Xerichou

These vicious fliers start out as small, armored, wormlike larvae and metamorphose into six-legged hunters. Adults are deep brown to reddish brown with tough, leathery hide and wisps of hair around the joints and belly. After the change they gather in flocks and scream harsh, cawing shrieks as they attack.

They flock for breeding and for safety in numbers. They dive in and slash with razor-sharp wing edges, each hit dealing 2d4 damage. Individually small, a flock will still go after creatures as big as giants.

Their psionics make them maddening foes. Their sciences are complete healing and mind link; their devotions are contact, mind thrust, psionic crush, displacement, cell adjustment, body weaponry and body control. In battle they teleport, displace and timeshift to confuse their targets, and once one starts, the whole flock does the same. During the opening three rounds the flock gains +1 to hit, and victims cannot attack for 1-4 rounds unless they succeed at a save vs. petrification at -2.

A xerichou reduced below 10% of its hit points teleports home if its psionic strength points allow, or otherwise flees there on the wing. There it rests and heals all its wounds psionically.

At about six months old, a larva climbs a high cliff, hooks its legs into the rock and spins a stony cocoon. Observers have a 90% chance to take it for an ordinary rock. When it emerges as an adult it returns by instinct to its ancestral nesting site, where it mates, lays eggs and starts the cycle again.

The beige larvae are silent and cannot fight (Armor Class 8, 1 Hit Die, movement 6). They crawl on twelve stubby legs with hooked tips that let them climb sheer walls and even hang upside down. Solitary and omnivorous, they eat anything that does not move. Mantis warriors consider the larvae a delicacy, and the secretions of the cocoons are valued for their astral properties in potions and research.