Burrow Lok
Source: Adapted from Compass of Celestial Directions: East pp.155
Burrow Loks are a predator found amidst the forests of the Eastern Threshold. They are pony-sized mammals, with squat snouts, sharp teeth, thick necks, stout bodies, and short muscular limbs ending in dangerous claws. They are covered in dark brown fur, males displaying lighter stripes above and below the eyes. Burrow Loks have poor eyesight, but excellent senses of smell and hearing.
Burrow Loks are, as their name would suggest, burrowing animals. They dig using their snouts and paws, creating extensive burrows which include deep den, larder, and latrine chambers as well as large ‘trap’ chambers dug close to the surface, all connected by tunnels.
When a creature of medium or large size steps onto the ground over a trap chamber, the ceiling collapses and the victim falls into the chamber, a drop which typically extends some three yards down. This collapse alerts the waiting Burrow Lok, which springs into action and attacks, killing its prey and dragging dismembered pieces down to its deeper larder chambers. The Lok will often then take to the surface to bury the evidence of its pit, before digging a replacement elsewhere.
Burrow Loks show little hesitation in killing interlopers into their tunnels, save for other Burrow Loks: most often when two Lok burrows run into each other, the Loks (if of the same gender) will fight in a manner restrained compared to their usual viciousness, the loser departing the tunnels to make a new burrow elsewhere. If a female and a male find their burrows suddenly interconnected, however, mating is the usual result. Litters range between two and six, staying in their parents’ extensive burrow for six years as they grow to adulthood, after which they depart to establish burrows of their own.
When they must leave their burrows, to hunt or to find new territory to settle, Burrow Loks prefer to move under cover of darkness.
Humans often hunt burrow loks both to drive them away from settlements and for their meat and fur, with male pelts of clear markings particularly prized. Both the people of Halta and those of Linowa, in a rare form of agreement, seem to enjoy the roasted meat of the animal. The Haltans are particularly driven to hunt Burrow Loks due to the tendency of the Loks to capture wandering Fair Folk, an irritation to the Fae lord Sluluru. Yet, the lack of hunters to take large ground-dwelling game beneath Halta has meant the Burrow Lok population continues to remain plentiful in the Northeastern Threshold despite regular attempts to cull them.
