Instinct: to grandstand before humbled foes

• insult his opponent to rile the crowd up
• heckle other matches as a show of strength
• demoralise lesser fighters

Unlike the violent and hungry sand worm, the dune snake is quite intelligent, and has a soft fondness for salamanders which it identifies as tiny kin, not entirely dissimilar to how a particularly sentimental dragon might regard a kobold. For less reptilian adventurers, however, the dune snake proves quite a threat, thanks to its ability to absorb moisture from its surroundings including nearby living things. The ecology of the desert survives this only due to the snake's constant migratory behaviour, as it moves from oasis to oasis, draining them dry and leaving husks of flora and dessicated fauna in their wake. Instinct: To draw moisture from anything nearby

• Arch above the sands on its endless migrations
• Leave hapless adventurers dehydrated in the sands
• Defend salamanders as kin

Once an unpopular species of pet, the snakepigeon became a nuisance almost immediately upon being outlawed. Fashionable among the bourgeoisie that took flaunting of the law as a sign of status, they would be released into the air when inspectors came knocking, resulting in a large feral population in the affected cities. They shed lots, bite hard, lay eggs and smell. One witness to such an infestation of the pests suggests it is enough that one might be convinced to forego city life entirely in favour of forest asceticism. Instinct: to bite anything and everything

• Shed feathers, scales and skin
• Bite
• Whip with tail
• Flutter in faces
• Claw
• Crap on statues

The dunes shift revealing they are not, in fact, dunes but the coils of the sand worm. The sandy leathery hide emerges first, sliding out from the sand. Eventually the maw emerges, blind and ridged with teeth coated in glinting glass, sand melted in the heat of its innards and spat back out. Instinct: to lay waste

• Lunge with snapping jaws
• Heat the sand around it
• Engulf whole

A knot of sand worms in the early stage of life. They split into individual worms to spread beneath the dunes, causing waves across the sand before coalescing to spring forth as a toothy snarl at the nearest living thing. Instinct: to consume meat

• Create waves across the sand
• Spring from the dunes

A broad, purple-blue ray that soars easily through the air, held aloft by some intrinsic quirk of biology and magic. Instinct: to fling things skyward

• pick up treasure
• pick up people
• hurl things into the air

A humanoid automaton, nine foot tall. They are formed of a brass skeleton and mechanisms, surrounded with bronze armour plates that are painted with a white tin glaze giving them an appearance of muscles like porcelain and joints like gold. They fight with oversized twin scimitars made from bronze. Instinct: To defend the prince's treasury (and heart).

• what it does