By shadedmagus (originally created by Christopher R. Rice)
This odd-looking beast is scaled like a pangolin, but shaped like a very large six-legged badger. Attracted to metal of all kinds, which it can smell it for miles, it rabidly assaults anything stopping it from eating what it wants – even if that’s a delver wearing armor! It has an aura extending within two yards of its body, causing metal to quickly decay (which it then eats since it’s been partially digested). Like the badger it resembles, it has an extremely bad attitude and flies into berserk rages whenever it takes damage or is too hungry.
More dangerously perhaps, rust reavers are what they eat. They gain the properties of whatever metal they’ve been regularly consuming (at least 2% to 5% of its body weight in the last 1d days). For example, a rust reaver that has been snacking on meteoric iron will be immune to most magical effects, while one that has been eating orichalcum will have triple its normal DR!
| ST: 14 | HP: 18 | Speed: 7.00 |
| DX: 13 | Will: 14 | Move: 8 |
| IQ: 5 | Per: 14 | Weight: 300 lbs. |
| HT: 14 | FP: 14 | SM: 0 |
| Dodge: 11 | Parry: 11 | DR: 7 |
Bite (15): 1d+1 impaling. Reach C. Apply an Armor Divisor of (2) against metal armor or targets. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Claw (15): 1d+1 cutting. Reach C, 1. Treat as a weapon (Striker), not as a body part.
Oxidizing Aura (-): Anything made of metal within two yards of the rust reaver takes 1d+3(2) corrosion damage on the beginning of the reaver’s turn. This is a free action on its turn and affected targets cannot be affected again for another four seconds, even if they leave or reenter the aura. This can turn a shortsword into useless scrap after only four exposures…
Traits: Berserk (6) (Battle-Rage); Cannot Float; Combat Reflexes; Detect (Metal; Long-Range 1; Reflexive; Smell-Based, Reversed); Discriminatory Smell; Extra Legs (Six Legs); Flexibility; Fur; High Pain Threshold; Horizontal; Increased Consumption (Metal only); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2; Accessibility, Cutting, impaling, or piercing attacks only); Night Vision 9; Peripheral Vision; Quadruped; Regeneration (Regular); Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+8); Temperature Tolerance 10; Tunneling (Move 5); Unfazeable; Uncontrollable Appetite (6) (Metal); Universal Digestion; Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-15; Stealth-15; Survival (Mountains or Subterranean)-16; Tracking-18.
Class: Dire Animal.
Combat Effectiveness Rating: 132 (OR 81 and PR 57)
Notes: Rust reavers can be skinned for their hides. This requires a roll, at -5, against the better of Armoury (Body Armor), Naturalist, or Survival. Success provides metallic “leather” that’s tough enough to withstand sword blows. It uses the statistics for dragonhide (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers, p. 27), is immune to rusting effects, but can be any sort of leather armor and can be made into a full suit for a SM+0 character. Rust reavers which have been eating exotic metals combine both the effects and the costs. For example, one eating meteoric iron would add +19 CF to the cost of the armor, in addition to the cost of it as rust reaver leather. Such “combination” armor is highly prized and the GM may wish to double or triple the final cost! Larger specimens are not uncommon if the rust reavers can find enough to eat; increase ST and HP, but Move and DR are unchanged. Higher SM reavers can provide higher SM armor or produce multiple suits for lower SM beings. Reavers feasting on exotic metals will have a higher CER than what’s listed.