Dark Creeper

Dark creepers are hard to see and easy to smell. They never bathe and supposedly never undress, simply pulling fresh garments over the old ones as the inner layers rot away. A sharp nose often catches the reek of one before any eye spots it.

Each creeper fights as a 4th-level thief and excels at stealth. A typical one moves silently 70% of the time, hides in shadows 65%, climbs walls 60%, and has lesser odds elsewhere: picking pockets and detecting noise 15% each, opening locks 10%, finding traps 5%, and reading languages 0%.

Darkness is its weapon. Three times a day it can create darkness, and it does so at once against any group carrying physical light. Every nonmagical light within 50' goes out and cannot be rekindled for 1 hour; magical light has a 50% chance of failing for the same hour, and infravision stops working. A subsequent light or continual light spell cancels the effect. Creepers fight in the dark without penalty, but in normal light they are only AC 10, so they keep using the power until it runs out.

Under cover of blackness the creeper slips into the party, stealing or ruining light sources first and magic second, preferring powerful, portable items such as daggers, rings and jewelry. An innate detect magic with a 15' range points it straight to them, and it takes them by the fastest means available, which has cost more than one adventurer a finger. It either fights to the death or runs; surrender and bargaining mean nothing to it.

A slain creeper bursts into searing white flame. Creatures facing it within 10' must save vs. magic or be blinded for 1-6 turns. Its body and all nonmetal, nonmagical gear burn away; metal survives 80% of the time, and any enchanted item, metal or not, needs a successful save vs. magical fire to keep its magic. Every other creeper present must check morale or flee. Illusory death-flames can have the same effect on any creeper that fails to save against the illusion.

Their tongue has defeated every linguist who has tried it, and their customs are a mystery. They dwell in perpetually dark villages of 20 to 80 far below ground, with traps, pits and deadfalls scattered along the approaches. Each village surrounds a hole or rough stair down to deeper caverns, an escape route that is also a deadly drop for anyone who rushes in blind. Small magic items are sometimes found on the rim, which may be markers the creepers locate with detect magic. Groups of 25 or more are typically led by a dark stalker, a taller cousin they fear and obey.

Nobody knows what creepers eat. Some guess at minerals such as sulphur, oil or potassium; others claim they feed on magic itself and that stolen items gradually fade in their keeping.

Because they hoard small magic, creepers usually carry loot. About a quarter of a creeper's hoard is tucked into its rotting layers: a 15% chance of a magical dagger, a 5% chance of a magical ring, and a 40% chance of jewelry (1-2 pieces) or gems (1-4). A lair holds roughly four times what is carried, plus 1-100 pp and 5-500 gp per resident creeper.