Cloaker

D&D 2024 monster: Cloaker. Source: Monster Manual (2014). challenge rating 8, creature type Aberration, Large size, speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. Cloakers earned their names for the resemblance they bear to dark leathery cloaks. Lurking in remote dungeons and caves, these stealthy predators wait to slay lone or injured prey stumbling through the darkness. Camouflaged Lurkers Like a stingray, a cloaker's body is composed of cartilage and muscle. With its tail and fins unfurled, it flies through darkness and lurks among the shadows of caverns the same way a stingray glides through water and hides on the ocean floor. Parallel rows of round, black eyespots run along its back like buttons, and the ivory-colored claws on its cowl resemble bone clasps. When a cloaker unfurls and moves to attack, it reveals its pale underside and makes its true nature evident. Red eyes glow above rows of sharp teeth, and a long pendulous tail whips behind it. Opportunistic Predators When hunting, cloakers glide through the shadows at a safe distance behind groups of other creatures traversing the Underdark. They follow parties of humanoids to prey on the wounded after a battle, or pursue herds of Underdark beasts, attacking the sick, the weak, or the straggling. Cloakers strike quickly and consume their meals as swiftly as possible, enveloping and devouring their victims. While it feeds, a cloaker uses its swift, whiplike tail for defense, although it rarely takes a stand against dangerous foes or groups of creatures. As an added defense, cloakers can create illusory duplicates of themselves. Haunting Moan Cloakers' thoughts are alien to other life-forms, and they communicate with one another through subsonic moans inaudible to most creatures. At higher intensities, a cloaker's haunting moan becomes audible, evoking sensations of doom and dread in creatures that hear it. Cloaker Conclaves Cloakers prefer isolation, but they sometimes convene with other cloakers for defense or to exchange info...