Nightgaunt
Faceless Devils
Basic Information
Anatomy
Nightgaunts take a humanoid shape. Their bodies are often tall with lanky limbs. They have a slender tail with a triangular tip used for viciously tickling their prey into submission. On their faceless heads are two horns. Leathery bat-like wings protrude from their backs that give off no sound as it beats. Their clawed hands are perfect for slashing at creatures.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Even without a face, nightgaunts have a means of eating. Their faceless maw has many small pores only a millimeter in diameter. These open up a bit more when it feeds. Turning food into paste or scooping up blood into its palms and then slathering it across the face is how it then gets absorbed into the body.
Behaviour
A fed nightgaunt is a harmless nightgaunt. They are one of the easier creatures to deal with from the Averse. Should one show no signs of aggression or hostility, it can be very easy to approach a nightgaunt and be unscathed as they are passive creatures.
Additional Information
Social Structure
A group of nightgaunts are called a cluster. Clusters, when found in the wild, are often out hunting for prey. An alpha, or leader as nightgaunts generically refer to, are often the smartest and strongest of the cluster and take charge. Nightgaunt psions are valuable for their ease of telepathic communication but their awakened mind comes with the risk of being ostracized as an oddity.
Domestication
For the best results in domesticating a nightgaunt is to isolate it while it’s in infancy from a cluster. It will, with time, become obedient to its caregiver as the cluster leader. Otherwise, there is a risk that the nightgaunt will yearn to be free with its kind doing as it pleases.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Servants
Nightgaunts know a food source when they see one. So long as you keep your word and are able to sustain an ever growing cluster, nightgaunts can be servants in hunting creatures or as guardians.
Psion Horns
In studying psionic abilities, a nightgaunt psion’s horns or brain are valuable as a form of mental conduits.
Facial characteristics
Faceless and without any signs of a mouth, nose, ears, or eyes, it is all just a black sheet. How they see is unknown to researchers but they seem to detect objects just as any normal-sighted creature does.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Packs of these silent lurkers can be found mostly within the Averse but they have been known to leek through into other worlds as an invasive species.
Average Intelligence
Most nightgaunts possess a below average sense of intelligence compared to a mundane commoner. Cluster leaders, psions, and mighty elders are the smartest and cunning of nightgaunts.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
As a whole, nightgaunts have a very weak form of telepathy. They often commune with basic ideas that can be hard to understand because of how broken down it is. For example, if a nightgaunt is angered at a creature for killing its friend, it will message, "angered," through its telepathy.
Some nightgaunts can be gifted with psionic abilities. Other times, a nightgaunt must age long enough to even try getting this gift. Not only does their telepathy greatly improve, but these psionic powers often involve moving objects and even paralyzing creatures with the mind. These psions are valuable when in a hunt.
Florenic Worlds
Nightgaunt CR: 4 (1,100 XP)
STR
18 +4
DEX
16 +3
CON
14 +2
INT
10 +0
WIS
14 +2
CHA
10 +0
Clutches. If the nightgaunt uses its flying speed to move itself and a grappled target, it can fly at full speed.
Faceless. The nightgaunt has no face, but can still see in all directions as if its entire body were an eye. It is immune to gaze attacks (like that of a medusa’s gaze), but not to illusions that rely upon vision to function. It has no need to breathe, and is immune to all inhaled and scent-based effects.
Ichor Regeneration. The nightgaunt regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn. This trait does not function if it is hit by fire damage. The nightgaunt dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn't regenerate.
Additionally, any limbs the nightgaunt loses regenerate after it finishes a long rest.
Limited Telepathy. The nightgaunt can magically transmit simple messages and images to any creature within 120 ft. of it that can understand a language. This form of telepathy doesn't allow the receiving creature to telepathically respond.
Spider Climb. The nightgaunt can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Tickle. As a bonus action, the nightgaunt can use its tail to tickle a grappled creature with horrible efficiency. The target must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute.
Actions
Multiattack. The nightgaunt can make two claw attacks and one attack with its horns.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 ( 2d6+4 ) slashing damage. Instead of doing damage, the nightgaunt can grapple a creature (escape DC 14).
Horns. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 ( 1d8+4 ) piercing damage.
Suggested Environments
Desert, Forest, Grassland, Hill, Mountain, Underdark, Urban
Their limbs may seem thin and fragile but their strength is surprising. They can lift creatures up to their size into the air.
Nightgaunts can have leathery skin that ranges from black or dark green.
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