Lurker in light

Lurker in light

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

NE

Small

Fey

Level

5

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 257

Type

Fey
(extraplanar)

CR

5

Environment

Any land

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 180

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Lurkers in light are evil, alien fey who travel from the First World to enforce an inscrutable justice on other planes.

Appearance

A lurker in light resembles a small, jaundiced, emaciated humanoid about two feet tall and dressed in muted colours, with large white eyes and tiny horns on their bulb-like head. They move with a supernatural grace, and their pale insectile wings are usually folded against their back since their wings move faster than their ability to camouflage themselves in the light.

Lurkers are fully visible only in dim light; they are invisible in any light brighter than that of a torch, in which their presence is made known solely through their unsettling footsteps or laughter. When gathering in groups to prey upon multiple or powerful foes, they usually hide their numbers and present themselves as one individual to lure the target into an illuminate areas.

Abilities

Lurkers in light can emit a mote of supernatural light and launch it at a target, which if affected is then lined with light that prevents it from effectively concealing themselves or becoming invisible. They can also teleport thelmselves while in bright light to another brightly lit area, and blind and harm creatures with magical light.

Lurkers can fly on their wings, but only as quickly as they can move along the ground. They can also speak Aklo, Sylvan, and Common tongues.

Ecology

As fey, lurkers are associated with the First World but are present across the Great Beyond. They particularly enjoy bringing their sadistic nature to the Netherworld, where they create motes of light to torment innocent natives to the plane who are averse to it.

Lurkers are often thieves and brutal killers who sometimes they steal what they wish, and other times they might specifically harm the item's owners even when the item can be safely stolen—their logic is alien and unknowable to mortals. They seem to fixate upon certain enemies and objects according to an inscrutable sense of justice, and refuse to rest until their target is killed or taken.

When a lurker brings a creature near death, they can consume its life in place of the materials otherwise required to summon fey.

A killed lurker's body decays into pale, glowing dust that sheds cold light and can harm shadows.

Society

Lurkers hate druids, noble humans, those who deal with the First World, and especially gnomes; they target gnome communities with violence more than those of any other ancestry. However, lurkers sometimes leave gnomes alone in order to attack others around them.

Lurkers also despise dwarves, darkmantles, yeth hounds, shadows, and creatures from the Netherworld, attacking them and their masters and torturing them to death when possible. They have worked with undead creatures who cannot function in daylight, but otherwise disdain them and have abandoned them at inopportune times.

Particularly knowledgable lurkers gather several of their kind into groups and lead an hour-long ritualistic sacrifice that facilitates planar travel to the Universe, First World, or an Elemental Plane. Each lurker who travels in such a manner requires their own living creature to sacrifice.

On Golarion

Lurkers in light were first spotted on Golarion in the late Age of Enthronement, in northern Ustalav and southern Cheliax before spreading across Avistan in the following decades. Initially, they only observed and shadowed people, but became violent when they realised their advantage. Tales tell of villages depopulated in a day, with phrases written in blood and the corpses of residents arranged into positions of feasting or spiral patterns. Since then, they have become more daring and selective regarding their targets.

Variants

Lurkers in twilight are lurkers in light whose fundamental nature has been twisted, gaining an affinity for dim light instead of bright light.