Hippotauns are large bipedal beasts that are opportunistic feeders, traveling in matriarchal herds. They eat tall grasses and saplings, corpses, and other river food, including the occasional alligator, fish, or turtle. Hippotauns generally live about 40 years, reaching juvenile status within five years, and adult status within fifteen years. They are generally found around rivers and flood plains, where they hide in the tall grasses and depend on their large size to keep most predators away. Hippotauns are not considered aggressive, although lone bulls are wander into danger during the rutting season.

The hill dwarves have trained hippotauns to be mounts, taking the precocious young from their dams as soon as their born, and raising them. Unbreakable chains teach the young early on that they cannot resist the dwarves, and the chains are later replaced in the juveniles by ropes, which the juvies believe are as strong as chains. Juvenile hippotauns can easily carry a man as fast as a warhorse, and often over terrain that no horse can move over. Adult hippotauns traditionally carry half a dozen dwarves into battle. Their omnivorous diet, steady footing over poor terrain, good swimming skills, and ability to carry heavy loads have made them ideal for the hill dwarven cavalry.

Those clans that have learned how to raise and train hippotauns keep an iron grip on the use of the beasts, rarely selling them or allowing rival clans to keep them. Newborn hippotauns can already eat just about anything, and often fetch high prices on the open market.

Juvenile Hippotaun and Dwarven Rider by Sommer Linscomb, Copyright 2010.

Hippotaun, Juvenile, Level 6 Brute
Large Natural Beast, XP 250
HP 89; Bloodied 45, Initiative +5
AC 18; Fort 19; Refl 18; Will 17, Perception +4
Speed 8 (ignores difficult terrain), swim 6
Resist disease
Standard Actions
(Melee Basic) Head Butt, At-Will
Attack +9 vs AC, 2d10 +3
(Melee) Tail Whip, At-Will
Reach 2; Attack +7 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 6 and the target is pushed 2 squares; on a crit, the target is pushed 4 squares.
Move Actions
(Melee) Pin the Prey, Encounter
Attack +7 vs Refl; the hippotaun charges and attempts to set one foot on a medium-sized or smaller prey; 1d0 + 6 and the prey is prone and grappled, and takes ongoing 5 damage until freed.
Skills: Bluff +8, Insight +9, Nature +9
Str 23 (+9), Dex 14 (+5), Wis 13 (+4)
Con 19 (+7), Int 4 (+0), Cha 10 (+3)
Alignment: unaligned, Languages –