Badger / Giant Badger

Badgers are stocky, low-slung burrowers clad in coarse grizzled fur, marked by a pale stripe running from snout to spine and black badges on each cheek. Their short, powerful legs end in long digging claws that rip through hard soil and, when the animal is cornered, through flesh. Quick-tempered and fearless out of all proportion to their size, badgers fight to the death rather than abandon their dens, snapping for an enemy's throat and belly. They hunt by night for rodents and grubs, dragging kills back underground to devour whole. A rare giant breed, twice the common size, haunts remote forests, hitting harder and angrier, but otherwise identical in form and habit.