Peryton

Perytons were twisted and depraved magical creatures that appeared to be a cross between a giant eagle and a demonic-looking, fang-toothed stag. They were known and feared for tearing the beating hearts from their victims chests.

Description
A peryton's feathered and winged body was about seven feet (two meters) long and five feet tall and was similar to that of a giant eagle with dark green feathers. Its head, however, was covered in blue-black or purple hair and was roughly the shape of a deer's. Its maw was full of fangs. On the top of its head were a set of extremely sharp and strong antlers, which were as hard as steel and jet black in color. A male had light blue chest feathers, while a female's were pale brown. A peryton's eyes glowed and were an orange-red color.

Whatever fell magic created perytons granted them a deceptively strong hide that was nearly impervious to anything but magical weapons.

Peryton's reportedly smelled like humans, although others said the smell was indescribable and immediately triggered a sense of dread.

Perhaps the strangest feature of a peryton was its shadow. The shadow did not usually resemble the shape of the beast; instead, it appeared as the outline of whatever creature whose heart the peryton last ate, usually an adult human. There was some controversy as to when and and what shadow would be cast by a peryton. Some argued that the only time a peryton cast its own shadow was immediately after killing a victim but before consuming it. Others said that a pertyon's shadow reverted to its own only after eating a heart and for a brief period afterwards.

Personality and Behavior
Unlike the eagles they resembled, perytons did not glide at high altitudes. They preferred darting close to the ground. There were conflicting tales about their maneuverability on the wing. Some claimed that they were poor fliers, while others reported that they were so maneuverable as to be able to turn at a right angle at full speed over a distance of only two hundred yards.

Perytons were as intelligent as humans. They could understand at least Common and sometimes other languages, but they could not speak, at least not in words recognizable to most. Some believed that they had a language of their own, which was described as a series of pained or enraged screeches and roars.

They were perpetually unhappy creatures and despised their own existence, yet they were driven by a desire to kill others and someday ascend to a higher form of existence by the eating of a "perfect heart". The perytons believed that the perfect heart must always be eaten fresh, which was why they tried to tear it from living prey with their sharp talons.

So strong was this desire that more intelligent perytons even kept and bred other creatures to harvest their hearts.

Human hearts were the preferred variety. Strangely, perytons did not believe that an elf could have a perfect heart; they would never eat the heart of an elf, but they might still kill an elf for other reasons&mdash;or for no reason at all.

Combat
Perytons attacked by slashing with their horns, snapping with their ferocious jaws, or clawing with their deadly talons. They were adept at attacking with all three at once. They were especially dangerous when making swooping attacks.

They tended to focus on attacking weakest foes first, making surprise flyby attacks from behind cover, and then darting off again. If drawn into melee combat, they hopped about on the ground, using their wings to stay about five feet (one and a half meters) off the ground.

Stronger perytons would sometimes carry often smaller prey and drop them from great heights.

Whenever an opponent was helpless or unconscious&mdash;whether from crippling, paralysis, etc.&mdash;a peryton would attempt to rip the heart from the victim with its claws. It would immediately consume the organ.

Whichever target was chosen, a peryton rarely changed to a new one until either the target or peryton were killed.

Society
Perytons sometimes hunted in groups, but their chaotic natures made it difficult for them to cooperate. They often fought over prey, since they feared that someone else might have the chance to eat the perfect heart.

They usually nested in small groups of between two to eight perytons. Nests were usually made several miles from their nearest neighbor.

Ecology
Perytons preferred living in temperate climates, in forests, mountains, and hills, but they could survive in colder environments as well. Large populations were know to exist in the Spine of the World, the Neth Stand forest,, the Nether Mountains, and the Shaar.

Peryton females laid eggs with shells as hard as metal. It was said that acid was required to melt through the shells. Some scholars believed that the reason perytons consumed hearts was because of the high iron content of that organ, which was thought to be used in both the perytons' antlers and eggs and perhaps their skin and feathers. In any case, a female peryton was not fertile unless she had eaten a fresh heart. She would only remain fertile for an extremely short time&mdash;between three and eighteen hours. She would then lay between one and four eggs at a time.

Perytons were omnivorous, apart from their need to eat hearts to reproduce, they could sustain themselves on vegetation.

History
Perytons were the creation of one of the evil deities but which one is forgotten.

An alternative and perhaps more sinister tale told that perytons were once the Khala of Imaskar. Because this group of Bane-worshipers was so evil, they were said to have been cursed by the god Ilmater and became the perytons as punishment for their crimes.

In 1267 DR, perytons, in addition to harpies and manticores destroyed the city of Lis in the Moonsea region in what was known as the "Flying Plague".

Sometime around 1372 DR, King Obould Many Arrows made an arrangement with the perytons living in the Spine of the World to defend his eastern border. In exchange, he granted them prisoners for heart-harvesting. This allowed him to focus his attentions on the Silver Marches.

Trivia
1128 DR was named the Year of the Peryton.

Additional Reading

 * Monster Manual, 1st edition
 * Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix
 * Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale

Appearances

 * Hoard of the Dragon Queen