Stalker of the endless dunes skin#

At close range, after its initial shout, a dune stalker would usually resort to leaping from target to target and 'kissing' them. The stalker favored attacking its target first, followed by whichever opponent seemed the strongest, followed by whichever opponent seemed the most good. If its target was a part of a group, it would announce its presence with its deafening shout attack, to disorient the members, and then leap at its specific target and try to instantly kill her or him with the 'kiss'. It would climb or jump onto high ground and hide, so that it could leap down in surprise and deliver its kiss of death. Once a dune stalker had tracked its prey, its preferred tactic was to set up an ambush, usually in a rocky area where it was the most content. They could not speak-their vocal chords seemed limited to their use as a weapon-but they could understand the Common tongue and Terran, although some sages speculated that they could not hear sounds at all in the range used by most Material Plane inhabitants. In addition to its sonic abilities, a dune stalker was also a skilled climber and a superb jumper, being able to spring much higher or farther than would be guessed. To bystanders, the kiss of death sounded like a muted trumpet blast. If the vibrations did not slay the victim, they were still enough to stun him or her for several seconds. The dune stalker attempted to set these vibrations at a resonance that would prove instantly lethal to the victim.

Stalker of the endless dunes skin#

A dune stalker would press its mouth against the victim's face or other exposed skin and emit powerful sonic waves that would vibrate through the victim's whole body. ДЄn even stranger use of its vocal chords was what surviving victims called its 'kiss of death'. This sonic blast was so intense as to deafen most creatures within about 20 yards (eighteen meters) of the stalker and to cause physical harm. This allowed it to generated a deafening sound described as a 'rasping cough' or an 'eerie, nasal roar'. Mundane weapons caused little harm to a dune stalker's flesh, and they were inherently resistant to the Weave, though obviously not so resistant as to avoid being summoned.ДЄ dune stalker's massive chest allowed it to inhale vast quantities of dry air, which it could cause to resonate in a special chamber in its nasal passages. Once summoned to the Material, a dune stalker was essentially trapped, as it had no magical abilities, let alone the ability to plane shift back home. AbilitiesДЄ dune stalker was similar to an invisible stalker in that it was an extraplanar, elemental creature called to the Material Plane because of its uncanny tracking abilities. In such a case, the frustrated dune stalker would simply murder anything it could find to vent its perpetual rage. It was thus possible to trap a dune stalker on the Material Plane by giving it an impossible task to fulfill. They relentlessly sought to fulfill their task as literally and as quickly as possible and focused on nothing else, though they would stop to kill a good creature if it happened to cross their path. When summoned, they were assigned a mission-usually an assassination-which they had to fulfill to the letter to be returned to their plane. It was no surprise then that they loathed being summoned and used by spellcasters. They especially hated the Material Plane, and the only locations there that they could tolerate were deserts. They despised cool temperatures and any sort of moisture. They would attack any creature on sight that they assumed was noble. The only happiness dune stalkers took was in spreading evil.

Дune stalkers were hairless and had reddish orange skin that was dusty and abrasive.

Both its fingers and its toes ended in razor-sharp claws. Each of a dune stalker's hands and feet had four fingers or toes instead of five. ДЄ dune stalker had long arms that dragged on the ground. It had many sharp teeth, large eyes, and a long, narrow nose. Some who had encountered the vile creatures described the head as oval others as triangular with a pointed chin. Its head connected to its neck close to the back, such that its face drooped below the shoulders. It had a very broad chest, wide at the shoulders and narrowing to a narrow waist. It appeared to be about seven feet (210 cm) tall, but it would actually be taller if not for the fact that it had a severely stooped posture.

A dune stalker was roughly humanoid, with a bony, gangly frame.