Ragewing

Greyhawk Creature

Ragewing
A ragewing illustrated by Ron Spencer, Dragon #280.
General information
Alignment:	Neutral
Type:	Beast
First appearance:	"Invaders of the Barrier Peaks", Dragon #280

A ragewing is a carnivorous creature which originated from the crashed spaceship in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

Ecology

Description

"A ragewing is a small, insidious breed of flying predator that has the ability to heal itself by absorbing the life force of nearby creatures, as well as drive them into a murderous frenzy.

The ragewing's body is a tangled mess of feelers, tendrils, and strange sensory organs between a large pair of batlike wings. Two dozen spindly legs trail below its body, and a long, rat-like tail with a triangular fin at the tip tails behind. The neck of the creature is long and bald, and its head is like that of an eyeless lamprey with three large white mandibles surrounding rows of rasping teeth.

Although most ragewings are rather small (with a wingspan of three feet), there is a variant that dwells in large bodies of water.

These giant ragewings seem to have lost their hivemind abilities and are always encountered alone. They use their wings to swim and cannot fly. The largest aquatic ragewings reach lengths of over 25 feet, with wingspans of 65 feet or more.""

Society

Though solitary ragewings can be found, especially the larger aquatic ones, they are commonly found in broods of up to five ragewings. When there are more ragewings in an area, they can join to form a hivemind and make a single mind, enabling it to become a dangerous swarm acting in unison.

Abilities

Str 6, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 16, Cha 19

Though it has no visual sensory organs, a ragewing can sense its surroundings through blindsight. It has scent- and vibration-detecting organisms.

Due to its natural habitat, and the terraformed valley in which it lives, the ragewing is absorbs ambient energy in the valley, and releases it in a radiation pulse of dazzling light when it's agitated.

A ragewing can force an empathic bond with its victims, and use that to incite rage in them and force them to behave erratically, striking other creatures around them. It can also heal itself by pulling lifeforce from its victims, making a wound transfer and passing damage done to their bodies to their victims' body instead.

History

The ragewing was brought to Oerth by spaceship modules which crashed in the Barrier Peaks. There were two modules, though only one was found by adventurers working for the Grand Duke of Geoff (in the events of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks).

The second adventure crashed nearby in a separate valley, and the automated systems immediately became active, to protect and preserve the alien species the spaceship carried in stasis. "Large machines were built to moderate the weather in the valley and encourage constant rainfall and cloying warmth; other machines were installed to replicate the presence of radioactive ores." Since it was not originally found, the animals and plants thrived there, making a small ecosystem. The ragewing is an exception to the other smaller, fairly harmless insects and amphibians which live in the valley. Ragewings stick out from the other strange, pallid creatures in the area which are predominantly vegetarian.

Appearances

The only place the ragewing was published was in Invaders of the Barrier Peaks, by James Jacobs, which included statblocks as well as the lore of their history and ecology.

See also

See also:

• bonetree
• razortail
• treeleg strangler

References

Bibliography

• Jacobs, James. "Invaders of the Barrier Peaks". Dragon #280. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Ragewing	Monster		Dragon magazine #280	92, 93