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# Part of Simon Phipp's RuneQuest/Glorantha Site

Glorantha is Copyright Issaries Inc, RuneQuest is Copyright Hasbro Inc
Glorantha is a Fantasy world setting and RuneQuest is a Fantasy Game.
All articles on this web site are game rules or background to the Fantasy setting and are not intended to be taken in any other way.

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Simon E. Phipp

Copyright (c) 2000 Simon E.Phipp
Last Updated On 1 May 2000

# Wind Riders

Wind Riders are large humanoid creatures with wing flaps stretching between their arms and body. They have no faces, their heads being completely smooth. They can see and hear as magical abilities. They feed by enveloping prey in their wings and secreting a powerful digestive enzyme that dissolves their prey and allows them to absorb the mush through their wing membranes.

STR 3D6 + 6 CON 3D6 + 6 SIZ 3D6 + 6 INT 2D6 + 3 POW 4D6 DEX 3D6 + 6

Envelop (Special + Digestion) SR4 75%

Skills: Fly 90%, Fly Quietly 70%, Scan 80%

Wind Riders can envelop creatures up to 1.5 times their SIZ. .Once enveloped, the victim is exposed to a powerful digestive enzyme with POT = CON. This does not digest metal but will digest any organic material in the same way that acid digests material. Metal armour protects until overcome by cumulative damage, even though the metal is not damaged, surplus damage gets past the metal, this represents the juices oozing past the metal armour. The digestive juices attack all locations at the same time, and take effect on SR12 (or SR 10 for RQ3-style SR) on the round the person was enveloped and then SR 12 each round. The Wind rider will release the victim once each location has taken twice its hit points in damage (5 HP location reduced to -5, for instance) in which case the victim has been completely dissolved.

To escape, the victim must match STR vs Wind Rider's STRx1.5 to break free at Grapple SR. He can only attack if he rolls INTx1% and even then is reduced to half chance and can only use small weapons, thrusting weapons, natural attacks and the like, because of the restricted space.

Their normal tactic is to swoop down on a single opponent or on a group and attack each member of the group. They normally attack in huge flocks, to give the opponents little chance to escape.

Wind Riders may learn Spirit Magic and some join Storm Cults to learn Divine Magic. They are shamanic in nature, with some fairly powerful shamans in their flocks. They are not chaotic and rarely join chaotic cults, preferring to think of themselves as defenders against the chaos.

Wind Riders are found mainly on Nangtali's Plateau but some are found at Plateau Wrath. They prefer high mountainous places and are rivals to Wind Children, although they prefer not to wage war on them.

In my campaign, they were called Kua-Toa, but I am informed that this is the name of an AD&D monster, so I settled for the name "Wind Rider" instead.

These are based on the creatures from a fantasy film that I think was called Beastmaster, but I could be wrong. They were quite impressive and inspired me to create the Wind Riders.

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