Ombrask

What is it?

The Ombrask is a giant predator from Ithera, the system’s temperate planet. It is one of the four creatures in the Aurin bestiary. It is about six metres long. It is the largest animal the Flota Aura, the fleet that brought the settlers, has found in Aurin. It is territorial and lives alone.

The Rolvak is its small, numerous variant. In the catalogues, the Ombrask is listed as Crepuscator cristatus. In the outer ring of La Cicatriz, where the oldest settlements stand, people call it the crestback, after the crest hanging from its nape.

La Cicatriz is the furrow the Arca Aurora, one of the Fleet’s great ships, tore open when it crashed on Ithera. Today it is the capital of the five Guilds, trade organisations that take no side. New colonists there are shown an Ombrask from a distance. At the Puesto de Enlace of The Pioneers, the settlers’ guild, the liaison explains how the Guilds work. Meanwhile, across a clearing, the outline of an Ombrask stands out. It comes no closer.

Where and how does it live?

It hunts the canyons of southern Ithera. Its hunting ground is Cañón Espina, south-southwest of La Cicatriz. Seams of vibrosteel and metazinc lie exposed there, two of the five ores (the minerals mined in the system). That makes it the most dangerous place on the planet to mine.

The largest specimens on record live in the cordoned core of La Cicatriz, its centre, by the wreck of the Arca’s reactor. That is where the high-level guild missions end.

Heat and vibration draw it in. Every few weeks comes the fauna invasion, a migration that overruns La Cicatriz’s defences. Ombrasks then cross the core cordon towards the furnaces of La Fragua Baja, the seat of The Forge, the producers’ guild. When the Fragua’s vents throw out more steam than usual, they are coming.

Sometimes one turns up far from its canyon, as at the Espejos de Rocío, the wetland where the Lumbros live. That means something has driven it out. And that something is usually worse than the Ombrask.

Is it dangerous?

Very. It is aggressive: it attacks as soon as it senses you. But it gives warning. It growls once it has seen you and roars when it comes. The roar carries a long way, and the ground shakes under its feet.

It has plenty of ways to attack:

• Claw swipes, single or in two- and three-hit chains that drive forward.
• A smash.
• A leap that lands hard. It also jumps backwards to reposition.
• Turning attacks on both sides. There is no safe flank.

It only swings when the blow will land, because it works out where you will be when it comes down. Every hit that connects knocks you back. It chases faster than it looks and doesn’t give up straight away. Lose sight of it and it follows your trail for a while before going back to its canyon. Big hits make it stagger, and when it is badly hurt it whimpers and runs.

Its weak spots are the head, the neck and the crest hanging from its nape: a hit there does double damage. A hit to the legs does less than one to the body.

At El Aguijón, the seat of Apex Syndicate, the hunters’ guild, they give this advice:

• If you hear the growl, it has seen you. If you hear the roar, it is coming.
• Aim for the head or the crest. Don’t waste a magazine on the legs.
• Don’t run in a straight line: cut at an angle and put rock between you.
• When it crouches to leap, sidestep: the landing crushes where you were.
• Leave its canyon and get out of sight: it will turn back eventually.

How do you recognise it?

Up close it looks like nothing the Flota brought with it.

• Skin: thick, bare and wrinkled, a pinkish mauve crossed with dark veins.
• Plates: brown and horny, on its shoulders and back.
• Arms: long, ending in claws.
• Legs: massive.
• Crest: fleshy. It hangs from the nape, runs down the neck and swings when it roars.

What do you get from it?

Like most kills, it gives meat and fat. But what hunters are after is the Placa Quitinosa de Ombrask, its chitinous plate. It is a Grade IV fauna material: materials run from Grade I to V, and IV is for exotic ones (the resource guide explains them). It is the material that makes you hunt rather than just mine.

What you get	What it is for
Placa Quitinosa de Ombrask	with three plates, blueprint BP-CAZ-2 Placas de Caparazón makes light armour that resists knockback, the Ombrask’s own; it also goes into the Placa Compuesta de Caparazón (composite shell plate), a bleeding toxin and the Guiso de Trofeo del Alfa (Alfa trophy stew)
Piel de Alfa Curada (cured Alfa hide)	goes to whoever brings down the Alfa alone

Apex Syndicate marks one Ombrask as an Alfa, the quarry of its rank III hunt, the mission “Caza de Bestia Alfa”. Above the Alfa there is the Apex del Apex: the oldest specimen the Syndicate has ever catalogued, anomalous in size and behaviour.

Is it the same everywhere?

No. Ithera is not a single climate, and the Ombrask is not a single animal. Outside the canyons the same beast changes colour, size and habits: these are its regional forms. Even so, the Ombrask has never left Ithera.