Scathe

A scathe is hairless and uniformly milk-white, with thick, leathery skin. A thin membrane runs from each arm down to the knee, and its long foot claws curl under the soles to act as built-in ice skates. Spreading the membranes like sails, it races across frozen plains. Its close relative is the harrier, a jungle hunter that uses the same membranes to glide between trees.

Packs of adults hunt mostly at night. Their infravision reaches 120 feet, and they can sense the body heat of a human-sized creature up to a mile away. Their own bodies run barely warmer than the surroundings, so infravision is close to useless against them. Standing still against snow and ice, they impose -2 on opponents' surprise rolls, and the same penalty applies when moving if howling wind or similar noise covers the hiss of their skates.

They swoop in to claw and peck. Each beak hit has a 25% chance to inject a burning poison that adds 2d6 (2-12) damage and causes such pain that the victim attacks at -2. A save vs. poison halves the damage and eases the pain to -1, though repeated stings can stack to a maximum of -2. The venom lasts 5-20 rounds, during which the victim loses any Dexterity bonus to Armor Class.

Cold spells and white dragon breath do not harm them.

Scathes talk in crude howls and shrieks easily mistaken for the gales of their homeland. Packs den in hollows and ravines and roam a shared territory. The leader is a male, as are 1-4 others, and each male keeps 1-4 females. Leadership changes often: the strongest young male challenges the leader to a savage fight that may kill both, leaving another to take over, and the losers' mates split themselves among the remaining males. They have no culture beyond the pack.

They mate once a year. A month later the female lays 2-12 eggs in a rough nest; predators, accidents and hungry packmates leave only 2-5 to hatch. The hatchlings are toothless, wormlike larvae with mottled brown skin, identical to harrier larvae, born with a beak that grows along with them. They eat anything they can find, and just 1-3 survive the two months to maturity, when limbs and organs show beneath the skin before it is shed. New adults join the pack at once.

A pack attacks any animal it detects, even dragons, and eats carrion, including dead or badly hurt packmates. An egg or larva can bring up to 500 gp from someone wanting a savage, unpredictable guard beast. Scathes leave almost no trail, and they grow sluggish in warm climates.