Monster: Nightshatter

Nightshatter
Armour Class: 4
Hit Dice: 2+2***
Move: 90' (30')
Attacks: 2 claws or special
Damage: 1-6/1-6 + special
No. Appearing: 2-8
Save As: C3
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: G
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 55

Creatures formed of a slick and brittle darkness, nightshatters (kurtae) hail from a plane lying in parallel with the ordinary world.  Though they resemble smoky, barbed skeletons fossilized into obsidian and draped in shadowy tatters, as if of robes or clerical vestments, they are not undead -- but they do feed on the strength of living creatures, the coil of bloody ghost-flames in their empty ribcages growing with every successful hunt.  For all that they may be parleyed with, with offers of beauty or the lifeforce of other living things, and they appreciate clever subversions of their demands for new, fresh life.

Each successful strike from a kurtae's sharp talons drains 1-4 points of Constitution from the victim, which returns after a day of rest per point lost.  Each such point drained grants a +1 bonus to saves, attack and damage rolls to the nightshatter in question for the next hour. A kurtae may forfeit all attacks for two rounds in order to shadowshift, disappearing from sight and returning anywhere within 100', delivering (if it wishes) a backstabbing attack (as a thief of its Hit Dice) upon a single target.

Nightshatters may only be harmed by spells or magical weapons.  They take no damage from holy water and cannot be turned (as they are not undead), but fire inflicts half again as much damage upon them.  Purified water and specially consecrated earth can be used to ward away nightshatters.

Some knots of kurtae are led by a nightshard, a kurtae of five Hit Dice with the spellcasting ability of a fourth level cleric or magic-user.