Rast

Gurrrrrrl, rast put on weight.

Wow, sorry.  Been watching RuPaul’s Drag Race.  (I wish that were a joke.)

Let me try that again: The rast has gone through a makeover in the transition from the world’s oldest role-playing game to Pathfinder.  In 3.5, it was spindly-armed, tiny-bodied hunter; now it’s a bloated “tumorous sack,” to quote the Bestiary 2.  But it’s still paralyzes with its gaze and it’s still a flying bloodsucker.

The best thing about the rast is that it’s a thing from the Plane of Fire that’s not on fire, which is rare, to say the least.  It’s also a consummate pack hunter—with a 60 ft. fly speed, Flyby Attack, and anywhere from one to 14 friends it could make trouble for many parties. As such, it’s an excellent random encounter or otherworldly invader in the classic B movie sense.

The blue dragon Asperon lairs in the side of an extinct volcano, surrounded by an ash-covered desert plain.  Travelers in this desert must beware the strange yak spirits that ring spectral bells throughout the night, ant lion ambushes, and clusters of rasts that burst out of their burrows to sup on the blood of passersby.

The boiler in a nobleman’s manor stops working.  As the boiler draws heat from the Plane of Fire (“All the best families have one!”), this means any repairs have to be undertaken by adventurers.  In this case, the boiler summoned a pregnant rast.  Opening the device frees the bloated beast, which immediately starts giving birth to ravenous young.

Travel from the City of Brass to Slag Haven means avoiding the efreet’s usurious exit taxes and hiring a covered azer-piloted ash sledge.  This is still no guarantee of protection against rast attacks, but it at least offers speed.  Traveling unescorted practically guarantees an encounter, if the fire worms don’t get you first.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 2 229

Still entertaining out-of-town brother, so signing off early today.  But before I go, whither the ram?  Thither.