Random Monster: The Dragon Chicken

Back in October, while looking up images of 'chicken foot' on the Google as a model for my most fabulous Inktober the 10th sketch, this image popped up in the results....

source

What in the complete hell?

Apparently, there is a Vietnamese breed known as the Dragon Chicken, valued for its thigh meat and able to fetch extraordinary prices on the market...

I mean, look at these beasts...

Serious thigh meat.

But not quite the 'Dragon Chicken' one might expect in an RPG world...

...



Certainly, there are tales of dungeon chickens, but deeper in the recesses of the adventuring world, there are also tales of the Dragon Chicken.  Some say that they are a bizarre crossbreed of a dragon and fowl, others say that there are a vivimancer's experiment gone wrong.  Regardless, they are ill-tempered birds, territorial, and with an unpleasant (at the least) defense....

Found in loose flocks of 2d6 individuals, the birds roam deep within uninhabited forests, foraging opportunistically.  Periodically, lack of food or other stimuli will bring them out into the open and cleared lands, where they terrorize farms and small settlements.  Standing approximately four feet tall (five feet for roosters), the birds occasionally burst out of the forests on foraging raids.  The massive fowl wreak havoc on farmsteads, chasing off both men and beasts. Omnivorous, they will consume grain, fruits, smaller animals, even occasional carrion.

Each flock is made up primarily of females, with a single, larger rooster.  The roosters, true to their kind, are watchful and belligerent in defense of their harem.  The roosters, in addition to their spurs and general size, have the added threat of a breath weapon....  Each rooster can breath fire three times a day.  How this happened, no one is quite sure, but folks tend to give the brutes a wide margin.  The hens, themselves, can hold their own when threatened, spewing a cloud of choking, sulfurous gas.

Dragon chicken: 
Rooster:  HD 3; AC 7 [12]; Atk 2 kicks/spurs (1d6+1 ea); Move 12; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: Breathes fire (1d8) 15' cone, 3x day.

Hen:  HD 1+1; AC 7 [12]; Atk kick or wing bludgeon (1d4+1); Move 12; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: Sulfurous breath (save or choking 1d4 rounds) 10' cone, 1x day.

Rooster compliments of the more artistic wife (contact me if you need critters drawn)