Resplendent Cloaker

This creature resembles a grand cloak with a shimmering, iridescent back and a brilliant white lining. Its claws pass for golden clasps, and its eyes form what looks like a collar of fiery, many-colored gems. It shines constantly, so both it and anyone wearing it are easy to spot from far away.

Observers believe resplendent cloakers speak to one another by brightening and dimming their light. Anyone who tries to reach one's mind directly must make a madness check.

The cloaker likes to wait draped over furniture or spread on the floor. When a likely host approaches, it bursts with a blinding flash equal to color spray cast by a 6th-level wizard, a power it can use three times a day. While the target reels, it swoops in to seize the back of the neck. That successful attack roll deals no damage; it simply anchors the cloaker, which then works on its host like a ring of regeneration.

It can also engulf a foe. A wrapped victim suffers a color spray effect every round, cannot attack, and cannot use spells or powers with somatic or verbal components. Damage to the cloaker while it holds someone is split evenly between them, and area spells such as fireball hit both at full force.

Whenever the cloaker is hurt, it heals itself that same round by pulling life from its host, taking 2 hit points from the host for each 1 it restores. If this kills the host, the cloaker lets go and looks for another.

Pulling one off requires a bend bars/lift gates roll, after which both creature and host must succeed at a system shock roll or die on the spot. Even survivors are left stunned and paralyzed until they receive a heal spell. Smothering the glow under heavy fabric or a darkness spell costs the cloaker 1 hit point per round, which it promptly replaces by draining 2 from its host when it can.

Because it is drawn to pain and bloodshed, folk believe the creature senses disaster before it strikes, and its arrival is taken as a dark omen. Some still treasure it for its healing touch, while others loathe how it makes a host a walking beacon. Thieves who mistook one for a magic cloak have murdered more than one wearer, and still more have been run down by predators following the light.

The resplendent cloaker survives by mending others, though no one knows how healing nourishes it. It must restore at least 1 hit point each day. After 4 days with nothing to heal, it abandons its host for richer pickings. Magical healing on the host drives it off at once and inflicts damage equal to the amount that would have been healed, applied to both cloaker and host.