Temporal Glider

A temporal glider resembles a huge black manta ray with no tail, essentially a single enormous pair of wings. The wingtips bend a little, but they seem to move by thought alone rather than muscle.

Gliders fight only in self-defense, and their sole attack is a head ram, once per round. Their tough hide halves damage from nonmagical weapons, including any Strength bonus. If a fight goes badly, a glider is apt to slip into another timestream to escape. The violent temporal backlash deals 5d10 concussion damage to everything within 20 feet unless each saves vs. rod/staff/wand. Anyone clinging to it is at the DM's mercy: the ride is always unpleasant, and a survivor who loses his grip may struggle to get home from whatever plane's timestream he lands in.

A glider can be subdued if a character makes his intentions clear and deals only nonlethal damage. Usually this means getting onto its back after being rammed (Dexterity check at -5) and continuing to inflict subdual damage. The glider will likely slip through several timestreams meanwhile, and the rider must make an unmodified Dexterity check for each plane entered. Anyone who survives this brutal ordeal finds the glider finally submits and carries him wherever he wants.

Gliders drift through the empty reaches of the Demiplane of Time or skim just above a timestream. They never visit the Prime Material Plane, though many suspect they could if they wished. They hop from one plane's timestream to another's; a glider that disappears in a billow of mist-smoke has crossed to a different plane of the same reality. Those clashing temporal tides along timestream borders do not bother the glider, but they could easily tear a passenger apart.

They are solitary, with no home to return to, always roaming like sharks in open ocean. Although intelligent, they have no interest in treasure and never carry any. They avoid other creatures and have never been seen eating, which puzzles most travelers. Curious chronomancers, however, have discovered that gliders feed constantly as they drift through the mist-smoke, absorbing the changing temporal forces much as a whale strains plankton.

Rumor says a few special harnesses were made to tame gliders, since a mount that can shift planes at will would be extremely useful. None has ever been found, and few would recognize one if they saw it. Gliders hate captivity and escape at the first chance, especially when their rider returns to normal reality for a while; a chronomancer who comes back for his mount may find it long gone.