Gust-Stalkers

Overview

The Gust-Stalkers are Wind-Ghosts of the Silent Gale that kill from a distance. They use the wind to throw stones, branches, and broken things at high speed, and in the Gale's silence the missile gives no warning before it strikes.

Appearance

A Gust-Stalker is seen only by what it carries. A whirl of grit and pebbles that keeps its shape against the gale; a branch hanging in the air where no branch should hang; then the branch is gone and something has struck. Watchers who have seen one gather its debris describe a long, lean swirl, taller than a man, that leans like a hunter before it throws.

Habitat and Range

They hunt the open ground of the Gale, where there is debris to throw, and are more common than the Pressure-Wraiths.

Behaviour and Temperament

They stalk from a distance, following the tremor of a moving body, gather what the wind has broken, and throw. They throw again at what still moves. They do not close in; they wait until their prey has stopped moving, then lose interest.

Abilities

They lift and hurl debris with the wind's full force and great accuracy, unseen and unheard. A stone thrown by one can break a shield or a skull.

Uses and Dangers

They give nothing. The parallel grooves scored across the Gale's ground are, some say, their work as much as the wind's.

Lore and Belief

Some herders keep a stone thrown by a Gust-Stalker that missed as a charm against the next. Others say that throwing a stone back into the wind invites the reply.

Bandits who hide in the Gale's edge are said to have learned the Stalkers' trick of the thrown stone, and caravans that cross the passes in a soundless storm count their dead by the stones they find afterwards.

Where It Appears

• The Silent Gale