Wall Walker

Wall walkers hunt the caves and tunnels far beneath the desert world's scorching surface. They blend spider and big reptile: armored scales rather than chitin, a stinging tail, fangs, and eight legs tipped with claws. The first-generation wyrmkin of the fire-caverns named them for their climbing skill.

Wall walkers talk among themselves by rubbing their legs together, and the eerie sound fills the fire-caverns long after everything else there has gone to sleep. No other thinking creature has managed to decode it or to speak with them.

Psionics let a wall walker vanish into its surroundings, its scales copying the hue and texture of nearby rock, ruined walls or fungus caps, or melting into a shadow that drifts unseen through the dark. Its powers are clairsentient feel light and feel sound; psychometabolic shadow form (its one science), catfall and chameleon power; and telepathic contact and mind blank. It uses all of them for the pleasure of frightening and toying with prey before the kill.

It usually opens with the stinger, lunging in to strike. The sting does no real damage, but the victim must save vs. poison or be paralyzed, unable to move, for 1d6 rounds. The wall walker then leans in close to its helpless prey, staring into its eyes and working its mandibles menacingly. If the sting fails, it fights normally with three attacks a round: two front claws for 2d6 each and a bite for 2d4. Because it must turn its back to sting, it generally drops the stinger once melee is joined, and any stinger attempt, hit or miss, gives its foe +2 to hit on the following round.

Solitary or paired, they shadow prey along walls and ceilings and and strike when they can gain surprise; clinging to a wall or ceiling in shadow gives them +2 to surprise. A pair attacks in alternate rounds to make the most of surprise and stings, and a lone hunter waits until its victim is cut off from friends. Visitors to the depths are often stunned when what they took for a patch of wall or shadow suddenly lunges at them.

They dig hives into cavern walls, clawing out rock and earth that piles up in heaps below. From there they roam the whole underground, great caverns and connecting tunnels alike, and treat anything that passes as food. One hive lies in the fire-caverns, where its members are in near-open war with the first-generation wyrmkin; each side hunts the other.

Wall walkers guard their hives and young fiercely. Their only true rival for the same niche is the vault-crawler, and the two fight on sight; two wall walkers will even seek out a nearby vault-crawler to kill it.

Wall walkers prey on everything the underworld offers, relying on stealth and cunning, though at times they become prey themselves, and they abandon a fight they cannot win in favor of easier meals. Their hide is tough, supple and light, better than most, and it is the wyrmkin's main source of material for armor and weapons.