Kokogiak

Kokogiak

(Creature)

Type

Magical beast

CR

12

Environment

Cold coastlines, hills, or plains

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of kokogiaks

Source: Maiden, Mother, Crone, pg(s). 86–87

A kokogiak, also called a qupqugiaq by certain tribes, resembles a massive, ten-legged polar bear with razor-sharp black claws. Despite its appearance, it is not a wild beast, but rather an intelligent and spiteful threat that strikes fear in the inhabitants of Avistan's far northern regions.

Appearance

Kokogiaks resemble immense polar bears with ten legs and elongated necks. An adult kokogiak is nearly twenty feet long from snout to tail, stands a dozen feet at the shoulder, and weighs between six and eight tons.

Abilities

Kokogiaks possess supernatural mastery over ice and fog. In addition to being able to exhale gelid wind as a breath weapon, they can spontaneously create banks of fog. Kokogiaks possess keen eyesight, which can easily penetrate fog and airborne snow, and can mesmerize beings who look into their eyes.

Ecology and habitat

Kokogiaks inhabit arctic environments; during winter months, they may migrate south into the subarctic tundra. Kokogiaks occasionally follow the winter snows as far south as temperate latitudes, where they typically settle in high mountains. Alpine kokogiaks typically stay in these areas for a few years, taking advantage of the more abundant prey of temperate environments before returning to the arctic. A few specimens, however, become permanent residents of these areas.

Kokogiaks are amphibious creatures and comfortable both on land and in the water, although they can only breathe air. They often swim beneath winter ice, cutting holes into it to surface and breathe. They also roam far inland, hunting among ice sheets and crevasses. Kokogiaks typically lair in dens dug into high peaks inaccessible to most other creatures.

Kokogiaks are ferocious predators, and take a wide variety of prey. On sea ice, kokogiaks use the holes they dig to breathe to ambush seals, waiting until they emerge to breathe themselves to drag them onto the ice. This strategy is used in reverse to ambush air-breathing prey, as kokogiaks will wait beneath the ice or alongside coastlines to ambush land-dwelling creatures. Kokogiaks are indiscriminate in their feeding habits, and even powerful hunters such as polar bears and winter wolves can fall prey to this strategy. In inland territories, kokogiaks usually observe prey from a high vantage point, enveloping enticing targets within banks of fog before descending to make the kill. Kokogiaks may also burrow underground in order to ambush passing prey by emerging beneath them. Desperate kokogiaks have also been known to scale cliffs to prey on nesting seabirds.

Society

Kokogiaks are solitary beings, and only come together to form mated pairs. Kokogiak cubs are encouraged by their parents to fight one another; weaker cubs are either cannibalized by their siblings or driven into the wilderness to fend for themselves. Once cubs approach adulthood, the parents drive them out to avoid challenges to themselves. When kokogiak cubs remain with their parents, they eventually attempt to challenge and kill or drive off the parent of the same sex as themselves in order to prove their worthiness as a mate to the other parent.

When they associate with other sapient beings, kokogiaks typically do so by forcing their dominance over arctic, tundra-dwelling or alpine tribes or settlements, which they force to provide them with tribute and sacrifices. If these communities defy the kokogiak, the beast will use its powers to lure members to itself to kill, leaving grisly markers of this deed for their friends and relatives to find. Kokogiaks also form alliances with other creatures that can bring them victims to kill and torture at their leisure.

On other worlds

Kokogiaks are encountered in the highly seasonal planet Triaxus, where they are known to dominate tribes of Triaxian barbarians living in the Drakelands.