have, and what has given them their name, is the raised tuft of hair and feathers on their back that they puff up like a shield and the wonderfully maddening pattern on it. It can come in a variety of colors and patterns, but what is unique about this is that they can cause the pattern to shift and shimmer. Rotating hypnotically and thus mesmerizing and incapacitating their target, turning them into easy prey.
Intelligence and Social Behavior
The Mad Owls are not just called that for the maddening but enthralling effect of their patterned backs, but also for their behavior. They are voracious hunters that know nothing of restraint. They hunt, kill and eat all day long, even when they have already had their fill. It is not even uncommon for one of them to die from overeating. It is a good thing that they are so horribly mutated that their chances of producing viable offspring are relatively low, or they would have exterminated large parts of Antara's ecosystem.
Domesticating or otherwise controlling them is near impossible without magical means. But the Neogi on the island have for example been able to magically enslave Mad Owls on several occasions and they often use them as vanguards and berserker shock troops for an assault.
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