#quelaunt

On the left is the Quelaunt! No size listed other than "Large", so 8-16 ft (2.4-4.9 m). This thing can magically fly, but I like to pretend it's just spinning like a helicopter. They have other magic too, to fill you with pride or ambiton or adoration. or all three at once! That said, these giants actually feed of doubt, sorrow and rage. They raise you up for a greater fall when they telepathically rip it all away. They're sadistic, for that terror and pain is what they eat. They're...aliens? They associate with the nightmarish alien invaders, but leading theories speculate they're actually from a dimension of pure feeling and are the first of many kinds who have just found us.

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at aonprd.com here

[The quelaunt seems somewhat redundant with the nilith, right down to the flavor text stating that researchers who investigate them end up dead and their research destroyed. Of course, I’m a sucker for faux-Lovecraftiana, so I couldn’t resist converting both of them. Frankly, I think the quelaunt is a much better Slenderman than the “official” adaptation, the thin men]

Quelaunt CR 15 CE Aberration This looming horror has three arms, three legs and no discernable face. Its head is merely a knob atop its triradial shoulders, with no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. Each of its arms ends in long, spindly claws.

The quelaunts are alien horrors that live to engage in emotional torment. They feed on fear, sorrow and doubt, and work to sow these feelings over wide ranges. A quelaunt often works in the shadows for a while, wearing a community down into distrust and hostility. Once violence erupts, the quelaunt emerges from the shadows to stoke the flame and feed on the tumult of emotions. They are most common in areas where existing tensions already exist to prey upon, and they are surprisingly good judges of humanoid character despite their bizarre appearances and mindsets.

In combat, a quelaunt often wades into the thick of things, the better to feel its claws sinking into flesh. Creatures that are already suffering from negative emotions feed the quelaunt, and those that have yet to succumb to despair find their hope draining away as the monster touches them.  A quelaunt rarely fights to the death, preferring to flee a losing battle and return later to enjoy the lasting emotional scars.

Quelaunts often associate with agents of the Dominion of the Black, but they do not appear to be full members of that nihilistic, planet-spanning empire. Brain collectors may court a quelaunt to provide services, but the quelaunt often enters and leaves such an arrangement on its own terms. Quelaunts are respectful of sahkils, and lesser sahkils follow in a quelaunt’s wake like pilot fish around a shark. Their true origins, and even details of their anatomy and physiology, are unknown. Those that delve too deeply into the study of quelaunts often turn up dead, insane or both.