Skulk

Skulks are slender, hairless humanoids of elven build standing five or six feet, with soft faces and eyes of pink or blue. Their leathery skin is naturally pale gray, but it can change in an instant to a human flesh tone or, more often, to match the surroundings. All speak common; 20% also know one demihuman tongue, usually elvish or dwarvish.

Cowardice rules every skulk. It runs at its first wound, or once its side no longer outnumbers the foe two to one, and fights openly only when cornered.

Fast and utterly silent, skulks give opponents -3 on surprise. At any hint of danger they freeze and fade into the background, with a 90% chance of going unnoticed, though anyone watching as one changes color sees through it. Their favorite move is the backstab, performed like a 5th-level thief: +4 to hit and triple damage, using a dagger (60%) or short sword (40%). In woods or underground they leave almost no trail; trackers have one-fifth their normal chance.

Small bands drift from camp to camp in deep forests or caves, sleeping by day and raiding human and demihuman towns by night. Their trademark is slaughtering a whole household and then looting it unhurried. A lair is typically a shallow cave with two or more exits near or even under a town, its mouths hidden by artfully placed brush; locating one takes a successful find secret doors roll. By day it holds sleeping mats and 1d3 children, usually alone. In 10% of lairs one child is a toddler under two, and then a single female is present, who will flee and abandon the young if discovered.

Skulks love to sow chaos. They may kill a minor official such as a judge or town steward and plant evidence taken from a local orc tribe or thieves' guild, then keep murdering freely while the town hunts the wrong suspects.

One skulk in a hundred is born a leader: cruel, demanding, 3 Hit Dice, and speaking two extra languages. Leaders are masters of disguise who pass as humans or half-elves to scout a town before a raid, and sometimes bargain with doppelgangers or assassins' guilds. Ordinary skulks follow them unless the plan seems too bold.

Skulks eat out of their victims' larders, and in hard times steal livestock, breaking a fence so the animal seems to have wandered off. They take whatever catches their fancy, females favoring gold, jewelry and fine fabric, males dragging home furniture. They squabble over loot but rarely fight, preferring to steal it back. Every predator of humans and demihumans hunts skulks as well, though few catch them, and civilized folk who capture one almost always put it to death.