On the Horned Goliath Jumping Ram

Excerpt from A Guide to Harvesting and Harnessing All The Wild Has To Offer

(Pages 87-88, from Chapter 5: Water-Dwellers and Amphibians)

Horned Golitah Jumping Ram

The Horned Goliath Jumping Ram is extremely territorial and highly aggressive. An encounter with one can be extremely dangerous. They can be found near the Groaning Road mountain pass in north Agromathar, which is named such due to frequent rock and mudslides that make the pass so hazardous. The landslides, and the moving streams and rivers along this section of the mountains, cause the Groaning Road to change shape every year, making it impossible to accurately map. This is all because of the Horned Goliath Jumping Ram. An adult female one can weigh more than a healthy bull, and when they jump, the impact of their heavy bodies landing can shake loose unstable ground and result in landslides, especially in the spring when the snowmelt loosens the earth. It is also the time of year that they are most active. In the winter, when the mountains freeze, they go into hibernation, settling down in their territorial water. Their bodies block the flow of water and cause natural dams to form around them, redirecting the waterflows all around the mountain.

It may be tempting to attempt to hunt the Horned Goliath when it is in hibernation to circumvent the risk of facing an active one, but I must warn you against this. Despite their threat to travellers, Horned Goliath Jumping Rams are an extremely vital part of the mountain’s ecosystem, and their redirecting of the rivers is essential to the wellbeing of the rest of the surrounding flora and fauna. Disrupting this damming process in the winter could be detrimental. The best time to hunt a Horned Goliath is in the peak of summer, after their mating season passes, when they are less active.

When not moving, the Horned Goliath Jumping Ram can easily be mistaken for a boulder. It has smooth, slick skin, marbled with different shades of gray, and its massive body is shaped like a frog’s, with four long legs, though its green-yellow eyes are shaped more like a toad’s. What differentiates it from true frogs is the cartilegious mass protecting its skull like a helmet, and the protrusion of its browbone, from which grows a pair of large, curved blunt horns similar to a ram’s, hence the name. The local folk also sometimes call them River Goats. Its croak also is known to sound much like rumbling, grinding rockfalls.

A single Horned Goliath Jumping Ram will claim a particular pond, river, or stream as its territory by releasing secretions from its skin into the water. These secretions cause the water to look more distinctly blue than usual, and though it is undetectable by humans, give off a strong scent to deter other Horned Goliaths from coming too close. Skirmishes can arise between adult Horned Goliaths when one’s secretions travel too far downstream into another’s territory, leading the second one to believe the first is encroaching and feeling threatened. The two Horned Goliaths will fight for dominance, jumping at each other and crashing their horned brows together over and over until one submits. An angry Horned Goliath will also do this to any believed ‘trespasser’, including and especially humans. If hit by one of these jumping attacks you are unlikely to be gored, but the impact will absolutely crush essentially every single one of your bones.

To kill a Horned Goliath Jumping Ram, put your back to a solid obstacle like a large tree trunk or a rockface, and bait it into leaping at you. Dodge at the last second so the Horned Goliath instead rams into the obstacle. Due to its protective helm it is unlikely to be stunned for more than a second, but it will have difficulty maneouvering back around, giving you enough time to stab it in the heart. Aim a long, sharp blade up into its heart from below, in the middle of its chest between its shoulders and right under the base of its throat.

Suggested uses for various components of Horned Goliath Jumping Ram

The Secretions

Collect the moisture from its skin and and moisture glands into a jar, careful not to touch it with your bare hands. It isn’t harmful to touch, but it will dye your skin blue, and you would have to wash your hands extremely thoroughly afterwards because the secretions are poisonous to humans. Also why you musn’t drink the water claimed by a Horned Goliath, even after boiling. However, I have found that the secretions’ scent is extremely attractive to many kinds of freshwater fish, even ones from other habitats that have no contact with the Horned Goliath Jumping Ram. Soak your bait in the secretions right before using to make it more effective and save time while fishing.

The Horns and Helm

Extract the skull, clean, and place in boiling water to soften the helm enough to remove it. While soft, cut into pieces and store in a container of clean water. Use a big rock to smash the horns into little pieces, store dry. These are useful ingredients for hardening potions, stoneskin chalk, bone restoration, and elixir of invulnerability.

The Legs

I have heard that frog legs are a delicacy in Sidusimpere. I am curious to try them someday. These ones are not edible, though. Cut the legs from the torso, skin them, de-bone, press flat, treat with Mona Salts, and hang to dry. Roll up and tie with string. Drop one into the cauldron early on in brewing a potion of cathartic clarity to enhance its effectiveness. Afterwards you can unroll it to dry it back out and re-use it multiple times.

The Guts

To use the Horned Goliath Jumping Ram’s innards for various potions, first clean them of blood, knead them with tealtrite powder, coating them entirely, and soak in cool water for at least one hour. They will be most effective fresh, but can also be stored in preservative for later use. The heart (even punctured and drained) can be used for potions of audacity. The liver, stomach, and intestines can be added to potions of fortune. The best use of the lungs is as casing for Witch Dough when baking. Roll your charm ingredients in the dough and stuff the lung, tie with barktwine, and bake at a slightly higher temperature than usual. Remove the charm once it is finished and discard the lung casing along with the dough crust. The lungs will do a better job at preventing more casting energies from escaping during baking process than regular hide will.

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Recipe for stoneskin chalk (strong)

To increase one’s physical durability and tolerance, nearly immune to most physical damage by blades, arrows, or bludgeoning. One dose lasts one hour

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Horned Goliath Jumping Ram horn gravel
• 2 cups liquid amber
• 4 spoons grizzlyclaw fat
• 9 drops grandfather tree sap
• 2 buckets water
• 1 and half cup quartz paste
• 3 heaps powdered scratchvine
• 7 durnhorns (whole)

Bring water to boil in cauldron and after three minutes of reaching boiling, add quartz paste and liquid amber and stir. Add one durnhorn, then grizzlyclaw fat, then two durnhorns, then powdered scratchvine. Stir. Add one durnhorn, then grandfather tree sap, stir, then final three durnhorns. Pour in Jumping Ram horn gravel while stirring continuously, then keep stirring for twelve minutes. Cover and simmer for one hour, then allow to cool. Once cooled it should now be a viscous paste. Pour out onto clean slipsheet on a large flat surface, spread paste until it is about as tall as your fingernail. Allow to dry for several hours until paste has hardened into chalk, then cut into tablets. Dose should be no more than three tablets a day, or else there is risk of nerve failure.