“The king on the mountain is the mountain itself. Those who say different just haven’t met the mountain yet.”
Koro, Tollam Warrior
Also Known as: Basher, Lapident (Oss.)
Habitat: Mountainous, subterranean
Hazard Level: Critical
Summary
The Roga are a widely feared and apparently unstoppable species of bizarre composition and immense power. Often characterized as “living landslides”, these creatures can grow up to 6 meters in height, and weigh up to 40 tonnes. Their bodies are configured in an entirely unique fashion with an enormous torso clad in a rock-like exoskeleton descending into a long iron scaled tail reminiscent of a monstrous serpent. The creature moves using its tail and two enormous weight bearing arms with simple rock-like hands. It also possesses four powerful but almost insectile manipulation appendages. The creatures head is set between these lesser arms with a face of stone and a simple crack to indicate the maw. Roga possess a mouth full of jet-black metallic teeth and have a dozen black compound eyes, each with a jewel like luster. Despite its immense mass the species is surprisingly quick, pivoting and lunging with terminal efficiency and crossing distances rapidly by virtue of its massive gait.
The composition of the creature is bizarre: it’s vast bulk seems composed of rock-like minerals, edges worn to smoothness, but its appendages and neck lack this mineral quality, instead bearing matte iron scales akin to a great reptile or crocodile. The one account of a dead specimen claims that the interior of the Roga body is organic, but structured outside standard biology, incorporating metallic components in organs and bone.
Roga are solitary creatures, with no obvious method of reproduction and an apparently eternal lifespan.
Description
Roga are an ancient and enormous species which defies classification. They are found primarily in mountainous areas or caves, surviving on a diet of minerals, metals and the occasional meat it can ambush. The species is not particularly territorial, though it will defend itself from other predators and demonstrates a marked preference for solitude. Roga have an exceedingly slow metabolism, apparently capable of surviving off minerals for decades at a time. Roga intelligence is rudimentary at best and their conception of the world appears to be binary; food and not-food. Most incidents of conflict result from a Roga classifying humans or their possessions as the former.
Roga biology is so durable that there are no known accounts of Roga dying by human hands. Nothing seems to affect the species including poisons, fire, conventional weapons; even siege engines and mining equipment. This fact, paired with their immense strength make them a deadly threat. A Roga can strike the ground with its rocky fists and enough force to cause a shockwave and local tremor, or heft a boulder large enough to collapse a castle wall. A single Roga can easily overwhelm most defenses, structural or civil, making them less like creatures and more like a force of nature.
Roga behavior when encountering a traveler or settlement depends entirely on how recently it ate. A sated Roga may wander away or settle in to a decades long slumber while a hungry Roga may kill a few cows or a half-dozen humans, eat them (armour and all) and then fall asleep, entirely immune and insensate to the results of its actions. Some Roga have demonstrated an affection or taste for rare minerals and can be lured away from a settlement using Orick, sky-iron, or rare metals as bait.
Roga are skilled climbers, capable of scaling or descending sheer cliffs with terrifying speed.