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Faceless stalker

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Faceless stalker
Faceless stalkers.
(Creature)

Shapechanging aberrations, faceless stalkers are not creatures of the natural world, but a race crafted as a weapon in ancient days before the fall of the Starstone. Also known as ugothol in the Alghollthu language, their purpose was nothing less than the infiltration and destruction of ancient human civilizations.1

Appearances

Faceless stalkers are dark crimson masses of pliant flesh and scaly skin. Their bodies, while humanoid in shape, are completely lacking in facial features. The whole body is covered in the same crimson skin with no difference in colouration anywhere on their bodies. The pliancy of its flesh is also completely inhuman as no humanoid creature should be able to move the way faceless stalkers move. It does, however, possess vicious claws.2

Habitat and ecology

Faceless stalkers tend to dwell in swamps. The earliest faceless stalkers tried to return to the water where their aquatic masters, the alghollthus, dwell; however, they are not aquatic so, instead, they settled in the coastal swamps as close to their masters as possible. Faceless stalkers are also often found in the villages of other humanoids.3 Faceless stalkers are known to lurk within the sewers of the Chelish city of Vyre where they menace the criminals that use it like a buried road network.4 They were originally created as weapons against the burgeoning humanoid empires and were used to infiltrate their societies and collapse them from within. Much of this original mission still remains within faceless stalkers' primal instincts. As such they often infiltrate small villages, gradually killing and replacing all of the original residents. Then, they proceed to squander the community's resources until they are entirely used up, then they move on. Faceless stalker tribes rarely number more than a dozen, as any larger tribes tend to collapse from in-fighting. Ironically, as creations of the atheist alghollthus, many faceless stalkers are themselves religious, often worshiping the parasite deity Ghlaunder.3

The ecology of the faceless stalker as creations of the alghollthus is unique and wholly unnatural. They were designed as an infiltrating weapon. Their bodies have no bone as bones would hinder the elasticity and thus their role as infiltrators. Instead their entire body is made of the same rubbery flesh. Their feeding is one of the most alien parts of their nature. As they have no mouths, they feed on the bodily fluids of their victims by sucking it through proboscis-like feeding tubes. The most disturbing part of this is that they prefer living victims. While it cannot be used as an attack, the sight of a faceless stalker feeding on a bound victim is enough to turn even the most heroic warrior's stomach.3

Abilities

A faceless stalker can change its appearance to mimic any medium humanoid and the body of a faceless stalker is so elastic it can easily move through tight spaces.2

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

  1. Logan Bonner, et al. “Monsters A-Z” in Bestiary, 13. Paizo Inc., 2019
  2. 2.0 2.1 Jason Bulmahn, et al. “Bestiary” in The Skinsaw Murders, 88. Paizo Inc., 2007
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jason Bulmahn, et al. “Bestiary” in The Skinsaw Murders, 89. Paizo Inc., 2007
  4. Richard Pett. Vyre” in Dance of the Damned, 69. Paizo Inc., 2015