- For other Equines, see Equine.
The rise of the Calnar can be attributed to many things. One of the most significant was this powerful animal, domesticated and bred to serve the needs of the Khalkist dwarves.
The Calnar horse is a beautiful creature, the color of beaten gold, with a flowing white mane. The horse is exceptionally long-legged, and its hooves are very wide and surrounded by shaggy fetlocks as white as the mane. The shoulder of a Calnar horse is six feet or more above the ground, significantly larger than a typical draft horse.
Combat[]
The Calnar horse is not an instinctively combative creature, and many of them are simply used as beasts of burden. These horses have only one attack per round (when untrained), and inflict 1-8 points of damage on a successful hit.
Many of the steeds are trained as warhorses. These include those ridden by the dwarven patrols who frequently scour the frontiers of Thorin, as well as a few dozen warhorses quartered in the keep and the magnificent mounts ridden by the clan chieftain and his loyal bodyguards (known as the Ten). The latter 11 horses each have the maximum 40 hit points allowed for the breed.
A Calnar horse trained as a warhorse carries its rider into a lumbering charge. The mount and rider do not travel as quickly as some lighter horses and their human riders, but they can hit their targets with tremendously crushing force. In melee, the horse stomps with its two forehooves (1-8 points of damage) and bites (1-4 points of damage). Any victim directly behind the horse can be attacked with a crushing kick of the rear hooves for 1-1 2 points of damage. The horse can make all four attacks in the same round.
The warhorses of the Ten, as well as any Calnar horse fully outfitted for battle, will be barded in plate (AC 2) or chain mail (AC 4) armor. Plate mail lowers the horses' movement to 8. Chain mail lowers movement to 10.
Capacity[]
The Calnar horse plods through depths of snow that would stop any other horse. It can travel in up to three feet of snow with no effect on its movement, and is slowed to half movement by snow depths of three to five feet. In depths greater than five feet it can advance with a kind of lunging, swimming motion that still allows it to move at one-third normal speed.
The horse's normal carrying capacity, its encumbered (half-speed) load, and its fully encumbered (one-third speed) load are 280/ 420/600.
The horses are often employed to haul wagons, and sometimes will be harnessed together in hitches of two, four, eight, or 16horse teams. The larger hitches are used to haul cargos of stone or ore, and require a fairly smooth-surfaced road.