Marikith

Marikith are hulking, heavily muscled humanoids sheathed in tough, black, leathery hide that slides easily through slick sewers and tunnels without slowing them. Glowing red eyes would give them away, but they can veil them at will, revealing them only when it is time to strike.

Marikith always hunt in groups, overwhelming victims by numbers, yet a lone survivor whose fellows have fallen battles until slain. No marikith flees unless their queen commands it, and when they do, they carry off every corpse they can to keep their existence hidden.

Claws and incisors rip prey apart, though they prefer to snatch victims off the street and haul them underground to eat at leisure. Their hide halves damage from bludgeoning weapons.

Born to darkness, they suffer -1 in faint light, -2 when it is dim, and -4 under bright light. Their infravision reaches 120 feet, while their skin hides their body heat, so anyone using infravision has only a 25% chance of seeing one and then just a faint blur.

They love to let fear ripen first. Slithers and scuffles in the dark build the victim's dread to fever pitch, and when the attack finally comes, the target must save vs. spells or fight at -2 from terror. By the time the guard answers the screams, nothing is left.

Marikith are common in one walled city of the misty dread realm, yet seldom seen. Their communal hive is carved out beneath it and ruled by the Hive Queen, an ancient, bloated, spiderlike horror who commands her brood by a hive telepathy reaching about 5 miles. Their society has just two castes: the Queen and the hunters, who feed her and tend her young. She exists only to eat and breed, spawning mostly hunters and occasionally a new queen. Only one hive is known.

They have never been seen outside that city, though some of the brood may have been carried away. Perhaps young queens are dealt with somewhere beyond the walls. If the city ever falls, the eggs will be moved elsewhere, no one knows where. The hive seems bound to the city, having lasted exactly as long.

They need both meat and fear to live, as if terror itself nourished them. Rumor says they were once humans who hunted the weak at their queen's bidding, grew addicted to the fear they caused, and sank into joyless servitude.