#arrowhawk

An ARROWHAWK is called so because when they dive for prey they resemble arrows with gilded points. They are often described as kingly or lordly because of their golden crowns. An arrowhawk has never been tamed, as they famously kill themselves in captivity--usually by throwing themselves against their cages until they die but there was one famous instance where a falconer swears he saw an arrowhawk reach its claw within its breast and rip its own heart out.

Image by Todd Lockwood, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Monster Manual 3.5 Art Gallery here.

[This project might be a weird one. I’m converting monsters from the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual, but not the ones you might expect. Not the Closed Content monsters, of which numerous PF versions exist (might I recommend those by @thecreaturechronicle?), but those that are OGL but Paizo hasn’t bothered to update to their rules set. First up, the arrowhawk, which was one of the elemental outsiders introduced in 3.0 to make a “set” with xorn and salamanders.]

Arrowhawk This sinuous creature resembles a four-winged serpent with a jagged beak. It glares with two pairs of eyes. Its body is covered in blue scales, over which grow golden feathers.

Arrowhawks are strange contradictory creatures native to the Plane of Air. They are obsessed with personal freedoms, except for the maintenance of territories. In the wide open, nearly featureless Plane of Air, the markers of these territories are arbitrary at best and entirely imaginary at worst, but arrowhawks still expect them to be followed by others on threat of electrocution.

Arrowhawks, like xorn, salamanders and tojanda, combine elements of planar beings and mundane animals in strange ways. They do not require food but are compelled to consume its vapors, seeming to gain nutrient from the smoke and smell of foodstuffs. They reproduce not from the fabric of their plane, but by sexual means. Female arrowhawks lay clutches of 1-4 eggs which float on currents of air until they hatch, whereupon the siblings frequently associate until they find mates or are slain. Arrowhawks are frequently friendly with djinn, which they serve as scouts and guards in exchange for interesting smells or unusual features to add to their aerial territories.

Most arrowhawks grow to about ten feet long with a wingspan of 15 feet, but arrowhawks that survive for centuries, growing in size and magical power, are not unheard of. An elder arrowhawk is Large in size, has 10 HD and has access to the following spell-like abilities at CL 10th; 3/day—lightning bolt; 1/day—chain lightning, control winds. An elder arrowhawk is CR 9. 

Kyle Hamlett haunts the eerie corners of Americana, but he does it with a sideways grin. His songs jitter gleefully amid spectral harmonies, gothy but also celebratory, like a skeleton dancing a cakewalk across a stage. Hamlett fronted Nashville’s Lylas in his younger days and has, more lately, recorded with pedal steel phenom Luke Schneider. This album is a solo effort, though the artist draws support from a range of Americana players. A good bit of the late Justin Townes Earl’s backing band turns up to play here: Joe McMahan on guitar and a range of exotic instruments (cavaquinho! Kalimba!), Adam Bednarik on bass and Bryan Owings on drums and percussion.