FOM: Deathrunner/Venatosaurus

One of the most feared predators of the Skull Isle to the native Iwi is not the one which is the biggest, nor the most numerous, but one that seems to slaughter them most meticulously and with greatest malice, with clear intellect behind its ferocity. Cloaked in dark banded feathers, they lurk in the tangled jungle undergrowth, a terrible danger capable of tearing apart foraging hunter bands in seconds with huge claws and rows of serrated teeth. To the Iwi, these are known as the Deathrunners, but to Monarch researchers, these animals hold great scientific significance as one of the few genuine non-avian dinosaurs to have survived to the present day, and are classified as the Venatosaurus. Whatever the name, these huge dromaeosaurs have evolved to be masterful hunters of the broken landscape of the Skull Islands; they are not swift in distance running, but have traded endurance speed for unparalleled agility and mobility. Powerful arms allow them to quickly clamber up cliffs and trees, and they can bound in huge leaps of over twenty feet up and forty feet in distance, making escape unlikely once a victim is targeted. Living in complex social groups sometimes defined as "clans", they plan their hunts out meticulously, using both numbers, persistence, and strategy to their advantage, and have the ability to take down truly massive prey; humans are easy quarries by comparison. A single swipe of their blade-like clawed hands can rip a man in half, although they will often intentionally prolong their victim's demise or not even kill it before feeding. Against larger prey, they have been known to burrow into their insides through wounds to kill them from the inside out. Deathrunners can mimic the calls of its prey for ambush attacks, and have been recorded parroting extended sequences of human speech to try and lure unwary explorers to their doom, although the Iwi say they can genuinely understand human dialects by observation. They themselves seem to have a sort of primitive language of screeches, hoots, warbles, and whistles, which they use to communicate with one another, and hundreds of different "phrases" have been documented.

The Venatosaurus are prone to minor physical mutants that manifest in a diverse selection of phenotypes, such as a variety of colours varying from steely-blue, dark green, and brownish-red, thicker mane-like neck feathers, and keratinous growths around the face, which seem to be considered a sign of visual status among certain clans. Clan structure is poorly understood because it is nearly impossible to penetrate into the heart of their dwellings; few, if any, have seen them and lived to tell about it. When Venatosaurus are born, they have large wings that allow them to glide, or even limited bouts of powered flight, but the larger feathers fall out as they get too heavy to be kept aloft. During hunts, the winged juveniles often act as reconnaissance for the adults due to their greater speed and aerial capabilities. Most Deathrunner clans concentrate themselves around the base and lower slopes of the Skull Mountain. The Iwi say this was not always this way; centuries ago they were the dominant predators of the Skull Isle and widespread across the archipelago in great numbers, when they were beneath the loyal thrawl of one of their own, a mutant individual that had grown gargantuan and become the apex of the endemic megafauna. Only when Kong slew this individual were the Deathrunners ultimately driven back without their alpha to guide the clans under one collective; many of these survivors came to see Kong as their new alpha and cluster around his highland lair, although he evidently does not return the sentiment. Often when killing humans, the Deathrunners do not even consume the mutilated carcass left behind, as though it was only a show of power over the lowly mammalian hunter, or perhaps an act of vengeance for the near-extermination of their species from a bloodsoaked glory age.