GREAT AUK (Pinguinus impennis)
Role: Small Flightless Seabird
PL 0 (21)- Minion Rank 2, Sidekick Rank 5
Normal Version: PL 0
STRENGTH -5 STAMINA -4 AGILITY -2
FIGHTING -2 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -4 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE -3
Skills:
Athletics 10 (+5)
Close Combat (Beaky Bite) 2 (+4)
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+5)
Perception 4 (+5)
Advantages:
Close Attack 2, Great Endurance, Improved Initiative
Powers:
"Animal Senses" Senses 3 (Extended Scent, Low-Light & Extended Vision) [3]
Movement 1 (Environmental Adaptation- Arctic) [2]
Swimming 5 [5]
"Fun Size" Shrinking 12 (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) -- (6 inches) [25]
(-3 Strength, +6 Defenses, +12 Stealth, -6 Intimidation, -1 Speed)
Offense:
Unarmed +4 (-5 Damage, DC 10)
Beak +4 (-4 Damage, DC 11)
Initiative +2
Defenses:
Dodge +4 (DC 14), Parry +4 (DC 14), Toughness -5, Fortitude +0, Will +0
Complications:
Disabled (Animal)- Birds cannot speak to humans, nor use their wings & beaks to easily manipulate objects.
Disabled (Non-Terrestrial)- Petrels typically have weak legs set very far back, and so are very poorly mobile on land. They will often just lean their breast against the ground and push themselves using their wings.
Weakness (Small Size)- At their natural size, Small Birds are vulnerable to large creatures- even without good accuracy. Anything of Size Rank -2 or more (human size and up) using a melee attack on a Bird of this scale effectively strike with Burst Area Damage at their strength rank naturally.
Total: Abilities: -32 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 35 / Defenses: 4 (21)
Era: Modern Day
Range: Northern oceans.
Stereotypes: Inquisitive.
Colouring: Black & white.
Size: 20-35 inches tall (11 lbs.)
Encounter Groups: Colonies of thousands.
Diet: Fish, shrimp.
Tactics: Flee rapidly, occasionally batter with pointy beak.
-Among the more notable recent extinctions is that of the Great Auk, a large flightless Auk which died out in 1852- hunted to extinction. They were about three feet tall and weight 11 lbs., so weren't THAT big, but they were an important food source to Native peoples and to arriving Europeans, who readily ate them and used them for bait, reducing their numbers. Known to only a handful of island and coastal regions (including Canada & Great Britain), it was notable enough that when Europeans found similar-looking black & white flightless birds in the Southern Hemisphere much later, they named them for the Great Auk- "Pinguinus".
-Great Auk down was a high-demand item in Europe, removing most of them by the 16th century. It was the cause of some of the earliest environmental laws, as it was recognized that the creatures were disappearing- as its extinction became irreversible, people just began catching them for skins and eggs before the end came- the last confimed sighting was a couple killed in 1844, and the last "rumored" sightning was eight years later. Its closest living relative is the diminutive Little Auk.
-The Great Auk is only 9 lbs. heavier than Puffins and stuff like that, but that's about 5x the size in some cases, so it's slightly tougher. It's the only Auk to lose flight entirely, however.
