The Harpies are also known as the Hounds of the Divine. Most mortals have only seen the Harpies as blurs and screams, but they do indeed look like women with the wings and talons of eagles in place of their arms and legs. They are fast, almost as fast as the wind, and able to foul the elements around them, and can scream as loud as the winter winds through the leafless trees.
They are the manifestations of the Wind and Storms and sent as punishment by those powerful enough to bind them. The harpies, despite the fact that they are known for being bound by the gods to punish and harry mortals who displease them, are intelligent beings, with a culture and relationships of their own. They live and nest in the highest of crags, places where no one but the bravest of heroes can approach. They fish like the eagles of the highest point, and sometimes will barter small objects from other intelligent species, typically by meeting with fishing boats who don't attack them on sight and trading fish for other items. They value jewelery, though not gems, and other adornments, weapons that they can use despite their lack of hands, ritual materials and sacrifices for their gods, and wind instruments.
Harpies have been known to carry off items and people as part of their role as punishments, and some believe that people carried off become harpies themselves, and possibly even that this is their method of procreation. This is, unfortunately, false. The harpies are the children of the marriage of wind and rain. They are born when a storm brings the two together in a flood of raging passion, and the harpy comes fully grown from the froth and sea spray, screaming their first keen of ecstasy and rage.
The harpies are typically considered agents of the divine, and as such, often engage in a lot of ritual and worship of the divinities they commune with. The priests of deities of wind and storm will sometimes brave the cliffs and spray of the harpies in order to enter their temples. These temples are often open air small shelters perched on small rocks with a scraped ritual circle, or a speakers rock set above a seating area. Sacrificing or preaching in one of these temples is said to show the favour of the gods of storms and wind, though a typical pilgrimage is also a show of divine favour. The harpies, respecting the gods, will rarely harry these mortals without being asked, though often don't treat these mortals differently than any other.
Raptor Claws: Power +1 VA - Add 2 WS X Shortest If the Harpy is engaged at range missle and successfully performs a Charge/Tackle, consider their net success to be a Lock as well, and the Locked character, if immobilized, now can be carried off.
Wings For Arms: Harpies cannot use anything that requires hands or longarms, they do not have any, having feathered wings in their place. They cannot grasp objects with their wings without risking the safety of their pinion feathers. As such they are limited in what they can use safely, when they use their wings for anything held or with force, they have a chance to be unable to fly (recovery is covered in the Feathered trait).
Elemental Fouling: The Harpy can foul the elements, spoiling the stores of ships, ruining cook fires, and rending their things inert or worthless. While passing above an elemental source, the harpies can prevent elemental sources from rendering them devoid of their value to mortals. Food spoils, wood will not light, fire gives no heat, water cannot clean or give life. A priest or spirit binder can prevent this from happening, typically by casting out the harpies. Preventing this is a roll of Spirit Binding or Faith versus the Faith of the Harpies themselves, the Harpies will often swarm to attempt to punish a mortal by fouling something (food or water being the most common), and use the Helping rules for Faith to force this to happen.
Hound of the Divine: Despite the fact that they are not traditional spirits, Harpies can be Bound like Nameless Spirits and they can be Summoned by Summoners. Summoners are warned that they cannot be held within the Summoner's Gate meaning that they are wild and free during the bargaining, but they are usually happy to bargain.
If a Spirit Binder can get up to the wild places where the harpies live or otherwise near a large group, they can bind several harpies to their will, traditionally to punish a mortal. The obstacle to bind harpies is the highest Will amongst the harpies, plus one for each additional harpy. Retribution still applies to the binder, but can likely be offset with the correct bargaining or gifts.
Summoners can bring harpies to them, and then Bargain with them as normal for Minor Corporeal Spirits, the summoner, as usual, must know enough about the harpies they are summoning, traditionally the name of the harpy, or the name of the temple they worship in. If a harpy is summoned successfully, additional Bargaining successes can be used to add additional harpies to the service.
A Burning Wheel Monster Every Week