Urban Animals

Urban Landscapes are usually and rightfully avoided by most druids. It is hard to focus on the needs of the natural world when surrounded by the voices, needs, desires, and concerns of your fellow sentients. While the sentient races are subject to nature and cities are no more “unnatural” than an ant hill, the communal voice of humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes halflings, and dragon born is overwhelming and, as any monoculture, to the detriment of the natural web.

Still, because they are so large they become their own ecosystem. While a druid can certainly blend into this ecosystem more easily than any other, druidically speaking, most of us find it uncomfortable and very awkward to navigate.

This is where a druid who has taken the time to study the urban ecosystem shines. With knowledge comes many opportunities to avoid the uncomfortable stares and potential pitfalls of being seen as an outsider. Instead, the druid can be a flock of pigeons, a cat, a mongrel, a fox, a swarm of rats, a squirrel, a coyote, a hedgehog, a boar, a raccoon, or even a monkey. Most urban dwelers will glance over the animals who share their cities, but not think to pay attention to them.

More about pigeons behavior

How I have found becoming a flock of pigeons useful

Stats.

Cats

Mostly when talking to other druids I hear about panthers, and tigers and lions, and more panthers. Maybe if I’m lucky, a cloud leopard or two will show up. But not a simple house cat or even a savannah cat, which is another domestic species of cat from the desert regions. So strap in Druid, we’re about to talk about the simple cat. To start with, let us talk about the Feral Street Cat.

The cat is an apex predator of the urban landscape. Small enough to slip through the cracks of society but big enough to take down considerable amounts of prey. Feral cats have excellent night vision as well as day vision, the can jump six to seven times its height, so usually 4-5 feet unless you are fortunate enough to be in an area with servals or savannah cats, in which case, around 8 feet, and are extremely flexible. The sheathable claws are useful for hunting as well as climbing, a skill that cats excel at.

All this means that no one will blink twice if they see you carrying what appears to be a furry or feathery bundle. I have a couple of well preserved rodent skins with the feet and head still attached that can act as purses for my trips into the city. This is especially useful if I have found some small but valuable McGuffin that I can’t use and want to sell. This includes but is not limited to jewelry, magic scrolls (folded), magic jewelry, small potions (a dram or two in size), a delivery of magic mushrooms, or any sort of small contraband, etc.)

And should someone try to capture you for a closer look, well, cats can be quite swift, agile, and sharp, so long as you don’t take the form of an overfed pet.

Dogs

Where cats have domesticated the sentients that care for them, humans have domesticated dogs. The earliest images and stories we have of dogs all come from human history, and only once the wolf had disappeared in the dog does the dapper-flapper yapper show up in the histories of other races. Astonishingly, even the Orc has a younger relationship with their wolves than humans have with dogs.

Even those who reject all other domestics have a hard time rejecting the attention of an eager and loving dog. Especially the puppies.

We will cover more of the dog in the chapter on Domestics, but there are feral dogs in almost every city I’ve ever visited.

SQUIRREL!

Monkey