An undernourished tharga beast is standing here.

[Blue Beetle]

Anyone seen one of these beasts before? I was having a stroll just now south of the Ramtop mountains through the countryside, and...

The land is lit up by the eerie light of the waxing half moon.
This section of the endless countryside is covered in gently rolling hills that
undulate slightly, breaking up the horizon. The night light casts the odd
shadow across the untamed natural beauty of the grasslands. Rolling grassland
stretches out to the north, east, south, west, northeast, southeast, southwest
and northwest.
It is a very cold spring prime's night with a steady breeze and many puffy
clouds.
There are four obvious exits: journey north, journey east, journey south and
journey west.
An undernourished tharga beast is standing here.



What's a tharga beast?

[guest]

I could be wrong, but I think this is a Douglas Adams reference? Hitchhiker's Guide, et al.
*making sandwiches for the greater glory of Bob*

[bingles]

I just ran across this reference to a tharga in Equal Rites:

Esk stared at the patchwork quilt under the old woman, because there were times when a little detail could expand and fill the whole world. She barely heard Cern start to cry: she remembered lien father, strangely enough, making the quilt two winters before when the snow was almost as bad and there wasn't much to do in the forge, and how he'd used all kinds of rags that had found their way to Bad Ass from every part of the world, like silk, dilemma leather, water cotton and tharga wool and, of course, since he wasn't much good at sewing either, the result was a rather strange lumpy thing more like a flat tortoise than a quilt, and her mother had generously decided to give it to Granny last Hogswatchnight, and ....

They must be woolly.

Mort also references a tharga herder:

...in the Ramtop mountains a tharga-herder, searching by lamplight in the high meadows for a lost cow, missed his footing and plunged over a ...

Perhaps something sheep or goat like that can be herded?

[Blue Beetle]

I'm out there at the moment with my wizzard. I'll go and have a look along the trail to see if I can get a description.

[guest]

No, that's the Perfectly Normal Beast.

[Blue Beetle]

Here we go, just spotted one high in the mountains in the SW Ramtop area, east of the Vieux River (not really narrowing it down I know, sorry):

A weak summer sun shines from high above and through the thick light grey cloud cover, barely touching the stone surfaces and lighting up edges and cliffs that might once, long ago, have seen moss or lichen growing on them. Now, however, the rock looks bare and dead, with crevices awaiting the unwary traveller.
It is a freezing cold summer prime's morning with almost no wind and dense
cloud cover.
There are four obvious exits: north, climb east, south and climb west.
An undernourished tharga beast is standing here.

(l beast)

> The relatively lush groundcover of the summer months seems to hold very little appeal for this rather thin-looking quadruped. His woebegone expression suggests that he feels rather sorry for himself, and even his curly horns seem to be drooping pathetically.
He is in good shape.
He is standing.