By Eric "iggy" Winsor
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Gorilian Wom from Random Creatures 2 by Tysho at Deviant Art |
Greetings fellow xeno-enthusiasts. Jurak Hangna here with a very interesting life form of the Frontier. Dwain, Tik, and I comb the Frontier in search of the strange, the unique, the new, and the endangered and share them with all of you. In this installment we have the Carnivorous Wom from the Gorilian homeworld.
Scientists have been debating the existence of the carnivorous wom since the first gorilians described them to the settlers. Bands of normal wom are very common and settlers quickly learned how to control them to prevent crop damage from wom bands feasting on vegetable fields. The ancient human tradition of the farm dog enjoyed a renaissance due to the common wom. Yazirian farmers followed form and bred a domesticated wyvole to replace their dog use with a more traditional animal. But the thought of a carnivorous wom was ludicrous to all but the gorilians because they had never been observed until recently. Now, with several specimens captured and a validated Federation Alien Creature File, we have something truly unique to share with you.
Stalking the Wom
The Setup
We set out for the wild and secreted ourselves in thick vegetation per the instructions of our gorilian guide. Tik busied himself preparing his med kit for any contingency. Dwain was most anxious to get as close as possible to a carnivorous wom and possibly catch one for the game preserve back on Hakosor. I went out and dispersed our bait of celery across the fields the common wom were expected to troop through. It takes a long time to disperse 200 kg of celery but Dwain put the time to good use and disguised himself so well that MerCo could seek patent infringement. The gorilian and I then retreated to the thicket to wait, and wait, and wait.
We stayed all day and camped the night in the thicket. The first rays of sun light revealed a band of common wom cautiously entering the field and picking up the celery. Our gorilian guide woke us just as the band came within sight and we watched their cautious entry. He pointed out how they kept stopping to sniff the air and how the males were holding back and grouping together. This, he explained, was because they could smell the carnivorous wom that had been in the area for the past few weeks. The females filed in and took possession of the entire field. Only then did the males enter and they remained in a group in the center of the band.
Enter the Interloper
Half an hour or so later the males began to relax and disperse among the females to eat celery. The gorilian then grabbed his club and gestured to the North where another lone wom could be seen cautiously approaching the band. Our guide explained that this was the carnivorous wom and that her first task would be to deceive the females of the band and gain entry into the group. The gorilian explained that she had been stalking the band for several days and had most likely spent the previous day in the camp the band had used two days earlier wallowing in anything that smelled of the woms of this band. She took another half hour to approach the group and took care to stay upwind.
Eventually she was sitting along the edge of the band eating celery with them. She took one stalk of celery and gave it to the nearest female. The gorilian guide explained that she was doing this to get close to the other females and rub up against them to test her blended scent. She brushed up against the first female as she gave her the celery and immediately gathered two more stalks and approached another female. She laid these at the feet of the female and sat back to back with the wom she had gifted. This was the sign our guide had given us for the most opportune time for Dwain to try and catch the carnivorous wom.
Making the Catch
Dwain started crawling forward into the band of wom. The gorilian crouched with his bat ready to bound onto the field and bash everything in sight. He kept muttering prayers for the soon to be deceased and shook his head more and more, the closer Dwain got to the carnivorous wom. I readied a needler rifle with tranquilizer darts while Tik readied himself with stimdose in one hand and plastiflesh in the other. When Dwain was within three meters the wind changed and the males in the band perked up. Dwain froze in place and put his holorecorder on auto and placed it in front of himself. The males began mingling among the females pressing upon them and smelling them. The females pushed the males away and a few even punched males that persisted in pressing their wishes. Soon one of the males approached the carnivorous wom and the two mated.
The gorilian began to get very agitated as soon as the carnivorous wom began mating and gestured silently and wildly for Dwain to retreat. Dwain was readying two tangler grenades and ignored our guide. The two finished mating and then the female let out a blood curdling roar and tore the males right arm off. The band scattered in all directions. Dwain rose up and hucked the first tangler at the carnivorous wom. The threads exploded across her chest and left arm immobilizing it. He was about to throw the second when she batted him with the severed limb of the male spinning him around and allowing the tangler to explode right next to him bonding the severed limb to his own as he crashed to the ground. The gorilian sprang from the thicket intent on bludgeoning the carnivorous wom to death just as I fired and I filled the poor guide's backside full of tranquilizers.
The charge of the gorilian distracted the carnivorous wom from mangling Dwain into an hors d'evores and Dwain rushed for the safety of the thicket. I leveled the rifle on the creature and pumped the remainder of the needler clip into her chest. She crashed to the ground in a complete stupor. Dwain escaped with a fractured wrist and Tik took pleasure in treating him. Dwain and I quickly assembled the cage around the carnivorous wom while Tik revived the gorilian. The gorilian stuffed the dead male wom into the cage with the carnivorous wom and we headed back to our camp.
Other Notes
Now a few details about the common wom and what makes the carnivorous wom unique. The common wom is a herbivore and travels in bands of twenty to thirty. About a quarter of a band will be males. They are fond of celery but can not digest the non-native food properly. Common wom are not violent and will run from danger and confrontations. The only exception to this is that the females will bully a carnivorous wom away from the band if they detect it. The preferred methods of attack for a common wom are charges, head butts, and throwing the victim repeatedly until it flees or is dead. They will only pursue enough to get the victim to fully flee. The carnivorous wom augments the attack forms of the common wom with biting, tearing, hitting, and dismembering. Common woms lack the overdeveloped fangs on the lower jaw. They have flat teeth common to most omnivores cataloged in the Frontier.
Carnivorous woms are solitary and do not get along with other carnivorous woms. The offspring of carnivorous woms are all female. This is a mystery of xenobiology that researchers of the Jurak Hangna Foundation hope to be the first to crack.
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Gorilian Woms |
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TYPE: |
Omnivore |
Carnivore |
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SIZE: |
2m |
2m |
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NUMBER: |
4 to 20 |
1 |
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MOVE: |
60 m/t |
60 m/t |
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IM/RS: |
+6/55 |
+6/55 |
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STAMINA: |
70-120 |
80-130 |
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ATTACK: |
45 |
75 |
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DAMAGE: |
2d10 |
3d10 |
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SPECIAL ATTACK: |
None |
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SPECIAL DEFENSE: |
None |
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| NATIVE WORLD: |
Gorilia |
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