Earth Whisper

A dire eagle stands up to 12 feet tall with a wingspan of up to 20 feet. A fully grown dire eagle weighs up to 650 pounds.

Combat

Like their smaller kin, dire eagles typically dive on their prey. When forced to fi ght on the ground, a dire eagle uses both its beak and talons to great effect.

Skills: Dire eagles have a +8 racial bonus on Spot checks.

Training a Dire Eagle

Dire eagles can be trained like other animals with the use of the Handle Animal skill. Riding a dire eagle requires an exotic saddle or a specialized fl yer’s saddle (see Chapter 7:

Magic and Equipment for details). Dire eagle eggs are worth 2,500 gp apiece, while chicks cost 4,000 gp each. Professional trainers charge 250 gp to rear or train a dire eagle.

Carrying Capacity: A light load for a dire eagle is up to 399 pounds; a medium load, 400–798 pounds; and a heavy load, 799–1,200 pounds.

Dire Eagles as Animal Companions

A dire eagle may be selected as an animal companion by a druid of 4th level or higher. Treat the druid’s level as three lower than normal for the purpose of determining the companion’s characteristics and special abilities.

Medium

Elemental (Earth,

Extra planar,

Incorporeal) Hit Dice: 4d8+4 (22 hp) Earth whisper Initiative: +6 Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect) (8 squares) Armor Class: 20 (+6 Dex, +4 defl ection), touch 20, fl at-footed 14 Base Attack/Grapple: +3/— Attack: Incorporeal touch +9 melee (1d4 Dex) Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +9 melee (1d4 Dex) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Avarice, cavern fear, control earth creatures,

Dexterity damage, petrifi cation, spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., elemental traits, incorporeal traits Saves: Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +3 Abilities: Str —, Dex 22, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 15, Cha 18 Skills: Concentration +8, Listen +9, Spot +9 Feats: Ability Focus (avarice), Blind-Fight Environment: Underground Organization: Solitary or pair Challenge Rating: 5 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Always neutral evil Advancement: 5–12 HD (Medium) Level Adjustment: —

Barely a wisp of ghostly luminescence, the creature has the bulky outline and rocky countenance of an earth elemental without any of the mass or solidity.

Evil creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth, earth whispers lure miners to their doom in deep caverns, infect creatures with irrational and violent greed, and turn those they confront to stone. Although intelligent, earth whispers hate all fl eshy creatures, and the elementals seek to drive them mad with greed or fear. These incorporeal creatures look like ghostly earth elementals. They are squat and stocky in build, yet entirely incorporeal. They float through solid substances easily and prefer to spend time encased in solid stone. As perverse as any demon or devil, these ghostly elemental apparitions see themselves as the earth’s rightful vengeance against those that plunder its treasures. Although they hate all other living creatures, except possibly earth elementals, earth whispers despise miners more than any other creatures, and they go out of their way to kill those of this profession. Earth whispers speak Common, Dwarven, Gnome, Gol-Kaa, and Terran.

Combat Earth whispers prefer to fight from the shadows whenever possible. They sneak through solid stone and ambush creatures whenever they can. They typically begin combat by using their cavern fear ability to split up groups of foes, then using their avarice ability on the strongestlooking melee combatant, hoping to turn the warrior against his allies. Although earth whispers enjoy turning lone wanderers and lost miners to stone with their

Illus. by W. England