Traveller Vignette 022

“The Gudrunite Woozle is one of the very few known predators with documented psionic powers. Physically, it is a marsupial quadruped the size of a medium dog, covered in greenish-brown fur which blends well with its habitat in the temperate forests of Gudrun. They are normally solitary, but form small groups of 3-4 adults and a single pup during the mating season.

It is not intelligent, but its psionic powers cause potential prey to become listless, inattentive and in some cases fall asleep, at which point the Woozle will emerge from hiding, finish off the unconscious prey and eat its fill. Woozles are naturally timid, and will never attack fully conscious prey, especially one as big as a human. However, it is strongly advised that any group working or travelling outside urban areas on Gudrun should include at least one person with a psionic shield helmet, and be on the lookout for members displaying unexpected tiredness or odd behaviour – in some cases, human victims of Woozle attacks display behaviour similar to drunkenness before collapsing”

(Author's note - This is obviously intended as a more interesting animal encounter. Given alert players, then the most likely effect is that the PCs have to deal with some player characters or NPCs behaving erratically, with the Woozle itself never actually appearing.

Alternatively, PCs might have to hunt down a Woozle pack that are taking domestic animals. If you don't like the Winnie-the-Pooh name, simply rechristen it as the Gudrunite Dyak-beast or anything else you fancy)