Kharash

Duke Kharash, the Stalker, was the paragon of the lupinals and the closest friend among Talisid's Companions. In the World Tree cosmology, Kharash was said to live in the House of Nature with the other Companions.

Description
Kharash could be confused for a (very large) werewolf. He was long, with a muscular but graceful body. He had black and brown fur that was carefully groomed, topaz-colored eyes, and sharp fangs the color of pearls&mdash;and he revealed these with a wide smile. He often went about on all fours.

Personality
Kharash's passions were hunting and untamed nature. He also loved children, but he did not really know how to act around them. He did not like being in large groups, nor did he like attention. This was not for any shyness or inability to speak well but beacuse he preferred being in the wild.

Kharash was difficult to trick or trap; his senses were superb, and his intuitions were trustworthy. He was patient while on the hunt, studying his enemies carefully to learn their behavior before striking. When fighting alongside the Five Companions, he usually targeted the weakest opponent first.

Abilities
Like all guardinals, Kharash could see far in dim light and had colorless vision in complete darkness. His body was magically resistant to harm from acid, cold,  posion,   and sound blasts  and completely resistant to damage from electricity. He could not be turned into stone. Kharash could heal himself or others to a limited extent by touching them with his hands, and he could speak with nearly any sentient creature or animal by means of magic.

Like all lupinals, Kharash had a powerful and supernatural howl that had the potential to cause non-celestials to become panicked or shaken with fear if within about. He fought much like a canine, tracking opponents by scent and biting their legs and tripping them. He shared several other inherent magical abilities common to lupinals as well, such as the ability to fly, enter the Ethereal Plane, or project magic missiles from his hands. He had an uncanny abillity to dodge any projectiles that were fired at him.

As a celestial paragon, Kharash's powers were greater still. He could not be harmed by anything but the most powerful of mundane physical damage, unless the blows came from evil creatures using silvered weapons, and he was strongly resistant to spells from all but the most powerful spellcasters.

Finally, Kharash shared several abilities with mortal rangers and assassins, being especially adept at tracking fiends and undead but also aberrations, dragons, and elementals. Kharash was skilled in remaining unseen and stalking from the shadows. Once finding such foes, he would study them carefully before making a single paralyzing or fatal pounce from hiding. Kharash also had a natural empathy with wild animals.

Possessions
Kharash forwent any weapons or armor, preferring to rely on his skills in stealth and the strength of his claws and teeth.

Activities
Kharash was a wanderer of Elysium or the House of Nature and maintained no permanent home on these planes.

Relationships
Except for in highly populated areas, which Kharash avoided, the lupinal duke was rarely seen apart from his friend Talisid. So close were the two that others called Kharash "Talisid's Shadow. The duke did not seem to mind, and he even allowed the Celestial Lion to speak for him in public. Both shared a love of hunting and the wilderness.

When not with Talisid, Kharash was accompanied by a hunting pack of other trusted lupinals, numbering between two and a dozen. The most famous of these was named Serradus.

History
Kharash joined the Five Companions in the mid- to late-14 century DR, following the tenure of Duke Lucan.