Skulker.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
Skulker.
[Sketches depict a wingless, quadrupedal avian like creature. It's feathers are depicted as being reddish in the sketches' ink, its sharp and serrated beak deadly, the rest of its face having a skull like quality to it.. The feathers appear to have stealth capabilities, as the creature is shown being able to mimic any material it is in contact with, allowing it to blend seamlessly with the environment.]
[A note is attached. It reads, 'I once wore a Skulker costume for Night of Masques as a kid. It was made with real Skulker feathers! Nobody could find me during the hide and seek game that night.']
Scientific Name Translation: Hidden Blood Raptor.
Average Size: Medium-scale creature, average of 8-9 feet/2.44-2.74 meters long, not including tail feathers.
Average Weight: Average of 1100-1180 pounds/498.95-535.24 kilograms.
Notable Sexual Dimorphism: Females have more serrations in their beak than males.
Habitat Range: Rainforests, rocky canyons, and other 'busy' locations to hide in.
Summary:
Stealth is a vital part of the world. Prey use it to hide from their predators, while predators use it to sneak up on their prey. Soldiers wield stealth to approach their enemies undetected and spies use it to steal away information without being noticed. Stealth in the natural world comes in many forms. It is as simple as coloration's on ones natural coat, all the way to using powers to completely cloak oneself with invisibility. Out of all the creatures that are masters of stealth, however, few are as notorious as the Skulker.[Sketches depict a wingless, quadrupedal avian like creature. It's feathers are depicted as being reddish in the sketches' ink, its sharp and serrated beak deadly, the rest of its face having a skull like quality to it.. The feathers appear to have stealth capabilities, as the creature is shown being able to mimic any material it is in contact with, allowing it to blend seamlessly with the environment.]
[A note is attached. It reads, 'I once wore a Skulker costume for Night of Masques as a kid. It was made with real Skulker feathers! Nobody could find me during the hide and seek game that night.']
Scientific Name Translation: Hidden Blood Raptor.
Average Size: Medium-scale creature, average of 8-9 feet/2.44-2.74 meters long, not including tail feathers.
Average Weight: Average of 1100-1180 pounds/498.95-535.24 kilograms.
Notable Sexual Dimorphism: Females have more serrations in their beak than males.
Habitat Range: Rainforests, rocky canyons, and other 'busy' locations to hide in.
Summary:
Skulkers are a wingless member of the Gryphon family of creatures, having broken off from their mainline cousins somewhere around 3 million years ago at the earliest. The modern day Skulker possess a rudimentary approximation of a Gryphon, but only in profile and in biological traits such as their beak and thin tails ending in feathers. The most distinctive part of an uncloaked Skulker, aside from their red feathers, are their heavy, skull like faces. Closer inspection, however, reveals this to be a form of armored plating around their actual skull rather than being exposed bone as with some creatures like the Slinker. This armored plating also makes them capable of delivering powerful headbutts to their foes. [A note is attached. It depicts a cartoonish drawing of a bird skull wearing some sort of sport's helmet as a hat. It reads, 'I'm ready for the play offs, coach!']
The most vital part of the Skulker's camouflage capabilities are their feathers. These feathers are unlike any other in the natural world, and are a primitive precursor to the days before utilizing magic or other powers to totally conceal oneself. These feathers, along with the outer layers of exposed flesh such as their forearms and faces, are able to mimic the color and texture of their surrounding. Skulkers therefore match the current objects they lay against, to appear as a part of the object. Rocks, hillsides, trees, anything they can solidly grip to can be imitated. Combined with their ability to remain motionless for days on end and hold their breathing for hours, and the Skulker's relatively mundane stealth capabilities become increasingly difficult to detect. Detection by technology is further difficult due to some mild form of mystical field that renders their heat, neurological network, and heart beat undetectable by technological or magical means below a certain threshold of detection capability.
The feet of the Skulker's are both similar in build to one another, whereas most Gryphons posses different styled feet between their forelimbs and their hindlimbs. Three powerful fingers line their appendages, with grip strength to crush un-augmented steel with ease and with the subtlety to not ruin the material they are latching on to. The gravity affecting organ that aid Gryphons in flight has been modified to fit the Skulker's needs, allowing them to climb and latch unto steep surfaces with incredible ease without alerting their prey or foes.
The tail feathers of the Skulkers are similar to those on the edges of the wings of normal Gryphons. This means they can harden to metal strength and be launched with great force, as well as being able to regrow quickly. This provides the Skulkers with a potent ranged option when in combat with those that have detected them. Many soldiers and Hunters come back with scars on their power armor from a surprise attack by a Skulker's tail feathers being launched. [A note is attached. It reads, 'It's true, from the troops I've worked with. I mean, most of them aren't that bad, but they're a real surprise for those who weren't expecting to run into a Skulker on deployment.']
When a Skulker hunts, it usually hunts alone. However, never believe that there is only one Skulker, as they often form small hunting parties of between two to four Skulkers at once. The typical Skulker hunting method is to approach a prey from behind as quietly as possible before chomping down on the back of a prey's head or neck, whichever is less armored. Those they do not crush are savagely yanked about in order to break the neck. Skulkers do not perform these hunting methods upon Civilized Races, as they cannot feed upon us. As such, they will typically wait until ones back is turned before swiftly striking at vulnerable locations such as the back of ones legs before trying to tear out the throat. They are not usually territorial, but they are infamously murderous of Civilized Races they come across. [A large note is attached. It reads, 'They don't care who they target. One time during a field trip when I was 9, before my family and I came to the City of Byr, a Skulker somehow got into the city and park we were visiting. Me and like two other kids got our throats torn out in as many seconds before the school security guards fought and killed it.Maybe it wanted to kill me for wearing its kind as a costume or something. Anyway, got lots of ice cream during recovery and none of us died, so it's all good! Still look behind me whenever I'm in the park, though, even if the therapy helped a lot. (Though seriously, a kid shouldn't have two near-death experiences before they're ten, it's just wrong.)']
While much is known of their capabilities and hunting habits, not much is known about the Stalkers day to day activities. Unlike other stealth predators, who only employ their abilities during fights or while hunting, Skulkers tend to remain hidden for large portions of their lives. This makes it difficult to determine much about them, as those in captivity refuse to do more than sleep and eat, never engaging in other activity. This makes determining their mating habits rather difficult, but what is known is that parents typically have two-three young at a time, and spend upwards to a decade teaching them proper hunting techniques.
A quiet, cunningly savage predator, Skulkers are popular animals to hunt for status and armor as their feathers and flesh retain their camouflage abilities even after death. This makes them excellent sources for relatively cheap stealth suits and the odd costume, but the difficulty in finding them in the first place limits the amount of feathers available for usage in this manner.
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