Uberschimpanze

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man...

H. L. Mencken

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Uberschimpanze
No. Enc.: 1d4 (3d6)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 180' (60')
Armor Class: 6/13
Hit Dice: 2 (d10)
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 (claw), 1d4 (bite), or by weapon
Save: F3
Morale: 6


The majority of their ancestors served as cargo-handlers, stevedores and longshoremen for the Airships from Muniz, Valstoy and Brez; all the places where Orangs were summarily banned after the uprising that had left half the Septigoorean Archipelago in flames and bloody ruin. Most of the rest were domestic servants in the manors of displaced nobles from Gravia, Beldonde or Xemion--all tropical dominions where no one thought it especially exotic to employ an ape about the house, especially when they already dealt regularly with Monikin money-lenders and merchants.

The Pruztians sent several captive specimens to their hunting lodges and laboratories over the course of the First Occupation. Those that survived their time in Pruztian scientific custody returned to Wermspittle far more aggressive, angry and violent than those that had remained behind. They had learned military discipline and nursed a grudge against their 'Masters' that they intended to indulge in at the first opportunity. Some of the most heinous atrocities committed during the withdrawal of the Pruztian occupation forces were not the doing of the Pruztians, but instead were the work of a hard core of Uberschimpanze conspirators who became notorious for their use of the garrotte and their penchant for collecting the heads of their former oppressors.

Monikins distrust Uberschimpanze for their lack of suitable tails, Orangs resent having been displaced by them in their traditional jobs on airships, and Marmosets fear them greatly, though no one knows quite why.

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Inspiration: An Ape About the House by Arthur C. Clarke, which can be found in Of Time and Stars:The Worlds of Arthur C. Clarke, with a slight nod to E. A. Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue.