Melhed/Agyrain Academy/Archive/Monster/Manual Q-U

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Skelyenas
Descriptions
Skelyenas are, as the name suggests, hyenas who have found their way to undeath. However, not all undead hyenas become skelyenas, as the distinctive feature of a skelyena pack is that they are led by a matriarch, and all act under her will. This unnerving group can go from utterly silent to cackling simultaneously, which is often the first sign that they are present, immediately before an attack.

Despite the name, skelyenas are not always fully skeletal. They can indeed still have much flesh on them, but that sloughs away over time, so fully skeletal specimens are quite old and usually very cunning and dangerous.

Skelyenas are extremely hostile to humans, particularly hunters or adventurers in the wilds alone or in small groups, often going well out of their way to attack. These attacks are difficult to repulse, as the pack moves with one mind, and usually requires threading the way through the pack's movements to scatter the bones of the matriarch, as unless the matriarch is destroyed, the pack will always reform no matter how many others are dealt with.

Rumours & Second-hand Accounts
It is said that skelyenas come to be when a mother hyena is killed before her kits are weaned. Her grief and rage lives on in whatever is left of her body, and other hyenas recognize her as a leader, following a matriarch into undeath when they too die…Often starting with her kits.

According to a Davie Catrinson, an adventurer in Caligus on the East Continent, the best way to deal with them is to time your movements so that your mace swings against the rhythm of the matriarch, as this results in the lesser skelyenas smashing themselves against the mace with their own momentum, saving the strength of the adventurer for the far more difficult fight against the matriarch herself once the center of the pack is reached.