esteemed naturalist and sage Oparin, on
the subject of dangerous creatures of the
woodlands:
The kech is another of the foul fiends
that make the woods a dangerous place
for inexperienced adventurers and trav-
elers. The physical appearance of the kech
is perfectly suited to an arboreal life. Its
leathery skin is green, ranging from a
light, silvery green similar in hue to the
underside of a leaf to the deep green of
oak leaves, and this coloration makes it
possible for a kech to remain unnoticed in
the trees. A kech also possesses long arms
and legs, complete with handlike feet,
which make it easy for it to move from
tree to tree as does a monkey.
Male and female keches are similar in
appearance, although the female is smaller
and lighter in color. Adult males are 5-6? in
height and weigh 120-150 lbs. Adult females
stand upright at 5? and weigh close to 100
lbs. Both genders are lithe and well muscled,
and can walk upright as well as race on all
fours. A kech?s face is very humanlike (per-
haps keches are some accursed offshoot of
the human race that became adapted to
living in the trees), but the eyes are blood-
red in color and pupilless, and the mouth is
filled with many blood-letting fangs. Also,
the nose of the kech is smaller than a nor-
mal human?s ? almost unnoticeable ? and
the ears can only be distinguished from the
rest of the head by close scrutiny. Although
mammalian, a kech has only a few traces of
hair on its body.
Keches are wily creatures made infa-
mous by the many snares and traps they
set to capture careless and unsuspecting
prey, much like those human trappers use
to catch the small fur-bearers on which
the trappers make their living. These
snares are nearly impossible to detect by
any but skilled woodsmen and druids.1 A
kech often covers its hunting territory ?
an area of indeterminate size which
includes several well-traveled paths, roads,
and animal trails ? with as many as a half-
dozen of these traps. And the more kech
found in the same area (for these crea-
tures are commonly found in groups), the
larger the hunting area and the greater
the number of pitfalls present.²
However, keches do not fully rely on the
various traps and snares they set to catch
all their prey. They actively patrol their
hunting areas looking for suitable prey (of
the human variety) most of the day and
night, resting only in the heat of the day
and the middle of the night. Keches never
attack a group of four or more individuals
unless the group looks particularly weak,
unobservant, or careless. If the keches
possess two-to-one odds in their favor,
they may attack any human gathering.
Keches will try to separate larger parties
into smaller ones by various means,
attacking the smaller parties separately.
Their hunting territories are always heavi-
ly forested, for keches are excellent
climbers and stay in the trees as much as
possible.
However, keches do not fully rely on the
various traps and snares they set to catch
all their prey. They actively patrol their
hunting areas looking for suitable prey (of
the human variety) most of the day and
night, resting only in the heat of the day
and the middle of the night. Keches never
attack a group of four or more individuals
unless the group looks particularly weak,
unobservant, or careless. If the keches
possess two-to-one odds in their favor,
they may attack any human gathering.
Keches will try to separate larger parties
into smaller ones by various means,
attacking the smaller parties separately.
Their hunting territories are always heavi-
ly forested, for keches are excellent
climbers and stay in the trees as much as
possible. 3
Keches can stalk prey silently in the
deep forests (although they can still be
heard by thieves and elves if an attempt is
made to listen closely). In addition, keches
are difficult to track as they leave false
tracks and use other such ploys to avoid
being followed. Because of their leaflike
skin and silence, keches often succeed in
attacking their victims with surprise. 4
By hiding in the branches of trees, a kech can
drop on an opponent from above, knock
him off his feet, and bite and claw at him;
this is the keches? favorite method of
assault. 5 Keches also use their prehensile
toes to hang from limbs, using their claws
as victims pass underneath. Keches some-
times rush victims on the ground in an
effort to kill or disable one or two of them,
fleeing with their prey before the victims?
allies have a chance to retaliate.
Keches normally choose to disable prey,
clawing and biting at the faces and necks
of victims rather than killing them out-
right. This is especially true of attacks
against humans, whom kech prefer to
torture before killing and devouring.6
Once an opponent is disabled, the kech
moves on to attack another foe, returning
to kill the incapacitated one after other
victims present are also incapacitated.
Keches rarely kill more prey than neces-
sary for survival, but their hatred for
humans is so great that they kill as many
humans as possible without endangering
themselves.
Keches are extremely evil and rapacious
creatures who view nearly all other crea-
tures as food ? especially humans, whom
they seek to kill, maim, and destroy with-
out restraint. The reason for this hatred
can only be speculated upon; perhaps it
has something to do with man?s disregard
for the forests or with some ancient feud
between man and kech. The only crea-
tures keches are known to associate with
are su-monsters. These associations rarely
last more than a week or two because of
the chaotic nature of the su-monsters, but
during this time the number of raids on
human settlements nearby increases great-
ly. Whole villages have been destroyed by
the combined might of the two. 7
Although intelligent, keches hardly ever
use tools or weapons of any sort, prefer-
ring instead to use subtlety and brute
strength to kill prey. Keches speak a lan-
guage that seems totally incomprehensible
to outsiders. The language of the kech is a
tongue filled with much chittering and
whistling, sounding for all the world like
squirrel?s chatter. Scholars have spent
many years studying captive keches in an
effort to understand them, but have man-
aged to translate only a few words thus
far. Keches can also speak a few words of
Common learned from those they have
captured or overheard previously. Being
intelligent creatures, keches never con-
tinue fighting if the odds turn against
them or if they are sorely wounded. They
will even flee their lairs if attacked by
overwhelming numbers, leaving behind all
their treasure.
Small groups of keches sometimes band
together for mutual protection and for
greater ease in dispatching foes. Such
groups are led by the largest male, who
decides where the traps are placed and
which victims the group attacks. The
group contains an equal ratio of females to
males, with only a slight male plurality in
some cases. These groups infrequently
raid forest settlements of humans for
victims. These raids are lightning-quick
forays in which the keches quickly kill up
to a dozen victims and carry them back to
their lairs deep in the woods. Because
these raids always take place in the depths
of the night, it is even harder to avenge
those carried away.
The lair of a band of keches is always
deep in the forest and surrounded by
many traps and places for ambushes.
Those foolish enough to follow a kech
back to its lair rarely return. The lair itself
is a crude structure made of tree limbs
lashed together with vines to provide
protection from the elements. Keches
remain in the same general area and use
the same home for no more than a year;
this reduces the chances of both overhunt-
ing the surrounding area and being discov-
ered in their lair. The treasure found in a
kech lair is gained mainly from that kechs?
previous victims and is scattered about the
lair along with the bones, clothing, and
other belongings of their victims. Keches
do not value treasure as such, although
they use it in their traps to catch greedy
humans.
Keches are not prolific creatures, thank-
fully. Male and female keches mate about
once every three years in the spring;
permanent mating pairs are not formed.
The young, usually one but sometimes
two, are born the following spring. All
females help care for the young, but the
males provide only protection for them
and do not help in any other way. Young
keches grow very slowly; it takes 20 to 25
years for them to grow to full size, where-
upon they become capable of reproduc-
tion themselves. According to the records
of several adventurers, no more than four
young keches have ever been found in the
lair at one time, regardless of the number
of adults also present. 8 Keches are long-
lived creatures, however, which is one of
the few things that saves them from even-
tual extinction. Females average about 150
years, while males often live to be 175
years old. With age comes cunning and
cleverness, making the older keches the
most dangerous of all.
In summary, keches can be dangerous
foes, especially for unwary and inexperi-
enced adventurers. Even seasoned adven-
turers respect these foes for their cunning
and cleverness. And it is doubtful they will
ever cease to trouble mankind as long as
there are forests for them to inhabit.
Footnotes
¹ The snares set by a kech should be
treated as those created by the third-level
druid spell snare. Also, the other types of
traps used by keches are 90% undetect-
able by most characters. Druids and rang
ers, however, subtract 5% for each level
they have when trying to detect traps set
by a kech.
²A single kech covers as many as 20
square miles of forest a day when search
ing for prey. For every other kech in addi
tion to the first, add another 10 square
miles of forest covered, though the kech
will travel together in a single group and
will not cover the whole area every day.
3 Keches are good mimics, being exten-
sively familiar with the sounds humans in
trouble make. Using this talent, they often
succeed in luring victims to their deaths.
The base chance for a kech to successfully
mimic a cry for help is 90% minus 5% per
intelligence point of the-victim. If the kech
is successful, NPC victims are attracted to
the direction of the voice, believing that
some human is in trouble. Otherwise, the
victim simply hears creature screaming.
4 Thieves may detect the approach of
keches on a successful listening roll; elves
have a 15% chance to hear them, and
gnomes (so rare that they are often forgot-
ten about, even by sages) have a 20%
chance. A kech?s base chance of surprise is
about 83%, but if the attack takes place at
night, it becomes 95% (surprising 19 out of
20 times). The reduction by half of all
chances of tracking a kech applies only to
those with tracking skills (rangers, barbar-
ians, etc.). All others have only a 10%
chance to successfully track a kech.
5 Unsurprised characters must make a
successful dexterity check on 1d20 to
avoid being struck by a falling kech, which
makes a single ?to hit? roll at +2 for the
attack. Surprised characters are not
allowed a dexterity check. Any character
fallen upon is immediately knocked to the
ground, with the kech automatically claw-
ing and biting the victim (no ?to hit? roll
required). In addition, the character must
make a saving throw vs. paralyzation or
be stunned for 1-2 rounds more; a success-
ful saving throw means the character can
scramble back to his feet the following
round. Failure also means the character
remains prone and is at ?4 to hit and
damage. The attacker, on the other hand,
is at +4 to hit for the number of rounds
determined above. This applies only to
keches attacking from above and not to
keches surprising opponents while on the
ground. Falling attacks are made from a
height of 5-30".
6
Whenever the kech's modified ?to hit?
roll is four or greater than the number
required, or when a natural 20 is rolled,
there is a 40% chance the kech has hit its
opponent in the face or throat for the
following effects (roll ld20):