Zodar

Every zodar looks the same: exactly six feet tall, like a seamless suit of glossy black obsidian plate. That shell is its exoskeleton, made of something much like the material of the crystal shells. Its only features are two small slits that sages take to be sense organs. Inside, a zodar is nothing but muscle, giving it 25 Strength and a weight close to 500 lbs. It can leap 50 feet up, move at 48 and lift loads that would daunt a titan, though it seldom bothers.

A zodar fights with its two arms, usually seizing and crushing rather than punching. Some carry one or two weapons, nearly always melee arms, and suffer no penalty for wielding two. It never parries or dodges, only counterattacks; its excellent Armor Class comes from its shell and perhaps its odd bond with magic.

No magic touches a zodar, even helpful spells. Only physical blows visibly hurt it; fire, cold, acid, poison and drowning do nothing. On three occasions in its existence it can make any one spell happen as though it cast it, and once it can produce a powerful wish, the results of which almost always stay obscure and draw no attention to its kind.

Speech is just as scarce: only thrice ever can it make words ring out of the empty air, chosen with great care and kept short, in whatever tongue each listener understands. No zodar has ever shown pain, fear or joy.

Zodar turn up anywhere but avoid crowds and attention. They are seen most often close to the crystal shells, and many star-sages believe they guard or maintain them. The void artisans say they built the zodar on a whim, but those artisans say many things. Two zodar never work together or against each other, and there is no rank among them. None under 16 Hit Dice has been seen; extra Hit Dice only raise hit points and XP value.

Aloof toward lesser races, a zodar may join a party and simply trail behind, idle as a black statue even while its companions die. Then without warning it acts: wading into a fight to destroy one particular foe and freezing in place afterward, or tearing up a ship's mainmast and spearing the enemy vessel with it. Sages think each zodar pursues a single mission tied to the crystal shells and cares only about what serves it, so a party may simply be its ride, or its quest may line up with theirs.

A zodar carries nothing for long except weapons, never more than two. Each is 50% likely to be magical, and a magical one has a 50% chance of coming from the special weapons table.

Zodar neither hunt nor are hunted. Their shells would make superb armor, but killing one leaves only scattered fragments.