Monster: Cyclosaur

Image: Jud Turner's Mortalcycle

Background

These wheeled, undead terrors can be found roaming city streets and open highways around major cities, preying on the living. They are nocturnal by nature and are more often seen during full moons, which has given the impression that they are the result of some form of lycanthropy. Living flesh seems to act as their fuel source.

Appearance/Physicality

Cyclosaurs are undead cyborgs made up of skeletal remains of carnivorous animals and wheeled vehicular components. They bark, snarl, and snap as wolves, roar as Harely Davidson motorcycles when agitated, and yet emit no visible combusion. Their eyes flicker red, shining out onto the their prey.

Methods of Attack

Cyclosaurs are wild and hunt in packs of 30 to 40, in search of the living to feast upon.  They employ typical biker gang behavior when pursuing prey--namely chasing or running down targets that they vastly outnumber, surrounding them, and then closing in for the kill, sometimes with a pouncing manuver.

Rumors

It's thought that cyclosaurs are some form of supercharged fossilgeist or the result of some dark necromancer's experiments with extinct animals gone awry. They've been around for centuries now, so it's unknown if their creator is still alive.

Since they seem to prefer open roads, they can't go off-road over uneven terrain...right?

The alpha leader is said to have horns like a ram, whose rings smoulder with a dim maroon glow.

STATS

FREQUENCY: Uncommon
NO. APPEARING: Packs of  30-40
ARMOR CLASS: 9
MOVE: 25
HIT DICE: 4d8
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Afterburner - increases speed by 5 per round and blasts a fireball of 3d6 damage, Road Rash - attack with front wheel to flay victim at 2d8 damage, Roadbeast Roar - causes targets in a 10 meter radius to save vs. fear/paralysis, Bite - 2d4+2 damage
SPECIAL ABILITIES/SKILLS: Pop a wheelie using Afterburner as a leaping or pouncing manuver, instead of 5 move spaces add +5 to any attack damage should they land on target
SPECIAL DEFENSES: If cornered, Afterburner can be used as a special escape in the same manner that a pounce would manuver would be used to close in for kill.
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Cyclosaurs are resistant to any kind of binding magic and will break most energy barriers. They may, however, be turned as undead if eye contact can be made and they don't run you over first.
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: None known.

RACES: Unmended

Zombified, undead, and grotesque, the Unmended are former "living" matter, reanimated by some otherworldly glow. They are a mindless horde--sometimes not even resembling their former selves--that have no interest in civilization, just an insatiable hunger for chaos and destruction. Often fought-off, into the dark corners of the map by more intelligent tribes, they can still overwhelm with numbers.

Unlike the zombies of lore, Unmended are reanimated by strange energies that began firing from deep within the Earth around the time of the cataclysm--not a viral plague that spreads through feral biting or voracious cannibalism. It's not clear if they were "awoken" by psychic energy flowing from ley lines, cosmic radiation, or mystic curse, but the armies of the dead walk the wasted Earth dismantling all outsiders who cross their path.

Unmended come in several varieties, including:

Glopies, near liquified corpses covered in toxic--sometimes irradiated--sludge and so called for the sickening sound they make when advancing on prey. If the oppressive, pungent stench or deafening moans don't get to you, their clobbering, slobber will. Oh, and they can gestalt into larger masses of walking slop if so inclined.

Withers, are barely skin on bone, and are particularly vicious. Withers tend to be extremely dexterous and lithe in melee combat. They come in irradiated or just plain varieties. Unlike other re-animates, withers retain the ability to speak and reason, though they have no recall of their former lives.

Fossilgeists

These long-forgotten remains of dead animals, mutants, monsters, etc., are often found near outcroppings of giant crystals, behind waterfalls, and half-buried in psionically charged sands. They remain in a dormant state, decomposing among the wastes of the Earth...until some unlucky interloper (usually a sentient one) enters its paranormal perimeter. The proximity of a living mind acts like a battery for these puppeteering poltergeists.

Withers and Glopies are allowed for PCs, but all three are intended for NPC use.