Skullrider

This spiderlike creature's body is shaped exactly like a human skull, its shiny shell matching bone in color and texture. Eight short jointed legs and a pair of vicious mandibles hidden behind the 'jaw' all retract, and folded up it is 90% impossible to tell from a real skull. The shell also holds in body heat, hiding it from infravision. It climbs sheer walls and crosses any web at full speed without spinning its own, and no glue, web spell or other sticky substance can hold it. The basic statistics cover a lone skullrider; parenthetical figures cover one with a host, as in 75% of encounters.

Within an hour of a human, demihuman or humanoid dying, a skullrider can bond to the body, chewing into the skull with mandibles and hollow tongue to devour selected brain tissue and tap the nerves. Bonding takes two full rounds, and the rider can then work the corpse at will, even from a distance, but only one at a time. Skeletons, lacking brain and nerves, and true undead cannot be used.

Usually the creature eats the host's head and sits on the neck stump, legs tucked under, so the pair looks like a skull-headed zombie. Because the host is simply a dead body moved by a magical mental bond, not negative energy, priests and paladins cannot turn it.

A rider can steer a separate host up to 60 feet away if it keeps the body in sight, gives it full attention and moves it at MV 6 only. Combat, full movement, unconsciousness and the like sever control and drop the body, as do anti-magic effects or dispel magic aimed at host or rider (as 6th-level magic). Once broken by magic, a link cannot be renewed. A body whose head was eaten can be restored to life only by a wish, though it can still be made into a zombie or eventually a skeleton.

A mounted skullrider uses the host's weapon, gaining any magical bonus but none from the dead body's Strength or Dexterity. It counts as proficient with every one-handed melee weapon, takes -2 with two-handed weapons, and cannot shoot missile weapons, though it might bash with a crossbow. A host directed from afar suffers -2 to attack and damage.

Damage goes to the host first, using the mounted statistics, and the rider is unharmed until the body falls. Then it either flees from strong foes or closes to bite for 1-4 damage plus another 2d4 if the target fails a save vs. poison. A rider can also launch itself off its host straight at a foe, gaining +2 to hit against anyone who did not know it could, while the empty body crumples.

Mainly scavengers, skullriders pick fresh mounts off battlefields but will ambush a living victim when the odds look good. An enzyme injected at bonding slows decay, letting a corpse serve about a month before its nerves fail. The body is then eaten, seeded with 10-60 eggs and left behind. Hatchlings emerge in two to three weeks and feed and grow for six months, gaining full size and the power to ride hosts at the end of it.

Skullriders care nothing for treasure but value hand weapons and enjoy bright gemstones. Their lairs are strewn with old hosts' skulls for camouflage, letting a rider leap from among them with +2 for surprise. Rare and mostly scavenging, they trouble few beyond their victims.