Skulk

Once members of the underprivileged caste of an ancient empire, the humans who would become skulks withdrew from the world through a magical ceremony that solidified their “untouchable” status. The ritual granted them natural camouflage, allowing the skulks to blend in perfectly with their surroundings.

Skulks stand 5 to 6 feet tall and are devoid of hair. They wear clothing only when forced to. It is difficult to determine, at first glance, whether a given skulk is male or female. A skulk’s gray skin feels like soft leather, and it can change color at the creature’s whim, from the most subdued brows to the most lurid reds and yellows. Sometimes a skulk assumes a “natural” human flesh tone and wears clothing to better blend in with human society. Their deep blue eyes lack pupils, and remain an identifying feature no matter what coloration a skulk assumes.

Many skulks are prone to outlandish acts of violence, and those skulks best able to prove their proficiency in the ways of silent murder generally lead skulk communities. Those few who somehow manage to resist their innate violent tendencies attempt to survive by haunting the outskirts of human encampments, scrounging food and supplies whenever possible. Hated by skulks and humans alike, the pathetic creatures usually die at the hands of an angry mob.

Skulks speak a bastardized version of Common, rife with words and concepts from long-dead human cultures.

Combat

Skulks prefer to hide from opponents, waiting for a group of enemies to split up before picking off the weakest of the bunch. They don’t hesitate to use a coup de grace on fallen or helpless victims. Skulks never attack when outnumbered.

Innate Nondetection (Su): Skulks are difficult to detect by divination spells such as clairaudience/clairvoyance, locate creature, detection spells, and items such as a crystal ball. If a divination is attempted upon a skulk, the caster of the divination must succeed on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against DC 20.

Peerless Camouflage (Ex): Skulks can move at full speed (and can even run) while hiding, taking no penalties on Hide checks due to movement.

Trackless Path (Ex): The DC of any Survival check to follow the trail of a skulk is increased by 10.

Skills: Skulks have a +8 racial bonus on Move Silently checks and a +15 racial bonus on Hide checks. These bonuses apply only to skulks in light or no armor.

Skulk Society

Skulks gather in small bands known as coteries. Led by the most ruthless and calculating of the members (usually an assassin or shadowdancer), coteries generally live within stalking distance of a human town or city, either in a nearby cave or below the streets in sewers or forgotten basements. Skulks hide by day, but emerge at night to steal food and other necessities.

Such raids often result in fantastic violence, because skulks revel in bloodletting. Skulks seem to prefer killing individuals of wealth and status, as if in retribution against those who ostracized their ancestors so many years ago.

Most humans who view a skulk murder scene jump to conclusions about ghost cults, for the creatures seldom leave any trace of their coming or leaving. Skulks who allow prey to track them to the lair of their coterie face swift, fatal discipline from the band’s ruthless leader.

Skulks have managed to survive as parasites in human civilization due to a strong self-preservation instinct that other races often misidentify as cowardice. A skulk values its own life above and beyond anything else; cases of skulk mothers abandoning their young to escape a dangerous situation are not uncommon. Such abandoned children fetch enormous prices from slavers, who sell them to unscrupulous folk who then raise the children as the perfect undetectable thieves and silent killers.

Skulk Characters

Though common skulks doubtless provide a nuisance to adventurers, members of the race really come into their own with levels of rogue, their favored class. Skulk leaders tend to be rogue/assassins or rogue/shadowdancers, and frequently offer the services of their coterie to unscrupulous clients eager to have someone killed.

Source: Fiend Folio, page 154. Changes applied as per the D&D^® v.3.5 Accessory Update.