Gray render

A gray render was a dangerous predator found in swampy wilderness areas. They were favored monsters of the orcish god Bahgtru.

Description
With dense muscles and thick bones, gray renders were hulking, powerful masses. They walked on two feet, but they were hunched over, and their extra long arms dragged along the ground. Even with such a posture, they reached about nine feet tall. Their broad shoulders were four feet across.

A gray render's body was hairless. They had sharp claws on their hands and powerful jaws full of black teeth. Perhaps most unique was a render's eyes; it had six of them. They were small and yellow-colored and were in two rows along its sloped forehead.

Abilities
Gray renders had the strength of giants. Some rangers reported that they could rip three-foot-diameter trees out of the ground with their mouths and claw them apart in minutes.

Gray renders had a keen sense of smell and their eyes were especially perceptive, being able also to see in the dark.

Ecology
When hunting, gray renders sometimes waited to spring a trap. Once they engaged in combat, they attacked to kill, working themselves into a thoughtless rampage of fearless destruction.

Gray renders were never found in groups of their kind. However, they often accompanied other creatures, both animals and more intelligent races, in a protective role. Scholars could not explain this strange behavior from an otherwise aggressive monster, but gray renders seemed to "adopt" these other creatures whether desired or not. Such a protecting render would even bring freshly killed meat to its charges. Even if those being protected attacked the render, it would simply retreat and come back later; it would never cause harm to such creatures willfully.

Sometimes, other predators or scavengers would follow behind gray renders to take the scraps left behind by its path of destruction.

They reproduced asexually in a manner most unusual for such an advanced species. Once in each gray render's lifetime, it produced a single offspring, which developed in a pocket or pouch in the adult render's body. When the new render reached a certain age, it departed from its parent and had to live on its own.

History
Some scholars came to believe that the origin of gray renders could be traced back to the Elemental Chaos, because of how chaotically they fought. Others believed that they were a creation of the neogi, as they were sometimes seen accompanying individuals of that race.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #84, "The Harrowing" • City of the Spider Queen • Dragon+ #21, "Six Faces of Death"
 * Novels
 * Farthest Reach
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights • Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea
 * Card Games
 * Dragonfire (Sword Mountains Crypt)