Planar Bestiary
The caves, fissures, and vaults beneath the ground are the preferred lairs of vociferous skews, especially those near volcanos and magma tunnels. The creatures are also at home on the Plane of Earth and the Plane of Fire. While not elementals, skews enjoy the company of non-fleshy creatures because such beings don't awaken their unearthly hunger.
By generating immense energy tuned to exactly the right vibrational frequency, a vociferous skew can make doorways between two locations. Usually, those locations are relatively near to each other. Sometimes, a skew manages to pierce dimensional barriers with their doorway. In any case, the sounds are so intense that any creature or object that is too close takes damage. The skew has learned to use this ability to great advantage when they hunt.
Vociferous skews can sometimes be convinced to serve as mounts for elemental nobility, especially those that hail from the Plane of Earth or the Plane of Fire, such as dao (earth genies) and efreet (fire genies), but also princes of dust.
Motive: Hungers for flesh, minerals
Environment: The Plane of Earth, the Plane of Fire, worlds of the Material Plane, alone or serving as a mount for an elemental entity
Health: 23
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short; short when climbing; immediate when burrowing
Modifications: Speed defense as level 4 due to huge size; perception as level 8
Combat: A skew attacks twice each round with their claws.
A skew could bite a target instead of clawing, inflicting damage and, on a failed Might defense task, 6 additional points of damage from fire.
The skew can emit a storm of destructive sound every few rounds, targeting creatures in an adjacent area a short distance across. Creatures that fail a Might defense task take 9 points of damage from sonic energy and are deafened for one minute, or until they succeed on a Might defense task on their turn to end the effect early. Those that succeed on the initial defense roll are not deafened but still take 4 points of damage.
A skew can modify their thunderous screech, carefully tuning the sound's vibrational frequency to teleport the skew to any spot they can see or know about within very long range (or, once per day, to another plane). The skew can carry one or two willing creatures along with them. When they teleport in this fashion, they inflict a moderate wound (6 points) from sonic energy to all creatures that fail a Might defense task within short range of where they depart and to all within short range of where they emerge.
A vociferous skew is immune to fire and sonic attacks.
Interaction: The skew can understand basic concepts communicated using various elemental languages but can't speak. If left to their own devices, they're part predator (of flesh) and part forager (of minerals). Otherwise, they're an ally of another creature of the Inner Planes.
Use: Orcs are raiding again despite a peace treaty settled years ago. Investigation reveals their mines have become infested with strange burrowing creatures able to keep the orcs at bay. A new peace treaty might be possible if the burrowing creatures are dealt with.
Appearing out of a hole burrowed in space that screams with bone-shattering power, a horror of barbed spikes and spines emerges into existence.
GM Intrusion: A bitten character is held in the skew's mouth, taking 6 points of damage from fire each round until they can escape with a Might defense task as their action. The held character's attacks, defenses, and tasks are hindered.