Hybroc

The Hybroc is a massive scaled bird, with a wingspan stretching between 50 and 75 feet across. A carnivorous beast, the hybroc soars on its massive wings before swooping down to pick up its prey and carry them up to roosts atop huge trees or cliffs where it can tear and dine at leisure. The wings and body of a hybroc are covered in black feathers, black-grey scales on its clawed legs and long neck, with a long beak for digging and tearing through flesh. Claws on the wings are used by female hybroc when they fight over mates and nesting sites, and to hold their mates in place during mating.

Hybroc favour large prey, such as horses, though they will also indulge in humans if opportunity presents itself. As they can consume huge numbers of livestock, when hybroc appear near farming communities the call for heroes and militias is sure to go out in order to rid the land of the massive bird.

Hybroc are found across Creation, though on the Blessed Isle only a small number persist in the wilder expanses of the Shadowed Coast. They favour open grasslands with nearby cliffs and mountains, though they persist even in the West, roosting on rocky islets and devouring dolphins, seals, and sailors taken from the decks of ships.

Hybroc are territorial, breeding infrequently. Their nests are constructed of branches and bones, housing a single massive egg. Hatchlings emerge fully feathered, and are fed a diet of live prey carried up by their mother. Once they have gained ability to fly and hunt on their own, their mother will violently drive them from her territory. Mating typically occurs when a male hybroc, typically 50% smaller than a female, survives the initial attacks from a female into whose territory he stumbles. After being taken as a mate, the male hybroc will be allowed by the female to remain and recover in her territory for a time before being driven out again.

Male hybroc who establish their own territories seem unable to keep from the dangers of mating, as the food they seem to most prefer is the eggs of other hybroc, the search for which invariably attracts them back into female territories.