View source for Cloaker

{{Creature
| image       = [[File:Protective Shardra.jpg|250px|Cloakers on the attack]]
| name        = Cloaker
| type        = [[Aberration]]
| subtype     = 
| challenge   = 5
| environment = Underground
| alignment   = {{Alignment grid/CN}}
| adjective   = 
| imagesof    = cloakers
| source      = [[Pathfinder Bestiary]]
| page        = 47
}}

'''Cloakers''', or '''fulthrethus''', look like monstrous [[manta ray]]s that have long tails that end in a bony whip. Horns beside their heads end in thumb-like claws and are as black as their oversize skin. Their underside is pale and it contains a fang-filled mouth and two red eyes. Their wings spread farther than a grown man can reach, and they fly quickly at an average quality.

Cloakers were created by [[alghollthu]]s in order to spy on their [[Azlanti]] thralls. Loyal Azlanti leaders were rewarded with cloaker bodyguards and assassins.

When the alghollthus destroyed [[Old Azlant]], they cast out the cloakers, who fled to the [[Darklands]]. Most aquatic cloakers returned to serve the alghollthus, but the remainder informally serve the [[Great Old Ones]].

Cloakers in the Darklands are equally distributed between [[Sekamina]] and [[Orv]]. Cloakers tend to avoid [[Nar-Voth]] due to its proximity to the surface and its many [[humanoid]] settlements.

Cloakers may have tattoos that resemble [[Varisian tattoo]]s, but the source of the cloakers' tattoos is a much different and much older in origin.<ref name=DDR-14>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|14}}</ref>

== Variants ==
* '''Amphibious:''' Devolved closer to their original ancestors, amphibious cloakers can breath water as well as air and swim like others fly. There may be examples so regressed, they can no longer breath air and have returned to the aquatic service of their creators.<ref name=DDR-13>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|13}}</ref>

* '''Fungoid:''' Some cloakers can become infected with one or more strains of parasitic fungi or mold, avoiding the negative side effects due to their alien biology but forming a symbiotic relationship with their new passenger. Fungoid cloakers can be distinguished by the layer of fungal growth on their bodies, which ruins their ability to pose as an article of clothing but allows them to better pose as mounds of refuse. While many fungoid cloakers are bonded to harmless mushrooms or bioluminescent fungi, others become host to [[russet mold]], [[Violet fungus|violet mold]],  [[brown mold]], or [[yellow mold]].<ref name=DDR-13>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|13}}</ref>

* '''Halfbreed:''' Crossbreeds of cloakers and rays. Looked down on by all other cloakers for their slow wits and lack of magical abilities, they typically serve as thuggish muscle for their purebred kin and parents. Halfbreed cloakers are sterile with each other but fecund with normal cloakers and rays, in which cases thier offspring will always be the species of the other parent.<ref name=DDR-13>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|13}}</ref>

* '''Shadowbrood:''' Midnight-black cloakers believed to be infused with the power of the [[Plane of Shadow]]. Sometimes mistake for incorporeal undead, shadowbrood cloakers have innate magical powers linked to the darkness.<ref name=DDR-13>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|13}}</ref>

* '''Stinger:''' Cloakers whose tails bear a jagged, venomous stinger.<ref name=DDR-14>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|14}}</ref>

* '''Vampire:''' The result of cloakers practicing parthenogenesis, typically as a result of a cloaker becoming isolated and thinking itself the last of its kind. Yellow-gray in coloration, vampire cloakers attach to other creatures and drink their blood like giant [[leech]]es.<ref name=DDR-14>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|14}}</ref>

* '''Webspinner:''' The result of [[drow]] [[fleshwarping]] cloakers with [[arachnid]]s and [[ettercap]]s. Webspinner cloakers can spin webs and shoot web nets, and many also have venomous fangs or stingers.<ref name=DDR-14>{{Cite book/Dungeon Denizens Revisited|14}}</ref>

== References ==

{{Refs}}

{{Alghollthu navbox|creation}}

[[Category:Aberrations]]
[[Category:CR 5 creatures]]
[[Category:Chaotic neutral creatures]]
[[Category:Underground terrain creatures]]