Flayed One

Proficiencies: Stealth +6

Senses: Sees normally in total darkness

Skin-Wrongness. A creature that sees the flayed one clearly for the first time makes a Willpower Save DC 13 or is Frightened until the end of its next turn. The draped skins are recent.

Phase-Stalker. The flayed one may begin the encounter hidden in phase-space, emerging adjacent to a wall, corpse, or shadow within 10 feet of prey. Creatures that have not yet acted grant it Advantage on its first attack after emerging.

Reanimation Protocols. When reduced to 0 Vitality, the flayed one collapses instead of being destroyed. At the end of the following round, roll 1d6: on a 5-6 it reassembles with 15 Vitality — skins and all. Destroying its wreckage (an action) prevents this.

Flensing Claws. The flayed one makes two strikes. Melee Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 + 3 slashing damage. Against a Frightened or Pinned target, each hit deals an extra 1d8.

Wet Charnel Rush. The flayed one moves its full speed toward the nearest Bleeding or wounded creature it can perceive, ignoring difficult terrain, and makes one Flensing Claws strike with Advantage.

Morale: Does not make Morale checks in any sane sense. It hungers without a stomach and withdraws only when the tomb's quarantine drags it back.

Tactics: Deploy it where the light fails and the bodies are. It ignores tactical logic — it goes for the wounded, the isolated, and the terrified, and fear is its real weapon. Foreshadow with skinned remains; let the party hear scraping before they see anything.

Loot / Evidence / Hooks: The skins it wears can identify the colony's missing — a horror for the party and hard currency for an investigator.

A Flayed One is a Necron broken by a virus of the mind, draping its chassis in the skins of the dead in a wet parody of being alive. Even other Necrons phase them away to quarantine tombs — which do not always hold.

Use this enemy for horror encounters: dark corridors, dead colonies, and the sound of metal claws trying to remember flesh.

Moderate durability, vicious melee, ambush from phase-space, heavy fear pressure, reanimation, no morale.

Skin-Wrongness. Creatures that first see it clearly make a Willpower Save or are shaken; the draped skins are recent.

Phase-Stalker. May begin hidden in phase-space and emerge adjacent to a wall, corpse, or shadow within 10 feet of prey.

Reanimation Protocols. Collapses at 0 Vitality and may reassemble unless the wreckage is destroyed — skins and all.

Flensing Claws. Two rapid melee strikes; against shaken or Pinned targets, gains an extra damage die.

Wet Charnel Rush. Moves its full speed toward the nearest bleeding or wounded creature and attacks with Advantage.

Morale: None in any sane sense; it hungers without a stomach and withdraws only when the tomb's quarantine drags it back.

Tactics: Deploy Flayed Ones where the light fails and the bodies are. They ignore tactical logic — they go for the wounded, the isolated, and the terrified, and fear is their real weapon. Foreshadow with skinned remains; let the party hear scraping before they see anything.

Full Stat Block Priority: Medium