Belker

A belker looks unsettlingly like a fiend, a clawed, fanged shape with big black wings, and it resents being mistaken for one. It comes from the Paraelemental Plane of Smoke, where smoke is part of its very substance, and it is proud of the fact. It knows of the Abyss and the Outer Planes only from stories and has never been to them. Belkers claim to love peace and solitude, though their habits suggest otherwise.

In solid form a belker fights with two claws for 1d3 each and a 1d4 bite, or with buffets of its wings for 1d6 each, which it favors while in smoke form. It can turn wholly or partly to smoke at will for up to 20 rounds per day, not necessarily in a row, but the wings always stay solid.

While even part of it is vaporous, its magic resistance is doubled and only weapons of +1 or better can touch it. Its favorite trick against air-breathers is to become smoke and be inhaled. The victim, gagging on the fumes, must save vs. poison; on a failure the belker solidifies a claw inside his body, automatically dealing 3d4 damage each round. He gets a fresh save vs. poison every round to cough it out.

The smoke form has weaknesses: cold deals double damage, gust of wind can hurl the belker as far as a mile, and wind wall traps it as a hold spell would. In any form it ignores fire and heat, and it cannot be poisoned, paralyzed or petrified. Oddly, it can harm creatures in smoke or mist form that are normally untouchable, and is said to be able to destroy a vampire in mist form.

Belkers mostly live alone, seeking company only when their baser urges demand it, and then briefly. Sometimes they hunt in packs, bringing prey down fast; when very hungry they eat quickly, and otherwise they take their time, relishing the screams of soft-fleshed victims. They breed now and then out of boredom, and the young must fend for themselves from birth.

Rare floating cinders are almost the only solid ground on their plane, and a belker lairing on one kills any intruder, its own kind included.

It eats whatever it likes, mostly vapor rats and smoke mephits, though it scorns the scholars who think it kin to the mephits. Anything new that crosses its path is too tempting to pass up, including visitors who stop to talk.