Gk'lok-Lok

A gk'lok-lok is about four feet tall, a frame of slim tubes that gleam like polished steel. A single plant-stalk tube forms the torso, two more form legs with hooked feet, and a pair of arm tubes coil in seemingly random curls. From the neck rise two shining stalks, each topped by an eyeball a quarter the size of its body: a vast black pupil ringed in violet and wrapped in a halo of soft red flame. The stalks twist like snakes so it can see from every angle.

It does not speak aloud but forms words and phrases by twisting its arms into complex shapes. Any spoken tongue is 90% likely to be understood by it, and at will it can use speak with spirits, communicating mentally with the spirit of any creature and with ghosts, spectres and other undead.

Peaceful by nature, it meets trouble by turning invisible at will and slipping off. If it must fight, it fires three-inch steel needles from its arm tips out to 25 feet for 1d2 each, two per round in all, with fresh needles growing inside the tubes. It can also slash with its razor-fine arms for 1d4. Its wiry frame is very hard to hit. Fire, electricity, hypnotism, suggestion, hold, charm and sleep cannot touch it.

A tribe numbers 1,000 to 6,000, and all but two members sleep. The first waking member, the stem, roots itself and grows into a vast green crystal tree bearing hundreds of limbs, cloaked in soft red flame that deals 1d6 to anyone else who touches it (save vs. spell for half). The sleepers hang from its branches for the rest of their lives.

The second, the active member, keeps the dreamers supplied with fresh lives to relive. Spirits must join willingly, and travelers from other planes who die untimely deaths are a common source. Most find the tree a pleasant, safe place to pass part of their afterlife, protected from every enemy and free to mingle with other spirits. One spirit can entertain the tribe for a century or more, since the gk'lok-lok love repeating favorite experiences, so the job is easy.

If the active member dies, a sleeper wakes to replace it. Disturbing any sleeper's rest, or threatening the tree, wakes the entire tribe, which attacks until the threat dies or leaves.

A tribe shares one lifespan, usually around 100,000 years. At its end every sleeper and the active member crumble to dust, and the tree cracks open and launches 1d4 spore balls skyward. After drifting about a century, each releases 1,000 to 6,000 spores that form a new tribe: one becomes the stem, another the new active member, and all others sleepers.

They draw all their nourishment from the air and have no natural enemies.