Grankhul

Grankhul was the bugbear deity of hunting, a cunning patron said to have gifted his people the art of stealth and to have taught them the value of the element of surprise. Grankhul was a god of the senses and of swift death, an eternally attentive ambusher symbolized by unclosing eyes lurking in the dark.

Description
Grankhul appeared as a relatively slender, tall bugbear with long, thin fingers as well as large, protruding eyes.

Personality
Grankhul was a cunning and subtle god, but nonetheless violent and dangerous for all of his sneakiness. He valued intelligence to a limited degree, but the murderous deity had a habit of throwing tantrums. He was also vigilant and swift, never sleeping and always staying alert.

Powers
Grankhul was a master of stealth, able to render himself unseen and unheard with unparalleled skill and cast silence and improved invisibility twice per day each. He himself was incapable of being surprised.

Possessions
Grankhul's avatars were known to wield rods of alertness, boots of speed, and +3 enchanted longswords that left those they struck stupefied.

Realm
Grankhul shared the realm of Palpitatia on the 241 layer of the Abyss with his fellow bugbear god, Skiggaret. It was an eternally dark layer populated by shadows and spectres, with fear eternally radiating from every inch of the grim terrain.

Activities
Grankhul's avatars prowled throughout the darkness on the Prime Material Plane ambushing the unaware of many races, sometimes with the intent to secretly displace demihumans or other goblinoids close to bugbear groups.

Relationships
The bugbear pantheon was dominated by Hruggek, although he did not truly rule it. Instead, there was more of an understanding among them that no one was to act against Hruggek's interests, and in return he left them alone. Grankhul was Hruggek's younger brother, and according to the myths of the bugbears the two were also comrades in arms that, as was the right of true warriors in the eyes of bugbears, preyed upon all they saw. When Grankhul was too busy to look after his sleeping brother himself, he whispered to the severed heads Hruggek kept as trophies to wake him in the case of danger.

In some worlds, Gruumsh, leader of the orc pantheon, was known to be Grankhul's enemy since the One-Eyed-God took offense with his symbol.

Worshipers
Bugbears admired Grankhul for his covert ways and appreciated him for giving them the ability to move stealthily, allowing them to surprise others from the shadows and act as assassins rather than be like the oafish ogres that clumsily blundered about. He taught them that moving quickly and silently rather than trying to assemble great, marching legions was the smartest choice for a less proliferous race like themselves.

As a tradeoff for their sneakiness however, bugbears also believed that Grankhul had stole away their energy so that while they slept on his behalf, he could remain permanently wary, although they worshiped him regardless. While the taking of heads was an act meant to satisfy Hruggek, the fact that bugbears cut away or stitched open the eyelids of their victims was meant as a homage to Grankhul and his ever-staring eyes.

The clerics of Grankhul served as explorers and scouts, and were responsible for hunting the food for the bugbear community and harassing nearby settlements with their guerrilla tactics (although Hruggek's priests kept an eye on them due to their sneakiness). Grankhul's priests had to be of significant dexterity and have some level of intelligence, things they Grankhul valued and which the priests arrogantly thought made them superior to others. They were skilled hunters and trackers, wielding roguish weapons and leather armor and given abilities such as infravision.

Given the bugbear approach to religion, clerics weren't needed to determine the signs of the gods. On rare occasions, Grankhul would either make very subtle environmental alterations to test the intelligence of his priests, or suddenly and angrily strike them blind or dead if displeased.

Rumors and Legends
There were legends among gnomes that Garl Glittergold once disguised himself as a deer to lure Grankhul into the open, only to trap him with an illusion and leave him trussed up as a turkey.