#hammer-head

[oriondagger]

Lloyd, a hammer-head from Quadling County. Probably would be an optional PM in Miss Gale's story.

[selketshaula]

『カウボーイビバップ』 ×『アイアンサーガ』

[thecreaturecodex]

Hammer-head

“Hammer-Heads” © Orion’s Bell LLC, by Daniel Silberberg. Accessed at his website here

[The last of the Oz monsters I’m doing for now. I’ve got a ton of commissions, and another project that I want to put some time into. Because of the quarantine, I’ve got plenty of time... But fret not! I do intend to return to Oz. After all, these six monsters only came from the first book. Baum wrote 14 of them, and there’s a few dozen more by other authors.]

Hammer-Head CR 6 CE Aberration This strange little creature is vaguely humanoid, with an oversized flat head and no arms. Its neck extends outward like a spring, carrying its head like a missile a surprising distance.

Hammer-heads are violent xenophobes native to rocky slopes. They despise pretty much every creature that is not a hammer-head, and often attack them out of sheer spite. Their nimble feet are adept at maneuvering over hazardous terrain, but that is not their greatest advantage in combat. The neck of a hammer-head is essentially an organic spring, capable of launching their head to make devastating and distant headbutt attacks. There is no sport hammer-heads enjoy more than bowling over intruders repeatedly, slamming them until they either give up or are rendered a broken and battered corpse.

Since hammer-heads have no arms, they find it difficult to perform many basic tasks. They can conjure magical servants to care for things such as dressing and carrying light loads, but they have no crafts to speak of that are not stolen from other races. Some hammer-head clans keep slaves with hands to perform more intricate tasks, kept to obedience by threat of violence. Hammer-heads are omnivorous, but prefer meat, especially well tenderized by their bludgeoning heads. Animals eaten by a hammer-head are consumed bones and all.

A hammerhead stands about three feet tall with its neck contracted. Fully extended, its neck is about ten feet long.

Hammer-Head   CR 6 XP 2,400 CE Small aberration Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +12 Defense AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +6 natural) hp 75 (10d8+30) Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +6 Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee slam +12 (1d6+6 plus push and trip) Space 5 ft.; Reach 15 ft. Special Attacks push (5 ft.), sneak attack +2d6, surprise maneuver Spell-like Abilities CL 6th, concentration +7 At will—unseen servant Statistics Str 19, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 12 Base Atk +7; CMB +10; CMD 22 Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Improved Feint, Lightning Reflexes, Vital Strike Skills Acrobatics +19, Bluff +11, Climb +21, Perception +12, Stealth +19; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Climb Languages Common, Goblin SQ sure footed Ecology Environment temperate hills and mountains Organization solitary, pair, squad (3-6), troop (7-12) or clan (13-48) Treasure standard Special Abilities Sure Footed (Ex) A hammer-head does not lose its Dexterity bonus to AC when making Acrobatics or Climb checks on uneven or narrow surfaces, and may move at full speed as it does so. Surprise Maneuver (Ex) A hammer-head gains a +4 to CMB on all combat maneuvers made against a flat-footed opponent.

[animalworld]

HAMMERKOP Scopus umbretta ©Laura Quick

The Hamerkop, or Hammer-head of Africa, is a medium-sized wading bird. It is a remnant species - the only living species in the genus - of the family Scopidae. The species and family was long thought to sit with the Ciconiiformes but is now placed with the Pelecaniformes, and its closest relatives are thought to be the pelicans and shoebill.

Prey is usually hunted in shallow water, either by sight or touch, but the species is adaptable and will take any prey it can. The species is renowned for its enormous nests, several of which are built during the breeding season. Unusual for a wading bird, the nest has an internal nesting chamber where the eggs are laid. Both parents incubate the eggs, and raise the chicks.

Other posts you might like:

Hamerkop

Shoebill Stork

Great White Pelican

[kittymachasa]

Days two and three

Well that challenge obviously stuck in my mind.

2. The place you want to travel to next.

I don't know where to start really, I want to go Japan, and Sweden and Macchu Picchu and Cambodia and the Carribean and San Fransisco and Venice (again) but first, to Cardiff for Peypea's exhibition.

3. An adventure or challenge you had whilst travelling abroad.

Everything was an awfully big adventure. I don't know what to name as the most englightening, but the most funny was the tale of Crag the shark.

Crag was a dead baby hammer-head shark that my friend Hen and I happened across on the beach one evening. The beach in question was Mulberry beach on Great Barrier Island, which stands a 5 hour ferry ride from Auckland, New Zealand.

So on this nice summer evening c. December 2004, we walked aimlessly around the headland. Our feet made prints in the sand, I beleive I was shamlessly wearing paisley polyester.

Ahead of us, we saw a little seagull kerfuffle, they were having somesort of riot over a middling grey lump, which we duly approached with some interest.

There lying on the sand was a dead baby hammer-head shark. Now i've never seen an alive baby hammer-head shark or any kind of shark that close up before or since, damning my lack of camera , we began to plot.

Is it dead, maybe we should through it back into the sea? No it has no eyeballs, a sure indicator of death. We named him Crag, after a spelling mistake.

Well what shall we do? We shall tell your Father and Damus in the pub, then surely their interest will be so piqued that they will accompany us back here to revel in our find.

So, we ran with enthusiasm to the pub, to find the Father and Damus disinterested and somewhat disbeleiveing. And so we made back to the shark, we must show off our prize, we must bring it to them.

It was heavier than expected, and had rough skin. I would like to say we took turns in carriying him, but if memory serves, Hen did most of it. He did feel like a bag of wet sand and we took longer to reach the pub than before.

This time they were further disinterested. I'm sure the line 'Get that thing out of here' was uttered. We tried to drum up fancy, but no one really cared. A dead baby hammer-head shark! How could you not?

So, it was time to plot again. We would show them the gravity of our discovery, but how?

This was achieved by placing it in Hen's Father's car, propped up with its fins on the steering wheel. When we were pleased with our effort we stole off into the night and awaited their return with some trepidation.

It seemed later on, that maybe Henry's Father would not be to willing to accept the funny side of a shark in a car, much less with the shark making attempts to drive the car, and so we logically created a diversion.

This diversion involved loo-papering the entire house, which we did. And our plan worked, Henry's Father, as I remember was more angry about that than the shark and we didn't hear about Crag for that night.

Much later, years perhaps, we heard that the locals had reported on something a bit a miss in the middle of the road, a dead baby hammer-head shark, three miles inland. I wonder how that had happened?