Heart-Eating Vulture
Level 4Attacks
Abilities
When the heart-eating vulture is slain, its body spasms and thrashes as it falls to the ground while red light begins to shine through splits in its flesh. At the end of the round, the heart-eating vulture explodes into a 10-foot area blast of red nindoru butterflies, their razor-sharp wings and claws inflicting 5d6 slashing damage (DC 18 reflex save), leaving behind only the heart it clutched in one of its talons.
The sickened condition from carrion fever can't be reduced while the affliction remains.
Saving Throw DC 18 fortitude
Onset 1 day
Stage 1 Sickened 1 and Fatigued (1 day)
Stage 2 sickened 1, Slowed 1, and fatigued (1 day)
Frequency once per hour
Effect The heart-eating vulture vomits up its last meal on a creature within 10 feet. The creature takes 3d6 acid damage (DC 20 fortitude). On a failed save, the target is also Sickened 1
Recognizable at a distance by their black feathers and bald necks, vultures drift along air currents looking for carrion to serve as their next meal. Often grouping in committees of four or five, these scavengers wheel above battles and plague-stricken towns, eager to feed. This feeding cycle plays an important role, especially in hot regions, as their particularly potent stomach acid neutralizes dangerous bacteria in their meals and thus removes it from the environment.
A giant vulture has a wingspan of up to 25 feet across and weighs up to 600 pounds. Less common than their smaller cousins, they typically live in areas that support a number of megafauna species. While imposing and certainly dangerous when provoked, even giant vultures are not hostile by nature, preferring to feast on the kills of others. They are more likely to vomit their last meal as a distraction while they flee than to attack other creatures. However, during particularly lean times, starving groups of giant vultures might work in unison to make a meal of livestock.
Giant vultures occasionally form parasitic relationships with larger creatures such as dragons or giants, picking at the remains of an unattended or forgotten meal. Crafters who use bones in their work have come to value this type of behavior. Flensing a creature properly is far slower than letting a committee of vultures strip the carcass and leave behind a clean skeleton. As food-motivated predators, younger vultures raised this way can be made to imprint upon owners, leading to a trend of keeping them as unusual pets.
While not magical in nature, vulture talons are traditionally used as charms in healing and removing disease, stemming from an old belief that the raptors were immune to the filth in which they strode. While this belief isn't strictly true, vultures do have several unique adaptations to avoid common diseases that would take out predators or even other scavengers. Due to their size, giant vulture talons in particular are sometimes used to craft weapons in regions where other resources are scarce.