Sarhuk the Thrax

Some years ago the dread realm's mists reached across to the desert world and swallowed a city-state whose mad high templar was botching a terrible spell. Most of its people, and those of a neighboring town, died; survivors rebuilt under the templar. Unknown to him, the dark powers brought other desert horrors along, and among the worst is Sarhuk.

Sarhuk is a thrax. Seen from any distance, he could be taken for a half-dwarf, the dwarf-human hybrid found only on the desert world. He has dark, reddish skin, elfin ears, a wrestler's massive build, and pale blue eyes that, when thirst does not madden him, show a keen mind. A closer look, especially at his hands, reveals the truth: overlong fingers that flare at the tips into revolting suckers. He speaks his city's language and no other, and cannot read or write.

He stalks in shadow form, which slows him to movement 6 but makes him nearly undetectable. While a shadow he cannot cross well-lit open areas, can be found only by magic or psionics, and can neither attack nor be attacked. Once he chooses a victim, he becomes solid and strikes with startling speed.

Against an armored target he first uses cause decay, which requires an attack roll to touch the armor; on success the armor instantly corrodes to junk unless it saves vs. acid. Once the victim is unarmored, Sarhuk's heavy blows deal 2d6 each, and an unarmored foe he hits must save vs. petrification or have the suckers fastened to bare flesh, starting to drain that same round. If armor survives, or the victim's AC benefits from Dexterity or magic such as a ring of protection, the chance to reach skin is 10% times the target's AC (30% against plate armor). Anyone with AC 0 or better is safe from the drain, though Sarhuk can still beat him to death.

Draining needs roughly a minute for each 20 pounds the victim weighs, so roughly 10 minutes for a 200-pound man. As each round ends, the victim gives up one-fifth of the hit points he had when draining began and must save vs. death or pass out from pain, with a cumulative -2 penalty each round after the first that also applies to anything he tries to do. Once 75% of his water is gone he passes out automatically, and the pain prevents spellcasting and psionics throughout.

Victims who die become dry husks that look mummified from afar and crumble into fine dust at a touch; once the corpse breaks apart, resurrection is impossible. Anyone who escapes after Sarhuk has tasted his fluids must save vs. death or begin turning into a thrax, a change taking 2-4 (1d3+1) weeks of maddening thirst and pain. Remove curse during that period ends the change at once; afterward only a wish can help. Only humans can be transformed.

His psionic powers all come from psychometabolism: the sciences shadow form and complete healing, plus the devotions double pain, displacement, cause decay and aging.

When the city was taken, Sarhuk was stalking a merchant on a barren hill. The young man suddenly fell dead of no visible cause as Sarhuk felt a stab of pain; he drained the body anyway, then looked up to find the familiar spire and ridge gone and the city now an island in the silt sea.

As the city has regrown, he has stayed hidden by feeding on runaway slaves, lone travelers on the road to the nearby town and the odd adventurer. Conversations with outsiders have taught him a little about the dread realm, and he means to leave the city and wander its other lands, rightly believing there are few if any thraxes there. That anonymity would let him hunt openly again, which he craves above all.

His kind have always been known and hated on the desert world, and he knows the city would band together to destroy him if his presence came out. He therefore destroys his victims' bodies, lets no victim live to spread word of him, and takes great care never to create another thrax.