Manticore

The Manticore makes the leap from "beast" to "monster" pretty easily (yes, it does have the beast trait, but stay with me). It's an iconic creature as far as fantasy creatures are concerned, and was a shoe-in for Bestiary 1 as a must-have.

While this prickly parishioner has a very simple statblock, it is quite elegant in its design. There are a few things to note beyond its signature spike attacks. First, this thing can speak and is intelligent. When the thing that is trying to eat you can also talk to you, it's definitely more unsettling. The bestiary also notes that it likes trophies. Minor, but a good thing to note when placing rewards for the players.

Consider that when you decide you want to use a manticore, you may want to customize it to better fit the theme of your setting. Perhaps some strange subspecies of manticore exists in the desert, and it has a scorpion's tail with the ability to use something akin to Giant Scorpion poison. Perhaps it has a dragon's breath attack, or the ability to gore its foes with horns. With a small core suite of abilities, you can really make it your own.

- Reece 

Hook 1 (Max) - The Price of Chivalry

Manticore Knights are renowned for their skill and ferocity in battle. Clad in jet black armor, they fly atop mighty beasts that strike fear into to hearts of their opponents. They will take anyone in unless their resolve proves frail.

Not much is known about the training of the initiates, but what little records there are available give some interesting points. It lasts anywhere from three to six years, depending on the skill of the adept. Recruits always train in pairs through the entirety of their time there. When they are deemed worthy, they are elected by a young manticore. In the end, a challenge is undertaken by the two of them.

Weirdly enough, you never see two knights on a single manticore—they don't have an infantry division either. Rumors say that the beasts appear to be far smarter than others of their kind, though what that means is hard to discern...

Hook 2 (Nemanja) - Subtleties of the Spire

The spire-city of Kal'Karaz is ruled by dragons, though these scaled rulers rarely come down from their rich gardens in the highest levels of the city into the dirty, poor, Groundlands. Instead, they have several castes of enforcers, each with highly specialized roles. Among the most feared of these are the manticores—big, bestial brutes in contrast to the many shapeshifters of the city. The problem with manticores isn't their (well-earned) reputation for aggression, rather, it is that sending them means the Dragons have abandoned all of their usual subtlety and subterfuge in favour of escalation and raw violence.

Unfortunately, a rowdy, loud group of these enforcers seem to be blocking the door of the exact bar where you're supposed to meet your contact...

Hook 3 (Reece) - The Beasts of the Shadowkeep

The call of the manticore is the worst nightmare of every Sunbringer Acolyte. For as long as the Sunbringer tribes can remember, their people have been preyed upon by a host of undead nightmares, chief among them the Sangir Vampire lords of the mountains. Tucked into the shadowy peaks of the Canus mountains are the Sangir Shadowkeeps—castles shrouded in dark mists, hidden forever from the sun. Within these harrowing halls, the Sangir conduct horrible magical and alchemical experiments in search of a way to fortify themselves against the burning power of the sun. The manticores, alongside the skeletal servants that ride upon them, hunt in the foothills each evening in search of hapless herders or unaware travelers that may be captured and carried away to fuel those horrid experiments.

While the manticore is greatly feared, the Sunbringers have made it their tradition to hunt both the flying beasts and their undead masters in the hope that one day they might free their people from the bloody rule of the Sangir.