Gunslinger Knights
This creature comes from a part of the Crawling Deeps with physics so bizarre that it doesn't react normally with the light of Sancara's sun, making it invisible except for the shadow it casts upon the ground, which looks like a jittering tangle of thin shapes. Those who can actually see it describe it as having a round body with a large mouth on its underside, perched on top of a dozen elongated scaly limbs with jagged blades near the ends, tall enough to easily step over a crafted steed or even a typical house.
Although it is stealthy for its size, a squamspider often acts like it doesn't realize it's invisible. It prefers forests, ravines, and other terrain that's tall enough to allow it to hide. In open terrain, it usually just charges, relying on its speed to quickly reach prey or drive them toward another squamspider.
The Sancaran word for this creature is "prennithal," which some Knights use instead of the name the Order bequeathed on this horror.
Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment: In, near, and after Fundament Storms; alone or in far-spread groups of up to five
Health: 20
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)
Armor: 1
Movement: Long
Modifications: Speed defense as level 3 due to size (plus invisibility)
Combat: A squamspider attacks with up to three of its slashing legs each turn.
A successful attack also gives the foe a pustulant disease unless they succeed at a Might defense roll.
Invisibility: A veiled squamspider is naturally invisible, so most attacks against it fail without a roll. However, if a foe notices its weird shadow, that's nough to allow them to attack it (with the usual four-step penalty).
Splashing it with paint or similar substances reduces this penalty by one step for each such attack for the rest of the combat. If the foe isn't aware of the squamspider at all, it can attack with surprise; otherwise, its invisibility eases its attack against an aware foe.
Pain Pustules: Within a few minutes of a creature being infected, swollen pustules begin to appear around the wounds, spreading over the rest of their body in a matter of hours and causing itching and pain. The creature's Speed Edge is reduced by 1 (NPCs have Speed-based tasks hindered). They can attempt another Might defense roll to overcome the disease each day; failure reduces their Speed Edge again.
Interaction: Squamspiders are smart enough to use pack tactics but otherwise are just beasts.
Use: A person is attacked out of nowhere by an invisible foe that lifts them into the air or throws them aside. Shadows under the forest canopy move unnaturally, revealing the presence of a squamspider an instant before it attacks.
GM Intrusion: The squamspider's barbed leg blades snare the character, allowing it to either lift the character to its mouth and automatically bite them for 6 damage, or hurl the character a short distance away, inflicting damage if they strike a hard obstacle or large creature.
GM Intrusion: The squamspider's attack strikes the character's face and neck, creating pustules within moments that begin to obscure their eyes (hindering perception by a step every few rounds) and constrict their throat.
Scraping or burning the infection ends the threat (inflicting 4 damage to the character); otherwise, they move one step down the damage track each minute from suffocation.