Sanguivorus nemorivagus
A cry like a wounded animal tears through the ancient forest, then stops all at once.
At a glance
Darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Sylvan
Height 6 to 7 feet
Weight 180 to 260 pounds
Lifespan They mature at roughly 20 years and can live for 400 years or more
At the table
You are a Humanoid.
You are Medium.
Your walking speed is 30 feet.
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
You can produce a piercing, unnerving cry. As a Magic action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet. It must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw ( + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus) or have the Frightened condition until the end of your next turn. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
You have proficiency in the Survival skill. In addition, you have Advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track a creature that is missing Hit Points, provided you can follow a physical trail.
Common, Sylvan
Their patient, enduring bodies and keen instinct tend toward Constitution and Wisdom, though players assign ability score increases as they wish.
Their barklike plates and muted coloration make them especially difficult to pick out among roots and shadow.
Rootshades dwell in the oldest, densest forests and are known for stillness, patience, and an intimate knowledge of woodland trails. They often serve as wardens or guides, though outsiders may find their silence unsettling.
A cry like a wounded animal tears through the ancient forest, then stops all at once. Gloamstalkers are the patient hunters behind that silence: blood-drinking, long-lived beings who once chased prey for sport and folded its remains into their own flesh. Some still embrace that brutal inheritance. Others have left the old paths, carrying the memories of those they consumed and trying to become more than the sum of their appetites.
Gloamstalkers are tall, lean humanoids with long arms, broad hands, and skin in shades of soot, damp bark, and deep green-black.
Their eyes catch faint light with a dull amber or silver sheen. Fine ridges along the throat and chest allow them to produce startling cries that carry through dense woods. Their bodies can incorporate remnants of creatures they have drained, leaving impressions like knotted wood, layered scars, or faintly visible features beneath the skin. Most cover themselves in layered cloth, woven leaves, or practical traveling gear. Their appearance varies widely, and not every Gloamstalker bears obvious signs of the old practice.
Old-growth forests, rain-dark ravines, and ancient woodlands where paths vanish beneath roots and moss.
Newly formed from a solitary birth or a rare joining of kin, younglings learn to distinguish invitation from threat by sound.
Adolescents practice the chase under close supervision, learning that a frightened quarry is not always a willing one.
Adults range widely, tending their territories or leaving them to seek lives beyond the forest.
Elders carry fragments of many lives in their flesh. Their memories are formidable, though sometimes difficult to separate from those they have absorbed.
Gloamstalkers are solitary by habit, but not incapable of community.
Small circles gather at seasonal clearings to exchange news, settle disputes, and teach young ones how to live among other beings without returning to the old hunts. Their oldest custom is called the Quieting: a Gloamstalker who has taken a life must speak the victim's name, if known, and recount something of their life before the community. Many who leave the deep woods do so to learn the stories of those whose memories have become part of them. They are not compelled to feed on blood, and many sustain themselves through ordinary food.
Their oldest traditions honor the forest as an indifferent cycle of hunger, decay, and renewal, rather than a personified deity.
Individual Gloamstalkers may revere nature gods, ancestor spirits, or no power at all. Their ancestry carries a history of cruelty, but it does not determine their morals; many are careful and compassionate, while some remain predatory and cruel.
Most neighboring peoples know Gloamstalkers through frightening stories, and many cannot distinguish a reformed wanderer from a lurking predator.
Gloamstalkers who live among other folk often make their intentions clear through careful manners and a refusal to hunt people. They may form unusually deep attachments, partly from a desire to understand lives unlike their own. Trust is difficult to win, but once given it is often enduring.
They make few permanent structures, preferring hollows in immense trees, sheltered ravines, and clearings screened by thorn and fern.
Where they do build, their lodges use living branches, woven bark, and stones set without mortar. Such places are designed to disappear into the forest rather than dominate it.
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