Hippogryph

Height:  10 - 12 feet at the shoulder

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Nearest Relation: Owlbears and gryphons

The Hippogryph, unlike the aquiline qualities of its close relatives, the owlbear and gryphon, is another remnant of aelven breeding programs and genetic manipulation, is more clearly corvine, possessing a smaller, more conical beak and black feathers which it sports from its face and along the backs of its legs. It resembles its cousins in being a sinewy-limbed creature, built from the base stock of numerous mammalian land predators and certain birds of prey. The Hippogryph stands about ten to twelve feet tall at the shoulder, muscular, but nearly as bulky as its cousin the owlbear. Its feet end in three-toed paws which sport black talons.  Its head, in addition to feathers, has small, back curving antlers, suggesting that cervine blood may have been part of its original makeup.

It is known that hippogryphs served as steeds for the aelves of yore, swift, sure-footed and capable of great leaps into the air. With the aelves missing for nearly 4000 years now, they have become feral, unpredictable and nearly as dangerous as their less pliable cousins. Rarest of the aelven creatures, they are solitary creatures, uncomfortable it seems with their own physiognomies. Remnants of their communal interspecies good-naturedness persists and though they are dangerous to human beings, they have been known to lead herds of stags, or be seen heralding flocks of ravens, even walk among bear families or pass undisturbed by great cats.

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