Wampa

Species: Wampa
Planet of Origin: Hoth

DEXTERITY 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
Search: tracking (Arctic) 6D
Sneak: Arctic 7D
STRENGTH 7D

Special Abilities:
Claws: STR+1 damage
Teeth: STR+2 damage
Camouflage: +3D to sneak in arctic climates, heat-diffusing body adds +2D to sneak versus sensors.
Howling: Wampa howls are a rudimentary form of communication that allows wampas to coordinate attacks; these howls are virtually indistinguishable from the sound of Hoth’s winds.

Move: 13
Size: 3 meters tall
Orneriness: 3D

Background: Wampas, or wampa ice creatures, were a carnivorous, semi-sentient white-furred primitive species of mammal which dwelled on the snow-clad planet Hoth.

Creatures such as the tauntaun were prey to the wampa. However, all of the fifteen tauntaun subspecies were agile and swift, being able to run at speeds up to 90 kilometers per hour, and thus could usually outrun the wampa ice creature. Moreover, a tauntaun’s horns could be used defensively against their predators. In order to close in on the creatures, wampa used their white fur as camouflage to aid in ambushing their prey before stunning or slaying it with razor-sharp fangs and claws. The predators would then drag the helpless catch with their powerful arms to a cave, within which the prey would be hung upside-down, to await being consumed in due time. Wampas also hunted rayboo and were willing to hunt humans.

The establishment of Echo Base displaced a wampa clan that lived in the caves of what would become the base. Vicious wampas would occasionally sneak into the base in the dead of night, forcing the closure of various passageways. On one occasion, the Rebel Leia Organa, the Wookiee Chewbacca, and the astromech droid R2-D2 were involved in such a situation.

Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Rebel Alliance member Luke Skywalker was attacked by the wampa patriarch of the displaced clan while scouting the Hoth ice wastes with his tauntaun. It feasted on the tauntaun after hanging Luke from the ceiling of its cave. Luke used the Force to retrieve his lightsaber, which had fallen into the snow, and used it to free himself. The wampa noticed and tried to intervene, but Luke cut off its arm.

During the Battle of Hoth, several cold weather assault stormtroopers were slain by a wampa after opening a door to a room with a clearly marked warning sign. After several days, the wampa that lost his arm to Skywalker recovered enough to hunt again, although it was an adjustment to do so with only one arm. After growing strong enough for the venture, the wampa made its way to Echo Base, only to find it abandoned due to the still-recent Battle of Hoth. The wampa thus reclaimed the caves as his home and hoped to reunite his clan.

Throughout galactic history, Trandoshan hunters like Garnac’s hunting guild often kept trophies such as wampa hide at lodges such as on Wasskah. At one point during the High Republic Era, a still-living wampa was consumed by a Drengir.

During her childhood Jyn Erso owned a doll resembling a wampa. The TIE fighter pilot who flew under the callsign Black Eleven was nicknamed “Wampa.”

In his palace Grakkus the Hutt owned, among other creatures, a wampa.

By 34 ABY, a single wampa hide could be found in Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities on Batuu.

Appearances: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back