Beguiler

Small-dog sized, the beguiler is a round, mouselike animal with a pointed snout, big ears and large, shining black eyes. Its silky blue-black fur fetches a high price once cured. Razor-sharp retractable claws and a bare, prehensile tail let it scramble up trees and wooden walls.

Four clawed feet strike for 1-2 each and the bite for 1-4, though all four claws come into play only when it sits atop a prone foe. The tail lashes for 1 point or wields a short sword or smaller weapon, thrown or swung, for normal weapon damage at -2 to hit.

Permanent true sight means invisibility and illusions fail against it, displaced foes like the phase panther show up where they really are, and ethereal creatures near the Prime Material can be seen and struck easily.

For 1-4 turns its fur can mimic any background, even plaid, and if it stays motionless it hides in shadows 80% of the time. The trick fails whenever its fur is damp.

It roams the dry eastern grassland steppes and is very rare elsewhere on its world. An omnivore, it loves water-filled cacti and also eats mice plus the eggs and chicks of ground birds. Only hunger drives it to attack anything larger than itself.

Alchemists pay gold equal to its experience value for a carcass. Its eyes and forebrain can replace the usual components for detect invisibility, locate object, true sight and vision, and some casters reportedly preserve its camouflage in a cured pelt.

Grassland peoples raise weaned young as watch-pets, and some mages of the northern moors keep them as familiars, gaining a knack for spotting concealed things and slipping into shadow.