Gryph

Gryphs are bird-like creatures usually found underground, but they also favor dark and tangled forests. Gryphs normally survive on carrion and small animals, but take on larger game when driven by hunger or if they feel threatened. Most disturbing is their means of reproduction. Gryphs are hermaphroditic and mate frequently, such that their egg pouches are rarely empty. When they encounter a suitable host—a warm-blooded creature of size Small or larger, ideally alone—the gryphs swoop down, latch on to the target, and implant their eggs directly into its flesh. As long as the target is conscious, the flock continues its assault, though if the target flees the area, the gryphs return to their nest. The eggs quicken swiftly once implanted, and gryph chicks hatch forth mere minutes later in a bloody birth that is often fatal to the host.

Gryphs have a strange affinity for vermin, often lairing in close proximity to one or more insect swarms or vermin of Medium size or smaller. The insects avoid the gryphs instinctively, feeding off the remains of the flock's meals and on creatures too small for the gryphs to bother with.

Most gryphs have six legs, but some have four or even eight. Individual flocks are always made up of gryphs with the same number of limbs. A gryph is 3 feet tall and weighs 45 pounds.

Implant Eggs — Once per day, a gryph can implant eggs into a helpless target or a target it is grappling. As a full-round action, the gryph extends an ovipositor from its abdomen and penetrates the victim's flesh by making a successful sting attack (+5 melee). On a hit, the ovipositor deals 1 point of damage and implants 1d4 eggs in the victim. The eggs draw nutrients from the target's flesh, and give the target the sickened condition. The eggs grow swiftly, hatching in a mere 1d4 minutes into ravenous gryph chicks that immediately burrow out of the victim's body. This deals 2 points of Constitution damage per gryph chick, after which the hatchlings immediately take wing and fly away (if needed, use game statistics for a bat familiar to represent a hatchling). Removing implanted eggs requires a DC 20 Heal check (a full-round action); each attempt deals 1 hit point of damage. Although immunity to disease offers no special protection against gryph egg implantation, remove disease, heal, or similar effects automatically destroy any implanted gryph eggs.

Weapon Finesse

Fly +8, Perception +5, Stealth +10