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Loxo

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A loxo appears to be a humanoid elephant. Its skin is bluish-gray and wrinkled, with rough hair sparsely covering it. It has thick round limbs, flat feet, and short, stubby fingers. Large ears grace the sides of its head, and tusks protrude from its face.

Its most striking features are the two trunks which grow from the center of its face. Each trunk is about two feet long and has three finger-like digits at the end.

These creatures wear simple, rustic clothing, favoring cloth with patterns, such as circles and diamonds.

Combat: Loxoth are normally peaceful, though the males defend their territory and families with great tenacity. They prefer melee combat to long-range combat, and use few missile weapons, including throwing clubs and shuriken. Preferred melee weapons are dirks, clubs, and footman’s maces. Fully 60% of loxoth carry iron maces, with half of those also carrying shuriken. Another 20% also carry a heavy melee club and two throwing clubs, while 10% use dirk and shuriken. The remaining 10% carry only a footman’s mace or a tetsubo, and iron-shod club.

If threatened, half the loxo males remain to defend the females and young, while the other half charges into a counter-attack. They use their trunks to throw shuriken, and can do so in the same round in which they attack with a melee weapon. If charging man-sized or smaller opponents, the loxoth may choose to make a trampling attack, causing 2-16 points of damage with a successful hit.

If a loxo’s family is threatened, there is a 10% chance per round (non-cumulative) that it enters a berserker-like rage. This rage gives the loxo an extra attack each round, a +2 bonus to his attack rolls, and 10 temporary hit points. The berserker rage lasts until the danger to the loxo’s family has passed. A berserker loxo never attacks another loxo.

For every 10 loxoth encountered, there is one 5th-level fighter, called a fithik, or lieutenant. Each herd, no matter what the size, also has one lox-fithik, or chief, who has all the abilities of a 7th-level fighter.

Habitat/Society: According to loxo historians, the loxoth used spelljamming ships to settle on the planet Toril nearly three generations ago, or about 240 years ago. Their settlement was rather small, however. They settled in the Shaar, with a few of the more adventurous herds traveling to the Hordelands. The natives accepted them without a fight, allowing them to settle peacefully. However, loxoth are very distrustful of strangers.

The loxoth are semi-nomadic, traveling the grasslands in small clan-like herds. A herd consists of 1-6 small family units, as well as a group of unattached males. Each family unit is made up of one male, 1-3 females, and 3-12 young loxoth. The unattached males number 6-24. Each herd is descended from passengers of a single ship, and they remember that ship in their songs and stories. All descendants from a given ship use the same pattern in their clothing.

When a herd becomes too large to support itself, it splits into two parts, with the younger leader taking his herd into a new territory. All the herds descended from a given ship remain friendly to one another.

Male loxoth are dominant in their society both politically and militarily. Only a female loxo may become a tunnuk, however, and all herds trace their ancestry to the tunnuk who acted as spelljammer for their ship.

Male loxoth often have as many mates as they can defend from other males. Loxoth may mate during any time of the year, but take as mates only those who can trace their ancestry back to the same ship. After a gestation period of 18 months, the female gives birth to one or two calves. Loxoth may live as long as 200 years. There are only a few dozen tribes of loxo throughout the Realms.

If a male loxo sees his family die or be killed, he often (95%) .goes rogue.. He enters the berserk state, attacking any non-loxo he encounters, and threatening any loxo who approaches. He remains in the berserk state, losing 1-6 hit points per day until he dies from exhaustion.

Some loxoth are artisans and work with wood, metal, and ivory from the tusks of their dead. Loxoth make their own weapons, using their strong, clumsy hands to form dirk and blunt weapons. For finer work, they use their weaker, more dexterous trunks. Ivory is always carved into religious figurines and kept as family heirlooms, while wood is shaped into various decorations. Loxoth also use their trunks to shape and sharpen shuriken and to make jewelry. Because of their physical limitations, loxoth can produce only very crude or very fine metalwork, with nothing in between. So while they can make maces and fine jewelry, swords are beyond their ability.

Ecology: Loxoth eat a great amount of grass and other plant material, often as much as 100 pounds per day each. They work diligently to protect and preserve their grazing lands. They travel to different areas periodically, and plant fruit trees and grains in all the areas they frequent, so they might have a variety of food.

Loxoth use their fine artwork for trade. Those who settled in the Shaar trade with the dwarves of the Great Rift and offer them fine jewelry and occasional spellcasting in return for raw materials.

Loxo tusks are worth up to 250 gold pieces each, but stealing, buying, or trading them is considered the highest crime among the loxoth.

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