The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: Gigadeer

This post is part of the Immortal Naturalist's Guide series. The explanation for that series can be found in this post.

    The Jagged Peaks of the Stormguard Mountains are said to be home to a creature twenty feet tall at the shoulder, able to jump from peak to peak without breaking a sweat, and known to transfigure attackers into deer. This beast is known as Gigadeer, and although it is commonly sighted in its home range, descriptions are too outlandish for most who have never seen it to believe. Gigadeer spends its time roaming rough mountain terrain in search of food. Generally, it prefers to eat the leaves of bushes and scrub plants, but Gigadeer will opportunistically eat meat as well. It tends to stay high up near the mountain peaks to avoid others, but Gigadeer is not usually hostile if it does come across others. When it encounters another animal, Gigadeer will try to ignore it unless the other creature proves to be hostile, at which point Gigadeer will defend itself.

    Despite having massive antlers and fangs to fight with, Gigadeer prefers to use its magical ability. Any creature that Gigadeer focuses its eyesight on for more than a moment is instantly transfigured into a baby deer. Although they maintain their original minds, these transformed fawns are incapable of bringing harm to Gigadeer and can be safely ignored. There is no way to reverse this condition that I am aware of, leaving anything transformed by Gigadeer to fend for itself. This ability relies on sight, however, so if Gigadeer cannot see something, it cannot transform it. I was able to avoid transformation by the quick use of an invisibility spell several times during my observations. 

    During this time, I could not help but think of how many rich people would pay through the nose to have a beast such as Gigadeer around. Assuming you could prevent it from jumping over any and all fences, Gigadeer would be one of the most effective guard animals in the world. Additionally, one could use Gigadeer to produce an unlimited supply of veal from whatever livestock is on hand. While I do not personally need a guard animal, unlimited veal, or large sums of money, I suspect someone out there wants those things, and all they need to do is capture Gigadeer.