Desert Shriekers
A Desert Shrieker is a sort of black emu, with large bony scales in place of plumes. Firelander scholars debate if this beast is a bird or a reptile, but probably it is somewhere in the middle of the two. Tall as a man, it has a strong hooked beak made to tear away flesh and break bones. These beasts, in fact, are carrion eaters, but they aren't shy of killing live prey when corpses are scarce.
Typical of the Firelands, they live in flocks of between four and twenty specimens, which communicate with high pitched shrieks, from which they get their name. Desert Shriekers, if hatched in captivity, can be tamed, because they are subject to imprinting. They consider the first creature they see after hatching to be their mother. Desert Shrieker eggs are often sold to the Jeweled City fighting pits to be trained as an act with a fighter. Wild specimens are sold at high prices to the Jeweled Coast pit masters because they are excellent killers.
The Firelanders have learned that Desert Shriekers are very sensitive to music and a skilled musician is able to enthrall the creatures.
The Song of the Prince
There are stories, once told around campfires in the Firelands, of a particular song which can bewitch the Desert Shrieker and enslave them to the will of the musician. According to the same stories, this tune was taught to men by the Demon Prince, the Prince of Scales, who appears to travelers in the shadows of abandoned oases. The Prince of Scales was said to be fond of human memories and in exchange for a pleasant one (which would be erased from the mind of the owner), he would bestow the knowledge of the tune. There are but a handful of families who know the Song of the Prince in the modern age, and they jealously pass this lore down from father to son. Not one of these tribes has yet left the desert to move to the coast. In game terms the Song of the Prince works like the puppet or slumber Power (depending on what the singer wants to achieve). It uses Persuasion (or Spirit (-2)) as the arcane skill, costs no Power Points, and affects any Desert Shrieker in range. The Power can be maintained indefinitely while the singer performs, but he must make a Vigor roll each hour of continuous singing or suffer a level of Fatigue.
Geographic Distribution
