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DOUGAL DIXON'SAFTER MAN

Dougal Dixon published in 1981 After Man: A Zoology of the Future, a wonderful, illustrated work of speculative zoology. In this work, he explored the Earth 50 million years into the future, one in which man and his descendents have utterly vanished. Instead, those creatures that were able to survive the reign of man spread and flourished, creating entire new species. Bats became large land predators, rats became carnivorous, and rabbits became fleet-footed herbivores. Here, I offer what I hope are playable AD&D versions of various creatures he described.

Creatures contained in this article

• The predatory falanx, descended from rats
• The chiselhead, bizarre rats that colonize pine trees, almost parasitic in nature.
• The meaching, which live in underground networks and are descended from lemmings (in my treatment they are intelligent).
• Desert sharks, burrowing predators of sandy deserts.
• Horranes, which are stalking predators of the tropical plains, descended from tree-dwelling apes.
• The raboon, bipedal savanna predators descended from baboons, and baring an uncanny resemblance to certain extinct reptiles.
• Gholes, unusual mammalian scavengers of the tropical grasslands.
• Strigers, monkey-like feline predators of the tropical forest canopy.
• The khiffah, a social monkey that lives in the jungle and is on the path to civilization, as it seeks to deal with striger predation.
• Hiri-hiri, marsupial predator of the jungle with an interesting attack form.
• Nightglider, silent gliding predators of the nocturnal jungle world.
• Wakka, totally bipedal fleet-footed grazers of the plains.
• Shalloths, sloth-like predators of the forest canopy, descended from bats
• Night Stalkers, nightmarish predators of the dark hours.

FALANX (Amphimorphodus cynomorphus)

Climate/Terrain:	Temperate woodland	Hit Dice:	2
Frequency:	Uncommon-Rare	THAC0:	16
Organization:	Pack	No. of Attacks:	1
Activity Cycle:	Day	Damage/Attack:	2-8
Diet:	Carnivore	Special Attacks:	Nil
Intelligence:	Low (5-7)	Special Defenses:	Nil
Treasure:	Nil	Magic Resistance:	Nil
Alignment:	Neutral	Size:	Medium (about 4 or 5 feet long)
No. Appearing:	3-12	Morale:	Steady (11 to 12)
Armor Class:	6	XP Value:	300
Movement:	12

Mankind was rough on the traditional predators, the true carnivores, of the order carnivora, such as the wolf, lion, tiger, and weasel. These animals were sensitive to change, and many were unable to successfully coexist with mankind. As a result, they perished.

The ever-resilient rat lived on though, and expanded to fill, among other things, the empty space filled by the extinct carnivores. Despite the specialized nature of their teeth, rats have always been able to live on a variety of foods. Soon, some groups of rats began to eat mostly meat, their growing incisors developing long, stabbing points and started to become equipped with blades that cut into and grip prey. Over all placement and types of teeth changed, and several groups of rats became perfectly adapted to a predatory lifestyle

One of these is the falanx, which prey on the rabbucks (deer-like creatures descended from rabbits) of the temperate areas, mainly forest. These very large dog-like rats hunt in packs, as the wolves of long ago did. The largest member of the modern group of predatory rats, the rats are now more wolf-like in form, the scampering legs of the original rat now replaced by legs well suited to running, with small, thickly padded feet, and long shanks powered by strong muscles and tendons. The rat origins of the falanx are still evident in two ways, as first their teeth continuously grow as all rodents do, and too they still have long, hairless, rat-tails.

Falanx live a pack life in temperate forests, where they single out weaker prey animals and hound them to exhaustion. Coming from a world with humans, they have no fear of them and will readily add them to their diet.

Other examples of predator rats exist. While the falanx are the commonest of the group, other examples include rapides, raveres, and jarisets. The rapide is a native of northern grasslands and plains, and is clearly built for speed. Its long legs, sleek physique, and highly flexible spine enable it to reach speeds of up to 45 in sprints. Rapides though are weaker in attack (damage 1-6), and are generally either solitary or found in mated pairs. The ravere is about the size of the extinct fox or wild cat, and preys chiefly on small mammals and birds. Its chief attack is with long claws (1-2/1-2) and pointed stabbing fangs (1-4). The jariset is a long-bodied, burrowing predator, strongly resembling extinct weasels and stoats, and like them can also swim, ascend trees, and tunnel underground in search of prey (treat as weasels).

CHISELHEAD (Tenebra vermiforme)

The rodents did not only adopt to predatory lifestyles, others became extremely specialized plant eaters. Highly adapted to life in the coniferous forest, the chiselhead's huge incisor teeth and worm-like body enable it to burrow deeply into the living wood of pine trees, where it can remain protected from the cold in winter. This semi-parasitic animal eats bark mainly, which it strips off a tree completely, eventually killing.

As the chiselheads only colonize live trees they must be continuously on the move and every spring, after hibernation, they young of the new generation migrate to find new territories. During migration, they are vulnerable and many are taken by predators.

The chief danger to adventurers from chiselheads would be if they spent too much time near a tree infested by these rodents. The colony would vigorously defend its own, particularly its young, from perceived predators, biting with their huge incisors. When a colony upwards of 20 defends it tree (or set of trees), it can be a problem for unwary travelers.

MEACHING (Nixocricetus lemmorphus)

The meaching is one of the main life forms of the arctic tundra of the world 50 million years hence, and in a fantasy campaign might be on the road to intelligence and civilization (it is fantasy after all).

Descended from the lemming, they exist in colonies on the frozen tundra. To protect them from their many predators as well as the frosts and snows, they construct fortresses of sorts. As the constantly frozen ground of the tundra makes digging through the soil impossible, these fortresses are constructed above ground. These fortresses exist as gigantic mounds of matted vegetable matter, through which numerous tunnels and passageways have been constructed. The interior of the fortress is very complex and consists of a network of passages and tiny chambers, one for each individual. During the winter each rodent is fully insulated and kept warm by the rest of the colony.

As the meaching became better at constructing fortresses and getting along with its fellow colony members, an intelligence has developed. To aid them in defense of the fortress, some meachings have replaced a reliance on a bite attack with the use of clubs and spears, generally made from tree branches, old bones, and the like. Doing half-damage of a human-sized weapon, the meachings have begun to experiment with the ideas of tactics and coordinated attacks.

Rare extraordinary meachings have begun to dabble in the very long lost magical arts, and any meaching fortress encountered has a 25% chance to have a druid, of levels 1-4, and a 5% chance to have a actual wizard, of levels 1-2.

Such innovation is greatly needed, as the meachings are subject to a great deal of predation. Chief among them are the polar ravine, the bootie bird, and the gandimot. The polar ravene is the fox-like predatory rat similar to the temperate ravene described in the falanx entry. They have been known to attack meachings by digging into the fortress with their front paws.

The bootie bird is a descendent of the crow. Still black in color, the bootie bird is more heron like in form now, with a long neck and bill and long legs. In the summer months the bootie bird behaves as a heron, dipping into streams and shallow pools for fish, but in the winter months it uses its long neck and beak to probe into the fortress for hapless rodent folk.

The gandimot is another avian predator, descended from the magpie which it still resembles (though with a hooked beak and pointed wings). Unable to reach the meachings inside their fortresses, this hawk-like predator attacks the meachings when they migrate to new territories. The meaching have a very high birthrate, to compensate for the harsh climate and the large number of predators, but on occasion population explosions result, forcing meaching colonies to move to new areas, sometimes splitting up, others times moving as a whole. At this time, the swooping, diving gandimot is a major threat (along with the bootie bird and the polar ravene).

The mechings have no comprehension of any other form of sentient or semi-sentient life, and to encounter such would be a source of amazement to them, if they did not avoid them thinking they were yet another predator.

After Man page 2 >