Nemean Lion

The Nemean lion takes its name from the Mediterranean district laid waste by the most famous of its kind. It is a rare breed found in certain temperate woodlands, twice the size of a normal lion, with a mane and coat of jet black. Hugely strong, almost all prefer human flesh, though they den in caves in desolate country far from villages, hunt by day, and only occasionally go after people. A Nemean lion tracks by scent with 80% success.

Its most remarkable feature is its hide, which seems to be magical and turns aside every weapon of metal, stone or wood; arrows, swords and clubs barely affect it, and even magic weapons do only half damage. It is not invulnerable, though. Bone weapons have been known to pierce it (the appendix, by contrast, makes it wholly immune to non-magical weapons), a strong, skilled and brave warrior might strangle one, and another Nemean lion's claws can wound it. Chiron the Wise describes a rare duel in which a smaller lion's claws drew blood where the king's best swordsmen had failed, before the larger one killed it.

Scarcer since Chiron's day, they are too dangerous to study closely. They are thought to breed with ordinary lions, most cubs being normal and only a few Nemean. Whoever kills one wins lasting fame. The hide keeps much of its protection after death: skinned with the lion's own razor-sharp claws and cured, it makes a cloak or mantle that stops ordinary weapons, though not enchanted ones, and simply owning one marks its wearer as a mighty champion.