Roaming Stalker Of The Kingdom Of Monsters

ROAMING STALKER
The Blade That Grieves

Realm of Galia Bestiary Archive | Kingdom of Monsters Subtype Classification
Approved by Authority of the Vel'Dranir Adventurers' Guild – 5th Renown Edition

I. Introduction – The Evolution of Sorrow

They walk. Slowly. Unwavering. Grey limbs dragging, head tilted like they still mourn the thing they were forced to become.

These are not your typical ambush monsters. Roaming Stalkers are what happen after a Stalker kills too many times, survives too long, and eats too much. They’re Stalkers fully formed, not smarter, not wiser — just more complete. Taller. More dangerous. And infinitely more brutal.

They are not feared because they are vastly stronger than their former selves. They are feared because they still look like prey — still mimic sadness, still wail like something abandoned. But the truth behind those cries? It’s not sorrow. It’s bait.

This document contains the full biological, behavioral, and mechanical analysis of Roaming Stalkers: apex pseudo-humanoids found only in the Kingdom of Monsters. It breaks down their anatomy, evolution triggers, hunting behavior, social code (and betrayal thereof), their mimicry of pain, and what happens when that pain becomes fury. This article is a survival necessity for anyone entering the Wastes, ash plains, or grave-ridden leylands of Galia.

Classification

Type: Aberration (Evolved Stalker)
Evolutionary Trigger: Excessive predation and emotional saturation
Origin: The Kingdom of Monsters – predominantly Wastes, Dead Forests, and Ley-Scarred Valleys
CR: 10 (Slightly more powerful than a base Stalker)
Disposition: Hostile, Controlled, Mimic-Predator
Social Behavior: Pairs or solo (Skulks possible – 2–4 members maximum)
Tactical Specialty: Close-range bladed ambushes, coordinated rotation-based kills

Roaming Stalkers are the first evolutionary form of base Stalkers, retaining all previous behaviors — Still Form, Mimicked Lure, Watcher’s Curse, and Terrain Bound — while adding weaponized biology, kill-order psychology, and pack instability.

They are not leaders. They are not generals. They are what happens when evolution starts enforcing a food chain on your own species.

Their blade isn’t carried. It isn’t sheathed. It’s part of them. And it always drags behind them like they’re cutting the world open just by walking.

II. Anatomy & Physiology – The Blade Is the Body

Roaming Stalkers appear identical to base Stalkers at a distance, especially when motionless. Their coloration remains that same lifeless, bark-grey tone, and they maintain the ability to hold a completely still silhouette that fools even experienced trackers.

But in close proximity, the differences are unmistakable:

Physical Size and Mass

Height: 16–18 feet (vs. 12–15 feet of a base Stalker)
Posture: Fully upright, rigid — never hunched, slouched, or swaying
Weight: Roughly double a normal Stalker — due to blade-mass integration and increased limb density

They possess elongated limbs and skeletal frames wrapped in sinew-like musculature. Unlike most monsters of their size, they make no sound when walking — each footfall carefully placed, every movement calculated for balance, mimicry, and silence.

Bladeflesh – The Integrated Weapon

Their most defining feature is the blade-arm — a jagged, bone-forged weapon that extends from their dominant forearm. This limb is not held, strapped on, or naturally regrown. It is part of their body: a solid, calcified extension of flesh, sinew, and hardened marrow.

Structure: Dense with high-tension nerve fibers; the blade can shift shape at will (straight, curved, serrated)
Function: Used for melee attacks, executions, and dragging to create a psychological soundscape
Weight: Too heavy for casual lifting, which is why it’s dragged, not carried

The dragging noise is not incidental — it’s a lure. It sounds like a tree creaking. Like stone scraping on old wood. It blends into the Kingdom of Monsters so well that even druids mistake it for natural sound.

Mimicry & Speech Origination

The Roaming Stalker retains the base Stalker’s mimicry gland, but it has expanded its repertoire:

Mimics not just voices, but weeping, sobbing, labored breathing, and full spoken phrases
It uses mimicry to project weakness, often sobbing or repeating the name of a dead party member
Wails of pain are unique to Roaming Stalkers, formed as a byproduct of terrain-induced damage to the blade-arm

These wails are not emotional. They are nerve responses translated into sound. Over time, these pain-sounds were unconsciously stored and looped, becoming a new kind of mimicry — the Wail of Mourning.

“The scream it makes isn’t a lie. It’s just not about you.”

Internal Structure

Bones: Hollowed and reinforced, capable of compacting for stealth
Blood: Thick, black-red fluid that leaks from the blade when wounded
Regeneration: Extremely slow. Blade-arm injuries do not heal quickly. This constant pain is what makes them scream.

III. Evolutionary Origin & Triggers – Born of Consumption

Roaming Stalkers do not evolve through magic, age, ritual, or chance. Their evolution is rooted in one biological imperative:

They consume living matter to survive. And when enough has been consumed… they change.

This is not symbolic. This is not spiritual. It is visceral. It is horrifying. And it is irreversible.

Evolutionary Trigger (Singular & Canonical)

A Stalker becomes a Roaming Stalker only when it has consumed enough living matter.
The transformation is immediate and biological — the body reshapes, the blade-flesh begins to form, and the creature’s sorrowful mimicry distorts into something stranger.

There is no record of a Stalker evolving without feeding. There is no known exception.

Once the threshold is crossed — the number of kills and consumed beings reaching a critical point — the creature enters a dormant phase lasting up to 2 sols, during which:

The blade-arm calcifies and extends
Mimicry systems begin defaulting to emotional tones rather than ambient sounds
Nerve structures around the jaw and chest mutate to support the barbed tongue and false musculature
The creature’s posture becomes permanently upright

This process is not clean. It is not glorious. In rare sightings, stalkers mid-evolution have been seen convulsing, their blade dragging behind them, wailing out in grief as their body locks into its new purpose.

"It doesn’t want to become that thing. It has to. Or something else will eat it."

That’s the law of the Kingdom of Monsters: evolve or be consumed.

IV. Social Code – Skulks, Pacts, and Betrayal

“They don’t travel together out of love. They travel together out of fear. But only one gets to stay afraid.”

Roaming Stalkers, though solitary by instinct, will sometimes form temporary hunting pairs or roaming groups known as Skulks — coordinated but unstable associations of two to four individuals moving in unspoken alignment.

These entities do not cooperate out of loyalty. Instead, they share space because doing so increases survival odds — for a time. Skulks are governed by a murder-coded etiquette system that, once broken, always ends in blood.

Pact Formation: The Skulk

Roaming Stalkers will naturally align with another if:

They have not fed in multiple sols
They recognize the other has also evolved
Neither shows immediate aggression

They walk in parallel, spacing themselves 200–300 feet apart, moving in the same direction but never communicating. When they hunt, they engage in kill rotation — what Galian scholars call the Turn Rule.

The Turn Rule – Feeding Order and Pact Survival

When part of a Skulk, Roaming Stalkers adhere to a strict feeding rotation:

Only one member may feed per kill.
The next viable kill rotates to the other member.
If this order is respected, the pact holds.

This rotation is not magical, nor enforced telepathically. It is carnal law — a biological behavior hardcoded into their survival instinct.

“Even monsters have a pecking order. This one’s carved in flesh.”

Pact Breakage – Kill Theft and Betrayal

The moment a Roaming Stalker breaks the Turn Rule — by feeding out of order, stealing a kill, or consuming more than their share — the other Stalker immediately labels them as a traitor.

There is no warning. No hesitation. The pact is over.

The offended Roamer will:

Cease hunting external prey
Abandon any mimicry
Turn on their former companion without pause

Fights between pact-broken Roamers are brutal, silent, and rarely witnessed by living creatures.

If the betrayer survives, they become a solo Roamer. But they carry a scar from the fight — and tend to become more erratic, less stable, and quicker to frenzy.

Third-Party Interference – Lone Roamers and Skulk Reactions

If a lone Roaming Stalker detects a Skulk’s activity (typically through pain wails or leyline vibration), it will approach — not to join, but to challenge.

The original Skulk will, in almost all cases:

Temporarily unify to eliminate the newcomer
Treat the outsider as a threat to their pact balance

Once the third party is dead, the kill rotation resumes, with the member who did not kill the outsider getting the next valid feed.

“They’ll work together long enough to protect their order. Then it’s back to waiting your turn.”

If the interloper kills a member of the Skulk:

The surviving member enters frenzy
All rules collapse
The survivor treats the interloper and remaining member as threats until only one remains

Larger Skulks – The Law of Four

Roaming Stalker Skulks rarely exceed four members. When they do:

Feeding order becomes unstable
Alliances fracture
Multiple betrayals occur simultaneously

In these rare mass encounters, the Skulk becomes a killing pit, and the last survivor often flees or evolves.

“You can walk beside one of these things for sols. But the second you eat when it’s not your turn… you’re meat again.”

V. Mimicry, Wailing, and the Sound of Pain

“You don’t hear it speak. You hear someone else scream — and then you realize that someone else is you.”

Roaming Stalkers do not speak, growl, hiss, or roar. Their vocalizations are not their own — they are stolen. Pulled from the dying gasps of prey, the sobs of grieving victims, and the panicked shouts of those already lost.

This mimicry is more than deception. It is a weaponized form of psychological warfare, evolved directly from the base Stalker’s mimicry ability. But the Roaming Stalker has taken it further.

Expanded Mimicry Profile

Roaming Stalkers can mimic:

Voices (full sentences, gasps, names, screams)
Labored breathing
Crying, sobbing, or wet laughter
Injured animal sounds
Environmental echo (used to throw sound across terrain)

They often begin with subtle cries — a faint "help" in the distance, or the sound of someone breathing behind a tree. As the prey draws nearer, the sounds become more specific, often replicating a known party member's voice or someone recently lost.

“It doesn’t know who you are. It just knows what scared you last.”

Pain Wail – The Mourning Scream

Unique to Roaming Stalkers is the Pain Wail — a shrieking, raw sound that emerges from their split-mouth and chest cavity when they are harmed by the land itself.

This sound is:

Involuntary
Emotionally distorted
Full of static, distortion, and layered grief

It is not designed to scare. It is the manifestation of the agony the creature experiences as its blade-flesh is torn by stone, glass, or cursed terrain. This is not mimicry. This is real.

And it is dangerous.

Wail Effects – Mechanical Summary

Whenever a Roaming Stalker is injured by environmental hazards (e.g., sharp terrain, magical scorch zones, leyline fractures), it may emit a Pain Wail. This creates the following effects:

All creatures within 60 ft must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw
On failure: Disadvantage on next attack roll, and 1d6 psychic damage from empathic overload
Creatures that fail twice within 24 hours hear the Stalker mimic their own voice in pain
This causes Disadvantage on Insight or Perception checks made against any other Stalker

Predatory Consequences – Other Roamers Respond

Roaming Stalkers that hear a Pain Wail from another Roamer will immediately mark that wailing Stalker as weak — a liability.

If not part of a pact, any Roaming Stalker within 600 ft will sprint toward the source
If already in a Skulk: will attempt to intercept the wailing Stalker before an outsider arrives
If two Roamers hear the wail simultaneously, they may compete for the kill, forming a temporary trio that will inevitably fracture

The frequency of wailing directly signals a Roamer’s evolutionary freshness. The more they scream, the more likely they haven’t finished adapting. Older Roamers rarely cry.

“The one that screams is the one that dies first.”

VI. Frenzy Protocol – When the Pact Breaks and the Blade Strikes Everything

“When one of them stops playing by the rules, the others don’t argue. They just kill.”

Frenzy is the final and most dangerous state a Roaming Stalker can enter. It is not madness. It is not berserk rage. It is a calculated, survival-driven override of all behavioral conditioning.

Frenzy is triggered when the creature believes its continued existence is no longer guaranteed through mimicry, deception, or pact survival.

It is cold. It is precise. And it is unstoppable until one target remains.

Frenzy Triggers

A Roaming Stalker enters frenzy if:

A kill rotation is violated by its companion
A Skulk is collapsed through betrayal or theft
It is mortally wounded but still standing
It has been starving for over 6 sols without consuming living matter
It detects an evolved kin approaching during or after a Pain Wail

Once frenzy activates:

All mimicry ceases
Stealth is abandoned
The creature accelerates into full-speed aggression mode
It no longer respects pact rules, ally positioning, or prior strategies

It attacks anything living until:

It kills and consumes a valid target
It is killed
Or it flees (rare – only if prey escapes completely or an evolved kin arrives)

Behavior During Frenzy

The Roamer’s blade-arm fully extends, locking into combat form
Its stride lengthens; movement speed increases by +10 ft
It uses grapples and impalement in close quarters rather than relying on lures
Environmental damage immunity kicks in — it ignores terrain hazards until frenzy ends

“When it charges, it doesn’t stop for thorns, cliffs, or even its own kin.”

In this state, Roamers will often attempt to leap onto prey, pin them with the blade, and feed directly off the impaled body. Their wailing becomes guttural and jagged — not mimicry, but a kind of static howl signaling total sensory override.

Tactical Shift in Skulks

If one member of a Skulk enters frenzy:

The other pact members abandon the pact instantly
All members become individual predators
If two frenzy simultaneously, the Skulk implodes into a multi-front battle

Roamers that kill a frenzied ally often devour part of the corpse before returning to silence — sometimes evolving further, sometimes not.

“The pact doesn’t break. It detonates.”

Post-Frenzy Behavior

Roaming Stalkers who enter frenzy do so in pursuit of one of four outcomes:

Kill – Consumes prey to stabilize.
Die – Falls in the attempt.
Sleep – Slips into dormancy after brief feeding.
Evolve – If enough living matter is consumed, it may begin transitioning into something else.

If the Roamer survives frenzy and feeds:

It enters a resting state for 1–2 sols
During this time, it will remain motionless and dormant — still mimicking a tree
It will not form another Skulk during this period
When it reawakens, it reverts to baseline Roaming Stalker behavior

“It kills like a demon. Then it sleeps like a stone.”

VII. Roaming Stalker Statblock (D&D 5e – CR 10)

Roaming Stalker
Large aberration, unaligned

Armor Class 18 (natural armor – bladeflesh carapace)
Hit Points 175 (21d10 + 63)
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	14 (+2)	16 (+3)	6 (-2)	16 (+3)	7 (-2)

Saving Throws Dexterity +6, Wisdom +6
Skills Stealth +10, Insight +6, Perception +7, Athletics +8
Damage Resistances Necrotic, Psychic, Cold
Condition Immunities Charmed, Frightened, Deafened
Senses Tremorsense 60 ft., Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 17
Languages — (understands all vocal tone and mimicry cues)
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +4

Traits

Still Form. While motionless, the Roaming Stalker is indistinguishable from a tree, post, or ruined statue. Creatures must succeed a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check to identify it as unnatural.

Mimicked Wail. As a bonus action, the Roamer can produce a mimicry echo of any creature it has encountered or consumed. Creatures within 120 feet that hear it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check or suffer Disadvantage on the next attack or ability check made within 1 minute.

Bladeflesh Integration. The Roamer’s blade-arm is a natural part of its body. It cannot be disarmed or severed. When making melee attacks with this blade, it deals bonus damage and has reach.

Pain Response. When the Roamer takes damage from environmental hazards (lava, thorns, lightning terrain), it emits a Pain Wail (see Actions). If another Roaming Stalker hears it within 600 ft, it becomes hostile toward the emitter.

Skulk Awareness. If traveling in a Skulk, this creature can sense the emotional state of other Roaming Stalkers within 300 feet and knows which member last fed.

Actions

Multiattack. The Roaming Stalker makes two attacks: one with its blade arm, one with its slam.

Blade Arm. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Impale & Feed (Recharge 5–6). The Roamer lunges up to 20 feet and attempts to skewer a creature within 10 feet. That target must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be impaled on the blade, becoming restrained. While impaled, they take 10 (3d6) piercing damage per round. The Roamer can feed as a bonus action on its turn.

Pain Wail (1/Day). The creature emits a piercing wail rooted in its own nerve trauma. Each creature within 60 feet that can hear it must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be deafened until the end of its next turn and take 2d10 psychic damage.

Reactions

Echo Fade (1/day). When the Roamer is targeted by an attack it can see, it may instead vanish in a vertical leap, reappearing in an unoccupied space within 60 feet. A tree or statue is left in its place. Each creature who saw the leap must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom (Insight) check or believe the Stalker was never there.

VIII. Encounter Design, Myths, and Warnings

"If you’ve heard one died, assume it’s still watching you. If you think it screamed for help, it wasn’t for you. And if the trees aren’t swaying… run."

Roaming Stalkers are not meant to be dungeon fodder. They are apex encounter material for horror-based wilderness arcs, solo challenges in cursed terrain, or a terrifying recurring threat across a campaign set in or near the Kingdom of Monsters.