Marrashi

Called the winged archer, the marrashi (plural marrash) has dark vulture wings, a human body and arms, parrot claws and a jackal's head. Its voice is a cracked screech, and it is never without its bow and arrows.

Grounded, it fights poorly, scratching with each clawed hand for 1d2 and biting for 1d6. Airborne it is far more dangerous. It grips the bow with its talons and draws the string with its hands, adding power to each shot and giving its flight an odd tumbling look. It looses two arrows per round and never suffers range penalties.

Barbed arrows deal 1d8+2. Diseased arrows deal 1d6+2 and force a save vs. petrification; failure means a fatal illness that kills in 1d20 days unless cured by a cure disease from a priest of at least 7th level or a healing proficiency check at -5. Anyone near the sick person must save vs. petrification daily or catch it too until it is cured.

Rarest of all is the taklif arrow; a marrashi never holds more than one, almost always saved for humans or demihumans, since those bred from other races seldom survive. Its disease looks the same but kills within a day if untreated. Curing it within six hours requires a combination of cure disease, dispel evil and bless; after that only heal or limited wish can help, and either also cures the illness earlier.

Marrash are evil plague spirits that normally dwell on the Outer Planes but will sometimes work for an evil genie or wizard, paid in treasure and the chance to sow disease. Wizards versed in their summoning can bring them to the Prime Material. There, they secretly breed through taklif arrows, so their offspring may one day avenge their parents' bondage.

A taklif victim's spirit is slowly consumed by the growing marrashi within, and once nothing is left, the victim dies and the embryo begins reshaping the corpse. Neither raise dead nor resurrection can restore such a victim, though a carefully worded wish can. Left in a grave, the body rises as a new marrashi after 1d6 days; cremation kills the embryo. Having eaten the victim's spirit, the newborn sometimes keeps memories and personality, and its alignment drifts to lawful evil over 1d3 weeks. Once a newborn sheds its host's skin it is on its own, maturing fast in wastelands where it robs vultures of carrion and waylays solitary travelers to spawn still more.

On the Prime Material they are summoned servants with little ecological impact, apart from the plagues that sometimes ravage whole cities.