#toybashing

The Quillhound

So I've decided to start doing a game called "Alien Zoology" which is a single player open-beta tabletop game that i heartily recommend.

The basic premise is hunting alien creatures to breed and keep in your zoo. You can find it here:

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/482988

This is my first alien. A little guy called a Quillhound. Expect some of my expedition team and maybe more aliens over time.

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Reminiscent of a particularly large earth Mongoose, the Quillhound is an interesting predator. They're far from the largest predators on the Arkesien plains, and are in fact prey to certain other, larger predators. They're lithe and flexible, adapted to chase their prey into burrows and drag them out like hunting hounds - giving them their name. The quills on their back are used as a defens. They plug the ends of a burrow with the quills, discouraging other predators from following them in and getting their meal. They show something of a canny intelligence, And have developed a defensive strategy of pulling their own quills out with their flexible necks and spitting them at their target. The leading theory is that this adaption is why the quills start so far down their long torsos. The strategy is far from effective, the quills cant effectively harm their target, but it proves enough of a deterrent that most predators think twice when hit in the face with the projectile.

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So I have a minor love of Speculative Evolution, and while i'm hardly good at it, i tried to think about how this creature would exist.