The Legend

In the sleepy river towns they call the thing mapinguari, but it has many names. The Canamari Indians say it is what remains of an evil shaman, punished by the gods for his arrogance and cruelty. Wide-eyed Brazilian rubber tappers swear they have seen men killed by the creature, their skulls cracked like eggs and brains sucked out. The hunters who work in the Tabajos basin speak of the monster in hushed tones, offering compelling details: it has a third eye in its chest, they say. Backward-facing feet. The head of a monkey. It travels with the white-lipped peccaries.

While many details vary, those who have encountered it agree on a few things. It is huge, for one, leaving colossal tracks unlike anything in the forest. It is covered with shaggy red hair, and has a soul-chilling, human-like cry. But above all, it stinks.

The mapinguari's stench is a palpable thing, nauseating at a great distance, something like commingled garlic, excrement, and rotting meat. The creatures are often described as being followed by clouds of flies. Strong men have been forced to flee from the odor of the monster alone, and others have found themselves dazed and sick for days after an encounter.

While the tales are exciting (and an enterprising GM might decide that a few are not just imaginary embellishments), the truth is more prosaic. The mapinguari are Mylodons, giant ground sloths that, according to science, died off ten thousand years ago. An isolated population that survived global climate change and human predation is about to meet the twenty-first century headlong.

The mapinguari are nocturnal herbivores that prefer the relatively dry highlands to the marshy flood plain. Limited by nutritional dependence on plants found only in the Tabajos river basin, a 4,400 square mile area, they number perhaps 25 breeding pairs.. Human encroachment into their territory has escalated in recent years, and the mapinguari no longer have anywhere to hide. They are stressed and increasingly desperate. It is only a matter of time before they are discovered by science, for good or ill.

A male mapinguari stands over six feet high at the shoulder and weighs in excess of 400 pounds; the female is slightly smaller. They are indeed covered with shaggy, reddish-brown hair, and exude a potent stench from a stomach gland. Mapinguari are quite different from their distant cousins the tree sloths. They cannot climb, but they are quick, agile, and stealthy on the ground. They are also immensely strong -- one sign of their presence are trees that have been torn in half to gain access to the sap. They communicate with piercing cries that are startlingly human-like.

Although lacking keen eyesight and smell, the creatures have outstanding hearing, since the jaguar is a natural predator. In addition, mapinguari are excellent at stealthy movement (although their stench will alert anyone with a sense of smell to their general presence). They are shy, reclusive animals adept at avoiding contact in their forest homes.

Finding a mapinguari will be next to impossible under ordinary circumstances. Native Canamari hunters will have the best chances, but these men will be reluctant to pursue an animal they view as either a deadly monster or evil spirit. They may even interfere with efforts to hunt the animals. Brazilian hunters and rubber tappers could be enlisted if the price was right, but there is no guarantee they will consider the job anything but a tourist excursion, and those who have seen the *bicho* (Portuguese for "beast") are unlikely to crave further contact. Knowledge of the area will help in the hunt, and tracking and naturalist skills are essential. Mapinguari are clever enough to avoid most simple traps, and are far too large to be caught in those set for other rainforest animals.

The lumbering creatures are not fighters, and will make every effort to avoid a confrontation. If they cannot escape, or must protect their young, they will lash out with their thick arms. The mapinguari's crude, backward-facing claws cannot be used to cut, but the paws are still dangerous weapons. Treat them as fists, with a small damage bonus due to the hard claws. The combination of fur and tough hide gives them some natural armor, but their reputation as bulletproof is, sadly, untrue.

• Finding and capturing a mapinguari would effectively halt logging that threatens the Tabajos river basin. While this is good news for the ecosystem, it is exceedingly bad news for the forest products conglomerates. An expedition to find a living Mylodon will be carefully observed by certain parties, and steps may be taken to see that it does not succeed . . .
• Thomas Jefferson, a hopeful amateur paleontologist, urged Lewis and Clark to look for Mylodons on their journey to the Pacific Northwest. What if they had found some? In a Wild West setting, the peaceful animals could attract the attention of everyone from steampunk adventurers to Buffalo Bill Cody.
• Perhaps the Canamari are right -- the mapinguari are magical beings. Their powerful reek could be some combination of Odor, Panic, and Daze spells or an adaptation of the venom advantage. Are they guardians of some sacred site? What are they protecting? Are they, as legend insists, evil sorcerers? If so, what other powers might they have, and what do they want?
• What if the mapinguari are just babies? Perhaps, in the remotest corner of the Amazon, there are living Megatherium -- truly enormous ground sloths, 18-20 feet long and weighing up to four tons. These animals would behave far differently from their tiny offspring. Perhaps they are fiercely territorial and dangerously aggressive. But a dozen zoos are willing to pay any price for a live pair, and the race is on . . .
• Fur and other genetic material from long-dead Mylodons exists, and has even been mistaken as proof that they never died out. What if a twisted genius sought to recreate the giant ground sloth, either as part of an elaborate hoax or to modify them for his own purposes? When an army of chaingun-toting sloths holds the Brazilian parliament hostage and starts issuing demands, it is up to the PC's to sort things out . . .

ST 18, DX 10, IQ 6, HT 14.

Advantages: Acute Hearing +6; Alertness +3; Damage Resistance (DR1); Danger Sense; Light Fur (DR1); Penetrating Call.

Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous; Surrounded by dung flies); Bad Smell; Bestial; Cannot Climb; Delicate Metabolism; Edgy; Frightens Animals; No Fine Manipulators; Phobia (water, mild); Reputation (Among rainforest inhabitants, -3); Semi-upright; Shyness (Severe, -3).

Skills: Area Knowledge (Tabajos river basin)-13; Brawling-12; Camouflage-15; Lifting-19; Stealth-13; Survival (Rainforest)-13.

The mapinguari attacks with fists, with a 1 point damage bonus due to the hard claws. The combination of fur and tough hide gives them a DR of 2.

Bibliography

• Heuvelmans, Bernard. On the Track of Unknown Animals. Kegan Paul publishers, 1995.
• Holloway, Marguerite. "Beasts in the Mist: David Oren searches for giant sloth in Brazilian rainforest." Discover magazine, September 1999.
• "Load the Stun Gun, Pass the Old Spice: On the trail of 600 pounds of prehistoric phew." Outside magazine, November 1995.