Grasshoppers: a common prey for hunters. Their tough carapace gives them some protection but the head is still vulnerable. Experienced hunters generally have one person serving as a "spotter" who climbs to a high location. If they fail to kill the grasshopper outright, it will often jump and the spotter can tell them where it landed.
Dragonflies: hunted occasionally for their iridescent hide and wings, which are used to make stylish fripperies for the noble classes. It's a difficult target to take down without magic, however, since damaging its wings and shell is counterproductive. To common mice, dragonflies are seen as a sign of good luck and a good harvest.
Toads: avoided by most mice, because a few of them get large enough to try and swallow a small mouse. Their poison sacs make them a poor source of food.
Slugs: killed and eaten by the lower classes as a supplement to their diets and to keep the slugs from damaging their crops. They taste awful, however, and are only consumed by folks who can't afford better fare. "Slugeater" is a minor insult, implying that the target lives in squalor or has no taste in food.
Crows: crows are too large and too smart to be regarded as prey. Some of them have actually mastered a pidgin form of speech and have been known to trade with rodent communities, offering scavenged objects (usually reflective items called "shinies") for food or vice versa. No one trusts them however, and the sudden disappearance of food that was left out is often blamed on crows. The army keeps them away from the inner regions, but they move freely about the edges of the Empire.
Shrews: regarded as horrific monsters by the mice. A starving shrew will attack creatures larger than itself and they are vicious and swift opponents. Their voracious appetite also means that shrews are often starving. They furthermore have a habit of taking over the homes of slain mice and using it as their burrow until they find a better one. Shrews vary in intelligence... some are simply vicious animals, but others have learned to stand upright and can use simple tools. Mice kill shrews whenever they can, feeling that even if it's ignoring them today, sooner or later it'll be hungry enough to come after them.
Ants: individually, ants are harmless little bugs that can inflict a painful bite but are about as dangerous to a mouse as a squirrel would be to a human. Youngsters often catch and torment them for fun. This behavior is encouraged by their elders, because if a scout ant happens to find a ready source of food they can return en masse, accompanied by the larger and more vicious soldiers. Swarms of ants are very dangerous and often have to be outrun rather than outfought. Magic and fire can even the odds, but only a fool faces down an angry swarm directly. The mounds themselves are always avoided, since damaging a mound can unleash a swarm right away.
Smart Ants: some wild rumors indicate that there is an ant mound in the west where the ants behave with a strange level of intelligence and tendrils of smoke are often seen rising from their mounds. According to one particularly unbelievable tale, a bard was captured by the ants of the region and carried into a deep, underground cavern where he was placed on trial for trespassing by an oversized "queen" who could actually speak. The story claims that he managed to win her over with his music and was set free, but very few people give the tale any credence whatsoever. The area is still shunned by most people, however, because the ants there are notably aggressive and dangerous.
Riding Beetles: something like a rhinoceros or hercules beetle, these enormous, armored insects are actually raised by mice as mounts and beasts of burden. They're bred for stupidity, obedience and endurance. Many will actually ignore nearby food because they're so used to handlers putting their meals right in front of them. Various breeds exist and the noble classes prefer males with as large and elaborate of horns as possible. Commoners use the smaller, often hornless females in groups to pull wagons and plows. Wild beetles generally can't be trained in this fashion; they have to be "programmed" with regular use of Influence and Compel spells and constant contact with mice since shortly after they molt into adults until they reach full size, or else they'll be untamable. Rats are generally too large to ride comfortably on these beetles, so they often have to ride in wagons pulled by them or simply walk instead.
Pigeons: strong enough to carry an armored mouse soldier and relatively easy to tame and keep, the Imperial Cavalry keeps a roost of pigeons in part of the Imperial Palace. Their numbers have fallen off over the years, and now only about half of the stalls have occupants. A large number of servitors tend to the birds' needs. Elaborate woven saddles are available so that extra gear can be carried. Each cavalryman is a mage and is expected to be able to control his steed himself.
Starlings: the Imperial Star-Riders are a small group of very elite messenger-scouts. They have a totally different attitude towards their steeds, forming a deep, personal bond with a single bird, which lives freely in the area until summoned by their rider. No saddle is used; in fact, the rider must generally be small, lean, and unencumbered or his bird will quickly tire. But starlings are faster, smarter and more agile than pigeons, making them ideal for scouting missions.
Scorpions: while these predators won't normally attack a mouse without being threatened, they're regarded as a threat anyway. They are usually killed with crossbow bolts or long spears. Since they're almost blind, two hunters can easily outflank one and kill it. The venom in its tail is sometimes harvested for use as a poison, but this practice has been banned and can only legally be performed by members of the military.
Small Snakes: smaller snakes are hunted by the mice for both food and to make sure that they don't grow up to be larger snakes. Even the smallest can be dangerous to a single mouse, but not to a group of hunters with spears and shields. Should the snake get lucky enough to bring down a single mouse in a hunting party, the hunters have a brutally effective technique for dealing with it. They simply pull back and wait until the snake starts swallowing its prey, then charge in to the attack while it can't bite. If a small snake is sighted near a town, it's common for the locals to put together a hunting party and go after it, before it can go after them.
Great Serpents: but there are some snakes large enough to swallow even rats in just a few moments. These terrible predators are widely feared and there's often little a town can do except to seal their doors and windows and hope that it isn't their abode that the creature breaks into first. The Imperial Army is often dispatched to deal with such creatures, often using magic to paralyze them and then putting out their eyes, or rigging powerful ballistas to kill them outright. A few such serpents have proven to be dangerously resistant to magic and are often capable of speech themselves. The Empire contents itself with driving such "dragons" outside of their territory.
Posted by Kiz at May 26, 2005 01:11 PMCommentsPost a comment