Bird, Great, Roc

ECOLOGY

Environment warm mountains
Organization solitary or pair

Rocs are terrifying, legendary birds renowned for their ability to carry off elephants and other big animals. A typical roc is 30 feet long from beak to tail, with an 80-foot wingspan and weight of up to 8,000 pounds. While their beaks are hooked like an eagle’s and designed for slashing and tearing, most rocs prefer to seize prey in their massive, clawed talons and drop them from great heights before feasting on the shattered remains.

For this reason, they are often followed by flocks of scavengers like rooks, buzzards, and eagles hoping to steal portions of the roc’s messy meals.

The roc generally ignores such opportunists, but if the scavengers don’t take care, they nevertheless may find themselves accidentally consumed by the feeding roc.

Rocs are most commonly white but can be a number of different colors, from dark brown or gold to black or blood red. Their massive feathers are highly prized, and their eggs even more so.

Due to their scarcity and the high risk involved in harvesting them, a single man-sized roc egg can net 4,000 gp if transported to market undamaged.

A roc can be trained as well as any other animal, but its great size makes this a daunting task for most would-be trainers of human size.